So grown up!

We also celebrated Erik's bday at his grandparents last weekend. I failed to take many pictures, but thought these were pretty cute. She looks so tall and so grown up. Alana is really ready to be a big sister and is excited about all she is going to teach "waffle," aka baby sister....Now, if we could just settle on a name!

Happy (belated) birthday, Erik!!!

Erik celebrated his 34th birthday last week! It was a pretty low-key affair, not too much excitement for us when I am this preggo I guess! Alana was VERY excited to celebrate his birthday. Mostly, this because she knows after dad's birthday and baby sister's birthday, it's her birthday. She loved singing happy birthday and was jazzed about the cake. Hard to believe Erik is 34!!! Happy bday, again!

Here she is with a typical "Don't Picture Me" pose

So, for everyone's birthday, Alana insists they need stickers. Erik's was no different, so I stuck a pack of Dora stickers in his bag. She was thrilled when she opened his gift for him, of course, and found them. He didn't have a chance to keep them as his own! haha.
I can't believe I failed to get a picture of Alana eating this cake. She is dad junior with her love affair of all things sweet!

The official present opener...This gal LOVES to celebrate birthdays!!!

Go Cubs Go!!!

Erik graciously took Alana to her first Cubs game of the season this weekend. It was HOT, though thankfully they were in the shade. Erik said she had a great time and mostly enjoyed chatting up the woman behind them. Erik's pal Jamie and his son John hit up the game, too. If I can find a way to post it, Alana even made Baseball Tonight! Apparently some camera man was following Erik into the park, where he had Alana on his shoulders. I guess the guy was super close and Erik was going insane trying to figure out why this guy was following him when he finally realized he had a camera. The camera man told him she'd probably be on and she was. He is following her for a bit and you can see her back, but then she turns around and throws him a look like, "why are you following me." Pretty hilarious!

Big Girl Room...

Alana's big girl room is FINALLY done. Thank heavens, since I am knocking on the door of being 37 weeks prego (which is when I delivered Alana!). Alana has slept in her room for a week plus now and LOVES it. We also got the black out shades for her room, which so far, seem to be easing the uber early wake up call. Sad when a 7am wake up call sounds great!!! Alana has already dubbed her old room "baby sister's room" and seems to be adjusting to the change pretty well!

Here is her play area. SO glad that I picked up this rug! I had a feeling someone would always be hanging out up there and I was right. I am so happy to have more of her toys out of the living room, so much less cluttered!

She was so thrilled to see the princess decals. That was $10 well spent at Target! She told me where she wanted them all and "helped" me put them up.
Here's her bed. I am surprised so many of her stuffed animals are up there. Usually she grabs them all and they end up on her bed. The lion at the end of the bed "protects" her from some birds she is afraid of (no idea where that came from!).
Here's her little reading corner. She loves to play with the clothes on her hooks and pull out some books. Fortunately the shelving is WAY out of her reach so I can store some stuff up here!

On the Saturday before the 4th, we had a little pool party out at Grandma's. It was hot, so the water felt great. Especially to me all preggo.

Alana yelling "don't picture me, " and Erik ignoring her as usual

Here's a happy shot!

Pretty sure she is probably pointing at Murphy here.

Happy 4th of July!!!

We spent 4th of July weekend out in CP with Grandma & Papa and Aunt Jen and the boys. We went to the CP annual 4th of July parade which was surprisingly trimmed down to only 2.5 hours. Both Jen and I remember it being more like 4 hours when we were growing up. Alana boycotted her nap and despite that, LOVED the parade. She got a little tired, but she was a trooper. Aunt Jen scored us great seats in the shade, though Alana spent most of the parade either on Erik's shoulders or on the street with him getting candy and other goods. She loved that part. Too bad most of the candy can't be eaten by her, but I am sure Erik will take on that task. She was not scared one bit of the loud sirens or the fake gunshots (welcome to Indiana). We went back to Grandma's where Alana napped...so did we, and then had a barbeque. The fireworks were NOT a big hit with her, so I was glad we did not trek out for the big display and instead watched Erik, Tyler, Nick & Calvin give us the Willy Works display.

She looks like she is crying, but she is laughing hysterically at the soliders and yelling "Don't Shoot". They had the LOUDEST guns, but she thought it was funny.

Calvin & Nick getting into the parade zone!

Pre 4th of July Beach Day!

I wisely decided to take off the Friday before the 4th and Alana, Grandma & I headed to Foster Beach. I have not been to one of the beaches here since high school, so I figured we should probably branch out. Someone told me Foster Beach was good for families, and it was. TONS of kids. Pretty clean.

Alana absolutely loves playing in the sand and building sand castles. Thankfully Grandma was game to help her build castles because me digging in the sand was not the most comfortable experience.

We had beautiful weather and Grandma and I scored some sun, which was great. Alana passed out about the minute we left the beach, I guess she had a great time, too!

Summer fun!

Aside from our massive cleaning and organizing projects, we have mostly been taking it easy this summer and enjoying the weather. Alana has a little water park up on our deck. What a city kid with no yard! She seems to love playing out there and is never happier than when she can splash around. Taking great pictures is harder and harder because she tells me "Don't Picture Me!" all the time, and blocks her face. Then, she laughs, but she's still not so compliant, so I have to take what I can get.

making guacamole (or "Smoky Smoky" according to her)....This was a prime "Don't Picture Me" moment.LOVES the playdoh. Too bad it's such a colossal mess!!!
So I meant to upload another picture and somehow I can't delete this picture. Oh well! Another "Don't Picture Me" moment!

Something arrived in the mail and Alana had a BLAST popping it. She ended up popping every last bubble. This might be a great thing to keep her amused!