Fields Family Five

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-11T21:55:00.011-06:00

Merry Christmas!! I can actually write that this year since this is not the Fields Family New Year’s Update :). 2011 was a roller-coaster of a year for us, but we have been able to finally slow down and enjoy this season as a family and for that I am grateful.

Our little “buddy buddy”, Garison, turned 2 in September. With that brought the end of all things baby in the Fields house. This was definitely a high point for Mommy & Daddy – all the kids can now talk and we feel like our family is finally moving in a forward direction. Little G is our charmer with his blond hair and blue eyes. He can cut his eyes just right and finagle way too much out of this mama. He is still enjoying preschool and pretty much wants to be on top of whatever anyone else is doing. Big Trucks, Lightening McQueen, Beyblades and whatever Kara & Levi are playing with are the toys of choice.

Princess Kara turned 4 in October and is all things girl. She has been in this dress/skirt phase for the better part of the year and is all about anything Disney Princess. We recently moved her to her own room and it has been fun to decorate it up all girly. Preschool is the highlight of her week and we are thankful for all the friends she has made there. After rockin’ her first dance recital in May, she was excited to get to do ballet and tap this fall.

In May, Levi graduated from preschool (complete with cap and gown) and headed off to Kindergarten in the fall. I was a lot less emotional than I thought I would be, but we still miss having him around the house. He turned 6 in October and is one of the most even-keeled children I know. We have been so pleased at how he has tackled school and have enjoyed watching him play soccer and basketball this year. Lego’s, Star Wars, Nintendo DS and Phineas and Ferb have been the favorites around here. And much to Garet’s delight, the training wheels came off the bike!

2011 was a huge year for me! After I had Levi in 2005, I decided that I wanted to do a triathlon. Life and babies happened and I never could quite make it work. So, this was the year I finally got to cross that one off my list! I was able to complete 2 sprints and look forward to training for an Olympic next year. I also just completed my first half marathon to keep myself conditioned, but I quickly decided that straight running is not for me :). Also, after a two year hiatus from the work-force, I started back to work in August and it has been wonderful! I work part time at the small engineering firm Garet works at (our offices are next door!) as their cost accountant. I am absolutely loving it and am thrilled to work for such an amazing company.

Garet is still doing all of his engineering “stuff”. His roles at work changed a bit this year and he has been on the road some, but it is not nearly as frequent as it was and for that I am grateful. I consider his greatest accomplishment this year to be a total gut and remodel of our kitchen. This is not a job for the faint at heart and he did an AMAZING job! He also found time to hit the trails on his mountain bike, celebrate our anniversary (11 years!) weekend by running the sprint tri with me and coaching Levi’s soccer and basketball teams.

This year will forever be marked in our lives with the passing of our nephew, Isaac, on July 12th. Obviously there have been a lot of tough days and moments, but we are confident that we will see him again someday. Thank you all for your prayers and support for my brother, sister-in-law and family as we walked down a very difficult road.

For the first time in our married life, travel has not been a big part of our year. Garison was the only person to get a new state when we traveled to Michigan to visit Garet’s sister and then to Cincinnati, OH for a few days in March. In OH, we mostly hung out at the Great Wolf Lodge and LOVED it! My mom turned 60 in April and my dad, brother & I pulled off the best surprise ever in the Smokey Mountains to celebrate her birthday. We had a nice relaxing few days hiking, shopping and exploring. My mom, the kids and I also stole away for a few days to one of our favorite amusement parks – Holiday World – in Santa Claus, IN. So much fun!

In July, Garet and I flew to MD for the funeral and then immediately drove down to Orange Beach with Garet’s parents for a much needed week to just decompress. I am always amazed at how God knows exactly what I need to calm my soul – we had beautiful weather and sweet family time together. We also spent the weekend at the annual Hurter Reunion on the farm in KY. It is a good place to be reminded that we can get away from technology for a couple of days and just enjoy being outside together! Garet’s work travel took him to NM, CA, HI and FL this year and I spent a few days in MD to help with my nephew, so I guess we still got to see some of the country. Never fear, I’m ready to hit the road in 2012 :)!

If nothing else, this year has taught me that life is too short. That means different things to different people, but to me it has meant hugging my kids a few more times and to be fully present in their lives, spending quality time with Garet and remembering that this life is not all there is…”For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”.

Four

2011-10-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

Dear Kara,

For whatever reason, Daddy and I thought you were 3 for an extra long time. It might have had something to do with the fact that you constantly said, "When I am four, I will....". There are a lot of promises we are ready to hold you to :). Regardless, here you are now - a big four year old with bright blue eyes and the most beautiful face.

You have quite the personality. While we have lots of dramatic moments with you, we also have some of the most loving. You certainly wear your personality on your sleeve and though sometimes it faults you, I enjoy your hugs and kisses and snuggles immensely. You love to lay down on the couch and have one of us rub your back. I would not be surprised if your love language is Touch.

School is one of your favorite things and you are blessed with so many good friends there. While social for the most part, you do have a shy streak in you. You have also enjoyed dance again this year. They added tap to your class, so that has been fun addition to ballet. You get to dance with your good friend Emilie and you would also add that Rosa and Fern are your best friends too.

Food is not something you think is important - I honestly can not figure out how you are still alive somedays. Unless it is mac & cheese, noodles, pancakes, bananas or granola bars (or cookies :), you usually don't eat it. Somehow you weigh 37 lbs though and are a tall girl at 41.5". The only two drinks you consume are milk and your all-time favorite: water with ice (very important).

Ever since we went to Disney last year, you have been consumed with princesses. I *think* the favorite of the moment is Ariel, but you are likely to change that tomorrow. You also enjoy playing with your dollhouse and kitchen, watching Busytown or Caillou and coloring.

You have a very unique spot in our family as the middle child and it really suites you. As Levi has gone to school, you and Garison have started playing together a lot more and I think you enjoy being the "big sister" and showing him the ropes. However, when Levi is home, I see the "little sister" in you come out. One thing is for sure, you have two brothers that love you and I know you adore them.

I love you more than anything Kara-bear and look forward to watching you grow up to be a beautiful young lady.

Love,
"Mama" or "Alison" as you call me :)

Six

2011-10-11T21:27:00.003-05:00

Dear Levi,

Six. Years. Old. I still don't believe it.

This past year was a big year for you and, as expected, you did awesome! The transition from preschool to "big" school was seamless and so far you have received nothing but praise (and all greens!) from your teacher. It is so exciting to watch your mind absorb so many new things - I can just see you processing it all. Reading is right around the corner and I am looking forward to not having to read all the instructions on your video games :). You still look so little to me as you get off that big bus everyday, but I know I will blink and you will be as tall as me.

Preschool was very good to you and you had some of the best friends a boy could have there, so we still find lots of time to spend with your old friends too. Aaron and Drew will probably be your best friends for the foreseeable future. You have enjoyed playing soccer with your buddies and your team amazes me at the abilities you are already starting to exhibit (Go Green Lightening Strikes!). Basketball starts up in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to watching you take on another sport.

I've missed having you at home this year to be the mediator between your brother and sister - you have such a patient spirit with them and can get them to compromise that really is a gift. I find that you are a lot like me in that you get caught up in details, but you have your daddy's creative thinking and artistic abilities. You amaze me at some of the ideas you come up with.

You may be small in stature (43.5", 43 lbs), but you can put away some food. You love to get a "double stack" cheeseburger (plain) everywhere we go and easily finish it off. Chicken nuggets, noodles, rice, Doritos, ice cream and cookies are other favorites. You would say McDonald's is your favorite restaurant, but I know it is only for the toys :).

Speaking of toys...anything Star Wars is still high on the list, along with Lego's, Lego games on the wii, and PS3 games among others. You got a Nintendo DS for your birthday, so now we have yet another gaming system :). Your favorite show is Phineas and Ferb, but you usually get caught up in whatever Kara & Garison are watching too. Tygee is your favorite stuffed animal. Although you do not prefer the outdoors, you always have fun when we are out. You finished 2 mile-long races this year and I was so proud at how well you did.

I am really enjoying this "I can do everything on my own" kid phase of parenting. You make me very proud, Levi, and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for you. I love you! Mommy

Two

2011-09-16T21:43:00.005-05:00

Dear Garison,

Today you turned two and if I am quite honest, I have waited for this day for a long time. These past two years with 3 little kids - four years apart - has been really rough, BUT we are slowly turning a new leaf and I am enjoying the new found freedoms all of us are experiencing as we are racing away from all things baby. In some ways the last two years have flown by and in some ways the days dragged on, but here we are and we all survived!!
You are a little man now - our blondie in a sea of a dark headed family. You are somewhat shy and always look down, but you cut your eyes up at me and it just melts my heart. I've got a soft spot for those big blue eyes - you are my baby after all :).
Age appropriate toys are nowhere to be found around you. With an older brother and sister, you tend to play with whatever they are playing with. However, all things trucks and cars are your favorite. The phrase we have heard more than any other the last few months is: "Whoa, Big Truck". You use this to describe any type of vehicle - they just fascinate you. Thankfully, you love CARS cars which is good because we have plenty from Levi's 3-year run.

Speaking of Levi & Kara, you fit right in like a champ. I am amazed at how well the three of you play together, although with Levi at school, I have seen you and Kara buddy up a lot more (and fight a lot more - you absolutely refuse to say Kara's name).

Your favorite foods are probably fruit snacks, granola bars, mac & cheese, buddy fruit & pancakes, but really, your eating habits are all over the place. I actually think you would be OK on a liquid diet. You drink anything put in front of you and have been known to seek out mommy's diet coke :).

I'm afraid I have no idea how tall you are or how much you weigh. Keeping up with 3 sets of measurements is a little tough for mommy right now, but I think you are somewhere in the 27# range and 30" range??? We go to the doctor next week :).

We got you set up in a big boy bed this week - first time we haven't had a crib in the house in six years. You kept saying "Mommy, look, funny bed". Thankfully you like to sleep and so far, so good. You are the only one of the three that has had any sort of attachment to something - "Bah, Bah" aka "Big Prince" is a must at bedtime.
"Buddy Buddy", you are the BEST surprise I have ever gotten and I am so thankful you are in our family. You give the most lovable hugs and I am thankful for you everyday!!

Love,
Mommy

Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-29T14:32:00.011-06:00

Happy Holidays from the Fields! Another year has come and gone and the only word I can think of to describe the year 2010 for us was CRAZY! If I had known in January what all this year would entail, I would probably have asked for a body double!

Our big news is that we moved in November! Ever since we got the surprising news that Garison was on the way in early 2009, we have looked on and off for a house with a little more room. In typical Fields fashion, we decided to stop looking but then found one more house…. We saw the house and made a low ball contingency offer. They rejected and we walked away. Five days later they decided to take our deal which meant we had a house to sell – immediately! We got the house on the market, it sold in 2 weeks and the new owners needed to move in 3 weeks. All that to say, the entire process from start to finish took only 6 weeks!! Saying good-bye to the old house was bittersweet – it was our first home and the one we brought all 3 babies home to – tears were shed! God was really looking out for us during that time though because I still don’t know how we did it all. We have lots of projects in the works, but we are thankful to have a little more space to spread out into.

Levi turned five in October and I still can’t believe I’ve been a parent that long. We are entering the next phase of parenting him as a “kid” and it is so nice to have a child that can do everything on his own :). Levi played soccer this fall and we had a great experience with our first organized sports – I know that there are lots to come in our future! His passions are lego’s, wii, anything star wars, drawing and playing with his buddies from school.

Kara is our middle child in every sense of the word. Turning three in October, she is our little entertainer and makes up the best stories when she isn’t singing every song she has ever heard. She started dance in the fall and I can’t wait to see her first recital in the spring. School is the highlight of her week and she is very much a people person. She adores princesses, books, dollhouses and anything pink or purple.

This has been a big year for Garison. Since he started the year as an infant who slept all the time and ended the year as a walking, babbling ball of energy, I think it is safe to say that he changed the most :). Little g turned one in September and decided at that point that he was ready to hold his own with his big brother and sister. He is the only blonde in the family and his smile can light up a room. He is an official momma’s boy and as my baby, I find it hard not to oblige him :).

For the first time in many years, I spent my entire year unemployed and I absolutely loved it! Of course, my life is anything but slow with three kids five and under! I keep telling myself to cherish these days, but if I’m honest, I am very ready to have the kids a little older :). “Hobby” isn’t really a word we use right now, but I do have the gym as an outlet as well as leading a woman’s life group with a friend.

Garet celebrated his first anniversary at Troy7 in September and we love the benefits of working for a small company. I’m thankful everyday that he only traveled twice – TWO times - this entire year. If you knew how often he was gone before, you would know how happy this made me. He also lead a life group for most of the year and tries to hit the trails on his mountain bike when he can. Of course, his new “hobby” is remodeling a house :).

Our lives would not be complete without travel and this year was no exception. We rang in the new year in Chattanooga for a small family get-away and then later that month we finally got a chance to take the kids to The Plains for the AU/KY basketball game. I’ll let Garet tell you who he cheered for :). In May, we had the BEST trip to DisneyWorld. People thought we were crazy for taking a 4, 2 and 8 month old, but the kids were fantastic and we enjoyed some sweet time with my brother’s family and my mom. We can’t wait to go back in the future!

My dad’s mom died in June and I flew out to California for the service. She was my last remaining grandparent and it was difficult to say good-bye to an entire generation in my life, but it was wonderful to spend time with my family out there that I don’t get to see as often. We also got a chance to go to Kentucky for the annual Hurter Reunion at the Farm. We stopped by Mammoth Cave on the way home so the kids could get another stamp in their National Parks Books.

On August 12^th, Garet and I celebrated our 10^th wedding anniversary which is a little hard to understand considering we are still 25 ;). We took a FABULOUS trip to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun and it was just what we needed. It was so fun to be free of responsibility and just have fun together. Garet really is my best friend and I am so thankful to have him as my man.

Less than a week later, the entire family boarded a plane to Maryland to spend a long weekend with my brother and family in Maryland. We try to do different things every time we go up and this time were fortunate to go to a Cubs/Nationals game, spend the day in DC and hang out with my cousins and their families.

All that to say, I guess our year was pretty typical for us – I love that we live life to the fullest and adventures abound. God is good – all the time. We continually thank Him for our health and provision and especially at this time of year for the gift of His Son, Jesus.

Dear Garison,

2010-09-16T21:44:00.003-05:00

My "little G". I don't even know where to begin - this last year has been a whirlwind with you right in the middle. You were such a surprise to us last year, but you are the best surprise I have ever received. Your big blue eyes just tug at my heart strings and I finally get to claim a child - you are a mama's boy for sure :). Your laid back personality and low maintenance lifestyle were just what our family needed - you have fit in perfectly. However, in a family of dark brown hair, you have made a statement with your blond curly locks - a heart breaker indeed.

You have just begun to play with your brother and sister and I love to see the three of you interact. The older kids love you so much and I know that they are just waiting for you to run through the house with them. You can keep up with them quite well though, and have found ways to make sure you don't get run over. You have 2 play mates for life and I am so thankful that you all have each other. I am already dreading the day we have to send your brother and then sister to school - you are going to miss them so much.

Although you have taken a step here and there, you haven't taken off across a room. I am certain you are days away though. Levi is trying to help you every way he knows how.

Bananas, Yogurt, Buddy Fruit, Applesauce, Teddy Grahams and Veggie Straws are your food of choice. After eating every known baby food under the sun, you have been less than stellar in the table food category. You would think with 8 teeth you would be more into it, but I think it is the texture. The reduced appetite has made you a light weight - at last check you were around 21 pounds.

In your first year, you traveled to Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland and Washington DC. Seven states and the US Capital isn't too shabby and we are looking forward to taking you to a lot more fun places!

Because you have two siblings that say more than enough, you prefer to just sit and stare at them. We've heard "Mama", "Dada", "Dora" (some days I think she is a member of the family) and your most famous word: "Uh-duh". So much so that we call you "Baby Uh-duh". Not sure what you are talking about, but you are passionate about talking about it. You do love to clap, give high fives, play "peek-a-boo" and dance around waving your hands in the air. So cute.

You have been going to "school" three days a week since you were a newborn. It is good for mommy and you and your sister and brother to be apart a few hours a week - you know that our lives can be pretty chaotic in the day to day :).

"Buddy, Buddy", you have been a perfect addition to our family. As my baby, I have a soft spot for everything you do as it will probably be the last time I see one of my kids go through a milestone. I'm going to go ahead and apologize now for calling you "my baby" when you are 18 - it won't ever change. The infant years are now behind us and I am looking forward to watching you as a toddler. I pray that despite our short comings as parents that you will grow to love the Lord as you grow older. You are loved so much and I am thankful for you everyday!

Mommy

PS: I will add pictures later - we just reformatted our computer and they are hard to get to at the moment :).

Levi the Jedi

2010-03-14T23:25:00.002-05:00

Hotel Fields

2010-02-02T21:59:00.006-06:00

Let's forget for a moment that I have only blogged once in 3 months, I've been sick for 5 days and have 3 kids, age 4 and under. I really should be sleeping since I have absolutely no free time these days, but here I sit about to blog about a random thing that has been floating around in my head the last 24 hours.

Last night, Levi set up an elaborate "hotel" for all of our stuffed animals. If there is one thing our kids are obsessed with, it is stuffed animals. I'm sure we have well over 100, but I've never counted. His sleeping bag is in the middle, because we let him sleep in the "hotel" as well last night.This is the "bunkhouse" portion of the hotel:
Dora and "Happy Turtles" were lucky enough to score the penthouse suite. When Levi & Kara passed out breakfast the next morning, they got a lot of the food."Flopsey" on the other hand was all alone and did not get any breakfast :(.

The reason he set up the "hotel" was because we had been talking about the hotel for our upcoming trip to Disney. I honestly believe he is just as excited about staying in the hotel as he is about going to Disney. For what it is worth, he comes by it honestly - I LOVE hotels. So much so, that I have been known to get a hotel in the very city I live in because everything is just better away from your house (at least in short spurts).

Side note: We recently stayed at a hotel for the first time with 3 kids. Did you know that not all hotels can accommodate 5 people (even when one is a baby?!?). We had to settle for our third choice after the first two didn't work out!

Anyway, I got to thinking...what are some of my favorite hotels and why. Here are a few I came up with:

The first hotel I thought of was Henderson's Wharf Hotel in the Fells Point area of Baltimore, MD. My brother had recently moved to College Park and after a visit with him, we drove up to Baltimore to celebrate our 5th Anniversary (and it was a babymoon as Levi was only 2 months from birth). I remember we paid around $200 for the room and I nearly fell over when we checked in. I like a nice place, but I'm also a cheapskate. :) But this place was beautiful - absolutely gorgeous. It was also the first time I had stayed somewhere that provided robes. It was a delightful experience.
The second one I thought of was not necessarily a hotel, but an overnight "experience". When G and I went to Europe in 2004, we decided we wanted to stay at every type of hotel possible from a nice place to a serious dump, to a B&B, a hostel to places in between and finally, on a train! We took an overnight train from Paris to Berlin in a four person sleeping car. We shared a room with a single guy (I think he was a college student) and I slept much better than expected.
The Opryland Hotel at Christmas. Since Garet's sister lives in Nashville, we have gone to the Opryland Hotel several times at Christmas - gorgeous! Well, in 2008, I was having a particularly stressful time (I believe Garet had been on travel several weeks) and I just wanted to get away. We decided I needed a hotel stay, so we packed the kids up and went to Opryland for the weekend. What a difference staying in the hotel made the experience!
The Summerhouse at Litchfield Beach, SC. This is actually where we stayed for part of our honeymoon, but a few years ago, they completely redid it and added a lazy river and crazy water area for kids. We took the kids in 2008 and it could not have been a more perfect place to stay. We loved it - the kids loved it - and Levi still talks about it. We can't wait to go back someday.
Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, HI. While I'm not a fan of Honolulu itself, we had a great time at this hotel. Thanks to Garet's Hilton Points (read: free), we stayed here a couple of nights before heading to Kauai. Just a couple of days ago, Levi was talking about the penguins there. Part of the reason I really liked this hotel was that it was low season and they upgraded us to a HUGE corner room, so that helped, but the area was so beautiful and relaxing...until you walked outside to Honolulu :).
The West Winds Lodge in Rudioso, NM. I had to include this place, because it was where I spent my absolute favorite vacation of all times. There was nothing amazing about this place - it didn't even have a TV I don't think. It was very simple and it was a great place to lay my head after a great day of skiing. Sometimes simple is the best.

I have a couple of Honorable Mentions: Chad's beach house in FL (great college memories!), Anywhere G and I have camped in our own tent, a house we rented in Asheville, NC in the mountains with my family, our hotel overlooking the St. Louis Arch, and all the houses we have stayed in with our Life Group at the beach.

I am sure there are more that I am forgetting, but those are the ones I can think of for today. On another side note, I also like to collect pens from every hotel I go to. Anyone who has ever been in one of our Life Groups can attest to the ridiculous amount of pens (memories) I own.

Christmas Letter 2009

2009-12-18T15:26:00.015-06:00

Merry Christmas!! I just reread our Christmas Letter for 2008 and had to laugh a little at this line I wrote: "we are thankful to be out of the baby stage and looking forward to a (hopefully) less dramatic year in 2009". Wow, little did I know...

In case this is the first you have heard from us since last year, we got the surprise of a lifetime in January - we were pregnant! And let me tell you, we still have no idea how. I'll be honest, at the time, it was very difficult. When we announced it in February, I blogged about some of those feelings here.

Fast forward to 9/16, and we welcomed Garison John into our family and can I tell you that I just love him to pieces! He is exactly what our family needed. I probably baby him way too much and the sheer fact that I have so enjoyed this baby phase with him is a testament to God's grace. He is a BIG boy - he's the first of my three with rolls on the legs and it is so cute!! He couldn't be a better baby and at 3 months now is flashing the cutest smiles around. He takes his brother & sister's rough housing in stride and I can't wait to see the three of them together this next year. I wrote to him on his birth-day and also was able to document the details of that day.

Kara turned two in October and, I know I'm biased, is one beautiful little girl. She is the life of a party (which she refers to as "Happy Turtles"???) and will no doubt be a leader in some capacity. However, Garison's arrival has been a tough one on her and we've had to work through some issues. Garet has always said that she was "born a middle child", so please pray for us as we help her reach her full potential. She is also talking up a storm now and loves, loves, loves Dora and school. (related: Kara at two)

Levi turned four in October and I about had a mid-life crisis when I realized just how big he is getting. The toddler years are long gone and he is a full blown "kid". Sometimes it is hard to believe that though when we have discussions that could easily be between two adults. He is a very smart little guy and has been a huge help to us during this family transition time. His current passions are the Wii and Legos. (related: Levi at four)

We like to lump all major changes in our family into as short a time period as possible, and so in September (one week before Garison was born), Garet said good-bye to his job of 9 years at TSI and went over to work for his former boss at Troy7. Troy7 is a small company and Garet has really enjoyed his new work environment. The biggest perk? Little to no travel! This was the primary reason for the switch - with a third child on the way, Garet decided that he was just gone to much. His travel schedule for the first half of the year was brutal and since September, we have had him home every single night :). I thought I would miss the travel perks, but having Garet home has been just compensation. He still does much of the same things (I think) and it was a seamless transition. We have been very blessed. Garet still enjoys riding his bike(s) and his latest hobby has been model rocketry.
As if a baby and a job change for Garet wasn't enough, I stepped down from my job in September too! Realistically, I knew that working with 3 kids was going to be an extreme challenge for me and I just didn't need to go there. After 3 months as a stay at home mom, I can officially say that it has been one of the best decisions of my life. Working in ministry with two kids was much more difficult than just focusing on three kids at home. My mind is in one place now and I've been surprisingly relaxed. I honestly don't have time for much these days, but I have gotten really into couponing - who knew it could be so much fun! It feeds my desire to stay organized, work with budgets and money and shop! I am also now back at the gym and am hoping to hit some fitness goals next year since I am hopefully done being pregnant!

My pregnancy with Garison went really well (I was worried after my nightmare pregnancy with Kara) except for a little drama in the end. It was tiring with a 1 and 3 year old, but we have some wonderful friends and family that helped out. Because I felt good, we were able to go on a couple of trips this year. Kara and I flew up to Maryland to see my brother and his wife in February and we headed south to the beach in May with Garet's parents. Garet and I also got a weekend away to celebrate our friend Carmen's birthday at the lake. I've long said that vacations are my love language and I feel so full when I travel. Every year, we try to go one place that we have never been to as a family. This year, we headed to Santa Claus, IN and St. Louis, MO (arch, zoo & city museum) in August and had a fabulous time - there is so much to see in this amazing world!

If there is one thing I have learned this year, it is that God will provide - not always how we expect or the way we wish, but he is faithful. Through every surprising and major step we took this year, God provided. As we enter this Christmas season, we are reminded of the provision God gave so many years ago in the form of a baby.

"For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord"

Love,
Alison, Garet, Levi, Kara & Garison

Dear Kara,

2009-10-22T17:01:00.010-05:00

{Note: I actually wrote this on Kara's birthday, I just never posted it because I hadn't included pictures - sorry for the delay!}

Today you are two, baby girl - happy birthday! When you were first born, I didn't really know what to do with you. For two years I had lived and breathed "boy" and suddenly I had the most beautiful little girl in my arms. In addition to soccer games, cars, trucks and bloody knees, I was now going to get to go to dance recitals, fix your hair, buy pretty dresses and paint your finger nails - you gave me the best of both worlds!

Your beauty makes me smile on a daily basis. Rarely a day goes by when someone doesn't comment on your big bright blue eyes. The way you cut them to the side and grin just steals your daddy and I's heart. You make getting on to you very difficult sometimes.

You are a very passionate child (read: dramatic :). When you are happy, you are the happiest person in the world, but when you are mad, well, it's not pleasant. You absolutely live life to the fullest and I know that you are going to teach me a lot about embracing each phase of your life.

Tall and thin has been a constant in your life. You stand 34 inches tall and weigh 26 pounds. Unless we are serving macaroni & cheese, rice, popsicles, fruit snacks, peaches or nilla wafers, you just aren't interested in eating. Until last week, you only drank milk and water - you have now decided you will drink apple juice.

Speaking of, your "security blanket" is a sippy cup. I'm not really sure where this came from, but you have to have one in bed with you to go to sleep. It doesn't have to have anything in it, you just need it. However, you still wake up once in the night at least 6 days a week. I don't know what it is, but you just walk into our room and we walk you back to your room. You've been in a "big girl" bed for about 6 months sharing a bunk bed with your brother. Naps are still in the crib since you are a light sleeper, but that will have to change very soon as Garison (and mommy) has his eye on that crib!

Dora, Dora, Dora, Dora, Dora, Dora....we hear you say "Gora" about 500 times a day. You love the show and anything that has that girls picture on it. Your daddy said you need an intervention - I'm afraid he may be right. At least your Spanish is coming along. Books are another favorite as well as cars, kitchen, babies and the work bench.

You go to school five days a week and you love it more than anything. Unlike Levi, you crave attention and school provides that for you since you are now the middle sister flanked by two boys. As a little sister, you enjoy keeping up with your brother and his friends - you don't realize that you are younger one bit. As a big sister, you like to "hold my baby". While you love Garison to pieces, sometimes I'm afraid you are going to drop him into pieces. I've got to keep an eye on you with him at all times - especially since you like to gouge his eye out and say "eye".

We love to travel as a family and this past year you added Hawaii, Florida, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri to your list which means you have 16 states marked on your map. You like new adventures and we look forward to having many more with you in the future.

Unfortunately you have had some jealousy issues with Garison being in the house and you are testing your limits on a daily basis, but we know these days will soon be gone and we thank God for making you uniquely you.

Love you!
Mommy

Related: Kara at One

Dear Levi,

2009-10-11T22:14:00.015-05:00

Four years ago today, your daddy and I had no idea what our future looked like. We were just a young married couple trying to live life to the fullest. Little did we know then how much you would change our lives. As our first born, you have reaped the benefits and failures of first time parents in every stage of your short life. Thank you for hanging in there with us.
I honestly feel like I have blinked these past few years and here we are. I am amazed at how "grown up" you are now. You have met every milestone with flying colors and have generally been a very easy preschooler.

You are still a little guy at 35 lbs and 39 inches tall, but I have a feeling you will catch up eventually. What you lack in size, you make up in personality. Your quick wit and matter-of-fact commentaries keep us laughing. Although you are still a little shy whenever you enter a new situation, you quickly let your true self come through.

Your favorite toys are still Cars cars, but you have also added Transformers, Board Games and Lego's to the mix this year. You love to play Mario Kart on the Wii and play outside on the playground. I love to listen to you when you are in your room playing - your imagination amazes me! On the TV, you like to watch Clifford, Curious George, & Transformers. Besides "Cars", you also like the movies Kung Fu Panda & "Animal"gascar. Listening to music has become a new favorite and we are loaded up on kid's CDs these days - you like to have "dinner music" playing while we eat.

You are currently in school five days a week and absolutely love it. I think the structure is really good for you and you have some great friends there (Aaron is still your best buddy). You recognize your letters and numbers and have just recently started to figure out the letters that make up words. You can also write your name. At church, you are now a "Cubbie" in Awana and I love that you are learning new stories in the Bible and memorizing scripture - such a precious thing to hear!

Eating continues to be a battle with you, although you are getting a little better. Your favorite places to eat are McDonalds and Chick-fil-a. It is amazing how those are the two places with playgrounds :). Favorite foods are rice, "handaburgers", chicken nuggets, hot dogs, potatoes, yogurt, popsicles, mac&cheese and you would drink only lemonade if we let you. Dessert is often an incentive for you to eat - you rarely pass chocolate up.

I can't leave out your travels for the year. As a 3-year-old, you added Hawaii, Florida, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri to your list bringing your total to 25 states. I hope that your love to go on vacations never goes away - you share your mommy's excitement whenever we go somewhere new. You have a million questions, but your curiosity is refreshing.

As a big brother, you are the best! This past year, you and Kara ("Koko") have really developed a bond as siblings and it makes my heart happy to watch you all play together. At the same time, you both know how to push each other's buttons. Garison is your "little guy" and you are thrilled that he is here. You have helped mommy tremendously with the new baby and I honestly don't know what I would do without you!

I would be remiss to not mention that the last 2-3 months have been the hardest months that we have had with you. I think that you picked up on the stress we had both before and after Garison was born. We have expected a lot out of you on many occasions - more than a 3-year old should probably be expected to do and I think that has caused you to get frustrated and break-down a little more easily. We are trying to be more purposeful about spending time with you here lately and letting you just be a kid. You are such an important part of our family.

I love you so much and can't wait to see how you will grow this next year!
Mommy

Related: Levi at Three

The first two days with Garison

2009-10-09T17:42:00.001-05:00

I'll be honest, Garet and I were kinda looking forward to our hospital stay this go round. We knew what to expect, so the anxiety wasn't there. Levi & Kara were with grandparents and if we needed a break from Garison, the nursery was waiting. I didn't have to worry about meals or cleaning and you have fewer visitors the third time around. I had a book, was looking forward to watching The Office on Thursday night and I actually had time to blog (there is a reason you have only seen one blog post post-hospital :). We enjoyed catching up on sleep and just spending time together meeting Garison.

It didn't take us long to get him in some Orange & Blue - War Eagle!

I'm including a picture of my toes here. The lady at the nail place put a design on them...I wasn't crazy about it, but I thought it would be a good focal point. Due to the short duration of labor, I didn't look at my toes then, but I had plenty of opportunities during those first few feeding sessions :) - not my favorite thing in the world.
I think this was about the first time Garison decided to open his eyes, so we tried to get some pictures. You forget how "puffy" they are those first few days until you look back at the pictures. Levi & Kara both have blue, blue eyes, so we are assuming Garison will follow suit, but you never know.
This was too funny not to include:
Here's his "old man" shot. Poor kid - I'm picking on him already!
These are two of my all-time favorite pictures below. All the people I love the most in one picture!
"What's up, fam - Little-G here"
An attempt at a family photo...notice that not one of us is looking at the camera. I have a feeling this will become a trend.
A little better...
Getting ready to take our handsome little man home:

I'm including this picture because our nurse forgot to cut off Garison's security tag when we left and we set the alarm off. We had to wait until security came and verified everything was OK.
Hanging out in the hallway:
Headed home to see big brother and big sister! The fun is just beginning!

Build-A-Monkey

2009-09-19T11:59:00.001-05:00

We wanted to do something special with the kids this past Tuesday Night since we knew that we weren't going to get to hang out with them for a few days. I had read an article in a magazine about doing a Build-A-Bear for the new baby, so away we went. Levi had wanted to do a monkey for Garison and thankfully they had one when we got to the store.
After they filled the monkey with stuffing, they have the kids do a little routine to get the heart ready. Garison's monkey is extra-special because it has two hearts in it - one from Levi and one from Kara.
I think Levi's heart was a little more ready than Kara's:

Stuffing the hearts in the monkey:
Giving the monkey a bath:
Levi scrubbed him down good:
while Kara provided her assistance from a distance:
The finished product! Levi chose a "Happy Birthday" shirt since they were going to give it to Garison on his BIRTHday.
They named the monkey "Ooh Ooh, Aah, Aah" (like the sound a monkey makes). You never know with those two:
The kids were a little hyped up, but it was nice to do one last thing as a family of four. You can see where the kids gave him the monkey here.

Garison's Birth Story

2009-09-17T19:26:00.014-05:00

Before I forget it, I wanted to write down the events of yesterday - I so wish I would have written things down for Levi & Kara, but that is life. Thanks to social networking, I was able to Twitter the entire day:3:30 AM: Wake up to get ready to go to the hospital

4:20 AM: Mom arrives to watch kids (yes, her day started early too!)

4:40 AM: Head to the hospital (past the doughnut shop where I see the employees getting ready for the day)

5:07 AM: Arrive at the hospital for our 5 AM appointment (yes, we are always late)

5:45 AM: Called back to LDR16 (yes, hospitals are always late too)

Getting ready for the induction - I was 38 weeks, 6 days:
6:00 AM: The IV drama begins...after 4 nurses and several tries, a nurse finally gets my IV in. I've never had problems with nurses finding my veins, but the comment of the day was, "You have very thin skin and "valvey" veins". Unfortunately the IV was put in the vein that I had my IV in for the version which must have been inflamed. The IV plagues me the entire day and was literally the only uncomfortable thing for me to deal with.

6:30 AM: I finally find out via an ultrasound that Garison is head down - I was so nervous all morning and it took forever (or so it seemed) for them to bring the u/s machine in.

7:15 AM: Dr. Callison comes in to break my water, but is unsuccessful. The pitocin is started to move baby down.

8:15 AM: Dr. Callison comes back and successfully breaks my water. I'm 4 cm and Garison has moved down.

10:30 AM: Contractions are coming about every 3 minutes, but I don't feel a thing. The nurse is pretty surprised, while I keep reading my book. Despite the lack of pain, I go ahead and get the epidural so that I don't miss the anesthesiologist on his lunch break. I literally almost have words with the anesthesiologist. While he is working on me, he is quizzing the nursing student on all these medical things. I feel everything, scream in pain, but he keeps talking the entire time...never stopping to ask if I'm OK - only to tell me not to move. It is ridiculously unprofessional and I will be commenting on it for my exit survey.

10:45 AM: Take a good 2 hour nap after only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before. It was wonderful!!

1:15 PM: I'm at 7 cm and feeling great - I heart epidurals!
1:40 PM: Progress to 10 cm after just a few minutes. Ready to push, but my doctor is in surgery - Could I wait?? Pitocin turned off and my legs stay shut :)

1:57 PM: My doctor runs in and I start pushing immediately. Garison is face up, but they are able to turn him face down. This slows me down a few minutes.

2:02 PM: Garison is born!
My guesstimate weight was 8 lbs, 8 oz and Garet guessed 8 lbs, 4 oz. He is only 8 lbs, 2 oz which is fine with me!
2:15 PM: I get to hold Garison, but have a difficult time due to my inflamed IV arm

First photo with parents:
2:30 PM: My dad gets to come in and meet Garison (John) - his namesake. He has to leave at 3:00 for a business trip, so Garison made it just in time! Three generations:
Meeting Nana & Granddaddy - Fuzzy #8!
Aunt Kelly came down to welcome Garison in to the world - we were so thankful she made the trip!
3:15 PM: Garison & Garet head to the nursery for the first bath. I'm left in the LDR all alone for 30 minutes - It was very weird after everything that had just happened. I watch an "Everybody Loves Raymond" rerun.
5:30 PM: After spending 12 hours in a LDR, I move upstairs. They were at capacity and didn't have a room for us immediately.

6:30 PM: Levi & Kara get to meet Garison for the first time. It is about the greatest thing I see all day - they are fascinated by their new little brother.
Getting gifts from the baby :). Amazingly, Garison had time to get them gifts in his short life ;):
Kara loved her baby doll and Dora "big sister" book, but is attached to my water cup all night:
7:15 PM: Grandma finally gets to hold Garison after keeping Levi & Kara all day (thanks mom!). The kids give Garison the build-a-bear they made him (more on that later).

9:00 PM: Head to bed after a long, but full day. I experienced hardly any pain and was quite comfortable (a benefit, my doctor tells me, of having more and more children :). I think I'll stop here.

Dear Garison,

2009-09-16T20:29:00.005-05:00

Happy BIRTHday! I can hardly believe that you are now with us. While we were quite surprised to learn about you 8 months ago, we have been anxiously awaiting this day for several weeks.

Today was just amazing - you did everything you were supposed to and made things very easy on Mommy (of which I am very thankful). Despite being early, you are a very healthy thing weighing in at 8 lbs, 2 oz and 20 inches long. The day started early for your Daddy and I...at 3:30 AM, but you were here at 2:02 without any problems.
I got a bit emotional when I spent my first moments with you (which was a first for me). I feel that God gave you to our family just for me. I can't explain it, but there is just something about knowing that you are going to be my "baby" forever even when I'm sure you will stand 6 foot plus!
A special bonus of you being born on this day is that it is my half-birthday. I know that isn't a big deal, but I love that we share something in common. You have an amazing Daddy who loves you so much already. I know that you two are going to have a lot of fun together in the years to come.You also have a protective big brother and loving big sister to show you the ropes at home. The three of you are going to be great friends, I just know it. They were very excited to meet you today. I can't stop staring at you today and thinking about what the future holds for you. I pray that you always know that you have a family that adores you and a God that loves you.
Welcome to the family! Hugs and Kisses, Mommy

Garison Update

2009-09-15T16:51:00.004-05:00

An update on Garison is long overdue and I apologize. As much as I am trying to make sure everything is just as special for him as it was for a first born, I am failing miserably. He may not have anything written down about him, but at least he'll have two playmates for life, right? At least that is what I'm telling myself.

Here is Mr. Garison at 36 weeks. We had not planned to have a 4D picture taken, but we got one anyway. At my 36 week appointment, we learned that Garison was not exactly in the best position, so we moved into the ultrasound room where we spent 30 minutes getting the low down. The ultrasound tech was so excited to get these pictures because she said you can never get them this late due to the positioning - we were glad to oblige although Garison had a little frowny face the whole time.

As happy as we were to see these pictures, the news wasn't so good. He was sitting in an unusual position and I had two options: 1) schedule the C-section or 2) let my doctor try to turn him. For me it was really a no brainer...after having two children without surgery, I wanted to go for it. My doctor spent a lot of time talking with me about the procedure (ie: that pain would be involved), but I really felt good about it. What I wasn't ready for was all the negative opinions I got about the procedure - that was a little frustrating.

Anyway, here we are on 9/1 at the hospital ready for the turning at 36.5 weeks. I had to check-in to the hospital and my doctor told me to pack my bags because there was a chance they would break my water or need to do a C-section. I was ready! They got me hooked up to the IV, started the medicine to reduce contractions and we waited for the doctor. I don't know what they gave me, but the meds made me shake and I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.
A few minutes later, my doctor came in, looked at the ultrasound and low and behold Garison had turned head down. I almost cried. So, so, so many of you were praying for me that this would be the outcome - thank you!! I had three really bad contractions the Sunday Night before and I'm guessing that is when he made his move. My doctor was happy too because she said she was going to have had to do a long lateral cut based on his position and she didn't want to do that. I'm just glad she told me that after the fact.

After going through that experience, I've found myself stressing out about what position he is in. At my 37 and 38 week check-up, he was head down (confirmed by ultrasound again), so hopefully we are still good.

One diversion was a lovely baby shower the girls at church had for me at PF Chang's. I failed to get a picture of everyone, but here I am in the "spotlight". I couldn't ask for better friends!
Well, we are down to hours now for Garison's arrival. I am being induced at 5 AM tomorrow morning and if history repeats itself, he should be here around lunch or a little later (although, I have learned that every pregnancy is very different - I'll have to blog on how different they really have been).

I would appreciate your prayers tomorrow that he is head down and regardless of how he gets here that he is a healthy little thing (or a big thing since I have big babies!). Fields Family Five, here we come!!

Job Updates

2009-09-13T22:26:00.001-05:00

For some reason, we like to cram as many life changes into as short amount of time as possible. For example, Garet graduated from Auburn two days before we got married. At the rehearsal dinner, he was filling out paperwork for his new job that he started when we returned from our honeymoon. We were also moving all of our belongings from Auburn to storage and into an apartment. It was a crazy time, but we were young and in love :) (although Garet probably would have preferred to have had more sleep if you ask him).

Here we are 9 years later and making a lot of life changes within the span of two weeks because that is how we roll. A few months ago, Garet was offered a new job opportunity with one of his former bosses. After a lot of prayer and dialogue, we felt like it was time for a change. However, the contract took a little longer than anticipated and Garet wasn't able to start until this past week. Garet will be doing some of the same type work he has done in the past, but with less travel. It is a small business and we are looking forward to good times ahead.

His co-workers at TSI had a going away lunch for him last week and they all assured me that they would still be my Facebook friends - I have a harder time with break-ups than Garet :). In honor of the job change, Garet went out and bought a Wii - he had 3.5 weeks of vacation built up and he decided that if he didn't get to use it then he was going to put some of the money to good use! Levi is hooked on MarioKart - the kid is only 3 and already making a run for first place! He was even talking trash today (sigh) while on the "quarter pipe".

Now on to me... About a year ago, I began to feel like God was preparing me to do something else in regards to working and parenting. Since Levi was born almost 4 years ago, I have worked part time - most of that as the Life Group Minister at our church. Working has never been something I've had to do, but rather chosen to do - I had the best of both worlds - the work place and the home. I wasn't sure what was ahead for me at the time, so I just keep going - we were in an interim period at our church and didn't feel like I needed to make a big change. In January, we got the shock of our lives and found out we were pregnant. In case you are wondering, I still don't know how it happened. This was the start of some very hard months for me - my emotions were all over the place, I was really sick and I couldn't keep things together.

Once I got through that time, I began to really evaluate what the fall would look like for our family. Long story short, I decided to step down from being the Life Group Minister. There is an amazing story to go along with this as to how God worked out so many details in regards to this decision - I could cry just thinking about it. I've written it all down, but I feel like it is for me only right now. My last day was today and I can honestly say that I have an extreme peace about the future. Those who are around me often know that I am not exactly made for motherhood, but I can tell that God is pouring his grace on me right now.

The evening of Garet's going away lunch, we had my going away party - we joked that it was almost as if we were moving! Two of my other co-workers are moving on as well, so here are the three of us sharing what we will miss (and not miss) the most! I said that I would miss the daily interaction with my co-workers and being a part of their lives, but that I would NOT miss the meetings - especially those at night.
Below are some of my fellow co-workers and the management team from our church. I appreciate all the hard work they put into the evening and for the massage and pedicure gift cards - no better thing for a 38 week pregnant girl!

That's the low-down on Garet and I - Garison's update is another story in itself....

Vacation - Day 5 - City Museum, Metropolis & Home

2009-09-04T15:26:00.003-05:00

Because of the meltdown on Friday, we ended up staying in St. Louis most of the day on Sunday. Our first stop for lunch was at Union Station (nice, but not a "must-see"), then we headed over to City Museum.

Words can not describe City Museum - it is honestly something I think people just have to experience. It is like nothing I have ever been to. We had several people tell us to go and I am so glad we did. Despite having "museum" in the name, there is really nothing "museum" about it. Garet commented that he couldn't believe a place like this existed in this day and age with people being so worried about safety. Instead of trying to explain it, let me just show you.

Our first stop was "The Roof". There was an old Ferris Wheel at the very top. This was the first time Garet had ever ridden a Ferris Wheel.

You could also go down a few large concrete slides...

...walk across the water....
...and get in an old bus that was suspended 13 stories over the ground below. This I did not like.
At this point we are thinking, "What in the world is downstairs?!?!". Well, I'll show you.

Outside, they had a large ball pit for children of all ages...
...and a massive maze of wire tunnels, slides and abandoned airplanes that were suspended through the air. Here are Levi & Garet climbing one such tunnel:
Inside there was a little train that took the kids through a tunnel of recycled materials...
...and an indoor skate park that you don't skate on. That door in the back led to a pitch-black maze that the kids and Garet went through.
This video is in the "skate park" room. The video doesn't show just how steep that side was that Levi was going down...it was probably 10 feet straight down. Who comes up with this stuff?

I want to insert here that if you preferred not to take the stairs inside, there were slides from floor to floor. I really wish I would have gotten a picture of this, but I never did.

Garet and Levi had a great time on the outside tunnels, but they really liked the bottom floor as well. It was called the "cave" area and I seriously don't know how people don't get lost in there. There were several entrances to the "caves" and here is just one example:You might be wondering what Kara and I were doing during all of this. I obviously could not crawl through a small tunnel and I wasn't about to let Kara loose or we would have lost her. So, we stuck with the preschool area (again, no picture) and hanging out in the less enclosed areas of the caves.
We ended up staying most of the day at this place. The ideal age for kids is probably elementary school age, but there was no shortage of things for all of us to do. Garet is still talking about it.

After all the excitement, we decided to go ahead and make the drive all the way home despite getting in late. The trip went amazingly smooth because the kids were so worn out that they slept a lot. We also got a new DVD set for the car that will let the kids watch their own shows, so Kara watched Dora about 500 times while Levi watched Transformers (the animated one :). I think that helped a lot.

On the way home, we drove right through Metropolis, IL. Garet came here a lot as a child and so we couldn't stop being tourists yet...
Levi refused a picture, but Kara sure wanted to be Superman:
What would I have done if we hadn't stopped :)??
Well, I think that will be the last of our travels for 2009. I'm so thankful that we got to go somewhere new this year. Garet and I have kept it up for 9 years now and I hope we never stop!

Vacation - Day 4 - St. Louis Arch & Zoo

2009-09-03T04:49:00.001-05:00

Day 4 proved to be much better than the previous day and we hit the ground running with a return visit to the arch. Levi got a digital camera for Christmas and had a blast taking pictures everywhere we went. Hopefully I'll get around to posting our trip from his viewpoint - he got some really good pictures.They had a large scale in the waiting area to go up in the arch. The kids enjoyed seeing who was heavier. I told them that Daddy and I (& Garison) would not be participating :).

So, our family had to fit in this pod with two other adults...hmmmm....

On the way up I think the kids were trying to figure out exactly what was going on (you can also see Levi's black eye really clearly here - the result of a CARS car accident):

I was really proud of the kids at the top, they climbed right up to look out...

I on the other hand did not enjoy this view straight down...

I preferred to look out at the city.

Here we are at the top!

Yes, I am a tourist.

After we went up in the arch, we drove across town to head to the St. Louis Zoo. The Zoo is actually free, although we bought the pass that let us have unlimited train rides - I was 8 months pregnant after all :). The train was the absolute highlight of the zoo - I think the kids could have ridden it all day.

It might have been Mommy's favorite part too with the cool breeze...

I got a FLIP video camera and I must say that I LOVE it. So easy to use and fun too. I'll spare you the other video's, but wanted to include at least one:

Levi loves Tigers (as any good Auburn Fan should), so we couldn't pass them by:

This picture is only funny because Garet climbed through this tunnel, but what you can't see is there is a glass window in the middle with snakes in it. Kinda freaky.

I knew hippos lived in water, but I never realized how fast they swam. I could have watched these guys for a long time. It was amazing to watch!

I've never really been a "zoo" person, but I have to admit that I had a really good time at this zoo. The first hour we were there was a little stressful, but then the kids relaxed and we ended up staying all the way until closing. A good family memory indeed.

Vacation - Day 3 - St. Louis Arch (well kinda)

2009-09-02T15:24:00.000-05:00

Did I leave you in suspense long enough? Things have been absolutely crazy here and I hope to update you on that soon, but I wanted to finish up our vacation before I forget all the details!

After we left Santa Claus, we drove west (spending the night in IL) and Friday morning we drove on into St. Louis, MO. St. Louis is another one of those places where people kinda looked at me funny when I said we were going. Last year when we were in Paducah for Garet's Granddaddy's funeral, they had a brochure for St. Louis in the hotel - I had no idea how many things there were to do in St. Louis, so I put it on my list! Plus, it is only about a 6.5 hour drive from here.

We checked into our hotel in downtown St. Louis and immediately headed over to the Arch (can you seriously go to St. Louis without visiting the arch?). It turned out that the wait to go up was a little over 4 hours when we arrived, so we just bought tickets for the following morning. This turned out to be a very, very good thing.

We spent some time under the arch at the museums. Here are the kids in a replica of the pods that take you up the arch. The kids look so grown up to me: Taking some pictures outside...you are starting to get a feel for how the kids were doing by this point:

The melt down is starting:

I seriously don't know how we got these two shots of the kids smiling...

...as this was what was really going on:

We ended up canceling our plans for Friday night when the kids wouldn't take naps. In all fairness to them, they hadn't had naps in two days and we had a crazy full day at Holiday World. It was time for a break. So, we went to the pool and ordered pizza in and the night was wonderful. It didn't hurt that this was our view from our room:

Vacation - Day 2 - Holiday World!

2009-08-20T01:53:00.004-05:00

After stopping for the night in Kentucky, we drove into none other than Santa Claus, Indiana on Thursday. My sister-in-law, Kelly, had been to this amusement park called Holiday World and it peaked my interest. Sure it sounds a bit hokey and telling people that you are going to Indiana doesn't exactly sound exciting, but it was so much fun!

The park is divided into two areas - an amusement park side and a water park side. We arrived at the park just after 10 AM and planned to leave around 2 or 3 when it was time for a nap. We didn't leave until almost 7 PM - the kids were troopers!!

This is a family-friendly place if I've ever seen one. First, I got in half-price when they saw I was pregnant. Second, they have free drinks all over the park so we never got dehydrated. And, they had free sunscreen in the water park area. How cool is that?

The best part about this park was that they had so many rides that preschoolers and toddlers could ride. I bet there were 10+ rides Kara could go on and 20+ that Levi could go on.

Being over 36", Levi was able to ride several "big" rides. Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures of him on them, but the kid was fearless. Levi is usually very cautious about things, but he went on every ride he could!

The bumper boats were by far the kids favorite. Kara took no prisoners as she zoomed around in the water:

After spending the morning in the amusement park, we changed into our swim suits and headed to the water park. I so wish I had taken some pictures in there - the kids areas were amazing! By far, the best kids water park I have ever seen. Levi & Garet headed to the water slides while Kara & I hung out in the lazy river and toddler areas. It was so relaxing to me because one of the toddler pools bubbled like a hot tub (without the heat) and it felt so good on my back. I just sat there and floated while Kara played around.

We ended the day back at the amusement park - the kids couldn't get enough. I highly recommend this park as a stop. Sure it was hot and I was 8 months pregnant, but it was so worth it to watch the kids have so much fun!!

Then we were off to location #2...

Vacation - Day 1 - Our Anniversary

2009-08-19T15:42:00.005-05:00

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - Vacations are my love language. A few months ago, I planned out a little family trip somewhere new. However, for various reasons I can't go into, the trip did not look like it was going to happen. This past weekend was the absolute last weekend we could go due to Garison's impending arrival and things did not look good.

Garet had been in Hawaii for a week and then home for a few days and then headed out at 4:45 AM last Monday and returned at 11:30 PM on Tuesday. Despite that, he let me start packing so that we could leave on Wednesday after he went in to work. I honestly don't know how he managed to stay awake (especially if you know Garet and his sleep).

Last Wednesday was our 9 year anniversary and I could ask for nothing more than a little vacation. Sure, the actual day was nothing to blog about...work for Garet, a flurry of activity at home packing last minute and getting in a car and driving four hours north. Our "anniversary dinner" was spent at a Burger King (in a gas station no less), but you know what - I wouldn't have changed a thing about it.

Here we were 9 years ago.... surrounded by friends and family...

and we are just as happy now as we were then. There has been a reason this blog has been silent much of this year - this has been a tough, tough, tough year for our family, but I am thankful to say that we are still best friends, still love each other very much and extremely blessed to watch our family expand once again in a few weeks.

So, where did we go? Stay tuned!

PS: I did a much better job last year of commemorating our 8th anniversary. Go here to see our first 8 years together!

Its that time of year!

2009-08-18T15:09:00.005-05:00

You may have remembered the video I posted this time last year, and my views have not changed. Today Levi, Kara and I all walked into school very happy. I think the kids were as ready to go back as I was to take them. Kara sat down at her table and looked at me like, "Why are you still here, mom?". It was good to see all of their friends (and my mom friends too!) I could tell the kids missed each other during the day though because they held hands the entire way out of school.

Here's to a great year ahead!

Before & After

2009-07-28T21:46:00.007-05:00

This was the view from my front porch back in April:

Within a couple of minutes, we had some serious hail come down. I don't know how well you can see this, but we had between golf-ball size and baseball-size hail. The hail was so loud - I was home alone with the kids and I thought the roof was going to cave in!

We didn't think much about it at the time, but several weeks ago many houses in our neighborhood started to get new roofs. So, we thought we might as well look into it. Sure enough, we had hail damage! Here is our "before":

"After":

"Before":

"After": When we were building our house, we made a last minute change on our roof color and have regretted it ever since (7.5 years!). Thankfully, we were very pleased with the color this time around...now we just need to pick a door & shutter color. Yea for hail (and low deductibles)!

Side note: The actual day of the re-roof project was horrible. They put the dumpster in front of our garage and I was trapped inside with the kids all day. My head was killing me from all the pounding! Lesson learned: park on the street the night before!

Summer Swimming

2009-07-27T21:53:00.003-05:00

Levi just finished up his swim lessons for the summer. I have extremely fond memories of swim lessons growing up - I was pretty much a fish until I was nine. Unfortunately when we moved to AL, I never got back into it - something I regret because I really loved it.

Levi is our little guy - here he is lined up and going over the rules of the pool: Showing all the parents how to get into the pool:

Kick-board King:

Levi's favorite was doing the dog paddle with the noodle. He kept talking about how big his muscles were getting from doing the dog paddle - I'm assuming this is something his teacher told him.

This was the first year that I didn't sit in on the lessons (or have to get in the water - yea!). It was perfect because I could work-out while he was in swim lessons and Kara was in the nursery. The last lesson, however, was the one for the parents and Kara couldn't be upstaged. She kept trying to take her clothes off and jump in the water - this girl is not scared of anything!!

Addicted

2009-07-23T22:38:00.009-05:00

Back in February/March, I read a couple of blogs that went on and on about this blog called Southern Savers. I looked around the site a little bit at the time, but didn't want to dive in and become a "couponer". Come April, however, I really started to give this thing a go - in fact, I blogged about it here.

Fast forward three months and now I am a complete and total addict. Seriously. I started with CVS and now do Publix and Kroger too. I love, love, love the way Jenny at Southern Savers sets up the grocery lists every week - I have no idea how she has the time to do it all - I hope she is making a lot of money!

Over the last 3 months, I have shaved $25-$50 off our weekly grocery bill (that's $100-$200/month!). Don't worry, we still eat out a lot...couponing hasn't turned me into a cook! It isn't something I "have" to do, but I've found that I really do enjoy it!

True, it takes a lot of time (especially in the beginning), but I love finding new deals every day! Yes, I buy stuff that I wouldn't normally buy, but my rule is I usually only buy it if it is under $1 (and most of that is free!). Hey, if they want to give it to me free, I won't deny it! For everything I know we won't use, I have a big box of stuff to donate. We have also really enjoyed trying new foods and products all the time. It seemed like we had been in a nine year rut and all of a sudden, you never know what you are going to find in the pantry!

To give you an idea of how well you can do, here are a few of my recent CVS trips. I do the best at CVS, but I usually save about 40-60% at Publix & Kroger.

I got all of this for $10.37 (it would have been less, but two unnamed kids were pulling candy off the racks and I couldn't get to my last transaction). Note that this includes a package of diapers! Last week, I spent $4.51 on all this (includes 4 12-packs of coke!). I would have spent that much on the batteries alone 6 months ago!

If you all know of any other great sites out there, let me know!

The Beach

2009-07-22T16:29:00.013-05:00

Garet and I have always loved the beach - it has been a constant in our dating and married lives. We dream of living on the beach or in a beach community someday. As parents, beach trips can be a little more challenging, but we hope our kids will grow up to love the beach as much as we do.

We quickly discovered that when going to the beach with a 3 year-old and a 1 year-old (while pregnant), that these are some very good people to take with you:

I think they love the beach and our kids as much as we do.

And four adults to two kids is a very nice ratio indeed.

Levi preferred the sand, which made Garet happy.

And Kara preferred to lounge in the shade, which made me happy :).

We stayed at the Phoenix on the Bay II which was absolutely fantastic for little kids. They had a lazy river, water slide, "kitty cat" pool, indoor and outdoor pools, and a boat dock on the bay. At this age, our kids prefer the pools over the beach, so it worked out better for us to stay there.

We all enjoyed floating leisurely around the lazy river. Kara enjoyed her "independence" and Levi thought he could swim "so fast".

It was a little cool one morning, so we headed to the park. This was the first picture I took...

...this was the last.

Levi conquered every balancing act

while Garet slept in the background

before he helped Kara balance herself.

We took a walk out on the pier and almost got blown away

but Levi still enjoyed shooting at the wind anyways.

The battlefield:

Feeling very pregnant:

Kara decided she would much rather wear her shirt like this:

The wind followed us to Florida as we headed over the border. This was Levi & Kara's first time in Florida - another state down!

Levi didn't want Kara to blow away!

Let's see...do you think they are related? We were able to have dinner with Uncle Gary & Aunt Karen one night.

One last day at the beach..."no more pictures, mom".

See you later, alligator!

Facebook Adventures

2009-07-21T11:48:00.004-05:00

Warning: this post turned out way more nerdy than originally intended. Sigh.

About a year ago, I switched over to Facebook. Soon after joining, I asked Garet to join and he finally said, "When you get 500 friends, I will". Of course, he said that when I was around 150 friends thinking the day would never come. Well, this week I approached the 500 mark and suddenly my friend number began to drop. Turns out Garet made a deal with some of his buddies (Person 1, Person 2, and Person 3 (DC)) that they would drop me when I got close to 500 friends so that Garet wouldn't have to join. Can you feel the love???

Despite their efforts, Garet joined since I would have 500 friends had the conspiracy not taken place. He does have to live with me after all :).

Every time I mentioned his holdout to people, they would ask, "How in the world do you know 500 people?". Truth is, I didn't know myself! Granted I like to talk...to anyone really, I've moved around, I work at a church, I've had my share of jobs, I married into Garet's ginormous family, and there are not many people these days that are not on Facebook.

Since I'm a math major, I do what all good math majors do and analyze. What better than a pie chart - we do like our charts and March 14th (right, Allison M?).

So, here are all my Facebook friends in pie chart glory:

My commentary:

Auburn - 107 (the largest group by 1. We were blessed to get to know so many great people through the Auburn BCM, our church (Lakeview), and my fellow math majors :)
Hillwood - 106 (this is the church I grew up in. It has been so much fun reconnecting with all those people I grew up with - most of these are from the youth group, but it does include many parents of my friends as well!)
The Brook - 86 (my current church. It pays in Facebook friends to be on staff :). Seriously, I love these people!)
Grissom - 65 (these are people that I knew from High School that I didn't go to church with. Keep in mind that my high school had over 2000 people. Most of these people I was on the flag corp with or in the band with. Great memories)
Along Life's Way - 45 (most of this number is from spouses and family members of some of my closest friends but also includes friends that have moved away)
Family - 36 (did I mention Garet has about a million cousins?)
Local - 36 (various people I've met here in town whether through the kids school or we used to go to church together)
Old Jobs/Garet's co-workers - 17 (speaks for itself)

So, there you have it - how to get 500 friends on facebook without even trying :).

A little bit redneck, but a whole lot of fun!

2009-07-20T10:03:00.008-05:00

That title is probably a country song, but it describes perfectly what our summer has looked like so far!

Before you make fun of our "mobile" swimming pool, try it for yourself - the kids LOVED it! (And I promise, Kara wears a bathing suit 99% of the time, just not in these pictures!)

We have a name!

2009-06-16T14:45:00.003-05:00

For those of you who have anxiously been awaiting a vote for the name of our next child, I hate to disappoint you, but we actually made a decision (with weeks to spare)!

Let me back up a little and explain that Garet and I are terrible when it comes to naming children. I don't know why it is so difficult for us, but it just is. We decided on the name Levi sometime around 36 weeks (which is cutting it close on a first pregnancy since you don't know how long you have - it turned out to be plenty of time for me).

Kara almost didn't have a name! After polling our friends on my Myspace account (does anyone check theirs anymore?), we cut it very close. I had a scheduled induction and the day before our friend, Melodie, told us we had to make a decision! She made us each write our top two choices on a napkin (we were at Applebees) and then Levi drew the name. Kara it was!

That experience really stressed us out and so we were determined not to let it happen again. Plus, with a 3.5 year old and a 20 month old, we were getting tired of saying "baby brother".

Before we knew if Kara was a boy or a girl, we had a boy named picked out. She obviously wasn't a boy, so we put it in the archives. When we found out we were having a boy this go around, we decided to pull it back out, but for whatever reason, I still hesitated. Well, I finally decided I just needed to make a decision.

So, without further adieu, "Baby Brother" will be:

Garison John

Garison is a combination of Garet + Alison (get it?) :), thus the reason for the one "r". I think that will bother a few people, but Garet and I both dealt with the single consonant issue and we turned out OK. It was more important for us that he shared our names.

And, for my Aunt Ruth Ann (only because I love you :), John is from my dad & brother.

We feel that this will be the fitting addition to our family. All the children have one of our names in their name and I think that this will probably/hopefully?? be the conclusion to our family expansion.

In closing, I have to share Levi's question regarding Garison if you missed it on Twitter/Facebook:

"when baby Garison comes out of your tummy are you going to be all out of babies?"

My response? "I sure hope so!"

Auburn Reunions!

2009-05-21T13:54:00.006-05:00

I've said it many times, but my four years at Auburn were some of the best of my life. I have so many good memories from that time period and I know that they are due in a large part to the wonderful friends we made from our time on the plains.

We have been spoiled the last couple of weeks to be able to spend some time with a few of these friends. I'm always amazed at how easily it is to talk and hang out despite all the changes we've incurred over the last 10+ years! If you are ever in the area, please let us know - we would love to see you!!

Our buddy Jason is a pilot and so his schedule is always last minute. Thankfully, we were able to pull a dinner outing together when him, his wife Lindsey and kids were in town for the night.

Here's the crew! Dan & Ellen, Bull (minus Ashley), Jason & Lindsey and us! The restaurant was so kind to give us our own room in which we let all the kiddos run around while we talked. War Eagle!Then, a couple of weeks later, a few of us got together for a big surprise!! In Auburn, Carmen, Joy and I were the best of friends and did everything together. Carr married a guy named Scott and in January or so he started planning a surprise birthday party for Carr's 31st birthday. Of course, I was in! Joy and I ended up bringing our men and it turned out to be a perfect (although too short) weekend in Chattanooga (could it be anywhere else?) on the lake. The surprise was a huge success and you can read my friends takes here: Joy and Carr.

Apparently we still thought we were in college, because we stayed up until 3:30 AM talking! That was a little taxing on this preggo mother of a toddler and preschooler, but it was so worth it. I think we all agreed that our early 30s are not exactly what we had envisioned. Life is a little harder, things aren't perfect, there have been some surprises in life, but I thank God that we still have each other and our friendships despite the very different paths our lives have taken. For instance, as Joy mentioned, we all married completely different men, but they hung with us this weekend and we had a great time together. Here we are with the additions to our trio:

I couldn't end this post with out a huge thank you to Carmen's parents - they took care of all the cooking and cleaning and I felt like I was in college all over again. I can't remember the last time someone has taken care of everything for me and I just get to enjoy!

I hope the reunions don't stop here!!

My Motherly Intuition

2009-05-07T14:38:00.003-05:00

was very wrong today.

Because they were 100% sure at the doctor today.
And I am still in shock.
And thrilled that God provided just what our family needed.

The Materialism Monster

2009-04-28T16:39:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we started this new series at our church called "Monsters". Last week our new pastor, Brian, challenged us on the "Me Monster". In other words, "we aren't the center of the universe" to quote my mother. Good reminders, steps taken, but still a daily battle.

This week was on the "Materialism Monster". Josh, our student minister, spoke about how if we constantly crave more and more, our focus is not on the right thing and we will never be satisfied. I'll be honest, the "Me Monster" is a much bigger challenge for me than the "Materialism Monster" or so I thought....

Fast forward two days to this morning. While I was buckling Levi in the van, Kara promptly crawled into the front and poured my drink in her lap and all over our new van (diet cherry pepsi to be exact- errr). I am not my best in the morning and immediately yelled: "Kara, you just ruined our new van!!!".

Levi promptly said: "Mom, it is STILL a new van".

Josh, I'm afraid Levi got the last line on your sermon. Ouch.

Something to try next year

2009-04-23T21:59:00.009-05:00

I realize that Easter was almost two weeks ago, but I had to share this Easter cookie idea for those of you that have never seen it before. This was my first time to make these cookies with my own kids (and niece and nephew), so it was extra special.

Begin this recipe on Saturday, the day before Easter.
1 cup whole pecans
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 egg whites
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
zipper baggie
wooden spoon or a wooden meat hammer
duct tape or packing tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300*F.
Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon or hammer to break them into small pieces.

Explain that after Jesus was arrested he was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.
Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 teaspoon of vinegar into the mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.
Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave his life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.
Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste. Then put your pinch of salt in the bowl.
Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27 So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing! Add 1 cup sugar to the bowl.
Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us. He wants us to know and belong to him. Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.
Beat with a mixer on high speed for 10 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks form. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.
Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheets. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60. Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape to seal the oven door.
Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66. Leave the kitchen. If you've been making these cookies just before bedtime, GO TO BED!
Acknowledge that the kids are probably sad that they've worked hard to make these cookies, and now have to leave them in the oven overnight. Explain that Jesus' followers were in sad when Jesus died and the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.
On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Ask the kids to notice the cracked surface. Have them bite into the cookies. The cookies are hollow!
Explain that on the first Easter morning, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.
HE HAS RISEN!

I wish I had some pictures of the finished cookie, but we made them at Garet's parents house and we had to go home. Levi was pretty sad about that, but hopefully next year we can follow through. Special thanks to Kelly (Garet's sister) and Nana for their help too!

My Latest Endeavor: Coupons

2009-04-22T14:14:00.004-05:00

After having several conversations with friends in recent weeks about "couponing", I finally decided to break down and give this thing a try. Keep in mind that before kids, I was very organized...to an extreme really. That all changed when suddenly my free time was zapped in half and then half again and is about to be non-existent. That's OK - the hugs and kisses are worth it.

Sorry to digress there. So, in my now less than organized way, I have been trying to work this whole "couponing" world (and it is a world out there). While I have been very successful at the large grocery store trips (I saved $56 on my last trip to Target!!), I still find myself spending way to much money on those "I'm just going to run in and buy a couple of items" trips.

Before I go any farther, let me tell you about my favorite website of the moment: Southern Savers Blog. This girl thinks like me and writes things down in a way I would and it makes it very easy for me. I decided to start with her CVS "plan" since I live so close to one. I must say that I have been working the system very well. Take for instance my shopping trip yesterday:

I got these 11 items for $17 with $13 in CVS dollars to spend on my next visit. If I had more time, I would have ended up spending only $8 with $5 in CVS dollars, but I didn't have time for another transaction. The hardest part has been trying to stay away from brand loyalty (trying new shampoos, toothpastes, yogurt, granola bars, etc). So far it has been OK, but we'll see. I also don't have any room in my house to hoard items for an entire year...I can only imagine the size of these ladies pantries! A good deal is a good deal, but not at the expense of floor space!

I've also got a number of friends that use couponmom.com. It took awhile to sign up, but it is free. I like that they provide Target and Wal-mart shopping lists since that is where I primarily shop. However, these ladies are working the Publix deals, so they may be my next endeavor.

My only problem with Publix and Kroger is that while you can get some fantastic deals on certain items, unless those exact items make up a meal, you are still going to have to buy the other items. Wal-mart is so much cheaper across the board that I'd really like to see a price comparison since you can still use coupons at Wal-mart (they just aren't doubled).

That's where I'm at. Any other "couponers" out there? What tricks or tips do you use. I really am quite fascinated at the money I could save. Thanks!

New Heights

2009-04-21T22:02:00.004-05:00

Tonight Garet and I put up a bunk bed in Levi's room. This bunk bed has some history. My dad built it for my brother, Brian, when he was a kid. Thankfully for us, my parents didn't get rid of it and my brother said we could use it. My dad left fantastic directions and we put it up in no time at all.

The plan is to transition Kara into Levi's room at some point in the next 4 months. However, Levi loves sleep and Kara does not. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I have no idea of what kind of "theme" I am going to do in their room. I might stick with the Hawaiian/surfer theme, but we'll see. When I figure it out, I'm going to paint the bunk bed a lighter color and we'll be good to go!

First time up on the bunk:That's a long way down! Levi has never fallen out of his bed...never needed a rail or anything. Let's hope that his first time isn't out of the bunk bed!

Practicing the ladder (ignore the room - we were trying to move things out of the way and get it done before bed time):

Getting ready to go to bed:

Pretending to sleep for the camera - guess who got him to do this "pose":

Night Night. Love you, Levi:

Eggstravaganza

2009-04-20T14:38:00.008-05:00

We had a busy, busy Easter weekend, but lots of fun. Forget the fact that I took NO pictures on the actual day of Easter - the kids baskets and outfits will just have to be a memory in my head. Maybe next year will be the year for photo greatness since it wasn't this year or last year.

We started the festivities off with coloring Easter eggs. I was lucky enough to catch Levi with a "natural" smile AND looking at the camera: Kara wasn't so sure about this dye stuff:

She did like throwing the "balls" into the dye, however:

Amazingly, no dye was spilled during this process:

Putting the final decorations on:

I had to include this picture, because Kara likes to prop her foot up on the table and it cracks me up:

The next day, our church had an Eggstravaganza for all the kids. Levi invited his best buddy in the whole world, Aaron, to come along. They have the best time together - I just love to watch them interact! Here they are working on their crafts:

Kara chowing down on a cookie. The girl has a serious sweet tooth:

What Easter party wouldn't be complete without tattoos? I think Kara was trying to decide whether or not it was permanent. Thankfully, hers was not:

Levi's on the other hand, will not come off! We are on day 9 and have tried numerous methods to remove it and it is still there. At least it is on his arm and since we seem to have the temperatures of Alaska this April, the long sleeves have hidden it:

Also joining in the festivities were cousins Caleb & Kaitlyn. Levi could barely contain himself with cousins & Aaron all in one place!!

The egg hunt for the 3 and under crowd. Planning the attack:

And they are off!

Kara will never be outdone:

Levi & Aaron scored big time. As the "older" kids on the hunt, they helped themselves to lots of eggs....42 to be exact. Let's just say that I was not anticipating having so much candy at the house. Baby #3 is enjoying lots of sugar. Sigh.

We are so thankful to be close to friends and family and to be able to celebrate that the "big rock was rolled away" (Levi) and Jesus is alive!

Sharing

2009-04-08T21:26:00.005-05:00

Where are we? Here we are!

Levi & Kara are at a "fun" age right now for learning about sharing. Kara prefers the "I want that and I will take it at anytime regardless of who is playing with it" tactic. Levi prefers the "whine when someone takes my toy" method. Both happen quite frequently during the day and I find myself constantly saying "He/She was playing with it first" or "He/She was touching it first" followed by "wait until they are done with it, then you can play with it". Sometimes the toy is taken away completely if a wrestling match beings.

This is not new to any parent of siblings. It is a rite of passage - we will get through this stage (although I've heard it can last into the teenage years and beyond - yikes!) and they will grow up, hopefully be friends, and share with each other because that's what people do, right?

Apparently there are some people at my gym who have never learned this lesson. I'm on my fourth gym over the course of my life and the one I'm at now is a haven for "non-sharers" (if that is a word). I've pretty much gotten used to the people that sit on a machine for 20 minutes doing who knows what. There is no chance of working in, because they are "using the machine" while they sit there. I've also given up on the people that sit on a machine and talk to their neighbor - I've always wanted to tell these people that there are better (and more comfortable places) to socialize, but maybe they think they are really exercising. At least these people are trying to stay healthy.

The other day, this lack of sharing went to a new low. I've had to move from machine weights to free weights to support my expanding belly, so I head over to the exercise balls to get one to use as my bench. I roll it over to the weights and a lady comes flying across the room to tell me that she is using that ball. I promise you she was no where in any close proximity to that ball. I looked at her a little puzzled, put the ball back and watched as she walked back across the room and got on a machine. I mean seriously. I was almost done with my whole arm routine (on a different ball) before she went over and started using that particular exercise ball.

I'm sure there is something profound I could learn from this or some great insight I could share with you, but my pregnant brain is just too tired. (This is where I need Kimberly to figure it out for me since she does that so well.)

Instead I'll leave you a couple more pictures of the "sharers":

I had to include this one because seconds later, Kara fell, busted her lip open and blood was everywhere. Good times all around!

Now I feel better. Rant over. Good Night.

Let it Snow

2009-04-07T21:54:00.005-05:00

In honor of the 30 degree drop in temperature we have had the last few days, I thought it would be appropriate to finally post our snow pictures. We got a pretty good dusting back on March 1st and the kids absolutely loved it. I stayed inside since I was still pretty sick at that point (that, and I prefer to be warm when given the option). The kids stayed outside until they were shivering, but they still had grins on their faces! Watching the snow come down:

Such an infectious grin!

Lightning McQueen Hat: Check. Lightning McQueen Gloves: Check. He is everywhere!

We are so nice to our kids:

Since it snows on average once every 4 years, we don't have a sled around the house. The ever inventive Garet tied a rope to a laundry basket and pulled the kids around the yard. They never knew the difference.

Our little snowman:

I'm really hoping this will be the end of the cold weather (since it is April after all!) and I can get the kids winter clothing put up soon. I've got to start making room for the new baby. I figure if I start now, I'll be finished by the time the baby is 3 months old!

The Grand Prix

2009-04-02T20:58:00.006-05:00

Several weeks ago, our Awana program at church started advertising for their "Grand Prix" race. Always a kid at heart, Garet immediately went and signed up "Levi" for the race. The two of them had a good time painting and decorating the car. However, Garet had to be gone two weeks and we weren't sure if he would be back in time. He ended up taking the red-eye home and got back just in time to attach the wheels and head to the race.

Levi testing out the track before the race. His car is red for "Lightning McQueen" - who else?

Because Levi isn't quite old enough for Awana's, he was in the general church category which just so happened to be filled with ladies. Here he is with them getting ready to start:

And they are off! Levi's car won first on the first heat. He was so excited. Because he was the only boy, all the kids were cheering for him. Levi was totally taking it all in and was cracking me up. It was very out of the norm for him - he can be quite shy in situations like this.

Garet and Kara looking on:

After the races:

Levi got 3rd place for design and 3rd place for speed. He really wanted a "piston cup", but unfortunately they were only for the 1st place winner. Garet found an old trophy he had won and he gave that to Levi when we got home.

Ms. Mary and Ms. Susan rounded out the final three. I thought this picture was hilarious!

Instead of a "piston cup", Levi won some medals. Showing off the earnings:

Letting Kara get a glimpse of the winner's circle:

Rule-Follower / Rule-Breaker

2009-04-01T15:45:00.004-05:00

I've got one of each. Levi is by far my rule-follower. He's the kid that knows what you are supposed to be doing, when, and why. He always plays it safe and has lots of questions. If something is out of place, he will try to fix it or tell someone. There is an order for everything. Now, I'm not saying that he does everything he is told or that he is a perfect child, because that is just not true :).

I can relate to Levi a lot. I've tended to be a rule-follower my whole life, but there are many opportunities I've passed up by playing it safe which leads to regrets for not "taking the plunge". Levi will be really good at what he does and will be very dedicated.

Kara on the other hand, is my rule-breaker. She likes to do the opposite of the norm all with this little grin on her face. She knows she's different and spunky and has got the biggest attitude to go with that little walk of hers. She jumps off tables with no fear and rarely meets a stranger. A true free-spirit. Therefore, she has been quite the challenge for the rule-following momma of hers.

However, I have to admit that I am envious of her personality. She is going to try a million things in her life and while she might fail 999,999 times, I have no doubt that she will do something amazing at least once (if not more). Her life will not be slow-paced and will certainly be an adventure!

Parenting Levi has been easy. Although he needs guidance, he thinks through his plans, weighs his options and goes from there. My challenge will be with Kara. How do I encourage her to be creative and follow her heart without giving her too much freedom?

It is going to be a wild ride, but so much fun to participate in. I wonder what baby #3 will be? My rule-maker? Oh my. They always say the youngest gets whatever they want, right Garet? lu

Levi Quote

2009-04-01T11:31:00.001-05:00

"I need some help with my head, mom. It's too big"

(Note: he was trying to get his head through his shirt opening)

Levisms

2009-03-26T01:21:00.003-05:00

Levi's comments continue to keep us on our toes. He asks a lot of questions and is so matter-of-fact about everything.

Tonight while he was getting ready for bed, he said "Maybe when I'm 4-years-old, I can get big people toys". I asked him what he meant by that and he said, "You know, like basketballs and skee ball. But, you don't get the balls back in skee ball". Where does he get this stuff? I didn't even know he knew what skee ball was!

I twittered this earlier, but a couple of nights ago Levi was listing everything he was thankful for in his prayers. The list of course included his walls, surfboard and glow-in-the-dark stars. He also included his light sabers on this particular night. Anyway, right in the middle he says "Take me out to the ballgame" and kept right on listing the things he was thankful for. I learned later that a little girl at school had said this over and over during the day, but it was quite funny in the moment.

Levi is also apparently toning up. I found him the other morning on Garet's work bench with some two pound weights. I thought he had pretty good form for a 3-year-old!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-03-25T15:43:00.012-05:00

So, this is roughly how far behind I am at this blog thing - Embarrassing, but that's life when you are sick, sick, sick and then your husband is out of town for two weeks. Things are on the upswing now and I'm feeling great! I had my first non-sick day yesterday - woo hoo!! 14 weeks tomorrow!

I've often said that travel is my love language - I still don't know why this wasn't one of the five. So, what better gift for me on Valentine's Day than a trip! The only downside to this trip was that Kara & I were flying to Maryland and Garet & Levi were driving to Nashville.

After hugs & kisses good-bye, Kara and I boarded our plane to Baltimore. I was so nervous about the flight because I had been so sick, easily get motion sick and had Kara by myself in my lap. Visions of me getting sick on take-off or landing (when you can't get up), made it even worse. Keep in mind that we had not announced the pregnancy at this point. Thankfully (and with a lot of prayer), the flight up was seamless. I didn't get sick and Kara was amazingly good. I did get sick on the flight home, but my mom was with us - whew :)!

It was such a treat to get to Maryland and see my brother, sister-in-law, cousins and their families. We don't get to see each other often, so these trips are extra special. My mom had flown up earlier, so we had a full house of family! Love it! Our first stop that night was Uno's - yum!!! It is not good to start a pregnant girl off on pizza like that - I have been craving it everyday since!!

Other highlights of the trip were, of course, IKEA (which I discovered is not nearly as exciting when you are flying and only have a little suitcase to bring things home in), The Melting Pot (I had never been - wow!), watching Brian & Kristen minister to the homeless (very humbling), spending time with my cousins, good home-cooking, watching the kids play and just hanging out - I had a great, great time and wish they all lived closer. I guess it is just another reason to travel though :)!

Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend. Thanks to mom & Kelly for providing some of the pictures!!

So fun to dress alike for Valentine's Day!The Joslin cousins:

All of us (minus Garet & Levi plus 2 on the way!) Have we changed much since this time last year?:

Kara & Dante loved getting in this cube:

Kara LOVED Aunt Sarah. Probably because she did things like this with her:

Kara & Dante chillin:

This is what Art & Allan did most of the time. At least when I call Art now, my facebook picture shows up! I also renamed their band to Cowboy Chaos:

Colorful IKEA:

Very Kara:

We all had no problems finishing off the chocolate fondue at The Melting Pot!

As I mentioned before, Garet & Levi headed up to Nashville for Kaitlyn's baptism. On Saturday, they went to Caleb's basketball game. I just love this picture of Levi and Kaitlyn in the "stands":

Continuing the game at home:

PS: Some of these pictures were some of my first to take on my new camera. I don't know what I was thinking in that I would have time to figure out a fancy new camera and photoshop with two kids and one on the way. It took me 6 weeks to open the camera and another 6 weeks just to download the pictures!! Needless to say, none of them have been touched up. Maybe in 5 years I'll get better.

lol and ALL CAPS

2009-03-06T15:16:00.003-06:00

These are my two biggest pet peeves in the computer world. I hate seeing them and I hate reading them. Why? I have no idea. For some reason, I have seen them a lot today and felt the need to share with you all. Does this bug anyone else or am I the only one?

In other news, I'm finally starting to feel a little better, so I'm hoping that I can emerge from my month-long sabbatical shortly and get back to regular posting. My blogiversary/birthday is coming up after all :). (Someone out there probably hates those side smiley faces).

A little history on the mini van

2009-02-20T03:43:00.001-06:00

If you have been around Garet or I in the past few years, you would know that Garet has a saying that "We won't buy a mini van until we have 3 children", thus the reason for the initial post on buying a mini van.

After going on a few long road trips in some of the newer mini vans, I was hooked - these babies are not the mini vans we grew up with - far from it!

I did a post about "30 things I hope to see in my next 30 years" and guess what was number 1? Own a mini van! That's right, I became slightly obsessed.

My friend, Mary Ann, knew this about me and sent me the following video:

Too funny.

In all practicality, I don't know of any other vehicle that has a third row seat that you don't have to lower the second row to get to the back. If you can point me towards one, I will make a consideration, but with 2 car seats in the middle, we'll need an aisle to get Levi in the back.

I come from Toyota and Honda families, so my guess is that we will see a Sienna or an Odyssey in our near future!

The rest of the story

2009-02-19T15:03:00.002-06:00

At the risk of losing friends for lack of information, yes, it is true that we are pregnant with #3! Wow. That is a lot to think about.

Let me start by saying that this was not planned at all - in fact, I am technically still in denial. While we really wanted 3 children, we had planned to wait several more months. After a long year with Kara, I was ready for a break and to regain some sanity before we plunged into the baby phase all over again. There have been many tears over this development and to be quite honest, a lot of anger, fear and exhaustion. We were not trying at all and I still don't understand how this all happened - I am a planner for goodness sakes!

However.

This child is a miracle.

While I knew God gave us Levi and Kara, they were both very planned. When things happen that you don't plan, you realize just how much God is in control of the situation. God wanted us to have this baby now regardless of what I wanted and that has been very humbling to me.

This is my comfort:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:11-13

I know the coming months will give me ample opportunities to be on my knees and "call upon Him", because I know of no other way that I will get through those first few months.

Please hear my heart in that we are truly blessed to have been given this child. I do not want anyone to read this and think I do not want this child - far, far from it. It is just overwhelming. We'll get through the next few years and I know I will be abundantly blessed times 3!

For those of you interested in the details, I am due somewhere around 9/27/09. This will most likely change, but it is what we are going with now. That puts me around 9 weeks which is where I would humbly ask for your prayers. I had a miscarriage between Levi & Kara and so there have been a lot of fears during this first trimester. Please pray for peace and a healthy baby throughout. Thanks!

PS: If you see me crying in a corner or pulled over on the side of the road with the door open, you'll now know what is going on :). Good times!

Announcement

2009-02-18T14:25:00.004-06:00

We are buying a mini van. Yes, it's true. This purchase is coming SEVERAL months before planned and is VERY unexpected. I have had to go to bed early every night and have been quite sick about this purchase. In fact, I think I need to go take a nap just thinking about it. Levi, on the other hand, is thrilled about getting a "fancy car" (his words) and Kara is oblivious. More details tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

2009-02-03T14:20:00.006-06:00

As you know, my blogging has been less than stellar this month. It has been so bad that I just now downloaded my pictures from Garet's mom's birthday from last month!

So, Kathy, Happy Belated Birthday! I am so lucky to have you as a mother-in-law. You have never once treated me like an "outlaw" and have served me in so, so many ways. Thank you!!!

The kids made Nana a "Cars" birthday card (are we surprised?) with Sally on the front and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Macaroni Grill - yum.

Levi, Where Do You Want to Eat?

2009-01-29T14:55:00.002-06:00

I've learned don’t ask your kids where they want to eat unless you are willing to go there. Luckily I like McDonalds, but it got me to thinking… Maybe I should start slipping toy prizes in at the places I want to eat. We already have a collection of disregarded happy meal toys, some even unopened (the no eat, no toy policy). I know I can pull it off at places where I bring the food to the table, but other restaurants may require too much coordination with the waiter.

Of course if your main motivation for eating is the toy, then McDonalds is the way to go. Arby’s sometimes steps it up and Burger King is no slouch. Chick Fila usually has some lame educational toy. Luckily we figured out that you can trade them in for ice cream. Plus, who needs a little toy when there is an indoor playground staring at you.

Then again the other great motivator is the cookie. Thank you ABC and Lenny’s. I’ve tried to instill at a young age that these children’s meal cookies are meant to be shared with the entire family. I’m not sure how long it will last though…. hopefully at least until they are 18.

Best of: Christmas Day 2008

2009-01-24T23:39:00.006-06:00

Best "I'm am way over taking Christmas Pictures": Levi & Kara at my parents house Best "Santa's Helper": Levi Best "We are so going to beat you at Phase 10 Dice, Brian & Kristen": Alison & Garet Best "most frustrating game to play with Levi": "Hoops" (Chutes) & Ladders
Best gift for Levi that meant so much to Mommy: Levi's travel log from Aunt Kristen!

Best gift that Kara wouldn't let go of: her doll

Best gift for Kara that meant so much to Mommy: Kara's travel log from Aunt Kristen!

Best way to relax after two crazy days: in Daddy's new sleeping bag

Best of: Christmas Morning 2008

2009-01-22T15:21:00.005-06:00

Best "I look like I just got my wisdom teeth taken out": Alison on Christmas Morning

Best "Why aren't you reading out of a Bible with pictures Mommy?": Levi & Kara Best "Waste of Santa's Money": The Yellow Transformer that DOESN'T Transform!
Best gifts for Levi: Dinaco McQueen & Cars Racetrack
Best wrapping paper: Lightning McQueen

Best gift for Kara: Anything that is furry & talks to her (thanks Aunt Ruth Ann & Uncle Joshua!)

Best way to ignore the chaos of Christmas Morning: Zip yourself up in your new x-long sleeping bag (w/extra long camping mat)

Best gift that should be given in the spring instead of the freezing cold winter: a power wheels

Best way to make your sister mad: Run the power wheels into the fence and not let her drive Best "I can do it myself" gift: Kara's rolling backpack

Best gift that Daddy had to get one too: Light Saber

Best "loudest toy on on our laminate floors": Don't Break the Ice

Best sign of affection: Kara rocking & patting her baby Shamu

Best of: Christmas Eve 2008

2009-01-21T15:27:00.011-06:00

Let me start by saying that this post is ridiculously overdue, but better late than never!

Best 1000 calorie decorated cookie: Caleb

Best new tradition: Leaving reindeer food on the lawn

Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Fields Family's Rendition of The Birth of Jesus

"Best" picture of all 7 grandchildren, Nana & Granddaddy: Take #8
Best "We're trying really hard to get a decent family picture, but can't" picture: The Fields Family on Christmas Eve

Best "I didn't get the memo to wear my red shirt": Garet with his sisters & parents

Best photo book I made this year: A tribute to Don's Parents

Best birthday cake for Jesus' Birthday: Little Hostess Cupcakes

Best cookies & Letter to Santa: Done by Levi & Kara

That's right, I have a blog...

2009-01-21T15:16:00.003-06:00

...I've just forgotten about it the last almost two weeks. Garet was out of town for a few days and well, just life in general has slowed me down. I thought January was supposed to be less hectic!

I still haven't posted anything about the holidays, which I hope to soon, sigh.

In the meantime, I'm still here - I haven't forgotten about you!

Oh, and 9 years ago today, Garet asked me to marry him on Auburn's campus. How time flies! Love him even more today.

Our new friend

2009-01-09T01:12:00.005-06:00

Please meet our new table companion...she has eaten with us, prayed with us and even colored with Levi this past week - all with that smile and camera in hand.

If you follow me on twitter, you know that I have been researching cameras and this was the lucky winner of my Christmas money. I ordered it from Costco.com and it was even a better deal once I checked out - I heart Costco.

The camera came on Monday and I haven't had a chance to break it open yet. You see, this is a problem I have. You may have remembered the Roomba/IPOD saga - it takes me forever to open new items.

To give you an example, I went into my room to count the number of things I have yet to take the tags off of or open: A pair of jeans, A pair of khaki pants, an alarm clock, my favorite soap from Hawaii, and a memory card. Now that is the list of things I plan to keep.

Also unopened are the things I plan to return: A pair of jeans, a booster seat (unless I can convince Garet that this is worth $40), shoes for Levi, 2 bathroom vanity lights, and a shower head.

It's a disease! Opening the item makes it so permanent and I am such a researcher that I have to prove to myself that I have exhausted every option before the purchase can become final in my books by opening the item. Sigh.

Note: That thing on top of the camera is this little bendy tripod (unused), but opened by (you guessed it) Garet. He opens things on the way home from the store. That's why we are perfect together folks.

What does this say about my housekeeping?

2009-01-08T14:36:00.003-06:00

Levi's response as to why he threw his pizza on the floor at dinner last night:

"I thought that was the trashcan"

I only wish I was making this stuff up!! I assure you that there was a "time out" involved. :)

Dusting off the sewing machine

2009-01-07T14:54:00.009-06:00

This past Christmas, I decided I wanted to try to make more of the gifts I gave instead of buy them. The result was about 25% homemade because I quickly learned that buying something and making something take drastically different amounts of time. There is only so much you can do when you are a procrastinator like me.

After learning to do some basic sewing this past summer, I decided to attempt this Dish Towel Tote Tutorial. It turned out to be fairly easy and I was pleased with the result. The only problem I had is that you need more than the 5/8 yard of fusible interfacing - a yard would probably be best. I had never worked with fusible interfacing before and it was a little bit ornery. I also only used a dish towel on one of the totes I made because there wasn't a large selection of dish towels to choose from. Instead, I used two pieces of 5/8 yard fabric.

Without further ado, the totes:

These were gifts to my sister-in-laws, Kelly & Keri:

I follow the blog, Sew, Mama, Sew, in my reader, and it has so many great ideas and tutorials. All their posts in December about made my brain explode with endless possibilities. I think I want to try this fabric basket next, but we'll see - maybe in 3 months when I dust the sewing machine off again!

Finally, a few more shots from the evening. Garet is so creative and had the kids play this game:

Kara took her turn with the big girls in Ring-Around-The-Rosy. She thought she was the greatest thing ever:

The Christmas Sweater

2009-01-05T22:49:00.009-06:00

In case you missed it in the previous post, Levi spelled his name "Evil"...several people told me that they hadn't noticed, but that is why we found it so comical.

Anyway, back to this post. When I was working full time, a staple in my day was listening to the Glenn Beck Program - I loved it. Unfortunately, my life now does now allow me to listen to a 3 hour radio show, but I still have some time to read. Glenn wrote a book called the Christmas Sweater and I picked it up thinking it would be a nice little feel-good holiday book full of Glenn's humor.

**Minor Spoiler Alert**

Not long into the book, I quickly figured out that this book was not exactly a happy one. The story is about a little boy who loses his father to cancer and then his mother to a car wreck. I know that children are supposed to bury their parents, but the boy in the book buries them at 10 and 12. The whole premise of the book is how this boy deals with his new life without parents. I think I started crying on page 10 and never stopped.

What got to me so much was thinking about Levi and Kara growing up without Garet or I. They are so young right now and I know at this point in their lives that they would have very few memories of us. That thought just tore me up!

While I was contemplating all these things, we received word that a close family friend was near death. He has 3 boys with the youngest being twelve (the same age as the kid in the book). Our friend passed away shortly after Christmas and the hardest part of the funeral for me was seeing the boys. All the words from the book just kept flooding back into my mind and I just wanted to scoop them up, hug them, and tell them it would be OK. (I consider them my "babies" anyway - I babysat them for close to 10 years and our families did countless things together over the years. The middle child was our ring bearer and Garet said he officially felt old when he could talk to him at eye level!)

Despite the tears over the holidays, the events did cause me to give a few more hugs, say a few more "I love you's" and spend some more time with the kids. I know that I can't control the future (thankfully God has that one covered so I don't have to worry about it!), but I can choose to be more purposeful in how I spend my time.

Levi wrote his name today!

2008-12-28T21:32:00.002-06:00

Unfortunately, he got the letters out of order - is he trying to tell us something? He told us that he had written his name, so we were shocked when we saw what he had done! Up to this point his "writing his name" had consisted of an "L" and an "I". Garet had worked with him on the "E", but we had never attempted the "V". He learned it somewhere! Regardless, I'm so proud! Now, we just need to work on the order....

"Wrapping" at Christmas

2008-12-24T00:39:00.003-06:00

We had two kinds of "wrapping" coming out of our house this season. First, the kids helped me wrap Garet's gift - a wonderful masterpiece: Second, Garet "wrapping" with his Shepard's Crew:

The second picture is a bit blurry, but they were hilarious! The kids in children's church thought they were great (and I did too!).

A Merry Little Christmas Vacation

2008-12-23T00:20:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday, we took a very spur of the moment mini-vacation up to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. I consider my love language to be "vacations", so it was huge that Garet wanted to travel after he had been gone so much. It was an absolutely perfect two days.

We started the day off with ICE. Having been warned that it was cold, we came prepared. This place was amazing and so creative!

The theme of the ice sculptures was "The Grinch that Stole Christmas":Levi loved this little archway made just for him. We had to walk through it several times:Kara is my warm-bodied child...she loves the cold, so this place was perfect for her. She walked around with this goofy-grin the entire time:The highlight of the exhibit are two ice slides (thus the reason for the blue jackets). Here I am coming down the slide. Wheeeee:

We took Kara up to the top so we could slide down with her, however, it was only one at a time. Against my better judgement, I let her slide down it alone. She, of course, loved it - I only wish we had a picture of it!

After ICE, we went back to the hotel to meet our friends Joshua & Kimberly for dinner. Kimberly blogged about it here (I love the picture she has of the boys walking together!). We discovered that our Sit-N-Stand is good for 3 children:

Noah & Levi picked up where they had left off when Noah moved and we had a good time seeing them again.

We spent the rest of the evening and the next morning walking around the hotel. If you have never been to the Opryland Hotel at Christmas, I highly recommend you add it to your list. We had been several times before, but this was my first overnight stay - LOVED IT!

Finally, no trip to Nashville is complete without a visit to OpryMills! It was especially great, because Garet's sister and kids were able to come by and have lunch. Cousins!!!
This was just the perfect get-away our family needed before the Christmas rush. Merry Christmas, everyone!

We are (Rockstar) Family

2008-12-22T09:59:00.000-06:00

I was thrilled when they pulled out Rockband at Garet's work party last week. I have been wanting to play for some time after Garet had played with his co-workers on travel. Levi jumped right into the action: This picture cracks me up with his leg out like that. He looks like such a rockstar:
Garet had the patience to play along with Levi:

The Fields Family Four with backup from Brad and Mitch:

I quickly learned that I was much better on vocals than I was on the drums:

Levi working double-duty:

I had the best time with this game - I can't wait to play it again!!!

I included this picture because Kara is sitting in the box of the "Dirty Santa" gift I won. The contents? A CAT! Seriously, Owen brought his CAT to the party. Thankfully, he was gracious enough to steal it back. If you know me, you know I am not an animal fan and cats make me sneeze. It was pretty funny though.

**Special thanks to Judy for taking pictures of our family on our "non-SLR" camera :).

All Aboard the Choo-Choo Train

2008-12-21T21:23:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, my parents treated us to a little train ride put on here locally. Santa rides along and talks to all the children. Levi absolutely loved the whole experience and literally talked non-stop the entire time. You name it, he talked about it. I did enjoy watching his excitement though.

The train car was set-up like an old-timey train:
Here is Levi showing his excitement and telling mom one of the many things he saw outside. Kara was just enjoying the ride:

No attempting having Santa hold the kids this time. I felt like a giant next to him:

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of the year. Levi refused to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, but when the conductor came around to take up the tickets, Levi went right up to him for a picture and told him what he wanted for Christmas. I need to send this to the train station:

Kara clapping away as the train chugged along:

The train ride lasted about 40 minutes and was the perfect length of time for the kids. If you are in the area, I highly recommend it!

I just realized that Garet didn't make it in any of the pictures, but he was there!

Supper with the Big Man

2008-12-20T20:31:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago, we went to eat "Supper with Santa". Garet was out of town, but thankfully my parents were there to help out. When Santa got to our table, it was as expected....Levi wasn't too keen about the big man (specifically the beard) and Kara screamed. Kara did a little better with Santa's Granny, although still no smiles:
Not the best picture, but it reminds me of my life right now:

After a supper of pizza, salad and a cookie, we headed over to Santa's Village. Every December, the Constitution Hall Park transforms into a little snow village - it is so cute! Here are my parents with the kids in the sleigh:

Levi writing his letter to Santa. It, of course, had the one item we have heard about over and over this season....a flying Dinaco McQueen:

Mailing the letter to Santa:

Decorating a cookie in the kitchen:

Every little bit, they turn on a snow machine. The kids LOVED it:

I thought this was a cute picture of the kids in the craft room at the Village:

Birthday-ville

2008-12-15T12:20:00.000-06:00

Over the last 5 weeks, we have had a record number of birthday parties. Apparently a few other people thought the fall was a good time to have children!

Ms. Hannah turned two in November and Miki made the most unbelievable cake. At first glance you might think those are plastic animals on top. Au Contraire! Miki made all of those (edible) animals. I had to get a picture:

I failed to get a picture of Hannah, but Harrison and Levi sure did enjoy the cake:

We celebrated Garet's and our nephew Landon's birthday together. This picture is of all 7 cousins on Garet's side. It cracks me up that of the 8 people in the picture, not one of them is looking at the camera. Elyssa wins the best expression award:
The Fields Family

We enjoyed a breakfast at Davis' house for his second birthday. This was our first of THREE parties this day. Thankfully, they were all at different times. Kara, especially enjoyed this swing:

Here's Davis on his new tricycle!

Party #2 was for Levi's school friends who are twins. We enjoyed a morning at Earlyworks playing in Biscuit's Backyard. Parker and Levi got soaked at the water table:

Kara and Peyton spent some time in the play area:

Kara really liked moving all the pieces:

We ended the day at the bowling alley. Levi had never been bowling before, so I was thrilled to see they had these ramps (as well as the bumpers) for the littlest kids:

Levi was very into watching his ball go down the alley:

Happy 4th Birthday, Annin!

Last week, Garet took the kids to Harrison's 2nd Birthday at Build-A-Bear. I wasn't able to make it because I was otherwise engaged, but it looks like the kids had a blast. Here is Kara with "Flopsey" pre-stuffed:

Levi getting "Aubie" stuffed:

Levi "washed" Flopsey off for Kara:

The kids with their animals:

The kids have had a great time partying it up the last few weeks (and mommy & daddy have too!). Happy Birthday everyone!

Living in a World of Plastic

2008-12-14T23:02:00.002-06:00

I loaded the dishwasher and this is what it looked like: Oh my goodness! Will I ever get away from all things plastic? Thankfully, I won the battle with Kara and the bottle, so those aren't in the picture anymore. However, there are 27 sippy cups in this picture - seriously! Anyone else go through this many? Whew.

Merry Christmas from my Snow(wo)man and Reindeer!

Adventures in Christmas Treeing

2008-12-12T11:20:00.008-06:00

For several years growing up, my family went and cut our Christmas Tree down at the tree farm. I have great memories of running through the trees trying to find that "perfect tree". Ever since we had Levi, I've wanted to do that with my family. So, this was the first year that we thought Levi was old enough to understand and be able to participate in what we were doing. I was so excited.

After a brief melt down with Levi regarding tying the Christmas Tree to the top of the car (he thought we wouldn't be able to get it off), we were ready to go. We got the measuring stick and the saw and were off. It didn't take us long to determine that we weren't looking for a "perfect" tree here because half of them were dead! I mean, seriously, they were brown. We trudged on though thinking we could find one that was semi-decent. Nope, it didn't happen. We actually were laughing about it because it was so comical. I'm assuming it was because of the lack of rain we've had around here the past couple of years. Here are the kids next to a Charlie Brown type Christmas Tree. I think Levi is saying "Booooo".

I really wanted to help out this small business, but instead we went to Lowe's where we got the most beautiful tree ever!

When we got the tree home, Levi got his hammer so that he could help Garet put the tree up. However, he needed a pillow because the ground was too hard for him. Sigh.

Here's Kara "helping" put up the tree:

Garet had to leave for two weeks right after we got the tree up, so the kids and I had to decorate by ourselves. I was pretty bummed, but the kids made it fun. We watched "Elf" to liven up the mood:

Can you tell which area of the tree Levi decorated? The area with all the ornaments that "aren't breakable" (in Levi's words).:The finished product. Part of the reason I was a little sad decorating without Garet is because our tree is very sentimental. We collect ornaments from everywhere that we go and half the fun of decorating the tree is reminiscing about past trips and memories that we have had from our first trip to our ones before kids to our ones with kids to the good trips to the bad trips - it makes my heart full. We even have a naked man on our tree (a statue of David from Florence, Italy :). This year we got to add ornaments from the Alamo, Blue Ridge Parkway and Pearl Harbor. Maybe next year we'll be able to cut our tree down...

Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head and M&Ms

2008-12-10T15:13:00.005-06:00

That's what I won at our annual Life Group Christmas Party - I know you are jealous. Every year, we play Dirty Santa, but this year, we decided to bring things from around the house instead of buying gifts. The result? A lot of laughter. We chose to give the money we would have spent on gifts to an orphanage in Guatemala for diapers. How cool is that? I love my group!

The highlight of the game was, of course, the aforementioned basket from the Stone residence. Here's a better glimpse in case you missed it - notice the animal detail:

I re-gifted a lamp and a Christmas puzzle which provided minutes of enjoyment:

Garet was out of town for the festivities, so my date got to be none other than the man of the evening:

The group:

Some of my favorite people!

Edward came to my house!

2008-12-09T23:04:00.003-06:00

Because of my "near deer" experience last night, I apparently missed my Twilight hero, Edward, on my very doorstep! He even had some "Christmas Poo" with him. As much as I wanted to keep him all for myself, I sadly bid him farewell tonight. I hope he makes someone very happy.

Background: As if our group didn't have enough fun with the tissue box, Heather & Israel brought this little gem to our Christmas Party. It is making its way to doorsteps near and far and getting a little more festive in the process. Can you believe Heather received this as a gift last year for Christmas?!?!

Oh, and Kara refused to go near it. Levi wanted to leave it lit up on the porch (sigh). It can't be any worse than the fact I still have pumpkins on our porch!!

Quote & Event of the Day

2008-12-08T21:46:00.004-06:00

First "the quote". Most days after school, Levi and 3 of his friends run around and around this ramp. Kara has started joining in and the kids are so cute with her. Today, Levi and his friends were huddled around her and patting her on the head like a little puppy. Then Levi said:

We don't have a doggie at our house because we have baby Kara

He was so serious when he said it - we cracked up.

Second "the event". On our way home from Wal-mart tonight, I almost hit a deer.....in my Cul-de-sac!!! Seriously. I turned the corner and this dear darted out in front of my car and ran into the backyard of my neighbor. We turned our lights on it and it ran around my neighbor's house and then stopped in the front yard. I tried to take a picture with my camera phone, but it was too dark. Am I supposed to call someone? Needless to say, I closed the garage door before I got out of the car - I am NOT a country girl.

Our Official Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-05T14:28:00.041-06:00

Merry Christmas from the Fields! I'd like to say that I'm moving on with the times and posting our Christmas Letter here instead of doing a paper version, but truth be told, I don't have time to do it any other way! Hopefully our picture will make it out before the end of the year!

Kar a turned 1 in October and brought with it all the joys of "toddlerhood" - walking, talking, climbing, falling down, breaking things, eating non-edible items, etc. She is Ms. Personality and is the source of much laughter and crying every day. I wrote about her in detail here, but we are thrilled to have her in our lives and look forward to see what she has up her sleeve next. She adores her big brother and it is a joy to see them play together.

Levi turned 3 in October and has become quite the little man. He is very inquisitive and is constantly asking questions until he is satisfied with your answer. He loves school and is learning so much - he blows me away with something new everyday. Lightning McQueen has overtaken our house - Cars is by far Levi's favorite interest - I'd like to personally thank all the marketing people for putting McQueens face on EVERYTHING imaginable - it makes it very difficult to go to the store these days. I wrote about Levi for his birthday here.

Garet has become a traveling man these days with work - all to the usual places...Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico and California. We miss him while he's gone, but the one positive is that we get to go to some cool places because of his miles and points. He started leading our Life Group for Young Marrieds again this year and is also leading the 10th-12th grade guys small group. He's a kid at heart, so this has been a great thing for him (when he's in town). Garet allows himself two hobbies and this year they were biking (mountain and road) and slot cars. He has enjoyed riding his bike to work, but those busy roads scare me!

I am still enjoying the best of both worlds. Working part time as the Life Group Minister at our church and being a part time stay at home mom. It's been a good balance for me and I am thankful for the opportunity. I have WAY too many hobbies at the moment, but who's counting. Blogging has been a great way for me to easily get things on a page instead of scrapbooking and I seem to enjoy it more. I also research travel like crazy. I have 10 trips planned and ready to go - just need the time and money! Finally, I learned to sew a little this year and have been dabbling in that. If only there was more time!

Traveling is always one of my favorite things to do. We were lucky to visit our siblings early in the year - My brother & wife in Maryland and Garet's sister & family in Detroit. I turned the Big 3-0 in March and after a failed trip to NYC and the Caribbean, we packed our bags and went for a family vacation in San Antonio - such a cool city! Sea World was a hit and hanging out with the Gibsons was a special treat! We also made the trek to the Hurter farm in July - a natural kids' playground!

In August, we had the first annual "Christy Family Vacation". We rented a house in the mountains of North Carolina and enjoyed a peaceful 3 days in Asheville, at the Biltmore and the Blue Ridge Parkway. A special time. Since the kids had never been to the beach, we headed over to Litchfield Beach, SC and had a much needed "Fields Family Four" vacation. Levi, especially, loved the ocean and we hope to make this a yearly occurrence. Garet and I enjoyed probably my favorite weekend of the year with our Life Group at the beach in Destin. We left the kids at home with grandparents and got 3 days to rejuvenate. We went in October this year and the weather could not have been more perfect!

Our moment of travel insanity might have happened in November when we packed up and headed to Oahu and Kauai, Hawaii with the kids. Nine hours in a plane wasn't so bad, but the time change was a little bit of a struggle. We spent two weeks out there while Garet was working and I posted way too much, so I'm just going to link you to the month of November. My heart is happy out there and I didn't miss the cold at all.

2008 was probably the toughest of our 8-year marriage (see video here).Garet lost his Granddaddy in June and having two children two and under forced some stressful periods of time. However, we are thankful to be out of the baby stage and looking forward to a (hopefully) less dramatic year in 2009.

As always, know that we love each and every one of you (at least those of you we know - although, I'll send some love out to you blog stalkers!). We are thankful for the times you have been a part of our life. Being a parent has made me realize just how precious life is and I don't want to ever take for granted the people God has given to us through family and friends. We are especially thankful for the gift that we received from God in the form of a baby so many years ago.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Love,
Alison, Garet, Levi & Kara

PS: Sorry for the link-o-rama. I realized that this could make for a very ADD type reading experience after I was done...

You know I went to see it...

2008-12-02T15:12:00.003-06:00

...Twilight, that is. I've never been much of a movie person. In fact, over the past 5 years, I have probably only seen 5 movies in the movie theater. However, I couldn't miss this one! My friend, Mary, and I couldn't wait! Thankfully, she waited for me to get back from Hawaii so we could go together. I don't know who was more excited to see the movie, us:

or the 6 teenagers we brought along:I thought it was a great movie, IF you have read the books. Otherwise, I think you would have been completely lost - there was no character development at all within the actual movie. For those who have read the books, I thought the movie was the icing on the cake.

I decided why I think so many ladies adore these books. It is because every single one of us wants that guy who will do absolutely anything to keep us safe - no matter how hard that might be. Anyway, that was my thoughts. Anyone else see the movie? What did you think?

A Different Thanksgiving - Happy Birthday Garet!

2008-11-30T23:28:00.004-06:00

For the second time in our marriage, Garet's birthday fell on Thanksgiving. In order to not have his birthday get "lost" in the festivities, I planned an overnight get-away for us. Wednesday Morning, I told him to pack his bags and his bike because we were going camping and we were dropping the kids off with his parents. My original plan was to take him down to Oak Mountain, but since he has been traveling so much, he decided he would rather go to Monte Sano (and because he knows all the trails there).

We had the BEST time on Wednesday Night...it felt just like we were married without kids again! We ate at Little Rosie's, did a little shopping and then headed up the mountain. We just sat and talked in front of the fire and made smores - it was great! I was really worried it would be too cold, but it turned out to be the perfect weather. The weather was SO perfect that I actually slept until 9 AM!! Who sleeps until 9 AM while camping?!?! I was thrilled to see a paper stand at the camp store and so I had to get my paper to plan my "Black Friday" shopping adventures:

The main reason for the camping trip was to allow Garet to mountain bike on his birthday. He actually opted to take his road bike (with bigger tires for those of you questioning his bike choice) so he could try out his new handle bars:

Garet has always wanted me to go mountain biking with him, so here was the opportunity. I didn't give up, but I did hit my fair share of trees...I even had a pedal casualty. I mean, seriously, 2 feet is just not a wide enough opening to bike through! It was fun, but I don't think he is holding his breath for my next attempt.

When we went back to pick up the kids, Garet's mom had a little turkey and dressing waiting. We, of course, ate a chocolate pie as well for Garet's birthday. The kids are getting really good at blowing out candles.

I have to say that this is one of the most nontraditional Thanksgiving's that I have ever had and it was probably my favorite! I am thankful for so many things in my life, but I am so thankful that I just got a day to rest with my best friend this year.

lu Garet - Happy Birthday!

The Long Trip Home & Kara in California?

2008-11-27T14:38:00.006-06:00

We were not looking forward to the trip home. Over the course of 22 hours, we would be riding in 4 airplanes with two small children. Here we are walking through the Honolulu airport about 3 hours into our journey home. Levi LOVED his Cars backpack (thanks Duncan Family!) Before we left the islands, I had Levi show and tell you what he learned in Hawaii. You will hear "Aloha" a couple of times and see the "Shaka" (the Hang Loose symbol).

Here we are hanging out at LAX for our 3.5 hour layover in the middle of the night. The kids were wide awake and running all over the place. Garet & Levi in their matching shirts doing the "shaka":

So, here is my picture of Kara IN California. Garet and I have a disagreement regarding this though. I say that Kara can check CA off her list of states - she was on California ground for over 3 hours, ate there, played there, etc. Garet disagrees - he says airports don't count. Since we have lots of family in California, we should be out there again soon, but what if this was Iowa or something. Do you think we should count it or not?

We were a little delirious at this point. Just over 13 hours into the trip and I was getting tired!

The trip home went pretty good. I liked having two shorter flights instead of one long flight for the kids sake even though it took longer. It gave them a chance to run-around half way. The only problem we had was really bad turbulence for the first hour and a half out of Honolulu. Our plane kept fish tailing and that makes me SO sick. Needless to say, I had the "barf bag" open the rest of the way home which meant I did not sleep. Garet even gave me his first class upgrade from LAX-ATL - what a sweetie - but, I still couldn't fall asleep! I went 26 hours without sleep which is the longest I've ever gone and I don't recommend to anyone!

We are now home and very thankful for the opportunity we were given. There were moments that were hard (Kara's vaccination reaction, having the kids by myself without a car while Garet worked, the rain, adjusting to a different time zone, etc), but overall the trip was fun. However, Garet and I are not ready to take the kids far away anytime soon! Aloha!

Last Night in Hawaii

2008-11-27T14:10:00.005-06:00

We stopped by Spouting Horn to see the big blow hole and to watch the sunset. It was too cloudy to see a sunset, but Spouting Horn did not disappoint. We didn't get a great picture of it, but that's OK.

We then went over to Smith's Tropical Luau with the Creamers. It was POURING down rain and so I didn't get hardly any pictures while we were there. The performers were out in the rain and I don't know how they did it! The kids really enjoyed dancing during the dining entertainment.

Polihale

2008-11-26T09:02:00.006-06:00

Of all the beaches on the island, Polihale is my favorite. It is not easy to get to. You have to drive 4 miles over bumpy roads, but when you walk out over the dunes, it is so beautiful. There is a huge stretch of beach with nothing but ocean ahead of you. What makes it amazing is that it ends at the Na Pali Coastline.

We spent our last morning out there and it was, of course, raining, but that didn't stop us! This is where Kara and I hung out while the boys played in the water & built sand castles:Levi with the "sand bunnies" he wanted to build:I mean, how often do you get to play at the beach with this as the scenery?:Kara and I did venture out into the rain briefly...only to have her get all wet:Garet wanted to make a sand castle on the "cliff" before we left. I thought it made a cool picture:Tired from all the festivities:To give you a little idea of the terrain to and from Polihale, I filmed this on our way back. We started sliding around just as I started filming. You can hear our Hawaiian Christmas Music in the background:

Levi's Palm Tree & Friends

2008-11-25T13:00:00.000-06:00

Everyday on our walk to the beach, Levi went crazy over these little palm trees. He thought that they were just for him & Kara since they were little. I had to get his picture next to one.

Although I have NO pictures of them, what made this trip extra special is that our friends Brad & Kendra, their son Harrison, and Brad's mom Vicky were on the trip as well. Our schedules didn't work out quite as good as we would have hoped, but we got to eat dinner together most nights as well as play on the beach together one afternoon. Here's the only picture I got of their crew! The weather was perfect that day!

Hula Pie

2008-11-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

My favorite restaurant on Kauai is Keoki's for one reason and one reason only - Hula Pie. This is one of the best desserts ever. Levi thought so too. Towards the end of the dessert, Levi got tired and laid his head on the table, but he kept eating! That's my son!

My other favorite restaurant is Duke's (owned by the same people as Keoki's). This trip I had possibly the best fish I've ever had - Duke's Style Opah. Yum. Here's a picture of Garet & Kara at Duke's. I thought it was funny because Kara looks like she is so excited about the food!

At the playground...

2008-11-24T22:42:00.002-06:00

We go all the way to Hawaii, and Levi kept asking to play on the playground at the beach!