ABC Pediatric Dentistry - Brigham City

The Brigham City office has been seeing patients since January, but they had their official Grand Opening on June 22nd.  Stanton wasn't able to be there for the ribbon cutting ceremony because he was busy helping me with our Project Nico fundraiser.  (More to come on that one). 

We're really grateful that the business has been able to expand and that Jesse is part of the practice now.  He owns the Brigham City office and contracts his employees and management from Stanton.  It's been a great partnership.

We are in the process of purchasing land in Providence for a new office of our own.  Stanton is going to build with an Oral Surgeon and an Orthodontist.  The process has been slow, but they are ticking along and getting things designed.  Stanton's office is going to be awesome and it will be big enough to have an associate/partner right there with him.  It's really exciting to see the business growing.  Stanton has such a great mind for business and has been working tirelessly to make things successful.  The patients and parents love him and he keeps his staff happy and accountable, too.  I really admire him.

Congratulations, Jesse and staff!

Park City/San Diego weekend trips

Every Memorial Day weekend, Stanton and I divide up and leave the kids with a babysitter. Doesn't that sound horrible? It isn't. Stanton always has his AAPD conference that weekend and it is also the annual Allen sister's weekend...both good things! And the kids like having an overnight babysitter, too. This year, Stanton left Thursday around noon and I left right after the kids finished their school programs. Rachel and I drove up together and had a great visit the entire way. She is awesome. We met up with Dave & Judy, Ann, and Emily at the outlets. We went to dinner at an awesome steakhouse called "Butchers." After dinner, we hit The Children's Place and SCORED. I'm talking $.99 shirts and $1.99 zip out liner winter coats! I got a TON of stuff, for both winter and summer and for every kid for $125. It was exhilarating! :) After we cleaned out Children's Place, we went to McDonald's for a smoothie, then said goodbye to Ann and Em (who weren't spending the night) and went back to our hotel. After a great night's sleep (I love blackout curtains!), Dave, Judy, Rachel, and I went to The Bridge for breakfast. It was good. Rach and I said goodbye to Dave and Judy and headed over to the Outlets to take them by storm. We shopped till 3:00 in the afternoon and both of us are pregnant. I was pretty impressed with us. :) We had our best finds at Downeast, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and J. Crew. I also got a raincoat (that ended up really coming in handy this weekend!) at Columbia, as well as a couple of bags. Oh, and some jewelry from Bass. I was so happy - I found a maxi dress at J. Crew that will be perfect for now and after the baby is born, I found some amazingly darling and modest dresses for my girls at Downeast and Gymboree. I found t-shirts and summer clothes for all the kids. AND, some really great shirts for Stanton at Aero and Banana Republic. OH, and I finally found that perfect yellow cardigan I've been searching for for over a year. I love you, Banana! It was a hugely successful shopping trip this year and I'm still buzzing a little from it. :) Rach and I grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the Valley. It was Friday night by then and we still had the whole holiday weekend ahead of us. PERFECT! Stanton got to spend a lot of time in classes at his conference, but also had time to go to a session at the San Diego temple. He was able to attend some great classes and got some awesome ideas for his new building from some vendors. It got us more excited to be building a new space, for sure! He sent me a picture from the opening night welcome gathering. Brigham and Cannon would be proud! (Also, I just have to mention that I think Stanton is one great looking guy!) Also, he snapped a beautiful picture of the San Diego temple. That is one gorgeous temple. Stanton didn't get home until Sunday night, so he missed our Idaho trip. We missed him!!! This was a great start to our long Memorial Day weekend. We loved it!

Odds and Ends

Some various pictures and videos I want to remember.

 The girls and I made cupcakes the other night.  I seriously never do stuff like this with them, so it was very fun and special for them.  And we made the most amazing frosting pretty much ever.  It was time consuming, but so good.  Oh, and so was the cake recipe.  Another time consuming, but delicious recipe.  They were very cute and I was very pooped by the time we were done!  They are awesome girls.

Pictures that make me smile and/or laugh out loud.  Clock-wise from top left:  Brigham after Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (HAHAHAHA!!!!!), Brigham fell on the floor rough-housing and banged his lip hard, giving him a nice fat lip...boys....and isn't that hat funny?, Lily was being a dog who was sweeping the floor -- I'm just glad she wasn't 'sweeping' the way our real dog does it....with his tongue..., Cannon doing his Chippendale impersonation....this was before Church last Sunday...he is such a unique, hilarious child...., and finally, this was how Stanton found him in bed when he went to tuck him.....I love those little readers!

 Our dear friends, the Noelle and Bryan, came up for dental visits.  Their daughter Genevieve spent the night with us and even tended the kids!  She is so cute -- such a little talker and so fun to have here.  The kids really enjoyed having her here.

Stanton and his staff have several different theme days at their office.  This one was Hat Day.  I bought that moose hat in Alaska, much to Stanton's chagrin.  Well, who got the last laugh?!  The kids LOVED his funny hat and so did the staff.  They have the funnest office.  I thought some of the hats they came up with were super fun!  Can you spot Stanton's other hat...one that HE bought much to MY chagrin?!  Karen (5 from left) is wearing it.  It has a flap that goes down over the neck.  Not.  Attractive.  but super functional, so who am I to judge?  :)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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I accidentally merged these two videos together.  Oh well.  The first is a bashful plant in Hawaii.  One of my favorite things to see in the Aloha State.  I sent this video to the kids while we were gone. 
The second is a video Stanton secretly took of our scripture study.  Too bad I saw him at the end...but you can see how irreverent it usually is...at least we're doing it, right?!  :)

December Daily - December 6th/ABCPD Christmas Party

You can guess how we spent this day, right? :)
I stayed up till 1:30 last night so I could get the mashed potatoes made and tidy up the upstairs, so I was feeling pretty on top of things today, actually.
Lily opened the fridge and had a nice surprise to share:






Attack of the roll dough!! They sure were tasty, though!

The girls got off to school with minimal drama (and piano practiced!) and I helped the boys with a few little projects, then rolled out and baked the rolls.
While they ate lunch, I got the bathroom cleaned, floors vacuumed, and the kitchen mopped.
I got Cannon off to school and realized that I couldn't find my keys. Ugh! Thank goodness I had a spare set because I needed to go get a digital thermometer for the turkey. (I just realized I still don't know where those are. Better look tomorrow.)
I also stopped for lunch at Charlie's ice cream shop. Yum.
Anyway, things moved along really nicely and I had time to help the kids with their homework. There was only one minor hiccup- I neglected to look at my tablecloth situation...and all I had were orange and black ones. Stanton ran to the store on his way home and picked up those and some plastic spoons.
The kids were AWESOME helpers. They helped with setting the table, bringing in chairs, etc.
I didn't get any great pictures of the food because we were too busy getting it all on the table! I managed the grab a couple of pictures, though. I think the only thing I missed was the stuffed mushrooms (they were yummy).












The food ended up being really yummy and the company was great, as usual.
We finished the night with our annual white elephant exchange.
There were some great ones-- including a frozen turkey breast (which kept being called a giant bag of nuts), adult diapers, and the best one of all, which I got--- A Leg Lamp puzzle!!! It's going to be so fun to put together and even came in a replica box - it looks like the one in the movie. Awe. Some.

It was a wonderful night. I didn't get any pictures of the staff this year- darn! We have such a great staff right now - awesome, awesome people who are just full of goodness.

Oh, and we couldn't find a sitter for the kids last night, so we hired Chloe. She was awesome!
The kids stayed downstairs the entire time and she even read them bedtime stories. What a good kid. It's nice to be able to depend on her now and then.


Man oh man, I love December!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

December Daily - Friday, December 2nd

Well, if every day in December is as fun as the first two, we are living it up!!!

I kept the kids home from school so they could lounge a bit after their late night at Pickleville.  I wouldn't have done that, except that we were planning to go to Salt Lake at noon, so they would only be in school for 3 hours anyway.  I felt a little sheepish about keeping them home, but it sure was nice to spend a lazy morning with them!

While they lounged around, I did one of my favorite workout videos:

We did some chores and got ready and then headed to SLC for a fun evening with Kyle and Angie and kids.  Before meeting up with them, we checked out the Brigham City office, went to Target (please come to Cache Valley -- please!), and visited another dental office in West Valley (it has a surgical suite like the one Stanton wants to put in his new Providence office).  While Stanton checked out the dental office, the kids watched a movie and then I read them some Christmas stories.  It was a long wait in the car, but they sure were good!

We met Kyle & Ang at Iggy's downtown around 5:00.  We had a great dinner and then went on a wild goose chase to find parking around temple square.  After finally finding a place to park, we went to see the lights.  Aside from Cannon wandering away from me twice, it was an absolutely perfect night.  We haven't gone down to see the lights for a couple of years and I had missed it!  It was great to have a reason to have to go -- and we will never pass up an opportunity to spend time with our best friends!

The weather was beautiful -- chilly with just a nice, light, magical snow falling.  The lights were as incredible as usual, and the company couldn't have been better.

I know these pictures are weird, but they were funny.  The one of me is what Stanton took right after I said how great the weather had been -- he thought my hat hair was amusing.  :)
The ghostly picture is a quick one I snapped on the way home -- it's Stanton and Jesse's new billboard!  I looks fantastic.

Okay, now to the real pictures....

The girls worked on a Christmas garland/banner thing earlier in the day.  Fun pictures at the temple grounds.

Angie took these next 2 and I am LOVING them.  The first is for Brigham and Sammie's wedding video.  :)

 How gorgeous is THAT???!!!

And Christmas magic in photographic form.  I love this picture of many of my favorite people in the world.

Various Items

The fancy pants camera's battery was dead for the Red Ribbon Run, so we used the point and shoot.  It was left out, which meant a smorgasbord of random kid-taken photos when I uploaded to the computer.  I deleted a ton of them, but here are a few keepers (no, I don't think I'll regret deleting that picture of the rug 20 years down the road...).

I've bragged about our amazing babysitters on here before.  This is one of our very favorites -- Miss Madie.  She is about as sweet as they come.  The kids all love her.

 Who ever decided it would be a good idea to put Angry Birds on the computer???  It is dang fun to see them all enjoy it together, though.

Here's a capture of each of the six of us on a typical school morning.

 Stanton just texted me this picture.  This is me after spending an entire day at the elementary school helping with vision screenings + volunteering in Brigham's classroom followed by the after school chaos followed by dinner and a blowout fight with Chloe followed by tears and apologies and making up and scripture study and prayer followed by getting the kids to bed by myself (Stanton has had meetings with the other docs he's buying land with for a new building - he wasn't there for the fight, either, thank goodness -- it was a very ugly parenting moment, one that I'm still regretting) followed by a blogging binge.  I think you can see it in the lines on my face and bags under my eyes and mondo zit on my forehead (and the two on my neck you can't see....).  It was an exhausting day.  But it's done now (almost officially -- it's 11:30!).   Off to bed so tomorrow can be better.

ABC Pediatric Dentistry Christmas Party

We went back to our roots this year and invited everyone to our home for our Christmas party.  The past few years we've done it at either a restaurant or a play.  I felt this year like I could handle it at home again and I really wanted our (Stanton's) employees to be in our home.  Don't you think there's something special about being in someone's home?  I do.  I love the family feeling and the intimacy of a home.

Anyway, we invited everyone to our home and I did the food.  Now, a few years ago when we did this the last time, I was a slacker and waited until the day of the party to prepare everything.  Yikes!  I learned my lesson and this year I made a schedule for myself.  Each day from Monday to Thursday, I prepared different parts of the meal.  On Monday I was a stress case.  By Thursday, I was feeling pretty good.  Things were still crazy for the couple of hours before the party, but I don't think there's any way to avoid that, no matter how you prepare.  Shout out to my amazing Kiki who came early and helped us get last minute things done, then tended the kids downstairs during the party -- including putting them to bed.  She's the absolute best.  Love that girl.

I want to remember the menu, so indulge me, please.

ABC Pediatric Dentistry

Christmas Party Menu

Appetizers:

Vegetable Tray

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies

Club Crackers with Hot Artichoke Dip

Shrimp Tray w/ Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Fruit Tray

Main Course:

Roast Beef with Carmelized Shallots & Mushrooms

Smoked Turkey Breast

Twice Baked Potatoes

Green Beans with Almonds

Salad with Cranberries and Almonds

Lion House Rolls

Dessert:

Chocolate Cookies

Rice Krispies Treats

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Apple Cinnamon Bundt Cake

 
The food all turned out well.  The roast was not my highlight (someday that cattelman's daughter's blood is going to kick in and I'm going to cook a decent roast), but really, all the food was pretty darn tasty.  I didn't take many pictures due to the rush the last couple of hours, but here are the 3 I did manage to take.

Here are the employees and significant others who were there:

Every one of them is awesome.  We were missing Ilse & her husband, Ashley & Collin.  April & her husband had to leave early.

We had a white elephant gift exchange and it was the best one I've ever participated in.  Holy cow there were some hilarious gifts.  Some favorites were suppositories and a rubber glove, live goldfish, half-eaten chocolates, a used chapstick that had a $5 bill wrapped around the inside of the stick, a Team Jacob poster, and potted meat and Immodium AD.  We laughed.  A lot, as you can imagine.  It was awesome.

The night was so fun.  Stanton's staff is amazing.  We are really blessed to have each one of them working at the office.  The staff is such a huge component of the image of a dental practice and these girls just make ABC amazing.  Love 'em!

I felt like, as everyone left, the party was a success.  I hope they don't mind doing it at our house again.  They probably wouldn't dare say no, even though I would welcome their honesty.  Ha ha.  I have them cornered.  :)

This week was a really busy one.  On Wednesday night I hosted Card Club at my house, on Thursday  we had the office party at our house, on Friday we had our ward after-temple ice cream social at our home, and on Saturday we went to Blackfoot for my family party.  On top of that, I volunteered in Chloe's class, helped my friend with the program for our ward party, and wrote the Sacrament Meeting Christmas program for next Sunday, wrapped extended family presents, and made a little sense of the presents that have been arriving daily from the UPS, USPS, and FedEx drivers.  I think the biggest relief of stress came once that Sacrament Meeting program was written and approved.  Huge burden off my shoulders.
I love this time of year even though the busyness sometimes gets me a little frazzled.  This week we have our ward party on Tuesday, the First District Dental party on Wednesday, a formal Christmas party hosted by our friends the Lows on Friday, Stanton's family party on Saturday, and the Sacrament Meeting program on Sunday.  I think things will slow down a little after that.  Maybe.  But I'll be bummed when it does - almost certainly.

Reason #793 I Love This Man

(and his job)...

Stanton dresses up every year for Halloween at his office and can I just say how much those children love it?!

To Infinity...And Beyond!

Quick cute story:  Apparently, a grown man in a Buzz costume is THE Buzz Lightyear.  One of Stanton's patients truly thought he was Buzz Lightyear.  He referred to Stanton as Buzz throughout the entire appointment and took his hand to lead him to various spots throughout the office.  "Hey Buzz, let me show you this, Hey Buzz, did you see this thing?"  SO great.

What Dentists Do In Their Spare Time...

....or at least this awesome one.  Stanton is crafting a giant set of teeth to use when he goes visiting elementary schools.  It's his latest obsession and I love it.

ABC Pediatric Dentistry Christmas Party

We had Stanton's office party at the conference center here in town. His office manager, the awesome Jocelyn, organized the whole thing. It was a lot of fun.

We are really lucky to have had such good staff over the last few years. Stanton really loves and appreciates the gals who work for him and feels grateful to have them in the office.

Nights like this where we're together in a casual setting are so fun. We try to get together 2 or 3 times a year (plus the girls' nights they plan on the side).

Duren & Deyette, Kelly & Adrian

Amber & date

Jimmy & Rachel and me

Ashlee &


Jocelyn & Jake


Amber & declare war on one another's legs.