Big Girl Laugh

While visiting in Winchester yesterday, Marilyn was taking some stuff out of grocery bags. Alli started reaching out for the bags. So Marilyn started shaking them at her and we got the funniest laughs out of her. But of course when we brought the camera out to record it, she quit. So here is our attempt to recreate it today. It's so cute.

4 Years and a lot of changes

Ben and I just celebrated our 4 year anniversary yesterday. We went through a temple session in the morning. It was so nice to return to where we were married for our anniversary. It brought such peaceful feelings. Then we went out to lunch at Longhorn. Ben and I really like the fillet mignon from there. We also got a dessert sampler that was awesome! Thank you Kara and Andrew again for watching Alli. It was the first time Ben's been able to go back to the Temple with me since Alli was born.

We went to Winchester yesterday as well for a brief visit with Ben's folks. He forgot his phone so when we got home and he checked his phone, he had received a text message letting him know that Chief had posted shift changes. The chief did a MAJOR shift shake up. 2/3 of Ben's shift were moved to other shifts. Ben got to stay with a good captain but a lot of the people he really enjoyed working with are now on other shifts. He hates to see them go but is grateful to still have a job and a good one at that.

Chief also informed everyone who tested for engine driver that interviews will be next week. Ben's is on the 4th! We are hoping for the best. We have a pretty good idea that they already "know" who they want to promote since they've already moved everyone around shift wise. It would be silly to promote 4 drivers from A shift and 2 from C shift and none from B shift. They will probably do an even 2 - 2 - 2 on each shift. So we're hoping Ben is one of the 2 from A shift.

He will know his knew station assignment by the 6th as well. He thinks he will be moving to a new station. He's been at the station by the airport for a year now. Any other station will be closer to the house so that's cool.

I feel left out... :)

Ben and Alli will both very soon be in educational programs...I'm feeling left out. Maybe I should go back to school...haha not right now anyway.

First I'll explain Alli's. Grammy and Grandpa Smith got Alli the Your Baby Can Read program. I didn't know what it was so I will explain. It is a program made up of DVDs, books, flash cards, pictures, etc. Each DVD teaches some basic words. The baby learns to read by seeing the word on the screen and then learning to associate that word with what it means. Like seeing the word "Mouth" on the tv and then being shown a picture of a baby pointing to her mouth. Yes at first they are just memorizing but supposedly it teaches the baby the patterns of reading. Kids who have been put on this program do really well in school and are usually in very advanced reading levels. The program teaches 160+ words. It will give her a good foundation in her reading skills. You can start them on it as soon as they can focus on objects. So we've started Alli on it and she should theoretically be done with all the DVDs by 1 year old. The first DVD is supposed to be shown for the first month you start the program. Then DVD 2 for 2 months, DVD 3 for 2 months and DVD 4 for 1 month. Then there is a review DVD. Each DVD builds off the one before it. As we go along I would imagine that in a month or so I will be able to show Alli a flash card of one of the words and she should be able to point out that object to me. The video showed the daughter of the Dr who started the program reading the Three Little Pigs at age 3. That's pretty impressive to me.

Anyway...onto Ben. He is going back to get his Associates in Fire Science as many of you know. This college he is going to is totally based for online education. They set it up so that you can go as quick or as slow as you would like. You cannot finish a class any sooner than 3 weeks nor any longer than 10 weeks. You also cannot take more than 3 classes at one time considering the classes go much quicker than a normal semester. Ben only lacks 9 classes for his associates. If he took 3 every 10 weeks, he would be done by the end of July. He will probably be able to get some of the classes done in the 3 week time frame. So he could be done even sooner than that. He will also be able to finish his BS in fire science through this school as well. The best part is the city's reimbursement for his schooling. I wish someone had reimbursed me for my 2 years worth of college work I'm still paying off. haha. So as if Ben wasn't busy enough being breadwinner while I stay at home with Alli....now he is adding education to the mix. He can do it though and I'm so proud of him for being so motivated to do it.

Fun at Nana's & Grammy and Grandpa's!

Everyone together for Christmas 09!
Here are pictures of Christmas with Grammy and Grandpa Smith

Here is a video of Moroni helping Chris open his gift.

Playing with Alli...trying to get her smile for pictures.

96 Hours straight

Ben just got off a run of 4 shifts in a row making it 96 hours straight of working. This is what happens:The puppies miss him too! But we get him for ALL of Christmas. I'm so happy.

Our first family Christmas with Alli

We decided to do our family Christmas this year on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning we will be heading to mom's and then straight to Winchester to do Christmas with Ben's folks. So we wouldn't have time to do our Christmas with all of this going on. So here is a video of Alli opening her gifts!

I think she was more excited about the paper.

Yay I get to go shopping with mom!

Oh paper....ribbon...oh my

I can't believe it!

It's official. After prayer and months of considering this decision, Ben and I have decided for me to stay home and quit STHS Sleep Center. I will miss working with patients but I won't miss losing sleep at night and come home too tired to take care of Alli. I had a lot of down time last night at work and i got to thinking about what I wanted to do once I quit working. I really feel like this is an opportunity for me to be able to make use of this time to learn some skills that could prove beneficial to us in many ways. I really want to learn how to sew and crochet. I found these super cute adorable crochet beanies for babies and I want to learn how to make them!I mean seriously...how adorable is this newsboy cap for this little boy!!!
Surely these can't be hard to make!! So anyway. I want mom to teach me how to crochet and then also to sew. I want to be able to make Alli dresses and what not. So my new want....**drumroll** is a sewing machine...haha. So birthday coming up....just money towards that would be fabulous! haha. Since I borrowed these pictures from the site I found them on...I will link to them so you guys can go check out all the adorable hats. Here is the link

Ok anyway on to other things. Alli tried another vegetable tonight. Not one of my favorites...actually I won't go near the stuff...but she LOVED sweet potatoes. Although...tonight 1 hour after going to bed she woke screaming bloody murder. I hope she wasn't in gas pain from the sweet potatoes. If it happens again after feeding her them a second time around, then we may not ever go near them again. So currently she likes carrots, bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes...but hates peas...awe...I love peas. Oh well. We'll try peas again in a few weeks.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sitting on the fence but about to fall off!!

I think I've about made up my mind to quit working all together. I initially wanted to stay on PRN with my job to provide some extra cash flow and to keep my certification and skills up. The last few times I worked have been really hard to recuperate with Alli sleeping less. I love what I do and I do enjoy working, but I've really started to feel that mommy tug of wanting to be home with my baby and feeling like that's where I should be. I know this isn't possible for all mothers but I am fortunate that Ben is working as much as he is to make this possible. I've held onto the PRN as our just in case money but my job isn't any more reliable than Ben's extra ambulance work because I can be called off just as easily as he can. Ben and I are going to do some praying on it but we would like to make our decision by the first of the year. I want to go to work less and less and it will only get harder to recuperate as Alli gets older. I think we are at the point now where I will just have to take that leap of faith if this is what we decide is best.

Oh sweet progress

So I continue to be amazed by Alli today. She slept every nap without being swaddled. This is awesome! We went to visit Ashley today while she was in Winchester. Here are a few pictures of our day. Below Ben is playing with Alli.













Carter and Alli - 4 months age difference
























Happy smile...too bad she wasn't looking at the camera.

















Alli tried carrots tonight. I know the picture doesn't show it well but she LOVED the carrots. Too funny!

Alaina Gail

Ok well I'm just so excited about another niece so close to home that I HAD to post about miss Alaina Gail that was born today. She was born around 11:30am 7lbs 1 oz 20 inches long! Everyone is well and happy. We are so excited for Rusty and Shannon. I can't wait for Alli to get to play with Alaina.

Then in just a few short weeks, baby Carter, Don and Ashley will be moving to Winchester and we'll get to see much more of them. So many babies...love it! The holidays are going to be so much fun.

In other news, Alli had such a hectic day tagging along as we picked Caitlin up from school, took her to the hospital, then came home and took Ben some dinner at work. So by the time I got her home she was so squirmy in bed. She was still being swaddled at night to help her sleep without her arms flinging everywhere. Well tonight she was in bed for an hour squirming so badly that she ended up at the top of the crib near the rails. So I took her out of the swaddle and I am going to see how she does sleeping unswaddled. Wish us luck!!! I want her to be able to sleep without being swaddled so I hope it goes well.

**UPDATE** Ok well it took her an hour to fall asleep unswaddled and giving her the pacifier back twice. Once day I'll ween her of the pacifier but right now what does it hurt? Once asleep, she's done great. She would wake every hour or so while I've been up and squirm a bit but then go back to sleep. Around 9pm she laid in bed for about 5 minutes playing with her feet. I went in just a few minutes ago to check on her and to put the afghan on her that mom made for her. I was worried she would get cold tonight without any covers but I didn't want her to smother herself if she wakes in the night and starts playing with blankets. So I figured the afghan was a good "holey" compromise. haha. So here is a picture I took from my phone of her sleeping so peacefully! I'm so proud of you my little Alli girl!

What a couple days!

Two days ago Alli started developing a runny nose and a lot of congestion. It just got worse over the next 24 hours. So she now has a full blown cold....or so we thought. This morning she sticks my finger in her mouth and I feel her first tooth breaking through on the bottom! What a couple days for miss Alli. I will have pictures as soon as it breaks through enough that I can see it and get her to let me get a shot of it!

20 weeks

Alli is 20 weeks old and will be 21 weeks on Tuesday. Here are a couple recent pictures of her. I really need to keep my camera close by but the phone is much easier most days. She recently began getting really excited when she sees her bottle. She starts reaching out for it and almost shaking. It's pretty humorous to watch. Now that she knows what her bottle is and what purpose it serves...she has a desire to hold it. She is getting pretty good at holding it. The problem with her holding it is that she also likes to look around while she eats and she doesn't move the bottle with her so she is a sloppy eater if I don't help her hold it.














Here is a picture of Ben playing with Alli and eating her belly. We took a video of it but I don't know how to upload a video from the phone. So here is just a still shot of him making her smile and laugh.

Forgot to update

Well we found out the other day, Ben did not get the ladder driver position....oh well. On to the next phase. He also applied for the driver position but there are like 35 guys applying for this promotion! He has also thrown an application into an online school in Alabama where he can finish his associates and then his bachelors. Because everything is online he can work as fast or as slow as he wants. He can finish a class in a semesters time frame or he can finish it as quick as three weeks. If he pushes it and takes it one or two classes at a time, he could get one or two classes done every three weeks. At that rate he could plow through his associates.

We enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday and are looking forward to Christmas. We recently had a new nephew born into the Smith family! Ashley and Don's little boy is adorable. He has a full head of BLOND hair and his parents are total brunettes. Too funny. We haven't met him yet but we look forward to it. Then we'll be meeting Shannon and Rusty's new little angel soon! Can't wait for Alli to have a cousin her age so close. It will be fun watching them grown together.

We are continuing to introduce solids to Alli and she still isn't sure about the texture. She spits most of it back out. I try to give her a little every day to get her used to it. She's had rice cereal and applesauce. Hopefully she'll take to it soon.