Kids

Wednesday night I taught the youngest age group at church called Adventure Club.  I LOVE THIS AGE!!!  They are such a hoot.  We learned that through Jesus we can know God.  The craft was drawing what you think Jesus looked like.  Here is what I got....

This one is pretty good!  

Kinda looks like Jesus was dancing...

More of an abstract point of view...very Picasso

He said it is Jesus in a tuxedo-

I think it looks like Jesus in blue jeans with a fu manchu...

I just love them so much.  I am soaking it all in while I can, I know when Grayson comes I will not get to help out as much.  People tell me that things are not as easy with a little one around.

I can not wait for tomorrow!  Artie and I are going to dinner after we order the furniture for Grayson wahoo!  

Can you say a prayer for the birth mother?   Some things developed this week and I know she is hurting.   Everything is fine...just some personal stuff.   Since I ask for prayers all the time- please feel free to leave your prayer request here.  I would really like to pray for you by name and your specific needs.

I hope you have a fabulous Friday!!!

Oh what a month

May has yet to begin and I am already worn out!  Shew

Artie and I were looking at our calendar Sunday and shaking our heads.  There are a million things happening this month and I am super excited about them all!  It all starts this weekend with majorette tryouts.  The girls have been working really hard, I know they will do great.  Sunday afternoon, all of the new majorettes  will attend a majorette clinic in Knoxville.   I am so excited for the girls to start out their year this way!

Guess what we are doing on Friday??  Ordering the furniture and bedding for the nursery!  Artie actually picked out the furniture and helped pick out the bedding.  I am so proud of him and the interest he takes in the little details of Grayson.  After ordering 3 different sets of fabric samples and changing my mind a million times these are the fabrics we chose for the nursery....

They look kind of muted on the computer but are really bright and fun!  We have picked the most beautiful furniture I have ever seen!  I can not wait to get the room put together.

Artie and I are headed to the beach in the middle of the month and I just can not wait to get away with him.  He deserves a break so badly- he works very hard so I can have my dream of owning The Christmas Shop.

It is hard to believe I will be 28 at the end of the month!  It is my golden birthday...28 on the 28th of May!  I believe I am getting the best present ever this year- 2 of my best friends will be staying with us to celebrate Grayson at a baby shower on the 29th.

See?  Busy bees- top that off with Mother's Day and we have one FULL month!  So hopefully I will have 100 things to blog about.

I will leave you with this-

I walked into the bedroom and found this the other night.

Poor thing is so neglected....

Smell goods

Oh my goodness I am super excited!!

I have a serious love affair with this candle.

Photo Courtesy of Trapp

Trapp Candle in Lemongrass Verbena.  It is light and yummy with a hint of sweetness.  So good...so good that I have wanted to smell like that myself!  Ha!

WELL I HAVE FOUND IT!!!!

Photo Courtesy of Bath and Body Works

The Summer Vanillas Collection in Lemon from Bath and Body Works is seriously the closest I have found!  It too smells light and yummy with a hint of sweetness!  Oh my goodness I am in love with it.  You must go smell it!  It is definitely going to be my summer smell.  

OK.  I am off to make a button up shirt look zombie-ish.  Any good ideas on how to look like I just crawled out of a grave?   Help!  Luckily I have a few days to come up with something.   

This week

I have been terrible about blogging this week!  So sorry...but sometimes my life is BORING!  This past week has been pretty quiet.  I have been preparing for a dance performance at the end of this week.  Which means that I have been practicing like a mad woman.  Ashley and I choreographed the instructor dance number and it is so fun!!!  Organizing everything is a little stressful but fun.  Artie walked into the living room tonight and this is what he saw...

He said "What the heck are you doing?"  Creepy huh?  We are dancing to Thriller and will be wearing masks and wigs.  Thursday is the dress rehearsal and Friday night is the performance.   I promise I will have pictures and possible a video next week.

This past week Grayson had a doctors appointment.  His heartbeat was at 140 and the doc said everything looked great.  The appointment next month is the glucose test...I have a feeling that it will not be very fun so say a prayer for the birth mother as she has to go through it.  It is a blessing to know that Grayson is in such good hands.  Artie and I met with the lawyer this past week as well.  The lawyer gave us a mountain of paper work to be completed.  It all seems like a dream sometimes.

Ashley and I have been working with the majorettes getting them ready for tryouts in a few weeks.  Today we held mock tryouts so the parents could come and watch what the girls have been working on. The girls did great...I was so proud!!  I am the crazy picture lady and I did not even get a picture of the girls.  I realized this after all the girls had left and so Ashley and I took our picture ha!

I like to have a horizontal close up picture and a vertical full length picture...does anyone else do this?

Lots of wonderful ladies are traveling this weekend to Atlanta to hear the lovely Beth Moore speak.  Pray for safe travels for everyone...I wish I was going!!

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

New Recipes

Everyone knows that I am not much of a cook....Artie is definitely WAY better.  I try- I really do.

Well tonight I decided to make a new recipe for dinner AND dessert!  It turned out great!   I am not usually a beef eater but I saw a WW recipe that sounded so yummy.  The best part was that it did not take long at all and super simple.  

2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 red bell pepper julianed
 4 teaspoons soy sauce
12 ounces sliced flank steak
2 tea spoons chile powder
1 mango diced
(it also called for onions but they are of the devil and do not enter my house).

Cook the peppers until tender and then add everything else. Continue cooking until the meat is completely cooked.  (It is just like fajitas)  Spoon it into soft tortillas and top with mango.
You can eat 2 of these and it is 7 points!

The dessert was just as easy.

 4 ounces of cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon milk
15 small raspberries
15 phyllo shells (from the freezer section)

Mix the first 4 ingredients until smooth then spoon into little phyllo dough shells and top with a raspberry.  These are 1 point each but it did not stop me from shoving 4 in my mouth.   These turn out so pretty that you could serve them at a party!

Seriously you have to try it.  I hope you are having a great week!  Artie and I are going on a date tomorrow and I can not wait...YAY for Friday!

Nurseries and Names

Seriously.  Is it suppose to be this hard picking a nursery design?  Maybe the fact that I am quite particular myself does not help matters....Nah.   A few weeks ago I ordered some fabric samples from 2 companies.  The first set that came I LOVE...but it is not what was in my head.  When we got the second set in, Artie and I decided we did not like it.  So now I am rethinking the whole nursery!  The fabric we love is a washed out look...kinda beachy.  I can not wait to start putting some things together!

Do you know any great places I need to look at for cute boy things?  Anywhere I need to know about?
I am loving ETSY! They have the cutest bibs and burp cloths...oh my.


Well we have decided a name!!  Wahoo!  We had our choices narrowed down right before the ultra sound but wanted to use the name around the house to make sure we loved it.  So without further ado...(drum roll please j/k) our son will be named-

Grayson Kelly Allen

Grayson is just a name we both loved and Kelly was Artie's dad's name.  We definitely wanted to use a family name and it worked really with Grayson!


Today we had our home study update.  It was like the home visit part of our original home study.  The group that we are working with keeps your home study current forever.  Most home studies expire after a year and you have to go through the WHOLE process again.  We will never have to do that and I am so thankful.  So every 3 months they come in to do a check, we give them any new paper work (updated insurance..ect) and we are done.  In Tennessee the adoption will not be final until next February (you have to wait 6 months) and so our home study will have expired by that point.  I can not believe this boy will be born in 4 months.  I have been in constant prayer for the mother recently, she has been heavy on my heart.  I know it is must be getting harder the further along she gets.  Please pray that she feels peace.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Our wedding

Finally after 2 years we have the rights our wedding photos!  I am super excited because now I can participate in the "Show Us Your Wedding" that Kelly hosted last fall.  Haha.  So here goes nothing!
(There are a lot of pictures!)

Artie and I were married on December 29, 2007 in Greeneville, Tennessee.  It was actually kind of warm that day which was good because we had an outdoor wedding!  Our wedding was held on the roof top of a historic hotel and the reception was in the ball room.  It was very small with about 100 people...very close friends and family.

Getting ready

Haha! Audra said her hair would not curl...well it did.  

Oh!  and the bridesmaids made shirts to wear that said 

"Team Bride...Taking it down the aisle 12-29-07" 

LOVED THEM!!! 

So pretty

Silly boys

Beautiful flower girls...they actually carried feather balls!

I loved these 2 pictures

With the groomsmen outside the hotel

Artie with my girls

Artie and I did not see each other before the wedding

THE KISS!!

The reception was absolutely magical.  I chose pink and black for the colors and man was it pretty!  I also wanted a vintage glamour feel to the reception.  So the event designer used lots of feathers in the bouquets and center pieces.  We had a wonderful sit down meal with cake and a candy buffet for dessert.  

Oh my shoes!!!  They were fabulous....but they hurt like the dickens.  

These are pins that my grandmother saved from both of my great grandmothers for my something old.

I also had a piece of my moms dress that was pinned to the inside of my dress with these.  

Seeing her hand writing makes me miss her so bad it hurts.  

My bouquet with the feathers and rhinestone buttons

We gave out vintage inspired hankies to all the women during the ceremony

The grooms cake

The candy buffet

These were the 2 centerpieces...LOVED THEM!! 

My yummy cake!!  The cake lady and I took 5 months to design this thing! 

Now the cake lady uses this cake in all her advertising!!  I was really proud.

This was the place card tree...click to see the details! 

The girls and I danced the night away...Artie does not dance! 

Off we go to our honeymoon!

It was such a wonderful day and I could not be any happier!  It is hard to believe that it was 2 years ago...I want the years to slow down!   I hope everyone has a great week! 

He Is Risen!

Allelujah! Christ is RISEN!

He is risen INDEED!  

We hope your Easter was filled with peace,

Artie and Heather Allen

Majorette Clinic

Man am I pooped!  Today Ashley and I held a majorette clinic for all the majorettes and it was so much fun.  Seriously, these girls keep me in tears from laughing so hard.  Thankfully we had help from a few alumni majorettes.  We are so blessed to have a great support system from former majorettes.  The girls did great and I know they learned so much.  I can not wait for tryouts to be over so we can get this year started!!  Here are 2 pictures that I took today.  

Silly Shot! 

I hope everyone has wonderful Easter!