Single, pregnant, exhausted...

Ok, so I'm not single...but when your husband is gone a minimum of three days a week (and really more like 4 or 5) it can begin to feel like single-parenting. I have been so terrible at updating my blog during the beginning of this pregnancy. I used to always work on my blog at night while Justin was out of town and the kids were sleeping, but throughout this pregnancy since Justin has been traveling so much I have been too exhausted to blog at night. I usually fall asleep while laying with the kids and only hours later drag myself down to my bed from the bunk beds. I am just now (17 weeks in) beginning to feel better. I'm hoping that that means I will resume my more regular blogging practices because I like to have this as my record/journal, but truthfully I think that every pregnant woman knows that exhaustion becomes a way of life and other things may suffer as a result.

Jessie has reminded me on several occasions how long it has been since I updated my blog, so I decided I could at least post a ton of pictures. I wish that there were an easier system than blogger because I think that there could be better ways to layout a page and have copy accompany your pictures, unfortunately with this system I usually write all of my text first and then upload the pictures or vice versa so there aren't really captions to accompany each picture. I know that some people mean serious business with their blogs and they take the time to go to the "edit html" section and add captions to their pictures but there is no way that I am doing that for each of the over 50 pictures posted below. Instead I'll just write briefly about all of the separate events pictured. I tried to post the pictures from most recent to most outdated.

The first group is from our family at the Austin kite festival. None of our pictures really do the experience justice but it was amazing to see literally hundreds and hundreds of kites flying together in the sky above the city skyline. Some kites were very elaborate and I'm sure very expensive, while others were clearly homemade. The kids had a great time but were angry that we weren't prepared with our own kites or able to purchase anything cool since it was on a Sunday. I had only learned about the festival the day before from a friend so we decided that after church and the kids naps we would head down and check it out. It was really fun. Ruby (who looked like a homeless waif) wouldn't keep her hair bow in and kept running away to chase the kites. The rest of the kids just wanted to be in on the action and let me know which kites they just had to have for next year. Austin is quite windy and is really a great place for kite flying so I'm sure that one day my kids will have a chance to try it for themselves. I can't even remember the last time I flew a kite but I think it was at Meadowlark Park back before they used to charge for admission, i.e. a zillion years ago. Anyway, I walked into the tree that my children are pictured sitting in and my head began to bleed, it was very graceful as I'm sure you can imagine.

The next two sets of pictures are from the same day. It was about 40 degrees here and Justin and I were in our room when we heard quite a commotion outside in the backyard at about 8AM. We looked outside and saw our kids using a game given to them by Grandma and Grandpa Allen for Christmas. The game includes four animal tails that the children are to strap around their waists and then try to pull off of one another, it's sort of a cross between tag and flag football. It's an adorable game but I was surprised to see Abbie outside in panties and sneakers. She told me that she would have been too embarrassed to go outside in just her p.j.'s. I could see that this was a much better option. I'm not sure how the boys had the good sense to get dressed. The second set of photos from that day was from a play date with some of the kids from Abbie's preschool class. The girl in the photo's it Brooke Blakeney, Abbie's bosom buddy. The two of them run toward each other in seemingly slow motion every time they have school and embrace by the backpack hooks...weird. I always thought that the girls at my high school who would hug when they saw each other were so bizarre. Hug, hug, see you after science...so strange and totally unnecessary. [Oops, I see now that those two sets of photos were reversed but I'm sure you figured that out]

The three photos after that were taken while I was out of town in Salt Lake for Brody's birth, but I thought that they were cute and totally blog-worthy.

Ok, these pictures are from the President's Club trip of Apple's this year. We went to Mexico and had such a great time, except for the fact that we got the most horrific sunburns of our lives on the very first day as you can see in all of the photos. Also, there were several outings on which I thought I would probably throw up in front of a lot of Justin's colleagues due to the never-ending morning sickness. In one such situation, on a bus ride to some Mayan ruins, I really thought I wasn't going to make it and had decided to throw up into my Michael Kors purse. When Justin learned of this he told me that I was to throw up on the bus floor and that everyone would certainly understand and then I could salvage my purse. I had flashbacks to one time when I threw up on the bus to school in eighth grade. Justin is wrong, it is definitely better to sacrifice the purse...people do NOT understand. One of the pictures is of a bunch of performers on stage inside a cave at the ruins where we sat for HOURS (too long) watching weird original Mexican dancing----that is what someone in event planning thought that the men wanted to be doing during the Super Bowl. The other pictures are from a marketplace where we all went to shop but instead got stuck in a horrible rainstorm and headed into a random restaurant for shelter (you can see that we are drenched but smiling). Also, lastly, Lauren I tried to get a great shot of your parents dancing but it was hard to do without being spotted. The picture isn't great but I thought you would enjoy it.

I think that the car-washing pictures are pretty self-explanatory. The kids had a blast and it was a warm day in January so it worked out for us all. Similarly, the park photo's and bike-riding photo's are just typical examples of "a day in the life of the Allen kids".

The pictures of Tate covered in black are to commemorate the day he drew all over Justin's office with a Sharpie. Not his best moment, or Justin's in fact. Then Tate went to take his regular TV watching spot behind Bracken in the leather chair. I can't imagine it feels that great to be squished.

The last three sets of pictures are of Josh playing with the kids in a field attached to the Mexican restaurant we were eating at over Christmas break, the kids bowling in the entryway with a set given to them by Santa/Grandpa Lee, and of my not-yet-finished chocolate covered apples that I gave away to my neighbors as their holiday gift. I also drizzled milk chocolate over the dark and then white over the milk. They looked great tied up in cellophane with red and green ribbons but apparently I didn't get pictures of the final product. Oh well, now that makes my four-months-pregnant-self wish I lived near a Rocky Mountain Fudge Company...