Houston, We Have Smiles!

Around five weeks old, Ali started giving us the most adorable, wide-open-mouthed grins. They were elusive at first: we could only get one every couple of days or so. Over the last two weeks, however, they've become more and more common, and now we have long stretches when she smiles and gurgles at us in total bliss (her bliss AND ours!).

The two most common times to get the smiles are just after she wakes up in the morning, refreshed and well-rested, and just after she eats and gets to spend some time on her jungle play mat.

On the play mat, thinking about smiling...

Here it comes...

SMILE!

You can just hear her squeal of delight in this one!And some morning smiles (sorry these first two are blurry--the flash was startling her):

And saving the best for last--a video!

What an amazing, heart-exploding thing a baby's smile is!

Post-Halloween Confession

I confess: Ali had three Halloween costumes this year. THREE.

It's really not as bad as it sounds!

An adorable (but expensive) glow worm from Gymboree, a cute flower from Walmart that we got because we felt so guilty about getting the expensive glow worm, and a precious little black cat hand-me-down from a friend whose daughter was born in September two years ago.

We had a fashion show one night to narrow down our plethora of choices!

The flower:

The glow worm:

And the big winner (as you could see from our previous Happy Halloween post), the kitty cat:

As you can see, both the flower and the glow worm were a bit big on our petite little lady. That coupled with the fact that they both actually cost money, and we decided to return them both.

But for a brief couple of weeks, little Ali actually had three Halloween costumes.

This does not bode well for my future of shopping for my daughter.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little Ali cat!

Me-owww!

Happy Birthday G-Mommy! (Ali's First Road Trip)

Well, we packed up the house last weekend and headed north on Ali's first big road trip to visit Granddaddy and G-Mommy for G-Mommy's 60th birthday extravaganza! Packing turned out to be more involved than we originally planned on; it was stunning to see the amount of gear required for such a tiny little girl! True to form, Ali was a total champ at the road trip part. She slept the entire way, even when we hit dead-stopped traffic. Way to go, Ali!

While in Dallas, Ali got to finally meet four of her great-grandparents, as well as her Uncle Brian and Aunt Ragan. What a great weekend!

Saturday morning three of Ali's great-grandparents came to the house for lunch and a little snuggle time. Here is Ali getting to know great-grandma Thorn.

And here is Ali meeting Great-Grandma Munna (this is who Ali got her middle name from!).
Ali then got to spend a little quality time with Uncle Brian watching the Horns obliterate Mizzou. Hook 'Em!
Saturday night was G-Mommy's big party, so we put on our party clothes and had a great night! (Check out Ali's party shoes!) Here we are with the birthday girl (G-Mommy) and Bubbie.
Four generations of Cross women!
Getting in some hugs with Granddaddy before the guests arrived.
Pretty ladies!
What a great-looking family!
The next day Granddaddy and G-Mommy got in some last-minute hugs before we headed out.
Before heading back to Austin, we stopped at Ali's other great-grandparents' place for some hugs.
Ali and Bubbie checking each other out.
Ali and Zadie hanging out one last time.

Stay tuned for the next exciting post . . . smiles!!

1 month old!

We can't believe our little girl is already one month old! Time has really flown by . . . or at least it has seemed to fly by to our sleep-deprived minds.

Ali is such a good baby. She is a phenomenal sleeper and typically wakes up cheerful and full of cute little coos. She spends a great deal of time awake and just looking around at the world around her. She loves being outside and feeling the wind in her hair!

Here are some of her special 1-month-birthday shots. Enjoy!

We are heading to Dallas this weekend for Mom's 60th birthday party. We are looking forward to Ali's first big road trip and to seeing all our family! Check back next week for pics of the festivities!!

Newborn Photos

My friend Kristen, who did my maternity pictures, dropped in a couple of weeks ago to do Ali's newborn photo shoot.

There are no words for how awesome I think these turned out! Enjoy!

(All photos courtesy of Kristen Joy Photography.)

Bath time with Ali

We thought you might enjoy some fun bath time pictures with Ali!

Here we are, about to give our little pumpkin her very first big-girl bath.
We like to think that she's throwing her arms up with exhilaration.Dad was a pro at washing Ali's hair.

Good girl! No tears at all!
And a video...enjoy!