Bryce & Brennon

We have not had internet service for about a month now. We are about a month away from moving into the new house. We will try to get some updated pictures of the boys and the house on here soon. Hang with us just a little longer.

Here are some recent pics of the house.

We are spending Labor day weekend at Josh's parents so I have access to a computer!  Thought I would give a quick update on the Allen life as is stands these days.  First of all, the new house should be completely finished in 2 weeks.  So surely in another few weeks we will have the internet hooked up and ready to go.  The reason we have not had it is because we were using our neighbor's internet service but they moved.  I checked into getting internet service of our own and an electrician was going to have to come in and move and add wires before the internet guy could even hook it up.  Knowing that we were moving in a few months, I decided to just wait and hook it up at the new house.  So my updates will become much more frequent in September!
We have found a church and have joined a small group so Josh and I have plenty of weeknight activites to attend. We have not done a whole lot of anything this summer b/c of the house but that has kept us completely busy. Josh and I are going to Dallas for a 3 day trip next weekend with some friends - without children - so that will be a good get away. We are really enjoying it in Conway and look for great things for our family.

Bryce is just such an amazing child.  He is so easy going and can entertain himself for hours.  I wanted to just note a few of the things that have been going on with him.  We are working on our manners - "yes ma'am", "no sir", etc., and of course learning to share, take turns, be patient (that's a hard one for him), being thoughtful of others, and volunteering with our church.

He will start going to Awanas on Sunday nights starting Setp. 7.  We had a program like this at our church in Atlanta it just had a different name but did not include children under 8.  I have to get him a "real" Bible if anyone has any suggestions.  I want to get him one age appropriate but that he can keep and enjoy as he gets a little older too. 

He has had a sort of lazy eye since he was born. It has always been smaller and is more noticeable when he is sleepy or sick.  Sometimes it seems to almost look crossed, but not really, it is really hard to explain, it just kindof looks slower moving than the other eye.  I took him to the pediatrician to get her to look at it and she referred us to an eye specialist.  So we went to the eye doc. and had an hour worth of tests run.  He did such a good job sitting in the chair and answering all the questions the doctor asked him.  He has great vision and no sort of cross-eye or anything but the reason it looks a little slower sometimes is because his eye lid is too droopy on the right eye.  His eye lid is heavy and apparently makes his eye appear to move slowly when in fact it is moving at the same rate as the other eye.  The doctor thinks that this will correct itself as he grows but he said that some people correct it with a surgery to remove some of the extra skin.  I think that is a little ridiculous for a 3 year old so we are going to go back in a year just to make sure his vision is still good and that the eyelid has not disrupted anything with his eye growth.  If he still has a droopy eyelid when he is a teenager and it bothers him then we will consider a cosmetic surgery but not at 3!

He is really excited about preschool.  We have bought him some of the little learning books and he loves answering all of the questions and knows almost every answer the first time he is asked.  He is a smart little cookie ( we use the kindergarten books).

He is really into dinosaurs right now.  He has already made a birthday wish list and picked the location for his birthday.  It is fun to have such an independant child, he is such a joy and full time entertainment!

Our baby is growing so fast!  He is so changing so rapidly that there is alot to catch up on.

He has started walking (last Saturday actually) and walks all over the place.  Being my second child I was wondering when he would walk ( he will be 15 mths next week) but was not worried that he wasn't.  He had been pulling up and walking with assistance forever so I knew there was nothing wrong he just wasn't ready. 

He still doesn't talk just a whole lot of words but he communicates what he wants by shaking his head yes or no.  I can usually understand whatever it is he wants.

He is still on the bottle and formula...but to tell you the truth I'm not worried about it.  Most of the time I put water in his bottle and he only gets formula at nap time and bed time.  He just has not done well with whole milk the times that I have tried to switch.  And his bottle is like his pacifier.  So, he may have a bottle as long as some kids have a pacifier.  I am only concerned about getting him off formula which we will work on in the next month or so. 

He will start Mother's Day Out at our church next week and I am very excited about it.  He needs a little socialization...he is attatched to my hip, which I love, but I will enjoy Mother's Day Out as much as he will. ;)

He is still a little unpredictable at night, sometimes he sleeps all night, sometimes he wakes up.  There is never a rhyme or reason to his sleeping...we do the same thing everyday and night as far as nap time and bedtime routine is concerned and get different results...who knows!

He LOVES his big brother!  I just love seeing them play together.  And why wouldn't he love him, Bryce is such a great brother to him!  They play so cute together!  Brennon tries to copy what Bryce does!

Brennon has started wanting to push all of the furniture all over the house. Chairs are his favorite thing. Sometimes my dining chairs will be in the living room and the chairs by the fireplace end up in the kitchen.  Hopefully this is a passing phase b/c is makes for lots of clutter!

He is such a sweet little cuddly boy!  And we are very proud of him!