Camping Trip to Lake Mineral Wells State Park...

Searching through the pirate treasure box...
Finding the silly glasses after digging, X marks the spot!

Going on a treasure hunt
Ky and Kenz finding the treasure map
Dads and their big girls


View from hiking spot
The girls listening to the tale of the pirate treasure before their hunt
ready to explore
Girls and their walking sticks



view from dock looking up at our campsite
beautiful morning sunrise

Last weekend Jason, Kylie, and I packed up and headed two hours outside of Dallas to take Ky on her first camping trip with our friends Stephanie and Aaron and their two girls Ashlyn and Makenzie. It would be a lie to say we weren't worried about how Kylie would do. She doesn't really 'do' the bug thing, I was worried about the cooler weather, and I didn't know how she would handle to rougher terrain, but man, were we wrong! All three of us had a blast! From Pirate treasure hunts, to bug boxes, to swimming, and more, the weekend was so much fun and we all made it out without a scratch, minus a few bug bites! Here are a couple pics from the weekend! We'll be sure to be doing this again soon...well, as soon as Baby Alcorn #3 will let us =)

my baby boy all grown up

In a little over two weeks, Beckham turns 1. I can't believe a year has almost past since he blessed our lives. He's such a happy baby that has given so much life to an already happy family. Here is a pic of him and my dad. We met my parents for dinner and then they went with us to watch kylie's first trial gymnastics class. I took some pics of her out on the floor, but they all turned out very dark. We're trying a new class this evening that I believe will be a little more suitable for her age and ability. I'm very excited to see if we can find something that she will really get into.

Ok, now these pics need some explaining. Beck, as of late, has started to have a huge issue with diaper changes, to the point where the only way we can get him to sit still long enough to change him, is to bribe him. Well, this is Jason trying to get Beck a new diaper when Beck grabbed the entire box of nerds and dumped them out on the floor and proceeded to spread them all around while munching on them. needless to say, you can still see the clean diaper next to him. Victory for Beck!

So, Jason stole any babyness that was left from my sweet little boy when he decided to cut his hair last night. Its true, his hair is one hot mess. It has grown in since birth in semi-wavy patches, and no matter what we do, it is hopeless. Well, last night, J took out a pair of trimmers and just started cutting away. We still have some cleaning up to do (try getting an 11 mo. old to sit still for that long) but I do think it turned out looking at least a little better. Problem is, my sweet boy looks like the aged 5 yrs in a matter of minutes.

I know the sides are way high, initially we went with a mowhawk attempt, that failed miserably and we ended up just shaving up the back as well.

Its a BOY!

Yesterday Jason and I made the short trip back up to the doctors for yet another ultrasound...seriously I think I have had so many that I could do the techs job just as well as she can. The baby is measuring well, still no signs of any further bleeding, and we found out that it is a boy. Jason was just amazed that we had two good dr. apts. in a row...seriously, this might be a new record for us.

The couple before us came out of the sono room super excited, yelling that they were finally going to get their boy (talking to them after we discovered that they had two girls already). I'm not sure if its just a matter of having just gone through this process, or the fact that we are already blessed with one of each, but the process seemed very lackluster to both jason and I. The tech told us and we were both like, "ok, thanks." and then J left to go home and put beck down while I stayed for the rest of the appointment. I do miss some of the excitement of the previous pregnancies. Of course Kylie was a surprise and it being out first, we were super excited and i remember looking forward to this day for WEEKS! And with Beck, we wanted a boy so bad and were just swallowed up by the blessing that we were pregnant at all that we were super excited. But this trip brought with it none of the previous angst, curiosity, or anticipation. I'm sure the tech thought we were crazy by judging from our responses.

Being honest, I think I would have been a little more excited if it were a girl. Having just had Beck, it has been so long since I've held my little kylie (and truthfully speaking, baby girls are much for fun than boys, at least in my opinion), but that's not to say there was any disappointment in having a boy. In fact, I think this will work out pretty well all things considered. If he and Beck are going to be this close in age, I think it will be nice that they both be boys. Now kylie can keep the spotlight that I think she will come to crave and need in the future. Not to mention, I have some of beck's clothes still and boys are just way cheaper later in life. And I can't help but thinking about what my dad has told me numerous times. My grandma, who has five sons and one daughter, said she would pick the five boys any day over the one girl simply because they're so much easier. And I can see that, really, I can.

So, there was some debate as to how far along I am, and it seemed like for a while there every time I went in the answer changed, and it had gotten to the point where I myself didn't know how far along I really was. My favorite is when anyone asks when my last known cycle was and I answer December of '08, and technically that wasn't really a cycle since I was having a miscarriage. Yesterday, the baby measured at right around 19 weeks, which would put my due date around Feb. 18th, which lines up with one of the earlier sonos (which are usually more accurate) so that is what we're moving forward with.

To be honest with you, I was more worried about Kylie's reaction than anything else once I found out it was a boy. Nightmares of her incessant crying and breakdowns when finding out about Beck being a boy had me scared, but she actually took the news better than I thought. I think after realizing that things have worked out just fine with Beck, and me promising her that later in life she'll be glad they're both boys, she was alright with it. I told her now it will always be her and I and we can go do girl things and leave all the boys at home. I think this made her happy and reassured her that all was still well in her life.

We're excited and thankful that everything seems to be going well, and that it appears, at least for the time being, that life has slowed down just enough to let us catch our breath. Which we're doing as much as we can, since we know that come February, the next couple years are going to get VERY INTERESTING!!!

Random pics...

Who me? give my child candy at 11 months? NEVER....but it did keep him quiet and still for a solid 15 minutes (a rarity in our house)

caught trying to escape out the front door while I was watering pots and baskets
This just looks like trouble if i've ever seen it...

Pictures

We took Beck to get his pictures taken at the Picture People over the weekend. I wanted to get portraits done for his first birthday and I had a coupon that expired at the end of the month. I ended up having to wake him up from a nap, put him right in the car, right to the picture place, and right onto a 'set' so to speak. Needless to say, he was still dead tired and wasn't going to fall for any of the photographers tricks to make him smile. Also, you'll notice the fun, yet random hairs sticking straight up on his head. Now, his hair is quite a mystery. Day to day, you never know what you're going to get. It does as it pleases, when it pleases. Sometimes its straight, sometimes curly, sometimes sections agree to disagree and just plain outright do what they want (hence, this day) Anyways, here are the pics...

A sad shot, I know, but this was toward the beginning of the session, I wanted to remember just how depressed he appeared to be at the moment. And seriously, this face didn't change for the first 20 minutes or so of the session.
Finally, towards the end, we got a couple half grins, but still not the full smile that I love so much. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. He's still pretty stinkin' cute if you ask me.

Appointment tomorrow...

So, it is back to the eye doctor for Kylie tomorrow. For over two months we have been diligent (for the most part) with her wearing her patch in hopes that we can avoid having to go to the next step to fix the strabismus we recently discovered. There has only been two days (traveling days while on vacation) that she didn't wear the patch at all. There is maybe 10 days where she fell a little short of the minimum two hours, but there was at least 4 weeks straight where she had it on for three hours (minus the days she went to school, where she wore it for the regular two). All in all, I feel like this is a pretty good track record. But I'll be the first to say that we have slacked here as of late, but can you blame us?

Trust me, this hasn't been an easy process for ANYONE in our household. At the beginning, Jason and I both took a turn wearing the patch, and I'm so glad we did because it drove both of us insane, and we only had it on for maybe two minutes each. Had I not attempted to wear it, I'm sure my patience with Kylie would have waned much faster than it has. The thing is a pain in the butt and there have been MANY days where Kylie and I have gone to battle over putting the patch on. There have been many days where I had to drag her from the park after school to head home, only because she knew her patch await her when she got there (smart kid).

So I am PRAYING that we hear good new tomorrow. I am praying that all this work and frustration and annoyance for Kylie will have been worth it. I am praying that she comes home from the doctor and can go straight to the trash can and throw that patch away. And, if I'm only being honest, I must admit that if she was just the slightest bit older, I would probably let her burn it and watch it shrivel to pieces (at least that is what I'd like to do...all the while singing and dancing around the ashes.)

So positive thoughts fill my mind today...that tomorrow will be a good day and with it come good news. Regardless, I am proud of my little booger and all that she has endured, meanwhile being a complete trooper.

Shoes and more...

So...Kylie has been bugging me for quite some time to buy her a pair of pink light up sketchers. As you can probably imagine, I was shocked when she asked for a specific brand. But like any bad mom, I was eventually suckered into getting them for her. Four years old, and already a consumer. They didn't have the pink ones in her size (she has the biggest feet EVER!) but they did have a pair of black/purple lace ups that she liked. Here is a pic of her with her new shoes on lookin' mighty stylish.
I can never get Kylie to smile (a real smile, not the cheesy one) for the camera lately. The only reason why she posed for this one was because I took it with her. So, try to ignore my face and focus on how absolutely adorable she looks =).
Here is Mr. trouble, the baby formerly known as Beckham, spilling a brand new container of puffs all over the carpet I had just finished vacuuming. And before you say anything, yes, of course I had the top on it. He somehow managed to get it off and dump every last one in the two minutes it took me to throw a dirty diaper away...grrr...Here he is again, do you see a pattern emerging? Exploring in our bathroom, finding the box of 1000 Qtips...luckily his coordination only let him pull out a couple before i found him.

And here he is yet again, this time attacking kylie's bathroom cabinets....