Halloween

Here is my handsome little knight and his friend the pirate. They had a blast playing with thier swords. Brian's got broken before we even got to the ward Halloween party though. hehe. I made Dusty a matching knight tunic but apparently we didn't get a picture of daddy knight and his little knight in training.

Then I made Samantha and I matching "Maiden" outfits. I had so much fun and eveyone loved them. Evelyn, our nanny made Samantha's headband to match her costume. We had a blast. This picture really doesn't do justice to our little princess but she was just beautiful.

Picture Tag

I got tagged again to post certain pictures of my house.
I tag:
Deb(She already did it)
Rhonda
Bethany
Mary
Amy
(I've never seen your houses!)
and April (she has some way cute decor'-or however you spell that)

So here's the list of pictures (I did a few more because we're just finishing up a remodal.)
Kitchen Sink
Closet
Bathroom
Laundry Room
Favorite Room
Self-Portrait
Favorite Shoes
(I think that's all)
Here is goes...


My Closet- This is one part of the remodel that is not finished. Those shirts are "line" drying.













This is our Theater Stadium seating in our basement. The gold couch in the back actually rocks. (it's really nice for when I'm trying to put Samantha to sleep.











This is Brian's playroom under the stairs.













He loves to draw on the chalkboard-He also likes to draw on the walls so we have to be careful.













This is my craft/hobby room that is a complete disaster but at elast it's clear enough so I can use the treadmill.










This is our TV. Our projector uses the entire wall between the two cubbies. The cubby on the left hold videos and the one on the right is the dvd player, amp, VCR etc.
This would probably be my favorite room.









This is our computer "closet" off the front room. We want to put really nice doors here someday but that would cost money. It's really not organized yet but you get the idea.











Laundry room... with storage for picture waiting to be hung up.


















My favorite shoes.













Self-portrait... Just to explain, I took this in the middle of the night when Samantha decided she was WIDE awake and wanted to crawl around and play instead of go back to sleep. (I normaly don't look quite that bad.

My fridge.
Not to bad eh?

Our guest bath.
Notice the daisies. ;)

This is Brian's room with his built-in bed. We want to put a slide from the bed to the floor in that back corner. You can't see it, but there are stairs going up to the bed on this front side.

This is our dining room. I painted it last Thanksgiving with my mom and sister. I did the "foe" or texture painting. It turned out really nice. I'm really pleased with it.

The kitchen. The young women in the ward called asking if they could come do a service project for me after Samantha was born so I had them come paint. They painted Brian's playroom, and these daisies in my kitchen. Aren't they wonderful!! In the middle part above the sink, I'm going to put one of those vinal lettering sayings. I haven't decided yet what to write. Any ideas?

My kitchen sink, complete with dirty dishes. I decided if I waited until it was clean, I wouldn't get the pictures taken. It's been weeks already.










Well, there's a sneak peak into my house. we have lots of room for anyone who would like to visit (hint hint) ;)

I didn't post any pictures of Samanth's room because it's not quite done but you can be ready to be dazzled!!!

Quirks

Rules:
List the rules on your blog
Tag 6 people
List 6 quirks about yourself
link? I'm not sure how to do this one the person you tagged you.

Quirks:
1. I always do things in the same order-like the dishes-first the silverware and cups. Then bowls then plates, then everything else.
2. It doesn't bug me to have a dirty house when someone comes over but I usually clean it up while they're here. Especially if they have kids. Silly, I know.
3. I don't like to get ready for the day if I have any "work" to do. I'll just put grubby clothes on until after I mop the floor or weed.
4. I have to put the clothes from the washer right into the dryer. If they sit longer than an hour or two I have to wash them again.
5. I never really measure exactly when I'm cooking either.
6. I hate having snot in my nose. It's a gross quirk, I know. But I'm always blowing my nose.

I tag:
Deb
Rhonda (you really already did it so we're both off the hook)
Amy
Darci
April
Bethany

Happy Quirking!

Driving

I'm really glad we can drive and own cars and have nice roads and maps and everything. Dusty's been working out of town lately. It's been pretty tough having him away. This week he is in Afton, Wy. It's only a two hour drive from home so I decided to go suprise him for a visit. I have two days off work because of "fall break". It was a really gorgeous drive--reminded me of the canyon between Logan and Brigham City. I'm finally beginning to accept that it's fall and be excited about all the leaves changing colors.

Anyhow, so I show up in Afton (by myself with two kids mind you) and I have to use the bathroom really bad so I get samantha's carrier out and then unbuckle Brian and head into the Cheveron. but there is no BATHROOM. So the attendent says, "just head next door to subway" Subway is not next door, it's past a tire shop, kings and a couple other shops. Not that I'm against walking or anything but a 16 lb baby in a carseat in one arm and a toddler hanging on the other arm just doesn't make a quarter mile all that pleasant. So we used the bathroom, changed diapers etc. etc. A half hour later we get back to the car and call Dusty to find out where the hotel is. We had a great visit and Daddy was WAY excited to see us all.

I'm really glad we can drive.

Rollover!

Samantha Rolled OVER!! I'm pretty sure it was an accident because she started fussing. hehe. But I was SO excited. I probably scared her to death. She is changing and growing everyday. 3 months old and already over 15 pounds.
School is going well. I'm finally falling into the swing of things. I have some pretty good kids and a few tough kids but that's the nature of the game. I have one paraprofessional that I'm having a hard time with but it's really neat to see things change when you make an effort to notice and appreciate someone who needs a little extra attention.
My "nanny" is amazing. The kids love her and she has so much fun with them. She writes in a mommy journal for me everyday so I can feel a part of the things I miss while I'm at school. For instance, "Dang, your kid can eat! I made a box of pasta roni knowing it would be enough for the two of us. He ate more than me and then I had to make another box!" Or, "Samantha was all smiles and giggles today. I couldn't even feed her because she just kept smiling and laughing." It's sometimes really really hard to leave and go to work but the -run and hug- from Brian and the baby grin from Sam when I get home let me know that they know how much I love them.
Dusty is working in Pinedale this week so we're missing him a bunch.
I just signed up for facebook so I can try to keep in touch with everyone. I'm not very picky but sometimes I just wich everyone would belong to the same blog/facebook/email or whatever so we wouldn't all have to have a million different sign-ins and passwords.

My Favorite Boys

I really wanted to upload some pictures of our recent vacations but we really didn't take any pictures! So I found these recent ones of my favorite boys. Dusty is such an awesome dad. He takes Brian almost everywhere with him and they have a blast. Grandma Allen got this shirt for Brian and all her grandkids in while we were in Las vegas. It's the little things in life that count. Always remember that. These are two of my favorite people. I just love to see their smiles and hear them laugh.

Memories

I guess this is sort of like being tagged. I got this from my sister-in-law's "flog".

Here are the directions-
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together or it can be a memory with Dusty, Brian or Samatha. It doesn't have to be hilarious or mucho importante, anything you remember!
2. Re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. Or if you don't feel like commenting you can email me if you have my email address.

Let the memories flow.

Back-to-school jitters

Does anyone else get that excited nervous feeling before going back to school each year? Yep, it's that keeping me awake tonight, not my two-month-old baby. I've made it through the teacher works days and I've only cried once about leaving my kids at home so I'd say I'm doing really fabulous, or I'm just getting tons of help from above. Probably the latter. It's so wonderful to be able to call on Heavenly Father for help when we have to do things we know are going to be difficult. Even still, I do feel excited to meet my new students and do everything I can to help and teach those students who need it most. So ready or not, here we go. Good luck to everyone else who is going back to school this fall!

Update

So it's 2:00am and I just got Samantha back to sleep and decided it was time to check on my blog. I'll probable be regretting it tomorrow... Life is slowly getting more sane but Monday I go back to work so we'll see how well Samantha decides to sleep. I'm trying to get her on a schedule-which means you have to make her wait to eat until it's time to eat not when she thinks she's hungry. Yesterday it worked awesome and she slept all night but today...

Meanwhile, life goes on at the Allen house. Dusty's trying to decide if he wants to finish his teaching degree at BYU-I or do something other than teaching. I was one of those insane people that always knew what I wanted to do and I went and did it (As far as educaiton goes) so I'm trying REALLY hard to be patient while Dusty decides what he wants to do when he grows up. ;) He is really an awesome daddy and super good for me. I've been really tense lately with getting ready to go back to work and everytime I feel like I'm just going to flip out, I just take one look at him and he brings me back to earth.
I found a "nanny" for Brian and Samantha while I'm at work. Her name is Evelyn. She's a fresh out of high school, college bound, fun loving young adult. She's way cute and when she came over for the first time she reminded me of Cari on "The Incredibles". "I can totally handle anything your kids can dish out Melanie, just go." Needless to say I'm a little bit of a control freak. Hopefully someday I'll be a little calmer.
I really wanted to do a cute post with some pictures with a theme and the perfect captions but I know you're all dying for more so here's a couple...




This is Samantha in her blessing dress. It's the dress I wore when I was blessed (super neat)! We blessed her on August 3rd.

Brian was beggin for a slumber party but I put my foot down. Everyone sleeps in their own bed in this house.

Okay, so Samantha pretty much sleeps anywhere except mom and dad's bed. (This is Sam's Grandpa Fillmore pretending to be asleep too.)

I know this picture is totally random. This is our friend Burgess entertaining our guests at our get-to-gether after Sam's blessing. This kids thought it was the best trick ever.

Brian is such a proud big brother! He always wants to hold "mantha". We're working on the "sam" part.

Blessings in disquise

As I was getting ready for bed last night, Samantha was pretty fussy and I started thinking, "oh, it's going to be a long night." Then I thought, well, if Samantha wakes up, I'll just get to do a blog post. She slept all night! I can't decide if Heavenly Father didn't want me to blog or if He just knew this new mom needed some sleep. Either way, a month-old baby sleeping all through the night is a miracle to me. Dusty's at scout camp all night so hopefully we'll have a few more miracles this week.

Slacker

I was so excited I got this up and running and then I didn't even send it out to anyone. Slacker or what? Anyhow, I sent and e-mail. Pass it along to others if I missed anyone. I'll get some more pictures up soon. Does anyone know how I can find a fun daisy background? (It'd fit better with the name)

I did it again!

I added a picture! Here is our beautiful baby girl- Samantha Jane Allen. She was born Tuesday, June 24, 2008 weighing in at 9 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long. Not quite as big as her big brother. Brian really loves her and already tries to pick her up and love her too much. Mom and Dad Allen have been staying with us the past week and a half to help with the baby and help us finish our remodel so Samantha has a place to sleep. More later. This is fun.

I did it!

I finally did it! I really created a blog. It only took me an hour. Apparently I can't read the little security code they make you type in... I had to do it so many times! Well, let's see if I can get some picures and stuff loaded in.