we got a puppy!!

Well, it may be hard to believe, but we got ourselves a puppy!! She is such a good little doggy. She cleans up all our scraps off the floor and is really quite mastering the whole carrying dog toys while running about. The thing we hate most is cleaning up after she poops...BUT...she is SO stinkin' cute...

...don't you think?

talented little pup!

Kyri, getting SO big:

here she is peeking through her crib after trying to take her princess pajamas off...all by herself!! I told Kyri to put her hat on her head...this is what we ended up with
one is clearly never enough
this picture is mostly for the grandparents...she's standing up on her own! Next time you see her she'll probably be walking!!

Sunday stroll

Sundays are hard days for the Allen family, especially Kyri. Our church is from 9-12 and Kyri normally goes down for her morning nap at 9...so ALL of church is a struggle. It's not that we don't let her sleep at church, trust me we would love it if she did, but she just won't sleep at church. There is always too much going on and she is such a social little butterfly! We only live a few blocks from the church so we always walk and we usually make it all the way home without Kyri falling asleep, but that was not the case yesterday. She stayed awake until we got to our driveway...and then she was out!

just too cute

cough it up

Kyri is just SO much fun! We spend the majority of our day laughing...I'm not sure if she's ever laughing with me or at me, but I'll take it either way! Her new thing is to fake cough...it's pretty funny. If she hears anyone else cough or even hiccup she will do a fake cough. Last night I had the hiccups...for a long time...and Gary was bathing Kyri and getting her ready for bed. Whenever she heard me hiccup from the other room she would look at Gary and do her best cough. He kept trying to tell her I wasn't coughing, but she still did it...every time.

this is a face I'm becoming quite familiar with since Kyri doesn't always get what she wants...but if you ask my mom she will say Kyri knows just what to do to get what she wants...I feel as though I may be wrapped around a little baby finger. People keep telling me that Kyri looks more and more like Gary the older she gets...I think this picture proves that to be true :)

still at it...she must sleep better this way, it's how we find her every night
couldn't quite get it over her head, I guess
now that's better...what a little angel

cheeky baby

Here I am blogging instead of cleaning...and my house is an absolute disaster! How does it get that way so fast? It was spotless when my visiting teachers came on Tuesday night! You know the song "Beautiful Disaster"? Unfortunately there is nothing beautiful about this mess! Yet here I am sifting through the many photos that could potentially be posted. And, amidst this disastrous mess, I find the most beautiful baby in the world....no matter how messy my house is she will always be beautiful!!

Kyri's new thing is to sleep with the blankets over her face. This is what we have been finding as we have gone to check on our wee one shortly after she falls asleep:

out cold

leaving just enough space to breathe
is she even in there?
we sometimes worry about Kyri getting cold at night, but it looks as though she will just put the blanky on herself if that's the case. (we did remove this one for fear of suffocation)
just chillin' in her basketball bean bag
ok so her pants might be a little big. When I went into her room after her nap her pants were completely off!! She handed them to me with a big grin on her face
Gary decided it would be fun to teach Kyri how to pull the plug out of the tub...now she does it almost instantly upon arrival...we are lucky if we can wash any part of her before she completes her mission...yeah, good idea, Gar! I'm not sure how appropriate it is to post pictures of naked babies, but I couldn't resist...she thought it was so funny that she let all the water out...
cheeky baby!!
just being helpful

This one goes out to the one I LOVE

Happy Anniversary, Love! Today is our 2 year mark of the day we decided to make "us" forever! I am so lucky to have such a fabulous guy in my life! Ever since I was little I have dreamed of the perfect guy...my Prince Charming, if you will....well, Gary is nothing I ever imagined, but I testify that dreams really do come true as he is my very own Prince Gary (I'm not sure "charming" quite describes him)...yet he is so perfect for me!

Here is a glance at each year together

Today...2 years of bliss

Last year (this photo was actually taken in August and I was 8 months pregnant....NOT a very good picture of either of us, but we don't have many with the 2 of us)
2 years ago on our wedding dayHappy Anniversary!
I love you, Gary! Thanks for making my dreams come true...and being everything and more I could ever want in a husband and father!!

"Daddy's Takin' Us To The Zoo Tomorrow..."

The title of this post is actually a song on one of Kyri's CDs that we listen to and this is her favorite song to dance to...okay, it's my favorite song to dance with her to...she laughs so hard every time. Gary and I always get the song stuck in our head, but yesterday it was a special day for this song because the words rang true....daddy took us to the Hogle Zoo!! Gary had the day off and we decided that it was a perfect day for animals. Kyri loved seeing all the animals that she only sees in her book and only hears her mama make the noises for...and believe me, I'm not that good, surprisingly enough...

the duo and the elephants hind end

these two bears (the black bears, not Gary and Kyri, although this is also true with them) were so cute playing with each other
Kyri knows how to growl like a tiger so we spent quite a bit of time watching this beautiful one roam her territory. Kyri growled at her, but she never growled back. Kyri's going to begin to wonder if we're truthful about these animal sounds...
looking right at us
The gorillas were fun to watch. They fed them just as we got there...smart animals. Kyri has a book with a gorilla. She loves to give him kisses and touch his hair
just so cute...I am a bit obsessed with the primates...they're my favorite
family fun

our little fishy

Kyri loves the water and will play in it at any chance she gets

not really thirsty, but this is pretty cool

worried she might gag? well, she did...but it didn't stop her from going back for more
Kyri's own little swimming pool
she loves it
when I've had enough of her pulling things off the shelves and crying because I don't know what she wants....we go outside and play in the water...it works every time...we are both happy outside

Happy Belated 4th of July

I know July is nearly over and I'm just barely posting our 4th of July adventures...but better late than never, right? We had a great time over the holiday weekend. Unfortunately I don't have photos of many of our activities, so I will ramble for a moment about our outings and then on to the few photos I managed to get.

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's for a couple nights. The guys ran the Filmore Freedom Mile while the girls saved seats for the parade...the longest parade of my life, I might add. Then we headed to Delta for a delicious dutch oven dinner at Brad and Heidi's. After stuffing ourselves to overflowing we went to Delta's famous Demolition Derby. Kyri seemed to enjoy herself nearly as much as the adults. We had front row seats, which meant much flying dirt/mud, which meant little clumps of dirt in the next diaper change. Glad it was Gary's turn. After the Derby we again had front row seats for the fireworks. Kyri was beyond exhausted, but enjoyed the fireworks almost as much as she enjoyed smiling and giggling at the 10 year old boy sitting behind us....she's just workin' it early....and that's fine with us.

Getting ready for the festivities

her 4th of July outfit
off with the hat!

After our time in Filmore and Delta we went further south. Before arriving in Mesquite we stopped at Sand Hollow for a quick lake trip. It rained a bit while we were out, but the consensus shows a great time was had by all......

.......or was it? Kyri wasn't quite sure what to think

Pop's hair blowin in the wind as he navigates his course on the lake
Kyri finally decides she quite enjoys the boat
especially since she can watch her daddy's awesome moves on the wakeboard
pleased as punch
Heather decides to learn to wakeboard in the rain. Brave soul...she must really want to impress the Allen's (or at least Todd) :) and it worked....very impressed (especially Todd)!!
Kyri decided she wanted to get her feet wet.....
....but that wasn't quite enough so she went for a swim with daddy...and waves to her mama who was still on the boat
exhausted after such a day as this

time flies

Last Wednesday Kyri had her 9 month check-up. Our little 5 lbs of nothin' was just 1 oz shy of 17 lbs!!! I can't believe how fast the last 9 months have gone by. Kyri has just been SO much fun. She has been crawling for over 2 months now and is just into everything. And she sure thinks she's pretty funny, but I must admit I think so too. She is starting to say words...or at least try to say them. Our favorite so far are her animal sounds. When you ask Kyri what a lion says she makes a noise that sounds much more like a grunt than a roar and it cracks us up every time! We have started referring to her as our "baby lion". Here are some recent pictures of the little lioness

It has become quite apparent that Kyri really does notice what her crazy parents are doing.

I am quite certain this is a conversation she had with herself. (notice the big crocodile tears running down her cheeks)

"Maybe if I make a big fool of myself and pretend this cracker is an airplane it will make me smile......"

"......yep.....it really does work...." Every time