Girls afternoon OUT

Yesterday was beautiful!!! I dream of days like that...feel the warmth of the sun on your face and a nice cool breeze to make it perfect. Days like that are truly when I look to the sky and thank God for all His beautiful creations.

Shannon asked me earlier in the week if we wanted to go to the zoo...well sure! Alli loves the animals so it sounded perfect. There was a gun show in town Ben wanted to go to with a buddy of his so that made it that much more perfect.

Of course all of Nashville's surrounding areas thought it was a great idea too because there were a TON of people there. We had fun anyway, but we had to maneuver through a mass of people at every exhibit. It made it really hard for Alli and Alaina to see the animals. I would've loved to take Alli out of the stroller and let her see over the fence but once she is out of the stroller, good luck getting her back in. If the zoo hadn't been so packed, I probably would've let her walk the whole thing.

Due to the massive amount of people there, I was never in a position to get a good picture of Alli with any of the animals at the zoo. I was constantly having to make sure we didn't lose her or get run over! So needless to say Alli didn't really get "excited" over any of the animal exhibits but she LOVED to be with her cousins. She just adores Caitlin and Alaina. There is a great jungle gym at the zoo and there is a huge padded mat area for toddlers. Alaina and Alli really loved walking the mats and throwing themselves down on them. I wish I had had my camcorder with me because it was so cute. We might have to go back soon so that Ben can see how much fun she has there.

On the car ride home, all three girls thought it was funny to buzz their lips together. Alli and Caitlin did this almost the whole ride home. Of course Alli ended up with spit all over her chin...gross...but that's what kids do. :)

Thanks again for inviting me Shannon. We had so much fun and look forward to hanging out with the girls again!

Pictures

Here is a picture of what Alli was wearing on the day we went to do the pictures for the new brochures at work. Wasn't she a doll?!?
Alli loves loves LOVES to read. This was last This was on a Sunday morning after Ben got home from work. Alli was so happy that daddy was home. He was lying on the floor in front of her door. She took a book over to him, stood between his arms and plopped herself right down and handed him a book. Love it!
I was at work a couple weeks ago and was really missing Alli. I Asked Ben to send me a picture of Alli. So this is the picture he sent me...Bonus!!! A picture of both of them and it's adorable!
We were in the spare room the other day and Alli was wanting to "read" the "books" that were in there. The books that she was referring to were my photo albums. So here she is on the bed, surrounded by the pillows she has strategically placed for her lounging comfort....and she is ready to read. Adorable.
Progress on the house continues. Ben and I finished up the chair railing today. We also finished painting the hallway upstairs. Now the only rooms in the house to be painting are the master and spare bedrooms. One day...not entirely important we do them anytime soon but we have the paint so might as well. We might start the crown moulding next....time will tell. We need a break from this weekend first.

It's finally open and My little model

Well as of this week, the long awaited day has arrived. The lab in Murfreesboro is officially open. They have run studies 3 nights this week. I toured the lab on Tuesday to familiarize myself with my surroundings before I run any studies. Then I received an email on Wednesday afternoon asking me if I could make it Friday for a photo shoot at work. They were getting some new pictures for the marketing brochures for all three facilities (Baptist, Hermitage and Murfreesboro). I asked mom if she wouldn't mind to tag along to help distract Alli so I could do this photo shoot. They needed me since I was the day tech for Murfreesboro.

So we headed down there this morning and right as we walk in the door, we walk in on the photographer taking pictures in the front lobby. Immediately he is taken back by Alli and starts taking pictures of her. I was thankful I had dressed Alli nice today! The photographer and our marketer just kept going on and on about how adorable Alli was....of course I'm biased, but I agree :). We showed mom around the lab and waited for them to need me. Then the marketer pops in and sits down to have a chat with me. He says, "So Ashleigh was telling me that the facility also does studies on pediatric patients. (I knew where he was going with this) How old is your daughter?" I laughed to myself and I told him that she was 19 months. They then asked me if I was open to maybe taking some pictures with Alli in one of the patient rooms. They wanted to showcase that our facility works with pediatric patients. I agreed based off the knowledge that we would only do what she was comfortable doing and once she was upset...that was it, we were done. Little did I know my daughter was a HAM!

We sat her on one of the beds and I knelt in front of her trying to interact as if I was her technician. She didn't like me being in front of her and being on the bed all by herself. So I sat on the bed with her but she kept trying to climb in my lap and hug me. So I pulled the headbox and wires off the wall and sat them in front of her. I showed her the wires and let her play with them. This is very similar to what I would've done anyway with a pediatric patient to try to get them comfortable with the wires so it worked like a charm. She sat there and felt the wires and ran them through her fingers. The photographer LOVED it! It gave them exactly what they needed. I bet he easily took 50 pictures of her today...if not more. They got some of me by myself at one of the computers...acting like I was reviewing a study...I HATE acting...it feels so cheesy.

Not only are these pictures going to be in their marketing brochures but they are also updating the website...so I'm curious to see what they choose for each. I will post a link to it once it is updated. We'll see how our little model worked out.

Quick post

It's late but I had to post this really quickly before I forgot it. As Alli gets older and develops more independence, we've been dealing with some minor power struggles to show mom and dad are still in charge. This mainly came into play recently at bedtime. We had about 6-7 nights where we had to insist on 7pm as bedtime and crying wouldn't mean you got to stay up longer and play. Well finally one night after persistently pursuing our schedule, we had a break through. Alli and I said our goodnight prayers and then as I was holding her she leaned over to lay down in my arms. I asked her, "are you ready to go night night and lay in your crib?" She then leaned rolled and pointed towards the crib. So I took this cue as a possible answer that she was ready to go to bed. I was fully anticipating her to stand up and start to cry as soon as I laid her down. I was so wrong. Instead, she laid there calmly and let me cover her with her blankets. Then she did something I wasn't expecting. I told her I loved her and she blew me kisses. It caught me off guard but it has now become a new tradition. Normally she would only blow kisses when asked, so to blow kisses unprompted was very sweet. So every night now we ask, are you ready to go night night and then we exchange kisses. Then last night and tonight she added one more cute thing...she now also tells me bye! LOL

She woke up screaming around midnight from what I can only assume was a bad dream. We snuggled and when I put her back in bed she blew me kisses and then said bye bye. haha so cute. Good night everyone

1 down....many more to go...

We finally finished the 1/2 bath. We had some kinks in the road but we learned how to do some things we didn't know how to do so that's cool. We are so tickled with how it turned out!

Here is the first step in the "fake" board and batten look. We placed our boards 10 inches apart.

Alli running around with the dog leash while we were working on the bathroom. She loves to take the dogs on a walk.

She wanted to help daddy out so bad. He was filling in the nail holes with wood puddy. So she started rubbing her finger on the wood trying to be like daddy. Loves her daddy!

See, like I said, LoVeS her daddy!

Step 2 in board in batten is the chair railing

Last step...a nice coat of semi gloss white paint to give the wall a nice board covered shiny...beautiful look!

~We LOVE it~

My taste buds NEEDED this!

I had some Tilapia in the freezer that we needed to cook and I wanted a new recipe to try. Tilapia is really the only fish Ben will eat. I love just about any type of fish but Ben isn't as fond of it so we like Tilapia because it isn't as fishy tasting! So I wanted to grill it. We had a Taste of Home grilling magazine and I found this tasty sounding recipe for Halibut. I knew halibut was a white fish and thought Tilapia would be a great substitute. Here's the recipe.
Halibut with Zesty Peach Salsa:

photo curtesy of taste of home website (wouldn't want some copyright person to get huffy over the use of their picture)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lime peel
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 halibut steaks (6 ounces each)
  SALSA:
• 2 cups chopped fresh or frozen peaches
• 1/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

• In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; mix well. Remove 1/4 cup for basting; cover and refrigerate. Pour remaining marinade into a large resealable plastic bag; add the halibut. Seal bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for 2 hours. In another small bowl, combine salsa ingredients; cover and refrigerate until serving.
• Drain and discard marinade. Using long-handled tongs, moisten a paper towel with cooking oil and lightly coat the grill rack.
• Grill, uncovered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from the heat for 4-6 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork, basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Serve with peach salsa. Yield: 4 servings.

Editor's Note: When cutting hot peppers, disposable gloves are recommended. Avoid touching your face.

This was SOOOO YUMMY! My taste buds needed this fresh and citrus filled meal! It was nice to make something so healthy and fresh tasting. We absolutely loved the salsa. We would make it by itself! I'm not a big fan on red onions but it was perfect for this salsa. Next time I will leave out the jalapeno. It didn't need that extra zest for our liking and this way Alli can eat it without any problems. She loved the peaches and the red peppers. If only I could get her to try the fish. Oh well...small victories right?!?

I know my body parts.

I've been meaning to post this for a couple weeks and yesterday I finally sat down with Alli and got her to show everyone how many body parts she has learned. Enjoy.