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!

A Trip to the North Pole

Yesterday we took a family trip to the North Pole, a cute little amusement park at the foot of Pike's Peak. For those of you who have never been, it is a Christmas/Santa themed park, complete with a big candy cane slide and lots of fun rides. Santa himself has a house there (of course), though you won't see any pictures of him here. Why, you ask? Because Tyler and Mia were afraid and Nick and Jake, while still strong believers in the big man's powers, are far too sophisticated to sit on his lap. They each talked to him from the doorway of his house instead. They managed to get in their requests for Christmas without getting too close!

Video- Tyler and his buddy Elise roller-skating

The last 2 seconds of this video are priceless! We often joke that Ty and Elise are destined to marry someday. However, it is likely that they'll head to divorce court because they are too much alike! They are both very headstrong and stubborn, but boy do they love each other.

Roller-skating class

Tyler and Mia went to their first roller-skating class today with a few of our friends. I was a little nervous about how it would go, but both kids had a great time. They stretched, did the limbo, had a snack, did the YMCA dance, etc. There was even a bird named "Kooky" who skated with them. Mia tends to be a bit unsure around big, costumed characters, but Kooky was a big hit. Tyler talked all day about how Kooky gave him a high five!

Tyler's "sleeping bag"

Yes, there's a child in there!

Nick and Jake had their sleeping bags out the other day and Tyler thought they were great fun. He doesn't have one of his own yet (hmm...Santa?) but in typical Tyler fashion, he wanted to be just like his big brothers. So, our creative little guy made his own sleeping bag with a pillowcase. He has slept in a "sleeping bag" every night since then. Sometimes (see picture above) he even gets his head inside. I had to take pictures because I know when he is 16 and towering over me, I'll have a hard time remembering when he could so easily fit inside a standard-size pillowcase!

Halloween 2008

The Allen kids and their Jack-O-Lanterns

The whole trick-or-treating crew. Not a small feat to get them all in one picture!

Our little ladybug


Tired kids!!

We had a great Halloween this year. We went to a friend's house and trick-or-treated with a big group. All together we had 18 kids to keep track of! It was crazy but very fun!

Fall 2008- Catching up on our new blog

Nick and Jake at the White House


After the Marine Corps Marathon



Mike at mile 16




The Love Without Boundaries team




Finalizing Mia's adoption in court

Ty and Mia on the first day of preschool



Thanks for visiting our new blog. We got a little behind on our old site so I thought I'd start this one off with a catch-up post. Hopefully I'll be better about updating this blog regularly so I won't make a habit of lumping 3 months into one post!

Here are some of the highlights from our fall...

The kids all started school and everyone is happy. They all have great teachers and have been very happy this year.

Mike ran the Marine Corps Marathon as part of team Love Without Boundaries (see the link on the side of the blog for more about LWB). He did great! He finished in a time of 3 hrs and 36 minutes- pretty good for a first-time marathoner! He felt great until mile 22 and then really tightened up for the last 4.2 miles. It didn't help that the last 0.2 miles were straight up a hill- who thought that was a good idea? A big thank you to all of you who sponsored Mike on his race. He was able to raise almost $1500 for LWB. It was a great experience and we're already planning for next year's race. I may run it too...who knows?!

We had a great time in Washington, D.C., with Nick and Jake. We visited several of the Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving (where they make our paper money). It was a very fast, busy trip but we all enjoyed it.

In September we finalized Mia's adoption in court. The adoption was really already final, but here in CO we needed to "re-adopt" her in order to get a CO birth certificate for her. We are happy to report that we are officially done with all adoption proceedings now!

Thanks again for checking in with us!