Family

I know I really really need to do a BIG post and do some major updating. But this is going to just be a quick one.

We are spending our time preparing for the arrival of Baby Girl Fraser and hanging out with Alistair. That is about it.  I’ll have a lot of pictures to post soon.  But for now, I just want to share a segment of Alistair’s promotion ceremony from his Karate Class! the whole ceremony was so cute, I’ve only included a short clip of him, which you can access with the YouTube link.  He has only been doing it for about 2 months. The class is once a week for about 45 minutes and it is during the day at daycare, very convenient, but the sad part about that is that we don’t get to see him in class. It was very exciting to attend the promotion ceremony and see what all he has been learning.

http://youtu.be/CCOIBkiu8Ig

In the coming week or so I’ll try to post up my knitting (I have completed a sweater for myself FINALLY and a ton of little things for the new little girl), the train ride we took Alistair too last week and anything else that needs to be up here!

Boy oh Boy has summer just sped by. We have been so busy that I haven’t had time to post!

A LOT has happened since i posted in July, I am not sure I can remember it all. I guess the first exciting thing that happened at the end of July was that I joined a nutritional counseling program. It has helped me so much.  I have lost 17.4 pounds since starting the program and I am really excited about my progress. I have one more month of the program , but I am hoping to renew it for another twelve weeks.

In mid-August we all went down to Kentucky to visit family. We had such a wonderful time. We ate yummy food, went on walks and play a great big family kickball game. It was so fun! I actually didn’t get around to taking that many pictures, but here are a few pictures of Alistair.

We really haven’t done anything super exciting since then. Just sort of spent time with friends and family. I have been knitting like crazy, but I have no finished projects right now to show for it, soon i will!  Alistair is a riot and says the most hilarious things, he understand most of the french i speak to him very well, when i remember to speak it, and he will repeat french when prompted, but doesn’t speak any on his own initiative… its a work in progress.

Another thing that is going on with Alistair is that we have finally been trying to get down to the bottom of his BM situation. Some of you may know about this and some may not, and yes I know bowel movements are not the best of topic for blogs, but for those of you we don’t get to talk to that much, I want you to know what is going on with the little man.  so in the least descriptive way possible let me just say that Alistair’s bowel movements are NOT RIGHT.  The pediatrician sent us to an allergist, we really suspected allergies to be the cause of all this. Turns out he is allergic to nothing.  So the allergist decided to do some blood tests for Celiac disease since it runs in my family. Now the confusing part is that blood tests for Celiac disease are not sufficient to make a diagnosis, only to verify whether a biopsy is needed to confirm. So Alistair tested positive for the gene, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has it, he could be a carrier. then there were 4 antibody tests, here is where things get really confusing 2 of them came back positive, and 2 of them came back negative.  So we have been referred to a Pediatric GI doctor whom we see next Tuesday. I am hoping to have some answers then! Wish us luck that this is NOT Celiac disease but something much simpler to control and treat.

In other news I went to Milwaukee for a work conference and we got to go to the Brewers v. Rockies game. it was a good time!

One more Gratuitous Alistair Shot

This weekend was quite eventful. Friday night Mom came down and spent the night. She wanted to take Alistair to his swim lesson on Saturday morning, and since it was early she decided to come down Friday. We had a nice dinner followed by Wine Spritzers and the movie Burlesque with my neighbor Carol. It was great fun! I really enjoyed the movie.

Saturday morning Mom and I got up and took Alistair to his swim class. He had so much fun. We got there a little early and so Alistair got to play on the mini-water slide. HE LOVED IT! Class went really well, Mom was in the water with him and I was on the sidelines taking pictures! It was so fun to get to watch it from the outside and see how much fun he was having. Here are a few pictures of the lesson.

After swim lessons we went to lunch at The Roost. (i really liked the veggie omelette, if you go there, get one!) Then we went to this cute little furniture consignment shop at 116th and Allisonville Road called Treasure House. I also recommend checking it out. It is a little small, but I found a chair that matches my kitchen and the merchandise was all really nice. You can tell they are very choosy about the furniture that they purchase from people.  Next, it was to Menards for supplies and then back home for the a day filled with Mother-Daughter gardening. We weeded, we laid landscape fabric, we planted, we mulched and watered! Michael worked hard on mowing and weed eating. In the end, we have the start of a beautiful front flower bed.

Michael would want me to show this picture of his grass, i don't understand why, because I'm not a dude

I say the start of a flower bed, because as you can see, most of my flowers are either TINY… or you can’t even see them, because they are teeny tiny little seeds that haven’t even started to sprout yet. The finished product should be lovely though. Here are some random pictures of the flowers that will HOPEFULLY grow in our front garden.

Next week onto the back to plant the veggies!

Today, I walked in the “GREATEST SPECTACLE IN DOG WALKING” otherwise known as the Mutt Strut. It is a fundraiser for the Indianapolis Humane Society! It was great fun! I went with Lula our younger mutt, my friend Carol, and her dog Gertie,  and my friend Melissa, her daughter Kayla and their dog Nugget! It was so fun to see all the dogs out, and our dogs were SO well behaved. Better yet, the 2.5 mile track didn’t kill me. In October I did a 3 mile walk, and I didn’t think I’d make it, and on this walk, I was surprised we were done already! I am really getting in better shape!!!

So we haven’t posted in a LONG time… and it has come to our attention that not EVERYONE is on “THE FACEBOOK,” and that the friends and family who are not into the social networking still may want some updates of our goings on and updates of the growing boy. SO we are once again vowing to be better bloggers… we promise…. really… we mean it this time.

So since we last blogged…  Alistair has been growing like a weed.  He is a full-fledged TODDLER!!! And man is it taking some getting used to. Everyday is filled with joy, wonderment, exhaustion and frustration for ALL THREE OF US. Every time Alistair says a new word or phrase, or learns something new it is amazing… unless of course it is a new temper tantrum technique. This week’s new language developments are, “Awesome,” “frog,” “apple” and “Bye Daddy.” He is particularly proud about the “bye daddy” accomplishment and says it to Michael even if he is just going into the kitchen, or just stepping away 3 feet from him. It is pretty cute.  Today we dyed Easter eggs and had an indoor hunt and looked for Alistair’s Easter basket, there may be a video of all that posted soon.

Most of our time is spent with Alistair, but when we are not hanging out with him, we are working out (Michael finally joined the gym with me and now he is my work out buddy),  I have lost 28 lbs and he has lost 7 or 8. Before you think I am defying the laws of men and women and actually losing more than him you should know that  I started trying about 5 months ago and he just started a couple weeks ago, I am sure he will quickly surpass me.  I am still very into my hobbies of knitting and genealogy. I am nearly finished with an Easter Vest for Alistair (pictures to come) and have also finally finished my first sock, something I have wanted to do for a long time.  now I just need to make the other one, so i have a pair.

Michael is still an avid golfer. He had the opportunity to golf in Hawaii on our vacation and was thrilled to make this season’s first birdie shot while in Hawaii.

That is all that is new with us. I’m posting some pictures here to catch you up to the last several months.

Wow. Time just flies when you have a little guy. Alistair went from not crawling in month 10 to crawling AND walking by month 13. He’s figured out how to dance for us and walks in a tight circle waving his arms!

His first birthday party was exciting with some good friends in town. Unfortunately we lost our camera at the event so we don’t have any pictures to show! It’s very sad.

I know this is the first post in a long time. Apologies, Jessica has been busy on Ancestry.com I’ve got some entertaining things to post but need a camera to get the pictures….. Oh well.

We got a growth ultrasound last week. Here is the latest picture of the little dude. We’ll post nursery pictures soon.

Alistair Fraser

The little dude’s face, all tucked in and cozy!

We have a baby boy on the way! She’s due July 17th. Here’s a video from the ultrasound…

So Jessica decided that another dog was in order and we picked up another mutt and decided upon Lula for the name. Loki wasn’t exactly a huge fan at first but he’;s definitely enjoining the company of a sister.

Lula is about 4 months old. Its definitely different experience from when we picked up Loki (who was very sick and almost a year old). Her personality will allow for good training too. She got her first freedom experience and ended up in the backyard of a house we had looked at purchasing before the one we got.

The winter weather keeps trying to edge its way back in with spring not really tollerating it. We are looking forward to the first summer in the house.

March 7th 1937 – Feb 26th 2008

He was a great husband; father; grandfather; great grandfather. He will be missed by all that knew him, but never forgotten.

Michael and I recently had a very bad experience with the Indiana State Department of Revenue. Although the matter has been taken care of I feel the need to rant about it some more.

At the end of June I got a letter saying that i didn’t pay our state tax bill, I knew that I had so I called and asked how to fix the problem. The woman told me to return the payment envelope with a copy of my tax return and the cashed check. I did this.

A couple of week later I got another notice, still saying we hadn’t paid. I called again. This woman told me that the first customer service rep had given me the wrong place to send my info. She gave me an address and told me to write a letter this time and include the same documents as before. I did the.

Then on Saturday I received a tax warrant in the mail from the Marion County Sherriff’s department! I was SOOO mad. I called this morning and a BRILLIANT woman at the Taxpayer Advocacy OFfice got it cleared up. THey had for some strange reason applied my check to my 2007 account. So basically it was has if I prepaid my 2007 tax bill. Weird.

It is obvious, however, that whoever received my documentation those first two times, chose to do nothing with it, instead of getting to the bottom of the situation.

Any, that has been the excitment around here. My cousin Heather has moved closer nad gotten a puppy. We’ll post pictures, he is a cutey. And I am still a knitting fool. If anyone knows of a good site for free knitting patterns let me know.

Also the Indy Irish Fest is the 15-17th, call if you want to meet us there.