Happy Birthday Jacob!!

Happy Birthday Love! May this year be everything you
deserve and more. I'm so grateful to be yours. Love you so much.

xoxoxo

This boy

There are so many reasons this photo that makes me
simultaneously laugh and shake my head.

A few of those reasons would include: 1) You are apparently never to young to set up a lounge chair. 2) We are likely the only people in the universe that still own a tube TV. 3) I truly don't believe that Nate has actually ever watched TV for more than five minutes in his life. 4) So the fact that he turned it on himself and I found him sitting like this is hilarious. 5) As is the fact that this photo was taken this morning. Of course Nate would choose the only day our family does not watch television to suddenly decided he was interested in TV watching. And 6) This would pretty much sum up life with Nathan Grant Allen.

PS. For the record, it didn't last. Apparently, TV is only interesting to Nate baby on the Sabbath.

Worth every penny

At the beginning of this year, our family started an allowance program for the first time. I've always struggled with the right way for us to do allowance, as I personally don't believe in paying kids to do things they should just normally do to contribute to the family. But after a great idea from one of my favorite blogs to read, we have a system that is really working in our family. (We altered it slightly for our family, but the basic idea is so great.)  And it has been working for weeks and weeks, which definitely makes my heart happy. (I'll share details sometime soon, if anyone is interested.)

Our kids are very consistently working on good things. And learning how to manage money and their time and that thing called life along the way. I'm so very pleased.

The best part to me is that there is not a lot of nagging on my part. They really seemed motivated on their own. And when they are not for a bit of time, no worries, that is how life goes. In addition, they are starting to truly enjoy some of the skills they are learning and will often want to spend extra time on one of their areas--as long as a sibling is not standing in the wings, waiting for their turn.

One of the things they must do each weekday is work on learning Spanish. We decided to invest in Rosetta Stone (and gratefully got a good deal on it) and boy am I a fan. So are the kids apparently. In fact, when I come in the room and see a note like the one below, written in Ben's handwriting, it sure does something to my heart. And makes me realize that we should have started this a long time ago. But now is definitely better than never.

How I love his five-year-old handwriting. And how he writes his As just like
they do on the computer program. And don't even get me started on that tilde.

The month that is March

I don't know if you heard, but tomorrow is March.

March happens to be one of my favorite months for several reasons:

1. Two of my favorite people in the world celebrate their birthdays this month.

2. El Día de los Muertos falls in the month of March.

3. Spring attempts to show up here and there and makes me feel like I can actually breathe again.

4. Our annual "Good Luck Dinner" makes the kids so very happy!

5. But mostly--mostly folks--we have the madness that is March.

And you better believe I am counting down the seconds. 

 
1,702,282 for the record.

Over the hill

There are several things that make me feel old. Trying to keep up with a 16-month old. Buying our oldest son men's shoes, in a size 10. Trying to stay awake past 10:30pm and failing miserably. And several other things that my old lady brain can't remember right at this moment.

But I think near the top of my list is receiving a wedding invitation in the mail from darling friends. And then opening it to realize that they are announcing the marriage of their child. The one I used to babysit. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy for the joyful couple, I'm just not sure how wise it is of their parents to let them get married at the ripe old age of twelve.

Now to figure out if a remote control car or Legos make a better wedding gift.

Love

"There is power in our love for God and for His children, and when that love
is tangibly manifest in millions of acts of Christian kindness, it will sweeten
and nourish the world with the life-sustaining nectar of faith, hope, and charity."

~Elder M. Russell Ballard

It's incredibly tacky...

...but it's totally saving my sanity.

Third time's the charm

Yesterday I mentioned I was so thankful for the kindness of our neighbors. And I can tell you after the amount of snow we had the past couple of days, I would have been grateful no matter what. But I felt especially touched by their kindness to us, because we've been without Jacob for several days. And going through a blizzard, when you are the only parent home with five kids, is a bit intense.

I truly felt like we could handle it and we would honestly be fine no matter what, but I don't think I realized how much it was emotionally taxing me to wonder if we would lose our power and I would have to figure out how to keep five children warm and entertained in our cold, dark house. So when I woke up this morning and realized we had made it through two nights with our power, I felt so deeply grateful. And so utterly exhausted.

But finally, after three flight attempts, Jacob is officially on his way home. And we are pretty thrilled that is the case. There have been very few weeks in the last six months that he has been home the whole week. (In fact, the other day we counted it up and in the last 22 weeks he has had 18 business trips. Each trip has been anywhere from one night to eight days so the time gone has been pretty significant, at least to me. Supposedly this one should be the last for quite a while, but I've heard that one or twice already, so we will see. Insert smiley face to soften that last sentence.) So I knew the odds were not great that he would be around for the storm, but was still surprised when his work had those on this particular case fly off, knowing this huge blizzard was coming and their families would be alone.

Mostly though, I'm grateful that the Lord is so very kind to us in so many small and large ways. I've already mentioned the power and our safety 46 times, but over and over again, we were so blessed. Last night, I was headed up to bed and was closing things down. I sat down to turn off the computer and had the strongest feeling to check Jacob's flight that was supposed to bring him home this afternoon. It was a strange prompting because I wasn't even sure of the info as Jacob hadn't passed it on yet. But I started to look into it and found three flights leaving Dallas today, headed for Boston. And the middle one, the one I was pretty sure Jacob was booked on, had cancelled.

I quickly called Jacob and he took a look and confirmed it was his flight. I think both of us were pretty disappointed. He told me he needed to call the airline and he would call me back. Several minutes later he called and reported his flight had cancelled, but that they had booked him on an earlier flight. The airline representative said it wasn't likely that the flight would be happening, but because the only other option, a flight late in the day, was booked, Jacob took it. We both knew he would probably be flying home Monday, but we had to give it a try.

And it paid off. Right at this moment, Jacob is on his way home. Both last night as I was falling asleep and early this morning, as I was listening to a baby who should not be awake talk to himself from 5:45am on, I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude. If we had not seen the flight was cancelled last night (and we would not have without checking, because with all of the changes and craziness of the weather here, notifications were all over the place--hence the 12:35am call I received on our home phone about Jacob being on the new flight), Jacob would not be headed home today. The only other flight was full and he would be headed home Monday afternoon at best. And yes, five days is tolerable and we would have made it until the got there, but that doesn't mean I am not grateful to my core that we didn't have to. And that after several days and a bit more stress then we are used to in our normal lives (just for the record, the bishop's phone rings a lot during a blizzard, which it truly was my pleasure to be of help), things seem to be calming down. So that prompting last night made today a much different day than it might have been. And took quite a bit of responsibility and burden off my shoulders. The Lord is so good to me.

I'm so grateful for all of my blessings. They are many. And today I'm especially thankful for warm homes, kind neighbors, the promptings of the Holy Ghost and airplanes. What a good Sabbath, indeed.

Nemo ~ Part II

We kept our power all night and I truly woke up about nine or ten times last night,
realized it was still on and lay praying in gratitude. I'm so thankful. Especially because
we've been told that we accumulated between 30-40 inches of snow. That is a lot of snow,
people. A whole lot. I wish this picture portrayed it as accurately as looking out our window.
But hey, did I mention we still have our power? And our house is warm? What a blessing.

6:59am

10:10am

5:40pm

But here is my favorite photo of both days. This was taken this afternoon after our wonderful
neighbors with a snow blower left. Their kindness meant a whole lot (for several reasons, one
of which I'll share a little later). But having someone be so good to us sure meant a lot today.
And finally, it appears this big storm is over. And I'm positive that will be enough
snow for the rest of the winter. As they say in Massachusetts...we're all set, thanks.

Nemo ~ Part I

It is hard to take a snow storm seriously when they give it the name Nemo, but from
everything we have heard, we had better take it seriously, clown fish name or not.

So since we are definitely stuck inside for a few days (they cancelled school more than
eighteen hours before the first flakes even started to fly), why not document the snow

storm craziness with pictures every few hours? With great hopes that we do not lose

power. And not because you are all dying to see new updates through photos,
but because our house would be extremely cold and dark and keeping five
children warm and entertained with a cold, dark house doesn't sound fun to me.
But let's not think about that. Let's focus on snow accumulation shall we?

11:37am

4:35pm

5:30pm

7:58pm

Okay, that is all I could get until it was too dark and stormy (the flash only picked
up a mass of snowflakes after a certain point), but boy howdy, I wish I could get a
picture of it, just because you would not believe what has happened in the last two
hours. I honestly cannot believe that the worst of it has not hit. Tomorrow morning
ought to be interesting, to say the least. We are praying hard to keep our power, but
either way, we are grateful to be inside and safe at this point. Thanks for your prayers.

Fifteen months

This little guy turns fifteen months old tomorrow. And this picture makes my baby look really old
to me for some reason. Which does something to my mother's heart. Anyway, he is a  cute one,
if I haven't mentioned it. And hilarious too. And a little too smart for his mom. I know all mother's
say that, but seriously, spend a few minutes with him and see why I am totally in trouble with this
guy. He already talks like crazy and understands a little too well. Some of the words he says are
dada, mama, Dadel (Campbell), Annie, Matt, Ben, cracker, diaper, blanket, bye bye, ball, hooray,
goal, nose, no no, all done, more, up, chair, water, milk, bath, wet, cold, brrr, now, ruff ruff (when
asked what the dog says), head, snow, yellow, hola, hi, hello, go go, wow, night night, Elmo, doggy,
puppy, happy...and several more I can't think of right now. He literally never stops talking. I don't
know where he learned that. (And if you have a guess, keep it to yourself will you?) Anyway, we are
a fan of  this little guy and find him hilarious, darling, crazy and busy as can be. Love you Nate boy.


(Oh and PS. I totally forgot my favorite thing Nate does. When you ask him
how old he is, he shoots up his pudgy index finger and yells, "Wuh-un!"
I know I am his mom, but I almost can't stand the cuteness.)

Twelve times three

Being on Facebook on your birthday is something else. Boy howdy, you sure get a lot of messages and kind birthday wishes. And so when I decided to permanently delete my Facebook account several weeks back, I knew it would make my birthday quite a bit more quiet and I was truly fine with that.

Except for the fact that I was wrong.

I am sitting here tonight, getting ready to head up to bed, feeling completely overwhelmed with the kindness of all of you. I have received email after email, card after card, text after text and call after call--all wishing me a very happy birthday. I have laughed and cried (and boy, did a couple of those messages make me cry) and just felt gratitude beyond belief for the life I have and the blessings I have been given. I am truly overwhelmed.

And then there is my family. My sweet husband took the day off and made it the most wonderful birthday. It was calm and peaceful and even though he said he was worried at times it was too calm and peaceful, it was what I needed on this particular birthday. I just needed time to be and to feel and to think. (Oh, and take a very long nap.) And I needed just to have him around and to remember the privilege it is to be his wife. And to feel grateful for every single birthday I have celebrated with him.

And my children. I actually have tears in my eyes right now because I get to be their mother. I get to open every one of their handmade gifts and their cards and know deep down in my heart, I wouldn't trade one of their simple gifts for all of the money in the world. They sang to me over and over again, they wished me happy birthday so many times I lost count and mostly, they just smiled and laughed and acted like my kids.

Thirty-six is going to be a good year. A very good year. Thank you for making day one so incredibly fabulous! xoxo

He may be the death of me, but he sure is cute

Nate doesn't feel the need to sleep. He is like his oldest brother in that respect and because the three children between them were really great sleepers, I had forgotten what it feels like to have a little one who thinks sleep is for everyone else.

Now don't get me wrong, when I say he doesn't sleep, I actually should say he doesn't nap. At least like most almost-fifteen-month olds I know. He sleeps well at night, going down around seven and waking sometime after six in the morning. But he went from three to two to one nap extremely early. He has been down to one nap for several months now and that nap is getting shorter and shorter as the days pass. If he sleeps for just over an hour, that is a pretty normal day. If he sleeps for two hours, I think I have died and gone to heaven.

But the biggest issue of the whole thing is that most of the time he is fine with that little sleep--which makes it so pushing him to sleep more just makes both of us unhappy. He is just one of those kids that doesn't require a lot of rest. I guess Jacob is that way, but it is much more adorable on a grown man who can take care of himself when he wakes up early or goes to bed late.

The other night, our darling friend Lorri tended the three youngest boys while Jacob and I went to the opening night of Annie's play and our Cam had the opportunity to go to a Celtic's game. (Thanks so much Lorri!) And as I do during the few times that someone else is tending the kids, I tell them to do what works for them. I let them know what the normal routine we usually go through is, but if it makes life hard on the tender, go ahead and let those kids of ours stay up a bit late. If the little one is happy and not pestering the kind person being willing to stay with our kids, no big deal for a night.

And so, Lorri let Nate stay up as long as he was happy. Which was more than two hours past his regular bedtime (see sentence above about him being just fine without sleep). And Nate was not only happy, he was in heaven. I could just imagine his little brain thinking, "Finally, someone realizes that putting me in that dumb crib at seven is cramping my style. I have things to do, people to play with, a house to destroy."

And when we arrived home around 9:30 that night, this is what greeted us:

Apparently I've been going about parenting our fifth child all wrong.
It appears Nate would like to request the party-til-you-drop approach.


(And for the record, the little munchkin woke up just before 6:30 the next morning.
And slept an astounding hour and fifteen minutes for his nap. Did I mention he was cute?)

Kindness

This picture does something to my heart. These sweet girls are a few of the girls from our church
who are in Annie's class. And they, with their incredible leaders, came all of the way to our little
town to support Annie in her play. The kindness meant so very much to Annie and to all of us.

In addition, we had several other wonderful friends from church (one of them is that cute little
one in the front who came with her parents) and Jacob's brother and his wife. There is nothing
that makes you love a person more than having them be so incredibly kind to your child.
We are so deeply thankful.

And so, no matter how bad the lighting on this photo, I had to include it
on the blog so that we won't ever forget the goodness of our friends.

Thank you so much darling friends! You are truly the best!

Our wicked stepsister

Could this darling really be a wicked stepsister? Only in her school's production of Cinderella.
Here she is just before her first performance. The makeup had to be bold and not
very attractive. Unfortunately, Annie is too cute to make anything look unattractive.

I think she might be coming out of her shell a bit these days.

She had the facial expressions down.

The evil laugh down.

Every one of her lines down.

The drama down.

And the singing down.

I actually turned to Jacob halfway through the performance on Friday and said,
"I know this is just acting, but watching my daughter be the bully is making me
extremely uncomfortable." She played it well. And her unreal kindness
and sweetness in real life made it all the more amazing to watch.

You are one in a million Annie girl! We are so grateful you are ours!

Florida vacation ~ Day 10

A beautiful Christmas morning.

The end.

Florida vacation ~ Day 9

Christmas Eve on the beach.

 

 

With some swimming mixed in.

Why do I love jumping pictures so much? This one especially makes me laugh.

Getting ready to open Christmas Eve pajamas.

And ready for bed. Now why are they posting in front of the refrigerator you ask? Because what you
can't see in this picture-that-was-not-well-taken is the Christmas tree they colored on a large poster
board. Cute, slightly pathetic, yet definitely memorable. So was the fact that the only gifts they
opened on Christmas morning were those that they had each bought for each other. One gift for
each of them, from one of their siblings that has carefully selected and paid for it themselves.
They loved their gifts.Without question, it was a happy, simple, sweet Christmas for all of us.

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 8

Our second Sunday in Florida is one that I will never forget. And I don't think our kids will either.

Jacob's brother thought it would be nice to do some kind of service on Sunday, while we in
St. Petersburg together, and so he found a nursing home that he thought might want to listen
to us sing Christmas carols. And he was right. They did enjoy it. But because he purposely
chose a place that did not have great reviews online (I will always be grateful he did), it was
honestly pretty tough. The residents had some severe physical and mental handicaps and it
was hard on the kids to see that. It was even tough on me at times. But we prepared
them the best we could and off we went.

I am positive I will never, ever forget standing near their little Christmas tree in the cafeteria,
singing songs about our Savior. I looked each of those wonderful people in the eye and
for several moments, I saw them as people that were literally no different than I am.
No different than our children are. They were good people that had some hard things
happen to them. But just like us, they were children of God. And the birth of His Son

was for them, as much as it was for me or for any of us.

I was so very thankful for that reminder. Especially at Christmas.

Our sweet kids as we were leaving for the nursing home.

And the beach sunset when we returned home.
We witnessed a lot of beauty that day.

(Okay, after all of the mushiness, I have to share. After we sang to the residents,
we walked around to each person to say hello and wish them a Merry Christmas.
We definitely had some sweet, as well as some interesting reactions, but my favorite was
one man who I approached and wished a Merry Christmas. He just stared at me, so I smiled
and said, "Thank you for letting us come and sing to you." He replied, "I didn't ask you to
come. I don't even know why you are here." Fair enough, sir. Oh man, he made my day.)

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 7

Well, for most of the family the vacation was over and it was time to fly home.
Which is why we wanted to make sure and get some photos of our kids with
their grandparents and their awesome Uncle Danny.

(I love this photo for so many reasons, but I think my favorite has to be Nate's reaction.
If I don't acknowledge them they don't exist, if I don't acknowledge them they don't exist...)

And shortly after these photo was taken, most everyone took themselves to the airport to fly home.
Except for our little family. And Jacob's brother's family. Because we couldn't imagine

a better place to spend Christmas than Florida. On the beach.

We checked out of the hotel we had spent the last week in,
drove a couple of hours and checked into this hotel.

Where the view from our balcony was what you see above.
Merry Christmas indeed.

To be continued.....