2013 Allen Family Memories

We had so much fun in 2013 and hope you did too.
Happy New Year to all our family and friends.

Look who's 40!

My mom sent Aaron a card for his birthday that says it perfectly.  "You're 40?  Smile...it could be worse.  You could look 40!"  He definitely does not look 40.  Happy birthday to my favorite Buckeye in the world!

One year later...

Hard to believe it, but we've been in our house for a year now.  Thought I would share a few "before" and "after" pictures.  A kitchen remodel was our first project.  Very little workspace and an oven that was tiny simply didn't work for our family.

Before...

and after.  We still need to replace the dishwasher with a stainless steel one.  Hopefully we'll get that done next year.  

I forgot to get a picture of our dining room before, but it had wallpaper on the top half of the walls.  Here the kids are mudding the walls with Aaron before I painted it.

Still need a new light fixture, but we're mostly done.

Isn't this beautiful?

 My little helper is pretty good at taking down wallpaper.

 Next year we plan on replacing the sink and mirror and doing something with that corner.  Not sure what.

Master bedroom before

 and after.  Still need to get new blinds and something for the windows.

Before of the girls bathroom.  The wallpaper is down, but I haven't painted yet.

Before of the boys bathroom.  Gotta love the matching tile grout and sink countertop.  Again, wallpaper is off, but I still need to paint.  This picture is making me dizzy!

Another big project this year was staining the deck and fence.  We still have a lot more projects than time.  I guess we shouldn't be in a hurry or we'll end up having to move again.  We are making progress and I just have to remind myself of that when I get overwhelmed!

Happy Thanksgiving...

from our cute, little Indian!

Birthday Bruce

Bruce had a birthday yesterday so we took him out to eat.  He chose the restaurant and picked Ming Garden, a Chinese buffet!  This boy is a carnivore and loaded up on meat, then ate lots of pudding and jello.  Our friends Adam and Sarah met us there.  Bruce adores them and was so happy to be the center of attention.  Missing a couple of hours of school may have also had something to do with his happiness.

Just like about every other boy his age, Bruce loves playing Minecraft.  Aaron teases him it's called Mindlesscraft.  Shopping for Bruce was pretty easy this year because he has created a wishlist on Amazon.  It took us about 5 minutes to buy his gifts!

Happy 9th Birthday to our very fun-loving, animal loving, crazy Bruce!  Hope this is your best year yet!

A Trip to the Farm

Bruce played hookie last week and went to the pumpkin patch (without any pumpkins) with Naomi and I for her pre-school field trip.  Of course it was scheduled when we had unseasonably cold temperatures, but we still had a good time.

Farmer Bruce and Naomi the horse

The kids loved climbing on this play tractor.

Naomi and Bruce riding in Bessie the cow.  Was I ever glad Bruce was here for the fieldtrip at this point so I didn't have to ride with her!  It looked like a very bumpy ride.

We went on a hay ride through the corn fields and had to snuggle up to stay warm.  Happy fall y'all! 

Pack Meeting

Wednesday night Will and Bruce's pack had a pack meeting.  They were given all of their awards from summer camp and Bruce was awarded his Wolf badge.  I think Will earned 7 belt loops and Bruce got 4.  Perhaps the best part of the evening was the "farm" theme.  They have awesome leaders who make it fun for the whole family!

And They're Off!

Elizabeth got her braces off yesterday.  To say she was excited would be an understatement! 

Amazing what a difference a year and a half will do.  Such a beautiful girl inside and out!

Disney Vacation

So...our family finally made it to Florida on vacation.  We tried to go three years ago, but you may remember from this post that two days before our last planned trip to Florida, Aaron had some health problems.  Made me a bit nervous to plan this vacation, but thankfully it went off without a hitch.  Our first day at Disney was three years to the day after Aaron's heart attack.

Beautiful Orlando LDS temple

We spent four days at Disney and still didn't manage to squeeze everything in.  We were at Magic Kingdom for two days, and a day each at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.  We split up some and the boys would go off and do boy rides while the girls and I did some of the smaller rides (Elizabeth was in between our groups, depending on what we were doing).  Madelyn was a trooper and went on all of the big roller coasters.  Naomi wasn't quite big enough and I think she was honestly okay with that.

Monday night the girls and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at Magic Kingdom.  There was a parade and trick or treating around the park.  We had fun, but after a long day at the park, the girls were wiped out!  The boys went to see the Star Wars exhibit at Hollywood Studios and the Tower of Terror while we were gone.  They liked it so much, they went again a couple days later!

Light show at the Halloween party...awesome!

Madelyn and Naomi getting their book out for the princesses to sign.

We didn't get to see all of the princesses, but we saw most of them.  I think the only ones they missed were Snow White and Rapunzel.  We also saw Pooh, Tigger, and Mickey and Minnie.  Meeting the princesses was so exciting for these girls.

Wednesday we took a break from Disney and went to Cocoa Beach.  Our kids are so deprived, this was their first visit to the beach (we weren't counting Lake Michigan).  After they got used to the salt from the ocean, they loved it.  They had so much fun playing in the waves and the sand.  We had beautiful weather the whole time we were there - high 80's and no rain.  Such a relaxing day!

Our whole gang 

 The best part of our vacation was being together as a family.  All of our family vacations are spent going to visit extended family, which we love, but we needed this time to just be together as a family.  I about cry when I think we won't have too many more years before our kids start moving out for college and missions.  I've already got some plans for next year's family vacation in the works!

What We've Been Up To...

It's been weeks since I've posted.  We've been very busy with all of the kids and their activities, appointments, homework, and church activities.

It's football season and these yummy "Buckeyes" are a must to have around while we watch our Buckeyes play...

My little helper canning applesauce.  I also canned peaches, made strawberry freezer jam, and froze sweet corn.  Love having this yummy food to eat during the winter.

Lots and lots of homework...blah!

Enjoying beautiful fall days at the park...yeah!

Appointments, appointments, and more appointments.  I swear it's all I do!

Cartwheels, cartwheels, and more cartwheels for this little gymnast.  Madelyn started taking gymnastics and simply can't get enough!

Elizabeth working on a school history project for school...that's all folks!  I promise to have a more exciting post very soon!