Thanksgiving Blog

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Niceville with the Meissners, Lady and Paw Paw and cousin Laura this year. On Tuesday Nathan and Paw Paw drove over to Pensacola to drop Lady off for a couple nights. This was Lady and Paw Paw's first time meeting Allison.Jessica was really excited when Nathan showed up.Allison is gazing at Paw Paw.Nathan gazing at Allison gazing at Lady.Jessica couldn't let Nathan and Allison have all the fun.Jessica had Lady all to herself on Wednesday. Here is a video of her trying to force feed Lady some french fries.


When Jess went down for a nap Lady and Joe got to spend some time admiring Allison.

On Thanksgiving morning we drove over to the Meissner's. Here is a video of the girls in the spaceship.

Here's a picture of the family at Thanksgiving. Nathan is hiding behind Kathryn so he's barely visible.

Aunt Megan says that Allison reminds her of Kathryn when she was a baby. Jessica played her little heart out... destroying all the cool lego houses that Nathan spent a lot of time building.
Kathryn was still infatuated with her new baby.

Kathryn is setting a good example for Jessica... but we are going to let Jessica keep practicing with a doll for a little while longer.

Jessica and Kathryn seemed to find their groove this visit. They squealed and played nicely together this time. Here's a video of the girls dancing in the matching jumpers that Lady made them.

Lady draws eyebrows on Kathryn and Jessica got eyebrows this time too.

Here's another video of the girls playing.

And now I'm just sorry that I didn't get any pictures of the food, it was delicious. I had one of the best Thanksgivings ever, thanks to the Meissner's and their wonderful hospitality.

Allison's First Bath

I celebrated Allison's cord falling off by filling up the whale tub and giving her her very first real bath. She was startled at first, and I thought we were going to have a crier, but the warm turtle cover soothed her. The water beaded up on her little oily head and it made her look even more beautiful, if that's possible.Finishing touches: butt scrub.Here are a couple videos of the bath.




After the bath Allison had some tummy time.

Here's a video of tummy time.

Here's a picture of Allison posing with the flowers that Grandpa Jim and Grandma Kari got her. Jessica is dying to get her hands on these!

Jessica seems to be pretty fond of her little sister.She brings Allison her toys and tries to read to her.Supervised snuggling is another way she bonds with her little sister.

Speaking of bonding, here are a couple videos of me bonding with my littlest girl.

Allison is very alert and she looks deep into your soul as if she is trying to talk to you with her mind... my little Jedi.

And here's daddy bonding with both of his girls.

Jessi being a goofball.

Kathryn's 2nd Birthday

On Saturday we took our first road trip with Allison over to Niceville to celebrate Kathryn's 2nd birthday. We didn't want to miss the party but we had no idea that we were bringing Kathryn something so wonderful and exciting... I'm not talking about the gift we got her... I'm talking about Allison. Kathryn's 2nd birthday was filled with babies, both real and plastic. I don't think enamored is a strong enough word to describe Kathryn's feelings for Allison.Kathryn was instantly in love, but Jessica acted like the baby was old news once she got to her cousins' house... except for when Aunt Megan held Allison, which made her upset. Jessica has claimed Megan for herself since they spent the evening together while Alli was being born.Here's a few videos of Kathryn blowing out the candles on her cake. She is waiting so patiently in this first video, too cute.

We had a lot of fun watching the kids open the presents too. Yep, they all helped but Kathryn didn't seem to mind. I soon discovered that Kathryn must have a thing for babies because she got several baby dolls for her birthday, I think I counted three. There were also two strollers.

All Kathryn wanted to do all night was hold Allison.And here's what happened when we took her baby away. I have a feeling that Kathryn is going to be an excellent mommy some day.This trip was just the break that we all needed, especially Jessica. We'd been trapped in the house all week.

This next video is funny because of what Nathan says, listen close.

Here's Jessi trying out her cousins' wheels.

A picture I snapped on the way to the Meissners' that shows Jessi sharing her Pooh bear with her little sister. She put the Pooh bear there herself.

Cute pic of Alli.

Side note: My little girls are growing up too fast! Last night Allison's cord fell off and this morning Jessica climbed out of her crib... what are we going to do!?!

Videos of Allison

Move over daddy, mommy is posting a blog. We've taken a few videos of Allison over the past couple days and I am sure these will show you more of her personality than a picture. This first video is of Allison in the hospital just after nursing, she enjoys a full tummy.

Here's a video that Joe took.

Here are a couple videos of Joe holding Allison in the first hour after her birth.

Here's is a video of Allison at home with hiccups. The quilt was handmade by GGP for Allison.

And here's big sister showing Allison some love.

Allison's Homecoming

Today was a big day in Allison's very new life. She got to leave the hospital and see her new home. Luckily, we didn't get as familiar with Naval Hospital as we did with the hospital back in San Antonio. Here's a couple pics if you're curious.Lexi and Allison hung around the room waiting to be discharged.Allison snuck in one last nap before getting loaded up in the car seat. That's the same outfit Jessica left the hospital in. We were able to use the normal sized carseat for Allison. If you remember, we had to go out and buy a special tiny carseat to take Jessica home because she was way too small for this one.

Our two little angels learning to coexist. Then mommy had to get in for the photo op

Once we got home, Allison took her new swing for a test ride. She looks very content in it. Thanks Mooma and Grandad!Then Lexi headed over to the couch to hold Allison for a while. Then, just like a shark, Jessica started circling and slowly got closer. At first she just wanted to look from the floorBut then she wanted to climb up on the couch to get a better look... and feel for AllisonOverall, she was pretty gentle with her little sister with the exception of pulling Allison's arm and making her whimper a little. We're gonna have to train her that she can't treat Allison like she does Bunker.

Eventually Jessi settled down and was content to share mommy's lap while Allison napped and nursed That's it for now from your guest blogger! Stay tuned for more updates. I have a feeling this is going to get interesting.