Spring Break

We decided to make use of our 3-day spring break by taking a quick trip to warm St. George. Our trip in the fall to Moab with our friends the Holbrooks ended up being successful enough that we decided to try another trip together. It is wonderful that our kids get along so well with their kids. The girls had fun while on this little hike.

The boys did quite well also.

Paul taught all the girls how to skip rocks. Amazingly, no one got hit by a rock.

Justin had fun throwing rocks as well.

Minnesota in February

Justin and I took a quick trip to Minnesota last month so that Justin could provide some excitement for my mom who had been laid up in bed with back problems (she is now doing much better). Not only did he provide comic relief, but he also provided lots of snuggles.

Mom sharing her love of the piano.

Dad enjoyed the attention too.

Ahhhhh.......Minnesota in February!

Update on family

It's time to provide a little update on the Allen family. I guess I should start with Christmas since that's where I last left off (and I don't have many other pictures from the last few months). One of Kaitlyn's favorite presents was her new craft/art kit.
For awhile now Kelsey has been collecting various kinds of scrap material from old clothes, tights, etc. to make things for her dolls. She was thrilled to get this little sewing kit with several new sewing supplies.

It is true that Ashley is fast approaching the teenage world and was in desperate need for an MP3 player.

It's amazing what kind of smiles emerge after getting into a new pair of warm, cozy pajamas!

We decided to encourage our little boy's penchant for playing with balls. I was excited about the basketball hoop for Justin, but I'm still trying to figure out why Santa would have brought him a University of Utah football.

Now if Justin could just grow a little bit.

Getting ready for Christmas

We still can't believe the holiday season is here, but we were all excited to get out the Christmas tree and decorations. Everyone participated in the decorating. Even Justin got in on the action(he likes to be involved these days).

Trip to Moab

We have been wanting to start visiting some of the beautiful national parks of Utah. For UEA this year we decided to start with Arches as our first destination. We invited our good friends the Holbrooks to go with us. They also have three girls and a baby boy, so our kids are perfect matches as friends. You would think that six girls together might get a little wild...and you are right. Just kidding, they got along very well and were excited by all of the sights.

We even made the famous hike to delicate arch. All of the kids were troopers and made the trek with no complaining.

Even Justin was excited and ready for the trek.

He started getting a little drowsy...

And finally gave up on the hike back.

The whole clan.

First Birthday

It's hard to believe, but our little Justin is already a year old. We were able to celebrate his big day with some of our family. I wasn't sure how he would do with opening presents and eating cake, but he had no problems at all. In fact, he enjoyed everything much more than I would have thought a one year old can enjoy things.

He laughed after every single present he opened. He even smiled about the cards. (What little child gets excited about cards?) He was especially excited about his little football that Kelsey gave him.

Then came the cake......... After a little prodding, Justin dug right in and didn't stop until the cake was either consumed or destroyed. He enjoyed playing in it as much as eating it.

He seems to be looking for more cake.

The deck

While my parents were in town in August we spontaneously decided to expand our deck (with some prompting from my dad). My dad, Scot's dad, and Scot quickly went to work and before we even had time to think about it, we had a deck. Scot has been working to build the stairs and railing and to finish the deck. We are thrilled with how it has turned out.



Ashley is a great worker and enjoys helping her dad.

Kelsey got going on her own little project of sanding some wood.