A lot to catch up on...

That is an understatement!  Between moving into our new home (YEA!!) and preschool, gymnastics, ballet, and our computer crashing, I have been busy.  And I'm a lot lazy so add that into the mix and you understand our lives a lot better.  First things first, our house.  We have been very busy painting!  When you first walked in, it was a pistachio green (we think the inspiration for many of these colors was the jello isle at the store).  This was something to fix as soon as possible!  And that we did. Here's before and after. And I can't figure out how to rotate my photos.

Pistachio pudding anyone?

So after we did that, we needed to do the office (to the left in the pictures above).  Below are those before and after shots.  We also spray painted the chandelier  from gold yuckiness to a black with flicks of bronze  in it.

Then on into the hallway and around the stairs.  We also have a den that was the lovely pistachio green that is now the toy room. 

 And finally, we had to paint our family room which took several weeks because it has 20 foot ceilings and we had to risk our lives on the scary ladder.  I'm a little disturbed by how comfortable I got being on the ladder.  It was really scary!!

We then moved up the stairs and painted the upstairs hallway.  This is where we stopped for now.  As you can tell, this has been a very big job and has taken a lot of time.  We are only able to paint when the kids are in bed so we have had many late, late nights.  Thank goodness for Excedrin Migraine is all I can say!

And the final pictures...my most favorite aspect of what we've done so far is the curtains...this was a major dilemma for a while.  We have those huge windows in the family room which is great for light purposes but at night, I just couldn't run across the walkwayto the kids' room in my underoos without everyone out the back windows able to see, in perfect HD, I might add (we have a busy street behind our house and then a large park beyond that). And it was very hot this summer.  The sun beat in upon the thermostat so the A/C was running almost constantly.  We needed blinds of some sort.  But the estimate we got was over a thousand bucks.  What to do?  One day, I had this epiphany.  So what was going to cost over a thousand dollars, ended up costing a little over $100.   And look how pretty the room looks now!

Here's the living room...I kind of skipped over it because we did nothing to it and it will probably stay that way!  Our stuff goes so well in there.  We will probably switch places with the couch and piano.

Here's the kitchen...we will be painting it but not anytime soon...we like the color and it doesn't look that bad.  We will eventually paint the cabinets white too.  No rush.  We plan on being here for a long time!!  

We have about six rooms left to paint...I have included pictures of those so you can feel our pain of living in the jello inspired rooms (it's really not that bad, except for the melon room...it is THAT bad...and make sure you don't turn on the lights...eww!)

This is Brylie and Brody's room for now.  We will eventually paint this navy and light blue and it will be a boys room.   (not any kind of announcement)

Here's the fluorescent melon room...it gets worse when the light is on!  It is not occupied currently but will eventually be a guest room/library.  It will be a light olive shade.  I'd like to thank the previous owners for painting everything in the closet.  Grrr!

Here's the master...we are not really fans of the yellow.  This will also change but we are unsure of really what color we'll go to.  Also not really a priority since we rarely hang out here.

So now you've seen most of our house...the last photos are of the back yard...this is such an awesome aspect for us!  The kids love having a big backyard and we have some big plans for what it will be in the future!  Come back soon for more updates on what we've been up to!

Allen Family Reunion 2011

This year we had our first Allen Family Reunion! It would be the first time in a long time when everyone would be there. We went to Island Park, ID and rented a cabin for almost a week. My sister, Paige and her husband Matt were in charge and did a pretty dang good job! There is a very high standard set for future reunions, if you ask me!

Matt drew a picture that depicted little aspects of each person which went on the front of the reunion t-shirt. Very funny and creative! On the back of each shirt was a name and what number they are in our family. For instance, the back of my shirt said "Cassidy" and "3". Brad was number 9, Brylie, number 12, Brody, number 14, and Olivia was number 16. Here's the front of the shirt. Can you pick each member of our family out? And if you know my family, can you decipher each from this drawing?



Here is our little family. Brad graduating with a beard...he always seems to have some sort of scruff. Brylie playing with a doll of some sort, in one hand is the body, in the other is the head. Brody wearing his boots and on a leash because that's the only way to keep up/track of him. Olivia is on my head because she is always clinging to me somehow, someway. I don't know what the dryer has to do with us but, the dryer that Brylie is sitting on.

Our cabin was awesome! Far more fancy than my house but very comfortable and roomy! We fit with room to spare! There was a little firepit out back for us to use for s'mores, etc.

We had many activities throughout the course of the week. Yellowstone, floating down the river, sand dunes, mountain man rendezvous, the Mesa Falls, eating, playing games, chatting, resting, relaxing and just enjoying each other's company. It was awesome!!

Here are all the pictures we took! There are a lot! It was such a good time!! Thanks everyone for your efforts!! I thoroughly enjoyed myself!!

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