The Allisons

We need your prayers

2009-05-06T17:27:00.003-05:00

Some new pictures for you to enjoy! Please continue to pray for us, as Brent lost his job last week. We are not having any luck thus far. His last paycheck is on the 15th, so as of June 1st we will be making $0 for the month. We continue to lean on God and trust that he will provide for us and open a door for Brent. We are trying really hard to not worry and be anxious, as it doesn't acccomplish anything, but that is a very hard task!!

Fishing trip with me and Poppie

Hayden's first catch!

First trip to the dentist

Can I take a raincheck, pwease?

We Are Still Alive!

2009-02-25T07:57:00.010-06:00

Big daddy tree
Quite close to the house

Thanksgiving at Aunt Ambers and Uncle Chads

Thoroughly pleased with his X-Mas

Christmas with the Allisons

Down to the bottom

Potty training present

New train set! Loves it

Santas platter and mug. Took forever, but I made it at a Pottery Place, and love the way it turned out!

His spread!!!

His advent calendar

Can you tell he is trying to squirm out of Santa's lap?

Reading The Night Before Christmas

Santa's big cookie

Decorating gingerbread cookies in his Skeleton costume.

His preschool Christmas party

Mowing with Poppie

In his doctor hat.

Tickling the ivories

Being silly in Daddy's hat

Playing hide with mommy

MORE PICTURES! Yes, I readily admit that I am pathetic when it comes to updating our blog. But with everything that has been going on (too much to go into), blogging has not been my top priority. So, without further ado, here are some recent pictures for you to enjoy. Especially the one of the enormous tree that came 10 feet away from hitting our house! Thank you Lord!

PICTURES!!!!!

2008-10-11T19:25:00.008-05:00

Crackers!

2008-07-05T11:03:00.002-05:00

Well, our fourth of July could not have been better! Hayden saw his first fireworks show and he did really well, as long as I put my hands over his ears. We went out to Shawnette and Nikolai's at Camp Brookhaven in Hawkins where Shawnette works. Nikolai was in charge of putting on the fireworks show, which was going to be right over the huge lake at the camp. Nana and Poppie brought barbecue and all the fixings. I brought a blackberry cobbler and thankfully Shawnette had ice cream. So we had dinner there and it was sooo yummy. I think Hayden's favorite food right now might be baked beans. He would inhale his helping and then immediately say, "More beans pease." After dinner, we headed down to the lake to set up our chairs and get comfy. Sorry that I don't have any pictures, but we used all of our camera memory filming the fireworks show. And it was a great show! Hayden was naming all of the colors in the fireworks and kept saying, "More crackers (which is what he calls fireworks)". We got home around 10:30, had to give Hayden a bath, and finally hit the bed at around 11:15. Pretty late for a 2 year old. But thankfully, he slept in this morning until about 9:30. This morning when I went to get him out of his bed the first thing he said was "More crackers". Thank you Shawnette and Nikolai for inviting us! I think that this will become a yearly event until you move elsewhere. I will try to get Brent to show me how to upload videos today, because we have several funny ones of Hayden. He is reallllly talking now. NONSTOP:) Today we have yard duty, so we will spend most of the day outside. Have a great and restful weekend.

2008-06-29T21:26:00.004-05:00

I have to tell our little story of the day. Today we took Hayden to see his first movie, Wall-e, which tied into his new robot big boy bed. Well, he did o.k. for the previews. Although, one of the previews was for the new animated Star Wars and at the end of the preview the villian said, "You must die". Hayden then started saying realllly loudly, "Die, die, die". Everybody in the theatre started laughing. Then a movie preview came on that had the song I Like to Move It, Move it. So then Hayden start to sing the song very loudly. There was not as much laughing. After the movie had been on for about 20 minutes he started whining and not wanting to sit down, so I took him out to walk around. On the way out of the theatre, the entire way out, he was repeatedly saying in a very loud voice, "Bye bye movie, see you tommorrow". I finally had to put my hand over his mouth. Anyhow, after going back into the movie, he just couldn't sit still and was not at all looking at the screen. So we left and have decided Hayden might not be going to the movie until about age 4! By the way, he loves his bed, and has fallen asleep quickly and has not gotten out of the bed once. We just pray it will continue.

Summer Fun!

2008-06-28T21:07:00.009-05:00

Celebrating Mom's "25th" birthday!His card to Nana
On the way to Children's Park after the cake
Guess who stole Moms birthday balloons?
Hayden wanted to get into the water sooooo bad.
A cliff to Hayden, but he made it down o.k.

Can you tell he had fun, and had to walk home soaking wet?
Swimming in our giant bubble bathHappy boy in his giant swimming bubble bath!

This is the pose he struck when he wanted me to get his ball.

See what I mean by a giant bubble bath?
At the airplane museum at Tyler's airport. As you can tell by his hair it was very windy!
Hayden liked looking at the tires and inside of holes.
Daddy explaining something. Hayden is very interested!

Hayden borrowing my sunglasses to look at a plane taking off.At Tyler State Park, saying, "What can I do for you?"

Hayden's new big boy bed. Robot sheets. We can't wait to go see Wall e!
His new bed

His big boy bed! The pictures below are of the robot pictures I painted to match some of the robots on his sheets. The yellow one didn't turn out the color it really is, but still learning the digital camera!

So much has been going on, the biggest event being Hayden moving into his big boy bed, which he has done flawlessly. He acts as though he has been sleeping in a full size bed since the day he was born. Hayden is really coming into his own. He is FULL of energy and gets excited about everything, and lets out a scream everytime he is excited. I am going to add several pictures that show you what has been going on during the last few weeks. The only thing I don't have pictures of is Hayden and my weekly trip to the Zoo. Last week, he was feeding the ducks, which means that he is throwing the ducks food like Nolan Ryan pitches a baseball. Anyhow, he threw some food and knocked my sunglasses off of my head and KERPLUMK, in they fell into the duck pond! Enjoy the pictures. Brent is going to post a couple of videos that are really funny tommorrow. Hayden is really turning into a ham!

I Have A Reason!

2008-05-10T11:22:00.007-05:00

I am not going to apologize for my long amount of time since the last blog entry, because it is actually our computers fault! We have been having problems with almost every part of it, the disk drive isn't working, we can't print anything on our printer, and it is freezing quite alot. And I know that my sister says, "It doesn't matter if you don't have pictures, just write whats going on", but I really like to have pictures. As the say, a picture can speak a thousand words and I would much rather post a picture than write a thousand words about it: Anyway, we got our disk to work (somehow) and got our pictures loaded, so now I can begin blogging again, at least for today! Everything is going well here, Brent got back from his Quest retreat and had an awesome experience and week. God was veryg good to him! I leave to go on my HeartQuest Tuesday morning and am hectictly working to get everythign in order at the homefront. Larree and Perry, Hayden's great grandparent are going to take care of him while I am gone, which gives me great peace knowing that he will be in very capable hands. THANK YOU to them, as he will wear anybody out! Hayden only has two weeks of school left and he is talking completely conversationally now (Yeah) and has entered the time of toddlerhood where he wants something and doesn't want it at the same time. Can be quite frustrating, but I know he is just developing his independence. Ryan, Brent's brother, is graduating from A&M today with his pre vet major, but he will start dental school in July, so he doesn't have much of a break. I know he graduated with honors, because he flew through all of his classes with ease (some of which were extremely difficult). So CONGRATULATIONS to Ryan and best wishes for his dental school experience. We love you and are praying for Father to give you lots of WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE and MERCY:.
That's all that is going on around here. Everyone have a wonderful Mother's Day tommorrow! Laura

I love you mama.

2008-04-20T11:20:00.002-05:00

I have to tell the sweetest story that happened between Hayden and I yesterday. We always say "I love you" to Hayden all the time or "Love you", and he will usually say back, "Love you", but I didn't really think he understood what that really meant. Well, yesterday I was changing his diaper and was pulling his shorts back up, when out of the blue he put his little arms around my neck and said, "I love you Mama" as clear as day. I thought, "Okay, that was enough to cancel out all of the bad part of a 2 year old for at least the next six months!". It was the first time that I knew that he understood the true meaning of that phrase and that it is a term of endearment. This, at least to me, was the most precious moment that has happened during his whole 2 1/2 year life. I felt that all of the energy and effort that I have put forth to show him how special he was to me was reciprocated and that he was thanking me for it, in a way. Just wanted to share that sweet little moment. Have a great day! Laura

Googly Eyes Gardener (need a laugh?)

2008-04-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

2008-04-16T15:56:00.003-05:00

O.K., I am officially embarrassed! I told you things have been crazy. I did not even remember already posting about Conner and Brailey's 4th birthday party. I guess just think of it as a refresher. So, in actuality, I am doing better than I thought about the long abscences between posts!! Laura

2008-04-16T15:20:00.004-05:00

BUSY, BUSY, but FUN!

At our friend Connor and Brailey's 4th birthday party
This was pretty much Hayden's outlook the whole time. I think all the colors, sounds, and all of the bouncy things overwhelmed him a bit. We think it reminded him of his traumatic experience at Little Gym.

The crew (look at poor Ava) and yes, that is Hayden's hand
Hayden and Ava loved each other
The masterpiece cake Hayden practicing the virtue of patience
Finally! Grubs on. Two cousing in Elle's new pink chair (I never knew that children were so interested in balloons, but I guess it makes sense)

Well, we have been very busy around here! Last weekend Brent and I went to Maybury to spend the weekend at Amber and Chad's lake house on Cedar Creek Lake (sorry no pictures, we took our camera, but when we took it out the battery was dead). Mimi and G-Pa took care of Hayden all weekend and it was great! Sorry, Hayden. We had really pretty weather and just hung out on the pier most of Saturday, reading, talking, and soaking in the rays (with SPF on, of course). We went to eat at a catfish restaraunt and went bowling Saturday night. Brent and I discovered just how competitive we really are. It started out all fun and games, but by the end of the second round, I don't think we even made eye contact with each other. GAME ON! Anyhow, Brent won the first round and I won the second, so everybody left a winner. I am surprised we even got to play, considering we changed lanes twice due to drips from the ceiling and a malfunctioning ceiling fan. Not to mention, that before our second round the "guy" had to fix one of our pins, because when the machine would set them up, one of the pins would just fall down... oh, and we had to change lanes because the machine would not spit our balls back after we had rolled. I think the experience could make a pretty funny sitcom for Saturday Night Live! Hayden did good with the g-parents, but he kept them hopping. Thank you so much for keeping him, so Brent and I could have a much needed getaway. Then, this weekend, we drove down to Georgetown to celebrate my niece, Elles, 4th birthday. We had alot of fun, although I still don't understand the card game played on Friday night. I didn't actually play, I listened and gave myself a manicure, but I could hear everything that was going on, and let's just say, my entire family is pretty competitive. It went from loads and loads of laughter to some series of unsetttling serious silences. The game was called Phase 10 and it was really quite complicated. All I know is that when you get on up there in phases, and other people don't, the latter people start getting quite frustrated. My sister made a fantastic Strawberry Shortcake cake for Elle that took two hours of frosting, and her party was alot of fun and GOOD FOOD. Saturday night we went to a beautiful park and fed the ducks, which Hayden really enjoyed. He was throwing whole pieces of bread at the ducks. Those ducks were probably thinking, "Is this kid actually giving me the whole piece at once? Does he not see that I need it broken up for me? Geez, this kid!" However, if the ducks were having these thoughts, Hayden was not privvy. We also went and had some really good ice cream that night and Sunday went to their church and had pot roast after. I could go on and on, but to sum it up, everything went really smoothly and we had a good time, except that I left my purse and they had to overnight it to me which cost $50.00. And the car ride home was not pleasant with a 2.5 year old. But you take the good with the bad. We are actually looking forward to a weekend with nothing planned and no packing to do! Enjoy the pictures. Laura

Pictures!

2008-03-30T22:13:00.004-05:00

Hayden and me swinging, as you can see during the fall. LEAVES EVERYWHERE!
Dying our easter eggs the night before Easter.
Hayden's Easter basket (can anyone say spoiled!)
His favorite was the chicken in the foreground because in layed "eggs" (jelly beans)
At a birthday party on Saturday
Yes, he is clinging
Yes, he is still clinging!

We had a great Easter. It is so stress free when you only have one child! Hayden loved everything in the basket and he loved hunting Easter eggs. But by our Easter egg hunt, he was like, "Hoopla, another hunt!". He had three altogether (at my mom and dads, preschool, and ours). Well, at least he has the concept down! The birthday party we went to on Saturday was a huge place that was nothing but inflated jumping things, slides and everything! Hayden was very clingy and kept saying "Home". I think he was overwhelmed because there were so many kids there and the slides were so tall and everthing was so colorful and it was LOUD, of course. Anyway, I think it might have brought back some traumatic experiences from our stint at Little Gym (if you will recall our money was refunded because never got comfortable). Anyhow, we plan on going to Amber and Chad's lakehouse this weekend and Mimi and G-Pa are going to keep him. It will be our first weekend away, just the two of us, in a VERY long time. Actually, it was when Hayden was 4 months old!! We just want to chill, sleep late, eat, sit in chairs on the deck and just look at the water. If we feel compelled, me might take some of the trails. By the way, you really should read Brent's new blog. It will show the amazing power that God is working in our lives. He is so amazing and we are so blessed!

laura

2008-03-28T13:24:00.003-05:00

Hey, this is Brent. I have a new blog of my own. You can read it here.

http://brentallison.blogspot.com/

Brent

2008-03-15T22:12:00.001-05:00

Laughter is contagious!

2008-02-21T17:47:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone!

No pictures, because our memory stick is full, so I have to learn what to do with it when that happens. We took a great video of Hayden last night before bedtime, just laying on our bed and tickling him. His laugh is so hillarious and contagious. Anyway, he is starting to say bigger words that are so precious! This morning he said octopus (optocus), excuse me (scoose me), so sorry, thank you (tank ooo), and Rattatouile (his current favorite movie!). If you don't own it, and have kids, you need to invest in it. It is sooo good. This morning was the first morning that he did not say he dreamed about the zoo. He said that he dreamed about big (biggie) animals (aminals). He is also saying I love you to me and Brent, which is precious ( I have been waiting 2.5 years to hear that). He also is randomly saying the word bible and shouting out, "Amen"! It is quite funny. Just wanted to give you a quick update.

Laura

2008-02-14T21:50:00.005-06:00

Hayden's first day of very minimal sleet/snow
Trying to figure out what was coming from the sky
My hands are cold!
In the process of saying "Snow"

Loves his bubble baths!

Crazy hair after bath

Okay, two blog entries in one day. But Brent just uploaded the pictues, so here are some of our favorites off of our last roll of film. They are a bit overdeveloped, so sorry about that. Hayden is doing really well. He has become extremely active and has definitely started his "terrible twos". Over the last couple of weeks he has taken two poopee diapers off and smeared them on the carpet, dumped two plants in the middle of the room and played in the dirt, poured an entire bottle of clear glitter onto the kitchen floor, has started this blood curdling scream when he doesn't get his way, is very familiar with the naughty stool, has started wrestling with everything including all of the throw pillows in our house, and has had three rounds of antibiotics for a sinus infection which is finally getting better. As far as potty training, he will sit on it, but not go, even with the bribes of M&M's. His vocabulary has sky rocketted! He is pretty much minimally conversational. He is not talking in all complete sentences, but he can say any word he wants. It is a wee bit hard though when circle, soccer, and Walker all sound similar when he says them. He has such a zest for life and is so excited about everything and keeps his momma running all day. When I have another child, if he or she has Hayden's activity level, I am not sure as a mid to late thirties woman will be able to keep up!! Pray that God has a sense of humor and gives me a calm and gentle little being. He is really a happy boy and he is growing so fast. He is going through a stage right now where he gets really upset when daddy has to go to work. And during the day, he will on occasion go through the house saying, "Daddy", seeing if Brent is here. Enjoy the pictures.

2008-02-13T15:47:00.005-06:00

Okay, I haven't posted in so long, but after this blog, you will understand why. These are pictures of one weekends activities. The morning started with me peeling 192 crayons with an exactoknife, as you can tell by my fingers. I seperated them into matching colors, broke them into pieces, filled up mini muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full, sprinkled clear glitter into each tin, and baked them for 10-15 minutes in a 400 oven. The crayons turned out really cool, but Hayden has yet to color with them! Then I was off to the garage in my space suit with all 88 keys of my new piano (that I had to take out very carefully)! I had to sand, plane the lead of the sides of the black keys that had expanded, dust them all with a hard bristled brush, and wipe them with Murphy's Oil Soap and water. It took me 9 hours on Saturday and 12.5 hours on Sunday. Anyway, I brought all of the keys into the house after I was finished and none of the keys stuck!! When 44 keys stuck originally, this was quite a victory. Our piano tuner said that I could do it physically, because I looked like the "adventerous" kind. I don't think I knew what it would seriously entail, but it saved us $400.00. The hard part was the respirator mask, because I am extremely clausterphobic and I had to perservere and really focus on not freaking out!

192 peeled crayons

Fingers after 192 peeled crayons

The results

My two favorite, green (my favorite color), and blue (Brent and Hayden's favorite color)

Those swirls are from me, he just liked to look at them. Whatever!

This is my working outfit (minus gloves and my face/neck protector

This is my piano, all guts exposed. I had to clean the entire inside with the vacumn cleaner attachment, then a stiff bristled brush, then wipe with the entire inside with vinegar in case of mold, then wipe with Murphys oil soap and water. I also fixed the right pedal which was broken. I also had to wipe all the exterior wood with vinegar, sand, vacumn, and wipe with a wood dirt and oil remover. I believe that if I had known that I would have to do all of this, I would have wept at Christmas, but not for joy! Just kidding. It will make it much more of an accomplishment once I sent down to play it all tuned up and ready to go. I have been playing it, but it is really out of tune, so I am really looking forward to Monday, when the piano tuner comes to tune it. You would not have believed how dirty the inside was. 100 years old and never been cleaned. I feel a sense of peace that all of that mold and dust is out of our house, and I didn't even know until we opened it up. No wonder we have all been having allergy symptoms!

Next project: this weekend Brent, Hayden, and Chad when down to Sulphur Springs to get a desk that Brent's parents didn't need anymore, and it was huge and perfect for me for my scrapbooking. So my entire weekend was spent organizing all of my stuff. It is in our bedroom now, instead of the guest bedroom and so we had to move around alot of furniture. But our guest bedroom now looks more like a guest bedroom. I think this desk in our room makes me feel cozy. I covered 12 x 12 coarkboards with scrapbook paper and nailed them above the desk (they are now covered with all my stickers and scrapbook paraphanalia). I also made one of those covered bulletin board with criss cross ribbons which took alot longer than I had anticipated, but I loved how it turned out. Everything is very organized and has rekindled my desire to scrapbook, because I know where everything is.

I have some new pictures of Hayden that turned out really well, but Brent has to load them tonight. I will update you on Hayden and post the pictures this week. I promise!!

2008-01-11T11:17:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve at our house

What Hayden woke up to Christmas morning! He must have been a good boy.

His new tricycle

Taking after his mommy and sweeping up the mess

Playing a tune on his harmonica

One of his MANY new balls

Enjoying his new table and chairs from Mimi

Brent finally getting some casual black shoes

Christmas at GrandRheas and GrandP's. Ryan with his girlfriend Brittney. She was so sweet!
Reading with G-Pa
And Mimi
Perry with one of three 2 week old babies that were there!! Magdalee's twins and Heathers new one. So cute!
We tried three times for a family portrait, but Hayden was certainly not in the mood.

Look at all the babies. And Tiffany, the one on the right with the grey sweatshirt, is pregnant!

We were also celebrating Perry's 75th birthdayChristmas at the Allisons. Hayden had fun with the sacks.

Mimi opening her gift from Brent and me.Yeehaw!

And finally, Christmas at my mom and dads!

He loves his cousin Ava (really all babies!)

Hayden intent on getting his tractor out of the box. Good luck!!

Meemaw always knows just what here great grandkids would like!

I think daddy is more excited than Hayden!

In his Elmo chair with his new stuffed tiger.

It was mayham with three grandkids opening presents at the same time!

Hayden at work again, this time cleaning with his new vacumn.Ava liked Hayden's airplane!

Yes, I am FINALLY updating our blog. I have just not been in a blogging mood, more of a organizational one. I discovered that spring cleaning should be called after Christmas cleaning. I have been reorganizing all of our closets and redoing Hayden's room to make room for all of the new toys from Christmas. Thank you to everyone for making this such a spectacular and memorable Christmas! I also put into storage all of the toys he wasn't playing with anymore. What a job!! I have also been in the process of restoring the piano Brent bought me for Christmas, cleaning and reconditioning the keys and restoring the wood. It is quite an ontaking, but I want to restore it back to its original condition. So that is where my priorities have been. Also, Brent and I are still trying to figure out our new camera, because the way it was setup didn't take very good pictures during Christmas. So, I will post the best ones that we have. Enjoy and have a great weekend! Laura

2007-12-17T08:42:00.000-06:00

I received the best surprise yesterday in my life, besides the birth of Hayden. Brent had to give me my Christmas present yesterday, and I guessed what it was yesterday morning. He gave me two hints: you can't move it, and you won't be able to use it until January. I thought and thought, and came up with a piano. Thinking that you couldn't move it, because it is one too heavy and two you couldn't use it right away because it would need to be tuned. I have wanted a piano of my own for 18 long years. I played for several years, and playing the piano is my absolute passion. Playing the piano for me is like taking a Valium! Anyways, here are the details. Brent has been searching on the internet for about a month for an antique dark wood upright piano. And after a great deal of searching, he found one near College Station from an older lady. Brent's brother goes to A&M right now, so Ryan and all of his friends went and picked it up at her house and brought it back to their garage. Then Rick, Brent's dad, Amber and Chad, Brent's sister and brother in law rented a U-Haul and went down there to bring it to our house to deliver it. It weighs about seven hundred pounds, so it is in our garage now, because we have to wait until next week to move it inside. We have to have Brent's grandfathers furniture dolly to get it inside because it is literally that heavy! It is beautiful. It is a dark walnut 5 foot upright made in 1923. Brent has already scheduled a man from a music store here in town to tune it and fix a few keys that stick. I was so excited when Brent told me that I cried for about 10 minutes. It was the feeling that I had when I started having contractions with Hayden and knew that he would be here soon. It was that exciting!! I am so proud of Brent for all of the effort he put into this to make a dream of mine finally come to fruition. Wish me luck, because I am going to have to limber up my fingers and really practice to get back to where I was and am even thinking about taking a few lessons to sharpen my skills. Thank you to EVERYONE involved in this for making it possible to get that monster to our house. I can't wait to get it inside and start tickling the ivories!! Have a great day!

2007-12-15T21:13:00.000-06:00

Yes, this is our big 2 year old boy on Santa's lap. He was scared to death and crying, but we somehow captured this look on his face like he is in awe of Santa Claus. MIRACLE! We went last night, and Hayden had so much fun because he got a cookie from the Cookie Factory. I believe that is his favorite word; cookie. We still have to get a couple of rolls developed of our Christmas decorations and some random pictures, but we will be getting our digital camera sometime next week. We wanted to get it earlier, so that we could study the manual and know how to operate it before Christmas. Yeah! Finally!! Pictures uploaded whenever I want!

Wow, is this really Santa?

2007-12-04T10:44:00.000-06:00

I forgot to tell everyone that Hayden is also saying yummy, yucky, silky, please, and thank you. We are really trying to work on his name, but he is sort of refusing on that one! Also, just took pictures of all of our Christmas decorations, but we have to wait to get the film developed.

2007-12-03T09:00:00.000-06:00

Wanted to give everyone an update as to what all has been going on in the Allison household. First and foremost, Hayden has REALLY come out of his shell. He is moving every second of the day! His vocabulary is taking off and he is saying more words every day. It seems like all of a sudden he can talk (it is very surreal). His latest words are coat, juice, box, ho ho ho, zoo, milk, eat, outside, ME, and rock. I know this may not seem like a big deal to you all who have girls that are completely conversation at 18 months old, but our big boy this is so exciting. My theory is that so many boys are concentrating so hard on their physical feats, that they don't even think about speaking. Hayden has been in time out several times over the last two weeks, and now as soon as he sits down he says sowee (sorry), thinking that he can get up as soon as he says it. Over the last week he has gotten inside our front loading washing machine, learned to climb over our rock wall, flung a full bag of brown sugar over his head, took half a roll of toilet paper and dipped it into the toilet and threw it into the bathtub, and broken several Christmas balls. He apparently thinks they are balls to play with. So you see what I mean about being so active and physical!! We have all of our Christmas decorations finally up and it was quite hard this year, because I had to figure out where to put everything up high enough that Hayden couldn't reach it. We have looked at Christmas lights several times and at every house Hayden says lights. Really cute! That is really about all. Have a great day!

2007-11-27T14:32:00.000-06:00

2007-11-05T15:39:00.000-06:00

Halloween pictures

Pumpkin carving

School picture
Boo at the Zoo

Pumpkin patch

Another school picture

More of pumpkin patch

Sorry that the pictues are so out of order. Also, there are more Halloween pictures, but we are waiting to develop the last roll. Okay, I will confess. The real reason that I only update my blog every about two weeks is for two reasons. First, I will ask myself, "Choice; vacumn or blog", and for some reasons I always choose the chore. Second, I feel like the only people who read my blog is my sister and mother. So send me comments so I don't feel like I am doing this for 2 people! I also know that if I blogged more often it wouldn't be such an overwhelming task. Well since I last blogged we went to the pumpkin patch and had sooo much fun, a hayride and everything. They had chickens, puppies, cats, goats, and birds so Hayden thought he was at the zoo. We also went to Boo At the Zoo which is where our zoo decorates the whole place and really go out. They pass out candy and all the kids are dressed in their costumes. My mom and dad went with us. And we had a fantastic Halloween. Hayden was in awe at how many people were walking on the sidewalks in these wierd costumes, compared to our tranquil walks we take everyday. He looked so cute as a little Jack O' Lantern! I can't believe this is his third Halloween. He is doing reaalllly well at preschool and is not clingy anymore, and plays with his friends. His speech has dramatically and is improving. He now can identify the colors blue, red, brown, and green and can say the words. I also think he is saying Thank You because everytime I give him something he says Tankooo. He also yesterday told me had a dream about the zoo. Every morning I ask him if he slept good and he says emphatically, "No", and then I say, "Did you dream about anything?" and he usually says "No", but yesterday he said zoo and I asked him what animal he dreamed about and he made the pig nose. He is now saying purple, pumpkin, shoes, bath, and is repeating alot of words that we say, and is starting to tell us when he has taken a poo. He holds his bottom and says poo and goes to his room to the changing table. Enough talk, now for the pictures! Yes, we got three rolls developed, so enjoy!

2007-10-19T22:17:00.000-05:00

Hayden is getting very good about providing me with interesting stories lately! Today, I put him down for his nap and he was hooting and hollering like he usually does before he settles down. Anyhow, Brent was home for lunch and went in to check on him and Hayden had taken off his shorts and diaper again and had pee peed in his crib. He was so proud of himself. And when I went to pick him up from his nap, he was again naked from the waist down. So at the moment, I am looking for jumpers for him to nap in, so he cannot take off his diaper!

2007-10-18T16:26:00.000-05:00

I updated yesterday and I went to publish it, it said there was an error, so I will try again. No pictures, but Christmas is coming up, so there will be pictures galore. Hayden's new thing is taking off his shorts and diapers. He just walks into the room naked from the waste down. It was quite a surprise the first time he came into the room! Today, Mrs. Tammy said that today at preschool Hayden said pumpkin as clear as a bell! I was amazed. He is really making progress. Just a little note to let you know what is going on. Oh, by the way, we are going to a pumpkin patch on Saturday and it is free, except the cost of the pumpkins we pick out. We get to go on a hayride through the woods and I think it is going to be so much fun! Also, I bought tickets for November 17th to see the Polar Express from the East Texas Symphony. The tickets were only 5.00 and they get cocoa and Santa will be there to give each child a bell. I think Hayden will really enjoy it.

Laura

2007-10-15T13:31:00.001-05:00

Sorry, no pictures, but Christmas will be here before you know it and our blog will be overflowing with pictures!! Just an update over the last two weeks. Last weekend, I was mowing the backyard and Brent was weedeating and he weedeated a hornets nest, which as you can guess would make them very upset. Brent got about 50-60 bites and thank goodness he is not allergic to bees. It took about four days for the intense itching to go away. Apparently with hornets, they release a sack of venom when they sting which causes itching until the sack is empty. He is over it now, thank goodness and we are just so thankful that Hayden was not out there with us. We even had to throw Brent's clothes away because they were so full of bees. He did feel up to going to a fish fry that Chad and Amber had for Chad's 30th birthday. We ate the trout that they all caught on their fishing trip and it was really good! There was alot of Chad's family there that we have never met so that was fun and Mimi and GPa got to see Hayden, who had a blast! Thank you to Chad and Amber for being so gracious and allowing us to come into your home and for feeding us soooo much food! This weekend was quite boring, because I was quite under the weather all weekend with a low grade fever, but I finally started to feel better last night and today I feel pretty much back to normal. Thank you to Brent who took care of Hayden almost all weekend for me. Today it has rained quite a bit here and is such a blessing considering how much our water bill was last month! That is about it for now, and I need to go anyway to pay bills (BLAH)!

2007-10-04T14:09:00.000-05:00

Had to give everyone a quick update on Hayden's speech development. It seems that he is adding new words to his vocabulary everyday. He can say school, green, blue, answer a question with "ya" or "I do". He is also becoming very aware of his diaper and what is going on inside of it. He looks at us, holds his diaper, and says "Poo", and we say, "Did you take a poo poo?" and he says "Ya". Most of the time it is not quite true, but it looks as though potty training is on the near horizon! By the way, Hayden is going to be a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Can't wait!!

2007-09-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everybody know that we are getting a roll of film developed today!!!! Also, Hayden is thriving at preschool and Mrs. Tammy says he is her cuddle baby. He played with a little girl Lauren yesterday and they were rolling the ball back and forth. He has already developed in speech as he can now say "Please" and tell you that he is "two" and he sticks up several fingers. It is so sweet to hear him say a word with perfect diction. This afternoon, we are all going to go to a place where they sell all kinds of pumpkins and let Hayden touch and look at them. I'm not sure if we will actually buy one because our bills this month are astronomical!! Have a blessed and safe weekend! Laura

2007-09-23T09:35:00.000-05:00

No pictures, but just wanted to update everybody over the last couple of weeks. Thankfully, Hayden is doing really well at preschool. He was a little clingy with Mrs. Tammy the first week, but she said this week he walked holding the rope and is playing with everybody and doing REALLY well at lunch. Apparently, Hayden views everyone elses lunch as his buffet. Mrs. Tammy said that he will get out of his seat and walk around to see what everyone else has and sample whatever tickles his fancy! I think this is hillarious, as he views lunchtime as a visit to Golden Corral! He hasn't cried at all and she is such a wonderful teacher and when I leave she always diverts his attention. I was so nervous about him going, so this is such a load off of my mind. God is so good. I have also taken great advantage of my time when Hayden is at preschool. I even mowed the front and back yard this week for Brent! All else is going well and is just business as usual. I'll update when we get our roll of film developed. Have a great day!

Laura

2007-09-13T22:45:00.000-05:00

Boy, this is so me. I don't update my blog in 2 weeks and then add 4 blog entries in one day. Anyhow, I wanted to let you know that Hayden went for his 2 year checkup and he was great. I am knocking on wood, but he has never been really sick. He was 27.5 inches (over 100th percentile) and 27 pounds. We took a statistic that Dr. Rogers has talked to us about and by Brent and my height calculations, Hayden will be around 6 foot 5 inches. It is so wonderful to hear that your child is doing really well!

2007-09-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

From a baby to a big boy!

The difference that happens in only a mere two years in one miraculous human being created by God. Amazing! And we have loved every minute of it, which would be 1, 051, 200 minutes!

2007-09-13T22:16:00.000-05:00

BIRTHDAY BASH!!

Hayden on his first day of preschool

Here are some great pictures from the Hayden's 2nd birthday party. I had so much fun and I hope everyone else did too. I think I was just happy that all the preparations were over!! If anybody has any good pictures from his birthday, PLEASE send them to me. We didn't get many because I was playing hostess and Brent was cooking. Why do moms put themselves through so much for these little people who don't even know that it is their birthday? I guess it's just a mommy thing because we love them so much! Enjoy the pictures! I will have some pictues from my niece Ava's pictures after this weekend. We are leaving for her first birthday tommorrow night to head to Georgetown. Her birthday will be on Saturday and I cannot wait to see Emma and Shawn's new house! Brent and I cannot WAIT to get our digital camera at Christmas! Our camera takes wonderful pictures, but you can't see what the picture turned out like right away and you have to wait to get the film developed. That is probably why I am not so great at updating the blog. I am a visual person and like pictures and I feel like it is weeks between pictures, and I hate writing just words. Oh well, just a few more months, and they seem to be going by reaalllyy fast.

2007-09-13T21:53:00.000-05:00

O.K., I know it has been forever since we have entered a blog entry, but we have been so busy with preparing Hayden's birthday, including our YARD!! We have also been working on the house (just painting stuff), and getting Hayden ready to start preschool (he started this Tuesday) and he did reallllly well. He loves his teacher Mrs. Tammy. All of these pictures are before Hayden's birthday party, so I am going to make another blog entry just for his birthday.

Hayden in his crib the morning of his birthday
Could he be any cuter?
Yes! Doughnuts and chocolate milk! What, is it a special day?
Trying to teach him how to blow (didn't work)
His birthday spread from mom and dad
Our new little boy kitty, Pablo (he is precious!)
In the process of trying to put the fountain together in our backyard. Yes, we had to move that 12 inch thick poured concrete blob!
At the circus. Hayden obviously shares my fear of clowns
How we found him one morning
Eddie Munster in the front, and Eddie Van Halen in the back!!

2007-08-20T22:42:00.000-05:00

Brent here with some photos from our great trout fishing trip to Missouri this past weekend. The weather was great, and the river's temperature was a constant 54 degrees. I had a really fun time catching tons of fish, learning how to play 42, and spending time with family. To borrow a phrase from Chad, "I own this game!". Here are the pics:

Here fishy, fishy.

The Death Dealers

Mercy at last. This is when Ryan and I

finally chose to show the fish some mercy.

All in a days work.

2007-08-17T13:04:00.000-05:00

Looking at the turtle
Our little box turtle friend

Hayden is heading for the road!
By his favorite objects, the trashcans!
Our ever growing family
Hayden loves Ava and is so gentle with her

What a cutie! Life doesn't get much better than this.
On a walk with daddy
Cousins helping each other

These are some pictures that my sister took on our Tyler State Park picnic outing. She had some really great shots, so I thought I would share them with you. Especially since I don't have any new pictures yet. We have got to get a digital camera for Christmas!! Anyhow, life at the new Allison family house has had alot of change. Brent has started a new job at Roark enterprises in Tyler. He was offered the job with EPartner Solutions, but when Roark found out that Brent was leaving Teen Mania, they made him an offer which turned out to be the same as the other job offer. But, this is going to work out so much better. Brent has to be at work at 8:30, gets to come home every day for lunch, is home by 5:15, never has to travel, and has no commute. Doesn't get much better than that. I have also changed my mind again and have decided to send Hayden to Little People's preschool. I just feel that being around other children his age 2 days a week from 9:30-1:30 would really benefit him. We are really enjoying our new home and have done a little bit of landscaping. But the mosquitos are so bad that it is hard to work in our front yard beds. I transplanted several plants from our backyard into our front yard, which took about four hours and got 74 mosquito bites (34 of which were on my behind!). I know it sounds hard to believe, but Brent counted them as we put Cortisone on them! Hayden is doing really well, and is really growing. His foot is now a size 8 and he is a 2T-3T. He also had his second haircut, but we took him to the barber who used to cut my brother Nikolai's hair! He looks like a little man now. I am working on Hayden's birthday, which seems to be coming upon me very quickly. The date is for September 8th from 4-6 and we will be having lots of yummy food! I will be sending out the invitations soon, which my sister made for me (thank you!). I am also in the process of regrouting the baseboards in the kitchen and hallway and repainting them. Will this ever end? I never want to see a caulk gun again. Brent is out of town right now on a fly fishing trip in Missouri with this brother, dad, brother-in-law, and some other guys. They will be back Sunday, so it's just me and my boy! That's it for now. Have a great day!

2007-08-02T09:46:00.000-05:00

What a cute bootie!

Yeehah!
Eating all by myself

We finally have pictures!!! These are some pictures of a picnic at Tyler State Park, Hayden playing with the water hose, Hayden eating at the table by himself for the first time, Hayden having bath time, and Hayden with Ava, Nana, Emma, and Elle. Enjoy!

2007-07-20T15:53:00.000-05:00

Quick update on everything. Hayden is now completely feeding himself independently (YEAH!!). It is still quite a messy endeavor, but he is quite proud of himself. He is also enjoying our new backyard tremendously; he just runs around and likes to swing and swing and swing and swing (you get the point). Anyhow, he is also cutting all four incisors, but has gone through the hurting part because they have all broken through. One of his new favorite activities is to ride his horse in his room. It is a rocking horse with springs that I rode as a little girl and it just looked perfect in Hayden's room. Anyway, he has been kind of weary about it forever until about a week ago. Brent and I put him on it and he started rocking and bucking that horse like a cowboy trying to get away from an indian! We are going to try to get it on video tonight so that you can all enjoy his out of control rocking (I actually have to put my feet on the back legs of the thing so that it won't come off the floor!). Regarding the house, I have completely finished the guest bathroom (painting, decorating, and cleaning). I am now moving on to Brent and my bathroom. I am in the stages of caulking which is the chore I hate the most, but it has to be done. Everything is coming together and it definitely feels more like our home now. Brent has still not heard anything about his potential job, and is quite dismayed at this. He got an e-mail from the director in Houston and the regional manager saying that they both loved Brent and hoped to be working with him soon. So, Brent knows he has the job, he is just waiting for the phone call with the offer. Everytime the phone rings, we both jump thinking it might be them. Keep praying!

2007-07-12T08:34:00.000-05:00

We are moved in! Brent and I are completely worn out and today my agenda includes joint compounding wall paper seams in the guest bathroom and priming the walls and then painting two coats of paint. Sound like fun, huh? The entire house is painted, including ceilings. The only rooms that we have to finish painting are the bathrooms. We love our new house. It works so much better for us and Hayden. Thank you so much to GrandP and GrandRhea, Cathy, Nana, and Poppie for helping to take care of Hayden during our move and remodel of our house. We could not, in any way, done it without you. Hayden was able to come home to a house that was for the most part done, and he is loving it. He, of course, especially loves our new and huge backyard. He wants to swing all day on the new playset that Mimi bought him and Chad, Rick, and Ryan put together in the sweltering heat. Thank you so much to you too! Thank you also to Cathy, Rick, Amber, Chad, and Ryan for helping us to move the furniture from the garage to inside the house! Everybody's help enabled us to bring Hayden home to a put together house. And I cannot forget to thank my mom, Nana, for taking on the tedious task of shelf papering my entire kitchen, which was a tremendously daunting task! We still have to unpack Brent and my bathroom and get the second bedroom together, but that is about it. I finished the kitchen yesterday and got the bookshelfs all together in the second living area and caulked the guest bathroom last night. Brent and I will be very glad when everything is completely done! By the way, we love our carpet. I don't know if I will ever be able to live in a house with hardwood floors again. It feels so good underfoot, no creaking, and we can lay out on it and play. I think Hayden reeealllly likes it too! All I can add is that Hayden has definitely started the terrible twos, but is still a very happy boy as long as somebody is paying complete attention to him and only him. He gets quite upset if he doesn't get what he wants and will slap whatever is around. We are really having to set some boundaries right now, but we also are keeping in mind that this is completely normal behavior for this age. We have decided to not start him in preschool because of his birthday which is September 7th. If we enrolled him this year, he would be the youngest in his class and would have to go to the 4K class for 2 years, because of his birthday. So we though it was best to hold him back another year, so that he will be the oldest in his class and a bit more ready and mature for preschool. We also don't want to throw too much his way, and let him acclamate to the move. On another front, Brent has hopefully his final interview with EPartner Solutions tomorrow in Houston, with the director. We are in fervent prayer over this and hopefully will find out either yes or no tomorrow! This will be his 6th interview for this job. He has interviews with the regional manager three times, the director in Dallas, and tomorrow will be the director in Houston. Brent feels pretty confident that he will get it, but until we hear the yes, we are pretty anxious. That's about it for now. Sorry that there are no pictures, but we have not had time yet to develop any film. We will have plenty for our next blog entry. Talk to you later. Laura

2007-06-18T11:17:00.000-05:00

PACKING, PACKING, PACKING! That seems to be all I am doing, which is quite a challenge with a 21 month old hanging onto your leg and needing constant attention! Just a quit note to let you know how our little booger is doing. He is getting VERY independent and is getting very frustrated when he doesn't get what he wants. I feel like I have to say "No" about 1,000 times a day. And then he gets angry and starts slapping the throwing things at Brent and me. It is a very need patience time, because too put it quite frankly he is being a little toot! He took his shirt off for the first time this morning and is starting to help me put things back where they go. He is OBSESSED right now with wanting gum and with the movie Mary Poppins. He wants gum allllll the time . He is over his bath phobia thank goodness and all is back to normal with that. He is also doing better in public places. He has actually gotten down from us holding him and run around the mall and Barnes and Noble. I know it doesn't sound like much, but baby steps right? I think he also has cabin fever with all this rain! I think mama has it too! Well, we move in under 2 weeks and Brent and I are getting quite restless. Wish us luck and a well coordinated move and closing.

Laura

2007-06-12T18:43:00.001-05:00

Sorry, added this picture out of order. Our dining room

What? Did you say gum?
Last looks at our house on Wilma

Well, it is official. We will be moving and closing on our house on the 29th, which I think means we are moving in 17 days! I have begun packing, but Hayden HATES the sound of the tape gun and doesn't seem to like me wrapping things in newspaper either. So it looks like I will be packing at night. Today I pulled up all of the area rugs, cleaned them, and mopped the floors underneath the area rugs. It was pretty gross how much stuff was under them. Anyways, we close on our house at 10:00 and the new house at 2:30, so moving is going to be tricky. Because the guy who bought our house will be moving in on the same day that we are moving out! We are going to try to plan the actual day of the move as much as possible, but I have a feeling it is going to be chaos! Hayden will be going with Cathy, Brent's mom, to Hayden's great-grandparents who live in Tyler on the 28th. So we on top of packing, moving, etc.., will also be packing ourselves and Hayden to stay with them for about a week and a half. Cathy will be watching Hayden during the next week while Brent and I paint, move in, get the bedrooms recarpted and try to get everything situated before we bring Hayden to the house. So our blogs will be nothing but moving information which I know is very boring. Hayden has in my mind accomplished a great feat this week. He can now tip his cup up and drink it hisself. He was drinking from the sippy cup for a long time, but couldn't figure out that you had to tip it up to get the last bit. But he did it this week and is very proud of himself!

2007-06-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

Can anyone say "Bad hair day!"
This is not static electricity
Playing the air guitar
SWISH!

Finally some new pictures!! We have been so busy that we have not been taking many pictures. We do have some big news though and no I am not pregnant! We have a contract on out house for full asking price, so we sold it in 7 days. Yeah!! Our closing date is set for July 29th, so hopefully everything will go smoothly. And I don't know if I put this in my last entry, but the reason we are selling our house is because we found a great 3/2 house and have a contract on it. It has got an awesome and huge backyard, so Hayden will be a very happy boy. It is pretty much move in ready, all we have to do is recarpet the 3 bedrooms, paint all the walls, change some plumbing fixtures, really just all cosmetic stuff. The owners there just carpeted the two living areas and formal dining room and it is very neutral, so we are going to keep it for now. We really want hardwood, but that will have to wait for later. Also at some point we will want to do hardwood in the kitchen and breakfast nook also, but they just put in a very neutral linoleum so we are going to live with that too. The house has so much light, because it has two french doors in the main living area and windows surrounding the breakfast nook. The people who own it now are elderly and they have kept the house immaculately clean. Also, the house has a brand new roof, new gutters, two new water heaters, new stove and cooktop, and plantation shutters in the breakfast nook area and the formal dining room. It really will be a great house and we are so excited about having our own bathroom!! There is not much else going on, just all house stuff.

2007-05-24T19:53:00.000-05:00

Nikolai and Hayden on his 4-wheeler on Mother's Day

Yes, we had so much fun on Mother's Day. We went to Nikolai and Shawnettes house which is out in the country and has a lake. It was so good to get away from the city for day and have hamburgers and hotdogs and just RELAX! Thank you Shawnette! Anyhow, we have put an offer on a house and they have accepted it!!!! It is the perfect house for our family and is move in ready and almost right behind Hobby Lobby. Yes! Our house goes on the market tommorrow and we have been hustling to make everything look just right. We are so excited and are so happy to have an extra bedroom and 2 bathrooms. I even will have my own soaking tub (no baby bath toys!). I can't wait to have everyone over if everything goes according to plan. Maybe Hayden's birthday at our new house! Pray that everything goes well.

Love,

Laura

2007-05-12T08:33:00.000-05:00

What do you think? Harry Potter or Bill Gates?
John Lennon?
Elton John? Candle in the Wind!
Bad hair day
Him and his friend Jenna at her 2nd birthday party

Are those pictues not hillarious? Those are my moms sunglasses and regular glasses. He doesn't even look like a toddler to me, more like a grown man! He is still Mr. Independent and at this point it is near to impossible to teach him anything new, because he does not want me to help him with anything. This weekend is going to be a busy weekend. I have a haircut and color (finally!) this morning and then Brent's mom, Cathy is coming into town this afternoon to see Hayden. Tonight we are going over to Brent's grandparents house to have dinner and all of his family will be there for a Mother's Day dinner. Tommorrow we are going to church with my mom and dad and then heading out to Shawnette and Nikolai's for a day of fishing, hot dogs, and watermelon. To me, the perfect way to spend Mother's Day! And I must say that I do believe that mine and Brent's moms will really enjoy their Mother's Day presents. They are homeade and they turned out just as I envisioned, which is rare. Also, thank you to GrandRhea and GrandP for watching Hayden on Friday so I could do my physical therapy and get the Mother's Day presents together. Hayden has so much fun with them and he loves to dance to the Hall band where Perry plays My Country Tis of Thee on the Tony Tiger xylophone and Larree plays the coffee can drum. He really gets into the groove, hips and shoulders moving, head bobbing, and the occasional African tribe stomp. It is really quite amusing to watch this child dance! My dad calls it Nerdy Disco. We are going to try to get in on video. Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there reading this and have a great weekend.

2007-05-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

The pictues are out of order, but this is out newly landscaped backyard and the reason for my injured rotator cuff!
Hayden enjoying our new backyard
Trying to get in the kitty door

Giving kisses to mama

Wasn't that video that Brent did for my birthday so sweet? I can't watch it without crying looking at my little baby become a little boy! Anyway, Hayden is going through a real separation anxiety stage where if I take a shower he stands outside of it crying until I peek my head out, then he stops, and when I put my head back in he starts crying again, and the cycle repeats until the end of my nice relaxing shower. He is also getting very independent and not wanting to be helped with anything. Yesterday, I set his lunch tray on his booster tray and he ate everything off of it without even trying to knock the tray off. So that was a first, and we are working really hard to try and get him to feed himself with a spoon, but not wanting any help with anything it poses quite a challenge. He is also getting very frustrated if he can't do something he wants or get something he wants and starts crying and throwing a small fit and hitting me or Brent on the leg. So we are in serious boundary mode and I feel like I am telling him "No hit" or "Gentle" about 100 times a day. But I am at peace with the fact that I know that this stage shall too pass! He is not talking as much, because I think so much energy is directed towards this newfound independence. Let's just say that right now Brent and I are quite excited when 7:45 rolls around and we get to put him to bed and RELAX. That is really about it. Hayden is pretty consuming right now and with my shoulder injury we can't get out and run errands much, but I can ride a bike, so we have been taking bike rides, when it's not raining! Enjoy the pictures.

2007-05-01T20:53:00.001-05:00

Today was Laura's 33rd birthday. Here is a video that I made for her.

Brent

2007-04-26T08:45:00.000-05:00

Just letting everyone know that the house we had a contract on is a no go. We asked them to replace both air conditioning units and repair the leaking roof above the enclosed sunroom, which was a very reasonable expectation, and they countered with a proposal that was worse than the one before money wise for us, so we said, "No thanks!". So we are out the inspection cost, Terminix cost, 2 days off of work for Brent, 3 cancelled appointments for me, probably 30 phone calls for estimates, and at least 25 trips to the house. Well, at least we found out why the house has been on the market for soooo long. We are pretty disappointed, but also feel like a weight has been lifted off of our shoulders. It was going to require so much work, to the tune of about $30,000. We would have had to sell our house by owner with no commission to realtors just to have enought profit money off of our house to do it. So in the end, the numbers just did not work out in our favor, and we would have been biting off more than we could chew. So probably a blessing in disguise. Also, the day we were to found out their counter or acceptance of out amended contract, I had a minor car accident with Hayden (not my fault) and he threw up at dinner. So those might have been small omens telling us that this house was not the one. Not to mention that I could not have hardly unpacked because of my shoulder. So, all in all, a good thing that this fell through. It's just very dissapointing all the time and energy and stress wasted.

2007-04-22T19:24:00.000-05:00

How does this egg open?
Ooh, look, a ball!
One of our Easter pictures
Taking an egg from Poppie
Another family portrait on Easter
I've gotten the ball out, do I have to look through the rest?
My ball, the first thing I saw. A boy, through and through!
After my first haircut, so minus the pouffant
To sum things up since my last blog entry, we had a terrific Easter (even though it was really cold), continued and finished our HUGE backyard renovation during Hayden's naps and taking shifts on the weekends, put a contract on a new house that needs alot of renovation, gotten our house ready to put on the market, gone to a friends birthday party, found out from an orthopedic doctor that I have some minor tears in my right shoulder rotator cuff that requires 2-3 times a week of physical rehab for 6-8 weeks and not lifting or doing anything above my head, had the house we have a contract on inspected, 2 painting bids, 3 electrical bids, 1 plumbing bid, 1 do everything bid, 3 tile bids, 2 roof bids, and a carpet bid. On Monday, we have 2 A.C. bids, 1 more roofing bid, and Terminix will be coming. After we get all the estimates in on Monday, we have to make the decision on whether or not we will buy the house by Tuesday! I don't know why every house Brent and I find that we love is a fixer upper. I think we secretly enjoy the challenge and the feeling of satisfaction when everyone who looks at it is quite disenchanted and when we are done, they say, "Wow"! And when you have a remodel, you get everything the way you want it and the house is usually quite a bargain, and when you sell it it brings you a profit! It's a win win situation to me! Anyway, the above listed excuses me from apologizing from not updating the blog and I probably will not be very steadfast with it if we decide to purchase this home. Because once that ball starts rolling, it rolls really fast. We think we are going to put our house for sale by owner to save the commission cost of a realtor, because we would have so much more mula to work with on the remodel. Enjoy the pictures. Talk to you as soon as I find out if this house situation is going to happen or not. Pray that I can do as much as possible with the new house even though I am not suppose to be doing anything with my right arm!

2007-04-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

2007-03-31T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well, my job as a stay at home mom has finally come to and end. I will be going back to work as a teacher. Sounds very serious doesn't it? No, really I have been offered a part time position as a pre-k teacher at the preschool where Hayden will be going to in the fall. We will both be up there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-1:30. So it is reaaalllly part time, but I thought it would be fun to be up there with Hayden, just not teaching his class. So I really am going back to teaching in a pseudo way, but I will be the lead teacher in the room, so I will be doing all the planning and coordinating and my helper will be there to do just that; help. I have already met her and she seems really sweet and on top of things, so I am really looking forward to it. I knew I had to get back in the game on a part-time basis, and this just fell in my lap. Oh, by me being a teacher Hayden will be going to the preschool for 50% off and his tuition will come out of my check. So it won't be a financial burden on us at all. God works in such mysterious ways! Talk to you later.

2007-03-29T20:12:00.000-05:00

Yes, do you need something? How about my milk now?
Anybody like this look? Maybe for church
Did you say something about my hair? Watch out!

Hayden said his first two syllable word!! WATER and it was in the bathtub. He is also waving his hand or more like flopping his hand and saying, "Bye". Not "bye-bye", just "bye". He is growing up so quickly. Also today he did his first forward roll by himself. All this in one day. I am in awe of God's miraculous creations, children. Just wanted to let you know some new skills. We are very proud parents.

2007-03-27T21:48:00.000-05:00

this is a page from one of his books
this is what he does when he sees that page
look familiar?
sweet little body
just kickin it
tickle baby
does this look like to Poppie to anyone (that's my dad)? No, Hayden is not asleep.
playing with his new kitchen
the next Bobby Flay

OK, it's been so long since I have updated our blog that I had to look up my password to sign in. Pathetic! Well, today we are moving on up! We got Hayden a booster seat instead of a highchair and a potty chair with a cushy seat. We are going to nudge him gently to be a bit more independent now that he is officially a toddler. I even found a book for boys about going to the potty that has a button you push to make a flushing sound. He doesn't seem too interested! He is also attempting to feed himself with a spoon. It makes feedings a bit more messy, but at least it gives me something to clean up! At his 18 month checkup last week, he weighed 24 pounds and was 34.5 inches long (still above the 90th percentile). Dr. Rogers said he looked great and had been so healthy. No infections of any kind yet and really hasn't gotten really sick or had a virus yet. So much for breastmilk boosting the immune system! Formula must have something good in it. He is really maturing rapidly and is starting to say several new words like frog, down, this, that, dog, more, and done. He hasn't yet said two words together but I hear from my friend who has a boy 6 weeks older than Hayden that he has just started that. Amazing the difference in just 6 weeks. In other news, Brent and I have been slaving away over the last two weekends in our backyard, and I am talking extreme yard makeover (23 azaleas, 2 pallets of grass laid, trenches and walkways dug out, ground leveling filling up 32 contractor bags of dirt and ground cover roots, tilling, putting a fence around our yard ourselves). Anyway, you get the picture. We are pooped out ( no pun intended with the recent potty chair!). Brent is working very hard at work as his job seems to get more and more demanding. They laid off 2 people from each department this week, so the tension level has been quite high up there. Of course, Brent was not one of them, because I don't think they could afford to lose him. As for me, I have officially finished my Statistics course and passed it, and have just been trying to catch up on so many things that went undone because of all the studying! Glad it's over!! That's about it for right now, and enjoy the pictures. We sure do!

2007-03-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

2007-03-03T17:26:00.000-06:00

Playing in my new sandbox.

Hayden's got another friend.

Ah, come on!

Swinging at the park. He really does enjoy it.

Gumballs are a healthy, organic snack.

2007-02-24T13:13:00.000-06:00

The reasoning behind this picture is explained at the end of this blog entry. Yes, there is a point!

Well, our living room now looks back to normal, and doesn't look like the walls have varicose veins anymore. The guy said it took about half a case of caulk just to fill in the cracked grooves. I just hope it lasts and doesn't start cracking and bubbling again! We are having a boring Saturday where you just do the mundane things that don't get done during the week. We had some big thunderstorms this morning, but it all sun now. I am about to start studying statistics (just the word is starting to make me feel sick). My final exam in next Saturday and I am feeling like I am never going to get all of this information in my head. Who can study 14 chapters and remember Chapter 1 when they finish studying Chapter 14???? Just can't wait until this course is over, probably not the best subject to take correspondently! Hayden has started really testing over the last couple of weeks (my sister was witness to it on Thursday). He has a fascination now with pushing buttons on everything he can find: the clocks, refrigerator, T.V., remote controls, phone, etc... We say, "No touch, off limits", and he stops, looks at us, smiles, and touches it immediately again! And when we say "No" again he throws something at us. So we are really exercising our patience muscle, because I have discovered that this has to be a muscle with a toddler, because it gets such a daily workout! He is also starting to growl and thinks it is so funny. The simple things amuse him, I suppose. Here is a picture we took of him one day at my mom and dads. Yes, my dad is holding a coliander over his head. There is a reason for this. My favorite movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas and it has a character in it that is a duck that wears a helmet that looks like a coliander. Anyways, when Hayden's teeth starting coming in, we thought he looked like the duck character. So we took this picture. Have a great weekend! laura

2007-02-21T19:59:00.000-06:00

Look at those toothers!

Cutting this mouthful of teeth would put this look on your face too!
Fell into and got stuck in his reading basket
What a look of pure joy
My first lollipop
In the middle of a tap dancing jig

Well, it looks like my wish came true! The cold weather did go away at least for this week. Today, I was actually hot when Hayden and I went to the park and the temperature got to 82. Also, we finally got a roll of pictures developed, so I have some pictures of our little one. He is doing well and we went to Little Gym for the fourth time today and he did really, really good. It was like he just snapped and decided he was going to be comfortable and was totally at ease. He did everything he was supposed to do, and was doing forward rolls, the obstacle courses, kicking balls, popping bubbles. He had a blast and we have a really good class. Anyhow, I am going to Greenville all day again tommorrow to see my sister, Elle, and Ava because we are having two walls of our living room painted (thank goodness). Apparently, we Kilzed the paneling and then painted it with latex paint and the original paint was oil based. So, two of our walls and cracking, peeling, and all of the grooves have cracked. It was so bad that Brent had to scrape down the bad spots because I would catch Hayden throughout the day picking off paint and trying to eat the paint chips! Also, Hayden has started to be able to tell us when he wants more of something or is all done when he eats with sign language. If he wants more, he does the sign, says "more" and points to what he wants more of. He has just today also discovered that the he can push the buttons on the refrigerator and change the refrigerator and freezer temperatures! Enjoy the pictures.

2007-02-15T21:56:00.000-06:00

O.K., this cold weather needs to move on back to where it came from! Hayden, Brent, and I are about to go stir crazy. On top of not getting out of the house, I have still got the crud that is going around Tyler. Apparently, just about everyone has this, so I have started antibiotics and this is my third day. Tonight is the first night that I am feeling at all human, and I just pray that Hayden does not get this! Anyhow, we put my Mammy to rest yesterday and she looked so peaceful and pretty. Thank you to all who sent condolences and your sympathies. They were very much appreciated. Our Valentines was the day of Mammie's funeral, so Brent and I decided to celebrate Valentines this weekend. We are going to go to dinner and a movie Saturday night. Our first date night in many months! Hayden is really changing quickly, not physically but cognitively. He will constantly go over to his book boxes and bring me book after book to read to him. And he throws a fit if I do not read it at that moment. He also is saying more to certain foods at dinner and will put his hands up and say, "All done", when he is finished. He also thinks its bathtime everytime the water comes on in the bathroom, and he get excited and starts flapping his arms around (what he does when he is excited), and I have to try and explain to him that bathtime will be that night. He loves bathtime!! We had a really great surprise tonight. Johnna and Brett Raymond and their kiddos stopped by tonight on their way to Fort Worth for a seminar about a mission trip to Uganda Africa. They were missionaries previously (years ago) in Africa and loved it. Anyway, we miss them here in Tyler and her tots are sooo cute! Anyhow, that is about it around here. I had to cancel a couple of appointments this week due to my crud, so not much doing this week. We are ALMOST finished with our roll of film.

2007-02-10T18:49:00.000-06:00

Five generations: me, my mom, grandmother, Hayden, and my great-grandmother

This blog is in memory of my great-grandmother, Jewell Jenkins, my Mammy. She passed away today at 4:20 peacefully. My grandmother, mom, and I were there holding her hand and telling her we loved her as she went. My grandmother said she knew that my grandaddy (her husband who passed away 17 years ago) was waiting on the banks of the Jordan River waiting for her. I know in my heart that she is in a much better place reunited with the love of her life. She lived a long life to 101 years old (she would have been 102 in July) and touched the hearts of everyone who knew her. She taught me to hook a big green grubworm on a hook to go fishing. I always never wanted to hook the worm, so she would always do it for me. She taught me how to shell peas and always as she put it "Wanted to fill up my sugarbowl" with kisses from her. We will miss you greatly mammy, but know that you are finally at peace in heaven with Grandaddy. We love you and will always hold you in our hearts.

Laura

2007-02-09T13:02:00.000-06:00

Sorry, still no pictures, but we have been taking more video than pictures lately. Right now, the only reason I have time to update the blogspot is because I am trying to clean house, but everytime I turn the vacumn on Hayden starts wailing. So this sounded much better than dusting or cleaning the commode! In light of the lack of pictures, I promise we will finish the roll soon, so you can see some new pictures of Hayden. We did go to Greenville yesterday to see my sister, Elle, and little Ava. We had alot of fun, but as Emma said, the day went way too fast! You can go to her blogsight at www.montexans.blogspot.com to see some pictures from the day. I thought that I would write a list today (an idea borrowed from my sister) of all of the new things Hayden has been able to do or say or what has changed physically over the last couple of months. He turned 17 months old yesterday. Almost to the year and a half mark!

1. His hair is actually starting to grow and he has a little poof right at the crown of his head (if we comb it the right way he actually resembles Donald Trump).
2. He has cut three molars and three incisors over the last 3-4 weeks.
3. He loves to do a forward roll and walk down steep hills just to fall and roll.
4. He is 34.5 inches tall and weighs 24.3 pounds. String bean.
5. He can say ball, bye-bye, hello, mama, door, dada, and talks in these long strings of syllables none of which I understand (but I know he does).
6. He is giving us cues for things he wants (like when he wants to go outside he will walk over to the coatrack and pull on his coat and point to the door.
7. He points at everything so we will tell him the name of what he is pointing to.
8. He has a girlfriend in one of his books that he plays with (he carries the book around and will run around and come back to the book and look at her and die with laughter).
9. He can and likes to turn in circles.
10. He loves to play rock a bye baby, read books, and pull every toy in the house out of its place.
11. He can roll, throw, and sometimes kick a ball.
12. Will gives hugs and kisses.
13. Last but not least, is refusing to eat most fruits and vegetables that before he turned 15 months, he loved! But I am finding ways to sneak them in to things!

Everyone have a great weekend and again I promise pictures soon.

Laura

2007-02-03T21:23:00.000-06:00

Emma, it is now just you. I think since we all upgraded our bloggers, it seems to be having problems. I still can't put a caption under our pictures. And I found it that I can't upload video, because we would have to have a digital camera that took video, which we do not have. Which is unfortunate, because I videoed some of Hayden playing today and it was priceless. We had Little Gym this morning, and it was horrible. He was tired and is STILL cutting his top two molars and a cuspid and he pretty much clinged to me and cried the entire time. I know that he will warm up to the class, it's just as a cautious child it will take him a while to warm up. The only thing that the only time he is timid is at Little Gym. I guess because there are like 10 other kids around and the room is huge with loud music and the kids are roaming around everywhere at times. Today he just did not feel good. So hopefully next week will be better. We had a pretty mundane weekend. Just went to the grocery store and cleaned house. I did do my yoga class after Little Gym because we were so wound up after our Little Gym experience. For everyone reading this blog prays, please pray for Issac Raymond, one of my friends sons (3 years). He was born with a heart defect, and has to take loads of medications everyday just to feel normal. Anyway, they found something wrong with his colon and he has to have a colonoscopy on February 8th. He can't eat for 36 hours, and has to be put under general anasthetia. This child has already had to deal with several heart surgeries. So lift this little one up to the lord and have everything turn out O.K. When you know that a friend and her family has to deal with this, it puts Little Gym into perspective. There is always someone worse off than you. Thank you Lord for all that you have blessed us with. Have a good day! Pictures coming soon.

Laura

2007-01-27T16:10:00.000-06:00

We went to Little Gym for our first "real" class today and Hayden did a little bit better. He clings to me and Brent like a tree frog with suction cup fingers and toes, but we did find some things that he liked to do during free exploration time. Also, in his class he is the second to oldest, so I think that that makes it better than last time, where all the kids were older and had already been there an entire semester. The babies in his class now are all about 12-15 months, and there is one boy who is 18 months old. He likes the bubble blowing time and the mommy and me rolling trick. This has been a pretty miserable week, because his molasses molars have hardly budged and he is cutting an incisor also. His cheeks are red, he is drooling like a Basset Hound, biting everything within reach, and acting fussy quite ALOT! This week has been challenging, as mealtimes have become irritable battles. I guess just because chewing hurts his mouth. Anyhow, we are about to head to the park because we need to get Hayden out of the house, because it is the only thing that makes him stop fussing!!!

2007-01-22T08:14:00.000-06:00

I am sorry that these pictures are all out of order and some are vertical, but we upgraded out blogger and haven't figured out how to get the pictures under the text and how to add caption to the pictures. Brent is supposed to help me figure it out tonight, as well as how to include video snippets! Sorry! Well, we got our roll of film back, and I thought I would share with you some of his newest pictures, especially the ones of him at Little Gym (a place we will start going to on Saturdays at 9:15 to develop motor skills, listening skills, learn to be around other toddlers, and just have FUN!) Anyhow, our first vistit (our trial visit) did not go quite as we thought it would. Let's just say that after reading The Happies Toddler on the Block, our child, we discovered is a "cautious child". He, as you will see from the pictures, did not want anything to do with any part of this place. I think it will probably just take him a few times to watch and get comfortable with the routine. It was a funny experience though, because Hayden was the ONLY child who was not just gungho about everything, and he was the biggest child there, but the youngest (except this 13 month old girl who acted like she had been there forever). He was actually taller than this 22 month old boy there! Anyhow, I felt this obligation to ask the mothers how old their children were and make sure they knew that Hayden had only turned just 16 months, because he looked like a 2 year old that was acting like a baby. My sweet little boy!! Also, his bottom two molars have four cusps that are breaking through and his top two molars have two cusps that have come in. He is really not enjoying eating, because I know his molars hurt! He also has a new girlfriend. He has started this new random game where he gets this Baby Book with this little girls face I think on page 2. He gets the book, turns to that exact page, and starts laughing with here and trying to show off for her. One of his favorite show off moves is to go to the side of the TV wardrobe and hit this tassel that hangs down and then walk back over to her picture and just laughs, like him and his friend are just tickled pink and this game. It is so hilarious to watch. He also can point to his eyes and nose now. When we ask him, "Where are your eyes?", he takes his little pointer finger and about gauges his eye out. Anyways, that is it on the Hayden front, and here are the new pictures.

2007-01-18T18:56:00.001-06:00

Quick update. Sorry, pictures will be coming next week, because we took 2 rolls of film in this week. Hayden is cutting all four of his first molars right now, so our three daily balanced meals have faded very quickly. We are now almost soley on a diet of peanut butter and yogurt sandwhiches and purple grapes. Two funny stories from today: first I heard Hayden crying in the living room this morning; so I went to investigate, because he does not usually cry. When I went into the living room, there he was stuck in his big basket that we put all his books in. He had taken out all of the books in the front, and then, I guess fell in and couldn't get out. He was just sitting in the basket with his legs dangling over the edge crying, like get me out of here! Then this afternoon, I put him down for his nap of the day at 1:00, and at 2:50 he was still hooping and hollering and having a good old time. So, I was going to go get him at three and just call it a day with no nap. Well, when I went to get him at 3:00 he had fallen asleep. The scene was this: he had ripped the sheet of the mattress and was lying face up on the eggcrate covering the mattress. He was also naked from the waist down, fast asleep. His pants, blankets, silkies, pacifier, and incidently, diaper were all thrown over the side. So, I tiptoed in and somehow got his diaper back on him without him waking up. I hope this does not become a habit!! I took a picture of him in the basket, so I will post it as soon as we get the picture disk back.

2007-01-04T19:35:00.000-06:00

Brent here. You want pictures, so we provide them. Here's a new bunch of Hayden from 14 to 15 months old, including Christmas. More Christmas photos will come, but due to a loud eruption during the cowboy game, I had to put my camera down to console a scared Hayden. I don't believe he knows why anyone would yell at the tv like that. ;-) Of course Hayden got more toys than he knows what to do with, but at least he has variety enough not to get bored. No matter how fancy the toy, it still can't beat a good book or a simple ball. We thank everyone for helping to make our Christmas as good as it could be for us. Laura here. Just wanted to update you on Hayden's new milestones. He now has three top teeth and three bottom teeth and is cutting a top and bottom first molar. Downside to teething late, I guess, is that you get them all at the same time. He has also begun to engage in a physical feat that my dad and I like to call the BANANA. Whenever Hayden does not get what he wants (like getting to go outside on a rainy day, or reading a book he can't touch), he arches his back, pulls his fists up to his chin, and lets out quite a grunt. And he has done it up to 10 times in a row. Dad and I just stare at him and try not to laugh because it looks so bizarre. Anyhow, we are trying to ignore them and not give in, so that he will learn that he cannot always have what he wants. He can also now open drawers and empty the contents, play in commodes, open doors, get in the trashcan, and tapdance. Yes, that's right, tapdance. He got this toy for Christmas that plays Banjo music that he loves. And when that Banjo starts up, he starts tapdancing. He is also pointing to absolutely everything wanting you to tell him the name of it and if a toy gets somewhere he can't reach, he will come and get me and point to where the toy is, as if to say, "Get it, please! And now!". His modes of play are still mostly throwing, slapping, and scrambling, but he is starting to try to do things like put puzzle pieces where they go and put the coins in his piggy bank, and push buttons that make things happen. He is babbling ALOT and is I believe speaking in another language, which sounds like French or Italian. He says, Gweeya (with a throaty "rr"), and Agee and Da quite a bit and I have no idea what any of those mean. He just points to most everything and says, "Da". He also seems to be singing. He will be playing and just singing ba, ba, la, la, la for like 5 minutes. He is in quite an amusing stage. My main focus right now is to get him stop slapping us in the face. He thinks it is a game, and when we say "No slap", he laughs. So I am in the process of reading several books to try and understand how to discipline at this age. Also, he is getting more hair, although it is still what I would call sparse. At least it's easy to care for! As for the pictures, we upgraded our blogger system and now I don't know how to put captions under the pictures, but they are all pretty explanatory. Enjoy!

2006-12-04T11:32:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to update you on some new things that Hayden is doing. He now has both of his front two teeth and is beginning to cut his two teeth on either side of his front teeth. I guess when you are a LATE teether, they all come in at once! Anyway, he is now "saying" All Done and Elle. The reason I put saying in quotes is because he it is not like he is saying them with perfect diction, but you can understand what he is trying to say. He has also learned how to get down from the sofa on his own and loves to cuddle up with his blanket wrapped around him on the sofa to watch his favorite Baby Einstein DVD, Old Macdonald. On a final note, he is really starting into the stage where he is trying to test physical boundaries, like what he can and cannot touch. We are being very consistent, but it is quite amusing to watch as your child tests.

2006-11-29T12:58:00.000-06:00

Sorry that it has been so long since I have entered an entry. There has just been alot going on (Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, studying, teething, etc.). Anyhow, Hayden is doing really well and is picking up new little personality traits everyday. Right now, we have these yelling matches, where for some reason he puts his hands in a position like he is asking "Why?", and just yells. When he does this he wants everyone present to participate and turns and looks to make sure everyone is participating as he is still yelling. And when we all do it, he gets so into it that his hands start quivering and gets red in the face. It is really quite hilarious. Anyway, I am going to try to get some video of it and learn to post a video on the blog site. I am entering this from my parents computer, because for some reason our laptop will not even turn it. It is like it just simply died. We must have some sort of technology curse on our family right now! Anyway, the entries probably won't be as often, considering that we don't have a functional computer and no digital camera. Take care.

Laura

2006-11-18T20:16:00.000-06:00

Hayden is officially throwing fits. Yes, it is official. He screams or yelps and squats up and down and kind of sways back and forth at the same time. He has entered the phase where he is getting frustrated because he cannot communicate with us and we don't understand what he wants. These fit episodes also happen if he cannot have something he wants or if we take something away that he wants. It is actually quite amusing and entertaining, but it is time to take affirmitive action! He is doing really well in all other areas, but he is still cutting his other front tooth. Is it ever going to come in?? I was watching him this week and started to notice something funny. If any creature uses their five senses, it is a 14 month old. Any object put into his hand he first inspects very carefully with his sense of sight. Next, comes the intense smelling scrutiny, where he actually pushes the object so hard against his nose that he smashes his nose flat. Then it is on to the sense of taste, where he puts it in his mouth to see if it is anything good. Once those qualifications are met, he then promptly throws randomly into the air the object that has been scrutinized. These are his modes of playing at the present. He throws, slaps, scrambles, and bangs anything within reach. For anyone out there wondering if there is truly a difference between boys and girls, the answer is a resounding YES! There is no gentility, everything is physical, physical, and might I say physical. The only things that he will actually sit still for are books and Baby Einstein DVD's, which is a blessing! As for Brent and I, he and I are both busy working (he on a website, and me on my statistics). I am starting my sixth out of seventh lesson, so I can see the final stretch. After my seventh lesson is finished, I then take my final exam. I hope to have this done by the first of January.

2006-11-07T20:52:00.000-06:00

More pictures as promised.

2006-11-06T10:29:00.000-06:00

We had a busy weekend, but I don't have any pictures because I have to take the film to be developed before I can post any new ones. On Saturday, Brent went to the A&M football game with Rick and I went to Greenville to see how much baby Ava has grown, and of course to see my sister and Elle. If you click on the link to Emma and Shawn's blog site, you can see some pictures taken on Saturday. Hayden is cutting his other top tooth and one of his incisors, so he is in a bit of pain, but I am keeping him on Tylenol. It just takes forever for his teeth to break through. Poor baby. Anyhow, I am working on Statistics lesson # 3 (out of 7) and am slowly but surely plotting through them. It is really hard, and to my anxious dismay keeps getting more difficult. I have gotten registered for my Spring classes and have taken care of the FASFA studen loan, so I am set for that department. Just have to purchase the textbooks, get my UT sticker decal, and get a Student ID. That's about it. Sorry for no pictures, but we should be getting this role of film developed sometime this week. Have a great day!

Laura

2006-11-03T17:15:00.000-06:00

Hayden is really growing up! It is the little things that I see everyday that amaze me. For example, today when I was putting on his shirt he was holding his silky, and when I started to put on the other sleeve, he switched the silky from one hand to the other. Such a little cognitive thought, but it is amazing as a mother how you notice your child beginning to have those cognisent thoughts. He is also really starting to be able to point to things in books, like the cow, doggie, kitty, pig, and sheep. I will say, "Hayden, point to the cow", and watching that little finger point to the cow is amazing to me. I know that what he is doing is normal for his age, but they go from this little blob to this little human being in such a short amount of time. It seems miraculous!

Here are some more photos from Halloween.

Come on already! There is so much to see.

This is how Hayden's face looked like everytime you put the hood up!

2006-11-01T12:49:00.000-06:00

Here's some pictures from a tasty lasagna dinner, carving the pumpking, and Hayden's big trick or treat.

2006-10-31T21:30:00.000-06:00

Trick or treat! Hayden had his first experience trick or treating tonight. At first he hated the hood part of his bee costume, but once he got on the streets and around other kids, he quickly forgot about it. We visited many different houses, and Hayden made many people smile. Needless to say, but I will anyway, we raked in a ton of candy! Here are some more pics of Hayden we just got developed.

2006-10-29T20:08:00.000-06:00

We had a fun filled weekend. On Saturday Hayden and I went to Tyler State Park and had some father-son bonding time. We took his stroller truly off road on some of the trails. Today the three of us and Laura'a parents went to a special Halloween day that the zoo had. Hayden had a really good time seeing all the kids there. He walked on his own a lot. There were a couple of times when we just let him go and watched from a distance (following close enough behind of course) how he interacted and mingled with everyone. Here are some pictures from this weekend and last weekend. Enjoy.

2006-10-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

We've got a righty for sure. The past few days Hayden has taken to throwing his favorite three balls around the house as hard as he can. He picks them up, rares back, and then lets them fly, sometimes careening off walls and furniture. He looks quite proud after each throw, especially when he gets good distance.

2006-10-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was feeding Hayden his dinner and something interesting happened. He was having a meal of an almond butter and banana sandwich, grapes, and carrots. I put two grapes on his high chair, and he picked up one in each hand. He put the first one into his mouth, then I leaned in and asked him if I could have the other one. He smiled really big and then reached toward my mouth with his hand and put the other grape inside my mouth. I chewed it up, and he started giggling and slapping my face. So apparently he thought it was just as funny as I did.

2006-10-22T20:49:00.000-05:00

Can you feel the rhythm too?

2006-10-21T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hayden was paid a visit by Mimi, G-pa, Gran-Ree, and Gran-Perry. They played outside, and Hayden put all of his new skills on display like walking everywhere and clicking his tongue.

Here are some new shots of Hayden we got developed today.

Who me?

What a big boy!

This is how I found him after a nap.

Where's dada?

Where better to pick one's nose.

A happy, sweet, clean baby boy!

2006-10-19T08:14:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure that anyone would find it interesting, but this is my office at work and the two computer screens that I stare at all day long.

2006-10-19T00:24:00.000-05:00

Then (5 months)....

Now (1 year)....

2006-10-18T15:56:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! I got my letter today telling me that I did get a Stafford Loan, which is the one that does not accrue interest, and it will almost pay for my 8 hours in the Spring. I will only have to use a small portion of the unsubsidized loan to pay for the part the Stafford Loan does not cover. So really good news! The semester before I enter nursing school (which will be the Spring of 08), I will start applying for several nursing scholarships that are available, because it would surely be nice to not have to pay anybody back after I get out of school. Hayden is a bit less fussy today and isn't quite so needy. He is eating his late afternoon snack right now, and I am trying to teach him sign language for more. He gets really excited when I do it like he knows what I mean, but he has not yet done it back to me. I never knew how frustrating it was to feed a toddler. One day he likes cheese toast, the next, he acts as though its poison. One day green beans are his favorite, the next he pushes it instantly out of his mouth. SOOO frustrating. I am giving him liquid vitamins in his milk, so that alleviates some of the concern for him getting all that he needs. Right now the one item that he has consistently loved is halved purple grapes. It is like a dog with dog treats!! Also, my sister told me that you could do videos on this blog site, so Brent and I are going to try to figure out if we can or not tonight. And this weekend we are going to take our camera to a camera store, just to see if we can get it fixed for a reasonable price, so we have something to work with until Christmas! That's still 2 1/2 months away. So, hopefully they can just pop in the lense and it is an easy fix. Wish us luck!

2006-10-17T19:47:00.000-05:00

All I can say about today is that Hayden Flynn Allison is in full teething mode! And I actually think it makes him quite irritated. He is slapping, hitting, pushing, throwing, shoving, and smashing everything put into his little hands, including food, toys, mama and dada's faces, furniture, etc.. You name it. We are giving him Tylenol and Anbesol, but he is still quite fussy. He is also so tall that he can get everthing on the end tables. So we had to clear everthing off the tables today, so he couldn't get anything and break it! I realized this when at one point he came walking through the living room with his nail clippers in one hand and the cuticle clippers in the other (both which were in a bowl on one of our sidetables). It was also apparent that he has realized that anything on these end table were fair game, when he came wandering through the living room at another time today with one of our glass candles, which he promptly through at the mirror hanging on our bedroom door. Thank goodness it didn't break! So these are the kind of days going on at our house. And to wind down from these days, there is nothing like cozying up with my statistics book. Pray that these teeth break through quickly!!!!

2006-10-16T20:00:00.000-05:00

My brother is now a married man! It was a very special day for me because we were close growing up. And he looked so grown up and confident during the whole ceremony. You could tell that he and Shawnette are really in love with each other and needless to say I needed some tissues. Everything went very smoothly and it was precious to watch my niece Elle throwing her little petals down the aisle, right up to the toe of Nikolai's shoe. We were all so proud of her! Things are normal here. I am currently working on my first statistics lesson and wow is it tedious and boring! Not to mention it is the kind of subject where you have to learn this really complicated material and immediately apply it to problems. No time to process the information. You could compare it to learning a second language and being expected to speak and write it the same day you learned it. Hayden is cutting his two top teeth at the same time, so he is not a happy camper. But he loves to walk around all day. It is like he is so intrigued by just the fact that he can walk! It is adorable. I love being his mother and feel so lucky to have him as my son. Sorry, for the nostalgic moment. Anyhow, Brent's job is going well and he really seems to enjoy it. He is working on getting evaluations from 7 people he works with, because it is required for their pay raise conference at the end of this month. I told him to pick wisely!! Sorry no pictures, but remember the digital camera is finito.

2006-10-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our new blog!