William Keyser Allen

Our little William has joined our family!  I have to say for 9 months of being a little less excited than usual for his arrival I sure couldn't wait to see him when the time finally came. Here's what happened:
Tuesday evening July 12th:
Doug was taking the day off on Wednesday so we were discussing our plans for the day.  We were going to meet my Mom in Amarillo and do some shopping.  I was so excited to get out of Clovis for the day and really looking forward to shopping at some real stores.  Also the Young Women's president had called earlier that day and asked if they could come do a "Service Shower" for me the next evening.  I have a hard time letting people do things that I am perfectly capable of doing myself, but I didn't want to make them come up with a completely different activity so I said that they could, and we may not be home so she came over to get a key.  So Doug and I made our plans, we would clean up the house in the morning and then head to Amarillo for the day.  I think it was at this point I made the comment "You know this baby is going to come tonight."  Why? Because this was the last night we would be without help and have to call someone to come take care of the kids, and also because I was really looking forward to getting out of town for the day.  So off to bed we went.  At 2am I woke up, which is nothing unusual, I haven't slept through the night in at least a month!  But this was different, I couldn't decide if my water had just broke or if I had just peed my pants.  There wasn't enough liquid for me to think my water had broke, so I was a little embarrassed, but soon I realized that it was indeed my water.  Doug was laughing at me because I was really confused and didn't know what to do, I just kept wandering around the house.  He got our stuff ready, I called a friend that said she would come stay with the boys that night then take them home with her in the morning.  And we were off to the hospital to have a baby.
Wednesday July 13th:
We got checked in and in our room and things seemed to be going really well.  I started having some contractions that were happening every 20 min and I was excited to finally have a baby with no extra help.  Then things sort of just stopped.  I was getting so frustrated.  No contractions, no pain, nothing.  We hadn't even seen the doctor and I was feeling like the baby would never come.  The nurse brought me a birthing ball to sit on and try and get things going, I started making phone calls to figure out plans for the baby blessing and make the time go faster, and Doug went and got his computer from work so he could get some work done.  Finally at 11am they decided to start me on Pitocin.  We had been at the hospital now for about 9 hours and NOTHING had happened.  But of course once you start pitocin then there is no turning back!  A few hours later Blake from our ward stopped by, he works at the hospital and does epidurals.  So he got my paperwork done so that when I was really in pain we didn't have to worry about it.  That was really nice.  And he wasn't even the person who was working Labor and Delivery, he came over specifically for me! When I finally did have the epidural, around 4pm, my pain was so bad I was glad to not have to sign anything.  After the epidural Doug left to meet my mom, pick up the boys, and have some lunch/dinner.  I still hadn't made much progress.  After the epidural, and getting my blood pressure stable I think I probably took a nap.  Doug got back we watched TV, played a game and became increasingly frustrated that things were taking so long!
Finally at 9pm the nurse checked me and said I was ready!  By this point I was so tired I didn't think I would have any energy to push, and I definitely didn't feel like I was pushing hard enough to get the baby out.  But just thinking about holding our little William got me through and 20 minutes later he was in my arms, crying just a tiny bit.
Thursday July 14th
The next few hours they cleaned us both up and then told us there were no recovery rooms so we could either go in a shared room or stay in the delivery room that night.  We choose to stay in the delivery room.  Around noon they were finally able to move us into a semi-private room, and we just had to hope they didn't need to put anyone else in there with us (they didn't).  James and Mikey came to visit us.  James was really nervous about being in the hospital and wouldn't let go of Doug's hand.  But when they saw me they were both so excited.  They really didn't want anything to do with the baby, but James did finally give him a few kisses.
Some things about our Sweet Little William:
He does not cry!  He has only cried a few times for just a few minutes.  Really it is more like whining than crying.  When he gets hungry he just starts grunting and trying to suck on his hands.  I like to call him a little piggy because that is what he sounds like.
He hates having a dirty diaper.  This is really the only time he is has been fussy, so I always know just what to check.
He has really cute, dark hair.
He loves to sleep!  We were getting really worried the first day because we could not get him to wake up to eat.  As soon as he was born he started looking around for something to put in his mouth.  After about 3 am that first night we could not get him interested in sucking again.  He just wanted to sleep!  Finally about 1pm the next afternoon we were able to force him awake enough that he nursed a little.  Since then he has been an eating champ!
We are so excited to have this little guy in our family and can't wait to learn more about him.  And I will post pictures soon.  I took a couple in the hospital before the battery in the camera died and Doug couldn't find the charger.  So when we get home we will have to take a ton of pictures to make up for it. Also hopefully once we get him home the boys will start to be a little more interested in their little brother.

Lots of Little Stuff

I have been way to hot and tired lately to blog much.  Plus we haven't really done anything big to blog about, so I have some little stuff saved up and so I will just do a bunch of mini posts within this post. 

Father's Day

For Father's day we decided to go to Colorado.  Doug's work schedule was arranged so that he would have Thursday, Friday and Monday off.  So with a nice 5 day weekend we HAD to get out of Clovis.  So Wednesday night we drive up to Colorado.  I have to mention we had to go a much longer way because I-25 was closed in one spot due to a wildfire.  So instead we drove from New Mexico through Texas and Oklahoma to get to Colorado.  We had a lot of fun visiting, and I have to say that it was nice to get out of the hot, brown, dry desert.  

James making Grandpa's gift.  We had the boys
decorate ties for Grandpa.  

 We went to Tiny Town again.  Mikey loved it.  He still asks to go to Tiny Town.

Mikey and Grandpa on the train

Mikey in the little house

Keeping Cool
When we got home it was HOT.  It has already been like 99 degrees almost every day.  Then I heard on the news that we were going to get a heat wave.  So this past week it has been 105, 106 108...almost everyday!  We have not wanted to even leave the house.  The boys don't even really want to go outside because it is just too hot.  The AC can't even really keep up, but the boys are finding a few ways to keep cool:

James lays his blanket right over the vent and lays next to it.
letting the cool air seep out to keep him nice and cool.

One morning I thought, "Hey lets go to the park as soon as we wake up so we can get there before it gets too hot."  We got to the park before 9am and it was already 95 degrees!  Needless to say we didn't stay long.  We talked the boys out of it by bribing them with the swimming pool at home.  When we got home I realized the mistake as soon as we got home, someone would have to sit outside to watch them while they were in the pool.  Doug was a good husband and agreed to take that job.

Boys in the pool.  This pool is getting a ton of use this summer.

 Jello
James' favorite thing lately is making Jello.  We NEVER make Jello and don't even have it in the house, but last time we visited Grandma and Grandpa they had green Jello.  It was all he could talk about on the way there this time.  So I now keep Jello stocked in the cupboard and James always grabs a box and asks to make it, even if we already have some in the fridge.

James and Dad making Jello, he knows all the steps.

 Our "New" Table
We bought our table 5 years ago, from Shop-ko.  So while it works, it is not the nicest table around.  The finish was coming off the top and it needed to be sanded and re-stained.  Doug had the great idea that instead of trying to match the stain we could just paint the top white and let the boys decorate their spots. I agreed since I don't see us having this table much longer because it only seats 4 and we are about to be a family of 5.

The boys loved painting.

The finished product. 

An added bonus is James now LOVES to help set the table.  He goes and get things to fit in all the spots.  It was funny at dinner tonight Mikey had set his cup off to the side after he got a drink and James told him that it did not go there and fixed it to go where his cup was supposed to be.

Best Night Ever!

Ok, that is probably a bit of an over statement, but I have been in a bit of a funk lately.  It is sooooo hot and dry here.  The wind has finally stopped blowing, but that just makes it hotter.  Also we started James' Gluten free, casein free diet 100% last week.  So we haven't been eating bread or dairy for over a week.  Doug is having a hard time with everything, and I am really having a hard time not having bread around.  I have tried several times to make bread, but it always comes out so dense and dry.  I just have to keep practicing.  

They boys decided to eat their tacos and jello with chopsticks!

It seems like every new recipe I try comes out OK, but not great and definitely not as tasty as things that are filled with gluten and casein.  Tonight we tried this new recipe Thai Chicken Wraps.  It was soooo good!  Probably something we would eat even if we weren't on this diet.  We did change a few things, like I cut the onions smaller, cooked the vegetables longer, and we used this sandwich wrap bread that I have been making instead of tortillas (where would I even find rice tortillas in Clovis NM?). Oh I almost forgot to mention, Doug didn't even notice that the veggies were BROCCOLI!  He actually didn't even notice he was eating broccoli.

While we were eating dinner I thought I had heard some rain.  We have been getting storm clouds in the afternoons, but no rain.  It hasn't rained a drop since we moved here.  The only moisture we have seen was 1 snow storm in February.  I wasn't very hopeful for today's clouds to bring anything since we only had a 10-20% chance for rain but, when I looked outside it was raining.  I think I made such a big deal about it that both boys were immediately done with dinner and outside playing in it.  I was tempted to join them.

James jumping in the rain

Mikey found a puddle

I have to say, a good dinner and a nice rain storm have done so much to lift my spirits.  Hopefully it isn't another 5 months before we see moisture again.

Happy Birthday Mikey!

 Yesterday Mikey turned 2-years-old!  That time went by so quickly.  James helped me make his birthday poster.  It was a lot of fun for us!

Mikey and his poster.  He is obsessed with balls.

 Later in the morning we went to the park to play.  There was a Dad there playing baseball with his son and Mikey couldn't take his eyes off them.  I knew we got him the right gift!  After the park we met Dad at McDonald's for a birthday lunch.  The boys loved it, can't say Doug and I are big fans!  Finally when Dad got home from work we had a birthday dinner, with tons of different vegetables.  Then it was time to open presents.  I think every present Mikey opened was his favorite.  He didn't care about opening them, just playing with them.  First James gave him a train whistle.  Then when we finally got that pried away from him we gave him a little water bottle shaped like a soccer ball.  After we finally got that away from him he opened some Pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa that are just like James' Buz and Woody.  Next James forced him to open the T-ball set.  Then we had to take a break from opening presents.  This was by far his favorite.

Next he opened his bed tent from Grammy and Granddad, I am sure he is excited to have sleep overs with James.  Finally he opened this Lightening McQueen couch.  They were both really excited about this, but when James found out that it folder out into a bed he took it into his room and hid it in his bed.

James and Mikey on the couch

Finally it was time for cake.  I asked Mikey if he wanted a Soccer ball cake or an airplane cake.  He told me he wanted a "Basketball, soccer ball, base ball" cake.  I thought about just doing cupcakes, but decided to just go with the soccer ball cake. 

He was really excited to sing the song and blow out the candles.  He actually made up relight the candles several times.  What a funny boy.

 When it was time for bed both boys chose their Buz Lightyear pajamas.  This is funny because James would never wear his.  When ever we tried to get him to he would tell us "That's Mikey's"  So I guess now that Mikey has his own it is ok for James to wear his.  Although he only wore the pants and the shirt is from his dress up box.

Two Buz Lightyears

Overall we had a very fun day!  I love this little two year old.

Some things about Mikey:

He is obsessed with sports 

He loves his older brother and wants to do everything he is doing

He loves watching movies, his favorite is Toys

He loves all fruits and vegetables, probably more than cookies

He loves going potty like a big boy

He talks constantly! 

He loves to read books 

Mother's Day

For Mother's day weekend we decided to go to Colorado to visit Doug's family.  Ok, so that wasn't our main purpose...Doug had Friday and Monday off and we really needed to find a bigger car and it just wasn't happening in Clovis!  On Thursday James brought me my first handmade Mothers Day gift:

When Doug got home from work we headed out.  We had a huge list of things to get done in CO and needed all the time we could get!  Friday morning we were up early to go car shopping.  We were really hoping to find one on Friday so we could have the rest of the weekend to hang out with family and get other stuff done.  We got lucky and found this little beauty:

This is a 2005 Nissan Quest.  Doug likes these because they are much bigger inside then the other Mini Vans. It wasn't as nice as some of the other vans we were looking at, but it was much cheaper and only has 37,000 miles on it so we felt like we did pretty well.  

Saturday we were able to go to the Autism Speaks walk with James and his Grandparents.  They had just found out about it a few days earlier and we thought it would be a great thing to go to.  Some things were a little surprising to me, first the number of people that were there.  It was packed!  Also it seemed like a terrible place for a bunch of people who had sensory issues.  It was in a sports arena, so it was closed in, and loud, they had loud music playing and a lot of different things going on.  James however was so impressive!  First on the bouncy slide, he waited his turn, went down the slide once and got off without a tantrum.  Then as we wandered through the different venues he was careful to take care of Mikey who was in a stroller.  James would get a sucker and give it to Mikey, then go get himself one.  He would get a cookie and give it to Mikey, then go and get one for himself.  It was so cute to see him taking care of his little brother!  I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures.  But I am really glad we were able to go! 

That afternoon Doug finally went to see a doctor and ended up having a double ear infection!  So once he started on the medication he was feeling much better, even well enough to go golfing! Then we had dinner at Red Robin which we love and the boys are always well behaved there so that makes it even better! 

Sunday Doug and I drove out to Elizabeth to get my Mom's old bread machine.  I really wanted it because we are starting on a Gluten Free diet so I will be making bread a lot in the next few months.  Then we had church and Doug made us a delicious dinner of grilled ham and pineapple.  The boys all got me a family sticker to put on our van which will be fun to pick out!  

Monday we headed back home to get back to our normal lives!  It was a fun and busy weekend and I am glad we were able to go! 

Woody and Buz

James got some Woody and Buz pajamas from his Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday.  When he opened them he was really excited to put on "Woody" and Mikey grabbed the other set and said "Buz, Buz!"  Every night since then James has worn his Woody pajamas to bed.  He doesn't want the Buz ones, only Woody.  Last night I was at the store and Doug couldn't find the Woody pants, there was a major melt down!  Tonight I tried to get James to wear Buz, but he just said, "How bout Woody?"  And Mikey of course had to wear "Buz".  They are such cute friends!

"Woody" and "Buz" getting ready for bed

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

James is 4!

WARNING:  there are A TON of pictures.  This will probably be a LONG post.

Saturday James turned 4 years old!  What a big boy.  To celebrate we decided to take him to Carlsbad Caverns.  He and Doug both had Friday off so it was the perfect weekend.  We drove down on Friday, went swimming, had dinner, walked by the river and went to bed.  Then Saturday was the big day.  We thought the caves would be a huge hit because James LOVES tunnels.  

The Birthday boy!

He decided to open his presents right away.  Too excited to wait.

He got a life jacket for swimming.

A Camera since he loves to take pictures. 

Some gardening tools from Grammy and Grandad 

After breakfast we headed to the Caves.  It was a free week so we thought it might be packed, but it wasn't!  We didn't even have to wait for the elevator.  The elevator drops 750 feet in 1 minute, so about halfway down James started freaking out.  Once we got to the bottom he was pretty panicked.  We decided to wait by the snack area for a while and see if we could get him used to it.  No such luck.  So we started waking to see if we could distract him.  Again, no luck.  By this time he was really freaking out so we decided that I would take him back to the top and Dad and Mikey would see the cave. I didn't mind since my back was hurting so bad I could barely walk.  Mikey LOVED it.  He didn't stop talking the entire time.  He kept saying "I see a rock" at one time someone said, "Your going to hear that a lot today".

Me and James had fun hanging out at the top, playing with his camera and doing some of the other activities they had for the kids.  Smokey the Bear was there and James liked taking pictures of him.  He also saw a giant bat, did a puzzle, and colored a helping hand.  

James and "Mickey" in the visitor center

James took a picture of Smoky the Bear

James and Smokey

James and the bat

Mikey and Dad with the bat

After the caves we decided to take Mikey back for a nap while Dad and James went swimming.  Mikey didn't actually take a nap, but James had a blast swimming with his new life jacket.  Then James got to pick his Birthday dinner.  And what do you choose when you are 4-years-old?  McDonalds!  We tried so hard to get him to pick something else, but no such luck.  

After dinner we decided to go swimming again.  Mikey had gotten over his fear of the water by now, and loved jumping in the pool to us.

James loved swimming in the hot tub.
We could not get him in the big pool for too long

After swimming we went back to the room for cake.  I had made James a tunnel/cave cake but it didn't really make the drive.  So it didn't look too good.  But it served it's purpose.

 Sunday we were just going to drive home, but Doug was feeling really bad that I didn't get to see any of the caves.  So we decided to go back for a little while so I could see it.  We decided to try again with James, this time walking in instead of taking the elevator.  We didn't get much closer than this before James refused to go any further.  So me and Mikey went in and James and Dad went hiking around the park.

Family picture at the cave

Dad took a picture of James

Then James took a picture of Dad

James took another picture of Dad

 It was really cool!  And again Mikey was talking the entire time.  It was so funny.  Walking in was much further than we thought it would be and it took an hour to get to the big room.

A pool of water

I think this was called Whales mouth or teeth or something

Once we made it to the big room I was so tired that we decided to take the "short cut" and didn't get to see it all, but we saw plenty, plus Mikey was asleep in my arms at this point.

Finally made it to the big room

Once we got home James had a few more presents waiting.  He got this bed tent from Grammy and Grandad which he LOVES.  You can see why we thought he would love the caves.  He was so excited to go to bed in it he didn't even ask to sleep in Mom's bed.

We had a really fun weekend.  We love our little 4-year-old and are so glad to have him in our family.