Doing the Shuffle

Baby's Room








We definitely did the "shuffle" in our house to make room for Elizabeth. Everyone changed room or furniture except Jason and Karen. Since so many of our friends and family wanted to see how the projects in the house turned out but can't come see it for themselves, I thought I would post some pictures where they could see how things look now.

The first five pictures are the of the girls' room. It is two shades of pink (blush & bashful for you Steel Magnolias fans) with wallpaper in between. I truly believe this is what made me go into labor with Elizabeth. I woke up at 4:00 am and didn't finish until late that afternoon trying to get this to work out (even with lots of help from friends and one of those neat laser gadgets). After getting it finished I took a shower and went to the hospital. The girls have really enjoyed sharing a bed and like their new room (which was previously Jason's office).

The last five pictures of Elizabeth's room (which was the girls' bedroom). I used the same baby bedding that the girls used but added some coordinating fabric to it (Central Park in pink and sage for you that sew).

Jason's office is still in the process of being "finished" so those pictures will come soon.
(Becky I hope you enjoyed this.)

First Day of School

Today was a big day for our family. First, of all we were thankful for little Elizabeth giving us an extended amount of sleep of 6 hours. It was really nice to wake up to the alarm clock for a change! The kids eagerly got dressed, ate breakfast, and loaded up for the first drop off for school. Anne-Marie was our first to get unloaded. She happily unloaded (which was an answered prayer.) Karen walked in Caroline and William where he was thorougly excited to see the small doors for his size. He bursted into the room yelling "Hi guys." Then on the way to Caroline's class she informed her mother, "I can do this all by myself and you can go home and take care of the babies." Thankfully everyone was just as excited and happy when mom arrived for pickup and eager to return tomorrow.

Little Baby Lizzy

For everyone wanting an updated picture of Little Elizabeth here you go. She is absolutely precious and still on the tiny side for a baby in our family. These are the pictures I put on her birth annoucements.

Family Picture

We decided to attempt a family picture while we had someone to take it for us before church on Sunday morning. There is nothing like telling your child "they better smile" where you can take a good picture. As you can tell William wasn't happy with his mother and wasn't going to give her his best smile. (Notice if you look in the mirror in the last picture you can see Mimi trying to get all the kids looking in the same direction.) However, imperfect these pictures are, they are both priceless and precious to us! Enjoy the new Allen family pics with all SEVEN members.

Happy First Birthday Alden

On Sunday evening after the worship service we celebrated Alden's first birthday with a cake and ice cream social. He had a grand time enjoying his own cake as you can see!

The Return of the Kids

When Jason called our parents in Alabama to let them know of Elizabeth's arrival, Karen's parents loaded up and came to pick up the children. They packed up and took the kids back to Alabama where they and Jason's parents watched and entertained the children for two weeks. On Thursday, Jason's parents made the caravan back home with the kids. We enjoyed their stay and did some really fun outings. We went to the zoo and enjoyed the Splash Run park. Also, we had more fun at Blackacre as well as fishing in the neighborhood lake. Notice in the pictures that Jason bought some corn for the kids to learn to feed the animals from the palms of their hands. Even William got into it! Jason felt bad for Alden missing out on the fun, so he put some feed on his stroller tray. Before we knew it, Alden was enjoying the feed as well. Karen rescued a few corn niblets from his mouth before being swallowed. The kids also rode in Papa's vehicle while looking at the gardens for him to point out all the vegatables to them. It was a great weekend to mark the return of the kids.