Harper McLean Pardue is here!

Harper McLean made her big debut into the world on March 1, 2009. She was 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 20 inches long. I have been meaning to blog about my sweet niece for weeks but have waited until I came out to Washington DC to actually meet her before I wrote about her in our blog. It is worth the wait because she is more precious than I could ever imagine. It was love at first sight for me (although I am a little prejudice being her only Aunt). She is literally the best baby. She slept for seven hours last night. I keep telling my sister how lucky she is. Harper is four weeks today.
I flew out to Washington DC Saturday and left early in the morning in the pouring rain. and 38 degree weather. After leaving my car in the long term parking and walking in the pouring rain to check in for my 6 am flight. My wet chubby self got wanded in security and then I went to my Springfield gate to wait for my flight. The gate agent then proceeds to take every one's tickets and opens the door and everyone started filing outside. It was still pouring rain and I see a plane outside to the right. He then points not to the closest plane but the one next to which was like a football field away. I about died and I think out of my mouth came "are you kidding." My roll on bag and myself were totally soaked. Of course now there are no blankets on airlines so I froze my biscuits off and about lost my breakfast on the turbulent 45 minute flight but thankfully I hadn't eaten any so I made it okay. I took a little body rest in the St. Louis airport. I was then feeling refreshed and pumped to meet my niece. I noticed as we were boarding the plane an entire football team (the St. Louis Radars) were on our flight. No lie, the two biggest dudes on the whole team and my fat self shared a three seat row. Of course, my chubby eight month pregnant self sat in the middle of these two linebackers. The crazy flight was worth meeting my sweet niece.
We have been relaxing, going through her closet of adorable clothes, awing over her precious nursery, burping her, holding her, tummy time, etc.. It has been great and because she is such an amazing sleeper I think I got 11 hours of sleep last night. This is truly a vacation.

The Best Buds in the whole world!

Had to post some Awesome old photos.

Did I ever need a girls weekend or what? I went to Denton to visit my four pledge sisters Anna, Mandy, Christy and Kristen (Red) and had such a fun time. I got in Friday night and we relaxed and had a great dinner prepared by Anna. We slept in, relaxed and hit the big town of Denton for a great afternoon of shopping and the big Denton tour. Anna and Mandy whipped up an amazing steak dinner Saturday night and had some good laughs. We then slept in Sunday and ate some cinnamon roles and hit the road. I love that these are the friends that I see twice a year or so and even though we don't speak a ton during the year (cauz we all lead busy lives), we always pick back up right where we left off. Some of the highlights of the weekend were:
-Red gagging on the hot leftover Chinese food in the car
-Anna (the biggest non-shopper of our bunch)
shopping and making the biggest purchases of the weekend
-Some fun facebook time
-Red ordering a chocolate malt for the first time and not really enjoying it
-Anna's amazing new house
-Looking at Mandy's wedding pics
-Mandy bartering with the antique lady to try to get a deal on a table for Red.
-Hot tubbing it in Anna's awesome backyard and thank God I am not allowed in a hot tub and didn't have to be seen 7 months prego in a swimsuit like my other skinny friends.
-A little post shopping body rest
-Day gowns from Old Navy
-Brawner drama back at home in Springfield (Jason had a flat tire on the highway with the kids)
-The complete oil lamp collection
-Bringing up one of our favorite college stories about how we almost lost our mixers.
I laughed so hard all weekend I think I pulled a muscle in my big fat tummy. It was such a fun weekend and really just what the doctor ordered for Alison Brawner. A great get away with my best buds. Can't wait to see them all Labor Day weekend at the lake with our families and hopefully I'll be looking much thinner than this weekend!

I Can't Believe Jackson is 6

Jackson's Sixth Birthday, A "Webkins" bowling party.

Jackson's Fifth Birthday, A "Car's" Party

My fourth birthday, a "Bob the Builder" party.

My third birthday, an airplane party.

My second birthday. A "Maisy" party.

My chubby first birthday

The nurse measured him five times cauz she couldn't believe he was 23 inches long.

The day the big man was born, March 23, 2003


Where has the last six years gone? Seriously, I cannot believe Jackson is six. He is far from perfect but is such a joy to be around. He just cracks us up with his serious, all business about everything attitude. His teachers at school are always talking about how orderly and serious he is. Jason and I laugh because he has so many traits of both of us but then we look at each other and say "where did he get that from?" He is definitely a first born child for sure.
We celebrated the offical day by going to Jump Mania (an awesome place with lots of inflateables) with our best buds Madie and Jenna. We got crazy sweaty! Then for dinner Jackson got to go bowling at Incrediable Pizza. Big, Sue-Sue, Aunt Jill & Uncle David even made it up for the big celebration.

A Kilbourne weekend

We had another fun filled weekend. Our dear friends the Kilbournes kindly entrusted their two girls Madie and Jenna in our care for the weekend. Jackson and Mollie Jane counted down all week how many days until Friday when the official sleepover weekend began.
Friday night we had pizza and then got to have the ever famous powdered sugar donuts in bed with a movie. It was a big hit.
Saturday "Uncle Ja" or "Daddy" got up and fixed cinnamon toast and eggs and then we all headed out to the Home Depot for their kids building projects that they do free the first Saturday of every month. The kids had a blast and Jason thought for a moment his back was going to go out trying to build four racetracks. We did a little shopping and just trying to maneuver four bodies in a cart was a little funny. I told Jason I got so many looks in the store like this couple with four kids and there she is pregnant again. We just laughed and decided no matter how crazy we looked we'd claim all four of them any day. They all did so great and played outside all day Saturday. Jason talked them into doing yard work by picking up all the "pokey balls" that feel from our trees in the yard and then we had a big bonfire in the fire pit in the back yard.
Winston helped tuck us into bed on Saturday night and had to leave the sleepover a little sooner than expected because he had terrible gas and kept getting under the sheets!
Sunday, Jason had to teach so I got all the kids up and looking spiffy for late church and we were only five minutes late plus a time change!!! We then had a fabulous lunch in our playhouse and once again played all afternoon outside until it was too dark to see.
Madie and Jenna's Mom "Ms Natalie" missed her flight and so is coming late tonight to pick them up after they are asleep and take them home. I know it stressed Natalie out but we have enjoyed ever extra minute with Jenna and Madie and got to get one more movie and donut session in. Poor Mollie Jane really wanted to be included in the sleepover each night but did really good when she had to be whisked away to her crib. Jackson said tonight as he was going to bed "Are Madie and Jenna really going to be gone in the morning when I wake up?" I don't think we could love Madie and Jenna any more than we already do. We sure had a great weekend and want them to come back again soon so we can have an excuse for some more donuts and movies in bed.