Catching Up

I feel very behind on Blogging. I will try to get caught up this week. I will tell you that our movers are coming Thursday and that is also the day that phone and Internet services are supposed to switch to our Dallas apartment, so I may get a little behind again, but I'll try.

For Valentine's Day, I stole an idea directly from my friend Allison and made reservations for our Family of Three at a Japanese Hibachi Grill. I will tell you that we got a lot of glares when we walked in on Valentine's Weekend with a baby (even though I made the reservations for 4:30!), but it was really fun!

Aaron had his eyes glued on our chef, as you can see in these pictures, and the chef loved Aaron. Everyone at our table ended up watch Aaron's reactions instead of watching the chef perform. It was so much fun. He was just in utter awe. That's a chopstick in his hand, by the way.

The chef did some steak really well done for Aaron and cut it up sooo tiny just for him. He completely catered to our boy and Little Man ate it up! So did everyone around him. It was a really neat way to spend Valentine's day.
This is a picture of Aaron with the Valentine's Bear that Kimmie got him. I will say 'Thank God for Grandparents'. Grandma Beth sent Aaron a Valentine's Package that included the SWEETEST book. I must take a picture. And Kimmie sent him a card in the mail that he played with A LOT and gave him this bear. If it wasn't for Grandmas, Aaron would have received nothing for Valentine's this year. Nothing. I should be too proud to admit that, but I guess I'm not. He didn't even wear a red sweater and I didn't buy him a bib that says 'Baby's First Valentine's'. Nothing. It is incredibly pitiful and I'm already trying to figure out what picture I'll use for February in next year's calendar. But all of that to say, 'Thank God for Grandparents!'

This was Aaron's Valentine's Project while Jory and I finished packing for him to head to Dallas for the week. Aaron dumped a bag of Starburst on the ground and, one by one, placed each of them in one of Daddy's shoes. This took a really long time and he let out great big sighs often. Then he would look at us as if to say "Are you appreciating the effort I am putting in here???"

And today Aaron was eating lunch and I was reading the paper and I swear to you, he cleared his throat! I looked up and he had eaten everything on his plate. He was looking at me like, "Ummm...I'm out of food here!"And here he is with a huge bowl of corn that I brought from home. We went to Chick Fil A today for a Farewell Lunch with our Sunday School Class. Aaron was the sweetest boy ever. I was so proud of him!

What a difference a week makes!

I've uploaded a new video of Aaron walking. It is truly amazing how quickly he is improving. He used to walk a few steps, and if he fell down, resort to crawling the rest of the way. Now, he falls quite a bit less (more when he is getting tired), and will stand back up and continue walking most of the time. Walking has definitely replaced crawling as his preferred mode of transportation. I'll remind him of this when he turns 16 and wants a car.

Here are the two video links. The first one is the original from Jan 30th. The second one is a week later. Watch them both and see for yourself how much he improved in a week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMXwJbRFaDU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSk1NlvWNG0

What's Going on in Our World

(A picture of the little man watching the snowfall yesterday morning when it started. It is still snowing!)

As of 5:30 Wednesday evening, our house was sold. We still will not close until March, but the contract and amendments are signed and no problem is foreseen with the appraisal or financing (continued prayers are still desired, however).

As of Tuesday we will have a new roof on our house courtesy of our insurance company with a small deductible payment from us (a little less than 1/2 of the total deductible fell on our shoulders).

As of today at 5:30, we will have possession of our apartment in Dallas and as of 8pm tonight when Jory gets home, we will live together again!

We will not move all of our stuff to Dallas for at least a week. We'll just take what we need to get by. Aaron and I will have to come back quite a bit in the next weeks anyway so we will be pseudo-living in Dallas. We will have movers move everything else. Probably in about a week. We are getting estimates on that now. We are going to get some estimates on having a moving company just handle the whole thing. That way it could be done on a weekday. Assuming we can't afford that, we have priced renting a U-Haul and paying movers to load the truck here and paying Dallas movers to unload it in Dallas. This would have to be done over a weekend, so it would probably be the 20th and the 21st.

In any case, very soon we will be together again in Dallas!

Winter Wonderland

These pictures are from Grandad's in North Richland Hills. They have 11 inches of snow and beat the all time record snowfall in DFW by several inches, per Jory.

It took Jory about 30 minutes to get his truck unearthed and defrosted this morning!

He did, however, still make it to Dallas in an hour.

The next two pictures are from Tyler. We have less snow than DFW but WAY more than we were supposed to and it's still snowing!

I also took some pictures of the Munchkin watching the snow. I'll post those soon. I did not take him out in it. I am the only person in the area who did not take her child out to experience the plethora of snow likely never to be seen again in such quantities. I am positive that if Jory were here Aaron would have had his first snow experience. Alas, he is not and I am not interested in playing in the snow. We can add that to the reasons I will likely not earn Mother of the Year this year.

As a final note for those interested: Aaron's Stats! He has not grown much in the last two months. He weighs about 21 pounds and is about 31 inches tall. That puts him in the 29th percentile for weight and the 92nd for height. Developmentally, he is right on track.

11 Months Old

As promised, here is the Birthday Boy!

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for his height and weight stats, though...I haven't done those yet! I do think they will be more average than they have been in the past. Aaron's still wearing 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers and we haven't had a major growth spurt in many months. I am expecting one any day now!

I can tell you that this is about the sweetest boy in all the world, though. He lights up my life and melts my heart. He is so full of sweet smiles, kisses and hugs! I just love this Little Man!

It's been a crazy week for Mr. Aaron. He's had a lot of different caregivers and every one of them said he was a perfect angel! He is just a joy!

Happy Eleven Month Birthday! Next month is the Big One!

The Land of the Living

I realize this post says it was done on Monday - that's because that is actually when I started it. I also realize that it has now been a full week since new pictures of the Little Man have popped up here, so I thought I'd better get something out here! This picture is from Sunday before church. Aaron's holding his little bible! He loves it! He got it before he was even born!

The rest of these pictures are from Sunday morning. Daddy was being silly to make Aaron laugh.

I promise some 11 Month Birthday pictures today, but I have to get out to get cupcakes and candles and it's cold. It's snowing here, so my motivation is low. So, I hope you enjoy these and I will check back later.

Rainy Day

Today was drizzly and cold all day and Aaron and I had nothing we had to do, so we had a lazy day indoors. You would think that I would have gotten all kinds of stuff done, but I didn't do anything! I'm really disappointed in myself and I'm going to have to spend my evening packing since I certainly didn't spend my day doing it.

We got our amendments from the home buyer today. He only asked for one thing - a new roof. This is actually a pretty reasonable request since we had a massive hail storm two weeks ago. The buyer has had an inspector and a roofer look at it and is asking that the entire thing be replaced. We have a roofer coming out tomorrow (provided it stops raining) to estimate the costs to repair the hail damage. Provided it is less than our home owner's deductible, we are going to offer to repair the damage. If the buyer insists on the new roof we will file an insurance claim, but ask that he pay the deductible. But, in the worst case scenario, if he insists on a new roof (and our insurance adjuster agrees that it is warranted) and refuses to pay the deductible, we'll find a way to do it and just be done with it. We know that the damage happened while we owned the house and we suspect that anyone buying the house would ask for the same thing. So, one way or the other, we hope to get this thing sold soon. Now it's just being drug out a little more. Please pray for our attitudes and patience. We really want a contract signed so that we can move in together!!!

I think this picture is great. Do you see the mirror behind Aaron? Do you see that he was practicing his kisses on it?Jory had another great day at work and another good commute. He left his dad's early and drove to an area where we would really like to live. He left that neighborhood at 7am and made it to work in less than 30 minutes! Very encouraging!The Munchkin seems to have abandoned crawling for good now. He walks everywhere and if he falls he just gets up and keeps on trucking. It's a little unsettling how quickly he can be gone now!

Wednesday

Today was another busy day, but we sure are starting to miss that Daddy. Has it only been a few days??? Aaron got up real early this morning so he could see Jory before he left for Dallas. He was sleepy, but so excited to see his daddy. When Jory waved goodbye Aaron gave him a big smile and held out his arms. "No bye bye, Daddy. I go with you!"

It took Jory exactly two hours to get to the office from our house. That's not too bad and he is going to start staying here on Sunday nights, too. Jory had a great day at work and is really liking the atmosphere and the work he's been given. His plate is filling up quickly and that's good. He's actually working late tonight. It's raining in Dallas and the highway is moving pretty slowly, so he is going to let traffic lighten up before he hits the road.

Aaron and I had MOPS this morning. I had to make a coffee cake to bring and I made that while Aaron sat in his high chair and watched me. I am blessed that Aaron loves to watch me cook. I have no problems sitting him in his chair and going about my business. He has been watching me cook almost every day since we brought him home from the hospital. I used to put his bouncy seat in the kitchen and now he has his high chair. I narrate everything I am doing - it's Aaron's personal cooking show!

This afternoon I got a little more packing done, but not much. I was running slower today. My sweet friend Charity came over tonight and brought me an awesome dinner which was SO nice and SO good. We got to chat for a little while and she got to love on Sweet Aaron.



We are STILL waiting to hear on the house. We have been told that they have a list of amendments they want to attach to the contract based on the inspection (though we believe most will be minor), but we do not have them yet. We were supposed to get them either yesterday or today and then this morning we were told that we would definitely have them today. Since the option period ends on Friday, the negotiation time is shrinking and I am very ready to have all of this settled!

Good Days

Aaron and I have had a good couple of days. Jory made it home tonight in time to see Aaron before he went to Bible Study, so that really made it a good day!

Yesterday, we went to the library with Jacquelyn and Emerson. It was so fun! Three 14-year-old violinists put on a concert. They have all been playing since they were 4-6 years old and they were very good. It was for preschoolers and all of the other kids in there were 3-5 years old. I think I scared a few people by bringing Aaron in, but he was mesmerized by the music. As long as they were playing, he was completely focused. In between the songs he got a little fidgety, but he didn't make any noise. Several people came up to me afterwards and said they couldn't believe how focused he was on the music!

After the concert, we went over to the book section of the library and Aaron stayed busy reading.

When we came home I packed the front room up and Aaron, again, stayed busy reading! HA!

Aaron actually did really we while I packed up the room. I packed all of our china, crystal and glass. By the Grace of God, nothing got broken and we had a good time doing it. Aaron watched me wrapping things in newspaper, so he took his camera and wrapped it up! How cute?!?

Today we had Bible Study in the morning and in the afternoon we packed up the living room. Slowly we are getting there. We should have a better idea later in the week of when we are moving.

Jory is having a great week. His commute has been MUCH better than we anticipated and he is really enjoying his job. Yesterday was a lot of paperwork and orientation, but today he was working. He really thinks he is going to like this!

As a last update, we are still waiting to hear on the inspection. Our option period ends Friday and after that, we should be pretty safe.

Wonderful Morning

We have had a great morning all the way around in the Allen family! First, Aaron slept until 6:30! This is very good for Mama and all that extra sleep sure made Aaron a sweet baby this morning. When I heard him talking in his crib I went to make his bottle. This is new for me. A few weeks ago, we weaned Aaron to a bottle in the morning. Since then, Daddy has been in charge of the morning routine and Mama has gotten a few extra minutes in the bed. So, I went to make the bottle and when I went into Aaron's room he was just playing so sweetly in his crib. He sure was excited to see me, though! I know why Jory loves to get him up in the morning. Such a fun way to start your day. I really enjoyed giving that sweet boy his bottle.

We got changed and started our breakfast. Aaron had oatmeal and mangoes. He likes mangoes alright, but they are hard for him to get a grip on to eat, so it took a while. Jory called on his way to work. That was so nice. Jory has planned to leave Grandad's house at 6:30 each morning to beat traffic and, hopefully, make it to Dallas in under an hour. Today, though, he wasn't going to have access to his building until 8:30 so he didn't leave North Richland Hills until 7:15. This is the height of rush hour, uggg. BUT, he made it to his office before 8:00! It may have been a fluke (no wrecks on I635 is definitely a fluke), but it sure made Jory's day - and ours, too.

Aaron's down for his morning nap. When we wakes up we have to head out because the inspector is coming. (Please say a prayer that all goes well). We are heading over to the Evans' - Emerson LOVES Baby Aaron - and then we are all going to the library to watch a preschool musical concert. How fun is that? Aaron LOVES music, so I think this will be great. Have a wonderful day!