February already?!

2011 is already flying by! And once again, I have neglected my poor little blog. I have been keeping up really well with my 365 Project, though, so that's a plus: http://alisonkay365.blogspot.com!

Kate is thoroughly enjoying pre-school! We've enjoyed it, too- we've had fun visiting for the pet parade, getting grandma & grandpa involved for Grandparent's Day and seeing her sing "The Butterfly Song" with her schoolmates at Saturday night service at the church affiliated with the school. I've had that sweet song stuck in my head for the entire month:
"You gave me a heart and you gave me a smile,
You gave me Jesus and you made me your child,
But I just thank you, Father, for making me ME!"
Ahh- thank you, indeed. She is amazing.

Adorable! Today is "Crazy Hair Day" and I am very excited to get her ready to go :) Speaking of hair, this past month we took a big step and got bangs cut! She looks like such a big girl... and so much like me when I was that age. Crazy!



We've spent a lot of time outside, as the weather has been amazing for January! Her activity of choice these days? Painting. My little lady may be the next great artist of the 21st century.



Will is growing and changing so fast- I cannot believe he is 6 months old already. Half a year? Where did it go?



He is definitely already a mama's boy- screaming and crying like he's being tortured if I hand him off to anyone- including Matt or grandma. Kate was never like that- she was so interested in everyone and very social. Will just wants to be with me. Just me. No one else. I guess it's kind of sweet... until my arm starts to go numb from carrying around all 20lbs. of him all of the time. He really does have the sweetest personality- he loves watching his big sister (she makes him laugh so hard) and touching faces. He has the two cutest little teeth sticking out of those bottom gums and his smile is killer :)



Just this morning, I noticed him starting to pull himself to face the direction he wants to face (scooting). He is no where near crawling, but getting close to learning the art of the scoot for sure! I'm already starting to plan and ponder his first birthday party- yikes!

Matt and I are celebrating our 6th anniversary on Saturday and I seriously feel like we *just* celebrated #5! What a ride! The first two years of our marriage seem so long ago- no kids, less craziness- but the years as parents have been so full and sweet. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Still, I do look forward to going out tonight, just he and I, for dinner as husband and wife. We need that every now and again to continue connecting and being a team for our kids.

Life is busy, but so full of joy!

Behind.

Haven't posted since November? Well. That speaks a lot about how life has been for the last few months. It's a new year- welcome 2011- and I am happy to be out of 2010. While 2010 brought us wonderful things like buying our first home and our sweet William, one of my greatest joys- it also seems as though it was a super tough year.

I heard the word 'cancer' one too many times from one too many people I care about deeply. I hate that word. I'm tired of the phone calls letting me know that someone I care about has been 'diagnosed' with that wicked 'c' word. In August, on Will's one month birthday, we said goodbye to Matt's beloved Aunt Eloise as she lost her battle with lung cancer (the woman who never touched a smoke in her life). She'd been diagnosed less than a year before we lost her. While we all miss her so much (I miss her even more than I expected I would), we could rejoice that her faith was so strong, and that she is no doubt laughing that contagious laugh of hers in heaven with Jesus.

Aside from the tough stuff, we got our precious son. Will is now 5 months old and more amazing every day. He's rolling now, reaching for stuff (especially faces) and has the best laugh ever! My favorite thing is that Kate makes him laugh harder than anyone- its awesome!



Kate completely adores him, too. She is such a good big sister- aside from the occasional over-enthusiastic hug she tries to give him here and there. She's been a little chef since Christmas, working diligently at her new toy kitchen. This Christmas was the most fun I've had in a long time... she is just old enough now to really get it and be excited. She came down the steps in the morning and RAN to that kitchen! Then she opened her set of 7 princess dolls and it was all over. Life was complete!

Will had a rough first Christmas- bronchitis, nearing pneumonia. Yuck. So with some antibiotics, steroids and breathing treatments he avoided the pneumonia and is back on the healthy side now. Phew!

She started school the week before Christmas break on a trial basis and went back for her first day of 2011 today. She loves it! She has so much fun... and brings home a new painting every time. Love it!



The first two days, she didn't want to leave. Most kids don't want their moms to drop them off- mine didn't want me to pick her up. She screamed and threw a fit because she wanted to stay and play! Unreal. The first day was so crazy and overwhelming for her... she sobbed the whole way home and when we got home, dramatically announced that she was "Just sooooo tired!!!!". I told her to go lay in bed if she was so tired (didn't think she'd really sleep) and next thing I know:


Done for. SO exhausted. It's gotten better, though, and now she is a trooper. I love that she loves school!

On my front, I am officially a stay at home mom! My time at the church ended on Dec. 31st and I am relieved. It will be so nice to have the extra time and so much less stress. I'm really excited about putting more time and energy into my photography journey, too! I'm hoping to do more business this year, meet new clients, grow as a photographer and really do this thing!

I'm super excited for 2011... lets see what you've got, new year!

Three.

Well, sweet girl... today you're three. Three years old. How in the world have three years gone by already? And if its passed so quickly, how can I barely remember what like was like before there was you? Daddy and I are always amazed at how much you added to our lives. We'd be so incomplete, so lonely and frankly, so bored without you!

You're my first baby... the baby I held at minutes old, counting all your fingers and toes and marveling over this amazing creation. I remember how your arrival deepened my faith in God so very much... something as perfect as a newborn baby could only come from the Maker's hands.

Today, three years later, you're a loving big sister. You cannot get enough of playing dress up. You love princess and passionately sing into a hairbrush in front of the mirror. You love music. Your sweetness shines through when you tell me, "Mommy, you're my best friend... I love you so much in the whole world!!". Your sassiness also shows. You're dramatic already!

I'm a sucker for you, little girl! I love you!

Chocolate chip pancake for breakfast!


Her new American Girl doll and matching jammies!

Picaboo Book

Do you Groupon? I do! Every day, in every city, there is a special deal that offers awesome discounts on everything from food, to lodging, to classes... and beyond. It's fantastic! A month or so ago, Picaboo was offering $100 worth of their product for only $25. I hit the "BUY" button and excitedly downloaded the software to get started on Kate's first year album!

I had every intention of doing an amazing, elaborate scrapbook for her. I have the paper. The stickers. All the knick-knacks. And.... no time or energy for it. So, I thought this would be a good compromise- and Picaboo did not disappoint! They have all kinds of "scrapbook" looking backgrounds and great layouts for the photos. The flat fee goes up to 20 pages- well, her book was over 80 pages, so there was a little extra cost involved, but with the Groupon it was all good!

I was SO pleased when our book arrived! Here are some photos- they don't do the real thing justice!








There was recently another Groupon for Picaboo- $35 for $100 worth of product. Guess who will be making another book soon???

Dropped the blogging ball...

Ok, I've been busy... but nonetheless- I've been a blogging slacker. I was so much better at this when Kate was my newbie. But here we are- Will is fast approaching 3 months old and I haven't posted anything in months!

Let's see... catching up...
Things are going well and still, every day, I feel truly blessed! The fall has been awesome! We've spent lots of time pumpkin patching and enjoying the very unusual cool weather we've been having! I can't remember an October that it has been so cool and rainy- and I have loved every minute! Though I did get a new jogging stroller and am itching to take the kids out for a good walk!

Will is doing great- getting so big and sweet! He isn't much for sleeping... we're still up about every two hours at night. Yikes. Right around 3 months is when Kate started sleeping through the night... I don't have such high hopes for Will. But oh well- I've recently had such a change in attitude when I think about how very fortunate we are to have a healthy baby!


Kate is growing up so fast. Her third birthday is less than a month away and I don't even know what to think. She is such a big girl.


Soon we'll be celebrating Will's baptism, as well as Kate's birthday party, on the same day! Can't wait for such a doubly blessed celebration!

In other news, I've given notice at my job! Yes... it is hard to leave, but I am feeling so lucky to have the opportunity to stay at home with my beautiful babies. I know so many mommies who would give a limb to have the opportunity to stay at home. Being a mommy is a full time job and it has been tough to balance both of my FT jobs and feel like I am giving my best to both. So, come January 2011, I'll be working as just a mommy! I can't wait to do all the things with my kids that I've wanted to do, but haven't been able to dedicate time to. I'm also looking forward to chasing my photography dream, as well!

I'm wanting to start another blog about recipes, cleaning, 'mommyness' and whatnot to 1) inspire myself and 2) get tips from others about these things. Keep an eye out for that!

One last photo opp before I shove off to bed: we had a blast doing our Halloween sugar cookies last week! It was a perfect fall day!

Back tracking...

So, I never posted Will's one month photo. Whoops!

Here is our guy with his bear at one month:


And now, at two months!


Three months is just around the corner!

Glad that's over...

Remember that book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? I could relate yesterday.



On Friday night Matt went up to be with our Andrew and the other groomsmen before Andrew's wedding on Saturday. He rode with a friend, since I'd be driving up Saturday, and was staying the night up in Torrance, so I was on my own with the two kiddos. No biggie- the night went smoothly and I was super excited to see one of my closest friends marry the love of his life.

Well, here's how my day started: as Kate is shoveling apple sauce into her mouth and I am holding Will feeding him, Kate casually looks at him and says, "He pooped." I look down, and there is a poo-spolision all over him, me, the blanket... nice. So I pull Kate from the high chair and we go upstairs to get him cleaned up and bathed. As I am attempting to clean up the poo disaster, my once almost potty trained daughter proceeds to follow suit and poop in her pull up- while sitting in the Bumbo seat that hasn't been put away yet- which causes quite a mess. So now there are two babies to clean up. I run downstairs to the trash can that desperately needs to be taken out to toss the pull-up, knock it over and a glass bottle shatters all over the kitchen floor. So at this point, the bath is running for Will, Kate has no pants or pull up on and I've got to get all the glass cleaned up.

It was at this point I thought to myself, "Today sucks so far... hope nothing else goes wrong." Whoops.

I picked up our friend, Steph, from the airport around 10:30, we had some lunch and went back to the house to get ready. That was a little more difficult than expected with an attention hungry little girl and a milk hungry little boy. We got out the door, got Kate to her grandparents (later than I wanted to of course) and went on our way up toward Torrance for the wedding. As we headed for the freeway, we saw a woman driving on a flat tire and let her know she had a flat. We're both like, "Aww man, that sucks!" and proceed to tell our stories about getting flat tires in the past.

The wedding started at 4pm, and its 3:15 as we're cruising in the carpool lane on the 405 in Irvine. Out of nowhere, it starts. Ca-thunk, ca-thunk, ca-thunk! My first thought was, "Are you freaking kidding me?!" Steph and I were both in denial at that point I think. The car wasn't driving any differently, so I didn't think it was a flat, but who knew. So we pulled over, all the while saying that it was probably just something we were dragging or something. Couldn't be the tire. I've never wished to find a small animal hanging from my tire up until this point.

It was the tire. Left front. Not flat, but with the rubber completely peeling off and the threads showing. &%@*!! Called AAA, called my husband, crying of course, because I knew we were going to miss the wedding of one of my dearest friends since high school. Not too long after, 'Frank' rolls up in the tow truck to change my tire. He takes a look at the right front tire, then the left front and let's out an, "Ohhhhhhh, that's not good." Basically it came to that the right front tire was also in such poor shape that if we put the spare on the left front, the right front would go, too. It was totally unsafe to drive the car. We needed brand new tires for the front. Also, tow trucks are not equipped to carry more than three people, so since we had Will with us, we had to drive 30mph to the tire place with the tow truck close behind.

Matt had called his brother, who became our knight in shining armor by coming and giving us his car to use while the van got new tires. When we finally made it up to Torrance (after the phone call from the tire place that the two rear tires needed to be replaced as well), it was the cocktail hour. I went to give my hungry boy a bottle so I could at least relax for a minute and not need to breastfeed right away, but of course the bottle liners were in the van (along with the Baby Bjorn I'd intended to have on hand). Perfect. We'd decided to leave the van overnight and pick it up in the morning, so Matt's brother could get picked up and not have to wait around for it.

The reception was fun- our good friend's mom held Will for most of the time that he wasn't eating, which meant some fun with friends for us. We headed out around 9pm to go pick up Kate from Matt's parents. Guess what else was in the van with the bottle liners and carrier? Her car seat. Fortunately for us, his parents have one sitting in their garage. Phew. Disaster averted. So about half way home from their house, Matt breaks the silence with an, "Ohhh!" of horrified realization: "Did you grab the house key when you left the van?" %^&($^%#^%$&^&*!!!! Seriously?! We were locked out of our house at 10:15 at night, completely exhausted and with two little ones. Luckily, I remembered that I'd left one window unlocked. Matt would have to do some climbing, but it might work. And it did. I half expected the police to show up the way things were going at this point. But we got in the house, got the kids to bed and completely crashed.

I have to say, that amid all the crap of the day, I was so thankful for good friends and my sweet, wonderful husband who never fails to make me feel better when the poo hits the fan. Phew! What a day! Glad that today is a new one!

Today, now that it is all behind me, its actually all quite funny... glad I can laugh about it now!