Nick & Janet Wedding Pictures (Finally)

I went to my sister, Janet's, wedding back in October.  I didn't take a single picture.  I had to wait for everyone else's pictures and then when I finally got the pictures, I completely forgot to post them!  So even though most of you have probably seen these on my sisters' blogs and on facebook - here they are again!
It was a beautiful wedding, the bride look lovely, the photographer was great.  It was sad to not have my little family there, but kind of nice to really participate in everything and not have to worry about what my kids were doing, where they were, if they were keeping their clothes clean, if they were in trouble, who was hungry, tired, or making messes, etc.   It was also so nice to see so many extended family members.

 Nick and Janet

 The whole Allen family except my husband and children and one other brother-in-law

 A sister shot -  Back Row:  Stephanie, me, Janet, Nancy, Jana (sister-in-law). Front Row: Trina and Betsy

I love this picture of you guys, Janet!


With my 'big' sister - Trina (even with your extra high heels, I'm still taller =) )

Sleeping Somewhere Fun

The kids always beg to 'sleep somewhere fun'.  I promised the kids they could sleep somewhere fun over Christmas break.  Mike and I built them this fort in the living room and put down a big pad and let them sleep there.  Celeste got to 'sleep' there for about 10 minutes before she was put in her crib.  Lilah made it almost a half hour before she got "cancelled".  The older three kids managed to fall asleep in their fort.  Before we went to bed Mike carried Lilah back to the fort so she could wake up in the morning with the kids, however, she wasn't there in the morning.  As far as we can tell she woke up in the early morning and wasn't sure what was going on, so she went back to her bed!

Merry Christmas

We had a good day!  Everyone was spoiled with presents and surprises and too much food.  We stayed home all day and just played, napped, and ate.  I am so grateful for this time of year to reflect on Christ and the importance of his birth and to take time to be together as a family.

Can you tell what we got for Christmas? 

I found a used one on ebay and I hope we don't wear it out before school starts =)

Christmas Eve

Today we prepared for our party and for Christmas tomorrow!  We went to our friends house for a Christmas Eve party - we kind of crashed their family party and brought our party to their house.  We had a good time combining the two!  We ate appetizers and finger foods for dinner and desert and then had a nice little program where our friends played the piano and sang.  We also sang carols and the kids rang bells.  We then acted out the nativity scene (with 8 girls and only 1 boy the parts got a bit tricky).  We had to rush home and put everyone to bed so I could clean up the house and get everything ready for the morning.

Christmas Eve Eve

Tonight we had a fire and drank hot chocolate.  No, it's not really cold enough here to do that - but it's what you do at Christmas time, right?  We have a book with a scripture, carol, and story for the 12 days before Christmas.  We are a day behind and won't be home to do one tomorrow evening, so we sat by the fire and drank cocoa and read our scriptures and stories and sang a couple of songs.  It wasn't as peaceful as it sounds - we had some fighting and some spills to clean up, but it was still fun for the kids. 

Goodies!

We made our last batch of cookies today.  We started making cookies weeks ago and I'm ready to retire from baking!   We've made goodies for us, our neighbors, the stake and our ward!
Here is one of the goody plates we made to take to our neighbors.  It includes fudge, Lofthouse sugar cookies, chocolate mint sandwich cookies, and maple pecan sandies (Mike's new favorite cookies).  We are devouring the leftovers =).

Happy Birthday To Me!

It's my birthday today!  I turned one year older then last year ;).   I made myself a peppermint/oreo ice cream cake.  We got a babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie.  We don't go out very often and it was nice to get out by ourselves.   We had to go try Texas Roadhouse - it seems to be my families new favorite place to eat (sorry Steph, I didn't try the fried pickles) and went to see the last Twilight movie.

Dress Up

Celeste loves to dress up!  This skirt is way to big for her, her Dad safety pinned it around her chest - she looked so darn cute in it, even after it slid down to her waist.   We couldn't get a picture of her standing up - because she wouldn't hold still!

Body Shaper

Celeste got a new pair of tights.  They fit her feet and legs, but seemed to be a bit big in the 'waist'.  I pulled them up to see how far they would go and Mike said they looked like a body shaper - and what a shape it is =).

Here Comes Santa Clause

We had our ward Christmas Party tonight.  We had dinner, a program by the Primary kids and a special visitor.  The kids had a great time.  

Peek A Boo

I came around the corner and Celeste peeked out from behind the piano and said 'boo'. 

Pony Tails

Yesterday Anna Elise was looking at an old picture of me as a little girl.  She noticed I had ponytails and the holders had beads on them.  She told me that she wanted some too!  So while I was out running errands I found a pack of them for .99!  I brought them home to some very excited girls.  This morning they all had to use the new pony tails!

 

Me when I was around 5 with my beaded ponytails

Laying in the Leaves

This afternoon while we were waiting for the big kids at the bus stop Lilah decided to lay down.  Celeste copied her.  I got my phone out to take pictures - it was really bright and they were having a hard time getting up and down.  Lilah then spied the pile of leaves and they had to try it again in the leaves - I thought the pictures were hilarious!

Gingerbread House

Tonight for Family Home Evening we put together our gingerbread house kit.  Mike gave the lesson and then kept Celeste occupied in the other room while I helped the kids.  They designed the whole thing by themselves, I was just the frosting lady.  They are so excited to eat it.  I think I *might* try to actually make one from scratch next year.  The idea of eating this one is just too gross!

Lilah's First Talk

Lilah gave a talk in primary today.  Sunbeam talks are the best!  I helped her prepare for it, but I had to sub in nursery, so Mike went and helped her give it.  He said she did great.  I recreated it when we got home so we could all see how good she did!  Lilah's First Talk - You Tube link

Book It!

The kids' elementary school does Pizza Hut Book Its.  The teachers aren't very consistent about who hands them out and how they are earned - but the librarian is - she gives out Book Its for AR points.  AR is a reading / comprehension program that they do, unless you can read well enough to take a comprehension test, then it's up to your teacher whether or not you participate.  Anna Elise has earned lots of Book Its over the years - she is an awesome reader and has had teachers that help her and that pass them out.  Calvin has never earned one.  He has never had a teacher help him earn one.  One day while at the library, the librarian introduced him to Henry & Mudge books.  They are perfect.  He can read them in one day, they interest him, and they are part of the AR program.  He is finally a good enough reader that he can take the AR tests on his own and earn points.  Calvin earned an AR Book It for the month of November.  He came home ecstatic!  He is so proud and I am so glad that the librarian helped him find some good books.  Calvin is not the best reader in his class, but he can read - when you give him the time he needs - and nobody does that except me.  I'm glad he has found some books that he can check out and I can sit with him and help him read them at night and he can take the tests at school and get some positive reinforcement!  He gets a new Henry & Mudge book everyday.  On Thursday he asked me if he could get a drawing book instead to read over the weekend.  He came home on Friday with a 'How to Draw' book and has been drawing pictures every spare second all weekend.  I am so glad he is doing better with his reading, that he is getting rewarded for it and I love that he is suddenly taking an interest in something new!  

Calvin drawing and Celeste joining him (nobody can do anything without her!)

Not Again!*

*I found this as a 'draft' in my blog list (I'm working on a blog book so I'm going through old posts).  This is from April of 2009!  I distinctly remember this day.  I'm not sure why I didn't post it then, but I thought I would post it now.  Just as an FYI - Anna Elise would've been 5, but not in school yet, Calvin getting ready to turn 4 in a couple of weeks, Madeline was 2 and Lilah wasn't quite 6 months old.  I'm thankful that I haven't had a day like that in a while and that as my kids get older these kinds of days are just a memory!

What a day. I'm almost embarrassed to post - it's that bad. This afternoon both Anna Elise and I had a stomach ache. I figured mine was sleep deprevation and stress related and hers was most likely from self constipation (an issue we deal with that I won't go into detail about!). I was wrong! Anyway, I'd spent most of the afternoon trying to work and not being able to get anything done due to some software problems! So frustrating. I was upstairs working on it while dinner baked in the oven, Lilah took a short nap, and the kids played downstairs. Anna Elise came upstairs asking if she could rest on my bed since the kids were loud and her stomach still hurt. I said sure. Then it all hit at one time. The timer on the oven went off, Lilah woke up crying, and Anna Elise threw up all over my bed, carpet and then in the bathroom in the toilet, on the toilet and all over the floor. I decided to take care of the throw up first since it was my bed and my carpet and I didn't want anything to soak in or stink. I let the dinner in the oven cook longer and Lilah was only fussing, not screaming yet. I tore the bed apart, scrubbed the carpet, wiped up the bathroom, put Anna Elise in my shower, yelled down to Calvin to go get the 'puffs' for Lilah and just feed them to her in her crib while I worked (her fussing had turned to screaming and she was hungry). I listened to the oven timer go off every 30 seconds while I worked. I gathered up a huge pile of sheets and pillows and Anna Elise's clothes and headed down the stairs. Yes, you guessed it, I fell down the stairs again! How embarrassing! The lump on my arm from the last fall isn't healed yet! I think I tripped myself with my large bundle of laundry. I fell from the last or second to last stair and managed to drop the laundry in time to catch myself on all fours, or I would have hit face first! Yes, the laundry bundled rolled and everything fell out and I had yet another throw up mess to clean up at the bottom of the stairs. Sigh. I rescued the dinner and got Lilah out of her crib (I think Calvin ate more puffs then she did!). Luckily Mike came home. During dinner Anna Elise threw up again and I realized that my stomach ache was most likely the same as her stomach ache. Mike put the kids to bed and did dishes and laundry while I hung out in the bathroom. It's not fun when you can't kneel down because your knees are swollen and scraped up from falling off the stairs! 

Slow Down!

 Celeset is growing up too fast!  It startles me when I see her doing something that she shouldn't be old enough to do!  Not that she is advanced for her age, just that her age is too advanced for me! I'm not ready for her to be a big girl!  Here she is relaxing on the couch, doing some coloring with her sister's colored pens.

The Count Down Begins

We've never had an advent calendar.  My kids have been deprived!  I know there are a million and one ways to make your own - but buying this one on clearance after Christmas last year seemed a lot easier (and cheaper, only $3.25!).  So we have an advent calendar this year.  We are counting down how many days are left until Christmas - I think we may be using it backwards, but it made more sense to the kids this way.  I'm hoping that when we start our 12 days of Service we can slip those in the little pockets and make it even more exciting!  Only 24 more days to go! (that is a little wooden star that we move from pocket to pocket)