Tyler on the diving board at Vern and Gia's pool

All of the boys really enjoyed their swim at Vern and Gia's house. Isn't the pool beautiful? Mike and I were dreaming of how completely entertained our kids would be all the time if we were to live in their house.

Here's a little video of Tyler on the diving board. For a 3 year-old he's a pretty good swimmer! The video is one of the last of many times off the board, so he was kind of tired by this point. He was doing some belly-bruising belly flops! This one was very tame!

Rock climbing pictures

Jake scaling the wall


Jake on his way down



Nick heading up



Tyler begin his first climb





Very proud of himself!

Christmas 2008

Nick and Jake enjoying the pool


Mia and Nick with Nana



Ty swimming all by himself



Leaving Santa his milk and cookies (and carrots for the reindeer)


The Allen kids pose for our Christmas card

It seems as though every time I post I am apologizing for the delay in blogging. Perhaps "blog" is not a good term for this site since I don't post very often. From now on it will be an "online family album", not a blog! That relieves some of the pressure!

We had a great holiday season here in CO. All of the boys performed in their school winter music programs and finished out the semester with fun class parties. They were very much looking forward to Christmas break and having some time off. We had a fun Christmas morning here at home. The favorite gifts for this year: Nick and Jake- Webkinz and new bikes, Tyler- a sleeping bag (so he doesn't need to sleep in his pillowcases anymore), and Mia- a kitchen set with all the necessary accessories.

We went up to Estes Park on Christmas day for a visit with Nana, Papa, Aunt Nancy, Suzie and Claire. We had planned on skiing for a day, but it was about 5-20 degrees with 50 MPH winds, so we decided on other activities. We went rollerskating and took the boys rock-climbing for the first time at an indoor climbing wall. Tyler stuck to the kid-wall (called the "ABC wall" because the rocks were actually letters). He was especially excited to reach the "T for Ty". Nick and Jake tried three different walls and did great on all of them.

We also visited the home of some of Nana and Papa's friends. These friends (Vern and Gia) happen to have a pool in their house! And it was a big pool with a diving board! Nick and Jake were impressed that someone would have a pool in their house (so were we). The kids had a blast swimming there and it was so nice to meet Vern and Gia, who are very sweet, kind people.

Enjoy the pictures! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas Dancing

I apologize for this sideways video. I didn't realize that I couldn't flip video clips like I can flip still pictures. It's pretty cute anyway, so just turn your head!

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Party at the Air Force Academy Football Stadium

On the 50 yard line

Tyler and Santa

Mia and Santa

Cookie decorating


So I vowed not to get too far behind on this blog, and here I have already let 2 weeks pass without a post. I guess that's what happens when you have 4 kids ages 7 and under! That's my excuse, at least.

We had Mike's office holiday party this weekend. It was held at the Air Force Academy stadium. It was a great party complete with lunch, cookie decorating and a visit from Santa. I was a bit concerned about how Jake and Nick would react to Santa as they have started asking some questions about the logic (or lack thereof) of the whole Santa thing. I'm not convinced that they were fooled by this Santa look-alike (not so much), but he brought presents, so they were happy to set aside their skepticism. Mia and Tyler were completely taken with the big man- quite a shift from their reaction when we were at the North Pole a few weeks ago. Again, I think the presents helped to break the ice! Mia sat on his lap and Tyler gave him the cookie that he decorated...after he took a bite out of it. I'm sure Santa appreciated that.

After Santa made his appearance we all headed down to the Academy football field. The kids were very excited to be on the field and had a great time running and playing with the other kids. The big kids (Mike and his guys) played a game of flag football and miraculously none of the old men came hobbling off the field injured as we were predicting on the sidelines!