3 month comparisons

Here are all 4 baby's at 3 months - to me James and Gracie look very much alike and John-Mark and Benjamin favor - what do you think?

James

John-Mark
Gracie

Benjamin

Ben's 3 month pics

Babies are crying all over the house but I just got these and wanted to get them up ASAP!! My sweet friend Amanda came over and took pictures for us of Benjamin at 3 months. She did and AMAZING job and I am over the moon about all of them!!! How will I ever pick which to frame?!? Hope you enjoy as well

I've always wanted one of these pictures!! Love all thier little piggies!!!

I think this is my favorite!! I think he may be the cutest baby EVER :)

I wanted to get a few pics of him in the sling because he's like a little bug in a rug! Love how he is holding on to my finger :)

Allen Academy

This week we officially started our venture in to home schooling - dum dum dum.... Yes we've been doing a classical homeschool once a week since september and listening to the cd's through out the week but we've just been taking it easy and eeeaaasing in to it all. Especially with having a new baby in September I didn't want to give myself goals that I couldn't attain. We've just been lucky to all get out of the door and dressed most of the time :) However, I decided that in January I was going to start having a "plan" for the week and goals of things to get accomplished. I decided to name our little school - Allen Academy.

I must say I have kind of been dreading it just because I wasn't sure how to do this with three kids at three different levels but I finally decided to just go with where James was at and let the others do what they can do or want to do with us. I have been pleasantly surprised at both myself and my children. We only have about an hour of "work" planned each day (I use that word very lightly) but they look forward to seeing what fun thing I have planned - because I am oh so fun! ha! Luckily there are TONS of amazing resources on line you can find for FREE where I am getting lots of my ideas. I'm not going to make this blog all about our homeschooling adventures but just wanted to get day one on the books :) I have been to tons and tons of homeschooling blogs and most of them freaked me out even more and made me feel like I had to run out and get a laminator and a chalk board and lots of fun activities for my kids - so if you've come across any of those as well know that is NOT what Allen Academy is like - I'm not a preschool for goodness sake! We are having fun though and along side my "plans" for the day we are still just doing lots of playing and "hands on" learning with fun trips like the grocery story - ha! They are still only 4, 3, and 2 so we haven't hit chemistry yet :) When we decided homeschool was the route we felt the Lord was leading us to take I had to decide to only take it one day - or maybe one week at a time other wise I would be too overwhelmed and might send them to the first school I saw on the side of the road :) So that is what we are doing. This week we focused on the letter A, alligators, rectangles, xylophones, numbers, coloring, tracing, puppet making - i can't remember what else.

Here' s some fun pics from our week-
Practicing our letters in shaving cream

Gracie learning her letters too :)

I feel like we're late to this party and EVERYONE does this but we just started making smoothies and adding lots of veggies to them and the kids are EATING.THEM.UP! I feel like super mom because my kids are actually getting greens in their diet daily! oh, and today we were at the store and they were pushing this new "juice" which is just fruit and veggies juiced and sold - nothing added to it - just like you can make at home if you have a juicer and the lady let each of the kids try it - they were flavors like beet and lemongrass, carrot and lemon ect. - of course the Allen crew slurped them down! The lady was kind of shocked - I guess a lot of kids don't like it. I told her, "look, these kids rarely get juice so they think this is a HUGE treat and they have no idea they are drinking beet and lemongrass - juice is juice to them - reason number I don't know what why we don't give our kids juice as a staple! Now they can drink beet juice to their hearts content :)

Of course we have reading time at Allen Academy - well, usually I'm the one reading but they love to get thier books out and "read" too! LOVE IT!

Let's not forget the littlest Allen - while he's not enrolled in Allen Academy yet he's still hangin' around having fun too! This is his only friend right now - Ali - her mom is one of my closest friends and her older brother Zach is one of James and John-Mark's FAVORITE friends too! She is only about 4 weeks younger than Benjamin - isn't she beauiful - and look at all that hair!!!

Our little sunshine:)

I obvioulsy don't have the greatest camera but I tried to snag some pics of what our house is like about 5pm each day - it's like a bell rings and the boys hear "Let's get ready to rumble!!!"

Gracie wanted to cheese for the picture :)You can't tell it but John-Mark is belly laughing! BOYS! (JM is wearing his buzz lightyear costume over his Christmas pj's - hard to tell what he was wearing!)

I am SOOOOO ready for the time to change back so I can send them outside for their fight times!!
This last picture is pretty random but so stinkin' cute! The boys now prefer boxer briefs so these are little size 4 toddler boxer briefs - they make me laugh every time I fold the laundry. My little boys are growing up...

Mom's have to get creative sometimes :)

The weather has been pretty crazy around here. One day it's in the 60's and beautiful then the next weeks it's cold and rainy so we go between playing outside all day (the best) and being stuck inside and trying to stay out of trouble all.day.long. So here are some pics of what we've been up to

Enjoying a friendly game of candy land - we're also big fans of Toy Story Memory. I'm loving being able to play real games with my babies!

Taking Buzz for a stroll around the house :)

This big boy is still loving his activity mat. He's started grabbing all his "friends" and talking to them as well as talking to himself in the mirror above his head - too cute!

The boys have discovered that they can climb trees so it's their new fave thing to do outside

Have you ever seen anyone in camo look any cuter?!? Wearing our "work" boots too :)

He's so ready to run around with his big brothers and sister but for now he settles for hanging out in the exersaucer and watching them from the window

So, here's one of my creative moments. Yesterday JM tripped while running through the house and bumped his head. I knew it hurt him and he was pretty upset but I checked him out and there was no blood or a bump so I knew he was ok but he wouldn't stop crying no matter how much I tried to settle him down. I had him sitting on our kitchen island and I was trying to think of how I could get his attention off his hurting head when I spotted one of Gracie's barrette's and quickly picked it up and asked if he would like to wear it in his hair? Immediately the crying stopped! He was thrilled to wear it and of course James couldn't be left out - I mean, whatever it takes, right? Daddy was so proud :)

And of course we had to get dressed up to cheer on our boys in the National Championship game! Best.Game.Ever!!! We stomped those LSU tigers 21 - 0 - a shut-out!! I've taught the kids an edited version of Rammer Jammer and we sang it all day long :)

Hey Tigers - we just beat the pants off of you - Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer give em' all Alabama!!!

Oh - and this is for my friend LG - my mom MADE Gracie the cutest food ever for her new kitchen. She sewed it all out of felt - we have a fried egg, pizza, bread, lunch meat, tomato, lettuce, tomato, bacon, cheese, and our favorite - Chick fil A nuggets and fries :) My mom is so crafty!

Happy Birthday to ALL my babies daddy!!

I'm a little late on the blog post but I didn't miss the actual day :) This past Friday was my hubby's birthday!!! Of course he had to work all weekend but we were still able to enjoy lots of birthday festivities. The kids and I jumped in bed with him Friday morning and gave him his birthday present (A Florida/Tim Tebow print), then were able to snag him away from work for a bit to enjoy a yummy Mexican birthday lunch (sombrero and birthday singing included:). When he got home I had a yummy T-Bone waiting for him - yummy! Then I was able to surprise him Saturday night when he got home from work with some of his favorite friends and a bonfire! What more could he ask for? oh - and the kids and I made him red velvet with cream cheese icing cupcakes - mmmm, mmmm.

I don't think I've ever done a Birthday post for my amazing husband. Yet I always do them for my kiddos so I thought I would have to give him a shout out too, because, after all, without him there would be no kiddos birthdays to blog about :) :)

Jeremy is probably one of the friendliest people you will ever meet! He loves people and getting to know them and learning from them. He is constantly telling me about a customer he met and what they do, how many kids they have, their political preferences, etc. He is great at asking people questions and getting them talking about themselves which is probably one of the many reasons so many love him! He's also an amazing friend. I don't know anyone who stays in touch with so many people from so many seasons of his life - going back to like kindergarten - and he moved away from there when he was 8! As we have watched our oldest sons personality more and more come to life we both laugh and say "I don't think it's possible for him to be any more like his Daddy!" Not only is he physically his mini me - he is a total talker, people person, lover of his friends. I always say that Jeremy will do ANYTHING if he's doing it with a friend. He has lots of hobbies that he loves (which he rarely gets to enjoy) but I think more than the actual hobby he loves just being able to hang out with his buddies (hence the bonfire - wish I could have sent him deep sea fishing with all his friends but the bonfire was the best I could do right now - hopefully one day!)

Jeremy is also smart - like "wicked" smart :) I say he's the smartest person I know which he always tells me is sad but it's true! I learn something new from him all the time! And he's always continuing to learn. As we begin our homeschool journey with our kids I may need to go back to work and let him handle the business of educating our children:)

Not to mention he's an incredibly hard worker, A-Mazing daddy, thoughtful, funny, encouraging, rarely gets his feathers ruffled, still takes me on dates - and opens my door:), and so much more.

But, of all of his amazing qualities the ones I probably benefit the most from is his ability to always give the benefit of the doubt and believe the best in people and how quickly he is able to forgive and even better - forget! I am sooooo blessed to be married to a man that always believes the best in me and never believes that I would intentionally try to hurt him (even when my actions are a little suspect) and those times when I do mess up he never holds it over my head - and honestly he forgets about it long before I do. I can't tell you what a place of security he has made for me, here, with him, and our "growing" family.

I'm so thankful that he chose me - and so are these guys :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!!