Zing Zang Zoom!!!

Thursday night Papa Allen got us tickets to go to the Circus! Both Jeremy or I can't even remember the last time we went to the circus, if ever! We left John-Mark with Papa Allen and headed to the big show. It was at 7:30 which is usually James' bedtime so I wasn't sure how well he was going to do. The first 30/45 minutes he was pretty good - just looking around at everything and all the people. Then he started getting tired and fidgety - asking an 18 month old to sit still for more than 20 minutes is really pushing it so he and I walked around outside the arena for a while - which he probably loved more than the actual circus. Jeremy and I were thoroughly entertained. My favorite part was the elephants - it's amazing how light footed they are considering they weigh tons!!
This was when James saw the clowns carrying balloons - finally something familiar- "boons, boons!"
It got a little hot in there so we had to take off his shirt to help him cool down - here's our little redneck in training :)
The amazing elephants - I missed getting of a picture of them doing handstands! Crazy!
This was my attempt to get a Valentine card picture - will they ever look at the camera and smile at the same time?
I know I am biased, but oh my goodness how beautiful is he!! I'm beginning to think that Jeremy and I must be ugly and we've just never known it. I've always heard that ugly people make really pretty babies and I'm telling you what, we've got some beautiful boys!
John-Mark checking out the swing for the first time - I think he likes it!

I got tagged...

Well, I don't usually do a post not centered around my boys but my friend Annie tagged me to tell seven random things about myself so I thought I'd do it for fun. Annie has become one of my "blogging" friends. I met her several years ago when I was in a small group she and her husband did called "Body by God" - learned a lot of great stuff in that one - haven't fully implemented it all yet :) Anyhoo- somehow I came across her blog about a year ago and fell in love with her! She is hysterical and I love her "Thursday's Random Thoughts" posts. Over the last year we have gotten to know each other more through our blogs and posting back and forth. I just learned that she is going to be in a small group with me this semester so I am super excited to actually get to hang out with her and build our friendship outside of the blog world!

(For those of you who only stop by to see recent pics of the boys please just scroll past all this for new photos of my love bugs below!)

So here goes my 7 random things about myself:
1. I don't enjoy clothes shopping (this is one reason I am afraid to have a little girl) I am short waisted and have long legs so nothing ever fits me right - I know I should take Stacey and Clinton's (my friends from What not to Wear) advice and get my clothes tailored but who's got time for that?! Usually when I do go buy clothes it's because I need something to wear ASAP!
2. I MUST, MUST, MUST take a shower every day to feel like I've been productive (preferably in the a.m)- even if I never leave the house and just feed and change babies, clean and do laundry all day. I always take a shower and blow dry my hair. No make up unless I'm going out and usually I just wear sweats all day as well if I'm not planning on leaving - no use dirtying up my nice blue jeans and t-shirts :) (Those of you who know me well know that blue jeans and t-shirts/sweatshirts are the backbone of my wardrobe)
3. I have this weird fascination with Britney Spears - whenever I see a special about her I have to sit down and watch it. Her life makes me really sad. I don't think she is a great singer at all but I love her pop songs and wish I could dance like her!
4. Neither of my boys have ever worn a peter pan collar, tights, or smocked jumpers. It's not that I am a hater of these things, but honestly, I didn't even know what "smocked" was until a couple of years ago. Jeremy and I grew up in very similar socio-economic upbringings (he says I'm a redneck but if I am so is he!) and this way of dressing little boys is just not something we were ever around so I never had visions of having a little boy and dressing him in all these little cute outfits - and Jeremy sure didn't! I have learned since living in Birmingham that it is apparently a terrible faux pas to dress your babies in blue jeans or khaki's if they are under the age of 1 - chalk it up to my redneck upbringing :)
5. I, like my friend Annie, is shy around new people, unlike my husband who could really talk to a wall, I have a hard time making conversation with people I first meet. I also have this thing about thinking people don't remember me so often when I see people that I have met in the past, if they don't give me a recognizing look I won't usually say anything to them, assuming they have no idea who I am. (I probably need to be delivered from this because I probably come off as very rude if they actually do remember me)
6. I forget to brush my 17 months teeth everyday - I know, how terrible is that! I'm trying to figure out a way to make it part of my routine but I tend to get side tracked a lot.
7. I am a blog stalker. I frequent the blogs of several people that I have never met but are friends of friends. I have even seen them out and about from time to time and think, "hey, I know you, oh, no I don't, I just stalk your blog". I've thought about walking up and saying, "how is so and so and that trip to the beach sure looked fun!" but I don't want to scare anyone.

So there are my seven - hope you enjoyed - I tried to think of truly random facts!
Here are recent pics of the Allen boys:

John-Mark and daddy getting some good face time - he loves to touch your face

Chillin' in his Johnny Jump-Up. Both of my boys have not been big jumpers in this toy - they just like to spin around in it and play with all the lights. I think they like the feel of freedom they have just hanging there all by themselves

James offering his little brother some of his water - so sweet

"mom, do I have a monkey on my back?"
This cute little "back pack" was given to me by my sweet friend Mrs. Cindy and it has a tail that you can hold on to if you want to take them out in a store with this on thier backs so you can keep track of them - James loves to wear it around the house and run so the tail comes following after!

To cut or not to cut?

James' curls are sooo precious and I just love them but I'm scared he is really starting to look like a little girl. I'm not quite ready to get his hair cut because I'm afraid these are just baby curls and they won't grow back and I don't think I'm ready to see him without them and looking like a real little boy! what do you think?

We're ready for some warm weather!!

Whew - this winter has been a doozy for the Allen household! After posting about James' bouts with sickness last time, this past week John-Mark had a terrible virus which caused him to have a pretty high fever for a couple of days. James never really got fevers outside of teething when he was this age so it's been a pretty tough week for me. John-Mark was so puny and you could just tell he didn't feel well when you looked at his little sad eyes and he would just sob if you tried to put him down - which I wouldn't mind except for his older brother who needed me too! This week the challenge of two has truly been a challenge. Thankfully John-Mark finally passed out on Tuesday night around 7 and I had to wake him at 7 the next morning - he hadn't moved an inch so he obviously slept pretty hard and he woke up without a high fever and seemed to be feeling much better. He's still not 100% but he is 1,000x better than two days ago - it's so hard to see your babies not feel well. Here's some pics of my sweet bug before he got sick:

LOVE IT! How fun is he! He is doing his infamous squeel for me!

So happy! Look at those thunder thighs!! We always pinch James' little thighs when he's just in his diaper so the other day I had John-Mark in just a diaper and James came over and started trying to pinch his thighs - it's amazing what all they take in!

Here's my turtle! My Aunt sent us this cute little outfit for John-Mark and he wore it to church last week. I had to take a picture of him in it! So handsome!

Daddy and John-Mark doing some work on the computer-

Jeremy's dad was able to super bless us by getting the boys an awesome playset from one of his landscaping customers whose children are all grown. He and Jeremy have been working to get it all set up but it's really been too cold to enjoy. Finally yesterday and today were a little warmer and the sun was out so we were able to let James explore. He LOVES it!! He's already got it all figured out. It has two slides, a rock climbing wall, a steering wheel in one of the houses and three swings! We've already had two of James' buddies over to play and it was a hit. I see many hours of fun to come for these boys over the years with this play set. Thanks Papa Allen!!!

Swings aren't up yet - we have to get some additional chain so they'll be long enough - but how fun does this look!

The blue slide is like a bullet! You have to stand at the bottom and catch them or it could get dangerous - and ofcourse that is James favorite one!James and Beau getting ready to slide-

"ready mommy - here I come!"James, Beau, and Charlie checking out the rock climbing wall - not quite old enough for it yet!My sweet John-Mark enjoying a little sun and fresh air!After posting that pic of james last week in not such a good light I thought I'd throw one in of him just being his normal cutie-pa-tootie self!

17 and 5 months!!

And here is the monthly pic of the boys together - as you can see James was none too happy about having to sit for a picture - Honestly all that went down was "hey james, let's sit here with brother for a minute and take a picture" and this is what I got! I guess some days you just feel like pitching a fit :(
John-Mark just chillin' while James is losing it. For the most part they are never crying at the same time, which I guess is nice but that means there's a good chance that I'm listening to someone cry or whine a good bit of the day :)

Finally a pic where James isn't crying but of course John-Mark is glued on his big brother!

Wow - another month has come and gone so quickly! My babies are growing up so fast!!
What's new with my boys:
John-Mark continues to roll over and scoot all over the place - I can barely keep him on his activity mat before I turn around and he's across the room somewhere! I don't know if he will crawl or walk any sooner than James but I sure think he wants to - he wants to get to where ever James is so bad - he just grunts and squeels and moves every ligament of his body when he sees him come around. He seems to finally be really sleeping through the night without any disruptions and yesterday for the first time he woke up and didn't even cry. When I went in to get him at 7 he was just looking around and smiling and happy as could be - I've been waiting for this day!!! It's so much nicer to wake up to that than a screaming baby! Don't know if this is permanent but I hope we're getting there.
We also have a nickname for him - of course we have tons of nicknames for both boys but this one is becoming pretty dominant - he's our little "turtle". Ever since he was a itty bitty baby he would stick his little tongue out and I always thought he looked like a turtle. Now that he's pushing up on his belly and when he turns his head and looks all around and sticks that little tongue out I just crack up - so he's our little turtle!
He's still not eating solid foods yet. I've tried several times but he's just not interested and doesn't seem to grasp how to "eat" yet. Since he's sleeping good at night I'm fine with waiting. He has gone to 4- 8 oz bottles a day and he's doing better on his spitting up, although we still have to change clothes atleast once a day, but better than 4!
Also, we have moved in to 6 -9 month sleepers! He's so long the 3 - 6 months don't make it to his feet!

John-Mark started on his back in the middle of his activity mat and like 30 second later here he was - so happy to see James!Grinning at his big brother and sticking out that turtle tongue!

As I posted previously James has been sickly this last month which has meant lots of whining and crying - no fun. I guess since he hasn't been feeling well he has been way more inclined to sit with me for long stretches of time and let me read to him - he's actually gotten to where he will now bring me the books to read and he has his favorite pages that he wants to go to - usually the ones with balls, ballons, bubbles, or trucks! My mom got him some touch and feel books for Christmas and he LOVES those! He's still not saying too many words that anyone can understand but he jibber jabbers up a storm. He totally knows what everything is; I guess he just chooses not to say it. When I say anything, "want some applesauce? give charlie a treat? let's feed your brother; go outside" he knows exaclty what I'm saying and goes to the fridge or the treat jar or whatever. I try to get him to repeat after me and he will sometimes but mostly he just smiles at me, like, "that's okay momma, you said it great!" But, when he feels like it he'll bust out with a "charlie" every once in a while and we still get lots of ball, oh, and when he's really whiny I get lots of mom mom mom mom mom mom! I love that he knows my name but I do wish he could say it without snot pouring out of his nose!
He's also gotten a little pickier about what he eats. He's done with lunch meat - won't have any part of it but he'll eat meat when I cook chicken or beef for dinner. He's also tired of sweet potatoes and carrots which used to be his favorite. He eats lots of fruit and pasta right now. He will still eat green beans. Yesterday I gave him black beans and he loved them so that's a new thing - messy but good for him. This morning I made a spinach and bacon quiche and he gobbled it up so I think I've found a way to get more meat and greens in him!! He also loves feeding himself with a fork or spoon and I've found that he'll eat pretty much anything if he can feed it to himself with his own utensil -except for lunch meat :)

James and mommy sticking out there tongues

There's always so much more I could blog about but I know long posts get, well, LONG!

Hope everyone is doing great and staying warm!!

Sick and Sick some more...

So, we got over the whole Christmas crud only for James to come down with a fever again last Sunday. I thought it must have just been some of the crud still lingering. Then on Wednesday he had a little rash on his right cheek - I thought he had an allergic reaction to something he ate. He was also being EXTREMELY fragile and clingy so I knew he wasn't feeling well. Within the next couple of days his cheek turned bright red and I began to research and found that he had "Fifth Disease". Sounds really scary doesn't it. Apparently it's some sort of virus that starts with a mild fever, then causes you to feel icky and is followed up with the rash that causes bright red cheeks and can linger for up to 3 weeks and spread down the body. The good news is that once the rash appears it's no longer contagious the bad news is John-Mark woke up with bright red cheeks this morning. Hopefully the worst of it is over for him as well. Neither of them have been bothered by it as far as wanting to itch it so that's good and I pray that they are both rounding the corner all together and we can get totally healthy again!! We're ready to get out of the house!
But we're still having fun hanging around the house - here are some fun pics from the week:

Probably where the fifth disease was spread - before I even knew james had it! Kisses for baby brother - so sweet!

James is kicking the middle of the activity mat and making it shake like crazy - he is amusing himself and John-Mark is trying to figure out how he can do that too!
We have found the tigers tail on our activity mat which adds for many more minutes of fun :)
Literally the day after my last post John-Mark went full roll - he is now a full on tummy sleeper and he sleeps so much better! (For those of you that are concerned about his face in the bumpers, he and James both love their faces to be partially covered when they sleep and I love, love, love my monitor that has a sensor under the mattress that alerts me if there hasn't been any slight movements in so many seconds - gives me great peace of mind - and I know it works because if he rolls too far to one end of the crib then I know about it!)
"hmm, how am I going to get out of this before mommy sees that I'm in the thing she told me NOT to get in"
Aunt Anne-Michelle came over and was playing with James in his new ball tower and thought it would be funny to stuff two down James' shirt - he couldn't stop touching them - made for a great laugh for all of us - he'll love these pics when he's older!

My happy boy - I have tons of pictures of this sweet face - I could probably wall paper my bathroom with just pics of this sweet face!!

Yay for Daddy's team!!

Go Gators!! James and daddy all decked out for the game!
National Championship, January 8, 2009
Florida vs Oklahoma
24 - 14

Too cute!! I bought him this hat and an Alabama hat when I was decorating his nursery since we did a baseball theme. When I ordered them they seemed so huge - I can't believe they fit him already!!!
Check out the side view - he looks like he could be a coach on the sidelines with that belly!!