Hello again

Hello to all. Just wanted to catch everyone up on the happening in the Allsup Family. We are all doing great. Logan is growing everyday. He is 5’4” tall and weighs 125 pounds. He is playing tackle football against my better judgement, but I am still enjoying it. He is a 5th grader and is the tallest in his class. He is attending the brand new building and loves it. He is busy teasing his sister when he in not playing with his friends, playing football, or playing Wii or playstation.

Gracie is not growing as fast of Logan. She is 34” tall and weighs 26 pounds. Her personality is growing daily. She is very determined and knows what she wants. Her imagination is large. She loves to play “short order cook.” She will ask us “what you want guys?” We will respond with a food or drink item. She includes anyone who is talking or standing with us. They are surprised when she remembers what they ordered.
We are also amazed with the words and sentences that come out of her mouth. She is speaking in 5-7 word sentences and we have to remind ourselves she is only 2.

We were able to take a few trips this summer. We went to Santa Claus,IN to camp and go to Holiday World amusement park. Gracie was able to ride a few rides and enjoy the water park as long as water did not get in her eyes(good luck on that one.) Logan brought a friend (Levi) and managed to ride a few roller coasters. This is the first year Logan was away from us for an extended time. He went to 4-H camp for 4 nights and 5 days. He really enjoyed it and is ready for next year. I did better than I thought I would, Gracie kept me busy. He only lost 3 shirts, 1 pair of shorts and a towel. We saw a St. Louis Cardinal game and a Cincinnati Reds game. We went canoeing and visited Andy and Sandra Reynolds in Kentucky. Andy is an old Marine Corps buddy of Jeff’s. We had a blast. The kids were introduced to country living. They sat on one of Andy’s horses and saw a horse show. We can’t wait to visit again. We are keeping busy now watching Logan’s football games and the local High School football games. Gracie is enjoying watching the cheerleaders and has decided to be a cheerleader for Halloween. We hope everyone enjoyed the summer and look forward to the fall.

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Jeff and Logan coming
to the end of the
marathon

I can't believe it has been over 3 months since our last post. Alot has been happening in the Allsup family. There has been two birthdays, first haircut, Easter and a half Marathon. We celebrated Logan and Gracie's birthday together since they are so close in date. Logan did not seem to care and Gracie had no idea. One side of the decorations was Barney and the other side was Maroa-Forsyth Trojans(Logan's school.) The party was fun and most of the family was able to attend. Gracie is still a Barney fan and we are trying to expand her choices but she seems to revert back to Barney every time. Her personality is growing everyday. She does not meet a stranger. She will run into any ones arms, including the grocery store clerk. Her speech is improving and we are able to understand most of what she says. Some of her favorite sayings are:
"nose yucking" "mommy happy?" "mommy sad?" "La La funning" "I fin it" "nack"

Gracie got her first haircut on Feb 27. She did not enjoy it. In fact, she cried the whole time. The haircut turned out cute. I am having fun styling it. She actually lets me curl it. Easter was exciting this year since Gracie was able to participate in the Easter egg hunt at home and at Aunt Susie and Uncle Kevin's house. She loved to color the eggs with big brother and big brother loved to help her find the eggs. She also learned how to hop like a bunny, which she demonstrates any chance she gets. She looked so adorable in her Easter dress. Logan was able to make the coolest looking eggs this year.

Gracie is showing very little interest in potty training. We first offered her M&Ms and stickers, but that has gone by the way side. She seems to be afraid of the potty chair especially when she has to go poop. But we have Barney potty trained thanks to Gracie. She still is loving to read lots of books. She can count to 20 with some help and can recognize her ABCs. She has trouble saying her ABCs. She stops at letter D and goes straight to the end of the song. She knows all her colors and shapes. It has been so easy to teach her. She only needs to be shown or told a couple of times and then she seems to know it. We have so enjoyed watching her learn and grow and still have to pinch ourselves to make sure we are not dreaming.

Logan is doing fantastic in 4th grade. He only has less than 4 weeks of school left. He had alot of different projects to do this year in school and enjoyed each one. He has started baseball practice and games start May 11. He is pitching and going to try catching. Logan's heart is in baseball and it shows as he plays. We are looking forward to seeing him play. Jeff is Logan's assistance coach and Logan loves it.

Jeff completed a half marathon this year on April 11 in Champaign. He finished at 1:59. Logan jumped in at mile 10 and finished the marathon with Jeff at the 50 yard line in University of Illinois football stadium. Logan was so excited and did real well.


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We hope everyone had great holidays and 2009 is treating you well so far. The holidays here were fast and lots of fun for the kids. We had 2 gatherings at our house between Jeff's family and Becky's family. We also had an invitation from Jeff's cousin's family. So Christmas lasted for over a week. Gracie had fun opening all her gifts and other's gifts too. She was very good around the Christmas tree. We just told her it was a pretty and for the most case she left it alone. She loved getting her picture taken in front of the tree. Every time I pulled out the camera she told me to wait and she would run in front of the tree and say "Cheese." She did not take to Santa like I thought she would. We took Logan and her to visit Santa and she would not sit on his lap. So being the good big brother Logan is, he sat on Santa's lap (mind you he requested not to sit on his lap when we told him we were visiting Santa) and Gracie sat on Logan's lap. The visit was a success. Logan is on the fence about Santa. We think he does not believe but he may feel he may not get as many presents if he tells us. This is probably his last year of (sorta) believing. My little boy is growing up.

Logan's birthday is tomorrow Jan. 15. He will be 10 years old. He made it to the double digits. He stills seems to like us and obeys us for the most part. I believe we only have a few more years of that. I keep hearing all my friends who have teenagers that their child has become obnoxiuos and act like the parents are the stupidest people in the world. God help us!!!! He is on a basketball team now. He practices every Sunday for 2 hours and comes home very tired and sore. He starts playing games at the end of this month. We are very excited to watch him play to see how well the 2 hour practices have helped his skills. He really enjoys it and his coach is a great guy who is tough on the boys. School for Logan is busy. He is getting A's and B's and tries very hard. He is still growing and loves to hear people tell him he is tall.

Gracie amazes us daily. She learns things very fast. We have not worked real hard with her on numbers but she can tell you what numbers 1-10 are when you point them out. We are working on letters which are not so easy for her. She can recognize approximately 8-10 letters. She knows several colors and shapes and continues to adore Barney. She has a great memory. When I introduce her to a friend we see often she is able to tell me her/his name the next time we see them. She is a charmer. Everyone seems to enjoy being with her. We are going through a tough time getting her to sleep right now. We started putting apple cider vinager on her thumb at bedtime so she would stop sucking her thumb. Well it worked too good. She has stopped but we believe she has a problem soothing herself to sleep without the thumb. So we have had some long nights. We are hoping this is a short phase. She still has only the one tooth missing and looks so onry without it. Potty training is slow process for her. She would rather put Elmo on her potty instead of herself. In due time I believe the light will turn on for her to go potty. It is hard to believe she will be 2 years old in 3 weeks. She is still my little baby and always will be.

What Not To Do At Walmart

Gracie had her first accident at Walmart yesterday. Mommy wanted to make a quick trip into walmart and let Gracie walk instead of ride in a shopping cart. Gracie has a tendency to wonder away from mommy. When mommy tried to make Gracie walk the same way mommy was going Gracie decided differently. The pictures below will show you what happened with the decision Gracie made.

The dentist had to pull out her front left tooth because the nerve was exposed and he stated she would be miserable if we left it in. And the other two front teeth are loose and she may loose them too. So you are wondering what we will do next. Well this little girl is not going around the next 5-6 years without any front teeth. Thank goodness for prosthesis. She will be fitted for a prosthesis when her back molars are in better which should be in a couple of months. These couple months will also allow time to determine if the other two front teeth will need to be pulled.

She is doing great and only complains when she bumps her mouth. As you notice in the picture this has not stopped her from eating.

Giving Thanks

ENJOYING THE CHRISTMAS PARADE

A GOOD TIME AT THE DENTIST


POTTY TIME!!!!

TWO OF THE BEST KIDS!!!

Well it is the day before Thanksgiving and we believe we have alot to be thankful for. Everyone is doing well, besides having alittle sickness over the weekend, and we are getting ready for the holidays. Logan begins his 4 day break from school tomorrow and can't wait. He started basketball practice two weeks ago and loves it. He will be starting playing games in Jan. Flag football ended at the beginning of Nov. and his team won 7 games and tied one game. Logan was thrilled and enjoyed the season. He is getting taller by the day. He is close to 5'2" tall and weighs close to 100 pounds. Our little boy will outgrow mom is no time. School is going good and he is starting to enjoy reading, which he previously thought was a chore. One of his favorite authors is Matt Christopher. He writes sport books. Logan is all about sports.

Gracie is also growing but not as fast as Logan. She is 30" tall and weighs 23pounds. We looked at Logan's baby book to see where he was at her age and he was 5 inches taller and weighed 5 pounds more. Her vocabulary is more advanced than Logan's was at this age. She is almost 22 months and can repeat any word you say to her. It may not sound the same but she gives it her best effort. There are several new accomplishments she as conquered. We will list them below.
We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the Holiday season.

-First trip to the dentist 11/18/08(informed to give up the thumb, Ya right)

-Recognizing letters and numbers(S,P,1-5)

-Counting 1-5

-Pooped on potty 11/08

-Finally said "I love you"

-Has her first boyfriend(BARNEY the purple dinosaur)

-Now has 11 teeth(4 molars, 4 front, 2 lower and 1 left canine tooth)

-Using utensils to eat

Halloween 2008

Gracie and Logan had a great Halloween. This is the first year that Logan did not have Jeff and I trailing behind him. He went with some neighborhood friends and their dads. Jeff and I took Gracie to a few selective houses because we knew she would not last long. She did very well. We ended that evening at a neighbor's house eating Gumbo and letting the kids play. The weather was fantastic. Hope all had a good Halloween.

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Changing and Learning Daily

We thought we would try this new way to show as many pictures as possible. Seems to work out well. Everything is going great. Gracie has developed a large vocabulary. She will attempt to repeat anything, has trouble with the letter "G" so her name sounds like "Sissy" and forget trying to say Grandma because she just looks at you and says "PaPa". Grandma doesn't seem to mind. Logan is moving along in the 4th grade. This is the year to gain alittle more responsibility and it is coming along slowly, but we will get there. I ran my first and LAST 1/2 marathon Sept. 14 in Chicago. I know I should think positive but the pain afterwards is hard to get over. I am just happy I finished at 2 hours and 14 minutes. Jeff was there and was a great supporter and crutch(I do mean crutch)he practically carried me to the train station.

Here is more accomplishments Gracie has done:

First boat ride 8/30/08
Learning to run(actually it is a fast walk)9/08
First molar bottom right 9/17/08
Saying 2-3 word sentences(Read Dada, All done, I blah,blah,blah, and Give me five)
Went down slide by herself 9/23/08
Still sitting on potty with clothes on, no interest yet
Very social, she says Hi and Bye to everyone in restaurants

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