Happy Halloween Y'all!

This was Johnny's first official year of trick-or-treating and he went as a cowboy or "Woody" (from Toy Story) if you were to ask him. He's been wearing the boots and hat all week and even slept with them the first night. He's always LOVED cowboys, I think he gets that from his grandpa Baker who is a REAL cowboy!


All dressed up and ready for our friends to show up!


Ummm...can we stop the pictures and go get some CANDY!?


Gotta love those brown eyes


The boys


Here's the little trick-or-treater on his way to another house. We were out for about an hour and only went to 10 houses. Don't ever give candy to a two year old while trick or treating, they lose all motivation.

Pumpkin Carving Party!

Johnny and I threw our first pumpkin carving party-one of my favorite childhood traditions! Here are a few pictures of our friends. Sorry there aren't too many pictures of Johnny and I, we were too busy entertaining!


Here are most of the kids and our Halloween masterpieces.


Sheree opted for a miniature pumpkin and was done cleaning it out and carving in about five mintues-great idea!


Christian Bloomgren, aka, Mr. Martha Stewart and his boys Mason and Maddox. He didn't use a pattern and still had the coolest pumpkin!


This is Marci and Johnny's only girl friend, Ella. She is always playing with a big bunch of boys.


Here's the gang admiring their work. They're such cute little punks!

There are no pictures of me, of course, I was too busy taking the pictures, Josie, Christian's wife, Jeff and Amy and their little girl Lauren and Tamara who was running aournd with her three boys. It was so fun. We will for sure be carrying this tradition on!

Little Miracles

I know, a room full of two year olds and they're ALL sleeping-even Johnny! It truly is a miracle. The women who teach Johnny's class are miracle workers. I had never seen this before and never really believed it until I walked in last week and saw it-sleeping toddlers all over the room!

Dewbury Farm

We drove out west this weekend to a little farm for some family fun with the Nixons. It was a beautiful fall day and everyone had a blast!


The little Allen family at the top of the corn maze


Go carts


Lost in the corn maze


Male bonding at the goat pen


Johnny and Mommy

Johnny and his best friends Andrew and Eva on a little train ride


This is what you do for fun when you live in the country.


Johnny boy on a tractor. He asked for this huge tractor for christmas...and not a little one, mommy!


Both mommy and Johnny were afraid to touch the horse so we just looked and looked.

It's A GIRL!!!

Johnny and I went to the doctor's today to find out what we were having and the doctor found a little girl in there! We are so excited! Little Olivia Rene Allen will be here March 2nd!

A Day at the Houston Zoo

John had Columbus day off of work so we went to the zoo. Johnny was so excited to see all of his animal friends again! We used to go to the zoo once a week back when we lived five minutes away and it wasn't 100 degrees outside. It was such a fun day. Here are some pics.


"Johnny, this is a mean lizard, and if you don't behave, it will eat you for lunch!" Just kidding.


Huge python. HUGE!


This is Johnny's favorite animal in the whole wide world. The elephant.


These crazy primates are howler monkeys and they make the funniest noises we've ever heard. They have big frog necks that fill up with air and make this crazy synthesizer noise and then they yell and scream like crazy people all day.

Johnny's second favorite animal is the giraffe. This guy LOVES people and is always at the fence to let people oooh and ahhhh at him....I'm talking about the giraffe by the way.


Isn't this cute? The poor animal can't bend down.


I have no idea what Johnny is pointing at but he's acutally smiling in a picture so I had to add it!


Johnny and daddy took a ride on the carousel. If any of you know Johnny, you know he hates swings, trampolines, pretty much anything that moves. So he enjoyed it before and after it started moving. I should have just asked if he could sit on it for awhile. Poor kid was terrified. He must get that from the Allens :)


Johnny thought he was so cool when he was brushing those smelly goats!

Jack and the Bean Stalk

When we moved into our house we were told that come summer, a vine would pop out of the ground and start winding around our cute little bench swing...and sure enough, it did!!! I love this magic plant becuase it grows and grows and I never have to water it!

Here it is, our magic bean stalk

And here is the rest of it, I swear it's tall enough to reach the sky and the big giant who lives in the clouds...isnt' that how that story goes?

And now our magic plant is growing these round balls (they're actually called potatoes and the vine is actually a potato vine but they look more like round avocados to me). I could send you all a magic "potato" and you could grow magic vines in YOUR backyard!

Sadly, the next step for our magic bean stalk is to shrivel up and die and then we have to figure out how to rip it out of our trees. Good thing I'm married to my very own giant!