☺Another post by Ali☺

I have a blog now. ☺ To get there, you go to alisreader.blogspot.com. Or, click here. It doesn't have much on it, but that's because it's new. It's mostly for fun. Bye! ☺

-Ali ♥

Plenty of thing (written by Ali)

This is Ali. We were just on vacation at the Outer Banks and had to ride about 9 miles on a beach "road". Sorry I don't have any pics, but Mom had to ride in a helicopter to the hospital and my camera broke. There are a lot of things that we need to catch up on.
Rosie is a big girl now, but needs to learn some manners. She gets little "hyper moments" and tears around the hose and runs under the sofa and if we try to stop her she bites at us (real annoying).
I (Ali, remember!) am going to horse "Kamp" at Kemper Knoll Farm and the day after it is over I will be going to Highland Retreat (it's a summer camp). Nick is doing nothing really this summer.
I know there's gotta be a thousand more things I left out but that's all I can think of for now.

Don't forget this was by Ali! :-)

Are we having fun yet?

I don't know why this is underlining in blue but for some reason it is! Something one of the kids did to the computer I suppose. Anyway, these are a few photos that were taken just before Christmas by Greg's brother Dan. So, that brings us to December. Just a few more posts and I can be current with the "blog". The kids hung in there pretty well with having there pictures taken. I remember hating having this done when I was a kid, but there were 8 of us, and to get even one decent picture with all 8 took a long, long time!

Aunt Ali's knitting

The hat Ali knitted for Kathryn with her knitting rings for her first birthday (thank you Keary Ritchie for getting her started). It fit, but not for too long. Cristen will have to save this for the next little girl, which may be a while, since she is due to have a boy in Sept!

Quick glance at the leaves full of Crabtrees

You can see his tonsils!

The kids had a fun time playing out in the back yard with all the giant leaves this past fall. Nick loved it when Ali buried him under all the leaves.

Learning a new trick (back in Oct)

I had these photos from the same visit in Lexington with Cristen and Kathryn and had to put them on my blog cause they were so cute. Kathryn was almost 10 months old here, and I was sticking out my tongue and getting her to imitate me. She did a GREAT job!

Catching up

I am going to try to post a few pics from each month or so to get my blog caught up. These pics are from last fall (Oct 2007) . Grammy (me :-), Aunt Ali, and Uncle Nicholas met Cristen and Kathryn in Lexington on this beautiful afternoon on the grounds of Washington and Lee University. We had a nice time. Kathryn enjoyed watching and trying to catch bubbles, and Nicholas had a blast riding his scooter down the hill (yikes, be careful Nick!). Kathryn has changed so fast. She is now walking and her light brown hair has turned to blonde!

Eat your heart out, ladies!

I caught Nicholas sleeping on the sofa with his feet on the arm of the sofa which looked kind of cute, so I took several pictures, but the one that really got me was this one with the eyelashes! Eat your heart out girls! Well, at least we have mascara if we feel like messing with it, which I usually don't bother!

Rosie

In the post below this one, is Rosie's story and introduction. Here are a couple other photos of her. These are pictures of her when she is only just about 7 weeks old. She was a good sized little Boston Terrier, and immediately made our home her home. She adapted quite well to life with people vs life with puppies and a mommy dog. In fact, a week later, we went to her original "home" and put her in with her litter mates. I thought she was the loudest one yelping to get out of the puppy yard and get back with her new "people" family. Ali had hardly put her down that whole first week, so I guess that was why!

New Member to our family

We have a new little member to our family. Her name is "Rosie". She is spunky, playful, full of kisses, cuddly, and willing to sleep with any member of the family, and she just dies to jump in Greg's lap and try to slurp him with kisses, as if she knows she is here by grace and wants to win over his affections. (He's not yet admitted it, but he already likes her a lot) He thinks she is smart and cute. Weather or not HE thinks she is worth the trouble, well, eventually I think we will get there. But the main reason Rosie joined our family is to be a companion to Ali, who is part of a long line of animal lovers in the family. Both her grandmother and grandfather on Carol's side of the family, along with all those Aunts and Uncles, and I do believe even Great Grandparents, are animal lovers, especially dogs. She is being a wonderful and responsible pet owner, looking out for Rosie's well being, and not willing to take chances with her health, such as taking her places where you shouldn't take "unvaccinated dogs" (Ali's words). When she was a young puppy she stayed home from several shopping trips to care for the puppy, and looked like a worn out Mommy with a new baby when I got home, but she is devoted. Ali puts the puppy bed in her bed, and gets to cuddle her for a couple of hours until I take Rosie out for her last potty break before bed. Then she sleeps in a crate in Ali's room. (I must confess, tho it was a labor of love for Ali, I have fallen in love with our sweet little puppy too.) She has brought a sense of normalcy and joy to our household which as most of you know we have been struggling with pain and difficulty for the last 4 years. She loves people, and wants to kiss everyone right in the face, which us doggy lovers love, but....we are teaching her sit and down, which she already knows now at 11 weeks, and Ali has taught her shake hands all by herself. Well, this is the first post in many months. I need to get active on here, because it is fun, and I have a beautiful family with a beautiful granddaughter and now a puppy and another grandchild on the way!!!!!!!

This is my son and also one of the best friends I've ever had. He's always treated me with loyalty and respect, and I love spending time with him. Right now, between JMU and his job at Walmart, I don't see him nearly enough, but David if you are reading this, know you have been prayed for. I love you. Mom

Bedtime- and a cute story

When Kathryn goes to sleep, she hugs this soft sweet little bear or one nearly like it up close to her (it's sooo cute). I could NEVER get Nicholas to attach to anything...except these little blue bibs that attached to his pacifiers and kept him from throwing them. When he was 9 months old, and still had not once taken a real nap, or slept through the night, I finally came upon those bibs. They were my ticket to sleep and sanity, as he would eventually stop crying and was unable to throw his passy, so would put it back in his mouth and go back to sleep. They snapped on in the back, and had an elephant on the front, (some of you will remember them well) and the elephant's trunk went thru the passy and kept it from falling off. Well, he got used to the tags on the bibs, and so became attached to the passy AND the bib with the tag, as he would put his finger through the tag and rub the tag between his fingers. I had a stash of the bibs, which I found only at Toys R Us, but eventually they no longer carried them. I had to wash the bibs daily, because Nicholas would slobber as he sucked his passy, and after about 24 hours or so, they would get pretty nasty. Well, my stash, dwindled down, eventually to maybe about 3 or so, as the bibs wore out, broke, and some of the tags tore off. He didn't want to wear one if it had a broken tag....then it was defective. And other similar bibs I found weren't good enough, because they didn't have looped tags! I actually remember putting two bibs on at once. One that still would hold the passy, but had no "tag to rub" and another that was broken and wouldn't hold the passy, but still had a tag. I began trying to get him started on a "lovie" knowing the bib days were drawing to an end, bought him some small blankies with tags, etc., but nothing else ever was good enough. Eventually, at the age of 3 or so, he declared he was going to throw away his bibs and passy. The first night, I remember he cried and said, "but I don't want to suck my finger" and I told him he didn't have to suck anything. And I tried giving him all kinds of things with tags, but it was a package deal. No passy, no tags. And he never became attached to any other stuffed animal to sleep with. (except, he would occasionally, as he got a bit older, and still does now and then, search under my pillow, grab MY nightgown, and hold it, cuddle it and fall asleep with it) Once, while I was in MD, visiting my father in the hospital this summer, he was at my friend Barb's house, and he took my nightgown, which I had been wearing all week, and had clutched it to himself. Then, (oh how embarrassing) had everyone smell my nightgown because it smelled so good! (He told them it smelled like cherry sno cones-{because he often saw me eating my sugar free crushed ice at night before bed.} So, my son, hugs my nightgown, but my granddaughter, she hugs her cute little lovey, teddy bear.

Beach Baby

Cute snapshot of our granddaughter Kathryn at the beach. Isn't she adorable?

Kathryn at Merriweather Hills Pool

Why of course I am......................
CUUUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Timeless

When I started this blog, I decided it was going to be a happy, positive place, where I could share good things, pictures, etc. But, I must say here, after over 3 years of watching my husbands continued and progressive suffering with bone pain and as of yet no diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment, and then this summer, my father, suffer from a brain hemorrhage after being put on coumadin, and then 3 months of valiant suffering, ups and downs, but NEVER a complaint, which was such a message from God right there, and then his death on September 21st, I can hold this sweet little baby, and know somehow, life will go on, God is still with me, and there is beauty to behold, now and in the future.