i get to see this every day

you have my permission to be jealous

To Ali's future husband

Just a few notes:
We love you and are praying for you
She likes to wake up slowly. Breakfast in bed will probably be a big hit with her.
If you are lucky enough to have her smiling at you every day you better not blow it by making her cry.
She loves flowers, especially pink ones.
When she's sick she just wants someone to talk to her and take care of her. She doesn't ask for much so please do your best when she does ask.
Bathtime is her favorite, think bubblebath as gifts.
She loves to laugh so work on your sense of humor and comedic timing.
Encourage her to call her mom


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valentine's day

sure signs it's valentine's day:

**caleb gave ali a kiss**

**i woke up and put on pink socks**

**roses had to be picked out of ali's mouth**



**the stickers on my hands and face were hearts**

**a "true love" balloon followed me around pet smart**

Songs

Caleb is at that fun singing-on-his-own stage. So I hear a lot of sings coming from him at various times. Here's a list of the most popular:
The pirates who don't do anything
Micky mouse clubhouse theme
We are rough (pirate chant)
Old mcdonald had a farm
You are my sunshine
Arg arg arg (another pirate chant)
Fuzzy and blue
The sword of the Lord
He's got the whole world in his hand

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Bedtime stalling techniques by Caleb

•I need ice cubes in my water bottle
•Sing me another song please (especially works if he asks for "He's got the whole world in His hands" cuz it's long!)
•Don't leave me alone please
•Snuggle me
•I need talk to you Monmy!




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Busy

We are so busy right now. So busy. Or, I should say, Troy is so busy and I'm busy trying not to go crazy or let him drown in his busy-ness. Here's what he typical weekdays look like for him:
Monday: work, go to class, come home late and do some homework
Tuesday: work, help get kids to bed, homework while I go to community group
Wednesday: same as Monday
Thursday: work, help get kids to bed, homework or group project meeting
Friday: work, help with kids, DATE NIGHT
Saturday/sunday: fun with family except for homework during naps, get kids to bed, one night of friends and one night of homework

Yikes! But we are halfway done with the quarter and after this one, having one class next quarter wil probably seem like a breeze!


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spelling vs reading

rumor has it that good readers are good spellers. that is not true for me. i love to read and read a lot, but i am a horrendous speller. i think the disconnected started when i was very young. my parents tell the story of when i was 3 or so and would get into the playpen with my sister, Hanell, to read to her. we had a book that had animal pictures in it. i always used to read the letters and then the word. "P-U-P-P-Y... DOG!"

i'm afraid caleb will have the same issue. the other day, we were playing with stamps. he has a stamp from gram that says HUGS that we were using. and he was reading it to me, "H-U-G-S... SNUGGLES!"

i love that boy!

Jesus is coming!

everyone prepare, Jesus is returning soon! how do i know? tuna.

need more explanation? ok, here goes... a couple of years ago, i went out and bought tuna at costco. i figured, it never goes bad and this way i wouldn't be out of it when i wanted some. well, then it got pushed back in our pantry and i forgot about it. so, the next time i was at the store, i bought some tuna. and it was on sale, so i bought quite a bit. that way i wouldn't run out, right? as troy was helping me put it all away, he found the costco tuna. he told me that i would never have to buy tuna again until Jesus came back. and today, i opened the last can.

so, get ready!

bedtime conversations

most nights, troy puts caleb to bed while i take care of ali. but on monday and wednesday evenings, troy has class and i'm in charge of both of them. i let caleb play with my iphone while i put ali to sleep and then i get to hang out with him.

after we read a couple of books and brush teeth, we make our way to his room and read his Bible. then i turn off the lights, pick him up, sit on the rocking chair, and then we have the greatest conversations. monday, it was about what's real and what's pretend. we talked about micky mouse, buzz lightyear and woody. we talked about how pretend things are fun, but what we really love are the things that are real: family members, friends, etc.

tonight we talked about heaven. he was telling me that God lives in heaven. he wanted to know what heaven was like and i told him that everything that was the best was in heaven. i asked what he thought would be there. here are some things he mentioned: lots of cool toys, chocolate cow milk, cold chai tea, chocolate candies, brownies, and mommy and daddy. sounds great, huh? then i told him the best thing about heaven was that Jesus was there and we would get to see Him. caleb was so excited about that. he told me that he wanted to go drive to heaven and see Jesus. me too! when the time comes, we'll be called home and i can't wait!

kids' names

following in jessi's footsteps, here's a blog about how we arrived at our kids' names.

Caleb Alan

before we had kids, we talked about naming a son zachary alan. we knew we wanted alan as a middle name because it's troy's dad's name and he had always wanted to name a son after his dad. and zachary just sounded good with alan. but then troy told a couple of people what we

were thinking and i just have this thing about keeping it to ourselves until we're really sure. and the more people talked about our "someday kid" named zachary alan, the more i became convinced that that's not what i wanted. so then finally we were pregnant and i was pretty sure we were having a boy. and somehow, i just wanted the name caleb. i love the story of caleb in

the Bible and i love that he is described as loyal to God. we talked about a few other names, too, but i distinctly remember one time, a few days before our ultrasound, driving home in the car and saying, "ok, if we are having a boy, his name is caleb alan." so the day of the ultrasound, we called all our family and shared with them the excitement of our little caleb alan!

Alia Marie

oh girls' names. so much harder for us. troy loved the name abigail, and calling her abby, but as a teacher i had had a few negative run-ins with abigails. plus, my cousin has a daughter named abigail. and then troy liked the nickname allie, so he thought maybe naming her allison. which is a beautiful name, but also my maiden name and i wasn't quite removed enough from it to do that. plus, i knew the middle name would be marie because it was my grandma's, my mom's, and my middle name. and to go from lauren marie allison to having a daughter named allison marie, was a little strange. so at one point, when i was pregnant with caleb, troy said, "let's just name a girl alia and call her ali." but he was mostly kidding because he thought he had made up the name and wanted something that had more meaning behind it. every once in a while, when we would talk about future kid names, i would bring up alia marie (because i loved it) and he would sort of just shrug it off. fast forward a couple of years and we're pregnant with ali. we went into the ultrasound with a couple of options (of which alia was not one) and we find out we're having a girl. our top choice for name began with a "P" (and i'm not mentioning it because we might use it later and if i share it, i'll start not liking it). but think about the initials P. M. S. yikes. i actually asked the ultrasound tech what she thought of a girl with those initials. she said it was up to me, but she wouldn't do it. bummer. so, we're in the car, after the ultrasound, and wanting to call our families with the news... and a name. so i again mention alia and ask troy to look it up on the computer to see if it is actually a name and what the meaning is. and he does. and we fall in love with it! the name means "my God is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is God". beautiful... and just what we pray for our precious girl. more on the name here.