A little bit of fun from September 2013

These are some random pictures and videos from the month of September.

We had a church activity, where George Dyer, an award-winning tenor who performs in Branson, MO with his family, came and performed for us. It was a fun evening. The girls entertained themselves by playing with rocks and their friend Cooper for most of the time. There was popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy, though the cotton candy ran out before we got there. The only bummer of the night was when I waited in line for popcorn for 45 minutes to an hour, finally got to the front of the line, and the popcorn popper machine stopped working. There were three pregnant ladies, including myself, who would have gotten popcorn from that batch. It was funny and sad at the same time.

Cooper, Rachel, and Allie playing with Rocks

Allie can be quite the character, though she can also come off as very shy at times. You just never know what to expect from her. And she does have fun dancing.

She also has some great fashion sense. She looks like she is about to cry in the picture below, but she really wasn't.

Since we can't afford preschool for Allie, I've been rotating with two other moms from church. I've had just one other girl come twice so far, though I will typically have two other girls come every third week. Allie enjoys "school," though she enjoys it a lot more when I am not the teacher. I really try to be patient and loving as I help her. I'm guessing I am just not as fun as others. I don't think I was meant to be an early education teacher. Luckily, the other girl has seemed to have a pretty good time when she comes.

Rachel, Allie, and Hayley doing "school"

Allie and Hayley practicing numbers

Again, a month is not full without taking some pictures at the park.

I love this one of Rachel. She actually climbed up, turned around, and said, "Take picture, Mama."

Allie was so happy and proud to be a "good big sister" this day. She pushed Rachel on the swing for 10-15 minutes. Rachel didn't want out, and Allie insisted on pushing her as long as she wanted. It was pretty sweet.

Fall Soccer Games

Allie got her uniform and had her pictures taken on the same day as her first game. She was pretty ecstatic. There had been some mix-up, so her uniform actually said, "Springfield, Virginia." She didn't know the difference, though.

Right after putting her uniform on - All Smiles

Allie's Official Individual Picture

The Tigers

Oliver, Reagan, Allie, McKayla, Landyn, Coach Jason

Conner, Zaid, Mason, Colton

In line during warm-up for first game.

(Allie is 3rd in line)

Allie is #5

Cute Shot of Allie while on the Sideline

At the end of every game, the parents form a tunnel for the kids to run through. It is definitely one of the kids' favorite parts. After each game, we ask Allie what her favorite part was. She answered, "Running through the tunnel" a time or two.

Allie leading the Tigers through the tunnel

Watching little kids play soccer is always fun. One definitely never knows what to expect. In the Spring season, Allie started catching on and was a little more "in the action" by the end, rather than running around the action. The first game of the Fall season was a little reminiscent of the beginning of the Spring season, but then Allie seemed to be a different player for the next two games. She was actually going for the ball and taking it away from people. She even scored in a game. Then after those few games, she seemed to forget what she was supposed to do and mostly just ran around near the action. She was always fun to watch, though. And most importantly, she always had fun.

Allie Scores

Just a few more videos

Some more pictures from the season

I love her face in this one.

Look at her go!

The second to last game was very cold. It was in the thirties. Allie does not function well when she is cold. She ran around with her hands in her pockets for most of the game.

The second to last game was originally going to be the last game, but one had been cancelled due to the rain and rescheduled for the last week of October. The coach had planned an end-of-the-season party at Fun City, so we still had it, even though there was still one more game. The coach provided the players and even Rachel with 10 tokens for games. They had a lot of fun playing games, earning tickets, eating pizza, playing miniature golf, and eating cupcakes.

Allie was absolutely giddy when she won 31 tickets from one game.

Rachel's "cheese" while we were eating.

Allie got two hole-in-ones on this 18-hole course.

Allie smiling with blue on her lips from the cupcake

It is hard to see, but Rachel's bottom lip is sticking out. She would NOT finish her one little piece of pizza, despite the threat to not get any cupcake. So, she didn't get a cupcake and was so sad about it. We are truly such mean parents.

Luckily, the weather was a little nicer for the last game. It was around 50 *F, but we still put some leggings and a long shirt under Allie's uniform. She doesn't have much fat on her to keep her warm, and there was a cool breeze.

Being silly and jumping around before the start of the game

Allie after kicking the ball for kick-off.

Rachel's sweet smile. She enjoyed terrorizing Daddy during the game.

Allie had a little break away, which resulted from a teammate's help, and just barely missed the goal.

Allie was sad that it was her last game. We told her that she could play again in the Spring if she wanted to. She said that she did want to play again, so we will get to look forward to more soccer fun in the Spring.

The Dogwood Trail at Winthrow Springs State Park

We were still having beautiful weather mid-September, so we decided to go for another day hike as a family. Again, we didn't want one too demanding for the girls. And we decided to take Buddy so that he could keep us safe from snakes. We headed to Winthrow Springs State Park and went on the Dogwood Trail. They say it is really pretty in the Spring when all of the dogwood trees are blooming. It was fun getting out, but it wasn't the most impressive trail we've been on. We did capture several pictures from our trip, though.

Allie caught a grasshopper, which "pooped" on her hand. She was fairly disappointed. We loved the face she made. 

Allie got a kid's camera for her birthday, and she brought it along for our adventure. She loves taking pictures of everything.

Just a neat tree

The trail was extremely rocky, and most of the rocks were loose. It wasn't like they brought rocks in to make a path, it was just rocky. We didn't love that aspect of the trail. At one point, there were a lot of loose rocks on a hill. Daddy was brave and carried Rachel, who was scared to walk down it (she had slipped on some rocks already), and had Buddy on the leash. They made it down safely. I held Allie's hand, and we also made it down safely.

It was beautiful seeing the light come through the trees.

The trail was a loop that started by a road, went through the woods to the campsites, and then looped back to the road. Near the campsites, there was a grassy area that the girls really enjoyed.

Allie occasionally got ahead of us and would then wait.

Rachel and Daddy

We expected Buddy to try and go off the trail, but he did very good at staying on the trail and not pulling ahead on the leash too much. He did a great job of scaring the snakes; we didn't see any. Allie was especially proud of him for that accomplishment. He was very thirsty at the end, so we gave him water in a little kid's bucket we had. There was a picnic table at the trail head, where we enjoyed the lunch we had packed.

A Pregnancy Update with the Gender Reveal

Sorry if there are areas of "TMI." Remember that this is a form of journal, too.

I've mentioned my all-day nausea in several posts already. Despite being nauseous all day, I actually threw-up much less this pregnancy than the previous two. There were other differences as well, such as more headaches, more pimples in different areas (chest, shoulders, and lower back - yuck, I know), and breast tenderness. The last one is a common symptom of pregnancy, but I never really got it with the other two.

We actually got pictures of the baby at our first four appointments. It was really neat, though the pictures from the second visit were taken because the doctor couldn't find the heart beat. I had to wait quite awhile for the ultrasound machine to be available, so I kept fighting the urge to think of the worst. It was a relief when we finally got to look at the baby and see the strong heart beat.

8 Weeks, 6 Days

Our Little Jelly Bean

12 Weeks, 6 Days

Slightly more human-like and the heartbeat was strong

After the previous visit and having to be by myself as I waited to see the baby's heartbeat, I think I was a little nervous to go to the next appointment by myself. I was still having all my pregnancy symptoms, so I figured all was well with the baby, but I still wanted and felt like Jared should go with me. Everything was great with the baby, and the doctor asked us if we planned on finding out the gender. We said that we did. So then he asked, "Do you want to take a peek?" Of course we did.

Although I was sick with this baby, it seemed different enough that I thought perhaps it could be a boy. However, when taking our sneak peek, the doctor said that he was 90% sure it was another little girl. We went ahead and shared that information with family, but decided to make the reveal public after our "big" ultrasound at 20 weeks - just in case the doctor was wrong.

17 Weeks, 3 Days

Another difference with this pregnancy was how early my belly started popping out. We took my first belly picture at 18 weeks. I went to compare with my 18-week picture from the previous pregnancies and found that I hadn't taken any pictures that early. With Allie, we took the first picture at 23 weeks, and my first picture with Rachel was taken at 20 weeks. It was interesting comparing the three. My belly looks about the same size in all three. It really did just pop out earlier.

We had the "big" ultrasound at 20 weeks, 4 days. Due to labor day, we had to have our appointment on Tuesday instead of Monday. It will probably be the only time I wished we hadn't had the holiday. We were anxious to know for sure if our little baby was a girl. Because we had the opportunity to see the baby via ultrasound in each previous appointment, we still hadn't heard the heartbeat. Since our appointment was only for an ultrasound, I doubted that we'd get to hear it this time. But I was wrong. While the ultrasound tech was looking at the heart, Jared and I kinda giggled and I commented that it was funny that we hadn't heard the heartbeat, yet. The tech then switched something on the machine and we got to hear the heart beat. It was a good, fast rate, a sign that it probably was a girl, as the wives' tale goes - and as the technician said.

We got a cute footprint picture.

I think having had the peek at 17 weeks was good for me. I was beginning to convince myself that it was a boy. I hadn't had a spiritual confirmation, but it just seemed like it could be. So when we were told that it was probably a girl, I had a small moment of, "oh man!" but then quickly started getting excited for a third girl. While watching Allie and Rachel play, walk hand-in-hand, and do many other things together, I started imagining another little girl with them and truly became, not only alright with the possibility of having another girl, but excited.

And it was confirmed that it is a GIRL!

After the ultrasound tech took all the measurements she needed to, she switched over to 3D/4D. We got some great pictures of our little girl. She wanted to play peek-a-boo with us.

After the appointment, Jared and I were unsure of how we should reveal the news. So many people have gender reveal parties these days. They seem like a really fun idea. Perhaps if we had more family in the area or had been here for several years we would have had a party, but we didn't. Honestly, given that I was just barely getting past the nausea part of pregnancy, cleaning up the house to have a bunch of people over just didn't sound like something I wanted to do. 

Allie and Rachel weren't at the appointment, so they didn't know whether it was a boy or girl, yet. I had figured Allie would hope for it to be a boy since she talked about getting a little brother before I got pregnant. Once I was pregnant and we had told Allie that a baby was in my belly, we asked her if she wanted it to be a boy or girl. Her reply was, "A girl! Then we'll have three girls." It surprised me. But now knowing that it was a third girl, I knew she would be excited. So we came up with this idea of how to share the news with the girls and subsequently with everyone else (by sharing the video). 

Allie continues to be very excited. Rachel mimics Allie's excitement. I don't think she will fully understand what's going on until the baby comes home. But Allie keeps talking about all the different ways she is going to help with baby, including changing diapers, "Because you wouldn't like to do that, Mom." Sweet, huh? She has also drawn some pictures for baby already.

Once the gender is revealed, the next big question is, "Do you have a name picked out?" Well, just as with the other two, we will be waiting until she is born to decide. We'll come up with a list of names that we like, and then once we see our little girl, we'll pick one that we feel fits.