Thanksgiving 2009

We are in the midst of a snowstorm here in VA and I decided it was finally time to get caught up on the Booker events. I'm in denial that I still have a TON of wrapping to do, lucky for me I have a wonderful husband who loves to wrap.
Thanksgiving this year was a little different than previous. Brent woke up that morning not feeling too well and slowly but surely starting breaking out in hives. This was eerily similar to our trip to Boston when we spent the weekend in the ER, wasn't looking forward to that possibility so we loaded him up on Benadryl and sent him to bed. Allison and I then headed to Jeff and Debbie's house in Woodbridge for the feast Ferlazzo-style. It really didn't feel like Thanksgiving since Brent wasn't there but I got to spend time with family and hold some babies, so it was good. <
The next day was the Booker fest. I worked on the day after Thanksgiving, I usually do and I usually don't like it, but this year every patient that I treated actually said thanks and expressed their gratitude for us being there and working. I think we were the only office open! That kind of makes it worth it...
We did our usual kid crazy Thanksgiving and it was chaos for sure. Brent and his brothers were highly entertained with the water resistant tablecloth. I think we spent about an hour chasing water beads around the table cloth. It of course became a competition in true Booker style. Andrew was Andrew when he found Gigi's hiding spot for presents. Fortunately for us they were all for Allison's birthday.
We had a lot to be thankful this year. Brent's brother Michael made it safely home from Afghanistan. We spent our first year in our new forever home. Allison continues to thrive. Brent is greatly enjoying his shorter commute to work and me too! I am thankful to work for a boss that helps me balance my profession with my family. We are eternally grateful for family that are there for us at a moments notice. And we are thankful for friends. 2009 was a bittersweet year but we have a lot to be thankful for and we are definitely looking forward to 2010.

Fall visit with Aunt Jeanne and Great Gigi

Veterans day weekend was a family-filled and fun! Allison was recovering from a breakout in hives, which later turned out to be strep throat, so we were slow moving but doing okay. Friday night Aunt Jeanne, Great Gigi and Gigi all came over to visit and then babysit so Brent and I could head out to the Capitals game. Allison kept them busy with playing restaurant, school, reading books and making art projects. That Sunday we all got together, minus Mike and Jen and their crew, for a lunch at Gigi's. We ate yummy acorn squash and all sorts of fall vegetables. This inspired me to expand my garden next year to include some squash and kale. Yummy, oh how I miss my garden.
Allison enjoys playing with her cousins so much. The weather was nice enough for us to go outside and ride scooters, bikes and blow bubbles. And of course there is climbing in Gigi's front yard tree.
We will miss Great Gigi at Christmas this year but we are very grateful to have spent this special time with her.

Pepaw comes for a visit

Back in early July, say my birthday!, my father in law came for a visit. What a gift! He arrived at Steve and Misti's first, but everyone was shuffled out of there because our niece, Jessica, was recovering from having her tonsils out. I was lucky enough to have a patient bring in an ice cream cake and gifts for me for my birthday. I wouldn't share it with anyone at work because I knew we were having everyone over for dinner. It was a big hit!
That night, Jen and the boys spent the night with us. Allison was tickled to go to the basement and wake up Andrew and John. Who are definitely NOT morning folks!
We then headed to Natalie's softball game after Allison's gymnastics class that morning. We were quite impressed with Natalie's softball ability. We got to see her do some fielding, bat and even run the bases. Allison since has decided that she was to play baseball and wear a pink helmet just like Natalie.


Next we were off to Steve and Misti's for some yummy dessert. This is also when I tried to make mint brownies. Oh, they were good. It was a Real Simple recipe and very oh I can't resist simple :). The kids were a little hit or miss with them, but the adults ate their fair share.




PePaw then came to our house to spend the remainder of his visit. We took a trip to Target and he bought Allison a sprinkler and a scary doll. The doll is a scary crawling one that makes this high pitched whiny noise. Not fun, but she loved it. Later that Sunday afternoon, we hooked up Allison's sprinkler and let her play in it. She loved it! And was able to recruit Mommy, Daddy and Pepaw to join in on the fun. We also went to the Reston zoo for the first time, will blog about that fun later!


We love visits with our Pepaw!

Beach Vacation

Okay so at this point, I'm about a month behind with my blogging. Geez, what crud does do a girl! Every year we typically go to the beach with my family from PA. Since my Aunt was married earlier this year, we opted out of going as a family. Around late May, I mentioned to Brent that it would be nice to get away for July 4th. We talked and looked at our budget and his Hilton points and quickly realized that we could spend 5 days at the beach, oceanfront with an efficiency for free! We would of course cash in his points, but the boy travels so much, it wouldn't matter! We quickly scrambled to make our reservations!
We left the Wednesday before the 4th. Gigi came up the night before to watch Allison so I could go into work and treat a couple of patients before I left town. My patients have issues when I'm out of the office! It's hilarious. Gigi worked her magic because Allison slept most of the trip up there, about 2 1/2 hours. Awesome!
We arrived around dinner time so we decided to do our vacation right and go out to eat! (Who wants to cook after driving!) We were VERY surprised with the fact that we could just walk into a restaurant without reservations or a wait! Allison tested our patience at dinner, but all in all she was awesome and it was a good meal! Then we planned our dinners for the week and set out for the grocery store. We then (finally) got checked into the hotel and got organized.
It was such an awesome set up with a little one. We were able to put Alli in the pull out sofa bed with her rails and then down the short hall was our beds. In the short hall was the kitchen. It was stocked with all the necessary supplies. So nice. I had brought a lot of things but it was nice to have to use them.
The next morning we set out to the pool. The Hilton had two pools one for kids and the other was an adult pool. Brent and I never made it to the adult pool! Which was fine, we had a lot of fun with Allison in the kids pool. She definitely takes after her mom and dad and LOVES the pool! She had no fear of the water slides and even practiced using her arms and kicking her feet. Later that day we went to the ocean. Wasn't the best time of day being that it was high tide! Not ideal for a little one but we were able to jump over the waves and play in the sand.
The next day we thought we would switch our beach/pool plans and head to the beach first. We also made plans to meet up with Tracy and Mike. Allison loves to hang out with Kaia and it would be nice to hang out with some familiar faces at the beach. We treaked down the beach and met up with them for the morning. The girls enjoyed spending time together with their Daddy's and it was fun to see Kaden playing in the sand and sun.
Usually Allison goes to bed around 7:30, we considered keeping her up for the fireworks but we honestly didn't feel like treking down the boardwalk with a less then thrilled toddler in tow. So, we skipped the fireworks for her this year and our plan was to sit on the balcony and drink margaritas. Key word being plan. I feel asleep laying with Allison and poor Brent ended up on the balcony solo with a pitcher of margaritas. I strolled out, cup in hand around ten looking for a party and he was ready for bed! Too funny!
Our last day we headed up the boardwalk to see the sights ((gotta love some of the people who travel to Ocean City!)) and play some arcade games with Allison. She did REALLY well on the ring toss and the duck races. So now we are the proud owners of an inflatable Dora and plush polar bear.
We greatly enjoyed spending some quality time together as a family. Check out the photos from our vacation on the photo album!

Mike's home for a visit

The weekend of June 25th, we headed down to Richmond to see Mike. He was on a pass from his current deployment in Afghanistan. I just went through all of my pictures and realized I don't have one single picture of him! That's terrible! I blame it on my illness, I was super sick when we went down there, but I wasn't going to miss seeing him! We all hung out and had lunch and some dessert then let the kids play in the yard with Aunt Jen's new sprinkler toy. Allison adores spending time with her big cousins and it's funny how they all pair off to play with each other. Allison and Jessica are definitely a dynamic duo who in the future will see lots of trouble together. Thank goodness we have Natalie and John to monitor their "great ideas!" We did have some anxiety of seeing Mike and wondering if he would be "different", best thing about him is he was exactly the same. No change! I'm sure the issues and challenges he has faced in Afghanistan has impacted him but when it comes to family he was good ol Mike. Which was very comforting! It was nice to see Jen and the boys finally complete with Mike around. It has been a tough and long deployment for all of them, but hopefully his time abroad is winding down by now. His sacrifice is greatly appreciated and respected.

Crud, crud and more crud

The Booker's were hit hard with a nasty bout of springtime yuckies. It all started with Allison's runny nose and cough. These symptoms later turned into a fever and then she decided to share with Mommy and Daddy. Mommy was then lucky enough to pick up strep throat that was just too much fun to keep to herself so she passed it along to Daddy. Then Daddy was having too much fun with strep that he decided to up the game and get the flu. Daddy then shared the flu with Allison and last but not least Mommy. We kept the Minute Clinic in business! And our pediatrician! Looking back on June, I just remember fever, reality TV and Tylenol every four hours. What a blast.....It honestly took us a month to eradicate the bugs and viruses. Now we will be more selective with our sharing!

Baltimore

On Monday we headed up to Baltimore. Brent was attending a conference, so Allison and I thought we would tag along. We decided to get tickets to the National Aquarium. Last year we were supposed to go, but Allison was dreadfully sick with pink eye that turned into cellulitis, awful, needless to say we didn't go. I am kind of glad we didn't, I don't think she would have enjoyed it as much as what she did this year. (You'll notice some of the pics are blurry, that's because of no flash and too many moving things for the camera to focus!)

So, we walked in and they have all the sting rays and sharks. We got there around feeding time so we got to see the fish in action! We made our way up the ramp and began looking at all of the tanks. After awhile, a fish was just a fish to Allison. Good thing because we were off to the Dolphin Show!
We were quite excited and actually were brave enough to sit in the "Splash Zone"! I kind of wanted to get wet, thought it would be fun. Brent not so much. That Dolphin Show is amazing! We had so much fun watching the tricks that these wonderful mammals can do! The jumps were incredible, I still don't see how they can muster enough strength and have the water be deep enough to jump that high! I had to explain to Allison several times why she couldn't swim with them too......this question was of course followed by Why? Over and over.

After the Dolphin show we headed to the Jellyfish exhibit. Super cool and wonderful serene images from such painful creatures. Allison kept asking where their faces and noses were. I just told her they had noses and faces just not like us, which lead to why over and over.

Next it was to the Australian exhibit where we saw Alligators and birds and more fish. Allison sang her Crocodile song and then Five little Monkeys to the alligator, because he likes those songs. Of course he does! It was too adorable!

Finally, we hit the gift shop--every girl needs a pink dolphin! Then said goodbye to the fish and off to lunch. After lunch we headed back to our hotel room. We had an awesome view of the Inner Harbor!

We then snuck in a nap. Brent and I actually fell asleep before Allison! After nap, we headed to the hotel pool. We pretended to be dolphins jumping and swimming like fish. Then we went out to dinner at Phillips and back to our room and crashed! Allison and I got up the next morning drove back home and off to work and school we went. It was a nice change of pace and family time is always awesome!

Memorial Day Weekend

It was so nice to have a family three day weekend. Brent's traveling has been crazy and to have him home for three days was wonderful. Saturday morning we took Bailey for a walk and then hit our yard. Brent really enjoys doing yardwork, yeah for me, and he worked on moving mulch and dirt out of the front yard and to the big. Via the John Deere of course! Allison and I pulled weeds and cleaned out the flower beds then became distracted and blew bubbles and did sidewalk chalk. We were so exhausted that the thought of making dinner was too much to handle, so we went to dinner at Bonefish Grill. Yum. On Sunday, Brent went to a Wounded Warriors event for work and Allison and I organized and rotated toys. Next, it was time to get ready for a barbecue with family and friends. Allison was given the job to ice the cupcakes. Not sure if any really got iced, but she had a blast.

The kids had so much fun playing in the backyard with the swing set, bubbles, beach balls and riding in the car.
Last but not least on Monday, we got up walked Bailey again and then let Allison play in the backyard with the sprinkler and the sand/water table. So enjoyable to have us all together! Thanks to all of the service men and women. Thanks, Dad! Thanks, Mike!

Mother's Day 2009

It was awesome! The day started with me waking up Brent to let him know that Allison was awake and I was hungry. ((Gotta milk it for what's it worth!)) He went downstairs with Allison and made me waffles with whipped cream and strawberries then brought it up to me to eat in bed. I wasn't alone, Allison thought it was pretty cool to eat breakfast in bed. Next were the gifts! Brent gave me a spa day at Elizabeth Arden--like a whole day. Massage or facial, manicure, pedicure--the works! Awesome!
Next were Allison's gifts. She and Brent made me a card and then wrote a list of "10 Reasons Why I Love My Mommy". Here they are:
1. Helps me read books
2. Helps me get dressed
3. Changes my pull ups
4. Puts me to bed
5. Cleans up after me
6. She plays with me
7. She gives the best hugs
8. She taught me to stay in my room until the alarm clock goes off
9. She takes me to swim and farm class
10. She teaches me to be a good girl

Brent assures me #'s 1-7 were all her and the others took a little prodding. So sweet. My eyes just filled up and in that second it was all worth it.

After that, we headed down to Dumfries for brunch with my Mom. It was very nice to just hang out at my Mom's house and not have to run anywhere else. We played, watched TV, ate snacks. It was a wonderful Mother's Day!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?

On Sunday morning, I got the weather report for yet another wet awful Monday and then proudly announced at breakfast that we were off to the National Zoo. Saturday, Brent and I had a date and Allison decided not to nap with Gigi, so I knew it would be a long morning in the house. After we ate, we scurried around and were out the door by 8:15. We parked in parking lot A! Never done that, we always end up in the lower levels. Brent was so excited. Allison told us that she was going to sing to the animals. We didn't quite believe her, but she did! We didn't make it inside the elephant house, it was closed. Which meant no hippos. Oh darn, break my heart. Evil awful animals. We saw the pandas, lions, gorillas, tigers and turtles. That's Alli's list. There were more but that of course is what she talks about.

Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer!!

We rolled the dice and took Allison to Dora the Explorer at Warner Theatre. We were definitely anxious because Allison hasn't been to anything like that before, so we weren't sure how she would react and if we would waste our money or not! But typical Allison was a true trooper and had so much fun. We metro'ed down -- Allison loves the metro! And then walked to the theatre. It was a true production and had lots of opportunities for audience participation. Allison was right there waving her star, yelling "Swiper, no swipin'", and singing along with the songs. When the show first started, I looked at Allison and saw pure joy. She was so elated and animated. I cried! Brent looks over at me and told me that I was the only one crying at Dora! Once I explained to him why I was crying, he could totally relate. We are looking forward to our next show!

Our Garden

Brent and I are so excited to finally have a yard large enough to have a vegetable garden. We also thought it would be a good experience for Allison. So, last weekend we got to diggin'! Brent borrowed a tilling machine from Victor Vito (painter extraordinaire!) and began creating the space. We are only going to initially do a garden that's about 8'x16' size, we aren't sure about the soil's pH and we just want to see how our first year goes! After the area was created we put some lime and poo-poo down for fertilization. Our goal is to make it an organic garden, so we plan on getting a composting machine. We'll see how that goes! Some of our future vegetables needed to be started as seedlings, so we got that going too. Allison helped with counting out the seeds and filling up the cups. We will put our seeds in the ground around Mother's Day. My landscaping husband can't be bothered until the threat of freeze is over and with the way this winter has been, the later the better. I am really looking forward to walking outside my back porch and picking out vegetables for dinner! (Brent not so much! :) )

Luke's Birthday and Dinner with The Wright's

What a weekend! Sunday was definitely catch up day around the Booker's. On Saturday, Brent went to Shamrock Fest to see one of his college roomate's band play, Overdrive Superthruster. Brent was fortunate enough to receive a VIP ticket, which at the end of the day meant free beer. I was happy when he made it home safely!
Allison and I ventured out to Luke's birthday party. It was a Thomas the Train theme. Perfect for a little boy--his actual birthday is on St. Pat's! He'll love that when he's older! :) It was a lot of fun to see everyone and Allison enjoyed playing in the sandbox, with the balloons and most importantly poking fun at Papa Nick. She looks at him, sticks out her belly and then rubs and pats it. Much in the same way that he does! Hilarious!
By far the best part of the party was the cake. It was super yummy!! Luke wasn't at all interested in his cake and was quite satisified to play with this Thomas train. Allison's favorite part was the face painting. That's all she talked about on the way home.......we weren't allowed to wash it off or touch it and when it goes away they will have another party so she can have more hearts. Too precious! On a potty note, no accidents at the party and she went potty twice. Awesome......
Once we got home I was fortunate enough to squeeze a nap out of her and then it was off to dinner. We were out with the Wright's celebrating Stepahnie's birthday. She is our god-daughter, super cute and such a good helper with Allison. Allison was quite hungry by the time dinner rolled around and made no mistake when she just grabbed a cheese stick, stuck in the dressing and was ready to go. As Alex pointed out, she don't play! It definitely made us all laugh. We had a great dinner, Allison was quite the entertainer and then the waiters came and sang happy birthday to Stephanie. Second potty note, she went twice at the restaurant as well.....for all of you keeping track at home, that's an accident free day! Yippee!

Merry Christmas 2008!

It's been a whirlwind but we had a lovely Christmas. Our celebrations started with Brent's Dad Carl. He came into town the weekend that we moved. We still managed to get a tree up and decorated. We did a make shift potluck with Steve and Misti bringing a ham and mac n cheese. This also was the first time that the nieces and nephews saw the house, they were in the basement most of the time.


Allison got a rocking horse from PePaw, she named it Giddy. Hilarious.



Next, it was off to Pennsylvania to celebrate with Aunt E, Aunt Sue, Uncle Russ, Samantha, Jamie, Stephanie and of course, Dave. Holla! ((Allison now says that by the way in public places!)) Aunt Sue put up my grandfather's trains. It is called the yard. My grandparents put up the trains every Christmas Eve so when my mom and Aunt came down the stairs it was all done. I can't imagine doing that. I thought it was funny that the toy yard was named "Plasticville". The yard is in good shape being that it's how old? Mom? :) Allison of course didn't sleep that night, so Brent and I played musical beds with her until 10:30 at night. We thought for sure she would sleep all the way home. Nope. Let's just say Allison is now aware of my DVD player in the car. I was saving that one, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if it was Barney.











For Christmas Eve, we went to Aunt Mary Ellen's house. Allison had a blast playing with Kaia, Tracy and Mike's daughter. They played hide and go seek non-stop. They kept going to the same hiding spots over and over and would just scream and laugh when they "found" each other. Dad's were recruited while they played in the bathroom. Allison talked about playing with Kaia ALL THE WAY home. She also did her usual sing along in the car. Some kids sleep in the car, Allison not so much.





Once we got home, we got out the milk and cookies for Santa and the reindeer food. We wrote Santa a note and left it for him on the fireplace with our stockings. Then Allison had a major meltdown about Santa coming. She was hysertically crying and was incoherent with what she was saying. I finally decipherd "No Santa, Mommy, no presents!" What an awful feeling. Long story short blog, we think Allison thought that Santa would be in the house when she woke up in the morning with her presents.To reassure her that he was "just dropping them off" , I called the North Pole and told Santa that Allison was grateful for the presents, but to please leave them outside. Mommy and Daddy would bring them in in the morning. That calmed her down so she could sleep. I felt awful. We didn't push the Santa thing AT ALL and didn't even go to the mall, so who knows what her little mind was thinking.
She panicked again at 5 AM but with some Mommy reassurance was back to sleep until 8 AM. Merry Christmas Mommy and Daddy--well more Daddy then Mommy but still. When she woke up she was fine and wasn't upset about Santa being in the house. We showed her where he ate her cookies and took the reindeer food and even moved the fireplace screen. Then it was off to the presents. Santa brought Allison a market for her to play store. She loves shopping with me at the real store, so it was appropriate. We opened presents slowly (I make all attempts to slow time down with Allison!) and had Christmas tree pancakes for breakfast. She didn't finish opening her presents until mid morning, which was fine by us!! She really liked opening one gift and then playing with it for awhile. The best thing that came with the market was the cash register. It has a credit card slider and she picked that up real quick! That could be a problem.....



Later that day, my Mom and Nick came over to exchange presents. Allison was really into the whole opening presents thing after that! She especially liked the new ironing board that she got from Papa Nick and of course is oh so stylish with all of the clothes that my mom bought her. She is asking me if I like her new shirt and if I think it's pretty. Too cute. Sometimes I just want to squeeze her she's so cute! Brent's Mom Connie was also there and then Brent left to pick up his grandmother from the airport. She flew in from Indiana. She's almost 90, that rocks.


The next day was the zoo with all of the nieces and nephews at Connie's house. The coolest thing was that we got Connie (not to toot our own horn, but toot!) a web cam and were able to see and talk to Mike while he was in Afghanistan. That was Mike's idea and Jen and us just ran with it! That was definitely cool! He showed us his closet, I mean room and we are still wondering about the pink thing on the bed.....
Allison greatly enjoyed spending time with "her cousins" . Especially Jessica. I can still hear, "Jessica, where are you??" in my head. She thinks she is just as old and big as them and they are so patient with her. They let her see their Nintendo DS's and their leapsters and even let her "join" their game of Life. Amazing. Sorry for the lack of pictures of the chaos, I left my camera at home. I borrowed my Mom's but haven't uploaded those pictures yet.

All in all we had a lovely time during Christmas and we are looking forward to painting and redecorating our new house for 2009!