Some Precious Ones...

Emily snapped a picture of me and each of my children when she was out doing the kids' shoot.  I'm so glad she did, even though I felt a little silly about it at first.  Looking at them now, I really wish Stanton had been able to be there with us.  I'd love for these to have him in them, too. 

Various Items

I am having a really hard time getting the fuzzies out of my brain enough to write this post in any sort of coherent fashion.  I really don't feel crazy tired during the day...until I sit down.  Then I'm a mess.  So I 'just keep swimming...just keep swimming...just keep swimming...' instead.

I'll try to come back and update this post soon.

Big Kids Photo Shoot

I have these desires to post these gorgeous pictures in 4 separate posts and talk about each kid - what they're interested in right now...funny things they do and say....personality traits we see emerging, etc.  I really want to do that.  But it has taken me all day just to get the 2 previous posts done, and a month to even sit down at the computer for long enough to do that.  So I'm going to just put the pictures all here and hopefully come back to this post and add a few thoughts here and there as they come to me.  If I don't get to that, at least the pictures will have gotten on...

Cannon's First Day of School -- FINALLY!

After 2 agonizing weeks, Cannon finally got his turn to go to school.  He loves, loves, loves his teachers and is excited to be one of the older kids this year.  He goes with his two darling cousins twice a week, which he also loves.  Preschool has been such a great experience for my kids.  I'm glad Cannon is getting this chance to go!

Oh, and of COURSE I forgot to send him with the treat when he was the Super Kid a couple of weeks ago.  I couldn't turn over a new leaf there, now could I??!

Happy 6th Birthday, Brigham!

Brigham had his Big Birthday # 6 in August!  He was very quick to remind me that friend parties in our family start at age 6.  There was no getting out of that one, even if Henry was just 3 weeks old! 

He had an awesome birthday - he got to go to school, where he got to have a spotlight thing in class.  No treats, though.  Our school doesn't allow it.  Poo Poo, I say!  He doesn't know any better, though, so I won't bring it up....

My parents came to visit Brig a bit before his birthday - because they were going to China to visit my brother and his family.  I guess that's a legitimate reason to miss a birthday.  Hehe! 
They gave him a cool new bike helmet.  He was super happy about that one....especially when he saw our gift to him a day or so later!

 Yep, a new big boy bike!!!  He was in dire need of a bike and he has totally loved this one.

He also received a Bumblebee Transformers costume from Grandma Judy & Grandpa David, new church shoes and a LEGO watch from Stanton and I, and a LEGO building set from Chloe, Lily, Cannon, and Henry.  It was a successful birthday haul!  :)

 Here he is with his LEGO cake.  Simple and cute.  And messy.  But yummy.  And exactly what he was hoping for, so success!

A few days after his birthday, we finally got all of his friends together for a short party.  We only had time to squeeze it in between school and gymnastics, but it ended up being the perfect amount of time.  The girls put together and led all the games and I provided sugar cookies for them to decorate.  I get such a kick out of the gobs of candy the kids always put on their creations.  "I'll never see candy EVER again!  Must.  Use.  Every.  Piece!!!"  They opened presents to end the party and after a short hour, the boys all went home.  Low-key and easy and Brigham loved it.  I find if I keep the bar pretty low on these friend parties, my kids are very easily entertained and think their life is pretty great.  I'm all for that! 

Brigham is a great little boy.  He has been going through a bit of a "phase" lately.  One of those air-quotes kind of phases where you just hope to the high heavens that this isn't actually part of their personality.  We've run the gamut of frustrations and tried all kinds of discipline.  What he has really needed, though, is love.  I practice the good things we are trying to establish and then just hug him a ton.  He's doing better and we're getting past the worst of it...I hope.

Brigham is sensitive and silly.  He is athletic, friendly, and spiritually minded.  He's a bit of a know-it-all and loves to tattle on Lily.  But he also loves to include Cannon with whatever friend he's playing with, is mindful of our family in prayer, and really loves his dad.  He is an all-around awesome boy and I sure love him.  I am really thankful that I can be frustrated with him.  I'm thankful he's here and healthy and able to be the stinker that he can sometimes be.  We love our miracle kid and thank Heavenly Father frequently for the blessing that he gave us when he sent us Brigham.

Various Items - Old Stuff

These pics are old, but a good little glimpse into what life looked like this summer and early fall.

 Stanton has pretty much had to pull all of Chloe's teeth (not ALL of them -- what I mean is that none of her teeth are coming loose on their own, so he's having to pull them along the way.  She was my latest teether - her first teeth didn't come till she was 14 months old - and this is just the continuation of that.  As you can see in the big picture, her new tooth was already most of the way in without the baby tooth being even slightly loose).  Also, she looked so grown up one Sunday for church, I just had to snap a picture (also notice that one of her sleeves has lost the elastic....and I have done not one thing about it - including, but not limited to - fixing it, pulling the elastic out of the other sleeve, or not letting her wear it anymore.  Who has time to worry about silly things like mismatched sleeves???).
Last pic in this collage shows what is an hourly occurrence in the Allen household.  Handstands, hand walking, back handsprings, walk-overs, splits, you name it, it's done.  Henry is usually safe?

 Brigham has since gotten new glasses, thank goodness.  These are way to small!  Oh, I think he's wearing the new ones in the LEGO pictures.  By the way, the LEGO phenom has made its way to our home.  All the time.  Wowza - those are tiny pieces and there are a lot of them.  But they make kids smart, for sure....

 Cannon the Adorable.  He's practicing to be a dentist when he grows up.  I love that little guy.

 Lil.  She continues to be the sunshine and the rainy day.  She's growing up so much and I really hope she'll stop yelling soon (ahem.....well.....yes, I know she's learned it from me, but......)

 Random Pig Picture!  This was at my dad's company's 24th of July party in Idaho.  They had a roasted pig in all its glory.  The kids were....well, not impressed.  Ha!  Also, cute picture of my mom and Stanton.

Sweet Grandma Allen.  The kids love visiting her.

Gymnastics Tour of Stars

Here I am, trying desperately to get even remotely caught up on the blog.  It is too overwhelming!!!!

These next several posts will be photo dumps, most likely.  I wish I could remember details, but I don't.  Waaaaah.

Stanton took Chloe and Lily to Salt Lake in September for the Gymnastics Tour of Stars event.  It's kind of a Cirque de Soleil meets gymnastics kinda show and the girls (and Stanton) LOVED it.  They got to go to a little Q&A before, too.  They weren't allowed to actually meet the gymnasts or have their pictures taken or anything, but they did love hearing what they had to say.

Here are some pics Stanton took while they were there:

Gymnastics has definitely taken over our family life recently.  All 4 kids take classes and Chloe competes.  I'm pretty sure Lily will compete next year (if she decides she loves it).  I have put a lot more miles on the van in the last few months than in the years previous.  Back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth again.  It's worth it right now - they are all very happy there and it's been great physical exercise for them.  Who knows what the future holds, though!

10 Years

August is just our month, I guess!  Stanton's birthday is July 30th, then we have our Henry on the 7th of August, Cannon on the 8th, and Brigham on the 28th.  To top it off, our anniversary is on the 30th!  It's a busy, happy, great month.  And if our next baby is due in August, we've decided we don't even need to have an ultrasound -we'll just know it's a boy!  :)

Well, anyway, I've had this idea swimming around in my head for a few months as I've thought about this milestone anniversary.  You see, I think it's darn cool that we had our fifth child just a few short weeks before we hit our tenth anniversary.  And it's pretty amazing that we live in the same town we were married in and that our life is just as happy as it is. 

Emily Chadwick (you'll hear a lot about her on the blog over the next few weeks!  I've decided she's our personal photographer nowadays...) was so great to humor me in this vision.  Oh, my vision!  This was my vision:  I wanted a family picture taken on our 10th anniversary at the Logan temple where we were married.  Nerdy, I know, but it was something that was just extremely important to me. 

I'm so, so happy we did.  I love these pictures so much.  I just stare at them and think about how incredible it is that we are here at this phase of our lives.  It seems like life keeps getting better and better.  Stanton and I are more on the same page than ever before.  Our kids are growing up and involved in things that are stretching them and helping them become the amazing people they have potential to be.  Our life is just happy.  I'm so thankful.

 

Looking at the next few pictures made me think of some of our pictures from our wedding day.  So fun to compare them!

 Haha!  Okay, but seriously:

 Yeah, we've definitely aged a little.  :) 

This picture will always make my heart so happy.  Those darling nieces and nephews of mine are so grown up now and I am so happy I have this picture to remind me how little they were and how quickly time passes.  The best part, though????  Count how many cuties we're holding there -- 5!!!  And how many cuties do we have here??

Yep, 5 kids on our 10th anniversary, just like our wedding day!  Oh, how I adore these 5!!! 

Okay, last couple of pictures, I promise. 

I LOVE to look at pictures of my children together.  They are the best of friends (when they aren't at each others' throats!).  I will be forever thankful that we followed the inspiration to have our first four so close together.  And I will be forever thankful that we added Henry to our family this year.  What a life.  What.  A.  Life.

The first ten years have been full.  We've had our struggles, our growing pains, our years of, well...tough.  We've seen so many miracles and blessings.  We've gotten better as the years have gone by and we are happier than the day we got married - that's an accomplishment!  The next ten years are going to be their own adventure - 4 teenagers at once!  Whoo!  Yeah, we'll see how that one turns out.  :)  I'm looking forward to what the next few years have in store.