Wonderful Christmas

What a week!!! Today is finally Friday, December 29, 2006....only 2 more days of 2006 and then comes...2007!!! What excitement!!! We look forward to a year full of HAPPYness!!

Christmas was great....Allison pretty much went to the cleaners for her first Christmas, haha. She received so many great gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, great grandparents, godmother, and of course from her mommy and daddy. So many new toys....and the greatest thing about them....they are learning toys. Although she wasn't able to open her gifts herself....(mommy really enjoyed ripping the paper off her gifts) she looked at every new item with amazement, maybe it was the bright colors?

Allison also got to meet her "cousin" Mackenzie (2nd cousin). She lives all the way out on the east coast.....it was so cute seeing Mackenzie looking at Allison and touching her. Grandma White's house was packed and fun like usual...went to Church and took a big family photo. We had everyone there except for my cousin's wife Abbey. Hopefully she'll be able to make it next year...or sometime soon. I'm looking forward to this upcoming summer as I hear quite of a few of us will be in Okoboji, IA for our week long family get together in June/July. So it'll be great to see everyone again.

More news....my brother and his wife are headed off to Panama City, Panama (in central america) for his new job. He accepted the position as Regional Business Manager for LCMS World Mission earlier this year and has been traveling all over latin america. We are very excited for them as they begin a new journey and wish them the best of luck. We may have to plan a trip down south to see them within the next year as we will miss them terribly.

Well, that's about it for now, it's getting late and my bed time! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy and safe New Year!!!

Oh and we uploaded more photos to our online photo album, so just click on the link and check 'em out!!!

Allison is 2 months old!!!

Today is Allison's 2 Month BIRTHDAY!!!! We spent most of the day taking naps, then headed to the doctor for her 2 month checkup this afternoon. Doctor says she looks great. She is 12 lbs and 4 oz, and measures 23 1/2 inches. My lil caterpillar toy that I measured her with a few weeks ago, but be a little off, but hey I was close!!! The do this percentile thingy with where they rank against other babies. So for weight she is at 85%, height is 88% and her head circumference was 40 inches so she is at 80% for that. SO she is just growing and growing. We are anxiously awaiting to see how big she will be at 4 months!!! She also got 3 shots and her first dose of the rotavirus vaccine. She took the rotavirus well, it's given orally. As for the shots...it took like a second or two for her to realize that the shots hurt, but as soon as they were done and she was in mommy's arms she was fine. I just hope she doesn't have any allergic reactions to any of the vaccines.

Anyway, so I've kind of been watching "The Biggest Loser" on tv....mostly the last few episodes, tonight is the finale....and it's really....pushed me to try to lose some weight....the healthy way. They say that since I'm breastfeeding it's not good to go on a diet....but I won't be doing a diet....I'll just be exercising more and eating healthy foods, instead of fast food and frozen dinners....chuck and I lived off of those during my pregnancy, b/c they were easy and fast to fix. Plus I've kind of noticed that I'm getting drained from my vitamins, since they are pulled into my breastmilk for Allison. So I really need to get it in gear!!

So maybe that'll be my new years resolution??? B/c right now it's not time to really start to eat healthy....especially with all the Christmas cookies around!!! So we are really excited to come home for Christmas, like my previous blogs read!! I made a special trip back to Iowa last weekend, to see a good friend of mine who now lives in San Diego, CA. SO I stayed at mom and dad's in Akron for 4 days. So we, (Allison and I, chuck had to work) got to see Mom, Dad, Katie, and JOn & Heidi. Also we were able to see Nana & Gramps(chuck's grandma & Grandpa) and Bonnie (chuck's mom) So that's great!!!

So next week we head to Iowa...again. I really can't believe that Christmas is only 12 days away!!! We head home to Iowa on the 21st, to Fonda to Grandma Bonnie's. We have Christmas with her family on the 23rd and then on the 24th we have Christmas with her and Chuck's brother and his girlfriend. Then that night we head to Newell, IA to Grandma Whites for Dinner, Church, and a gift exchange. Then from there we will drive to Akron to mom and dad's house. It'll be a late night!!! We'll have Xmas with my family then, and the day after Xmas we will go to Chuck's grandparents and step grandparents in Sioux City. Chuck will head home sometime around the 28th or the 29th. He'll leave Allison and I in Akron, b/c the Heisterkamp Xmas (the extended family) is on the 30th at my parents home. Then my brother and his wife leave on January 2nd to Panama City, Panama from Sioux Falls, SD. They will be living there for possibly a few years doing Mission work. So we will be staying to help "send them off" Then I'll make my way back to Raymore!!! So it's lots of traveling for this family....especially since it's all driving!!!

Anyway, I hope this finds everyone anxiously awaiting the Birthday of Jesus!!!! Such a wonderful time of year!!! I just wish people could be this "nice" and "generous" year round, the world would be such a better place!! Have a great rest of the week!!!

Just another day..

Today Allison and I spent the day pretty much doing nothing. Chuck picked up an extra shift today, so he is still at work....he is working at 10am shift instead of his norm of a 7am. Plus they are 12 hour shifts. So anyway, I was able to get up and feed Allison and then she zonked out, so I was able to shower and get ready for church. It is so nice having church at 10:45am. We didn't make it last weekend b/c we woke up late and she was hungry and I hadn't showered....etc. etc, So it was nice to be at church again. I love the members of the congregation. They are so.....AWESOME! They have completely welcomed Me into the "family" And they have also welcomed Allison....and Chuck too, even though he isn't a member. Which I think is just....very....Christian like....I missed that for a year or so of my life recently. So I'm glad that I have gotten back into the habit of going.

So we had our snowfall last week. We ended up getting only 8inches....where it wasn't drifted. If you count the drifts....we may have gotten a foot or so of snow. Chuck woke up on Friday morning and started scooping the snow. First off the back deck...of course to clear a clean path for Lucy....and then he made it to the driveway and the front steps. Our driveway was the only driveway on our blocked that was scooped!!! I guess people don't scoop snow down here b/c they think it will melt right away....well it did melt a lil but it got so cold at night that everything refroze, so the slush turned to ice!! So glad we didn't have a slippery crunchy driveway. Oh and...it was great snow....so fluffy, not heavy at all.....but...our neighbor (a house or two down) had to pull out his snowthrower (snowblower) in order to remove his snow. I'm not sure why you would even have a snowblower down here, b/c it normally melts right away....plus....he looked like a pretty healthy guy...strong enough to take a shovel and scoop. Oh well I guess....he just really didn't want a light workout. HEHE. I love scooping the driveway...especially since it usually only snows 2 or 3 times down here.
Well...it's been a long day. Allison is asleep on a few blankets by the Christmas tree with Lucy laying next to her. The news is on and more news will be on in 30 minutes. The warm heating blanket is calling my name!!!

Chuck and Allison all bundled up to scoop snow.