8 Months for Allison

Is it April already?! I can't believe my niece is about to celebrate her first birthday and that my daughter is eight months old! Allison is making the time fly by. She's changing so much and mastering skills much quicker than I thought she would. She is an absolute blast! We love her so much and can't get enough of her. I am just thrilled to talk about her in this post!!

The day after Alli turned seven months, she figured out how to sit herself up. About a week later, she began the first stage of crawling. Now, she's all over the place. {I wish that I had this progression on video. I have some footage, but not much...and not at each stage of crawling.} She went from crawling across the rug to crawling down the hall. She's all over the place in the kitchen while I'm cooking, and sometimes I have to go get her after she's wandered off to discover another room. She's found Jackson's easel and all of his paintbrushes and dry-erase markers. She likes looking out the shutters and the back door. The world is so new to her and she's not afraid to venture out and find out what is has to offer.

Allison has the best personality. She is SO happy! Jackson and I love walking in my room (or rolling over if we're still asleep) when she wakes up in the morning. She is SUPER happy to see us and greets the day with much enthusiasm. She loves to sit and play with toys, pull up on anything within reach, and crawl around to find new and exiting things to put in her mouth.

She still only has two front teeth, which hurt very badly when she chews on my finger, but she has had a few "teething" days when I've wondered if the top two will make their appearance really soon. With her two teeth, she's figured out how to chew some foods. She still hasn't been a huge fan of purees {although I haven't tried them a ton} but she does like things she can pick up and bite. I've given her peas, cooked carrots, raw carrots, apples, strawberries, bananas, baked potato, avocado, and just today, raspberries. She loved them! Momma's milk is still her preferred cuisine and it seems to be treating her body good. I'm not sure how much she weighs, but Sister is rivaling Jackson's thighs:

This is a photo of Jackson just before he turned 9 months:

She's just as fat as a little bear and we love it. Jason calls her Chunker Bear, and we love kissing her cheeks and tickling her rolls.

She's been going to the nursery at church for a couple of months and I think she's getting to know Ms. Marcia. It's so fun to watch her face light up for another person. So far, she hasn't had any trouble saying goodbye to me whenever I drop her off. She does crave Momma sometimes while she's in there and I have to go get her, but I don't mind one bit.

Speaking of Momma, I am currently her "favorite person", as Jason affectionately calls me. I don't expect that to last long though. Whenever Daddy gets home at the end of the day, she shifts into super happy mode. She really notices whenever he comes in and she is very excited about getting his attention. I just love it. I remember this stage with Jackson and it was so much fun.

Jackson continues to be the apple of her eye. She loves being with him and watching what he's doing. She loves his toys, which does not always make him happy, and she likes to play with/pull his hair. Jackson is proud of himself because he can pick her up and carry her. He gives her the most adorable kisses and the biggest bear hugs. They adore each other.

And as much as they adore each other, they also frustrate one another. Jackson takes things away from her, which makes her so mad, and pesters her by touching her too much. She messes up some of his toys and grabs at his face and hair. They're wonderful!

I'm falling asleep while typing this post. Why? Because it's way too late and because my little girl wakes several times in the night. I have not figured out why she's waking so much, but I haven't had a full night's sleep in almost a year. I have to say that I am not complaining. I'm sure I could force her to sleep through the night, but I know these days will be gone too soon, so I'm treasuring them while they are here. My bed is calling my name, and if this post doesn't make sense, well, now you know why! Call it sleep deprivation.

Birthday for a Saint

For the past few weeks, we've been trimming trees, raking leaves {yes, the ones that we didn't get done in the fall!}, and digging up bushes. It takes a long time when we can only work in the evenings after Jason gets home, we have two small children who need our attention, and the weekends have been giving us snow and rain. Saturday, Jason and his wonderful "Jack-of-all-Trades" friend, Jeff, started tearing down our fence and rebuilding a new one. Because the day was busy with fence demolition, dumping fence and tree trimmings, returning a trailer, preparing meals, and taking care of children, we didn't get a chance to celebrate a person who is very important to us.

Saturday was Jason's dad's birthday. He would have been 60 years old. We both wish that Jackson and Allison could know him. He would have been an amazing Papa. With tear-filled eyes, Jason and I talked about all of the things he would have done with our kids - how he would have interacted with them and loved them, things he would have taught them, activities he would have done with them, and the energy he would have had for them. Honestly, it is too painful to think about, so most times, I don't think about it. I imagine Jason pictured his future differently because in his imagination, his dad was a part of our life with children. How difficult it must be for him, for his mom {I'm sure she saw grand-parenting very differently...with him by her side to share it with}, and for me, thinking about these days without him being a part of the lives of our children.

Each year, when his birthday comes, I always want to find a way to honor him. I want our children to have knowledge of him and things about him. This year, we chose to bake a birthday cake. We made a homemade strawberry cake with whipped cream icing and TONS of sprinkles.

When Jason and Jackson woke from a nap, we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

We put an orange slice on top because that is a candy that reminds Jason of his dad.

I have to say that as I was making the cake, the Lord brought these thoughts to my mind. His dad's birthday is right before Easter when we celebrate the risen Lord. Because he was a believer, he is risen with Christ. Hallelujah!! Even though Jason's dad died, he lives! I think it is just amazing to talk about what happened on Easter morning and then to tie it to the fact that because Christ died for us, though we may die, WE WILL LIVE! As we celebrate his birthday each year just before Easter, I hope that his death makes the death and resurrection of Christ more real/meaningful/tangible {I'm struggling to find the right word} to my children. I know he would love to know that we are honoring him in this way by relating his relationship with Christ to Christ's death and resurrection.

Miss Belles Is on The Move!

"Daddy, are you home yet?"

Who needs toys? Household hardware can entertain for a while.

Working on her flexibility:

She's on the move. She's been crawling for about three weeks, but only recently is she navigating far distances. Today, she crawled from my room to Jackson's room - she was very curious about the noise going on in there. Turns out, Jackson was building a train, which she quickly broke apart...resulting in a brokenhearted brother. Oh, the joy that is around the corner between these two!

Imagination Records

I have been working very hard on gathering activities to do with Jackson in preparation for Easter. This is something that I want to do all the time, but with all of the changes we've been through in the last year, I am just now feeling like I have the time to squeeze in a few spare minutes to organize myself in order to do these projects. I desperately want him to associate Easter with the risen Lord, so everything we're doing draws the focus on Christ in some way.

Yesterday, we prepared palm branches for His triumphal entry. I found these coloring pages, and most of the other activities we'll be doing, on Christian Preschool Printables. He colored the branches, I cut them out because he wanted to eat a popsicle instead, and then we took turns gluing them down. Each time we lay a palm branch down, we had to say, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" At first, he wouldn't say it. That's typical Jackson. Rather than trying to talk him into it, I just said, "Okay. I'll say it." And with much enthusiasm, I said it each time. After about three palm branches, he was screaming louder than me. Isn't it amazing how modeling good behavior is contagious?!

Oh, I did help color. In fact, I colored many of them because he wanted to eat his popsicle and wanted me to color some too. I just didn't want it to appear like he colored those leaves. He's still at the scribble-all-over-the-page stage.

After we finished our craft, he was riding his scooter, AKA dirt bike, on our back deck. He was singing and saying all kinds of imaginative things. It was great! He was really going places.

A little while later, I heard him singing an Easter song that we'd worked on earlier. The words are to the tune "A Tisket, A Tasket" and they say, "Hosanna! Hosanna! The people cried, 'Hosanna!' They laid their branches on His path and then they cried, 'Hosanna!'" And the best part about this? He was waving a "branch" while singing it! The "branch" was a big root with root hairs all over it. (We've been digging up bushes.)

Today, I found his "parking garage". 

I love the imaginations of children!

Blog Face Lift

I'm trying to give my blog a little face lift. I was tired of the old one - the green-blue color in the center was driving me crazy - and I figured it was time to add a picture of Allison to my header...since she's almost eight months old! This little face lift is slow-coming, so forgive my layout issues until I am finished.

Gymnastics!

The twins, Landry and Mallory, who live two doors down and are the same age as Jackson, take gymnastics classes once per week. I have thought about enrolling Jackson for many different reasons - interaction with other children, following rules, mastering different physical challenges with his body, more time to play with Landry and Mallory, etc. This week marked the start of their fourth session and we decided to enroll him in their Wednesday class. He's in Tumbletown and his coach is Coach Sam. They focus on healthy learning attitudes. They use gymnastics skills to as a way to teach them learning skills. Mastering the gymnastics skill is a bonus.

Jackson LOVED his first day. He is ready to go tomorrow, but I had to let him know that he only gets to go once per week. He appeared to do really well. He followed Coach Sam's directions and tried everything. I was very proud of him and extremely happy for him to have so much fun!

I took most of these photos through the glass windows until I saw an open door that I eventually peeked through. I wish I had videoed his first class. I would have liked to be able to compare it to his last class.

Learning to lock elbows:

Doesn't this swing look like so much fun?! Landry's the blonde on the right:

Climbing:

And jumping with both feet off the ground:

Forward rolls:

Look at Mallory's face! She's having fun!

What a fun morning!!

Wearing His House

My sister sent a box of clothes for Allison the other day - just some things to help me get by until I see her in April when she gives me the rest of Madalyn's old clothes. Meredith, I doubt you thought that box would provide so much fun at our house:

This box has become Jackson's "house." Perhaps he thinks he's a snail?

Yesterday, he wanted to sleep in it. I wouldn't let him. Today, I thought, "What's the big deal. Just let him sleep in the box."

Closing the "shutters":

Lights out and real shutters closed:

We'll see how well he sleeps in his mobile home.

Just Between Friends

Do you have Just Between Friends in your area? It's a huge children's and maternity consignment sale. You should totally check it out! My friend and neighbor, Lindsey, gave me a Friend Pass and I went tonight. It was great!!

I was nervous before I went because I am not one of those girls who's good at finding deals on the sale rack. I am a terrible shopper. I take such a LONG time because I make decisions at a turtle's pace. The thought of all of those clothes sounded so overwhelming, but I wanted the good prices, especially on dresses for Allison.

When I got there, it was much more relaxed than what I had imagined. For some reason, I had pictured booths in my mind. I thought that I'd be visiting tons of different booths looking at clothes. I didn't realize that all of the girls clothes sized 6-9 months would be in the same area and that all of the boys size 4T would be in the same area. It made it so easy. I took a laundry basket with me and filled it overflowing...but not with clothes. I came home with few articles of clothing and instead a basket full of games and puzzles plus a few toys for Allison! I kept thinking of all of the fun we'd have and all of the learning that would take place while playing these games. I'm so excited to get them out tomorrow morning! In fact, I did give Jackson a few things when I got home - he was so excited to see what surprises I found - and he has them stacked at the end of our bed ready for use as soon as he wakes up. Isn't that great!

I do plan to go back tomorrow for clothes for Allison. There are SO MANY clothes for girls but not nearly as many for the boys {and the deals aren't as great on the boys clothes}. The line to pay was so long that I had to put my stuff on hold, leave, get Allison, and take her back with me so that I could nurse her while I waited in line. You weren't supposed to bring children, but I was gone way too long and had to feed her. I would have left her at home, but I had to rush back and get in the door before they closed. I waited in line for 1.5 hours to pay! But it wasn't too bad because I met some really nice women, held my baby girl, and was blessed be standing next to a vendor selling beautiful bows/flowers for girls' hair. Impulse buy? Perhaps. But she does need bows!

My little tongue twister:

Is this not impressive?!

Intense excitement:

I got three flowers, three headbands {both buy two get one free}, and one hat. The hardest part was not getting one in every color!

Food Fun

I haven't been to the store to buy stuff for meals, so our fridge and pantry are low. I thumbed through a kid friendly cookbook that I bought from someone selling door-to-door. It turned out that some of the ingredients for a few of the recipes happened to be the very things that I needed to get rid of - the things that wouldn't have been enough to make a full meal or the things that were nearing expiration. While Jason and Jackson braved the windy outdoors, Allison and I stayed inside making lunch. Here's what we came up with:
Fruit & Cheese Ships:

Refried Bean Pizzas:

Jackson kept calling the toothpicks "pickle sticks." I thought that was funny.

We also made these fun snacks/mouths with apple slices, peanut butter and marshmallows:

For dinner, we had some chicken and some French sides out of Julia Child's cookbook. And for tomorrow...
Banana Peanut Butter Pops:

Random Happenings From Our Week

This week was a busy one. I have been trying to blog but haven't been able to because of other responsibilities tugging at me. Here are some random happenings from our week.

 I woke up this morning and saw snow on the ground. It's 20 March! (This is our neighbor's house. I leaned out the front door for this photo.)

And this is what it looked like three hours later...and it's still snowing:

 Tuesday, we went to the library and got tons of books. We've been reading them all week long.

 We delivered fliers all day Wednesday for my childbirth classes. I recently completed the first part of the certification process for teaching The Bradley Method®. For the next part, I have to teach two class series and then take a final exam. My first class starts 6 April, and I had two couples sign up this week! Eight couples is the max I can take.

 Jackson had his first experience with the ice cream man. We drove up to the park on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. As soon as we got out of the car, I heard the familiar song. It brought me back to my childhood, and in a flash, I got off the phone, found some money, got Jackson and Allison out of the car, and waved down the van. The man was nice enough to let me explain all of the choices to my very indecisive toddler. It was so much fun! And would you believe that he wanted to know the make and model of the van before choosing his ice cream! (No photo to document this important event - sniff, sniff.)

 Allison wore shoes on Friday thanks to my sister's package. She loved them! She gets to wear all of Madalyn's clothes and shoes. It's a huge blessing.

 Jackson talked to Dawson (his cousin) on the phone yesterday. Their adult-like conversation was so precious. At one point, this is what I heard from Jackson, "Dawson? I'm going to have to call you back whenever Allison stops crying. Would that be fine with you? Dawson? Would that be fine with you?"

 Jackson built a DVD "train" on our fireplace brick.

 Jackson, Allison and I drove past the house we lived in when Jackson was born. I now understand the joy of going to all of the places you've lived in the past. I was teary-eyed looking at our house - they painted it - and the park we used to run/walk around before we had kids, walk around while I was pregnant, and then stroll around when Jackson was an infant. It looked beautiful. They added a playground. I miss living there...or I miss that phase of life.

 I made my bed eleven days in a row. If it weren't for yesterday, it'd be twelve and growing.

 We took Jason's Deli to Jason at work. We LOVE eating lunch at Daddy's work and we LOVE Jason's Deli's salad bar. We ate there twice this week. (I said it was a busy week.)

 I cooked dinner on Monday night and didn't fully clean the kitchen from that dinner until Friday afternoon. I had cooked since then, but hadn't completely cleaned my kitchen.

 Jackson and I raked leaves...the ones we neglected to get this fall...while our sweet girl slumbered in the sunshine. (Originally, I wore her in the Moby wrap but I kept hitting her in the head with the handle of the rake. I need to figure out how to put her on my back, but I think she enjoyed her hammock in the sun.)

 Allison has tongue talents. She can rotate her tongue 90 degrees. This is a talent only the girls share. Jason nor Jackson can do it, but it's funny to watch them try.

 Jackson looked forward to Friday Family Fun Night all week. We had plans for something, but had to change them at the last minute for reasons I won't mention to preserve Jackson's privacy. Instead, we ate dinner at McAlister's Deli and then got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. I think it took Jackson ten minutes to choose his ice cream. I enjoy going to do things like this when we aren't in a rush because I like giving him plenty of time to explore the options and then make his decision. I have to say that after eating our ice cream, Jason and I realized that we aren't missing out by not going there often. We prefer Breyer's ice cream that we have at home. After we got home, we played Bible Memory and Bible Go Fish - two card games that Michelle gave Jackson whenever we were in Colorado over Christmas. It was so much fun playing card games with him! We all went to bed at 9:30!!!! I could not believe it. Allison and I didn't wake up until 7:15 this morning and Jason and Jackson slept until 8:40! It was wonderful!

We'd like to continue trimming trees today but the weather didn't coordinate with us before deciding to snow. I'm looking forward to lots of indoor fun instead. Perhaps we'll brave the outdoors after the wind slows down.

Fun Fanastic Friday

Friday was a fun-filled day. Our Sunday School class had a playgroup at Bouncin' Craze. Jackson couldn't wait to go that morning. While I was getting ready, he kept asking me things like, "Whenever you're done making your bed, then will it be time to go to Bouncin' Grace?" I would remind him that Bouncin' Craze doesn't open until ten o'clock, to which he would reply, "I know that. But are we going to get in the car as soon as you are finished with _____." It was so precious to witness his excitement.

I didn't get many photos. It was too hard to manage the camera, Allison, watching Jackson, and talking to my friends.

Two doors down from us, there are two precious twin girls, Mallory and Landry, who Jackson just adores. He was so excited that they were going to be there. Here's a (blurry) photo of them:

The three amigos at play (I think Jackson looks SO MUCH like Jason in this picture):

That yellow cannon-looking thing shot out air. It was hilarious watching their mouths disfigure.

There we go! That's crazy looking.

Mallory looked so funny when she did it, but she figured out how to position the cannon and her mouth so that it didn't look so crazy. I wish I had gotten a crazy mouth picture.

Allison found something fun to do too...and she crawled a couple of times!

Jackson flew this little lady around in the helicopter:

On the way home, Jackson was so tired he didn't even want to stop at the two stores we had to go to (that is very uncharacteristic of him). We had to return the cable box to Cox - we dropped our cable - and then headed to Target to grab a couple of things. Whenever we were at Target, we ran into the twins. Boy, did that lift his spirits! After we saw them, he said to me quietly but very excitedly and with his shoulders scrunched up, "I didn't know that they were going to be here!" It was adorable.

After naps, Jackson had a popsicle while I cooked dinner. He is always so sweet to share his tasty treats with other people. This time in particular was one of the most exciting sharing times. He finally got to share something with Allison!
"Open wide!"

Patiently waiting her turn:

"Ready!"

"Are you gonna give me some more?"

A very happy "big" girl:

As soon as Jason got home, he played with the kids while I finished up our dinner. Jackson has a tricycle that he rides in the house. He LOVES it. It's actually his "dirt bike" and we often check the engine, replace the battery, use jumper cables to recharge the battery, tow from the tow hitch, etc. The "dirt bike" is often found on its side...because great dirt bikes don't have kick stands. As I'm putting our dinner in the oven, this is what came zooming into the kitchen:

Jackson loves doing things with Allison. He wanted her to ride with him, so Jason put her on. She loved it too! They drove circles through our house. Here's Jackson making dirt bike sounds and Alli attempting a fish face:

Sibling fun!

I'm not sure what she was doing with her mouth during the ride, but this picture made me laugh because it looks likes she's puckering up for a kiss:

After dinner, we started our Friday Family Fun Night. Friday Family Fun Night is a tradition that Jason and I are starting for our family (and one that we tried starting back in Germany). We want our children to look back on their childhood with a lot of positive family experiences. We are realizing that without careful planning, the busyness of life will steal away precious family time and in the blink of an eye our children will be grown. Another motivation for starting this tradition comes from my own insecurity of thinking that I'm not a very "fun" parent...and I want to have fun with my kids. I want my home to be full of laughter.

Jason and I brainstormed last Sunday and came up with some fun ideas. (We'd also welcome suggestions for other fun family activities.) We had a few ideas for Friday, but after reading my friend's blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Erica is an amazing mom. She always has fun, creative activities for her two girls. She makes every holiday and birthday very special and coordinates everything beautifully. But the best thing about her is her heart for the Lord and her ability to see Him in all that she does. Making rainbow cupcakes (our chosen activity for Friday night fun) was an activity she got from a magazine; but, putting the Lord into it came from her heart that is in fellowship with Him.

The reason I was so excited about this activity is because of a book that Jackson has. In the book, there is a birthday celebration and they serve rainbow ice cream. The ice cream is in a rectangular block with repeating colors of the rainbow. Whenever we read this book, he always says, "I want to make ice cream just like that." I've never made homemade ice cream since I've been married and feel it's a project that will take some time - if we're going to make six different colors - so I thought the cupcake idea was terrific. Well, here's to our Friday Family Fun Night, and I absolutely cannot take credit for anything. All ideas came from Erica.

First, we made our cake batter. As is typical with everything I do, it wasn't easy. Not the making of it but the choosing of the recipe. I wanted a recipe that wasn't full of sugar. Now, I probably sound ridiculous. A little sugar won't hurt anyone, right? Well, I feel there has been sugar in our house since Thanksgiving. Jackson still has candy from Valentine's Day and he eats something nearly every day. Why my aversion to sugar? Two reasons. One, whenever I was pregnant with Allison, I didn't eat sugar. After she was born, I slowly put it back into my diet because I LOVE it. Let me just say that I can totally see the effects of excess sugar in the diet - physically, mentally and emotionally. It's amazing. And two, I have no self control! If it's in my house, it's a huge temptation - for me and for my little guy. I'm not against eating sugar. I just think our family needs a little break from it. I find that it's very addictive. If we eat it, we want more and we don't have the taste buds for really healthy foods. If we stay away from it, we don't miss it so much. Of course, these are just my feelings regarding my family. Everyone has the freedom to make their own choices and I believe that looks a little different for every family.

This is recipe I used but with some changes. I used maple syrup instead of honey and used 1/4 cup less. I omitted the cinnamon. I used canola oil rather than olive and used only egg whites - only because I thought the olive oil and yokes would make the batter darker. We liked the cupcakes, but they didn't taste like a traditional cupcake - if that's the goal.

We divided the batter six ways:

Jackson lined the muffin tins with the few muffin cups that I had:

Then was set out to color our batter the six colors of the rainbow. We used red, blue and yellow food coloring (see, I don't do everything healthy) to make all six colors. We talked about the primary and secondary colors as we went along. He has a CD with a great song about the color wheel, so we talked about that song too.

I was worried about the colors not turning out because my batter wasn't really white since I used whole wheat flour. This is what we ended up with:

Although we tasted LOTS of batter, each color had to be tasted again. There was something fascinating about all of those colors!

We put purple batter on the bottom since purple has the shortest wavelength and the bottom of the cupcake is the smallest part. I carefully spread the batter to cover the entire cupcake bottom and then added each additional color layer. This took some time but it was fun. As we filled the muffin tins, we talked about God creating the rainbow as a promise to never again destroy the earth with a flood.

Ready for the oven:

We intended to ice them with whipped cream icing - to look like puffy clouds - but it was so late and we didn't want to wait for them to cool. We opted for cream cheese instead. And of course, we had to put sprinkles on top! (We like sprinkles at this house. Jackson even had a few on his almond butter toast that morning!)

While we ate our cupcakes, we talked more about Noah's ark and God keeping His promises.

They were tasty and we've been enjoying them all weekend.