Just Allie!

My friend Ashley left a comment on my last entry and requested more pictures of Allie, so I decided I would do an entry without even the mention of #1 and devote it totally to my sweet baby girl Allie. She is almost 7 months old and let me tell you....my heart smiles every time I think of her or am with her or when I hold her. It's so amazing to me how God creates us to be parents and then enables our heart to grow with each child so that the love for one is not greater than the love for another...but the love is there. I know we have less pictures of Allie than we did of #1 (remember...no mention of her name:)) at this time, and Allie has had to spend a lot more time in the swing or jumperoo because of my lack of free time but I will say, I think it makes me enjoy my time with her even more and it is even more precious to me because I know it is limited. I am excited beyond words to see her grow and learn and one day become exactly who her Creator deesigned her to be. I am so thankful that God decided before time that this world would not have been complete without Allie in it.
Without further ado-Allie Joy:)

I went in to get Allie up from her nap this past Saturday and this was what I found!! She sat up all by herself:) (and apparently did some seriously drooling while she was asleep...)

Napping on the boat

This was our first attempt at baby food-she is still trying to get the hang of it...

Happy Girl!!

If you enlarge this picture-you can see the onesie better...but I love this onesie-it says "my big sister taught me how to laugh" (thanks Pam and Steve!)

Allie always has this wide-eyed look on her face...espcially when she is watching her big sister:)

Well, for those of you jonesing for some Allie-I hope this helped! Thanks for loving to look at pictures of our baby as much as Russell and I do!!

July 4th with Papa and Neecey

Well, the girls and I had another successful road trip on July 4th weekend up to NC to see Papa and Neecey. We drove up Friday morning and stayed until Tuesday and had a wonderful time hanging out and playing! On Friday, Papa got the little pool he bought for Marissa all filled up with water and ready to go, so we spent a couple hours out there while Allie was taking a nap. Here are some fun pictures from that day:)
The pool made for some very fun and colorful pictures!

Marissa and Papa always have fun together:)

On Saturday, we packed up and headed over to Lake Norman where my Uncle Allen and Aunt Diana live and they were kind enough to let us take their boat out for the day while they were at the beach. As you can see from the pictures, Allie slept almost the entire time and well, Marissa did ok. She wasn't sure what to think about the water-she had a great time as long as she was on the boat...but it took her a while to warm up to the water. I have no doubt though that she will be a water baby like my brother and I were when we were little...just gotta keep trying!!

This was the best picture I could get of her...she would not smile for the camera...

The lake was just too much for little miss Allie...she slept the entire time.

We finally found something Marissa loved...driving the boat!:)

Finally, this is a picture of Marissa trying to get my parents crazy cat, Bonnie. She holds her hands out and says "Heeeeere kitty kitty." It's so cute:) (unfortunately for Marissa, Bonnie only likes my mom....she runs away from everyone else)

Hope you and your family had a wonderful 4th of July!

Father's Day, firsts, and finally...some answers!!

Ok, so I know that last "f" was a bit of a stretch but what can I say....I tried:)

We have had a lot going on in the past couple of weeks here at the Nichols' house! First and most importantly, we celebrated Father's day with the most wonderful father 2 little girls could ever ask for! Unfortunately, Russell had to work that morning, so the girls and I went to church then had some yummy leftovers from the night before. The girls took a nap which allowed Russell to spend his day doing one of his favorite pasttimes....taking a nap:) Then we just played the rest of the day and had small group at church that night. It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate what an amazing dad Russell is...we even got him a cookie cake (well, my mom got it for him...but she said it was from all of us:)) and a cute card that had some stickers in it. Here is a picture of Daddy and his girls (all with their stickers) before we left for church.

I love how Marissa is pointing to Russell's "Most Incredible Dad" sticker-so cute:) and the girls' each have on a "my dad is my hero" sticker.

So, I know Allie looks terrified in this picture, but I had to post it b/c it's so great of Russell and Marissa, plus...look at how much they all look alike!! The chin and jawline are identical. At least they got my blue eyes:)

Ok, so now to the "firsts"...Sweet Allie ate some baby food for the first time this week(pictures on a later post)! She turned 6 months old last week and had her check-up and everything looked great! The 6 months has flown by, just like it did with Marissa. Here are 6 fun things about Allie, to celebrate her 6 month birthday...

1. She is sooooo happy...she smiles all the time, loves to laugh at her sister, and is still a big fan of her jumperoo

2. She makes this really funny growling noise...she sounds like a little lion

3. She is unbelievably flexible! She can stick all 5 toes in her mouth and will sometimes get her heel in there as well, maybe a future gymnast?

4. She is sleeping 9-10 hours at night!!!

5. She can hold her own bottle now (I need to post some pictures of this)

6. She is the true definition of her middle name...Joy. She brings such joy to our home and we are so thankful that God gave us such a beautiful, healthy, sweet baby girl.

Here are a few recent pictures of our sweet Allie Joy.

This picture cracks me up-I came downstairs after putting Marissa to bed and this is what I found....it must have been a very long day:)

And lastly, "finally....some answers". Allie has been having some breathing issues for the past 5 months or so. She had a couple colds and I thought that was the reason for the way she was breathing, but she has been cold free for a while and it was still going on, so to make a long story short-we took her to have a barium swallow and to see an ENT doctor at children's hospital in Birmingham, and come to find out she has reflux. The stomach acid is causing her airways and the back of her throat to become inflamed and swollen, which causes her breathing to sound so congested. We have her on a presciption of Zantac which will hopefully start working soon!! Thanks for stopping by and try to stay cool!!

(ps-i will shutterfly these to you:))

Fun times with Daddy pt.2

I didn't intend to wait 2 weeks to finish this post....I really have no good excuse other than I have 2 babies under 2-but I think I may use that excuse a little more than I should:) Anyway-here are the rest of the pictures from our fun evening with Daddy on the golf course!

She's still running...

This is where Allie spends A LOT of her time! And thankfully, she loves it-her little (well....not so little as you can see) legs are just kicking and moving the entire time!!

Trying to play golf with a baby strapped to you is not the easiest thing to do, but I think I got it at least close to the hole:)

Marissa would look at me through this cup and say "I seeeeeee yoooouuuuu"!

Wrong sport Russell, but look how cute his dimples are:)

Watch out-crazy driver!!

Helping daddy lock up for the night.

I took this as we were walking home, and as you can see, she was so worn out...

So, Daddy was sweet enough to give her a ride home:)

Fun times with Daddy pt.1

*Lots and lots of pictures!*
Now that the warm weather has arrived (and the rain has stopped for a while...) a couple times a week Russell will come and pick us girls up in the golf cart around 5 or 6 in the evening and we go have some fun on the course. There usually aren't a lot of golfers out at that time, so Marissa is pretty much free to run (or as I like to say, free to get as tired as possible before bedtime;) ). There really isn't much more to say-so I will let the pictures do the talking!! Enjoy!
We had a little playtime in Allie's room before we left-I love this picture b/c of our dog Sampson, it is so classic Sammy b/c anywhere Russell is, Sammy is right behind him (or, in this case, on top of him...Sammy loves his daddy)

Isn't this just the sweetest picture of Allie-I really want to enlarge and frame it.

Marissa also loves her daddy

Ok, now to the course-doesn't it look beautiful! Russell has really been working hard and I must say-it has totally paid off, I am so proud of him:)

Here's Marissa learning how to rake bunkers

Beautiful!!

Ok, so if you watch the show Friends, you might know what I'm talking about here (Ryan and Loren, I know y'all will know) There is this episode where Phoebe and Rachel go running together and Rachel gets embarassed b/c Phoebe runs all crazy and Phoebe says she is just running like she did when she was a kid-that it's more fun to run when you're free and you don't care...this is exactly what I thought of when I saw this picture-when Marissa runs, she moves every single limb every which way-they are all just wild and crazy-I LOVE IT:) (and now you all know what a Friends fanatic I am.....)

Daddy showing Marissa how to putt

Marissa has figured out that the ball goes further when she kicks it....

She loves running down the hills-unfortunately this is usually the

result:)

Ok, so here is a little play-by-play of Marissa doing her most favorite thing on the course...getting water from the coolers...

She gets her cup

Daddy helps her put the water in the cup

One cup for Daddy

One for Marissa

And lastly, here she comes with a cup for Mommy:)

OK, that's enough for now-there are still some fun pictures from that day, but I'll save them for later:) Hope you enjoyed the pictures and have a great weekend!!

The big 2-7!!!

Things here in the Nichols' house have been pretty much going as usual...everyone is doing great and we are LOVING this beautiful weather!! Last week I celebrated my 27th birthday and I did it up big! I made my first road trip by myself with the girls up to see my parents in North Carolina. I left on Thursday and we made there in one piece with only a couple meltdowns along the way:) Then, on Friday my friend, Courtney, drove in from Richmond and picked me up and we headed to Charlotte to have a girl's weekend with our friend Krystle (whose birthday is one day before mine). We had a WONDERFUL time!! It was so great spending time with them and being "baby-free" for a couple days. We went out at night, went shopping, and basically just did a lot of catching up! I, unfortunately didn't take any pictures with my camera but when they send me the ones they took, I will post them. Anyway-I headed back to mom and dad's on Sunday and then back home on Monday. It was such a great birthday weekend!!
And all this time-Russell had been telling me that my gift from him was coming and it finally showed up (a couple days late....but better late than never:)) And let me tell you-I was shocked when I opened the box-I had no idea what he was getting me, so when I saw this....

A Canon Power Shot SX10 is....I was sooooo excited!!! I have only had it 2 days but I absolutely love it and I love learning how to use it and of course, I have two beautiful subjects to practice on (ok, make that three...can't forget my beautiful hubby:)) So-now that I have babbled on for waaaay too long, let's get to the good stuff-pictures of my wonderful family with my wonderful birthday gift!!

I did a little photo shoot with Marissa right after she woke up from her nap-her a.c. was broke upstairs so it was a little warm which made for a crazy, sweaty hair-do:)

Then, Allie woke up, so it was her turn to pose for Mommy's photo shoot:)

Can you believe how big my girls are getting and oh my goodness....those big blue eyes just melt my heart:) They are both such a joy and I certainly had a lot to celebrate this birthday!! Russell-I absolutely love love love my new camera-thank you so much! You are the best:)

Be sure to stay tuned for some more pictures from our fun evening playing on the golf course!!

Bringing sexy back

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately...I fully intend to update y'all on what's been going on in the Nichols' house the past month but until then...enjoy this video of Miss Marissa "bringing sexy back" :)

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