Hi Grandma and Grandpa

Kansas City Chiefs Fan!

Vanna White?


Do you think she likes her new towel?

Christmas 2007

T-A-G-G-E-D

I was tagged by my cousin Tara:

This tag is about your significant other:
What is his name? Jared Michael Allen
How long have you been married? 6 years March 7th (wow!)
How long did you date? Dated for 5 months, engaged for 3.
How old is he? 30, he's an oldie (but goodie)
Who eats more? Depends on what we are eating. We usually eat about the same.
Who said I love you first? He did.
Who is taller? HIM. by 4 inches. (he's 5' 10")
Who sings better? I love hearing Jared sing to the kids. But c'mon, I was in TEEN TONES!
Who is smarter? ME. Okay, he's a little bit smart.
Whose temper is worse? We are both pretty easy going people. He gets riled up about politics. Me? Women's rights.
Who does the laundry? Me. He has this thing about only folding symmetrical items, so he'll fold the towels.
Who does the dishes? Both of us, pretty equally I'd say.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He is.
Who pays the bills? Me.
Who mows the lawn? Jared, with our trusty push mower.
Who cooks dinner? Hey, I've cooked it a few times since we've been married!
Who drives when you are together? Usually me. On account that he has the car all day and it's only fair.
Who is more stubborn? HIM. VERY VERY STUBBORN
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? It's hard to say, since we are both rarely wrong.
Whose parents do you see the most? Mine, since we've been back in AZ.
Who proposed? Jared.
Who has more friends? Me, which is strange.
Who has more siblings? Me. I have 3 brothers, he has a brother and a sister.
Who wears the pants in the family? Well, since we both wear pants a majority of the time, I would say both. Did you not read what gets me riled up?
I tag SARAH, MARY, and JACKI

2 Months of Hudson

Today Hudson turns 2 months old. We are all so glad to have him as part of our family, it definitely would not be complete without him.

Real Beauty?

I found this video on one of my favorite websites: http://www.about-face.org/
I thought it was amazing, I knew they photo shop everything, but I didn't know it was to this extent. It angers me that women are made to feel like they have to live up to this idealized image. It makes me mad because I am a woman, and I have 2 little girls who will be beautiful to me no matter what. It makes me mad because men are taught to expect this ideal. I'm starting to get on my high horse, so I'll stop now. But really, check out the video and the site.
This video also hit home for me. .. .

Mawee and Baby Jesus' Daddy

Our Weekend

Our happy little guy.

Beautiful girls. . .

Giggly girls!

Best friends.

Morning exercises?

Serious swinging.

Temple Lights

My little man

A kiss for Ella. . .

And a kiss for Sparks.
What a great weekend!

Bye Bye, Blankie

This is Ella's beloved silky blankie, which used to be green and pink when given to her by my aunt, but now is a color most closely describable as white. (although it is not white). It has been Ella's favorite thing in the world, and it shows. Sleep could never come without it. . . until now? This is the 3rd time in a few weeks that I have, much to my surprise, found the beloved blankie laying lonesome on the floor while Ella sleeps peacefully in her bed. My baby is growing up.

Growing Like A (extremely cute) Weed

Funny Stuff

• During lunch today, I told Ella we could go see the Temple lights in a few days, so she started naming all the days of the week for me. According to her, this is what they are: Tuesday, tomorrow, Friday, church day, and Saturday. I was impressed.
  
• Rory insists on doing EVERYTHING herself. It is mostly admirable, but can get a bit frustrating sometimes when it takes about 150 times longer than when I just do it for her. But, the upsides are that she's been potty trained since before she was 2, can completely dress herself and any other doll or stuffed animal you may want clothed, and will dust practically the whole house for me (and good, too).
• I've been using the whole Santa's watching you thing lately to inspire the girls to be good. Now after Ella does something a little naughty, she explains out loud to Santa why she did it. Usually followed by "it's okay, Santa, it's okay."
• Rory has always been my picky eater. If it's not familiar to her, she won't eat it. But she surprises me sometimes. Like when she would rather eat her Snap pea crisps than the dessert everyone else is having. She refuses to eat cake, pie, and most cookies. One thing she will eat? My 70 percent cacao dark chocolate.
  
• Ella LOVES to sing. She knows all the words to Puff the Magic Dragon and sings it repeatedly throughout the day. She's already picked up the words to some Christmas songs. It's fun to hear the chorus of Jingle bells 50 times in a row. Even Rory got tired of it, saying, "I don't like your voice, Ella." It didn't discourage Ella in the least.
  
• Rory calls her overalls, "jinglebells." "Smarshmallows" are another thing she won't eat, and the other day she said her "ear turned off" when she had a bit of an earache.
  

Good Big Sisters

I was kind of worried how Ella and Rory would react to having a little baby around to steal their attention, but so far I have been amazed at how well they are doing. They both love to help me with Hudson and to "play"with him as much as possible. This morning Ella read Hudson quite a few books, and he just laid there, seemingly very interested in what she was doing. And of course Rory loves to give him kisses and touch him whenever possible.

First Smile?

I think Hudson may have given his first non-gas associated smile this morning. He was sleeping, then after grunting and other various baby noises that he makes while waking up, (my favorite is what we call the chewbacca) he woke up and saw me looking at him and smiled. It definitely seemed like a real smile, since it was in his eyes, too. Either way, it made my morning, I look forward to many smiles in the future.

Who Wore It Best?

One of my guilty pleasures is reading those extremely superficial magazines I find so hard to resist while checking out at the grocery store, such as US Weekly, In Touch, etc etc. Most if not all of them feature some variation on "who wore this super-overpriced dress on their super skinny with fake boobs body best." Well, after looking through all the pictures of Ella and Rory's earlier years, Jared came up with the idea to do our own version. So here it is, without the fake boobs, of course.

The Pooh Bear ensemble.

Floral in Lavendar.

Spanish Inspired Ensemble.
Favorite Western-style Shirt with Favorite Jeans.

Cutie Cousins

My cousin Brittney had her little boy, Austen, exactly 2 weeks after I had Hudson. After being pregnant together, it was so fun to have our little guys born so close. I am sure they will be the best of friends. Here they are together on Thanksgiving, Hudson at 4 weeks, Austen at 2.

Who does he look like?

Ella at around 4 weeks. She came a month early, weighing in at a tiny 5 lbs, 8 oz. (18 in). It didn't take long to plump her up, though! Rory at about 4 weeks. No hair, well, a little bit of ultra-blonde fuzz! That is why we were so surprised when Hudson was born with quite a bit of very dark hair.

Here's the little man a few weeks ago. He is my biggest at 8 lbs, 3 oz and 20.5 inches. It is amazing how fast he is growing. He is getting so chubby, we'll say solid.

Ella. She's chillin'

Little Rory Sparkles on Ella's first Birthday. 11 months apart, they are.

Rory loves Hudson, loves to touch him and hold him and kiss him and change his diapers and get him dressed and give him baths and try to put the pacifier in his mouth and bring him blankets and rattles and buckle him in his carseat (yikes). Needless to say all her attention towards Hudson needs to be monitored closely by an adult.

Ella snoozing away. My only baby that took to sleeping on her back.

Rory, not asleep. Rory doesn't like to sleep. Never has, still doesn't.

The whole crew. Who do you think looks like who? It's hard to say. They're all pretty darn cute, though.

Usery Pass

We recently went on a picnic at good 'ole Usery pass. The gals love going there, they call it going up in the mountains, but for us it's really just going to the foot of the mountain. We didn't really hike, just walked on a very family friendly path, played on the playground, and ate sandwhiches. (or tried to, because we were suddenly attacked by massive swarms of pesky fruit flies). It was a fun time, little Hudson slept through the whole thing.

First Bath

Splish splash, Hudson's first real bath was a family affair. The gals love to help any way they can with the little guy, especially when it involves water and a cuddly lion towel. Hudson sure did like it better than the sponge baths he's been getting. We've been so lucky, he's so mellow and good. Of course after the baby took his bath, Ella and Rory had to give their babies a bath, then proceed to use the empty baby tub as a ramp to drive their cars on.

Ella is wearing a size 6 months snow hat she used to wear in Kansas when she was a baby. How it still fits on her big noggin' is beyond me. Not to mention is was in the high eighties that day.

What a sweetie.