Happy Thanksgiving From the Allens

I can't help but think of all my many blessings as Thanksgiving soon approaches.

I am thankful...
For the peace that is available to me now where I can sit here and write without interruption,

For the true love that I have for my loving and adoring husband, who today more than ever is the love of my life,
And for the truly amazing father that he is and grows to be every single day right in front of me,

For the absolutely joyful, curious, compassionate and creative little boy we have been blessed with-
For Jonah, I owe so much thanks to you for reminding me to be more present and take more advantage of the simple pleasures and the opportunities that are available to me to grow and blossom as a mother, and as an individual,

For my parents, who have given James and I the opportunity to still be Joelle and James and for their constant love and support,
and for standing by through our challenges and triumphs as parents,

For my family, my sisters; Laura and Monique, my brothers, Cory and Jay, my beautiful nieces, my sweet Debbiemum, my grandmother, Hilda and all of my aunts and uncles, cousins and extended family who have supported us in our first years as parents and who have shared in our joy,

For my friends who give me the chance to still be Joelle and to share in the joy of motherhood together,

and lastly but not least I am grateful that each day I walk out my door I get to choose my agenda and choose my experiences, but not to forget my many blessings in my world where I have choices and not to forget those who have very little, who are faced with surviving each day, or for those who make sacrifices for my peace.

My wish today and every day is that those who have no peace can sit today and find it, no matter what their situation and no matter who they are, that they can find love today, true peace and happiness found within them self, or with family and friends.Today I put my focus on all the wonderful things that happen in our world.

Peace and Love to you and yours. And a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Jonah and his new hat!

I splurged this weekend and got Jonah some new shoes and a new hat! He tolerated the hat for a little bit, especially because we were telling him how cute he looked with it on.

I took Jonah to his 15 1/2 month well check up appointment today. Jonah weighs 25 lbs. which puts him the 63rd percentile, and he is 32.25 inches (grew an inch in the last two months) which puts him in the 85th percentile and his head circumference is 18.5 inches which is in the 50th percentile. And his cuteness puts him in the 100 percentile. Teehee....

We spent the weekend at Aunt La La's and Uncle Cory's in Medford. The trip went by too fast, but it was so nice to spend the weekend with them.

And let's throw a party-All Jonah's teeth are in until his 2 year molars come in! It feels great to know we will have a break from teething.

Hugs and Blessings to all.

Happy Halloween from our Little Lion

The Allen Ranch was feeling under the weather for Halloween, but we made the best of it! After we all got some much needed rest we headed out for a small outing to our local mall to show off Jonah's super duper cute Lion Costume. Then, we did some trick 'r' treating in our neighborhood, which made a lot of our neighbors really happy. We laughed about how the candy we were getting was really for our benefit and not Jonah's. Though he had some of the treats that we handed out. We really have not introduced candy to Jonah, but when I have made a few attempts to give him chocolate he really is not a fan.

As Jonah cruises into nearly his 16 month he is truly such a joy to watch grow up. He is obsessed with books. He brings you book after book and crawls into your lap to read, or as you can see from the current album he likes to read in his chair. He has recently learned the sign for please. And its really cute to see it in action.

Heather and I also got the boys to the Children's Museum for their Halloween Party! Check out the super cute pictures in the new album.

I will have to retract my previous statement in which I made the claim that his molar teeth were worse than his eye teeth. This past week has been rough with a lot of broken sleep. I honestly think that if we had not gotten such rough sleep for 4 nights in a row we would have been in much better spirits on Halloween morning. Though, we are all doing much much better today. And I swear by Coldcalm by Boiron! Seriously, they are amazing!

Happy Fall-And healthy wishes to All-