Hermann Park Fun

I have been feeling a lot better lately and my energy is coming back, after 3 months.  Yea!  A couple of time this week, we walked over to Hermann Park to go play on the toddler playground they have there as well as to feed the ducks.  Luckily, we have some awesome friends who come along with us and enjoy this beautiful weather we are having this fall.  

So this past Monday for family night, we had a lesson on being happy and smiling and we play the smiling game where if you smile you get an M&M and you give them to others because smiling makes other people happy.  Well, ever since then, Allie has been a pro-smiler.  Bonus: whenever you give her an M&M she'll give you a huge smile!

We love this little girl, although we were noting the other day that she is looking so old lately, our little Alligator is growing up.

Daddy's Shoes

Allie has a love for shoes.  She changes her shoes multiple times a day and loves to play with my shoes as well.  On Friday morning before Mike left for work, Allie came out of our bedroom saying "daddy shoe" and this is what we found. She has big feet, but not this big yet!

It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes

Allie had such a fun time with my Mom when she came out to help when I had the blood clot.  Allie quickly became Grandma's little side-kick after about 1/2 a day and would go around looking for "Bamma" all day long.  I just got out a new toothbrush the other day from the cabinet and Allie started looking around for Bamma because it looked like the one that she used when she was at our house over a month ago.  Allie has a great memory!

Once I was taken off bed rest, we took Grandma to the Houston Zoo to go trick or treating there with Madison and Angie.  We had such a great time (even though I couldn't really do much) and cannot wait until we come out in December to visit!

 Allie and Grandma looking at the baby Elephant

 These were both impromptu costumes that were easy and not hot

Allie got to ride the Carousel  with Grandma!

Look Who's Going to Be A....

and we could not be more excited!  

We are due May 14th so we are a little over 13 weeks along right now.  We have had a roller coaster of a first trimester but hopefully things will calm down and we can enjoy the best part of pregnancy, the 2nd trimester!  

When we were about 9 weeks along, I started bleeding and cramping really badly after we were at the zoo on a  Saturday so we called my doctor and went over to the hospital to get an exam and ultrasound to see what was happening.  I thought for sure we were losing this baby and was very emotionally drained.  It turns out that I had a 5 cm blood clot in my uterus where the placenta tore away from the lining. The baby was okay and the heartbeat looked good, but at this point, the blood clot was larger than the baby and the sac, and the doctor on call at the hospital said that there was still a big risk that we might miscarry.  He also said that I basically need to be on bed rest for the next couple of months and cannot lift Allie, etc.

Well, at this point I didn't know what to do as Mike was starting a new rotation at MD Anderson Cancer Center which was going to be the hardest rotation of his residency and he was not going to have any time to help.  So, I called my Mom who flew out that night to come and save us.

So, I was on bed rest for the weekend and on top of it I had a cold/cough that had started that I am just now getting over 6 weeks later.  I was still bleeding some but it was starting to slow down and on Monday I called my doctor and went in right away to go see her for the first time (I had seen the Nurse Practitioner/Midwife for my first visit).  Most of our fears were calmed when she explained it MUCH better than the doctor at the hospital who said that I had a 5 cm tear which was much scarier than a blood clot.  She also said that recent studies show that it does not make a difference if you are on bed rest or not  so that also caused a huge drop in our stress levels.

Fast forward 2 weeks

My angel mother went back home and I was trying to take it easy and I started bleeding again (much older looking blood) and there was a lot coming out.  We went back to the hospital, got another ultrasound (we have seen a lot of this little baby) and it looks like it was the 5 cm of blood coming out which is a good thing.  Hopefully that is the last of the bleeding!  This baby is a tough little guy and seems to be growing just perfectly.  The last ultrasound we got see all sorts of body parts and it really brought the excitement back to me that we are going to have a baby!   

Thankfully the nausea is starting to wane, I haven't thrown up in over a week!  Being sick and having all the emotional stress, I had lost 10 lbs from my first appointment but with the help of halloween candy and feeling much better, I am up net 1/2 lb.  

Sorry for the super long post, and the long blogging hiatus that ensued since this whole ordeal.  We are super excited and am anxiously awaiting this little baby.  We find out the gender right around Christmas so that is what we are looking forward to next.  

Safari Halloween

This Halloween we decided to be Safari themed with some really cute lions and a lady in a jeep.  Mike did so much work to help put these together, he even sewed the tails all by himself!  For not starting anything until Friday night, I think we did a great job.  We even won the costume contest at our complex last night too.  

At the Ward Trunk or Treat, Allie would growl instead of saying trick or treat and I think that got her even more candy!  This morning, Allie came out of her bedroom and went directly to her costume and begged to put it on, probably wanting more candy.

 Our little safari family

Understanding the idea people give you candy if you wear a silly costume

The Cutest little lion there

We had to get a little tail shot

Mike made the Jeep out of boxes all by himself.  I think he is quite creative

Allie's 18 Month Post

Allie's 18 Month Stats:

Height: 34.5 inches (100%+)

Weight: 24.5 lbs (60th %)

          Allie has been such a joy lately, learning so much and becoming so independent.  She now will go into her room and read books on her little rocking chair for 10+ minutes at a time all by herself.  She has a lot of teeth now and can eat basically anything, but she still eats like a little bird.  She would rather graze all day long than sit and eat meals.  She LOVES Elmo and she sometimes gets to watch Elmo's world while I get ready if Mike has already left.  

         Allie also constantly asks to play with her buddy Madison, or AAAA as she calls her.  Today we were on our way back from the store and Allie was pretending to talk to Madison on the phone; it was really cute.  She has done fantastically well in Nursery at church and only cried for a minute the first time or two and now just runs into the room and waves goodbye.  I love it!

         Allie's vocabulary has started to expand greatly, saying new words every day.  Her latest ones are all halloween related as we just put up our decorations.  She will go around saying bat and pointing to the decorations.  Her favorite word now is See.  Whenever I am in the kitchen she will come up to me and say see see see pease,  mama see.  She wants me either to pick her up and hold her or to put her on the counter so she can see what I am doing.  I just have to remember that I am sure I was the exact same for my mom and that it will come in handy once she can actually start helping me in the kitchen.  

         We love our little Allie, even though she is not so little any more, and look forward to who she is going to become.  

A Little Seat for a Little Bum

I came into the living room this morning and Allie had pulled out her baby's bassinet (that is actually her Aunt Melanie's that her grandpa made) and decided it was a good seat for her as well.  Good thing she has a little bum.  

On a second note,

Allie has been a teething machine lately.  Since moving to Texas, she has added 4 molars, 2 canines and 2 more canines that are so close to popping out.  We have seen a whole lot of fingers in the mouth.  Yum.

Labor Day's 27 Minutes of Fun

For Labor Day, we got together with the Tingeys  to have a fun-filled day at the beach.  Well, I guess we didn't really pay attention to the weather because once we got there, it was a bit windy and after about 10 minutes, we saw a large black cloud rolling towards us.  We figured it might pass, so we out the toys and the boys headed out to the water...

The waves started getting bigger and coming up higher even though tide was working it's way back down.  Angie and I started getting worried when the guy next to us packed up his family and said that we had 4 minutes to get out before the storm hit.  Being the worry warts that we are, Angie and I quickly threw all of the stuff in the car (I still have a bucket of sand on my dryer), waved the boys back in and quickly drove our cars out to higher ground.  We had parked on the beach and the waves were washing up under our car, and I had a this deja vu, to which my mom figured out was from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

 

(This is how dark the sky was, and those waves are gulf waves- not normal!)

We got our cars out onto pavement, but then we realized that Mike put my keys on the tire and we forgot to grab them, so Mike and Ryan ran to go find them in the sand. By this time, it was pouring rain so all the girls piled into our car and the little girls watched Elmo on our computer while Mike and Ryan helped dig out a car that got stuck.  There were 4 different cars right after us who all go stuck in the sand, and had to have trucks pull them out.  Yea for being paranoid moms!

So, we were only there for about 30 minutes before we had to go back home.  Bummer, maybe next time. 

Cinder-Allie

We blow bubbles and draw with chalk almost nightly on our covered back porch.  It was getting so all of our drawings were overlapping, so I brought out the water and scrub brush to wash of the porch, but Allie took over and wanted to do it for me.  Now I just need to teach her how to clean the shower.

Freeze Frame

I had the sewing itch the other day so I decided to sew this little dress for Allie from a free T-shirt that we got a while back and I just used a smaller yellow dress that we have as a pattern.  It is comfy and cute!

The Shaw Whistle

In my family, this is one trick that we all learned early on, so I love how Allie has already "learned" how to whistle.  We play in the back yard all the time and earlier in the week I was showing Allie how to whistle with a piece of Grass.  Later, we were going back inside and then I looked back and Allie was sitting on the grass doing it all by herself.  I love it!

Popcorn Popping

Air-popped Popcorn is our family's favorite snack, stemming from Grandma Shaw's Sunday night snack of popcorn and lemonade. Well we usually make it after Allie is in bed, so we decided she should have a chance to eat some too.  So right before bed, we popped some corn and I think it was a hit.  MMM...  popcorn

Exciting Weekend of Fun

There are many new things to talk about this weekend. First and foremost we are introducing the brand new look! It may take a little longer in the morning (like twice as long) but we have to sacrifice for fashion.

New Piggy tails!

Also, we have added to our family game repertoire.

Follow the pictures to see how this game works.

We start with 1..2..3..4..5..6.....

Allie knows imediately where the best spot is located.

Ready or not here I come!

She is definately ready!

Look at her, she is perfectly camoulflaged with all the other bright colors.

She learned this super sneaky spot from Dad.

Is she in the bedroom? Is she in the closet?

Then when you open the closet door she stays tucked back in,

until you ask if she is in the clothes and then...

SURPRISE!

Here's Allie!

And now for the final update for the weekend. Since Dad plans all the weekend fun I have to search long and hard for new fun things to do. It is super exhausting to put in all that work (or not, thanks to google). This weeks adventure was a waterfall right in downtown Houston.

Mom and Allie at the waterfall.

More Hide and Seek (but its different since its outside this time) at the park.

And my favorite shot of Allie flying at the base of the waterfall.

It was a lovely adventure, hopefully there will be more next week.

Peace out.

BBQs are even better the 3rd time

Remember back when we had a BBQ on the 4th of July, well we had a boat load of grillin' food left over, so on some Saturdays, we have a BBQ with friends.  This Saturday, I remembered to bring out the camera so here are a few pictures from our yummy BBQ.  I think we are down to 1 package of buns left, so maybe one more BBQ is in order.

I think Allie ate 3 whole pieces - and whatever people left unguarded on their plates

Some of the ladies hanging out poolside

These two were kicking and splashing, but I love this picture because of the look on their faces.  It just looks like they are conniving some mischievous plan

These two also love their floaties.  They will jump in and just laugh while hanging out by each

other.  They are both little independent souls, so this is how they roll.

Allie has now become a fan of root beer, or at least flat root beer. Yum.

Who knew making pizza dough was so much fun...

Allie is constantly wanting to see what I am doing in the kitchen, so I finally had the bright idea to bring in a chair for her to stand on (duh!).

She was highly entertained playing with the dough, but I think she had more fun "washing" the dishes.  Needless to say, she had to change clothes after we were done.

This age is so much fun, she understands most of what we say and is starting to say more words every day.   Everything for her is new and she just lights up when she is having fun.  We love our Allie Girl!

Marshmallow Thief

We keep our cereal in a low cabinet and on this day, Allie brought me the bag of Marshmallow Mates asking for some more.  I gave her a little cup of cereal then went to go clean up a bit.  When I came back, I found this on the floor.  She already knows the good stuff.

Galveston Beach

Last Saturday we headed to the Gulf Coast to go check out Galveston with the Tingeys.  The girls had a lot of fun, and we did too!  It is so much more fun to go with other people because you can go out in the ocean to go play in the waves with other people, and not just by yourself.  Being the smartie that I am, I totally forgot to bring my camera.  

On another note, these pictures are from our most recent outing to the beach yesterday for our Ward's play goup.  Allie loved playing with all the other kiddos and remembered my camera this time.  I took pictures for about 2 min and then played the rest of the time.  Yea for living close to the beach!

(and to answer your questions, no - there was not any oil, it is all east of Texas)

This was my usual view of Allie - running towards the water to go play in the waves.  Allie loves the waves and just laughs as they crash on her (small little gulf waves).  She just keeps going deeper and deeper into the ocean until I have to pull her back so she doesn't drown.  When did my little girl get so big?  She looks like a full on toddler in this picture!

Allie in her hat that she kept on for about 10 min.

Meet Madison - Allie's BFF 

At the mention of Madison's name, Allie gets all excited and will not do anything until she gets to see Madison.  Good thing we live in the same complex and Angie and I totally click.  We both grew up in Orem, went to BYU, and have little girls 1 month apart.  We would be totally bored without them!

Angie and Madison

July's Little Moments

I guess Allie wanted to sit down AND play with her table at the same time.  She did this all by herself one RAINY afternoon.  It has been Monsoon season here in Houston, so we have had to come up with things to do inside.

I was doing laundry and Allie built herself a little fort on our bed and then leaned back and read her birdie book.

This is Allie's new way of keeping busy while I cook dinner.  She will go to the pantry, take a can and then walk all the way around the kitchen and into the dining room and put the can on the table, then repeat.  I love it because she is not begging to be picked up; totally worth the unorganized pantry.

Monday night we had ice cream for our family night treat, but our dishwasher was broken, so we all shared one bowl to cut down on the dish-factor.  I think Allie ate more ice cream than dinner, but that runs in the Meldrum line.  Mike's grandma insists on eating ice cream before dinner.