All About the Allens

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Paisley Rose is TWO.

Today our little Paisley Rose is 2 years old!

She is as sweet as can be. She's still an itty-bity! We'll see what they say at her well check this week, but she can't be much over 20lbs (STILL). She's still been wearing 12mth clothes most of the summer and is just now about to grow out of her size 3 shoes! :) She still eats like and CHAMP though and boy, does she think she's BIG!?! She runs and keeps up with brother all day, is a little climber and gymnast and the girl LOVES to dance. She talks non stop and cracks us up every day with the funny things she says. She LOVE LOVE LOVES to sing and it melts my heart when she wakes up singing her own songs. Her favorite songs are "Jesus" and "Sunshine." The difference in boys & girls is already so clear. If brother's not around she is just so content to sit and color and play being STILL. And of course, she is my girly girl. Recently it's been all about princesses and baby dolls. AND, she's started to tell me what outfits she likes and loves picking out her hair accessory!

This is from her birthday party last week (BIG BLOG on that to follow!!!)

Paisley Rose, you are a beautiful little free spirit and we LOVE watching you grow!

Back to school (and life!)

Here's a brief synopsis of the things I skimmed over in the summer....

We were BUSY.

Daniel got a new job.

It was really hot.

I finally quit Starbucks(!)

It was even hotter.

Perfectly Paisley was CRAZY busy. {More on that later!}

It was miserably hot.

Ryder's collarbone drama continued, but is hopefully healed now.

We dodged all the wildfires (one about 5 miles from us). See "HOT."

Daniel got newer job!!

We did some fun stuff - the circus, lots of splashpads, birthday parties, parks & pools (swim lessons got canceled due to the collarbone drama - next year)!

So now it's fall (sorta... it's still HOT) and we're getting back in the swing of things. More updates and blogs coming soon... promise.

A couple weeks ago Ryder started back to SCHOOL. He really missed it this summer. Every couple days he'd ask if it was time to go back yet!

Ready to go! Showing off his new school shoes!

Giving sister a big hug!

Yay! Let's go!!!

Found his name in the hallway! Happy to be back!

In the ladybug room.

He seems to love his new teacher. The only tears on the first day were those of Paisley who wanted to stay! Her & I have been having some sweet time together while brother's gone though!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Beach Trip!

Yes, I know. I still have a blog. It's been crazy. More on all the updates later, but I could not go with out blogging about our beach trip! (Since that's where I last left off!) In late July we went on a beach trip to Florida! We went with my parents and yes we drove with both kids... actually all of us in the big 'burb. :) We stayed on 30A in Sea Grove. We loved the area. It's east of Destin and Sea Grove is between Seaside & Rosemary. We stopped each way in Hattiesburg, MS at my Aunt Renita's. We left Saturday morning, we took a LOT of stops along the way, but we made it to the beach by mid day Sunday.

On the road...

This sign made me laugh so much.

View from our condo. Beach views, but a little walk to the beach. Check out that white sand!

Paisley, stylin' and ready to hit the beach!

Mimi & Poppy building sandcastles. Love this.

The first day on the beach was Monday... July 25th - our 8th Anniversary! :) Daniel spent that day in Panama city getting the brakes on the Suburban fixed because they conveniently decided to go out on our way down there!! But that afternoon after the kids woke up from naps we went back out to the beach (and let Mimi & Poppy go out on their own Anniversary date night!) and we spent the evening out there watching the sun go down and it was perfect.

These pictures turned out to be my favorite because they are so simple and capture the kids on the beach perfectly.

They really had fun on the beach in general. They played in the sand for hours. Ryder made lots of friends... especially ones with buckets and trucks! :) He really enjoyed burying Daddy...

And Poppy! :)

This makes me laugh! I think she was actually stumbling, but it totally looks like she's striking a pose!

Me, hiding from the sun.

Mimi & Paisley girl

The kids checking out Mimi's bike she rented... people ride bikes everywhere down there which I think is so cool.

Chillin with Daddy.

Love this face! ;)

Watching Mimi paint (While the storm rolls in!)

So it rained several days in the morning. but we made the best of it. Although the kids didn't really understand, so they went a little nutty...

We finally gave up one morning and headed out to do some shopping. We went to Seaside to have lunch. I just LOVED Seaside. Everything about it was adorable. It's such a family oriented town and just so fun. They have part of the square lined with these cool airstream trailers. We had lunch at this place - The Meltdown - Grilled Cheeses! I had a goat cheese, procuitto & arugula (yes, I still remember!)

We shopped around...

And had ice cream... he met his match!

Mimi & Paisley sharing some ice cream

That night Daniel and I went out on a date night! We spent the afternoon over in Rosemary beach, which is beautiful and then we had dinner at Cafe 30A which was great... Lobster :)

Then we went over to Seaside to watch the sunset and hangout.

Love him.

So the last night we got dressed and went down to the beach at sunset to take some family pics. The first one was the best! It went down hill (or down beach from there!) :)

My sweet parents, married 33 years!

One big happy...

LOVE this!

He kept trying to pick her up for some reason!

Then we got a sweet one...

We went over to have dinner in Seaside the last night. The kids were tired and loopy... well, maybe we all were! (Did I mention the kids didn't sleep past 6:30AM one day of the 7 day trip!?!) :)