Happy Birthday to Me!!

Our little Ashley turns two on Monday, so we decided to have a little party for her a couple days early. She loved having her little cousins over to help celebrate. It was a really fun day. She was a bit of a stone face for the first hour, but what else is new? Her face may have not shown it, but she really was happy! Thanks to all who came out today.

Claire was such a cutie. Get that girl some toys, Meaghan!

...still, no expression from the B-day girl!

Jack was eyeballing all of Ash's gifts. He was getting ready to make his move!

Ash and her "Penelope Peapod" doll.

Brooklyn and Ash got along so well. Brooklyn looks so grown-up next to Ash.

Brooky looked so cute today! She was doing a lot of singing today. I especially loved her version of "Apologize". Watch out American Idol! She really made it her own.

Here are some old pics of our fun at the Glencoe Club. Charlie has really made a lot of progress with his skating, as you can tell from the above photo.

Ash doesn't really do that well on the bob skates, so she just poses off to the side.

I love this pic of Charlie, Hmphhhh! "Oh no you did....n't!! (snap)"



My little "Pale Rider". Could my kids use a little sunshine, or what?


In the last two months, I can count on one hand the number of time Charlie has NOT worn a hockey jersey. He thinks it's really cool!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

We decided to start the year by having some good 'ol Canadian fun....skating and toboggoning (did I spell that right? Hmm.) It was a beautiful day, cold, but nice! Not too much snow, but enough to slide on.

Then last of these photos were taken around Christmas.

Ash's new pj's. She loves her penguins!

Just some old random stuff!

So, after soccer, swimming and skating was a huge bust with Charlie, we decided to take a less aggressive approach. BADMINTON!!! He LOVES it! He really only runs around the court, but he does it well! Go Charlie, Go!


I was going through my camera and realized that I hadn't downloaded a bunch onto my computer, so I will post them now.


This is at Leatherby's with Jay and Becca. I'm still dreaming about that ice-cream. Susie and I went down to SLC in September to buy a vehicle to sell up here. That was just before the spike in the Cdn $. Well, that vehicle is still sitting in my garage. We havn't had one phone call on it. Yeah, that was a really good idea Jen.

I'm not sure why Charlie has one finger up. He either just hatched some wicked scheme or he wants to pick his nose.

It's about time, eh??

Okay, so it's been some time since I've posted. I feel like I need to get back to the basics, so here we go. Not much is new with us, the Allen's.

Peter had his knee surgery today and his recouping in the basement. Ash had her stitches out last week, and her scar is healing nicely. The picture above was taken before the "incident". Note to self, never take both kids shopping alone.

Thanks to Angie for taking this photo for us. It's rare for us to all be in the same picture together, so we kind of had to make this happen. Isn't that sad?

Ahhhh well, my Christmas tree and decorations have been up since last week. I was so excited to get going this year. No doubt by the end of December, I'll be ready to take it all down. This is my nativity set that I bought in Meersburg, Germany. I walked into this tiny little toy store there and fell in love with it. It's so simple, but I had to have it. They sold it by the piece and well, you have to have all the "main characters" and a shepherd or two, so the price just kept going up.....Peter and I have a running joke on my "million dollar" nativity set. I still don't want to tell him how much it really was!

Charlie loves to shovel and sweep the snow, so this morning when we woke to snow, he was pretty excited. (Could his jacket be any bigger?)

Our little snow angel. Ruby loves to roll around in the fluffy stuff.

So, that's my new post. I promise that I wont wait so long to post again. If anyone out there is still checking, that is! :)

PARADE N' PANCAKES!

Today was the annual Garrison Woods pancake breakfast! Lots of fun!

Daddy and his little girl!

Charlie was into the horses a little more this year!~

Tough girl!

I really love this photo of Ash. This was the morning of the parade.

me and "poppy"

Mom is the best! She was there so early and held kids throughout most of the parade.

Brooklyn's got some good moves! She was so cute, dancing!

One of the rare moments of Charlie, being nice to his sister.

On Canada Day, Peter and I took the kids to EauClaire and had a picnic.

These were taken of Ash, on the way out to our Cabin (before the big storm hit).