Almost Time

Well I am 38 weeks a day or two shy from when I delivered both girls although it looks as though this little one will stay put until induction day which is scheduled for the 24th. We won't get out of hospital until Thanksgiving. I am ready. I am not miserable though, hardly any contractions etc. He is quite chill like the girls in the womb. I don't get a ton of kicks. I am so excited to meet him. I guess with it being a boy it seems like your first in a way. But I am not anxious. I think the girls will like having a baby brother. Allison is super excited and I think she will be able to help a lot. Mary is excited but I think she still likes being the baby so we will see how she does. I think she will be much easier to adjust than Allison since MP will have someone to play with (allison) She kisses my stomach a lot. Allison loves to feel my stomach move. I don't think MP realizes the baby will actually come out of mommy's stomach. :) They are both such cute ages, trying INDEED. and I need to work on my nerves. I know it will be hard when the baby is here when I have MP home with me 3 days of the week. I know I will be tired and it will be hard keeping her and doing stuff and trying to sleep. That was the hardest with Allison and we ended up after the first month putting her in Primrose full time which helped. So we will see. I have a girl that says she can come and help on Tuesdays and Thursdays but I am afraid she will want to just hold the baby. So we will see. I can't believe Thanksgiving is upon us and the Christmas season. I am super excited about the baby being here and not being pregnant anymore. I think about it being my last and I know later I will miss pieces of it. SO I am trying to remember things :) Right now me and Mary on the days off keep ourselves quite busy. I used to work out and do an errand in the morning then put her down for nap then get allie from Kinder or bus drops her off. Since I have been more pregnant and not working out at gym I usually do a couple of errands or we will go to park or meet someone and then come home have lunch watch a little tv. Our schedule goes like this: 645: wake allie up and give her cereal or waffle with PB :) while she watches Sofia, Mickey etc get her dressed, she brushes teeth, pack her lunch/water bottle/snack etc and then leave house around 725. Mary usually gets up by 7 and we all get in car. I will either walk Allie in or usually try to do carpool but lately Allison has been wanting me to walk her to front door of school. Then come home feed Mary waffle with syrup or cereal and then get dressed to start the day. Usually leave house by 9/930 and then do errands, come home around noon (or after if we went out for lunch) then have her watch a show before nap then she goes to sleep around 1 then Allison gets home around 304 and starving. Allison always wants fruit snacks, granola bar and then surprisingly wants to play not veg out and watch a show. On Mondays we have gymnastics at 4 so she snacks and then gets dressed and we head out. SO i try to get dinner done once she is off bus. On the other days we will sometimes go to park or go do an errand or just hang out and get dinner etc ready and then Will gets home around 5-515. We usually try to eat around 545/6 and then baths right after and then they can play or watch tv until about 730 which we start books etc. Allison has been doing some homework which is sight words etc and then bedtime is at 8. by about 815 we are telling MP to be quiet etc and then they fall asleep :) but its still a better schedule than what it was this summer as girls were going to bed way too late. We will see how this all changes with baby Luke. crazy that things are all going to change. Allison still hates to eat MP doesn't eat very well either but she isn't picky. Allison is still very picky. Allison is doing really well in Kindergarten and I am glad I started her. She seems to have good friends or like her friends. She also seems to be excelling in reading/math etc. She is learning a ton. I like her teacher, real sweet. I am still really liking Prosper, met some really nice people. We will see how this new adventure goes :)

Summer 2015

Well here we are 6 months later from the last post and we are in the middle of summer. We now have a 5 year old and a 2 year old and we are pregnant with a LITTLE BOY that is 20 weeks. We have had a good 1/2 of the year. For MP birthday we went to a place called Playstreet Musuem and had a Mary had a Little Lamb party. It turned out good. We did it in the morning and had chick fil a biscuits, fruit, and donut holes along with milk/juices/coffee. It worked out well. For Allisons bday we did a mermaid theme party at the park near our house with a splash pad, bounce house, and sno cones. It went well and think she had fun. We found out we were pregnant March 13th or so but it was a scary deal at the beginning considered I was bleeding once again at the beginning of the pregnancy. I can't remember if I mentioned we had a miscarriage in december. but nonetheless we went in to see Dr. Harms at almost 6 weeks but when we did sono they didnt see anything. So along with the bleeding that happened at the beg and nothing on the sono Dr Harms felt pretty good that this pregnancy would not be viable. So we did a miscarriage work up along with pregnancy blood work. So the next week we went in and found out our HCG and progesterone levels were quite high (progesterone being 36 at 5 weeks) Dr Harms was excited and on the sono we saw a heartbeat!!! so we were a little more optimistic. She did find out that I have two clotting disorders the main one being Factor V Leiden single copy and MTHMR. With that information Dr Harms started me immediately on Lovenox 40mg Sub Q Daily (meaning shots every day), folic acid, vitamin D, and baby aspirin. So far so good although the first trimester was really hard for me. I felt terrible. I was always dizzy, weird heart palpitations, racing heart, so so so tired, headaches, not too bad morning sickness but present, shortness of breath, low blood pressure.. an entire list of stuff. it was weird and it sucked. but around 14 weeks it went away although after 10 weeks I started to get some relief. nonetheless it went away and I am feeling great. At 12 weeks the sono tech said she felt like it was a boy (75%) and our down screening came back great with a risk of 1 to 10,000 chance of a baby with chromosome problem. then at 16 weeks she confirmed that it was a boy and we got our second set of screening tests that came out good with a risk of 1 in 10000 again. We just had our 20 week scan yesterday and all looked good except they saw an echogenic focus on the heart which is a marker for downs syndrome. We went to the specialist today and he felt that everything was fine and there were no problems. It was a huge relief although we are waiting for the blood work results to come in to help confirm no chromosome abnormalities. But the specialist felt like we didnt even need to do the blood work. We are looking at names I like Luke William or William Luke but Will maybe wants to do his name so we will see. So back on how things are with the girls. they are good, very cute, but a handful :) they fight a lot. MP has started hitting things so we are teaching her :).. They are both funny in their own ways as well as their sweet side. But both are pretty stubborn and very strong willed. Summer has been good. We have been swimming a lot, the girls love it. MP can fit in her puddle jumper great and Allie has been swimming great. Mondays we take Allie to gymnastics and then in June we had tuesday swimming lessons. Then we eat lunch out or what not then come home for MP nap and then after nap we either hang around the house, do a play date, go swimming or go do an errand before Will get home. If he is out of town we sometimes are in dallas or keeping ourselves busy as I hate being home with the girls for many days when Will is out of town for work. Its been a fast summer so far. the girls are in crockett this entire week so they can get some time with Wills parents and then we are picking them up to go to gulf shores AL for a family vacation just the four of us. Im excited it will be a good time. Cannot believe Allie will go to Kindergarten in 40 days. INSANITY. we went to san antonio in May before the crawfish boil and did the river walk and swam. it was fun. took girls by the Alamo, shopping, down to the market where the girls got guitars and then went to the river WHERE IT FLOODED DURING memorial day weekend. we had to evacuate in the middle of the night. the river got over 43 ft high and was more than 4 ft in our house. SAD but we were all safe THANK the lord. We are redoing the river house now since it got destroyed. It was the craziest night. Other than that things are going well. Will try and keep up more. Girls now sleep together at night in Allies room. we are about to get them new beds as MP is moving into Allie's room. Allie and MP love mexcian food esp queso, they eat waffles almost every morning, Allie with PB and Mary with syrup. We do cheese quesadillas a lot and they are obsessed with sno cones. They will eat fruit esp watermelon this summer. MP not picky although doesn't eat as much anymore. Allison is still very picky so were trying to work on that. :) they both sleep til about 730/8. They go to bed at like 8-830 but RIGHT now we are dealing with them taking a while to go to sleep so sometimes we are in there until about 930. it can be brutal. so our new goal once we their beds is to not have to lay with them mainly Allie until they are asleep. so we will see how that goes.

January-post holidays

WOW I was thinking I had at least typed something on here since September. Nonetheless I have not. Things have been going by pretty quickly. All of the holiday were really great. We had Halloween here at the house, mom and nat/wyatt came out along with sara/jt and their families. It was a lot of fun. We dressed up like the wizard of oz characters. Allison was dorothy. MP was a lion although she wouldn't wear her costume :(. She wasn't having it nor did I stress to make her which was nice. We had thanksgiving here at the house with mom/fred ,nat and wyatt, dad, the hortons, and my family of course. It was really nice. LOTS OF WORK to pull that off, people make it seem so easy. but man the clean up after takes an entire day :) I did the turkey, mashed potatoes, apple pie, creamed corn. Everyone else brought stuff. We had a great time though. Christmas was fun too we had Christmas eve here mom/fred came out along with brett/alaina for dinner and then Will/I went to Xmas eve service at church. We actually found out two or three days before xmas eve that we were pregnant but unfortunately on dec 29th we miscarried. It sucked, but was grateful it didn't prolong if something was wrong with the pregnancy. The girls are doing really well. MP is in full toddler hood but she is soooooo funny. Great personality, goes up to almost anyone and asks them to pick her up. she copies allison a lot which is cute. they do a routine in their elsa dresses which are actually PJ's but I have to introduce them as Elsa/Anna and they come running down the hallway and sing Let it Go for us. Its really cute. MP saying sentences, especially NO, or No Way or Hey you. But she asks to get her down, can I have some??? She still loves to eat which I love. There really isn't anything she doesn't like ex

January 2015

Okay new years resolution over here to post more and more pictures. I feel like things are already going at warp speed and I need to try and remember it all as WE ALL know my brain won't remember. Things are good. Will started to travel this week. WE had a great holiday season, can't believe I didn't blog about it. We had a halloween party and we were all the cast from The Wizard of Oz. Allison wanted to be dorothy and we all followed suite. We really had a fun time around the neighborhood trick or treating. It was on a Friday this year. The whole neighborhood gets in on the fun and everyone is outside handing out candy and something mom/dad "juice" :). MP didn't want to dress up, and I didn't stress much about it. She was the lion but refused to wear the hat so she just wore a brown suit :). Thanksgiving we had everyone mom/fred, nat/wyatt, dad, and the Hortons over for the day. It was fun but man what an ordeal regarding all the dishes that we had to clean. For Christmas we had mom/fred over for Christmas Eve Dinner which Alaina/Brett came over for to. Will and I went to the Christmas Eve Service at church. We found out we were pregnant on the 22nd. Which was exciting although we miscarried a week later. The girls loved Christmas, Allison got overwhelmed again but not nearly as bad as the last year. She got peppa pig stuff, art stuff, a barbie bike. They both got a store to share and big leggos. MP got a slide, a riding toy thing that sings. Although we try to ride that now she is a little too big. We went to crockett after we opened stuff from Santa and mom/dad and made it for lunch. We stayed until that sat night. It was a good christmas, grandmother and grandaddy gave them pottery barn sleeping bags and gift cards etc. Besides all the business of the holiday season, January has been relatively quiet which we have enjoyed. We are planning on going to Hot Springs in Feb. The girls have been good, they are playing with most of their toys. They love peppa pig, bubble guppies. MP obsessed with the movie frozen and little rascals. She is really talking more and becoming a stinker, but still HILARIOUS. We call her thighs HAMHOCKS. she still loves to eat. Allison still hates to eat unless its pizza, quesadillas, pb and j :) always a struggle. We start reading to them around 730 and then put MP in crib, we usually sing to her Hush little Baby and Allison sings it with me. Then we lay with Allison until she falls asleep. So somewhere btw 830-9 we can relax. I am always so tired by the time 9 comes around. The girls are loving school. Its so nice to not fight with them on going to school. I hope it continues. I worry about Allison going to Kindergarten next year and being so young. I know she will have a tough time. The girls have been doing very well, usually after I pick them up from school we will either do an errand or come home. I let them watch a little tv and have a snack if they want. then we will play or do something until 5 I am usually still trying to clean and fix dinner. Girls always want to do arts and crafts, play calico critters, sometimes we play store. Another cute thing the do a lot is wear their frozen nightgowns and we introduce them at the end of the hall and they come running into living room to sing LET IT GO. Allison loves going to the movies, I can't wait to be able to take both of them to it. MP still takes nap around 1230/1-330/4. She still takes a paci and has her music in her room. Allison is obsessed with Bailey, it gets kind of annoying bc she is always wanting to hold her or touch her and bailey gets scared.

FALL IS COMING!!!

WE DID NOT HAVE A BAD SUMMER, IT WAS QUITE MILD ALTHOUGH AUGUST WAS MORE BRUTAL WHICH IS WHY I AM SO EXCITED THAT FALL IS HERE. FOOTBALL SEASON HAS ARRIVED, AND WILL IS ON CLOUD NINE. WE HAVE BEEN BUSY AND REALLY ENJOYING THE HOUSE AND THE TOWN. WILL IS STILL ON THE FENCE BECAUSE HE FEELS WE ARE LIVING WITH A BUNCH OF A-HOLES BUT I HAVE MET SOME REALLY NICE PEOPLE AND THE TOWN IS VERY FAMILY FRIENDLY. WE JOINED THE PROSPER UNITED METHODIST CHURCH WHICH IM EXCITED ABOUT. THE GIRLS JUST STARTED SCHOOL- ALLISON IS IN THE 4 YR OLD PRESCHOOL CLASS, AND MP IS IN TODDLER PRIDE-18MO. THEY SEEM TO LIKE IT, ALTHOUGH MP CRIES (2ND TIME TO DROP OFF) BUT I THINK SHE WILL GET USED TO IT MORE. ALLISON SEEMS TO REALLY LIKE IT. ITS FROM 9-2 M-TH AND MP GOES M AND W FROM 9-2. SHE HAS A CUTE NAP MAT I GOT FROM POTTERY BARN AND THEY BOTH TAKE THEIR LUNCH. I HAVE BEEN PACKING SANDWICHES (PB AND J) AND TURKEY/CHEESE WITH CRACKERS FOR MP. ALLIE WANTS BROCCOLI SOUP- SHE IS OBSESSED WITH IT. I PACK FRUIT USUALLY ORANGES OR STRAWBERRIES. I ALSO PACK THEM MILK AND A SNACK USUALLY GOLDFISH OR NUTRIGRAIN BAR. MOM AND FRED ARE MOVING TO DALLAS. IM EXCITED, I THINK IT WILL BE AWESOME TO HAVE MOM AND FRED HERE NOT ONLY FOR ME BUT FOR THE GIRLS TOO. ALLISON DOING PRETTY WELL, STILL WORKING ON BEHAVIOR STUFF, THIS WEEK MAY NEED TO WORK ON ATTITUDE. FOR 3-4 WEEKS WE WORKED ON LISTENING AND DOING WHAT WE ASK THE FIRST TIME. SHE DID REALLY WELL WITH IT, SHE WOULD GET A MARBLE AND SO MANY WOULD EARN HER A REWARD. ALTHOUGH I ASKED HER WHAT REWARD SHE WANTED AND SHE DIDNT KNOW. NOW SHE WANTS HER REWARD TO SLEEP WITH MOMMY AND DADDY. I FEEL SO BAD AND THE WORST MOM, MY NERVES HAVE JUST BEEN TERRIBLE. NOW THAT SHE IS IN SCHOOL ITS BETTER BUT STILL I JUST DONT HAVE PATIENCE WITH HER. I NEED TO GET IT TOGETHER, AND BE MORE FUN. I JUST STRESS ABOUT ALL THERE IS TO DO AND IT SEEMS NO TIME TO DO IT, BUT NOW THAT THE GIRLS ARE IN SCHOOL SOME I REALLY REALLY FEEL IT WILL HELP. BUT THEY ARE DOING WELL. MP IS GROWING UP. THEY BOTH LIKE TO DANCE, MP TWIRLS AROUND AND AROUND UNTIL SHE FALLS. ALLISON SHAKES A LOT. SHE IS VERY CURIOUS AND HAS ALL SORTS OF QUESTIONS. SHE PLAYS WITH KYNLEIGH AND KYLEIGH ALL THE TIME WHICH IS FUN THAT SARA AND I ARE SO CLOSE. MP STILL LOVES TO EAT WHICH I LOVE. :) SHE IS THINNING OUT EXCEPT ON HER THIGHS, CUTE BABY . SHE HATE HATES FOR ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING WITH HER HAIR. SHE IS STARTING TO GET A LITTLE PARTICULAR ON ALL DIAPER CHANGES AND GETTING DRESSED BUT LOVES TO GO BYE BYE AND PUT ON SHOES SO I USUALLY GET HER TO COOPERATE THEN. SHE LOVES TO PUSH STROLLERS, GROCERY CARTS, AND THIS LITTLE TRAY AROUND THE HOUSE ALL THE TIME. SHE LOVES BABIES. ALLISON HAS STARTED PLAYING MORE WITH HER CALICO CRITTERS WHICH IS GOOD ALTHOUGH WE DID BUY HER THAT NEW LARGE DOLL HOUSE FOR HER BIRTHDAY :) OH WELL. SHE STILL LIKES TO PLAY GROCERY STORE TOO. SHE IS ALSO INTO LEGOS. MP LOVES LOVES PUZZLES. IM GETTING EXCITED FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR!! JUST FOUND OUT THAT AUNT SANDRA HAS BREAST CANCER :( CANCER IS JUST TERRIBLE. ITS EVERYWHERE IT SEEMS. OUR TYPICAL NIGHT STILL INCLUDES OUR NORMAL SCHEDULE: 545-6 EAT DINNER- ROTATION SPAGHETTI, BROCCOLI SOUP OR BROCCOLI WITH PORK TENDERLOIN/FRUIT, VEGGIES, RAVIOLI, PIZZA, GIRLS LOVE FRUIT-GRAPES, STRAWBERRIES, PINEAPPLE (ALTHOUGH MP HATES IT), WATERMELON. ONLY COOKIE ALLISON WILL EAT ARE OREOS, MP EATS THEM BUT ONLY LIKES THE WHITE PART. THEY USALLY HAVE HONEY NUT CHERIOS IN THE MORNING, OR MP LOVES EGGS. ALLIE WILL EAT A BITE OF EGGS IF WE HAVE CROISSANTS, ALTHOUGH ALLIE LOVES PANCAKES AS LONG AS IT HAS SYRUP. SNACKS: GOLDFISH, GRAHAM CRACKERS, FRUIT, NUTS, FRUIT STRIPS. THEY USALLY AFTER DINNER TAKE A BATH AND THEN AROUND 7 THEY PLAY AND THEN WATCH A LITTLE TV. IM TRYING AND DOING SO MUCH BETTER IN THIS HOUSE FOR THEM TO GO BRUSH THEIR TEETH AROUND 730 AND THEN DO BOOKS ETC SO WE ARE GOING TO SLEEP AROUND 8. MP STILL SO EASY AND WE JUST PUT HER STRAIGHT IN THE CRIB BUT ALLIE YOU HAVE TO LAY WITH HER UNTIL SHE FALLS ASLEEP. ONCE SHE IS READY TO FALL ASLEEP IT ONLY TAKES LIKE 5 MIN BUT GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE SHE IS READY TO GO TO SLEEP TAKES A LITTLE LONGER, BUT SOME NIGHT MORE RATHER THAN NOT WE ARE DONE AROUND 830-845. WE USUALLY PLAY ON COMPUTER WATCH A MOVIE OR WHAT NOT.

Summer 2014 Allison 4 years old and MP 16 months

We moved into our new house on July 8th. We love it and I am really excited about living in a new small town and the neighborhood. Its a lot of young families and all very nice. Sara and JT live right around the corner which is awesome because we see them a lot and its really helpful at times as all of our girls (although MP still young) play well together. I am still working part time, the girls having been going to Mindy's occasionally and other than that I have them. They spent about a week in Crockett with the Driskells while we moved. It was really helpful. We haven't seen mom/fred in a while with the move etc, but Fred is finished with treatment (12 weeks- 6 weeks chemo, 6 weeks chemo/radiation). He is in a lot of pain right now. We are headed to Houston Thursday (Nat, the girls, and I) and Will is coming on Friday since he needs to go into the office. We are staying the next week in houston as well while he has an audit which will be nice so we can see them a bit more than just the weekend. We are keeping our fingers crossed the everything works out that mom/fred will be in the dallas area soon vs houston which is such a hard trip to make. The girls are good. Allie turned the big 4 years old. WE LOST LAMBY at the fourth of july parade. She did really well at first without him much better than I thought she would, but lately she has been really sad and talking about how she just wants him back. She doesn't want another one either. I may buy her one and get her name on it even though she says she doesn't want it. We have been off and on with attitude :) she is so sweet sometimes and then just the opposite others. My nerves have not been good and I have to work on it b/c I know she is little and I am hard on her. I just lose it sometimes. I call myself Mean Mommy as I know she thinks I am. Its a fine line in your head going from being too hard on her to not being hard enough. I also think I need to play more on her level vs always trying to get things done vs just being in the moment. I really am trying to work on that, but again its so hard. Esp when you can't devote your attention to one to complete a task as the other one is needing you and your attention. I know lots of parents feel the same. ITS HARD but fun too. The girls love the new house with the playroom and outside. Still getting used to though. Allie is sleeping in her own bed but comes in every night in the middle of the night to get in bed with us. We have to stop this new habit but I am just glad she is in her room from the beginning of the night. In the last week I am starting a new routine Dinner, Bath, play, watch TV. then at 7 start book time, Allie likes reading books in playroom so that MP can read with us, but MP is not the best reading partner but she still hears our voice reading as she walks around finding stuff to play with. Then I get Allie to brush her teeth, potty, and get in bed. We still have to lay down with her until she falls asleep. ANOTHER habit we need to break. MP is pretty easy, once we play and "read" I get her dressed as she hates to get dressed right after bath and is almost always in her diaper. I just put her in her crib with her paci (ANOTHER HABBIT we need to break) and turn on her music. Then she sleeps until 645-7 but I don't go to her until like 710. She sometimes still wants a bottle and sometimes I give in, but for the most part we don't do bottles anymore. Occasionally if she gets up in middle of night and is not going back to bed than I will get up and give her bottle but last night I turned off monitor. MP is into everything right now, probably bc she has an older sister, but loves to change her baby and put lotion on her. She talks a lot but you can't understand her but she is very serious that you know what she is saying. These days she loves loves loves Ketchup :) just puts her whole hand in it and doesn't want anything to dip with it. ITS AWESOME :) Allie has really started loving broccoli. IM LOVING IT, she honestly has gotten so much more easy with foods. She likes a lot more THANK THE LORD. She still loves pizza, spaghetti, lasagne, but loves cream of broccoli soup. She loves ice cream, often orders vanilla shakes. LOVES creamed corn,the kind I make from shucking the corn off the cobb. MP loves almost all food :) she loves to eat, little girl is always hungry. She needs her head every time she wants a snack. They both love fruit esp strawberries and watermelon. Don't know how many things she has stained as I haven't gotten a bib on her in time. MP is so curious and right now at 16 months gets so mad when I put her shoes on and now her outfits. She thinks she can do it. She is pretty smart although I think its because she has an older sibling. She loves to swing at the park. She loves to say uh huh. Allie got a doll house for her birthday. She got some other barbie stuff as well. She has gotten into dress up more as well. Loves the princess dolls. For Allies' birthday we had 7 girls all meet at a small boutique for little girls where they got their nails, hair, dressed up in dresses, and had a fashion show. they got to do karaoke too. It really as very cute. They took care of everything at the party. It wasn't stressful at all at the party I enjoyed it, a little part of me missed the big birthday party but in the scheme of things I was glad not to be stressed. AS WE know i get stressed pretty easily. Lately I have started working out and take the girls, we go to a story time occasionally in Prosper, I get babysitters some so I can work. Wee get together with Sara and her girls a lot and we do errands in town. It actually goes by quickly by the time I work out do an errand or two then have lunch, nap for MP and rest time for Allie (she watches a movie) then we either go swimming or play around and I get dinner ready. Will is usually home by 530. We really like the Methodist church up here too. Put Allie in VBS, I volunteered and was the leader for 25 kids. IT was interesting :) Other than that things are really good. The girls are fun ages, but can be trying at times.

May 2014

Lots to report-- I quit my hospital job in March due to them cutting my hours which was the best thing. I have so enjoyed being with the girls more and just working for my dad. I didn't realize how stressed that job made me, although I am forever grateful I was only doing in part time. just being done with it all together has just made a huge difference in how I am feeling. Anyways I pulled Allison from Primrose at the beginning of May because we have been traveling with Will -- one week in Natchez MS which was fun but hard because we were in a small hotel room with MP trying to take naps and me/Allison just sitting in the room while she napped. Then we went to Seaside FL with a large group of friends -- nat/wyatt/scarlett (9mo), Jen/Patrick/Cole (3), Andrea/Jason/Sidney (3)/ Everett(17mo), Alaina/Brett/Parker (19mo) all in a four story house. It was a lot of fun though even though there were seven kids under the age of four. There were two kitchens and two living areas therefore we weren't all sitting on top of each other. So we were on the road for two weeks and then drove back on Saturday for 12.5 hours with the girls. They did awesome!!!!!! but 5 hours of barney was quite brutal, but hey it did the trick. That is the only show at this point that MP will actually watch and is mesmerized by that dang purple dinosaur. Things are pretty good though except for the Fred has been diagnosed with Tounge/Throat cancer stage four. he is currently going through chemo. I went up there the week of the biopsy and then the girls and I went to houston for a week, actually the week before we went to Natchez. So we have been traveling machines. We got back Saturday night and are leaving tomorrow night (thurs) for Wimberley for the 5th annual crawfish boil. Then we are going with Will to San Antonio to play around while he has an audit. Although we have been so busy it has helped time go by while we are in apt. We aren't supposed to get into new home until beginning of July. I was hopeful that it might be the end of June but don't think that will happen. Its pretty cool to see it all come together, every time we go in something new has come together. I think we are going to love the layout of this house, its very open and one story. the backyard is something Will wanted bigger but for now I think it will be great. Sara/Jt live right around the corner and its a very family oriented neighborhood so it seems. I am excited to move to Prosper. The girls are growing up so fast. Allison is doing very well it seems, we still have our melt downs but not nearly as much. Not sure if its age, or that she has been with me/family more but nonetheless she is at a great age. She is loving to swim and play. She has also really learned how to play with others and connect with other children. She isn't as shy as she has been and often at times asks people their names and ages, like waitresses and strangers. Used to she would just stick her tounge out at them :). She does well in restaurants still not a huge eater though and that along with sleeping in our bed are her biggest battles. She loves queso and chips so mexican food restaurants are not an issue, and she loves cheeseburgers, chicken, pork tenderloin, steak. I usually can get her to eat some type of meat and fruit. But not really veggies besides corn or green beans. UGH..... She loves to paint and do art stuff. She loves loves loves to play hide n seek or princess games. She is just getting into the princess stage and wanting to dress up more. She wants a princess bday party which we are trying to figure out if we are going to wait to get into house and do a later bday party or just celebrate it somewhere around here. MP is crazy crazy these days but funny as can be. She is still chubby which I absolutely adore and love to just hug and kiss on her. She is very sweet but these last few days I have started to see her toddler side come out. IF she wants something and you don't let her have it she throws a royal fit and arches her back cries screams. OH fun times ahead indeed. I usually can distract but will say this last week it has not proven to do much good. She really is so funny though. she carries her baby around and pats its bottom. She carries a purse around with her too. She also loves to eat but as of this week that is not really striking her fancy like it used to. She doesn't really have a favorite food as she eats most anything. She says mama, dada, dog, ball, hi but just walks around with her bowlegged ways and just yells/talks/laughs in gibberish. She loves dogs though and every time she sees one she goes crazy. She loves to dance too. also when at restaurants she just will look at people until they look at her. she will move her head back and forth until she gets attention from someone other than her immediate family. she really is such a ham. she still likes to cuddle and give open mouth slobbery kisses. She wakes up around 7am and is still taking 2 naps. she has breakfast but won't eat her usual bananas anymore, guess she is over that. loves the applesauce in a squeeze pouch. she also likes feeding herself with forks etc. She is def over me feeding her or having no utensils to feed herself from her highchair. she is also not very cautious and often will just fall off things or go for things hoping for the best, such as on a bed and getting down. instead of looking at the edge etc she just walks off and one of us catches her. with the pool she just screams to let her jump in but we are still working on finding what kind of life vest will work b/c the puddle jumper does not work on her, she is still too small. Its a fun time in our lives right now. Its still hard at times, can't go to restaurants (b/c of MP) for more than 20 minutes without a meltdown and her falling from her highchair or screaming and she still needs to go to bed at 730 as she gets pretty cranky. I am still very much enjoying her having two naps which usually are about 1.5 hours each. The girls fight, a lot of times Allison will take a toy she is playing with and MP will not have it and just yell/cry etc. I am excited when they will be able to play more which yes I know will mean more fighting but will also be nice for them to watch movies together. Allie wants to share a room with her. schedule as of now with the girls: wake up at 7am, eat breakfast (allison obsessed with pancakes) play some with toys, MP down at 930/10, Allison watches tv in the mornings (jake and the neverland pirates, sofia the first, doc mcstuffins) and then when sissy (allison insists on calling her that and she is sister) we try to do something or read books etc. Then do errands in between the next naps which are around 200-230. eat dinner around 6 baths at 630/7 and then sleep around 745/8. Allison is still really really hard to put to sleep. she doesn't nap anymore which helps once she calms down enough to go to sleep. so i would say that and eating are our biggest struggles. They like to eat apple sauce, peanuts for allie, ham/cheese roll ups, pretty much all fruit, apples with PB (bought the natural kind and Allie makes me top it with sugar :) go figure!! I tried that stuff and its nasty. no more of that. they eat goldfish, almonds, graham crackers.