Laughing and Raspberries

Hmmm, so what's been happening lately with the Allisons...

Mike went to Rochester, NY for a 4-day class. He also worked in a trip to Niagra Falls. So cool! Wish we had been there to enjoy it with him. He leaves in the next few days to go to Bosnia for a month. He'll be participating with other countries in running communication exercises.





The boys and I are going with our good friends, the Moll family, to Amsterdam next weekend. It will be an adventure, since I will be minus a pair of hands to help with the kids, but having a "treat" like that will make the time go faster. Plus, it will make up for Mike's trip to Niagra Falls with out us. ;)



Jonas seems to have outgrown his egg allergy as well. Hurray! We took him in to be weighed (per Dr.'s orders), and he gained 2 kilos. So he's up from the 12th percentile to 18th.

I've taken a "job" (10 hours/week) babysitting a 5 month old, and an almost 2 year old. Including mine, they're all between 7 and 9 months apart--and all boys. Fun! I just sat with them this week, and I'll do next week, but then they have to go to the States so the baby can have surgery. Then I'll probably do October-December. Saving up some travel money!

Ezra's speech continues to improve, but still needs lots of improvement. He'll probably get re-evaluated in Oct. or Nov.


That looks like a good place to sit and read a book, huh?


After bath time and in their jammies.



This was taken at Mike's squadron's "Family Day" picnic. The guy to Mike's right, Halton, is a good friend of Mike's that he works with daily. Almost looks like they could be brothers...



Jonas playing. I couldn't get too many pics of Ezra because he was here, there, and everywhere.


Jonas still is quite "walking" yet. He takes more and more consecutive steps every day.


Ezra turned 2 1/2 on August 13. Jonas is 14 months.

Jonas was going to town with the raspberries. Sorry for the shakey video. There was a big brother that wanted to watch the video too.


I took this video when Mike was playing with the boys before his first trip to NY. Jonas has the BEST laugh. We just love it.

Allergy update

Silly boys laying on the stairs before bedtime. Drooling Jonas. We recently got lab work back on a blood sample telling us that Jonas is no longer allergic to dairy. Woohoo!! We have enjoyed lots of string cheese and macarroni and cheese since then. Hopefully that will help get his weight up a little bit. He is still moderately allergic to eggs and highly allergic to peanuts but hopefully those will go away too. Both kids love soy milk though, so I have to some research to see if the benefits of soy are much greater than that of cows milk. We may just stick with soy. Going in for a kiss. Ezra on a Daddy ride.
Several short videos:

Ezra will "spin, spin, spin" where he runs around in a circle. Jonas thinks this is great fun and contributes his own version when he crawls in a circle. It's hard to get this on film, but here's the tail end of one "spin" session. A lady who was watching Jonas in the nursery at church asked us if we had a dog because it looked like Jonas was chasing his tail. Ha, ha.


The first video of Jonas walking was taken last week.


This video of Jonas standing up by himself and taking a few steps was from a couple of days ago. Today, he stood up and walked 3 or 4 steps to me without "falling" into my lap.

Park

Here is Jonas sitting on the potty--which is far more than what Ezra will do at this point. Boo!
Jonas had his 1 yr check up this past week. Along with immunizations. :( Everything looks good, but he's a little skinnier than the Dr. would like. We're supposed to bring him in for monthly weigh ins.

Jonas at the top of the slide.

Ezra and Jonas at the top of the slide.

Jonas on a little hill at the park.

Ezra poking his head out of a tunnel on the jungle gym.

Peering down the incline.

My little climber. He never made it all the way down.


Here's a cute video of Jonas playing with blocks.

Mike's promotion and July 4th

I'm finally getting caught up.

Mike tested to promote to Staff Sergeant last summer. He found out he made the cut (well above the cut actually) in August and has been waiting since then to sew on his new stripes. Last week was his promotion ceremony. Here he is shaking the commander's hand and recieving his promotion certificate.

Next is the best part of the ceremony. The "tacking" on of the stripes. The new stripes are put on over the old ones (just with tape for the cermony) and then two people (of your choosing) come up to tack (punch) them on. Although, Mike got hit pretty hard, his was not the highlight. Some other chick had two big 'ole dudes come up to tack hers on and she got slammed. I don't know what she was thinking. Ouch!


These are guys from Mike's shop who promoted at the same time. You might recognize the guy on the far left. "DJ" is Mike's friend that came into the AF at the same time as Mike. They were in tech school together, stationed at Aviano together, and now we're in Germany together.

We decided to wait to celebrate the promotion with friends on the 4th of July just a few days later. I'm getting pretty good at making mediocre cakes. :)

Some of our friends live about 30 min away, but they have a great pool in their town. We can use it for just 2 Euro. We went out there on the 4th to hit the pool before the BBQ. Here's Mike and Ezra going down the slide.


Daddy throwing Ezra up in the air. We thought the picture with Ezra's head cut off was really funny. Whoa! That's high.

On top of the hits Mike recieved at the promotion ceremonly, as a means of congratulations, everyone in the shop or even the squadron (that knows he recently promoted) is entitled to a punch. This was his nice bruise several days later.















Mike and his cake.















The boys and their 4th of July shirts.


















Our 4th of July 2009 family photo.


















Here's a video of Mike and the other promotees reciting the Airman's creed. I should have filmed the tacking on part of the ceremony, but I forgot. :(

Last of the Houston pics

These are just a few more pictures from our visit to Houston.

Mommy and Jonas


Ezra and Jonas in the pecan tree in Meme's backyard.


Jonas giving some love to a teddy.


Goodbye kisses from Grandpa Allison and Great-Grandma Allison.


Erin and Mom getting a pedicure. (Rewarding ourselves for throwing a successful bday party for Jonas :)


Allison boys:Mike's brother Caleb, Jonas, Mike, and Ezra.


Hanging out with old friends: Jennifer, Matthew, Jodi, me, Shelah. Good times.


Short, strong, and beautiful. ;)


Me and my "little" brother, Garrett.

Jonas' 1st Birthday

We were so blessed to be able to share the fun of Jonas' 1st birthday with so much of our family. I made Jonas' cake egg free and dairy free and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

We definitely didn't go all out with decorations as you can see from my home-made sign. But at least it was enough to pull together some semblance of a theme.

We had our friend Chip (who is a fabulous, professional photographer) shoot some family photos and displayed them on this table where guests were encouraged to write cards to Jonas. The cards were started with things like, "Jonas you are special because..." or "When I see Jonas I think...". So we got some really great responses! I think it will be neat for him to look back on those notes when he's older.
Here is the birthday boy wearing his birthday outfit in front of his birthday sign.















Ezra and Daddy were both pretty excited about Jonas' special day.
















Opening just a few of the many wonderful presents!














Ezra got almost as many presents as Jonas! This picture looks like he's asking, "Am I not supposed to open these? I thought you said these were mine??" He was a very good boy the whole evening.









Time for cake!


The aftermath.












Jonas with friends and family.
















Jonas helping with the clean up.











Happy and tired birthday boy.