Allie's 5 Year Pictures

My really good and talented friend Jenn was able to take pictures of both kids a week ago. We are a couple of months late as regards to "5 year" and "1 year", but life is just crazy and this is when we could get it in! One reason I love having Jenn take my kids pictures is because she is always so patient (especially with Jack). It's so hard to tell how the photo shoot it going and she always manages to capture such sweet moments of my kids. I'm always amazed at the shots she is able to create. Thanks Jenn for creating pictures that will last a life time!

I thought I would share pictures of just Allie first. Allie is such a little ray of sunshine in our lives. I love when she gives me her natural, million dollar smile (like in the picture above). She is turning into quite the little lady and it's hard to believe she will be in Kinder in the fall. Where did the time go? I have loved watching her mature into the beautiful and smart little girl that she is. I love when I tell her how beautiful she is and her comment to me is, I'm beautiful because of how I act on the inside (this is a hard concept for a 5 year old). It just melts my heart! Enjoy the pictures and I will post more later on my handsome little boy!

Like Sister, Like Brother

Like Sister...

Like Brother!

It's so funny to me that we have a picture of each kid standing in Jarod's shoes in the exact same spot in our kitchen. There are a few differences...Allie is a little older in that picture, they are different shoes and the floor is different, but it just makes me giggle that they both did the same thing!

My Soccer Super Star

Allie played in her last soccer game on Wednesday. She had such a great soccer season and really grew a lot! She scored a 1-2 goals most games and on her last game she scored 4 goals!!! We are so proud of our sweet little girl. She is so girlie about things, but when it comes to soccer, she gets down to business! At practice, she is very serious and when she plays, she is focused and determined. She does not like it when the other team scores. This season, we discovered how fast and how much endurance she has. She played almost the entire time during most games (most people on her team had never played before, so they got tired quickly). She never gave up and always kept running all over the field. She got to play with her sweet friend Hannah and I loved seeing them work together on the field. We are so proud of our Allie Jane!

This was her first goal on Wednesday

Sweet friends and teammates

Jack is her biggest fan!

Allie's 5th Birthday

My sweet Allie Jane turned 5 on the 17th of April. That day did not start out how I had hoped...I woke up with an ear infection, but it turned out to be a nice day. We celebrated her birthday out at the park. It was nice and warm but very windy! Our decorations did not go as planned, but no one seemed to care. Allie invited several of her "girl friends". She wanted to have a "girl only" party. The girls played at the playground, had an Easter Egg hunt, ate cake and opened presents. I did not do a great job of getting as many pictures as I had hoped to. I was not on my "A game" that day. Luckily, Jarod's family were able to get some pictures too! This was an extra special birthday because, we flew in Jarod's mom from Florida to be here for not only Allie's birthday but for her birthday too... she was turning 50 two days later. Jarod's uncle, aunt and cousin also came in from Houston to help celebrate. It was a great weekend of celebration with family. We were so blessed to have so many of our family members out there with us.

It's really hard to believe how grown up Allie seems to be lately. She will start Kinder in the fall and I'm not sure if I'm ready! I know she is ready. She loves to read and write, draw and create pictures, color, play with her toys and play with her brother. She makes me laugh on a daily basis and says some pretty funny things. She enjoys dancing and playing sports. She does not like wearing jeans and prefers to wear skirts only! She is learning to tie her shoes, she has taught herself how to snap and she is trying to learn how to whistle (random). She is the BEST Big Sister and loves Jack so much. God blessed us our lives so much when he gave us this precious little girl. Happy Birthday Allie Jane!

Easter 2011

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday filled with lots of laughter, fun, love and of course yummy food! We are so blessed that we live close to all of my family and we are able to spend Easter with them every year. I really enjoyed Easter this year, b/c last year we had just had Jack and everything was a blur! Every year, we go to church with my parents and they have an Easter Egg Hunt for all of the kids. Allie loved it this year and Jack thought it was fun too! He loves to be outside and he actually put in a few eggs in his basket. He had practiced several times during the week.
After church, we headed to my parents house and had a wonderful lunch and lots of laughter around the table. Then we hided ALL of the eggs for the kids. There were so many eggs, we hid them in the front and in the back. Jack liked to walk around and pick up the eggs, open them up and dump the candy. The kids had a lot of fun finding all of the eggs. Then we dyed eggs and my mom, my brothers and I went to see my Granny. It was so good to see her. She was in a wonderful mood!
Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!
This was the best family picture we could get...even with the lady in the background

Very Windy!

Jack loves to take pictures with his big sister

Allie and Karlie...sweet cousins

Ready, set, go!

Jack is 1

Its hard to believe how quickly a year has gone by...I really am still in denial that my sweet little boy is 1! Jack was 1 on March 24th and we celebrated his birthday with family a few days later. We all woke Jack up on his birthday and sang to him. Allie was the most excited I think. She couldn't wait for him to have a birthday (secretly I think its b/c her bday is 3 weeks later!). We took a few morning shots of the bday boy and when I picked him up from school, they had given him a birthday Mohawk! Very funny! We had pizza and cupcakes for his birthday dinner. He loved his cupcake as you can tell from the pictures below.

My family came over on Sunday to help celebrate his monkey themed birthday. I tried to keep it pretty low key and I found a cute idea on how to make cupcakes look like monkey faces. My art teacher made the toppers for the other cupcakes. We grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs and opened presents. Jack was not very interested in opening presents and Allie was happy to fill in for him! I wasn't able to get as many pictures as I had hoped to at his party...I was too busy playing hostess! We are so thankful that Jack was able to be surrounded by those that love him so much.

Here are some fun 12 month facts about Jack that I would like to remember:
Weight: 27lbs. (95%)
Height: 32 in. (95%) Yes...Jack is a BIG BOY!
Wears mostly 18-24 month clothes and some 24 month...it depends on the store
Wears size 4 diapers
Has 7 teeth (3 on top and 4 on bottom)
Is officially a walker...he still crawls and is just now starting to push up off the floor, but he walks a lot!
He is a great eater...there are few things that he will not eat!
Only takes two bottles a day (one at nap time and one at bedtime); he drinks milk from a sippy
Has a really funny personality...he loves to make us laugh and looks for ways to constantly entertain us.
Peek a Boo is one of his favorite games to play
Enjoys playing with his toys and likes to make things crash and bang on things (just like a boy)
Gets into everything and does not like being told no...his fits are pretty pitiful!
Has several words-dada, mama, short a sound for Allie, bye bye, hi, tries to bark when he sees a dog, all done (and signs this), more (and signs), signs please and his new favorite word to say is ball. Balls are probably his favorite toys!
He knows that shoes go on his feet, headbands go on your head (thanks Allie) and tries to "talk" when he holds a toy phone or our phone to his ear.
He loves to dance and sing...his favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle and This Little Light of Mine
He still takes a while to adjust to a new place and has to "warm up" first
He still likes to snuggle
He only takes one nap-at school we are lucky if it's an hour long. He takes anywhere from 1 1/2-3 hrs. on the weekend
cup during the day. I have a feeling breaking him from his two bottles is going to take us a while!

My sweet birthday boy!

Sweet siblings

Mmmm cake!

This was the only "good" picture I got of Jack in his bday shirt

He wasn't quite sure what to do with his monkey cupcake...but once he had a bite, he loved it!

Happy Birthday my sweet Jack! Daddy, Mommy and Allie love you so much!