Best Pictures Ever!!!

Our Allen family pictures have been posted on the photographer's website- they turned out so fabulous!!! I have no idea how we are going to pick which ones to hang on our walls!  Sister Keeler captured so many fun moments and adorable faces!!!

Hope you enjoy!!!

Allen Family Pictures

March Merriness

Wow, March has been a really fun and very busy month!  As such, it seems as if it has flown by much quicker than usual.  As a last hurrah, I hope you enjoy a few more pictures from our month!!!
Garrett is such a lucky boy to have a sister that is making sure he knows all of the princesses! (In this case it was Ariel)

I thoroughly enjoy reading time with our kiddos!!!

This totally cracked me up that Garrett and Tori were watching a movie together!

Tori, Puppy, and Blankie- three inseparable pals!

I love how much Tori enjoys books- especially when she helps out with the reading!

Tori is getting to be a better helper everyday- she even cheers when you do a good job!

Tori had a fabulous time 'helping' Daddy get Parker and Lincoln's bed all ready for their visit!

The three men of the house- just hangin' out!

What a cutie pie!

We're so glad when Daddy is home!!!

Our little charmer!

One day I had left a cabinet open, Tori pulled out our big platters, and played with them all morning.  Not really thinking about it, I left them out and then Tori requested to use one as her lunch plate.  It actually worked out pretty great- not only was there enough room for all of her food, but there was also a spot for Tiana!

Garrett's car seat doubles as an awesome place to play!

Garrett loves tea parties with Tori- at least to eat the spoon!

We are so, so, so glad it is finally warm enough to play outside again!

So funny that Tori lines her "podies" up wherever she happens to be playing!

Love the look on Tori's face and that Garrett is trying his hardest to see what she is up to!!!

Apparently, little brothers are great for princesses to play on!

A girl and her princesses- life is fantastic!

Yep, life is pretty grand here at the Allen house!!!

Spring Break Kickoff!

Jared's spring break started today- yep he gets today, tomorrow and all of next week!  Talk about fantastic!  So we decided to kick things off with some last names such as Weir, Beard, Hoff, Hansen, Lochte, and, of course, Phelps!  If these names mean anything to you, you must be up on your Olympic swimmers!  We were able to attend the Indy Grand Prix downtown at the Natatorium and it was so much fun!!!
Jared and Tori with Ryan Lochte!!! (So sad I missed meeting him, but glad that Jared and Tori got to!)

 This is what Tori did during prelims this morning!

 And this is what Garrett did!

Ryan Lochte (lane 1) and Michael Phelps (lane 4) getting ready for their event!

In between prelims and finals, Jared and I decided to visit our past lives.  It was so much fun seeing so many of my favorite ladies at Riley!  It was also great introducing them to Garrett- he loved his first Riley visit!!!
On our way over to visit Jared's lab, we stopped off for a picnic lunch.  It was a beautiful day and we totally enjoyed being outside!
I think at least one thing is clear- we need to get this kid outside more often! She loves it!!!

My oh-so-handsome boys!!!

This girl is getting way too grown up!

Jared thoroughly enjoyed visiting his lab mates and especially catching up with Dr. Roper!  While Jared was chatting, I was keeping track of Tori.  Here is our future scientist!

You may be wondering who that is way out in front- that would be Micheal Phelps! It was pretty awesome watching him completely kick some trash in the butterfly!!!

Michael Phelps getting his first place medal! 

Tori and Jared got their picture with Ryan Lochte, so Garrett and I got our picture with the super-cool "All Great Racers Come to Indy!" sign!!!

I have to say that Tori really surprised us, we had a very busy day and even at the very end she was still smiling! (I love that she has Puppy and Blankie with her now wherever we go, but luckily she will leave them in the car!)

Hurrah for a fabulous start to spring break 2012!  Now we just have to figure out what else we want to do!!!

Texas Time

Sadly, our time in Texas had to come to an end and we headed home to Indy this morning.  As a final post, and farewell to our trip, here are a few more fun memories and pictures to share!

I love how chill and happy our little dude is!

Alec earned his Eagle Scout Award some time ago, but waited to have his Eagle Court of Honor until we could all be there.  He worked hard and we were so excited to be able to celebrate this awesome achievement with him!!!

Here he is- the newest Allen Eagle Scout!!!

The very elite Eagle's Nest! (hehe- I love this picture!)

Congrats Alec- we are so proud of you!!!

Just a little background- Jared's family has one of Prince's brothers- whose name is Scrappy.  But when Linken walked in and saw him he instantly called him Frankie!  As it turned out, Tori and Linken, and a bunch of the rest of us as a joke, called Scrappy Frankie for the remainder of our trip.  So, here is Garrett making friends with Frankie!!!

Yesterday was a pretty great day for our family.  We were able to be there for Grayson's baby blessing and it marked the first time our little family has all been able to attend church together since the end of November!  It was so fun to be our matchy-matchy family again- you may think us nerds, but it is actually a really fun Sunday tradition!!!

Our little drool monster!!!

Last night we had a wonderful Family Home Evening about fathers.  My favorite part was when every father in the room shared how they felt when they became fathers- it was really a sweet and very spiritual experience!  For our activity we played pictionary.  I'm so glad I didn't get any of Dillon's words- they were crazy!  There was a lot of good drawing and even better guessing going on!  Tori was a big help to whomever was drawing at the time!!!

It must have been the boys turn to guess- they all look very focused- even Grayson!!!

Love this one of Tori and Uncle Derek- these two are the best of buddies!!!

If you were wondering why I was so stressed about flying- here is all of our stuff!  I think we packed great, but that is still a ton of stuff to lug around an airport along with two kids!  But we made it home and once again things went smoothly!!!

Tonight, Tori took all of her "podies" to bed with her- she was one happy little girl!  Thanks again, Uncle Alec!!!

It really is a bitter sweet to be home again.  Thanks to all our family for a fabulous time in Texas- we can't wait to come back again!!!

Texas Tori-isms

Tori has been quite a little chatter-box for some time now.  But she seemed to come up with a whole bunch of fun new things to say while we were in Texas!  I wish I knew where she came up with some of them- what a crack-up!  Hope you enjoy her awesome sayings paired with some equally cute pictures of her!!!
Whenever Tori would cough she would say, "Yucky cough!"  (Insert a southern-ish drawl on the cough part when you read this- no idea where it came from!)

At the zoo Tori started saying, "bunny missing, oh no!" But it was even more cute that she continued saying it our entire trip- she must have been really worried about that bunny!

Tori was often heard to say, "pull, pull harder!" Thanks for this one Dora!

"Oh dear," often said when anything seemed amiss to our little gal!

"Something missing, hmmm!" And then Tori would start looking under things to find whatever was missing- it was adorable!!!

Uncle Alec gave Tori some My Little Pony dolls, but she quickly renamed them her, "podies!"

"Silly Dillon," or, "silly Aaz," or, "silly Derek!" Obviously we had lots of silly uncles around!!!

Tori would randomly walk around saying, "Happy birthday to you!"

"Baby elephant cute!" Another animal from the zoo made a lasting impression! 

And another recurring saying, "over there!" Everything we were looking for was always over there!

I love it when our Tori talks- you never know what is going to come out next!!!

Cousins

I am so glad that Tori and Garrett both have cousins that are close in age!  And I love that they are already building friendships with them!!!
This trip Garrett and Grayson finally got to meet each other!  Even though they were both calm and cool on the outside, I'm sure they were super excited on the inside!!!

Linken is a great friend to Tori- he helped her get through her breathing treatment and even read her princess book with her!

So glad that Tori and Linken included Garrett in some of their play!

Linken was especially awesome with Garrett!!! (Yeah for fun rides!)

I absolutely love this one!

And no visit would be complete without some cousin bath time!

Tori wasn't so sure she liked Linken putting bubbles in her hair!

We didn't catch these two in the tub together, but got this one shortly after they got out!

Hurrah for fun times with cousins- I'm sure there will be many more in the future!!!