Our Christmas Letter and a couple pictures

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
As promised here are a few pics from last week. We used our family pictures that I posted last month for our card.

Melts my heart!

 Luke was showing Grady how to put the jingle bells on his toes.

2010 Allen Family Christmas Letter

This year we went to Disneyland in January with Ty’s family. We have learned through our experiences this year that life is precious and we are so thankful for dear friends and family because in the end it’s the people in our lives that matter most.

Ty-Most importantly, Ty turned 30, and is now officially old. He also changed careers. After a lot of hard work, studying, and long hours he became a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones in September. In his spare time he loves being our in-home jungle gym for our Luke and Grady to climb all over.

Rachel- Well, I’ve enjoyed hanging out with the kids this year through all the ups and downs that come along with raising children. I do my best to keep them entertained and happy, and try to get out of the house every chance I get. Most of my free time is spent doing something photography related. Check me out!  I have a blog! rachelbellephotography.blogspot.com

Luke (3 ½) –If I were to sum Luke up in 3 words those 3 words would be talk, talk, and talk! Ty and I can only hear ourselves think after he has gone to bed! He keeps us entertained and always has new ideas of things we need to do. We spent a good part of the year getting Luke potty trained. All I’m going to say about that is that I’ve decided to wait until Grady is at least 7 ½ before I try potty training another kid again! Luke is such a sweet and caring boy, and we’re really looking forward to all the new adventures this next year will bring him!

Grady (17 months) - Grady has changed from a little baby to a little boy right before our eyes this year. He learned to walk in June just before his first birthday. Following in his older brother footsteps, one of Grady’s first words was “candy”. He is such a good natured boy and always finds ways to keep himself entertained. Lately, he likes to put on our pirate hat and sing “Yo, ho, yo, ho!”

We hope you have the best Christmas and that the New Year brings lots of joy!

Ty, Rachel, Luke & Grady

O Tannenbaum

So, I am tired of waiting. This post isn't complete since my computer problems are still not fully resolved (hopefully by Thursday). Such a dumb mistake that has taken so long and so much worry to fix. I thought that I was just deleting on subfolder of pictures on my external hard drive, but I actually deleted every single picture on it. Lesson learned. Check twice, delete once. So glad I had 99% of all my stuff backed up.

Anyways here is the post I started writing on Saturday.

I love our tree. Every year since we have been married, Ty and I have gotten a real tree. They are a little more work, but so worth it, in my opinion. This year we went with a different kind of tree from this new place in town. It was beautiful when we got it, the first weekend in December, but now it is dead as can be already.

Well, everyear I make a photo calendar, and these are our pictures on the calendar for December. I love these photos, and I realized that I never shared them on my blog. So here are two pictures from last year. This is still one of my favorite pictures of Luke ever.

 I can't believe Grady was this young only a year ago!

As soon as I get my computer problems resolved I will share my tree pics from this year that will go on our calendar next year and in the scrapbooks.

So...

...I was going to update my blog tonight, but I accidently deleted all my photos. Luckily I had everyting backed up, except for the last couple weeks worth of photos. The good news is that it looks like I will be able to get everyting restored for free even the things I didn't have backed up. It was definitely quite a scare though. Hopefully tomorrow everything will be fixed, and you will see a new blog post.

ETA: This is taking longer than I thought. Hopefully all my files will be restored and I'll be able to post by Tuesday.

It's that time of year

To start things off, I just really love this picture of my boys playing with their trucks out back behind our house.

 So last Sunday we had crazy cold (for us) and windy weather. It really felt like winter. In a matter of 24 hours we went from having almost all the leaves still on our tree to all the leaves being on the ground. When it warmed up this week I took the boys outside to play in them. I think they actually had more fun trying to rake the leaves than anything else.

Afterwards we had a snack.

Yesterday was a great day. Luke helped Ty hang the Christmas lights outside.  Luke felt very important holding the lights. Seeing the excitement and joy on my children's faces really reminded me why we go through all this work to get our house ready for Christmas inside and out. We also went out and got our beautiful real tree last night. This morning we finally finshed setting it up. I'm sure I'll post pics of the tree later. Love this time of year! It really feels like Christmas now.

My Kid is Brilliant

Sometimes I just have to sit back and soak in my kid's brilliance. I mean how many people would think to hook a slinky to their underwear and put pajama pants on their head and hop around like a bunny?! Seriously! Sheer brilliance! I am so proud of my children! I think they might get it from me! Haha! :)

Life Lately

I spend my life with these 2 cute kids, and my existence basicaly revolves around making life good and interesting for them. I've always loved baking, and it is finally the time of year again when it is not too hot outside to turn on my oven. Sugar cookies are a favorite of ours.  I really do love cooking with my children, and it makes it even more fun when we have super cute aprons to wear! While cooking with my children is a great way for me to share my interests with them, it is also something that can really try my patience.

Grady really wants a turn to stir.

Grady gets his turn, and Luke gets upset.

Luke starts throwing a fit, because he thinks it is supposed to be his turn already.

Luke is a broken little man. Grady takes absolutely no notice of Luke and keeps on stirring.

The good times.

Last week, we used clippers on Grady's hair for the first time. I hardly recognized him at first, but I think he's still as cute as ever! I know what you're thinking "Yet another post about Grady's hair! This woman is crazy!" Sorry, I know it's pathetic, but these really are the most interesting and exciting parts of my life!

I took Luke out for some 3 1/2 year pictures. I've decided to only torture him twice a year now! :) Haha! We'll see if I can really stick to that!

This first one is my absolute favorite! {squeeze}

Yes, his finger really is up his nose on that last one. I got a lot of shots like that.

Wahoo! Our Family Pictures!

My extreemly talented friend, Erin Householder, took these photos for us. She managed to get exactly what I wanted and even more! We are doing a photo swap, so sometime after she has her baby I'll get to take some pictures for her. Erin editited a few of these, but I did most of them. I am so happy with how they turned out! I've actually already order a bunch to hang on our walls, and I've even ordered our Christmas cards too!

I am just so happy! It has been 3 years since we have had family pictures taken! 3 years! (Unless you count me using the self timer.)

 Grady was in such a strange mood. We couldn't get him to smile at all. None of our tricks worked. Oh well though, at least I'm in love with even his serious expressions!

 For some reason this last one is my favorite.

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween from my little monster and road!