12 weeks and 5 pounds!

Had a check up today. Yikes. I gained 5 pounds. The thing is I want to gain less weight than the last pregnancy. I am not on the right track. I could use the excuse I visited friends this weekend and ate a lot of good tasting but not good for me foods. But honestly, I have been so hungry this time around. By the end of the day I am annoyed with being so hungry. We are having to buy more groceries. Not only am I eating more but so is Adam. He is running in a marathon in Oct so he is having to consume more calories as well.


These friends I visited are friends I hope to have for a lifetime. The wife, Erica, has been my friend for over 10 years!! WOW! We met our senior year of high school. She went to another high school but somehow the good Lord had us be roommates for 2 years in college. We don't see each other very much but when we do it seems as if we just saw each other. It is great to have a friend like that.

Learning early

As Elizabeth gets older I wonder if she is learning everything she needs to. One thing I do know she has learned, is to clean. She loves to help me mop and vacuum the floors. She also likes to help me wipe the table off and empty the dishwasher.I am waiting for the day when she will clean without any help.We celebrated Elizabeth's birthday way late. We were moving and then on vacation. So we had a little party for her. We invited more but this is all the kids that showed up. It was just enough. We grilled out and then had the traditional Allen cookie cake.


With soccer season on hold for me because of a new baby on the way, we are able to do some fun things as a family. We went to a local park and went for a stroll. Something else she does is no longer sit in the stroller but pushes it.





Lastly, I wanted to share with everyone her latest accomplishment. Adam went to get her out of bed before we drove him to work and came running back downstairs. He says to me," go look." I run upstairs and lo and behold find her underneath her bed?!! For those of you who don't know, we switched beds. We bought an antique toddler bed where the sides come off. We took the sides off and this is where it left us.

2 months late isn't that bad,right?

June 30 th was our dear Elizabeth's 2nd birthday. However it fell between us moving and then going on vacation. So we decided to postpone it until further notice. We got finished with all that and decided to do it July 26th. However earlier that week we decided to go to St. Louis to celebrate Grandma Doris's birthday.

Here we are almost 2 months later and we are having some friends over that have kids around Elizabeth's age for her birthday. We are going to grill out and paint wooden dolls. (we'll see how that goes) For those of you who do not know my sis or my bro and have not celebrated a birthday with us, we always had cookie cake. We always got it from The Great American Cookie Company. So I am doing that for my daughter as well if not so I can have a piece as well. So good!

I cleaned all morning and now we are getting ready to go and buy the food.

Nashville in August

I grew up in Chicago. It got hot and humid every summer for a couple weeks or so. We would hangout inside or go to the pool.

Nashville seems to never cool off. It is 630 pm and I do not even want to go out now. The pools are incredible warm, they do not have time to cool off over night. YUCK!! I know it is only the beginning of August but I can't wait for it to be over.

Another thing, my daughter has reached the age where she likes to watch the same DVD over and over. I grew watching Annie over and over. She loves Finding Nemo. We are on day 3. I am on the lookout for any other Disney films we can introduce.

We go to the doctor a week from today. Crazy that we are this stage in our lives.

We are going from 3 to 4!

Yep, that's right we are having another baby. We are excited, anxious and wondering how God is going to work. We know He will but wondering what it will look like.

I am not that far along. I can't even go to the doctor yet. I have to wait 2 more weeks. Our families are very excited and are wondering what the gender will be. Adam and I can't decide but know either one will be great.

I tried

Here are some vacation pics. I had a whole page done and then it never got posted? Anyways,we are trying to find stuff to do now that it is so stinkin hot.

The weather got chilly at night. We would go to the beach while dinner was being prepared. Elizabeth would get antsy inside. We had bubbles and they made the beach that much more fun!

The whole purpose for 14 people spending a week together was to honor my grandmother and her 80 years on Earth. My mom's idea was to do a scrapbook for her. MY sister and I spent some time and did it. Before she even saw more than one picture she was in tears. My mom told me this week, that before she goes to bed every night, she looks at the scrapbook. She also is still thinking about it and remembering how much fun she had.

I had a lot of fun but I am pretty sure I don't sit and reminisce like that. We should. So many opportunties with family that fly by and are forgotten. We are just looking forward to the next time when really we should remember the last time. I learned another great lesson while on this trip from my grandmother. This generation is always on the move. Always planning, always doing. I can't remember the last weekend, we did nothing. (actually we did really well this past weekend and I loved it!) For some reason I get all nervous when there is free time. Maybe it is the teacher in me. I knew down time, meant get into trouble time.


I have been going to the beach for as long as I can remember. I remember always loving it. My husband asked me what my hobby was? This was during a discussion of golf. I could not answer him at the time. I then later ( months later) stepped onto a beach, stuck my feet in the water and held back my tears, knowing this is me. The beach is my hobby, my peace, my place to return.

I was told I needed to update!

Hey all!

We have been busy! We moved the from the 27 of June until the 30th and then left for vacation on the 4th. All has been great. Our new place has a backyard and an upstairs. Totally cool. In the apartment I had to work quietly while my little one slept. Now I can be farely loud. We were able to paint and have flowers. Things are almost in place.

Vacation was wonderful> (pics will follow once I find my camera). The vacation was much needed but was for my Grandmother's 80th birthday. It was great everyone on that side was there for the better part of a week. It totaled 14 people in one beach house. We extremely close to the beach as well as the main drag. Elizabeth did not like the ocean as much as I wanted her to. She called it a "yucky pool." I loved it. The waves on our last day were bigger than I ever remember. My sis and I both had to get out because we were so out of breath. We have been going to this beach since I was Elizabeth's age. It was great. Elizabeth is screaming her heart out to let her out of her room. Gotta run!