vacations – theallennuggets

2018 In Summary

December 18, 2018December 18, 2018lallen28821 Comment

Well here we are again. Another year in the books. When I think about life now it’s almost everything before the boys entered into our world and everything since. Recently, I went to dinner with several of my college besties and we started talking about college days (which feels like a lifetime ago) and memories were dredged up from a corner of my brain I didn’t realize was there. I also realized without those valuable and long lasting friendships, memories that would probably have been forgotten.

Life is a funny thing. It makes me think about individuals like my grandparents that are 92/93 years young, who survived immigration, famine, wars and raising ELEVEN children. Can you even imagine the number of life’s moments that are tucked away in their memories? I feel lucky that in this day and age the ability to take pictures and videos is literally in my pocket at all times. I’m also so curious to see what develops in the next 30 years. Flying cars?

2018 has been an eventful year and that has been partially contributed to returning to the workforce full time. Its afforded us things we have talked and dreamt about for a while now.

We bought a travel trailer. Technically, that was at the very end of 2017 but this past year is when we began to really use it. We’ve taken it to a few near by state parks in TX and OK. We even tested out the ability to camp with others, all squished into just our camper. We have definitely used it as a “guest house” when we go visit Kemp and my brother’s family stayed in it when the house overflowed during the boys’ birthday celebrations. In true cousin Eddy style, we actually plan to take it as our home away from home for the out of town holiday festivities this year! She’s a beaut Clark!

In January, our family grew! My younger brother and his wife had a baby! He is such a chunky monkey and watching him (via photos) grow this year is the best. Early this year we also went to Monster Jam (total disaster), took a spring break staycation in Fort Worth and Josh completed his RCIA journey.

Josh and I also took our first adult only vacation away from the boys to Puerto Adventures in March. I felt a bit of guilt but my parents were here to love on them and I also really tried to prioritize my marriage. I am fully and completely obsessed with my children but before them I was equally as obsessed with The Hubs. I don’t think I am any less obsessed but our attention to each other is obviously split now. So we spent an entire 5 days solely focused on each other. It was awesome. There were somethings about the resort and the location I wasn’t super pleased with but overall, it was a much needed time together.

I wrote a post about what we did mostly this summer and how Corbin’s surgery recovery actually took a large chunk of time but we did have lots of fun too! Corbin and Weston fine tuned their swimming skills, lots of backyard fun, went on several camp trips and plenty of gatherings with friends. We also finally made our first trip to Destin, FL and I’m quite sure we’re never going to any other beach. SO beautiful and now we know why Texans flock there in the summer time. The AirBnB we stayed in was THE perfect location and the trip was just relaxing and enjoyable. We also have a list of things we plan to do next year!

The fall always means lots of birthday celebrations and parties for our crew. We took a trip to Broken Bow and had blast with a big group of friends and followed closely by the holidays. Thanksgiving blends right into Christmas and here we are…the year’s end.

It’s not over yet! In the homestretch of the year, we decided to do some much needed renovations on the outside of our home. We’ve been slowly updating and beautifying the inside but the outside was looking rough. Painters are working as we speak! I’m terrified I didn’t pick the right colors (happens to me every time) but once everything is all said and done….I’ll post pictures of the finished product.

Christmas is next week (eek!) and I feel pretty ready. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying all the get togethers and Christmas cheer. We are headed south and I’m excited to get to snuggle nieces and nephews, eat and drink too much and enjoy the merriment.

XOXO

5E1F90B120FB20C197CC10E4FF74EF96

Choked Up

July 11, 2016July 11, 2016lallen28821 Comment

We took a trip last week to Wisconsin because one of my cousin’s got married. My family is incredibly special and we have so much fun when we get together. Which, since we’re in Texas, isn’t enough for me.

My grandparents are 90 years young and I don’t see them nearly enough so I soaked up the 5 days we were there.

The trip included a LOT of visiting with family members because it seemed like each day more people arrived into town. So most of our time in WI we just drifted from one family member’s house to the next to see who was there.

Saturday morning we loaded up the boys and got out of the house first thing, so I could take The Hubs and the boys to a park/swimming hole that I went to as a kid. In order to do this quickly, we kind of just bolted after breakfast before the day got away from us.

Iverson Park was exactly as I remembered it and, even though it was only 71° out side and the water was freezing, we were holding the boys back from wading into the water. We hit up the playground and the swings and then we decided to grab lunch, so I could get my hands on some fried cheese curds.

We went to another place I hold dear in my memory from my childhood visits to WI and ordered up lunch.

Halfway through our lunch, Corbin turned to Josh and opened his mouth. He looked like he was in pain. I said to The Hubs, something is wrong with him. Initially, we both thought he had something in his teeth, so Josh reached in and pulled out a half chewed piece of cantaloupe. Then I heard Corbin make a gargle noise and I realized he was choking.

I said that to Josh and he grabbed him and turned him over on his leg and started to pat him hard on the back. Just as we were told to do when we had our class before the boys were released from the NICU. I sat across from him in the booth and saw Corbin going blue. I stood up and started to panic. I jumped up and went to turn and run into the main part of the restaurant for help but I just yelled, “he’s not breathing“!! Then I remembered I recently read that after they’re over a year old you are supposed to perform abdominal thrusts/the Heimlich. So in my freak out, I snatched Corbin and did about three abdominal thrusts (if you want to call it that …I didn’t take the time to make sure my hand placement was correct) but he made a noise like he was trying to cry, so Josh told me to put him down. He reached into his mouth and pulled out a slightly rounded piece of cantaloupe. Corbin began to really cry at that point. Then he stopped and asked if he could eat a hotdog. He was totally fine.

We were not. I couldn’t stop shaking. Fire and EMT arrived because (Thank GOD) the restaurant employees called 911 immediately. They told me we did everything correctly and checked out Corbin’s lungs and oxygen saturation. He was chatting it up with them like nothing had happened.

We were still physically shaking.

I cut up the Nuggets’ food religiously. We cut their grapes in half and quarter their hot dogs. I’m diligent about the size of toys they play with to ensure they cant get anything into their mouths. I discourage giving them popcorn. Yet here we are on vacation and, although I had cut up the cheese curds, the mini corn dogs and French fries, I failed to cut up his fruit. I cut up Weston’s because he was sitting right next to me. I just thought that The Hubs or I would get to it before he started eating it.

I got to experience the scariest thing I’ve ever been through, in my life. And I don’t want to ever have to go through that EVER again.

I balled my eyes out the second we left the restaurant. It’s still hard to shake. The Hubs and I both have had several break downs and I had to tell myself to stop thinking about the worst case senario we could have faced. Because we had the best case senario. He’s completely fine.

Afterwards I thought, I have four aunts, six cousins and a future SIL that are all nurses, and another cousin in med school and none of them were with us. *#&((&%$)(

Thank the good Lord that we had a happy ending. The wedding proceeded beautifully and although I wasn’t quite in the mood to celebrate, we enjoyed ourselves.

After a pretty long day of travel we arrived home with two incredibly tired kiddos and one I’m pretty sure is getting a cold. Happens every. single. time. we travel.

The other interesting thing about this trip is I have been giving myself a hard time about being a “helicopter mom”. You know, reading Scary Mommy blog (there is more than one) about ruining it for other moms or some bullshit. It’s my kids and I’m going to be the BEST mom I know how to be and that means keeping my kids healthy, safe and alive.

Please remember all those educational messages to parents about chocking and water safety and all other “warnings” are taken seriously and educate yourself!

First Aid for Choking and CPR for Children over 12 YO

XOXO 5E1F90B120FB20C197CC10E4FF74EF96

2.1

November 11, 2015lallen2882Leave a comment

I just realized that I’m quite behind. Shocking.

Halloween was SO much fun! Totally different then years in the past because the boys were so much more interactive.

Every year I say we’re going to be one of those cool families that has a group coordinated costume and every year (for the past two) I’ve failed on a grand scheme. NEXT YEAR! Anyways, soak up this cuteness.

I didn’t take great pictures but it was mostly because we waited too long to get them ready to go. Tots are supposed to be out first and all of a sudden, we had trick or treaters at our door and we weren’t ready to go yet. Enter me running around like a nut. And I tried to throw together a “costume” at the last second. So it was kind of a rush to get out the door.

The Nuggets really liked going to each door and knocking. That was their favorite. Weston would walk up the path to the door saying, “knack knack“. Soooooo cute! Several of our neighbors made the mistake of offering the bowl to the boys to pick which candy they wanted…they might be young but the desire for sweets must be ingrained at birth because the boys tried to take twenty pieces of candy off each person.

Someone once told me that after their child turned two, everything (developmentally) seems to really speed up. I’m not sure that is correct because SO much changes every day when they are in the “infant” category but I think I now understand what they meant.

The boys have been two years of age for a month. In that month, they’re blossoming. They are saying so much more than before. Echoing everything we say, even though their version is not comprehensible. Corbin is always copying our mannerisms (time to start watching ourselves). Also trying to help me with everything; laundry, cleaning (which ends up the opposite of cleaning), emptying the dishwasher, anything really.

Weston is getting closer to saying both of their names. He calls Corbin, Cor-cor…which is a nickname I call him on occasion. He also says Weston as Waa-waa. Pretty much anything with a W is pronounced like that, but he’s really trying.

Corbin William has the flirting down. When he wants something, he nods his head and makes this little smirk and then says “pleeeeeeease”. Annnnd then you melt and give him exactly what he wants.

We also went to Broken Bow, OK last weekend with some dear friends. The Hubs’ family grew up going to Beavers Bend S.P. and told me about it, often. When we lived in San Antonio, traveling to OK would have taken almost nine hours, so it was out of the question. When we moved to Houston, it was still about a seven hour journey, which wasn’t something we wanted to do for just a weekend. Now that we finally moved back to the Dallas area, we went for the first time about four years ago. And now I get it.

We initially stayed in the state park but shortly thereafter, we discovered these beautiful log cabins in the direct vicinity. The following year we got a group of friends together and rented one of the cabins, I prefer the luxury glamping to the state park cabins. What girl wouldn’t?

The summer time was gorgeous as Broken Bow Lake is like nothing you can get in Texas, but it’s R E A L L Y hard to beat the fall leaves and cool temperatures. With the boys being born in the fall, and then being pretty little still the following year, this is the first time we’ve been back. They loved it!

Just a bonus that the cabin had a playground! And several of the Beavers Bend Adventures cabin rentals are pet friendly.

I look forward to making the same memories with our boys, that The Hubs made with his family. I know that trips in the future will include more family and more friends!!