hot dog!

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,

that is what I truly wish to be!

Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,

everyone would be in love with me!

an afternoon downtown.

While Kelly and her family were here we spent a few hours downtown Charleston.  We explored Waterfront Park, milled about the market area, and then Andy met us for dinner after work. 

It was a fun time, especially since I know my trips downtown are getting numbered.  It is sad to think about not having beautiful Charleston at my fingertips.  However, this post is not about that.....its to highlight the fun we did have!



the awesome Scher family!
Thanks SO much for coming to visit.



reading about the history of Charleston

she loved throwing pebbles into the fountain.

Thank you so much to Kelly, Eric, Garrett, and Kaylynn for driving all the way from Indiana to spend their Spring Break with us.  I love having visitors!  And Olivia loved having her big cousins to play with!

butterflies.

Last night while giving Baby Girl a bath, I felt butterflies in my stomach.  Well, actually more like my lower abdomen!  Excited about how much fun bath time is?  I think not!  More like the little fluttering of baby #2 swirling about in my belly.  Ahhh, what a moment. 

I couldn't help but sit back, smile, and say a prayer of thanks for the amazing moment I was experiencing - listening to the squeals of delight from my first born while feeling the flutters of her little brother/sister in my belly. 

Life is so good. Happy Wednesday!

football....beach style!

beach fun and a night on the town.

My sister Kelly and her family are here for their spring break and we have been having a great time!  We went to the beach yesterday for a lazy day. 

Then Andy and I got all dressed up for his squadron's Dining Out.  It was wonderful knowing we had built-in babysitters staying at our house :) 

a little getaway...

Andy had  a week off when he got home from deployment, so we snuck off to Orlando for a few days!  We got in a lot of quality family time and had some fun while we were at it!

Day one we braved SeaWorld.  It was Olivia's first time to a big zoo type place and she loved it!  My friends all said "she will nap in the stroller in the afternoon" so we planned to enjoy the entire day there.  Well, their babies may do that, but ours does not ;)  We lasted from 9:30ish till almost 3pm and got to see just about all we wanted.  She wasn't interested in sleeping, but she wasn't acting out either, so we just went with it.  I laid down with her when we got back to the hotel and she slept for about 40 minutes, but she sat up 3 different times in that time period, looked at me, and shouted "wawa"!  Then she would lay back down and go to sleep! I guess she was so excited about the water and the animals that she was dreaming about it! ha. 

feeding the stingrays

watching the dolphins at feeding time

"this way, Dada!"

Her most favorite part was either the pet show (called Pets Ahoy!, where dogs and cats preformed) or the dolphin show.  She shrieked and hollered with excitement throughout both of them.  I would catch the people around us watching her rather than the shows because it was so heartwarming!  She was definitely enjoying herself!

We also saw the whale show with Shamu.  It was neat, but not nearly as exciting as the dolphin show.  Olivia mostly entertained herself with her kazoo during it.  However, you can't go to SeaWorld without seeing the killer whales!

watching the sea lions

That night we met Andy's cousin out for dinner.  It was great fun to introduce him to Olivia. We had also met his other cousin on the drive down in Jacksonville, but we neglected to get a picture with her. 

Wednesday we went to ESPN Wide World of Sports and caught a Braves spring training game.  Andy is a BIG Braves fan and is sad that we will no longer be within driving distance to Atlanta when we move.  So, we caught an early season game to help ease his pain ;)  I think the Braves lost.  To be honest, I didn't get to watch much of the game.  I was busy chasing a toddler around!

while she looks peaceful here, sitting on the blanket only
lasted about as long as the snack did...

how many Goldfish can I get in at one time?!

After the game we headed to Downtown Disney.  It is a place on the water with a lot of shops and restaurants (and its free to get in!).  It was our way of catching a little Mickey Mouse without going to the theme park.  However, being in Orlando made me very excited for the day we actually do take our family to Disney World!  I have never been and I know it has to be magical!  Olivia loves Mickey and Minnie and every time we saw a picture or statue of one of them she would shout "mimi" (her name for both of them) and point.   It was pretty adorable and made me wonder what she would do if she met them in-person?!

She liked the carousel, BUT...

her real love was for the train!  She shouted "choo choo" over and over while riding around in circles.  She even had to ride it twice because walking back past it without getting on was TOO much for her to handle...I'm sure any of you who are familiar with a near 2 year old can imagine what happened when we tried to scoot past without getting on!  Oh, the drama!

After a long day, we ended with dinner at Rainforest Cafe, which was really neat.  There were moving animals everywhere (we sat right next to the elephants!) and every 30 minutes or so it would thunderstorm!  No actual rain, but the lights would dim, the animals would start squawking, and thunder would sound.  Olivia enjoyed it, but the big hit was the macaroni and cheese.....

our girl doesn't mess around when it comes to food ;)

Also, here is a little fun from back at the hotel.  :)

brushing teeth with daddy from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

oh, baby!

Big Sister Olivia!
Made my Auntie Mandy!

We are having another baby! 

Are we crazy? Perhaps.  Were we surprised?  Umm, maybe.  Are we SO excited for the miracle God is growing inside my belly?  You betcha!! 

I discovered I was pregnant a few days after Andy left on deployment.  Of course, he was in transit for several days and was unable to call home.  Talk about having to keep something to yourself!  There are some things you just need to talk with your husband about immediately, and I would count "I'm pregnant" as one of those!  However, he eventually called and I was able to share the shocking news.

The first trimester was a little rough.  I had about a month or more of nausea, which I never had with Olivia's pregnancy.  However, something that rang true with both pregnancies thus far was the first semester tiredness!  The kind of tired where you just can't take another step.  You think you may fall over if you can't sleep immediately!  Needless to say, I slept most every day while Olivia was napping.  Single parenting of a busy toddler is hard enough, but my first trimester fatigue made it nearly impossible some days.  My visit to Indiana was wonderful because family was around to help out and let me rest! 

However, we have moved on to the second trimester and I am feeling more like old self!  Also, I am making sure that the old truth about 'growing a belly sooner in the second pregnancy' stands true!   Gee whiz....


















You can see my 15 week belly with Olivia here if you care to compare. Ironically, it is when I announced my pregnancy on the blog then, too!  Interesting....

Happy Wednesday!  Olivia slept till 8:45 for the third morning in a row, so needless to say we are still in jammies even though it is just about 10am!  Nearly a perfect morning in my eyes!  Thank you to the time change =)

yummy!

I made this grilled pork tenderloin recipe tonight for dinner and, let me just say, it was delicious!  Seriously delicious!  Note: I omitted the tamarind juice because I have no idea what that is.  I used a little extra soy sauce to make up for it ;)  Also, I used a real lime and fresh garlic and ginger.  I don't know if that made a difference or not, but it sure was good!
I served it with mashed red potatoes, steamed mixed vegetables, and butter biscuits (which I ate with apple butter....can I also say "yummy" for that!) 

Olivia said "mmmm" while she was eating it!  She also clapped and yelled "yayyy" when I scooped the mashed potatoes onto her plate, so she isn't too hard to please, but still!  To get praise over a pork dish from a toddler?!  I'll take it!

Do your family a favor and make this dish soon! 

the reunion.

Yesterday was one of those days that you could re-live over and over.  The excitement of welcoming your service member home from a deployment is one of the greatest surges of emotion I think you can have.  There isn't much better than the anticipation of the first embrace, actually feeling their skin again, seeing their face live and in-person, and knowing that it is your husband's strong arms that are hugging you. We've done several deployments (four, I think, but it may be five....how does one lose track of that sort of thing?!  hmmm, maybe I need to be more vigilant with the details of our life! ha) and the reunions are always so amazing that they make the separation almost worth it!  I say that with the meaning that if you must endure one, then you may as well have the exciting reunion at the end! I, however, would never recommend a deployment just so you can experience what we did yesterday. You get me?!....;)  Keep your loved ones right there with you on the same continent; life is just better that way!


Dada is coming home! from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

we left the house at 6am for the return! wow, that's early!

I worked hard to prep Baby Girl for Dada's homecoming.  She is a bit  a lot unsure of strangers, and despite frequent Skype and phone calls I was worried of her reaction to Andy.  She was so excited to see the airplane and understood that Daddy was on it.  When he made his way to us she wasn't ready for him to hold her or to give him kisses, but she kept pointing at him and saying 'dada' over and over.  She finally warmed up to him when we were about to drive home and then when we got home, she wanted nothing but 'dada!'.  Praise God!  I had been praying and praying that she would respond well to him and it seems that my prayers were answered. 

the initial moment...please disregard my double, err triple chin!
and who is Andy looking at, anyhow?!!



ahhh, finally she was ready to welcome him home!



So, our family is back as it should be!  Hooray for that and for all of the other families that were reunited yesterday.  Our prayers remain with those who are still separated.  That never changes.