Tahoe, take 2

Here are some pictures of us skiing. One day Chris took the three older kids. Here they are before they left.

This was Isaac's first year skiing. He was SO excited! Here he is on his first chair lift ride!

Riding the magic carpet.

This is Abby's 5th year taking lessons. She enjoys it and loves to go fast.

Emily wanted to try snowboarding for the first time this year. We thought maybe she would just do it one day and then ski again, but we were wrong. She has taken two days of lessons so far and says she will never ski again. Dad is sad!

Today Nana watched Isaac and Lily so that I could go ski also. We had a good time skiing together (Chris is so nice to stay with me!).

We caught a bit of Em in her snowboarding class.

We took Abby out of her class early to ski with us at the end of the day. Here she is getting ready to go down a black diamond. The kid is almost out skiing me already!

Enjoying the hot tub after a long day of skiing.

Lily

I couldnt' resist taking pictures of Lily in this great light at Tahoe. I know I have been posting like crazy, but I was a bit behind and what else is there to do when Lily is napping and Chris is skiing with the three other kids? I am a bit bored here!!! Enjoy.

Tahoe, take 1

We headed up to Tahoe a few days after Christmas. Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the snow.

You can see that the weather this day was great. The kids took off their coats and didn't even complain about being too cold.

I love this picture of Isaac. He could care less that he is wearing a purple hand-me-down snow suit!

Stay tuned for Ski pictures soon!

Funny talk with Isaac

Isaac made this at preschool. He was so excited when he showed it to me.

"Look Mom! I made a ninja-bread house!" This kid cracks me up.

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas. Here are a few pictures of the great day.

Emily got the legos she wanted from Santa. She had them all completed by the end of the day!

Santa brought Abby a couple more Webkins! Oops, looks like Santa didn't know she already had one of the lions.....

Isaac decked out in some of his new toys. He was so happy to find that Santa brought him his Light Saber.

Lily wasn't really into Christmas. I think Isaac opened most of her gifts.

The kids on the Sunday before Christmas.

From our family to yours

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Here are the Christmas Cards we send out this year. I didn't send them to everyone so I thought I would post about it as well. It is always a crazy time trying to take a family picture and getting everyone to smile and look in the same direction. Add a dog and baby into the equation and it is even harder. We took pictures on two different days. First day the dog was in the picture, second day he was not. When he was in the picture he either was not looking at the camera or Lily or Isaac was looking at the dog. So day two went much better. I am not crazy about the picture we finally ended up with, but it will have to do. I feel like Em is squished in the middle and looks like ET with only her head showing, but oh well. Here are some of the kids from the first day and the second day.

Here is the card. It didn't scan very well, but you get the idea. I went with something that was simple to do this year.

Here is the inside of the card. One side is the picture and the other is this years version of our annual letter, which is the "Allen Family's Top Ten List." You can enlarge it by clicking on the picture.

I ordered these pictures off Snapfish when they were offering 20 cards for 20 cents. Can't really beat that. Some people got the ones of just the kids while others got the homemade cards with the family picture.

From our house to yours, we hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Santa 2008

This past weekend we had our annual Santa visit in Stockton. We love Santa!

Lily wasn't quite sure what to think of the big guy in red. She did pretty well and sat long enough to get a few pictures before she started crying.

Pretty in Pink

I should have posted this with the last post, but oh, well. Here are some pictures of Lily's room. Ironically it is the biggest of all the kids rooms. I still have stuff to put on the walls, but I think it is pretty cute.

I think she likes it too.