Oh the joys...

The days of summer are coming to a close. I have one week left until I have to start work again (and I am not looking forward to it!). We've been trying to cram in as much family time as possible, but there just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day. Alley has been on the move constantly since she realized she could pull herself up in a standing position. I don't think there is an object in the house she hasn't pulled up on (or tried to!). After she pulls up, she gets so excited that she's standing, that she let's go to "celebrate"...which ends in her falling. Silly thing:) One of her other favorite things is to grab hold of you and then flip her head back...like this -
Here is Alley's very excited face after we gave her cut up bananas for the first time - She absolutely loved them!! I have never given her real food before (besides the melt in your mouth Gerber foods), so I was a little nervous she'd choke...but this girl is a pro at eating and loved it:)
Here she is showing off her crawling moves - too cute:)

The happenings

Here are a few pictures from this week...


We have so much fun during nap time...ugh! I find her like this a lot - what a short nap time it is now!
Alley crawling under a toy...look how much fun she's having and she's not even using it the way it's suppose to be used:) Easily amused child!
...not much has been going on here. Andy is finishing up his last camp for the summer today - woo-hoo!! - and Alley and I are just cruising through each day doing nothing yet everything at the same time:)
Our counter-tops were installed on Tuesday and they look AWESOME!! I am now so excited to finish up this project and get to enjoy the final product! Yeah! I must say that I am totally over the remodeling bug, but Andy has done a fabulous job making the cabinets and pretty much doing the entire kitchen remodel himself in between all the camps. We're in the process of buying the dishwasher and garbage disposal and waiting for the plumber/electrician to be able to get out here...apparently everyone has a need for a plumber right now! Anyway, I can see the end in sight!!
There has been a little sadness to this week as well...our good friends and Andy's co-worker, the Smiths, are packing up this week and moving for good on Saturday:( We've had a couple "good-bye" gatherings for them and they have been tough! Cortney has been a great friend to me and I am going to miss having someone to talk to and hang out with. We have had many days of being together and supporting each other while our husbands have been at practice and games! We wish them the best of luck at Bubba's new job but are going to miss them greatly!

Weekend fun

Some exciting news...Alley finally (whew!!) cut her first tooth! It popped completely through today...yeah! Now we're still working on the one right next to it, which is still right under the skin...if only I could get it through, life would be much calmer and quieter;)
On top of a new tooth, we had a busy weekend. We traveled to Richmond for the day to go to a friends wedding. This was Alley's first wedding and she was so excited about it that she refused to nap all day! Woo-hoo! Actually, she did amazingly well for having gotten almost no sleep. We drove to Richmond in the morning and spent some time at Mimi and Papa's house. The wedding was in the middle of the afternoon (and was beautiful!) at St. Matt's where Andy and I got married. We hadn't been back to a wedding there since our own which was over 3 years ago! Afterwards we drove out to Hanover to the reception(of course, Alley finally fell asleep...in the car!ugh!)...honestly, I was really worried about Alley being at the reception and totally overwhelmed with all the people and having a meltdown...she did wonderfully! Papa and Mimi whisked her away and she just adored being with them and getting to check out everything. Thanks Mimi and Papa!!! It turned out to be a delightful day:)
Then today we all got together again, but this time in Farmville. John was asked to sing at Granny's church this morning so we all went to show our support. He did a fabulous job and really touched some people with his singing. Afterwards, we all went back to Granny's house for a good ol' southern Sunday meal...fried chicken!
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
The McPherson family after the wedding ceremonyUncle John taking Alley for a swing on the dance floorAlley trying to go after the camera...Uncle John showing Alley how to play the piano...I really think she's getting a hang of it;)

Busy body

So Alley's new favorite thing is to "walk"...we are entering dangerous territory here and I don't think I'm ready for it at all!! She absolutely loves it when you let her stand up and walk around while holding on to you. She has gotten really good about putting one foot in front of the other. Apparently she thinks crawling is no fun and would rather be standing up and moving...watch out!

She's a piece of work...She is still doing her army crawl, which she's gotten super fast at and is now into EVERYTHING! I can't take my eyes off her for a second...gone are the days were she would lay where I put her and play with one toy...now she's investigating every single corner, trying to find every piece of dust, dirt or dog fur that my vacuum left behind and put into her mouth...oh the days...:)
She is beginning to eat some types of solid food now (the Gerber melt-in-your-mouth stuff). She absolutely loves the treats and starts squealing every time I bring them out. It's hilarious:) Other then that, she has her two front teeth coming in but they are taking their sweet time...which makes for a few more meltdowns...this too shall pass (and we'll move on to other things that cause meltdowns, yeah!)!
Here is a random photo of her from last week...her last week as a 7 month old...she's getting so big;)...

New car seat

We finally got Alley a new car seat. Poor thing has been crammed in her infant seat carrier for a lot longer than she should have been! Bad parents!:) This weekend we went to Richmond and finally found one that we liked and thought she would still fit into when she's older...She fell asleep during her first ride in it and the poor thing isn't use to having so much space in her seat. As a result, here is a photo of her first "car nap"....ouch, that can't feel good!Here she is getting buried in her toy box (her favorite thing to do!)

Water Bug

Alley is officially a water bug. She absolutely loved the ocean! The moment we put her in the ocean she splashed around and squealed with delight whenever a wave hit her. It was hilarious! I am so relieved she likes water:) She also had a ball at the pool. We had her in a little tube so she could float on her own and she loved it...that's my girl! Here's a video of her at the pool:

This week at the beach definitely had a lot of first for the McPherson/Alley/Noel clan. It was the first time we had three little ones there...first time I didn't walk on the beach at all...first time I spent only 3 hours a day at the beach...first time Alley had a tooth break through (it's still trying to surface completely!)...and the first time I went to bed "early" each night. The last three nights and days were very rough on Alley and on us. She had a low grade fever for 2 days due to her teething but then on Friday night had a temp of 101.9...which got me real nervous! We believe she is getting another ear infection because all the signs are pointing to it...but we'll find out this Monday when I get a doctor's app't. All in all we had a great time! Here are some pictures of the week:

Enjoying the morning at the pool:)
Here's my little water bug!
The family hanging out in the ocean
The "cousin twins" enjoying the water together
Alley in her "crawl" position - getting ready (she army crawls really fast now and is pulling herself up into a standing position on her own...I think we could possibly skip the whole crawling thing...)My two absolute favorite people enjoying the ocean
Just a family photo of all of us at the waterHere is my older brother's family (Will, Jessica, Carlee Scott - 2 1/2 years, and Owen - 6 months) and us right before we all went out to dinner.Happy 4th of July!