Baby Roxanne

Abbie has named our baby Roxanne. She maintains that this name is fine for a boy. I guess she'll figure it out when he's born and we name him something else. Our ultrasound last week was quite illuminating. This baby boy is breech and curled up an a tight little ball. The tech had a horrible time getting the pictures he needed--I was sent walking in the middle, made to lay on my stomach, etc. We finally got everything, but when the baby's little feet were up by his face the whole time, it was a bit difficult. I also got my answers to explain all of this movement... This baby moves ALL THE TIME. He's moving when I'm driving in the car. He's moving when I wake up at night. He's moving at the grocery store. All day.  All night. And they're not little movements either; these are big, strong, watch my belly move on the outside movements. I'm measuring three weeks ahead and the baby was measuring big too. That's probably part of it. This first picture confirms my suspicions--I have a boxer in there.

Madison Protests

For the last week, downtown Madison has been the site of some pretty serious protests. I'm not going into it her because honestly, if you don't already know what's going on, it's probably because you don't want to, as this seems to be everywhere. We went down on Saturday afternoon to lend some support and to let our kids experience civil activism in action.

Pukefest 2011

Is this completely disgusting? Yes. Should I post it here? Probably not. But this was one of the worst stomach bugs I've ever witnessed. I feel the need to document it.

Our bout with this virus began on a Wednesday night. Abbie complained at dinner that her stomach hurt, but she rallied and seemed okay. After putting the kids to bed, Alan and I sat down to watch a movie together. A few minutes into it, we heard the sound all parents dread: Vomiting. I ran to the kids' room to discover Abbie puking her guts out. I don't know how, but she managed to hit EVERYTHING. We had a mattress cover on her bed, but when she puked off the side, well, the mattress wasn't so protected there. Mattress, sheets, blankets, pillow, floor, bedside table, stuffed animals, books, curtains, wall, storage bins under the bed. There wasn't much that she didn't hit. But that wasn't even all of it--She puked again in the bathroom when I went to put her in the shower. Unreal. I owe Alan about a years worth of cleaning for what he did in that room. I'm still dealing with nausea from being pregnant--When I found Abbie throwing up in her room, it was all I could do not to join her. I put Abbie in the shower, then put her to bed in our bed with a bucket nearby. She feel asleep quickly and did not throw up again.

In the morning, everybody seemed to be doing fine. I felt nauseous, but that's nothing new, so I didn't think much of it. Then Thursday evening rolled around. I started to vomit. Then I vomited some more. And some more. Then some more. I threw up all night, then during the day Friday, and Friday night. I threw up my Zofran over and over again. Friday day brought Alan's turn with the virus. He didn't throw up (he never does), but he sure did feel like crap. Vomiting that much sent my back into total spasms. I honestly thought I had kidney stones on both sides because I was in so much pain. It was horrendous. The back pain and body aches, along with the nausea lasted days. I didn't throw up again, but I couldn't eat anything for a while. I don't know how Nate escaped this thing. This was the stomach virus from hell.

More Legos

Nate and Abbie sometimes spend hours creating complex Lego scenes before they play with them. This was one of the simple ones, but it makes me smile thinking about how well they can play together. They both have incredible imaginations that allow them to delve into whole other worlds in their games. Honestly, their laughter during playtime is my favorite sound in all the universe.

SNOW

February brought us a lot of snow. A LOT OF SNOW. Madison Public Schools even closed for one day because of a blizzard that hit us. (That's basically unheard of.) Snow days are awesome, especially when schools close because of snow, not because it's too cold to be outside.  The kids spent a huge part of the day in the yard playing. Alan helped them to build an enormous snow fort.  This thing was epic.

  Blizzard:

 The snow was up past the tops of Abbie's legs. She did not enjoy this nearly as much as we did watching her.

 Nate ventured into the middle of the yard, but got stuck.

 Luckily, Daddy was there to rescue him.

 This is the snow fort.

 We even did some snow painting.

 Eventually, steps were added to the inside of the fort to lead up to a tower.

Sometimes my husband is more of a kid than my kids are. I love that about him.

Christmas 2010

These two shots sum up our Christmas perfectly--Excitement and Legos. Abbie, who absolutely loathes bedtime, went straight to bed on Christmas Eve with a smile on her face, eagerly awaiting Santa Claus and Christmas morning.  Morning came sooner than we all expected when Nate woke us up at 4AM. That's a bit early, even for me. The day was spent building Lego sets, big and small. We've found Ebay to be a great source for used Legos. When your children love them as much as ours do, you have to be economical! My parents were also incredibly generous in giving Nate the Lego Hogwarts. It was a big set, but the kids had it built by the 26th. 

Christmas evening was spent with our good friends, the Cannons. They came over to join us for Christmas dinner with their three adorable boys late in the afternoon. We enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner, including ham, then devoured a Chocolate Peppermint cake that I baked earlier in the day. It was a wonderful way to spend our Christmas evening.

Mt. Olive Christian Preschool Christmas Program

In December, Abbie's preschool presented a Christmas Pageant.  You have no idea how stinkin' cute 13 preschoolers reenacting the Nativity can be.

Abbie and her cousin Josh were the shepards.

These are two of my favorite musical numbers. I love the squirming and I love the individual voices. It's just so adorable.

Storybook Ballet

For Abbie's ballet performance last semester, her class presented Aladdin.  They got to dress up as Jasmine--I was very impressed.

 This is Abbie's little friend Maddie.  They are friends from church and really enjoyed doing ballet together.  They're in the same class again this spring.

Here's a quick video displaying some of Abbie's ballerina skills:

Nate's Three Ring Circus

Last November (I know...), Nate's class presented a three ring circus in gym.  Here are a couple of shots:

 Nate's in the back, juggling scarves.