A Girl and Her Dog

When we brought Alina home, we didn't know how the dogs would react. We knew Major always loved everyone, but Macy was a bit skiddish so we didn't know what would happen. They have really surprised us. Major doesn't care too much about her, to him, she's just there. I think he will love her more when she is older and can play more. For now, he just walks by her once in a while and licks her toes. Macy however, absolutely loves Alina! She seems to want to take care of her by always laying next to her and letting Alina do whatever she wants (pull on her ears, poke her eye, tug on her collar, etc.). Here you can see just how much they enjoy each other.

First Halloween

This was Alina's first Halloween and we spent it together as a family. On Saturday morning, we drove to Clinton so that Pauline and I could run in our first 5k! We started and finished on the campus of Presbyterian College. It felt good to complete this, we've been training for 9 weeks. Justin and Alina were there to support Mommy!

This is me shocked to find out that I won first in my age group (I think there were only like 3 in the group, but hey I beat someone)

That evening we went to the Fall Festival at church. Below you can see pictures of our ladybug, possibly the cutest pictures ever! We helped out by watching the inflatable jump house things. Alina enjoyed seeing all the kids, music and colors. It was a great night.

Do ladybugs eat grass? Well, this one does:)

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we had some friends over for pumpkin carving. It was a lot of fun! The kids played and watched, Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Everyone's pumpkin turned out really good, but the pictures were hard to get with the lights.

Buddies

Alina liked dancing to the music in Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Jessica and Kim

Josh toasted the seeds for us, they were great!

Serious carving going on!

Burton in his vaquero costume

OUR Pumpkin, it really looks better in person:)

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we went with friends from church to Harmon's Tree Farm/Pumpkin Patch. It was a beautiful fall day and perfect for this outing! We took a hayride and got a small pumpkin, it was a great time.

Here's Patrick, he's doing such a great job sitting up now. Isn't he cute?

Alina checking out the pumpkins

The hayride was a mile to the pumpkin patch and we got sit in real hay! (the other rides had benches and we didn't want to do that)

Patrick and Alina looking at the sunflowers

She is too cute!

Alina did want to try and eat the small pumpkin we bought.

Justin carried her in the baby bjorn most of the time, which is her favorite way to travel!

Here's the friends we went with, the Brewers, Lindsey, the Michauds and the Clarks

Go Gamecocks!

Saturday Carolina played Alabama and we got all dressed up and ready to watch the game! Alina has a cute dress from her friend Patrick and we got her a hat to match it. Here are some pictures, of course the babies had to go to sleep before the game started but they had a good time before. Too bad we lost:(

Its amazing how early they learn the "I want that" concept:)

Airplane

On our recent trip to Texas, Alina got to ride on an airplane for the first time. For the most part she really liked it. It was much shorter than driving 16 hours! The trip to Texas was great. She was awake early, but excited to get everyone's attention on the airplane. She had everyone playing peek-a-boo with her and she flirted with the businessmen. On the way home, she was a bit fussier, because she missed her afternoon nap and just didn't want to go to sleep on the plane. All in all it was a great experience for all of us!

Nina (my mom) bought her a baby doll that she loves playing with!

Cousins

Alina got to meet her cousin Lily this week. We had a great time hanging out with my sister, Irina, and her husband, Justin and their new daughter, Lily. Alina wanted to grab and play with Lily but we had to show her how to be gentle. I spent most of my time at their house helping out and holding my niece. It was a great trip!

Picture Perfect

Alina loves to get her picture taken! On Sunday, she looked so cute I wanted to take some pictures in her adorable outfit. You can see below how much she loves the camera:)

Zoo

Friday I had a half-day so when I came home we all three went to the zoo. It was fun to hang out as a family. The weather was really nice and it was such a relaxing day. Alina is really beginning to enjoy the zoo! She rides in the baby bjorn and looks around at everything. I think sometimes she likes looking at the kids around her more than the animals. This time we spent most of our time looking at the aquarium and the birdhouse. Justin loved looking at all the different snakes, and he would point them out to Alina, who would stare at the glass as the snakes crawled on it. I just kept insisting that we'd seen enough snakes and that I wanted to see real fish. So we moved on to the fish. Alina liked the leopard shark the best, he swam around for her. She was also amused at the lady cleaning the big fish tank. We hope to go again soon:)

Tummy

Alina has not always like to be on her tummy. She would fuss and fuss. Once she figured out she could roll over, you couldn't get her to stay on her tummy for anything! Lately, things have changed a bit. She's figuring out that she kind of like to play on her tummy from time to time. She even will turn and sleep on her tummy. Sometimes she wakes up mad about it, but the other morning as you can see, she was very happy. She is rolling all over the floor from tummy to back and back to tummy. She creeps around a bit, and who knows, maybe soon she'll even crawl!