The Allison's Explore EPCOT

Waiting in line for Soarin' (Mommy's favorite ride)

I love you!

"Nemo's Daddy", says Keegan. I'm not sure why he always thinks this is the Daddy and not Nemo himself.

A real Nemo is in there!

Tasty boys!

Where should we go next?

They found the swords, of course.

A Disney necessity. He couldn't believe it was all his!

Brothers forever

the first pepper

Jay was so proud of his new garden and our first hot pepper of the season. He made me take this picture.

But....when we cut into it, we were suprised to find it was just a baby green pepper!

Isn't she lovely?

I was just going through some photos and found this picture. I love this lady!

It's all in how you look at it

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of my grandmother's recent passing. She was diagnosed with cancer in August 2010, and died at the hospice house on November 2nd, 2010. People have said that in some ways it's a good thing that it happened so quickly, but it seemed like an eternity to those of us watching unable to help. No one should have to suffer in that way.

However, I am once again amazed by the wisdom, knowledge, and perspective of a child.

Jay and Logan were at karate when I got the phone call from my mom. I was in the middle of bathtime with Keegan and Gavin. Overwhelmed by relief and sadness, tears flowed freely down my cheeks.

GAVIN: Mommy! Why are you crying? (He has only seen me cry one other time -- the night I found out that my great-grandmother had died)

ME: Because Nana just called to tell me that Great-Nana went to heaven.

GAVIN: (his face lighting up) That's SO AWESOME!!!! She must be SO excited to see her mom and friends again!!!!!!!!!

GAVIN: (after a moment of thought) So....you're crying because your so happy, right? Like when you get proud of me and cry?

Out of the mouth of babes!

He spent the rest of the evening giving me unprovoked hugs and kisses and saying things like, "We can do whatever you want, Mom. We can either play Lego city or build a pyramid with Legos. Whatever YOU want to do because I'm trying to cheer you up".

What a blessing this special boy is to our family!

my little ninja's

Logan earned a "Rising Star" patch for his dedication and hard work!

And an Academic Achievement patch for straight A's!

Jay broke the board with a front kick on his first try.

Logan nails it!

We got new tips!

Knuckleheads!

Pasta with Picasso

There's no doubt that Gavin is the artist in the family. I'm not sure where that came from. Charlie, I guess? Definitely not me. I still like drawing stick figures.

This is one of his drawings from his drawing book!

"Pasta with Picasso"
Betton Hills Prep School Annual Art Show and Pasta Dinner
May 2010

Jada and Gavin

Always the gentleman!

bye-bye Betton

Gavin's graduation and end-of-the-year performance.

"I like December because I get presents"

Gavin's girlfriend, Jada. Sadly, she's moving to Jacksonville this summer.

"When I grow up I want to be the president"
(everyone applauds, but especially Mommy and Daddy!)

He's a grizzly now!

paper grizzlies

Each Friday, every Gilchrist Kindergartener that has stayed on "green" all week long, get a paper behavior grizzly. This is Gavin's first, and he's so proud. Of course, being Gavin and his clumsy self, he tore it on accident, so his first grizzly has tape on it. I love that boy.

I'm so snuggly!

I'm not sure why I can't get this picture to rotate, but this is a sample of Logan's early Kindergarten writing. It says (and I quote), "I like to smell noodles. And I like to touch a warm blanket. And I like to touch my mom because she is snuggly. And I like to hear soft noises."

everyday Allison's

This is what we do when we do nothing.

We "read" together.

We build Lego's.

We snuggle in Mama's bed early in the morning.


We build life-size puzzles. And we have lots of fun!

These are a few of my favorite things

paci's, Elmo, and Elmo with a paci!

my sunglasses

my "ice" (water with ice in it)

another weekend at Disney with Nana & Papa

Go Cowboys!