Happy Birthday, Allison!

Today is Allison's 8th birthday! She is the youngest of Jeff and Caroline's five children! Her middle name is Rae, and she's just that -- a ray of sunshine! She's the one who keeps that family laughing. Allie-Gal, as we sometimes call her, was born on my 60th birthday! What a precious gift!

Allison - 2 years - wearing the traditional Dewey family two year photo "sailor" outfit.

Grandma, aka Carolyn Jo, - 15 months. That's quite a mop of hair for a 15-month-old!

Celebrating Allie's 3rd birthday, and my, well you do the math! Three candles for her, six for my decades!

By now, you know that I love to make cookies with my grandchildren. When they came for a visit in 2008 this was high on the "what do we do now" list. They will come for a visit this summer, so I'm sure we'll have more baking fun!

Allie loves to play soccer. This year she was on the Pink Dynamite team - very cute! It was an especially good year for her as she scored several goals! In the Spring she runs track.

Giving the relay her all!

I love this photo of her wearing her Daddy's LA Kings hat and what I called her "Daisy Mae" shirt. Is that expression a look of cuteness, or what!

I couldn't tell you what this little gal was so pleased about but this photo makes me smile! It captures her very fun personality! We were at the Hillsboro Rodeo. You'd think she'd just roped a calf, or something. Gotta love it!

And talk about exuberance! She and Aunt Renee had a blast on the water slide in Palm Springs last summer! We're all about making fun family memories! Kudos to Jeff for capturing the moment!

Allison is four months older than her cousin, Audrey. It's a shame they live so far apart because they have so much fun together. It sometimes seems as though they are glued to the hip.

Like at Christmas when they had fun playing their DS computer games. Lots of giggles.

When I visited California in March, one of my highlights was taking Katelyn and Allison shopping for their birthday gifts. Since their birthdays are just a month apart, we combined them into one fun shopping trip. This is a tradition I started when Cole was just a little guy. Target is our place of choice until they get to be tweens, then I have to "up my game". Lunch and/or a snack is always part of the routine. Wendy's was a tradition for the Moorpark Dewey kids - have to get those yummy frostees! We had such a fun afternoon! The sad thing for me was that neither Katelyn or Allison remembered doing this when they were little. We moved in 2006 so they were just six and four for their last birthday shopping trips with Grandma. Since then it's been gift cards in the mail.

More than being sisters, Kate and Allie are such good friends. I love that!

Allison and I are looking forward to celebrating our birthdays together this year. It won't be on the actual day, as we had hoped, but a few days later will be just as special.

Allison, Papa and I love you very much. Always keep Jesus in your heart! Happy birthday, sweetie - my special birthday gift!