Hi-5!

Alison discovered a Hi-5 DVD in the library awhile ago and we've been hearing their very repetitive songs ever since. She loves them and Ben caught the wave and downloaded some of their songs for her. Now in the evenings, she'll sit with him in his office and they'll sing the songs together (occasionally a little dancing will break out too). You would think I would know the songs by now after hearing them a million times, but I don't. Ben on the other hand knows them all. He's the best dad there is. Tonight, Ben got home from work with a very hurt back. He crashed on the couch and Alison climbed on top of him to get some Daddy time. I couldn't resist capturing this sweet moment.

A few highlights of the week

*Started sleeping on an air mattress next to our bed to ease my hip pain at night but now can't sleep because I'm missing my hubby heater

*Tried to teach Alison that she doesn't need to follow me around the house asking what I'm doing without screaming at her to go away

*Cried because Ben brought me home pizza as dessert

*Excited to find that I'm still able to participate in kickboxing, power cut and step classes at the Y and was talked into training for a half marathon after the baby's born-thanks Julie...

*Thought we had a name picked for the baby until a baby on 'A Baby Story' was named the same thing

*Resulted to eating frosting straight from the container to console my sweet tooth after learning I had to wait until valentine's day to get my girl scout cookies.

*Alison thinks I also have a baby sister inside of me...and it's not in my belly...

*Had Alison's first real tea party, complete with real china. The healthy chocolate cake we made to go with it was HORRIBLE and so we had substitute frosted animal crackers with sprinkles.

*All of my healthy cooking attempts made this week have been complete flops: chocolate cake=the worst thing I've ever tasted. Baked macaroni and cheese=terrible. "Deceptively Delicious" grilled cheese sandwich=beyond gross. Something's telling me the baby really just needs some ice cream.

*Thought Ben was dead when I saw a cop car in front of his office. Someone had just been pulled over and I'm sure everyone in his office got a kick out of my frantic phone call.

*Squeezed myself into a swimsuit to take Alison swimming with some friends and was slightly
surprised when they invited us to join them once a week...we'll see how long that lasts.

*Finding life just a little bit better with a little caffeine.

*Really enjoying my read through the bible in a year plan-granted it's only been 21 days, it's still been very refreshing. Psalm 18:1 "I love you, O Lord, my strength" has been a huge blessing to me this week. I also found it ironic that the same morning I read Genesis 38, there was a little girl in child watch named Tamar. I can't stop wondering what I'm missing. Tamar...really?...I'm not sure that's who I would choose to name my child after. Seriously, what am I missing? Maybe I'll understand more after 2 Samuel....we'll see.

26 weeks

26 weeks isn't really a big milestone, but it was a changing week for me. 2 more weeks left of the 2nd trimester...only 2! I returned to the Y this week after a week of vacation and found everything to be different. I think I can say I'm officially done running. It was hard for me to admit it and I'm dreading getting back into it after baby boy comes. The baby got nestled nice and low this week and wedged himself against my bladder and spinal cord. Oh, I forgot to mention that this little guy is always turned backwards and kicks my back instead of my belly. Ben has only felt him move twice because he always has his back out. Needless to say, my back started hurting this week, but I tried prenatal Yoga yesterday and found it super helpful. I'm thankful that this is the first time in this whole pregnancy that I've had a complaint and am looking forward to 14 more weeks of getting ready for our little guy.

Vacation withdrawl

Coming home from vacation is always hard, but for some reason this time it's hitting me harder than normal. It was so nice to not have to think about cooking or cleaning for a week. I'm highly considering hiring someone to plan my meals and write out grocery lists for me. I didn't realize how spoiled I was last week until I got home. My dad gave Alison a bath every night and there was a house full of people to answer her million 2 year old questions. It's cute that she's talking more, but I get tired of answering, "Whatcha doin' Mommy?" by the end of the day. Oh, and I didn't have to lift Alison into her carseat once for a week-baby boy appreciated that perk. Yep, it's a good idea to have family live close by.
One of my favorite things about the trip was watching Alison and Katherine play together. The funny part was that Katherine kind of took the leadership role. One evening Katherine sat and carefully built towers out of blocks and then Alison would knock them over. We built them a small tent so they could go "camping" and Katherine was the one that would lift the blanket up and make Alison laugh. One evening Katherine took Alison's hand and drug her into the bathroom. She then tried to pull down her pants and said "potty". Alison was having issues with accidents while at Grandma's and Katherine was making sure she made it to the potty in time. You can also hear Alison say in the video that Katherine's her friend. We're big on friends these days and we're missing the company of cousin Kate.

Kansas

We started out our trip to Kansas stuck in the Virginia airport. We were never told why our plane was 2 hours late, but needless to say we missed our connecting flight in Detroit and were stuck for the night. I couldn't really complain though. I suspected we'd be stuck and pack some extra clothes for me and Alison. The airlines paid for our dinner, breakfast and hotel. The biggest perk: I got to see Julie and Andrea! We're all pregnant with #2, due in April and having boys. I so thankful they were willing to drive down to our hotel really late at night. I definitely don't miss all the snow and dreariness of Michigan, but I for sure miss these girls.


We finally arrived in Kansas the next day and soon got to meet Maggie.
She is the most precious baby and I just love being an aunt!











Grandma told Alison that she's not allowed to ask for snow ever again. Her wish came true and it snowed pretty much every day. It was too cold to let the girls go out for more than 3 minutes at a time, but they loved every second of those 3 minutes. Grandpa helped Alison build several snowmen and Aunt Beth taught her how to make a snow angel.










We spent a lot of time just sitting by the fire, working on puzzles and watching the kiddos play. We even got Ben in on the puzzles! It was exactly how vacation should be in my books.

We also celebrated my Dad's birthday while we were there. Alison was very excited to help Grandma bake the cake, put the candles in and help Grandpa blow them out.










Our week was full of seeing friends and catching up. It was so refreshing and made me long to live closer so we could see everyone more frequently.

Video from Thanksgiving

Need to post some videos from around Thanksgiving, here is one of when we visited the Battleship Wisconsin, needless to say it was windy:



And this one is from our backyard the day after Thanksgiving:

Going to Grandma's!

Alison has literally been talking every day about going to Grandma and Grandpa's for a MONTH now. I learned my lesson-don't tell her until the day we're going! She's had a plan for the trip for quite awhile and keeps adding to the list. First she's going to build a snowman with Grandpa (thank you weather for cooperating and giving us snow) and then she's going to ask Grandma for a carrot for his nose. Then she's going to come inside and have hot cocoa with baby Kate in Tinkerbell cups. My mom, by an ironic miracle, actually bought the girls Tinkerbell cups, not knowing that Alison had concocted this plan. Then Grandma's going to help her make a cake for Grandpa's birthday and her and cousin Kate are going to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him. I'm not really sure how she came up with all of her plans, but I do know that Grandma and Grandpa are going to be very busy. We've been counting down days until the trip and I was so glad I could finally say, "Tomorrow we're going!". However, tonight as we started gather things together, tomorrow just wasn't soon enough.
Can you also tell you much Alison loves tomato soup? She was devouring it so much at lunch today that Ben finally just gave her a straw.