2010...a Year in Review

Wow...where did 2010 go?!?!?

January
I was VERY pregnant and we had a slew of wonderful baby showers to welcome "Baby C" into the world.

The baby shower dates had to be changed because we got a BIG snow!

February

Ben and I welcomed John Michael into the world on February 16th at 9:35 AM after a long night of labor!

March

Ben and I celebrated 2 Years of Marriage on March 8th!

April

We celebrated our First Easter with John Michael.

John Michael was welcomed by our church at His Baby Dedication.

May

John Michael and Ben helped me celebrate my very first Mother's Day....it quickly became a favorite holiday of mine!

My Grandparents, Calvin and Anna Burroughs, celebrated 60 wonderful years of marriage with a great dinner with Family and Friends. John Michael would be the "naked" baby in the picture.

We also went on a mini-vacation with the Burroughs clan to Mt Magazine. It was a great and relaxing time!

June

My wonderful Husband received a promotion at USA Truck to Manager of Human Resources! He also studied, took, and passed (with flying colors) his PHR Exam. I'm sure the only reason he passed was that John Michael quizzed him.....

Ben also celebrated his First Father's Day. John Michael and I spoiled him!

July

Along with the Carroll Clan, we took John Michael on his first beach vacation! The beach was quite different with a baby in tow...but we had a great and relaxing time with everyone!

August

John Michael celebrated being 6 Months Old!

September

Football Season.....need I say more?

John Michael became Mobile! He started out with a great "army" crawl!

John Michael also had his first tooth break through!

October

The three of us packed up and headed to our annual visit to Uncle Jerry's House (aka Cowboy Stadium) to cheer on the Hogs!

While in Dallas, we also where able to be apart of a very special baby dedication for our nephew, Wesley Adam.

John Michael's First Halloween! Our very cute Stinker!

November

My mom, sister, grandmother, and myself went and saw my most favorite musical, Wicked!

John Michael started Pulling up on everything! Including his crib........we had to drop his crib to the lowest level so that he couldn't fly out!
We celebrated the birth and glory day of Wesley Adam.

John Michael had a very special first Thanksgiving in Fort Worth, TX. He even tried some Mash Potatoes!

December

John Michael successfully meet Santa Clause at USA Truck and told him all the fun things he wanted for Christmas.

We celebrated an early Christmas with the Carroll's and John Michael had so much fun with all his cousins.
Santa Clause came and visited John Michael for the first time in Hot Springs! 2010 has been an exciting year.....mostly in part to the newest addition to our family.

We have had a blessed year and cannot wait to see what 2011 holds!

Us Lately (Via I-Phone)

I've been Sick....but after some Good Campbell's Soup, I'm feeling better:

John Michael Loves His Daddy:

John Michael Loves His "Dado": John Michael Loves to Help Mommy Shop for the Best Deals: John Michael Definitely Knows How to Pull Up!

"Please Mom Stop With The Pictures!"

John Michael discovering (and quickly loving) MY "Security Blanket" as a Kid:

9 Month Update Coming Soon!!!

(Yes, JM is 9 Months Old!!)

Thankful For....

So you see, I (Allison) have been sick, so I fell off the "Thankful for" Wagon.

So....I'm just going to do one big list of "Thankful for" for This year.

I am Thankful for......

* Jesus and his Ultimate Sacrifice
* The Bible
* My Wonderful Husband and our Awesome Marriage
* My Amazing, Healthy Son
* My Parent's and Ben's Parent's Guidance and Listening Ears
* My Mama Pat and her wonderful E-mails and DVDs
* Mama Georgia and her wonderful Letters
* Papaw Calvin and Mawmaw Anna and how hilarious they are (even when they don't mean to be!)
* MawMaw and Pawpaw Carroll and their sweet Love and Encouragement
* Our Siblings (Jennifer, Jason, John, Ashley, Lance, Jenny and Wes)
* Our Perfect and Funny Nieces (Esther, Millie, and Bri) and Nephews (Riley and Wesley Adam) * A Warm place to call Home
* Modern Medicine and Awesome Doctors (Especially this year....Dr. Rainwater and Dr. Chris)
* Gravy, the Dog
* Ben and I's Jobs
* John Michael's Sweet Teachers at Central Presbyterian
* Our Church, 1st Baptist, and our Freedom to Worship
* My Work Friends who Keep me Sane! (Emmy, Lauren, and Debbie)
* My "Mommy" Friends who Keep me from Freaking Out Multiple Times (Erin D, Lindsey K, & Jennifer K)
* My Friends who Have Known me Forever and Keep me In Check (Kara M, Taylor C, and Mary Y)
* Food! Candy! Caffeine!
* My Freedom and the right to Vote
* Awesome Photographers (Beaty Photography and Lauren Walker Freelancing!)

I know that I am Thankful for MUCH MUCH more, but here is at least a start of the list!

Hope everyone has an Awesome, Wonderful, Very Full of Turkey THANKSGIVING!

Christmas Cards (and any card for that fact!)

If any of you have had a birthday within the last oh three months, you probably noticed that our family has started sending a new kind of card to you! One with at least one cutie pootie picture of John Michael wishing you to have a great day!
Some of you have asked how the heck I do it (I would love to take credit, but hey, I'm human!), well it is with Shutterfly's new card feature.
It is super cute, super easy, and super inexpensive--usually for less than what you would pay for a card at the store. (Now, if you have received a card from us or if you receive a card from us in the future...please disregard all the super easy super inexpensive talk! :))
This year they have rolled out some AWESOME Christmas Cards and honestly there is a hot debate (between Ben and I) on which one to choose...so more than likely we will order both of them! I cannot share which ones we are debating because that would ruin all the fun.

The moral of the story is that Shutterfly has some GREAT deals this year on Christmas Cards......so check them out!!

If you want to try a card out for free, they are offering 1 Free 5x7 card with using the promotion Code "CARD4U".

Hope everyone is getting into the MERRY CHRISTMAS mood!!!

Disclaimer: This is my shameless plug for www.Shutterfly.com. I must be honest that they are offering 50 free Christmas Cards to anyone who blogs about them. I do REALLY love their products though!

Amazon's Response

Thanks for listening to my rant from the earlier post.

At 4 AM this morning, I received an e-mail from Amazon.com stating "This book has been taken off our site and is no longer for sale."

THANK THE LORD!!!

I am SICK Tonight

Sorry folks, but I'm on my soap box tonight.

What has our world come to!?!?!

One of my most favorite websites, www.amazon.com, has decided to place a book for sale on their website called "Pedophile's Guide".

I am SHAKING i'm so upset about.

To learn more about the story, click here.

The whole idea around the book is a How-to guide on how to molest children without getting caught.

Now if you are like me, a new mom, you have received e-mail after e-mail, about joining Amazon's new "Amazon Mom" program where they can provide all kinds of baby products.

I loved the program, bought from them at least once a week.....and then they pull something like this!??!?

How can you ETHICALLY think it is ok to bombard me with advertisements about products for babies when you are selling a book (and defending it no less when questioned about it) on how to molest my child!?!?!?

THIS HOUSEHOLD will NOT be using Amazon for ANY purchases until this TRASH is taken off their site.

I know they are a huge company, and I know they could care less if I quit using them (Don't worry, I've already contacted customer service)...but if all the moms, dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, etc etc out there quit using them, they will be forced to take down their $4.95 guide to molestation.

Thank you for letting me vent....I'm just SICK over it tonight.

Thankful for....(Day 5)

An Extra Hour!!!

What a difference an hour makes!!

John Michael didn't appericate the extra hour of sleep....but it is still an extra hour with our little family!!

So....today I'm thankful that God gives it an extra hour today!

1st Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We have been enjoying such beautiful cool weather in Fort Smith....I just knew that John Michael's costume was going to be PERFECT since it was warm! Guess the weather man knew my thoughts because we woke up Halloween morning and it was HOT! So, this perfect warm costume I picked out didn't go very well!

We did make it to 3 stops:

* 1st Stop was in NWA (We had stayed at the Atkinson's after the game Saturday night) Cousin Riley and John Michael looked very cute and trick-or-treated their Nini and Dado. John Michael got one of his favorite treats..."mum mum" bars!

* 2nd Stop was to the Keifer's. We are great friends with the Keifer's and it just so happens that our boys are best friends at daycare together!! Neither John Michael nor Noah seemed too excited about their costumes.....

* 3rd Stop was to Nana and Ops. As always, Nana and Ops spoiled John Michael with a great book and lots of candy (too bad he is too young for it....guess Ben and I will just have to eat it!).

We were planning on making one more stop to our good friends the Dickinson's....but John Michael gave out and was throwing a fit in the back seat of the car....so we re-routed and went back to our house.

John Michael did a great job handing out treats at our house and loved having people come to the door!

Overall....it was a great Halloween! Next year, I plan on getting a "layering" costume so no matter the weather, we will be happy!!

Thankful for.....(Day 4)

This little guy......


Do I really need to say more?



When you have a child, your life TRULY changes. But change is SUCH a good thing.


John Michael has brought SO much joy into our lives.



I cannot imagine life without this silly little man. I cannot wait to see the man he becomes!


So....today I'm thankful that God blessed Ben and I with an amazing child.