Brady's Learning Some Cool Things Lately...

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Owen's 15month Checkup

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

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!