Life

Life

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Allen Family Christmas Party

 Yesterday was a super busy day for us, but it was also super fun.  We started with our ward party in the morning.  Our ward has been doing a breakfast Christmas party the past few years.  We really like it because it is different than all the other standard ward parties and it is early in the day.    

As soon as we left the our ward party, we headed down to Farmington to my brother's home for the Allen Family Christmas party.  This is the second year of doing a family Christmas party and we really like it.  We had a nice lunch, read some Christmas stories, exchanged white-elephant gifts,   had an ugly sweater contest, and enjoyed everyone's company.  We were going to go look at the lights on Temple Square, but it started to get snowy and cold outside when it got dark so we decided to call it a night.  Here are a few pictures for our adventures today! 

This picture actually wasn't from any of the activities today, but we thought it was super cute that Tanzi was pushing a picture of Jesus around in her baby stroller!

A special visitor came during the ward Christmas party!

Reading Christmas stories, a family favorite.

A cute picture of Aunt Meagan and Kyri.....not sure what their conversation was about, but it looks really entertaining.  

Getting ready for the gift exchange.....the kids had a lot of fun!



Tanzi was wearing Kyler's Perry the Platypus hat and had clear down over her eyes....not sure how she was able to see anything.

A great day filled with Christmas spirit.  

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Recent Updates

I have decided I'm going to TRY to update the blog every Sunday. If I do that then it won't take long AND I can keep up a bit better. I really just love looking back on my blog, especially when I update it regularly. So, here's a go at my first Sunday/weekly post

Not much has been going on lately. I mean, outside the regular holiday going-ons, which Gary has already posted about. Thanks to him I'm not as far behind on blogging as I could be :)

We've had one snow storm so far this year and it happened to be on the weekend we were gone. Luckily it was cold enough to keep the snow on the ground for a couple days.
Graysen, Tanzi, and Jadyn having a great time!

Tanzi and her hat....what a crack up!

On Thanksgiving day we were able to celebrate Gary's birthday. His birthday was the following day, but I figured we may as well enjoy cake and ice cream with company. Now, I know my cakes  obviously don't compare in looks to the ones Gary makes, but I do have to say that this one probably tasted better than his :) No offense to him, but this was made from scratch and not from a box. Nothing like pumpkin cake for Thanksgiving dessert and for your birthday, right? YUM!

The kids were quite anxious for him to blow out the candles


Sometimes, when I hear my kids yelling and fighting with each other all day I wonder if I'll be able to make it through the day with my sanity. On this day, however, I was given a true melt-my-mommy's-heart moment. I was vacuuming and when I got into Tanzi's room this is what I saw. No fighting or being mean. True sibling love. Everyone happy. And my heart truly did melt.
I LOVE these kids!!

For some reason she always falls asleep while eating her green smoothie. They just have that effect on her...

The kids LOVE to color while we are making meals. It is now commonplace to scrub crayon and pen marks off my counter....maybe I should start leaving it there....true artwork from a child!

The last time I gave everyone haircuts Tanzi was crying because she wanted one too. So, here's a picture of Tanzi's "first haircut", where I cut practically nothing off. She was quite happy with the situation, nonetheless. And I've been wondering why her hair is growing like crazy in the back, but doesn't seem to be growing at all on top. I have recently learned it's because she pulls her own hair out. While sitting in her highchair Tanzi will pull her hair out! Then she gets mad because her hair is stuck to her messy fingers and I get mad because she gets food all over in her hair... Is it normal for a child to pull their own hair out? It's not in clumps, just a few strands at a time, a few times a day....which apparently adds up

Most people won't appreciate this photo....however, I love it!! I asked Gary to please get Tanzi dressed. And, bless his heart, he did just as I asked. I couldn't stop laughing, though, because I thought she looked like an elf. Only certain tops go good with leggings, and that was not one of them :)
Don't worry, our bed doesn't generally look like that...it's called changing the sheets. Yes, we do that on occasion :)

Christmas is Coming

This is by far my most favorite time of year. I LOVE it!! And I love that I am completely done Christmas shopping too! This means that now I can just enjoy the magical feelings of the season.

Here's a quick look at a few of our Christmas decorations.

This is the tree in our bedroom. I LOVE it! It's the kid's tree, so all their ornaments go on it. Hence, the several ornaments all in one spot. Kyri and Gray get mad when Tanzi takes an ornament off the tree, so they will put it up high. And most of them have found a nice gathering spot....out of Tanzi's reach :)

Our Christmas countdown calendar.Since our decorations were up before December, the kids had to wait patiently before adding any ornaments to the tree. Yesterday was a pretty exciting day around here.
Thanks again for this awesome gift, Tammy!!

Every year I get at least one new Christmas decoration from Gary. Well, this year I picked out a few of my own. :) Thanks, love. This stocking holder was one of them. I am so SO happy to finally have a spot for our stockings instead of just on the couch. And I can't wait until we have our new stockings Gary's mom is making for us! I will definitely have to post pictures of those after Christmas!

Our Christmas village. My friend told me it looks like an accident waiting to happen, with little kids around and such. So far there have been no incidents. Tanzi had to touch everything as I was getting it out, but hasn't touched any of it since.

Our tree!
I got new decorations for our tree this year (and a new tree, too, actually) I really love the new decorations!! Now I just need to find some ribbon or something to add to it to make it complete. But that will have to be part of my next years new decorations...I've spent way too much on them this year :)

I know I've posted this in years past, but I truly LOVE our nativity. It is so simple and SO unique! Thanks for your one Christmas decor contribution, love :)

Lights on the tree
We have a few lights on the house too,but Gary decided not to go out in the rain to take a picture of them. And because of the rain the tree doesn't look as amazing as it normally does. In fact, my neighbor told me her kids are jealous of this tree because it's pretty cool and really bright. All thanks must go to Gary for the outside lights!!

I love looking down the street and seeing so much Christmas spirit. I can NOT wait for that magical day to arrive! 
Merry Christmas to all!!



Sunday, November 25, 2012

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year.   I had to work the day before and the day after so it limited our traveling options so we decided to invite others to come to our house.  Some of Mauri's siblings and their families accepted our invitation.  We were excited about it, until we realized we were in charge of the turkey. Neither of us had ever cooked a turkey before and so we were a little nervous.      We found a decent recipe online and cooked it up.  Amazingly, it turned out really moist and flavorful and everyone enjoyed it.  We had a great time with everyone and ate lots of delicious food.       

Tanzi and Preslie chillin' in their high chairs.

Kyri, Graysen, and Allyssa were super excited to eat at the little table. 

The youth table.  All seemed satisfied with their dinner!

We fit everyone in rather comfortably.

All the yummy food. 

 A very happy and full family!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Halloween

We had such a fun day! Actually, we've been celebrating Halloween all week. Kyri's preschool party was on Monday. My camera battery died right at the beginning, but luckily, Graysen's party was VERY similar.....and she got to be a part of that too.

Cutest little cheerleader I've ever seen!

Ariel and Buzz

Singing some songs

Marching in the parade
 The kids had a lot of fun playing games and eating snacks at both parties. Thanks, Ms. Kate!!

Dinner in a Pumpkin

All 3 kids climbed in the box and Kyri put the white tiger head on Tanzi. She left it on the rest of the afternoon! Too cute! Plus, I like how it looks like Gray is about to inflict serious pain on his sister.....

All ready for trick-or-treating....in the most PERFECT weather! No coats covering up these cute costumes!!

I reckon these are the cutest Bat Girl, Buzz Lightyear, and Witch in town!!

I brought Tanzi home while Gary took the kids to a few more houses. She was perfectly happy to eat her candy while I passed out our treats. Speaking of which, I passed out about 60 glow sticks in the 10 minutes I was home! It was crazy!!

Trick-or-Treat

Our last house to go to was great Grandma and Grandpa's, of course.
The kids were really tired, but super cute! They were all intrigued by Grandma's noisy ghost and tried everything to make it go off :) Glad they live so close!

Things as of Late...

Last week we had our first snowfall. The kids were SO excited! And very ready!

Our poor tree! 
The snow came before the leaves had a chance to fall off.
It actually split one of the big branches, resulting in a loss of about 1/4-1/3 of our tree! Good thing we know these tress grow insanely fast! We are loving this big shade tree during the summer

Silly girl took her pants off. And her new thing is trying to take her diaper off! Luckily she was not successful this night.

SLEEPY.....


I sream...

...you scream...

...we all scream...for ice cream!!

Seriously?! I don't think it gets any cuter than this!!

Candy Bar Cookies I made for Kyri's preschool Halloween party.
I also made cupcakes for Graysen's party AND for Gary's work potluck, but never took a picture. SUPER yummy, though!