June, July, and August

I know, I know.... I'm a few months late! Cut me a little slack, we had a baby. That's right, we had a baby! More on her at the end of this post....

June: Keaton and Bronwyn started swim lessons with Mimi's friend Debbie. Debbie did their first two swim lessons, which both of them cried during the first one. Keaton didn't cry at all during the second one and was jumping off the diving board! He is definitely our little dare devil. Brawny cried, but not nearly as much. Debbie did a wonderful job making them feel comfortable in the water. After that Mimi took over the lessons. They have both done a great job and we can proudly say that we have two little fish. They love swimming, especially in the spa when the pool is a little too chilly. I can't wait for next summer! Thanks Mimi and Debbie for teaching them how to swim!

July: We spent a lot of July in Cayucos. We started off the month with our first trip to the beach for the fourth! Cayucos is the best place to take kids to celebrate the fourth of July. We spent every day at the beach playing in the sand and water, searched for sea shells, went to a fourth of July parade, and watched the fireworks from the balcony of the beach house. One day we went to Avila farms and the kids loved feeding all the animals there. We are so thankful that Nate's parents have a place there now, where we can get away. Keaton and Bronwyn absolutely love it, and talk about it all the time. Mid-month we decided to go back for a trip before the baby came. We knew that this would be our last time there for a while. Again, we spent every day at the beach. We took the kids out to Morro Rock for the first time and found a really cool little secluded beach out there. We saw a ton of otters and baby otters, crabs, and fish. The kids loved exploring and climbing the rocks on the beach finding different creatures hiding within. We can't wait to make our first trip over there as a family of 5 in November!

August: Most of August was spent at home in the pool. I was extremely pregnant and it was unbearably HOT! Nate went back to work and Keaton and Bronwyn started pre-school two days a week. They did a great job... no tears for the first few days. We had taken them a few times during the summer to meet their teachers and familiarize themselves with the school itself. This helped Brawny tremendously. After a couple weeks she started crying when we left, but her teacher comforts her and Keaton reminds her just how lucky she is to have her brother there (his exact words), and she is fine. Now they love it there, have made a lot of new friends, and look forward to school.

On August 30th at 1:14 pm we welcomed Miss Caemyn Kate Allen into our family. She was 6 lbs 15 oz, and 19 inches long. All I can say is that she is absolutely amazing, and we all love her to pieces. ONE, full term baby is so incredibly different than TWO premature babies. She is very mellow and so sweet. Keaton and Bronwyn are so in love with her, and help keep her entertained already. She just turned 6 weeks old, and we can't imagine our family without her here being a part of it. She loves playing in her crib and looking at her mobile. During the first month I let her sleep at night for four hours, now we have increased that to five hours. She has been doing great! She has started to smile more often, loves her daddy's voice, and is a very quick and efficient eater. Miss Caemyn is such a good baby... don't get me wrong, she does fuss between 7 pm and 10 pm, but even when she's fussy she's pretty darn cute. There is a slide show of pictures at the bottom of this post that consists of pictures from the amazing Stephanie Ryan that tells her birth story, along with some pictures from the amazing Nate Allen too.

Again, sorry for the extremely late post. I'll be back with a new post early next month! Hope everyone is good, and as always, thanks for checking in!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.