Happy Thanksgiving!

Our beautiful table...thank you Dan!

Do you love the napkin rings? Madison made them all by herself!
Too many cooks in this kitchen!
Aaron and Brian pretending they helped cook something.
Marcus and I taste testing my lemon merengue mini tarts...mmmm!Everyone gathering around the table...finally getting to eat.

This Thanksgiving was really great. My parents and Nanci and her kids and Marcus all came up to brave (uh...I mean spend) the holiday with us. It was so fun watching Garrett terrorize everything within crawling distance, and Wyatt and Madison actually played really well together.

Brian's friend Aaron (a fellow teacher) really did brave the holiday here with us. Brian actually told him to come over at around noon...hmmm...has Brian never met any Allens before? Why would he think that we would even be close to eating at noon? I guess he needs seven more years with me to figure it out.

We cooked all day long, I tried to make everything that everyone likes so they would all be happy...and I ended up nearly destroying my house and everyone in it. I exploded a glass bowl of butter in the microwave....twice...I splattered innocent bystanders with the squash soup I was pureeing in the blender, I started my oven on fire....but was able to save the lemon merengue mini tarts (phew...that was close). Somehow I was still able to pull together a meal, and we all ate too much and then slept. Ah, don't you just love Thanksgiving?

Where Madison is helpful, and Benjamin is Seven Months Old...

Here is an example of Madison being helpful with her brother. Sometimes just helpful enough to scare the crap out of me....or just helpful enough to be annoying, depending on the day. Ben doesn't seem to mind, though...he thinks his sister is the best thing in the world. I think that this line of thinking will be alright until she begins to be annoyed with him copying her and following her around and playing with all of her toys. Well, at least for now things are okay.

Our little Benjamin is growing up so fast. These pictures were taken right after he was seven months old. He now loves to sit in his high chair (that Brian fixed after I threatened to post about how last year's Christmas present to me might end up being finished just in time for Christmas this year) and eat anything that we are eating, or at least try to. He also has two teeth...pictures to come, once I figure out how to get him to hold still and show them to me. He is a rolling fiend! He loves his sister, he really loves his daddy, and we just love him so much!

Happy Halloween!

Our cutie-pies getting ready for trick-or-treating.

Our butterfly and our baby penguin. Adorable!
Madison, the beautiful butterfly.
Practicing her face for getting extra candy....."Can I please have some candy?"
"Please!?!"Here are my penguin men. Aren't they precious?A closer one of baby Benj penguin.

This is Madison reveling in her haul...

And this is Benj definately not reveling in his haul. Somebody needs to teach this kid that candy is delicious. What kind of parents are we, anyway?

Well, we are so way lame that we've waited until after Thanksgiving to post our Halloween pictures. Since they are so late, I can't remember all of the funny things I was going to post about. Oops! Well, it was fun, anyway....and the kids were cute, so what else is there to say?