The Allen Insider

Pajama Day!

2012-02-06T21:35:00.002-06:00

Two Thursdays ago... I know I am super duper behind on posting.

It was Pajama Day at Brady & Owen's school. Sadly, Owen was sick that day so he didn't get to participate, but Brady chose to wear his Toy Story Sleepwear. It's funny because he goes through little spurts on what he wants to sleep in and IT DOES MATTER. That week he was into his Toy Story stuff. This week, I have washed his Star Wars stuff every day after he takes it off so he can re-wear it that night. Yes, I know that seems like a lot of work to do for a three year old, but it's the little things in life, ya know...

Anyway, Brady had a blast at Pajama Day. I mean, come on, do you know how cool it is to wear your PJ's to school???

p.s. we did make it to the haircut place that same day in case you were worried :)

Brady's Learning Some Cool Things Lately...

2012-01-23T21:18:00.002-06:00

Now that the holidays are over, Brady & I are starting to get back into our daily groove. We had paused our learning goals during Christmas break, but I am glad we are back at it now. It seems like a light bulb went off over the break and things we had been working on have really started to sink in.

Take a look at this....

This is Brady's first "B"! Isn't it wonderful! I was so proud to see that he got it! Truthfully, I thought it would still be a while before he did, but one day out of the blue he got it! Yay for B-ball!

I have found that this book has been one of the best learning tools for Brady. First, because reading is fun to him and this book is full of the letters of the alphabet.

He knows that this letter "starts his name"

and this letter "starts daddy's name"

this letter "starts mommy's name"

this letter was actually the first letter Brady ever learned. I think mainly because he was used to hearing Luke talk about it. anyway...this "starts bubbas name"

this one is easy...the letter O "starts owen's name" Oh, and the letter O is "like a circle" (see, I told you a light bulb went off ;)

I have wonderful resources when it comes to preschool and kindergarten teachers. They give me these cool tips like help him to learn the letters and recognize them in his family's name and then move on to his friend's names. So....

Brady's best friend at school is Gavin & this letter "starts gavin's name"

I am so excited to see Brady learn! It is one of the highlights of my job as his mom and lately I have really seen the importance of our work at home. Ultimately it is my job to make sure he knows the things he needs to know and I take great pride in being a teacher to my three sweet boys in all of their stages of learning.

Luke & "KK" Road Trip!

2012-01-19T21:07:00.004-06:00

Last weekend Luke & KK took a trip to Oklahoma! EE & Nonah knew KK was coming, but Luke was a surprise. He was so excited to be in on the big secret!

I sent my camera with Luke for him to take some pictures while he was there. He came back with pictures of everything! I think he was so excited that I trusted him with my camera. He did a great job taking care of it and is getting better at his picture taking skills :)

He even asked the waitor to take a picture of their table for him. What can I say? I raised him right ;)

This was right before church. He represented his Texans since it was gameday.

KK & the boys!

EE arranged for a private tour of a fire station for Luke & Cash. They got to see lots of cool things they wouldn't normally get to see and Luke got answers to an unlimited amount of questions.

All in all Luke had a wonderful trip and got to make some really fun memories with his aunts, uncle and cousin.

Caleb & Angie- Year In Review 2011

2012-01-09T14:18:00.002-06:00

Last year, Caleb & I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. For our 10th anniversary in July, we plan to take a cruise to the Bahamas. We both turned 30 last year & celebrated with our family & friends. It was a fun year for us for the most part.

Caleb is still a tax accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now that he is a Manager, he has moved into his own office! Bye Bye cubicle! His job was pretty stressful last year. He worked quite a bit from January until October with time off after that. It was a tough year on him.

He did, however, get to follow his basketball coaching dreams and coach a team at Eagle Heights Christian School. He is now in his second season of coaching them and seems to really love it. His job allows him to have a flexible work schedule during basketball season so he can coach which has been really nice.

Caleb also really enjoys grilling and using his new smoker. He has perfected smoked ribs and is moving on to bigger things with his new and improved smoker he got for Christmas.

How bout them Baylor Bears! They had an awesome year in both basketball & football. We have had a blast following them and even got season tickets for the football games. Robert Griffin III has been so much fun to watch as he has brought lots of positive attention to Baylor with his Heisman Trophy win this year!

For me, this has been a year of changes mainly with the adjustment of Luke being at school all the time. It was really hard at first, but I am getting used to it now. He is at a fun stage of life, and even though I miss him at home, I have enjoyed my time with the other two boys.

I have also joined the PTA at Luke's school which has been really fun! I have met some great people and have gotten to know my way around his school. I am the Environmental person in charge of recycling (this was an entry level position). I am also the Room Mom Coordinator. I help the Room Moms plan their parties which is right up my ally!

I continue to spend time with my friends who are truly a blessing in my life. I have wonderful friends and I thank God for them.

We also couldn't do without the support of both sides of our family. They help us out so much with the kids which is really important to us.

2011 was a great year and we look forward to what God has in store for us in 2012!

Luke Michael Allen- Year In Review 2011

2012-01-09T14:15:00.003-06:00

Luke Michael Allen
aka "Bubba"
at school they call him "Luke A."
Age: 5

Luke is honest, dependable, caring, and responsible. Your typical first child. He follows all of the rules and tries hard. He wants to be the best and he doesn't stop for anything less. He has proven that this year especially when it comes to sports or games.

He had his first team sport this year, soccer. He absolutely loved it and thrived! He was a blast to watch because he played with all of his heart. His team went undefeated all season long. He is signed up to play one more season of soccer, then he wants to play flag football in the fall.

Baylor Bears, Luke is one of your biggest fans! Seriously! He loves his Bears and knows a lot about them. I know one thing for sure, he has made his Daddy proud :)

Another first for Luke this year was that he started Kindergarten. He has done really well and has learned so much. He is already started reading and is perfecting his writing skills. He likes school a lot. His favorite part of school is PE & Library. He loves to have lunch visitors too, so we try to come see him as much as we can.

The one thing we are working with him on this year is being nice to Brady. They play well together for the most part, but from time to time they still have their fights. Luke seems to harbor a little bit of jealousy towards Brady which often comes out in anger. He wants everything to be even and fair and that's not always the case.

Luke's love language is words of affirmation. He thrives when he is told he is doing a good job and is crushed to hear negative things.

His favorite thing in the world right now is football. He plays ALL the time. He seems to have a real passion for it. For his birthday this year he wants us to redo his room in football, so that is something he is really looking forward to.

I love my Luke so much and I am so proud of him. He is a great kid and I love his Elementary phase of life.

Brady Charles Allen- Year In Review 2011

2012-01-09T14:13:00.005-06:00

Brady Charles Allen

aka: "B-ball"
to Daddy, he is "Brady-Bob"

Brady is one cool kid! He is loving and tender most of the time. He loves to show his love by giving hugs and kisses on the lips. The sweetest thing is to see his little lips pucker up to kiss you which he does quite often to most everyone he knows.

He is very laid back. He needs quite a bit of rest time and alone time to regroup. We call it his "me" time and needs a lot of it. Once his "me" time is up he is back in the game though.

We are discovering that he may be our outdoors man. He is very interested in hunting and fishing and anything outside. He likes sports ok...but he LOVES fishing and hunting. We will see what happens with that. Daddy has a fishing trip planned for him this coming weekend :)

Just like last year, he still follows close behind Luke in everything he says and does. Luke is a HUGE influence in his life. He loves his "Bubba" and would do anything in the world for him.

As for Owen, Brady loves him so much and is very proud of him and his new accomplishments. However, from time to time, I can see that he sees his as the typical "little brother". All in all though, he loves his O-dawg. Now that Luke is in school all day and it's just Owen & Brady at home they are learning how to play together and have become a lot more close.

Brady has so many strengths. He is an all around good kid, really. But, we are focusing on him not being so temperamental. He is very emotional and dramatic if he doesn't get his way which drives me crazy. We are raising boys here! Not girls! (forgive me for saying that b-ball)

One of my favorite parts of his personality at this point is his imagination. He can tell a story like none other. He may make up half of the story, but he sure does make it sound real. Last night he told our Allen side of the family that I ran over Daddy with the car while he was playing basketball (this never happened), but I am pretty sure he had most of the family believing him for a while. He is as funny as can be when he tells his stories.

I love you so much Brady! Continue to grow and blossom just as you are and keep being you!

Owen Daniel Allen- Year In Review 2011

2012-01-09T14:11:00.003-06:00

Owen Daniel Allen- 17 months old
aka- "O-dawg"

This year has been such a year of growth for our sweet little baby of the family. This time last year he was just crawling. Nowdays he walks, runs, climbs, jumps and is always on the go. Here lately he has even been picking up some new vocabulary which is really fun!

Owen is a momma's boy like none other. Seriously! I probably contribute to that as well with him being the baby of the family its inevitable that he is gonna get babied from time to time ;) He is still such a sweet little boy though.

He loves his time with Daddy because that usually means they are going outside! Daddy has also been working a lot with him on his basketball skills. It is so cute to see him learn!

As for being the youngest of three boys...well, Owen has definitely learned the ropes! He is really starting to take up for himself and not let the big boys push him around. It is quite often that he hits Brady for taking things from him. (we are still working on that)

Mothers Day Out is Tuesdays & Thursdays and he really likes it now! He has met friends their and loves his two teachers.

It is wonderful to see Owen in this stage of learning and growing. He spends a lot of time watching others and trying to do what they do. Although he is nearing the end of his baby phase of life, I can't wait to see his little personality blossom as he enters into his toddler years.

2011 Christmas Card

2012-01-09T07:57:00.001-06:00

I just realized that I forgot to post our 2011 Christmas Card on my blog. Here it is!

Owen's 15month Checkup

2012-01-04T12:13:00.003-06:00

Owen is actually almost 17 months so we are a little behind on his 15 month checkup, but we went today to get him caught up. He did great! Dr. Grey told us he is drinking WAY to much milk though :/ So, our goal is to cut back on his milk consumption before his 18 month checkup in March. He has grown quite a bit! He put on 4 pounds since his last appointment! We knew he was chunking up a little, but we didn't know it was that much :)

Here are his stats at this stage of the game:
- weight 25 lb 12 oz (60th percentile)
- height 32.75 inches (83rd percentile)

Not to mention he is still as cute as ever ;)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T21:27:00.004-06:00

This was a very exciting Christmas. Each year has gotten better and better with the kids. Luke was in full swing throughout the whole Christmas season, Brady followed in his footsteps (as always), and Owen...

So, you can imagine what the night before Christmas was like at our house.

Brady was riding Luke's excitement waves.

Luke was creating enough excitement waves for the whole family!

Owen was ready for bed since it was already 2 hours past his bedtime. He would cheer up once he had a little sleep under his belt.

We did the traditional night before Christmas checklist.

- put on our Christmas PJ's- check

-Feed the reindeer- check

- Check the Santa tracker- check

- put out some cookies & milk for Santa- check

- turn on a Christmas movie and do your best to calm down....well, almost a check

Then!!! Santa CAME!!! He left this huge brown paper sack and tied it with Christmas ribbons...

He ate all of his goodies :)

or, someone ate the goodies ;)
Christmas Morning

The boys woke up extra early ready to tear into their gifts. I stopped to remember that excitement, and it came back to me clear as day. I can remember how long it would take my parents to come downstairs, start the coffee, get the video camera rolling, start the Christmas music....it took FOREVER before we could finally see what Santa had left. I try not to take forever but their are things that need to be done in order to set everything up just as so and I am sure it seems like an eternity to the kids.

The boys opened that big brown bag and found that Santa had filled it with red balloons and at the bottom was their gifts. Brady and Luke got Leap pads and Owen got a leapster phone. I am pretty sure they experienced pure Christmas joy or at least I hope so.

Then we headed over to Grammy & Papas to have Christmas with them and it was more gifts galore!

Grammy got this sweet new puppy for Christmas!

We spent the whole day with family. Lunch with the Wilsons and dinner with the Allens. Doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas Week 2011

2011-12-26T23:38:00.006-06:00

Rouse Family Christmas
The whole Rouse clan (minus a few) came in town for the wedding, so we decided to have our family Christmas on Saturday night with them. We enjoyed a fajita buffet ;) at a local Mexican restaurant then went back to Yaya & Papi's for desserts. Papaw read the Christmas story from the Bible, and we cleared out the living room for night two of dancing! Fun times were had by all.

A quick shot of some of our family at dinner.

Brady & Luke are always very excited to spend time with their cousins on the Rouse side.

Sunday- Christmas with the Allens

Right after church on Sunday we had our family over to watch the Texans and more fun time playing with Cash. They boys never miss an opportunity to play in a huge pile of leaves :)

After that, we had dinner and family Chrimstas at Yaya & Papi's with just our immediate family and Mamaw & Papaw. It was lots of fun and shame on my for not taking one single picture.

My Birthday Celebration

For my 31st birthday we celebrated the night before with dinner out with our friends. We are blessed with awesome friends! I always look forward to hanging out with them.

Mom & O-dawg!

My actual birthday was so much fun! We woke up and took the boys to see a Christmas movie. After that we came home and made Christmas cookies and got ready for our family to come over for gumbo that night.

About to go in the oven...

Ready to decorate!

We waited until that night so we could have fun decorating with our cousins.

Grandma Sue even joined in on the decorating fun!

and Owen enjoyed eating sprinkles right out of the jar :)

Kennedy!

Lindsey, Erin, me, & Courtney. Cousins!

Christmas Eve Eve Service

Our church had an awesome Christmas Eve Eve service on 12/23. It was "Lone Star Christmas" complete with petting zoo, cowboy singers, and a chuck wagon. Super Cool!

Luke enjoyed petting the animals, while Brady & Owen stood and watched.

Our family in front of the chuck wagon out front. Merry Christmas 2011!

Our traditional Luke & Madi Christmas picture. So cute!
After church we had a nice dinner at Chili's with Sam & Steph to hear all about their honeymoon.

Christmas with the McGlaun family

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Christmas with the McGlaun side of the family. We played the White Elephant game and some enjoyed playing poker. It is always great to be together with family. I look forward to this time every year.

After that, we headed back home to get ready for Santa's big arrival the next morning!

Introducing...

2011-12-26T22:58:00.004-06:00

Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Allen!

December 16, 2011 Caleb's youngest brother Samuel married his high school sweetheart Steph. It just so happens that Steph and her family live right next door to us, so they are a big part of our life and we love her dearly. Samuel & Steph asked Caleb, Luke, & Brady to be in their wedding and of course they said yes!

Here's our family on the day of the wedding. Caleb was a groomsman, Luke a Jr. Groomsman, & Brady was the Ring Bearer.

Steph and I have grown really close since she moved next door & I am so glad to have her as my new sister.

Owen and Cash matched for the wedding. They sported these suspenders & bow ties with some tweed pants. They looked super cute. I regret not getting a picture of the two of them :(

Me with my handsome boy!

Daddy & Brady. Poor Brady hit his head on the playground the week before the wedding.

Aren't they cute! I must say I've trained them well...every time they stopped to pose for a picture they would say "wedding!"

My other sister in law, Erin, and I got to spend lots of time together while they were in town for the wedding which is always so much fun. I miss her so much when they have to leave.

The whole Allen Family!

Samuel & Steph got married at our church Crosspoint Fellowship which was were Caleb & I got married almost 10 years ago.

Papi with the grandsons!

The wedding was wonderful and the reception was a blast. We danced the night away with our friends and family and made lots of wonderful memories.

Congrats to the happy couple!

School Christmas Parties

2011-12-19T22:52:00.004-06:00

I am not sure if the boys teachers are trying to kill me or what, but this is the second time this year that all three have planned big events at the same time. How they expect me to be in three places at once is beyond me. But trust me on this, this momma is gonna make all three no matter what I have to do. Actually, the Christmas parties weren't at the exact same time, just on the same day- back to back.

First up- Luke 9:00am

It was a wonderful party! I am the room mom coordinator at his school, so I was able to know all of the party plans in advance on this one ;)

Luke's table. Grayson, Luke, Katie, & Joslyn.

Luke & Mrs. Soders

All of the kids got to make their own reindeer food.

Then they made these lovely Santa Grahams.

After that they played a quick game then it was time to wrap things up.

We had lots of fun together and I am so glad I can be a part of things like this with my boys.

Next Stop, Owen's kickin' party!

Nothing like a room full of one year olds getting pumped full of sweets :)

And just when I thought they had distributed all of the sweets, they passed out the cookies!
Oh well, it's party day, right?

Me & my baby. Yes, I always call him my baby even though he's not technically a baby anymore. I plan to always call him that because he is MY BABY!

One other thing about one year olds...they don't really give you much time to snap a good picture. Here is Owen with his teachers Mrs. Gemma & Ms. Bre'anne

Gifts were exchanged, we told his little friends bye bye & we were off to crash Brady's party!

Brady's class made these stunning snowflake ornaments out of Popsicle sticks.

Then decorated Christmas cookies. Yep! It tasted as good as it looked :)

Owen was a handful at Brady's party- he was literally into EVERYTHING.

After the cookies the kids had a snowball fight! Which was a HUGE hit!

Brady & Mrs. Symms

Everyone's party day was over and I was one tired Mommy.

On the First Day of Christmas...

2011-12-19T22:37:00.002-06:00

One of our favorite Allen Christmas Traditions is 12 Days of Christmas. This tradition goes back several years for as long as Caleb can remember and maybe even before he was born. So, you know me- I am NOT gonna let a good tradition go to waste!

The First Day of Christmas was 12/13/2011 and the boys got Star Wars chapstick in their stockings. Every day they will continue to get a small gift in their stocking until Christmas Day.

I love their stockings and I hope they last forever.

Brady's Christmas Program

2011-12-19T22:25:00.002-06:00

Last Tuesday, December 13, 2011, was Brady's three year old Christmas Program at school. With all of the hustle and bustle around Saw & Steph's wedding- it was a great time to slow down for a minute and enjoy some wonderful Christmas music from the voices of babes.

Brady's class wore Elf hats and bells on their wrists while they sang Jingle Bells.

The whole class did great!

One of Brady's favorite friends is Caden.

He had lots of peeps in the audience to cheer him on!

of course, Mommy

Grammy & Uncle Caleb

Daddy worked from home that day so he wouldn't miss.

Yaya & Papi

Not pictured were Ms. B & Kay Kay who also came.

Thank you to everyone who came to hear our sweet boy sing!

Our Dear Friend Jolly

2011-12-19T22:09:00.002-06:00

Last Wednesday our really fun Elf "Jolly" headed back to the North Pole to get to work helping Santa. I must say we were all pretty sad to see him go ;) As you may remember from a previous post... he was filling in for our regular Elf and boy was he different.

He started off by bringing donuts.

Then he zip lined across the living room.

Then he spelled out the kids names with marshmellows.

He made a snow angel with flour on our kitchen table.

Not to mention the other things we dont have pictures of like when he:

- turned our milk green

- went fishing for goldfish

- hung underwear all over our Christmas Tree

- wrapped our entire Christmas Tree in toilet paper

- replaced all of the pictures in our house with a picture of him

He was quite a crazy guy!

The last day he was here, he left a sweet note and three Santa balloons for the kids on his usual North Pole paper.

Jolly is always welcome back into our home any time Trudy, our old elf, has the year off :)

p.s. what am i gonna do when my kids are to old for this kind of fun stuff?????

Polar Express- Shadycrest Style

2011-12-06T21:38:00.004-06:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Luke's school? It is such a wonderful place- they make it so easy for parents to be involved, which, to me is one of the most important things about kids in school. Anyway...tonight they hosted a Literacy Night and themed it "Polar Express". The kids went around to different stations and it all shadowed the movie. While the kids were in one of the stations, they had the parents in another room giving them helpful learning tips for kids. A+ Shadycrest!

The other cool thing about tonight was that siblings were welcome! Here are the boys getting their tickets punched in their PJ's.

In the first segment they watched a clip from the movie while they sat in this train.

Hi Mrs. Soders! Did you know the teacher actually sleep at the school? They were all walking around in their PJ's too!

Next, they moved into another station to see Santa and get their picture taken with him.

Last, they went to the cafeteria to enjoy some cookies and hot chocolate! This sweet little face can't wait until he gets to be a Shadycrest Owl too!

Hometown Christmas Parade

2011-12-03T22:04:00.002-06:00

While Daddy & Luke were in Waco today for the Baylor/TX game (woo hoo the Bears won!), the little boys and I went to the Christmas parade. Let me tell you...this is 100% my definintion of fun fun fun! It's Christmas! The most wonderful time of the year! and I think the boys agreed :)

We met up with a few friends and waited patiently for the parade to start. To pass some time, we had Taco Bell for dinner, which is Brady's favorite.

Mommy & the boys watching the parade!

At the very end...we finally got to see Santa!

I love this tradition and I hope to continue on for years and years to come.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A New Christmas Visitor

2011-12-03T15:38:00.002-06:00

We had a slight hiccup as I was unpacking our Christmas decorations this year. Luke saw our normal Elf on the Shelf "Trudy" in one of the boxes that came out of the attic. He was pretty confused because all along he has thought that Trudy flew in from the N. Pole each year so seeing him in a box.... well shoot!
This was gonna take a little quick thinking on my part to redeem this situation. I was not gonna let our Elf tradition go down in flames this soon in the game...trust me ;)

So, I decided to bring a new Elf into the mix and hears how I pulled it off:

Friday morning, the kids woke up to this new guy!

He left this note- introducing himself and saying that he was filling in this year for Trudy who had the year off. Luke totally bought it and we are back in the game :)

Jolly, our new elf, brought some powdered donuts which were a HUGE hit. I don't think my kids have ever had these before, so they really believed that they came from the N. Pole :)

(I know...the lies keep growing, but you should see the excitement on their faces- totally worth it)

Owen is in his pointing phase as you can see. Even he can't believe that we have a new Elf this year....totally cool!

Luke wrote Jolly a thank you note and couldn't wait to see what he would be up to tomorrow...

Watch Dog in the House!

2011-11-29T14:05:00.002-06:00

Monday after Thanksgiving break Caleb had a chance to be the Watch Dog at Luke's school. The Watch Dog program is a program where dads take a day off from work and spend the day at the school. Luke was over the moon excited!

Here's a few things Caleb had a chance to do:
- morning announcements
- rotated between all of the Kindergarten classrooms helping out
- recess
- PE
- lunch
- read a story to Luke's class
- spent time in the life skills class where he met a really sweet friend

I am so thankful our school has this program. The kids love having a dad walking around the halls and I think the dads enjoy their time there too!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-29T13:56:00.002-06:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. Between our trip to Leander and family coming in town after that we got to see pretty much every single member of our family which was really great. EE, Nonah, & Cash came in town for a few days so we got to spend time with them on Thanksgiving Day. sadly, I didn't get any pictures with them :(

Saw & Steph had their Thanksgiving lunch at Stephs house so they came by a little early before the rest of the Allens came. They are getting married in 3 weeks... can you believe it?

Then, an extra special treat! Aunt Leigh & Uncle Doug came in town too! Taylor, Papapon, & Blake came by Thanksgiving night to visit with them.

What an awesome Thanksgiving!

A Very Fun Trip To Waco

2011-11-29T13:43:00.002-06:00

We started off our Thanksgiving vacation with a trip to Waco to see the Baylor Bears play the Oklahoma Sooners. This was Brady's first trip to Waco and his first Baylor game, so he was super excited. Since EE & Nonah are both OU Sooners it was a rival game for our family which made it even more fun. (any other time we would be rooting for the Sooners, just not that day)

First, we took the boys to see the bears. Judge Joy & Judge Lady.

We walked around campus a little to show them all of Daddy's old stomping ground before we headed to the stadium to meet the rest of our family for the game.

We got to the stadium early so we could make it in time for March of the Bears and got a quick picture of Brady with Bruiser!

Daddy & Saw let the boys on their shoulders when it was time to high five the players.

Brady got to see Robert Griffin :)

Our family! Owen stayed home with Grammy & Yaya while we were gone. He will have his chance to go to Waco very soon.

and look who the boys stumbled upon for a picture... a Baylor cheerleader. Silly boys :)

We tailgated with our family who came up from Leander before the game.

Mamaw was so happy to see the boys and they were glad to see her too! After the game we went back to Mamaw & Papaw's house to spend time with them and the boys were in pure Heaven!

Best part about the trip....Baylor beat OU!!!!! Go Bears!

Thankgiving Feasts 2011

2011-11-15T17:44:00.003-06:00

It just so happened that both schools that the three of my kids attend planned all three of their Thanksgiving Feasts at the same time. I got the news last week and started to panic. Thankfully, we have both sets of grandparents close- but originally, The Allen set of grandparents were going to be out due to Papi's shoulder surgery.

I know, I am kinda weird about that, but it is really important to me to make it to their school functions. It all worked out fine and I was able to make it to both schools and have a great time with all of them.

Caleb worked from home today, so he was able to meet me at Luke's lunch first. Good thing he stopped at ChickFila first....cafeteria turkey & dressing is very...interesting.

Then, it was time to head over to Brady's feast. We had asked Grammy & Papa to be there just in case I didn't make it in time which was really nice. I think he really enjoyed having them there too. His school served fried chicken strips, corn, french fries, rolls, & chocolate pudding. (we joked that it was the typical preschool feast- which was so perfect!)

Brady's potato turkey place card looked amazing ;)

I headed over to Owen's class just in time too! He was eating his pudding when I got there. Sadly though, I forgot my camera when I went to see him :( He was having a blast and was covered in chocolate!

Owen & Brady's place mats. Oh how I love preschool laminated place mats.

On the back of Brady's place mat, he was to say what he was thankful for...very sweet that he picked Yaya!

As a mommy, I could not be more thankful to have those three boys and be able to share their special moments like today with them. My heart smiles on days like today!

Operation Christmas Child 2011

2011-11-09T21:32:00.003-06:00

For the past 9 years I have been participating in some capacity with this amazing program called Operation Christmas Child. It is run by an organization called Samaritan's Purse. They collect shoe boxes full of children's toys, school supplies, socks, etc. to take to less fortunate communities in other countries during Christmas.

Most years I have been our church's liaison for Operation Christmas Child and collected the boxes to take to the drop off location. I have hauled hundreds of shoe boxes over the years that were donated and have always been truly blessed to be a part of such an awesome act of love.

This year, I told my church I would not be able to head it up due to my commitments with the boy's schools, but of all the years this one was my favorite. This was the first year I was able to see how selfless my two sweet boys really could be. We sat them down and talked to them about other children around the world and told them that tonight was a night to think only about those kids and not ourselves. So we loaded them up with their shoe boxes and headed to Target.

Brady had his box filled to the brim in no time. Luke was a little more careful with his choices.
I was so proud of the boys! Not once did they ask for one thing for themselves. All this time, I have to admit that I have kind of avoided projects like this thinking they wouldn't "get" it, but they totally "got" it!

Shame on me for not doing things like this more often. Lesson learned though- I want to instill in them an attitude of selflessness so from now on we are going to try to start thinking of ways to use what we have to help others from time to time. Because boy weren't those boys good at it!

Here they are with their boxes full! (there was no way we were gonna leave that store without a football for each of our little friends across the world)

Luke did a great job writing a special note for his friend. Brady did too, but at the last minute he decided to give his note to me instead of including it in the box which was fine too :)

Happy Halloween- May the Force Be With You

2011-11-01T20:01:00.002-05:00

This year since the boys are SO into Star Wars, we didn't really have a choice but to dress up as Star Wars characters. There was really no way around it....I tried. I do have to admit though- it was so much fun seeing how excited they were to see me dress up and be a part of their world.

Luke went as Luke Skywalker
Owen went as Yoda
I was Princess Leia
Brady was a Storm Trooper
Caleb stayed home and handed out candy to all of the other trick or treaters

Look how cute our little Yoda is!

It's our Halloween tradition to have our friends come over for pizza before we all go trick or treating in our neighborhood. The VanEps also came, but weren't there when we took this picture. The kids love getting to play in their costumes and trick or treat together. Fun times!

Luke's Kindergarten Field Trip

2011-10-31T15:05:00.004-05:00

Today was Luke's field trip to Old MacDonald's Farm in Humble, TX.

The students road to the farm on school buses and the parents followed behind them in separate cars. The kids were so excited as they got off the buses.

Each parent chaperone was assigned a group of four kids to stay with while we were there. Here's are group we got to hang out with. Elijah, Julia, Luke, & Annie.

Mom & Luke

They also had this huge hay barn full of hay and rope swings! The kids loved that part!

I want to say Caleb & I went to this same place when we were little because I remembered those rope swings when we saw them.

And of course...a petting zoo :)

And what is a field trip without pony rides????

Luke's favorite part of the whole trip! They had real Indian teepees which were really cool.

Elijah, Zachary, Julia, & Luke

Everybody say cheese!

The whole class at the pumpkin patch.

Before we left, Mrs. Soders wanted a picture with all of the moms who helped so we took a quick picture and we were headed back home!

It was a wonderful day on the farm!

Pumpkin Painting

2011-10-31T14:49:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I saw an idea to let your kids paint their pumpkins instead of carving them. Since I am always up for a fun kid craft I thought that would be an excellent project for me to do with the boys. Here's what our pumpkins looked like to start with...

Look at Luke- I've trained him well ;)

Brady hard at work.

Note to self...Next time it is probably a better idea to do this project outside so we dont get paint all over EVERYTHING!

Finished product! The boys and I decided this would be our new tradition for the night before Halloween.

Brady's pumpkin

Luke's pumpkin. Notice he wrote Baylor on the top then underlined it in white.

- that child is exactly like his Daddy!

Book Character Parade

2011-10-31T14:44:00.002-05:00

Luke's school had a book character parade for all of the Kindergarten classes last Friday. Each student was to dress up as their favorite book character and they got to go up on stage to show all of their guests.

Of course...Luke was Luke Skywalker from Star Wars and he held his favorite book "Star Wars ABC". This book goes through the whole alphabet and gives a character for every letter and describes their role.

Picture Day At MDO

2011-10-31T14:40:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday was picture day at Mother's Day Out. If you haven't noticed I have my kids pictures taken about every 6 months, so I don't really "need" any more professional pictures, but I still can't pass school pictures up. So, I snapped a quick picture of the two younger brothers before they left for school.
FYI: these two are almost impossible to get a good picture of together- hints the not so wonderful picture but it was all I had.

The Most Wonderful Words I Have Ever Heard...

2011-10-26T22:55:00.002-05:00

As you know, Luke is in Kindergarten this year. It has been a big adjustment for all of us. It's lots of school work, homework, waking up early, learning, learning, & a little more learning. All very good things- just a little different than our "normal" life.

So every day we work on Luke's flashcards. He is learning letters, sounds, and sight words. His teacher sends home a reader every Tuesday which we work on and send back to school on Friday. This is the fourth week she has sent home the reader.

Each day as I am cooking dinner, Luke gets out the reader and we go through it together as I cook. EXCEPT for today... Today he got out the reader and started reading right off the bat. No help from me, just got it out and spouted off the first sentence. This was not a sentence he had even memorized or anything- just a sentence full of sight words and a picture at the end.

"I see my cowboy boots"
I hope I always remember how his sweet little voice sounded the first time he read a sentence. By the way, isn't that a cute first sentence?

I think he could tell how proud I was. All of his hard work is paying off!

Pearland Homecoming

2011-10-21T22:00:00.003-05:00

Tonight we went to the Pearland Oilers Homecoming game. We like to tailgate before the games to spend time with friends and tonight was perfect weather to be outside.

The kids were in full swing faces painted and all!

Our little family of future Pearland Oilers!

Owen finally got his turn in the Allen 18 shirt. I made this shirt for Luke when his Uncle Saw used to be quarterback for the Oilers. Since then, Brady & Owen both have had a chance to wear it too. Gotta represent!

It was a really fun night spent with lots of great friends and the Oilers won!!!

Owen's New Do

2011-10-20T21:53:00.002-05:00

Sweet little Owen has been in need of a hair cut for a few weeks now, but I was trying to savor every little last second of babyness I could possibly save. Today it was time though- after so many times of tucking it back behind his ear I had had enough.

We headed up to our favorite little boy hair cut place Hollywood Hair. They have $5 boy hair cuts so you can't go wrong with that when your lining them up three in a row ;)

He did wonderfully! He stayed still the entire time which was way better than I expected.

Here's the new Owen! He is all clean cut and ready to go. Caleb and I joked that he had been growing his baby hair out for locks of love and that's why it had gotten so long.

He looks all grown up now, but just as handsome as ever!

Fall On The Farm

2011-10-20T21:33:00.003-05:00

Today was Fall on the Farm at Brady & Owen's school.

They had a class about milking cows, a petting zoo, a vegetable harvest garden, hay ride, and bean bag toss.

What a fun day! Thankfully, their classes went out one right after the other so I was able to see both of them.

Brady- right before he learning about milking cows from "Mary Moo"

Owen wasn't really sure what to think of the petting zoo, he was ok with the goat though.

Owen's first pony ride!

Owen's class. His other teacher Ms. Gemma was out today.

Owen's favorite part of Fall on the Farm was the vegetable garden. He loved harvesting pumpkins!

The dirt tasted pretty good too ;)

Then it was time for Brady's class to come have some fall fun!

Ride 'em cowboy!

Brady liked this really cool donkey named "Brownie"

Brady & Brownie again...

Then time for a hay ride before they headed back to class.

It was a great day!

Finally Some Cooler Weather!

2011-10-19T22:15:00.002-05:00

The past few days we have had our first cool front of the Fall! Finally, we can really enjoy some beautiful weather at the park. I have a feeling this will be the first of many trips to the park until it gets unbearably hot next summer.

I must admit though...today as we pulled up at the park, I felt so sad/guilty for being there without Luke :( One of his all time favorite things to do is to have a picnic at the park which was what we were going to be doing today.

Although that first part was a little sad, I was quickly reminded that this is now Brady & Owen's turn to have me during the day. It was really nice to see how excited they were to be there. Little Owen smiled almost the whole time we were there...which meant lots of photo ops for me :)

Owen's #1 motto in life is STAY HYDRATED. That little boys drinks more water than anyone I have ever met.

And Brady- well he is pretty much fine with just about anything. He is really easy to get along with and can pretty much play with anyone of any age at any time. He's a pretty cool kid! He enjoyed playing dump trucks in the rocks.

This picture I got just because he was walking in an open field and I wanted to get a full body shot of him to show how little he is. He has grown so much but I know this next year he is going to really grow fast.

It doesn't look like it, but he does have hands. We just transferred all of his size 18 month hand me downs into his drawers so they are a little big on him. No worries though- in no time it will be time to trade those out for the 2t size.

It was a great day at the park and we really enjoyed being out in the beautiful weather.

Stay tuned...tomorrow is Fall on the Farm at Preschool :)

Finally 5 1/2!

2011-10-13T16:28:00.005-05:00

I guess now that Luke is in elementary school he has heard a lot about celebrating your half birthday. For the past few weeks he has been asking me when he will turn 5 1/2. Finally, today is the day. So, Happy 5 1/2 birthday Luke!

School Spirit Day- In His Steps Preschool

2011-10-13T15:24:00.003-05:00

Today was Spirit Day at Brady & Owen's preschool. On Spirit Day, the kids all wear their school shirt and get to have Chick-Fil-A for lunch which is always a treat ;)
This was Owen's very first spirit day. I got a cute picture of the two of them right before school this morning. It was a great day and both of them had lots of fun!

Student of the Week

2011-10-12T21:16:00.003-05:00

Yep, you're looking at last week's student of the week! Luke was featured in his class and got to bring some pictures to tell a little more about himself which were posted on the classroom door.

Here are the pictures he chose to include:
- him scoring a goal at his soccer game
- his "official" 5 year old picture
- him & Alex (his best friend)
- our family picture at Brady's party
- him, Daddy, & the Baylor mascot Bruiser at the Baylor game
- him, Brady, & Owen

He also had THREE lunch visitors last week! Uncle Saw came Monday, Wednesday Grammy came, & Friday Daddy & Brady came.

What a fun filled week for our favorite Student Of the Week ;)

A Weekend Away!

2011-10-12T21:06:00.002-05:00

Caleb and I had the opportunity to get away last weekend and head to Dallas for the OU/TX game with Erin & Noah. It was fun being together without the kiddoes, these days anytime we see them we always have kids with us :)

The night before the game we had a lovely dinner out and had a great Italian meal.

Saturday was the game. This is the group we were with. The two other couples are some friends of Erin & Noah's which we had a chance to get to know. Both were really sweet couples.

Then, the four of us at halftime. Boomer Sooner! The Sooners won the game!

Teddy Bear Picnic

2011-10-06T22:01:00.002-05:00

Brady had a Teddy Bear Picnic at school today. This is an annual event in which each child gets to bring their favorite stuffed animal to school for an outdoor picnic lunch. Brady had been looking forward to this all week. Of course...he chose Buzz Lightyear to be his guest!

On another note...Brady and I have been working on spelling his name and cutting for the past few weeks. He has mastered the spelling of his name and is getting to be an awesome cutter. I am one proud mom!

More Cousin Time

2011-10-06T21:52:00.002-05:00

We got to spend the evening with Cash! Since we had all four cousins under one roof we created the above masterpiece ;) Each boy did their handprint and Luke wrote everyone's name under their hand.

Cash loves playing football just as much as his cousins. He pretty much has a ball in his hand everywhere he goes.

Owen likes having Cash around too! Its fun having someone your own size to play with!

The babies are starting to interact with each other which is so fun to watch.

Having Cash come tonight was so much fun. It makes us miss him and wish he was closer so we could see him all the time. The neat thing about him being here was that he just fit right in. He knew that we were his family which was really cool to see.

Lovely Choices

2011-10-06T21:47:00.002-05:00

Here are the pumpkins the boys chose at the pumpkin patch yesterday. Funny thing...Luke waits until everyone else picks theirs so he can be sure his is signifigantly larger than Brady and Owens. Brady and Owen could care less though- they make their decisions based on their own likes/dislikes.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-05T14:49:00.002-05:00

Today was a great day for the pumpkin patch!

Luke's school had early release and our cousin Cash is in town so Aunt KayKay and I loaded up the boys and headed out.

Cousins!

Cash loved the pumkin patch! He thought every pumpkin was a ball.

Contrary to the looks of the above picture, Owen really liked the pumpkin patch too. This was the only picture I could get of the two of them together though so it will have to do.

Notice the cast on Owen's right arm? He fell Monday night and broke his wrist :/ This is his soft cast he will have until Monday, then he gets a hard cast. So far he has done ok and doesn't seem to be in to much pain.

After the pumpkin patch we went to Sonic for Happy Hour! Those are some thirsty Allen boys!

Happy Fall Everyone!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

2011-09-29T21:35:00.002-05:00

Last week Caleb was out of town all week. So, to pass the time I got out all of my fall decorations and went to town. For the past year, I have been trying to think of new ways to decorate with all of my old things by just changing the way I am used to seeing them. It has worked really well for me because it seems like I have new stuff but I don't!

As I was putting all of my fall things out I realized that just about all of it has a special meaning to me or reminds me of something or someone.

This bowl of pumpkins reminds me of Mamaw. She was in town when I got these and I remember her asking where I got them so she could go get some, so that's why I always think of her when I see these. They have relocated from their normal spot in the kitchen window to the coffee table.

This is my new fall mantle. The mustard hydrangias in the bucket remind me of my sister in law Erin. I always think of her when I see the color mustard, plus I think she has an arrangement similar to this one.

This fall berry garland reminds me of my friend Charlene. I got this one Saturday morning a long time ago when we went garage saling.

These pumpkins remind me of my friend Jodi. I got these at a garage sale one day when I was with her.

Like my new blocks? I have been wanting these forever and finally found a lady that makes them. Awesome awesome!

This twig pumpkin reminds me of Waco. I think because I got this when Caleb and I first got married and lived in Waco. It even still smells like our house there.

Last but definately not least. These are my favorite fall decorations. My kid's handprint turkey plates. They both had the same two year old teacher and they made these in her class. I will cherish these forever and I really hope Owen makes me one too.

Some of my favorite fall memories are:

-my Mimi and her famous turkey and stuffing

-my neighbor Jeanie who lived across the street from us and her really fun Halloween parties

-the Thanksgiving I spent in Boston with my aunts Leslie & Leigh and their families

-Luke's first trip to the pumpkin patch when he was 6 months old. He was the cutest lion ever!

-the sound of a football game in the background while I am making pumpkin rolls.

-fresh pot of mums on the front porch

Lately...

2011-09-28T14:57:00.002-05:00

Lately we have been very busy! More busy than usual with lots of things going on. Caleb was out of town last week, we started a new semester in lifegroup, PTA, soccer, sick kids...you get the picture. Although things have been crazy I still had a chance to snap a few shots of the kids lately.

Luke is learning, learning, learning up a storm. He wrote this page and I will translate...
Top 2 lines: alphabet
3rd line: AB
4th line: pattern (meaning AB pattern- which they are learning in school)
5th line: texans, baylor
6th line: oilers (pearland high school's team name), sunday (that's the day the texans play)
7th line: texans (just for practice ;)

And while our big boy Luke is learning his little heart out- me and the little boys have been playing!

The splash park with sweet friends was calling our name and we couldn't resist...it's hot out there ya'll!

Hey, Hey, Hey #2...

2011-09-18T21:22:00.003-05:00

I ALWAYS wanted a little boy. ALWAYS. I wanted to go to his games and cheer him on and get sweaty hugs, and be his biggest fan and wear his jersey when he gets to high school. All of that boy mom stuff. BUT...you have to have a boy who actually likes to play a sport to be able to get all of that. Not all boys like sports, in fact, I am not even sure that all three of mine will. There is one things certain though...Luke Allen does ;)

He had his second soccer game this week. He is definitely in his element out there. We aren't quite sure if it's because he's playing soccer or just because he is getting to play anything that involves being on a team. I have a million pictures of him playing- I know. I like to capture his action shots because they show exactly how he feels when he is playing.

Like this...

Woo Hoo! I scored my first goal of the game!

After he scores he gets this little half smile then he's ready to do it again.

I must say the HARDEST part of the game for him is having to take a stupid water break. I know it kills him to have to rotate out and let someone else have a turn.

Put me in coach! I am ready to play. Today!

There goes my #2! Goal!

You see that little blue jersey back there with two fists in the air? That's my #2!

and he hustles the whole game.

Ready for action.

Do not be mistaken. There are some really intense moments too.

Way to play Luke! If you're gonna play, you might as well play hard!

Mamaw's Birthday & Rouse Homecoming

2011-09-17T11:23:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we took a day trip to Leander for Mamaw's birthday and the Rouse High School Homecoming game. That's us with Mamaw & Papaw. Rouse High School is named after Papaw.

Me & my honey.

Luke, Brady, and their cousins got to run through the tunnel before the game with all of the football players.

Owen did really well the whole time. He did great in the car and great at the game. He loves Rouse Raider Football!

cousins!

This is our group at the game. Out of our family of 35, 27 were there. Fun times!

Me, Susan, and Kate- 3 of the Allen girls in the Rouse bunch.

Happy Birthday to Mamaw & the Raiders won the game!!!

That Time Again...

2011-09-12T21:48:00.002-05:00

Yep, its that time again. Time for well visits to the doctor. Brady just turned 3 & Owen just turned 1 so I thought it would be good to take them both together and kill two birds with one stone. I am still trying to decide if that was a good idea or not. We went today while Luke was in school- but the three of us who did go all left in tears...

Everything was going fine for the most part. Brady is pretty traumatized by the doctor due to the fact that the poor child has had 5 staph infections over the past three years which all ended with him being held down in the doctors office and the doctor draining them. misery. So, it takes ALOT of sweet talking to get the doctors to win him over. Dr. Onheiser is a really good doctor and does great with kids. He made friends with Brady right off the bat, so that helped some.

Brady is still very touchy though. Owen...friendly as can be ;)

So, the big fear in my little 3 year old's mind is of course, "I don't want to get a shot". Meaning, when the doctor says "Well, it looks like he is due for his Hep A vaccination" I start making a plan of how in the world we are gonna pull this off. What treat can I offer at the end to help ease the pain, etc... because seriously- no matter how hard you try, you can't convince a 3 year old that this shot they are about to receive is "good" for them and is gonna keep them from getting really sick. At least this is the experience I have had.

The nurse walks in and Brady starts freaking out. Meanwhile, Owen is walking around the room putting every single little thing he can find off the floor into his mouth. Being sure to leave that office with as many germs as he can possibly find. lovely. I can't worry about that right now though- I have to hold Brady down so they can give him his shot.

That was over- then it was Owen's turn. Not sure what's worse...the child who knows whats coming and is totally freaking out or the sweet little one who has no clue what's about to hit him. First shot, and Brady starts running around the room screaming "Don't hurt Owen!" FRANTICALLY. I am not sure if I will ever get that picture out of my mind. Then I start crying while I am trying to hold Owen down. Poor Owen did the best of all three of us and he got the most shots.

Anyway! Long story for a very long day!

We went straight to Sonic for a slushy then went to Lowes to look at the mowers and Brady was instantly better :)

Here are their stats in this stage of the game:

Brady Allen- age 3
35 lbs
40.25 inches tall

Owen Allen- age 1
21.5 lbs
31 inches tall

Big Boy Soccer Player

2011-09-10T15:51:00.003-05:00

Luke is one of the most competitive children I know. Seriously...almost to a fault (we are working on that). So, we decided we needed to get him on a team to channel some of his little competitive spirit in the right direction. After doing some research, we learned that soccer was a really good sport to start kids off with because it develops their hand eye coordination, they get lots of exercise, and of course learn the value of teamwork.

We signed Luke up with the Pearland United Soccer League. He only had two requests...he wanted to be either number 1 or number 5, and he wanted to be on a blue team. I explained to him that we don't get to pick our team color and number, but we would see what we could do. His response... "Mom, I don't want to be any other number besides 1 because 1 comes first (I told you he was competitive) but if I can't be 1 I guess I will be 5 because that's how old I am."

This is him in action! Another thing about Allen boys. They take ANY sport they are playing very seriously. This goes back several generations. So, it was no surprise to me to see Luke out there. It reminded me of his Daddy and uncles.

One last high 5 after his first practice.

From Thursday practice all the way to Saturday morning game time Luke was itching in his britches to get to that field.

Notice what number Luke got... BUT he did get to be on the blue team!

Boy did he hustle out there. He scored 4 goals! Plus, he was awesome on defense. He stopped a ball from going into the other teams goal.

Luke at halftime with Saw & Steph

Luke & Mack make awesome teammates.

Technically, we aren't supposed to be keeping score (silly if you ask us) but it was obvious with or without a scorekeeper that Luke's team won the game!

High 5 to the other team for a great game!

Luke and his sideline fans. Mommy, Daddy, Brady, Owen, Papa (not pictured), Grammy, Yaya, Papi, KayKay, Saw, Steph, and Ms. B. Thanks guys for coming!

For now, our excited soccer player will reflect on the today's game until next Saturday's game ;)

Poor Baby...

2011-09-07T21:22:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was a very busy weekend. Caleb and I headed to Waco to watch the Baylor Bears beat TCU. Then came home the next day for Grandma Sue's 81st birthday party. After that, we thought we would continue on with our Labor Day weekend when Sunday morning we discovered Owen's left ear was full of blood! I called our pediatrician and she advised us to head to TX Children's Hospital and get it checked out.
After a long day there, our ENT found an abscess in Owen's ear which needed surgery to be removed right away.
It was a short surgery and we got to come home after Owen came out of recovery. He has been doing much better since and I am sure he feels better with that gone now.
I had my camera in my purse and snapped a few pictures before he went in for surgery.

We spent pretty much the whole day in the hospital. Owen was quite a trooper the whole time. He didn't have his normal freedom to rome, and got poked and x-rayed quite a bit but still handled it like a champ.

The worst part for me was seeing his little arm with an IV :(

A Celebration!

2011-09-04T07:38:00.023-05:00

Last weekend we celebrated Owen's first birthday with 17 of our close family members. We decided to have a small dinner party instead of our normal "shindig" because I have always wanted to host this type of party and this seemed like a great time to do it.

We had our friend Ginny Henderson and her family join us for dinner. She captured some great memories for us as well of taking some of the traditional birthday pictures we like to get at each party like this one above.

She got a cute family shot too!

Our sweet birthday boy!

Owen and Grandma Sue are exactly 80 years apart.

Papa

Papi stealing a kiss from Owen

The whole group enjoying some of Daddy's famous brisket. Yum!

birds eye view ;)

every once in a while we get a cute picture of me and B-ball.

Owen love his KayKay. Seriously.

Then it was time for some birthday cake!

a good hose bath was then in order

We were so glad Mamaw & Papaw even came!

Owen loved this new airplane from Saw & Steph.

Owen would like to thank Mamaw, Papaw, Yaya, Papi, Saw, Steph, KayKay, Ms.B, Drew, Grandma Sue, Papa, Grammy, Mommy, Daddy, Bubba, B-ball, & the Henderson family for a fun time at his party!

Owen Daniel Allen is One Year Old!

2011-08-31T14:14:00.006-05:00

Today our sweet Owen turned one year old! Kinda bittersweet if you ask me. Bitter because we no longer have a baby in the house and sweet because we no longer have a baby in the house. (if you know what I mean ;) I LOVE it when my kids turn one though. They are just a lot more fun because you can really start to see them learn and grow and shine. Owen's personality has always been the same, easy going for the most part, but now he is gaining more confidence and exploring his new found independence which is so much fun to watch.

Here's a look at how he has grown over the past year...

To my precious Baby O,

Knowing that you are probably gonna be our last baby, I have tried to enjoy every one of your little milestones this year. Instead of rushing you to the next thing (which I may have done a little more with your brothers) I learned to slow down and take in every stage you were in as you were in it. Yes, the year still went by extremely too fast- but I know I will cherish all of the memories I have from your first year.

You're still as sweet as you have always been. I love your laid back personality and your patience with your big brothers. It's almost like you know how much they love you and know they would never intend to hurt you, even though some times they do hurt you :( You seem to somehow forgive them right away and go back to following them around.

Boy don't those guys love you so much! Both of them! I love seeing how proud they are of you. Just this week Luke ran in and said "Mom, Owen is in there laughing!" like it was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Thank you for being such a sweet little brother to them. You may not know this, but you have taught them so much. Luke can now change a diaper because of you. Brady knows to hurry as fast as he can to find a burp rag when he sees a baby spit up because of you. They know how to handle babies because of you.

Thanks for being you and thanks for your smiles, hugs, laughs, and even that precious little pout face you sometimes get. Daddy and I love you so much and are truly blessed to have you!

Kids Say the Darndest Things- Kinder Edition

2011-08-25T21:05:00.004-05:00

This week I have been trying to get as much information as I can from Luke about Kindergarten. I have a running list and here's what he has said so far:

- the first day Luke met a friend named Zachary (but he hasn't spoken about him since and even forgot his name)
- the second day Luke became friends with the other Luke in his class...Luke D.
- Luke A. (my Luke) and Luke D. play tag at recess
- one day, Luke A. & Luke D. both wore a blue shirt and khakis on the same day (which was really cool to Luke, but it's bound to happen when you have standarized dress)
- Luke's favorite part of school is lunch- because he is "always hungry"
- on the bus you don't have to wear seatbelts
- one word to describe Mrs. Soders "beautiful"
- there is one kid in Luke's class that is bad
- that bad kid used to sit at Luke's table, but he got moved
- that bad kid doesn't sit criss cross applesauce
- Mrs. Soders wants to move that bad kid out of the class :/
- Mrs. Soders worked hard on their classroom
- Mrs. Soders likes it when you raise your hand
- there is a treasure box in the classroom and you get a treasure if you stay on green- if you get purple you get two treasures
- the first time Luke rode the bus he was nervous so he held onto Emma's shirt the whole way home
- Emma sits at Luke's table for class and lunch
- Luke likes to wear his tennis shoes every day just in case he has PE that day (even on days we know there won't be PE)
- according to Luke if I was to ask Mrs. Soders about him she would say he was really good

Brady's Birthday Celebration at School!

2011-08-25T20:59:00.003-05:00

So today Brady got to have his school birthday celebration! We made some cupcakes (muffins- as he calls them) with icing and sprinkles on top and sent them to share with the class.

Brady was so excited to go to school today. He wanted to know "would they sing?" "will they have fire?" (candles) "will they give me presents?"

They did two of the three...they sang and the class made him a picture book as their gift to him. Each classmate was able to draw a special picture for Brady and Mrs. Symms made it into a special book. It was really sweet.

Happy School Birthday Brady!

My Bus Rider

2011-08-23T16:00:00.004-05:00

The first thing out of Luke's mouth yesterday after his first day of school was "Mom, I didn't get to ride the bus home :(" So, since his friend Emma was gonna be on the same bus as him and getting off at the same stop, I decided to go ahead and let him ride the bus home. (not to mention the IN SANE car rider line)

So right about 3:00, the boys and I headed out to greet our little bus rider as he got off of Bus #219.

Little boys just chillin.

Then right about 3:20, we saw the most amazing sight we saw all day long! Our Lukey's bus!!!

Ladies first...there's Emma getting off.

Then Luke!

I just kept on snapping that camera ;)

Looking both ways!

and he was officially a bus rider!

Brady & Owen's First Day of School

2011-08-23T15:47:00.006-05:00

Today was the first day of school for Brady and Owen! Brady started Pre-K 3 and Owen started Mother's Day Out. The two of them will only be going on Tuesday & Thursday.

Brady with his Preschool sign

Little school boy Owen sporting his gold and green on the first day;)

We traditionally take a picture of Luke & Brady on the stairs on the first day of school, so today I tried to do the same with the younger two. Their ages aren't quiet as easy to capture cute shots.

Got my black and white backpack shot as always!

Brady & Mrs. Symms (also known as Mrs. Alissa)

Luke had her as his teacher when he was 3, so Brady is already really familiar with her. She is lots of fun!

She had the idea to have each kid sign their name on the first day... we obviously need to work on this ;)

With his name tag!

He did great! He went right in and sat down to play. No tears and he hardly even told me goodbye :(

Then it was Owen's turn. I was a little nervous about leaving him because he has a rough time being left at church.

Mrs. Gemma & Ms. Brianne are his teachers this year. They were sweet enough to stop for a quick picture amongst lots of crying kids.

Look! There's his name on the birthday chart!

Checking everything out. NO tears though :)

Hmmmm??? I wonder what's in here?

He found a truck way back in the back of that shelf and he was sold on staying!

Here's what's going on each day.

A kiss bye and I was out the door. My babies were all distributed and happy for the time being.

At the end of the day, Brady had a very good report. He had a blast and really loved his class. Owen did good too! The teacher said there were a few tears throughout the day, but all in all a great day!

Glad that part is over!

Luke's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-08-22T22:31:00.004-05:00

My big Kindergartner woke up bright and early this morning on his own excited for his first day of school! He got himself dressed and watched a few minutes of cartoons while I was finishing up his breakfast.

Back to school muffins!

He knew today would be one of those days where I would be taking tons of pictures, so he cooperated well!

Right after I snapped this picture, he said "did you get a good one mom?" That's my boy ;)

We entered the halls of Shadycrest Elementary with one very excited and confident boy and one extremely sad mom. I did manage to choke back all of my tears so he wouldn't see.

Luke's sweet little friend Emma who he has known since they were 1 1/2 years old is in his class this year which helps a lot! I feel so much better knowing that he has at least one friend to start off with ;)

and here is Mrs. Soders! Doesn't she just look as sweet as can be? She really is. I think it's gonna be a great year with her.

~so I got Luke all situated in his seat and could tell it was time for me to get going. He was totally fine on his own. I leaned over to remind him about the kiss I had given him in his hand last night from the story we read. I told him don't forget about that...if you need me, just put your palm on your cheek and remember that kiss. At that point, I was just about to burst in tears, so I left right away and saved my tears for the hallway.

The whole day was pretty hard. I missed him so much. It's just not the same without him here. The other boys even seemed a little out of sort. Luke is usually the one who calls most of the shots (among the kids), picks what they will play (or not play), asks for all of the snacks, etc...

It was pretty weird all day long! I hated it! I really really did. I know it will get better though once I get used to it. hopefully.

To try to get my mind off of things, I let the little boys swim in the back yard and they had so much fun! Notice who is holding the hose??? That would have NEVER happened if Lukey was home- not a chance ;) Brady could get used to this big brother role...

FINALLY 2:30 rolled around, so I loaded everyone up to go sit in that car rider line. and I cried some more. I just couldn't believe it was really time for him to be in elementary and i wanted to make sure he had a good day.

He got in the car and told us it was a great day and he had lots of fun and he was sad he couldn't ride the bus home. So, maybe tomorrow he can. I will see.

Right when he walked in he found his Back to School gift waiting on his chair. A bow & arrow just like they have on the movie Narnia. Brady got his gift a day early (he got the same thing) so they were able to play together.

and all was right in the world now that I had all of my little ducklings back under one roof ;)

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten...

2011-08-21T22:35:00.002-05:00

Luke starts Kindergarten tomorrow. And NO I am NOT ready! This is the hardest change thus far along my journey as a parent. Luke, however, couldn't be any more excited! Yes, that helps, but still doesn't make it a "happy thing" for me :(

So tonight, Luke picked out his first day clothes, got his bath, brushed his teeth, got his before bed glass of milk, and we sat on the couch and read this book. The school gave us this book at Orientation along with this little pack of tissues for the moms.

The story was sweet it talked about a mommy raccoon who kissed the palm of her baby's hand before his first day of school. That way, if he got sad at any time during the day, he could press his palm against his cheek and feel the love of his mom. Super sweet book. I kissed his palm and he kissed mine. I know I will probably be pressing my palm against my cheek more than he will with his, but that's ok. He knows how much I love him. He knows how much his Daddy loves him and he is gonna do great on his new journey through school.

After he fell asleep I packed his lunch, enclosed a note in his lunch box along with a Star Wars napkin and made sure all of his stuff was properly labeled.

Tomorrow my baby is going to Kindergarten...

Happy 3rd Birthday to Brady!

2011-08-21T22:10:00.002-05:00

Today our sweet little B-ball turned 3 years old!

As always, we did a little birthday decorating for when the birthday boy woke up this morning. He was so happy to see everything!

He opened his gift from mom and dad then got ready for church.

Quick pic of the big boys just before we left.

Since we had Brady's birthday party a few weeks ago, he was a little confused about what today was all about. I think he quickly got used to the idea and learned to milk it for all it was worth!

Brady's all time favorite food is pancakes. So Daddy made him pancakes, eggs, and sausage for DINNER! Did you know it was possible to have breakfast for dinner??? Brady was impressed and ate 6 pancakes! He had a great first day as a three year old!

Note to Brady from Mom:

My sweet sweet B-ball. Yes, I do still call you B-ball. I wouldn't have it any other way. My favorite thing about you is your personality. You're a fun kid to be around. You say the funniest things with your little raspy voice. Lately, your newest thing to say is "Hello Gorgeous!" It still gets me every time. You still think Luke is the coolest thing around. You do whatever he does and seems like you want to be just like him. He loves you dearly too. Although you guys do have your fair share of fights, you play together as best friends.

I love how much you adore Owen. You are so proud of every one of his little accomplishments and milestones. I can see the two of you growing closer especially during the day when Luke is at school.

You're a leader...not a follower (except with Bubba). I love that and wish I had more of that characteristic. You're as cute as cute can be! You'll always be my baby even though you absolutely HATE for me to tell you that. You say "No Mom, I am your BIG boy" and yes, you are! I love our time alone together here and there.

Your favorite thing to do with Daddy is still mowing. Your fascination with mowers, blowers, and weed eaters is still going strong. You look forward to your weekly mow times with Daddy or whoever else is mowing while you're at their house (papi, papa, uncle caleb, etc..) Daddy loves you too and looks forward to seeing you when he gets home from work every day and having your wrestle time on my bed.

Keep growing into a handsome young man. Don't change a thing. I love you so much more than words could every describe!

- Mommy

Meet the Teacher & Supply Drop-off

2011-08-21T21:57:00.003-05:00

Friday was Meet the Teacher and Supply Drop-off for the boys schools. We loaded up all of our supplies (not to forget our teacher gifts) and headed to Shadycrest Elementary & In His Steps Preschool.

Here are our teacher gifts. Thank you Pinterest.com for the idea ;)

As I was shopping for Luke's suuplies I was SO excited. His list consisted of lots of crayons, glue, glue sticks, construction paper, markers, & water colors! Doesn't that sound like fun?!?

Crayons!

Learn-to-Write paper!

Luke's teacher assignment: Mrs. Soders!

Brady's teacher assignment: Mrs. Symms

Owen's teacher assignment: Ms. Gemma & Ms. Brianne

Here's Luke just before he went in to meet Mrs. Soders!

There she is! She is SUPER loving, sweet, and friendly. I know he is gonna have a wonderful year with her!

Few shots around his classroom...

The gym was locked so we didnt get to show Daddy, but they looked in the window ;)

Luke is pumped and ready for Kindergarten. Brady loves Mrs. Symms because she was Luke's teacher and Owen...well, we will just have to see :/

1:1 Date with Luke

2011-08-21T21:48:00.002-05:00

Last week was a CRAZY week! We had lots to do at Luke's school, I was in the hospital with some crazy stomach thing, and Caleb was really busy with work. BUT, we did make time to have our one on one date with Luke. His Kindergarten Orientation was Thursday night, so we went to that then took him to his choice of places to eat. He chose none other than Lubys!!! We raise them right around here ;)

Dad & Luke in front of Lubys!

Luke's favorite thing about Luby's is that he can pick whatever he wants to eat. He picked, chicken, cabbage, and fried okra with yellow jello! (shout out for the Baylor Bears)

It was a wonderful evening we got to share with just us and Luke. That doesn't happen that often, but it is so fun when it does. He loved being the center of attention too. We learned lots about his new school and enjoyed a delicious meal!

Later that night was when I was admitted into the hospital :(

Home Made Play-dough

2011-08-10T18:56:00.004-05:00

With a week and a half of summer left, we finished the very last thing on our Summer Fun List today and that was making home made play-dough.

It was quite an interesting process that involved a lot of salt. (I always thought it tasted pretty salty as a kid).

Brady & Luke stirred all of the ingredients together first before separating the dough and mixing the colors. Meanwhile, Owen illegally stood up in his high chair when he should have been SITTING and eating his Cheerios.

We divided our mixes into 4 colors. I decided who got what colors this time. I wasn't really in the mood to have an all out war over who got to have the color blue which I knew Luke would win. Last time we did this poor Brady ended up with yellow and red and Luke walked away with blue AND green.

A quick stir with some heat and we are well on our way to some play dough!

Messy hands as always :)

Our finished product!

Brady Got A Big Boy Bed!

2011-08-10T16:04:00.003-05:00

Last week for the first time, Brady started climbing out of his crib in the mornings when he would wake up. I may have said this before, but Brady is the teenager of our family. He likes his sleep, he likes his "me" time, he likes his bed- so it didn't surprise me that he was able to stay in his crib until he was practically three years old.

Once he learned how to climb out though- we took that as the green light to shut down that operation and move on to bigger and better things!

We went to Pearland Furniture (shout out for the local business!) and found him a decent twin size bed that matched the rest of his furniture so we went ahead and ordered it. It would take 4 days to come in though. That was fine with me because I wanted some transition time to get him used to the whole concept.

So, he slept on his mattress on the floor until last night when the bed finally came in.

Here's the mattress on the first night for him to be out of the crib.

Sweet little sleepy boy!

Over the weekend I decided to do some minor changes to his room...this is a little frame I created for him to clip his belonings on.

There's his big boy bed! Doesn't it look so grown up? I can't believe my baby is in his big boy bed already! He loves it though and that makes me happy!

I hope it brings him many nights of wonderful rest ;)

Boy Toys

2011-08-09T15:54:00.003-05:00

My boys are growing up WAY TO FAST! Lately it has hit me like a ton of bricks. Owen is walking, Brady got a big boy bed (pics to come), and Luke is starting Kindergarten in two weeks. So, each day I try to listen in on their playing and save these memories. Today I grabbed my camera to snap a few pictures of the kids favorite toys to play with lately.

This truck is super cool and it's Owen's current favorite. It can go all by itself and makes cool noises. He will chase this thing around and play with it all over the house. He also loves his Texans football.

We've had this pirate ship for a while, but the boys recently got it back out to play with after seeing the Veggie Tales pirate movie last week. I love how certain things can spark their imaginations.

Swords & shields are one of the most played with toys around our house these days.

Then there is one of their all time favorite super heroes- Flash!

And He's Off...

2011-08-09T15:45:00.002-05:00

We can officially call Owen a walker! He has been walking a lot more now and is getting better and better by the day.

The other night I tried to get a picture of him walking, but these were the best I could get.

Touchdown!

Looks like he is about to punt, but he is really about to stand up.

There he goes!

It's cute because he puts his hands in the air when he stands up from a sitting position.

More walking!

He look like a preacher in this picture. Afterall...his Papi is a preacher!

School Clothes

2011-08-07T15:03:00.002-05:00

This year will be the first year Luke has had to wear a dress code to school, so we had to go do some shopping to make sure he is up to code for the first day of Kindergarten. The rules aren't to strict...plain, collared shirt, jeans, khakis, or navy pants or shorts and belt loop preferred. Alright.

So, I set aside a day that Luke and I could go by ourselves and spend some quality time together, because school shopping is FUN! Right? I always thought so growing up. I quickly learned one thing- it's not all that fun for little boys :( They want to get in and get out and they do NOT like trying on. I kept hearing these words come out of Luke's mouth at each store we went to "Can you just meet me in the toy section?"

So, we painfully got through all of his clothes shopping to get to our final stop- the shoe store! Now we are speaking his language. He had a type of shoe and color in mind and searched row by row to find these certain Baylor shoes. Sadly, these did not exist. Then he resorted to just trying to find some with green. No luck. Then he found some Ben 10 shoes. Sorry, but I am NOT going there. I have gotten this far without having to purchase any character tennis shoes and don't plan on getting some any time soon. God forgive me for telling him they didn't have his size :/

No luck finding the green shoes either, so after calling Daddy for him to explain how cool it would be to have Texans shoes he chose the red, white, and blue "Texans" shoes.

We got a polo in just about every color under the sun.

Khakis and jeans aren't quite as colorful, but at least we have options.

and then the Texans shoes! Still not Baylor shoes, but almost as good ;)

Luke & I had the BEST time together. I love having him all by himself from time to time. He was so polite to me. He held the doors for me and thanked me after each purchase. At the end of our trip he even said "Mom, I like it when it's just me and you". I had a great time and I think Luke did too...even if we were going school clothes shopping ;)

Our Week So Far...

2011-08-03T21:47:00.003-05:00

We've had a good week thus far...we are finalizing our Summer Fun List and trying to make sure we have everything marked off. One of the last things on the list was to go to the movies, so we did that earlier in the week. It was Brady's first trip to the movies.

He liked the movie- It was a Veggie Tale Pirate movie, but he was NOT so great at sharing his popcorn :(

Luke & Madi on their first movie date (supervised of course)

In Other News...

Notice anything about this picture (besides Brady being silly)....OWEN! He is sitting in a big boy car seat! Oh! I love changing babies to face forward in their car seats. They get so happy! Especially Owen, because I know this whole time he has been wondering why he had to face backwards and the other boys got to face forwards.

Then today...

We celebrated at Alex's birthday party!

I am being a little more lenient with Owen's bottle at this point because he has been doing so good sleeping all night and going to sleep on his own. I figure I still have a month until he turns one and then I will take the bottle away completely.

If you could only hear Brady yell "cannonball" as he jumps in! Even though this really isn't a cannonball, he still says it EVERY single time he jumps on or into anything. Funny boy!

Mom & Owen

A happy little swimmer! Yep, we swam for 3 hours today and Owen hung in there the entire time. He is getting to be such a big boy lately!

Luke & Alex (the birthday boy)

Luke with Diamond the horse.

Fun week so far! Tomorrow Luke & I are gonna finish up his school clothes shopping because he starts Kindergarten in two weeks :/

The Little Boy Who Got New Shoes...

2011-08-01T21:27:00.005-05:00

Once upon a time there was a sweet little boy who was starting to walk. So, his mommy took him out to get him two new pairs of shoes. Since the sweet little boy usually didn't wear shoes around town- most would think he would be happy about this...

The shoes...the ones on the left for style the ones on the right for comfort.

His mommy put the new shoes on his SIZE 5 feet and he felt a little unsure at first.

Then he began to think a little harder about how unsure he was about these silly things.

Um...could someone please come get these things off my feet?

I've been trying and trying and just can't get them off!

Um....get them off NOW PLEASE!

Please, please, please :(

Fine! I will get them off myself then!

I HATE THESE!

I really HATE these!

I don't even care that they look cute on my feet mom! I never want to wear shoes again and that's final!

Oh Dear! Please!

- and at that, his mommy took those shoes off his feet and decided to try again the next day.

The End

Owen is 11 Months Old Today!

2011-07-31T20:46:00.002-05:00

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

2011-07-30T21:47:00.007-05:00

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

2011-07-28T10:37:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-07-26T21:18:00.002-05:00

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...

2011-07-20T22:13:00.003-05:00

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

2011-07-19T21:49:00.004-05:00

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 ;)

Outside

2011-07-17T21:11:00.004-05:00

We are an outside family- meaning most nights when we are home, we head outside immediately after dinner.

This weekend, Caleb installed these really awesome hooks on our garage for Owen's swing. Now he can swing away while the other boys play play play!

and if Daddy parks in the street....it's an extra treat!

There's lots of these kinds of things going on...

and these...

(Brady has discovered that it's actually more fun to jump off the top of his car than ride in like he's supposed to)

and Luke, well he's still throwing his Baylor football with Daddy ;)

and Brady is really getting good at throwing and catching too!

Quick pose for Mom. Luke loves it when I take action shots of him throwing the ball though.

Baby Brother is still swinging away!

Those are some good looking, sweaty boys if you ask this Momma! Especially that last one ;)

I Really Do!

2011-07-15T16:39:00.002-05:00

Love having little boys! Even if my coloring dates consist ONLY of coloring pictures of Star Wars people. It's my life and I love it :)

Luke

Mom

Brady

These days this is my background noise...

"Hey Bubba, lets have a war instead of a sword fight"

"Brady, you have to be the bad guy"

"I'm gonna wash my hands & get my gun & shoot that cat"

"My Daddy has a black mower and it's really cool"

A Night at the Circus!

2011-07-15T08:58:00.004-05:00

Last night we went with some friends to the Greatest Show on Earth! The Ringling Brothers Circus!

Here's all of the kiddos on the way in...Cuties!

The circus really lived up to its name as the Greatest Show on Earth! There were lots of lights and dancers, cool people doing cool tricks, and things you don't get to see every day.

Our whole group! We even took the dads this time and it was lots of fun with them!

Just our family. This was Luke & Brady's first time to the circus.

Luke- age 5

Brady- age 2 (almost 3)

There's my handsome boys!

Luke's favorite party about the circus was this car that superheroes kept coming out of. It was pretty cool and definitely right up his alley.

Look how cool these elephants are! So talented!

There was so much to see and NEVER a dull moment!

Friends!

I know the kids had fun and hopefully made some memories that will last a lifetime!

Owen 10 Months!

2011-07-13T12:34:00.001-05:00

I am a few days late on this, but Owen turned 10 months old on June 30/July 1. So, what's our sweet little 10 month old been up to these days?

He's still only got those two little bottom teeth...nothing new in sight, but he is always chewing on something so maybe there is something we don't see.

Still not quite walking, but possibly getting a little more brave and letting go more often.

Other than that just keeping up with his two busy big brothers and staying as sweet as ever!

Time for Slime!

2011-07-13T11:35:00.002-05:00

One of the things on our Summer Fun List was to make some homemade slime. So, that's what we did today :)

It was pretty easy and the end result was really cool & slimey!

Luke used clear glue for his with blue food coloring.

and that's how his turned out.

Brady used white glue and green food coloring.

and that's how his turned out.

"my slime felt kinda weird & smooshy" - Luke

"my slime was sticking me all day" -Brady

If There Is One Thing I Hate More Than Anything...

2011-07-12T22:04:00.002-05:00

it is watching my kids feel pain. Unfortunately, Brady has had his fair share of staph infections. I know these are relatively minor, but in his little world they are anything BUT minor.

Generally, an abscess forms on his bottom and we have to go into the doctor's office and have it lanced and drained with little or no numbing or pain medicine. Brutal.
Two out of five of these times, he has been in the hospital under sedation. Thankfully, today he was able to be completely out when they drained his abscess.

This is him with his little "margarita" in his IV. So happy..not a care in the world. He was the cutest "drunk" I have ever seen ;)

He repeatedly said "Hi Mommy!" like I had just walked into the room. He also kept saying "whoa" like he was dizzy. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

Then he enjoyed a popsicle while the sedation wore off.

Finally, it was time to take his IV out- but Brady didn't want to take his out. NO! It made him Buzz Lightyear! He even had a light up finger (heart monitor)!

Needless to say, although I don't ever wish to have to take my kids to the hospital for any reason, this experience was MUCH easier than some we have had in the past given the circumstance. The staff at the hospital was amazing, so all of the credit goes to them.

Now he is home from his day at Texas Children's Hospital and recovering on the couch watching his nonstop movie marathon.

How to Make Homemade Popsicles

2011-07-05T21:33:00.002-05:00

Step One: pour your favorite Koolaid into a Popsicle maker.

Step Two: Make sure to get the lids on tight

Step Three: Put into the freezer for several hours until frozen.

Step Four: Eat 'em with your friends!

Yummy!

**Disclaimer- If you fail to eat all of your dinner you will miss out on the fruits of your labor. Just ask Brady :(

Celebrating Our Freedom!

2011-07-05T08:55:00.003-05:00

Happy July 4th from our family to yours!

Owen's first July 4th.

The boys got matching tatoos.

The kids had lots of fun playing together while we waited for the fireworks to start. Owen & Kyle especially liked the pink jeep ;)

Us moms needed tatoos too. Aren't we cool?

One regular picture of the moms.

All the kids together.

After line dancing in the driveway, we headed out to the back pasture to watch the fireworks. Fun times were had by all! Thanks to the McGinns for having us over.

The Whole Rouse Family...well almost!

2011-07-05T08:41:00.002-05:00

In my last post I accidentally deleted this picture and since it is such a pain to try to get pictures in a particular place I am making a whole different post for it.

This is ALMOST everyone in our family. When this whole bunch is together you can bet there will be some good times had!

Rouse Family Vacation

2011-07-04T11:06:00.014-05:00

We just got home from a vacation on the Llano River in Mason, TX with the Rouse side of our family. It was a 4 hour drive from Pearland and since Luke rode with EE & Nonah & Owen stayed home with Grammy and Papaw, we had some time with Brady all by himself. It was so much fun!

Along the road we passed a little town called Brady, TX. How cool is that?

The roads were covered in hills and lots and lots of cactus. Beautiful scenery the whole way.

I love this sweet little boy!

Then we finally reached our destination... Honey Creek Ranch.

The trip was a blast... lots of fishing.

and rides in the canoe

and beauty...

and fun time with our cousin Cash...

and swimming in the river!

and time in The Great Outdoors!

A Little Boy's Paradise!

Even paradise for the big boys ;)

Caleb and Noah grilled burgers that were really good!

Luke & his cousin Cody.

Fun times floating the river :)

Lots of awesome places to take pictures.

Look at Caleb jump off that cliff! Luke jumped off the same cliff, but I didn't get a picture :(

Sam & Steph

Caleb and Samuel

It was breathtaking! We had the whole thing all to ourself.

well, almost to ourself. there were lots of snakes looking to eat. this one got one of the fish we caught. he was found sitting in our chair :/

Karaoke at night!

all of the girls!

Noah & Caleb with Papaw.

What a wonderful weekend!

A Visit From EE, Nonah, & Cash!

2011-07-03T21:41:00.003-05:00

The past week has been nonstop, action packed, family fun! EE, Nonah, & Cash came in town. Before they came, we planned out fun activities for each day they were here and boy did we have a blast. We celebrated Caleb & Noah's birthdays, went to the beach, went sky diving, shopping, girls night, went swimming, and finished off the week with an awesome family vacation with our whole extended family (post to follow).

Here are a few random pictures from our week...

Brady & Cash (aka "Cashy")

Cousin wagon ride

Cousin photo shoot

Can't wait to see these two cuties grow up to be best cousins ;)

Girls night

It was such a fun week and we were sad to see it come to an end. In two weeks we will be heading to Oklahoma to see them for Cash's 1st birthday party and we can't wait!

Who Said They Wouldn't Do It???

2011-06-28T22:09:00.003-05:00

Caleb, Noah, Susan took a jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

Yep..they all went skydiving together!

There's the lineup... They all got to go on the same plane. Susan jumped first, followed by Noah- then Caleb.

Caleb and his instructor going over a few pointers before the big jump.

The boys were really excited to see Daddy fly down in a parachute!

Caleb, Susan, & Noah. What an awesome experience to be able to do together!

Caleb & his instructor. They jumped tandom, so he was the one responsible for pulling the shoot open.

Boarding the plane...yikes!

Then, after a 15 minute flight into the air, we saw this...

Coming in for a landing!

Luke was so proud!

Future skydivers!

A Day At Palm Beach

2011-06-27T21:36:00.003-05:00

Since Caleb is off and Erin & Noah are in town, we planned some fun things to do this week. One of them was Palm Beach at Moody Gardens and boy did we have some fun!

Dad, Mom, & the big boys. (since this was gonna be a long day out in the heat we left Owen at home with our sweet babysitter Ashley)

We are so happy to have family in town!

The kids splashed and played the whole day. There were water slides, splash pads, a lazy river and a wave pool. What more could you possibly ask for?

A few friends went along with us...Kristen, Madi, Abi, Amy, Ford, and Baby Noah.

Uncle Nonah & Cashy Cash

EE & Bball

Yaya and three of her four grandsons.

At the end of the day, we had two very tired little boys as you can see...

That's ok, we can rest up tonight and get ready for tomorrow's adventures!

Pizza Making 101

2011-06-27T21:28:00.002-05:00

One of the things on our Summer Fun List was to make a homemade pizza. Thanks to Uncle Nonah, we were able to check that off our list last night!

We heard that he was the pizza making expert, so we got him to share his pizza knowledge with a few sweet little kiddos!

Our friends Harper & Luke were over, so we formed an assembly line so they could each take a turn putting on a topping.

There they are...in age order of course (from right to left).

Best looking pizza I have every seen. Let's stick it in the oven ;)

Everyone was in agreement that it tasted as good as it looked and now...we all know how to make pizza!

Happy Birthday To My Honey!

2011-06-25T22:26:00.002-05:00

Today Caleb turned 30 years old! We went out last night with friends to celebrate and spent the day with family.

Dinner last night at Cafe Adobe followed by dancing ;)

Yummy birthday drink :)

Then today, we played volleyball with our siblings on Caleb's side. Yep...that's all of us!

Tonight, dinner and swimming! Uncle Nonah & Owen in the pool.

Dad & the boys!

Caleb & Noah celebrating their birthdays. Noah's is on the 28th, so I have a feeling these two brothers have celebrated a birthday or two together.

Happy Birthday Caleb! I can't say enough how much you mean to me and the boys. You are exactly everything we could have ever wanted and needed.

You know you're having a fun summer when...

2011-06-23T22:13:00.002-05:00

you play so hard all day long that you're asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow~