Shoes, yard work, and 1st day of school

Bennett has an obsession with shoes...probably like most 18 month olds. He sorts through our shoe basket each day. The cool thing is he does usually match them up correctly! I can now tell him to go and get his shoes and he gets both of them and brings them to me. Now if I can just get him to fetch his clothes, diapers, drink...
Everytime Tim mows the yard the kids have to have a tractor ride with Daddy. They each get a turn driving. Reagan's actually getting pretty good! I wonder how old she'll be before Tim actually lets her mow the yard.

Today was Reagan's first day of Mother's Day Out. She was so excited! We are only sending her one day a week this semester. We think she will do great! It's me and Bennett that are going to be sad. She loves her new backpack and new tennies.

Bennett giving Sister a goodbye hug...so sweet.

Reagan and her sweet friend, Allison, are in the same class! They've been friends since they were babies and now they're so big and going to school together!

This is Reagan's teacher, Mrs. Amy. She is so sweet and Reagan really likes her.

So we just started keeping Baby Michael. Bennett's learning how to be gentle and sweet to a newborn baby. Reagan is such a good helper. She wants to do everything for him. We stayed home the first 3 days so we could get used to each other. I was getting stir crazy so today we ventured out! We went to play group and it was a huge success! Everyone stayed happy the whole time!


Jan Walker is a very special lady at our church. She's an awesome seamstress and sews every new baby their own taggie when they're born. This is a picture for Jan. Each kid has a taggie that she made them. Several kiddos didn't make it into the picture. They were getting tired and hungry by that time!
Reagan feeding Michael a bottle. She got herself really comfey!

Bennett "reading" books. We're just now starting to trust him with books other than the cardboard kind!

This picture cracks me up! Reagan's favorite thing to do is see how much she can stuff into a basket, backpack, walmart sack, gift bag...you name it! She's constantly going around the house stuffing something. Today she was in the play room being really quiet for a long time. I didn't even bother to go in there cause what trouble could she be getting into in the play room??? Making a mountain of every toy she could find on the train table! THEN she insisted on climbing on top of the mountain. I had to take a picture.

Summer Randomness

Just a week left of our summer and then Tim goes back to work! He's excited about his new job and the kids and I are excited about taking care of Baby Michael. We have kept busy but really haven't done anything worth blogging about. Here's what we've been doing...

Have you heard of planking? Teens around the country lay face down with their arms to their sides pretty much anywhere. Google it and you'll see pics of people planking in trees, on top of tvs, on the McDonald's counter. I don't know why I think it's so funny. Tom Green started it a few years ago. Anyway, Tim fell asleep and so me and the kids put his arms down by his sides and took pictures.

The kids walking the "Daddy plank". Actually Reagan walking the plank. Bennett just enjoyed sitting on Tim's head.

The family at the Dallas World Aquarium.

Reagan's 3rd Bday

Our baby girl turned 3 this weekend! The past 3 years have seriously flown by. She is such a precious gift from God. We adore her and love watching her become a little lady. Her birthday party was supposed to be small but turned into a big birthday bash! Which was so fun because we love having people over but next year we will have to keep it small. Don't want her to expect that much every birthday! :) Poppy and Kitty were able to drive from New Orleans to help us celebrate.

Tim worked so hard on Reagan's very own splash kiddie car wash. It worked great and Reagan loved it.

My Lil Man is growing up! Maybe he'll play football like his big cousin, Lane.

The water slide was a hit too. Thanks, Dustin and Julie for letting us borrow it!!!

Zoe pushing Hunter on the swing. I'm so happy we have a sweet girl next door for future babysitting.

Reagan and Aubrey having fun on the tire swing

Bennett is showing us the grass on his feet. He loved walking through the kid wash too.

Marvalee organizing the 3 year olds for a game of whiffle ball.

Birthday Girl was so excited to get sung to.

Daddy passing out ice cream

SO excited about a My Little Pony

Kitty trying out the hoola hoop.

Reagan loves the new hat Belle's mommy made her

Can't believe she's old enough for a scooter!

The morning of her real birthday...she wanted pancakes with chocolate syrup, chocolate sprinkles, and whip cream.

We had to take the soccer goal apart 3 times before we got it right!

Love this picture of the Allen boys. Allen Baby, Allen JR, and Allen SR

Yea for summer! I seriously can't believe it's the end of June. We have been having so much fun being lazy inside, swimming, the beach, play groups, and swimming some more. We love having Tim home!

Playing with Daddy's iphone

Swim lessons really paid off. We had so much fun swimming this weekend because Reagan isn't afraid of the water anymore.

I love this picture of Bennett and his daddy in the ocean.

and this one too

Reagan LOVED the beach. I knew she would play in the sand for hours. And that's just what she did.

Me and my honey

Brady, Reagan, and Peyton...my college roomie's 2 boys.

The moms and kids

My Dad

Just a little post for my dad. I loved worshiping the Lord with him this morning. I can always tell when he really likes a song cause he'll always sing louder than usual. I love it. He loves my husband and loves my kids so much. When he goes to Whataburger he saves the ketchup pouches for me cause he knows it's my favorite. I think he'll always watch me back out of the driveway when I'm at his house. He would seriously do just about anything for me if I asked him to.

My favorite memory of my dad:
When Alisha and I were kids he would come home from work and sit down in his La-Z-Boy recliner. We would each take a boot and pull with all our might until it would come off. Then some nights we would play our favorite game...the Silly Putty Game! My dad would put the silly putty in a tight fist and my sister and I would do everything we could to get it out. It would be such a victory if we got just a pinch of silly putty. We still talk about the Silly Putty Game with fondness.

Hey! Maybe we can pass the Silly Putty Game on to Timmy and Reagan...but only if they promise to have as much fun as we did.

Love you, Daddy! Happy Father's Day!

Zoo Day

Well, I have the sweetest future sister in law ever. My brother's girlfriend, Samantha, offered to go to the Dallas Zoo with me and all 4 kiddos today. It was the PERFECT day for it...the weather was awesome. We got there soon after they opened and stayed for almost 3 hours. The kids had so much fun and they were so good. Yea for the zoo!


Bennett loved the chicken! We fed it our animal crackers. Bennett was actually barking at it cause that's the only animal sound he knows how to do.

Reagan loves her Sammi. I didn't tell Sammi this but Reagan cried the whole way home after we dropped Sammi off at her house.

Seriously, Halle and Bennett adore each other. He's really going to miss her this summer. I told Schauna that she'll have to bring Halle to us every once in a while to play with Bennett.

We all look so happy...probably because we were! We had just eaten lunch so our bellies were all full.

The whole gang. Only half of us are looking at the camera. I think the jeep was much more interesting than the camera!