HEY!

We're here...we're alive!  But, in the last month we've moved, had a garage sale, gotten a puppy and been dealing with a 3 year old who hasn't been sleeping all that well!!!  And, to top it off...my brother is going to Bible College (SURPRISE!) in the Fall, my cousin is getting married, we've joined the choir at our church and, as of yesterday, my Dad has a COOL new bionic knee!!  We'll be back soon!

**Edited to Add...

Amy - I've been trying to get ahold of you through your blog, but it won't let me comment anymore!  Colton is absolutely beautiful!

MageeMommy - I've missed you friend!  I'm sorry I haven't gotten back, but as you can see, we've been CRAZY busy!! 

Easter Sunday!

Our Easter Sunday was much like most others we've had - Church - Lolli's house for lunch/eggs - playtime - chocolate bunny - CRASH!!!

Yep, that about gets it in a nutshell! After church we all headed to my Mom and Dad's house for an Easter lunch of ham, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, rolls, green been casserole, homemade red-eye gravy, deviled eggs, corn and desserts!!! (Oh my...the desserts!) It was perhaps the most beautiful day we've had all year with very little wind, beautiful temperatures and a bright sun!!! Seriously gorgeous! We even took our festivities outside and ate and played in the back yard for most of the afternoon!!!

And, in other news...WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!  We found a house that we really thought we might like about 3 weeks ago and decided to go look at it.  Turned out, it was perfect for us!  So, we made an offer contingent on our house selling.  The sellers agreed to a 30 day contingency so we ramped up to get our house sold...we had TONS of showings in the first 2 weeks and then found out that the sellers had a non-contingent offer (we think) on the table so they told us we had until Wednesday, April 27 to get ours sold.  Prior to that we had a buyer who then had a family emergency and couldn't buy ours.  So, on Monday the 25th...we thought all was lost.  Turns out, God had other plans...as of Wednesday around 5:00 p.m. was accepted an offer and now, we have 2 weeks to pack and move into our new home!!  I'm SO stinkin' excited!!!  I'll be sure to post pictures when we move in and get everything set up!!!

Oh, and yes, I uploaded over 20 pictures to one blog post.  It's getting to the point that if I don't blog it immediately, it doesn't get blogged!!!  haha 

 Scroll through these next pictures and see who the most difficult child to photograph of the 3 of them is right now...

 Looking for eggs!

 Double fistin' the Chocolate Bunny and Ring Pop!  (YUCK!)

Where has the time gone?

I used to be SO much better at this whole blogging thing than I am now!  I used to have fun topics and creative titles.  Now, I struggle just to blog more than once a month!  This was such a great tool for us the first two years of Malachi's life and now I'm completely letting it go to the wayside...which I'm VERY sad about.  This is basically Malachi's baby book, because I just haven't been so great at keeping his up so I really need to get back with it to record some of the hysterical things he says and does on an (almost) daily basis!!!

As you can see with the last two videos I posted, he really is a ham!  As has always been, he's obsessed with music still and LOVES to dance and sing!  He's also been doing really well memorizing his memory verses for his new Sunday School class and got his first prize last Sunday for saying Colossians 3:20 all by himself!  They do the verses every month I think so in between, I think we're going to try to memorize some of our own.  Any suggestions on the next one we should work on???? 

As I mentioned (briefly) in my last post, we transitioned him to a big boy bed and he's done absolutely fantastic with it!!! He's only gotten out of bed once or twice after we've put him in...although for a couple weeks we dealt with constant yells of "MOMMY" or "DADDY" from his bed for a while after we put him down.  He figured it out pretty quickly that we weren't playing and he's done SO great since then! 

 

Although, it must be said, he doesn't always sleep the way I would!!! 

He's also a major blanket hound...the more blankets, the better!  haha

We also had a birthday party for my grandmother in January at my Aunt's house and then another, SURPRISE party for her in February so my aunt from Dallas could come!  For 70 years old, I think she looks fantastic and I'm glad that I have good genes to look forward to when I'm her age!!!

We've spent a few days at the park feeding the ducks and enjoying our time there and we've created a new tradition...Donut Stop - every Saturday morning!!!

 And yes, those are cheetos!  It's tradition in my family - Ducks LOVE cheetos!!!

 

Here's Malachi and Kadi Jo at the park with Lolli one pretty (albeit windy) day!

 

We've enjoyed beautiful days at the playground waiting for Daddy to get off of work...

  We've gotten our first baseball cap... 

 We've participated in Crazy Clothes Day at Daycare...

 We've helped Lolli and Pops at Sams... 

 And yes, we've had our first ankle sprain...which led to our first trip to the doctor for a possible broken bone and an X-Ray! 

Finally, we got our family pictures made for our church directory and LOVE them!!! Here's a sneak peek...we didn't want to pay an extra $20 just to have the CD so here's a picture of our family picture...you get the idea though!!! 

We did meet our goal of getting completely out of consumer debt by March 15th (I need to update that) and March 15-19 were some of the BEST days for us!!  However, on March 19, my car died, as in the transmission completely went out!  So, we made the painful decision to get a VERY affordable used car which still required us to use credit.  We bought a 2006 Stratus with 70K miles for about $8,000 so hopefully we'll be able to have that paid off within the next few months.  However, we're going to split half our extra income to go to the car and the other half to go to savings to build our savings account up!  Of course, if the Lord chooses to bless us sooner rather than later with another pregnancy, we'll put that debt on hold until we get our fully funded emergency fund.  (So, if you want to pray specifically for that, I wouldn't mind!) 

We are constantly amazed at our sweet son and his heart!  He never fails to say "bless you", "please" and "thank you" and reminds us constantly to do the same.  His new thing is saying "May I..." instead of "Can I" or answering us, "Yes you MAY."  He has a very proper teacher who is teaching him SUCH great things!!!  Although he's a typical (almost) 3 year old in most ways...we haven't really had too much of an issue with behavior.  Of course, that doesn't mean he's perfect - in fact, the other day, he hit three times at daycare and the consequences were dire for him!  I showed up and he told me what he did at Lolli's prompting, so I took his favorite stuffed monkey away (Frosty the Snow Monkey...can you guess when he got that?) and put it on top of Lolli's filing cabinet.  I told him Frosty would have to spend the night at daycare all by himself - and, though that bothered him, it didn't seem to affect him as much as I was looking for.  So, I threw it away in her trash can.  Of course, THAT got his attention, but that's exactly what I was going for.  I felt like I had to make an impression on him and the next morning, he woke up saying he wanted Frosty back and he wouldn't hit anymore (without our prompting, I might add) so it did the trick.  (Of course...5 seconds after we left, Frosty was taken OUT of the trash can...I may be tough, but I'm not MEAN!)  Well...that was last week and two nights ago, Thomas heard him in his bed talking to Frosty saying "It okay Frosty, I not hit, you not go to dumpster okay?"  I guess it worked...and though it broke my heart to hear that, I'm glad that we can get his attention that easily!  Other than that, he's a VERY sweet, VERY happy, VERY handsome little boy and I feel SO blessed to be his mommy!!!!

Another Cute Video! (I'm much more proud of this one!)

So we've moved from John 3:16 to Colossians 3:20. 

"Children, obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord."

The Artist Formerly Known as Our Handsome Little "Prince"

Our boy - so talented - so comical - such a ham!

Since the last time

This is what we've been up to...

1.  Not blogging (but that's obvious, right?)

2 - Eating chocolate pudding while mom tries not to be OCD and wipe my mouth after every bite!

3.  Setting up and sleeping in our big boy bed!

4.  Eating lunch with Pops wearing matching shirts!

5.  Digging out from the snow...La Nina Who?

What number am I on?  Oh yeah...6.  Spending an hour making my sweetheart a fruit bouquet!

7.  Taking pictures of aforementioned sweetheart EATING his fruit bouquet...in 10 minutes!

8.  Making Valentine's for Malachi's Class!

As you can see...we've really done some fun things together since Christmas came and went!  Thomas is doing ABSOLUTELY fantastic on his diet and has lost 20 pounds in the last 6 weeks!!!  He feels great, looks even better and has more energy than he has in a VERY long time!!  I, on the other hand, have TOTALLY fallen off the wagon!  I certainly haven't gained anything, but I'm just not losing anything either.  Honestly, I gained about 30 pounds after high school (I was a TOOTHPICK) and have stayed the same weight for the last 9 or so years (except for about an 18 month period during and after baby!)  I'm pretty okay with where I'm at!!

We're also celebrating the fact that Tuesday marked the end of our "3 month post-miscarriage wait" and now have the full blessing of our doctor to hurry up and get pregnant again!!  I will be saving the news this time for a while, but I covet everyones' prayers for the health of our next pregnancy...and that it will happen SOON!!  We're so ready to have a second little Allen running around!!!  Everyone was right...the 3 months went by SO quickly!  

I got the unique opportunity of meeting a sweet new life last Saturday as a former high school classmate welcomed her new baby girl Riley into she and her husband's life!  She was so sweet at the shower and I was blessed to have her handed off to me so I could cuddle her!  Congratulations Lindsey and Josh - the Lord has been good to you both!!! 

We've had a little sickness here and there, but we've been blessed to stay relatively healthy through this winter!  Getting out of consumer debt is so close we can SMELL it and we can't wait to get our income tax back and hopefully spurn us into financial freedom!!  (Well...except for our house and student loans!)

I keep saying that one of these days I'll upload Christmas pictures and here it is February 10th!  Oh well...life happens!  Now we're planning for Malachi's 3rd birthday (I can't believe it) and I'm thinking we'll go with a Veggie Tales theme...He's stuck on Veggie Tales and the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything right now so hopefully I can come up with something creative for that!! 

Other than that, life has continued to be good to us and we continue to feel God's presence in our life together! 

And, just in case I haven't mentioned it in a while...I sure do love my husband!  He is an incredible father, and incredible husband and an incredible man!  He sets the bar in my book!!!

We're alive!

Man I cannot believe it's been almost a month since Christmas!  This last three weeks has FLOWN by!!  Right after New Years, Daddy and I took a trip to Austin, just the two of us, for a work trip and had a fantastic time!  It was just the rejuvenating couple days we needed!  We stayed in a super-swanky hotel in downtown, had dinner with good friends and spent the trip re-connecting.  Of course, we were VERY ready to get back home to our baby boy, but couple time is ALWAYS a good thing!  Oh, and no, I didn't take any pictures.  I just wanted to live for those 48 hours!!

I will update with Christmas pictures soon (I hope) so you can see all the fun we had!!!  This was the first Christmas that Malachi seemed to understand even a little bit of what was going on so it was pretty fun opening gifts with him!!  He is STILL asking about that big green Christmas tree, but the questions are coming fewer and farther between!  Hopefully he'll either (a) forget about it or (b) finally figure out that he'll see it again next year!  (I'm thinking the former is much more likely than the latter...although ask me in June - he may still be asking by then!) 

We're figuring out that Malachi has a mind like a freaking steel trap!  The boy doesn't forget ANYTHING!  He can hear a song once and have it down (ask me about Bushel and a Peck...CUTEST THING EVER) - he remembers details from things that happened WEEKS ago that even WE have to struggle to remember!  However, the greatest thing that he has done since Christmas is to memorize John 3:16!  Christmas night before bed he wanted to read his Calendar (Advent Calendar...see video post below this)!  Unfortunately we tried to explain to him that our Calendar was finished - finally, the idea popped into my head to go get my Bible and read John 3:16 to him.  In 2 weeks, he had it down!  Now, when he's paying attention, he can recite it with very little help from Thomas or I!  I don't think there's anything else I'd rather be filling my sweet boy's head with than Bible verses!  If you have any ideas about what other verses are special to you, let me know.  Next, I think we're moving on to Psalm 27:1!! 

The other major news in the Allen family right now is that we are all working hard to lose weight/tone up.  Thomas started on CHRISTMAS DAY...talk about dedication!  He had a salad while the rest of us pigged out on enchiladas, beans, rice, chips, hot sauce and queso!  And, in less than a month, he's lost 15.4 pounds!!!!  I'm not really watching my weight, but more what I am putting into my body and whether or not it's good for me.  I've lost like 3 pounds, but I'm pretty much at my ideal weight now so I want to TONE!  We are borrowing my parents' WII (to make sure we'll use it before we invest in it) and we're working out with the Biggest Loser Challenge.  Thomas is doing a lot of high-energy routines and circuit training.  And believe me when I tell you, it's kicking his butt!  Bob and Jillian are hard-core even when they're animated!!!  I, on the other hand, am sticking to Yoga and very low-impact exercises.  My knees are in terrible shape, so much so that our family doctor recommended that I keep an eye on it and go to an orthopedist if they start hurting.  It sounds like Rice Krispies every time I bend my right knee!!!  However, the Yoga is pretty intense.  I'm doing it for about an hour a day and I LOVE it.  It's enough to get your heart-rate going and get you sweating AND keep you sore the next day!!!  So, we're buying low-calorie foods, stocking up on fruits and veggies (which is a MAJOR shift if you know me at all) and overall just eating more healthy!  Some combination of dried fruit/granola bars/yogurt makes up our breakfast routine and neither of us have eaten beef in about 3 weeks!  For this steak and potatoes girl, it's been a committment!  But, we're enjoying our turkey, string cheese, tuna and other food items and trying to remember that food is for fuel...not for enjoyment!!!  (At least not all the time - I've still splurged on ice cream 2 or 3 times...but you can't deny yourself completely or you'll get demovativated VERY quickly!!)

Finally, we are continuing our debt snowball and should be out of debt (except for student loans) no later than March or April of this year!  We paid off about $2,600.00 this month, but added about $300 for Thomas' plane ticket to Austin with me so our totals are a bit off!  Right now we have $5,900 in our first snowball, approximately $42,000 in student loans and then we'll be done!  We will be getting a little out of line as far as the "baby steps" are concerned because we're going to delay paying off our student loans in order to beef up our Fully Funded Emergency Fund since HOPEFULLY we'll have a new Allen in 2011!  Thomas and I continue to talk that 2011 is going to be our year!  Getting out of consumer debt, funding our emergency fund, MAYBE moving and adding another sweet baby to our home are on tap among MANY other exciting developments this year!  I pray that you are as excited about this year as we are and that 2011 will be a blessing for us all! 

Oh, and next time, pictures, I promise!