Nate boy

 He is so sweet I can hardly stand it.

And this face is so very him. 

Love this boy so much.

Growing up

And way too fast, just like all of her siblings.

And just over five years later

I don't think anyone but the writer is this blog would remember a post that was put up a 

little over five years ago. This one. And specifically the last photo on that particular post.

I think there are a couple of things we have established from the photo I just mentioned

and the picture above. My sister and I have several children that are very close in age.

And my kids are super chubby, even if they are a little bit older than their cousins.

These two make me laugh. They are three months and one day apart. 

And their names? Grace and Greysen. Bound to be good buddies for sure.

Kind of cool, kind of creepy

This morning, we looked out the back window and this is what we saw:

And that picture does not capture the sheer number of birds in one corner of our backyard. 

After watching the number increase and increase, Jacob opened up the back door to see how they would react. 

No surprise here.

What was a surprise is that within 20 seconds or less, they were back. With additional friends. 

Like I said, it was pretty cool. And yet, kind of creepy. At least to me.

Stellar parenting yes?

And don't ask me to come to your house and help you become a better parent.

I'm too busy being a fabulous parent to my own.

Apparently Real Madrid has gained another fan

Six

Happy, Happy Birthday our Benjamin! 

 Your goodness, happiness and sweetness make me want to be a better person.

We sure love you a whole lot!

My favorite books of 2013

Oh man, reading seems a very long time ago. And yet, I know it will happen again. Soon I will be driving home from the library, with several books sitting next to me on the passenger seat, feeling like it is Christmas because I am so excited. And all of these months of limited reading will be forgotten. Or at least I hope. Because good grief, not having time to read is hard on me.

And yet, I did read plenty of books last year. And several of them I very much liked. And since many of you seem to enjoying hearing about them (or maybe you are just nice--either way I'll take it), here I am again. (And for anyone who might be interested, my favorite books of 2012 and 2011 can be found here and here.)

Same disclosure as in the past: If you don't like them, don't come yelling at me. Thanks in advance.

The Book of Mormon
It is still my favorite. It is still the only book I read daily. I still feel this way about it. I am still reading it twice each year.

Edenbrooke
Yeah, yeah, I'm getting in line with everyone and their dog who loves this book. (Wouldn't it be awesome if dogs could read?) But I really, really loved it. It just made me happy. And if for some crazy reason you haven't read it. Do it. Now.

The False Prince
Fabulous book. Jacob, Campbell and I all read it. And loved it. Jacob and Cam have read the sequel, The Runaway King, and said it was even better. The sequel currently resides in my mile-high pile of books I can't wait to read. The False Prince is clever, creative and made me laugh. Mucho.

Mended
This book is by a famous blogger and has some very thought-provoking and sweet concepts about the Bible and how we can better serve the Lord. I really enjoyed reading it.

The False Princess
No, this book has nothing to do with the book two paragraphs up. It is purely coincidence that I read books with such similar titles. This book is intriguing and original and both Annie and I loved it. (Boy howdy, I sure love that our kids are starting to read the same books as us.)

Navigating Early
No words for how much I loved this book. I honestly could not pin down an exact reason, but this book did something to me. So incredibly good.

Longing for Home
I can't say this was at the top of my favorite's list, but I just loved reading something so good and clean and fun. The cover is cheesy (sorry if you either created it or thought it was fabuloso), but the inside is good. I'm excited to read the sequel.

Let It Go
This book changed me. Yes, I was in awe of a person who could forgive like Chris Williams forgave, but there was a line in this book that literally changed me as a person. It isn't something I particularly want to share here (I'm not even sure why, this just isn't the place), but if it matters to you, I would be glad to share in person or through email. I'm truly grateful I read this book.

There you go. Eight of my favorite books from last year. I didn't pick eight on purpose, but sweet chicken, I like it. Clean, orderly, happy.

Read away friends.

Our 2013

At the end of 2012, I remember thinking that it had been a pretty intense year. And it had. 

I just knew that 2013 was going to be less intense and less hard. Um, hilarious.

And that is okay. Because while it was one of the craziest years in our marriage,

the blessings that we received during it were some of the greatest in our marriage.

For instance...

We started the year with multiple snowstorms that only Massachusetts can provide.

Our sweet Ben turned five. And our Matt participated in a city-wide spelling bee.

January also brought a calmer travel schedule for Jacob. After eighteen business

trips in twenty-two weeks, I think we were all ready to see Jacob more often.

In February, Annie played one of the wicked stepsisters in her school's production of

Cinderella. Also, due to the ridiculous generosity of some friends, we were able to go

to Utah for winter break. What we were not yet making public, was that it was for the

beginnings of a house hunting trip. Yes, after five years in Boston, and eleven total

years in different parts of the country, we were moving back to Utah. It was surreal.

March brought a ninth birthday for Matt and a wonderful Easter Sunday

together. And more plans and decisions surrounding our move. Oh, and the

news that a new baby would be joining our family sometime in the fall.

In April we attended an insane number of soccer practices and games,

for all of the older Allen kids. Ben hosted his first friend birthday party
and our Nathan continued to grow up without any permission from us.

We also experienced being incredibly close to one of Boston's worst tragedies.

A family wedding, a packing of our entire house, living out of suitcases for more weeks

than originally planned and a first visit to the lot where we planned to build our home 

 all happened in May. Our kids also said goodbye to all of their wonderful MA friends.

June brought a visit to see my darling Grandma, Jacob's release as bishop

in our Massachusetts ward, enjoying the beautiful views in Utah and

Jacob running the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with his new coworkers.

In July, the theme would definitely be water. And more water.

And just a little more water. And that about covers it.

August arrived with another move (if you are counting, that is the second this year),

two summer camps that involved almost all of our cute cousins and the first day

 of school for four of the kids--including Benjamin and his first day of Kindergarten.

September was definitely our most eventful month with the arrival of our
little Grace. She was a month early, but perfectly healthy. We sure love her.

Our Annie started taking horseback riding lessons, Campbell turned fourteen

and was ordained a teacher, we bought a new van to fit everyone and

 my amazing mom came to visit us from all the way across the ocean.

October brought our Annie's twelfth birthday, plenty of soccer games for the boys,

a crazy number of photos of our baby girl (and her siblings) and Halloween.

 In the month of November, baby Grace was blessed by her dad,
our Nate turned two and we bought our first home, after feeling
 strongly that building wasn't right for our family at this time.

 We finished the year by moving into our new home (three moves in one year is only for crazy
people) in December and spending as much family time together as we possibly could.

And mostly, trying our best to focus on the amazing and exhausting year we had
and thanking our God that He would be so very good to us. That He would require
enough of us to help us to grow and to try to change into the people we promised Him
we would become. And being overwhelmed at the blessings in the process.

Happy 2013 sweet friends! May 2014 be your best year yet.

Our only wish is that it will be as boring for our family as humanly possible.
And that we can somehow show the Lord what a privilege it is to know what we
know, to try to be who we need to be and to serve Him every possible moment we can.

December phone pics

Matt's school teacher is also an author. And had a book signing at a book store

near our home at the beginning of the month. Matt and I braved the storm we

were getting to go and buy his book and have it signed. This guy is such an

amazing teacher and a great writer. We are so thankful Matt is in his class.

Annie is still having horseback riding lessons every week. She absolutely loves it 

and is doing incredibly well! Starting next month, her lessons will be double the time.

I can't wait to see how much more she improves. We love that she loves riding so much.

One more bit of proof that Linn is obsessed with the sky.

And another bit of proof that Linn is obsessed with the sky.

Okay, last bit of proof that Linn is obsessed with the sky. At least for this month.

A fellow shopper at Michael's on Christmas Eve. Well played sir. Well played.

This little girl is almost ready to visit Temple Square for the first time.

And her cuteness on this picture about does me in. Oh my word, I love this girl.

Tip off at the Utah Jazz game tonight. Yeah, we might have been sitting ridiculously

close to the court thanks to Jacob's boss. We took the four oldest and had such 

a fun night (and the game was pretty exciting in the end also). So thankful for

generous people, including Jacob's mom and dad who tended the two youngest

so we could go and have a wonderful time together. Fun times for sure.

Oh what fun!

Add this post to the things-that-happened-in-our-family-that-I-don't-want-to-forget category.

Without a single bit of exaggeration or drama, I have to say that last night was crazier than anything I have seen in more than 14 years of motherhood. And while I will not be going into details, because that is just cruel to anyone reading this, I will just say that I spent a good part of the night, into the early morning, running between children, who were sleeping on the floor in or near our room, and who happened to be extremely sick to their stomach. I washed out more sickness bowls (never mention bedding and carpets from several original moments of sickness) than I care to think about. Which was especially fun as I had been sick myself, same fun bug, all day yesterday. So being up straight until around 2am and then getting up multiple times after that felt like a little party. Jacob finally succumbed to the sickness that our home harbors very early in the am and boy howdy, it sure was a bad one.

Because of the craziness of our move and our life for the past three weeks or so, I have not had more than 5 1/2 hours of sleep during any night. That is until three nights ago, when I had two good nights of sleep in a row. Who knew, after about 3 hours of sleep last night, that 5 1/2 hours would sound wonderful?

I think the saddest part of the whole thing, besides my poor, sick family, was that I had some cuckoo reaction to the whole thing and had to continually keep myself from laughing like a crazy person. (Sometimes I was successful, other times, not so much.) I believe we call this "mentally unstable." It was just so insane and unreal, all I could do was bust up. I need help.

Oh life, you keep me on my toes. And so tired I can hardly see out of my eyes.

I have actually smiled several times about it this morning (see "mentally unstable") because after the year we have had, I believe last night is more than an appropriate finale. I've never in my life had this thought about a year I have experienced, but this year is definitely the exception. I'm so grateful for the many, many blessings we have received this year. And yet, all I can think is...

Good riddance 2013. I'm done with you. Bring on 2014. And may it be the biggest snorefest ever.

Temple Square

Exhaustion

How we all feel the day after Christmas.

Actually, this should probably be our family theme for 2013.

Christmas morning

Four, fourteen or forty-nine, tickets to a soccer game will always result in this much excitment.

The sewing machine I had carefully convinced her she wasn't receiving.

Choosing to be a mean parent and not giving your kids pretty much anything = faces like this on Christmas.

I firmly believe in giving 4th children gifts that make others jealous. They deserve it.

 He could not believe he just kept getting to unwrap presents. And that they were for him.

Yes, she received the same number of gifts (albeit simpler) as the rest of the kids. She preferred her hands.

Christmas Eve