Horton is soooo cute!

We sure had a fun family day today. Since we attended church last night we had a lazy morning around the house. This was nice! We then spent some time running errands and eating lunch out. After nap we headed out to see Horton Hears a Who. On the way there I realized that I'd heard of this book but I had no idea what the story was. Guess I missed reading that book as a kid. We all enjoyed the movie, even though I caught Scott snoozing half-way through it. :) Allison enjoyed it all- well, after the scary, loud previews were over. She is SO sensitive to sound and can't handle loud noises (long night last night with the thunder, let me tell you!), but once the movie started she sat still, laughed at appropriate times, asked good questions and enjoyed herself. With kids this age, it's really all about the snack. Bring their favorite snack along and they're happy. Or maybe that's just my kid- like mother like daughter.

I also wanted to show off a new pinafore Allison received from our friend and travel mate, Heather. She made some for her daughter and I really wanted her to make one for Allison. I LOVE the one she made for her- is it cute or what? It's not really pinafore weather, so I found a way to make it a more wintery outfit. Thanks, Heather- we LOVE it!!

I included videos of our morning at home. Scott is SUCH a fun daddy. Mommy is more of a rule follower, so it's good she has Daddy around to get her creative juices flowing. These videos make me laugh so hard- is he a good sport or what? :)

Going Down Memory Lane

A Fun Friday!

I have always loved Fridays- they are just fun days! I used to love them because it meant the last work day of the week, but since every day is a work day (or a free day, depending on people's moods in the house!), I enjoy them because it means tomorrow is Saturday and we get to be with Daddy all day long! :) This morning we had a GREAT MOPS meeting where our Pastor spoke to us about marriage. He is VERY humorous, so he had us all laughing several times. The message was wonderful, and it made me want to go home and be a better wife. After MOPS we used a gift card from Nana (I am OUT OF MONEY this month!) to have lunch at McDonalds- always a good time. Then my daughter took another one of her 3 hour naps. I'm not sure what's happening with her, but this is NOT normal! I myself took a good 2 hour nap and awoke just before Katie was scheduled to arrive for the evening!!

After we fed the girls dinner (gourmet pb&j, pretzels and oranges), we strollered (not a word but fun to write) over to our local park and let them play. It's good for Allison to be at the park with Katie because Katie is much more brave. Once Allison sees Katie do something she's much more likely to try it herself. So they both went down the big girl slides (okay, Allison had to have Daddy with her, but at least she went!) and had a ball! The cutest thing is when one of them would go to the bottom of the slide to "catch" the other. What a hoot! We would have stayed all evening, but the sun started to go down and it got cold fast. We headed home to play our new princess game (THANKS, Heather and Claire for the early b-day present!), and it was a big hit too. The girls were so cute in all their jewelry. I'd highly recommend this game to preschoolers - they both had a lot of fun with it. We then played and had some story time before bed. Now I'm headed to bed because Saturday morning music class always kicks me in the... gotta go- have a great weekend! :)

Where does the time go?

One thing is for sure- Easter morning must just be too hectic of a time to get a decent shot of my child. I couldn't find any really good, posed pictures on any Easter morning. None the less, it's fun to look back at beautiful dresses and amazing growth!! :)

Sooo close to spring weather

We're getting there, we really are. After a few rainy days, we ventured out today to play in the driveway. Bubbles and bikes were a hit, even though Allison really needs to grow another inch or so to be able to operate her tricycle. :) Before heading outside you can see how excited she was to get into her Easter basket for her afternoon snack. Allison isn't much of a climber, but she sure can use that bench to reach things she "needs". :)

Just for laughs

I may be the only one who finds this video hysterical, but I'm posting it anyway. She just cracks me up!

Cute Chicks!

I really do love my job. The best part about it is making my own schedule, for the most part anyway. The other night I was watching John and Kate Plus 8, and it was about how they were finding a way to take each kid on their own "special day" once a month, to make sure they could spend some alone time with them. At the end they commented on how neat it was to see all their expressions, hear all their questions, get to talk to them one on one. Now don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have more than one child, but it made me think how lucky I am to be able to have this one on one time with Allison and to spend every day with her while she's little. We have our moments, believe me, but every day is filled with joy for me, and hopefully for her too. I had to wait a long, long time to be a mom, so I am treasuring it.

Today we went to the library to check out books. When we arrived we noticed little chicks in a cage. I was so glad that we had all the time in the world to spend there. I just let Allison look at them, take pictures of them, talk about them, etc. No need to hurry. We didn't have to be anywhere in 1/2 hour or anything. It was nice. When we got to the back I realized we'd come on a "story time" day. I was excited and wanted to take advantage of the "activity!" I asked Allison, "Would you like to go in the room for story time and make a craft?" She said, "No, I'd just like to stay out here and look at all the books." Again, it was nice to do that. We didn't HAVE to do the activity just because it was there. We could just "be". I decided to call Daddy to see if he was free for lunch, and he was. I told him, "I'll call you when we leave here. i don't know when it will be." :) We ate at a yummy Mexican place, and a good time was had by all!

Since my blog serves as my diary, I wanted to remember how much I'm enjoying this season of life. I really enjoyed my job as a teacher. I loved creating lessons, presenting them, getting to know the kids, hanging out with my teacher friends ,all of it. But this is by far my favorite job! :)

So funny- just as I finished writing this, Allison starts yelling, "I want TWO SNACKS NOW!!" I tried to reason with her, telling her she could have a snack before bed, but she kept yelling, insisting she have something NOW! I still love my job, but it's not all roses! :)

Out of order

Despite my attempts, my posts came up out of order, so please scroll down to part 1 and read up to post 3- it will make more sense that way- sorry! :)

Easter weekend- part III

After church we changed clothes and headed to the new Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. Allison had no idea what the "surprise of the day" was, so it was fun to see her expression when we got there and she started seeing all sorts of Disney stuff around. She kept saying, "I'm just sooo excited!" It was adorable! We immediately bought her a princess t-shirt to wear and then let her have her picture taken with Cinderella (which in my opinion was a real rip-off since it was just a mannequin not even a real person- but whatever!) She enjoyed it as if it WAS a real person, making me re-think the whole plan of visiting Disney World next year- ha! Anyway, after purchasing the last treat (an Aeriel wand that plays a song and lights up- a MUST have, of course!) we thought we'd show Allison the stage before getting our lunch and heading in. Her reaction was VERY unexpected. I thought she'd be so excited to see the ice and all the decorations. Instead, she started crying - HARD!! Scott and I just looked at her, like, what is going on? At first we thought maybe it scared her? NOPE! Not our child. She starts sobbing, saying, "I want to BE IN THE SHOW!! I want to skate on the ice!!" HUH??? We had to explain to her that this was a show to just watch and that she couldn't go out on the ice. Throughout the whole show she wanted to go down and skate (mind you- she's never been in skates or had a lesson, but she didn't "get" that part), but she managed to enjoy herself very much and had fun watching her favorite characters perform. By the end of the show I was convinced that she needed ice skating lessons, so I'll look into that this fall.

The show was really fantastic- I enjoyed it as an adult and found it all very well done. My ONLY complaint would be the timing of the production. Most kids there were between 2-6 years old, but the show was at 2:00, when most kids are napping. You could toward the end of the show that most kids were zombies- looking like they might just fall asleep right then and there, despite the rings of fire on the ice and the lights flashing all around. It's just tough for preschoolers to be awake until 4:00 no matter what's happening around them. You can see from my last picture that Allison didn't last long once we hit the car. Scott and I were tired too, so we ended up spending another night in KC and heading home this morning. GOOD CHOICE! :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Easter Weekend- Part II

Before church this morning we had a LOT to do. We had to pack up our things for the trip back home, give Allison a bath, give Shay Shay a bath (she had to be clean for church after all!), and have an Easter egg hunt. It was a bit stressful, but we got it all done and had a good time. Some people suggested having the egg hunt inside, but that's no fun, so we donned coats and had our 3 minute hunt in the 34 degree cccccoooold!!! Allison was so excited and even stopped to shake the eggs to see what might be in them while some of the adults were inside, just wishing she'd hurry up!! :)


My favorite part of Easter weekend is of course going to church. Even though I really missed being at my own church on Sunday, it was nice to be at my parents' church because theirs is very traditional, so I knew we'd sing all my favorite Easter hymns, and such. Allison did VERY well for having to sit for over an hour and a half. OH MY! She also went up for the children's message at the front of the church. However, when the pastor said the kids could go back to their seats, she didn't really understand that, so she just started following the leaders up the stairs to the pulpit. OOPS!! I had to run up there and lead her back down. Scott said my cheeks were bright red! Sure wish I had a picture of THAT! :)

The best thing about church service was that my brother and his family joined us instead of going to their church. It was wonderful to have my whole family in church together on this very special day. My favorite picture is of Allison in her beautiful dress being held by her beautiful cousin Julie- precious!

Easter Weekend- Part I

We had a wonderful Easter weekend back in Kansas City. This post shows the fun Allison had with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Jenny, Aunt Sheila, Uncle Jeff, and cousins Abby and Caroline. We really got into decorating eggs this year. Aunt Sheila is the Martha Stewart of Scott's side of the family, so of course she had LOTS of Easter egg decorating options, and all 3 girls had a blast decorating them. We kept our simple but enjoyed seeing what creative things you could do with the eggs once you were a little bit older. :) Uncle Scott also had fun showing Abby how to use her new microscope. I love their matching hair color in the picture!

Once we were done with our eggs we headed back to Nana's house to leave them out for the Easter bunny. He would come in the night and hide them, along with some other eggs. Then he'd leave the basket full of fun treats. She had trouble falling asleep- almost like Christmas Eve! One funny thing happened that night I don't want to forget, so I'll write it here. In the middle of the night I heard her (she was sleeping in a big bed in a separate room, not in her crib, for the first time at Nana's), so I raced in there to make sure she was okay. I pushed open her door and heard something I'd never heard from her in the middle of the night- LAUGHTER! She was cracking up, not crying. I guess she was having a pretty funny dream. :)

Bowling, pizza, and Easter eggs

We headed out this afternoon to bowl with some friends. Allison can't really bowl yet, but we had fun anyway. She took about 40 pictures when we were there, mostly of my behind when I was bowling- you can thank me later for sparing you those pictures! We lasted 6 frames before she came over to me and said,"I want to go home and read Pokey Little Puppy".

Tonight Daddy and Allison made pizzas (yum!), so I took a shot of my very messy little girl. She sure was having fun, though. After dinner (which we all ate together in the living room while watching Kansas State (my alma mater) win their game- yeah!) we dyed one Easter egg. :) We bought stuff at Target today to do this weekend, but she really wanted to see how it worked, and since I had one egg in the fridge, we practiced and made a little princess Easter egg.

Allison has no idea what's in store for her this weekend. We're headed to KC to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. I can't wait because I know she's going to be shaking with excitement when we get there. I'm sure she'll enjoy celebrating Easter with some extended family too, but I'm betting it's the show she'll be talking about for weeks to come!

Tonight Allison had a tough time going to sleep, so I went in to snuggle one last time. We talked about the weekend...

"Tonight why don't you dream about Easter eggs and what color you want to make them."

"Will we color Easter eggs in Kansas City?"

"Yes!"

"Will we go on an Easter egg hunt?"

"Of course- it will be fun! We'll also go to church with Nana and Papaw on Easter Sunday!"

"And will we sing Christ the Lord is Risen Indeed... Hallelujah?"

"Yes, sweetie, we will for sure sing that song!"

Egg coloring kits: $1.49
Eggs: who knows- I just grab some
Bag of chocolate: $2.50
Easter dress: $50.00
Easter songs CD- $3.99

Knowing Jesus and the story of Easter: NOTHING- He already paid the price!!!

He is risen indeed!! Happy Easter, everyone! I look forward to sharing pictures and stories with you when we return Sunday night.

Friends

Today has been a good day. Allison and I had NO official plans or places we needed to be. It's been a long time since that has happened, and I think we both needed it. We've just taken our time with everything and had fun together. We headed to the mall this morning after baths and NiHao. :) We did all things kid including the book store, the carousel, the toy store, and the play area. We then had lunch at Panda Express- YUM! Allison has always been fun to hang out with, even when she was a lot smaller. She's so well behaved, and goes with the flow much better than I do, so it's just fun to do things with her. Since her verbal skills exploded so early in life, we've been having conversations for a long time, but now they are getting more interesting.

For example, today she wanted to know how orange chicken was made and how they made it so spicy. She's also just plain funny, and a bit manipulative. She had already eaten her fortune cookie, so when I got mine out after the meal she looked at me with this HUGE smile and said, "It's SO nice to share!"I just cracked up! She SO knows the right thing to say to get her way.

On the way home she started to get sleepy (this happened yesterday, where she DID fall asleep, which resulted in DAY TWO without a nap- UGH!), so I said, "Oh no, you are NOT falling asleep again! WAKE UP!" She then closed her eyes really tight, to pretend she was asleep and said, "I'm teasing you, Mommy! Look at me!" Thankfully she did not fall asleep, and right now it's silent upstairs, so I think I'll join her for a much needed nap.

The pictures are of Allison finally fitting into a KU shirt (at least as a nap shirt) that her cousin Jennifer gave her before she was born. I remember looking at it then and thinking, my child will never be THIS big! Ah, time does fly,and children DO grow! The other is just her looking sweet on our way to the mall.


Oh, and I couldn't resist taping her again today- hearing my child sing brings me such joy- especially when she's singing about Jesus. LOVE it!! :)

On the Mend

Update:

A funny story happened today, so I thought I'd share. I know many of you reading this are dealing with newly potty trained children or children yet to begin the process, so I know you'll appreciate this potty story. Sometimes when I ask Allison to potty and she says she doesn't have to (like when we're on our way out somewhere), I'll ask her to just try- to count to 10 and see what happens. She thinks it's a game, so now on those occasions she'll count to ten and purposely wait to start until she gets to 10. Sometimes 10 comes VERY quickly, other times it takes forever to get to 10.

Anyway, today she was in bed with me (my desperate attempt to get her to nap!), and after about 1/2 hour I turned away from her, hoping she'd get the hint to GO TO SLEEP (she never did get the hint), but all of a sudden I hear her say, "One, two, three..." I turned around quickly and said, "What are you doing? Are you going to potty on 10?" She said, with total innocence, "Yes, I am!" I said, "Oh no you're not!" and I quickly got her off the bed and headed toward the bathroom, where she promptly went potty. WHEW!! That was close! :( The scary part is that she's been diaper-free since October. Obviously we are not "all the way trained" quite yet!








Allison is feeling much better- thanks for all the well wishes! We've done a LOT of indoor playing the last few days, but I think the worst is over, and now she's just coughing a bit at night. Yeah!

Thought I'd include a look at what you do when you're stuck inside- you have indoor picnics, build tents, etc. All in all it hasn't been that bad, really.

Wish I had interesting stories to write today, but really, nothing interesting has happened!

I did include a "picture of a picture" in this post. Allison visited the Easter bunny last week at the mall and was beside herself with joy! I've been a sucker the last 2 years, buying the picture package, but this is the first year I actually liked the picture, so I thought I'd share. :)

Our 1st ER visit

I knew we couldn't avoid the ER forever. Everyone I know has taken their kiddo there at one time or another, so I knew someday it would be us. Fortunately ours wasn't a real emergency- just a case of 1st time parents who wanted to make sure their baby was okay. At about 1:30 AM Allison awoke with a horrible cough and was crying a lot. She was having trouble breathing and had hoarseness in her voice. We'd never heard this kind of cough before, and for awhile we thought she might have something stuck in her throat. We decided to bring her to the hospital just to check it out, and it ended up being croup. The doctor said they get all their croup patients between midnight and two in the morning since that's when it's most likely to erupt. We felt very "normal", but we got some ideas on how we can handle it at home next time.

She was VERY brave at the hospital and of course ended up charming all the nurses and doctors. That's our girl! She was very inquisitive of everything in the hospital, including the bedpans, which Scott told her were bins in which people could store their things. Good one, honey! :) At the end of her visit she received a "boo boo bear", a small stuffed bear made by women from a local church. You would have thought she received something of GREAT value-she was kissing it and hugging it as if she'd never seen anything so wonderful. In the middle of the doctor's visit, he mentioned that popsicles might make her feel better, so of course she picked up on that! "We have popsicles at home!!"

We were very thankful that all she had was a virus and that she'd be all better in a few days. We were also very thankful that when we returned home after 3:00 AM, she went straight to sleep and didn't wake up until almost 9:00. :)

Fun and fellowship

Two Fridays a month I get a break from one of my true loves (my child) to spend time with another true love-my MOPS group! Even though as coordinator it's not really a "break" for me, it is a break from my child. I went an entire two hours without anyone asking me WHY. I went two hours without asking anyone if they needed to go potty. You get the drift. I got a break. We all need these breaks, and I cherish mine.

Today we welcomed a speaker who shared with us the wonder of our spiritual gifts, given to us by God. I've taken the survey before, and my gift is faith. I think after our battle with infertility and subsequent adoption of Allison, my faith has grown by leaps and bounds. God truly is in control of my life and guides me every day. Don't get me wrong- I don't always follow Him as I should- we are, after all, sinners- but I do know He's guiding me and wants me to make good choices. MOPS is a place where mothers of preschoolers can find some time away from our little ones and gain strength from others who are in the same boat. We're also fortunate enough to have Mentor Moms at each table- someone who's been there/done that to listen to us, give us advice, and assure us that God is always there for us. Our group is truly blessed, and it has been a joy to lead the group this year. Next year I'll be handing the reigns over to new leadership. It will be wonderful to sit back and be fed (literally and figuratively) by the group again and to watch new leaders emerge in our church.

My other true love is taking me out on date night tonight. I even got to pick the movie- what a treat!! He really is the love of my life and the best husband I could have even asked for- and believe me, I asked! :) I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend with your true loves, whatever or whomever they may be.

One of those days...

We've all had them- those days where you get in the car, headed out to start your day, but you feel like you've already had a full day and you need a nap!! That's been my day. One thing after another has just added stress to an otherwise lovely day. I need a nap!

We had a fun morning at our friend Morgan's house today. She has lots of fun toys and books, so a good time was had by all. We then decided to extend our play date to include going out to lunch- always fun! Pasta bowls at Fazoli's were enjoyed by everyone!

The video I included is for those of you out there whose little girls are enjoying the new NiHao show as much as we are. Allison's favorite episode is "Wait Hoho, Wait!", where sweet little HoHo has a tough time being patient. She runs around repeating the song, "When waiting is very hard for you, just do something you like...to...do!!" all day long. I LOVE the lesson, and we've actually called upon it a few times, so that's nice. Enjoy!