Aunt Sarah and 2.5!!!

We had such a wonderful treat this week...Aunt Sarah came over to visit us from Portland ME for the day on Wednesday!  Sarah is my newest sister-in-law who just officially joined the family when she married Scott's brother, Brian, in November.  Their wedding was BEAUTIFUL!

From the minute Sarah walked in the door, Camden wouldn't let her sit down.  They played "hockey" around the living room (Camden's current favorite pastime) for at least an hour, read lots of books, had a yummy lunch and I got to bring Sarah down to the new house to show her the progress!  Lots had been done since she was last here to help!
Here we are when they were here for Thanksgiving...


During Camden's nap, Sarah and I made some playdough from scratch!  I was so proud of myself, even though Sarah organized and pretty much did the whole thing!  :)  We even created the dyes from various edible things (boiled down blueberries and Tumeric - I don't even know what that is, but it worked!)  She found the recipe here.

Camden was SOOO excited when he woke up from his nap.  We had a great time playing with our new playdough and he's still enjoying it today!  :)

Thanks so much for making the trip to come see us, Aunt Sarah!  We miss you already!

Wednesday also happened to be Camden's half birthday!  I can't believe I have a two and a half year old!  He helped me make a cake today and has been singing Happy Birthday to himself the last few days!
Here he is helping me in the kitchen...

 Camden's half birthday cake for his half birthday!  :)

 Our excited boy!

 Trying to show how old he is!

Some recent milestone's for Camden:
-  Counts to 18 (I had no idea he could do this!)
-  Knows all the letters of the alphabet
-  Sleeping much better
-  Down to one nap a day
-  Very good with Micah
-  Will sit and read books for an hour at a time (by himself or with one of us!)
-  Finally stays in the church nursery by himself!!
-  Usually uses please and thank you
-  Can throw an incredible temper tantrum
-  Obsessed with all things related to sports
-  Poops on the potty every night, but refuses to wear big boy undies yet!

Social Network

My sister, Caren, posted this fascinating article on Facebook a few days ago.  It's entitled The Anti-Social Network - By Helping Other People Look Happy, Facebook is Making Us Sad and discusses how people who use social networking sites can almost create a character that they want others to see  - post perfect pictures, list all our wonderful accomplishments, post little status updates that will draw praise from our "friends" etc.  By sifting through all these "air-brushed" versions of our "friends" on a daily basis, many people start to feel worse about themselves by playing the comparison game.  I have to admit, I've done it before myself.  "Oh, look at her status.  Her baby slept for 14 hours straight!  Why doesn't our baby do that?"  "Oh look, they actually have time to go out on romantic dates all the time."  "What?!  Their kid walked at 8.5 months?  Who do they think they are showing that off to the world?" (OK - that was us...I admit it.  I get sucked in to posting things I'm proud of on Facebook too!)

The article says, "Any parent who has posted photos and videos of her child on Facebook is keenly aware of the resulting disconnect from reality, the way chronicling parenthood this way creates a story line of delightfully misspoken words, adorably worn hats, dancing, blown kisses. Tearful falls and tantrums are rarely recorded, nor are the stretches of pure, mind-blowing tedium. We protect ourselves, and our kids, this way; happiness is impersonal in a way that pain is not. But in the process, we wind up contributing to the illusion that kids are all joy, no effort."

I am guilty of this on both Facebook and my blog.  I love to put funny quotes of things Camden said, announce with joy that he FINALLY slept through the night at age 2, show off Micah's adorable little smile that we can get on command now.  I love to post pictures once a month or so and I'm not gonna lie, I LOVE reading everyone's comments on them!  It's fun to show off our families.  I'm proud of my kids.  I'm proud of my marriage.  I'm proud of our little life that we've created for ourselves here in NH.  BUT, it's true...I don't often express my frustrations on the internet.  So, for those of you who think my life is just perfect and I have perfect children and nothing ever goes wrong, here are a few things that will make you feel better about your own life instead of worse!
-  I have not slept through the night in over 2.5 years!
-  Camden is at such a fun age right now, but there are moments (almost daily) when he absolutely makes me SO angry I could cry.
-  Sometimes it seems like Scott and I are two ships passing in the night.  His schedule is insanely busy and I miss him.
-  90% of the time I LOVE being a stay at home mom, but there are moments when I miss having more adult interaction and more of a sense of "purpose" - (although I do feel like this is where I'm meant to be and where I WANT to be...but there are moments when it's tough!)
-  I will never be as good of an athlete or as skinny as I was before I had kids.  grrrr.
-  Our house is going to be awesome, but gutting and renovating a house on top of two kids and Scott's full-time+ job is exhausting!
-  I hate folding laundry and it seems as though it's going to be a daily activity for the rest of my life.  ugh.
-  Money is tight now that we bought a house (we've always been frugal, but now we really have to be) and I can't just go to the outlets anymore to get out of the house.  (We did stop by Old Navy over the weekend and I spent $30 for $153 worth of clothes for the boys for next winter!  Bargain shopper!  :)
-  Sometimes I'm lonely and for the number of years that we've been here, I just don't feel like I've made as many close friendships as I would like to have.
-  I've been sick for four days now and my eyes are stinging and I need to go to bed!

There!  How's that for a reality check!  Now, this isn't a pity party.  In fact, I had some really awesome blog ideas I was going to write about that were infused with thankfulness and adorable photos of my precious children and happiness, and I'm still going to write those, but I also don't want to be one of those people who paints this "perfect" little picture of myself and my life and in turn make other people sadder (as the article talks about). 

Luckily, I can hold on to the truth that, "Though the darkness may last for the night, His joy comes in the morning." 

Television

I have a love/hate relationship with TV.  I don't want to watch television, but I do.  I don't want to get excited about certain shows, but I do.  I don't want it to be something I schedule certain evenings around, but I do.  Grrrr!  I don't WANT to like tv...but I DO!  This is actually something that really bothers me.  I grew up without a television...and I kind of liked it that way.  My parents tell me that my sister and I didn't know what to ask for for Christmas because we weren't aware of all the newest and coolest toys.  I didn't know what I was missing, and honestly, it really wasn't much!  I wrote a long research paper in high school about the negative effects that television can have on children and my teacher was so fascinated by some of the things I found in my research that he passed the paper around to some other teachers in the school.  He and two or three other teachers all got rid of their television sets after that!  Scott and I are probably not going to get cable when we move into our new house, and honestly, I'm kind of excited about it.  If it's not available it will be much easier to avoid.  (And it doesn't hurt that I can watch most of my favorite shows online the next day if I still want to keep up with what's going on in the world of pop culture).  I don't want Camden and Micah to grow up glued to the television.  We limit how much and what we watch in the house with Camden, but he already LOVES to watch an occasional show.  He'll wake up from a nap and immediately ask to "watch show" and when I say no I then have to deal with a mini-tantrum...it would be so much more enjoyable if it wasn't an automatic desire for him.  BUT, (and there is a big but here), I do love the option of television when I'm just having one of those days and I need a little time to breath on my own.

And I do love my guilty pleasures of which I have quite a few.  Confession: I love reality shows.  Not The Hills or Real Housewives of New York or Jersey Shore (Is that a reality show?  I've never seen it).  Not that type of reality show.  I love Dancing With the Stars, The Bachelor/ette and American Idol type of reality shows.  I will forever be fascinated by how dedicated and committed the actors, musicians, comedians, athletes are to learning how to dance on Dancing with the Stars.  It is so impressive to me how these people put their careers on hold (*I know they are making major money being on the show, but their not usually doing their "normal" job at the same time*) and put so many hours into learning and practicing dance.  They get so emotionally and physically spent and it is fun to see how they improve and struggle through the season.  One thing I like about The Bachelor/ette and American Idol is that the people on these shows really are real people.  Now some of them are total wack-jobs there to try and get their fifteen minutes of fame, but others are just normal, everyday people who wind up being household names.  I mean, you have to admit it's pretty cool that Carrie Underwood was a young girl from a tiny town and is now a best-selling Grammy-winning artist.  I find it fascinating to hear the backgrounds of certain people, to hear their stories and to wonder how I would handle certain situations if I found myself facing those same things.

Two current stories have just broken my heart.  This guy just auditioned for Idol last night and has a heartbreaking story.  But he's so inspiring, so devoted, and it makes me happy to see people like this on television.

And this woman is currently on The Bachelor - what a story she has...

I like stories like these...I want to root for these people.  I want them to find happiness and success...and I don't want to give up my TV.  We'll see what happens when we move, but for now, I have to run, American Idol is on.  Seriously.

Dorm Life

I SO wanted to blog today.  I miss blogging and it's been a whole week since I was last on here - I know...I'm SUCH a slacker!  I didn't have a chance tonight, but I did update our dorm blog.  Check this out to get a little peek at what our life is like living in a dorm!  Always entertaining...and always lots of junk food!  I'll never lose these last few baby pounds living in a dorm with all this delicious food!  A real blog post coming very soon!  I promise!  :)

Our Gutted House...

So when I say we gutted our house...I wasn't exaggerating.  It is down to the studs and we are finally starting the more exciting project of putting it back together!  The photos below were all taken on December 29th, and since then our brother-in-law, Dave, has framed the bathroom and some closets upstairs and the electrician has started his work as well!  Next week brings plumbing and insulation then sheetrock, then paint, and ta-da - a brand new house!  Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it sounds.  Scott has been putting in so much time on top of his teaching and coaching responsibilities here at school to get bids from people, meet them down at the house, make decisions on who to hire etc... This weekend we finished tearing out the sheetrock and plaster in the final two upstairs bedrooms.  I spent an hour or so over there with Scott on Sunday (during his 4 hour stint) and it was probably the most time we've spent together just the two of us in ages!  We had fun wearing our facemasks, singing along to the country songs blasting from the little boombox and putting time into our house together - slowly but surely making it our own.  Can't wait for the finished product, but doing our best to enjoy the process as well!  Here's what things were looking like a couple weeks ago...

 Looking from our kitchen down into the dining room...

 Corner of dining room looking into living room...

 Upstairs, looking from bathroom across landing into two kids bedrooms...

 From corner of bathroom...(bathroom is now framed and space to the right in this picture is our bedroom).

 bathroom into bedroom which is two separate rooms now...

And it wouldn't be a complete blog without a precious picture of at least one of our cutie pies!  Gotta love little Micah-Man!

Snow, Bouncing and Sleep

 We had a wonderful day today.  Although Scott had to teach a class this morning and then travel to Holderness for a basketball game, we still managed to get some family time in.  It was cold outside, but Camden and Daddy had fun watching the ski races over at the ski area and playing outside in the snow together when they got home...

 My very handsome husband...

 Our happy boy...

 After a quick lunch, Camden convinced first Mama, and then Daddy, to play his favorite game..."Boing Mama! Boing on ball Dada!"  (This game means that Scott (or I) sit on our exercise ball and bounce Camden up and down on it as high as we can - this game is much more fun with Daddy than it is with me...)  I lay on the floor with Micah during this to see what his perspective is...kinda fun!

 Resting with Daddy after lots of fun...

 Gotta love the glowing ears...  :)

And I'm not here to start a debate with anyone or tell you what is right or wrong when it comes to your child's sleep, but I will say that snuggling up with my baby in bed, feeling his breath on my face and his warm little body against mine is the best feeling in the world...the best part of each day. 

Here's Micah with me today...

 And Camden with me at just three weeks old...

Oh we just love our boys and our little family...Thankful for squeezing family time in even on a work day.

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

 We spent a wonderful evening tonight with our soon-to-be neighbors.  Nancy and Ken hosted an amazing dinner party for our neighborhood and our families.  I grew up being family friends with the families on both sides of our house, but had never met Ken and Bob who live in the other house on our road.  It felt incredible to spend time with such wonderful people and we are SO excited to be part of such a great community.

 Clara loved drinking out of a wineglass...

 Nancy is an incredible cook!

 Checking out all the incredible old things we found in our walls...

ramblings and famous folks

I have been such a blog slacker this week and it makes me so sad!  I have all these random ideas floating around in my head and just haven't had the time or clarity of mind to actually sit down and write!  And even now, with both boys sleeping at the moment (although it's probably just a matter of minutes before Micah wakes up...) I still don't think I'm going to be able to articulate anything very interesting.  Oh well, I'll do my best!

As you all know, New England got pounded with snow today!  It was so fun to sit in our little home and watching it coming down in buckets all day.  For some strange reason, I thought I would try to be super-mom and walk the boys down to the dining hall for lunch.  Part of me wanted to be super-mom and the other part of me was SO sick of being cooped up in our one-room downstairs.  We also haven't been grocery shopping in ages, and didn't have anything in the house to eat.  So, I bundled the boys up - snowsuits, boots, hats, mittens - and trekked outside.  My baby carrier was in the car (which was about 15 yards away on unshoveled walkways and covered with over a foot of snow) so I decided to push Micah in the double stroller.  That was a mistake.  I put him in there and covered the whole stroller with a huge blanket to block out the wind.  He was screaming the whole way.  Camden wanted to walk on his own, but was taking FOREVER so I finally convinced him to sit in the stroller with Micah.  I almost died going down the huge hill (literally slipping and sliding with my monstrous double stroller skidding and pulling me down the hill) and then Camden decided he didn't want to ride and tried to climb out of the stroller while we were still moving.  Meanwhile, my head is buried, staring at the ground as wind whips snow into my face.  It was a miserable 10 minutes and the only thing that made me feel better was seeing my friend Molly come into the dining hall looking just as flushed, frustrated, out of breath and exhausted as I was after walking over with her two kids.  We commiserated with each other a bit and convinced ourselves never to try THAT again!  Ugh!

On another note, we had such a fun evening on Saturday.  Scott and Gregor brought their basketball team up to Dartmouth to watch them play Harvard.  Rather than sitting home alone all evening, the boys and I joined them.  Camden had a blast watching the game, dancing to the music during time outs, eating popcorn and climbing around on the bleachers.

Scott was able to drive home with us rather than on the bus so we decided to stop at Ramunto's for pizza since it was getting pretty late.

Two of my FAVORITE books of all time.
Images taken from http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Part way through our meal, my favorite author of all time (Jodi Picoult) walked into the restaurant and sat right next to us!  I was freaking out to Scott, but he did a good job calming me down and convincing me not to say anything to her.  I'm not sure Scott quite understands how famous and how talented this woman is!  She has written 17 novels (the last three of which have debuted at number one on the New York Times best seller list!) and her books are translated into 34 different languages...let's just say she's super talented and well-known!  It made my day to see her eating pizza with her son and took all I had in me not to tell her how much I love her! 

Images taken from Amazon and Tomie.com

This experience came on the heels of a funny experience on Christmas Eve with our other local hero, Tomie dePaola.  Tomie has been published for over 40 years and has written/illustrated over 200 books.  Some of my favorite children's books were written by Tomie, and although he lives in New London, we don't see him very often.  On Christmas Eve we were out to dinner with my family and when my mom brought Clara to the bathroom she pointed out that Tomie was sitting at the Bar with some friends.  On her way back, Clara walked slowly by him and he struck up a conversation with her.  He was so kind and she was talking his ear off (we could all see and hear every word from the table we were sitting at).  The best line was when Clara says, "I've driven by your house before!" - aka: my family stalks you!  So funny.  He was unphased and was so sweet to her.





We've been making some good progress on our house recently!  The electrician will be in there next week!  I'll post some pictures soon of our gutted house!  It's pretty crazy!

Oh dear...Micah is up...gotta run.  Goodnight!

Cabinets - Help!

Have I mentioned that there are a TON of decisions to be made when you're essentially rebuilding a house that has been gutted??  Let's just say that to someone who struggles with indecision, this can be a very daunting task!  So, we've decided we're going with white cabinets in our new house and I'm super excited about how our kitchen designs are turning out.  We have two cabinet styles right now that we're trying to decide between and we need your input.  One style is a simple shaker door and the other has more detail.  The pictures I have of the shaker style are not in white (unfortunately), but we would be ordering the white version of these and these samples are not true to size either, so don't pay too much attention to anything but the style/detailing!

So, in keeping with our updated, but old (mid-1800's), house with lots of character and charm, should we go with the simple shaker or the style with more detail?  VOTE BELOW and leave a comment if you have any reasoning behind your vote!  Thanks in advance for your help!

Shaker Style:

Greater Detail:

Happy New Year

Wow!  What a year it has been in the Allenby household!  Just this year, we welcomed little Micah Gray into our family, gained two new sisters-in-law as both of Scott's brothers got married, bought a house and had Scott's parents move to the area from Vermont!  We spent New Years Eve with our friends Amy and Gregor and their family, eating delicious homemade pizzas and standing around a bonfire.  Of course, we were home and sitting on the couch by 9:00pm, but it was a fun way to spend the evening.  I missed ringing in the New Year, as I was snuggled up in bed with my littlest boy sleeping against my chest by the time midnight rolled around.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was a senior in high school and my family and I were huddled around the fireplace in my great-grandmothers old house in Castine, ME on New Years Eve, waiting to see if the world would end with Y2K.  Thankfully it didn't end, as I have been blessed with so many incredible opportunities in this last decade.  Here are a few of the highs and lows I've personally experienced since 2000...

-  Spent a summer working with children in Romania with the Viata program
-  Made the best friends of my life at Gordon College
-  Played soccer and basketball at Gordon and loved every second of it
-  Met the love of my life, denied him for a while, God ruptured my appendix and made me realize what a catch he was (long, but good, story!)...
-  Played semi-pro soccer with the Charlotte Eagles in North Carolina (as a reserve)
-  Nannied for my favorite family on the North Shore
-  Varsity Girls Soccer coach and Assistant Athletic Director at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School
-  Teacher and first ever female varsity coach at Cardigan Mountain School (all boys 6-9 grade school)
-  Watched my dad face and overcome kidney cancer
-  Lost my grandmother, Scott's grandmother and a close family friend and coach
-  Married my best friend
-  Taught US History and Sociology at Proctor and coached soccer and basketball (and tennis for one year!)
-  Scott got his Masters degree
-  Gave birth to our beautiful Camden
-  Watched my mom face and overcome breast cancer
-  Suffered a miscarriage
-  Lost our family dog Cody after 14.5 years of life
-  Gave birth to our amazing little Micah
-  Purchased and renovating our first home

We've made new friends, maintained old friendships, gotten involved in a new church that we're excited about, spent wonderful time with family and are feeling very thankful for all that God has blessed us with.  Let's hope 2011 is a wonderful year and that I can look back on this coming decade with the same appreciation I have for my last 10(11) years!  Happy New Year!