10!

She never ceases to amaze me!
The last 10 she ends with a burp...that's what counting will do right after a big meal.

1st Birthday Party

Alison went to her first official birthday party today. Robby is a little boy that goes to Hope and he turned 4 today. The pictures I got aren't great, but I wanted to document the day. Alison's new found bigness hit me hard today. The shirt she's wearing is size 3T...and she's busting out of it! I put her in the baby swing and her feet were about a centimeter off the ground.They had a big bounce house and Alison was all about being in there. I thought she would be scared, especially with older kids screaming and running around, but she did a pretty good job holding her own.Today was also noteworthy, because it was a day Ben and I thought would never come...the day when we would have to call eachother Mommy and Daddy instead of Ben and Jen. We always said we wouldn't do it, but maybe it works better if your name is more complicated than Ben and Jen. William came over to play yesterday and after Alison heard him call me Jen all morning, she decided to join the club. This morning I called for Ben and Alison started repeating me. Ben and I have known too many teens call their parents by only their first names to let this trend continue. While it gave us good chuckle, we are officially only Mommy and Daddy from now on.

Doesn't she look older?

Ben and I decided today that Alison looks older. It's funny how there have been days in the last 21 months that we've just stopped and thought that all of the sudden she grew. Ben was relaxing after work, watching the History channel and Alison asked for a pillow and blanket (which she calls lillo and gokey) and laid on the floor in front of him, cute as a bug, and content to just be by her daddy.

It should have been...

a super fun weekend. But of course I had to get sick. Agh, I'm getting tired of getting every bug someone around me has. Alison fought a fever all week and I really hope she never felt as bad as I did. I wasn't able to go to church Sunday morning and Alison decided to take full advantage of daddy being gone and mommy being sick. She got into anything and everything she shouldn't. I caught her before she colored all over the walls, but I didn't catch her before she pulled out every single wipe from the container. She must have felt like she needed a good cleaning because she was scrubbing her little feet with them.I started feeling better this afternoon and although we had to cancel bbq plans with some friends, we were able to have our own grill out. Sitting at dinner I realized how much fun we missed out on this long weekend we had together, but then I looked over at this cute little girl and couldn't help but be thankful.

Finally!!!

We finally made it to the beach! Today was absolutely beautiful and Ben took the day off so we could spend some family time by the ocean. We went for a short bike ride and then spent a couple of hours lounging in the sand. Alison sat quietly and shoveled sand while Ben and I soaked up some sun. Ben took Alison for a short walk along the water and on the way back was trying encourage her to walk on her own (she's still not a fan of the sand on her feet). He set her down and took a few steps forward to encourage her to walk to him. Then, out of the blue, a soccer ball came flying through the air and whacked her on the head. Through her tears, we had to laugh a little. How ironic is it that the moment we're trying to encourage her, she is pummeled to the ground?!

P.S. The insulated bag worked amazing and much better than a cooler...if you're heading out for a day in the sun, I highly recommend it!

Happy See Do!

Alison loves the Happy Birthday song, except she says, "Happy See Do". But there was nothing better than hearing my little girl say, "Happy see do Mommy!". I confess that a good part of the morning she said Grandma instead of Mommy, but it still melted my heart.
Ben got up with Alison at 5:30 when the cat charged in her room, startled her and she was too scared to close her eyes again. He let me sleep in until 9 and then made Bubba's Benny for breakfast. If you've never had a Bubba's Benny, please find the closest First Watch and get one ASAP. Then he sent me to our room and I enjoyed some quiet time while he did something mysterious. I was called into Alison's room and found this...I asked to have a picnic on the beach for my birthday and of course Monday was cold and gloomy. But, Ben being the king of gifts, bought everything we'll need for our day on the beach; a big umbrella, a beach chair for me and Alison , and an insulated bag full of stuff for our picnic. I thought it was a very creative gift and I love it. Especially the bag! I love picnic baskets, but this is much more practical and so cute! After Alison's nap we bundled up and went for a walk by the river. Ben made pizza for dinner and we watched 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and ate 2 different kinds of peanut butter ice cream. I had a great birthday enjoying a relaxing day with Ben and Alison.

My mom came to visit this past week and we were busy having lots of fun. Of course all of my great plans got rained out-it rained the entire week! We resorted to shopping at the mall, going to the Y and of course making the long trek to WalMart for groceries. Saturday we walked around downtown Smithfield and stopped at the farmers market where Alison got to pet a chick.
Through one of our shopping trips, Alison insisted on carrying my purse. Though it was thoughtful, it was a tad bit obnoxious to have stop every couple of steps for her to hike it up on her shoulder to keep it from dragging on the floor and tripping over it. Grandma came to the rescue and picked up a little purse that won't drag on the floor.
Ben treated my mom and I to pedicures and dinner at the Crab Shack for Mother's day. We certainly felt pampered and loved. We even got to sit outside, over the James River, at dinner. The sound of waves crashing has some power to completely relax me...oh, I love it. After dinner we took a short walk on the beach and watched the sun set over the river.
The above picture was taken at dinner. Notice Alison's clench on the sippy cup. Apparently the sippy cup is the new binky. Alison's a trend setter in toddler world...soon you'll see all the kids with sippy cups attached to them.
I'm thankful my mom was able to come and see where I now call home. However, I'm not so thankful for her departure. I've heard, "Where Grandma?" a thousand times since she's left and Alison doesn't really care for my reasons why she had to go home.

Happy Friday!

Home again

I just got home from the Children Desiring God conference in Minneapolis. Shirley (the children's ministry director at Hope) and I squeezed in a trip to the Mall of America, and boy was it worth it. We only had 45 minutes in there and only skimmed the surface of everything to see, but it was still amazing. I'm in Lego land in the picture above, where as you can guess, everything was made of Legos. The conference was amazing and I'm so thankful I was given the opportunity to go. There's so much I could say about the conference that I think I need to start a whole other blog...I'll start working on that.

Fun Part 2

At the park:

Having Fun

While Jen is gone Alison and I (Ben) are having lots of fun! First we put smoochie in Alison's shopping cart, then I got her a tea set and caught her serving tea to smoochie. What can I say? Alison's best friend just might be a cat!