Monday, January 28, 2013

The LOOONG Awaited GENDER REVEAL!! It's a ....



That's right!!! Miss Raleigh Grace is going to have a LITTLE SISTER!! We are all SO thrilled to have another girl! God is so good! Our cup overflows!! 

Oh, and in reality I tried pulling K's leg to make this happen because I thought it would be the funniest thing ever, but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.  Check it out :) 

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Raleigh Grace: 13 Months

I do realize that Raleigh Grace is now 15 months old (no, I swear I'm not in denial) I have just been a slacker (as usual) and I'm behind on posting.  I have a note that I keep open on my phone where I can jot down important things I want to remember about each month.  I don't really have a format so to speak, just details that I don't want soon forgotten *my memory is the worst!*
After trying to pick some of my favorite pictures from this month I am a)ashamed that I didn't blog more about some of these fun things that we did! and b)utterly shocked at how much Raleigh Grace has grown and changed in just two short months-- she looks so different to me in these pictures compared to now, her expressions are different, she is bigger, and she has more hair! ;) I hope you all enjoy looking at these pictures and stat's as much as I have!

On November 17th you turned 
13 months old!! 


Milestones: 


Got TWO MOLARS! (sometime the last week of month)
                                                              Blowing kisses bye
Kissing things- actual smacking noise
Gives kisses to people. 
Looks you in the eye and opens mouth as she goes for the lips ha!
Babbles and screams yells a lot- babab dada no doeh doeh duh etc
Mimics LOTS of things we say. 
Gets lots of sounds correct!
Loves bringing books to you to read but changes books every two or less pages ha
VERY busy- always has been but always on the move and into something
Loves playing with her bday balloons... Will shake them as she carries around.
Laughs in response to laughing.
Knows when you are laughing at her
Knows her eyes, nose and belly button, toes and feet
Tries to put shirts on her head and tried (11/10) to put pants on her legs.
Identifies airplanes when she hears them -- she points up to them... She can see them at night and during the day.

Raleigh Grace's 1st Birthday (smash cake)

In her birthday outfit!

playing with my mom at the Japanese restaurant

Eating a chocolate chip cookie ;) 

I'm not sure what she is doing but she looks like she's trying to escape mischief ;) 


just pitiful!

Favorite toys/activities:
Pulling books off the shelves and going through the pages of them
Any musical anything (including tv show intro songs/commercials)- she starts dancing- shaking hips tilting shoulders back and bouncing knees.
Plays peek a boo on her own (did before bday too)- usually hides behind blankets or clothes :)
Carrying clothes on hangers (specifically hers)
Putting clothes on (or trying to)
Clothes in general
Pulling things out of her diaper bag or other containers
Bath time and splashing big time
Squirting her bath toys herself
She loves being chased and thinks its SO funny!!


She enjoyed her 1st trip to Monkey Joe's on Halloween for a friend's birthday party-- it's an indoor inflatable play place and we both did the HUGE slide together! FUN!

Playing with Peyton and Eli




Raleigh Grace's 1st Halloween to go trick-or-treating! She dressed up as a Zebra... and boy was she the cutest zebra I have ever seen!! 

She was so excited about her own candy bucket that Emma Claire sent her! It even had her name on it!! :)

RG and my cousin-- RG wasn't sure what to think about the face paint (and yes, all night she carried around this hand colander that she found in my aunt's cabinet.)

Passing out candy before trick-or-treating herself. 

Going to the first house!!

We announced our family was growing by an additional "pumpkin" :) 


Following commands:
                                                                   Put this in trash
Come here
Sit down
Watch your head
Where's your baby/ bunny/ passy/daddy- she looks for them
Give this to daddy, mommy, ggdad, etc
Put the baby in the bed
Get down
Be careful (climbing into her chair- very cautious)
No (ma'am)/ don't do that
Give me a kiss
Can I have a bite (she feeds me)


Went to my great aunts funeral :( but got to see some family... Here is RG with Great Grandpa! 

My cousin, his son (Drew) and RG

So laid back enjoying lunch! 

Sleepy head just waking up... milk face and all! 

oh! thats more like it :) 


Sleep:
Amazing 13 hrs ish
Sleeps from around 10-9 +\-
Naps twice for anywhere from an hour to two and a half or three.

BEAUTIFUL BLONDIE! 

Obsessed with the flowers


Playing with/ Smelling the flowers! 



Eating:
She eats a ton if you give her what she wants: hush puppies, bread, rolls, hot dogs, lunch meat, applesauce, oatmeal, yogurt and almost any fruits.
We can not get her to eat veggies unless it's in a pouch mixed with fruit. 
We have tried fresh veggies, steamed, mashed up, solid, whole, bite sized, puréed. None work for carrots, broccoli, green beans.  
She sometimes eats peas and potatoes.  
She loves apple juice but only gets it on special occasions. 
She loves drinking mommy and daddy's drinks out of big cups and a straw (or without that just equals more backwash ha)
Loves sweets and chocolate (duh, she's my child!)



Such a good helper with the laundry! 

Monday, January 21, 2013

from Baby to BABIES!

I think its pretty obvious at this point that we are about to have two BABIES.  No longer will we be a little family of three, we will be a family of FOUR!  We are less than 4 months from our due date and things are getting REAL, REALLY fast!! :) Oh, and just for the record we are going to have TWO babies who are exactly 19 months apart (if baby number dos comes on its due date, that is.)

This is a shout out to all you mamma's out there who already have BABIES or who are about to have more than one child.  There are tons of things running through my head as to how to properly prepare for this sweet child to come into the world... I thought I would throw a few questions out there and if anyone wants to throw some advice my way I would be more than willing to hear it.  

-Strollers: I already know that I do NOT want a side by side stroller... we have some friends who have one and I can hardly maneuver the single one we have- much less the double wide one they have.  I also tend to always bump into things in stores in our single stroller... how could I ever manage a double-wide. ha! {just being honest, nothing against those who have them!}  So... here comes the question- what do you have? Do you like it? What do you plan on getting? What do you wish you would have gotten -- if you don't love yours? 
This is what we have and used for Raleigh Grace as an infant.  We absolutely love it and will be using for baby#2 most likely...
This is the stroller we have for RG now... we do not have the Chicco infant seat- anyone have this one they want to gift us? ;) kidding.. but we like the stroller fine but it only works for one child (obviously!)

-Diapers: ick, I hate to even bring this one up. TWO children in diapers?!  Hopefully not for long though.  I would have never imagined writing this in a post but my friend Stephanie posed a question: should she start cloth diapering now that she is going to have two children in diapers.  Actually she titled the post: "Convnice me I should go cloth" ... I really have little to no interest in cloth diapering (for my kiddos) because I feel like I can't even stay on top of the laundry and house work that I currently have much less adding more to the mix-- but is it worth the money to add a few more loads of laundry? If significant enough I might would consider.  I can't wait to read the comments on her post but if you have any feel free to leave them for me as well! 
our faves since day 1!

-Sleeping/Cribs/Beds: First off, we will not be moving Raleigh Grace to a "big girl bed" anytime soon. She is an amazing sleeper (sleeping 10-13 hours a night) and I refuse to mess with a good thing!  She slept in our room for the first 5ish months in the bouncer, in the pack n play-- and if baby number two likes the bouncer like RG we will be doing the same- otherwise we plan on just putting the baby in the pack n play in our room. I also feel it is important to be transparent about our living situation.  We are going to be in somewhat of a "grid-lock" situation when baby number two comes. We are currently living in a really nice condo that is two bedrooms.  We are in one room and RG is in the other.  Like I said earlier, we plan on keeping #2 in our room for a little while so consider the following questions to be applied several months down the road... The crib that RG is in right now is a regular crib that will not transition into a toddler bed.  We also have a day bed with a trundle in her room (see pics of her nursery here).  What do you think about having both kids in the same room (obviously when #2 is around 6+ months old)?  I don't see much of an option otherwise.  So, how should they sleep? Do you think RG will be ready for a "big girl" bed by that time? She will be 2 years old plus or minus a few months.  Or... should we bite the bullet and purchase a second crib? If we were to go that route we would purchase a convertible crib that will eventually be a toddler bed, and a twin headboard later.  (or is that totally unnecessary considering we have the day bed?...). Should we just move the pack n play to RG's room when #2 is older, and pray, pray, pray that they both sleep well? I'm really at a loss on this issue and most of me is just planning to play it by ear and take it a day at the time.  Obviously, K and I would love to purchase a larger home but with us still owning the house in TX that's not totally an option right now.  The lease on that house is up in the end of April so pray for wisdom for us in that situation-- I'm not sure if its a feasible idea to sell it or to continue to try and rent it and build up more equity in it...? (Not trying to open that can of worms in this post -- just letting you know we could use some prayers in that department of our life.)
see day bed and crib... as you can see there isn't a lot of extra room for a second crib but we could make do if need be (or take the day bed out)

-Diaper Bag: This issue isn't really a huge priority to me but I just thought I would include it to get some input if you have it.  I love my current Coach diaper bag (seen in crib above). I really do!  But... I feel like its almost already maxed out.  Do I need to get something larger? What did you do? I have looked at the Petunia Pickle Bottom boxy backpacks and I'm obsessed. If I had $180 dollars and had no clue what to do with it I probably would have already purchased one.  They also make the PPB boxy backpack (Abundance) in an extra large size-- is all that really necessary? Should I hang tight with what I have and make do- or indulge in a new bag? 
 The left one is the Abundance Backpack, the right is the regular Petunia Pickle Bottom Boxy Backpack

-Baby Showers: How do you feel about having a baby shower for the second baby? Especially when they are this close in age? Go for it? Or hold off? 

Although those are most of the questions I am throwing around right now, I am sure that many more will come up over the next few months.  Those of you who are moms of multiples, I really applaud you. I need you to impart ALL of your wisdom to me... seriously.  :) Thanks for all of your feedback in advance, I can't wait to bounce ideas off of everyone-- if there is something I left off feel free to advise me in that department too!  

OH! And if you aren't a mom or a mom with multiple kids I would still love to hear what you think!!! :) 

Here are just a few friends who are going to be going from one to two (or two to three etc. ;) )  in the next several months... let me know if I didn't include you... I thought it would be fun to see who else will be going through this at the same time to know that we aren't alone.  I love knowing that I will have a support group when the baby gets here! 

Stephanie at Blawnde's Blog
Natalie at Extraordinary Love

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Baby #2: 23 Weeks!

For those of you who haven't read my weekly from this pregnancy and compared them to my weekly updates with my pregnancy with Raleigh Grace... its just creepy-- they are so similar -- for instance with Raleigh Grace at 22 weeks I started loving cereal which I didn't eat a ton of pre-pregnancy.  Well, with this pregnancy... if you follow me on instagram (alliemacfallie) then you know I've been eating a ton of cereal (starting last week!) hah! Does that mean Miss Raleigh Grace will have a twin sibling? That would be totally fine with me as I think she's perfect... or as close as you can get ;) hehe Anyways, just had to throw that out there for those of you who hadn't noticed. :) {here is my pregnancy with RG at 23 weeks}


January 12-18
Here is what we have been up to this week: (written 1/17)

Weight Gain:  probably not a ton of change from two weeks ago but I feel like I've got to be gaining some weight as I'm constantly eating. I don't have another dr. apt until 2 1/2 weeks from now. I might start using my own scale to update.

Maternity Clothes : a striped skirt mom bought me for Christmas is a go-t0. its oober comfie so be ready to see it in every picture of me ha! Other than that no, I'm still in normal clothes. 

Sleep: I think I've started getting up once during the night... nooooo!!! 

Best Moment of this week: The 80 degree temps this past weekend were phenomenal!!! I need to do a fun post about all the hiking we did... we went to a greenway on Saturday, church on sunday and then to the mountains to hike after church. LOVED being outside and the nice weather (oh and it just started snowing a couple hours ago... oh crazy weather!)

Movement:  lets just name this baby the jumping bean! its always bouncing and moving and kicking and flipping! I love that my belly is always getting hard in random spots ha! 

Food cravings:  cereal! (raisin bran)... and Dippin Dots! hehe :)

Food Aversions: nothing new really but I had some garlic knots at dinner tonight and they are giving me bad indigestion for the first time this pregnancy! yuck! 

What I miss: nothing :) Seriously, I am feeling amazing! 

Symptoms: I feel great, I love this part of pregnancy. I am still comfortable, I can still breathe (although it was hard hiking this weekend, I was definitely feeling like the weakest link! ha), I'm not huge yet, I don't wobble, I can still tie my shoes, I can still get out of bed and roll over on my own.  :) Life is grand right now. 

What I'm looking forward to: I'm just taking it a day at the time... I really am so happy about right now. I wish I felt this good (maybe with a little added energy) the rest of the pregnancy! 



and for the always fun... anxiously awaited... BUMPdate: 


and last weeks photo since I didn't do an update:

Friday, January 18, 2013

January Goals


I have been meaning to post my January Goals since ... well... New Years, but I am just now getting around to them.  I did have them written down so I'm just making them official by posting them on here I guess.  I am hoping to do a recap at the end of the month to see how I did and hopefully continue to do the monthly goals throughout the rest of the year... (that might get a little tricky post baby #2 so we shall play that by ear ;) ) I want to keep these as practical and simple as I can in hopes of actually achieving these goals so look  for 10 or fewer goals per month. :) 
Shall we get started? 

-make bed daily 
-do BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) homework daily!
-use my DSLR more often

Spiritual Goals:
-do my "work" for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23)
-trust in the Lord's timing... and when he tells me to wait, wait. (I mean ... Abraham waited 100 years for a son... I want that kind of faith!)
-be more patient with Raleigh Grace and K -- especially when I'm tired
-pray more and pray specifically: especially for my family
-do at least one monthly update on Raleigh Grace 


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Best Buy Troubles: A Venting Session!

Less than a year ago, hubby purchased me a brand new computer from Best Buy.  Almost immediately I started having weird "quirky" problems- like some of the keys not typing when I striked them, etc.  I use my computer all the time so taking it in for the "geek squad" protection- that we purchased for a somewhat pretty penny was put on the back burner.  It wasn't until a few weeks before Christmas that the issues got so bad that I decided to finally take the computer in.  When I took it in they said they would "check it out" and give me a call back.  A day or two later I get a call saying that my hard drive was failing.  Um... what? On a brand new computer? I was a bit annoyed to say the least.  The geek squad people said that they would replace the hard drive for free since it was under the manufacturer warranty and asked me if I wanted them to "back it up" to which I agreed.  They then explained that it was going to cost about $100 dollars. Excuse me? I have already purchased the protection so why do I need to spend more money!? Anyways-- all this to say they "let me" buy an adapter and told me I could back it up on my own but all that could be backed up (by both them or me) was pictures and docs.... okay great, now I have to find the product codes, etc for Microsoft Office, and other programs that I had installed. After spending about $50 dollars vs the $100 they were offering I brought the "like new" laptop home with a brand new hard drive. 
I was excited to have the problems behind me and move on.  Not the case.  I am now more frustrated than ever-- all of the things that came on the computer were no longer there.  The Microsoft photo editing program that came on the computer is gone.  There is now nothing but paint (even to merely crop a photo).  The touch pad settings are gone-- I can no longer use the option to scroll on the touch pad- plus its so sensitive right now  that my hand is always touching it as I'm typing and I end up typing in the middle of another sentence I had started wherever the cursor was left (and the program I previously used to change these settings... I can't find them anywhere!)
Anyways- all of this to say, I am extremely frustrated with Best Buy. I am frustrated that they didn't truly "fix" my computer but made me more irritated than before.  There is nothing on my computer - no pictures, or anything so therefore I have avoided getting on it to blog or do anything else for that matter.  I'm off to begin backing up my pictures on my own and probably call Best Buy customer service demanding they do something to help me out.  
 
In other news, life is good :) I'll promise to blog about something worthwhile in the next day or so.  Is it too late to finally post my January Goals? I mean, I have them written down but just haven't blogged about them yet.  
Okay, off to work on this crazy computer and get it back to the way I "like" it. {sorry for the lack of pictures!}

Thanks for listening ha! 

Monday, January 7, 2013

Baby #2: 21 Weeks!

Woah, I hate that I have let so many weeks go by without documenting! I guess I've been a little busy these days with the Christmas and New Year holidays! :)
21 weeks means a couple of things-- a)I'm over half way there (I HOPE!! Raleigh Grace was 9 days late, let's pray this baby is a little more prompt?) b) I am 5 months, one week pregnant (woah!) c) I only have 4ish months left to go... holy molley!!! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 29-January 4
Here is what we have been up to this week: (written 1/6)

Weight Gain:  I go for a Dr. appointment tomorrow but I think I'm still sitting at about 10 under
***update 1/7/13:  I had lost one pound since my last appointment so I am down right at 10 lbs.  The dr said my stomach was measuring "perfect" and as long as I wasn't skipping meals then my weight loss was fine.  :) Baby's heart rate was 160 and my bp was 120/60.  I got a great report that my pregnancy was "perfect"... why thank yah doc! ***

Maternity Clothes : My jeans both maternity and non still fall off of me... I def. have a bump now but I guess my fatty love handles that used to hold my jeans up aren't there as much as before.  My shirts and even t-shirts are def. getting tight on the tummy! I tend to be bundled up in my North Face when we go anywhere so its funny to actually show off my "bump"- even my family and friends can't believe my bump pics bc they don't get to see it in real life ;) 

Sleep: I've still been staying up way too late but sleeping amazingly! (All but one night two nights ago when I had horrible allergies)

Best Moment of this week: Today we celebrated K's 30th bday{!!!!} which was fun, then we went over to our friends house to watch the Redskins... sad about RGIII's injury and them ultimately losing but we had fun letting the kids play together and having some fun with friends.  
oh, and bringing in the New Year... totally non-eventful ha! minus one part... see next section ;) 

Movement:  So, what I thought was a kick at 18 weeks definitely was!! At 19 weeks there was a lot of movement and even more by this week! I love every bit of it! On New Years Day K felt the baby move for the 1st time!!!!!!! A fun moment for both of us!

Food cravings:  I really can't think of anything-- for New Years I realllly wanted some greens with vinegar (and the whole New Years meal for that matter) but I didn't finally get them until today.  Delish!  I seem to get full much quicker this week. 

Food Aversions: The same things I guess. 

What I miss: nothing :)

Symptoms: The baby has started kicking my bladder, yikes!  More "growing pains." A growing belly! and burping. still.  My headaches are GONE!! Feeling like I need to pee all the time. (I've been drinking way more h20 too- go me!) Getting full quicker.
(Totally not baby symptoms but the past 3 days this week I struggled with MAJOR head congestion/stopped up nose/sinus pressure -- which equalled horrible headaches. I was miserable and one night slept almost none.  Luckily, I am feeling a little better as of this am!)

Gender: We will share soon- I know I keep saying that... I'm actually starting to feel bad that we haven't shared yet.  Can I be honest here? I really want to take a cute  gender reveal picture and post it and I really haven't had the time and the weather has been rainy and cold. Not really picture taking weather.  If I can't get this done soon I promise I'll just reveal.  Thanks for being patient with me :) .... or of course I could keep it a SECRET until baby is born!?! That could be fun!!! heheh

What I'm looking forward to: Our schedule slowing down a bit... we have been sooo busy. My doc appointment tomorrow. and MAINLY: spring/{early}SUMMER. That is my number 1 craving right now-- warm weather and the BEACH.  I'm so ready! I'm ready to throw on a bikini (for the last time this year probably since I'll have a majorly flabby belly post May) and lay out!! Please be a short winter!

 Baby bump: 

Oh, and if you're curious... here is my 21 week post while I was pregnant with RG :) 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Raleigh Grace and Santa 2012!

This year our trip to see Santa Claus was so much more enjoyable than last year!  
This year, as soon as Raleigh Grace started seeing Santa around she started to wave at him and he really became her "friend"! We would see Santa in ad's in the paper and she would kiss him and wave to him and when we saw Santa statues in stores she would always wave, rub his beard and then want to hug him.  I was so anxious to see how she did with the "real life" Santa!  We didn't make a huge rush out of it this year so about a week before Christmas we finally got her all dressed up in her Sunday's best to go see him.  (I'll admit the week previous we were in Bass Pro and they had free pictures with Santa! I was so bummed that RG was wearing a pink plaid shirt and jeans and didn't want her to clash with him in the picture so we skipped that opportunity. ha! She did wave at him from afar but that was about all).  
This year we decided to go to a different mall thats a little (okay, a lot) fancier than where we went last year.  The company that was taking pictures was so much more professional and even let us "work" with Raleigh Grace to get the perfect picture.  Oh, did I mention we waited in line for less than 5 minutes? AND they had a TV in line with Santa cartoons on! How cute is that!?  As we were waiting in line, Raleigh Grace was sooo excited, she kept pointing and waving and Santa and kicking her legs and smiling.  Success- no tears this year!? As it was our "turn" I sat her in his lap and she just stared at him-- I was for sure she was going to pet his beard but she didn't.  She just kept looking at him- straight faced.  Not sad, not happy, just observant.  I pulled "bunny" out and played peek-a-boo with her until we got a PRECIOUS smile!  I loved the photographers- they probably took 10 or 12 picture (that can be viewed and saved online for free) and they even let us take our own pictures with our cameras! Score!  We had so much fun and ordered one 4x6 and 4 wallets for $25dollars.  What a steal :) 
Moral of the story- go to the nicer mall, and wait until almost the last minute to avoid lines :) 

Princess Raleigh Grace and Santa Claus 2012
my favorite! 

K's favorite
 and a fun comparison from last year! :) 


oh okay, and a few out-takes ;) 






Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year, 2013!

I can't say that last night was very exciting for our little family of three.  We put Raleigh Grace to sleep around 10pm and then I did my best to keep the hubs awake (unsuccessfully).  He was adamant on wanting to stay awake so about a minute before the ball dropped I shook him awake so he could count down with me.  We kissed and went to bed.  Super exciting huh?  
This past year has been a good year as a family of three but I am looking forward to becoming a family of FOUR next year.  :)  The number 13 is my favorite number so this year is bound to be good, right?!

Here is a glimpse into our New Years Eve last year vs. this year: 

New Years Eve 2012
How we are bringing in the new year... Party in the bath tub!!! Believe it or not this is her excited face!! She loves when we have water squirter wars!!
  2011:

Bringing in the New Year at GGDaddy's house!
Her fancy outfit from Aunt Donna P!
"2012 My First New Years"
...and what exactly we were doing on this day in 2012? We had just driven to Orlando, Florida (yes, with a 2 month old!) for a family vacation with K's family at Walt Disney World!! Oh how I wish we could be back there right now! Instead I'm sitting on the couch with my hubby while RG naps, watching football.  I'll take that too! 
On the way to Cinderella's Castle at 6am to have breakfast with  ALL of the princesses...
Raleigh Grace was dressed up as Belle (the CUTEST Belle ever at that!), and her cousins were Aurora, Snow White and Rapunzel. 
The big girls in front of Cinderella's Castle
Princess Belle and Daddy


I hope you all have a wonderful day today, and happy 2013!! 



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