Owen is 11 Months Old Today!

Look at my sweet little 11 month old! Such a big boy now! He has changed so much in the last month and can do lots of new things.


He started walking! He still uses crawling as his main source of transportation, but he definitely knows how to walk now and we are seeing him walk more and more every day.


He loves just about anything outside. Especially this three wheeler and his swing.

His big brothers are crazy about him and he loves them too. I know he misses them when they are not around even though he probably enjoys a break from them constantly picking him up.

He can also clap now as he is showing you in the picture above.

Other new things...

- he can wave

- we are transitioning to sippy cups only and less bottles

- we have been doing the cry out method for naps and night (still working on this, but getting better)

- we are transitioning to whole milk and phasing out the formula

**I am in the planning stages of his first birthday party! We are going to do a family only party this year since we just had Brady's party this weekend and we don't want friends to have to turn around and attend another Allen birthday party... Next year we will just have Brady and Owen's party together, but this year we wanted to do a little something special for Owen.

**Owen will also start Mother's Day Out twice a week starting August 23rd. He will probably start out just going three hours each time, then maybe phase into the whole 5 hours after January.

So, that's pretty much it for Owen at this point. He continues to be as sweet as ever and is growing into a precious little toddler.

Brady's 3rd Birthday Celebration

Brady's 3rd birthday won't actually be until August 21, but we celebrated early this year since the day after his birthday is the first day of school. We had a pool party at Yaya & Papi's house!

His Invitation

Traditional Birthday Picture in front of our blow up cake :)

Brady INSISTED on having a Toy Story party. I had lots of other cute ideas, but he felt very strongly about this one, so that's what we did...

A few party details. Isn't that cake amazing! Our sweet cake lady Mrs. Joy never disappoint!

Our family!

Brady's first jump in to start the party!

Cute picture of Daddy with the birthday boy.

Papi & Luke

I like close ups if you couldn't tell :)

This picture makes me so happy I decided to make corn on the cob!

Yaya & Owen hung out by the pool and ate...and ate...and ate!

and finally! It was cake time. Brady just couldn't resist!

Yep! It tasted as good as it looked!

All of the party people!

We can't believe how fast Brady has grown!

Owen LOVED the sherbert!

Brady got lots of really cool gifts and looked every single one over very closely.

Pose with Grammy & Papa and the party was a wrap!

Thanks to our sweet family and friends who came and help celebrate our special 3 year old boy!

Making Progress

This summer has been so much fun. I don't want to see it end :( We have marked almost everything off our summer fun list and have been working diligently on our summer learning goals. We enrolled Luke into a Kinder Prep Class through the city. He goes twice a week for three hours until school starts. Every day he is there, he learns a new sight word and each week he learns how to spell a new color. He has homework to do and kindergarten books to begin to read.

This morning as we were practicing, I think he may have FINALLY mastered the letter "K". If you only knew the joy I had when seeing him accomplish this! That stupid "K" has given him trouble every since he first started learning to write his name. We have practiced it with sidewalk chalk, spaghetti noodles, paint, colors, you name it! There was even a time when I thought to myself..."Maybe I should have given him an easier name to write".

But today was the day! Just goes to show that hard work DOES pay off. And we really CAN do hard things. I hope I never forget that "K". At least for now I will be using it as an example for him to keep trying just like he did when he was writing his "K".

So...here it is! The most beautiful letter "K" I have ever seen!

Happy First Birthday Cash!

Yesterday was my nephew Cash's first birthday. We went to Oklahoma last weekend to celebrate at his birthday party and had so much fun! Those big blue eyes get me every time!


The party was lots of fun. EE did an amazing job on all of the decorations and worked really hard to make it a success and boy did it pay off! She even had a slip and slide and two splash pools.

Me & Caleb

EE, Cash, & Nonah

Yaya, EE, & Me

Both Luke and Brady ADORE Cash and just can't seem to keep their hands off of him.

I think he liked his cake ;)

Quick drink from the slip & slide!

Mom, Luke, & Dad

The Allen family. Minus a few.

It was a great weekend! We always enjoy spending time with EE, Nonah, & Cash and we can't wait to see them again very soon!

NINE Years Ago Today...

I married my favorite person in the world!

I've mentioned a time or two before how much I adore Caleb. He is the WHOLE package, like ice cream with sprinkles and cherry on top ;)

He's First & Foremost a Godly man. He is the perfect model of integrity and character for our three boys. I truly could not ask for more.

Every year our marriage grows in new ways and we grow closer. I love seeing how we've grown over the years. Every year has been different, but has been better than the last.

Here's to many more years together!

Shark Cupcakes

We are checking things off our Summer Fun List left & right this week. Yesterday we did a secret service project (which will remain a secret ;), today we made these cool shark cupcakes, & Friday we head out to Oklahoma!

Some of our friends who also made a Summer Fun List had making cupcakes on their list too, so we joined forces and conquered these seemingly impossible shark cupcakes. Check this out...


So, the mommas got the cupcakes to this point because some of the preparation involved cutting with a sharp knife. Then we handed them over to our little munchkins to decorate as best they could!

but first, sweet Madi snuck Brady a lick :)

Brady decided to just throw caution to the wind and forgo our design and stick with his own plan which turned out to be quite a work of art.

Abi's shark

Madi's shark

Luke's shark

and a close up of Brady's shark. I am positive he took a few bites here and there just for the sake of living up to his reputation.

Here is mine & Kristen's best attempt at the shark.

few more post decorating licks and we set the kids free in the backyard to eat their creations!

Yes, it was right before dinner, but sometimes ya just gotta have dessert first ;)