Our Spring Vacation--Part 2 Jacksonville

Let me start this post by saying the Heather is much more gifted at blogging than I am, please check out her posts about your visits at http://web.mac.com/burrows4
We were hoping to get up and leave first thing Sunday morning to head to Jacksonville, but we got a later start than planned!! We finally got on the road around noon, and were hoping that Isabella would take a great, long nap in the car--turned out only be around 30 minutes long!
Thank you Megan and Scotty for loaning us your portable DVD, it definitely made the time go faster for Isabella, and in turn better for all three of us!!

Isabella intently watching Mickey mouse, still her favorite!

Around 4pm we finally arrived in J-ville!! We were so excited to be there!! Pat and Heather have been wonderful friends of our for years, they have a 4 year old girl Alana, and another girl Lilliana (Lilli) that is just almost 6 weeks older than Isabella! It is always so much fun to watch the girls interact and catch up!!
That night we started our visit with our tradition of a taco dinner! The weather was wonderful and we ate outside on their back patio! So very nice, and no mosquitoes!!
I have come to the conclusion that Jax is the place for yard sales! They have this really fun climbing toy with a slide in the room that Jason and I slept in, the girls (all 3 of them) loved playing on it all week!!

An action shot!! They loved playing together!!

After dinner Heather, Laura (Pat's wonderful sister), and myself went and did a little shopping and the guys put the kiddos to bed!! What a nice evening out!!

On Monday Heather baby-sits a baby by the name of Carmen and we decided that we all wanted to go the Jacksonville Zoo--actually much nicer than Riverbanks in Columbia!! It was the first time that Isabella had been to the zoo since last spring, she seemed to like it so much better this time!!

Towards the end of the day we headed towards the splash pad, all of the kiddos loved it, except Isabella! She is just not too sure of water splashing her!!



On Tuesday we went to beach for the late morning, early afternoon! Alana joined us after she was finished with school for the day, we missed her while she was gone! It was a wonderful, beautiful day for the beach! We had a wonderful time flying kites, the guys played Bacci ball (with a little help from the girls, we played in the water. . . all of the very fun beach stuff!!







I just love these last two pictures of Isabella and Lilli--they are just so cute and such sweet girls!! Tuesday night the four of us got to go out on a date--Laura baby-sat the kids for us!! Thank you so much Laura, you are the best!! It seemed like the old days before either of us had kiddos yet!! We had a wonderful evening of dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then onto the movies to see Prince Caspian! It was so great to get to spend an evening out, just the four of us!!
Not a wonderful picture, but the only one that we had of the four of us for the whole week!!

We decided that Wednesday would be a day to stay home and make sure that the girls rested up and stuff! Jason and Patrick went and picked up their new piece of furniture and made an awesome castle with the box for all three of the girls to play with!! What wonderful, imaginative, handy Daddy's our girls have!! Huge Daddy points for this!!


The girls loved playing in the castle!! It was so much fun to watch them play!



We saved going out on the boat until Thursday, again we had to wait to hang out with Alana until after school! Once we were all together, we had another wonderful, perfect day!! We have always loved hanging out on the boat with the Burrows'--on water or land!! : ) We boated to this semi-private beach and had a picnic and just played for hours!!






This became my new favorite picture of her!! She loved playing in the water!!



This one made all of us think about what empty tomb must have been like!!

This sweet picture is how our precious baby spent the boat ride back to the docks!! She was so tired!! Thursday was another wonderful day, we capped it off with a trip to a Japanese Steakhouse to see Adam and Allison (some friends from CIU that are now living in Jacksonville)!!

Thank you so much for another wonderful time with guys! We absolutely love you so much, and wish that we could be together more often!!! Hope to see you again soon!!

Our Spring Vacation--Part 1

We had been looking forward to our spring vacation for a very long time!! For almost a year we had been talking about and planning to spend our time with our wonderful friends the Burrows!! Okay, so we didn't end up going back to Jamaica like we had talked about--we will save that for another time!!
We were not able to leave for Jacksonville until Sunday morning, so our vacation started with the arrival of Nick and Keri Friday night! We don't get to see Nick and Keri nearly enough, so we took the little bit of time that we could get with them. Friday was Nick's birthday so the four of us went out to eat at Miyami (a Japanese Steakhouse here in town), and had a great time. After dinner we introduced Keri (she is originally from Michigan) to Harris Teeter, she had never been in one before. We had a big time doing a little grocery shopping!! The only person besides immediate family to baby-sit Isabella so far, is a girl by the name of Megan--she does a wonderful job!! Thanks Megan for keeping her so that we could have a wonderful double date!! It reminded us of our ABC days!!









Keri, Nick, and Isabella playing with Mr. Potato-head!!

Saturday morning we continued to celebrate Nick with a birthday breakfast of pancakes and turkey bacon!! After breakfast the boys worked in the yard and the girls hung out inside. That afternoon there was a tailgating event at church. Everyone took their own food and cooked and then went inside to hear a Christian comedian/singer--who was hilarious!! Our neighbors the Hopkins went with us!! Emma Ray and Isabella get along like they have known each other forever!! They are so sweet to watch!

Does anyone else think that these girls could be sisters?? They actually look more alike in person!!

Right: Megan and Scotty listening intently
Left: Emma Ray and Isabella playing in Emma Ray's wagon









Both girls with Papa

Thank you Snyders, Hopkins, Papa, Grand and H for joining us for the afternoon!! Thanks Nick and Keri for our wonderful, yet hectic, visit!! We love you guys!!

Today is a big day!!!

Today is a big day in the Allen household!! We decided that today would be the day that we would give "paci" to Emma Ray's new baby brother, McClure --because babies need "paci" and big girls don't need them!! We have been talking about this with her for several days, but right now she is in her crib crying and asking for it!! Please pray for strength during this transition, for all three of us!! We have been very blessed that every other transition so far has gone smoothly, hopefully after this first little hurdle, this one will too!!

To be totally honest, I am kind of sad too, it does mean that my little baby girl is growing up!! I have loved absolutely loved every second we have had with her so far!!

Today. . .

18 month Well Baby check-up stats:
23.14 1/2 pounds (25-50% percentile)
33 1/4 inches (75-90% percentile)
Right on target developmentally!!

We love Dr. Whitehead!! I know, we are running a whole month late on her 18 month check-up but we finally made it today!! Isabella cried the whole time that the nurse was in the room, and when Dr. Whitehead first came in the room, but finally calmed down!!

He mentioned the wives-tale that you can double a child height at two years old and get an approximation of adult height!! If she continues at the rate that she is currently growing she might hopefully be 5 feet 11 inches!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you Daddy for your tall genes!! We love you so much!!

I promise that I will post pics and info from our recent wonderful vacation to Jacksonville, and Baltimore soon!! As well as some more recent pictures!!

My chatty sweet girl!!

As usual I am behind on my posting!! Also as usual, no really good excuse, we have just been surviving Jason's last few weeks of class and all of the busyness that was included with that!!

Isabella continues to talk up a storm, and actually has quite good manners for being 18 months old (wow--18 months already, can you believe that?)! If you hand her anything she says thank you very clearly, and if she hands you something and you forget to say it, she looks at you with as stern a look as she can muster and says "thank you." She and the little girl next door were playing with a stick one day and Isabella handed it to Emma Rae and Emma Rae did not say thank you, so Isabella gave her a look like that said "hello" and said "thank you!!??" Emma Rae's Mommy, Miss Megan and I just laughed at them!!

Today I was sneezing (yes we all have another cold, for at least the 10th time this winter), and after each sneeze she would say "bless"!!

When we are leaving somewhere or someone is leaving us, she looks at them and says "Bye bye, see you soon!" She also says that when the bath water is going out of the tub, or when she is telling her baby night-night!!

She also TOTALLY loves Mickey and Minnie Mouse!! We were at the Disney Outlet at the beach several weeks ago and she ran up to the display and grabbed a Mickey and just hugged him. Jason told her that if she could say Mickey Mouse he would buy it for her. She promptly answered him and said "Mic Mouse, Min-mini-mini Mouse," so of course we left with a stuffed Mickey and Minnie!! Most of the time it sounds like mouse, but sometimes it sounds more like moose!! When Mickey Mouse Clubhouse comes on Disney Channel, if she is anywhere within earshot she stops whatever she is doing, says "Mic Mouse" and runs to the TV!

Isabella and her new best friends!!

It is so hard to believe that she is 18 months old already!! We are absolutely loving every moment that we have with her!! She is such a blessing to us, and we thank God for her all the time!!

One last thing--she really loves the youth group, and spending time with them!! She tries so hard to talk to them too! She tries to say some of their names like Ashley, she calls "Ashes." She can totally say Hannah as clear as the rest of us, but it is more like "Ha-nnnah." Of course the girls eat it up! It is so cool to watch her interact with the "big kids"!!