Father's Day

Warning: Long and slightly sentimental post ahead:)

I think my life is better because of the men that have played "father figures" in it. Not only was I so blessed to have an amazing father of my own, but my husband was raised by an exceptional father, and my own hubby is truly a wonderful Dad, so I wanted to give a brief shout out to them. Here are some things that I love about them, and some pics to enjoy.

My Dad:

I have to admit, I think I have always been a Daddy's girl at heart, and my dad is just the greatest! My sisters and I always say that my Dad was the perfect Dad for raising girls. He was hard and firm when he needed to be, but tender and loving with us, and seriously the man has more patience then anyone I know, he would have to be living with a house full of 7 crazy women! My Dad taught me to work hard, and not be afraid to take on tasks. We didn't have brothers so we were expected to do everything that boys could do without any complaining i.e., mow the lawn and other yard work, shovel snow, paint the house, move things that were hard and heavy (he taught us how to work together to get a job done) and my favorite..... home improvement projects. We hung sheet rock, sanded walls, and re-roofed our house with our Dad, and when people would volunteer to help us he would say, "I've got my girls to do it!" ( we would've liked the help!) My Dad taught me to be honest, and to be Christ-like and non-judgemental, and more than anything to have a sense of humor about life and know that everything will work out for the best. I remember multiple talks where I would be crying to him about what was going on in my life and he always gave me the best advice! He still does give great advice actually, and he still worries about us and wants to help us, most times I can call him if I need help and he will drop what he is doing and come to my rescue.

I also love the fact that my Dad works close by to where we live so he will stop by and check in with us during the week while I'm at home with the kids. He has a special knock and when he knocks on the door with his special knock Abby squeals and says "Papa!" My Dad is a total sucker for his grandkids too, and will pretty much give them whatever they want, here in this picture Abby wanted to be pushed on the swings which she always wants help with, and my nice Dad went out and pushed her for awhile until it got too hot. I love you Dad, thanks for everything!

Jake's Dad:

The best thing about Scott is he is always happy. He is very personable and easy to talk to. When he sees me he always says, "How's my favorite gal today?" or "Has anyone told you that they love you today?" He is always up for a fun night of hanging out with us, and he always makes us laugh. We love to go camping with him, and I think it's great that Jake and his Dad share a love of the outdoors together. Scott is a very hard worker and taught Jake that if he wanted something, he had to work for it. He taught Jake how to lay concrete and restore 3-wheelers so that he could earn money for his own 3 wheeler and other things he wanted while growing up. They worked hard together and played hard together.

According to Jake his Dad was the perfect Dad for him because he let Jake know what was expected of him, and gave him the freedom to make choices for himself. One time when Jake was younger he snuck out of the house to be with his friends, and when he got back home there was a note on his bed with the simple quote, "The measure of a man is defined by what he does when he thinks no one is looking." I am grateful for the things my husband learned from his father, and for how kind Scott has been to me. One of the nicest things he always says to me is, "I'm so glad you married my son." What he doesn't know is I am just as glad I married into a great family!

My Hubby:

I know that this post will be embarrassing for my husband to read but I want to write down some of my favorite things about him, especially how he is as a father. I always knew Jake would be a good Dad even before we had kids because he was always willing to take the time to play with my nieces and nephews. His favorite thing to teach them was "Who's your favorite?" and they would enthusiastically reply, "Uncle Jake!" Lately my favorite thing has been just watching Jake interact with our kids. Even though Tate is small he still tries to interact and talk to him and get great smiles out of him and then Tate will kick like crazy and coo at him.

Of course Abby is a big fan of her Daddy, so I am pretty low on the priority list with her and whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night and is crying, the first thing she says is, "I snuggle Daddy." She gets so excited when she hears his truck pull up or when she hears the garage door because she knows he's home, she squeals and puts her hands up to her face and yells, "My Daddy's home!" One of Abby's favorite things is to have Jake tell her bedtime stories which is good because I am really lame in that department. He sits on her bed and tells her the Three Bears or Three Little Pigs and does funny voices and actions with her. Whenever Jake goes outside to work in the garage or mow the lawn Abby has to be with her Dad, like his little shadow.

Jake loves to have fun and is so optimistic about life. I am grateful for the help he gives me as a parent, how hard he works for our family, and for the good example he is. I love you Jake, Happy Father's Day!

Quick question for all of you out there

Jake bought me a fancy Cannon digital SLR camera for Christmas and I have still yet to really capitalize on using it to take great pics and see all the cool things it can do. I have taken a a lot of photos with it but I don't think they have turned out that great because I don't have a photo editing program like Photoshop or anything. I always see pics on other people's blogs and wonder how they get their pics to look so nice and polished. Plus I hear that some photo editing programs can help in doing digital scrapbook type stuff, so I just don't know what to get.

SO.... I am putting my question out into the great blogsphere for help: If you use a photo editing program, which one do you use and why? Also how much did you pay for it and do you think that it was worth what you paid and/or in hindsight do you wish you would have gotten another program?

Any comments and suggestions you can leave me would help me tremendously.......Thanks!

A funny conversation

So I was working today downstairs and my instant messenger pops up and Jake and I had the following conversation:

Jake says:
Do you know why the Oreo cookies are soggy?
Allison says:
they are? Abby got into them earlier but I didn't think she did anything to them. I have no idea how they got soggy though unless she put her mouth on them when I wasn't up in the kitchen.
Jake says:
I think she sucked on several and then put them back!
Jake says:
There are little teeth marks!
Allison says:
I went downstairs to do the laundry and came up and she had Oreo on her face but they were all sealed so I though she just took one out and ate it, that's hilarious!

Jake says:
There are a couple of good ones. Do you care if I eat them?
Allison says:
no go ahead, that stinker we shouldn't have left them out last night, note to self Abby cannot be left alone with cookies apparently, what a funny girl!

This is how we found her the other night when I went in to check on her.......she makes us laugh every day!

Abby-What a girl!

So I have to write these down before I don't forget them. Abby has been talking and singing a TON lately and she is coming up with the funniest things to say, for example:

-When I was scolding her for being naughty and telling her to be nice she says to me, "Mommy, I grumpy, I havin a hard time."

-When I told her not to touch the hose because I was trying to water our tree she came in the house with an excited expression and said, "Mommy I've got idea(I've got an idea), let's play game!" When I asked her what game she wanted to play she said, "with the water!" Like if we played a game of course she would get to play in it.

-When she goes into another room she holds up her hand and says, "Mommy (or Daddy) stay right dere (there)."

-When Abby does something she's not supposed to and I tell her that she wasn't supposed to do that she looks at me and says, "It's OK Mom, it was an assident (accident)."

-When I find Abby getting into things she really isn't supposed to be touching like my jewelry, makeup, etc, and tell her I don't want her touching my stuff she says, "We're sharing Mommy, it's OK." Because I have tried to teach her about sharing her own things apparently she thinks that if she wants anything else she can say we're "sharing" and it's fair game.

-After going to the air show Abby has been infatuated with airplanes and we see them often living near the base. Well we were driving the other day and she says, "Look Daddy, an airpane (airplane).......naah, it's just a birdy.

-I often ask Abby, "what does a ______ say?" Well right now her favorite Disney movies are Toy Story 1 & 2 so I was asking her what Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and Woody say. Well those who know Woody, he says, "There's a snake in my boot." So I asked Abby, "What does Woody say, there's a snake in my.......?" and Abby replied very enthusiastically "Butt!" Not quite, but it made me laugh so hard the rest of the day.

-When she sees letters or numbers on something like a shirt, or billboard she says "Look Mommy, ABC's!" well the other day we were driving and she saw the "U" on the side of the mountain and she said "Look Mom, a yetter (letter)!" I proceeded to tell her that it was the letter "U" and I said, "Yep, that's the letter "U", and my darling daughter replied, "Yep, that's the letter ME!"

-She also loves to sing "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie and "A Camping We Will Go" and the "I Love You" song from Barney, and she must hug and kiss me every time she sings it. According to her aunt Marci she has pretty good pitch, but that's from hearing her sing over the phone. :) When I try to make her sing other songs that she knows she will stop me in the middle of it and say, "No, no, I don't like dat (that) song!"

-So Abby is also talking back quite often these days---nothing like a typical 2 year old of course, so right now I am trying to teach her that she needs to speak nicely to Mommy, so I will say, "Abby, you be nice." and she points her finger right back at me and says, "No Mommy, you be nice!" or when I am frustrated I will say, "Abby, knock it off!" and without missing a beat she says, "No Mommy, you knock it off!" I don't even think she knows what "knock it off" means but our little Abby is a force to be reckoned with. Jake and I have both commented that we hope she has the will and desire to do what is right as she gets older because she has such a strong will that she will want to mow us right over to get what she wants.

Her attempt to put sunscreen on without her Mommy's help, she did it in the other room and then said, "Mommy, I need help with dis (this)!"

-One moment Abby will be lipping off and then the next moment though she will come over and hold onto my leg or hug me and say, "Mommy, I' lobe (love) you." and her new favorite thing to say to Jake is "Daddy, I love you so much." Also when she wakes up in the morning she gets this high pitched and soft voice and says, "Good morning, Mommy," or "Daddy" or "Tate."

-On a grosser note, but I do need to document it; Abby can't stand having a runny nose or "boogies" as she calls it. Whenever she cries and throws a tantrum, she gets more mad because her "nose is runnin" or she says in a sad or upset voice, "I got a boogie Mommy (or Daddy), get it!"

And finally I know that my kid watches me like a hawk because when I want to swear what usually comes out is something like, "shibit" or "sheeba" and we were driving in the car once, and I can't even remember what made her say it but she says, "Aahh shibit." Jake looks at me and says, "I wonder who that came from." But on a better note it's funny to watch Abby say things to Tate that I say to him like "You're a truba maker (trouble maker) or "Tater bug."

We love our Abby, we wouldn't know how to make it through the day without the funny things she says and does!

Abby trying to stay warm with her blankie. Here she is ready for Mardi Gras!

Our Tater Bug

Our little Tate is turning 3 months this week, and I can't believe how big he is getting. At his 2 month appointment his stats were:

Weight: 14 lbs.--90% percentile
Length: 24 inches--85% percentile

He is already in 3-6 month clothes and is our chubby monkey! I have already moved the straps up in our car seat because he is getting longer, and our swing doesn't swing as fast because he's so big. The things that he is doing right now are:

--sleeping almost through the night! About 6-7 hours straight
--cooing and smiling alot
--kicking like crazy
--discovered his hands and likes to lift them in front of his face
--He loves to sleep on his belly (we know that's bad) so we try to make him sleep on his side but he doesn't like it as much.
--He hates to sleep on his back.
--He doesn't like his bouncy chair that vibrates, every time I turn it on he squirms and cries.
--Sleeps well in his car seat and travels really well, we have had a couple of road trips and rhino rides and he has done great.
--Drinking between 6 and 8 oz. each feeding, and he does not like it when you stop feeding him to burp...he cries and fusses until the bottle goes back into his mouth.
--He has had some health problems with blood in his stool, but we think it was the formula he was on and after switching him he is doing much better.

The best thing about Tate is his easy and happy temperament, and he is a total snuggle bug which Jake and I love! Abby was never much for snuggling, and when you hold Tate he snuggles right into you and would probably snuggle all day if we let him. My favorite thing is to have him sleep on my chest. I loved carrying him in my sling because he would cuddle with me while I went about doing tasks but now he is getting too big to carry him like that in my sling.
We just love our little Tater-bug! Everyone told me that I would love having a boy and they were right, he has been such a wonderful addition to our family and brings a neat spirit into our home! Here are some pics of our little man!

Our recent pics

This is what we have been up to in the last couple of months, I can't figure out how to put it in the body of our blog so just click on it and enjoy!