It's an Allen Christmas!

Taboo is always a fun game!!

Taboo, Beer, and Snickey Snacks = a FUN time!!

Aunt Sharon was a pro at this game!

This game did not last long-- I knocked it down!!

Amy looking festive in her green shirt!

I love these two!!! Witt and the future Mrs. Witt

Here are all the kids listening to Nikki read the letter from "Santa"

The kids always seem to gather around our air hockey table!

Dinner time!

This is probably my favorite family Christmas party every year. The Allen family is pretty much a guaranteed fun time! We had the whole Clan over to our house on Saturday night. We had good food, opened our RED presents (Red was our theme this year... I got a new RED crockpot!!), played the oven mitt game, and played some other fun games. Thanks, everyone, for a very fun Christmas festivity!

Christmas

Travis got this race car track! He loves it!

Here are the kids eating Christmas breakfast!

Tyson LOVED his new chainsaw!

Rylee got a new bike!

Tyson on his new scooter!

Rylee left a Little Debbie Christmas tree for Santa!

Here are the boys putting out Santa's cookie!

Travis in his new Dark Knight PJs!

Rylee and Tyson in their SpongeBob jammies!

Tyson always does this trick with Uncle Paul! He thinks he is SUPER cool!

Travis and Jaden opening presents on Christmas Eve.

Jaden!

Rylee and Travis on Christmas Eve!

This isn't a Christmas picture, but I love it! Maria is growing bigger and bigger! Only 6 more weeks or so until we get to meet Baby Daniel!!

We had a fabulous Christmas! Our kids are just too cute and they are so easily amused! They loved all their gifts. We stayed home most of Christmas Day and played with the kids and all the new toys. Later in the afternoon we went to my Mom and Dad's and did presents and dinner there. It was a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Party #1 - Check!

We had our first Christmas party this Sunday with Bryan's parents and siblings. We were supposed to go up to Grant, but the weather changed our plans, and we had the party at our house. We had our traditional primbe rib dinner and opened gifts. Our main gift was the trip to GWL, but we got some more gifts to open. Thanks, John and Kathy, for the great Christmas! You are always way too generous! So now one Christmas celebration is done, only 4 to go!

Playing with my new camera!

This one is Travis at his school party. He made this "Christmas tree" out of an ice cream cone, green frosting, and marshmallows.

Bryan bought me a new camera for my birthday, and it has finally arrived in the mail! I still cannot believe he got me the PINK one that I wanted! What a good husband. These are just some shots of my kids as I tried to figure it out!

GWL 2008

Grandma Kathy with the kiddos

Always drama trying to get all the kids to pose!

Sadie was wiped out from the water park!

Still not sure how much fun Uncle Nick had.... he did enjoy the impromtu visit to the casino though!

Best buddies Payton and Rylee enjoyed the lazy river!

Bryan, Travis, and Bailey too!!

Noah was awesome at crossing the lilly pads.... Ask Nick how that worked out for him!!!

Grandma Kathy helped Tyson jump across!!

My 3 kids

Here are the kids attacking Aunt Stacey!

Grandpa John, Rylee, and Trav knocking at the Thorpe's door

Grandpa John tucking Tyson into bed!

Bryan is checking out what's on TV!

Goodnight Trav!

Goodnight Rylee and Tyson!

Did they make this wall for jumping? That's what my kids think it's for!

Tyson and Grandpa eating some dinner!

Travis and Noah

Sadie enjoyed crawling all over the hotel room and eating leftover crumbs from dinner!

The girls eating dinner

Taking a picture with the wolf!

Another wolf....

And everyone has the picture with this big bear!

Grandma Kathy and Tyson

Another classic picture!

Well you all have Aunt Sharon to thank for nagging me all the time to add new posts! Last Sunday we went to The Great Wolf Lodge! Bryan's mom and dad took the entire family there this year for our Christmas present. We had a really, really fun time! All 15 of us went! We piled into 2 vehicles and drove up to T.C. Once we got there, we all had lunch at the McDonald's right across the street from the Lodge. Then we found our rooms (Kathy and John and Stacey and Nick all stayed in the "Majestic Bear Suite." It was very nice!) and immediately went to the water park. After a few hours, we all had a delicious sloppy joe dinner in Kathy's room. Everyone brought snack food and treats, so it turned out to be a yummy meal. Then after dinner we headed down to the game room. Next we went to the lobby for story time. They even made it snow in the lobby, which was just beautiful! I have never been to GWL at Christmas time before, and WOW, I just loved it. It was so cozy and the Christmas decorations were amazing. After the kids were tucked into bed, the adults played some card games. After I drank almost a half of a gallon of Strawberry Margarita, some of us decided to head out to the casino. It was a Sunday night, so it was dead there, but still a lot of fun! I won nothing, Nick won nothing, Stacey won nothing, but of course John and Kathy each won over a hundred bucks! They were kind enough to share some of their winnings with us, including treating us ALL to the breakfast brunch buffet the next morning! I cannot say enough about how much fun we had. It is rare for the entire family to be together! Nothing is better than seeing my kids have fun, and they just LOVE it there! It was definitely a Christmas gift to remember! And thank God we made it home safely.... I never remember being in white-out conditions like that! Thanks again to Kathy and John for such a wonderful Christmas gift!