Meeting Darling Lucy Girl!

We had a quick, wonderful trip to Utah to meet our sweet little new niece Lucy, and to celebrate with her and the family on her blessing day. What a darling little girl she is and sooo good.

We enjoyed spending time with Blake's brother's family on Saturday. Saturday night we took a trip with Blake's siblings and their families up to Temple Square to see the lights. I always love to walk around to look at the Christmas lights, but it was so bitter cold out our trip didn't last to long. Sunday we enjoyed Lucy's blessing and hung out with family a little more before we turned around and headed back home. Thanks for the fun quick trip!

Allie holding her little niece Lucy, with some assistance

Some "cousin time" with Warren and Cameron

Enjoying her first "mini" ice cream cone

A stop inside the visitor's center to de-thaw and warm up

Snapshot of the family

Allie would not keep her little mittens on her hands, so we resulted to putting on Dad's gloves

As soon as Allie gets strapped into her car seat off come the shoes and socks. I guess all of the riding in the car over the weekend Allie had some spare time to examine her feet. Allie discovered this "ouwey" which was the tiniest little scrape on her foot. Every time we got in the car she would constantly say "ouwey" and show us her scrape.

Lucy in her beautiful blessing dress!

Dinner with Dad

While mom was at work dad whipped up a great dinner for Allie which she enjoyed. Dad made some homemade guacamole and Allie devoured it, as you can tell from the pic. Maybe Dad is going to be taking over dinner nights from now on :)

Coloring Away

It's crazy to me how fast life goes. I make this realization all the time so you think I would understand the concept that time passes quickly. Today I had a moment of time frozen and I wish that I could keep it here for awhile. I didn't realize with my day to day hustle and bustle that my baby was growing up so fast. I took these pictures and when I uploaded them I was shocked to see how big Allie is; she just looked like a little girl. I just want to cherish these times and make more fun memories for us to look back and laugh on.

Today Allie expressed her independence with her clothing selection. I didn't know this girl had an opinion. She hauled out this pink diaper cover for one of her dresses and wanted it placed over her jeans. Maybe it's the new fashion? Anyways, she freaked out when I went to take it off, so it was on her all day. These are some snapshots of her coloring. This girl loves, loves, loves to color. I gave her a pen and paper when I was paying some bills today. She was rather upset that her pen kept poking through to the carpet. She got up and left the office and a few minutes later when I went and found Allie she was in her bathroom where the floor was nice and hard.

Seattle Again

Well Allie and I returned to Seattle for a fun vacation to hang out with Adam and Ainsley. My sister and her husband were able to get away for some fun in the sun in Hawaii. Allie and I had such a fun time hanging out with the cousins. I really thought I might be a mother of just one, Allie, after the first day. The kids were great, it was just me. I thought there was no way I could manage 3 of my own kids in the future. Well, it really did get better once we got into the routine of things, and I have reconsidered being a mother of tops 4 kids. I did get excited for the day when Allie can actually start to help out more than she does now; which she is getting better at. It was so nice to have Adam and Ainsley help clean-up, get dressed on their own, etc, they were wonderful!

Anyways, we had a great time running the kids to preschool, playing at the community center, having fun on the boats at the mall, taking a walk with: 2 kids in the jogger, a 5 year old hanging on one side of the stroller, a dog on a leash, and all of us trying to come back up the hill after playing at the park- I have to only look back and laugh. We had Friday night pizza and a movie, visited some of my friends from high school, played lots with Uncle Jeremy, and even got to play in the SNOW! It really snowed while we were there and we had great time although our time outside was short because it was sooo cold. Thanks Adam and Ainsley for being such great kids!!! Allie and I have some great memories with you two!

Go Broncos!!!

Thanks to Grandpa Hansen, Allie and Blake have been to a couple of Boise State Basketball games. Allie just loves these games. A few of the reasons why include: the chairs (the ones that you sit on and fold out and snap right back together the second you stand up), the long flight of stairs Allie got in trouble for playing on, the good music from the band, the clapping when BSU makes a basket, and most of all the POPCORN. She has been privilaged to get this at both games she has attended, and this keeps her pretty much entertained for quite some time.

My two cute Broncos!

The crazy Bronco fans! (We are not really that obsessed, we just wanted to get some clothes to blend in with the rest of the crazies at the game)

Allie showing you how much she really loves these games!

Pigtails

Allie's hair is finally long enough to pull back into tiny pigtails. Hooray! I can't believe how big this girl looks to me when her hair is in pigtails. Updates with this girl is that she is getting to be such an independent little girl and parenting is getting harder.
Lately, when I go to try and help Allie put on a shoe or a small task, she will push me away because she wants to do it on her own. Then she gets frustrated because she is so little and can't quite do it, and oh it's hard to just sit back, be patient and let her learn.

Helping mom with the comb and brush

My big girl

The cute tiny pigtails!

Seattle Surprise

Allie and I headed up to Seattle for the weekend. My sister was throwing her husband a 40th surprise party. Allie and I hung out with my brother's for the first 2 days prior to the big PARTY and spend our last two days with the whole family.

Day 1-Friday November 2nd

We arrived in Seattle on Friday morning and first things first, we tried to locate my lost suitcase. No worries though, it was just my one and only bag for the weekend, with all of Allie's and I's stuff....needless to say it came at 10:35 p.m. that night. After grabbing some lunch, we went to downtown Seattle and did some shopping at Pike Street and my favorite, Nordstroms. Bless those ladies in the bra department. I know it's sad to say I was still wearing my one and only nursing bra, and my "girls" needed some attention. Thankfully I got a couple great new bra's, my favorite purchase of the trip.

Day 2-Saturday November 3rd

We browsed the stores in the morning by my brother's house. He lives in a great little area of Seattle and their are lots of fun shops around. We got some "brunch" since we knew we were going to be eating later on at the party. We had a couple hours to burn so we decided to go browse IKEA for a few; who can't spend a couple hours here??? Well, Allie had a blast in the kid section here and we literally spent hours here. Following IKEA we headed off to the party. Needless to say my sister did a GREAT job at hiding everything she put together for the party, including a 2nd surprise...a vacation to Hawaii for the two of them.

Day 3-Sunday November 4th

We enjoyed the day hanging out at my sister's house. We had a family birthday party for Adam, since his birthday is also a soon to follow. We had a great day!

Day 4-Monday November 5th

I woke up and did not feel well.....needless to say I felt rotten the entire day. Thanks Lara and Dad for watching Allie. We had a late flight home and thankfully my dad was on the flight and helped me out with my child who was soooo tired, but fought going to sleep for the whole flight. She literally crashed right when the plane landed and pulled up to the gate. Thanks Lara and Jeremy for letting Allie and I crash at your homes; we had a great time!