Christmas Week 2011

Rouse Family Christmas
The whole Rouse clan (minus a few) came in town for the wedding, so we decided to have our family Christmas on Saturday night with them. We enjoyed a fajita buffet ;) at a local Mexican restaurant then went back to Yaya & Papi's for desserts. Papaw read the Christmas story from the Bible, and we cleared out the living room for night two of dancing! Fun times were had by all.


A quick shot of some of our family at dinner.

Brady & Luke are always very excited to spend time with their cousins on the Rouse side.

Sunday- Christmas with the Allens

Right after church on Sunday we had our family over to watch the Texans and more fun time playing with Cash. They boys never miss an opportunity to play in a huge pile of leaves :)

After that, we had dinner and family Chrimstas at Yaya & Papi's with just our immediate family and Mamaw & Papaw. It was lots of fun and shame on my for not taking one single picture.

My Birthday Celebration

For my 31st birthday we celebrated the night before with dinner out with our friends. We are blessed with awesome friends! I always look forward to hanging out with them.

Mom & O-dawg!

My actual birthday was so much fun! We woke up and took the boys to see a Christmas movie. After that we came home and made Christmas cookies and got ready for our family to come over for gumbo that night.

About to go in the oven...

Ready to decorate!

We waited until that night so we could have fun decorating with our cousins.

Grandma Sue even joined in on the decorating fun!

and Owen enjoyed eating sprinkles right out of the jar :)

Kennedy!

Lindsey, Erin, me, & Courtney. Cousins!

Christmas Eve Eve Service

Our church had an awesome Christmas Eve Eve service on 12/23. It was "Lone Star Christmas" complete with petting zoo, cowboy singers, and a chuck wagon. Super Cool!

Luke enjoyed petting the animals, while Brady & Owen stood and watched.

Our family in front of the chuck wagon out front. Merry Christmas 2011!

Our traditional Luke & Madi Christmas picture. So cute!
After church we had a nice dinner at Chili's with Sam & Steph to hear all about their honeymoon.

Christmas with the McGlaun family

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Christmas with the McGlaun side of the family. We played the White Elephant game and some enjoyed playing poker. It is always great to be together with family. I look forward to this time every year.

After that, we headed back home to get ready for Santa's big arrival the next morning!

Introducing...

Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Allen!

December 16, 2011 Caleb's youngest brother Samuel married his high school sweetheart Steph. It just so happens that Steph and her family live right next door to us, so they are a big part of our life and we love her dearly. Samuel & Steph asked Caleb, Luke, & Brady to be in their wedding and of course they said yes!


Here's our family on the day of the wedding. Caleb was a groomsman, Luke a Jr. Groomsman, & Brady was the Ring Bearer.


Steph and I have grown really close since she moved next door & I am so glad to have her as my new sister.

Owen and Cash matched for the wedding. They sported these suspenders & bow ties with some tweed pants. They looked super cute. I regret not getting a picture of the two of them :(

Me with my handsome boy!

Daddy & Brady. Poor Brady hit his head on the playground the week before the wedding.

Aren't they cute! I must say I've trained them well...every time they stopped to pose for a picture they would say "wedding!"

My other sister in law, Erin, and I got to spend lots of time together while they were in town for the wedding which is always so much fun. I miss her so much when they have to leave.

The whole Allen Family!

Samuel & Steph got married at our church Crosspoint Fellowship which was were Caleb & I got married almost 10 years ago.

Papi with the grandsons!

The wedding was wonderful and the reception was a blast. We danced the night away with our friends and family and made lots of wonderful memories.

Congrats to the happy couple!

School Christmas Parties

I am not sure if the boys teachers are trying to kill me or what, but this is the second time this year that all three have planned big events at the same time. How they expect me to be in three places at once is beyond me. But trust me on this, this momma is gonna make all three no matter what I have to do. Actually, the Christmas parties weren't at the exact same time, just on the same day- back to back.

First up- Luke 9:00am

It was a wonderful party! I am the room mom coordinator at his school, so I was able to know all of the party plans in advance on this one ;)

Luke's table. Grayson, Luke, Katie, & Joslyn.

Luke & Mrs. Soders

All of the kids got to make their own reindeer food.

Then they made these lovely Santa Grahams.

After that they played a quick game then it was time to wrap things up.

We had lots of fun together and I am so glad I can be a part of things like this with my boys.

Next Stop, Owen's kickin' party!

Nothing like a room full of one year olds getting pumped full of sweets :)

And just when I thought they had distributed all of the sweets, they passed out the cookies!
Oh well, it's party day, right?

Me & my baby. Yes, I always call him my baby even though he's not technically a baby anymore. I plan to always call him that because he is MY BABY!

One other thing about one year olds...they don't really give you much time to snap a good picture. Here is Owen with his teachers Mrs. Gemma & Ms. Bre'anne

Gifts were exchanged, we told his little friends bye bye & we were off to crash Brady's party!

Brady's class made these stunning snowflake ornaments out of Popsicle sticks.

Then decorated Christmas cookies. Yep! It tasted as good as it looked :)

Owen was a handful at Brady's party- he was literally into EVERYTHING.

After the cookies the kids had a snowball fight! Which was a HUGE hit!

Brady & Mrs. Symms

Everyone's party day was over and I was one tired Mommy.

On the First Day of Christmas...

One of our favorite Allen Christmas Traditions is 12 Days of Christmas. This tradition goes back several years for as long as Caleb can remember and maybe even before he was born. So, you know me- I am NOT gonna let a good tradition go to waste!

The First Day of Christmas was 12/13/2011 and the boys got Star Wars chapstick in their stockings. Every day they will continue to get a small gift in their stocking until Christmas Day.

I love their stockings and I hope they last forever.