A visit to Jessica's House

Yesterday we spent the day at Jessica's house. At first it was just going to be me but Gina called shortly after I got there and said that she had a little boy was begging her to go to Sydney's house. He even went and got her shoes for her, so she couldn't say no. Mom and Dad asked us to take pictures of Blake because they didn't have any new ones since his birth and they want to print one for their family photo calendar. So here are some new photos. He's in an outfit that Amy and Henry sent because he had to go to a doctor's appointment and he needed something warm on.

Max, Our Little Singer

Max loves to sing. He will often make up words that really don't make sense and "sing" them. Or he will sing words like "Daddy is at work". The attached videos show some of his talent. He is singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Children All Over the World", "It's Mimi Time" [Mommy made up this one, one night when getting Max ready for bed], "A Happy Song", and "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam". Aunt Jessica and Aunt Sonalyn have been his nursery music leaders and have helped him learn the primary songs.

Sonia Lynn's Braces Come Off

Here's the picture that Dad had of me that shows one of the gaps:

After 9 months, my braces finally came off today! For those who don't remember, I had two large gaps in between a few of my lower teeth, so I had braces put on the bottom teeth only. I had forgotten how large the gaps were until I saw a photo of me shortly after my mission and one of them is in plain sight. I'll try to remember to get a copy of it and post it here as the true before photo. Here are a couple of videos before and after the appointment.

January Birthdays!

Let me first start by saying Happy Birthday to Colbin, Ty, Blake and Sydney! All had birthdays this month and I blew it by not contacting Colby or Ty on their birthdays--I hope they had wonderful birthdays as they both turned 11!

Today was Sydney's birthday, so we headed over to her house to help celebrate. She first opened a card from Buddy and Granmama that had birthday wishes from Cinderella. Cinderella told her that she would be the princess for the day and boy was that dead on. After opening up clothing gifts from her aunts, she opened her present from her Mom, Dad and two brothers--a Cinderella outfit and matching jewelry! She quickly asked to put on the outfit and within minutes, she was dressed and looking every bit the princess. A few moments passed when Jaxson saw a package being delivered on the front porch. It was a gift from Tia Ivonne (Tia Bonne as the kids say) and it was a big hit! She got another dress up outfit in the form of a fairy costume. It was just the perfect gift for a little girl who LOVES every princess that Disney can come up with.

This reminds me of something that happened a few months ago when Jessica and her family were still living with us. I had stopped off at the store on my way home from work and I saw the cutest PJ bottoms with Tinkerbell all over them. They were on extreme clearance and so I thought Sydney would get a kick out of having her Mom and Aunts own a pair, so I picked up 3 of them and headed home. When the PJs were on, Sydney didn't find this amusing. She screamed at Jessica telling her that those were HER Tinkerbell PJs. I was very insensitive as I wasn't thinking as a 2 year old would think and never imagined her having that reaction. It took a few episodes of Jessica wearing them in front of her before she got used to the idea--I won't soon forget to try to think through a child's perspective the next time I have a so-called bright idea.

Well, getting back to the birthday girl, here's some footage from her special day:

First Pictures of Blake

Official Information:
Blake Matthew Allen
7 lbs. 2 oz.
20"

Blake is here!

This is just some preliminary information because we wanted to get this posted for Buddy and Granmama to see. We aren't able to get good angles through the window, so we gave my camera to Bryan so he could take some, so the better shots are thanks to him. As the door quickly opened to do the camera handoff, we learned that he was 7 lbs. something and about 20 in. long. We'll get better information soon and we'll keep you posted. In keeping with the rough data, he was born a little before 10:00 a.m. Mountain time.

Pre-Op

Well, they came to take her to the operating room--more like they escorted her as she walked herself to the room. Here's some footage:

Allen Baby's Birthday

Well, it's finally here. Jessica has waited a long time for this morning. Bryan, Jessica, the kids and Phyllis, Bryan's mom all got here around 6:45 a.m. Jessica said she's been up since 4:00, so she's pretty tired. But she looks great--she even had the energy to curl her hair.

Gina, Max and I got here a little after 8:00 a.m. As soon as I unloaded the bags, I took some quick video footage of everyone waiting. I've stepped outside of the room to upload the video footage since I can't get internet access inside the room. They should be coming for Jessica in about 10 minutes. As soon as we can, we'll get footage up of the baby and we'll try to call Mom and Dad on Skype.

Video Montage

Aunt Sonia was playing with her new Flip Video and created a little montage of Max.

Max

Here's a little video that Aunt Sonia a.k.a. Sonnalyn took of Max!