Just an Update

**Turned out quite long, but there are pictures at the end!**
How did it get to be the middle of March?  Time flies...March began with the Broadway production of Annie for Analeigh and me.  Grandma and Papa Waters had given her two tickets to go see it for her birthday.  The show was on March 1st and every day leading up to it she would ask me how many days until Annie.  That night she wore her pretty red shirt, black skirt and red tights.  We ran into a friend she knows from school there and her friend was wearing black tights, red skirt, and black shirt.  They got a kick out of that!  We had great seats and it was a fun show.  It got over at 10:20pm, so Analeigh was very tired at the end...Analeigh very rarely is able to stay awake that long. 

Analeigh can pretty much read anything you put in front of her now...she is doing great!  And she is learning to tell time. She just finished a session of gymnastics classes through the YMCA that she loved and can now do cart wheels pretty well!  It was a great class for her.  We just might have to sign up for the next session.

Abigail is 16 months old now and the end of February brought her first ever trip to the doctor for a sick visit.  Poor baby.  She had ear infections in both ears, and a super runny/congested nose.  She and I have been passing colds back and forth since the end of January.  She is so pleasant all the time though, so the only way I knew she probably had an ear infection is from noticing her swatting at her ears throughout the day.  Luckily she has a daddy that can take a peek in her ears and see if it is worth a trip to the pediatrician, and it was.  The doc prescribed some Amoxicillin for her and she was feeling better in just a few days (I should probably take a trip to the doc myself so I can get rid of this lingering head cold :) ).  She is feeling better now.  Some stats on her:  she is 22 lbs., 30 and 3/4" tall, has 8 teeth in front and 2 molars all the way in with 2 more coming through.  She has been the slowest one to talk so far, but is really picking up on it now.  She says Dada, Mama, all done, all gone, mmmuuh for milk, and her most recent - mooo (cow) and uff uff (dog).  She gives the sweetest kisses (she can actually pucker and give you a real kiss and not just the slobbery open mouth ones, although we'll tak those too!) and waves bye-bye or hello.  She gets so absolutely happy when the school bus pulls up in the afternoon and waves and waves until Alex and Analeigh come running over to her.  She LOVES books.  She cannot get enough of them and most of her books have found their way into the toy bin downstairs because she prefers them over the toys.  She has become quite the copycat to Scott and I and we catch her doing the funniest things, like...pretending to blow her nose, stretch her arms back behind her head and rest them there, finding anything to use as a rag and wiping at the floors and walls.  She also helps me do the laundry.  I will be leaning over the washer putting laundry detergent in and she will come walking over with an arm load of clothes from one of the piles.  She is too cute.  We just can't get enough of her!

Alex got lucky and was able to go with Scott to see the Harlem Globetrotters a few nights ago.  They went with some friends from church/cub scouts.  What a dream come true for a couple of 9 year old boys!  Alex bought one of the programs with all of the pictures of the players in it and they were able to stay afterward and get several autographs from the players!!  I am told they had a blast and laughed sooo hard because it was so funny!  AND they had fantastic seats too! 

Alex has been part of a team this year for Destination Imagination at school.  They had a tournament the last weekend in February.  The teams have been preparing for this all year.  This was the first year for all of our team members (and the team manager), so we weren't really sure what to expect, but the kids all did really well in the end and had a good time.  It is really hard to explain what Destination Imagination is, but they have several particular subjects that they have to research (such as glaciers, pitcher plant, California Condor, etc.) before the tournament and be prepared to make up (in 7 minutes) and act out (in under 5 minutes) a skit as a group involving one of those subjects and a characer trait.  Then they also have to do an instant challenge where they are given a set of objects and have to make something out of them that works in some particular way (such as have a moving part of some kind, etc.).  Really hard to explain it all, but it was right up Alex's alley.  There group was a little difficult to work with.  They had a couple of rowdies that weren't too keen on staying focused and Alex would often come away from their team meetings very frustrated.  The day of the tournament, though, they all worked together really well and focused and came in 5th out of 10, which is, in all honestly, better than I thought they might do, haha.  But it was a good experience and he will want to do it again next year.  Now it is on to SOCCER SEASON!!!  Yea!

I am plugging along with this pregnancy, and actually feeling pretty darn good this time around (so far anyway, let's not jinx anything).  I am still fitting in my regular clothes at 15 weeks, which is a plus for a 4th pregnancy.  I am already anemic, which is not too surprising because I always am, but besides the tiredness, not too much of a problem.  I am taking my iron and vitamins and hoping I won't get too anemic.  

Scott was a judge for the instant challenges at the DI tournament (not Alex's team, of course).  He had a good time.  It was interesting for him to see the different things these kids would come up with (grades 3-5).  On the day they had training for the judges they made each of them tell the others one thing about themselves that is interesting.  Scott chose to say that he was born in Idaho (which got him the nickname of Spud-Man).  From that fact they had to come up with some sort of hat to wear that represented that fact.  I told him I would make a potato out of a pair of nylons to attach to a hat and he was horrified.  After he saw how funny it looked, he was a little more ok with it.  And then he remembered he was wearing it for a bunch of kids and then it was all ok (although I never saw him with it on at the tournament, but he claims he wore it in the room where he was judging). =)

We are ALL looking forward to May 30th when we get to fly out to Utah and stay a week for Amanda's wedding!  I made a paper chain for the kids to keep track of how long we have to wait until then.  It can't come soon enough!! 

Alex and Scott after the DI tournament-Alex has "glowing teeth" in his mouth

The Spud-Man hat we put together for Scott for the tournament-awesome, huh?

Right after "Annie"

Abigail LOVES her baths!

Alex with one of the Globetrotters