Grandma Allen

My grandmother passed away just before Thanksgiving.  She was 94 and hadn't been herself for a few years because of Alzheimer's.  Of course there have been lots of conflicting emotions.  Mostly, I have just missed her and also felt so grateful to be her granddaughter.  

I love this picture:

My grandma and grandpa around the time of their wedding:

My dad is the baby in this picture:

Visiting my grandma in her house that I loved so much:

Visiting her later at the care facility she stayed in (with Nate):

We ended up flying to UT for the funeral a couple weeks ago.  It had been a long time since we'd flown.  It was before the boys came and the girls didn't even remember it.  They were excited to go on the plane.

Don't let those pictures fool you--Elijah didn't much like the flight.  He didn't understand why he had to sit in my lap and couldn't just crawl around the plane.  We actually had a bunch of struggles with the older kids too that I won't get into here.  We learned that we are not very good flyers!  Thankfully our kids are good in the car so I think we'll stick to that for awhile.

The kids were excited to see snow everywhere.  We stayed a night at Grandpa Tom's house and they loved playing in it for a minute:

 Then we checked into a hotel where my family was staying.

More snow!

 We also got to grab some Cafe Rio with Katie while we were in town:

Our kids managed to dump a full glass of water and break a bottle of hot sauce while we there.  Ah, the frustrations of eating out with kids!  It was so nice seeing Katie and meeting her boyfriend, Cory.

Then came the day of the funeral.  It went well.  I had to lead the music and ended up crying through most of the songs.  It was an emotional day but I loved everything that was said.  It was a very fitting tribute to my grandma.  I loved the time with family I hadn't seen in a long time, too.

My grandma had a lot of enthusiasm for life.  She was very social and loved to be out with friends.  She loved to travel and went all over the world, a lot of it after my grandpa passed away about 25 years ago.  I always thought of her as very independent since I was young when my grandpa died and mostly only knew her single.   She worked for a long time, almost to her 80's I believe.  Then, she went on a mission when she was 80 to the Family History Library in Salt Lake.  She loved playing games, especially cards.  Our family reunions were full of card games--mostly hand and foot.  I loved the sound of the electric card shuffler going!  She had a bit of a lead foot.  She loved the Glenn Miller Band and big band music and I remember driving with her listening to her tapes.  She taught me how to cook my very first turkey when we were at a reunion once when I was a teenager.  I remember her plucking out the few feathers that were still in it like it was no big deal and being completely grossed out by it myself.  She also taught me how to crochet once when she visited for Christmas.  Sadly, I only made one scarf and promptly lost that skill.  She made us a beautiful blanket as a wedding present.  She was a wonderful cook.  I loved her rhubarb pie, strawberry spinach salad, and all the meals she'd cook. 

I'm so thankful for the time I had with her right around the time Joe and I got married.  He was living in Logan and I was in Provo while we were engaged so I was constantly driving up to see him and I'd stay with my grandma.  Then, after we were married and I moved to Logan we saw even more of her.  We even lived at her house for about a month before we moved back down to Provo.  

I remember asking her once, right around that time, if she had any marriage advice for me.  She said, "Well, one thing I know is that Ruel and I were a lot happier when I stopped acting like I was responsible for his eternal salvation."  I have thought about that advice a lot and I can see the wisdom in it.  My grandpa wasn't always active in the church but he did come around later and my Grandma always took her kids to church.  They lived in California, Arizona and Washington, often in small struggling congregations, and she served in every position you can imagine.  That is probably her biggest legacy--her faith and devotion to the gospel.  That and her love for her family.  It always shone through and she always made me feel like I was really something special.  I sure loved her for it!

I'm glad to know that my grandma and grandpa are reunited and I can't wait to see them again someday.  I just hope I can live up to her example.

Natalie Turns 7!

We had another birthday around here.  The holidays sure are a crazy time for us what with Thanksgiving, Christmas, 3 birthdays and an anniversary all in a 2-month span.  It was especially crazy this year with Thanksgiving so late.  Natalie's birthday was the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  That meant I had to actually think through things well enough to go shopping for her before Thanksgiving.  We were still forced to make a trip to the mall on Saturday (madness!) but we survived.

The important thing was that this girl turned another year older:

(Being the awesome big sister that she is)

I think she had a pretty good day.  Despite most of us not feeling so well, we managed to keep the tradition alive of putting up the Christmas decorations and decorating the tree on her birthday.  Then we had a fun addition to the party when Matt came to visit!  He was in SF for a conference and stopped in to stay with us that night.  It sure made Natalie's day.

We had the birthday dinner of beef stroganoff and then hit the presents.  It was a Harry Potter-themed year for sure.  She loved the firebolt broomstick that Uncle Matt and family gave her!

 

 Elijah liked it, too:

 Grandma gave her this pretty necklace:

 Elizabeth & Nate gave her this lego set:

(Our first venture into the world of legos! Our floor will never be the same again.)

 She also loved this music box from Grandma & Grandpa Allen:

 

It plays Edelweiss like one I have that I got in Austria which she was constantly swiping from my room.

Another highlight was receiving all the Harry Potter movies, too:

 Then Matt surprised us all with some Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Jelly Beans:

Those were a hit!  We still have a box of all the gross flavors waiting for some unsuspecting victim to stumble upon them.

 Then it was cake time:

She wanted an ice cream cake this year.  Unfortunately, I ran out of powdered sugar and couldn't make more frosting so we had to get creative with the cake decorations.  Simple but cute, I think.

Natalie sure is growing up.  One of her strongest loves is music.  It is also a talent of hers.  We started the girls in piano lessons again when we moved here and they are doing great.  We went with a less traditional-type of method called "Simply Music" and it seems to be going well so far.  Natalie is seriously on the piano all of the time.  She especially loves to make up songs or figure out how to play songs by ear.  I think she will be very good if she keeps playing so much.  It is nice not to have to nag her to practice.  She loves to sing, too, and I love listening to her.  I've heard her singing Christmas songs around the house a lot lately and I love it.

Natalie loves food.  Especially treats of all kinds.  She has unfortunately inherited her mother's preoccupation with food.  She will ask me some mornings before school what we are having for dinner that night.  I don't know of many kids who care that much about food.  It is very familiar to me, though, as I was just like that as a kid (and still am).  Sometimes this causes problems in the form of treat-stealing (from the cupboards or from her siblings) and lying to cover it up.  She is working on it, though, and making progress.  I am trying to strike a balance between giving my kids the freedom to prepare and choose what they want to eat while maintaining some level of health and order in the kitchen.  I'm not having much luck.  Any tips?  The good thing about all this is that some cookies or a night out to eat can immediately improve her mood and she is very motivated to do anything that involves a treat as a reward.  Again, much like her mother. :)

Natalie is fast!  She loves to run as fast as she can and always wants me to watch how fast she is.  She really is quick.  The other day she was racing with some other kids in the church gym and she held her own really well.  I need to get her back into some kind of sport.  We haven't decided what's next for her yet.

Natalie still loves to read.  Both of the girls are majorly stuck on Harry Potter and it can be difficult to get them to read much else.  Still, you have to love the series for motivating this 6-year-old girl to read a book this thick:

(An old pic from our house--ah, I miss it... :)

Natalie is such a wonderful sister and daughter.  She loves playing with her little brothers and is very patient with them for the most part.  She and Elizabeth are having more struggles lately.  I look back on some of the meanness that went on with my brother when I was about their age and think we may be getting into that stage with the girls.  Thankfully, there are enough kind and loving moments to prevent me from losing all hope that they'll make it through with their friendship and sisterly bond in tact.  I especially love to hear them talking at night in their beds.  It makes me think maybe they'll be OK.

We sure love our Natalie! I am so lucky to get to be her mom.

Beach Day With Friends

The day after Thanksgiving we hit the beach and had a blast meeting up with good friends we hadn't seen in too long--the Keys and the Poulsens!  We missed the Poulsen kids who were sick and stayed back with grandparents but it was still an awesome day.  We sure miss hanging out with these guys.  We've had a lot of fun beach days together.  Remember this?

Circa 2010: We're still trying to arrange that marriage.. :)

And now we have another possible arrangement--Nate and Oakley were playing so well together.  The kids had a blast digging and playing in the waves.  The guys did some surfing. Joe made another good attempt at it and almost got up.  Next time for sure! It was great just sitting on the beach and talking (at least as much as the babies would let us!).

I stole this awesome picture from Whitney:

Elijah was exploring away from the blanket for the first time and loved shoving handfuls of sand into his mouth.

  
 
I just love his big grin.
After the beach, we got some really tasty Mexican food.
Some pictures before it was time to say goodbye:

 Cute Oakley knew just what to do!

Awesome day!

Culture Nights: India & Russia

We've had a couple more culture nights around here.  It's been fun having Grandma Marsha here to join in.  We did India a few months back and I didn't get a single picture.  We went out to Joe's favorite Indian restaurant right by his work.  It's mostly a lunch buffet place and we were the only ones there for dinner but they treated us great, even when our kids spilled their drinks over and over again.  Unfortunately, we found out while we were there that they were moving to a new location.  Now we need to track them down.  The food was fantastic and not too expensive.  After dinner we did our parts and learned a lot.  I can't even remember who did what but it was a fun night!

A couple of weeks ago we did Russia.  This time we stayed close to home and I tried my hand at making some borscht.  It was fun!  I got to buy beets for the first time in my life.  The only picture I managed to get was a quick one as we were getting ready to eat:

Doesn't Elizabeth look thrilled?

No one really loved the borscht but the kids did eat it.  They're pretty good about soups.  Elijah actually really loved the beets and ate those like candy.  I probably liked it the best but I made way too much.  After eating borscht leftovers for days, I was ready to be done with it myself. :)

We learned a lot.  Natalie taught us about Russian clothing, Joe and Nate covered history, Marsha talked about the czars, Elizabeth talked about animals, and I taught a little bit of Russian.  It was fun to learn about the Russian alphabet.  We finished the night off with Anastasia--in all of it's historically-inaccurate-glory.  

Marsha chooses next!

Halloween

We survived the month of October and Halloween is in the books.  I have to be honest, I'm never too sad to see it go.  We had some fun times, though.

We carved our pumpkins for FHE:

Mine and Lizzy's

Joe's, Natalie's & Nate's (done entirely by me)

Elizabeth carved hers all by herself this year!

We went to the trunk-or-treat at the church.  We had some costume problems and were really running late but here we all are in our Harry Potter-themed glory:

Joe and I are supposed to be Lily and James Potter.
We were going for this look:

Not so great, but the best we could do with about 10 minutes and the things from our closets.
Joe was all costumed out after his firm's big Halloween to-do.  They go all out.  He might kill me for including this next one but hey--it serves him right for not reading our blog much. :)

He's the 4th oompa loompa from the right. He even had to write a song and choreograph this whole number for a skit they did.  It was pretty awesome but I don't think he'd appreciate me posting that link. :)

Anyway, back to the trunk-or-treat...
I thought this was funny one, too:

The girls were really getting into character, I guess. :)  They insisted on being death eaters since they wanted to be scary.  I think they scared a bunch of people with their masks.
I made some kid at the trunk-or-treat pose with Nate for this picture:

I just think that's a pretty darn cute Harry Potter.

This, for sure, is the cutest Dobby (not Yoda!) there ever was:

Come on! :)

A couple more snapshots just for fun while the older kids ran around playing games:

On Halloween day, the kids had their early-release day at school so we had some time to fill before trick-or-treating.  We hadn't done the pumpkin patch thing so I decided we'd do that. It ended up being perfect! No one was there and I loved the place we went to.  It was more like a historic functioning farm with a small patch.

 We got to go on a little horse-drawn train:

 Lizzy reading anything she can get her hands on, even the brochure:

 We saw a ton of Monarch butterflies, got to look for eggs in the chicken coop and feed some animals.
The kids bonded with this sheep:

It was a lot of fun.

We were pretty tired, though, so we didn't go out trick-or-treating for too long.  

This guy had two costumes this year since we had to make sure to put him in the traditional bunny costume:

And here's yet another bunny costume comparison...

Nate

Natalie

Elizabeth

They've got their own looks but they're siblings for sure.

I just love all those bunnies!