A Nod to November

This month has been so full of fun, it's amazing that it is already over!  As always, we have lots of pictures that I wanted to share - hope you enjoy!We have been working on many projects this month - working on Christmas nativity costumes and Garrett's baby blessing blanket.  I love that Tori is my little shadow and loves to help with everything...

even if it makes it a little harder when she gets a little too involved!!!

I think Tori is so cute in this picture- even though it is sad that we have done so many breathing treatments that Tori can really do it almost all by herself now!  When we get done, she will turn off her nebulizer, pick it up, say, "heavy," and then hand it to me to put it away.

I love watching Garrett sleep-  he has some great positions, like this one.  His arms are going to be really strong!

Tori was a big helper again today- she must have thought Garrett's saline drops would be the perfect thing to help him sleep...apparently, she was right!!!

Yes indeed, life is sweet!!!

I love that Tori has finally discovered the art of dressing up!

Oh my goodness, we have some stinkin' cute kids!!!

Tori was loving her popcorn - I don't think her mouth will open any wider!

This picture is just priceless - we are so glad that Prince's brother Scrappy came with the rest of the Allen clan to visit for Thanksgiving!

It is swim season once again, which means we have been spending lots of time at the Pike pool.  Our little monkey is getting more daring every meet...

and she is building lots of upper body strength!!!

Hurrah for another great month - I'm so glad for the fantastic memories we made!!!

Awesome Allen Visit

This past week has been so fun having Jared's family here to visit!  As usual, the time went by way too fast - I hate that part.  But I am so glad that we were able to make so many fun memories while they were here! 

Grandpa made sure he spoiled Tori and Garrett with fun new outfits and pajamas!

And of course, there was Grandpa's first time holding Garrett - I love this picture!!!

Tori wanted in on Grandpa holding time, too!!!

Garrett met a lot of new people this week.  He hit it right off with Uncle Dillon!

And I love that he and Uncle Alec were both sporting argyle for church!!!

Tori had a great time making a fort with Uncle Dillon and Uncle Aaz!

And, of course, we had to tackle a project - we finally got our painting done downstairs!  I am so glad we had such fabulous help, I don't know if we could have gotten it done without them!!!

Mom Allen is an expert painter!!!

I just love red walls!

Lest you think we worked the whole week, just know we also took lots of time to play and have fun!  Tori had a ball with her uncles!!!

I think the Uncle Dillon and Uncle Aaz get Tori laughing harder than anyone else can!

Tori had so much fun singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider with Grandpa!!!

This week was so much fun - I just wish it could have lasted longer!  We can't wait for the next visit!!!

Christmas in November

This evening we had our Christmas celebration with Jared's family!  Basically, they spoiled all of us!!!  Grandma and Grandpa Allen gave Tori an awesome nativity set - I love that she can play with it!!!

Garrett is going to have so much fun with his new doggie!

He already loves his snail!!!

Here is Garrett with all of his presents - they are all so fun!!!

Uncle Dillon gave Tori characters from Toy Story! They had to be opened...

and played with right away!!!

Uncle Aaz's gift arrived a few days later, and was another big hit!

The princesses were also played with right away!!!

Tonight we decided to also open our new ornaments for each other!  Mom and Dad Allen gave us an awesome family ornament - it has a car with a Christmas tree on top and then we can put a picture from our Christmas tree adventure in it!!!

I just love Garrett's 1st Christmas ornament!

Tori's ornament was perfect as well - a big sister holding her baby brother!

I love Jared's ornament - he got his fishing buddy this year!!!

On the years we have a baby, Jared always gets me two ornaments.  Here is my baby's first Christmas ornament for Garrett that I get to keep forever!

The second ornament was our family represented by a bunch of monkeys.  It sure feels like we live in a monkey house sometimes!!!

I just love Christmastime and I am so glad that we were able to celebrate a little bit with our family! It made it that much more special!!!

Our "Tree"-mendous Adventure

This afternoon we started a really fun new Christmas tradition!  We travelled out to a place called Evan's Whispering Pines where we were able to cut down our own Christmas tree.  The whole experience was awesome - I'm so glad we decided to try it out!  The first thing we did was take a hayride across the street to the tree farm. 

Here we are waiting for the tractor to come pick us up!

Here is Uncle Alec, Grandpa Allen, and Garrett (in the car seat!) on our hayride!

And here is Grandma Allen, Uncle Dillon, Tori, and me!

And here is Uncle Dillon, Tori, me and Jared!

Next we rounded up a saw and tree cart and went in search of our perfect Christmas tree!

Uncle Aaz and Tori had a great time on our hunt!!!

It was a bit chilly, so Dillon decided to see if hiding in a tree would warm him up!

It took us a bit, but we finally found our tree!  Tori had so much fun helping Jared cut it down!

The rest of us had fun watching Jared show off his expert sawing skills!

I'm so glad we got a video of the big moment - timber!!!

Then we loaded our tree onto our cart - Tori was a big helper!

It took everyone to get it back!!!

While Jared, Grandpa Allen, Garrett, and I were waiting for the tractor to take us back across the street with our tree, Uncle Dillon, Uncle Alec, and Grandma Allen took Tori to the small petting zoo-ish area.  She had a great time meeting all the animals!!!

Here we are with our fabulous tree all ready for the ride home!

Once we got home, we were so excited that we got our tree in the tree stand right away so we could get the lights on.  This is when we started to realize that we may have overlooked something with our tree.  The front side was beautiful and full.  the back side was pretty bare- making our tree more heavy on one side than the other.  It ended up tipping over 3 times within the first hour or so at our house.  At that point we were really frustrated.  Then Grandma Allen came up with a fabulous solution- we tied weights onto a cord and used them to hold up our tree. 

It looks a bit ghetto, but our tree hasn't fallen over since! Next year we are definitely going to get a better balanced tree! Even with our tree falling over repeatedly, it was such a great day and such a fun new tradition!  I am so glad that we could share it with Grandma and Grandpa Allen, Uncle Alec, and Uncle Dillon!!!