Another little video

I really like to take little videos of Alma throughout the day, but once I put them online they seem to get really gray and dark. The picture might not be very clear, but you can still get the general idea.

Dan, Dan, the Environmentally Conscious Man!

My older sister gets a big kick out of our eco-friendly pursuits, so I thought she might enjoy this picture of Dan mowing the front lawn with his push mower. This one's for you, Mandie! Dan loves his push mower, and so do I, although for different reasons. I mostly love it because it is really quiet. Dan can mow our entire lawn, front and back, in about 30 minutes with it. It also makes the lawn look much greener - something about surface area blah blah blah. Dan explained it to me once, but I really had no idea what he was talking about. He doesn't really look like this while mowing, actually he usually runs while he mows, so it doesn't slow him down at all.

Random Alma

Since Alma tends to be cute all the time, I frequently snap pictures of her for no reason at all. Here are a few of my most recent pictures of Alma doing cute things. After Alma and I got home from our walk I unfastened her seat belt and left her asleep in her car seat while I put all of my errand stuff away. This is how I found her when I came back. She looked perfectly content sleeping this way, and actually got very upset with me when I put her back in the proper position when we had to leave for the store again. Dan took this picture the other night before bed. I really like it because Alma is giving me a little smile. She giggled for the first time last week, and then again the other night. We can't wait until she giggles all the time!

This is one of Alma's favorite floor blankets. When I lay her down on it she wiggles like crazy and tries so hard to roll over - that silly arm just keeps getting in her way. Alma saw her physical therapist this morning, and Kathy had nothing but great things to say! Alma's hip alignment has improved tremendously over the past few weeks, and according to Kathy, Alma is about two weeks ahead of the curve on motion! Her movements are still very random, but that is perfectly normal. She is moving so much that when you lay her down she will completely change directions within a matter of minutes. We are both so excited that her casts don't seem to be slowing her down at all! I love this picture because she has a very devious look on her face, like, yeah that's right, I am gonna roll over and nobody can tell me not to!

Also note the upturned collar! It seems that Dan cannot manage to make his own collars look proper, and he cannot do it on Alma either. Like father like daughter I guess.

Daddy Time

Since Dan has the misfortune of having to work full time he doesn't get to spend nearlyl as much time with Alma as I do. So we have set aside some time every night just for Daddy. Every night Dan and Alma have a bed time ritual, in which Dan changes Alma into her jammies and reads her a story on the floor of her bedroom, then he rocks Alma for a while and puts her to bed. (I think it is a bit unfair that Daddy time also happens to be the time of day that Alma is quietest:)
This is what Alma looks like every night right before bed - totally zonked out with her mouth hanging open. It's so sweet.

This picture was actually taken in the morning when all three of us were hanging out together in bed. She is so much fun in the mornings, once you feed her she is just happy to roll and around and coo.

Sometimes Dan likes to play a video game or two on the computer before we go to bed. He likes it when Alma joins him, and I am pretty sure he is trying to indoctrinate her into a video game fiend before she learns to walk.

The other night I walked into Alma's room to see this! How much fun, I had to sneak away and get the camera. Alma looked so happy sleeping on her Daddy. Dan usually looks happy to be sleeping, but here he looks extra happy. Alma really likes naked time, so this was probably an extra special treat for her.

Laundry with Mom Makes Alma Cry!

Alma was hanging out with me in the bedroom the other day while I folded laundry and I couldn't resist taking some pictues! Alma is trying really hard to hold her head up, and enjoys sitting propped up so that she can observe what is going on around her. When she started getting sick of me doing laundry and not paying attention to her, I had to take a video so that her Dad would believe me that she actually cries during the day. She never fusses or cries in the evenings when he is home, so he doesn't think she is ever like this! Too bad, because even when she cries she is really cute.

In the Garden

This summer my mom was here for a while before Alma was born and we spent a lot of time on the yard, especially this one flower bed in the front yard. You should have seen it before, the only thing in it was the rose bush. I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of all the new flowers we planted and show them off. (Mostly so my Mom knows we didn't kill them all after Alma was born and we stopped taking such good care of the lawn!)

Alma's Swing

Alma loves her swing more than anything. Most of the time she will fall right to sleep when you put her in, unless of course she suspects that you are trying to take a nap.

Warning: Watching this video WILL make you dizzy!

Hippy Baby

I can't imagine why, but several of our friends/family gave us baby gifts that were tye-dye themed! You all may be wondering, where on earth does one find a pair of tye dye baby socks? Well look no further, because Moscow actually has a store called Tye-Dye Everything and when they say everything, they mean everything. You could even buy tye-dye underwear if you wanted to. We love our tye dye onesie because it's not only organic, it's really adorable!

Dan's New Pick-Up

This weekend Dan finally went out and bought the new pick up he has been talking about for as long as I have known him - a Chevy Colorado. I thought he wanted an orange one, but it turns out that silver is just as good! Note the tiny yellow house across the street. My Dad actually lived there when he was in college.

Cute Overload

Sunday night Dan and I busted out the camera and started snapping pictures of Alma, and we just couldn't stop. She was being so adorable stripped down and cuddled up in her blankies. I decided to post a bunch of them so that everybody else could experience the cute overload that is known as Alma. Dan told me the other day that he thinks people should pay us for reproducing because we make the most beautiful babies around. Feel free to leave lots of comments telling us how cute she is . . . we never tire of the compliments!

A Family Self Portrait. It's not always easy to take a picture of yourself with your arm!

She was having a fussy moment!

She makes the sweetest sounds when she is sleeping!

Great Grandparents

Last weekend we thought Alma would enjoy a trip to Deary to visit her great grandma Pat and grandpa Fred Funke. It only took us an hour to get her loaded up and ready to go but we made it in one piece. Grandma and Grandpa were realy excited to see Alma - they have only seen her once since she was born so she has grown quite a bit since then. This side of Dan's family is lots of fun, his Dad was the oldest of six and they all had 3 kids so Dan has 15 cousins. As of right now Pat and Fred have 5 great grandkids including Alma and there are two more on the way. One of those will be Alma's first cousin - Dan's older brother Mike and his wife Heidi are expecting in January. We are very excited for them! Once they have their baby Alma will have a total of 5 cousins, since both of my sisters have two kids. Cousins are lots of fun, so the more the merrier!

Fourth of July!

This year we were especially excited about the fourth of July because it was Alma's very first holiday! At the same time we weren't really feeling up for anything big. So, we decided to invite our good friends the Jarolimek's over for a barbecue. Brian and Gretta have a new baby, Neil, who is exactly two weeks older than Alma, and a 3 year old boy Harper. We were also joined by our friend Nate who just graduated from nursing school. Everybody came over in the afternoon and we had a delicious barbecue of polish dogs and sauerkraut, with some dutch oven beans, carrots, and potatos. I also made my mom's recipe for eclair cake which was delicious! We dressed Alma up in a cute red outfit, but then she threw up all over it, so we put her in a fun blue one. I love this picture of her because her hair is so red! It is still changing colors, but I am becoming more and more convinced that she is going to be a ginger kid.

Alma was awfully pooped after such a long day of playing with Harper and Neil!

Alma had a really nice time cuddling with everybody! She can't have too many compliments! This is a picture of Alma and Nate.

Going to the Doctor

Every Wednesday Alma has a doctors appointment at Shriners in Spokane. (Post on this coming soon) It's a really big event around here, because going to Spokane takes an entire day, and when you have a baby that is quite an undertaking! Dan has changed his work schedule so that he works ten hours a day four times a week and has every Wed. off so that we can all go together. It is really great that his office allows him to do this! Last week was our second trip, and we got Alma all dressed up before we left so we decided we had to take pictures. I wanted to post them because in both pictures she looks like she is smiling! She really is the cutest baby.