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

Fifteen years

And the thrill has never gone away.

At least for one of us.

Kidding, kidding. Jacob is thrilled. He just hides it like a normal human being.

Love you Jacob Ethan. Thank you for being mine.

Adoration

But really, who can blame them? Not me for sure. After all, I'm the president of the club.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

15 years, 6 children, 4 states, 12 homes and far too many blessings to count...

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Speaking of meaningful ornaments...

I couldn't resist purchasing this one a few days ago.

I thought last fall was bad. You know, when Jacob had 18 business trips in 22 weeks. 

Well, the day before Grace turned two weeks old, Jacob left on a business trip. And has

traveled every single week (except the week of Thanksgiving) for the last 13 weeks.

He has one more trip next week and than has a break for a little bit. I thought this
ornament was pretty appropriate for this past year. Wouldn't you agree?

Another first

Our Christmas tree is decorated with meaningful ornaments we have collected over the years.

They represent many places lived, many happy memories and many firsts. This year, I purchased a

new ornament. Another first. Sometimes I can't believe how blessed I am to have this wonderful home.

This baby girl

Sometimes Often I can't stand her cuteness.

A small glimpse of the smile she is constantly using to charm all of us.

She always looks like she knows a whole lot more than she should.

And my new favorite picture of our Grace.

My sister told me I would regret it...

...if I didn't let her take this picture. 

She was right. 

No, it is not a gorgeous picture of yours truly (my baby though, absolutely). It is just that the love

coming from this picture makes me so grateful to be a mom. Love our Gracie girl so much.

Thanks so much Mari! I'm so glad you didn't listen to me.

Third time lucky

Everyone should move three times in one year. Actually no one should move three times

in one year. But that is exactly what we are doing. And it will so completely be worth it.

But in the meantime, help me Rhonda. I'm kind of done. But here we go nonetheless.

Do you like moving central? Yes, we could really use a garage with the winter weather

happening right now. But my sanity needs the use of the garage even more than my

freezing self does. Because the home we are renting does not have any extra space

and organizing a move doesn't work without a bit of empty space. At least to this

lady with a touch of OCD. I can do this for one week right? Just one more week.

Déjà vu anyone?

 Sigh.

Ours

It is official. We own our first home. It is ridiculous how blessed I am.

Reading, how I've missed you

Guess how many books I read from January to August of this year? You don't care?
Well then, I'll tell you. Forty. Not my record, but definitely not a wimpy number.

Guess how many books I read from September until this moment?
You still don't care? Well then, I'll tell you. Two. Just 2.

(For the record, I have been reading my favorite book, the Book of Mormon, regularly
this whole time and will finish it for the second time this year by the end of December,
but since I haven't technically finished it yet, it does not count. So two it is.)

Anyone want to guess what happened in September. Grace girl happened. And apparently
newborns and reading don't go together. At least to this to this particular mother.

I miss reading. A lot. I have several books taunting me from their shelf. I also have a
library card to get as soon as we move into our new home and I finally break down and
change my driver's license to this fine state I've lived in for a day or two. But until then,
I'll hug my Gracie and know that she is beyond worth it. No contest. And yet, I imagine
in a few weeks, I will get both. I guess I'm greedy because I am all for both in this case.
I'm going to sit in our new house and read a little more than I have and just be happy.

And grateful.

I cannot wait.

November phone pics

Jacob's parents gave this to Nate for his birthday. And it was easiest to order it and
have it shipped to our house. So I decided to set it up before Jacob's mom arrived
to surprise Nate on his birthday. And when I actually got it set up, I texted Jacob
this photo so he could be impressed. Seriously people, I am not so much smart
when it comes to putting anything together. Be impressed. Be very impressed.

This is Ben boy waiting for his first indoor soccer practice to start.

He was so excited he didn't know what to do with himself. I sure love this boy.

I was taking a picture of Ben's cool indoor shoes and Matt joined it.

Which made the picture all the better. Cute Matt and both of the boys'

indoor shoes...I like. These boys (and Cam) love indoor a whole lot.

Are you impressed by my mothering? I thought you would be.

Three boys obsessed with a FIFA soccer game. Good times.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm pretty infatuated with the sky. I'm always

pointing it out to the kids and could stare at it for way too long. I loved how

low the clouds were this day and how the mountains peaked out above them.

It has been six weeks since Annie had her ears pierced. She was so excited

to change out her earrings. And insisted that the first ones she put in were

the pearl earrings that my mom gave to her. So sweet. Of both of them.

Our little cookie monster. Cookies included. Love this boy so much.

The other night at the grocery store I saw that someone had constructed

reindeer out of soda boxes. And it made me laugh. So I took a picture. I need

to get out more. Or quit shopping at 11:30pm, so I'm not so easily entertained.

 My only photo of Thanksgiving. But seriously, what represents giving thanks more than
this handsome pilgrim with his fancy mustache? Nothing I say. Nothing for sure.
Because I'm telling you, I give thanks for him--and his siblings and father--every single day.