A Hodge-Podge of Activity...

The Allee Family has a hodge-podge of recent activities to report. For starters, Kris got a motorcycle at the end of the summer. He really likes to ride it, and so does the rest of the family. Alyson and Kourtney like to take slow rides around the neighborhood wearing Alyson's bicycle helmet for protection. Kris likes accelerating fast, and I like snuggling up behind him and putting my arms around his waist as we zoom down the road. I like to think the rebel side of him is getting it's fill when he revs up the motor really loudly and takes off for a spin.

Secondly, Alyson began her second year of preschool in the HeadStart program. She loves to learn, play and help out in class. Alyson's teacher, Ms. Ruthie, says Alyson is her little teacher's aide because Alyson likes to help the younger children in her class with projects, and helps get everyone organized to go outside and for story and circle time. Alyson brings her work home with her...meaning, she likes to play teacher at home too. Luckily Kourtney is usually a willing participant and does just about anything Alyson requests of her.Kris' birthday was last week. We spent lunch together at a park near Cascades Playground, ate Chipotle fajitas, and Kris opened his gifts. We also took some pictures of the family. That evening the missionaries brought over a woman interested in knowing more about the church for family home evening. Following their departure, we had cake and ice cream. It wasn't the most traditional birthday, but we hope Kris enjoyed it.

The weekend before Kris' birthday, the girls and I developed some pictures I had taken of them in our front yard and in our neighbor's yard. We took these pictures to his school office and replaced the old pictures of them with new ones. The older they become the more willing participants they are. They liked getting dressed up and posing with flowers. Luckily the flowers they held were artificial otherwise they would have taken a beating! The following are a few pictures that turned out really well.

While Kris was away for the annual BYU Accounting Conference, the ward had a chili cook-off get together with some fun things for the kids to do. Alyson and Kourtney chose what they wanted to be this year for Halloween and wore their costumes to the ward party. Alyson originally wanted to be an angel, then changed her mind to Cinderella and finally settled on being Snow White. Kourtney found a Dorothy dress, but it was too small. After a vast search and coming up empty handed, I decided to make a dress for her. It gave me something to do while Kris was away and also helped me with my limited sewing skills. Needless to say, they both had fun at the party and won 1st and 3rd place ribbons in the costume parade.

Lastly, my pregnancy is going well. I just had an appointment today and heard the baby's heart beat for the second time. The doctor says it is a very strong heart beat, and so that was great and reasurring news that things are going well. I am 14 weeks tomorrow, and we will find out the gender of the baby in five weeks. Wow-it's so exciting!

We're Having Another Baby

I know I already mentioned this in our previous blog (My Parent's Visit), but I wanted to let everyone know that we are pregnant and our due date is April 24th. We are very excited! Besides hoping for a healthy baby, Kris is pulling for a boy, Alyson wants a baby brother, Kourtney doesn't understand why she can't have a baby in her tummy, and I am excited about feeling a little baby growing, and eventually kicking inside of me. Thanks for all the congrats we've received, and we'll keep you posted as the pregnancy progresses.

These are pictures of Alyson and Kourtney when they were babies.

Alyson at 8 months being mischievous, and a picture of Alyson in her blessing dress.

Kourtney's birth announcement picture and picture taken in her blessing dress.

My Parent's Visit

Mom and Dad came to visit us for several weeks and just left yesterday. We had so much fun together, and really enjoyed their stay. The girls especially loved seeing Nana and Papa Bear, and getting to do special things we don't normally get to do.

These are a pictures of Mom and Dad at Kroger with Alyson and Kourtney and then with Kourtney at McDonald's for her birthday breakfast.

They arrived August 23rd and took a few days to get used to the heat and humidity. Besides already being in a drought, August is the hottest month of the year here, and it took it's toll a bit on dad. But he stuck in there, and watched me play softball two days in a row. One reason for their timely visit was to watch my softball team play in the Women's East Slow Pitch National Tournament over Labor Day weekend, otherwise, a visit in the fall would have been more ideal for them.










The ball game.

The morning of the day that my parents arrived, Kris and I were pleasantly surprised to find out that we are pregnant. It has been something we've been trying for for a long time, however some of the symptoms I was having were alarming to me and the doctor, so I secretly kept several blood tests a secret from my parents until we could find out the results. Everything came back normal, however the doctor told me to stop exercising and to reduce any kind of exertion until further notice to help prevent a miscarriage. So, the trip to Nationals had to be cancelled. If there was any reason we couldn't go, we are so glad that it was because we are pregnant!

We took a family trip to Spring Mill near Mitchell, Indiana in place of our trip to Florida. There were several advantages to this...First of all, Mitchell is only 45 minutes away versus the 15 hours it would have taken us to drive to Auburndale, Florida. Secondly, we could have been subject to rediculous heat (however, we later found out it rained every day of the tournament). We found comfort in our air conditioned hotel rooms when ever we felt we needed it. We also got to explore several parts of the state park that we hadn't previously done including a boat ride into Twin Cave, and looking around Pioneer Park now that the girls are old enough to enjoy it.

Pioneer Park and the boat ride into Twin Cave.

However, there were of course disadvantages to not going to Florida. Kris and I had been looking forward to the trip to Florida for a long time and had spent so much time fundraising and preparing for it. We tracted our neighborhood for candle sales, yard sale donations and handed out fliers for fundraisers. We also recieved several monetary donations from friends and collegues. My parents were also so excited to see me play ball again. Luckily they got to see one of my practices and a game before I had to quit exercising.

We also took my parents to McCormick's Creek State Park in the cool of the evening and then Brown County State Park on Labor Day. Kris and I have fallen deeply in love with Indiana state parks because they are maintained so well, offer nice accomadations in their campsites for families with small children, and because they have a lot of trails and caves to explore. They will be something we'll miss a lot when we move next summer.

Kourtney's 3rd birthday was soon enough upon us, a birthday she has been anticipating for months. We drove down to Bedford and ate at Mr. Gatti's, a pizza and arcade restaurant. She loved it, and we all had fun watching the kids play and getting the chance to play a few games too. It was my birthday two days later. I spent the morning at work, and then that evening we went to Longhorn Steakhouse and rented a movie.

Mom and Dad left the following day for Nauvoo, Illinois. It was a bitter sweet goodbye because we enjoyed their visit so much. But we also knew that we'll be going home for Christmas and they'll be coming out for their 15th grandchild's birth, or shortly thereafter in April.

Our Chicago Trip

We went to Chicago a few weeks ago because Kris had a AAA meeting (American Accounting Association). The girls and I tagged a long and had the opportunity to visit what's become one of my favorite big cities. Our hotel was downtown, close to Lake Michigan and about a mile to where we spent most of our time at the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum....

I should back up and tell you that we parked our car out in the suburbs at the home of a friend of Kris'. Then we took the train into town, otherwise we would have payed an arm and a leg for parking. So, as you can imagine, we used city transportation including buses, trolleys, cabs and the train to make our way around town. But mostly we used our own two feet!

I don't think I've ever done so much walking in a big city in all my life. The girls did miraculously well. Kourtney's highlight had to have been Lake Michigan as she pointed out the ducks, geese and seagulls and asked "Can we have a boat?" Well, she didn't exactly get a boat while we were there, but she did go on a speed boat ride off the Navy Pier. She also liked all the fountain's around town one of which was at the foot of the Hancock Building.

Alyson seemed to like the aquarium a lot, and of course was so excited about "living" in a hotel. She often referred to our home in Indiana as "the place with my bed" and the hotel as "our home in Chicago". She also had the best seat on the speed boat ride and got the most wind in her hair. She loved the ferris wheel at Navy Pier and the dinosaurs at the Field Museum.

I had two favorite places in Chicago: The dock between Museum Campus and our hotel, and the Chicago Water Tower. The Water Tower was so beautiful at night with the lights illuminating it's sandy facade. I also enjoyed seeing the girls get so excited about all the things they got to see at Museum Campus.

Kris got to spend our last afternoon and evening in Chicago together. We went to the free Lincoln Zoo, and then walked all the way to the Water Tower after which we took a trolley to the Navy Pier where we ate, took the speed boat tour and let the kids play on some of the rides. What a view from the boat! The city skyline situated behind a beautiful blue lake! Wow...

Kris will have to write about what he liked best, because unfortunately, he didn't get to do as much site seeing as us, but he did have the opportunity to do a lot of networking. People kept asking "when are you coming out" meaning "when are you graduating?" Kris told people next year...and so, there is a lot of work for him to do, but I'm sure he'll be able to keep his word!

Softball Success

(I apologize in advance that there aren't any new pictures to accompany this blog. I will post some pictures as soon as I receive some.)

This has been a softball summer. Usually we try to have balance in our lives, but I over estimated how much time I have on my hands and wound up getting our whole family involved in softball one way or the other. For example. It all began with one of Kris' professors asking if I wanted to help out his daughter's team. Well, I sent him the information he requested about my softball history, etc, and he forwarded it on to the real coach who asked me to get involved with the Bloomington Lightning Girl's Fastpitch League here in Bloomington. Wow...to make a long story short, I decided to help coach a 6 and under team so Alyson could play for the first time, and then since the league was short coaches, I agreed to head coach a 12 and under team. On top of it all, I continued to play Thursday night softball with my regular women's slow pitch city league team.

We found ourselves at one ball field or another atleast 3-4 nights out of the week. When I say we, it was usually Alyson, Kourtney and I all of the days, and Kris atleast 2-3 times a week. Alyson loved playing, and made friends with the other girls quickly. She started off never having caught a ball, hit a ball or thrown too many balls, and wound up being able to hit the ball about every other time it was pitched to her. She began to throw further and harder, and picked up her running speed throughout the season, her arms and legs moving less deliberately and more naturally towards first base. It was awesome to see Alyson's progress.

Coaching 6 year olds was a breeze in comparison to coaching 12 year olds. Ouch...What a tough age to be at. Some of the girls were eager to listen and do as asked, while others formed little circles and tried to chat. I really appreciated the girls who made coaching easier, because it was hard enough making line-ups and deciding what to do for practice, making sure girls were getting equal playing time...etc, etc, etc...all the things you never think about when you are just a player.

As the season went on, my 12 year old team began to pull together as a team, and won all their games except two they lost to clearly an excelerated team of fast pitchers and hard hitters. However, when tournament play came around at the end of the season, that team lost to another team that we ended up beating for the championship.

While we were playing the championship game, Alyson's team was playing their "championship game". Okay...so they played the only other 6 and under team in the league, and beat them. Throughout the season they hadn't kept score of these little girl's games, but this time they did. Alyson's team and my 12 year old team was presented with first place trophies.

Then this last Saturday my women's team played in the E division and took state. So, wow-what a successful end to our summer softball season. Now fall ball is almost upon us...but I'll be the only one playing this time around!

Jordann and Ariell's Visit Continued

Jordann and Ariell's Visit Continued...

After downloading everyone's pictures from their cameras, we came up with over 1,000 photographs. So, in order to share some of the highlights, and not bore you with a bunch of random pictures, we've chosen to share the ones we liked best. So, here are just a few. More will be posted later...

Sample Gate on IU campus

Brown County State Park

McCormick's Creek

Alyson and Jessica playing softball