Jumping Through January

Wow, 2013 is already one 12th over! Okay, maybe that doesn't sound like too much of the year is gone.  But it is crazy how fast January flew in and out of our home!  In usual Allen and Co. fashion- here is a picture wrap up of our month!

Tori was so proud of this awesome train track she made all by herself!

Oh, how we love our smiley boy!

Dinner time swim meet style! Tori usually eats pretty good.  If I can get Garrett to eat anything I'm lucky.  There is just too much for him to explore!

Tori loves wearing her "I am a Child of God" crown- and upside down just makes her that much more unique!!!

I think that Garrett and Tori (and their pants) have crawled over every single inch of the Pike pool observation area!

Garrett now has a favorite movie -Baby Einstein Baby MacDonald. He gets so excited waiting for it to come on and insists on holding the case while he is watching it!!!

We are in BIG trouble.  One morning the kids ended up with both of our cell phones- and boy they sure looked like they were texting away!

What a cute smile and some awesome staticy hair!

Garrett just can't catch a break when we take him outside to play in the snow.  On this particular day, the idea was to shovel the driveway before Jared got home so he wouldn't have to do it.  I put Garrett in his walker chair so he could move around but not get too cold.  He was having a grand time- until Tori threw a whole handful of snow in his face.  Yeah, not having a good time after that!

Yep, they are siblings!!!

Check out this cute little stud muffin!  All dressed up for church and ready to drive!!!

What does a boy who just chewed through his last binkie do to console himself? Why, chew/suck on a puzzle piece!

Thanks for the bag of fun things to play with Aunt Terrah and Uncle Jake...

we have been having a ball with all of them!

This is how Tori takes in a movie these days- not too bad of a setup!!!

Garrett is quite the taskmaster!  "If you don't go fast enough horsey, I will steal your glasses and poke you in the ear with them!"

This one just makes my heart melt!

January was good to us!  Let's see what February has to bring!!!

Playing with Prince

I'm not quite sure how Prince feels about it, but Tori and Garrett have taken much more interest in playing with him lately.  For the most part, Prince loves the added attention.  Until Garrett grabs his tail or face or until Tori tries to ride him!

Prince especially likes helping clean off our kiddos' hands after a meal! (And Tori makes sure he is nice and comfy- notice our couch pillows!)

And he really likes to lick faces whenever they are in range!

Tori is getting really good at playing fetch with Prince!

Prince has found a great place to hide from Garrett when needed- under our bed!

Then he waits until Garrett gets distracted...

and makes a break for it!

It is so much fun watching our three little creatures have fun playing with each other!!!

Book Worms!

Garrett has always loved books, but would, more often than not, chew the snot out of them.  So we had to be really careful letting him have them unsupervised. Recently he has stopped the chewing and started 'reading!"  Garrett's latest thing is going over to the books and pulling them off the shelf until he finds just the right one he was looking for.  Then he will come over to either me or Jared, basically throw the book at us, and then climb into our lap for us to read it to him!
I think part of this transformation has come from watching Tori and how much she love books!

I love watching our two little book worms reading away!!!

And I love how excited Garrett gets when he is surrounded by all of his favorites!

Which he reads over and over again!!!

Nothing beats a good book!

Our Little Helpers

Tori and Garrett have stepped up in the helping department lately! Tori was Daddy's big helper in getting our new picture all ready to hang on the wall.  It's amazing how good her plastic tools are!

A few days ago we made cookies.  Garrett had a grand time spreading out the flour!

He had such a great time, that Tori gave it a try as well!

Garrett thoroughly enjoyed eating his handiwork!!!

This toy box took lots of concentration to get all put together- I love that both Jared and Tori were so focused on their work!

Thanks so much, Tori and Garrett, for being our big helpers!!!

We LOVE Packages!!!

Over the past couple of weeks we have received some super fun packages.  The first was a Valentine's day package from Grandpa and Grandma Allen! Of all the fun things it contained, Garrett went for the food...

and Tori went for the clothes!!!

We also got our last little bit of Christmas from Jared's parents.  Mom Allen made us this absolutely beautiful collage- it is my new favorite thing hanging on our walls!!! I love that it has all of us centered around the Savior- a great reminder of how we should be living our lives everyday!

Tori and Garrett also received their Christmas presents from Uncle Willie, Aunt Krista, Parker, Lincoln, Henry, and Caroline!  Tori's apron is so adorable!!!

And Garrett couldn't wait to play with his car mat!

Thank you so much for all the fun gifts Colorado Harrisons (and Krista especially)- both kids love them!!!

Thanks for the fun packages- and all the love that was sent with them!!!

15 Months!

Garrett turned 15 months old today- and we think he knew it!  All of the sudden he was walking everywhere! He has also been adding a few new words to his repertoire and he is trying to say more all the time!

Here is our adorable little cowboy!

And today was the first time he would ride his horsey all by himself! I love it when Tori says, "Ride 'em cowboy!!!"

So, this was the best picture I could get with his bear-he's just way too much fun to play with!

And, of course, under the desk was a fantastic spot for a sibling photo!

See, Garrett really can walk across a room- when he wants to!!! (He did this several times today!)

Garrett- you are such a big boy and such a joy to have in our family!!!

Our Little Sunbeam

It is true- Tori has officially graduated from Nursery and is now a Sunbeam!  Now Tori gets to go to Sharing and Singing Time with all of the big kids and have her own little class.  It's pretty awesome that her Sunbeam teacher was her old Nursery leader- we love Sister Cameron!!!  Since it was such a momentous occasion- her first day as a Sunbeam- I wanted to capture some great pictures.  And these were the best I could get out of our little ray of sunshine!

First was the crying-because-Mommy-did-my-hair picture!

Then it was the I'm-not-in-the-mood-to-smile-so-I'll-frown picture!

And here was the sort of okay I-look-like-I-might-cry picture!

We should have known that with such an unhappy little girl, our first Sunday of afternoon church would be an adventure.  Right in the middle of the Sacrament, something set Tori off and she started to scream at the top of her lungs.  I'm sure it was the worst temper tantrum she has ever thrown anywhere ever! Jared grabbed her and headed out into the foyer- I could still hear her screaming even from there.  He then proceeded to take her outside into the cold.  Tori wasn't happy about that at all.  It's amazing how quickly her screaming and crying stopped when told they could go back inside when she was happy again!  The rest of church was pretty uneventful- Tori had a great time in Primary and Sunbeams!