christmas card...... electronically-speaking, of course

Merry friggin' Christmas!

Workin' on it....

So, we've been working on a lot of things with Quinn lately- dressing herself, reading scriptures (okay, just repeating after us, while we read scriptures), and saying "I love mom" or "I love dad."

From the picture above, you can see about how the dressing herself part is going...

.... and the rest is going just about as good.

As for scriptures, she averages about 10 words out of 20. It's not that she can't say the other fifty percent of the words, it's just that that darn spot-marking ribbon in the scriptures is so stinkin' fun to play with. Also, some of the words are a little iffy....

for example: "which" is always said with a "b" replacing the "w"- fun huh? (It doesn't help that Tyson and I giggle like little schoolgirls every time.)

Also, the word "yea" is always said like "Yay!!" and accompanied by clapping. (Yes, this also makes us giggle.)

And as for the "I love mom," well after saying it to her about 100 times yesterday morning, I finally gave in to her pleas for chocolate milk and ten minutes later (after drinking 3/4 of her chocolate milk), she walked into the kitchen and said,

I love Chocolate!

I think we're really starting to get through to her....

To RECEIVE the Holy Ghost

After Zoe was born, and left this earth very soon after, there was a period of about three months where I KNEW that I had the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. It was so easy to feel the love and guidance of the Lord. My heart was utterly broken and all those things that usually stand in the way of such communication were gone. I had no desire to sin, and I had absolutely no desire for the things of the world. I didn't even listen to the radio for fear some lyrics or words spoken would offend The Spirit. I read my scriptures more frequently, I prayed more earnestly, and I FELT things more purely than I ever had before or ever have since. The words, "Lo, I am with you alway." were ringing in my head constantly.

After this time, things gradually started to get back to normal- I began working out (and therefore listening to "normal" music-- it's hard to do hip-hop abs to Mo-Tab), I got back into school and started having days where I skipped either one or both of my personal scripture study and prayer. I occasionally had days that were just plain BAD- one in particular stands out in my mind.

I had just had surgery on my two badly crushed toes and had to rely on crutches to get around. One morning I woke up and it had snowed. Which meant that the three flights of stairs that had to be maneuvered in order to reach the parking lot were completely covered in the hateful white stuff. That morning I cried the entire way down the stairs- sliding on my butt, because I had fallen trying to use the crutches- cursing everything and everyone in sight. And my day only went downhill from there.

I didn't feel the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost anymore. It didn't leave overnight, but I realized that gradually the things of the world had seeped back into my life and all but extinguished the light of The Spirit, the same Spirit that had sustained me during the most trying time of my life.

I started trying in earnest to get that same companionship back, only to meet failure. I truly believe that during those three months, I was given a "double portion" of The Spirit in order to compensate for the loss that I felt so keenly, and I hope now that I will never have another experience that will call for such a miraculous gift again. But I still struggle everyday to do as the scriptures say, and "receive" the Holy Ghost and truly make him welcome in my life. It is hard with the general busyness of life, and the constant call of the world, but we are commanded to do it.

I am preparing a lesson for Relief Society on this very subject, which is what got me thinking so much about this. So, I want to pose a question to all of you who read this--

How do you receive the Holy Ghost in your day-to-day lives?

It's a bird, It's a plane... no- IT'S TIME!

I dropped my baby off at nursery for the first time yesterday.

I set her down.
She ran off,
started playing,
..... and never once looked back.

I peeked in halfway through the two hours, and she was happily sitting down eating her whales, and drinking out of a cup!

And then.....

it hit me.

My baby is no longer a BABY.

I was filled with complete wonder at the growing process. One day Quinn was nothing more than a nudger in my tummy, the next she's this demanding little ball who does nothing but eat and sleep. And now..... this. I'm not sure I can handle this- my brain needs time to catch up.

And then I realized I was not alone- and as I looked at the other mothers gathered around the little one-way window, with tears in my eyes-- They looked back at me with complete understanding. Like they already knew what I was just beginning to grasp. Oh, why didn't someone tell me?

My little fairy

Childhood Obesity

This poor little guy doesn't even fit in his stroller- good thing his "momma" still loves him....

klutzy

Okay, so our church building is really weird. You can only cross from one side of the church to the other by going through the chapel or the gym OR the stage. Quinn pooped her pants in the middle of sacrament and the mother's room happens to be on the side opposite where we were sitting. So I had to cross through the chapel to change her bum. On the way back, I decided to NOT walk directly in front of everyone in our ward in order to get back to our seats. SO--- I made the worst decision in the history of my church attendance. I decided to cross the stage.

I opened up the door to the stage and peeked into the blackened area, noting the chairs strewn about and the SERIOUS lack of light, but decided I would be fine. (I'm so much braver when I have someone with me-- even when that someone is Quinn.) I made it up the stairs and across the stage with no problem. Then I began my descent of the stairs at the opposite side. Everything was going great until I reached the last step (or what I THOUGHT was the last step), and stepped off into oblivion.

You know the feeling. When you realize, oh crap- I should've already touched the ground. Oh no, this is gonna be bad.

And then... WHAM! A volleyball poll met my face and then the second one met my chest. (I actually had the thought- "oh, a volleyball poll. This IS a good place to store those. I always wondered where they were kept.") My foot met, what was ACTUALLY the last step, but in such a way as to render that foot completely helpless. And I.... well, I bit the dust, as they say. (Turns out, when things-- such as body parts--- hit a volleyball poll, it makes a sound like a church bell which I am quite sure can be heard for miles around.)

I sat there stunned for a good 3 seconds and then my brain registered that Quinn was crying. BRAIN: What? Oh, yeah. I was holding Quinn when that all happened. Where is she? AAaaahhhh- I'm STILL holding her. Whew! Nice one. I'm stronger than I thought. Wait, is she hurt? Umm....... no. Just scared. Scared. SHE'S scared. aahhh ha ha ha ha. (maniacal laughing)

I seriously laughed crazily while trying to calm her down. That was the only thing that kept me from crying my eyes out in response to the fear, adrenaline, and PAIN. oh the pain.

Anyways, this all has a happy ending. I hobbled out to meet Tyson, who promptly became frantic picturing me falling down the big 35-step staircase up to the primary room, but calmed down remarkably well when informed that it was actually the stage stairs I had fallen down. (it was dark, and there were polls at the bottom okay?)

But in all seriousness, I would like to pose a question:

Why does it hurt so much worse when you're older? My neice Maggie would've taken that fall, stood up, flexed her muscles, and stated, "That almost hurt my guns."

dilemma

definition: a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives

example: (the following is a real-life texting conversation)

Tyson: So Sister Moon [I did not take any literary license pertaining to the teacher's name] came into class with her skirt tucked in, talk about a dilemma

Me: Tucked in to what? (hoping that she was at least wearing garments)

Tyson: Her tights, luckily they were only knee highs

(Pause for at least 6 1/2 minutes of laughter)

Me: Well that's good.

Tyson: Ya so I'm a guy but you feel a need to tell her- awkward

Me: Whoa- did you tell her?

Tyson: Ya, not quite as awkward as you might think but still

Me: Was she embarassed?

Tyson: Very, the sad part is she didn't even know for how long...

Redefining dilemma: letting your female teacher walk around with her skirt tucked into her knee highs or telling her, even if you're a guy

Job Security

That's right-- I'm a lifer here.

Why I didn't Make my bed today

Do you ever have one of those days when you just have to keep open the option of a nap??

That's me today

It feels like as long as I don't actually make my bed, then the option of a nap is still on the table. And every time I walk by my bedroom, I can just look at my bed longingly without worrying about having to undo the prettiness of having already made it.

Oh, the indulgence of it all.....

and, no- I probably won't actually take a nap today

four

This picture.... oh my.

Let's just say, this picture is a metaphor for our marriage. First of all- the dress looks like it fits, right? WRONG. It zipped up about halfway up my back and then Tyson held the top part together so it wouldn't look too awful for the pic. This is a lot like our marriage-

Tyson holding me together during the not-so-perfect times.

We've been through a LOT in our four short years together. And it seems like everything has always been timed in such a way, that when one of us hit rock bottom, the other was remarkably holding together fine and was able to pick the other one up and hold EVERYTHING together until things were okay again.

When our sweet little Zoe came and went so quickly, I think we were both a little dumbfounded at first, but by clinging to eachother (and the Lord), we made it through. The months following this time, were filled with uncertainty and much tribulation-- Tyson was my rock during this time. He was always there with encouragement and endless amounts of LOVE. He made it worth it.

And when we found out, just six months later, that I was pregnant again, Tyson took all my freak-out sessions in stride. He put up with the endless "what if's" coming from my overly-stressed brain, and put them all in perspective.

Just 8 3/4 months later-- when we welcomed our beautiful Quinn into the world, he was there to celebrate with me. (And take care of her endless tears that first night, while I was completely unconscious.)

Tyson is the love of my life-- MY WHOLE LIFE. I thank my Heavenly Father that he gave me the patience to wait for such an amazing man to enter my life.

PS- see the bump that just looks like my train, to the left of me? Quinn's under there :)

Things may have gotten a little crazy.....

Just a day in the life.......

The smiley face on her chest was my doing- felt a little rebellious that night :)

a top-notch fix-it and mitten-hands

Yes, you saw right- that is electrical tape holding the thingamadigger on-- and Tyson didn't show me that until after I did this...


Too bad I didn't know, "Good luck!" was code for "You better be prayin' that back wheel doesn't come off." Next time, oh next time..... I will be better versed in motorcycle talk.

And this is the cutest part of my day--

Quinn found mittens in the front closet and spent the next 30 minutes demanding that I put them back on every time she yanked them off....

PS- how many dashes can you fit in a title?

What the?!

Get ready for a VERY shocking truth....

....We. were. toilet-papered.

I know, I know. I'm a little shaken up too. I walked into the living room and found this.....



and then turned and found this.....



Yes, my very own daughter did this! After all I do- After all I've done!

I love that little ingrate! :)

especially that little "oops" smile.

Helpin' daddy

Monday night- our fhe lesson was on the blessings of hard work (okay, okay- this is only in retrospect. In reality we forgot it was Monday night, and just really wanted to get our new computer chair up and running.). So Quinn helped dad put together our new computer chair and she even ratcheted on a few of the bolts. Atta girl!





And now.... the blessings of hard work..... (along with a cute little pose, to show how much she is enjoying this blessing)



Tyson pushed her around in this chair for probably 30 minutes, and she just giggled until she could giggle no more. And then she fell out of the chair and cried for 10 minutes- at which point we decided it was probably bedtime.

Ahhhh... those happy endings do it for me every time! :)

RoDeO 'n' ice cream

Friday night was the famous Preston Night RoDeO! complete with all the Allen's in their best cowboy/girl clothing and hats, and of course the neverending supply of melted chocolate. We forgot to bring the camera to the rodeo, but here's Tyson and I after arriving home at about 11:30 at night...

..... tired much?

Saturday was filled with the typical Tyson: "If everyone chips in, we'll be finished changing all the oils in 45 minutes TOPS." ...........
2 1/2 hours later ......... "okay, just one more bike and then we're done."

Oh, how I love my husband. Seriously. But after that was over, we ate some delicious dinner, followed by some delicious ice cream.....

... and then played the wii until we all fell down (into bed, that is).

Fun in the sun

So, the pics ended up posting backwards, so, yes- they got in the pool and THEN the tub.
Just some bathing beauties...


And here are the crazies, doing what the crazies do best- BEING CRAZY! (don't ask me where Gracie get's her wonderful posing abilities- if I could figure that out, I'd be a millionaire AND an amazing model)



Confession: I love, love, love eating chocolate snack packs with one of Quinn's baby spoons.

New Hair-du

Sunday morning,

I finally had a chance to cut Tyson's hair

I'm not sure if it was sleep deprivation or pure insanity, but this is what came of that little adventure......

CUTE, huh?

Chubby Yummy Toes

Friday afternoon, up in Pine Valley after a very long 9 hours on the road the day before, we were all a little bored. Tyson got this great idea to hook up the trailer to the suburban and take the kids for a ride in it. Turns out it was a great idea for kids and adults alike!

Here's the whole trailer gang- we drove around for about 30 minutes looking at all the cool cabins and "cabins" in the little community. They ranged from mansions to shacks, and it was great to see the different personalities reflected in the designs.

Here's our little family at the "general store." HA HA- the general store turned out to be a big restaurant with a glorified pantry in back serving as a "general store." But you will all be happy to note that they did have worms for sale- after all, what's a country store without worms?

Saturday, we all dressed in our finest matchy matchy outfits and took family pics. This is one that was Tyson's idea- he thought it looked classy (our white shirts next to the black and white piano). Bean was thrilled with this idea, as it meant she could bang away on the piano for about 10 minutes straight.

We also celebrated my birthday Saturday night- complete with two chocolate cupcakes (both for me) and one candle. I'm not very photogenic.....

... I was licking the frosting off the candle, okay? Geez....

And this is Quinn, looking a little drunk from the high amount of her sugar intake for that day.

.... too much sugar...... must....... stop........ eating.......

Despite my last post, which described the bed situation to a T- we had a blast! The only downer was the extremely long car ride back home- complete with Quinn crying until she threw up all over her car seat, and a few expletives coming from the lubby's mouth (it's okay, I won't tell which ones).

;)

Letter To My Bed

Bed,

I just want to let you know I love you-- and here's why:

1. You do not have a strap across your mattress to hold you in place.
2. You do not fold up into the wall.
3. You have not had countless other customers sleeping, drooling, etc. on you-- me and lubby are the only ones!
4. You do not smell like old man-- even after putting freshly-washed sheets on.
5. You do not come accompanied by a pack and play a mere 2 1/2 feet from you.
6. You do not squeak, groan, or otherwise make a nuisance of yourself everytime I blink an eye.
7. You are mine, ALL MINE!

All for now!

Love,
B

SATUR-freakin'-fun-DAY

Ahhhh... a day at the park. We managed to remember the camera and the resulting lovely pics are the bulk of this post! Enjoy....

And now... for the first time ever- The Adventures of Bear

Although he looks a little sad here, I am quite sure that he is enjoying the wood chips through his chest.....

And yes, this is his 73rd time down this particular slide- please disregard the throw-up on his chin (he suffers from motion sickness).

I'm sure his next adventure is going to include a washing machine and some major down time...

"Hey, it smells like Quinn in here."

says my 8 year-old niece, Maggie, as we climb into Espy. Hmmm.... I wonder why? We spent all of Tuesday in the company of my sister and her 4 beautiful girls. We visited the Splash Park, made cookies, shot rabbits with toilet plungers, scored some extra lives for Luigi, ate way too much lasagna, and then enjoyed a cocoa bean cupcake, and finished off the night playing in Smith Park-- all while Quinn was suffering from one monster cold (BUT she enoyed herself immensely).

Who wouldn't enjoy themselves immensely when surrounded by 4 of their biggest fans??

As Tyson and I were getting Quinn ready for bed that night, he shared this Emmaism with me:

"Quinn is the cutest baby ever........AND, I like fat babies too."

Amen, Emma. Amen.

Poo in the bathtub

No, I am not talking about the cuddley bear with the honey pot, who is friends with the pig and the tiger. I'm talking about that other kind of poo- the kind NOBODY wants in the bathtub, or anywhere- other than the toilet. Just minutes after my last post, Quinn woke up. I decided to go ahead and give her a bath because playing in the park yesterday had left her with dirt under her fingernails and in her ears (weird, I know). So while Quinn happily played in the water, I sat by the side of the tub daydreaming about a time when "bathtime" would consist of 5 minutes in the shower, when suddenly

I look to my right and see Quinn holding something brown. My brain worked very slowly-- "Hey that's brown- she doesn't have any toys that color. Is that a piece of the bathtub or the wall or something? Dang, is our bathtub falling apart? Wait, no, she just squished it. OH. MY. GOSH. THAT. IS. POO.

And then everything started moving in fast forward. I pulled Quinn out of the tub, quickly noticing the other pieces (that she, thankfully, hadn't been playing with), wrapped her in a towel and set her on the floor- with strict instructions not to move (ha ha). Then I ran for the bleach and after draining the tub and washing down all the 'particles' I refilled the tub with HOT water and dumped in some bleach. Then I took Quinn into the kitchen and filled up the sink with some warm water. Then I proceeded to bathe her while she clung to my shirt- she did NOT appreciate the spur-of-the-moment sink bath. To make matters worse- the hot water that I had used to disinfect the tub, had completely drained our hot water tank. SO, I had to rinse Quinn off using water that was slightly warmer than glacier runoff. By this time, she was screaming at the top of her lungs, and I was..... well, wishing the whole fiasco was over with (to put it mildly).

There is a happy ending to this story, though. We dressed her in the warmth of her bedroom (where the heater still had things nice and toasty from the previous night), and she eventually stopped shivering in the comfort of momma's arms, AND (blessing of all blessings) I don't have to worry about changing a poopy diaper for the rest of the day. :)

Ahhh, motherhood- when is my day off?

Baptisms, candles, cakes, and baby!

Oh, what a day! Last Saturday was Maggie's baptism (quite the party). Maggie is the one in the right corner of the picture in the pink shirt with white butterflies. After the baptism we had a wild buffet-laiden party in the cultural hall, complete with pulled pork and fruit pizza (YUM!). Afterwards, we came back to the house and celebrated my mom's birthday- complete with the traditional ginormous candle-in-the-cake....

Growing up, we periodically found ourselves without birthday candles on at least a few of the 12 birthdays that needed to be celebrated, so we usually improvised with one gigantic candle from our thanksgiving set! Hey- when you come from a big family, you do what ya can. :)

And this is Grace and Quinn- we're looking forward to a lot of good babysitting hours from this girl....

... paybacks are wonderful!

And this is my sweet babe in her favorite 'corner' of the living room. It is complete with her books, 2 large stuffed bears, and 1 large stuffed monkey. We call it Quinn's little piece of heaven:

The water bombs she's holding were actually stolen from Grandma Allen's house- she always seems to snag one or two toys when we go there....

And this is my bestie- Tiffanie and her boys-- Jordan and Tristan. For her birthday, we made the most delicious cake ever (containing 1 devils food cake mix, chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, and oodles of heath bits).

I know all you moms will understand when I say, I hate that my bestie has a job now! But I am adjusting, and will hopefully get over it. Maybe I need to make some new friends (says the most shy, introverted person I know)... :)

And last, but definitely not least....



SHE WALks!