sunny sunday

today was gorgeous and we decided to spend a chunk of it at chastain park. the boys loved being able to run and pick up leaves and throw balls and just be boys. i loved watching them. every minute.





we stayed until the sun started to set—the light was beautiful! (all we had was the iphone, if you can believe that. i need to make a better effort to have the camera with us at all times.)



the kiddos must have been exhausted from all the fresh air and fun. they ate a big dinner of chicken, waffles, apples and bananas, splashed around in the tub for a while and went to bed right at 8 o'clock. that never happens!! days like today really make my heart feel full.

happy thanksgiving!

i can't believe thanksgiving is over already. we had a great time up at papa ger' and mama lin's house in chickamauga! when we arrived, the allens were all outside (in the c-c-c-c-cold) playing croquet and drinking the king of beers. max joined in the fun with daddy. mommy and alex made for the livingroom.



and, that was the last of the photographs. we misplaced tripper's camera and didn't find it again until we were packing up to leave. i hate that!

the boys wore their super cute thanksgiving outfits, which you can kind of see under max's puffer vest. we will definitely have to do a photoshoot in them once they come out of the laundry—too cute not to. they also ate turkey, barbecue, sweet potatoes with glazed yumminess on top, apples, bananas, bread, dressing, mac and cheese, and tasted (and promptly spit out) cranberry sauce. max was a good sport, though i wouldn't say he exactly ate all that. alex gobbled it down.

later in the day the boys enjoyed an allen sing-along. great uncle scott got out the guitar and cousin cody played the bongos. the boys used clothespins and drumsticks to make their own music—which sounded great, actually! then max treated everyone to a little bum-shaking to beyonce's all the single ladies. too cute.

as much fun as we had, i'm not going to lie—it was a little tough this year as both kiddos were still sick. max spiked a fever on thursday night and had quite the temper tantrum. thank goodness for all the extra help! we allen four had a lovely time with ...

papa ger'
mama lin'
uncle scott
auntie ashley
mommyrt
great uncle scott
great aunt carol
cousin jake
cousin cody
great uncle skip
great aunt linda
cousin robbie
and hopefully-maybe-one-day-please-oh-please cousin katie (robbie's girlfriend)

on friday, alex did the sweetest thing. he climbed up into mommyrt's lap (his great grandmother) and fell fast asleep. he's such a busy body, i can't remember the last time he picked a lap to nap in—i so wish we had found the camera before then. maybe he'll do it again when we all meet up on christmas eve at uncle scott and auntie ashley's house. let's hope.

slam dunk!

well, not exactly. he loved this little basketball toy for a good five minutes and then for whatever reason it caused a major meltdown. m-a-j-o-r. maybe because he couldn't pull it off the side of the crib where i stuck it? maybe because it was red? maybe because it was just high enough that he couldn't hold the rim while he picked up the balls from the floor? who knows. maybe he was just tired.

we'll try again tomorrow.

four and a half hours

that's how long our ear, nose and throat appointment was this afternoon. i had no idea it was going to be that long. i wasn't prepared for that long of an outing. i only brought two cars, one book and one bag of baby goldfish. lesson learned. i really want to throw myself into an exhausted heap on the floor right now, but i still have a project to do for work. fun.

anyway, we did a lot of tests today—which i'll type out in detail tomorrow—but for now let's just say tubes are in our futures. pencil in december 10—that's the day my babies will have their surgeries.

ps—any words of encouragement/stories of what a piece of cake it was are greatly appreciated.

and another one down

it got max, too. poor little bugs. they were up and down all night long. so was tripper. he literally got no sleep last night and crawled into bed around 6am. thank goodness we are going to the ear, nose and throat doctor today at 2:30!!

and 'the sick' is making the rounds again

my gosh. this has been a hard season. i'm still not quite well and alex has come down with another cold. he's super congested and is coughing, a new symptom. we already have an appointment tomorrow with a pediatric ear, nose and throat doctor. hopefully they can help us with this round.

you know, we still haven't gotten the boys' their 15-month shots yet. i do not want to do it if they are at all sick. these are the scary ones and i want the boys in tip-top health for them. in three weeks, we go for our 18-month checkup. doing the math that means we have had three solid months of sickness in our house, be it ear infections or full-on snot city. yikes.

two firsts!

1. the boys ate chick-fil-a—and they loved it! i have never seen either one of them gobble up chicken so fast. they took their time with the fries, refused the fruit and even said no to their brownie. eat more chikin is right!

ps—did you know they give you sticky toddler placemats there if you ask for them? cool!

2. we were coming home after being away a few hours and just before we arrived alex decided to take a big, stinky poopy in his pants. instead of changing him in the back of the car, we decided to take him upstairs where everything is just plain easier. so, instead of taking him out of the carseat and plopping him onto his poop-filled diaper in the stroller, we let the boys walk! they walked through the parking deck, onto the parking deck elevator, through the breezeway, into the vestibule with the doorman, into the main lobby, across the lobby, into the elevator, off the elevator and onto their floor and all the way to the front door.







you guys, it was kind of adorable! especially when ouzeman, the doorman, opened the door for them. they are growing up! sorry for the blurry pictures, but it was poorly lit, the boys are lightning fast, and all we had was our iphone. at least we captured it on film!!

there's nothing finer in this land

than two teeny, tiny georgia fans!



we took the boys to their first sec football game up in athens last weekend and they had so much fun! we tromped through a frat house, walked through miles and miles of tailgaters, saw two airplanes carrying banners and got to pet a gigantic bulldog. fun! oh, and we left town right when the football game started—shhhhh. i know, i know. but they really are a bit too young to stay for the game. maybe next year!

here we are in front of the sig ep house:



and here's tripper's old room, room #4. doesn't look that different!!



in front of the stadium:



and this one. yes, this is athens, georgia, not somewhere, texas. i remember college being a time of finding yourself, figuring out your own identity. hmmmm ...



i guess back in the day we sort of had a uniform, too. anyone remember cut-off duckheads?

the nannies allen

tripper's parents came to town today to help us out with the boys while susan left town to attend her grandbaby's first birthday. got that?!

the boys were thrilled to see them and to watch the happy feet video they brought!! it has penguins in it. the boys love penguins! they even got out their penguin stuffies!!





thanks so much papa ger' and mama lin' for coming today! and for getting max to eat like a machine—wow! we love you!

bonus!
uncle scott and auntie ashley came over to join in on the fun. too bad tripper and i both had to work!

max in the box

last night after bath time, max decided to climb into his little activity cube. you should have heard the giggling! so sweet.



at one point alex tried to climb in there with him. now that would have been a picture!! lol.

kodak moment

ok, well, sony digital camera moment ...



pictures like this just make my heart swell up. there is nothing quite like seeing my dad with my sons. xoxo.

call me!

the boys discovered their old cellphone and took turns (and by took turns i mean fought over) calling their beloved ceecee again and again. i think they were disappointed that she didn't ever answer, but they kept trying nonetheless!

rumpled = good

so max's hair definitely looks better rumpled and slathered with gel. he doesn't even seem phased by his hatchet job—still smiles at himself in the mirror. thank goodness hair grows!!

dancing in the dark

apparently max enjoys a little mariachi music.



how cute! even with bad hair!!

speaking of hair

i got mine cut last night. it's cute, not like what i did to max. anyway, i'm trying to decide what to do about my color. my usual blonde isn't exactly recession-friendly, so i'm trying to figure out what to do until the tides turn. i have a few options, according to keili, my stylist.

1. do a recession-friendly glaze. this will make my hair a bit darker than it currently is, but it will look richer—and planned—instead of like someone whose highlights have just grown out.

2. all over color with just a few highlights. this will give my hair a jennifer anniston type look. she recommended caramel color all over with a few bright highlights—the result would be a darker, winter blonde.

3. keep breaking the bank with my normal every 3 months routine. (this would be very selfish of me and i'm really putting the option here only because i like my lists to have odd numbers in them.)

thoughts??