Cherished time with friends

Last night I took a trip out to 96th Street to meet my roommates from college for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Last year this would have been a normal occasion when Sheila still lived in Indy, but since she got married last May and moved to Arkansas, we don't get to see her as much as we would like. Last week Sheila flew into Ohio to spend some time with her family. We were grateful that she was able to drive through Indy with her parents and meet us for dinner. Once again Connie and Mark treated us all to a wonderful dinner. We truly appreciate their giving hearts. Last time they came through Indy they bought us dinner at UNO's pizza and it was mmmm good!

Not only was I excited to see all of my roommates after a long time no see, but Erin had a new Bling Bling to show us.

Her boyfriend Caleb, of one year, proposed to her last Friday evening and she said YES!! I am so bummed I forgot to get a picture of her beautiful ring. It is amazing!! Caleb you did good. They are looking to have a destination wedding in October. Brian and I couldn't be more excited for the both of them.

I truly enjoyed the short time I was able to spend with the girls. It always brings back great memories and reminds me of how God has greatly blessed all of our lives. Here are some pictures from the evening.

The night before our dinner Allyson woke up at 2 a.m. with a fever of 102.9. I stayed up most of the night trying to calm her back to sleep. She had a horrible cough that kept waking her up all through the night. I was for sure that I wouldn't be able to make it to the dinner that night, but my loving husband managed to work his schedule around so that he could make it home in time for me to go meet the girls. He knew how much I truly cherish spending time with Kirsten, Erin, and Sheila. Allyson was not very happy to see me leave. Kids just seem to want their mommy when they are sick. When I got home from dinner her fever was back up again and she was a mess. Her eyes were swollen, red, and watery and her nose was raw and dripping continuously.

Brian said she slept on his shoulder the entire time I was gone. Looks like I will be playing nurse for the next couple of days.

Snow Day

Ally strapped on Poppie and Mamaws hot pink hunting hat last Sunday and spent and afternoon in the snow with her cousin Sydnie. Last weekend Mamaw and Poppie surprised Allyson and Sydnie with two brand new snow tubes. Poppie and Uncle "B" connected a cord to the tube and swung them around in circles until they were slap happy. Poppie pulled them back through the woods and down some sledding hills. By the end of the day both of the tubes had popped. One of the tubes will be able to be patched, but the other one met its match with a huge stick. The girls are just going to have to share the tube from now on.
I am so ready for the spring to get here. Ally sure has had fun in the snow this winter, but I am ready for some flowers and warm weather.

Our Sons Name

Brian and I decided on the name Blake Boston for our son. We are still tossing around a couple of different middle names. We chose the name Blake back when I was pregnant with Ally and we still love it. Blake's spiritual meaning is "Forgiven". The life verse we have chose for him is
Psalms 86:5 "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

My parents gave my brothers and I life verses that pertained to the meaning of our names and that gave voice to Gods purpose and plan for our lives. Still to this day I have my life verse hidden in my heart (Romans 12:1-2). My hope is the same for my children. Allyson's name means "Truthful" and her life verse is
Proverbs 3:3 "Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."

Growing Boy

Our little man turned 19 weeks on Saturday and decided that he was ready to make his presence known through his mommy's belly.

I am almost halfway through my pregnancy and I must say I truly love every part of carrying my child. It saddens me to think that in another 4 months our son won't be safe stored away in my belly. I know when I am in my last few weeks of this pregnancy I might think differently, but for know I enjoy living in the moment.

My new favorite snacks are oranges and a mixture of raisins and nuts. I asked Brian the other day if it was possible to overdose on oranges. He didn't have the answer, so I googled it. In my research I read about a pregnant woman who ate 10 oranges a day. Here I was thinking it was bad to be eating 3. I have actually been dreaming about the fresh oranges that my Aunt and Uncle in Arizona have growing on their trees. The last time I visited they had a big tall glass of fresh squezzed OJ on the table every morning and it was ohhhhhh so good!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I have already started into my nesting mode. This week Brian and I have removed wallpaper, sanded cracks in our plaster walls, painted and hung pictures in Ally's room, bought supplies to entirely reconstruct a closet in the babies room, and rearranged pictures throughout our house. This is just the beginning of all of the changes Brian and I want to make to the entire house before the baby gets here. It amazes me how all of this works. I have been non-pregnant and completely capable of gradually making home improvements for the last 2 years. All of a sudden I see the ultrasound picture of my precious boy and I immediately want to make changes everywhere. I have had two years to work on our house and now when I am large, low in energy, and not capable of heavy lifting I decide to take on the world in house projects.

Great News

Brian, Ally, my parents, and I all waited patiently staring at the ultrasound screen waiting to see our baby. The very first picture to appear was our child with its legs spread open and all of its glory clearly visible. The ultrasound tech didn't tell us the sex of the baby right away because we all immediately knew it was a........

BOY!!!!

The greatest news we received today was that God gave our baby boy the wonderful blessing of health. The doctors checked everything out and what we know so far is that he is right on track and growing healthy. He is measuring in at about 9 oz. and his heartbeat was a good 144 bpm. They determined my official due date will be July 12th.

Brian and I couldn't think of a better day to celebrate Valentines Day than today, so my mom took Ally and we spent the day planning and dreaming of our future with a boy. Our first stop was Barnes and Nobles to look at baby boy names.

We had a boy name we picked out when Allyson was born, but we are still deciding on the middle name. I will disclose the name in another blog once we have sat on it for awhile. My husband watched the movie Gladiator last night and came up with the wonderful name Maximus Octavius Boston....haha! I guess it could have been worse. He could have watched Nacho Libre or Napoleon Dynamite.

Next we went shopping for some boy stuff. Our goal was to find items for our son that we were excited to buy. Of cource I went for the clothes and the shoes...My husband got his boy, so I knew I would be following him over to the sports section once we were done looking at all of the baby stuff. Oh, I forgot to add that my husband also thought "Urlacher" would be a great middle name for our boy. To those of you who don't know, Brian Urlacher is a linebacker for the Chicago Bears.
After having some fun in the stores we were hungry for some soup, salad, and breadsticks at the Olive Garden. I really love that restaurant!

We finished off our day at the movie theater. We went to see Will Smiths movie, I Am Legend . It was a great movie, but I was reminded that I just don't like to be scared when things jump out at me unexpectedly.

I can't tell you how much I treasure sharing days of love and happiness with my husband. Marriage truly is a blessing from God.

Daddy Playworld

Now that football season is over I think Brian is going through a little withdrawal. He called me into the room the other night and this is what I saw.

I can't tell you enough how much Allyson adores her Daddy. He is her perfect playground and he can't wait to get home and see her everyday. I love our "daddy is home ritual". When daddy's truck pulls in Ally immediately stops what she is doing and runs to the door while screaming Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. As soon as he opens the door he drops his bags, swoops her up, and before he can get a word in she is demanding "chase Daddy, chase!! Allyson LOVES to play "chase" or in better terms tag all around the house. It usually turns into to hide and seek. She doesn't quite understand that she needs to wait and hide when we aren't watching her. Daddy still always pretends he doesn't know where she is and searches for her all around the house. For the longest time she would hide under our dining room table and when we would get close to finding her she would get nervous and pee her pants......haha! We have trained her now to come out of her hiding spot and go to the bathroom if she gets scared. It is so hilarious!! We will be aproaching the dining room table saying "where is Ally? Is she in here? No. Is she over here? No." As we get closer to the table all of a sudden we will hear "me go pee, me go pee" and little Allyson will quickly crawl out of her hiding spot and run to the bathroom.

I must say there is nothing more beautiful to me than the love of a father with his child. In the last 2 almost 3 years of our marriage my husband has never missed a morning of waking up early and spending time in Gods word and prayer before starting his day. This quickly became his special time with his daughter. When Ally was an infant he would go into her room around 6:00 am and hold Ally in his arms while he read his bible as she was sound asleep. As she got older and the summer months came he would take her outside to the front porch swing with his coffee, a big blanket for her, and his bible. It started becoming difficult for daddy to keep Ally in his lap when she would see her mommy, so I couldn't think of a better idea then for me to stay in bed longer in the mornings :) This lead us to the schedule we have today. Every morning daddy gets Allyson when she wakes up. He wraps her in a blanket, gives her a sippy cup of milk and takes her down to read. Sometimes she falls back to sleep, but most of the time she just enjoys sitting and loving on her daddy. Around 7:30 or 8:00 he sends Ally upstairs to wake up mommy from her wonderful sleep and the day begins.

I can't wait until tomorrow when we will find out if Daddy will be sharing his love with a new little girl or boy.

The Blessing of Family

That wonderful cold I mentioned I had 3 weeks ago came back to attack me with a fever, raw throat, and cough for four straight days. I was down for the count and there was no relief. I was able to rest easy for about 4 days thanks to my wonderful husband and mother. They both tag teamed each other and made sure I got lots of rest and TLC. No matter how old I get I will always need my mother. I remember after college wanting to move and live in another state. I can't tell you how much of a blessing it is that God had different plans for me. Living 5 minutes from all of our family members has been an undescribable blessing. Not just for Brian and I, but for Ally also. I love knowing that she can go see her Poppie and Mamaw and Papaw and Nanny anytime she wants. The same with every single one of her Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Great-Grandparents.

Allyson will be going through Mamaw withdrawal after having her at our house all week. Mamaws are for spoiling and Ally sure enjoyed every second of it. They played lots of chase, hide and seek, building blocks, coloring books, reading, and singing songs. Ally's favorite song right now is the B.I.B.L.E. Mamaw and Poppie couldn't wait for Ally to open her Valentines Day gifts so they brought them over on Saturday. Poppie even wrapped them all by himself. Allyson loves to open gifts now, so she couldn't wait to get her hands on all of the presents. She opened a new Mickey Mouse Snow Globe, a Mickey Mouse figurine, a new cho cho train coloring book, and some new Mickey Mouse stickers (she obviously likes Mickey Mouse). She immediately wanted to go try out her new stickers and coloring book. Here are a few pictures of her new gifts. Thanks Poppie and Mamaw! (Poppie was sick also so he couldn't be there).

Ally's Photo Shoot

The "extreme" camera is officially back in business. Back in my college days when I used this waterproof camera I would get made fun of because it looked like it came out of a Fisher Price box. This camera was nicknamed the "extreme" and was requested to make appearances at all of our parties. "Where is the extreme" was something I heard quite often.
Ally was digging through some of my storage boxes and found my wonderful old camera. There was no stopping her after this great discovery. She immediatley starting setting up her photo shoot and started snapping away.

Getting Elmo positioned for his big picture

Say Cheese Elmo

Trying to get the right angle while taking a picture of her cell phone

Teddy Bear is ready and smiling

Brian and I are extrememly excited as we count down exactly one more week before we find out if we will be having a baby girl or boy. We just hope little peanut keeps her/his legs uncrossed. A couple sips of coffee before our ultrasound should hopefully do the trick. Our neice Katie had her ultrasoud yesterday and found out she will be having a little baby girl.