Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Everything Inbetween

I feel like such a slacker! The most exciting part of the year, and I haven't blogged in almost 2 months....SAD! The worst part is, I still haven't even put my Christmas pictures on the computer (hopefully comming soon!)

We had a really nice Holiday Season this year. It was so much fun to have the whole Allen family together for a big Christmas like we used to have. I don't know how many times we will be able to do this so it really was great! We were so blessed and so grateful that we were able to do so many fun things with them. It was especially fun to see all of my brothers and their families. Adam, Noelle, and Brynnley (from Spokane) were here as well as Bret, Jan, and Isabella (from Michigan) and Drew came up from Cedar City. All the of little kids are within a few months of eachother so it was great to watch them play together and get to know eachother.

Ryan had a great Christmas and absolutely got into the whole idea of opening presents. He was so excited to rip open that wrapping paper and see what was inside. We had our own little Christmas on Christmas morning and Santa made a stop at our house. Ryan got a basketball hoop which he loves, as well as tons of other toys and clothes. He must be a natural because he saw his hoop, walked straight up to it, grabbed the ball and slam-dunked it! It was so dang cute! We hope this carries over into his adult life....maybe he will be a stellar ball player and help his parents retire early!

We also got to spend some time with Matt's family. Todd (Matt's younger brother) left on his mission this week so we had the opportunity to go through the temple with him, listen to his farewell talk, and spend some quality time with Matt's family before Todd leaves.

All in all, we love the holidays and the time that we have with family! Hopefully I will be a little better and keep this thing updated! :)

A Week of Thanksgiving!

The past few days have been a lot of fun. I love this time of year when the holidays officially begin. There is plenty of good food, family, friends, and shopping! Matt, Ryan, and I are very lucky to have both families close to us. This year we spent Thanksgiving with Matt's family and then went to my parent's house that night. It really was a great day!

Our little family

Our Turkey dinner was fantastic! We had all the traditional foods. You know turkey, stuffing, homemade rolls, potatoes, and pie. However, Matt's family is unique because they love their pie more than any other family I have ever seen! We had 11 people at dinner (3 of which are under the age of 4) and get this....12 pies! More pies than people! There was 2 chocolate, 1 banana cream, 2 peanut butter, 2 eggnog, 1 cherry, 2 pumpkin, 1 apple, and 1 raspberry cream pie! It was nuts!

Grandma Great (Matt's Grandma), Ryan, and Matt

After dinner, pies, and an hour or so of scouring through the ads and planning the shopping route for the next day, we all drove to my parent's house for some left overs and more pie. My grandma and grandpa Allen were there as well as my uncle Chuck and Drew and a few of his teammates.

My mom, Matt, and I all got up at 4 AM to go shopping on BLACK FRIDAY and it was so worth it. We were at Target when the doors opened and I got everything on my list! Thanks for the fun morning mom!

Overall we had a great holiday weekend and are so grateful for all of our family and the many blessing we have been given!

Oh yeah....this is totally separate from Thanksgiving but we also gave Ryan his first haircut today. He had some major wings working on the sides of his head and a matted nest on the back so we figured it was time. He looks so grown up now! Here is a before picture and a couple after pictures. Check out the mess in the first pictures....it was bad!

BEFORE (CHECK OUT THE WINGS!)

AFTER... SO HANDSOME!

12 month pictures

Here are a few of Ryan's 12 month pictures. He did so well until the end when we tried to change his clothes...he was done! This is why there are only 2 pictures of him in the orange vest, they are the only ones where he was even looking at the camera. I think we got some really cute pictures though.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!!

Our little boy is officially a toddler! I cannot believe that he is one year old today! It is so crazy to think about the past year and how much our lives have changed. Ryan has been so much fun for us and such a blessing in our lives. We love our little guy so much! He is such a fun little character! He is walking or a time running all over the house and has a hillarious laugh!

A few things about Ryan:
22 pounds 5 ounces (50%)
31 inches long (75%)
Head Circumference is in the 90%
He has been walking for about a month now
He talks all the time and says "whats that?" "orse" for horse, "vrrrrr" while playing with a car or truck, "woof," "dad," "Pam-pa" for grandpa, "ishy" for fish, and "uh oh."
He absolutely is all boy and loves to throw a ball and chase it, play will any car, truck, or tractor, and wrestle with his dad or pam-pa.
He still isn't the best sleeper but he is making progress (I can't be too mad, part of it is probably mom and dad's fault)
He loves to eat and especially loves drinking real milk!

We love our little guy!

We had a big party for him on Thursday night and had about 25 family members that came. He was so SPOILED! He got so many fun toys from everyone he didn't know what to play with. He would open a present get excited and start to play with it just as I would make him mad because he had to open another. This process was repeated until all of his gifts were opened. Ryan has 7 cousins on Matt's side that were at the party so he had tons of help opening the gifts and playing with the new toys....he loves his cousins!

After all the presents were done we made Ryan get into the high chair for his cake. We have really tried to stay away from sugar until this party. He was so mad at us for taking him away from his toys until he saw his cake. He was literally in Heaven! I had made him a monkey cake (for some reason he loves monkeys in all of his books) but then I also made him his own round cake that he could dig into. He looked like an old man with whiskers in a couple of the pictures...so funny!

This morning (his actual birthday) my dad carried on the pancake tradition of making Ryan a #1 birthday pancake. He didn't really know what to think but he loved it!

Thanks everyone for making Ryan's birthday such a fun one! We are so grateful to have so much family around us that Ryan can grow up with!!! Thanks for all the great gifts!

Look Who's WALKING!!!!

Well at just over 11 months old, Ryan has decided that it is time to WALK! He has been standing on his own for about a month now but just the other day he took off. He is still kind of wobbly but he is constantly taking about 5 steps at a time. The most he has taken so far is about 10 steps (all of which were in a circle, almost like he was pivoting or something) but it is hard to get him doing it on film. This is the best clip we have been able to get so far, sorry its not the best quality (If you look close you can probably see Conference on TV in the background) we will try and get a better one soon!

TWO "GREAT" BIRTHDAYS!!!!

This past week we had the opportunity of celebrating two of our grandparents' birthdays. My grandpa was here for his 77th birthday and Matt's grandma turned 80! We are so lucky to have all of our grandparents so close to us.

For my Grandpa Lewis' (commonly known as Grandpa Dodo) birthday we drove up to Sundance skii resort and had lunch. The leaves were so pretty, we had a great time with them!

For Matt's Grandma Jane's birthday, we had a big party! We all decided that an 80th birthday deserved a party. She lives across the street from Matt's parents so we get to see her a lot and Ryan really loves his Grandma Great! Matt's mom did a great job getting everything ready and I feel bad I didn't get any pictures of the sunflower center pieces and all the other decorations.I am so glad that Ryan has 5 great grandparents here and that we can spend time with each of them!
Happy Birthday Grandpa Dodo and Grandma Great!!!!

Another Summer is Over!

It is always so sad when summer comes to an end. I absolutely love summertime! I love fresh vegetables from the garden (yes we did have a garden this year), family reunions, warm nights, being outdoors, and especially camping. Matt and I love camping so what better way to bring the summer to a close I guess. His family always has a big family camp-out over Labor Day. This year was really fun and it was great weather! Ryan got the nickname of Smilin' Ryan from some of Matt's family. He is such a good boy and is so dang happy when we are outside. I love it!!! These are few pictures from the last night around the campfire...he was so funny and was "cheesy" in every picture.