Christmas 2009

Christmas is so much fun when you have kids! Allison has totally been into Santa Claus this year and was so excited about all of her presents.

Aunt Clare seriously read her mind this year with this present. Allison is obsessed with birthdays so this cake was perfect for her. And the alligator pull toy they sent for Sara is awesome, too; the only bad thing is that it has the swine flu. : ( It looks healthy to me but Allison has declared several times in a sorrowful tone that it has swine flu. Sad.
Sara loves Allison's Strawberry Shortcake Doll (she calls it "cake-cake").

I'm hoping this baby will buy me some peace and quite in the car.

We got to visit my family on Christmas Eve and Joe's family came on Christmas day.

Left to right: Allison, Sara, Jacob, and Elizabeth. Don't you think Sara and her cousin Jacob look alike? Maybe it's just the shared lack of hair *shrug.*

Today's Sonogram

We had our "mid-pregnancy" sonogram today and it went just great. The baby looks perfect and was very cooperative. The technician informed us that our baby has long arms and legs and a big belly. Can you guess what we're having?

We will be having a boy!!!

And now to the task of picking out a boy name and boy bedding and boy clothes and everything else in the world that a baby needs in non-pink hues. So far we have a formidable collection of baby items in all shades of pink and purple. This is going to be quite a transition. I'm excited about this!

Reindeer Games and Hamilton Happenings

Allison had her gymnastics performance (Reindeer Games) last Sunday and she did great. I was afraid that she'd be intimidated by the crowd but she performed with the other kids from her class and the other preschool classes and she just went right along and did all of her little moves. I was so proud of her. Here are some pictures from Reindeer Games.

Clockwise starting top left - (1) she's the one in the middle doing the floor routine (tumbles, flip over a bar, balance beam, etc.; (2) log roll on the trampoline; (3) balance beam, she's the one in the middle that's leaning; (4) Allison with her much beloved teacher.

Allison also went to Primary for Sharing Time for the first time ever this past Sunday. They are easing the new Primary kids in by taking them out of the last hour of Nursery and bringing them to Sharing Time to get them ready for the big transition in January. Holly is in Primary so she gave me a full report afterward and she said she did really well.

Allison's not the only one growing up, though. Sara is talking so much now and she is just hilarious. It's so funny to see their little personalities really come out when they can talk more. Her new favorite thing is to look at pictures of cats. You know the LOL cats - if you've got an internet connection, you've seen them. One day, Joe tried it as a last resort to help pull her out of a meltdown and it worked instantly. Anytime she's in a bad mood, Joe can just pull up some pictures of some cats and she will go from tears to smiles instantly. It's like magic.

Speaking of Christmas, we just went to our Ward Christmas party tonight and for the first time ever, my girls didn't scream at the sight of Santa. Here they are with Papa Noel (we had a Cajun Christmas theme). Allison called him the fake Santa (isn't she too you to pick up on that?).


And here's a picture of our Christmas tree. This is the first time Joe and I have had an artificial tree since we've been married. Every year for the past six years, we've gone and picked out our tree. I missed doing that and I miss the smell of a real tree. Last year I had some serious allergy problems though so I'm afraid it's artificial from here on out. Looking on the bright side, I do not miss vacuuming up the needles over and over again.

We're Back

After a technological break down, I'm back. My laptop's charger gave up and the battery is so old that it won't hold a charge so I had to get a new charger. That took me an entire month and only happened thanks to Joe. I've also misplaced my camera (and I think it's permanent this time). So for the past month, I've been using the big ol' camera and the big ol' desktop. Neither one of those are nearly as convenient as my little laptop or little camera so I only use them when I absolutely must.

So here's what's been going on . . .

Allison has been having a great time in gymnastics class.



In case you're wondering what on earth I dressed my child in for her gymnastics class, they were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to class today and she is a cat this year.



And here's what Sara has been up to . . .

She has been perfecting her mess making skills. Check out these awesome couch decorations. Thank goodness it was washable crayon!



And, now she is SERIOUS about doing everything she see's her sister doing.





She not only wants to do what Allison does, but she wants to be able to say what Allison says, too. She's saying a couple of phrases now like, "Mommy read book" and "I want juice."
By the way, reading books is her absolute favorite thing. And just as much as she likes to have them read to her, she also likes to "read" them her self.



I just brought her in for her 15 mo. check up today and she is in the 75th Percentile for height and 25th for weight (which is good for the Hamilton girls, Allison is only three pounds more than her and she's two years older!) .

In other family news, we are going to have another baby! I'm about three months pregnant now and will be having the baby around the beginning of May.

My Baby Al is 3!

And here's what happened today:




One little girl had a super good time.













Here's her "strawberry castle" cake (per her request).












I think she's trying to rip her teeth out, here. She's just so overcome with excitement.











And she of course got lots of awesome presents.










Joseph made some crepes. We had banana and nutella and strawberry and cool whip crepes.









Here was our favorite party guest. This little buckaroo was just born on Aug. 25th. This my sister-in-law's new baby boy, Jacob. So sweet!







Allison was so exhausted from all of the festivities that she passed out at 7pm tonight. That NEVER happens. She pushes the limit on the bedtime every night and we can rarely get her little body calmed down enough to go to bed by 8:30. 7pm - unheard of!

More Eye Candy

I can't top Joe's "Jesus on a Dinosaur" picture but I thought that that shouldn't stop me from sharing this with the world.

I snapped this picture in good ol' Concordia Parish just a short time ago when were there visiting the folks.

The owners had it parked out close to the road for all to see; they must be so proud.

You won't believe it until you see it

Quite often Jesus needed to make long treks across barren wastelands. The Tyrannosaurus Rex simply did not have the endurance or will to embark on such a journey. And many of the herbivores were just such homebodies.

The velociraptor, however, was always game for a trip out in the wild. Their spirits could never be fully tamed though (hence the bit and reins). But Jesus knew that no harm would befall him while straddling a ferocious predator such as the 'raptor.

Once he tried to cross the desert on a haptosaurus, but the poor thing missed his family so much that he begged Jesus to take him back.

- Joe

Look Out Mary Lou Retton

Those of you who've seen Allison in person in the last couple of months have doubtless heard her going on and on about gymnastics. In her imagination, she has been enrolled in and been attending a gymnastics class for months now. She even shows people her "interesting" moves that she has learned in her imaginary gymnastics class. Now, she finally has some real moves to show off. Today was her first day in a real gymnastics class. Judging from what I saw this morning, I think it'd be safe to say it was everything she dreamed it would be. She absolutely loved the class. She did really well with following directions and doing all of the little moves the teacher showed her. Every time the teacher would show them a new task, Allison would shout "I can do that! I can do it!" over and over. She was just so excited about everything. Just be sure to tune in for the 2028 Olympics.