Catching Up..................

The picture above of Chad is on his 30th birthday (July 18). The pictures below are of our vacation to Myrtle Beach in June. Since our last post in May, I quit my job to be a stay at home mom. Chad has been traveling a lot. He has been to every IndyCar Race this season. He'll be going to the race in Japan in September. Hopefully, he'll remember to take some pictures while he's there. They will be taking the bullet train into Tokyo one of the days that they are there.

Ally at Myrtle Beach......Irritated that we were trying to get her to pose. We got a great shot of her at Long Boat Key last year, thought it might be nice to get a similar picture, guess not!


Ally and Chad playing in the water. This time, it took her a couple of days to warm up to the ocean. She kept calling it "the other pool".


The condo that we stayed at......the smaller one. It is called The Beach House Golf and Racquet Club. We never saw a racquet club. This was our last free vacation through RCI. My last day at RCI was July 3.


Ally is not happy that we're trying to take her picture.


Me and Ally in a giant fish mouth at the aquarium at Myrtle Beach.


Chad and Ally at the aquarium at Myrtle Beach.


Ally getting ready to head out to the beach.


The view from our balcony.

Random Stuff

Ally at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as she's falling to the ground having an exhaustion tantrum.

Visiting Daddy at the track.

Chad and Amanda having a height contest......Even with a stool, he still has her beat!

Me and Chad on Easter......Our 1st family gathering at our new house.

Me and Ally and her Easter loot.

Ally with a mouth full of Easter candy.

Giveaway over at Blondes, Poop and Mascara

Our friends over at Blondes, Poop and Mascara are hosting a giveaway. You can enter to win a free burpie from Lollipops Boutique. They have super cute burp cloths, diaper clutches and tutus. Since we're way past using burp cloths, I'm hoping to win one for my friend Heather, who is due in March! You can submit your entry here!

Anyone Missing a Head???

The department I work in handle some very odd calls. A couple of weeks ago, we got one that is the current reigning champ of "weird". One of our members who was vacationing on the island of St. Maarten called in. She said that while she was walking along the beach she came across a bag. Even though the bag wasn't hers she decided to open it. Upon opening it, she said she was terrified to find a severd human head.
The lady was calling in looking for compensation from us for being "terrified" while on vacation. This particular call begs the following questions: What about the poor person who is now headless? Where is his compensation? Why are you going through other people's bags? In the future, are you going to go through random bags that you know don't belong to you? Why would we compensate you? We didn't put the severed head on the beach.
Turns out it was a true story, only the lady calling didn't really find the head in the bag, someone else did, she only heard about it through the news. The man that really found the head did so while swimming in the ocean at 1 am. He told police that when he opened the bag and saw the severed human head, it scared him so much that he threw it out further in the ocean. So, if you're planning on vacationing soon, watch out for floating severed heads and don't go through bags that aren't yours!

Catching Up

Since our last post, we've had alot going on. In October we took our 1st family vacation. We spent a few days at Long Boat Key, then drove to Orlando to spend a few more days at Disney World. Ally loved the beach. She rode several rides at Disney and seemed to enjoy them, the Disney characters were not a favorite for her.

We came home from vacation on Halloween so Ally was able to go trick or treating with her cousins Riley, Dylan and Corbin. The kids had a great time. Ally's cousins took turns holding her hand as they walked up to the different houses.

Ally had her 1st haircut on November 13. She was much more cooperative than I thought she would be. Thanks Jackie!

Ally turned 2 on November 23. We had her birthday party on November 22. She threw a fit when she realized that the cake in front of her had to be shared......she thought it was just for her!



Ally's 2nd birthday party.

Ally getting her 1st haircut.....

Taking a break from trick or treating with cousins Riley, Corbin and Dylan.

Our little princess

Daddy and Ally riding the spinning teacups at Disney World.

Mommy and Ally checking out the freaky Lego family at Disney World.

A little piece of heaven called Long Boat Key.....Ally's 1st trip to the beach! She loved it, so I guess we'll just have to go again next year.

A message from school - please send supplies!

Wedding Fun

Back in August, our cousin Dana married her fire fighting fiance, Justin. Ally was one the the flower girls (she also refused to walk down the aisle).

Ally's cousin Charlie was one of the ring bearers.

Ally a few hours before the ceremony started. Dana and Justin's wedding reception was like something out of a movie. It was in the Grand Ballroom at the Crown Plaza Hotel. It was absolutely beautiful. Why, then do I not have any pictures from the reception? Because I lost my camera! Much to my relief, the people at the church found it a few days later.

The Previous Night
After the wedding rehearsal, Grandpa Rader came to the church so I could go to the rehearsal dinner and enjoy some kid-free time. Grandpa's truck was in the shop, so he borrowed one from one of the guys that works at his store. After he got Ally strapped into the carseat and closed the passenger side door he went around to the driver's side to get in the truck. The door was locked and the keys were in the truck. Had he had his truck, he would have just called OnStar and they would have unlocked the doors. Since the truck was a loner, we had to call the fire department!

Ally sitting in the locked truck....At least she had a snack (she also had a sippy cup with water). She didn't start crying until she dropped the gold fish crackers.

Here comes the fire truck. They came with thier lights flashing and their sirens blaring. Since we were in downtown Indy, the trucks have the super long ladders for the taller buildings.

The guys from Ladder 13 working hard to free my baby. There were 2 other guys working on getting the the driver's side door open. They said that they like to race and see who can get their door open the fastest.

The ordeal is over! The passenger side "team" was able to get their door open the fastest. Here we are with the winning team.

Finally, some new pictures!

Ally sure is growing fast and insistant about doing almost everything by herself. She recently got tubes in her ears so hopefully we won't be at the Dr's office every other week with an ear infection. So far we've had a fun summer. We've spent some time on the boat. We still haven't made it to the pool or to the zoo, but hope to get there soon.

Recently, I changed positions at work and for the 1st time in 4 years I have "normal people" hours rather than working an evening shift(by the way, this will be the 1st time that Chad and I have been a similar work schedule, EVER!). While that gives me more time at home with Chad, it also means that Ally is spending more time at daycare. She's gone from spending 3 hours a day at daycare to 8 hours a day. She seems to be adjusting well and even asks about her friends Kate and Gigi when she gets up in the morning. Lately, Grandma Rader and Grandpa Downey have been "springing" her from daycare at taking her shopping and to see the puppies at Uncle Bill's.



One day after surgery...eating rasins and standing way to close to the camera

Who doesn't love stawberries and whipped cream?

Learning to drive.

Taking a dip.

Having a snack.

Working hard to help Grandpa Rader get the boat cleaned up and in the water.

16 Month Stats

Last week Ally had her 16 month check-up. Her stats are as follows~
Height: 32 inches (91st percentile)
Weight: 23 pounds (60th percentile)
So, she's still tall and skinny. If she keeps growing the way she has been, she'll be able to go on quite a few rides at Disney World, when we're there in October!

March in a Nutshell

Ally examines a dress to determine if it is suitable for wearing.

Enjoying a snack while hanging out in the cabinent.

Playing in the sand with Daddy.

Building a "glass" sculpture with Grandpa Downey.

Playing the water at the Children's Museum.

All tuckered out after a long day at the Children's Museum

Mommy, Daddy and Ally in the same room at the same time? Must have been a full moon!

Word Association

Lately it seems that Ally is understanding the meaning of some certain words. Yesterday morning, she brought me her shoes and said "shoes", so we put on our shoes. Also yesterday, as I was getting her lunch ready I got a slice of cheese out the the fridge and she said "cheese". Today at Meijer, as we walked past the animal section, she pointed at the fish tanks and yelled "fish". I'm very impressed and totally convinced that we're raising a genius. However, she still doesn't quite understand that "no" means "stop what you're doing now"!

I am Lois Griffin

Which Family Guy Character Are You?

More on Family Guy. Created by BuddyTV

I love the show "Family Guy". So, I took the quiz and I am Lois. I'll have Chad take it too!

Ally ~ February 2008

It's been awhile since our last post! At the end of last year, I took a different position at work. With that position, my hours changed to 3:30pm-12am. While my new hours give me lots more time with Ally, not much else gets done around the house. Ally is such an early riser, that with my new late hours, I think I got more sleep when she was a newborn. Luckily, she takes about a 2 hours nap after lunch, most days I join her!

Chad has been working hard, getting ready for the 2008 race season. We're very happy that he will not be going to as many races this year, as he did last year. Since he'll be home more this summer, hopefully we'll finally be able to get some landscaping done!

Ally is 14 months old now! She just got over her 3rd bout of pneumonia since October. This time, no hospital stay was requied! She's walking all over the place and getting into everything! She climbs into cabinents. She's saying lots of words. Other than Mama and Dada, she says "cheese", "doggie", "shoes", "cracker", "thank you", "hi", and of course, "NO". We can't get over how long her hair has gotten. We're really enjoying watching her grow and explore. She brings home beautiful artwork from school that adornes our refrigerator. Her little scribbles fill us with pride!

Ally likes to sit at her little table that is up in the loft with her play kitchen. Most of the time she can get in the chair by herself, but on the days she struggles, she gets really mad and knocks the chair over.

Ally pulled her toys out of the storage container and climbed on in.

"Here, you try!" Ally calls her pacifier a "boe". "Boe" may have to go bye bye sometime soon. She doesn't use it when she's at school and gets though the 3 hours she's there just fine. The only problem is, she had them hidden all over the house. If I take one away from her, 5 minutes later, she has another one in her mouth.

Ally likes to pull everything out of the cabinents.

Ally really likes to sit on the steps and play. Here, she is getting ready to address her Valentines for her friends at school.

All bundled up and ready to face the freezing weather. Suprisingly, she was able to walk in this get up.