A week in the life...

This week we spent mostly at home.  Loki (the dog) is so young and had a tendency to get into trouble when left alone.  Plus it was so FRIGID outside.  Inside just seemed like the better option.

We did our normal things: 
Monday night: FHE (from Logan's scout book this week)
Tuesday: Logan karate, me piano lessons, Mike scouts (Tuesday is also at this point officially Biggest Loser night)
Wednesday: I spent the morning at the dry pack cannery with some ladies from my ward.  Actually my first time there, it was fun.  piano lessons, Logan basketball and Kaylinn gymnastics
Thursday: I taught joy school (a make up for last week when Maddie was sick) piano lessons, Bunco (I won, woohoo!)
Friday: taught art in Logan's class (pretty exciting actually, we were making action paintings Jackson Pollock style.  The kids flicked paint all over their paper). 
Saturday: We finally managed to get in our weekly trip to the Children's Museum.  Because Mike stayed home with the dog and the baby, I let the kids invite a friend each.

In other exciting news, I had clean out the freezer week this week.  Between the cold and the dog and did I mention we are all just passing around colds (go winter) and this week Mike and I have the sick, I didn't feel like grocery shopping.  So I just went through my freezer and pulled out bits of meat that are hiding in there and fixed something around them for dinner each night.  The best one was a bag of shredded beef I had left over from a crock pot roast I did a couple of months ago.  I sauteed up a bunch of bell peppers (thanks Costco) and some onion.  Then I added the beef and some salsa.  I served it with all the condiments (guac, sour cream, cheese, refried beans and corn) and we had it over rice.  It was sooo tasty.  Then, the next day I had the leftover of the leftover (oh yeah) in tortillas to make a fajita burrito.  Again so tasty.

Diet update: yeah, not so hot this week, better get back on the wagon and the exercise was nonexistent except what I did with the dog.
Maddie update: Her crawling has been very slow in coming.  She little by little has inched her way into getting around.  Finally this week she started crawling actually using her hands and feet and really getting somewhere.  The catch is (boy is she ever an emotional girl!) she mostly crawls far when I leave her alone and the whole time she is crying at me and looking so dejected like, "Why would you leave me alone over here?  I just want to be with you."  Silly girl.

 I have been working on a long project of monthly embroideries.  I have one frame that i have been switching out each month as I go along.  I started with December,that makes so far a total of 3 down with 8 to go. I just slowly complete one each month and I figure I will be done in a year.  With all the time at home I managed to finish February (only 4 days late, which actually beats the pants off of December which I finished 18 days late).  I love how it gets me excited about what is coming up the next month.

Houseguest and Valentine's Rantings

It's a dog...

...the cutest black lab.  He is really gentle with the kids and very obedient.  I just love watching dogs while people go on vacation.  It gives me a taste of having a dog, without the long term commitment.  Someday I will have a dog and it will be great, but for now I have three children that take up all of my time, energy, and patience.
This has been one fast January in my estimation.  Normally it drags by with nothing exciting to do, but between Disneyland and now having a dog around it has not only gone quickly, it has also been very pleasant.

Already tomorrow is February.  I have Valentine's Day on the brain.  It is a bit of a sticky subject around here.  I think it is awesome because it is the one day that I am guaranteed a bit of romance.  And who can blame me when it is all the talk out there?  You see pictures of flowers and candy in the aisles and cheesy Romantic sayings everywhere you look.  My husband doesn't find the opportunity so inviting.  To all those stick in the mud people who are convinced this holiday is only about businesses getting to sell flowers, cards, and candy, I say "so what?"  I think it is awesome to spend a bit of time thinking about love.  How is this any different than Thanksgiving being a holiday where we celebrate gratitude?  Why not celebrate the loves in your life:  spouse, children, parents, grandparents?  Besides I am good with any reason to celebrate.  Heck, I love St. Patricks Day and make a big deal out of that, too.

Well, at any rate our disagreement has gone through a number of incarnations.  I have forced him to take me out against his will and pouted when he didn't choose to celebrate.  I have tried to do all the planning myself and had all out discussions that failed to convince either of us.  This year I am have given up.  I keep telling him that I don't care if there is no romance on February 14 exactly, but there better be some at some point this year.  We will see if that pans out.  I am just going to focus elsewhere.  I will work on fun Valentine's Day surprises and crafts and baking with my kids instead.

So Happy February Everyone.

DISNEYLAND!!!

We had the most amazing week this last week.  We went on vacation to California.  This totally broke up the monotony of January and got us out of the freezing weather.  It was so much fun.

The details: We drove all day Saturday and arrived at the Newport Beach Marriot Condo.  After Sunday we spent Monday at the beach and the pool.  It was a kickin' water day. 

 Tuesday and Wednesday were Disneyland days.  Thursday we spent doing anything we wanted to (for me it was reading, talking pics of the sunset and letterboxing) and trying to recoup from the Disney days.  Friday was our last Disneyland day, and finally we drove home Saturday.

 Favorite Rides:  Mike - Tower of Terror, Me - Space Mountain, Logan - Matterhorn, and Kaylinn - Alice in Wonderland

Maddie was a real trouper, being totally content to just hang out no matter what we put her through (waiting to eat, lack of sleep, lots of noise, really long time in the car seat).  The kids were great and had tons of fun.  They were really well behaved.

Three days later we had pretty much gone on every ride twice and met every Disney character.

My absolutely favorite thing was the warm weather.  It was 75-80 degrees the whole time with hardly a cloud in the sky.  I tried my best to soak it all in.  While I may be burnt out on Disneyland after this week, I could have spent another month in the beautiful weather.

They had birds of paradise everywhere in full bloom!!

Now...if only my house was clean, and I didn't have a list of things to catch up on...

Eating this January

Eating has been getting a lot of attention around here.  Maddie has been eating solid foods.  She loves cereal.  I have never had a child eat cereal like she does.  She will eat any fruit and vegetable, as long as it is mixed in with cereal.  I just started feeding her lunch and dinner, so 2 meals of solids a day.  She has a pretty quirky way of eating.  She sticks her 2 fingers in her mouth after each bite and sucks on the for a few seconds.  Then she pulls them out to let me know she is ready for another bite.  She ends up having a pretty gunky face and hand by the time she is done eating.  It gets even worse if she rubs it on the high chair or on her face.

I have been doing the January diet and exercise thing. Well, kind of.  I spent some of the fall starting the healthy lifestyle, took a bit of a break for the holidays and this week I am back on track.  I always feel so good when I eat right and work out, so why don't I do it more often?  Oh yeah, because of the stupid physical draw of being lazy and eating tasty junk until I am over full.  Well, at any rate I had an awesome week and hopefully I can keep it going.  My biggest goal was a salad for lunch everyday.  I have cut down my carbohydrates to one at breakfast, one at dinner, and a couple of pieces of fruit each day.

Kaylinn frustrates me with her eating habits.  She would eat Ramen three meals a day if I would let her, and when I push her to eat something else, she usually chooses bread or pasta.  I can usually get dairy down her, but fruits, veggies and proteins are nearly impossible.  I actually have eating fruit and vegetables on her chore list.  I find feeding that girl very emotionally frustrating.  Tell me that someday she will have better eating habits.

In other Maddie news: she has started doing the army crawl (you know: knees and forearms).  She is getting more mobile by the second it seems, which means I better start being better about cleaning the floors.  She finds every little thing that hasn't been vacuumed up, and straight into the mouth it goes.  She is actually my first baby that eats everything she sees.  Kaylinn and Logan never really did that.  She has also started sitting on her own. She has a few balance wobbles, so I have to stay close by when she is sitting, but she sure loves it. 

Kaylinn spent the week sick.  It ended up being an ear infection, but the first part of the week was a doozy (fever, chills, gunky cough, throwing up, ear ache).  Now that we have the awesome pink medicine going on (Amoxicillin) things are getting much better.  I just about went stir crazy, though.  I am not a stay at home person.  I like to be out and doing things.

We went to see the Carl Bloch Exhibit last night on a real, honest to goodness date. Between an hour in the car where we actually got to talk to each other, an awesome art exhibit, and dinner, it was so much fun I might do it again.  They had i-pads to rent, and that was so worth it.  It made a whole multimedia experience that was really interesting.  It took us about 2 hours to go through the exhibit which was rather small, but I think it would have been way faster without the i-pads.  After we drove through The Colony (where Mike and I met) and went out to eat at the Brick Oven (can we say carb overload for my body that is so not used to it at this point.)  This was my favorite paining at the exhibit (by the way this picture doesn't do it justice...you've gotta go see it!)

Carl Bloch:  Christ In Gethsemane - 1879

Before I go I have to leave you with my favorite new recipe this week:  Microwave Risotto
Seriously tastes just like you spent all that time stirring in liquid, but you really didn't.  It was a very fancy, but easy addition to a weeknight dinner. 

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

It must be new year resolution time, because here I am actually blogging and so far I have been eating right.  If I start exercising tomorrow, it will be a trio of attempted good habits.  Well, here's to hoping all goes well.

I really do love the beginning of January.  I mean, I really don't like the January blahs, and I don't like the inversion and yucky weather.  Here comes another New Year's Resolution (hereafter referred to as NYR's as this is getting ridiculous).  I should spend at least 3 or 4 days up in the mountains this winter.  Get some beautiful sunshine and mountain air.  Where was I when I started this paragraph?  Oh yeah, the beginning of January.  I feel partied out.  The house is one big Christmas explosion.  I am so ready for a normal schedule and a clean house.  I like the relative calm of January once it gets here.  Of course pretty soon the shut in, non-social schedule gets old and I am so ready for the warm outside gardening of spring.  That, of course, is the beauty of the year,  Once I get tired of one thing, the next thing comes along.  The traditions always bind it together without things getting old.

Our week in review:
All about the family and the parties.  We spent so much time with family and it was wonderful.  It was Allen family heavy.  This is okay though, because in 2 weeks we will be going to Disney Land with the Humphrey clan.  MaryIrene and Jeff were here, so we were trying to get together with them as much as possible.  We saw Tron with them (liked it).  We had a dinner at Fuji with Mike's siblings and parents. For some of them it was the first time going to a Japanese grill so it was so fun to watch their reactions.  We played Band Hero/Guitar Hero with Jeff and MaryIrene.  We had a New Year's Eve party at Steve and Jen's (I made it to midnight).  We had a New Year's Day Party with the extended Allen family (with a giant bounce house and slide...the kids were in heaven).  In between it all, I did my first sewing project with my new sewing machine that I got for Christmas.  I embellished a shirt and I think it turned out really cute: so proud of myself.  We played with Logan's new Lego game, and with his new Lego sets.  Kaylinn got lots of cats for Christmas mostly.  She has been happily playing make believe with them. 

Madeline update:
She is so close to crawling.  Just in the last couple of days she started sitting almost completely by herself.  She just has a bobble occasionally that send her over.  But it won't be long until she can do it completely by herself.  She has started pushing herself up to her side so that she can check things out from a higher vantage point.  She can scoot herself quite a bit now to get at what she wants.  My baby is almost a crawler.  It also means she is finding less pleasure in just sitting and cuddling with me.  I find each of these milestones to be bittersweet.  I am so happy for the strides she is making.  I love that she is growing right, but then I think how sad I am to reach these milestones for the last time.

I guess I better add take more pictures of the family to my list of NYR's as I have no pictures to post right now.  I have been a very bad archivist this Holiday season.  Yea for resolutions and the chance to start fresh in a new year!

My Christmas Letter

I got about half way through my Christmas card when I decided it was too much of the same old boring stuff. So I switched gears. Before I did, though, I thought I would finish my standard letter and post it here in case you are interested in all the gory details of our past year. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas all! Of course the most exciting news of the year is the new addition to our family. Madeline Elizabeth Allen was born on May 25, 2010. She was 6 days late (we only have babies late in this family), but came about 8 hours before a scheduled induction. She came after all day labor (although not intense enough to bring her here until the evening). It has been a very pleasant adjustment. We just love having her in our family! She is a very happy baby. She loves to reward anyone who will pay attention to her with a smile or a big belly laugh. She loves to sleep and eat, which keeps mom happy. She should begin crawling any day now.

We have been a busy family this year. Logan was baptized in August and started cub scouts. In October he got his purple belt in karate. Also this year he has played soccer, flag football and basketball (all three sports with the same team of friends). Kaylinn had a ballet recital in the spring and played soccer for the first time this fall. We now have Kaylinn and Logan playing the piano. Between their practicing and Jessica’s piano students, it is always very musical at the Allen’s house. We spent the rest of our days swimming at great-grandma’s pool after our weekly lunches in the summertime, celebrating the holidays with family traditions, and visiting fun vacations around town: places like the hot air balloon festival, the canyon, Thanksgiving Point Gardens, a couple of musicals, and more.

With the birth of our new baby, vacations were sidetracked a bit this summer. We went camping a few times, including a memorable trip to Yellowstone over Labor Day weekend where we saw our first snow fall! We went to bear lake for a long weekend with the Allen family just in time to skip the 100 degree weather in Salt Lake City and enjoy the cool mountain air. We also spent a week in Park City this fall, hanging out with the Humphrey side of the family: playing games, swimming, crafting, letterboxing, shopping and riding the alpine slide.

We have been very blessed this year, and look forward to 2011 and the new adventures it brings!

Love, Mike, Jessica, Logan, Kaylinn, and Maddie Allen

Welcome Madeline

Beautiful Madeline Elizabeth

Okay, I know I totally fell off the face of the earth. There were lots of things that I left out of my life while I have been pregnant. I just have very little energy so I readjusted my priorities, focused on things that I felt were most important and left everything else out. Besides I have never been really good at and consistent journaling.

I wanted to write down Madeline's birth story. She was 5 days late. As this is my third time being pregnant, as well as my third time going over my due date, I tried to be optimistic about the long and late pregnancy. I wasn't always successful, partly due to the pregnancy hormones. I would find myself being content with it one morning and upset later that afternoon. But I think I did a pretty good job. I didn't do much more than sleep at the end though. Being over thirty and having a job and other kids certainly took a toll on me this time around. My family was very helpful and understanding about everything.

So I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for weeks by the time she was born. They just kept getting more frequent and more painful. I kept thinking it couldn't go on much longer without me popping. At 5 days overdue, I woke up at 4 in the morning with pretty rough contractions. I usually have them mostly in the late afternoon and evening, so I was really surprised by the timing. It made me wonder if this was really it. I spent a couple of hours waiting for them to speed up to closer together than 15 minutes before I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up they were gone, but they didn't stay gone for long. I spent the majority of the day enduring painful contractions every 15 minutes apart, but they just weren't getting any closer together. I knew that I should wait until they were about 5 minutes apart before pulling my husband home from work and rushing to the hospital. So, without anything better to do, I just went about my day. I was supposed to be induced the next morning, so mostly I was just tying up a few loose ends and trying to pass the time. I went to my sister in laws house where they were tying a quilt, I played with Kaylinn. It was my last scheduled day for piano lessons and I toyed with the idea of canceling them all day long, but as the contractions wouldn't speed up, I just kept them. It was tough having a couple of good contractions through each lesson. I would try and turn the kids attention to the piano and as quietly as possible wince through the pain until it passed. I hadn't really eaten since lunch. I had no appetite. I had intended, to make dinner that night, but was feeling pretty worn out from the day. So Mike took the kids out to Carl's Jr. for dinner and I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity to take a bath. My core muscles had been taking a beating all day and I thought it might give me some relief. Turns out that was all that my body needed to really progress. By the time I got out of the bath the contractions had jumped from every 15 minutes to every 5. I had already sent Mike to young men's at that point so I called him to come back. My mom came and got the kids and we were at the hospital by about 8:00. The first thing I did was request an epidural. That came about an hour after being there and was so marvelous. Labor went pretty fast at that point, she was born at 9:49pm on May 25, 2010. She weighed a whopping 9 pounds and 3 ounces (my biggest one by a whole pound) and was 21 inches long. I have gotten the most comments about her chubby cheeks. She really does just look like Logan and Kaylinn did as newborns. You can tell they are siblings. I do think she has dark hair, unlike the other kids that had red hair from the beginning. And that's the story. So now I've had it all three ways...Logan was induced, my water broke with Kaylinn, and I went into labor with Madeline (just fyi it's pronounced with a short i).

I love being not pregnant. I have my energy back and my appetite back. The heartburn and indigestion are gone. My back doesn't ache so much. There are no more weird cravings and aversions. From almost the minute they are born I feel so much better and just like myself again. I love the kids, but sometimes the process to get them here is a real pain.