Moving On Up

Alyse has been taking swimming classes since July, and has moved up two levels since then. She started as a Goldfish, then became a Sea Horse, and is now a Sea Turtle. While Alyse loves swimming, it has actually been really difficult to get her to jump in the water. In order to pass the Sea Horse level, however, she had to consistently jump in. To get her to do this, we ended up having to bribe her with Monster High dolls. Needless to say, she now has quite the collection, but she can now jump in! Or, as her teacher says, Alyse falls in. She barely comes off the side and splashes in the water. It felt like Alyse was in the Sea Horse level forever, so we couldn't be happier that she has finally moved up. 

Alyse posing with her teacher since she moved up levels. Yay Alyse!

Family Photos

So it has been a long time since my last post. Things just got really busy and really crazy.

We decided it was time to get family photos professionally done with my parents and sisters because we had never done that before. Alyse had a lot of fun posing in different ways. 

The photographer was Kathy Daly of Kathy Daly Photography. She is a retired yearbook adviser who I know from working as a yearbook adviser. She took photos of Alyse when she was one, and we love her work, so we signed up for a quick session.

Family photos of the whole family together. We did a few different shots of this, resulting in the photo above and below. We wanted Alyse to wear navy, but she chose to wear pink with navy. Alyse can never be without her pink. :)

I love this photo of my parents. My dad did it jokingly, but then Kathy got a shot of it. I just love how happy the two of them look in this photo. They also don't have too many photos of just the two of them, so it is nice to see the two of them together.

We also got a sister shot, which I was happy about. My sisters and I have not had a professional one done in I couldn't tell you how long. I love how the colors we are all wearing just go together so well. Apparently jewel tones were the way to go.

I was really happy with these family photos, but I loved all of the ones with Alyse. She just loves taking photos. People keep telling me to put her in modeling, but I'm not even sure how to get started. I know she loves getting her picture taken, but I don't know if she still would if we ever went that route. But she sure was a ham in these photos. :)

Before the photo shoot, I went on Pinterest and pinned various poses for family photos so we could get some creative shots. This was one of them, with Ben and I kissing in the background. Alyse got into it, posing with her hand on her hip and smiling. I think the photo turned out great.

Family photo! It has been a little while since we did this, and since Ben and I are trying to take professional photos at least once a year, we decided to do this now. We also wanted to use these as our Christmas card photos since it is quickly approaching. I like that Kathy had us do two different poses of our family, and the pose below was by far my favorite. Also, I love that we are all smiling in the photo, which was apparently difficult for Alyse even though she loves having her photo taken.

This is my favorite shot of Alyse. She is just hamming it up an loving every minute of it. She chose her poses on her own. After we were done, she showed me different poses she could have done that she didn't think of during the photo shoot. 

I adore this photo of Alyse and I. This is partly because Alyse and I never get amazing photos taken together, and partly because I just love how we are both smiling in it. Like I said, Alyse was having trouble smiling at times, so I would tickle her to get her laughing and smiling instead of just attempting to smile. (She did tell me her face was hurting from smiling, so that could have been part of the problem, but a good problem to have i would say.)

This photo is one that Alyse gasped at when she saw it on Kathy Daly's proofing site. I love it because she is all smiles and she just looks adorable. Alyse had her own mini-photo shoot and got to pose however she wanted to. 

I love all of these photos and I am so thankful that Kathy Daly was able to take these photos for us. She has a good eye for photography since she used to be a yearbook adviser, which is a big reason why I love her and highly recommend her.

*Family members, if you would like to look at these photos some more, email me at: anastasiamharrison@gmail.com and then I can email you the site and the password. 

Alyse's New Ballet Class

Alyse started a new ballet class this year. She was in the preschool class, but her teachers said she was doing such a good job that they wanted to have her try out the beginning children's dance class which kids usually have to be four years old to enter. She tried it and got in, so now she does ballet and tap. The photo below is of Alyse performing her parent dance. 

Alyse loves her new dance class, especially the tap part. She follows all the teacher directions and is learning ballet positions now. It is so fun to watch her enjoy dance like I did as a little kid. 

Alyse's First Hair Appointment

So Alyse had her hair done at a salon for the first time today. Ben and I wanted help defining Alyse's curls because her hair always gets frizzy the day after a shower. Alyse was tired since we went to the appointment after her ballet and tap class, but she did such a good job. 

This was Alyse as her hair was washed then conditioned. The way we do her hair is now going to be more of a process, but Ben and I think it will be worth it. Basically we have to use a lot of conditioner in order to hydrate her curls. 

Here is Alyse under the hair dryer. She was only under it for a little while since we just had to get a bunch of the water out of her hair. 

Clearly her time under the dryer was long enough for her to want to read. She picked up the curly hair magazine next to her to page through as she sat there. 

After the hair dryer it was the last step in the styling process. It really is just a lot of running fingers through her hair, rather than just using a pick or comb. 

In the end, Alyse was so proud of her beautiful curls. She also loved getting a part in her hair for the first time. Little Alyse is growing up!

Alyse is 3!

Alyse is now 3! She was so excited about her birthday for so long, and now that it finally happened, she still sometimes says she is 2. :)
Alyse had her birthday at the Children's Museum and it was princess-themed. She was so excited for her princess cake and goodie bags. She had so much fun with her friends and cousins.
I was trying to catch up on updating the blog, but instead I am just going to post when I can since I have trouble keeping up with everything. At least this way all the family can keep up to date with what is going on now.

Alyse Turns 2

So, since Alyse's birthday is in the winter, it is difficult to find somewhere where we can fit a lot of people without going outside. For this year, since Alyse is a little bit older, we decided to have it at Lollipop Park, a kiddie park with rides and tables people can reserve. Since we decided to have it there, we went with a lollipop theme. I made brightly colored cupcakes, lollipop sugar cookies (with sticks in them so they looked like lollipops), and had brightly colored plates. Each kid got their own wristband so they could go on unlimited rides. Alyse loved the rides! This was really her first experience with rides, other than when we went to Disneyland when she was one, and she loved every minute. She wanted to go on rides over and over again.

This is Alyse with Aunt Kathleen as everyone was arriving. She was so excited to go on the rides while she waited.

Here is Alyse on the train with her friends, Ed and Joe. She loved the train and went on it multiple times. She couldn't get enough. :)

Alyse and Aunt Patricia on the carousel. This was another one of Alyse's favorites. Every time she sees a carousel now she wants to go on it; I think because of her first experience of the carousel here at Lollipop Park.

Alyse just having fun. She was such a ham for the camera. We had the party start a little later in the afternoon so Alyse could get in a nap, but she didn't get as long a nap as I would have liked. So it was great that she was so happy the whole time. She didn't get grumpy about anything.

Here is Alyse and Aunt Patricia riding on the ferris wheel. This was the one ride where we weren't sure how she felt. Patricia said she was very scared to smile, but said she was having fun when Patricia asked. There were no tears, so we will assume that she was loving every minute.

New Year's

So, unlike Christmas where we wanted Alyse to experience everything, for New Year's Ben and I decided that we wouldn't have Alyse stay up until midnight, since she is still too young. However, she had other ideas. 


We went over to my parents' house for New Year's, and when it was time for Alyse to go to bed, we laid her down in the pack n' play and she went to sleep. 


All was well, right? Wrong. Alyse had other ideas. She woke up at 11:45, wide-eyed and ready for the night. We tried laying her back down, but to no avail. Since we were going to leave soon anyway, we just decided to keep her up. So Alyse helped us ring in the new year of 2012.


Below are photos of the night:


Pre-Bedtime
Honestly, we weren't sure what Alyse was doing. She laid down on the floor and started scooting around on her back. Whatever the reason, she had fun doing it.

Video of the scooting:

Waking Up

Alyse was a little groggy, but pretty much wide awake since she refused to go back to sleep. She made sure she had her baby with her, because she can't go anywhere without her. :)

Me and Patricia

Ben and I took advantage of the late night wake up and took a family photo on New Year's Eve. Clearly Alyse is interested in other things, like what Nonna is up to. Kathleen was gone at a wedding, so we took pictures with the family that was there. I'm honestly not sure where Papa/my dad was during this time, but for some reason we don't have pictures with him.

My mom and Patricia

Mommy, Patricia and Me

Nonna/Mommy, Alyse, Patricia, and Me

The night ended with Alyse watching the ball drop with Nonna and Aunt Patricia. She was clearly still tired since she is holding on to Nonna's hand, but she was happy to be with all of us. Who knows, maybe she got scared when she woke up in a strange place late at night. At least we got to spend some more time with her.

New Year's Day
While Alyse wasn't up for much of the festivities at night, on New Year's Day night she wore the Happy New Year hats and blew the noisemakers. Although at first she was confused with how they worked. 

Alyse and Aunt Patricia

Alyse and Aunt Kathleen

By the time she got to sit with me, she wouldn't smile anymore. She just wanted down. Needless to say, we took this picture quickly and then dismissed the idea of Alyse taking a picture with Ben when clearly she was no longer in the mood for pictures. At least she enjoyed taking pictures with her Aunts. New Year's was a fun holiday with Alyse, watching her take it all in.