Happy Birthday Papa!!!

Papa had a birthday.  Don't worry, Papa, we won't tell how old you turned...add about 30 years to my age and you have Papa's age.  :)

You can't go to Mimi's and Papa's and not take a several rides on the "beep beep."

It was definitely a good birthday.  Lots of laughs...

...That's what birthdays are all about, right?

(mom & dad...be glad I didn't post the other picture I took right after this...You're welcome...)

But Papa had to take some time out to stop and show Ryan and Allan the wonderful world of Star Wars.

Even little Ashtyn got in on the movie watchin'

(I think Ashtyn might have gotten bored with the movie by this point.)

Ashtyn is going in for a hug from Allan...

Allan was much obliged.

But then an airplane caught Allan's attention.

Ashtyn and momma Aimee

Allan and Daddy.

(I love the sky in this pic)

Once Allan and Ryan were distracted from the 4-wheller, Ashtyn wasted no time to take her turn.

She can hang with the best of them.

I think she likes 4-whellers too

Allan & His Buddies

Allan had some buddies over one night.

Dane*Allan*Ty

Gotta love those Mr. Potato Head glasses.

Best Buds

Allan and Ryan love hanging out with each other.

Who knows what Allan is showing Ryan, but it sure looks interesting.

Eggs

Shame on me for not posting any pictures of Allan hunting for his Easter eggs

Cousin Ashtyn, Allan and Mimi

Sittin' on Meema's (great-grandma) swing.

Kings Of Leon

is Allan's favorite band. He freaks out anytime we play any of their songs. If he's not in the car, then he starts dancing like a mad man. I checked their website, and of course, they sell no shirts in children’s size.

So what's a cool mom to do?

I made him his own personalized Kings Of Leon t-shirt.

And Allan is definitely proud of his cool concert shirt.

 

 

(KOL comes to town at the end of the summer to Pavilion. Kirk and I are thinking about taking him. We think he'd get a kick out of a live concert.)

How could I have forgotten to blog about this HUGE milestone!?!?!

When we went away to Austin back in March, I had just started to potty train Allan 5 days before. (03/22/10) I read a ton of really good reviews about someone's potty training book and I decided to buy her book and give it a shot. Her book says that she guarantee’s to have your child potty trained in 3-7 days. For $17, I thought, what the heck. Let me tell you, best 17 bucks I've ever spent! Basically when you (mainly the kid) get to a certain point, you get rid of diapers, except when sleeping. Big kid undies come on and you basically have to stay home for a few days in a row with the little one. You set your timer to take them to the potty every 20 minutes, whether they go or not. I did this with Allan the week before we went to Austin. He had a total of 3 accidents the entire week. One of those not being a peepee accident. YUCK!!!! And then it seemed like he just "got it." He got it so quick that I definitely thought it was too good to be true. Or at the very least that the trip all the way to Austin would set him back some.

Did it?  Nope!  He didn't even have any accidents on the drive to and from.  He wore big boy undies the entire time!  And he's been potty trained ever sense.  He's done great!  He rarely goes while he's sleeping, but we're stil doing the "nite nite undies" in case of any accidents.  (Better than messy sheets and mattress, right?)

So here he is, tiny hinny and all! I think he looks so cute in his "big boy undies."

(and mommy is definitely NOT missing diapers for several reason!)

I still can't believe how easy it was to potty train him. I've heard/read that it's supposed to be a very stressful time and even more so with boys. Maybe that book really does work. Maybe I'm just that good at potty training kids. Or maybe it's just that our kid is just a genius.

Wall Art

I'm tired of all our huge walls being bare, but paintings and art for large walls is not cheap.

I'm not done with this project, but I wanted it on the wall now.  Eventually each square will have a frame around it and be painted to match the furniture.

Picking Flowers

My little guy is so sweet.

He gets very proud when he picks a flower and brings it to me.

No matter what kind of flower it is, it's always the prettiest one out of the bunch.

The Godfather

Uncle Mike is also Allan's godfather.

Whenever Allan is around his Uncle Mike, he is just smitten with him.

Allan is always bringing up Uncle Mike to Kirk and me out of the blue.