Trip to Indiana

Yesterday we took a trip to Indiana to visit my brother Bradley who's on a mission there.  (We're taking some of his luggage home for him this week since he comes home next week)  We drove to Greenwood then met with Elder Royer and Elder Parkinson and took them to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. Here's a a couple of pictures taken before the feast:

Elder Parkinson & Elder Royer

Owen with his Mac & Cheese & French Fries

Here are some pictures taken after the feast:

We ate quite a bit of sea food

A full belly makes missionaries happy

After lunch we had to pack back up and head home, but not before we got a picture of our whole family with Brad.

Keep up the good work Elder Royer!

Owen's Trains

Owen has a fascination with anything that has wheels.  He loves cars, trucks, carts, trains . . . etc.  Last week we visted Barnes & Noble and let Owen play with the train set that they had set up in the children's area.  He absolutely loved it and we had a hard time pulling him away from it to come home.  When we were done I remembered that one of my friends had given me a box of Thomas the Tank Engine trains and tracks back before Owen was born.  I went ahead and pulled them out, and now they are Owen's favorite toys.  He'll literally spend hours pushing the trains around the track, over the hills, and through the tunnels.  Mommy is official track repair person, which in and of itself is a full time job.  Anyway, here are some pictures of Owen and his trains:

Owen's Measurements

Owen had his Well Child visit with the doctor yesterday. He weighed 24 lbs and was 33 1/2 inches long. That puts him at the 25 percentile for weight and nearly the 75 percentile for height - there's nothing to worry about regarding the difference, it just means we have to keep him fed (sometimes a challenge). Plus he just finished a growth spurt (he grew approximately 5 inches since the end of August) so he's long and skinny right now. I guess that explains why he's starting to wear some 24 month clothing. Other than that he's really healthy and is even just about to cut teeth numbers 13 & 14. And since we're talking about numbers today, he's wearing a size 6 shoe, and will probably be in a 7 or 8 by Christmas. So I think the moral of today is that little boys like to eat, grow, sleep, grow, play, and grow.

Owen's Antics

Owen was caught getting into things a couple of times this past week. First of all, he discovered that he can climb in to his toy drawer in his bedroom.

Then I caught him playing "Mommy at the Computer." Luckily it was off and he didn't cause too much trouble, this time : ).

Pumpkin Decorating

Last week for FHE we decorated a pumpkin.

Owen didn't know what to think at first, but as soon as Mommy showed him that the guts needed to come out, he jumped right in.

In goes the hand. . .

Out come the seeds.

Daddy did the carving.

Owen and Pumpkin smile for the camera!

Autumn Time

Halloween is fast approaching, and there are signs at the Allen household:

Pumpkins on the porch and little Owen playing in leaf piles in the front yard.

Mommy decided to rake the yard this morning and Owen decided that he was going to help.

First he discovered that it is fun to sit in the leaf piles that Mommy had made.

Then he found out raking is fun too.

Raking takes sooooo much concentration!!

(proven by the Royer trait of the tongue sticking out)

Owen's Family Home Evening Lesson

Tonight for Family Home Evening I put together a collection of family photos for Owen. We like to show him pictures of our family and tell him who they are with the hope that it will help him know his family when we get to visit. After he went to bed this evening I went one step further and put together a video slideshow that I can show him occasionally to help him know his family. I am going to include it with this blog post, but for all of you who get my posts by email, you will need to go to the blog site itself (click here: http://bjallen316.blogspot.com/) to see the video clip.

Owen's Piano Lesson

Owen and I take a few minutes each day for a "piano lesson." He sits at the piano and makes up a song while he sings along. Usually I sit next to him and play too, but he was so cute today that we had to record him on his own.

Birthday Party

Today is my birthday. My friend Leslie made me this birthday cake and we had a small party with a few friends. It was really nice to be able to spend the day with friends and with my little family. I am very grateful for them and for my family back home that has sent their birthday wishes in many different ways.

For my birthday party I made a hot wassail drink that was the best that I've ever made it (a combination of the recipe I got from my friend Liz and one I got from a fall cooking magazine I got a couple of years ago) so I am going to record the recipe now so I don't lose or forget it. It is a great recipe for a group of people in the fall or winter time.

Hot Wassail

1/2 gallon apple cider
1/2 gallon apple juice
1 can orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
3 cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp whole allspice
1/4 tsp whole cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix the apple cider, apple juice, orange juice concentrate, lemon juice, and maple syrup in a large crock pot. Put all of the spices in a cotton teabag, then put the bag into the crock pot. Heat the mixture on high for approximately three hours, then turn to low or warm to cool it enough to serve. You can remove the spices if you wish when it reaches a flavor that you like or leave them the entire time.

Conference Weekend

This past weekend was a beautiful weekend to stay home and watch conference with our friends, Captain, Leslie & Harvey. They came and spent the weekend with us and made the weekend seem almost like a vacation. Between conference sessions we played games and relaxed. Here are a couple of pictures of Owen and Harvey playing video games with their dads:

The weather was also really good and Owen and I spent some time playing outside in the back yard. He did some exploring and found a pile of small bricks. We made a small racetrack for him out of the bricks and he had some fun driving his car on it until he decided to tear it down.

All in all we had a great weekend and I am so very greatful for the technology that makes it possible for us to stay home and watch conference at home. It made it so much easier to contain two wiggly little boys than if we had tried to go to the church. Also, I was able to finish the afghan that I was making for my co-worker's granddaughter.

My Favorite Roll Recipe

I was given this roll recipe from my friend Jenny Brand:

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
3 Tbsp sugar
1 cup very warm water
1 egg
1 stick butter or margarine
1/4 cup powdered milk
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour

Mix together the yeast, sugar, and water. Add the egg, butter, powdered milk, salt, and 1 cup flour and mix until smooth. Then add the remaining flour until the dough is the proper consistency for rolls. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Knead once more then shape and place in a greased 9x13 cake pan. Let the rolls rise until double in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-11 minutes or until golden brown. Butter the top of the rolls when the come out of the oven.

Little Helper

So, Owen has decided that he likes to help me do chores around the house. Since he's started showing an interest in helping me around the house I now need to find ways that he can help me with chores, rather than just waiting until he goes down for a nap to get everything done. Here are a few things that we did this week:

1- He helped me pick up the clothes off the floor and put them in the laundry basket, then he pushed the basket (it is on wheels) to the laundry room. After the basket was empty he proceeded to push it all around the house, picking up his toys and giving them a ride in the laundry basket.

2- He helped me make cookies. He had his own bowl, spoon, and measuring cup that he carried around the kitchen and living room while I made the cookies. Then he was more than willing to help me taste the cookie dough to make sure it was good.

3- He helped me take out the trash. I carried the kitchen garbage out while he carried the bathroom garbage out (Wal-Mart bag sized). He insisted on holding on to the bag with one hand and the handrail with the other to go down the front steps.

4- He helped me carry the groceries in from the car. He carried the small, light bags - or my wallet and keys if the bags were all to big for him.

5- He likes to help me play the piano. Last week Owen broke the music holder on my piano and Bryce had to take it off and fix it (Bryce did a wonderful job and it's now better than it was before, since we discovered that it had been broken before and poorly fixed). This resulted in the new rule that Owen is only allowed to play the piano with my help. So now I tell Owen that it's time for his "piano lesson" and he gets excited, runs to the piano and waits for me to pull out the bench and open the keyboard. Then he sits next to me on the bench and plays and sings his songs while I play mine. He even likes to reach up and try to turn pages on the piano books like he's seen me do.

I can't wait to see what Mommy's little helper will learn this next week!!

Cold Season

So, it has been cold season at our house the past couple of weeks. Last week Bryce came home from school with a cold - not fun for him but it didn't slow life down too much. But then this week I, then Owen, caught Bryce's cold and so life at the Allen household has ground to a slow crawl. I've managed to keep us fed, clothed and to get the neccesities done at work, but anything that requires much effort just hasn't happened. Owen has been napping well, and after several days of extra sleep he seems to be feeling a bit better. Today he seems to be almost better. I on the other hand haven't had much time to sleep, so I keep pushing onward, trying to rest whenever possible to keep my head from exploding, and today it seems to have started to work. My headache is now barely there and hopefully I can keep my cough from getting too anoying. Bryce, who seemed to get better for a couple of days has been dragging a bit the last couple of days, but since we don't have anything major going on this weekend we've both been able to rest and try to recover somewhat. But despite the anoyances that come with a cold, I hope that this will help prepare us for the fall and that our immune systems will be up to making it through the winter without any major breakdowns.

Cute Little Boys

Click on this link to see some pictures of some cute little boys playing together: Curried Cupcakes: Boys Will Be Boys.

Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies

I wanted to make cookies on Sunday, but halfway through I discovered that I didn't have any vanilla, so I came up with this yummy cookie variation:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp orange flavoring
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs and orange flavoring. Mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips. Place spoonfuls of cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly brown. Cool slightly on cookie sheet then transfer to cooling rack.

I like to cook

So, now that I've got the hang of cooking meals again I've decided to try out some new recipes. If they are successful I will try to post them on my blog so anybody who wants can try them too. Here is this week's first success:

Chicken Wonton Soup (4-6 servings)

Filling:
12 oz ground chicken (or pork)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp grated, fresh ginger root
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp apple or white grape juice
2 green onions, chopped into small pieces
1 tsp sesame oil
1 egg white
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp sugar
about 35 wonton wrappers

Soup:
6 cups chicken stock
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 green onion, shredded
1 small carrott, cut into thin slices

1) Combine all the filling ingredients and mix well.
2) Place a small spoonful of the filling in the centre of each wonton wrapper.
3) Dampen the edges and gather up the the wonton wrapper to form a pouch enclosing the filling.
4) Cook the filled wontons in boiling water for 1 minute or until they float to the top.
5) Remove the wontons from the water and bring the chicken stock to a boil.
6) Add the soy sauce, green onion, carrot, and wontons to the soup. Simmer gently for 2 minutes then serve.

Caught in the Act

So, Owen knows that he's not suppose to play with the TV remote, but that doesn't stop him whenever it's not put up out of his reach. Yesterday he found the remote and tried to hide with it in the corner between the entertainment center and the wall.

When I caught him it was obvious that he knew that he wasn't suppose to be playing with the remote, but it did make a good photo of his guilty little boy face.

Little Boy in Box

After Owen gets all of his toys emptied out of his toy box and spread all over the family room, he then sees the box itself as a toy. Yesterday he pushed it around , climbed on it, climbed into it, and even sat in it to read one of his books (as pictured).

Owen wants to say hi:

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Well, chaos is resuming so I must follow. Until next time. . . . .

Back in Carbondale

We made it back to Illinois safe and sound. We found our house as we left it - ready for us to just move it and make it our home. Owen has spent the day exploring and discovering all of his "new" old toys that we left behind when we went to Utah. Owen and I went with Bryce to the meet-and-greet that the theater grad students had this morning and Owen surprised everyone with his mobility and speed and his antics with a banana. (He still hasn't learned that you have to take the peel off to eat it.) We are working on teaching him boundaries, and he still hasn't quite learned that when we tell him to "come back" or "don't go there" that he needs to listen or suffer the consequences (mom or dad chasing him down and making him sit on our laps or near us for a couple of minutes before he can go wandering again). I think today he was just overwhelmed with the new places and people that seem familiar but not quite what he is used to because he has been doing pretty good at coming when we call him and usually obeys our "nos."

Anyway, I need to get to bed, but I'll try to keep in touch and update frequently so those of you who got used to seeing us regularly will still know what's going on in our lifes. Take care!

Owen's First Birthday

Owen just had his first birthday, and here is the cake that his mommy made for him:


Here is Owen blowing out his candle (with a little bit of help from Daddy:


Here are all of Owen's birthday guests - Mommy & Daddy

Uncle Danny, Cousin Memphis, and Aunt Aleena

Aunt Lindsey, Aunt StacyAnn, and Uncle Garrett

Grandpa Christensen, Grandpa Allen, and Grandma Allen

And Stefani & Reed Archibald and Grandpa Christensen

Also present (but who somehow escaped being caught on film are Abby & Lilly Davidson, Uncle Craig, Stephen White, and Grandma Christensen.

We had all sorts of fun, eating cake and ice cream, opening presents, and talking and watching the little ones (Owen, Lilly and Memphis) play. Owen and Lilly both made a mess of their cake (Grandma got those pictures, not me) and Owen had fun playing with his new toys, wrapping paper, and balloons. It was a good, memorable evening for all of us.

Owen Swinging

In this video clip you get to see Owen enjoying the swing that Grandma & Grandpa Christensen got and hang in their walnut tree. Owen also demonstrates his animal sounds by barking and growling when he hears the neighbor dog bark.

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