So it's been a while...

We've just come off a wonderful July 4th weekend spent with friends and neighbors and every weekend up to now has been full as well. This explains why we still have quite a few boxes in the basement to go through and why the house still looks as if we've not quite moved in.

Here's a brief synopsis of the Allen doings over the last 6 weeks or so. Just a couple of weeks before we left NC, Jason, Jonathan and I took a day to explore Manteo and to take Jonathan for his first experience at the Outer Banks. He wasn't quite sure what to do with the sand or the waves, but it was a wonderful day. He'd had an ear infection just before the trip and was still a little "weak-eyed" as my neighbor, Brenda, would put it, but we all had a nice day saying farewell to a state we'd grown to adore.

Jonathan's personality really started showing itself within the last few months. He's a real fan of the ladies, he loves to be out and about and he loves to wave and say "hey" to everyone he sees. At a little over a year, he's still not walking, but he REALLY wants to. He is testing his boundaries in every way possible here lately.

He's quite a ham!

Here's Jonathan and Daddy blowing out birthday candles for daddy's 40th and an early one-year celebration for Jonathan. We had a great time with almost 40 visitors to our NC home. It was hard to say goodbye. Thankfully, we got pictures of almost everyone who came to bid us farewell, but there's just not enough room to place them all here. We were grateful to see so many of the folks who made NC such a special place for us while we were there.

Here's Jonathan diving into an early birthday cupcake.

Austin Meads, Peyton Rose Meads and Jonathan at the "goodbye gathering"

Mom flew to NC to help drive Jonathan and me back to her home in Amarillo, TX. She had only been in her house for two weeks after a move from Clovis, NM. We stayed with her and Daddy for about a week and then Mom drove down from Amarillo to San Antonio and worked her tail off unpacking boxes and cleaning. I don't know what we'd have done without her as Jason got extremely ill on his trip out to San Antonio and was not able to help the first few days after we'd moved into our new house. In fact, a month later, he is still on antibiotics. We're hoping he doesn't have another relapse. Mom flew back to Amarillo a couple days later. We were overwhelmed at her willingness to help in such a way.

Giggie and Grammy at Jonathan's 1 year birthday party in San Antonio.

Grammy enjoying a much-deserved Dr. Pepper!

Jonathan diving into his b-day cupcakes.

Jonathan celebrated his 1 year birthday with family and friends on June 18th. Giggie and Bop came out to San Antonio from Tupelo, MS via California (It's a loooonnnng story!). Poor Bop got super sick on the way and had to stay in the hotel room all weekend for fear that he would pass infection on to Jonathan and others. We hope to see him again very soon. That put a damper on the celebration as we all knew Bop would be a huge hit with Jonathan, and we hated to think about him sick and all alone in a hotel room after such a hard trip. We'll just have to celebrate again when we see him.

This is Jonathan in San Antonio trying to eat with a spoon for the first time.

Sorry guys but I have to mention that at one year, Mommy finally got to stop pumping for the little guy. Our hope is that we'll have the opportunity to use the pump again in the near future, but Mommy sure would LOVE to destroy the thing and watch it burn. It's been worth it all to have such a healthy baby boy though and we wouldn't do anything differently. At just about a week after Jonathan turned one, he was already off bottles. He takes whole milk from a sippy cup and does really well with it. Now we just have to tackle that pacifier.

The view from our front porch - Heaven

Jonathan helping Daddy place the flag this morning

So where do I start with 4th of July weekend? To say that we had a blast would be an understatement. We've been VERY busy every weekend since we got here. Did I mention that already? Jose, Jennifer, Preston (their son), Megan and Douglas (bro and sis-in-law) came down to San Antonio for summer vacation. They shared a lot of their time with us and we enjoyed every minute of it. Friday night we met them at Pappasitos for supper and were there until almost 10 pm. I'd yet to have my first visit to that restaurant since returning to this part of the state, so I really enjoyed it. Jonathan was enthralled with the mariachis... the trumpet especially... and the entire restaurant singing along to the songs in Spanish.

On Saturday we met the group for a day at Sea World. How much fun was that? I was so energized as I watched the wonder in my sweet son's eyes. Describing it to Jason that night, I had to cry. I'm so anxious to show him all the beautiful things in God's world.

This is Jonathan at the Sea Lion show. He loved it!

So the plan was to meet up at Sea World again on Sunday afternoon, but since it seems that all of Texas converged on Sea World this weekend, the parking actually filled up completely soooooo... Jonathan and I met Jennifer, Preston, Megan and Douglas at the pool at the Omni Hotel in San Antonio where they were staying. Jason met some buddies for target practice and had a great time getting to know some of the guys he'll be working with on this tour. It was Jonathan's first dip in a pool. He really didn't like it at first, but quickly began to enjoy it.

Here's Jen holding Preston and Jonathan. If you look closely you can see that sweet Preston has his arm around Jonathan and just before this picture was taken, had given Jonathan a kiss on the cheek. Who'd have thought Jen and I would have such beautiful and sweet baby boys? It was soooooooo good to spend time with Jen and her family.

For those of you who don't know, Jennifer and I have been friends since the first day of kindergarten. We've been through a lot together. She is one of THE most special folks in my life. I value her friendship so much. If you knew her personally, you'd know why a lot of people feel this way about her. She is a very beautiful person and I'm so honored to call her my friend.

Poor Jose (Jen's hubby) started feeling ill that day, although they all still met us at Maggiano's at the Rim that night. Today (7/4), they were on their way to Texas Med Clinic around lunch time because Jose's fever had returned. Thankfully, they made it home to North Texas safely. We hope to see them again soon.

So now I'm finishing preparations for Cyndi's baby shower (my sis-in-law) coming up at the end of this month. Baby Nora is due on September 9th and we're all anxiously awaiting her arrival. We're hoping for a quiet week and weekend to actually finish getting settled into our house. We are really loving it here and loving our quirky 80-year-old home. It's been an adventure getting things organized with a toddler crawling all over the place, but it's an adventure I wouldn't trade for anything.

Happy 4th from Texas Ya'll!