Random December pictures

Hi Folks! I was just cleaning out my camera from the hundreds of pictures taken over Christmas and I found some that were just too cute to delete, but didn't really belong in one specific blog post. I figured that I'd put them up here before we headed to Disney next week, or they'll be forever forgotten!

Tristan, my chunky monkey at seven months. He's hard to entertain when I'm trying to get any cleaning done, because he wants to be right there with me. I brought out his baby gym which he hasn't used for a few months and he enjoyed it for a little while because it was new to him. He's got some long socks on that are supposed to be good for babies who are learning to crawl so that they don't have their pants ride up and they don't tear up their knees. Problem is, his legs are so chunky that the socks are basically cutting off the circulation to his feet. Sadly, they won't work for this big man!
Maura giving us a glimpse of life ten years in the future. "What Dad? I'm listening to my Ipod!"
Brent took this shot one morning while I was out running errands. Maura built this tower all by herself. Can't you just see her exploding with pride and excitement? At least Tristan looks happy!
Goodbye to Uncle Matt and Aunt Brenda. On Friday the 26th, just before the kids headed to bed, we took a goodbye shot with their aunt and uncle. We don't get to see Matt and Brenda very often, so I wanted to make sure we had a picture of both of them with the kids. We hope to see them again in July.

Maura and the dollhouse. She loves Nan's dollhouse so much that I'm working really hard to ensure that she gets one for her birthday. She spends hours playing with this dollhouse.

Grandmother and Tristan say "goodbye." Grandmother enjoyed her great grandkids so much on this trip to Tennessee.
Grandmother taking Maura and Tristan for a walk. On Saturday, before we left Tennessee, Nan and Grandmother took the kids for one last walk while Brent and I finished packing up the car. It was finally warm enough to get out and we made the most of the mild weather before we packed the kids up for the drive to Kentucky.
Sweet little safari adventurer!
Patton the bulldog. This is the "little" puppy that we picked up and kept for a week earlier this year! He's a bruiser, but he's sweet as pie.

Finally, I leave you with this chubby little tickle bug. He's ready for his bath, but he's as ticklish as can be! Watch him almost jump out of my arms! Check out those tight buns!! What a joy my sweet kiddos are to me. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Wrapping up Christmas

Our Christmas festivities didn't end when we left Tennessee. We headed up to Kentucky on the Saturday after Christmas for more Christmas fun! Mom and Dad held the Bridge Family Christmas that evening. My family had been kind enough to postpone a lot of the gift giving until we got there, so it really was like Christmas Day all over again and it was so much fun to have a nice dinner and visit and see what everyone received. All of us kids were there, so it was truly a family affair.
Maura with her favorite toys of the night. I really am going to stop buying toys for this child! She prefers little plastic animals to any other toy she has. This duck and frog light up and make noises and they're small enough to fit into her hand, criteria for favorite toys for sure. Thanks Aunt Lorie and Uncle Micah for the fun toys! Aunt Lorie with Tristan. It's hard to believe that this time next year she'll have a baby that's older than Tristan was in this photo.
Maura with her Grammy and Pappap. She could hardly tear herself away from the froggy and duck to open presents. In fact, we distracted her and hid them to get her interested in the presents and when she realized they were gone, she cried! We gave them back and gave up on present opening for a little while! Tristan loved trying to open his gifts.
His favorite gift was this snazzy new hammer and ball set. We'll probably find out in six months that the paint on the hammer contained lead, after it has a bunch of tooth marks in it!
My dad, truly a good sport. Maura got this tiara and wand and was only interested in dressing up others!
Aunt Lorie and Uncle Micah got Maura a huge pad of paper and smelly markers. We had the same smelly markers as a child, but I don't remember how truly indelible they were! I was in fear for her beautiful dress, so off it came. I'll make sure to give Lorie's child some indelible markers someday soon! Dad, Emily Micah and Lorie waiting to open gifts.
Mom, Scott and Katie. I promise that Scott does indeed have eyes, despite the fact that they're closed in nearly every photo I take of him! Katie and Scott will be married by this time next year. Jeff, Brent and I. It was great visiting with my brother Jeff because I rarely see him now that he's in the Navy. All week, though, he gave me nuggets of parental advice, such as, "You shouldn't give Maura her drink when she says, "Dink," you should make her say "Drink." It's amazing how wise we are about children before we have any!
Brent and I enjoying our second Christmas of 2008. On Sunday evening, Lorie and Micah invited us all over to have dinner and see their Christmas tree. We took some of Maura's new toys to play with while we were there.
Uncle Jeff and Tristan enjoyed some bonding time. Jeff made him "walk."
On New Years Eve, we made cookies...again. Is it any wonder that I gained substantial weight over Christmas. I think I have three separate blog posts devoted to cookie making. In spite of it all, the cookies were gone by New Years Eve, so we had to make more for the New Year's Eve party. Maura was happy to help. She was covered from head to toe in flour by the time they finished.
Maura, Brent and Emily--Cookie Making Pros! Mom getting in on the decorating action.
Tristan preparing to ring in the New Years. You know it's gonna be a good year when you have this sweet face to wake up to.
Katie and Maura playing one of Maura's favorite games. You run around the center part of the house as fast as you can, but you can't beat Molly, the dog, who runs to the other side to look for you. She pokes her head out and sometimes barks, which makes Maura break into gales of laughter.
Brent, Tristan and Lorie getting ready to ring in 2009. Actually Tristan didn't make it to midnight. He and Maura went down at 8:00 so Mommy could actually enjoy the New Year's party! Tristan with Aunt Katie and Aunt Lorie.
Aunt Katie and Maura. Maura loved the appetizers and helped herself before bedtime.
Emily and Jeff enjoying the yummy food.
Maura, Uncle Micah and Aunt Lorie. The Bridge Kids: Jeff, Julie, Katie, Lorie and Emily. This is a cute one of all of us!
The boy's New Year's Eve tradition...Risk! It's a high stakes, high stress game, and the winner gets bragging rights for years! Happy New Year!! Welcome 2009! Giving my honey the first kiss and hug of the new year.
On New Year's Day, we went up to Carlisle to visit our old neighbors the Brunners. Sadly, they moved away just a few months after we did, so we won't be returning to the same neighbors. Maura and Emily were good playmates, so we're going to miss them so much. Emily and Maura exchanging hugs. Tristan took advantage of their new berber carpet to try out some new skills. This is the very first time that we ever saw him get up on his knees. He doesn't do it often, but when he does we know that crawling is just around the corner.
Shauna and I. We'll miss our good neighbors, but we'll always be friends.
On Friday before we left, we snuck in one last visit with friends. Maura and I met Dawn and Lily at McDonald's to exchange gifts. The girls had fun coloring together and Dawn and I enjoyed talking, as always.
Maura and I enjoying McDonalds breakfast. Aunt Emily got her hugs in just before we left with the kids. We won't be back to Kentucky for at least another two months.
Maura, Grammy, Pappap and Tristan. Can you tell that I'm hoping my kids sleep in the car?
Tristan in his big boy seat. I can't believe how big and how old he looks in the big boy seat! I can't wait until he's one so I can turn it around and regain the six inches of leg room I lost when we installed the rear facing carseat! We had a wonderful visit home, as always, but it was a relief to be heading back to Georgia to just rest a few days before Brent started back to work. Despite that fact that Georgia isn't really home to us, we've really made a place for ourselves here and we're enjoying it as much as we can. We were eager to get back to our lives and our church here and enjoy "normal" life again!

Christmas Day

I know what you're thinking, "I just can't wait to see more pictures of the Allen family at Christmas!" Well, you're in luck. I believe that this is my biggest blog post ever. We had SO much fun on Christmas Day and I have the photos to prove it! Christmas was so magical this year because I was able to experience it through the eyes of my children. It really took me back to the wonder that I felt for Christmas when I was a child. Christmas is a day like no other and we truly enjoyed our celebrations, traditions and family togetherness.
Maura slept until about 8:00 central time, which is later than her normal waking time. I wasn't sure what to expect from her because she'd been so excited, but I think exhaustion won out over excitement and allowed her to sleep a little late. Brent and I were actually up when she woke up, so we got out the cameras, gathered all the adults and lead Maura into her Christmas wonderland. It was all a little overwhelming to her. She could hardly believe all the presents and packages. Her face was so priceless because she was so excited. She spied this little train first and played with it for probably a half hour before she'd consent to going on to something else.
She finally spied the main thing she'd asked Santa for--animals. She was so excited about the animal set and just incorporated it into her train play. She definitely loves these animals more than anything else she got for Christmas. She plays with them every single day and asks me to make up stories about them all day long. Tristan just loved all the commotion. He didn't know where to look first! He squealed and clapped his hands and just did his best to look adorable. He got lots of kisses from Nan and Poppa.
Maura was so concerned that her train didn't have any cargo, but Daddy fixed that with some marshmallows. What a smart Daddy! We weren't able to convince Maura to open any of her gifts for quite some time, but she did consent to open her stocking.
There she found the dinosaurs that she'd asked for. I'm not sure why, but she loves dinos right now. Still without having opened any of her own gifts, she decided to "help" Tristan open his. He was really more interested in the wrapping paper anyway.
Sweet Tristan loved everything about Christmas, especially the bows! The Allen Family enjoying Christmas morning.
Uncle Matt and Aunt Brenda really enjoyed watching the kids on Christmas. I think Matt was almost more excited to see Maura open her presents than even I was. I'm not really sure what he was doing in this photo... Tristan with his big present, a walking toy. He loves this thing, and the board detaches from the walker so he can play with it on the floor.
Sherran, Matt and Brenda with the three chiuauas Belle, Fern and Bambi. Brent enjoying his gifts.
Me with my BIG gift. Actually the gift wasn't large, just the box. Brent bought me a beautiful diamond watch for Christmas. He has great taste in jewelry. Chuck and Sherran in the Christmas spirit. We bought him this cigar set.
Maura started to get a little tired and overwhelmed and went for her blankie and paci, but we really wanted her to see the big gift Santa had brought for her so that she'd get to enjoy it before we had to leave for dinner. She wanted me to "unwrap" it for her, but once she saw her Jeep, she jumped right in! She was so excited! Daddy immediately took her out for a test drive. She didn't really have any clue about the whole steering thing, but we hope she gets the hang of it eventually. Right now, she's hitting everything from curbs, to mailboxes, to trees!
It was a successful ride! She has a map attached to the front of the car that she had to pull out and consult every few feet to make sure she was going in the right direction. Needless to say, we don't go anywhere very quickly in this vehicle!
Tristan the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Later that afternoon, the whole Allen family converged upon Grandmother and Grandpoppa's house for dinner. Grandpoppa loves hanging out with Tristan, his first Allen great grandson. I've never seen Grandpoppa play with a baby quite like he plays with Tristan. He's pretty fond of the little booger! On Christmas afternoon, Chuck got the best Christmas present ever! Sherran bought him a Harley and his brother John drove it in to Grandpoppa's house. Chuck was impressed by the bike when he thought it was John's, but he was flabbergasted when he realized it was HIS! Walton, John and Chuck just savoring the surprise.
Here's the best picture I have of the bike. It's really impressive, even for a non-Harley girl like me. Someday I might just work up enough nerve to actually go for a ride! Aunt Tracy just loves Tristan and she just rocked him until he crashed! This is Tristan's favorite sleeping position--on top of someone else!
Maura and cousin Riley trying out GiGi's piano. It added to the general confusion of the place. Riley will be two in May. This was the best photo I was able to get of the kids together. I love that they look like they're praying!
Maura regaled us all with her rendition of "Holly Jolly Christmas." She told us over and over that it was her favorite song, and she'd sing it at the top of her lungs. So cute! Tristan and I enjoying the mayhem and gaiety of the day.
Our attempt at a Christmas photo. I'm not sure why I bother!! Riley, John Henry and Tristan. In about a year, this trio will be triple trouble!
Joslyn, Michelle and Riley enjoying gift opening. I can't believe I don't have any photos of Joslyn and Maura playing together. They play together pretty well, as long as Maura listens to Joslyn!
Momma and her tired kiddos. They were really winding down by Christmas evening.
One tired little Christmas girl. The paci was absolutely neccessary to maintain peace!
The Allen girls enjoying Christmas the Coca-Cola way. Grandmother has pictures of all the girls enjoying a Coke from many Christmases past.
Tristan and John Henry playing together. It was so cute to see how much interest they had in each other. The "talked" to each other and stole each other's toys. What else are cousins for?

We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. I loved every minute of that day and all the magic and suprise that goes along with it. I can't believe it's another whole year before it comes back again. "Oh Christmas, don't be late!"