Our Little Ballerina

I have been meaning to do this post since the first of July but just haven't been able to get to it! Gracie took a little six weeks beginner dance class this summer just to see how she would like it. Well, I think you can tell by the pictures that she liked it :) She probably asked my about 100x a week "can I go to my dance class now mommy?" It was an hour each week and they did a little ballet, tap, and some tumbling. At the end of the 6-weeks they had a little "performance" for us after her last class so we could see what all she had learned. For not even 3 I think she did great and had a smile on her face the whole time! I remembered my video camera but forgot my camera camera so I don't have any pics from the day so you'll have to take my word that it was TOO CUTE!!
We're taking a break this fall from all extra curricular activities and focusing on surviving becoming a family of 7 and starting homeschool kindergarten - but I'm pretty sure this won't be baby girls last time in a tutu :)

Showing me her ballet moves

A little tap :)

These two crack me up - they ALWAYS want me to take their pictures together

Do you think baby girl adores her big brother or what!?!

Benjamin 11 months

On August 24th Ben turned 11 months!! Holy cow! Only 1 month until he's a year AND a big brother!!   Over the past couple of weeks he has started taking a couple of steps at a time and the last few days he has starting walking more and more. By the time his baby brother or sister arrives I feel certain he will be a full on walker!
He is FINALLY saying "mama" but it's usually when he's mad and wants me to do something so it's not as sweet as I would have hoped but it's a start :)
I've been doing better at feeding him more "real food" lately. He's had chicken, green beans, fish, potatoes and bananas. So far he has liked it all except the bananas - which will make him the first Allen baby NOT to devour bananas! We're also starting to wean him off of formula and I'm attempting to move him off the bottle but he still likes it best for his milk drinking. Hopefully by the time baby arrives I can have him transitioned so I'll have the bottles for the baby :)
He is in to EVERYTHING and puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Probably the hardest thing for me to do right now is bend over with this big ol' belly but it's pretty unavoidable with an on the move 11 month old in the house :) It's funny how much less I "rearranged" things for the older 3 and was very diligent to teach them not to touch certain things but now I just empty out entire bottom shelves so I don't have to go behind him and pick everything up when he has pulled it all out when I wasn't looking :) Luck of being the 4th in line :) #5 may be wild :)

See - empty bottom shelf of bakers rack :)

Walking to mommy - so proud!

Hanging out his buddy Ali - she is only about 2 or 3 weeks younger than Ben. Her oldest brother Zach is James' best buddy and they are only 3 months a part - hopefully these two will be tight too :)

Nosy, Nosy, Nosy - climbed up on his push car and checking out what is in mommy's diaper bag!

This last pic is of John-Mark at exactly 11 months when he was just starting walk - CAN. YOU. BELIEVE. how much alike they look!?! They even have the exact same gap tooth grin! The other night we were looking through old videos and just could not believe how much alike these two look at this age. Ben's hair and complexion is a little lighter and some of his mannerisms are different and remind us of James but just looking at them they look like twins! Handsome, handsome boys if I do say so myself :)

The Par-tay!

On Sunday, August 12th we had the boys joint pool party. The past two years we've had a slip n slide party at the house which has always been fun for the boys but I was hoping to do something a little easier this year and not have it at our house. We decided to rent a  neighborhood pool where some of our friends live - now that most of the kids can swim we thought this would be lots of fun. I prayed all week against rain - and it was a beautiful day. Apparently I should have been praying against "contamination" (aka poop in the pool). When we got there to set up for the party the big pool was closed for 24 hours for said "contamination"! Ugh! At first I was pretty bummed. But, since there was no one at the pool and we still had the pavillion rented and the baby pool was open we decided to start the party there and maybe move to one of the other neighborhood pools later - but it ended up working out great. We had the whole place to ourselves. The parents loved it because they didn't "have" to get in the pool with their kids since it was only 1 1/2 feet deep and all the kids stuck together in the baby pool so everyone was able to hang out together instead of chasing kids here, there, and everywhere. Of course I was still running around like crazy making sure everyone had what they needed so sadly I only took like 6 pictures of the whole party - and not ONE family shot :( I need to start hiring a professional for these things. It's hard to be the mommy, party planner, videographer, AND photographer :)
Here's the few I got

The whole gang - check out Graice 3rd from the left giving her famous "hey!" wave :)

All the guests (for my memory) - Jeremiah, Fallon, Nally, Coop, Zach, Blake, John-Daniel, Beau, Mary Claire, Ellie, Robert, Ava Ruth, Naomi, and William, (Austin and Cambell not in pic) - so thankful for all these friends these boys love sooo much!!

The boys blowing out the candles (with sister close by:) 

Had to get a picture of sweet Nally and Benjamin - thank goodness for Nally - I basically let an 8 year old keep up with my 10 month old the entire party - mom of the year right here :) But she did such a great job!

This was my first year to make the kids a cake - I usually do cupcakes or ice cream - not only did I make the cake but I did a character cake!! Since the boys are in to different things I didn't want to do the same theme for both of them so I did Toy Story on one side for John-Mark and Baseball for James on the other. I'm no Cake Boss - but for a first timer I think it turned out pretty good - and best of all the boys LOVED it. They were so excited to see it when I finished it - so maybe I am mom of the year after all - ha!

The BirthDAY'S

As always the boys had a shared birthday party but we try to make each of thier individual actual birthday's a special day as well.
First came James' big day. First thing Saturday morning, August 11th we woke up to singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy in bed. What a great way to wake up! Then it's off to the kitchen to open up presents from mom and dad. This year James asked for quite a few things but we narrowed it down to just a few :) He has been OBSESSED with drums lately. He has a friend that a really nice drum kit that he adores. Our house is not quite large enough nor is my sanity in tack enough to have real drums in the house :) so we went with an electric drum pad - which was just as great to him. In fact at one point he told me that if his friend with the real drum kit came over he would think his new drums were "so much cooler"! Ha! Glad you think so little man :) We also got him a battery operated microphone so he can be a full on performer now :)   

(For those of you that are blog "followers" you will notice that, as always, James is wearing his "sticky" shirt even with just his undies!)

We also let John-Mark open a gift as well since they were having a pool party the following day and the gifts could be used at the party. They have both been asking for swimming flippers. They were super excited to be able to swim like scuba divers (sort of) Benjamin was pretty happy about them too - they made perfect teethers :)
After opening presents James got to pick the breakfast of his choice - he chose Banana Nut muffins. He also had a special mini breakfast birthday cupcake.

Later that morning Mom Mom and Papa Steve came down and spent the morning with us. They brought lunch and special birthday cupcakes :)  plus presents!

The following day was the big party but before that  my dad (Papa Duck) came down for a visit and brought a special lunch (with juice) - a tradition with Papa Duck. He also brought the boys gifts - James got a baseball pitching/catching thingie :) It's great because one side has a tight net that he can throw to and the ball bounces back for him to catch or hit - gives this preggo mamma a break for a bit :)

Focused :)

My toy kid got this cool spider man that shoots out string from his palm when you push his back. He LOVED it and had Spider Man "hangin' around" all over the place :) Much to my surprise this toy is still in one piece and the string hasn't been ripped out yet!
(I'll do a post dedicated to the party next)
Tuesday, August 14th we woke up again to singing happy birthday to the birthday boy in bed. John-Mark was SOOO excited to finally hit the BIG 4!! He was finally the real birthday boy!! His big present was a super fun race track. Love the pic with the fist pump - he was excited :)

His breakfast of choice was blueberry muffins and ofcourse he had his special birthday breakfast cupcake as well. Since his birthday was on a Tuesday no other family was able to come and visit but we had a special lunch date with daddy. John-Mark got to pick any place he wanted to go and he chose Chick-fil-A - as if we don't visit there enough :)

Overall I think the boys had two pretty great birthday's. Still can't believe they are 5 and 4 now! I came across the video from the mornings they turned 2 and 3 recently! Really feels like just yesterday! Watching them I realized how much more verbal Gracie is than James was at 3. He was talking but still in broken sentences with wrong noun/verb tense. Gracie isn't even 3 yet and she speaks in perfect sentences. She was a little over nine months in the video and hadn't even started crawling yet and here Benjamin will be 11 months in a few days and he's already taking 3 or 4 steps at a time! Seems my boys and girl are text book when it comes to girls being more verbal earlier and boys being more active.
Funny story -
The Allen family rule is we share everything except for maybe their special bedtime blankets. All toys are to be shared. If you're playing with it you don't have to hand it over if another wants it but if you're not playing with it and someone else grabs your Buzz or baby doll you're not allowed to pull the whole "mine" fit and demand it. The only time this rule doesn't apply is on your birthday or Christmas. On those days you get to be as stingy as you like. You have the choice if you want to let others share in your toys or not. EVERYONE wanted a chance to play James' drums but he wasn't too in to sharing on his birthday- which was fine - he was playing with them quite a bit. However, when John-Mark got his race track all the sudden James was ever so generous with his drums in the hopes to get a turn with the race track. As usual John-Mark was pretty nice and let James play with his track MOST of the time. however there were a few times he said no. So James and I had to have a talk about him having the same priviledges on his bday and he didn't really share too much and this is a good time to think about how we should treat others like we want to be treated. To which he responded so honestly, "well, I didn't know he was going to get something cool that I would want to play with!" Well, there you go. Life lesson learned hopefully :)

Finally I leave you with one of the places I found Spider Man just hanging out - on the grill :) That crazy guy - always in to something :)

August 14, 2008

Oh John-Mark!

Where to start with you. From the day I found out you were joining our family you have surprised me and kept me on my toes! (You weren't so much a surprise - we knew we wanted another baby after James was born but we were surprised that you joined us so soon after James was born - but God knew:) You are my high energy, determined, story telling, gadgety, handsome, thoughtful, water loving, silly silly boy!  You have been waiting for this day since the day your brother turned 4 last year and it's finally here! Thankfully you haven't mentioned 5 yet :)
You LOVE to have FUN - and you can do it solo or with a friend - either is great with you. You can play by yourself with a fun toy for WAY longer than any of your siblings. Sometimes you remind me of Andy from Toy Story when you play because you are so creative and come up with lots of fun things just for you and Spider Man to do! Of course, this isn't surprising since Toy Story is one of your favorite movies :) You also LOVE to tell us stories. You crack me up all the time because you will be talking to me soooo seriously about something and I'm listening very intently and then I realize it's totally some made up story - maybe about you and your friend that lives in California (!?) or you and your daddy catching sharks. You have quite the imagination. Your latest is telling your brother and sister all about God telling you if you would go to Ninevah He would give you a treat but you didn't want the treat and didn't want to go because the people there are bad :) You totally engage them and Gracie will ask you all sorts of questions and you totally make it up as you go.  Maybe we should have named you Jonah :) You are so the kind of kid I wished I was when I was little. I was so bad at make believe and it made for lots of boring days but it's pretty rare for you to EVER be bored!
Of course you continue to be close with James and Gracie - the three of ya'll always coming up with some fun game to play (most times that you have made up :) You love Benjamin and tell me often that he's the best baby but you're not too interested to hold him or play with him too much. You continue to be an awesome swimmer and LOVE all things water! The pool Papa Duck bought us this summer has been so much fun for you! You would swim in it all day every day if I would let you :) We watched lots of swimming the last couple of weeks with the Olympics and I asked you if you wanted to learn how to swim like they do to which you responded, "no, that looks too hard". Typical John-Mark - I like what I'm doing - no reason to change now :)
Even though you're not as concerned with hanging out with friends as your brother you never really meet a stranger. You have no problem walking up to adults and shaking their hands and saying, "hi, I'm John-Mark, nice to meet you". You crack me up because you never ask other kids their name and I often hear you playing at the play ground with new kids saying, "hey boy" or "hey girl"!

I'm not sure who you get it from more, your dad or me but you are pretty strong willed and determined. As you get older you are falling in to line a little better but you still like to push the limit quite often.  Your dad and I laugh at how "in charge" you would be if we hadn't been constantly working with you since before you could even walk when we saw what a strong little personality you have.
As much as you love to be a big boy you also love for me to just hold you sometimes or sit in my lap and watch cartoons.   With so many babies around here I don't get to do it near enough but I love our special time together. You LOVE when I hold you like a baby and sing you our song about being my baby - and I'll always ask you "are you my baby?" and you always laugh and say "yes!" So happy you still don't mind being my baby :)
You are such a special boy and hold a special place in our family. You are called to be a leader among men and a mighty warrior for the kingdom of God. Mommy and Daddy are sooo thankful for the surprise that God gave us in you and pray that we will be the parents He has called us to be to help you fulfill all the potential He has placed in you. You are going to do big things and we can't wait to watch you grow through the years! We love you silly boy!! Happy 4th Birthday!!

August 11, 2007

The day I became a mom for the first time!
Dear James,
Today you are 5 years old! 5 years old! For some reason your mommy is really taking this birthday hard. Maybe it's because 5 is REALLY a big boy. Of course we've been calling you a big boy for years but now you really are. You, on the other hand are SOOO excited about this birthday and already talking about when you're 6!! Please slow down!
Over the past year I feel like you have grown up so much. You are showing us so much more maturity everyday. You continue to be a big help to me and have started doing more regular chores like emptying bathroom trash cans, putting up silverware, setting the table and "fetching" things I need for the other kids :) And you usually are pleased to do it and will even proudly tell your  brother "I can't play right now I have a job to do" :) (praying you keep this up!)  You are an AMAZING big brother and love your brothers and sister like crazy. You and John-Mark love to wrestle but you're usually careful to not hurt him :). Y'all also love to race either on foot or in the pool. You are so sweet to play "getting married" with your sister (which consists of her wearing a tutu and y'all holding hands and spinning around in circles together:). You also always comment when she, or I for that matter have on a pretty dress or our hair looks pretty. Then of course with Benjamin you help me make sure he hasn't sneaked off to play in the potty or put anything dangerous in his mouth. You love to help he and Gracie get out of their seat belts any time we go any where. You are just a great little helper and I'm so thankful for all you do! You're also looking forward to being a big brother again in September and have lots of suggestions for baby names. So far your favorites have been Ellie or Emily for a girl and Andrew (Andy) for a boy. You're biggest concern about having another baby has been where they would fit in our van and wondering if we would have to get a new car. You were super excited when you and John-Mark recently got booster seats and we moved Gracie to the back row with you two. Now we have room for one more baby and as you have told me on several occasions - that's all! 5 babies is all we need :) I think you're right about that :)
You continue to be a PEOPLE person at your core. More than any toy or activity I could offer you - inviting a good friend over to play (or 3 or 4) makes you the most happy. You amaze me with how much you love your friends. You never get frustrated or irritated with them even if they are having "bad" days and don't want to share with you. You just love them and love to be with them. 
I haven't read this in any books but I'm pretty sure this age is also known as the "policeman" stage :) As much as you love to help you also love to "police" everyone else and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do and if they are not you like to make sure I know about it :)
Over the last year you've also hit some big milestones like riding your bike without training wheels and playing tball for the first time. Both things that make you very happy and proud! 
We have had some amazing conversations about Jesus this year and your heart is very  receptive to learning more about Him. You even asked to pray to have Jesus in your heart which we did however I don't think you fully understand WHY you need a Savior just yet so we have had lots of great conversations about what sin is and how Jesus helps us. One of my favorite conversations is when you were talking to John-Mark and he told you he didn't love Jesus (always the one to be different:) and you quickly replied, "that's ok John-Mark, Jesus loves you even if you don't love him" - so true sweet boy, so true.  You love to sing, especially worship songs and I can honestly say there are few things I love better than to be in the car with you singing any worship song at the top of your lungs:)
This past year you have also grown in to a few "quirks" of your own. You have become VERY particular about what you like to wear. Mostly baseball or football pants and a very snuggly fitting Under Armor shirt (you call them "sticky" shirts). You have several but you only like to wear the "snuggest" fitting one so I have to MAKE you take it off every couple of days so I can wash it.  You will wear nicer clothes to church or to other special places but promptly change as soon as we get home. Fall shopping will be super easy for you this year :)
We are soooo blessed to have you in our family and my heart could literally burst when I think about how much I LOVE YOU! I'm a little scared to think about how much more you are going to grow up over this next year but I'm also excited to get to watch you grow in to the boy/man that God made you to be. I am so lucky that God chose me to be your mommy! I love you my BIG boy!!

Family Photo Shoot

A friend came over a couple weeks ago and took some pics of the kids. She used to be a photographer for the Birmingham News and is starting a new career as a highschool math teacher but also wants to continue to do photography so she's starting up a little side business as well.  We were more than willing to be "models" to get her blog started. To learn more about her you can check out her blog
www.michellecampbellphoto.blogspot.com
Of course I can't pick just a few to put on the blog - I love them all - surprisingly this is not ALL of them :)

Summer Updates and the Beach!

We've really have been pretty busy this summer - so busy I haven't had the time to even blog about it :) And also I usually blog during the kids afternoon naps but lately I have been needing those afternoon naps as much if not more than they are! I am almost 32 weeks pregnant with #5 and this has probably been my hardest pregnancy yet. Nothing serious - just more tired, more cranky :), just more miserable in general. This hot summer hasn't helped any. I hate for my kids to sit around the house all day and miss out so we have still been hitting the pool, parks, zoo, playdates, libraries and more. That probably is also a reason for my exhaustion and crankiness :)
Anyhoo - Gracie FINALLY mastered using the big girl potty! Woo Hoo! So I only have one in diapers for a couple months at least. She's still wearing a pull up at night but no more diapers during the day. She also continues to be quite the sassy sister. She had a week where she had a really bad virus and a fever and was just plain miserable. She just layed around all day - SOOO not our Gracie. We usually can't keep this girl still for more than one minute. Thankfully it was nothing serious and she got over it but after a week of us jumping anytime she cried we had to go back in to boot camp. Whew Wee this girl can be a mess! She LOVES to tell us all what to do and when to do it - I have no idea where she got such an attitude :) One of her favorite things to do is brag to her brothers about something she has or is getting and say "nanny nanny boo boo - I'm getting this and you're not". Seriously, I have no idea where she learned "nanny nanny boo boo" - this is not a term my boys have ever used! I'm telling you - a MESS!
James finally passed his swim test at the Y about a month after John-Mark did and has taken off as a swimmer. He and John-Mark love to race each other and dive for dive sticks - nothing wears them out faster! :)
James also got to go to his first Vacation Bible School at our church this year. He LOVED it. We had to walk him in to the sanctuary each morning and John-Mark was soo sad he couldn't stay. I was too. The last day they  had family worship night where we all could go together. It was so fun to be able to worship with ALL my babies at church.
John-Mark has grown up so much lately it seems to me. I think for the last 6 months he has asked me at least once a week - "How old am I today - am I 4 yet?" and crazy enough he will be 4 in less than 2 weeks! OH. MY. GOODNESS!! He is still much more independent than his older brother and doesn't mind doing things on his own but he still adores James. He LOVES to let James be the center of attention and just laugh at him as sings or dances around the house. In the car there are certain songs James LOVES to sing and dance to and John-Mark loves to request them and then just watch James go. I love the way he watches his big brother - like he's the greatest person in the world.
About a month ago I was washing dishes and I looked out my window and saw this:

That is John-Mark about oh 15 or 20 feet in the air in a tree! I just said a little prayer that he wouldn't break any bones and finished up the dishes :)

Now he and James like to climb this tree at least once daily :)

A couple of weeks ago a sweet friend called and offered me her brothers time share for the week. It was very last minute but the people that were supposed to go down weren't able to so it was just sitting empty for the week! Usually we can't do things so last minute but I called my mom and she was able to take off work for a few days so off we went! (Jeremy wasn't able to go since he had just taken off to go to Cuba). It was a lot of work but what a blessing. I didn't think the kids and I were going to get to take a trip to the beach this year so it was a great surprise! We were only there for 3 days but that was probably just enough for all of us. My mom had commented how whenever she sees all the pictures from our vacations she has always wished she could experience some of those things with the kids. As we were leaving our condo on the last day I joked that vacations with the Allens are probably much better in pictures when you just get the highlights of the fun times :) Vacationing with 4 littles ones is not for the weak! Gone are the days of reading a good book by the pool all day and trying to get a great tan - but it's all worth it to see the look on my little one's faces when they go to the beach or get to play in the pool all day. 

The water was too rough for the kids to get in without daddy but we still had fun making sand castles and getting our feet in the water.

Our pool was awesome and great for kids - one side was zero entry and Benjamin LOVED playing in the water.

Gracie posing sweetly with her baby brother :)

My gang

These two are fish and swam pretty much all day long! We started at 8 in the morning and came in for lunch, naps and dinner and the rest of the time we were in the pool until 8 or 8:30 at night.

Our resort had a great little putting greens for the kids to practice their golf shots.

Benjamin - on the go of course!

Having Fun!

My beach beauty!

Benjamin's first time in the ocean -

Checking it out - not too sure

Doing his own version of a crab walk to get away!

Filling up our buckets with water to wet the sand for sand castles