The Alford Family Picture...

This Thanksgiving the Alford Family organized our first official extended family picture. I was so excited to go through my pictures in my camera, when I came home to see how great the pictures turned out and the craziest thing happened....these pictures of Edna and Re started off the group. I have no idea who took these pictures but since Edna and Re were so generous to include them for me...I certainly wanted to share them with all of you :) Here are the professional pictures from our family photo session this weekend.



Grandma Edna....

Aunt ReAnna....

Aida and Grandpa...Aida really did not want to take any pictures this weekend. So just about every picture had the sippy cup or goldfish in them.

Working hard to get Aida to smile for the camera...this must be what it is like for professional baby models behind the scenes....

The fruits of our labor....The Alford Family 2008!

Meeting Santa....

Needless to say from our pictures, we did NOT enjoy meeting Santa. Santa was very sweet to Aida. He even offered her a coloring book and some comforting words to me since he knew I was totally sad that she didn't smile for the picture. According to Santa, babies between 15 and 31 months do not like him very much and often cry. The trick is to not let the baby see Santa and to quickly place the baby on Santa's lap and snap the picture before they notice mom is missing. As you can tell from the pictures, we did NOT do this....

Oh well Aida....we will try again next year. We love you :)

Thanksgiving 2008!

This Thanksgiving there was so much to be thankful for. We have a beautiful daughter, a great family and great friends. Aida enjoyed herself too and had so much fun visiting with everyone. The first part of the weekend was spent with our Uncle Michael. He came in from Pennsylvania to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Aida had so much fun climbing all over him, and playing for 2 days. Here are some pictures of their fun times this past weekend.

Thanksgiving Day 2008, Me, Aida and My Brother Michael...

Aida had so much fun making herself and Uncle Michael laugh. Here she is being funny!

More giggles with Uncle Michael...

This is a chair that was given to me by my Grandma when I was little. Now Aida sits in it at her Grandma's house and she is as tall as the chair. This outfit was also given to her by her cousin Renee when she was just 3 months old. Aida loves it so much she can put the tutu on herself!

A cute picture in front of the Christmas Tree....

A smiling picture of Aida....Yeah!

The Alford Family....

A Geat Diaper Deal....

Sorry...no picture to go with this one. I just saved what I think is a significant amount of money and thought that I would share it with all of you. There are a gazillion websites out there for couponing and I am sure that most of you are already aware. And frankly some of them take way to long to navigate through and require much higher level thinking than a mom with a 17 month old can provide on a lunch break at work. I have a deal for you that requires ZERO coupon clipping. Did you hear me??? ZERO Coupon Clipping for a great deal.

At CVS....you get $15 extra care bucks for every $20 in Duracell Batteries that you buy. Since Christmas is right around the corner and just about every kids toy requires batteries, I needed to stock up.

So, I go to check out at the register with my batteries and the clerk says I have (2) $5.00 off coupons for your batteries today. So I bought $30 worth of batteries for $20.00 (applying the $10.00 in coupons from the clerk) and received $15.00 in Extra Care Bucks upon check out.

Here is the Diaper part....

The CVS brand of Diapers was on sale "buy 1 get 1 50% off." Sooooo....I bought 3 packages of 40 diapers each and one package of "training pants" for Aida. After the sale I was able to apply my $15.00 in savings plus another $2.00 in Extra Care bucks I received from buying Children's Advil, and there you have it. I bought $38.96 worth of diapers before tax for $12.46 or 68% off.

To top it all off...CVS is running a promotion right now where they will email you a coupon for $4.00 in ECB if you fill out your email address. So, I now have an additional $4.00 in store credit coming.

So killing two birds with one stone....batteries and Diapers, all at CVS, no coupon clipping required.

This made me so excited I wanted to share with all of you. Now go stock up and save lots of money.

Halloween 2008!

This year was Aida's first time to really experience Halloween. Last year we dressed her up like a pumpkin but she was 6 months old and too little to enjoy it. This year was so much fun. Every time Aida took a bite of her candy with the wrappers on of course she would say "mmmm." You could just tell she totally enjoyed it. Grandma and Pops Alford came to visit and had so much fun with Aida. They took her from house to house for trick or treating. Aida really enjoyed visiting both our neighbors houses, every time kids would head up to the front door she would run over and head up too. I think she visited our neighbors 3 or 4 times that night. She really enjoyed just being in her costume (thank you Andrea!) and being the cutest lady bug in the neighborhood.

All dressed up in my lady bug costume...

Holding on to Pops and the pumpkin purse....

All ready to go....

Heading off to our first house...

Trick or Treat...

Aida and Kiana Rose with Grandma and Pops Alford...


Working in her garden...


Sharing Candy with Grandma...

Enjoying all of our yummy Halloween candy!

The Pumpkin Patch

Here are some pictures of Aida enjoying our visit to the Big Orange Pumpkin Patch in Richardson. We had so much fun. We climbed all over the pumpkins, we fed the animals, we went on a Hayride and had a picnic. Thank you to Aunt Noreen for the beautiful green fall outfit Aida is wearing. It was perfect for our Pumpkin patch outing. Aida had the most fun running around the farm and observing all the "bigger kids." She was precious although not interested at all in sitting sitting still for her pictures. Enjoy all of our "action" shots.

On the way to the Pumpkin Patch in our car seat. Look at all of my new teeth!

Feeding the goats and lambs. Aida laughed every time one of those stinky animals licked the food from her hand. She thought that was hysterical.

Climbing on the haystack. Never any fear.

Alex and I also took Aida to the Dallas Arboretum's Pumpkin Display the next day. Here she is in true Halloween style in her Halloween tutu. We all had a great time. Aida smelled the flowers, she climbed all over the pumpkins, and she visited the pumpkin house.

Running free in the pretty green grass.


Determined to pick up the pumpkin that weighs more than she does.

Our sweet baby...

My favorite picture, I love her smile.

I've Been Tagged

This game is cute...thanks Jody for Tagging us...

Tag Game Rules:

• Go to you pictures folder
• open your sixth folder
• find your sixth picture in the folder
• Share the story of that picture on your blog
• tag new friends...

This is my 6th picture in my 6th folder. A picture of Aida Sophia on her Christening day. Yes, this Catholic Girl waited until Aida was 7 months old before we Christened her. I know, a sacrilege to all of the devout catholics in our family. We waited a long time, time sort of escaped me for the first 6 months of her life and it took me that long to get my act together. There should be a patron saint for new mommies because most of us need one. Maybe if I had had one, I would of been able to get the christening done sooner :) Aida was christened at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in McKinney. She was surrounded by people who loved her. As the deacon read the prayers from the bible, Aida was so engaged in the service that she put her hand on the bible and curiously followed along. Even with the green Binky she looked like an angel. That was such a great day and we are so grateful to have had shared it with our family and friends. Time goes by too fast.... just thinking about it makes me tear up. Now before I make a mess of myself, I tag, Kate, Gwen and Sara White....

Having Her Cake and Eating it Too....

Sunday, Aida Sophia and I went to a Tea Party at Celebrity Bakery to benefit Kids Kids, a charity that support terminally ill children and their families. Alex and I are so blessed to have Aida this is was our way of showing how grateful we are for a healthy child. Here are some fun pictures and a totally amature video from our experience. Aida dressed up in her custom couture tutu! She looked adorable. Please notice her sitting in the "big girl" chair and eating off of a real china plate (this made Mommy very nervous) and eating with her "big girl" fork. I am going to claim my proud mommy moment here and tell y'all that I think it was very big deal to do this at 17 months old. You will see in the video, how well she does, until the end when we begin to fall out of the chair. Enjoy! In the big girl Chair eating our chocolate cake!
Putting on our princess crown.
Posing for a picture with Grandma Nancy! What a great smile!
We met up with our friends Sonya and Baby Abigale. What a cute picture of the girls!

Here is my video. It won't win any awards but it will show you how much Aida is loving her cake!

Loving Chocolate Milk....

Aida loves chocolate milk. This weekend we went out to dinner and Aida had her first big girl glass of chocolate milk. She loved it. I dont think she came up for air!
A serious milk drinker.

Learning to Give Back....

Grandma Edna and Pops work hard every year volunteering and raising money for a charity in their hometown called "Friends of Bubba." We think it's important to instill the value of giving back as early as possible in Aida. So we brought her to experience her first Charity Golf Tournament. Pops chaired the golf tournament and Grandma Edna did the auction. Aida hung out with her Aunts and Uncles and loved every minute of it. We have been blessed as a family by charity work and will continue to work with the gifts we have been given to help others. "To whom much is given, much is expected."
Look at the wind blowing in her hair....She loved riding in the golf cart with Uncle Drew.
Looking cute working the live auction with my godmother and aunt ReAnna. Here Aida is helping her auction off a gun...that's a Texas man thing I think...
Uncle Ryan helping Aida sit in her chair. This chair was Grandma Edna's when she was a little girl and now it is just Aida's size. Aida still doesn't sit still for more than 30 seconds...thanks for trying Uncle Ryan...

A Visit to BCS....

This weekend we had so much fun visiting our family in Bryan/College Station. Aida Sophia is so blessed to know her Great Grandma Carolyn or (GG) as we call her. Great Grandmas are a special blessing that only the luckiest little girls get to know. Aida and GG have so much fun together. Aida Sophia worked hard mastering the art of sharing and she shared all kinds of things with her GG....her paci, her crackers, her bottle, she made sure GG experienced all kinds of baby love. Aida Sophia with Great Grandma Carolyn and cousins Emma and Tyler....Special props to Grandma for helping me sit on the edge of the chair like a big girl. I love you!

Eating Pizza with Tyler. Aida loves the Pizza crust.

A family picture with mommy and daddy....

Mastering The Stairs...

After many months, she has finally done it. Aida Sophia has mastered the stairs. This has come after several thousand trips up and down the stairs and many tireless hours of practice and training. We had a cold this weekend so not many smiles in these pictures but you can see Aida's stair climbing technique and I must say...it's flawless... Taking off, and not looking back.
Checking in with Mommy, before I go for the top of the stairs.
Reaching the pinnacle!