Our new home

Check out the slide show for pictures of our new home in Smithfield Virginia! So far we love it and are having fun settling in. I'll update pictures as more stuff gets put away and decorations are put up, but for now we're still trying to find the necessities. It was a beautiful 60 degree, sunny day today and we are loving all extra vitamin D. It's so bright that Alison has had to take naps in her closet, which is okay by her since it's the size of her old room.

Merry Christmas!

We drove to Tennessee to spend Christmas with the Shear family. The tree was the first thing to catch my eye as we walked in the door. I had talked to Rachel about presents and told her to just get some small things since we were driving the Honda to Virginia. All I had to say was, "Um, Rachel...that does not look small." Christmas Eve we all opened up pajamas and an ornament. Rick let Alison open a special present from him. It was a bear that has a pouch in the tummy that you can heat up and smells like lavender. It's supposed to be calming and relaxing and I can testify that it truly works. Thanks Poppy!
Christmas Morning, Alison and I were up at 5 (not by my choice) and when we ventured down stairs for some milk, we found Cheyenne and Kaitlyn already sitting on the couch waiting to open presents. 6am was the official call time, but I appreciated the company so early in the morning. We munched on cookies all morning while we opened presents, which was a lot of cookies considering it took us until 10:00 to finish. Alison of course enjoyed going person to person getting bites of different cookies.
One of Alison's favorite gifts was an Elmo computer and spent most of the morning by Aunt Cie watching her take pictures with her new camera.
Alison fell asleep in daddy's arms in the middle of opening presents. We opened the rest of her gifts for her and she was just as surprised when she woke up.
It was so nice outside that we went to fly kites with Aunt Chey. I loved being able to be outside without a coat on in the middle of winter.

Our trip was refreshing and just what we needed in the middle of this big transition. Ben and I took turns being sick and were very thankful for extra help and care. The only bummer of the trip is I picked the day Sophie had planned a day at the spa for us to be very sick. Hopefully we'll get to reschedule, but I was really looking forward to some pampering.

Our last Sunday at Knox

Our last Sunday at Knox was an emotional day. During both services we did the advent part of the service and then the elders prayed for us. After the second service they had a reception for us where they gave us some small gifts and took up a love offering. I felt kind of like I was at our wedding reception because we stood in place while everyone came to talk to us and we didn't get to eat any of the food. Except on this occasion each conversation was a tearful goodbye. That night we had a Christmas party with the Sr. High. After a white elephant gift exchange, Ben sang some songs with the kids. Most were our favorite Christmas songs and we ended with Ben's favorite worship song since that's what all Christmas songs should do-turn us to worship Christ. One of the most beautiful things is hearing kids worship and I just had to capture this memory.

"Everything I am is for your glory. Everything I am is for you alone."
These are the words to the chorus of this song and it resonates deeply within me. I hope this is forever the song of my family's heart. I pray that we will forever live our life all for God's glory; giving all things to Him. It especially hits me as I listen to Ben beautifully sing the words. God has poured blessing after blessing upon Ben and he uses every gift he is given for Christ. Ben could easily choose to follow a career that would make lots more money and to the world's expectations make him far more successful, but he daily chooses to give all of himself to Christ.
Our hardest goodbye was to the Marlow's. We instantly became friends with them when we moved to Michigan and have lots of wonderful memories with them. Andrea and I were pregnant at the same time and had the babies only 6 weeks apart from eachother. Every time we get in car Alison says, "Jesse!" because she thinks we're going to church to see him...which is often the case. They are the most generous and serving people I've met and I'm going to miss them terribly.

Loading Day/ 5 year Anniversary!!!

Some High School boys came over this afternoon to help us load the POD and my friend Julie took Alison for the afternoon so we didn't have to worry about her escaping. The floor of the POD was super slippery because of all the snow, making it hard to move stuff in. However, the boys didn't seemed phased by the challenge and had fun creating ways to get boxes to the POD. They used the lawn mower and stroller as dollies. I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of these boys pushing around the stroller.
They even put some stuff in the bike trailer and rode the bike up and down the driveway taking loads. I was really moved by these boys willingness to serve wholeheartedly and beyond what we expected. I had one box left to finish and by the time I took it to the POD all of the boxes were already moved in.
Our house is empty and the floors are a complete mess. When everything was said and done, we went to dinner as a family to Olive Garden (we've gone there for a lot of special occasions while in Michigan...finding out we were pregnant, last date before Alison's arrival, celebration of all baby weight off, accepting job at Hope) and enjoyed our usual Zupa Tuscana with warm breadsticks. The past five years have been so full and I hope the next five are just as great. Ben said sweetly in his note to me that he's fallen in love with me more each day these past five years and it really struck me. Not only because I was jealous he got the better line, but how true it really is for me. I've learned so much about Ben throughout our marriage and I love how it never ends and only brings us more in love. It took me until this year to learn that Ben is amazing at making stuff up at the drop of the hat. Most of the time he doesn't even fully know what he's talking about but is so conviencing that you believe him. I know this may sound like a bad thing...it's really not, but what amazes me is that it took me 5 years (well I guess more like 8) to figure that out. For all these years I've just taken his word. Simple things like this make me love Ben more because I know who he is better. I knew when we got married really young that I would have moments of "what was I thinking?!" but I underestimated how amazing it would be.
Tomorrow is our last day at Knox and will be full of tearful goodbyes. Then we're off to Tennessee Monday morning with a car loaded of kitties, presents and entertainment. I'm sure it will be an adventure I'll never forget.

It's a blizzard!!!

I was woken early this morning by a teething kiddo. When I sat down on the couch to get cozy and watch some Sesame Street, I found a blizzard was right outside. All schools were canceled and the news poured in stories of horrible road conditions. Of course this was the one morning we really needed to get out! It was Ben's last day in the office and we needed to pick the Honda up from the shop. Apparently the crazy black squirrels in Michigan like to not only eat through your trash bags, but they like to eat your car wiring as well. Yep, that's right. A squirrel (or as the dealer put it, some small animal) chewed through a wiring panel under our car and the whole shebang had to be replaced. Thanks to the "small animal" insurance covered it and we were spared the couple thousand dollar bill. Conveniently this all happened a couple of days before Ben was supposed to drive it down to Virginia. So, being the prayerfully flexible people that we are, we rented a car and Ben drove the van down instead. Well, my prayer was answered and the Honda was fixed and the insurance mess was taken care of before we have to leave Michigan. However, when I looked outside this morning I decided it was worth the money to have the rental car for one more day and I tried to convince Ben to stay home from work. He wasn't persuaded and ventured out to shovel the driveway. Alison and I spent the day at home staying warm and finishing up some packing. Once it stopped snowing we went outside, but only for a couple of minutes since we were not snow-proof. I really wanted to throw her in the huge mound of snow and teach her how to make snow angels...maybe next year. I watched several cars throughout the day get stuck in our street and spend hours trying to get out. I wanted to help, but I knew me and a 1 year old were not really going to do more than lend moral support. Our POD was supposed to get to our house between 12 and 4pm. They called Ben and told him that because of the weather it might not make it here today and they don't deliver on the weekend. The Lord was gracious to us again and the POD did eventually make it to our house. Ben got home around 6 and shoveled the driveway for the second time (as George Boomer said this morning, "what's worse than shoveling a foot of snow is knowing that you have a snow blower in the garage-but it won't start"). I made a phone call and then realized that I hadn't heard Ben for awhile and began to worry. I know I'm the biggest worry-wort, but I went outside to check on him anyway. I walked around the house and there still was no sign of him. As I made my way to the front, I saw our huge POD at the end of the street...stuck...with a little silhouette of Ben shoveling it out. Ben was my hero today. He shoveled the driveway, dug out a POD, made moving arrangements, bought groceries and made pizza for dinner. He can't move his arms right now, but he's still my hero.

My little helper

My mom brought us some Christmas presents this past weekend when she came to visit. No surprise here, Alison was in love with the BAG. Although her love for bags is cute I was somewhat disappointed because my mom bought Alison her first baby doll. The past couple of times we've been in the toy section Alison has yelled repeatedly "BABY". I knew for sure she would love this gift. However, the gift was opened, the baby was thrown on the floor and she began filling the bag with all of her books.
My mom and sister were here to help me pack, so of course there was a lot of commotion. This morning I began filling a box of stuff from the pantry for Beth to take home with her. Alison came over and took over my job. It dawned on me that for the past couple of weeks she has watched me do this motion a lot. She had picked up on my actions to a 'T' and filled the box without me asking her to. In the video I'm telling her to put it the box because from behind the camera it looked like she was going to wonder away, but really she was just walking to the other side of the box. So Alison packed the box for Aunt Beth and even tried to sneak a few extra surprises in there.

Pictures

THANK YOU NANA FOR THE DRESS, PURSE AND DUCK!!!
I just couldn't get a good picture so I took a short clip so you could see all her cuteness. Thanks Elizabeth for all your hard work in making this dress. The first thing Alison wanted was the duck and loved using the purse as a hat. I wonder when the day will come that she uses things as they are intended.

Beth, baby Kate and my mom are to help me get ready to move. Beth suggested that we get the girls pictures taken for the grandparent's Christmas present. I thought it was a great idea and jumped on board. We took the girls today to Sear's and I quickly wanted to jump off the boat. Alison wouldn't stop moving and baby Kate was really fussy. We got a couple decent pictures, but I wasn't impressed with their efforts to make the kids happy. Then of course we got the big long talk about spending hundreds of dollars on the packages. I refused to be sucked in. I ordered a couple of sheets and got out 2 hours later with 2 cranky kids and a headache, but saved over $100. Most things can be cured with Mexican food, so we stopped at Abuelo's on the way home. When we got home Beth said we should try taking some our own pictures. I popped Baby Einstein in expecting some smiles. Instead I got Alison zoned out on the TV screen and Kate still fussing.
Kate doesn't like anyone touching her except Beth...so this picture is historic.

We Have a Home!!!

We officially have a home in Smithfield Virginia!!! It was a long, and not completely over process. I looked at a condo across the street from Ben's new office on my trip and really liked it. They told me we couldn't live there because of our cats but a couple of days later called back to say that the builder was finishing up a couple units and was going to rent them out. We sent them an application and a deposit and waited to hear what unit we would live in. Weeks went by and they kept saying that they were waiting for the builder to sign papers over so they could lease them out. It turns out that the builder decided to lease them out themselves and didn't do such a great job communicating that to the realtor we were talking with. So she's sending us our deposit back and we've contacted the builder directly. The lease papers are signed and we are set to go (minus the fact we're still waiting for our large check to get back to us so we can turn around and get it to the right people). Ben's driving the car down next Monday and then flying back so we can all drive together when we move. I'm thankful that he can take a car full of nessessities with him so we won't have to worry about it first thing when we get there. So, here are the pictures of our new home on Ginger Loop (why, oh why do we get the funkiest street names?).

George graciously took these pictures for us. I don't have a clue who the man is in the shot, but it's not George. Kitchen (with new, clean appliances!) and dining room

Living room with a gas fireplace looking into the veranda (big room with lots of windows) and master bedroom. I'm so thankful to have a fireplace. I always wanted one here in Michigan, where I needed it the most!
New bathtub that's mold free!!!
Walk in closet. I fully appreciate closet space now. The house we live in now only has one closet. I'm not sure how we've made it all these years. Actually, now that I look at it, this closet is about the size of Alison current room. Oh, I can't wait to get her some new toys and make her room a really fun play room.
This is why Ben wanted the place. I hope he actually parks in it. Not that he'll ever use his car, since the office is two steps away. It makes my heart pitter patter when I think of all the money we'll save in our gas budget.

This is how Alison felt when she heard the news

Everybody's been asking me how packing is going. Packing is going fine, except that every time I work on it I feel guilty. I know it's something that has to be done, but look what has happened to my baby.

I usually only put Sesame Street at 9 and during that time Alison usually plays until Elmo's World comes on during the last 15 minutes. Well, lately she's been sitting quietly in her princess chair for the entire thing. So when I let her watch 3 Sesame Streets a day...that's a lot of sitting! Granted it is cold and flu season and I'm working extra hard to keep this kiddo sick free, so a little rest won't harm her, but I don't want her to turn into a TV head! I was feeling so guilty today(for goodness sakes I've even resulted to letting her have her binki during non-nap time), but I kept reassuring myself that it's only for a short time. As soon as we get to Virginia we're getting her the best play room around and there will be no more sitting.

Since we can't decorate the house for Christmas I've been playing Christmas music non-stop. Ben whipped out this piano, that we've been storing our entire marriage that I've never actually seen, so we could sing some songs tonight as a family. This is a clip of Alison trying to sing with daddy as he was warming up the piano.

Let It Snow!

It snowed a couple of inches the other day so Alison and I headed out to play. It was short and sweet, but lots of fun. I have so many great memories of playing in the snow; sledding, playing games and building forts. I hope Alison has some great memories of the snow too.

My Little Princess

Alison wearing daddy's hat.

Row Your Boat

Today was the day of not getting the video I wanted, but the poor quality clips will have to do.
A couple of times I've sang 'Row Row Your Boat' with Alison just goofing around. I'll take her hands in mine and pretend we're rowing a boat. Tonight Ben was making pizza and I was making a pecan pie and Alison ran in the kitchen and said, "Row, row" and did the rowing motion. I was amazed at my little genius. We sang the song this morning, but that was 10 hours ago! She sang the song all the way through her bath but by the time we got the camera ready she was way past tired...I'll try again in the morning to get a really good take of the song.

We Love Kitties!

Elizabeth posted some kitty videos on her blog for Alison to watch. She was so excited! I still haven't captured the essence of Alison's passion for kitties on video. I attempted this morning and failed...but I caught something else. Check out Alison's outfit. I was putting on my big, warm socks this morning and Alison came running up and said, "Sock please!!!". She plopped down on the floor and flung her feet up in the air. I caved into her ultra cuteness and let her wear my socks (on top of the three layers she was already wearing). They covered her entire leg!

A Shear Family Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and I'm sad to see the relaxing weekend leave as we enter into an extremely busy month. Elizabeth and Kent drove all the way from Boston to spend the weekend with us. This was our second Thanksgiving with them in Michigan and I love the traditions we've started. Most of them revolve around food and this year we added to the list spinach artichoke dip and sweet potatoes. Elizabeth taught us how to make tea pasteries; a traditional breakfast she made for Ben as a kid. He used to call them pea tasties and I'm excited to see what Alison calls them throughout the years.
With all the excitement going on in the kitchen Thanksgiving afternoon, Alison had a hard time getting in a good nap. Eventually I went into her room and rocked with her for about an hour. I sat there thinking about how truly thankful I am for the gift God gave me-a beautiful little girl. It was so refreshing to be able to hold my precious baby and reflect on all of the amazing blessings God has poured into my life.

After a long time of cuddling, Alison was up ready to go! Nana and Grandad brought early Christmas presents, so before dinner we opened gifts. Alison was more excited about the bag they brought the gifts in than the actual presents. Every time I'm around Elizabeth and I understand a little more about Ben. They're both great cooks, love computer games and books, and are the best gift givers ever. Ironically though, Elizabeth and I have the exact same taste in clothes (However she is a million times better in actually executing the style) so I definitely won in the present department with a new sweater from the Gap. They also graciously left the blue bag for Alison along with her presents.
Alison soaked in the extra people to read her books. We all got a little pooped out of reading the same book over and over and encouraged her to read to herself. I thought it was cute that she was quietly mumbling to herself while sitting at the table flipping through the pages. The above picture is the face I get when I ask her to say, "Cheese!".

I still went into the office Saturday morning and I came home to find that Ben had done Alison's hair. He actually did a really good job. I think we all got a lot out of this weekend, whether it be good food, relaxation or time to learn new things. I know Alison fell deeper in love with kitties while Nana and Grandad were here. Elizabeth brought her laptop and showed Alison a kitty video on it once. From then on, Alison would stand at her legs and say, "Up please!" and then holler, "Meow!? Meow!? Meow!?" begging for more kitty movies. Once she became so desperate to see a kitty video that she began signing please on Elizabeth's chest, just to make sure we all knew she was trying to be polite but really needed to see another kitty. For me, I reflected a lot on family. I also learned one big thing. This is going to sound like a stupid story, but it's true. One evening we were all watching 'What not to wear' and were having a fun time laughing at the "victim". I can't remember exactly what the lady said, but she was frustrated with shopping and her confidence level was in the dumpster. Elizabeth said, "Huh, that sounds familar" and it hit me. I'm just like the victim! I waste so much energy being frustrated with stupid things and have absolutely no confidence in things that I'm perfectly good at.

Later on Saturday we went shopping at Somerset. I'm still in somewhat of a clothing crises and I thought with my own "what not to wear" crew, I might be able to find something that looked good. As we were leaving the crazy busy mall we got into a funny conversation about college student attire. We all think it's funny that wearing tights as pants with ugs and messy hair is a fashion style. Well, last night I was folding laundry and Alison snagged my pink fuzzy socks and put them over her pants. She looked just like one of the college students we were making fun of!

I'm so thankful for everything God has given me; for a wonderful family, for a faithful and loving husband, for a spunky little girl who is the spice of my life, for our health, for His Son and the forgiveness he gives me every day.

Daddy's Girl?

(Ben Posting)
Last weekend we went to Kansas. I hunted a lot with Jen's Dad. We went pheasant and duck hunting. Tonight Alison found my call and hat and decided she would be like Dad. Does it get any better than this? In the photo below she has a ball tucked under her shirt, my cell phone in her hand, duck calls around her neck, and a hunting hat on her head. I had to grab the phone from her before she called China or 911, but I let her play with the rest.

Home Again

We just got home from visiting my parents today. Ben and my dad had planned a hunting trip, so Alison and I tagged along to see Grandma. I always love going back to Lawrence, but this time it was especially refreshing. It was so sunny and much warmer than here in Michigan. My mom and I had a great time shopping and learning about Thanksgiving on the Food Network. I also got to spend some time with my good friend Cara. She is an amazing friend and I love the relationship that we have. No matter how far apart we are or how long it's been since we've talked, we pick up right where we left off. I was so glad my parents got to see Alison at this stage. She's learning so many things every day and besides not being able to take a good picture, she's really fun to be around.

A quick update

Alison had her 15 month check up today and I'm happy to inform you that she is completely healthy and normal. She's developmentally right on track and is still tall and skinny (she's been in the 90th percentile for height her whole life).
As for housing, we have been approved to live in the townhouse but Ben is set on the condo which we haven't heard anything from. I wanted to have a decision made 2 weeks ago and here we are still waiting to hear back from people. It's a good thing I went early to look at places.

Ring Around the Rosies

Andrea and I played ring around the rosy the other day with the kids and Alison fell in love with it. Tonight was the first time we got Ben to play and we were rolling on the floor laughing at her way of communicating to us she wanted to play again.

Moo, Baa, La La La

Alison has always loved books, but it's turned into an obsession. All she wants to do is read the same book over and over. Ben and I both have the book 'Moo, Baa, La La La' memorized and she now will take our hand and make us point at the pictures. Well, needless to say, she has the animal sounds down pretty good.

Housing update

I'm sure there will be lots of these in the coming weeks. I got a call from the mean lady at the condo I was in love with today. She said there is a section of condos that will be finished next month and the builder is renting them out. She said the price is in our range and they will accept cats. Ironic, huh? I told her we already put an application in somewhere else but if it fell through I would give her a call. I called Ben and he said he had a hunch they would call back. I did too. They passed up on a great opportunity. But they blew me off, so part of me wanted to blow them off right back. I called Abby because she was the only one who was with me and saw all the properties in person. She said, "Jen! Are you crazy?! You loved that place...you call her back right now!" So I took her advice and called the lady back and said we would like to consider the property, but would like George to come look at it before we decided anything. I didn't see any condos that looked under construction so I'm curious to see the location of them. I'm thankful to have more options though. We haven't heard an official yes or no from the townhouse so if that falls through it will be nice to have a backup.

We're trying to teach Alison how to say,"One, two, three". She can say 'three' but I think that's because she's often tickled after it. So tonight we started showing her how to show the numbers on her fingers and say the words. Here she is showing us 'one'...with a colander on her head...oh, the joys of being a kid.,

House Hunting

I ventured down to Virginia Saturday afternoon to find a place for us to live. Abby asked if she could meet me down there to help and I'm so thankful she did. I had to take two flights down there (which I don't recommend!) and by the time I got to Charlotte for my layover I was about in tears. The plane was extremely small and the flight attendant wouldn't let me keep the diaper bag with me. Alison had a tantrum the entire flight. Oh, I forgot to add that I had the brilliant idea that I would just take a small bag with me so I didn't have to pay extra to check a bag. My brilliant plan hit a small snag when I forgot about the 3oz limit and all of my toiletries were thrown away. So back to my adventures. I sat down in the Charlotte terminal about to whip out my phone to call Ben to tell him how miserable I was when a lady came up to me and said, "Why don't you come sit with me?" I had an annoyed look on my face as I looked up at the crazy lady when I realized it was Abby! She lied to me and told me that she had a direct flight to Virginia but had figured out my route and surprised me in Charlotte! It was the biggest blessing ever! The next leg of the trip went much smoother. Tim was with her because he was going down for some Coast Guard training, so he was very helpful in carrying my stuff and he was somewhat familiar with the area. After finding the rental car we went on a search for Target to replace my confiscated toiletries and we were all pleasantly surprised to find a Chik-fil-a right next to it. We had a wonderful dinner and then drove to our hosts house. We stayed with the Neel's, a retired couple that goes to Hope. They were wonderful hosts and had a gorgeous house that looked like it was cut right out of a magazine. They had a screened in porch in the middle of huge trees, overlooking a lake. There was a fireplace out there and we had fun spending an evening snuggled under blankets, eating popcorn and talking by the fire.I looked at 4 houses, a condo and a townhouse to rent. It was a small list but those were all of my options in our price range to rent. All of the houses were somewhat dumpy, but would work if it came down to desperately needing a place to live. Abby and I had the best laugh when we walked into one that was painted neon green with purple trim. The condo was a little more than we could afford and I originally took it off the list because George told me that you had to be over 55 to live there. The realtor explained that it originally was built for that purpose but took too long to built and lost that demographic so they opened it up to everyone. She encouraged me to look at it and I fell in love with it. It was right across the street from Ben's soon-to-be office and had a two car garage. It had a fireplace, attic space, was new and was a ranch (I like not having to deal with stairs and Alison). The realtor gave me an application and told me that it wouldn't be a problem getting our cats approved to live there and was sure we could talk them down on the price since it had been up for rent for a long time. The morning I left I looked at a townhouse that we had already turned an application in for but had only seen pictures online. It was right across from the pool, has 2 master suites, a loft and 2.5 bathrooms. It's only a couple of years old, has a nice kitchen and most importantly, is affordable. The down side to it is that it doesn't have a garage or storage or a yard. But there's parking right infront of the unit and there is a neighborhood connected to it that would be great for walks or bike rides. I put a call into the realtor for the condo and asked if we could get the cats approved and if they would consider taking the price down any. She called back later saying that they absolutely would not tolerate cats and I suppose were somewhat insulted I asked for a lower price because she was very rude. With a big fat "NO" and a door slammed in my face, I began to sulk. However, my spirits were slightly lifted when I found out that 52 widows are currently living in the complex. My thoughts immediately went to how awkward swimming in the community pool would be. So I sent the townhouse people a check so they could officially process our application yesterday. I almost called them out on the absurd amount of money they wanted to run our credit, but I learned my lesson in accidentally insulting people. I found that sometimes it's better to be naive. We run credit reports all the time at the bank and I know how much it really costs. I found this to also be true at trying to open up a bank account in Virginia. I was informed that they wouldn't open an account for me until I have a drivers license that has a Virginia address on it. The regulation requires an ID, address and date of birth...it absolutely does not matter where I live. If they think I'm suspicious then they can put a code on my account to monitor me but to refuse my service, well, I was speachless. Looking back, I really see God's hand holding me back. Oh, the things I should have said to that woman who's desk said she was the assistant manager.
I left Virginia with no home secured, no bank account and missing two sippy cups (I feel sorry for whoever finds them under the seats in the plane and rental car). I felt somewhat like a failure, but am prayerfully hopeful that the townhouse will come through.

Now, a little for your entertainment from non other that little Alison Louise. If you ever wonder how much kids really learn from Elmo, here's your proof. We have never shown Alison the sign for banana, probably because she can say the actual word, but this morning she got out of bed and said "nana" and then signed 'banana' and 'please'. Ben and I were wondering where she learned this from and I realized that there's a segment in Elmo that shows some signs and banana is one of them. I was even more amazed when I realized it's been awhile since she's seen the video.

I apologize for the whining at the end. She's saying, "I've asked for a banana a hundred times already and said please! Will you just give me breakfast already!"

Do you ever wonder how much Alison loves milk?

Happy 15 months!

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day! It was so nice to be able to play outside. For us that really means Alison wondering around and trying to find things to climb on, but it still gets us some fresh air. I can't believe my peanut is 15 months today and I've seen her change so much in the last week, I can only imagine what the next few months have in store for me.

I planned a fun family evening for us since it's Halloween and Alison's 15 month "birthday". We were going to make pizza (which we do every friday night, but it's so yummy!!), carve a pumpkin, roast the seeds, drink hot cider and eat apple crisp and caramel popcorn while playing sequence. We made it through the pizza, pumpkin, cider and crisp...and then pooped out. Alison went to bed and Ben and I watched Fear Factor. We used to watch that show all the time when we were in college and it fit the evening pretty well. I still had a blast relaxing with my family and I hope Alison grows up knowing that you can have the best fun right at home. Speaking of being home, I was really nervous about all the trick-or-treaters out tonight. Ben even took off our doorbell! I was just sure it would be so loud and obnoxious (since it's that way on a normal night, I figured it would be ten times worse), but it was completely silent. Not a single kid was outside. It actually made me really sad. Either it's illegal here and I just don't know it, or everyone is too scared to go out (i.e. me) or they're all down in Detroit starting fires. Any of those choices is just plain sad. Or maybe my nemesis ice cream man ate them all up! Oh, I should add, I didn't dress Alison up for multiple reasons. But I did put her in a Winnie the Pooh T-shirt that lit up. Someone from church gave it to her and she's never worn it so I figured it would be a treat. With some crazy pigtails, her 2nd halloween costume was complete.