Allen Family

2011-07-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness!!! Time is flying. Alyssa is now our big 2 year old! She is talking and singing and dancing like CRAZY! She keeps us busy, that is FOR SURE! Now, we have another little girl on the way, and we often wonder what we were thinking adding another one to the mix. Alyssa is great, don't get me wrong, but she is a handful. We are always running with her, and never slow down. She doesn't stop until we MAKE her stop, and even then, it can be a challenge. She is as adventurous as they come and will try just about anything without fear. Since I've once again waited forever to update, there will be lots of pics from winter up to a couple of days ago including Alyssa's Birthday.

Here she is loving the snow!!

Alyssa with cousins Kyri and Graysen. We are so glad we live close enough that we get to play with them every once in awhile.

Here is a great picture of Mauri and 2 of her kids, just days before little Tanzi was born. Seriously!!! like 3 days before!

Oh how she LOVES smoothies! Delicious!

BUT, I'm pretty sure she loved her birthday cake and ice cream even more!!

I am not the craftiest person around, so I was pretty proud of myself for making this cute birthday cake. Alyssa LOVED it. I guess that's really all that matters!

What a goof!! Wearing dad's safety goggles! Jason would say she just looks like her nerdy mom with her glasses on! :)

So, as you know, this past weekend was the 4th of July. Alyssa LOVED all the fireworks. She was running around yelling "BOOM" all Friday night. (which is when Logan did their fireworks). Then, we went over to Bear Lake on the 4th where she had the time of her life. First of all, she LOVES going to Grandma ReNee's restaraunt to eat. Grilled cheese are her favorite, plus the ice cream of course. Then her Papa and dad decided to go drive the go-carts, and Alyssa got to go along for the ride. She absolutely loved that. Then we went to the parade in Paris ID. I think she was a little overwhelmed at first. She just stood there and stared as the floats (if you can call them that) threw candy. Once she figured it out though, she was running and picking up all the candy she could. Then, we went to North Beach where she played in the water and the sand. What a fun weekend!!!

Here she is getting strapped into the go-cart! How exciting!!!

There they all are! Ready to roll!!

If Brent's face is any indication of how much fun they were having, Alyssa must have been having a ball. Too bad you can't see her face over the steering wheel!

It wasn't the warmest day at the lake, but that didn't stop her from getting all wet, and playing in the sand to her heart's content! She can't wait to play at the lake with all of her cousins!!!

2011-02-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

Once again, I am starting a post by saying that it has been a long time since I've posted. (I am starting to notice a trend here) Anyway, it truly has been awhile, so this post contains photos and what-not clear back from Thanksgiving. I wish I were better at posting regularly so I could write down all the silly things Alyssa does. She is growing SO fast, and says and does the funniest things. Some of her favorite things to say are:

"ouch-a-reena"

"Oh gosh"

"I do it"

"come mommy"

"what doin?"

Just to name a few. She has also become a mocking bird. Always repeating what we say. We have learned in a hurry to watch what we say. She has already said "oh crap" and "stupid" a couple of times, but only after either myself or Jason says it first. We just love her to pieces and have loved watching her learn and grow. Even though time has flown by, and we can't believe she'll be 2 in May.

Here is a picture of Alyssa eating some clam chowder. She LOVES it!!! In fact, a couple of days after this, I tried giving her a different kind of soup and she had the meltdown of the century because it wasn't clam chowder. I only figured it out after she finally quit screaming and said "kind", meaning she wanted a different kind of soup. I luckily had some leftover clam chowder. When I showed it to her, and asked if that was what she wanted, she said "yep", and was as happy as ever when she got it. Silly girl!

For a couple of days Alyssa was obsessed with having me take her picture while standing on this little pan. She would stand on it and say "picture". Needless to say, I have a few pictures of her in this particular pose.

Already loving to dress up! I found this wig while cleaning one day, and she wouldn't take it off. She LOVED looking at herself in the mirror with it on too. Pretty stinkin' cute!

Christmas day at Nana and Papa's house! They bought these fun cars for the grandkids to play with when visiting. Alyssa loves them, and talks about driving whenever we mention going to their house.

Here she is checking out the Jeep! It has taken her awhile to get used to them, but is getting better and better each time.

Sometimes, however, she would rather just play in here instead of with toys. She seriously spent quite a bit of time on Christmas climbing in and out of here.

We spent Thanksgiving in Bear Lake this year with my dad's side of the family. It was cold, but the grandkids all had a blast, and the food was DELICIOUS as always!!

Here is Grandpy with Alyssa and cousin Kennedy on Thanksgiving

In my last post I mentioned that Alyssa has a shoe/foot fetish. She is obsessed with putting anything and everything on her feet. If it looks like a shoe, she'll make it into one! Here are a few pictures to prove it!

This is her just wearing a pair of my fuzzy socks.... along with her Aggie bow which she put on by herself. Nice outfit!!!

Oven mitts??? Seriously!?!?!

She loves wearing my boots. Even if they do go all the way up to her crotch!

2010-11-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Oh, and GO AGGIES!!!

Alyssa absolutely loves her "Aggie dress" as she calls it. Even in the mornings when I go into her her room, she will point to it hanging in her closet and say "Aggie dress." usually followed by a "YAY Aggies". Oh how they learn fast. I don't think her dad would accept her as his daughter any other way! :)

So, for Halloween she was an Aggie cheerleader. We thought about taking her trick-or-treating to a couple of the neighbors' homes, but quickly changed our minds as it began to poor rain. We figured she would enjoy it more next year anyway. Besides, we had more important things to do... like attend an Aggie basketball exhibition game! :) A perfect Halloween for all!

For some reason, our daughter has acquired a shoe fettish. She is obsessed. Her she is turning our empty coke boxes into a large pair of shoes. She really wore them around the kitchen for quite some time! TOO SILLY, and TOO CUTE! :)

What a cute mug!

Just laying around!

2010-10-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a very long time since I've updated our blog. Alyssa is now almost 18 months old, and has grown SO much. She talks SO much too. It is fun to see her develop and grow. She loves to sing and dance and run... and boy can she run. It is hard for me to keep up with her sometimes! She is a little spitfire, but we just love her to pieces. So, since I waited so long to update, the majority of this blog is pictures.

Here is our angel enjoying the grass.

Alyssa loves to splash in the tub. Not too sure her older cousins, are enjoying it as much!

I was hoping Grandpa would let me drive his motorhome.

I guess I'll have to stick to the toy cars for now.

Too bad my mom isn't this happy when she wakes up.

If I can put it on my head, it's a hat!

I must have inhereted my mom's crazy hair.

Snuggling with mom.

Looking somber.

All smiles with my cute pigtails.

Alyssa LOVES salsa!!! Here she is with Aunt Andrea eating it like soup.

A highlight of the year for me was attending a Time-Out for Women Conference this September with my sister Mauri and our mom.

Aren't sisters great?!?!

Mom and Mauri at TOFW.

I love Sheri Dew

As sweet as Alyssa is, she can also cause alot of trouble in a short amount of time. Here she is after dumping out an entire box of cereal. At least it kept her happy for awhile!

Daddy is still trying to wake up! AND it looks like Alyssa just did wake up. Nice bed head!

Nice smile!

2010-05-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time since I've updated our blog, and I decided I had better get after it, since our little one has now reached the 1 year milestone! I can't believe how quickly this past year has gone by. It is amazing to see all the growth and development a little one can go through in such a short amount of time. Here are a few of the things Alyssa is doing.
. She is walking all by herself, and has been doing so for about a month now.
. She can say ball, mamma, dadda, ah-oh, clock, and tries really hard to say anything and everything else we ask her to say. She also makes lots of animal noises. For dog she says "ff, ff" she can roar like a lion or tiger, and loves to make monkey noises. She is a very vocal little girl.
. She loves to clap and dance to any and all music.
. She also loves to climb in and on anything she is able to.
. She loves to pull faces. Most recently, when you ask her where her eyes are, she closes them really slowly, and sometimes even rolls her eyes at you.
. She still uses a lot of sign language. She signs "baby" for pretty much any little kid she sees, whether they're a baby or not. She signs "eat" pretty much all day. She eats like a pig, even though at her 1 yr checkup she weighed in at only 17.8 lbs. She is on the chart, but at the very bottom. She still signs "ball" even though she can say it. Some of her other signs are; more, please, bath, milk, mommy, daddy, story, play, and all done. She is just the love of our lives, and we can't imagine what life would be like without her. She is such a joy, and brings a smile to our faces almost all the time. She really is a good baby, and we don't have much to complain about where she's concerned.

Cheesin' it up!!!

One of her favorite faces she pulls.

Here she is climbing into the recipe book drawer. This is what she loves to do when hanging out in the kitchen with mom.

Climbing into her "toy" box. Usually she climbs into the box and throws all of her toys out.

She still loves spending time with cousins, and wishes more of them lived close enough for her to spend time with them.

Here she is at Grandma Deb's with another cousin. Grandma loves to play Blind Melon's "No Rain" video for them. They LOVE it!!!

"Don't I look cool in my birthday shades?"

Now that she's walking, it is hard to get a good picture of her.

Most of them are from this angle.

Here she is with the ball daddy got her for her birthday.

It's almost as big as she is, but she still loves trying to carry it around.

Silly Alyssa!!!

"Why did mom and dad keep chocolate cake a secret

from me for so long?? This is awesome!"

"I can't get enough!"

"Sometimes I think my toes come in a close second to chocolate cake!"

Our new backyard!

2010-02-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

As many of you may remember, if you've been to our house, we used to have this beautiful wooded area directly behind our home. It was the main reason we purchased our home. It seperated us from the neighbors behind our home, and gave us some sense of seclusion. We loved the quiet peacefulness of the area. Well, this is to be NO MORE!!! Sadly the city has decided to put a park in back there. Jason and I were so upset when we heard this because we knew they would come in and ruin this beautiful area. Our idiot neighbors seemed to think it was a great idea to get the city involved. They are all now up in arms as the city has come in and cut many live trees down, and leveled much of the area. (what did they think was going to happen? That's what we'd like to know) The neighbors have gotten articles written in the local paper and have even been on the radio stating that the area is now ruined. As sad as we are about it, we are even more upset that our neighbors did not see this coming. Oh well... maybe someday when we're rich we can buy a nice big house out in the country!!! Untill then, we will have to deal with this!

This is what it looked like before the city started cutting the trees down. Mind you, this pictures was taken in August when the trees all had leaves.

And this is what it looks like now!

If you look closley, you can see a city worker sawing down one of the trees.

Here is a large tree trunk where there used to be a huge 70 ft. beautfiful willow tree.

This is what I have woke up to every morning for the past week at 7:30 am. This equipment litterally shakes our house! So much for nice peaceful mornings. Luckily Alyssa's bedroom is on the other side of the house, and it doesn't seem to bother her too much.
Such a sad affair!!!!

2010-02-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

This past week we were able to go to Pocatello to spend a few days with my family. (by we, I mean me and Alyssa) We had a great time with Tawn's sister Mauri and her kids, and Tawn's sister-in-law Nichole and her kids. It seemed the smaller kiddies loved spending time in the kitchen. They are kind-of like dogs in that respect. They are always scavenging for food. When one of them drops food from the highchair, you can bet the other two will find it. It was fun to watch them. I am excited for them to get a little older so they can interact with each other a little more. Right now they just roll around on the floor together and steal each others toys. Graysen was not too happy when we took Alyssa's binki away from him. Although, he took it away from Alyssa first. Funny kids!!

Zane playing under the table in the kitchen

The older kids loved having Grandma or Grandpa read them stories. It was pretty much the only time you could catch Brody holding still.

Rub-a-dub-dub four kids in the tub.

Alyssa had fun peeking at Grandma through the refrigerator door. Good thing Grandma spotted her, or she might have gotten her fingers shut in the door.

Here she is from the Grandma's view inside the fridge. "Peek-a-boo I see you."

I'm not sure why, but Alyssa was somewhat obsessed with Mauri's little red cooler. She was always climbing around on it. I say, "whatever makes them happy."

Zane, the instigator, getting them both into trouble. It wouldn't be so bad if half of the things in there weren't made of glass.

It's just so much fun!!!

About a week before our trip to Pocatello, Mauri and her kids came to Logan. We decided to go visit Great Grandma Dora. Kyri loved sitting on Grandma Dora's lap. The other two kids had more fun crawling around and getting into mischief.

2010-01-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

I have to start by admitting what a horrible blogger I really am. I try to use the excuse that I am just way to busy to get too into the whole blogging thing, but I know a lot of people who are busier than I am who are a lot better at blogging than me. After taking a little heat from my little sister (and accepting her help), I changed my blog from the boring black background to a more cutesy one. Maybe one of these days I'll get into it a little more. It is a new year, so you never know what might happen....

We have a wonderful New Years tradition at the Allen home. Prime rib, twice baked potatoes, and a whole lot of other delicious food. (can you tell who I'm related to?? kinda sad when the best part of any holiday is the food) We had a great time partying it up! Even Grandma ReNee couldn't deny the festivities.

Just hanging with the girls, Tana, and Kym. We had a lot of fun on New Years Eve playing Catch Phrase and of course... eating lots of food!

What a wonderful first Christmas Alyssa had. We had a great time spending Christmas with Tawn's family, until poor Alyssa got her first cold on Christmas day. She was SO miserable! It was so sad! She couldn't breathe and had the worst runny nose. It took her about a week to really get over it, and then it seemed everyone else got sick too. Tawn's mom, Stacy and her little Ella, the list goes on. I think it was just going around. Grandma Deb tried to take the blame for getting Alyssa sick, but who knows... I think she could have picked it up anywhere. Tis the season (for getting sick) !!!

Alyssa had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas. Grandma even took some pictures of Alyssa sitting in the sleigh that is behind her. I will have to have Grandma e-mail those pictures so we can add them to our blog. I think we have a few pictures of a few of the grandkids sitting in that sleigh. It is very cute!

I guess I should tell you all what our little one has been up to lately. She is learning and growing SO fast.

She has been waving to everyone for the last couple of months. She waves both "hi" and "goodbye".
She just loves pulling herself up and standing anyway, and anywhere she can
Clapping is a new favorite. Especially when there is music playing. She loves to clap along.
She loves to dance. Mostly she just bounces, but she loves music!
Stairs, stairs and more stairs. We can't keep her away from them. She has climbed our whole flight of stairs all by herself, and if we leave her alone for more than a second, she tries to climb up to find us. This is both exciting and scary!?! The last thing we need is another stair accident.
She is getting her first tooth. It hasn't cut through yet, but it's on it's way. Jason didn't want her to get teeth, and wanted us to have her pictures taken before that first tooth came in. So tomorrow she is going in for some pictures.

What a cute little Christmas Elf!!

Alyssa always takes a while to warm up to her Grandpas (yes both of them), but when she does, she loves them!
I hope you are all as excited about this new year as I am. I have a lot of New Years Resolutions, and I would tell you what they are, but when you write them down, and then you don't keep them... that's when you really get yourself into trouble. Not only do you know you stunk it up at keeping them, but so does everyone else. We do hope that you all have a safe and prosperous year!!

2009-12-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-15T18:32:00.001-08:00

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!!!

2009-10-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-08-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

After so many people kept telling us we needed to become bloggers, we decided we probably should. (okay by we, I mostly mean Tawn) Yesterday was a very hard day for the Allen family. Our sweet Buddy dog had to be sent to heaven. He was a Christmas present to Tawn from Jason in 1999. It was actually almost exactly 10 years ago that Jason bought him for Tawn. It was a few months before Christmas, and Jason knew that Boxers were one of Tawn's favorite breeds. Unbeknown to us, we saved Buddy from a future murderer's home. That's right. The guy we bought Buddy from was later found guilty for murder. That's a whole other story, but I'm sure Buddy was glad to be out of that home.

Jason started calling him "Buddy the Grey" as he got older and his face started
turning grey.

Here is our Buddy with his baby sister, Alyssa. He was so gentle and loving. Sometimes he would even sleep in her room next to her crib. If she started crying, he would run to see what she was crying about, and to make sure someone was attending to her needs. He was such a sweet dog.

I love my Buddy! I will miss him so so much!!!

Although Buddy was a sweet loving dog, it was not always thus. He was a naughty, naughty puppy. He was always getting into trouble. As a pup, he ate an entire cake, figured out how to open the fridge once, and had a hay day with all the food! He also got into the pantry once and Tawn's roommates found food stashed all over the house. He hid food under couch cushions, in beds, under beds... and anywhere else he thought he could "bury" it. He also ate an entire bottle of baby oil once. Tawn thought he was going to die for sure. Needless to say, the futon cushion was not so lucky! No person should have to witness that type of a bowel movement!!! So many good, crazy and funny memories!

Buddy loved kids! Here he is with his cousing Kyri. They loved each other. He would follow her around the house (when she wasn't following him around) She loved him too. She came to see him the morning he was "put down". She knew he was going to go live with Heavenly Father and Jesus. When her mom told her that's where he was going, she asked "Kyri go too?" He will be missed by many.

Buddy loved Kyri's mom too. Once when Mauri was staying with us, Buddy stood right over her as she was lying in bed, and he "slipped her the tongue". I couldn't quit laughing. Buddy loved pretty much everyone. Whenever anyone came to visit, he would run and grab a toy to bring out. I think he just thought everyone was coming to see him.

We will all miss Buddy! May he rest in peace!!!