what a day!

Can you believe this big girl?? 2 years and so big! We just had her second birthday party yesterday and it was a blast. My mom and I just did a simple little party with about 4 other kids and some adults. Just a friend of ours and a couple family members. It was so fun to celebrate Allie. What was even better was that Allie did great all day! I was so ready for the crying and crankiness that normally occurs with a birthday girl but thankfully that girl was nowhere to be found. She woke up from her nap as happy as a clam and so excited to see the house all decorated for her birthday. After the kiddos arrived we enjoyed playing together, eating pizza, doing a pinata, opening presents and having cake. I officially made my first requested cake by Allie. She has been asking for a "clown" cake ever since we went to the circus over a month ago.. So I decided to make one hoping that I didn't make some creapy clown that would scare the kids :) So thankful it turned out ok! Allie loved it and said that was her favorite part of her birthday. So funny. Needless to say we had a great time. Such a blessing to celebrate with family since this may be the last one in the next three years we will celebrate in the states? Since we are in the celebration mode I thought I would add some of Allies funny isms that she has started that makes us laugh on a daily basis:

---- she is only allowed her blankey in her crib during "sleep" times and Allie LOVES her blankey so every night when we go into her room to go to bed she asks to pull her blankey out of her crib and after getting the yes she pulls it out with the biggest grin on her face and says "blankey sooooo soft. Allie love blankey all day long, allie soooo happy" and continues to get anyone and everyone to feel how soft her blankey is.

---- which brings me to the next one. Anytime allie is happy about something she says "Allie loves _____ all day long" Such as Allie love mommy All day long. Where she got this from I have NO idea but it makes me laugh cause she does it with everything and I mean everything that makes her happy!

---- Allie just learned to spell her name so whenever she is looking at letters she goes A L L I E is Allie! and then looks around all proud of knowing her letters.

---- It didn't take her long for her to learn about santa. She now, whenever she wants something, says "ask santa, santa bring it."

So as you can guess we are having a great time back in chicago. Loving being around family. Loving the snow. Allie had her first sledding experience and loved it. We got all bundled up and Rob, Allie, Baboo and I went in the woods across the street and sledded down a couple hills. So fun to watch Allie try something new.

So now onto christmas! We are headed downtown chicago to a tradition we used to do when us kids were young. We take the train downtown and go to what used to be Marshall Fields (now macys) and have lunch under the HUGE christmas tree and gett visited by the fairy that walks around to the tables, visit santa and look at all the christmas windows. So excited to have Allie experience it. We get to meet Nate, Dawn and Baby Zack down there so it should be fun!!

Allie with her new Dollhouse from Nonnie and Baboo!

The girlies at the table

Allie doing her cupcake pinata

candy!

Clown cake :)

Allie is 2!!!

Ahh. I can't believe it... two years has gone by since our sweet daughter has come into the world. I now see how everyone feels when they say enjoy every second cause it flies by soon she will be graduating from highschool. I already feel like the last two years have flown by. I am watching this sweet girl grow up in front of my eyes, watching her change and grow into such a beautiful young girl. It is such a blessing to watch her grow. I constantly am pointed back to my heavenly Father thinking if I love this sweet girl this much how much more He loves me? how amazing that thought is.

Well on this second birthday I can't help but think ahead to what may be going on while allie is what many call this dreaded 2. :) I am continually praying that through this age I can still take a breath and be thankful for this healthy little girl that God has blessed my family with. Although there are going to be MANY changes for allie this year. Rob and I always sit back and think well if this year doesn't effect allie nothing will :) In this year these are the changes that will occur; moving to a big girl bed, gaining a new sibling, moving out of the home she has always known and people that she has always known, living in transit for about 5 months, making the trek across the ocean, moving to a new home in Belgium, being in a new culture with a new language, and maybe leaving atleast one dog behind in the states (which she is crazy attached to!) and I am sure much more. Those things are just a couple things going on in our next year. I am trying so hard to give it all up to the Lord knowing that He is already in all of those things and will guide and give wisdom. I just pray that allie is still as flexible as she has always been! So prayers are appreciated as we enter this new year.

Allies 1st birthday we celebrated at the Beckenhauer side and now Allies 2nd birthday we will be celebrating at my parents house. Allie is very excited for her birthday this year. She has been talking about having a Clown Cake for her birthday for over a month. So I will be attempting to make a clown cake and just praying it doesn't turn into some creapy clown! :) It may be a bit interesting! So just a couple family and friends are coming over to celebrate. Only about 5 kids and a couple adults so it should be perfect. My mom and I are working on making some fun decorations. I'm excited to watch her experience a birthday. Rob flies in on friday to join us cause we aren't doing her party till sunday. What fun.

So thats whats going on in this family. Constantly learning new things, getting a much bigger belly (7 months!) , and excited for the holidays with the family!!!

little blessings that mean so much...

It has been such a joy spending time with my sweet little girl. Of course there are those moments that I can get so frustrated with the little lady as I ask her not to do something and she looks at me and does it anyways... well those moments are so outweighed by the sweet moments I just breath in and hope I never forget. Those moments that I tear up out of gratefullness for the blessing that the Lord has given me. And He seems to always give them in times where I am needing encouragement. So today we were driving in the car and Allie goes "Nemo Happy". I asked what allie? Nemo makes you happy? (She finally got to watch nemo on the airplane and LOVED it) and she goes "yeah" I asked her what else makes her happy and so she sat thinking in her carseat and just started listing off all the things that makes her happy. She says "baby mad happy, Bella happy, Daddy happy." I say yeah what else makes you happy? She says "baby in mommas belly happy." Allie has really started to connect with this baby growing in my belly. Maybe cause the belly is getting bigger but she is always talking about what she wants to do with the baby when it comes out. She looked at me the other day and rubs my belly and goes. "Belly BIG! Baby big!" Yes yes allie I am getting bigger :)
So I put allie down for a nap after having a real nice lunch together chatting about the day, and saying our prayers where she listed off so many things to pray for... a lot of things I forget to pray for sometimes. After about 45 min of her "nap" time I still hear her playing in her crib. I decide to go upstairs to see if maybe she has a stinky diaper. I stop at the door and listen to her chat (which I do often) and I hear her having a conversation with herself. First she is talking about taking the dogs for a walk and telling charlie to heel (she is learning how to walk charlie) and then just keeps repeating "Come home daddy... come home daddy" over and over. I start to tear up. I tear up cause I know how much that sweet girl loves her daddy and just wants him here. And how much her daddy wants to be with her but he has a job to do. A job that calls him away so often. A job that she has no idea what it is or how important it is for our country. but I stand there at her door crying.. thanking the Lord for the blessing of family. No matter how far apart we are there is a bond between us that can't be broken. Thankful for the work that Rob does for this family and all the other americans out there. And ALL the other men and women that leave their families behind to serve our country. They leave knowing that they are supporting a cause that is so important. So I stand so THANKFUL and feel incredibly blessed. All those hard moments, times where I feel lonely, feel like a single mom, makes everything worth it when I stop and think of the amazing blessing the Lord has given me in my husband, my daughter and the baby He is growing inside me. God is good. And is good all the time. so this was my day. and I know it may seem small to some, but it was so big for me. Something I needed. A reminder I needed.

love love watching my little lady grow... and my belly.. 5 Months and counting!!

All the CCU soccer ladies!!

Fun times!!

Our competitive Kick Ball team!! Somethings never change :)

Loving the Nebraska game

watching the game with granny

"Go Big Red"

Playing at the mall on a gloomy day... little does she know youre supposed to put money in it to make it move :)

My sweet lady playing at the playground at the mall..

I know I know I am SO bad about blogging... my bad. I am not sure why I am so bad about posting on here... but hopefully with Rob being gone I will be better :) no promises though... Allie is growing like a crazy lady.. I feel like I am always saying that but it is so true. I had the blessing of going to a friends wedding in Oregon for five days while Allie was hanging with her Granny and Pops. It was so strange being away from allie for so long but I was so happy to hear how great she did and I know how important it is so spend time with grandparents :) But when I got home I swear she tripled her vocab! She officially runs around the house yelling "Go Big Red" and yells FOOTBALL whenever she sees football on T.V. Makes daddy proud thats for sure! She is just turning into such a sweet little lady. We had such a great time in Mobile Alabama with Aunt Brit and Uncle G. Allie LOVED all the attention and I love all the time with family! The 10 days we were there went by WAY too fast. Always sad to say goodbye not knowing when we all will see eachother again. Its so cute cause every time we go to bed we say our prayers and allie will name off everyone in our family. So I love when she gets to spend so much time with them.

Rob finally gets home on saturday and man are we ready. Allie was walking up the stairs last night and turned around and says "mommy, Daddy home now" I said I know he will be soon and she smiled and turned around. So cute. Although we only have a week with him home we will soak up every minute we have together. Lots of family time thats for sure. We get to have our ultra sound the week Rob is home and No we are not finding out the sex of the baby... I know I know some of you REALLY want us to but we REALLY dont :) So we are just excited to see this little bean on the big screen and so is allie. She is loving this baby in my belly she always wants to share with it and always gives her stickers to the baby... sticking them on my belly. We'll see how she feels once it enters the world :)

Well thats life as of now... like I said I will attempt to be better at updating with lots of photos and such when Rob leaves.

Milestones and countdowns

Well a lot of things are changing in this household both ones that we are excited for and ones that we are knowing God is going to shine, but we may be not excited for :) Allie is officially in the potty training process. Yesterday was our first day of no accidents and using the potty all day. Today she went to playgroup in her big girl panties for the first time and had no accidents either. Its very exciting to watch her be so happy to be out of diapers! She is always sad when she has to go to bed to put on a diaper (sleeping potty training is for the future). We have really seen a lot of progress this week and it is really encouraging since I had NO idea where to start when it came to potty training and I wasn't in the mood to read a book on it :) so Lord willing this sweet little girl of ours will be in her big girl panties for good (during the day of course).

The other side of everything is that starting today we have one week left with my hubby and with allies daddy. He leaves a week from today for SOS training in Alabama for five weeks. Thankfully we will head to his sister brittany's house for a week where we hope to see him over the weekend. We are wanting to ease allie into not having her daddy around so hopefully seeing him end of sept will help. He gets back from training on october 18th and will be home for a week and will deploy on oct 26th. He is gonna be gone till the second week in january so its definitely gonna be a transistion for allie since he hasn't deployed since she's been born. As our family has done this four times already before allie was born I am prepared for it I am just sad for Rob as he will miss out on so much being gone all the holidays and everything allie will be learning. But God is good all the time and works in amazing ways. I am reading this really great book called Authentic Faith and this week just happened to be on the discipline of contentment... funny how God teaches us exactly what we need to learn at the right times. So I do truly feel content. I know it can always be worse as I always think with everything, but that doesn't make it less sad. I just don't look forward to the days that allie constantly asks for her daddy since she always does already during the day. Thankfully Skype has been invented and she will get to see his face every so often :) A quote that I am putting up on my mirror from the book is, "Contentment is about resting, about removing ourselves from the vain strivings of the world and thus finding peace and quiet in God's will. We will never catch up to the incessant desire to better our situation, but we can immediately find satisfaction by accepting it." So on the day I read this I chose to find peace and quiet in Gods will and not worry, anxiety, and frustration that can come with anything military related especially deployments. So I continue and ask you to continue to pray for our family as we go through this transition and as I get more pregnant, and as we continue to wait for news on where and when we will be moving after rob returns probably this spring. Gonna be lots happening in the beckenhauer house come spring!

some more photos... allie 20 months

All Smiles
Pretty Lady

Pool days....

in our pretty dress that nonny (grandma) made

wearing all my crafts at the salina festival

Lots of news in the Beckenhauer Home....

Allie will soon be a big sister! Yahoo!!! I am officially 13 weeks pregnant and due March 5th. We feel incredibly blessed this house... Allie is loving every part of this baby thing :) She is obsessed with babies... everything baby... She thinks her baby is 100% real. If baby falls she must pick her up and give her LOTS of kisses and hugs on her "boo boos". So its going to be so fun to see her with a little baby around the house. Allie is currently learning her colors.. She has about 10 of them figured out and loves it. She has to tell me the color of everything we pass. She is getting so old its so fun to watch her turn into such a little lady. We are attempting to slowly potty train allie... she has only been successfull twice but its been BIG in this house :) She loves to sit on the potty and wear her big girl panties so I am just trying to do it slowly and with as little stress as possible. She LOVES to get her sucker when she actually does go to the bathroom in her potty. I was just wanting her to be trained by the time the second baby comes along so I don't have to be changing two diapers :) And for those of you who were wondering just like we didn't with allie we are not finding out the sex of the baby this time around either. Rob and I really enjoy not knowing and finding out after... We like those suprises in life... We feel like its like opening a present before the big day. :) So you will all have to wait till the end of feb beginning of march to find out what God decided to bless us with...

The rest of us (rob and I) wait patiently... sometimes impatiently... for where the Air Force is deciding to send us. We are hoping to find out in the next week or so. We are thinking we will be moving sometime in spring... so as you can see our main question is... how close to my due date are we going to be moving?!? So I am really trying to trust that Gods plans are so much better than mine and He already has everything worked out so there is no need to stress :) So we will keep everyone updated on where and when we will be heading. Also Rob is going to be heading out to a training for 5 weeks on Sept 10th. He will return on Oct 16th. Unfortunately he will be deploying a week later till mid January. So he will be gone for almost 4 months of my pregnancy and be missing all holidays and allies 2nd birthday. So keep us in your prayers as we try to soak up as much as we can as a family over the next three weeks. Again God is good and will keep us strong as a family.

Well I will be MUCH Better about posting I seemed to fall into a rut with blogging so I will definitely be posting more often as I get larger :) and allie gets bigger...

Here are a couple fun pics of allie this past couple days...

Allie wanted to put on daddy's shirt while he was at work

Allie LOVES her bubba... Nothing like a big SQUEEZE

Sweet loving on her bubs

New Babies...18 months old and new milestones!

We have been busy having LOTS of fun this summer. Allie is one grown lady :) She is learning all sorts of new things. She is now 18 months old, I can't believe my little lady is already a year and a half.. crazy how time flies.. these are just some of the fun new things allie is doing. Walks with Dada, bubba and charlie (walking bubba all by herself), swimming in the "pool", coloring, eating with a spoon and fork, saying lots of new words, opening the back door all by herself, talking with people on the phone, picking up and putting away her toys (in the right spots), walking up the stairs holding on the the railings, washes her hands and dries them on her own, feeds burps and attempts to dress baby, throws and catches balls, recognizes family memeber and friends in pictures, puts the animal puzzles together, sweeps the back porch with a big broom, and has MANY opinions on what she wants and does not want to wear on a daily basis :) These are just some of the fun things allie is doing now, its amazing to watch her learn new things on a daily basis.. I love to watch her just investigate something trying to figure out how it works... she is so her fathers daughter... trying to figure everything out and why it does what it does. And I just think its hilarious that she already wants to pick out what she wears EVERY day and there are some days where she will desperately want to wear some fancy church dress and I have to convince her that it is not comfortable to wear a fancy dress to play outside. Anything in her closet with animals or flowers on it is a must wear. Ugh I can just imagine the years ahead... good luck daddy with this little girl. :)

We are really having a great summer and really loving playing outside,enjoying the sun, and trips to the park. Allie loves to go up the playground and down the slides like the big kids.. no helping this little one anymore. She gets really mad when mom says something is too big for her. No way not this one.. she wants to be BIG. :) We took a weekend trip up to salina to visit friends and allie was a Trooper! We spent 10 hours at the riverfestival where allie only took a 30 min nap but was great all day till 10:30 that night. Thank you allie! Allie was a total groupie and just wanted to watch the band the whole night. We did crafts that day and she was very proud of the bracelet she made and needed to show everyone that passed her by. She is just one social butterfly and wants to say hi and talk to everyone. (not surprising I guess) :)

We are all VERY Excited about the NEW addition to our family BABY CHARLIE. Allie is still trying to figure out the difference between baby "yack" as she calls him (aka Zack) and baby charlie. All she knows is that she wants to touch both of them! We can't wait to finally squeeze little charlie. We are all going to be together in july and we can't wait!

video

video of allie walking bubba..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CO8ocWpSsw

Two weeks shy of a year and a half

Well we come to June amazed that it is already June. Does time always fly by this fast? Much is happening in this family and many blessings are had. Rob and I are coming up to our four year anniversary on thursday and its such a blessing to look back on the past four years of marriage and the joys that have been witnessed. Its sometimes hard to remember life before having a daughter and husband. God sure is good.
The past couple weeks have been so great fun with Allie. She is at such a fun age and both Rob and I are loving it. She is LOVING coloring. Grandma and Grandpa got her the coolest table for her birthday that has a roll of paper on the side that you can drape over the top of it so many times a day I find my little lady there scribbling away. Whats funny is that I will ask her to draw something such as a cat and she will go "K" and run over and "draw" a cat. Now it looks just like a scribble of course but she definitely thinks she is drawing a cat :) She is also loving the Sun and so is her mommy :) Living on base is such a dream on any given day there are probably 4 other wives sitting in someones yard with 5+ kids playing and now that its warm there are plenty of water toys out. Its so fun to be able to walk outside and just sit with other women while the kids go crazy in the yard. Love it! One of allies biggest accomplishments this week is that she is walking Bubba all by herself. As we walk the dogs around the block Allie holds Bubba's leash all by herself and walks with him. She even yells "NO" When he gets out of line :) I guess it pays to have a bulldog :)
Oh yeah we were super blessed to have my sister and her husband come in town memorial day weekend! We had SUCH a great time. It was such a relaxing and fun weekend. Lots of laughing, food, playing, and swimming was had. Always refreshing to spend time with family.

After Kate and Chris left I got to go up to emporia to register my last bible study girl into college. What an amazing thing to spend almost four years investing in my girls and to get to watch and support them ALL go to college (two of them being the first generation to go). Patty, my last highschool graduate, is going to Emporia University, which is about an hour and a half away. We drove up and I got to enjoy a day with my cousin michelle and her daughter hannah. We had such a great time and Allie especially did. Michelle has a lot of land and so she has all these outdoor cats four of them being kittens. Well Allie fell IN LOVE with the kittens. For days allie was saying baby cats. I am nervous that Allie may be a little bit too much like me and now for years will be bringing animals home and wanting to keep them. I guess I will get a taste of what my parents went through. mmm. fantastic. :)

Well I will put photos on asap of all these events. Sorry such a long blog and I will really try to get on here more often so they're shorter

Tiger Shirt and Training

Can you resist this face?? Well this is Allie's favorite outfit and if this shirt is clean you will find her in it. She woke up this specific morning doing her 'sign' for tiger and pointed to her belly. She then went over and pointed out this shirt saying she wanted to wear it. The second I said she could wear it she got the biggest smile on her face and started getting VERY excited. Hilarious. So needlesstosay she spent the whole day rubbing her belly and pulling her shirt up to kiss the tiger. It will be a sad day when this shirt no longer fits. Well a sad day for one little lady anyways :) 

It is finally getting warm here and we are so thankful! Allie and I LOVE playing outside. She is the biggest Rock and Stick collector I know. She will spend forever searching our yard for new sticks and rocks. She also loves flowers. I just finished my garden about a week ago so every time we walk outside she needs to bend down and smell the flowers. Yesterday Rob and I were sitting in the yard and I was watching allie bend down to smell a flower as she was bending down she lost her balance and fell face first in the dirt... mouth wide open. We have tried to teach her to be tough so thankfully she just walked over to me mouth wide open asking to be wiped off of all the dirt that was in her mouth and all over her face. It was a pretty funny site I was wishing I had my camera on me! Allie is definitely hitting a growth spurt right now.. She is eating like Rob (which you all know is pretty amazing) seriously though she will eat all day everyday literally ALL day. I even give her vegetables when I think she isn't really hungry and she chows down. Its crazy. She also is sleeping like a crazy person. The other day she slept almost 14 hours at night and then 3 hour nap that day. Talk about growing! 

Rob and I were given this book from our pastors wife who is a mom of 8 and I greatly respect. She told us about this book called To Train Up a Child. I started reading it monday and have loved it. I don't agree with every single thing stated BUT I absolutely love their training "disciplining" methods. I started monday and today is day 4 and is going very well. I have been VERY encouraged by how well its working. Now there have been many breakdowns from allie, but in the end have proven successfull. I have always desired to have children that will listen to mom and dad and won't talk back or be rude.. so Boot Camp has begun I'll let you know how it goes. Consistency... Ugh its hard. But Allie has been so great with it and I am so thankful for Nancy to show us this book cause I was at a loss of ideas. I will say though that yesterday we had our first testament of wills between Allie and I. She was determined to beat me out but 45 minutes later she gave in and listened to mama. Now that was a rough time. But I was very proud of myself since I never once raised my voice or got mad. Lots of prayer! Its amazing to watch the emotional journey of a 16 month old that knows exactly what she is trying to accomplish. 

Allie and I have really enjoyed the last couple weeks though. We have spent a lot of it with our neighbors outside playing. It is such a blessing living on the military base with so many other amazing couples and little kiddos. So fun to walk outside and chat with all the neighbors I always feel like our neighborhood is like how it used to be 20 years ago. Friendly faces always willing to help, totally safe with kids running around everywhere, kids on bikes, and people sitting on their porches waving at everyone. I love it. Nothing like living behind the safety of military walls :)

Here we are coming to the end of another week. Amazing how time flies by. We are getting VERY excited to head to chicago next week for the CF WALK! I hope some of you are able to join us!!!! 

one more video.... :)

We are in the process of learning our letters we have gotten A B C and R here is allie pointing out A B and C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ymv58gBmH8

One Day At A Time....

Starting Early :) (BTW no I am not a bad mother its just water)

Allie found one of my hats and decided to put it on :)

Pushing baby
tutu climbing
Looking for Eggs

Question always being asked... Hows Allie feeling? Well the answer varies from day to day.. literally. Its been two weeks of ups and downs. We spent all day sunday and I mean ALL day in the ER. From the time Allie woke up till we left for the ER she would scream the most awful scream every time she would pee. She would clench her fists and feet and not want to be touched. It was the craziest thing. Well after about 5 hours of it Rob and I decided to head to the ER. After waiting 3 and a half hours in the waiting room the tests begun. They had to catheter her twice (may I say the most awful thing is to have to hold your baby down as she looks at you, screams, and signs 'all done' as they stick things up in her), put in IV in twice and take blood out of the other arm twice.. if you are noticing a pattern here everything was done twice... need less to say Rob and I had had just about enough by 11pm. After all the tests the dr was sitting in our room looking at allie perplexed as she stated to us.. 'I really have no idea what else to look at but I feel like there is something that we are missing'.  Well she wanted us to stay overnight to keep fluids in her, but I wanted to bring her home so she could sleep well in her own bed and I reassured the dr we would push fluids at home so she let us leave. Rob and I got in the car and Rob says "Are you as emotionally drained as I am?" Seriously you can only take so much pinning your child down and watching her scream. Ugh. Well all the tests came back negative on tuesday and she is slowly getting better. They still have no idea what was causing all the pain and her bladder to be extremely big (since kiddos in diapers don't have big bladders due to the fact they can pee whenever they want). Well then on tuesday Allie woke up with fluid draining out of her ear like a faucet.. as I stated to Rob "maybe this is normal with tubes?" Nope not normal... Another ear infection... only 4 days after getting off the antibiotics for the last ear infection and 14 days post ear tube surgery... perfect. So unfortunately the tubes did not solve the infection problem although it did solve the fluid being in her ear constantly (which can cause hearing problems)  so thankfully its a little easier on Allie. So then we come to friday and allie is feeling a bit better. (Although I came down with a kidney infection wednesday and rob has had a cold/sore throat all week) We are ready for this house to be sickness free. To be honest I am just discouraged about Allie's ears and really hoping and praying that these ear infections aren't a weekly battle... but I just don't know what else to do? I'm not sure if the ENT will be looking at other issues if this happens frequently. We'll see.  

I am finally putting up some photos from Easter and a couple random ones. Allie is getting so old. She is already wanting to decide what she wears... She will go to the closet and point at the shirt she wants... TOO early! :) And if I let her everyday she will wear the Tiger shirt she got in mexico that I have to squeeze over her belly! 

Some Fun Videos

Easter Egg Hunt    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-_deuZ2J9g

Doing Body Parts           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCXB3Ua3wNw

A little talking    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW8CVjpozJM

Tube in Ears...

Well I just put my beauty down for her nap after a very busy morning. We arrived at the doctor at 8:00am ready for some healing. They checked us in took Allies vitals and we waited. I knew this was going to be an easy quick surgery (which makes me think of the moms that have had children have to go through long awful surgeries), but nothing turns your stomach more than to watch a nurse take your daughter away. I sat and prayed for my sweet lady and for her doctor to have wisdom. About 30 minutes later the nurse came out and said she was ready. I walked back and another sweet nurse was rocking allie in one of their recliners. I took allie and watched her head flop around and her look around so confused. Almost like she was a newborn. Dr.French came out and said her surgery went great and that he was very happy we did the surgery cause when he checked her last week she had no ear infections but when she went into surgery today she had another double ear infection, one ear being much worse with lots of puss and blood. He said that the tubes will hopefully decrease the ear infections and should greatly help her hearing. Allies Bifid Uvula and deformed palate may cause more ear infections, but we are just praying these tubes fix that problem. The anesthesia was a little rough on her body. She ended up throwing up twice in the surgical center and three times in the car... rough morning. I walked away thinking... Man I have one tough daughter. I told Rob yesterday morning that I thought maybe Allie was getting an infection cause she was a little off, but then she played all day with the kids so it never crossed my mind again.. especially not a double one and one having blood in it! ugh! poor girl.
So hopefully the next update on this will say that all is well!
We had a fantastic Easter. Had about 12-14 adults and 7 kids over for brunch. Nothing like a home full of company, especially to celebrate our Savior. I will post photos ASAP.

Cooking with Dottie

So I had to go to the dentist this morning for a cleaning so my friend/neighbor watched Allie for me. Thankfully we live on base so all of us military wives swap kiddos when we have appointments! I came back from my appoinment and walked into my neigbors house to a mary poppins song playing and the two girlies in aprons and "cooking" away. It was so cute. Allie was busy stiring her "food" aka plastic balls in her bowl. Christine thankfully took a couple pictures. She had such a fun time over there.. nothing like a little change in routine :) We just went to the ENT on monday and found out allie needs tubes in her ears so away we will go on monday to get tubes. ugh. When Allie was born she had a Bifid Uvula (or a split uvula) which is that her uvula is split down the middle like a Y. This can cause some major ear infections and maybe also shows that her palate is deformed, but we are unsure of that as of now. Well since allie has had 3 ear infections in 11 weeks the ENT believed that she would have had infections every two weeks if we don't get the tubes. He said that Allie has gained a very high thresh hold to pain since she has had so many so I may not even know when she will get another, which could cause major hearing loss and issues. SO the tubes should greatly help that. Its only a 15 to 30 minute surgery and a really easy recovery so I am actually looking forward to Allie feeling much better. So pray for my little lady on monday that everything goes well. I'll keep you updated on if they find anything with her palate in the process. 

What should we cook??

"Now Dottie this is how you do it..."

My cute Chef :)

Busy stirring

Every good chef taste tests

packed up the baby toys...

Its a sad and exciting day to go through all of Allies toys and pack up all of the "baby" toys she has. Shes a big girl now. As much as I love her growing up and look forward to each stage of life its always sad to look back at little toys and clothes when she was so tiny. Maybe we need another baby in this house? :)

So my little lady is a little sponge. I don't realize how much she picks up each day its amazing. I don't even know half the time where she learns things. She has now learned almost every body part from finger to cheeks. She loves to color, babble on her fake phone, and clean up. She has officially become addicted to Airplanes. We have a couple static airplanes on our base so everytime we get in the car she does the sign for airplane and starts getting herself VERY excited. Its so funny. We then drive by them and she waves and says airplane in sign language. She is able to see an airplane in the sky from a crazy far distance. I guess its in her blood :)
Allie is officially weaned and goes to bed all by herself. We take a bath, read a couple books, pray, have a minute snuggle and I put her into bed. Allie then looks at me and waves, like see you later mom. So funny. Nothing like a little girl who loves her bed. There are things as a mom that you look back at and wish you did things differently but this is one of the successes for me. To make the weaning process painless, which it was, and have her go to bed all on her own and sleep 12 hours straight no matter what the time I put her to bed, which she does. Now if I could just figure out how to discipline a 15month old? Nothing more frustrating than Allie doing something I told her not to and then telling her no and then having her laugh. ugh. Every time I tell her No she just looks at me and laughs. I may have a little stinker on my hands. Too smart for her own good. Any advice?

We are so excited for Easter! I love Easter. I love to celebrate the resurrection of my precious Savior. I love the joy of Easter. I also love all the celebrations of Easter. I can't wait to put eggs all over the yard and let Allie find them and put them in her basket. She is all about collecting items and putting them in buckets. So fun.

Till next time...

country traveler!

Kates Baby Shower
allie in the same highchair I sat in when I was her age :)
four generations

Well We are finally back home in wichita after MANY trips around the country and mexico! We just got back from NYC and D.C. where I brought my bible study girls on their spring break. It was so fun to be there when they experienced their first plane ride, train/subway ride, seeing skyscrapers etc. So fun. Such a blessing to be a part of it. I love to see there eyes opened to things outside of our little wichita. I will post pictures soon. There are SO many so I have to sort through them. Such a fun time seeing Granny and Popsie. Although we did return home finding out allie had ANOTHER ear infection. Three in three months. Ugh. I knew there was something off all week but I didn't know what it was. 

Before that trip we headed up to chicago for my sisters baby shower. such a blast. Always fun to see Kate preggo. Although I am bummed we don't get to see her in her 8-9 month stage. Allie and I got to enjoy a couple days up there with grandma and grandpa. Allies great grandma also came into town so that was such a blessing spending some time with her. 

So now we get back to life and I have never been happier to do so :) We still are busy busy but I nothing is like being home. Allie is feeling much better now that she is on antibiotics and getting LOTS of sleep. She is growing soo much. She is really thinning out. She went to the doctor and hasn't gained any weight but has grown to 33 inches! 

Heres a recent video of allie being silly. It isn't the best quality cause I took it from my phone. But I had to catch it. I ask Allie if she is silly and she puts her hand over her mouth and bends over acting like she is laughing really hard.. its too funny. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t41fiItJWo