BJM’s Photos

Ally decided to try on her daddy’s boot yesterday. She likes to help us out and ‘tie’ our shoes occassionally. She pulls the laces out straight, scrunches them up in her hands, then kind of smooshes them on the top of the shoe. That’s how it’s done, right?? 🙂

The weather has been phenomenal lately and we’ve been taking lots of walks in the evenings. Last week we walked to the small park in our neighborhood. Ally slid down the slide a few times but had more fun playing in the smooth pebbles 🙂

Ally, put down those rocks.		You mean THESE rocks??		Wheeeeee!!!

We went over to our friends house tonight (Frank & Amber’s) which is only the equivalent of about 4 houses away. Ally pushed her baby in her little stroller the whole way. We got everyone in the house and Ally pushed her little stroller in a little bit and let out a big *sigh* like she was thinking “Goodness! This mommy stuff is hard!” 🙂 She looked pretty darn cute pushing her baby down the sidewalk!

Today was absolutely gorgeous! Ally was just dying to go outside after dinner. She took turns riding in the stroller and exploring on her own.

After our walk we went into the back yard and played on her little swing and slide. She can climb up all by herself this year and fearlessly slides back down! It’s so good to see her progress in just a year- I can’t believe that she’ll be 2 in only two months!

We’ve had a mallard duck couple in our neighborhood for quite a few years (same couple we assume) and Ally loves to look out for them every time we come outside. We met up with them one street over during our walk and she was thrilled when they came to visit us when we were playing in the back yard! Here is a shot of her chasing them down!

Nicholas spent his spring break in Cleveland with my sister, Anne. He had a great time helping Anne teach her class at Cleveland State University (he says that he was her ‘guinea pig’), cooking dinner and dessert all by himself, (photos of that to come later) going shopping, out to eat, to the market . . . They went to the theater and saw a production of ‘The Color Purple’ which Nicholas LOVED. Here he is all ready for a night out. . . Quite a handsome young man!

**Update**
Here are some more pictures from Nicholas’ trip to Cleveland. He planned an entire meal, purchased everything at the West-side Market, (even bargained with some vendors) and cooked the whole meal including dessert! A home-made apple pie! He called his grandma McKean for her recipe and added his own special touch by cutting a ‘Pi’ symbol in the top to be ‘punny’. . .hey. .he is 12 🙂 The table looked beautiful and the meal was reportedly delicious!

Here are some recent pictures of Ally . . .one with one of her favorite Christmas presents and one with her friend Jack. The car is made for one but they both decided to smoosh into it together. Luckily they’re both small 🙂 So who got shotgun? LOL!

Ally had fun with her first real Easter Egg hunt this year. She got the hang of it pretty quick and had all 12 of her eggs gathered within about 10 minutes. We went inside and she got to find out what the Easter Bunny put IN the eggs. Ally discovered M&M’s and decided that they are AWESOME!

Ally watched the rest of us work on puzzles all weekend and decided that she should give it a try. We stood her on a chair and she really acted like she knew what she was doing 🙂 We’re not so sure that she ‘helped’ her grandma out very much but she had a good time.