Nate, Elisa and kids

Other December Pictures

2012-01-19T17:53:00.001-08:00

Claire was in her first performance of The Nutcracker. She is such a good little ballerina. Nanny and Papi and Grandma all came to see her. Christian and Livy actually sat through the whole thing and were surprisingly good.
My cute little clown at intermission.

I love the classic screaming on Santa's lap picture.
Drinking hot chocolate and waiting for a carriage ride, which unfortunately ended right when we got there. But seeing the horses was just as fun.
Cute sisters in matching dresses from Nanny.
We spent an entire day making gingerbread cookies for all of the neighbors. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.

My cute girl in her new jammies from Grandma.
Christian and Claire at her classroom Christmas party that I was in charge of.
A preggo pic.

Putting out cookies and milk for Santa.
Santa brought Star Wars stuff.
My cute girls in their matching Christmas dresses, again from Nanny.

Geddes Family Christmas

2012-01-19T17:25:00.000-08:00

Our Geddes family Christmas was a little sparse this year, but still a lot of fun. Dave and Melissa came up for Christmas Eve through the 27th. Matt and Kalyn came a few days after Christmas, and J and Sarah didn't make it because she was so close to having Lincloln.
My cute mom, otherwise known as Nanny.

Livy and cousin Aubrey taking a bath together. They are adorable together and such opposites!!! Livy loves her and was calling her, "Auby." We have a book of baby pictures and there is one with curly hair that Livy likes to point to and say, "Auby."

Christmas afternoon, opening presents at Nanny and Papi's house. These are cute little animal hats that Pappy got them in N.Y.
We were so excited to give Pappy this puppet. We've seen it for a few years and thought it looked just like him, so we finally got it for him. The kids couldn't wait to give it to him. When you ask Livy who it is, she quickly responds, "Papi."

Looking at fun stuff from the tompt on Christmas Eve.
Putting the cereal out for the tompt and peeking to see if they can see him.

Cute cousin Clay and Aunt "Moonie."
Claire helping tell the nativity story on Christmas Eve.
Aubs.

Nanny's beautiful hair, as styled by Claire.
Olivia loved her animal hat!

Watching a movie on Nanny's bed.

Cousins. This picture was actually at Thanksgiving. Logan is the only one who was currently born and is missing. Our brand new cousin, Lincoln. He was born on January 6th. We can't wait to meet him.

Allen Family Christmas

2012-01-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a great Christmas this year. We had three different Allen family parties, a Geddes family party, two work parties, a school party, and a ward party which Nate and I had to be Mary and Joseph in the nativity. It was definitely a busy December, but a fun one. Pictures are better than words, especially mine, so here they are:

We got a brand new cousin, Declan, on Christmas Eve. Nate and I went to visit him on Christmas Day!!!
He was 5 lbs, something. Super tiny and cute! I wouldn't know what to do with a baby that size after my 9 pounder!

Siblings party at Mom and Dad Allen's on the 23rd.
Cute, naked, dancing baby!
Cousin Rowan, or "Ro Ro" as Livy calls him.
Grandma had cute little crafts for the kids, which Claire loves!!!
All of the boys taking down Uncle Dave.
This is the only picture we got at the extended-family Moseley Christmas party.
Mom's incredible tree that I would never have the patience to do.
Christian's new hat and shirt.
Nate loves his new shoes.....he wears them to work all the time.
Claire got a bunch of drawing stuff. It was such a perfect gift for our little artist.

I got a very cute jacket with matching gloves and scarf!! I can't wait to wear it again after the baby is here. (When I can actually zip it up! :))
Christian got an awesome light-saber, which is so totally appropriate for him right now. He also got a really cute angry birds shirt and hat that he wears all the time.

Me and my handsome little dude.
Cute boys!
The girls reading Christmas stories with Grandma.
Gotta show the baby belly (which is already much bigger and more uncomfortable than in this picture!)

March 25th, My 30th Birthday!!!

2011-04-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

30!

Well, my sweet husband and family went all out to make the big 3-0 special for me this year. They succeeded. It was really a great day. I woke up after 8:00 (yes, that is amazing.) Nate had told his boss that he'd be into work late so that I could sleep in.

Then mom and dad brought a delicious breakfast of hot chocolate, croissants, and sausage over.

Livy got to eat small pieces of left-over pancake for her breakfast. (She's eating and loving so much now!!!)
Nate had all of these presents downstairs and he had Claire bring them up. You can for sure tell this is a Claire arrangement because of how the presents are all lined up! So adorable and so Claire-like. Nate got me a lot of fun kitchen things. I got a cutting board, new spoons, new dish towels and wash-cloths, a bread slicer, and new recipe cards. He's so cute.
Mom and Dad went in with Nate on this gorgeous painting of Christ for me. It is the Minerva Teichert one of Christ holding the black sheep. (I'm not sure exactly what the message was that they were trying to tell me.:)
My sweet kids helped me make my cake! Nate and Nanny both offered, but Claire really wanted to make a chocolate cake with me. A few days before when I asked Claire what kind of cake we should make, she said, "Well, I want chocolate." Then she paused for two minutes and said, "But....I guess you can choose since it's your birthday." Thanks Claire....I choose chocolate, too!
A picture that Claire took of me......
Don't ask why the incredulous look on my face.......I'm not sure. Nate took me to the very chic Thai house in Rexburg. :) As Nate aptly described it, "It makes you think you're in Thailand, but for all of the wrong reasons." Some of these may be the nasty bathrooms, the bright yellow paint and horrid tile, and the posters stuck to the walls with silver duct tape. Hilarious. The food, however, is delicious and worth it!!!

I was starting to think that Nate's family had forgotten my birthday, but then we pulled up to my house after dinner and all of their cars were there. The little sneak. I walked in to a surprise house-full of family. It was so awesome to see everyone there.
Two cute grandmas and two cute babies...
The cake (Sarah's decadent recipe) that the kids and I made. Mom had also made a bunch of amazingly delicious cupcakes and brought them over.

The sweetest man on Earth....he's so amazing and I'm so lucky!!!
Dantzel did not know what to think of my dad's mustache. I don't blame her one bit. :)
So glad I got this picture since Lindz and Jeff announced that they were moving to California the next Thursday. :(
My beautiful, sweet momma!!!
We were taking these pictures late at night and Nate was breaking his arm off, holding the camera. It was quite entertaining and also extremely hard to get a picture that worked!!!
I also have to mention the sweet cards from Alissa, Lindz, and Michelle.....and the awesome gift certificates to Costa Vida from Mom and Dad Allen, and the calls from my brothers who actually remembered. Plus my kids were so dang cute and excited. Thanks to everyone! It was a great day, and a great 30 years!

All things bed+St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

Asleep in Bed

So the other night, in the middle of the night, I was awake. Surprise, surprise. Yes, I had been up with Livy and I walked past Christian's room to see this: Adorable. I love how his hands were while he was sleeping.

This is the same picture, but I turned on my flash because the ISO on my camera does not do great with low light. :(
I had to take a picture of this to document how Livy Divy always falls asleep. There is quite the system. She has to be holding one of her little stuffed animal blanket things. (I don't know what they are: they're a little blanket with a head.) Then she also has to have her Nemo fish and her mobile music turned on. I have to keep going in and turning the music on her mobile about 4 times before she's out. She almost always has one of these things covering her face so I have to move it! So cute.
Bedhead.

This is pretty a typical morning look for Livy. It can get pretty wild!

Pretty nice "do" there, Livy.

Bedtime.

This is my awesome husband reading bedtime stories to my kids. He read somewhere that kids will be better readers if their dad reads to them, so he makes a point of doing it. Plus, he enjoys it. I love that guy!!!

I just love seeing this. This baby absolutely adores her siblings.

St. Patrick's Day

Cutest little boy. He always cracks us all up.
A pretty typical pose from these two.

These guys are the best of friends. They do everything together and I love it!
They had to wear green on St. Patty's Day for Preschool.

Basketball Tournament

2011-03-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Claire's little dance group performed for the half-time show of one of the basketball games at this tournament. They are so cute and she is such a good little dancer. (These shots are actually from a previous performance.)

Grandpa, Dave and James playing hard. Nate really wanted to play in this tournament, but he hurt his knee hiking Table Rock in snow shoes the weekend before with Grandpa, James, and Uncle Todd. (These pictures are from our new little point-and-shoot that doesn't take great pictures but is super convenient.)

All the kids were running like crazy around the track. It's so fun to be so close to cousins!!! We also had the scare of our lifetimes!

On the other side of the bleachers where we were sitting, the bleachers were folded up. The kids decided to go open the gate and try to go down them. It was like a 30 foot death-drop onto a hard, gym floor. If a kid had fallen, it would've killed them. And of course my little Christian was about to lead them all like little lemmings off of a cliff. "Oh, no." Pop!

I jumped up, screaming their names and ran over as fast as I could. I explained very sternly that kids could not go through that gate because they would die. I think I sufficiently freaked them out, but my legs felt like jello for 15 min after that, I was so scared. Later Christian sweetly smiled up at me and said, "Remember, mom. We can't go over to that side cause we'll DIE!" I guess he got the point.

The whole clan enjoying the basketball games! I think everyone but Hailee and Derek (and baby girl) was there.

Cute picture of Lindz!

Me and my cute boy!

Claire and cousin Dawson were having a blast!

Alissa and Meieli

We all had a ton of fun watching basketball, seeing family and eating treats!!!

Grandpa's Birthday, Cousin Rowan, and games with Grandma and Grandpa

2011-03-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 52nd Birthday to Grandpa! Here are some cute kids enjoying cake with him!

Thank you Grandma (and Dairy Queen) for the delicious ice-cream cake for Grandpa's birthday!
Here's everyone hanging out, talking, and looking at really hot pictures from old photo albums! :)

Grandpa and Livy-Divy with her wild, after pig-tails hair!Lindz with her sleeping growth, Dantzel. :)
A pensive-looking Nate.

Cousin Rowan.

Here are just a few shots of Rowan for his 2 month old pictures. There were a ton of cute ones, but here are just a few. I will have everyone know that just before the pictures, I got 2 real smiles from him!! Adorable. We'll try to capture those smiles by his 4 month pics. :)
I love the look of adoration on Alissa's face.

Grandma, Grandpa, and Trever came over to play games. They mostly ended up doing puzzles, watching Veggie Tales "Lord of the Beans," and talking about Dad's greenhouse. It was a ton of fun. This is Grandma and Claire (and Trever's hand) doing puzzles. Two beautiful girls. I love this picture!
Grandpa with the kiddos.
I love this one of Livy and Grandpa! It's so sweet.

Girls.

2011-03-06T20:40:00.001-08:00

My cute little Claire....I thought this was a fun shot of her.

How can you not just love this little face?

I love baby appendages.

Nate thinks Livy looks like an orphan in this one.....kind of true, yet cute as heck, nonetheless.
I guess I owe Christian his own post now!

Siblings

2011-02-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

Here are a few random shots of the kids from today. I think they all definitely look like siblings, but have their own looks too. They're just so fun and cute.

Livy is at such a cute age. She smiles and laughs and chatters all the time. She's started clapping her hands when you say, "Yeah, Livy!" and clap your hands. She looks more like a seal flapping its arms because she never quite gets her hands together. It's adorable. Plus she has a lopsided smile. She has two bottom teeth and two teeth on her upper left side, but the two on the right haven't quite broken through. She is starting to love baby food, especially the little puffs. She is just so cute.

The other day I made Claire and Bruds a meat and cheese sandwich for lunch (they usually just want pbj.) Claire started eating it and said, "Wow! This is good." (Another bite.) "Wow, this is really good." (Another bite.) "Wow, this is unbelievably good." She's so funny. Sometimes she talks like a little teenager already. Yes, this is her in p.j.s. For some reason lately she loves to change out of her clothes and into p.j.s in the middle of the day. :)

Yes, this is Christian in his underwear. He went through a phase where he would never wear pants. We are definitely getting out of that phase now, but for some reason reverted back to it today! :) His favorite phrase right now is, "Hey.....you know what?" He will begin every sentence with this phrase and continue for hours if allowed. He also doesn't care who he is talking to (included someone he's never seen before) as long as he can tell you his life's story. :)

I love my kids!!!

President's Day Weekend, Spontaneous Party and Snowshoeing

2011-02-22T21:10:00.000-08:00

Wow....aren't you being over-zealous with this blogging thing, one might ask. Yes. Yes I am. The excitement and euphoria of doing this will soon wear off, I'm sure. So, let's all enjoy this while it lasts.

We spent Saturday with cousins at Grandma's so we could all see Hailee.

Ok, guys. Normal smiles.
Ok guys, silly faces. Ok guys, let's see your feet: Yeah, don't ask. Nate took these.
Cutest baby on the planet!!! (Except of course for all the baby cousins.)

Derek and Hailee. Hailee was holding Rowan for the first time. Sorry you guys are cut off. :)

The rest of the weekend our awesome friends PB&J came to visit. It was so much fun. Here are a few cute shots I quickly got of Porter. He's a beautiful child! Sorry Jordan and Becca: I didn't get any pictures of you! :) We did getthe part of the family that matters though. ;)

Spontaneous Party

In January we had a spontaneous party....we went sledding with cousin Brett and Aunt Lindz while Grandma watched the babies. (Thanks Mom.) Afterwards the kids loved playing in the snow so much that they just stayed in our front yard for another hour.

Cousin Brett. Cute kiddo.

Then James and Meieli showed up with Brady and Gibson and Dad and Jeff got back from their outing so we spontaneously made pizza and made a party out of it. These are the best kind. (Dave and Alissa were gone getting Rowan, but only a few select "special" people knew that. :) )

Snowshoeing

I'm in love......ok...with my husband too, but with snowshoeing. It was so awesome! We are totally buying some. The company on our little outing wasn't too shabby, either. James and Meieli and Lindz, Jeff, and Brett are pretty fun people! Thanks for the pictures James.

Valentines Day

2011-02-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day this year, we got to have Trever with us so Mom and Dad Allen could go on a date. It was the best. This would've been the sweetest picture with both kids holding Trever's hand (and still is pretty sweet) except for our little Devil's Advocate there in the front. Typical.

I made a darn good dinner, if I do say so myself. It was pork chops, twice-baked potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and strawberry jello with strawberries in it. Plus we had cherry 7up and for dessert chocolate rice krispie treats and pink cupcakes with heart candies. Yum.

This is Nate right when he got home from work before we ate. We were all sitting at the table just waiting for him so we could scarf the food!

My little setup....this is as fancy as I get, people. We cut the paper towels into hearts; everyone had a name tag with a box of treats and a valentine with a strawberry on the cup. The kids loved it and thought I was crazy to put strawberries on their cups.

Not a bad picture considering my three-year-old took it. That's right: we've got some photographers in training over here. I've been teaching the kids how to use my camera, including putting the little focus box right on someone's face and pressing the button half way down before you push it all the way. They're doing great.

It was a great Valentines Day. Christian literally cried when it was over. The kid loves holidays!!!

Random Pics of Cute Kids

2011-02-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

Ok...so Nate and I seriously want to update this thing. I've decided that I'm switching from putting pictures of my children on facebook to pictures of them on here and making it private. Yeah, I'm the paranoid mom. But on the bright side, this thing will get updated more frequently. So here you go: I think my kids are just stinkin' cute, but I am their mom! :)

The kids went snowshoeing with Nate and LOVED it.....Yes, we would all love snow shoes as a gift for anyone who wants to randomly donate to us. :)

Olivia's eyes arent' really blue, but they look like it in these pictures. They're still kind of Hazel, but I think they might be going more brown........Also, can I just say that I LOVE having girl(s) plural....so fun!

Two little beautiful, sweet girls.

This is Olivia's newest smile. It's more like a grimace, but we love it. She smiles at EVERYTHING. So adorable.

Claire is so funny. She's my little model girl. She's always posing for me. Poor thing. She's been subjected to pictures so often since she was little that it's second nature to her now! :)
So I'm sorry my layout is completely and utterly retarded. If I'm going to blog, I seriously need some lessons from you pros!

Baby Livy

2010-08-04T15:15:00.001-07:00

4th of July.

2009-07-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Ok. Ok. I know I'm awful at keeping this thing updated, but I'm going to try to do better. We had a fun day on the fourth. We got up and rode our bikes to the parade with Nanny and Pappy. The kids loved getting the candy and they sure got a stash!

After the parade, we headed up to Ashton to catch the end of James and Meieli's performance. They are so awesome and such good musicians. Then we hung out at their house afterwards for a while.

In the afternoon we took naps so the kids would be able to stay awake during the fireworks. We made homemade rootbeer and bought sparklers.

Later that night, Grandma and Grandpa and Trever (with his $100 worth of fireworks that he bought himself) and Dave, Alissa and kids, and Nanny and Pappi and Matt and Kalyn all came over for rootbeer floats and Trever's fireworks. The neighbors also had their fireworks going on. It was quite a show. I just love living near family and really hope we'll get to stay here!!!!

Side Note: My pictures are all in the reverse chronological order and there are a million of them. I am obviously not a whiz at this blogging thing! Will someone PLEASE show me how to do a slide show so I don't have a hundred pictures on one page like this???
Claire snuggled up with Pappy.
Trever's awesome stash of fireworks.

Cousins!!
The man himself. He was so excited. Trev, you make everything more fun.
My fam.

Dave and Alissa.

Making and tasting homemade rootbeer.......YUM. Good stuff.
Mosquito spray anyone????
Handsomeness

The Allen Clan.My orange children in the slide at Ashton Park.

Christian loves Grandpa!!!!
Grandma and Grandpa Jones were there too!
Cute dimple girl!!!

Brads.
The big stars of the city of Ashton!!! You go, guys!
Yes, this is the transformers car. It was in the parade in Rexburg so Nate had to get a shot.
Nanny agressively going after the chocoate milk at the parade. That was quite a sight to see. Hilarious!!

We had a great spot in the shade so we were able to enjoy the entire parade without getting hot. Thanks to Nate for going early for us!
True to Bruddy's style, it all goes in at once whether it fits or not! :)

Man, that's one good looking hubby of mine! I've decided that he just gets more and more handsome as he gets older.

Pappy helping Bruddy play drums like the people in the parade.
Sweet.

Allen Family Hike

2009-07-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

We went for a hike with James, Meieli, Mom, Dad and Trever. It was so much fun. Nate and I told James and Meieli that we left our lunch at home on the table so we could get a free lunch. (Not really....we did leave our lunch sitting at home on the table. We all met in Ashton at 8:30 a.m. (a.k.a. 9:00 a.m.) Then we went up to the tunnel near is it Warm River?.....sad, I don't even know the names of these places that I've been to my whole life.

I love this picture of Dad....it is just classic dad out in nature!!!! The backpack is of course his camera!
Brady and Claire had so much fun. They love to run around and play together.
Mom and Trever. Trev did such a good job even though it started to get pretty hot! We had so much fun! I love the summer!!!!

Just some cute pics

2009-04-16T21:56:00.001-07:00

EASTER!

2009-04-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few Easter pictures. On Saturday, the day before Easter, we had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt in the morning.

The Stash!!!

When Christian figured out there was candy in the eggs, he was done picking up eggs and wanted to eat!!!

Christian picking up eggs.

Claire finding Eggs

Kiddos waiting for the hunt to start.

2009-03-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

These are just some pics I took of the kids yesterday while they were playing in Christian's room. Claire is yelling "I want it." (I took her toy, trying to get her to look at the camera and this is all I got.") They're just so fun. I absolutely love being a mom!!! :)

A Cute Claire Moment

2009-03-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Claire got some new cups. This might sound funny, but they were not just any cups. They were stacking cups. Anyone who knows Claire, knows that she absolutely loves things that stack, one inside of the other. This is why she loves the little Russian stacking dolls (Or Santa toys, as she refers to them), which she hides inside of a box, inside of another box, inside of another box, in the cupboard under my bathroom sink, with the bathroom door closed and then my bedroom door closed: all of this for the sake of not letting Bruddy get them. Whew.

So back to my story. We just bought one set of stacking cups at Toys R' Us, thinking Christian wouldn't care about them that much. Wrong. He did, but Claire absolutely wouldn't share. So as he was crying, I said to her, "Claire. You really need to share with your brother. That's what Heavenly Father wants us to do. He loves it when we share."

It was quiet for like three minutes, which is a considerable amount of time for a three year old. I could tell she was really contemplating things. She then said to me, "Mommy." I answered, "Yes." "Mommy, will Heavenly Father make me die if I don't share?" At first I was a little taken aback and explained to her while laughing that of course Heavenly Father wouldn't make her die if she didn't share. It's a good thing, too, because if that's all it took, I'd have been dead long ago........needless to say, I guess Claire was satisfied with my answer because she still wouldn't share!!! :)

Making it Happen

2009-02-26T21:19:00.001-08:00

Kind of a "Poopy" Day

2009-02-26T17:17:00.001-08:00

First of all, I must begin by asking why every toddler thinks the word "poop" is so hilarious? Oh, wait, my husband, Nate, kind of does too. Claire has started calling her dad a poop when she wants to be funny. (I do think that's kind of funny.) Also, she thinks that telling you to eat poop or that she's eating it is hilarious also.

That is just a side-note. Today actually just started out bad. Someone in the family was in a bad mood, and it wasn't me or the kids....but I won't say who it was. So things just didn't go that smoothly. We went to Idaho Falls and missed the kids naps, which is fine once in a while, but then in the evening they can be holy terrors.

Then, we got home, had dinner (whole wheat pancakes and eggs--a typical Saturday night meal) and I gave the kids a bath. They love baths and get so excited about them. I'm sure that will change at some point. So, I'm bathing them and Christian just stands up. I thought nothing of it because he always stands up. But then, two seconds later I see this poop log floating in my bathtub. I was surprised and appalled. Believe it or not, in my three and a half years of being a mom, I've never had this happen. So, with the mommy reflexes, I quickly grab the log, barehanded, and throw it into the toilet and then immediately scrub my hands, thinking to myself, "Well at least it was a log so it didn't get all over the place." Yeah, I was wrong! When I turn around to face the bathtub again, there are little poop clouds and pieces everywhere. I schreeched and grabbed Claire yelling, "Get out. There's poop everywhere." (She wasn't laughing at the word poop at the moment since she was swimming in it.) Then I had to grab Christian, clean him off, and get them both out of the bathroom and dressed for bed. So, needless to say, I spent the next 20 minutes sanitizing my bathtub. I threw away the little racoon bath glove that they were playing with....that's just disgusting.

So my day was full of poop, but it's better now. We got new organizers for our closets and shoe racks for the shoes, and while I don't love gutting my room out, I love the end result!!!

Here We Go!!!!

2009-02-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

Ok. So here we go. We're gonna try a blog. This is mostly so that I'll actually do some sort of record-keeping of my life, and if others have interest in reading this, go for it. No promises that it'll be very exciting!!