Christmas Cousins

April 20th, 2007, brought us Gemma Rose. July 13th of that same year, Hope Elizabeth was born. These were the first 2 grandchildren on the Allan side, and Declan's 4th and 6th cousin. (Isabella Rose, #5, from the Gill side was born in May of that year.) That Christmas, Larissa and Grace started a tradition that has grown in popularity and difficulty, but most definitely is most cherished among all the gifts Grandma and Grandpa get at Christmas: The Cousin Picture.

Here is year one, Gemma - 8 months, and Hope - 5 months.

As you perhaps noticed, both girls were pretty stationary at the time. You put them somewhere, they stayed. So taking the pictures at Sear's wasn't so bad! However, the next year....not so easy! Declan of course, being only 7 months, was super easy. But VERY mobile girls, with agendas of their own....yikes. This was the best shot we got of all three of them. Hope is probably reaching for goldfish, or Pablo (a Backyardigan doll).

Year 2, Gemma - 20 months, Hope - 17 months, Declan - 7 months

After that Sears session, we vowed to do something different the next year. Enter Mel. Stay with me for a moment while I go on a tangent about my wonderful friend Melissa.

This beautiful girl started out this past year (2009) in terrible, terrible back pain. Pain that had plagued her for years. Pain that kept her from working or going to school. But, did that keep her from pursuing her passions? Heck no! This TRUE artist did what she could to make a living, she painted, and she created BEAUTIFUL jewelry. She also discovered a love (and amazing talent) for photography! (Ahh, my tangent makes sense!) Thankfully she was able to have surgery early in the year, and has recovered VERY well! So well that she has gone back to school! And her photography business has grown, and continues to grow! I love seeing all her posts and watching her abilities blossom. This is going to be an amazing year for Mel, mostly because in August she will marry the man of her dreams, Branden, who shares her love for photography. I am so excited for their wedding, I can't wait to beautify her locks! :) And it's in Big Bear, so you know it's going to be GORGEOUS!! Ok, my tangent is growing....all this to say, my dear friend and her fiance helped us tremendously this year for our Cousin picture:

Year 3

What an amazing shot, huh?! All FIVE kids, looking in the same direction! Bear in mind, the mommies were jumping and singing and doing silly dances behind the photographers, but whatever, it worked! :)

Jack - 6 months

Ruby - 8 months

Declan - 19 months

Hope - 2 1/2

Gemma - 2 1/2

One final shot, a tiny little sample of what the other group shots resembled. :)

As you can tell, the number of babies have grown over the years, and of course there will be at least one more next year. Us mommies have decided the dad's will come help out next year, one parents to each child...that should help with the wrangling! :) Until next year, Merry Christmas from the Allan Grandkids!

A New Little Adventurer

Introducing Baby Gill #2

Due June 2010

Wish us luck!! :)

Vintage Declan Part 2

Round two: These were taken during Declan's 14th month...

Safety Locks

Dec gets taller by the minute! And smarter too! He has figured out our door handles, and though, of course, I love it when he joins me in the bathroom (snort), we thought it would be better if we could keep him out. As you can see, D was very interested in the process. :)

Don't Turn Around

Grandma was oh-so-generous to buy Declan some new clothes, and as soon as we got home, he couldn't WAIT to see them. I set them on the office chair and continued walking into the kitchen.

I must have been REALLY into the dishes I was washing because I turn around and see this:

It's like he's saying "What did I get?!?"

And then he ran from he scene

Double Fisting

Swimming with Daddy

The matching was not on purpose....I just got lucky! :)

This floatie thing was awesome, but we should have gotten it sooner. We probably only used it 4 times I think, and then we just started carrying D in the pool so he could learn to swim and dunk and such.

Dec LOVES to splash....and here Trev models our opinion on the matter.

Such a sweet moment....I almost didn't catch it!

Big Boy Car Seat

The Evil Vacuum

Declan REALLY does not like the vacuum. In fact he hides from it.

and gives me dirty looks for using it!

Vintage Declan Part 1

So here I am, catching up! I had so many little things to blog about, I thought I would mash it all up into a couple big blogs, rather than a ton of little blogs. All these pictures were taken between 10 and 11 months, which would be March.

Fun with GG Spice

Hamper Time!

Declan loves it when I pull him around in the hamper, or any laundry basket. This time I just let him chill....and he still had a pretty good time! :)

Fun Time with Great Grandpa Sugar

3 Generations

Big Duck Bath

D LOVES bath time! It's so cute to watch his little naked butt run to the bath. When he was littler, we had a blow up duck for him to sit in, something to help him transition from his baby bathtub to the big bath. See, look how happy he is!

Hmmm, yummy washcloth and soap water!

Uh...what's in that soap water??

No Blog November

I'm apparently not as good at this blogging thing as I'd like to be. Someday, there will be technology where I could just think of what I want the blog to say or how it would look, and BAM, it will be there. Unfortunately, I'll probably be long gone before then....so maybe my grandchildren will be better bloggers! :)

I do have SO MUCH stuff to post, pictures mostly, but stories and events too. I never even posted Easter pictures! :( I still plan on posting almost everything that I've been meaning to....oh yes, even Easter. But I'm just not feeling it right now. What my problem is is that I put to much effort into one post, with MILLIONS of pictures.....but that's me. I LOVE pictures, especially ones of my son. So, like I keep promising, I will post soon, a real post, with pics and everything. For now I will do a quick update.

Declan is 18 months, almost 19. At his appointment in Nov. he was 25lbs (50th percentile. FINALLY!), 33.25 inches tall. He can say some words clearly (Mama, Daddy, Papa, shoe) and a lot of words kinda clearly (water, truck, baby, more, bear, Cheerios, potty....and more, I can't think of them right now.) He can sign over 50 words, but probably only knows what half of them are. For example, he knows when he's signing "more" but I'm sure he doesn't know what "imagination" is. :) Sometimes I worry that he knows too much signing and will take awhile to talk, like when I ask him to "say" something, he'll sign it. But then I hear him babbling on in his little Declan-speak and I realize he's ok, he IS talking, so he will talk more....eventually.

My amazingly talented friend Mel took Dec's 18 month pictures! She blogged about the shoot, so you can check them out here. I'll "probably" post more when I get the full set. I can't believe how incredibly good looking Declan is. He's set a pretty high standard for any other kids we may have. Poor future child/children!

Today he bit me for the first time. It wasn't malicious or in anger of any kind, more like an experiment. We were cuddling, and he had his mouth open on my shoulder. All of a sudden I felt this sharp pain and I yelled out. (We were in a restaurant, so that wasn't cool.) I stopped him and took his face firmly in my hand and said "No biting!" very sternly. But then his face was so funny, he kept shifting his eyes back and forth, so I had to turn my head so I wouldn't laugh and give him ANY indication that biting was funny. Oi, I hope this doesn't start any new trend for him. I was told I should bite him back.....but I don't really think that will work for him....it wouldn't work for me.

So that's it for now. Like I always say, stay tuned for more.....but don't hold your breath. I don't want to be responsible for any light-headedness! :)