Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time with family today. We traveled to Richmond to spend TG with my family - it was great getting to catch up with my cousins and aunt and uncle! Alley did a fabulous job and even took an extra long afternoon nap! YEAH!! On another note, my camera flipped out on me and wouldn't work at all today! Go figure:( So mom was gracious enough to send me some of her pictures. Here's our day!Andy and mini-Andy playing

Alley in her cute TG dress trying to get food on the table...sneaky sneaky...

The family

The extended family!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Baby dolls...

Alley got her very first baby doll today from Geemaw (actually two)! She was very intrigued by them and tasted every inch of each doll. I guess they passed the taste test;)

holding one by her binky and the other by her hair bow...not such a great mommy yet;)

checking out the dolls binky

trying out the dolls binky - which one is better?!

putting the dolls to bed on Geemaw

Going night-night on daddy

Geemaw is here!

Andy's mom and Jim arrived today from Arkansas! They haven't seen Alley since she was 4 months old, so we were so excited for this visit:) Alley has hit a stage where she is freaked out by anyone new or anyone she doesn't interact with frequently, so Sally had to take it slow...Here is the progression which took the entire afternoon! :)

Who's that?!

Getting closer...

a tad closer...but playing shy in daddy's lap...

Oh! She's got food!! My new best friend:)

Totally friends now:)

Uh-oh

This is Alley's favorite past time...poor cat!

Birthday Girl

Today was Alley's first Sunday as a 1 year old...and to celebrate that, Alley wore a smocked dress that her cousin (Carlee Scott) wore on her first birthday! Doesn't she look cute:) Thanks for sharing Texas Alley's!! Football season is officially over for Andy - it brings sadness because the season ended on a bad game, but happiness because we have moved on to an indoor sport (basketball)! No more heavy jackets and rainy games:) We are looking forward to a week of family time before Andy officially takes over his next sport...yeah for having him home;) We are also excited because Andy's mom is coming to visit this next weekend! We can't wait to see Gema:)

Alley is 1!!

Last night we celebrated Alley's First Birthday! We had a low-key celebration with family and a few friends. We ordered pizza and had a very cute Rubber Ducky cake:) We had a little bit of a struggle with our very independent (yet clingy) 1 year old though. I guess it's not really the best idea to have a party so close to bedtime;) Anyway, we had lots of fun and enjoy having our family and friends there. Here are some pictures:

Alley showing off her new ride-on toy...she loved all the noisy buttons:)

Mimi and Alley trying out the new bean bag chair...sooo comfortable:)The adorable ducky cake I made! :)
She looks so excited about the cake, doesn't she....

Ok, not so excited anymore! Maybe it has something to do with the fact we are trying to get her to eat the head of the duck...yikes! She refused to eat the cake!

Are these for me??!!

oooo...what's that?!

A ducky, my favorite!

On another note...this morning I took Alley to her 12 month appointment and we got some interesting news...she has a chronic ear infection and has to go see an ENT (I was worried about that!) so she's now on medicine, again. This poor child thinks medicine is a normal part of her every day diet! On top of that, the doctor said she was a little concerned about the fact that Alley's upper lip covered her whole upper gum, so they are sending Alley to the ENT for that as well...goodness gracious! Happy Birthday!!;) The goodness is that she's growing wonderfully and is in about the 80th percentile in height and weight...yeah! So all is beginning to get better here in the McPherson household:)
I'll keep you all updated about the ENT appointment...

A weekend with the family...

This weekend Alley and I went to Mimi and Papa's house. The Texas Alley's were coming in and we couldn't miss on occasion to hang out! Andy wasn't able to show up until early Sunday morning. He came all the way in from Alabama (through the night) and then drove straight to Richmond to be there in time for church. Will (my older brother) was preaching at my dad's church in honor for Veteran's day. Will is an army chaplain who is being deployed to Iraq the week before Christmas. This would be the last time we'd get to see him before he left, so we made it a point to be there! We had a great time with the family and were so grateful that we got to be there for such a special occasion. Here are some pictures:

Alley and Owen playing "together"

The birthday girl wearing the birthday glasses (what a fun tradition!)

ok, the book is called Pat the Bunny, not Pat Owen! She seemed to really enjoy patting Owen:)

A family shot (man was it a struggle!!)

Here she is laughing at Uncle John and Papa...I thought it looked funny - check out her two teeth!