'Tis the season

Jam-packed already, the holidays have been in full swing at our crazy house since before we left for Washington for Thanksgiving. I was determined not to get behind this year and have done fairly well so far. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed up for our annual trek to find the perfect Christmas tree ( a little less dramatic than the Griswalds process might I add) Ben and for the first time, the older boys headed up into the woods while the three little kids and I stayed behind to sled and have fun. Fun was had - Jocelyn and Riley found a great hill to sled on and eventually Owen got in on the action. Riley was our one casualty with a few scrapes from a crash - nothing that a few snacks and hot chocolate couldn't cure! It didn't take long before the boys returned with a great tree and joined us in a little fun before we headed home to sink our perfect tree into a large bucket of water in the garage. Decorating was going to wait till after our vacation.









The first week of December, Ethan had a choir concert at the Joseph Smith Memorial building so to make the best of it we also walked around temple square and enjoyed the lights and nativity. It was a great night - a little rainy but not crowded and not too cold. As always we went out to eat and I headed to work while Ben took the kids home to bed. What a great husband!

The blues at Thanksgiving

Just a few highlights and photos from our ordeal of a Thanksgiving but totally worth it!


The Allen brothers at their best- watching football!




Lots of cousins to play with.


What's a Thanksgiving without olive fingers on someone?


Lots of games were played- I was even able to play a game without the kiddos around!


Melissa looking through the ads- we had fun staying up all night and I must say it was easier with the spread sheet she made- yes a spread sheet! Who would have thought? We got some great deals!


We were able to finally meet Gray. What a cutie!


Connor has grown fast and I don't mean tall!


Jakers all smiles for turkey!


As far as the ordeals- This was our weather for the drive up and back! We expected the Blues to be like this but not the whole way! Our 10 hour trip took 17 hours (thank you to eight new movies - the kids did great!) The road was closed on the way home at burley to ogden! We had to go up to pocatello- adding about 2 hours to the trip! We counted 32 slide offs, a jackknifed semi, and a pickup teetering on the edge of a guardrail! The weather was cold (-10) while we were there and Chuck and Lora may never have us back- We froze their pipes and happened to get some kind of stomach bug which most of us were throwing up! (Thank you Mcdonalds in pendelton- the half that didn't get sick had chicken. No one outside of our immediate family got sick! Also a thanks to Laurie who called to tell us that alarms were going off in our house back home! Once we made it home we were confronted with a car that wouldn't start and the alarms that tripped the breaker in the house and took some doing to get them to stop! Going to work that night was actually relaxing! So after re reading all of this and thinking back on it - yeah I would do it again. We had some great times with Ben's family and crazy enough it did feel like a vacation! So Happy Thanksgiving- two weeks late - was yours as memorable as ours?!!!!

Catch up!

Pine wood derby happened months ago - Jake took 4th place and got the skinniest car award. Next year -his last year for pine wood derby - he is hoping for top 3.

Riley's first day of school pose- what a cheeser- he LOVES preschool and has learned a lot - it amazes me!

We've had really great weather this fall up until the end of October- the kids have enjoyed it. One windy evening Ethan decided to use grocery bags for kites ( a little on the ghetto side!- we can afford kites- I promise!) Of course they had to include the neighbor kids in the fun and they were entertained for quite a while. Although I need to apologize to the other neighbors for the few bags that got away and landed in their trees!





In September, Owen turned 2, Not a big deal- he started the terrible twos at 11 months and hasn't eased up. He has a love of trains and loves to say whoo, whoo with his arm in the air and also "all aboard". Pretty cute. He keeps us going from 6 in the morning till we can't take it anymore and we put him to bed!;)

Whoo! Whoo!

Ethan had his 6th grade rocket launch- went so well that he had to scale the fence to retrieve it! My brother Scott was able to come only because Ben and him were headed to the smashing pumpkins concert- again. I think that makes 4 times?!!!


Ethan also ran for student council and made it! He was soooo excited!

UEA weekend Ethan went camping with the scouts so we decide to do a little bit of outdoor fun ourselves- we headed up the canyon to roast hotdogs and marshmallows. Although Owen was a little too excited about the fire and kept stepping in the river while he was throwing rocks. We had a great time!



Jocelyn turned 6 in October and requested a saturday at the mall with lunch and Build a Bear. She also picked a guitar cake- no princesses here! She also asked for fake nails and the new barbie movie. I can't believe she's 6. -sigh- not little anymore!

Rileys Pick

Riley helped me pick our new background! What do ya think? We are a little excited about the new Harry Potter movie coming out- midnight showing here we come! That's it for posting -Riley is taking over the computer again. If you read this Ben- a computer of my own would be great for christmas!!!

Arrgh matey!

Our cute Riley has had a big month! Turned four and started preschool. He has been so excited about both and for his birthday he followed in the steps of his dad and tried to stretch his birthday into a birthweek! We had a great family celebration at Pirate Island pizza- his choice of course. I'm not sure if we'll ever go again- mediocre and expensive pizza that was barely ate because of the pull of all the games to be played. The kids had a ton of fun- Riley having the most luck- lots of tickets and a stuffed bear from the claw game. Lots of fun! For the past month each time I have asked what he wanted for his birthday and each time the reply was- star wars mighty beans!- curse those infomercials! At one point I said I wasn't going to get them for him and the biggest crying fest followed, crocadile tears like his feelings had been hurt. Oh sad! So guess what he got! Thanks to target for stocking them! His only other request was a scooby doo cake- luckily Ethan asked for the same thing when he was Rileys age so I just did the same thing. He was pretty excited!

B.T.S.

BACK TO SCHOOL! Oh how I love this time of year- not only because my kids go to school and I get a break, but because of the newness. New clothes,new shoes, new backpacks, new school supplies, new haircuts, new teachers, new friends and this year a new hour or two of silence. Ok not so new but it has been a few years that I have had at least one hour of the day devoted to silence - blissful silence! Ok so officially I haven't gotten there yet- Riley starts preschool next week - but still way less fighting and noise going on at this house and I love it! This is Ethans last year in elementary and Jocelyns first year-sniff,sniff. They grow so fast! Ethan and Jake so far have been in school a week and are in the swing of things with homework and activities. Jocelyn started kindergarten yesterday and could hardly wait for the afternoon to come. She took most of the morning deciding on what to wear, we walked her to school, she hung out with the fox, lined up, gave me a kiss and was gone. She loved it! She loves her teacher and made some new friends. The only complaint was that there was a girl wearing cuter clothes than her!!! Oh my!!! Let it begin!
HOORAY FOR SCHOOL! NO MORE BOREDOM!

Not the greatest picture but we were trying to get their shirts to change color in the sun!



What a grown up! Super cute!


Ben's back to school picture! For some reason he has bought a lot of new clothes lately and this morning as he took the tags off his Goonies shirt I teased him saying "Nice that you could get some new school clothes. Should I take a picture of you too?" which he replied with (seriously I might add) "Not until I get my new shoes" Oh my!!!!