A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

After an exceptionally cold December and January, February has been a welcome relief. We've only had one snow day this month and some days have gotten up to 70(SEVENTY DEGREES!). My kids have been so stir crazy. I feel like we've been tripping all over each other in this house. We've been cranky because of the cloudy skies. We took the opportunity during the beautiful weather to get out to the park for a picnic. In Kentucky, in February. It was so wonderful to feel the sun on our faces.
Maura was too busy enjoying twisting her swing to give me a smile, but Tristan was having such a great time that he couldn't contain his smile! I loved watching my kids enjoy the swings and even got in on the action myself.

This particular park has some really fun slides. Brent and Tristan tried them out together. Tristan is a real Daddy's boy these days and anytime Daddy can be a part of his activities, he's so happy. I love watching the strong bond that Brent has with his boys. He's such an awesome father to them.

I posted the photos of Bennett swinging in my previous post. He was content to swing for about half an hour. In the meantime, Tristan decided he needed a turn on the baby swings. He can barely fit into the swing and he's almost impossible to extract from the seat, but swing he did! Maura, meanwhile, busied herself with the car table. It has some awesome concrete hills on it that little boys use to drive their cars up and down. Maura opted to use them for dinosaur habitat and caves. She had so much fun. She's still my dino lovin' girl. The other day, she told me, "Look at these little dinosaurs! They're running away from their creditors!" I could NOT stop laughing!

I just had to get some photos of some of my main men. Bennett is still a momma's boy, but he's always happy to have some daddy time. He just giggles for Brent and gives him huge smiles and kisses. I love the joy that our precious third born shows for his mommy and daddy. He melts our hearts every single day with his sweetness. Precious boy!

We've sadly returned to more seasonable conditions for February, but thoroughly enjoyed our early taste of spring. It can't come fast enough for the Allen family!

Eight Adorable Months

Oh, Bennett Boo, how is it possible that you're eight months old already??? My precious baby is growing up faster than I could possibly imagine! Your sweet smiles, giggles and kisses make our hearts melt every single day. You are the sweetest baby and you are so loved by your Mommy, Daddy, sister and brother. Your laugh is so infectious and makes all of us laugh with you. You're going to figure out pretty quickly that you can entertain your family--you're already a little clown! We love you from the top of your crazy sticking up hair to your chubby little toes. You are a blessing to our lives!
At eight months you're becoming so interactive and fun. You're talking a lot, saying "Ma, ma, ma, da, da, da, and ba, ba ba." You laugh and giggle all the time with big belly laughs that are just so funny. You let me know when you want something, especially food by saying, "Uh, uh, uh!" You're also quite expressive when you're upset. We've recently experienced your "mad cry" for the first time ever and we're beginning to suspect that you may have a bit of a temper. You don't like to let Mommy out of your sight these days, especially since you were sick with pneumonia. We think we may have spoiled you a bit while you were sick, but you are precious and we weren't going to allow you to suffer alone.

You are very mobile these days. You may not be crawling, but you get where you want to go by rolling wherever you want to be. You spend all the time you're on your back craning your neck to see what your siblings are doing. You are getting up onto your knees a bit, but crawling appears to be a while away for you. You are sitting up very well and rarely fall over these days. You are able to move your toys from hand to hand and can even retrieve them when they get away from you. I know you can't wait to be on the move, but I wouldn't be sad if you wanted to wait a bit longer!

You love watching the world going on around you. You've become a "nosy nurser" these days, popping off all the time to watch what Maura and Tristan are doing. I can't even watch TV or talk on the phone while I nurse you these days because you're too interested in what I'm doing. I try covering you with a wrap, but it just makes you angry and you bat it away. No more public nursing for us!

As for teeth? Those pearly whites have yet to make their appearance. You are officially the latest teether in our family, and it appears that you may be the most unhappy teether. We're expecting your teeth to pop through any day now, and you've been none too happy about it! Despite your lack of teeth, you manage quite well when it comes to eating. You're still not a big fan of vegetable baby food and I have to disguise it with fruit, but you'll happily eat it as finger food. Silly boy! Your favorite food remains pears, but your favorite junk food is puffs. I honestly believe you'd eat the whole tube if I would let you. I often use the puffs to eek out another precious few minutes in the high chair while I get the kitchen cleaned up.

You had your first experience with a swing on your eight month birthday. It was a beautiful seventy degree day and we went for a picnic at the park. You LOVED the baby swing. I think you would have stayed there for an hour if I would have kept you there. You giggled every time you swung towards me. I loved watching your joy as you experienced the swing for the first time.

You're still not much of a sleeper. You wake at least twice a night, every night. Generally you awake at about 11 and 3. I usually bring you to bed with me at 3 and you stay with us for the rest of the night. It makes for a stiff back on my part in the morning. You don't sleep wonderfully through the day either. I generally expect 30-40 minute naps from you. I can't wait for the day when you consolidate your naps and give me a longer break. Please!! I'm looking forward to sleeping through the night someday soon too--it's been about ten months since I've had a full night's sleep. I'm ready!!

I love you, my sweet, sweet baby. You've brought so much joy to our lives and you've blessed us in so many ways. Thank you, God, for our Bennett!

My Funny Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day to all those who we love!! We spent a special day together as a family on this day of love. Brent had an appointment in the morning, so he took the day off as a sick day. We were thrilled to have him home with us, especially because it meant we could do some fun things that I don't attempt when I'm alone. Nan and Poppa sent us these super cute t-shirts for Valentine's Day, so we started off the day with a good old fashioned V-day photo shoot! Thanks Nan and Poppa!

Oh, these boys. The are SO cute, especially when they're together. Today I watched Tristan bend down to talk with Bennett and the baby squealed and reached both hands up to touch Tristan's face. They just love each other. Judging from those impish faces, these two are going to get into a ton of trouble as they grow!

Sweet Maura was so excited about all the Valentine's Day celebrating we were doing, expecially when we told her we'd be visiting...Chuck E. Cheese!! She was thrilled. Somehow, I never saw myself having dinner on Valentine's day at Chuck E Cheese, but three kids will change that for you! We had an awesome time. Maura couldn't get those tokens soon enough!

Chuck E came to visit. Maura was a big fan. Bennett, not so much!! He just knew he'd better keep his eyes on that thing!

We were invited to take part in a dance party with Chuck E. The kids were exhausted and happy by the time we left. Bennett had stared at all the flashing lights and sounds all over the place. Maura and Tristan each got a cool prize and had a great Valentines Day experience.

The fun didn't stop when we left Chuck E. Cheese. While we let our two monkeys nap, I went to the store to buy dinner and came back to make a heart shaped feast. It was awesome! We enjoyed indiviual heart shaped meatloafs, mashed potatoes, rolls and heart brownies.

After dinner, we had our brownies, danced in a pajama dance party and let the kids open their Valentine presents! Honestly, if I had know how happy I could make a little boy with some Lightning McQueen bubble bath, I would have bought some a lot sooner!! We truly enjoyed our family day, but I especially loved spending it with Brent. My special Valentine is precious to me and he makes me love him more each day as he strives to become a better person and better Christan! Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Groundhog Day

My family loves a celebration! Any opportunity to get together, and of course EAT, should be taken! Growing up my mom was awesome about making little events special for us kids. We made snowflakes in January, candy houses in February, Shamrocks in March, dyed Easter eggs in April and the list just goes on and on. We frequently had fun family dinners and this has just continued into adulthood. I should not have been surprised, therefore, when Lorie called and invited us to a Groundhog Day dinner. This was a new one for us. I'm pretty sure I've never celebrated Groundhog Day before, but there was the promise of food and togetherness and I was THERE!
Bennett didn't know anything about groundhogs, but he was pretty excited to see most of the people he loves best in the same room at the same time. There was a LOT of activity and he was all about watching the big kids. Aunt Katie and Uncle Scott joined us for the fun and we loved catching up with them.

Tristan "helped" Grammy get all the food ready for consumption. I'm pretty sure that those grubby little fingers were buried in the pretzel salad. Gag. Kids really DO have more fun when their grandparents are around! Tristan loves Grammy time and has been begging to go to her house for the past week!

The boys had a great time chatting while us girls slaved in the kitchen! I'm not sure what they were talking about--perhaps Micah's milk just let down?!? :) Just kidding Micah!

I don't actually appear in many of my photos, so I made a special effort to have someone take a photo of me and my honey!

Our friends Joanna, Drew and Haley joined us and cooked us some awesome onion rings and french fries. They are definitely invited to the next Groundhog Day celebration! I made the super cute cupcakes at the beginning of the post. I must be nuts to take on a project like that! They were cute and delicious, though!

The kids had an awesome time playing with their Aunt. She managed to get two of the three to "show their teeth!" Such a cute bunch of cheesers! I'm not sure if we'll make Groundhog day an annual celebration, but I'm thankful for a family that loves to get together and celebrate the little things!

Just Call Me "Mother of the Year"

I try hard to be a good mommy to my children. I am blessed beyond measure to have these sweet souls entrusted to my care and I take that responsibility very seriously. I take lots of time to play with my kids throughout the day, plan fun and hopefully educational outings and even try to work in some teaching from time to time. Despite my best efforts, however, sometimes things just get the best of me and I have to resort to this...
Planting my seven month old baby in front of the TV! Major mommy guilt here! I don't think Maura even spied TV until well after her first birthday. As you can see, Bennett LOVED it. I think he'll end up as a Cars fan, just like his brother!

It was(obviously) a busy day in the Allen household. So much so that I put my four year old to work! She helped me vacuum the foyer until Tristan got in on the action. Pretty soon the vacuum experimentation turned into...

ALL OUT WAR!! I just try to remember that although these days when my kids eat only Mac-n-cheese, wear very few clothes and hit each other over the heads with brooms might not be my best Mommy days, but they'll probably be the days my kids remember later as their most fun days. We just pray that we can be the very best parents to our children and love them fiercely through all the struggles of life. They bring so much joy to our lives.

I also try and remember that for every bad mommy moment I have, there are also a lot of great moments. The other day, after the kids learned about dental hygiene in school, I made them this super fun snack--apple smiles. Both Maura and Sarah thought they were awesome!

I'm a lucky girl!

A Winter Walk

We got a break from the snow and ice last weekend. In fact, the thermometer made it up to a balmy 50 degrees, prompting everyone to escape from their winter hibernation and briefly pop their heads out of doors. I spied people playing basketball in shorts, and washing cars--it might have been comparatively warm, but it wasn't THAT warm! We opted for a nice walk, complete with jackets. The kids couldn't have been more excited to get outside without the burden of snow pants, gloves and hats! Tristan was positively exuberant to take his new scooter out on the "open road."

I took along my camera to try out some new settings and Maura decided to be my supermodel. She kept turning around and saying "Take a picture of me now!" So beautiful! She alternated between wanting to be with us and running a hundred feet in front of us. Brent hung back with Bennett and I and I was very grateful to have him around when fifty yards into our walk Tristan gave up on the scooter!

No one can say that these two don't have personality. I have a hard time getting them both to smile for the camera at the same time, so I asked them to make a sad face and then a happy face. Here are the results...

It was a challenging walk for us. Lately, everything has been challenging with Tristan. He's really coming in to his own. He is all boy--all movement, all noise, all confusion, all the time. Recently he's REALLY been testing his boundaries, openly defying us, hitting when he's told no and making hissing noises when he's corrected. On this walk, he wanted to run as fast as he could, as far as he could in front of us. It wouldn't be a problem if we lived out on a quiet country lane, but we could NOT make him understand that cars might be backing out of their driveways and not see him as he ran past. Brent started playing a "GO, STOP!" game with him that seemed to help, but this kind of behavior is just a symptom of a bigger problem. Needless to say, we spend a lot of our day in discipline these days. Maybe I just need a few more snow days with Brent around to handle the discipline issues. :)

We managed to find one lonely little spot of unmelted snow and I initiated a snowball fight. The kids LOVED it. It looks like I took Tristan DOWN here, but I think he was just being silly.

We loved our brief respite from the frigid temperatures, but we're back to arctic land once again this week. Hopefully spring really IS right around the corner!