The Big Easy and the Not So Easy!

Bryan worked hard in February and March and earned a trip to New Orleans! I wasn't too excited about going there, but hey it's a free getaway, right? The weather was warm which was awesome, the humidity and my hair didn't get along very well, and some and the food and my stomach didn't agree with each other either! We saw gators (who like to eat marshmallows!), Bourbon St. (yuck!), the Mississippi River, Ft. Pike, street performers painted silver and gold, beautiful churches and iron work everywhere and above ground cemeteries (creepy!) We really did have fun and might want to go back again. There is a WWII museum that Bryan and Parker would love and an aquarium that I'm sure would be so fun for Parker. I would love to go back and see some of the houses that are still around from The Civil War! And we would for sure go back to the swamp!

Our first night after being traumatized on Bourbon St. we went to see the Mississippi

Big gator in the gift shop/restaurant of the air boat tour place

On the air boat ready to go see some gators!

One of the first alligators we saw that was coming for more marshmallows!

Bryan holding a 1 yr old alligator

Not as gross during the day, but don't think we ever need to go back!

Just having some fun on the river walk

I wasn't feeling well the morning of the sea boat tour of Ft. Pike, so Bryan went by himself

Ft. Pike

We left New Orleans a day early so that Bryan could be home to participate in the Spring Sprint Triathlon at Oquirrh Park Fitness Center again this year. Because of the weather they canceled the cycling leg of the race. So he swam 375 meters, ran a 5k, swam 375 meters again and then ran across the finish line inside the oval. Heather, Parker and I were there to cheer for him and of course get a picture of him finishing the race! Normally he would be wearing more clothing, but he just got out of the pool, put his shoes on and ran for the finish line! We're so proud of him!

Zoo and Egg Hunt

So we managed to actually have a day that was decent enough weather to venture out to the zoo! Bryan's mom and Matson joined us. We saw the tigers awake, which never happens! The peacock spread out his tail feathers for us and the boys were mesmerized by a squirrel jumping from one side of it's enclosure to the other. It was a great afternoon at the zoo!




On Saturday last week we had an Easter egg hunt with Bryan's family at his grandparent's house. Jake, Josh and Grandpa hid the eggs before everyone else got there. The kids had so much fun and Parker was so excited to get four quarters in one of his eggs! He wanted to go find a gumball machine! Then Bryan pointed out if he saved his money he could get something better like a toy. So then Parker decided he would get a bike, a shirt and a toy with his four quarters! After the hunt we went to visit Grandma Smart because it had been her 93rd birthday the day before. We tried to get pictures of her with all the great grandchildren and of course my child was soooo cooperative! Then we headed to Bryan's parent's house and had lunch and got some gardening/yard advice from our BIL Tracy. Then Bryan got the rest of the aspen tree stumps out of the front flower bed. He's been tearing junk out of our yard like crazy and I love it!

I totally took this picture on accident, but thought it looked kind of cool!

Jacob, Joshua, Rebekah, Emma, Hannah, Parker and Matson.
All the Allen cousins except for our California cousin Riley!
We missed him!

Parker thought he could pull this stump out with his bare hands!

9 years

It's been 9 years since my dad passed away. I've been thinking about him a lot lately. Thinking about what was happening in our lives when he died. Bryan and I had just attempted our fourth and what would be our final artificial insemination that Sat. morning, the day before he died. We almost didn't even go to Idaho, but I am so glad that we did. It was conference weekend. My brother Jack was a little over a month away from getting married. My sister was two days away from turning 19. My soon to be sister-in-law had just lost her mom to cancer almost exactly a year before. It was all just horrible!

I've also been thinking about what he has missed, what I miss about him.

Some of the things that he has missed: Seeing both of his sons married in the temple. The births of all 7 of his grandchildren. Seeing his children as parents and his wife as a grandma. Seeing three of his children buy their first homes. Plus all the birthdays, holidays, trips to Bear Lake and other family gatherings.

Some of the things I miss about him: Watching Sunday football games with him. He was a HUGE Denver Broncos fan. Part of his mission was in Denver. He was also a HUGE Jazz fan and I loved going to and watching Jazz games with him. The way he smelled. His hands. They were the hands of a man who worked hard. The scar on his index finger from the time he almost cut it clean off! His scratchy beard he would grow in the winter and then shave off in the spring. Playing games with him. How handy he was. He could fix most anything wrong with a car and could build/fix pretty much anything around the house. Him cooking/barbecuing Sunday dinners. He could grill a mean steak!

Likes family 1979 Mom, Dad, my brother Jack and me. LOVE the hair Dad!

Some of the things I am so grateful he was able to experience: Watching his children grow to adulthood. His sons serve missions. Seeing me graduate from Ricks College (I know, how old am I?) and get married in the temple. We enjoyed a few family vacations growing up, but I am extremely grateful for the last family vacation we took to California right before he got sick. I will never forget the time we were able to spend together as a family. The forever long horseback ride and how he calmed my fears, attending a session in the San Diego temple and playing basketball on the beach are just some of the priceless memories I'll always cherish.

Horseback riding in California

Likes family 2000

I've also been thinking about how I really need to get his scrapbook/life history finished. I started collecting pictures and things that remind me of him years ago. I don't have very many actual pictures. There are a TON of slides that I need to go through. I started a scrapbook years ago so that his children and grandchildren would have something to help us remember him and learn about him. Now I want it to be more than just some pictures in a book. I really want his parents, sister, my mom and siblings to contribute memories etc. The whole thing seems very overwhelming to me. I'm going to try to make it one of my Personal Progress projects. If there are any scrapbookers/family history peeps out there that have ideas on where to start and how to go about completing this project please share!

I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father and my Savior for the opportunity I have to see my dad again. It gives me great comfort knowing that he is anxiously engaged in the work on the other side of the veil. I love and miss him so much! I want his grandchildren to know him. I tell Parker about Grandpa Bruce all the time, but I am hoping to give him something more than just a story here or there. I'm hoping to give him a true history of Grandpa's life so he can really know who he was. If your parents and/or grandparents are still living, please take the time to get as much information as you can from them before they are gone! And those family members who are reading this, please start thinking about things that I should include in this book. I will be calling/visiting you soon! Thanks!

Monthly Update!

Here we are a month later trying to catch up on blogging! I apologize for the long post! I have been very SICK and haven't been able to keep up with things around here! Dishes, laundry, cleaning, blogging, project life and many other things have suffered because of it! In between and during sicknesses, we did manage to do a few things around here! We had our Young Women's New Beginnings the beginning of March. The weeks leading up to it I was busy making invites, programs, a gift for the girls and yummy food! I found some frames that my friend and fellow counselor Sheena spray painted for me. Then I printed out the mutual theme for this year and made some flowers to decorate the frame. I think they turned out really cute! We had a short program that night including a skit, 'Virtue Academy' and spotlights on our two new beehives this year. The young women did a great job! I made cupcakes, little layered cakes, cake pops, chocolate covered oreos and pretzels. Everyone loved the food!

Frame before (I don't know why it's sideways)

After Sheena's amazing spray painting skillzzz! Much better!

All the circles (105 to be exact) I cut out to make the flowers to put on the frames

I saw this idea on a blog. You take address labels, stamp them and wrap them around Hershey's Nuggets. We had to have some gold for virtue, right? They were so cute!

I forgot to take a picture of the table spread before everyone dug in! Then we shared with the young men! There were a few cupcakes left and one cake pop so I snapped this pic before Tim ate it!

Two of our young women with their finished framed themes

Sheena brought this frame for the skit, love her!

Mar 3: So we have a new fish! We took Parker to the pet store and let him pick one. Then we let him name him! The list of names was long and hilarious! Some of the suggestions were: Twist, Star Fish, Nemo, Popcorn, Bubbles, Pimple (because he has a black head get it?) Bluey and the winner is SWIMMY! Parker loves him and talks to him all the time, it's really cute!


Mar 9: Our stake put on another amazing camp kickoff! It was weird being on the audience side of camp kickoff. I've been on the stake side for the last three years! We played minute to win it games for the chance to pick which value we wanted for our theme for camp. It was a blast! Then they announced the camp theme which is 'Your Path to Your Happily Ever After' every value had a princess to go with it and we got Good Works and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. The girls are so excited for camp!

Terri had to swing this orange in the leg of pantyhose to knock over the water bottles

They were trying to grab a penny at the bottom of the pantyhose


Wiggle your face and try to get the oreo into your mouth, then chew and swallow

Our princess Tiana a.k.a. Malorie

Mar 16: I got to go on a field trip with Parker's preschool class to Sweets Candy factory. It was really cool to see how they make and package the candy and of course they give you a few samples along the way! Parker LOVES the taffy!

Parker's buddy Micah rode with us, they talked the entire ride!

They don't allow cameras inside the factory, but I took this one after the tour in the store

Here's the whole group which includes both the morning and afternoon classes

3-17 & 18 My friend Amanda invited us to attend her sealing in the Logan temple. We decided to get a hotel room and make it a little family mini vacation/getaway. We went to dinner at Fire House, went swimming and stayed up way too late! It was a lot of fun and Parker's first time staying in a hotel. He LOVED it! It was so great to see Amanda, Barry and the kids! They are getting so big! Of course I didn't get a pic with them! UGH!

MMMMMMM Diet Coke!

Parker got pizza with mac and cheese on it!

Of course we had to get dessert! It's called a zzookie and it's delicious!

After dinner the boys played in the pool

Treats and a movie before bed

Finally crashed in his own queen size bed

I don't know what he liked more, the pool or riding on the luggage cart

Apparently my iPod was a big hit with the kids in the temple waiting room

The boys outside the temple

What We've Been Up To!

Well, the last month has flown by and we've been pretty busy! We had a fun Valentine's Day full of presents, treats, going out to lunch, homemade chicken cordon bleu and of course a four year old with a mustache!

These are the presents Parker and I gave Bryan and a yummy cookie my friend Marci made me!
Parker's treats from some of his friends

Shopping for a dress for Kansas City so funny!

I made Bryan his favorite Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner

That weekend we were headed to Kansas City for our annual Awards Night. We were packing the night before we left when Heather discovered Parker's fish Finnegan had died. It was a very sad scene as Bryan told Parker what had happened and took him into the kitchen because Parker wanted to see Finn. He sunk to the floor and started crying. He got over it pretty quickly and declared he wanted a new green fish named Twist. Then he decided he wanted a baby octopus instead. After saying goodbye to Finnegan, Parker did a couple puzzles almost totally by himself! Then he came to 'help' me pack.

Daddy and Parker flushing Finnegan (horrible I know)

My big boy working on puzzles while I was trying to pack for our trip

My packing helper made sure we had Valentine treats to take with us!

Kansas City was so much fun as always! I got to hold Roy and Megan's sweet baby girl on the plane ride there! It was the first time in my life I wished the flight was longer! We enjoyed lots of yummy food, great company and the guys and gals won Agency of The Year for the second year in a row! WOOT! WOOT! We had a great time dancing the night away and had some extra excitement when Abe and Jerika's room had a plumbing issue that resulted in flooding the fourth floor and everything below it in the hotel! It was quite an event filled trip!

Who wouldn't want to just hold her forever!?

There was an awesome magician at dinner the first night! Look at Er's reaction, I'm telling you, AWESOME!

Enjoying KC BBQ at Jack Stacks

On the big awards night! I'm sporting the dress I scored on a screamin' deal! ($11.99) Thanks to Megan for doing my hair!

Agency of the Year! Way to go!

Lou up on stage with the band

Poor Jerika and Abe!

Bryan got a picture of the flood! Look at the reflection on the floor!

All Parker wanted us to bring him was a Microraptor, we could only find a Velociraptor! I think he was ok with it!

On President's Day we went bowling with Bryan's family. Parker was so excited! He loves bowling and spending time with his cousins was just icing on the cake! We bowled three games and the first one Parker kicked everyone's trash! (Uncle Tracy ended up beating him by one pin!) Then after we surprised Mom by meeting at Red Robin to celebrate her birthday!

Parker's dinosaur helped him bowl his awesome game!

Yep my kid bowled a 143!

Matt thought toweling off his ball might help his game

Parker wanted to sit by Jake at Red Robin, he loves his cousins!