A WHOLE NEW WORLD

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Jasten Allen

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie First Birthday tickers

Samuel Ryder

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Third Birthday tickers

Tarren James

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Fifth Birthday tickers

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rockets Game - 12-29-10

Santa brought Spencer Rockets tickets for Christmas. He got a 6 pack deal. So, we are going to get to go to 6 games in the next few months. Last night, we went to the game against the Heat. We got to see Lebron play. He didn't have the best game, but he still scored 20 pts. That is just crazy! It was a close game, but we ended up losing. Tarren and Samuel came with us. We weren't sure how they were going to behave. They did an awesome job! The people behind me told me what a great job they did. The guy said he was waiting for them to start getting fussy, but it never happened. We got popcorn for Tarren and that kid can put it away. He loves popcorn! So, that helped keep him distracted. We weren't able to get a picture with Clutch, but maybe we can the next game.
Family Picture before the game started.

Tarren loved the cheer sticks.
Samuel was pretty happy the whole time.

Tarren and Samuel. They were tired by this time. It was 11:00.

The last few minutes of the game...it was a nail biter!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas pictures

Tarren and Samuel got their pictures taken at Sears. I took them by myself this time and it is way hard to try and work with two kids. Usually, Spencer takes Tarren and I worry about Samuel. I will probably not do that again. I NEED Spencer's help.






Look alikes???

I was looking through some of my baby pictures and I couldn't help thinking that Samuel looks a lot like I did when I was a kid.


Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Birthday Party and 6 month check-up

We went to my Brielle's birthday party a few weekends ago. My sister had crowns for the kids to make and let me tell you Tarren LOVES his crown. He wore it non-stop for about a week.



Tarren taking a shot at hitting a pinata.

Tarren LOVES to put on his daddy's hats. He picked one up yesterday and put it on and then told me take picture me. So, I got out the camera and took a picture. I am glad he asked me to because it is so cute. He is a funny kid. I love how he says some of his words. When he says the word sandwich, it comes out snanwich. When he says yummy, it comes out nummy. He is growing up so fast. I am planning to start potty training him over this Christmas break. I just haven't gotten around to it yet, but I think he is ready. He will come and tell me poop and point to his diaper. Sure enough he has pooped. So, I better get to it. Plus it would save me a LOT of money. When you are buying diapers for two, it adds up pretty fast!
Samuel is now 6 months. He went in for his 6 month check-up on Monday.

His stats are: Weight: 17lbs 1 ounces - 45th percentile

Height: 27 inches - 75th percentile

Head: 18 inches - 90th percentile

He has got quite the personality or should I say temper. He is a happy baby, but when he does get upset he lets you have it. He is sitting up now, but will topple over after awhile. He has his two front bottom teeth. He loves his brother. He is always laughing at him. I love to listen to them in the car. They just laugh and laugh.





Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas is coming!

I bought these house slippers for Tarren for Christmas or it was suppose to be for Christmas. I didn't get them put away before he saw them and he was so excited I couldn't take them away. He wears them every day in the house. When he wakes up in the morning he wants them on.
Samuel at 51/2 months.


He is thinking about putting his foot in his mouth...
and he does!

My sister gave us an advent calendar and this cute stuff to go along with it. Each day has something different in it to do with Christmas and with Christ. She has books to go along with the theme for the day and activities. Yesterday, the activity was a gingerbread house. Being the easy way out person I am, I bought a premade gingerbread house that you have to just decorate. First of all, the gingerbread tasted horrible. Second, the candy was not the best choice to put in there. It tasted as bad as the gingerbread. We decorated the house and Tarren seemed to enjoy it.

When we first started, I was not sure if it would be good to do this year because I thought that Tarren might not be old enough to get it. Boy was I wrong! He may not understand everything about what we are saying, but he knows it all has something do with Jesus. After the first couple of days, he started pointing to the calendar and saying Jesus. Mommy, I want to Jesus. I asked him if he wanted to read and he said yes and pointed to the scriptures. It really made me realize that little kids are like sponges and soak everything up...good or bad. Needless to say, next year I think we are going to make our own gingerbread house.



The side Tarren decorated.( I did the very top)

The side Spencer decorated.

Tarren liked the candy. The little red and green balls he couldn't get enough of. We dropped a lot on the floor that rolled away somewhere. He has been finding them all day today and gets excited as he puts it in his mouth.
The finished product. Thanks Aunt Trish for the great Christmas Present and ideas!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

We went camping for Thanksgiving this year. We went to Inks Lake near Austin. We went down on Wednesday and came back Saturday. We met up with Spencer's brother, Trevor, and his family. When we got there on Wednesday, the weather was pretty nice. It wasn't too hot or humid. We set up the tent and got things in order. Spencer did most of the setting up, but Tarren and I helped here and there.


Tarren LOVED it. There was plenty of dirt for him to play with and plenty of rocks/leaves. He was so dirty after the first 10 minutes. Tarren is kind of a clumsy child. He doesn't look when he is walking or running. So, he falls alot. By the end of the trip, his knees were covered in bruises and scratches. When he saw me taking pictures, he kept saying "I smile" and getting in front of the camera. It was cute.



I had Samuel in a carrying thingy. It is called the jellybean. It was quite handy. There wasn't really a great spot to put Samuel down and he wanted to be held. So, I was able to make him happy and still be able to move around and help out.



The first night wasn't so bad. Samuel slept well in the packnplay, but Tarren did not sleep as well. So, he ended up sleeping with me. On Thanksgiving, we woke up to a beautiful morning. We hung around the campsite for a bit and then Spencer, Trevor and the kids went canoeing. Tarren and Samuel statyed in their camper and took a nap. I stayed with them and read a book. The temperature dropped and it got quite cold. We stayed in camper for awhile and when they got back from canoeing we started our Thanksgiving meal. It was so yummy. Trevor fried a turkey. Thursday night was not so fun when we went to bed. We bundled up the kids and put Tarren in a mummy sleeping bag. I think he slept the best of all of us. Samuel didn't wake up until the morning to eat, but I had to get out of my warm sleeping bag and heat a bottle up. That wasn't too fun. The temperature warmed up nicely and we decided to go on a hike on Friday. Samuel fell asleep in the jellybean while we hiked.


Friday night was even colder than Thursday night. Samuel ended up waking up in the middle of the night crying. So, I brought him to bed with me. He is a good cuddler. We slept pretty good. He woke up in the morning hungry. It was sooo cold when I had to heat the bottle. I can say that I am not a fan of camping with a baby on a bottle. When I went out to go to the bathroom, there was ice on the car. So it was pretty dang cold! We packed up and headed home. It was so nice to take a nice long hot shower and sleep in my warm comfortable bed. It was great to see Trevor and his family and spend Thanksgiving with them. I think the kids did a pretty good job of camping. Samuel is teething and was kind of cranky here and there, but overall he was pretty happy.


Thursday, November 11, 2010

HALLOWEEN!!!

We decided our theme for this year was going to be the Wizard of Oz. I was Dorothy, Spencer was the scarecrow, Tarren the tinman and Samuel was the lion. We had a blast. We get our pictures done every year professionally. The best part is walking in the store all dressed up. After we took our pictures, we went to the Trunk or Treat at church. It was fun times. Tarren really loved going and getting all the candy. He woke up the next morning wanting his pumpkin. When he got it, he had a look of concern on his face and he said,"mama...where's the candy?" I had dumped it out into our candy basket. I can't wait till next year...I think I already have our theme.


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Samuel's 4 month check-up


Samuel went in for his 4 month check-up on Tuesday October 19. Here are his stats: weight - 15lbs - 53%, height - 24.75 - 46%, and head - 17 inches - 75%. He is getting pretty chunky. He is still not as fat as Tarren was at this age, but he is on his way. I can't believe how fast they grow. He is such a happy smiley baby. However, when he starts to get hungry he screeches. It is quite loud. He loves to watch his big brother play and loves to be held.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Samuel's baby blessing and Houston Zoo

Spencer gave Samuel his baby blessing in church yesterday. We had a lot of our family come to it. It was neat because my brother had a audio recorder, so he was able to record the blessing. I can never remember exactly what is said. So, it is nice to have that. We came back to our house for a late lunch. It was a lot of fun and my sister-n-law made this awesome cake.

Samuel in his baby blessing outfit.


Samuel wore the same baby blessing as Tarren. Samuel is on the left and Tarren is on the right. It is interesting how they look a like, but there are also a lot of differences. I love these two little boys! They make life so great!!

We went to the Houston Zoo for labor day. It was a lot of fun. It was hot and humid, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. We had some pretty good cloud coverage. Tarren really enjoyed it this time. Samuel he wasn't to excited. He slept somewhat, but most of the time I ended up carrying him. He really is alert and likes to look around and see what is going on. We rode the train and then we went to eat at Pappas. We left just before the big rain storm came. It was a lot of fun!





Saturday, August 21, 2010

Birthday Party and 2 month check-up

We went to Chucky Cheese last weekend for my cousin's son's birthday. It was a little hectic for me because I had 2 kids and Spencer had to work. Tarren wanted to run all over and touch all of the toys. So, I left Samuel with my Aunt while I followed Tarren around. His idea of playing the games is a little different. He wanted to play air hockey, but he didn't want to hit it back and forth. He wanted to keep putting the puck in the slot and getting it out. So, we did that for awhile.


We went to play the skeet ball, but he didn't want to let go of the balls. He wasn't quite strong enough to get it up, so I helped him. However, once the last ball was gone he was very sad. He kept saying over and over, "my ball" and raising his hands like where did they go.


We tried the game where you hit the alligators that pop up. He drop it after a second and I had to finish it for him.


He rode a little ride with the birthday boy, Reese.


It was a lot of fun, but quite tiring also. We enjoyed seeing all of the family and visiting.

Samuel had his 2 month check-up on Thursday. I remember the stats, but not the percentage he falls in. I usually get a paper with the print out, but I had to get his shot record paper and some other papers signed for his daycare. So, in all of the craziness, I forgot his stats. I do remember he was 12lbs, 22 1/2 inches long and his head I think was 16 inches.(I could be off a little) It was funny to watch Tarren in there. Anything the doctor did to Samuel, Tarren wanted done to him. However, when it came to the shots Tarren did not want to join in. He just watched. The doctor said he is growing excellent on the curve and is right on track. The only thing is he is favoring one side of his head, so it it starting to go a little flat. So, we roll up a blanket and put it on that side to make him keep his head to the right. He is growing fast and his personality is starting to come out. He sleeps through the night, but he usually crys for a few minutes when we first lay him down. We had to have him sleeping through the night because I went back to work and it would have been really hard to function if I had to get up all hours of the night.
Yes, he is wearing a "born in 2008" onesie. We recycled Tarren's clothes and he was born in 2008. That is why I don't like to buy clothes that have the dates on them because it doesn't make since if you use them for another kid.

Three most important people in my life

Three most important people in my life