Inner Ramblings

Today I don't have any fun pictures to share or any momentous occasion to record, but I just have a craving to sit down at the computer, type a little bit, and let my family and friends know what is going on in my life.  As I sit here, Owen is playing with his cars and and an airplane that he made out of legos.  The airplane is flying around the room as one moment he sings snippets of nursery rhymes or primary songs, and then the next he is making battle noises and getting the pretend "bad guys."  He has such an imagination and it's fun to watch him grow up a little bit more each day.  I sometimes miss my little baby boy who would sit quietly on my lap and cuddle - the days of quite cuddling are now few and far between - but I enjoy being able to take my big little boy by the hand and make cookies, take a walk to the park, or let him help push or carry a shopping cart or basket at the store.

A constant distraction from Owen's antics is the frequent movement inside my belly.  We now have less than four weeks to go until we get to meet our little baby girl.  I am constantly dreaming or planning of how I want things to be when she comes, but so far most of the plans are still dreams, since I still don't have the nursery put together yet - but hopefully soon.  I am looking forward to my baby shower on Saturday and then I get to sit down and figure out what I still need to do be able to prepare for this baby.  I feel slightly more prepared this time around than I was for Owen, but I know that she'll be her own little miracle, and the joy and change that she will bring to our family is something that I'm looking forward to.

Never far from my thoughts is my wonderful husband.  Bryce works hard to provide for his family and although it is sometimes hard for him to not stay home and play with Owen and me, I am very grateful that he is willing to go to work each day so I am able to stay home with my children. His current show seems to be going okay, with tech rehearsals coming up in just over a week.  I am amazed at how well he is juggling work and family right now, and though I know he sometimes gets lost in thought deep into the night, he manages to find the motivation to get up and keep on going each day.  I feel guilty having to have him help me lift and carry things around the house right now, but I am so very, very grateful that he's willing to help me keep the laundry and house clean.  Thank you Bryce for being so wonderful.

Right now my thoughts have also been going a lot to my dear Grandma Christensen who is currently recovering from a bad fall where she fractured both of her knee caps.  I wish that I lived close by so I could go visit her and help Grandpa around the house, but I am am grateful for those family members who are able to help.  I love you Grandma and want you to know that we are praying for you - as Owen says "to help have Grandma's knees quit being broke."  We are grateful for the news that you are starting to regain some mobility and that you should be able to go home relatively quickly.

To my missionary heroes - Benny & Garrett - I want to thank you again for the wonderful example that you are to Owen.  I know that he's little now, but he likes to see the missionaries in our ward and have them come over for dinner.  When he gets older he will know that his uncles have served missions and that hopefully that will be a goal that he will set for his own life.  Our prayers are with you as well and though I may not be the best at keeping you constantly informed on our status, I hope you know that we love you and support you in what you are doing.  Keep up the good work and know that we are very proud of you.

To all the rest of my family and my friends, I am so very grateful for your love and friendship.  You have helped us grow and become the people that we are today.  We miss those of you that are far away, but know that we love you and appreciate all that you have and continue to do for us.  Unfortunately, my time for reflection is over and other responsibilities beckon, but I want everyone to know that we are doing well, we are happy, and we have been blessed in so many ways.  Take care and I will try to write again soon.

Making Biscuits

As I've said in the past, Owen really likes baking with me.  So one morning for breakfast I had him help me make biscuits (see http://bjallen316.blogspot.com/p/allen-family-recipes.html for the recipe). 

First we mixed all of the ingredients together.  Owen had a lot of fun mixing things with the fork rather than just having the mixer do the work.  I helped him a little bit, but he did a lot of the mixing by himself.

Then we had the fun of rolling out the biscuits and putting them on the baking sheet.  After they were all rolled out, Owen had fun licking all the dough off of his fingers.  The biscuits turned out a great and were wonderful as part of biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

RC Monster Truck

The first couple of weeks of January were beautiful.  We had sunshine and it wasn't too cold, and so Owen got to spend some time playing outside.  Since I have already put away his sand box for the winter we had to find something else for him to play with, and so I found the remote controlled monster truck that he had been given a while back and let him play with it on the cement slab in the back yard.

At first he tried to make the monster truck race his dump truck, but that didn't work too well since he can control the monster truck with a remote, but the dump truck runs on muscle power.  Needless to say, only one truck was able to move at a time :).

After he gave up on racing he spent a good solid half hour just playing with the monster truck.  He would start the truck on one end of the cement, run it as fast as he could off the other side and on to the grass and then start all over again.  I tried to show him that he could back it up and keep it on the cement, but he would rather just have it go fast and then chase after it.

As you can tell from his expressions in the pictures, he had a lot of fun playing outside with his monster truck, and he has the same fun playing inside with a RC Mater (from Cars) that he got for Christmas - but for the time being Mater is an inside toy.  I think that we're going to keep having a lot of fun with cars, trucks and other things that go fast around our house.

Going to the Science Center

We have been having a lot of fun as a family over the past couple of weeks since Bryce has had time off from work.  One activity that we did was go to the St. Louis Science Center as a family.  The first thing that caught Owen's eye was the jet plane that they had on display by the entrance (they just set it up so it was a new exhibit).  It is one of the Navy's Blue Angels fighter jets and Owen wanted to go see it, and even posed with Daddy to take a picture.

Other things inside the science center were mostly the same as on other visits, but I did take a couple of pictures of things that Owen really likes: organizing the shape magnets and watching the hydraulic crane arm.  I really like living in St. Louis because of all of the fun and free family activities that they have available.

Baby Girl

So as of today (Jan 11, 2012) I am 31 weeks 3 days pregnant and after a couple of months of minor worries we have been given a good bill of health.  My  pregnancy this time around hasn't been horrible, but it hasn't been the easiest either.  To start things off my morning sickness - rather than making me horribly sick like it was with Owen - just made it hard for me to eat anything and so by my first doctor's visit at about 13 weeks I had lost 6 pounds and just wasn't feeling very well.  I continued to lose a little bit of weight over the next couple of months, and that, combined with a baby who did not want to co-operate with the ultrasound technician and some strange shadows in the images led to some worries that she might not be developing the way she was suppose to.  At that point they referred me to a specialist and I started another series of ultrasounds where they determined that I had several fluid-filled cysts in my placenta that didn't seem to be interfering with the baby, but they wanted to be sure.

They've continued to monitor me and the baby and at our ultrasound this morning they found that most of the cysts have gone away and one or two that are left have shrunk.  So they (my doctor and the ultrasound specialist) have decided that since Baby Girl has continued to grow as she should, is active and developing properly and since I've finally started to show some weight gain (after 7 months I'm finally back to my pre-pregnancy weight) that we've reached the homestretch with a clean bill of health.  So now we are down to about 8 weeks until baby and for the first time in a couple of months I no longer have a nagging worry in the back of my mind that something might be wrong with my baby girl.  I can now focus forward on getting everything ready for her arrival.  So March 6, 2012 is a date that I am looking forward to with anticipation and excitement.  We love you Baby and can't wait to meet you soon!