For those who haven’t heard, Brad’s Grandpa passed away this morning. He was battling lung cancer. Grandpa was a funny guy…fiesty, too.  He could make a wise comment about pretty much anything. I claimed him as a pseudo-Grandpa since I never knew either of mine. Grandpa Slusser passed away before I was born and Grandpa Waggoner when I was only 1 year old. It’s never easy when someone you love passes away. It makes you wonder why it was their time and you wish you had just one more chance to see them. The circle of life continues though – God gave us a beautiful healthy little boy just 8 short weeks ago. I’m grateful that Grandpa got to meet Carter and Sam. Although they probably won’t remember him, they’ll hear plenty of stories about him – like how he could do more push ups than Brad and Corey; or how just 2 years ago he was diving off the top of the pontoon boat. He was always fun to be around and will be greatly missed.

Las Vegas 2005 at our wedding:

Christmas 2005

New Year’s at midnight 2006

Cloud 9 trip summer 2007

Cloud 9 trip summer 2008

4 Allen generations:

We love you Grandpa!

(P.S. by Brad)

A lot of people claim to have the best grandparents in the world but if you’ve ever been lucky enough to meet my grandparents you’d have been quickly proven wrong. My grandpa was one of the strongest men I’ve ever known, in every sense of the word. Our family has truly lost someone special and I look forward to seeing him again one day…

Enough about crazy parents who give their children insane names. Seriously, did you see those parents?

This past weekend we went to our nephew, Owen’s, first birthday party.

Owen ready to get down and dirty:

Singing Happy Birthday:

Finally digging in:

The aftermath:

Sam was partied out:

How do you keep a 2 1/2 occupied while his cousin opens tons of fun presents? You let him handle the camera! I did the aiming and Carter pushed the button. He liked taking pictures of people…

Carter playing with the clapper noise-makers:

Carter partied out:

We tried to take a picture of Carter and Sam for our Christmas card…if you’ve received your card already, you know that didn’t happen. Here’s Carter with a fake, cheesy smile when I tried to bribe him with a sucker if he smiled and held Sam nicely:

Sam on the hippo:

Carter & Sam – I’m not sure I like how intently Sam looks at Carter when he’s talking to him…I’m sure that will be trouble one of these days:

Sam likes tools just like Carter:

Smiles on the couch:

Ready for his first trip to church…too bad he likes the devil baby with his red eyes:

6 weeks old:

I mentioned in a previous post how Sam is always kicking and punching…well, he still is. I caught him in action today practicing his boxing moves:

Brad says I can’t dress Carter & Sam in the same outfits. This is probably the closest I’ll get – Sam wearing Carter’s clothes:

I don’t think they look that much alike anymore, but in case you can’t tell – Sam is on the left and Carter is on the right. Sam is 6 1/2 weeks in the picture and Carter was 8 weeks.

Ok, for the most part Mary and I usually only post about stuff related to our family or stuff I’m screwin with on our website but this is just too good to pass up…

There should be a law, disagree with me if you like, that says you are not allowed to make babies unless you are approved by some authority. And I don’t mean a US law, this has to be a worldwide law. Look, I’m all for freedom, but if there was a law that would prevent these people from having children and naming them Adolf Hitler Campbell, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, then it would be a good law to have.

Idiots.

The whole thing started because these morons tried to get a birthday cake that said “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler” and the grocery store said they wouldn’t do it. Good for that grocery store, I hope they get more business from the publicity. Also, shame on Wal-Mart because they actually did make the cake.

Seriously though, I feel so sorry for those kids. I listed them in order, 3 years old, 2 years old, and the youngest hasn’t even turned 1 yet. Don’t children have a hard enough time growing up? It’s not just the names either. Naming your child that, knowing what those names mean, implies that you are incapable of raising children. Those children do not know what those names mean and as a parent you have to make decisions for your child and if you’re making decisions like that then you do not deserve children. What other genius decisions are they making? We know people who can’t have children who actually deserve children and here these idiots are popping them out as fast as they can.

Having children is not a privilege but it damn well should be.

Ok, when it comes to online videos you have to find the right balance between quality and speed. I went ahead and re-compressed all the videos. The quality dropped a tad, I can tell, can you? The videos should start a LOT faster though. It won’t be quite as easy on our end to get the videos prepared but you know what, what’s important is that people get to see the videos and not have to wait forever to watch them. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback and hopefully this is the right balance…

Every video we have of Sam is now on the Videos page. I’m going attempt to explain what’s been going on with the videos, if you don’t care, stop reading, click the Videos page, and go watch some videos, otherwise read on… Read the rest of this entry »