Pumpkins and more...

Hi - well I keep telling Britt that I will add to this blog and I never have so here goes. Thanks for all of the pictures so far, I've enjoyed seeing everyone!

This is the Geisha and the Ninja - Justin and Kim had a Japanese restaurant for Lee on his birthday this year. They got a little help on the food from Mom but they put their costumes together and decorated. They had a menu and signs. There was Japanese music playing and lots of atmosphere. It was great - Lee loved it!

I will just put up some Fall photos. We had a gorgeous Fall here in the NorthWest this year and had lots of sunshine and warm weather until Halloween. My parents came to the NW to sing with Gladys Knights choir in Seattle and then came and spent a week with us. We visited a pumkin patch and corn maze - it was a beautiful week. We are always looking for visitors to come - this is a beautiful part of the country.

Kimi was the walking dead for Halloween - kind of creepy - huh? This is the first year that I haven't taken any photos of Justin. He was a ninja with a Jason mask on - very creepy but he took off trick or treating with his friends before I snapped a photo. I keep telling them that this is their last year trick or treating and then they end up going again. It's just so much fun and Kim is still so small that she can get away with it. We'll see what next year brings.

What would Fall be without soccer too. Justin always enjoys playing. He had a pretty lousy team but they always had alot of fun and Justin was able to score many of their teams goals.

Well that's all for now - I am really bad at this and I'm going to get some help from my girls when I see them at Thanksgiving. I hope you are all doing well and we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. Love from Ali and Lee

Birthday Shout-Out!

Happy Birthday to Justin (Nov. 4th), Sheri (Nov. 5th), and Thal (Nov. 7th)!!!

Much love to you three. Hope your day was fan-freaking-tastic and all your wishes came true.

While I didn't get to see my coolest little brother, it was fun to see both Sheri and Thal and have a great dinner at Tepanyaki. Those in attendance were: Thal, Sheri, Grandma, Cindy, Courtney + Bryson, Dillon, Ashley, sweet little Braylee, Megan (Ashley's friend from Vegas), and myself. It was a wonderous celebration.

Our Tepanyaki cook, Tony, was interesting to say the least. He was very enthused about his job, especially when serving the 'mustard.' Sheri thought it would be a good idea to tell Tony to fake me out by spraying 'mustard sauce' on me. And by 'mustard sauce' I mean a clear straw coming out of a yellow bottle. A little scare tactic that didn't exactly work out. Sorry Sher, I just saw it coming from miles away... okay, actually, I didn't see it at all. I was too engrossed in my salad. :) But I think Ashely got enough of a scare out of it for the both of us, haha.

He also pretended to smack me in the face while he was doing the intro part of the evening while banging knives on the stove. Ashley jumped at this portion also. One of my favorite things was when the cook was working his magic/lighting stuff on fire and Braylee would try to blow the fire out. Too cute!

As Tony was cleaning up and getting ready to leave us to eat in peace, he began griping to Thal about how women only go "yak yak yak yak" all the time (he used his hand to more clearly display the nagging that he was talking about)--- apparently his wife has been doing that to him for 18 years now. And that in Utah men are always in charge. Don't you worry--- Grandma reminded him that he better watch what he was saying since 70% of the company that evening were women.

I would definitely say the evening was a blazing success. No pun intended.

P.S. Some of you may be wondering if I typed correctly in saying that both Ashley and Braylee were present at dinner. Yes, I did. Ashley's in town for a little while visiting. She came all the way from Guam by both military and commercial flights while Joe is away in New Jersey for a few weeks. Braylee has picked up a few things since the last time I saw her, including (but not limited to): the itsy bitsy spider song, saying many, many words (like sparkling wiggles), and a great fake laugh. She's a freakin' doll! Ashley still knows how to make me laugh and has a beautious haircut. It was fun to get too see them both after almost a year!

P.P.S. I love you all, Allen family. Lets get going on this blog--- its looking a little lonely these days.