So once again I have taken my dear sweet time at updating our blog. Now so many things have happened that I have crammed them all onto one post. Anyway, it was Alyssa's first Thanksgiving! We had a great time at Grandma ReNee's, and the food was delicious as always. We love playing bingo after dinner and enjoy all the wonderful prizes given. Alyssa was very good, and even had some turkey and sweet potatoes. (baby food style) She started crawling a few weeks ago. She gets up on her knees, but sorta does the army crawl with her arms. She gets around FAST!! So fast in fact, she made it to our small staircase and fell down them before I could catch her. I left her alone for 2 seconds, and away she went. Luckily there were no serious injuries. I think it scared her more than it hurt her. Still....Jason put our gate up that very night so as to avoid any further accidents.

Here is Alyssa with her cousin Ella Thanksgiving weekend!

Aren't they cute?


So, on November 7th we were able to join Tawn's brother Ryan and his family in Caldwell ID for the baptism of their daughter Rebecca and the sealing of their daughter Kennedy to their family. It was a great experience and we felt blessed to have been able to attend. It was a bit of a long drive for Alyssa, but she handled it well. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and it is always better when you are able to do it under such great circumstances.


Here is Alyssa in her cute little outfit, ready to attend her cousin's baptism


Isn't she an angel?



All the sisters after the baptism!

Rebecca was such a sweetheart. She called Tawn a few weeks before her baptism and politely asked if she would be willing to give a short talk on the Holy Ghost at the baptism. Tawn accepted of course, and was happy to do it. Rebecca is such a doll! Here she is excitedly waiting to enter that waters of baptism.

The Ryan Mecham Family standing in front of the baptism font.

I love this picture!! All the kids are leaning over the font. I couldn't help myself and had to take a picture. Very cute!!

Here is the Ryan Mecham Family standing in front of the Boise temple after their sweet daughter Kennedy was sealed to them for time and all eternity. What a great blessing the gospel is in our lives, and the knowledge we have that we can be together as families FOREVER!!

Halloween

So, I am a little behind at updating my blog. I know Halloween was awhile ago, but I just haven't gotten around to it until now. Plus I posted most of these pics on Facebook. Anyway, it was Alyssa's first Halloween and everyone kept asking if we were going to dress her up. I am not really into the whole Halloween thing, and really wasn't planning on dressing her up. BUT, here she is in her Halloween costume. (Actually, it's just her winter coat, and a little black eyeliner on her nose) That's as festive as I get!!

What a doll!!

Here is cousin Riley, and yes, he is a little monkey!

Here is our little angel with her dad. He is as excited about Halloween as I am.



At least I'm wearing orange!?!?!

Here I am in my witch costume!! Okay, just kidding. This is just one of the many Halloween decorations at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's house. Grandma Deb is way more festive when it comes to Halloween than we are.

Tana dressed as Marilyne Monroe and Grandma Deb as... SCARY!!!

Uncle Scott as Slash from Guns and Roses. Pretty rockin'

Kym and Shaun in thier creative, scary costumes. Everyone else dressed up! We were the party poopers of the bunch. We had a lot of fun watching everyone else, and not having to do any work! That's how every Halloween should be!

Uncle Jeff had a lot of fun sitting here on the porch scaring the trick-or-treaters. He had a loud horn that he blew that scared the kids pretty bad. Again we had fun just sitting by and watching.

Tana looks a little out of place standing next to all these scary people. What great costumes!!!

Always fun to play at Grandma's house! They are so cute together!

Alyssa is growing up so fast. I can't believe she is already 5 months old. She loves to laugh and roll over everywhere, and she is always making the cutest noises.

Here's our angel playing under her Fisher Price toy. (I don't really know what to call it.) She loves it. She is really reaching for that toy. Just look at the concentration on her face. "You can do it Baby Girl"

She loves the elephant her Grandma ReNee' gave to her. She snuggles with it in her crib whether it's nap time or bed time. It's so soft and comfy!!



She still loves her binki!!! She loves it a little TOO much! She is getting really good at grabbing it and putting it in her mouth all by herself. She still gets it backwards sometimes and just chews on the back side of it. I just hope we don't have too difficult of a time breaking her of the binki! It could get tricky, but I guess I won't worry about it now. For now I'll just let her enjoy it!

Our little girl is growing up so fast! Although the Bumbo chair has been nice, I think it's high-time we got a highchair. She mostly just slides sideways in her Bumbo chair and will not sit straight in it to save her life (or mine for that matter). It makes trying to feed her nearly impossible. Here's our little "sideways Sally" sittin' pretty in her Bumbo chair.

Aren't cousins GREAT!!! I need to have her spend more time with some of her other cousins. She might start to think she only has two of them. She and Graysen just love each other. In fact as they were lying here next to each other, Alyssa rolled over and they kissed each other right on the mouth. Later that same day, they were seen doing synchronized rolling on the floor. Pretty cute!!

Kyri just woke up from a nap. I couldn't help but love the bed-head. She reminds me so much of her mother in this aspect!!! Okay, and maybe of her aunt Tawn too. I don't know what it is with us Mecham girls, but we always have the best "scare hair" EVER!!


Just kickin' it in the swing!! It's more for entertainment now that for soothing... but she still loves it!!

AG DAY!!! It's all I heard about for weeks! The first Aggie home game of the season, and of course, the Aggie BBQ. Lamb, Turkey, Pork, Beef, corn on the cob, creamies, fresh battered onion rings, the list goes on... and all you can eat for $8. Jason was so excited about it, he could hardly stand it!! It was delicious! I don't think it was as fun this year for Jason, because last year he didn't have his wife or child there to worry about. This year.... not so lucky! But the food was still good, and I think we both got our fill!


Not the best picture of either of them, but the only one Jason let me take. He was too into watching the game (that the Aggies won of course).

I love how the Allen family spreads out and takes up about 3 to 4 benches at the games!! I'm sure all the people around us love it too!!!

We start them out early in the Allen family!!!

Alyssa was an angel during the game!! She slept through part of the game, and when she was awake, she just sat on her mom or dad's lap and looked around. Taking it all in, I'm sure!!!

GO AGGIES!!

Alyssa wasn't the only sleeping beauty during the game! :)

Grandpa BA with Alyssa's cousin Riley! Enjoying the game!

We can only hope that the Aggies have a few more wins this season! They are definitely better now that they are no longer in the Brent Guy era. Let's hope Gary Andersen can get them on the road to a winning season!!! Yes we are all full of hope!

One of the best things about summer is being able to spend time with family. We (and by we I mean Alyssa and I.. since Jason has been working non stop moving into the new BA Automotive building) went to Bear Lake for a weekend and were able to spend time with Mauri and kids, Devin and Nichole and thier kids, and Grandma Jude. On our walk back from the lake up to the house (Jared and Sandy's summer home that is currently on the market if anyone's looking) Kyri fell asleep in her stroller. Mauri didn't have her strapped in and was worried she was going to fall out, so she had to tip back the stroller to keep her in. She had a stinky pull-up and was completely zonked out. Needless to say, it wasn't too fun for Mauri having to wake her up and bathe her, change her, feed her and get her ready to leave and go home. But we sure did have fun at the beach!!!

My favorite thing about eating chips and salsa with Kyri is watching her drink the salsa. She loved it! I thought it was hillarious! Mauri says Kyri pretty much loves any kind of sauce. As you can see by the following photos she definitely loves the salsa!!

"Say cheese, er uh I mean salsa!"

So Alyssa just had her 4 month appointment on Tuesday the 15th. She weighed in at 12 lbs. 3 oz. and was 24 1/2 inches long. She is tall and skinny. She was in the 60% for height, but only in the 20% for weight. Even though she is only 4 months old, it is hard to imagine life without her. Even though we were living it just a short while ago. She has forever changed our lives and we love her so much.

She loves her baths! Isn't she so cute in her little towel. Who doesn't love a clean baby?


We started trying to feed her rice cereal, and boy does she hate it!! She spits the majority of it out, and pulls horrible faces and even gags. I've been fearful that she might even throw up. Luckily is hasn't come to that, and hopefully after a few more tries, she'll get used to it, and maybe even start liking it?!?!? I don't know... we can only hope!

We got her a little jumper. She thinks she is so big! She just barely got to the point where her little toes are touching the ground. She hasn't quite got the jumping thing down yet, but she loves all the toys on it.

Now that she's eating, we got her a bumbo chair. She loves being able to sit up on her own! She's getting so big!!!

What an adorable little girl!

I decided I should update our blog since I didn't have any pictures of Jason with Buddy. Honestly, what was I thinking. Not one picture of just the two of them. Anyway, the following pictures were taken by my friend John Espinosa the day before Buddy passed on. He did a great job, and I am glad we were able to get some pictures with all of us before the dreaded day.

It wouldn't be the "Allen Family" without our Buddy!

Big brother Buddy with baby Alyssa

Could they be any sweeter? I love this picture!!

So the following picture is kinda funny because you can see Buddy in the background doing his own thing. We actually had a little visitor during the photo shoot. A mink excaped from the nearby mink farm and was on the other side of the stream. Buddy saw it, and as always, wanted to make a new friend. Luckily Buddy has always been terrified of water, so he didn't cross the stream. He just tried his hardest to run after the little mink as it ran down stream. (As many of you know, Buddy really couldn't run at all anymore). It was kinda funny, and sad and cute all at the same time.

Don't we have the best backyard ever!!! Great spot for family photos!

It is definitely a good thing we have our sweet baby girl to keep our minds and time occupied. As sad as I am about Buddy, I am glad I have someone I love and care about even more now. I told my mom that Heavenly Father must have known that Buddy needed to live long enough for Alyssa to be in my life before He took Buddy to heaven. Otherwise, I would be a lot worse off. I now have this sweet little angel that I couldn't possibly love any more!!

I love my baby girl!!!

Aren't we the cutest family ever?!?!?

Thanks again to my friend John for taking these fabulous photos!!!