Happy Late Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

I planned on getting this done on time (which was the 28th) but I just forgot. Better late than never though, right?

My parents have been married now for 27 years!! Over the years-especially being married, I've come to love and respect my parents so much more. There obvious affection for each other is so neat to see and I took that for granite growing up. I appreciate the respect they have for each other.

Even though this is late- I hope they realize how much I love them. Happy Anniversary!!

Family Christmas Party!!

This is a bit late, but before Christmas, we went down for our McKnight Family Christmas Party. We eat dinner and have a little talent show. It was a lot of fun.

Brecklynn was wearing a red vest too which was so cute, but everyone thought it was torture. :) She was still cute though.

The kids didn't get any kind of nap, and I thought for sure Ridge would be my grumpy testy one. Boy was I wrong: This was Cambree pretty much all night.

Sweet Uncle Bill doing his traditional talent of leading music while singing!

Ridge was just hilarious all night long.

So my kids were signed up to do a talent as well but I was unsure if they would actually do it. They were supposed to sing Tinkle Twinkle.

So here Cambree is warming up to the microphone but realizes she can't sing twinkle twinkle so we switch to 5 monkeys jumping on the bed. From there it got hilarious.

Ridge started to realize how cool it was for Cambree to sing in the microphone and they started fighting for the microphone.

Trying to maintain composure and still keep them going, was impossible.

I finally couldn't stop laughing and just had to call it quits. Everyone was dying from laughing.

Brecklynn was so good all night. She was lacking a nap as well, but bounced from person to person and finally found her resting place on Uncle Bruce.

It was a fun party. I love getting together with everyone and catching up!!

Christmas Time!!

I cannot believe Christmas is already over. It seems to take forever to get here and then its over before you know it!!

This year was so fun with the kids getting older and completely understanding the whole Christmas thing. We stayed super busy over the Christmas holiday which just makes things so much more fun. On Wednesday the 23rd, we had a little Allen Family Christmas party. We typically get together to do Brenley Bear's. They are bear's we put together that she gives to the babies in the NICU at the time of Christmas. Its been a tradition of hers since she was little since she was one of those little babies at one point, in the NICU at Christmas time. Very neat!

But it gave us some opportunities to get some group baby shots which was fun.

Here are the three youngest Allen babies. They are all getting so big.

Brecklynn just loves to stare...

The twinners :)

I just love this shot. First Steve's face, Pat dying from squatting with two little ones, and all the kids faces.

GG

So Christmas Eve to me, didn't get exciting until the afternoon. Curtis got off early which was nice and the kids took a long nap which made it so much easier to get the day over with. About 5ish, we ate Lasagna for our Christmas Eve dinner and then told the kids after they took baths, that they got to open one gift. That got the excitement started. They didn't quite grasp that it was a designated present that they had to open so Ridge kept grabbing presents from everywhere to try to open. But eventually we have them their gifts. Cambree was so funny. I had hers in a box and she opened the paper to the box and got so mad. 'Its just a box' she yelled and almost threw it down. We kept explaining, open the box. She finally got it and saw her new PJ's in there. After Ridge saw Cambree's he was more excited to see his. Brecklynn is wearing Cambree's Christmas pj's from her first Christmas. Fits perfectly.

After they put on the PJ's, we went and looked at lights. This was so fun this year. The kids loved seeing the lights, and we started a game of 'finding Santa and reindeer' in the yards for Ridge and color of lights for Cambree. Made it more fun. We were gone for about 1 1/2 hours. Then we got back and the kids set out cookies we made earlier and Cambree reminded me that we needed milk for Santa. We also put out our reindeer food. So we were all set. The kids got in bed, but like any kid on Christmas Eve, they were excited and couldn't fall asleep for what seemed like, forever!!

Finally about 10ish, thanks to our friends Chace and Rachel, we started putting all the gifts together and getting the presents out. Seeing all the things laid out and the gifts under the tree, made me think I really spoiled the kids too much...and I probably did, but I forget what I get until its all under the tree like that. Oh well, it will keep them occupied right?

So the kids all got a new kitchen, Cambree got a new bike, Ridge got a race track and Brecklynn got a jumparoo thingy.

Here's Brecklynn Christmas morning. We were up first together. Ridge got up about 6 but we pulled him into bed with us to get some more sleep :) Brecklynn woke up about 7:15 and that woke up Cambree. She came out and saw her bike and got so excited. I told her to go get daddy and she ran to Curtis and I could here her telling him and Ridge that Santa had come and given her a bike. Ridge came running out and saw what he got too. So fun to watch their expressions.

They were occupied with their big gifts and stockings for awhile. We even took a shower break for Curtis and I and then continued opening gifts. Now in my family, we were always told to stay on top of the wrapping paper as we opened gifts. We had to put our paper in the garbage after every gift. Well Curtis' family always left everything out all over, and then took a picture under it. Hard to watch a mess like this get bigger and bigger, but it is a cute idea too.

So here Curtis instructs them to lay down as he covers them with paper. They were amazingly cooperative with the idea.

All covered.....except some little feet :)

They are supposed to then, POP out but they didn't quite understand. There's always next year.

Here's Cambree trying out her new bike. She caught on SUPER fast!!

After breakfast, we headed over to Granny and Grandpa's. This is a shot we got of Grandpa. Just a sweet picture of him. We love him so much!

Group shot of all the kids.

I just love Brecklynn's faces in these next couple. She's so easy going I love it.

We had a wonderful Christmas. And amazingly, here it is the next day and we are all put back to pre-Christmas already. Toys are all completely put away, Christmas torn down (minus lights outside because it was too cold today) and we're ready to start 2010. I can't wait to see what happens next Christmas with 3 older kids to enjoy it with. I'm loving it more and more! Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas and an even better New Year!

Merry Christmas

Here's our attempt at getting a family Christmas picture. We'll have to try again when everyone is in good moods :) They look ok though. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Polar Express Christmas Party! Lots of posts and pictures

So after days and weeks of planning, our trip to the Polar Express party finally arrived. I had been prepping the kids for awhile about this party and they were so excited. I was anxious about all the preparations for it. I really wanted it to feel like they were on a train as best I could :) So here is the set up:

I wanted to lay train tracks down on the sidewalk but completely ran out of time. Oh well :)

As they each arrived, they received a ticket to ride the Polar Express.

All Aboard the Polar Express!!

As the kids arrived, they all got their tickets and sat in their chair and colored Polar Express pictures. They all looked so cute in their pjs and they had each brought little blankies or teddy bears for the ride.

After the train was full, we read the polar express.

After the book was done, they left the train for a bit, to go on a scavenger hunt.

When they returned, the train had transformed into tables for them to enjoy chocolate milk and doughnuts.