Our new backyard!

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!!!!

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.

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!!

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!