The Great-Grandparents

Patrick's paternal grandparents live in Austin. They are the reason that we had our wedding at Horseshoe Bay. At the time, my grandfather was still able to travel and they were not, so the decision was easy. It was very important to us to have them there. Charlie is their first great-grandchild so we try to bring Charlie over there every time we are in Spicewood. Here they are meeting Charlie when he was about 6 weeks old:
And here they are just this past week:


Charlie had a great time showing off his army crawl and pulling-up skills. And Grandmother pulled out some pot and pans and measuring cups for Charlie to play with. He enjoyed it fully and was a great source of entertainment:

I love that Charlie has these two people in his life. Both Grandmother and Grandpop are artists and still enter their work into various art exibits around south Texas. Grandmother does small and large collages. We have a few in our house and I LOVE them:

And we just received this in the mail from Grandpop:
He's a fabulous wood-craftsman! I love that Charlie will have this rhino puzzle to play with for years to come.

Thank you both for being such wonderful Great-Grandparents to our little man!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Both Michael and Patrick made it to Spicewood on Wednesday evening, so we were all together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We ate... a lot, watched sappy holiday movies, started the 2009 Allen Family Bowl Pool, entertained and were entertained by Charlie, and just relaxed.
All the stockings are hung:
Charlie with Uncle Michael on Christmas Eve:
With Babo:
Our family on the night before Christmas:

Christmas morning came early with Charlie rising and shining at 6:30am. By 7am we were all up and opening presents. Here Charlie is "helping" Uncle Meeks:

Helping himself to some gifts:

Hangin with Pops:

Playing with everyone else's toys but his own:

Even Hank got some gifts:
Hangin with daddy and Hank:
Family shot on Christmas Day:

Spicewood for the Holidays

We are back from a week in Spicewood. Unfortunately, both Charlie and I got sick on Christmas Eve and have yet to recover, but we still had a fun week. We made a quick trip into Austin to visit the grandparents (which will be in another post) on Saturday. On Sunday Patrick and I left Charlie with Babo and Pops and had a night to ourselves! We went to a movie (which is something we haven't done since well before Charlie was born) and then we checked into Horseshoe Bay Marriott for the night. Patrick and I haven't been back since we got married there!
The view from the room:(we stayed in a room directly under our honeymoon suite)
Here I am standing in the spot that we got married:

Here are the ribs that Patrick destroyed at dinner: (let's just say they got the best of P at 4am):

A big thanks to Ann and Bob for keeping Charlie for the night!
Patrick came back to Dallas to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, Charlie and I just stayed in Spicewood with the Allen's and relaxed. We played inside and out:


For some reason, Charlie decided that he no longer liked baths for the week that we were in Spicewood. Trying to bathe the little man while he is trying to escape the bath is a difficult task. It lead to this: a black eye for Christmas.

This is just one of the many bumps and bruises that he got while down there. He learned to climb the stairs and pulled up on everything... his balance is still not all the way there, so he received many bonks on his head.
On Christmas Eve both Charlie and I started coughing and having some serious congestion and sore throats. Charlie threw up twice on Christmas Day due to congestion and once tonight. We had all been planning on going to the Independence Bowl tomorrow in Shreveport and C and I were going to stay through Wed. Instead, we will both now be going to doctors visits. Apparently, whatever we have requires antibiotics. Patrick is still going to go with some UGA friends, though. Stay tuned.. the next post will be about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Top 5 Things I Love About The Holidays

5. The food! It's OK to gain 5 lbs. from Halloween to New Year's... um, right?
4. Decorations!! The house always seems so festive.
3. Christmas Ornaments
old:
and new:
2. Getting Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's cards in the mail
1. Getting to spend time with my family and friends
!
Merry Christmas to all!

Photo Shoot

Thank you to Deann Arnold for capturing our babies on camera. (Charlie at 8 mths and the triplets at 9.5 mths.) Deann is the same photographer we had for Charlie's 4 mth. pics. We love her! Here are some of my favorites:

Happy Holidays!

The Allen clan is headed to Spicewood for the week to celebrate Christmas! Safe travels and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Zoo Me!

Thanks to the Leclercq's for getting us a zoo family pass for the year. We went on Sunday and had such a great time. The zoo is HUGE, so we only got to see about 1/4 of it in our 2 hr. visit. But don't worry, we will spend many more days there throughout the year!