Coke Party (it's not what you think)

Authentic Coca-Cola's --- Jay's most-recent obsession. What makes them special? Well, they're made with real sugar, not that high fructose corn syrup crap and they're sold in old-school bottles that look like they've been pulled out of a land fill (gross, I know). He gets them at the local Mexican Grocery Store. Yes, I was wary of them at first, but they sure are delicious.

We were so excited to have a recent visit from "Grandma Cathy" and had a Coke Party with Cathy as our Honorable Guest. Jay has been perfecting his pizzas (trying to mimic Momo's) and I've been perfecting my wine-drinking, so it worked out....perfectly.

Papa taking all the credit (while Jay's on a wine-run at Publix).

Kane/Coddington/Allison ladies

All the kiddos having pizza at the kids table.

Keegan loves him some Grandma Cath!

Master of the Coke Party

Sleepy boy

Feature Attraction

fascination

Hey, what's in here?

things I realize I must say all the time

PAPA: Happy Birthday, Logan.
LOGAN: I know! I'm growing up SO FAST!


ME: Happy Birthday, Logan!
LOGAN: Thanks! I'm five, you know.
GAVIN: Yep, and Mommy's SO proud of you!

IT'S PAPA'S BIRTHDAY!

WE LOVE YOU!

my little slugger

Happy Weekend Everyone!

I'll be working on learning how to walk at this place called Springtime Tallahassee. Hope to see you there!

prisoner of war

Life with boys....dungeons, prisons, pirates, bad guys, and swords...what more can I really say?

5/6 of a year

Keegan is 10 months old!

Since his illness, he has thinned out a little bit which is helping him crawl and learn to walk. I really think it was all the baby fat that was slowing him down earlier. He also does this sort of thing where he scoots along the floor using his right foot to push off. He does this so much that he has a permanent water blister on his big toe. He is so agreeable and mild-mannered. He just goes with the flow and is such a pleasure in our lives.

Likes: Dancing, laughing, clapping, signing -- especially "milk", taking a bath and singing the Allison Bath Song along the way, practicing walking and then applauding his own efforts, crawling (a.k.a. mopping my floors with his white onsies).

Dislikes: Anything to drink besides milk from the "source". He'll wait all day long until I get home without so much as a sip of anything else.

Vocabulary: dadada, mamama, bububu (brother?), all done.

Thoughts about mommy

I saw this on Facebook, but thought it would be more appropriate to post here. If you have kids of your own or have ever had kids of your own or have ever seen kids in your life, you'll understand that this is an awfully long survey for them to sit for. It cost me 4 jelly beans and a twenty minute game of Hot Hoops to get their cooperation.

1. What is something mom always says to you?

Gavin - you love us

Logan - you love us

2. What makes mom happy?
G - you saying you love us
L – when we play nice

3. What makes mom sad?
G – fighting
L – when we fight

4. How does mom make you laugh?
G – saying funny words when we cry
L – when you say funny words like when you say, well, I can’t really remember.

5. What was mom like as a child?
G – movie, the little toaster (?????????)
L – a princess (good answer, Logan!)

6. How old is mom?
G – don't know, 15 or 50.
L – don't know, 21. No! 31!!!

7. How tall is mom?
G – 30 or 31. Does that make sense?

L – I really don't know. How many more of these questions?

8. What is mom's favorite thing to do?
G – read and check news on the computer
L – read books

9. What does mom do when you're not around?
G – play with Keegan and read
L – mop the floors

10. If mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
G – don't know (Actually, he doesn't understand the question, and being the well-trained school psychologist that I am, I cannot bring myself to break standardization and re-phrase it for him).
L – for being your best friend

11. What is mom really good at?
G – reading the news and cutting coupons
L – writing words

12. What is mom not very good at?
G – papers (???)
L – Cooking. Like sometimes you burn yourself.
G – NO! Mommy IS good at cooking.
L – Mommy’s not good at baseball then. Yeah, not at all.

13. What does mom do for her job?
G – work at your school
L – talk to people that are sad because that’s what a psychologist does

14. What is mom's favorite food?
G - broccoli

L – ramen noodles and p-sketti.

15. What makes Mommy proud of you?
G – happy
L – when we play nice and when I play t-ball and when I read to you.

16. If mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
G – don't know, a newsman (Again, he really doesn't understand the question).
L – you'll be on TV on the army show and you can win some money (Can you guess what he's talking about?)

17. What do you and mom do together?
G – read and play
L – play games.

18. How are you and mom the same?
G – don't know
L -- don't know. Geez. This is so boring. How many more?

19. How are you and mom different?
G – we don’t have the same flip flops
L – cause God makes us different, so we are.

20. How do you know mom loves you?
G – cause daddy telled me
L – from being proud of us

21. Where is mom's favorite place to go?
G – Wild Adventures. Can we go there today?
L – Wild Adventures and Universal Studios

Little Leprechauns

Great things come in small packages

He's the smallest one on the team, but his confidence makes up for it! He doesn't have a clue that they're towering over him. In case you're wondering, he had a check-up the day after this practice -- doctor says he's between the 25th and 50th percentile. Part of the reason why he looks so small here is that he barely made the age cut-off. Ok, so that's not entirely true. He DID NOT make the age cut-off, but Jay is extraordinarily good at calling people on the phone and persuading them to do what he wants them to do (think back to his RPOF days...), so I had him call and get Logan on the team. Unfortunately, this means that some of the kids on this team are almost turning 8(!!!!!), but note the puffed chest and pride exuding from my little Cub!

A well-check, followed by a not-so-well-check

Keegan's 9 month check-up!

2/25/2009

Height -- 29 inches
Weight -- 23 lbs, 12 oz.

I'm assuming, by the look on the nurse's face, that both numbers are off-the-chart.

Unfortunately, this smile didn't last for long. The following day (Thursday), Keegan was running a fever and pulling at his ears again. The "tummy issues" were soon to follow (I'm sparing you the graphic details here in an effort to maintain readers) By Saturday, we were back at Urgent Care, since my kids do not get sick enough to go to the doctor unless it's a weekend. Another round of antibiotics for a child that already hates to consume anything besides breast milk. On Monday, I realized it had been a LONG time since he had nursed or had anything at all to drink. Well, really he only nurses. Again, he pretty much hates anything else getting near his mouth. Maybe he likes pizza, but that's pretty much it. So, no water, popsicles, pedialyte, etc. Of course, since he wasn't nursing, he wasn't wetting diapers either, so in we went to see the pediatrician to assess for dehydration. Finally, today (Wednesday), I have good news to report....he's nursing happily again and seems to be getting back to normal, but it was tough goin' there for a while. I'll have to take a picture of him this weekend to show you how thin he looks, especially in the face. His baby fat is starting to disappear and he looks more like a little boy now.

why I don't wash my windows

Can you guess the culprit?

rebel without a cause

In Logan's attempt to rebel against us (I know, he's only 4!), he insists that he loves the Florida Gators thereby successfully crushing my dream of raising three Seminole sports stars/magna cum laude graduates/future doctors and lawyers. To retaliate (and because it's easy and cheap to find around here), I frequently dress him in Garnet and Gold. Check out this Seminole Polo sweater. You can't see the little gold Polo horse, but it's just too cute when he wears it.

Free Ted's burgers!

Fill out an entry for a free Ted's Montana Grill burger here. Or, take the contest seriously and win a car! Better yet, go to http://www.restaurant.com/ for a $25 gift certificate for $5 using the promotional code CHEF.

Like what you see? Click on the "frugal finds" category at the right for more!

**UPDATED**I must go for a run. I must go for a run...

With all this free food I've been getting lately, I've gotta find some time to go for a run...or else.

Free food off the $1 menu at Wendy's here.

Buy one get one free at Denny's here (no, we don't have one here in Tally anymore, but for my non-Tally readers)

And my personal favorite....
Free fondue for two at the Melting Pot here.

**UPDATE** The Melting Pot deal is NOT my favorite anymore. You have to buy dinner in order to get the free fondue, which was misleading on their part. Not a good deal seeing how you have to spend like $75 on food you have to cook yourself (as Jay would say) just to get dessert.

I guess my favorite deal now is the free Quiznos from earlier this week. Tried it yesterday and it worked like a champ. Didn't work so well for Dad. They accused him of photocopying mine. LOL. My was printed from my color printer and his was from his black and white printer. Nevermind the fact that mine had MY name on it and his had HIS name on it.

Want more free food? Check out my posts labeled "Frugal Finds".

BFF

Gavin is very motherly. He's never met a child/animal/stuffed animal he didn't like. And today he asked if we could have another baby. Nah, sorry honey. The next baby that comes around here is probably going to be yours! These two are going to be trouble one day!

He's a natural!

Not even another (yes, ANOTHER) illness could keep this boy from missing his first day of t-ball. We, the proud parents, took 151 photos. Check back tomorrow for photos of my son's natural-born talent! :)

I *heart* free food!

Two delicious free meals that I just had to share....

Free sub from Quiznos here.

Free pancakes at IHOP here.

Taking a time-out from time-out

The timer went off and I called for him to come over and talk to me about why he was sent to time-out. No answer. I called again. No answer. This is what I found.

Can you tell he spends some time here?

Who's spoiling who?

Just another beautiful day spent with two of our favorite people. You gotta love February in Tallahassee where the average high is in the upper 60's and humidity is always low. Kind of makes up for the sweltering Florida heat of June/July/August/September....

Baby Bears

I got a phone call yesterday from Logan's T-ball coach informing us of the practice time, place, and other information. The following is the conversation I had with Logan later that day.

ME: Your T-ball coach called me today.

LOGAN: Why?

ME: To tell me where your practices are going to be.

LOGAN: Where?

ME: Winthrop (their favorite park).

LOGAN: Whoa! Cool! I'm going to play on the playground!!!!

ME: No, you're going to do t-ball.

LOGAN: And play on the playground a lot.

ME: (ignoring this comment) And he told me that you're team name is the Cubs!

LOGAN: What are Cubs?

ME: Baby bears.

LOGAN: EWWWW, NO!!!!! I don't wanna be a BABY bear, I want to be a BIG, SCARY bear. I'm not going to be a Cub.

So Logan's first t-ball experience is going well so far.

Allison Health Update

We finally found out that Keegan has double ear infections. Fun. But at least it's treatable. Now if only he'd take the antibiotics like the good little boy that he usually is so he could get better. For such a mild-mannered child, he really puts up quite the fight when it comes to putting anything in his mouth other than milk. It's not like it even tastes bad, but he spits, thrashes, and screams his way through each dose. Twice a day, for ten days, which will then likely be followed by another round of antibiotics when the infection doesn't clear up since more of it usually ends up on me than in his belly.

We are looking forward to the weekend. I've been sick all week myself, and mom kindly came over on Wednesday for an American-Idol-dishes-washing-children-bathing-laundry-folding party since things were getting seriously out of control in my house. Much better, although there's still plenty of work to be done. Any volunteers!?!?!

Have a great weekend!

A sign of the times

Lately, I've been finding lots of really great restaurant/food/travel coupons and thought I'd start posting some here. Either I look harder for them now or it's just a sign of our economic times and proof that all types of businesses are hurting as more and more people cut back. Either way, I love free stuff and I'm assuming you do too.




Click here, print, and take this to T.G.I.Friday's (not on V-day, sorry!) for a Buy 1 Get 1 FREE entree.



Thanks SouthernSavers

Free Favorites

With the kids being so sick, this was not a great shopping week for me. I didn't make it to Walgreen's and I boycotted CVS for this ad run. They're running a "test ad" this week in Florida which doesn't include any Extra Care Buck deals (which is how I get stuff for free there). Even though they had a few things I needed, I didn't want to contribute to their little marketing test. I did manage great Publix trip (without kids!!!!) where I saved about as much as I spent, including the use of $27 worth of coupons. I got Muir Glen tomato paste, Jiffy Pop popcorn, and Pam Cooking Spray for free. We ate out or ordered in a few times more than normal thanks to the germs infesting my house, but hopefully I made up for it with my cheap Publix week.

On the mend

We are on our way back to normal, I believe. Keegan and I still have a fever off and on, but the rest of the house is pretty much back to normal. There was plenty of fighting, wrestling, whining, singing, guitar playing, and laughing throughout the house today. In other words, just a normal Saturday in the Allison house.

After being cooped up in the house most of the week, we decided to stretch our legs a little bit today and enjoy the fresh air. It was 70 degrees with clear skies today. What a change from the lows in the teens that we've had this week! We took the kids to Chick-fil-a for dinner, where they were very well-behaved and amazed us by the amount of food they ate. Not to be outdone, Keegan decided to try french fries and chicken nuggets and LOVED it. So, I guess he does eat solid foods...just not baby food. We then immediately headed over to Costco where the boys yelled loudly, "What's for dinner, mom? I'm starving!!!!" Ummm....didn't we just feed you a half hour ago?

Quarantined

Over the past several days, we have done more laundry, Lysol-ed more rooms, blown more noses, and cleaned up more vomit than I really care to discuss. We are exhausted and my contacts are sticking to my eyes. I also almost forgot to brush my teeth before I went to work this morning. Nothing major -- just the normal-kid-illness kind of stuff, but it's sucking in a very big way at the moment.

say cheese

So Santa brought the boys a digital camera for Christmas. I have to say I'm really impressed with the durability of this thing. I mean, Gray is the clumsiest kid I know. He has probably dropped it 15 times already, and it doesn't even have so much as a scratch on it. It's easy to use, shuts off after a few minutes of not using it, and doubles as a video game system. The only problem is that every time I break out our camera to get a picture of the boys doing something cute, this is what I get....
....one of them taking a picture of me taking a picture!

Keegan sandwich

hot dogs & peas

I think we found something he likes!!!!

just brothers

Just three little brothers watching TV together on a lazy Saturday morning.

And the band played on...and on....

My house is like a high school football game at half time (but with slightly less talent). The boys run (march?) around the house playing "Marching Band", something they learned by watching this year's Christmas Parade downtown.

Thanks Jenna and Patrick. I'm thinking of gifts to send for Macie's birthday....a drum set? A whistle? A tambourine?

Long weekend...Thanks, MLK!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our long weekend together.



The boys had a sleepover at Nana's last night (hooray for a night off!). They went to see a movie and lounged around the house this morning before heading out to China Super Buffet to meet us (seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I need a long nap followed by an even longer run!).


After the bike ride, the boys enjoyed some quality "man time" with Daddy and put Santa's gifts to good use at the "Battery building" (a state office building that looks like a battery).

They found a nature trail and went on an adventure.

And a day outside would not be complete without Logan finding a stick to use as a sword/weapon on his brother.

(photos taken from Jay's Crackberry...I mean, Blackberry)

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How 'bout you-o-o?

Friday night the boys got to go to Nana and Papa's for a sleepover. They went to the park and Chick-fil-a that evening, followed by a trip to the zoo Saturday morning. Do you think they might be spoiled????We had a nice evening home "alone" with Keegan. Funny to think how four years ago we wouldn't have considered it a relaxing evening home alone with a 7 month old, but it's a piece of cake to us now. It's nice to have that time alone with him sometimes and I think he enjoys it as well. He got to eat with us and didn't have to share the bath with anyone!

I love my Great-Nana

(see what I mean about him holding that yellow ball all the time?)