A Pickle In Central Park

So when I was in New York, we had dessert at the Stage Deli in Manhattan. As I was ordering my massive slice of cheese cake, I noticed that all the other tables (the ones that ordered entrees) had a plate of pickles. I couldn't resist. . .yeah I think everyone in the restaurant (including my table) thought I was crazy!!

Better Late Than Never

So you will probably think we are crazy, but yesterday, 2 days after Halloween, Mike and I carved our pumpkin :) The plan was to carve it Halloween night, but we were much too busy. We had bought the pumpkin and we didn't want it to go to waste. We had never carved a pumpkin together before which is another reason we wanted to do it. We have been together the last 3 Halloweens and this is the first year we ended up doing. The funny thing is we have bought a pumpkin every year, we just didn't ever do it the other two years :) Here are some pictures of our endeavors:

Here is Mike cutting off the top


Here we are cleaning it out. I'm sorry, but pumpkin insides REAK!!!




And the carving begins :)




Alena had to get in on the action too. You may be thinking, "Wow, that is one big pumpkin" but it's not. Our sweet little Alena is just still really small :)


So here is the finished product. We had so much fun :) We were very proud of the end result.

Our Little Halloween Bunny :)

So, Alena was a little bunny rabbit for Halloween. The original plan was for her to be a pack of Sugar Babies and Mike got the Sugar Daddy T-Shirt, but no one in the valley had the Sugar Babies costume and it would have cost like $50 to get it online. A bit over the top for a Halloween costume, so we found this costume at Wal-Mart and I think it is the cutest thing ever!



I love the little tail on the back of the costume. I had to get a picture of it!


As soon as she was put in her costume all she wanted to do was sleep. It was the cutest thing ever! This is what she looked like for the whole 3 hours she was in the costume.



We luckily got these two pictures of her with her eyes open.




The night was spent visiting family. We went in to my parents house and had pizza and my older sisters Christi and Melissa came over with their kids in their costumes. We got this picture of the nieces and nephews that were there. We are missing 9 of them :) My youngest brother Logan is also in the picture. It was his last year to Trick-or-Treat this year.


After my parents we went over to Mike's Aunt Callie's house and visited with her and some of the cousins. We then went over to my Grandma's house and visited some more, then it was off to Mike's Mom's house for even more visiting. Like I said, she stayed asleep for all of this. It must have been a very cozy costume. Last but not least we headed over to Mike's cousin Tim's house and spent some time with Tim and Jess and Brian and Carrie. It was a great night. Can't wait till next Halloween!!!!

Congrats Heidi and Robert!!

My sister Heidi just got engaged last Saturday to Robert Richardson. They have known each other since high school. They will be getting married February 21st in Mesa. We are so happy for them.

Halloween Decorations

So, Mike went up to Idaho 3 weekends ago and since I was home alone I had to fill my time with something. I decided to fill it decorating my house for Halloween. This is our first Halloween in our house and Alena's first Halloween and there is no way I was going to let it go un-festive :) I had so much fun and I figured I would post a few pics.

Preston Got His Mission Call!!

So my little brother Preston, who isn't so little anymore, got his mission call last Thursday. All of the family went over to my parents house Thursday night so we could be there when he opened it. There were also about 50 of his friends there. Preston is such a great kid. I'm gunna miss him like crazy. Here is the video of him opening the call. (Make sure you pause our playlist so you can hear the video)



Well, as you heard, he is going to Kennewick, Washington and reports February 4th. Yay Preston!! We love you dude.

Tag, You're It :)

5 JOYS:
* Mike. He is the most wonderful husband in the world! I love you babe!
* Alena's cute little smile. She is growing up so fast, it makes me sad.
* Playin' with my sisters! They are all such amazing women and they are such great examples to me of what a wife and mother should be. We have such a great time when we get together,we laugh till we cry and then laugh some more :)
* Reading a really good book. I can get so in to it that I read for hours.
* Music. Singing, playing the piano, listening on the radio. I love it all!

5 FEARS:
* Losing a child. I don't know what my life would be like after that.
* I think everyone has financial fears, and I am no exception.
* Losing one of my senses, like going blind or deaf. That would be so hard for me.
* Fires (my house burnt down when I was little)
* Clowns. I don't care what anyone says, those are creapy little buggers!!

5 SURPRISING FACTS:
* I am an awful impulse shopper. I once dropped $300 on a camera, just because.
* I have read the original Boxcar Children book nearly 100 times. It is the first chapter book I ever read and I love reading it still. (Did you know the original was published in 1942 and they are still publishing more today? The 115th was published just this year)
* I love dumb trivia as exhibited above :)
* I had never flown in an airplane until I was a junior in high school. (The time when I was 3 months old doesn't count, I don't remember it)
* I'm a serious perfectionist, almost to the point of obsessive compulsive. If I get something in my head that has to be done a certain way, there is nothing you can do to change my mind.

5 OBSESSIONS:
* Cookies right out of the oven
* Texas Roadhouse, they have the most wonderful rolls ever!!
* Christmas Music (I can listen to it all year round)
* Ice Cream
* Sobe's: I drink like 3 of them a day :)

5 TAGS:
Carrie Krainock
Lali Johnson
Tiffany Moser
Shelbi Whittaker
Callie Christiansen

Which Twilight Character Are You?

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BEWARE T-Moblie Users!!!

T-Mobile users... I don't know who of you use T-Mobile, or if any of you do, but I just thought I would make you aware of a problem Mike and I are having with our account. Mike's sister was in town visiting last week to see Alena and while she was here she was talking a lot on the phone with Brett who was still up in Utah. While here, she reached the end of her allowed minutes so they made it a point to only talk on the phone after 9:00PM because night time minutes are unlimited.

On Thursday night Brett called Haley at 9:24PM and they talked for quite a long time. They were actually on the phone until like 2 in the morning. Friday morning Haley checked her account and for some reason they had charged her for the entire phone call. With her being over on her minutes just the one call was going to cost over $100. Well, she called T-Mobile to see what the issue was and they said that their records were showing that the call came in at 8:24PM so she is charged for the entire call. Well, we all knew that the call had come in after 9 so I decided to look at my account online and see when it was saying my calls were coming in. Low and behold, every call was recorded as occurring an hour earlier than it actually had.

As you can see, this could cause serious issue on peoples bills. Mike and I share minutes so we have to be sure that the calls that are supposed to be free really are free. We filed a complaint to have them check their towers and find out why the calls are being logged at the wrong time, but they are totally dragging their feet about it. It has been 2 days longer than they said it would be and the service request still hasn't been completed.

I would just advise all of you to check your statements and make sure that your calls are logged at the right time. If not, please call T-Mobile so that we can get some steam under their rears and get this fixed. I just hate the idea of people being charge for calls they shouldn't be charged for especially with the economy how it is, and money being tight for everyone. Any extra bill is unwanted.

Please let me know if any of you find problems. Love you all!

YAY Haley and Brett!!!

So Mike's sister Haley just got engaged tonight to Brett Birkeland. They dated before his mission, wrote all throughout and he just came home in July, and now they are engaged!!! We are so excited for them. Personally, I don't think there is any better institution than marriage :) Mike has met Brett, but I haven't yet. I am very excited that he will be coming down in November Thanksgiving weekend. Haley spent all of last week in Arizona with us so that she could meet Alena and it was so fun to see how in love she is with Brett. He really is a lucky guy. They will be getting married in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 19, and Mike and I just booked our flights tonight. It will be rather interesting to travel with a 3 and a half month old, but we wouldn't miss it for the world. We are so excited to be getting a new brother-in-law. We love you guys!!!

Free Handbag Anyone???

So I saw this link on a friends blog, and I thought "Why the heck not!?!" This company is launching their website next week and to celebrate it they are giving away 24 hand bags in 24 hours. They are all really cute and you can sign up to win one if you visit this site www.handbagplanet.com It is really easy, it takes you through all of the steps to get as many entries as possible. It's fun and worth a shot :) Good luck to all who attempt (Good luck to me as well :) tee he he!!!)

Twilight Saga

So yesterday I finished the final book in the Twilight Saga "Breaking Dawn". If I do say so, I really liked it. It definitely wasn't what I expected, but I liked it. My original plan was to get the book read before Alena was born, but she decided to show up 6 weeks early so I had to put my reading on hold. I was just glad I was able to finish it. I am now in need of some new reading material. The thing I loved about these books is that is pretty much mindless reading. It has a good story that is easy to follow, but you can put it down if you absolutely need to. Somebody help me out. I don't know what to do now that there are no more Harry Potter books coming out and no more Twilight. If you have any good ones let me know!

Update!!

Well, it has been a while since I posted so I figured I would give an update. Alena is doing so great. It is crazy to think that she will be six weeks old on Tuesday. She is growing so fast I can't believe it. At her pediatrician appointment this last week she weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long. It almost makes me sad to not have my tiny baby girl any more. She is starting to sleep longer and longer at night. There are times that she will actually go 5 hours between feedings at night so I am only having to get up once to feed her. That is helping me a ton. I love being a mom more and more everyday. I am so blessed to have such a sweet baby girl!


As for Mike, he had a pretty rough week this week. It started with him having a swollen gland in his neck and having a little bit of a soar throat, and ended with him being totally out of commission with tonsillitis. It has been hard to not have the extra set of hands to take care of Alena, and I have felt awful because there is nothing I can really do to help him feel better. He has been on antibiotics for the last two days so hopefully he will be feeling better soon. He has absolutely hated not being able to hold his baby girl and I'm sure she has been missing her Daddy time. Mike will be going up to Idaho Thursday of this week to see his dad and I am going to miss him so much.

As for me, like I said before I am just loving being a mom. It really is the greatest thing ever. Alena is such a blessing and she has such a sweet spirit about her. I could just hold her all the time and be totally content. I just wish I didn't have anything else to do around the house, but alas, life goes on. I will be starting back to work in just over a week, but I am so lucky to be able to do that from home. Yet another blessing in our lives are mine and Mike's jobs. We are lucky enough to work for the same company, and we have a boss that is much to good to us. We feel so fortunate for the life that it affords us. It is so great to have so much to be thankful for. Life is such a blessing and I hope everyone of our loved ones are just as happy in their present circumstances. We love you all!!!

Cuddling with Daddy

I thought I should post these pictures of Alena and Mike. Alena is a baby that just loves to cuddle. She would honestly be fine if Mike and I would hold her nonstop. I thought these pictures were so cute.


So for those of you who don't know, since Alena was in the NICU at first she has had a hard time breastfeeding. She was too small and didn't have the strength to do it when she was first born and now she has gotten used to eating from the bottle and she doesn't want to do it. The only problem with this is that she doesn't like or do well on formula which leaves me the only option of pumping and feeding her breast milk from a bottle. I don't mind doing this, after all, it is a whole lot cheaper than buying formula. Well, the other morning I had gotten up and was in the other room pumping. I heard Alena start waking up, and I heard Mike get out of bed and get her. I was expecting him to come out of the bedroom but he didn't. I finished up and went back to see what he was doing and I found this. He had gotten her and laid back down and both of them were sound asleep. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Alena loves her daddy so much!

Bathtime Fun!!

So Alena is so funny. She already loves to take baths. Every time I give her a bath she is so relaxed. She just hangs out and it cracks me up. She is just the sweetest baby. I love having her home. I also thought that this picture of her in her towel was hilarious! Her expression is so funny.

Dressing Up

So the other day I was at work and I get a text message that made me giggle. Katie and Alena played dress-up! So cute!!!

Four Generations

There are four generations in this picture. Great-Grandma Hall, Grandma Wilcken, Mom and Alena!

Welcome Home Alena!!!

Well, after spending 11 days in the NICU, we were finally able to bring Alena home last Friday night. Let me just say that that was the most exciting thing EVER!!! She is doing well with her feedings and is slowly gaining weight. We have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow morning and hopefully everything will still check out okay.

I guess this is as good a time as any to fill everyone in on the events of Alena's Birthday. I can't believe I had her 2 weeks ago. It doesn't seem that long because we have only had her home for a few days, but at the same time, it feels like it has been an eternity!!! Well, here is the time line as close as I can get it :)

August 26th, 2008:
3:00 AM - I had just gotten back in bed after one of the many trips to the bathroom that happened throughout the night. I was just settling back in to sleep when I felt Alena kick, I heard a *POP* and instantly I was soaking wet. At first I was in such shock I didn't know what to do. I laid my hand on Mike and all I said was "My water just broke" and he was out of bed like a shot. For those of you who know Mike, you know that this is a miracle in and of itself. Mike sleeps like a rock, so I'm glad I didn't have to sit and shake him awake. Well, we called the doctor and I called my mom, and we got ready to leave for the hospital. Since she was 6 weeks early I still hadn't packed a bag or anything to take to the hospital with me. I showered quickly, put on dry clothes and we were out the door.

3:20 AM - We were pulling away from our house and my contractions started. One of my biggest fears had been that I wouldn't know I was having contractions, but there was no mistaking it. Right off the bat they were 4 to 5 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds to a minute each. Luckily one of the two birthing classes we had had was the breathing class, so I was able to get through them okay. While in the car I called all of my sisters to let them know what was going on and to ask them to say a prayer that everything would be alright. This is when it kinda started sinking in that I was having a baby, she was really early, and I had no idea what to do. Let's just say I was a little FREAKED OUT!!! Thank heaven for Mike. He was so great through the entire thing.

4:00 AM - We got the the hospital. At this point I was having contractions about 3 to 4 minutes apart and they were lasting at least a minute each. They took me in to one of the triage rooms and started getting me hooked up to monitors. They brought in papers for me to sign and they worked on getting everything set. I was still just trying to breathe and stay calm. Mike was great and rubbed my feet through each of my contractions to help me stay relaxed.

4:30 AM - They finally had everything set and the nurse checked to see how far I had progressed. I was already 100% efaced and dilated 4 centimeters. When the nurse checked me she was able to feel Alena's little toes coming through the cervix. When she said that I knew instantly that that meant c-section. I was already in such shock that this didn't faze me too bad. I definitely wasn't prepared for it, but there was so much other stuff on my mind that I didn't have time to worry about another unexpected development.

5:00 AM - The doctor finally came in and said that he wanted to try and do a test to check Alena's lung development. With her being so early, there was a lot of fear that her lungs would not be fully developed yet and that would pose yet another problem. They were unable to get the fluid needed for the test so the doctor had them give me a tributalene shot to try and slow things down. His hope was that if things slowed they would have the time to do the test. Needless to say, the shot didn't work!!! My contractions kept coming harder and faster and I was having a hard time because I didn't know what exactly they were going to do. They kept saying different things and I just needed to know what was going on.

5:45 AM - Mike went out to call and update my mom. They had just come in and said that they would be doing the c-section later in the day. While Mike was out on the phone, the nurse came in and checked me again. In just over an hour, I was now dilated just over 7 centimeters and I was going into transition. Once the nurse found that I had progressed so far, They decided the c-section had to happen NOW! 4 more nurses came in and started getting me prepped. Mike walked back in and was given scrubs and told "You need to change now!" He changed super fast and when he came back in they were wheeling me out. They told him grab your camera, leave everything else and follow them. I was on my way to the OR.

6:05 - I was in the OR and they were getting me set for my epidural. I was having constant contractions and I was still in shock. They moved me onto a flat, cold metal slab, and had me lean over and gave me the shot. Luckily it was a spinal and not a regular epidural. It takes effect a lot faster than a normal one. They laid me down, and spread my arms out to the side. They strapped my arms down and put hot blankets over me and wrapped my head in the a warm blanket. I had oxygen up my nose and a big blue tarp in front of my face so I couldn't see anything. The doctor started poking me and asking if I could feel it. As soon as I said I couldn't, they opened me up.



6:15 AM - Alena is here!!! She was out and they were working on getting her breathing. As soon as she started to cry, they wrapped her up, I got to kiss her cheek and her and Mike were off to the NICU. It was really hard for me to have to stay there by myself but I knew that Mike needed to be with our baby. They got me closed up, and then they wheeled me to recovery.

6:45 AM - The nurse finally tracked down all of our stuff so I was able to get my phone and call and tell my mom that I had had a baby. Can we say SUPER FAST MORNING!!!! I couldn't believe it. It was done and now all I wanted was to hold my baby. I had to stay in recovery for 2 and a half hours, and then they wheeled me by the NICU on my way to my room. I got to hold her for less than 2 minutes and then I was taken downstairs. That is when the day started feeling really long!!! I wanted my baby but wasn't allowed to go up and see her. I was going crazy. My baby shower was that night, so Mike left and opened all the presents. He got back and finally at 9:30 PM I was able to go up and really be with my baby. Let's just say that was the happiest I have ever been.



So, there is the run down of our very busy, very exciting day. We are just glad that the hospital stay is behind us, and we can settle in to a routine of our own. We are so greatful for the many prayers offered on our behalf, and for the visits and phone calls we received. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends and we are so grateful for each and everyone of you!

Alena's First Smile

So I just noticed that neither Katie or I have posted that Alena Marie McAllister was born Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 6:15AM (I will let Katie post all the details later). She was 6 weeks early and has been in the NICU for a week. But we are excited that she will probably be coming home by the end of the week.

Anywho, I wanted to post a picture of her first smile! We are totally in love with her. She has the sweetest, most content little spirit and we feel so blessed to have her in our family!

Our Little Alena

We had another ultrasound last week and got a beautiful picture of our sweet little girl. We get such a kick out of her foot. Anyway, Katie will be 30 weeks on Monday and we can't believe how fast time is flying! Alena will be here before we know it!