Life as a Cleveland: May 2011

Bo Allison's Baptism

This weekend we had Bo' baptism,

I will let the pictures do the talking.

She slept through the whole thing

Bo and her godparents minus Cathie

Thanks for the shoes Christine (Bo Allison / January 25, 2011)

4 generation gown, and second generation bonnet

4 generations

Calvin kissing Bo

(Thanks Jess for taking pictures of the Baptism)

Jess, Grady, Maddox, Mitch, & Bo

Curtis, Angela, & Bo

Charlie Jody & Bo

Sophia, Bo, & Calvin

Ashland, Sawyer, Max & Bo

Bo with her presents

Thanks everyone for making Bo's day so special

4 months

I don't want to lay by my monkey!

I'm not going to let mom see how tall I am compared to my monkey

I'll just kick my monkey instead

So Happy!

How's my hair

Are we done yet?

Bo has started to:

Grab and pull things (especially mom's hair)
She is trying really hard to roll from back to tummy, but her dang arm keeps getting in the way
Smiling all the time
Giggle
Grow some teeth (but they still haven't broken yet)

Some of Bo's favorite things so far are:

Her frog jumper,

Standing
Petting Pistol and Wrigley,

Mommy coming home from work,
Drooling,
Chewing on anything soft
and

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC

Things Bo still doesn't like:

Wet diapers,

Waiting for a bottle,

Taking a break from eating to burp,

Bed time,
Music turning off,

Third busiest week of the school year!

There are three weeks in the school year that just knock me out mentally and physically. First is new student/move-in, then it's Gala week, and last but not least is move-out and graduation.

Each has its own rewards and emotions attached to them.

New Student Orientation/Move-in week:
This week is always exciting, because our students are back. We're all excited to find out how their summers went, and to get to know the new freshman class. It is mainly draining because it is not our regular schedule and we all have to be "ON" the entire week. Then that Saturday, we help them move in. This is a huge adjustment of the freshman that have never been away from home.

Gala week:
As most of you know, I have been working on the Gala committee doing the decorations for the last 5 Gala's. For me, the weeks leading up to the Gala are spent getting last minute things done for the decorations and still doing my regular scheduled duties. Saturday morning, I am there to set-up with the other members of the committee by 8:30am and stay there until after the Gala is over (around 11:30pm). This event raises a lot of money for our school, and it is such an amazing and fun night.

Move-out week and Graduation:
We spend most of this week helping the students pack and clean their apartments. This is defiantly a challenge, especially with their executive function skills. Graduation has always been such an amazing experience. It is such an honor to be able to watch them start the program as freshman, and develop and grow in their independence, it always brings me to tears. After graduation everyone head back to school to finish moving out.

Although all of these weeks/weekends are draining;
I LOVE MY JOB,
and look forward to it all starting over again in August.

It has been a major adjustment to include Bo into these weeks.
I am so thankful for my mother and all of her help.
I don't think I would have made it to this point without her.
Thank you Mom

WE LOVE YOU!

Two and half more weeks until my summer break. I hope I get all my work done, so I can hang out with our baby girl for eight straight weeks, and not think about work.

We keep practicing, but we just can't get it.

Bo keeps trying to roll from her back to her tummy, but she still can't do it on her own.
One of these days. Until then Daddy will give the assist.

She is still great at rolling tummy to front, but still gets really mad to do it.

Bo also loves to play with Pistol.

Watching our garden grow.

Last weekend after we got back from Ames, we came home to this.

The side of our house trimmed

Check out the trimmed trees

We have a sidewalk!

You can see all the way to the backyard from the road, amazing!

All of the Hydrangeas are gone. (don't worry they'll grow back)

You can see the plants growing in the backyard!

We have a garden (Mom and I planted onions, chives, pumkins, cucumbers, peas, peppers, radishes, spinich, and lettuce already)

Our rasberries, and compost pile. You can actually see to the road.

Thanks Mom and Dad for all of your hard work it looks amazing.

Mitch's graduation & Mother's day

This last weekend we headed down to Ames to celebrate Mitch's (Josh's brother) graduation.

We headed down Friday afternoon, and got there just in time for dinner at the Porth's. After dinner we headed over to Mitch and Jess's and spent some quality time playing home run derby on the PS3. Bo and Grady enjoyed the evening with us too.

Saturday morning Mitch had his ceremony with the engineering department, we stayed back at the house while they went to the ceremony. Then the afternoon they had the full graduation and Josh waited for Jamie to get there to head over to the graduation. While I stayed back to watch the kids. It was so much fun watching the cousins get to know each other and spend some quality time getting to know them better. They were all such good listeners and just really enjoyed each others company. I can't wait to for Bo to be able to run around with them too. (I took pictures, but they are on Chris's camera)