Ward Party

I stole this picture off of a friend's blog (thanks Megan) you can see Charley sitting on the piano bench. Ben came about an hour into the party because that is when he got home from Williston but they had yummy food  and then they were doing a talent show and Charley (who was in a CRAZY hyper mood) got away from us and was running around as an airplane while some people were playing the piano he made 2 loops I think before we caught him. At the end of it Patriarch Myers read a poem and gave all of the kids hats and little flutes, whistles, and bells and had them play music Charley was SUPER into it and I think he played the loudest of everyone. It was such a fun thing then they sent home treat bags which was not quite as fun because Charley got his the next day and ate the ENTIRE thing in one sitting. You can imagine his energy after that.

Christmas!!!!!

Just a little note. This was my first Christmas away from home and I was fine with that but as it got a little closer I was just a little sad that we wouldn't get to see all of our family and William kept talking about going to Grandma's for Christmas so I was wondering how it was going to turn out. We planned on going all out for just the 5 of us but then on Sunday some friends of ours (yes we actually made friends) invited our family over on Christmas Eve with a few other families and we had such a good time. There lots of little kids just the right age for our kids and they played and played and we all brought good food and ate and ate. The kids acted out the Nativity Scene (which was perfect because I think that was one part I was going to miss) and Charley was Joseph and he did great except for a brief break-dancing insert and he kept telling people he was Joseph Smith. We will have to work on that, William was a shepherd and Emmerlyn was the audience and she clapped loud. I am so glad that it ended like that. Christmas Eve did not start well at our house people (especially me) were super short-tempered and grouchy and we needed to refocus. We went back over yesterday afternoon to eat leftovers and let the kids play again. It turned out to be a really great Christmas after all. 

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

We will start with William's program. Ben was out of town and so I wanted to video tape it but of course our video camera no longer works and that is not something you can buy in Glasgow so, I recorded it on the little camera and so the quality is VERY poor but Ben could watch it and hear it so that was what we wanted. I am hoping that the school recorded it and I can get a copy. I do have though so if anybody wants it I can upload it here. I did pretty good I think to record it while holding Emmerlyn and containing Charley and I was able to snap a few still shots too. Go me.

 Pre-program shots. Charley HAD to dress up because William was dressed up so he looked pretty snappy. After the program we went to the story-time Christmas party and Charley and Emmerlyn had lots of fun.

 I think William looked pretty spiffy. I need to get him a new white shirt but oh well, white and black are pretty much the same.

 The following shots are the program, the lighting was crappy so this is what I got. It was held at the Evangelical Church so that explains the cross in the background (Glasgow is a little behind the times but we are not THAT behind). Please also remember that I was trying to contain 2 kids. William did great and did most of the actions and sang. Charley did pretty good and was singing most of the songs and he was dancing in our row.

 I just have to document these most delicious bars that I made for our ward party. They had a shortbread crust then a thin layer of brownie then caramel, then chocolate on top. I will be looking for an opportunity to make these again.

 Charley was packing his backpack for his 'trip' to the library. 

 Just a cute little girl showing off her mullet. It actually isn't that bad it just looks like it in this picture. Note the sore on her nose from her brother hitting her in the face with a car.

 Charley was dressed like a power ranger. You could all see that without me writing it right. He was funny last week he was running around like crazy and then he was in his room and had piled all of the jammies and pillows and blankets in a pile on the floor and told me that he was busy getting his birdies to sleep. About 3 minutes later he was out cold on the floor under a towel and when he woke up he told me that his birdies were done sleeping and they had a good nap. :)

 William brought this home from school and he has no idea where it came from it was full and had a nice hat and gloves and memory cards, socks, candy, gum, chapstick and some other stuff in it. His teacher gave him a book so I'm not sure if this is from her too or from some one else, oh well.

 This is the bobble-head version of Charley that he made in nursery (note the awesome bandaid and claw hand). I love it what a cute idea.

William's letter to Santa. He did get a pirate ship and Charley did get snow-pants and Emmerlyn got a doll so luckily Santa pulled through.

 Stockings. Yeah for me each person in our family had one!

 Presents after Santa came.

 Getting ready. Yes Emmerlyn is crying. William woke up at 4 and so we sent him back to bed and when he went in his room we could hear him whispering "Charley, wake-up, wake-up, wake-up, wake-up, wake-up!" So we had him come lay in our bed and he wiggled in there until about 5:30 when Charley woke up and he watched the clock and asked what time it was about every 3 minutes. We let the boys play in their room until about 10 minutes before 6 when we thought they were about ready to burst through the walls and then we let them go wake up Emmerlyn hence her tears. (note the super red lips are from our homemade red velvet Oreos that we made for Santa he felt pretty special.

 Charley totally bypassed the stockings going strait for the presents. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't just dig right in.

 Opening jammies. Our landlord and his girlfriend gave the kids each 2 pairs of pjs and they were excited to get them. 

 You should click on this to make it bigger so you can see William's face. It cracks me up.

 Puzzles!

 Cute baby girl wearing boy PJs. Good thing we have an awesome neighbor to fix that for us.

 Charley's big present was this train table which we will be screwing the track down tonight because we are tired of fixing it and Emmerlyn following right behind taking it apart and causing massive distress. 

 The first present they wanted to play with was their nerf guns and Emmerlyn loved collecting all the bullets and then the boys had to wrestle her for them. William is SUPER excited for his Pokemon card he is really into that right now. I love how entertained they have been for these last 2 days. Now we just have to clean the house.

Life is Picking Up.

Isn't it funny how it does that at the end of the year with Christmas and everything? We have been busy this last week and we are busy again this week so we will just do a quick review of the film.

 Our poor little tree gets a little barer everyday (it is even worse now) to the cute little squishy pictured below. She can't reach anymore but now she is trying to climb the fence to get them. I think I am going to have to make a new batch tomorrow so our isn't completely bare by the time we get to Christmas.

 When I go to my exercise class and Charley does what he is supposed to and stays in the gym, instead of running like a wild maniac through the church, he gets to cut paper as a reward and now he stays in there every time so he gets to shred something on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Well he does really good and cuts the paper into tiny little pieces but this last time he got a little crazy.

 Yep, those are chunks cut out of his shirt. I seriously only left him long enough to go put something in Emmerlyn's room and he had shredded his shirt. Now if you ask him if he gets to cut he will say "yes ANND I only cut paper!"

 William was coloring a picture for Santa he wrote on there for him too. I love that he has been singing Christmas songs all the time now and is humming most of the day. They sang in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and I could hear him and he was so reverent. Which is great for him. He is really growing up into a good little boy. Little Emmerlyn wanted to color too and she didn't eat any crayons so that is a HUGE accomplishment!

The other morning Emmerlyn got up and 4:30 in the morning (no idea why) and was playing around and found a hat in the corner behind the TV. We have had a 1X3 board leaned against the wall to be made into my curtains someday and I think the hat was under it. Well she plopped it on her head and wandered around for awhile then took it off and came to me. I made the terrible discovery at 5:45 AM that she had sap all over her hair! 

 So after some scrubbing, combing, and Vaseline her hair looked like this. At least the sap was out and I threw the hat away. I 'm glad the Vaseline took it out because I had no idea what I was going to try after that. Her hair stayed like this until we bathed her then next day. As you can see it is getting long now :)

 Putting up Christmas window 'stickies' note little mohawk girl. The had lots of fun doing that and they like to point them out when we pull in the drive-way. 

 Sweet little girl sneaking in some bonding time with her dad. He is studying. Every time he pulled out the cord so that he could hear his music she would plug it back in and every time I looked over she was bouncing on his lap enjoying his music. It's hard to catch one on one time with all of the studying Ben does but someday he will be done.

 Busybody. Yep she's definitely a toddler that is still attached to the roll at the other end in the bathroom and she was laughing SO hard as I rolled it back up, she knows what she is up to that's for sure. She likes to go in the bathroom every chance she gets and sit on the potty.

 I just wanted to show you how Charley colors. He is VERY serious about it and tries to stay in the lines (unlike his brother who is always in a hurry). He gets irritated if you bump him and he messes up and he is also VERY specific on his color choices and only the one he wants will do. 

I am amazed everyday at how different each of these sweeties are. I would be so lost without them and they have all been really clingy this weekend with lots of hugs and snuggles and I am SO glad I needed that. 

William Says

We were eating breakfast this morning and just talking about the day and school and what was going on and then William started saying that some kids were naughty and they went out into the road while they were waiting for the bus. We said yes that is very dangerous and we don't go into the road while we are waiting. Then he said "yeah, my friend Aiden (imaginary, yes he is still around though not as often) was waiting for the bus and he was just waiting in the road and. . . BAM!!!! The bus ran him over." then he calmly went on eating his breakfast and after a few minutes finished the story buy telling us that "he didn't die cuz the wheels didn't go over him it just hit him and he just got way hurt". I have chuckled about that little graphic story all day.

AND the Good News Is. . . . . .

Ben passed his test!!!!!!!! Only 3 more to go and he will officially be a CPA

 These are just a few pictures from life in the Allen household. P.S. the rag above was thrown by none other then Miss Emmerlyn from across the table. Crazy sister.

As you can see, we are still livin' !

Christmasing

 Sampling the ornaments. Emmerlyn ate 2 more today crazy girl!

 Please turn your head sideways to get the proper idea :)