Christmas Letter

Here's our Christmas Card for those I didn't have addresses for:

I didn't send a letter out to anyone so here's a brief update on what the Allen's have been up to this past year.

First of course, the biggest news of the year was our newest addition to the family as everyone is well aware. Brecklynn Shea made her entrance July 21st- a whole week early. She weighed 7lb. 9oz and had light brown hair. Nothing like her siblings. In fact we still can't figure out who she looks like. She has just recently found her tongue and constantly blows bubbles and babbles all day. She has become a very content little baby and loves her siblings. She is a very smiley baby and loves attention.

Ridge celebrated his 2nd birthday this year. What a ham he is. He has the funniest faces, stances, and is talking up a storm. He joins my preschool this year, which has both been good and bad :) He is a bit young and it shows, but he also loves the interaction with the other kids. He still has a strong love of tractors and if he could, he would watch them with his daddy on his computer all day. His sisters absolutely adore their brother and he adores his sisters. They all have the cutest relationships.

Cambree is the big 3 1/2. I cannot believe how old she is. She has become my little mom. She shocks me daily with her mature comments to her little brother to make him feel better or explain something to him. She is a huge help with Brecklynn. She also helps me now fold clothes, clean and cooks. She's at the age where all of that is fun-so I'll take any help I can get :) Unfortunately she has pretty much outgrown naps, but that has also brought out some special moments for her and me. She's enjoying her last little bit of nursery as she graduates at the first of the year, which is so weird to think. Dancing, singing, and drawing are all things she still loves. If she can get her hands on a piece of paper and a pen, she'll be happy. She loves to take food orders for people and 'write' them down. I just love watching her grow up but sad about the whole thing as well.

Pump

Curtis made a huge change this year by moving from the family business at Allen Pump Company, to the new Vining Funeral Home. It was a HUGE decision, but this has been something Curtis has always enjoyed doing. Its a huge change from his outside dirty work, to in the office in suits all day, but he's great with families and is such a hard worker. We're very proud of him. Besides his work life, he is so involved with his kids. I have to say I think Brecklynn is a true Daddy's girl. She LOVES him. She will constantly stare at him in hopes he'll look her way and talk to her. She giggles and talks to him for so long. Of course, he has such a special relationship with Cambree and Ridge too. He is so patient with them and you can see how much he loves them and how much they love their daddy.

I have been busy with 3 kids. Its not been nearly as hard as I expected. My hardest thing is getting them all on the same schedule. We haven't mastered it but hopefully soon. In preschool this year, I have 13 kids (Cambree and Ridge included). Its been a lot of work, but I LOVE what I do and love that I get to have that interaction with my kids.

Overrall we've been very blessed this year and excited to see what the next year brings for us. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Oh This Time of The Year...

2 weeks till Christmas. Can you believe it? Only 2 weeks. Where has the time gone? I feel so terrible as a mom this time of year. I have been so stressed over preschool, presents, money, making traditions etc. that I haven't spent enough time explaining and enjoying this time with my kids. Don't get me wrong, having my kids has definitely helped out, but I sometimes wish I could just sit and enjoy the season- make goodies with my kids to give to families, make gingerbread houses, make cards etc. But I feel like my time is so crunched and flying by. I find myself worrying more about the presents I'm getting the kids, and figuring out how much we can afford and be realistic that I stop thinking about what they really need which is just the memories.

I am trying however to find those moments to spend with my kids. They are growing up, and I want to make sure they do enjoy these times, and have fond memories of their childhood. The other day, I put down my preschool stuff, didn't clean, didn't really do anything, but focus on my kids for the day and it was such a different, special day. I don't do that enough. Here I teach preschool, teach all the other kids how to write their letters, write their names etc. and don't do it with my own kids. Tuesday I took several hours with Cambree and sat and laughed and enjoyed showing her how her name was spelled and worked on how to write it and I was amazed at her enthusiasm for it and joy of doing it. She even learned how to read and write mom and dad too. All in just a couple hours. Made me feel like a real heal of a parent for not doing this more often. Later Ridge and Cambree helped me make some chocolate chip cookies. Again, they loved doing every second of it. Memories!!

Several nights we've gone out as a family to look at Christmas lights around the valley. This is the first year that both Cambree and Ridge understand the whole Christmas idea. They talk about Santa all the time and their presents and LOVE all the lights. Every night Cambree has to turn on our lights and then double check to make sure they look ok. I love that!! I just hope I can slow down and take this all in.

Last Saturday I took the kids to see Santa which was the first time this year for them and I was blown away by how excited they both were. Ridge jumped right up on his lap and just smiled away. Cambree started listing off what she wanted "a castle and new princess phone"- mind you this changes daily so I doubt Santa could even keep up with her list :) and Ridge wanted candy- surprise, surprise.

These are some pictures that I had to take for preschool and they go with something else, but because they are gifts for parents I won't divulge that information at this time to make sure none of my parents figure it out. :) But thought they turned out super cute.

Then I have been decorated for Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving, but again have been too busy to blog about it, but its not too late :) So here is our little house all decorated. The kids really helped this year which was fun. We don't have a full sized tree this year because of the lack of space so we jsut have a little table top tree but the kids don't care. They still love it. Cambree turns on the lights every morning. We didn't put up half of our stuff this year from lack of space but it still looks festive.

Then lastly this is our stockings for preschool. Really fun project that they each did and they loved the glitter names.

Hopefully sometime soon, I'll post our Christmas card and a little Christmas letter update for those that are interested :) Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving

This year we again went to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. It went way too fast!! It was a lot of fun being with my family for a little bit. Its hard getting everyone together like that. Thursday was so relaxing and fun. We woke up and all of us girls hunted the black friday ads to figure out what we were going to get, ate our traditional Biscuit Walnut and watched the parade. This is so Thanksgiving to me!! Then we went out and Curtis took the kids on my parents quad. Ridge was in heaven. His face below is me telling him to smile.

This is Ridge's cousin Kiley. They are like a week or so apart. They were so cute to watch.

At one point I look over and this is what Ridge is doing on the fence. Cracked me up. I was so glad to get this shot.

Friday morning my mom wrapped Ridge in this blanket and it was just too cute of a picture to pass up

Another ride on the quad before we left.

We had to get back Friday because of Curtis' work but it was still a lot of fun. I hope to get down some more this holiday season.

Thanksgiving Preschool Party Pics

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we had our Preschool Party. It was a lot of fun. I wish it wasn't so windy or cold, but we did what we could with it. There was 9 different activities planned, and I thought for sure it would be more than enough, but to my surprise, we still ended up with about 10 minutes extra. Huh....one of these days I'll get it right I hope ;)

I made each kid a turkey hat- didn't last long in the wind.

Our finger feast

One of the activities was pin the feather on the turkey.

Thanksgiving Kid Food Craft

Tomorrow is my preschool Thanksgiving Party. I wanted to make something for them to take home as a special treat. I found these little turkeys that I thought were super cute, and more beneficial, they are super easy to make.

Then, as part of our 'craft' time tomorrow, we are making these turkeys. They are more on the healthy side but still cute I think. Just wanted to share for those that might need an idea of something to make for Thanksgiving.

Sunday Newspaper Fun....

Every Sunday I get 3 newspapers. I usually just get my coupons out and throw the rest away. Well I tasked Curtis with removing the coupons this past week, as I was busy with Brecklynn. Next thing I know, what is usually a straight forward thing, turned into this...

Full on newspaper fight

Brecklynn enjoyed watching from the chair.

This is what 3 newspapers produce. Quite the pile!! I don't think my kids will ever look at a newspaper the same again.

These are the times you just have to let go of your instincts and enjoy the moment. It was already late and kids should have been getting ready for bed, and it was making quite the mess, but it was a neat thing to watch Curtis so involved and playful with the kids and the kids loved playing with their daddy. Its these times that I treasure and couldn't help but take pictures to capture the moment in time. Afterall, the kids did go down for bed eventually and the house was cleaned again, so my usual concerns were pointless anyways. Just had to share...

Brecklynn's 4 months old!!

I cannot believe that our little girl is already 4 months old. Time is truly flying by. This past month has been very adventurous. She had her first Halloween and was so cute as a pumpkin. Then about the second week of November, Brecklynn got pretty sick. We took her in and said that it could either be RSV or the Flu. I literally got maybe 8 hours of sleep that entire week because she couldn't breathe or I was worried she couldn't breathe etc. So it was a tough week. We are just now getting her back on schedule.

She is getting to have such a cute and sweet little personality. She LOVES to talk. She found her voice a couple weeks ago and loves to tell you what's on her mind. She laughs for no reason too. We are still trying to catch those precious moments on video. Hopefully we'll get lucky one of these times. She has to have something in her mouth at all times. She's turning into Cambree in that she loves to suck on blankets. Hopefully we can stop this from developing into the obsession like Cambree has. She will typically have her fist in her mouth too which is pretty funny. She loves attention. Once anyone acknowledges her, she starts giggling and talking.

Here is some fun pics. The first is one Erin Householder did for me. We were supposed to get family pics but it was scheduled during the time Brecklynn was pretty sick and didn't want to chance it. So we ended up doing a mini session of the kids. This is one of Brecklynn. Love it!!

These are ones I just messed around with. I love the expressions in these. Obviously I don't have any good editing software but I did what I could. There is always more I wish I could do.