Our Merry March

March has been a great month for us- full of huge, never to be forgotten events with the spaces filled in with small little gems like these- enjoy!

Tori is getting to be such a little lady!

Tori and her friends throw fabulous parties- Garrett made sure he was invited too!!!

Looks like a comfy place to sleep to me!

Little by little Tori is working Garrett into the idea of playing dress-ups with her (note the necklace)!

We were able to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday at the library this year! It was so much fun! We got to see a play about Horton Hatching an Egg, play fun games, meet some Super Why characters, have a snack, and do a fun craft! Love my kiddos and their Horton ears!!!

Getting more brave all the time!

Linken and Tori- a pretty cute pair!

Since we were in Texas for St Patrick's day, we made sure to share our tradition of making sugar cookies on holidays with all our family there. Tori and Grandma made an awesome cookie-making team!

Tori is also a fabulous cookie-cutter-outer! (So love that she has flour in her hair!)

Daddy couldn't resist and jumped in to help!

Linken and Tori did a great job decorating their cookies!

Garrett thoroughly enjoyed his as well!

Cousin time in the bath means lots of splashing and giggles!

So excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Hurrah for a great month full of fantastic memories!!!

Puppet Show

This afternoon, Tori gave her very first 'puppet shows!' We have a great little story teller on our hands! I hope you can hear her, the story lines were pretty great- enjoy!!!

The Little Brother Story!

Tori went on to tell The Little Girl Story, The Little Daddy Story, and the Little Mommy Story! So love this girl's imagination!!!

A Beautiful Sealing

Even though we have had tons of fun this week, the real reasons for our visit have revolved around events at the Houston temple. Wednesday evening we were able to join with Kurtis as he entered the temple to receive his endowment! It was such a special and sacred experience- one that we will never forget! And then tonight we were once again in the temple to witness Kurtis and Meesha being sealed together. I don't know if I have ever seen a couple more prepared, or more happy, to finally be sealed in the temple- they were both glowing! We are so blessed to have shared such wonderful moments with both of them!!!

Here are Kurtis and Meesha's family pictures on the temple grounds!

Love this one!!!

One of the cutest couples I know!

This is the 'glowing' I was referring to!!!

Kurtis and Meesha, thank you so much for sharing your special day with us! We wouldn't have missed it for the world! Thank you both for being such wonderful examples of how to truly live what you believe! We love you both so much!!!

Family Pics

This week has been a very special one for our family (more on that in the next post). And it has especially been focused on the temple. So, Grandma Allen had the fabulous idea of taking family pictures at the Houston temple today to help us remember all the neat things that have happened this week!!!

What better way than to start out with Ggpa and Ggma!

I love my two handsome boys!

Pretty neat to have another family picture taken at the Houston temple! We haven't had one here since Jared and I started our family almost 6 years ago!!!

We made sure to take plenty of opportunities to smell the flowers! (Love this one!!!)

Such a cute picture of Douglas and Nikki's family of 5!

I think Tori smelled every different kind of flower on all of the temple grounds!!!

Garrett and Grayson have become great buds!

Hurrah for cousin pictures! (Linken-4, Tori-4, Hazel-1 month, Garrett-2, Grayson-2)

Tori was so excited to hold Hazel!

I absolutely adore this picture- so much fun to have two little Allen girls now!!!

Dillon- what a stud!

Two beautiful ladies!

Such a great picture of Derek and Camila! (No pressure Derek, but we really like her. So, could you just go ahead and make it official?!!)

As we were getting all settled down, Garrett asked if he could hold Hazel. I think he was thoroughly proud of himself- another picture that I absolutely love!!!

We love our family and are so grateful to have the blessings of the temple that will allow us to be together forever!!!

Downtown Aquarium

This morning we visited the Downtown Aquarium as our last adventure with our City Passes. It was a great way to finish off our week of discovering Houston!

Tori and Garrett had a grand time watching the turtles!

Can you find Nemo? Garrett was so excited to see him live and in person!

Tori made sure I took her picture with Dori!

So, really cool, but kind of random, that the aquarium has two white tigers!

Interesting that Garrett thought the tiger all the way across the room was scary, but not the one right next to him!

The boys were all freaking out, but Tori saw absolutely no cause for alarm!!!

Next up, we got to touch sting rays!

Tori did awesome, but was done after one touch!

Jared loves this picture! I'll admit it, I was super scared they were going to bite me or something like that- which I know is probably irrational. But, I sucked it up and touched my one sting ray- now I don't ever have to do that again!

Linken, on the other hand, absolutely loved the sting rays!

He even fed them!

So, the aquarium has a little amusement park as part of their venue. Hurrah for another ride on a Carousel!

Check out our super grown up boy- riding all by himself!

Tori loved her ride so much, she made sure to give her seal a big hug as we said goodbye!!!

Awesome outside bubble blowers- someone is a genius!

These four had a ball!

Love our little lady!

This boy was in two-year-old boy heaven!!!

What a silly girl!

Here we are learning all about sharks on our train ride!

And just look what we found- the favorite ride from our Kemah Boardwalk day! Sadly, Garrett and Grayson weren't quite tall enough for this one. But Tori and Linken jumped right on and loved every second!

One parting picture- Tori and Garrett wanted their picture taken with these fantastic fish!!!

The Houston Aquarium was so much fun- a perfect way to end our explorations!!!