Little fingers...little toes....

On Sept 16th at 3:14pm the newest Allen finally came into this world. Owen weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 20 in long. Pretty much the same as all of our other babies. The day before I finally asked my doctor to induce me-I was tired of being miserable and in pain. The next day the hospital called and said I needed to be there in 1 hour to be induced. I was a little suprised but excited. Things went smooth and fairly fast- one contraction. Ben teases how short the video is and I tease him about how hard his job was this time to hold my leg! We're just glad all went well. I was really worried this time for some reason. We're not sure yet who he looks like- a good mix I guess and we're not sure about the hair color. A little red and brown together like Jocelyn when she was born which grew in more red as she got older. No one can top Ethans full head of red hair when he was born. It will be fun to see how Owen changes and comes into his own personality. He's seems a little more fussy than my others but then again I do have 4 other attention grabbers to care for. For now things are a little blurry from lack of sleep and so much going on. I am so proud of Ben who survived a week of student council speeches and elections, the 3rd grade egg drop, soccer practice, piano lessons, preschool and a very cranky 2 year old. Not to mention he took the boys last night to father and sons. Everyone in this house now needs a good night sleep! I'm sure this is just the beginning of how crazy a house of 5 kids will be. I can't help but be happy and content with our cute family and our newest member.

Hiking and Happiness

Saturday I decided that we needed to take extreme measures to help our new little one into the world. What better thing to do than go hiking. I also felt that we needed to do something fun as a family before I had this little one, since going out, especially hiking, will not be done after the baby comes. So Saturday after Ethans soccer game(which he played goalie and did great), we went up A.F. canyon with Grandma in tow, to roast hot dogs and marshmellows and do some good old labor producing hiking! It was so much fun. We all ate like crazy(I had 3 smores,maybe more)and the kids played in the river and fished. Only one casualty-Riley kinda fell and rolled into the river-all in slow motion while my mom and I watched. Poor guy! Once the mud and rocks were cleaned off he was back for some more rock throwing in the river. After all the gorging on really unhealthy things, Ben convinced us to go up to cascade springs to hike. I was already exhausted but thought-anything to have a baby! I am so glad we did. My mom and I had never been so we were surpirsed how beautiful it was up there. The kids had fun running up the trails and finding bugs and fish in the water. It was nice and cool and really nice to have the kids entertained. We were all tired-Jocelyn and Riley fell asleep in the car and I was ready for a nap too. Of course no baby! just lots of contractions-which I'm getting pretty tired of, not to mention they hurt! I guess hiking is not the proven method to start labor. Darn! But what a fun day anyways.

Riley is two!

Wow! Riley turned two on Aug 31st. He has been a little obsessed with bikes lately and the poor kid didn't have one. So the obvious thing for his birthday was a bike. He was so excited! We have already gotten good use out of it. He likes to go meet the kids at school and I think it makes him feel like a big kid. The first time he rode his bike he noticed Jocelyns helmet and kept patting his head as to say "Where's my helmet?". Luckily we had one that used to be Jakes. Riley seemed so proud to wear it. Grandma Leatham gave him some books which is perfect. He thinks he needs to take books everywhere we go lately, so some books of his own are great. Also the money Grandma Allen sent was used to purchase "cars" toys, the ones I put on his cake. He wasn't too happy about that and kept saying "Queen" over and over. Although he got over it fast when he got to lick off the frosting. What a fun kid he is and is always good for a laugh!