New Year - New House

It's official!  After 10 years of marriage and living in 8 other apartments and houses, Bryce and I have purchased a home of our own.  It's a 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in Ogden, Utah.  It is only about 15 minutes from Bryce's work, about a mile from Owen's new school, and it's only about a half hour away from Bryce's Mom and Grandma & Grandpa Christensen.

It has a nice big fenced yard for the kids to play in, and plenty of inside room for them to play as well.  It has a storage shed, garage, and covered parking in front of the garage.  Each of the kids will get to have their own bedroom and there is plenty of storage space.  It's not too big, and is a perfect starter home for us.  So, welcome home Allen Family. Let's work together to make this house our home.

Merry Christmas

Christmas was wonderful! After the kids got everyone up, we had a fun time opening presents and spending the morning as a family.  River loved the walker that she got from Grandma and Grandpa Royer (and I loved it because she was able to be happy without being held for a while).

The girls and I each received a special doll from Grandma Christensen, Owen got Legos and a telescope, and MayLynn got dress-ups and then was able to have a super-hero tea party.

And since one of the best parts of Christmas is enjoying and sharing your gifts, MayLynn made sure that we all had a chance to be a princess just like her.

And not be left out, Mommy and Daddy are getting the biggest Christmas present of all - this year we bought a house and will be moving to Ogden in just a couple of days.

Once There Was A Snowman

Bryce and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this year.  To make it a little more special, we scheduled a couple of days at our resort at Wolf Creek.  We had a couple of days with just the two of us and the baby, but the other two joined us for the last day and night, and while we were all there together we had a pre-Christmas snowstorm.  MayLynn had been wanting to make a snowman for quite some time, so I helped the kids pile up the snow balls, and then they gave him a face and some arms.  Here they are with their cute little snowman, and here's the view from our back deck:

The Allen Family - December 2014

It seems like the Holiday Season brings out the best in our family pictures.

Here are a couple pictures of my cute little kids:

And here are the pictures that we took for our Christmas card:

Learning & Socializing

With colder weather keeping us indoors more, we try to find ways to keep little hands and minds happy.  We do a lot of reading - with even River getting into the action. And I try to find activities that are both fun and educational whenever possible.  This time we made some play dough and practiced forming letters with the dough.  MayLynn thought that this was a good idea.

We've also had fun playing with cousins.  Emma and River have been friends since day one and MayLynn has fun showing Jack the "right" way to play with the toys ;).

Here Comes Santa Clause

Our Realtor had a Christmas party last night, so we decided to go and let our kids visit with Santa Clause.  Grandma Allen, StacyAnn and Jack came with us too.  My kids all did pretty good and none of them were scared by Santa this year, but poor Jack didn't understand who this scary man in the fluffy red and white costume was.  Here are the pictures of the kids with Santa:

November Activities

The rest of our month has been going well. We had a quick Sunday visit to Grandma & Grandpa Christensen's house. The kids really like seeing their great grandparents and playing with them.

The whole family (ours, Jon & Laurie's, Mom Allen, and Garrett) went to see the movie Big Hero 6.  It was a fun movie that appealed to the both the adults and the kids. Even River sat happily on my lap and let me see the movie too.

And the girls and I have found ways to keep having fun during the day while Daddy, Grandma, and Owen are at work/school.

Growing and Playing

These first two weeks of November have been fun. River is constantly growing and wiggling and has quite the fun little personality.

We have had a lot of fun outside time as we walk Owen to and from school and explore the neighborhood.  The girls especially like going to the park to play and visiting the nearby ponds to visit the ducks.

Owen also hit a momentous milestone.  He lost his first baby tooth. Here's his excited grin : 

Bowing at the Student Center

We had a fun Family Home Evening Activity this week.  We took the kids bowling at the bowling alley that they have at Weber State University's Student Center.  MayLynn had fun learning how to take the ball carefully with Mom or Dad's help to the end of the lane and then carefully send it rolling towards the pins.

Owen was very proud of the fact that he's now old enough to carry and throw the ball all by himself.

River was content to sit in the stroller and watch the rest of us play. And Bryce and I just enjoyed being able to have fun bowling with our family. Family time is definitely the best!

Trick-or-Treating for Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year.  We revived a couple costumes from years past - Owen's Jedi costume and the bumble bee costume that Owen, MayLynn, and now River have all worn for their first Halloweens. MayLynn's really been into the Disney Princesses lately, and she decided that she wanted to be Cinderella this year for Halloween.

Our first real chance to dress up was for our ward's Trunk-or-Treat.  We had a yummy dinner and got to play a few games.  

On Halloween day we did our annual Reverse-Trick-or-Treating at Weber State University, where Bryce works, and then took the kids around the neighborhood to go Trick-or-Treating.  When all was said and done we had a whole lot of fun dressing up and ate way too much candy, but we did it all with a smile.

Carving Pumpkins

Our family carved four pumpkins this year, since we now have four people that can participate in the fun.  Daddy helped MayLynn design and carve hers, although we did have her help clean the guts out of the pumpkin.

Owen designed his own pumpkin, and cleaned it out, although I helped him with the carving of it.

Bryce and I each carved a pumpkin as well.  Bryce chose a more traditional route, while I opted to spell out ALLEN since I've always wanted to try a pumpkin like this.  We all had fun carving our pumpkins and River enjoyed playing on the floor while we carved up some fun.

More October Fun

One fun thing that the girls and I get to do each day is go pick up Owen from school.  Since Columbia Elementary is only a few blocks away, I pack up the girls in the stroller and we walk there.  Once we get to the school, MayLynn likes to get out and play until Owen gets out of school. Lately she has really enjoyed playing in the leaves.  River has just enjoyed being outside and watching her sister run around.

Another fun thing that Bryce and I did this month was go on a date to Frightmares at Lagoon.  It was my first time at Frightmares and it was a bit anti-climatic.  I once again have proof that Bryce's work in theater has made it really, really hard for anything scenic or costume related to scare me in any way. So what would have scared the beejeebers out of me before I met Bryce has now become common place and humorous instead. I did really enjoy going on a date with Bryce, riding rides, and enjoyed not having to watch the kids every moment.  

Here's an October update on how our cute little river is growing.  She's been interacting with her toys more and really likes this little turtle that plays "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and vibrates. She also likes playing with her brother and sister, which resulted in Firegirl River!

On a more gruesome note, Owen got his first stitches this month.  He accidentally knocked over his hermit crab tank while feeding them and the glass broke over his knee. I was really impressed with how calm he stayed while I pulled the tank off of him and got the glass cleaned out of his wound.  Because the tank was used for pets, and because I wanted to be sure that I got all the glass cleaned out, I took him to the doctor and they cleaned it up for us and put in two stitches since he's a very active boy and I didn't want it to keep popping open. It's healing nicely and I should be able to take the stitches out myself to save ourselves another trip to the doctors' office this month.

Fall Break Fun at Cherry Hill

Cherry Hill is a small family fun park here in Kaysville. They have a miniature golf course, a water park, and other fun activities that are great for families.  They also decorate their place for Halloween and offer discounts, so we decided to take the kids there last weekend as a fun Fall Break activity.

We all had fun playing mini-golf.  MayLynn had fun until she got bored, but Owen did pretty good and shows potential as a mini-golfer. I think this is an activity that we'll definitely try again.

After playing mini-golf, we went on a spooky tractor-pulled ride and saw all sorts of fun skeletons playing in the campground.  Then we made our way through a haunted maze.  By then it was getting late so we called it a night, but we sure did have fun.  It was a great Fall Break memory and a great way to get in the mood for Halloween.

It's Autumn Time

October is turning out to be a fun month this year.  We've been enjoying the nice fall weather and enjoying some celebrations as well. The first was a double birthday celebration.

Mom Allen's birthday is on Oct. 7, and my birthday is Oct. 10, so we celebrated for a whole week.  I made a birthday cake for Mom's birthday and we went to Joe's Crab Shack for our birthday dinner.  We also celebrated on  my birthday by staying home and having pizza.

One thing that I go to do on my birthday was go with Owen to his school's annual bike rodeo.  Owen got to learn all about bike safety and then was able to practice in an obstacle course.  He also won a helmet in a drawing, and then to top it all off, a couple of days later we took the training wheels off his bike and now he can ride like a pro without them.

The next day was Owen's last soccer game for the fall.  We had fun watching the game and I was able to catch a couple of pictures of him with his team at the end of the game.  He will get to play more games with the same team in the spring, but for now he'll just have to be satisfied with playing soccer at recess.

And what blog post would be complete without extra cute pictures of my kids? River is getting better at playing on her belly and is starting to learn how to roll over. Also, I think it's so cute to see how much my kids love each other.

Tennis Champ

On Friday, October 3, 2014, tennis history was made as my baby sister, Mary Royer, was only the 2nd girl from San Juan High School to ever take state in 1st Singles.  (The first person to do so was also my sister, Juanita, a couple years before)  The most awesome part of all was that we were able to see her do it!

The state tournament was at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, so we packed up the family early in the morning, let Owen have a vacation from school for the day, and headed into Salt Lake.  We met up with my parents; my sisters Emily and Mary (of course); my brother, Benny, and his wife, Kayla; and my brother, Danny, and his kids, Memphis and Kayzee. It was a day of Royer Family fun.

We watched tennis, visited as a family, chased the kids around, and just had fun together while we cheered for Mary.  She played extremely well, and even bounced back after having leg cramps to win her second game to enter the final round. Mary hung in there, through exhaustion and pain, and ended the 2014 2A Girl's Tennis Season as the best 1st Singles player in the state.

Way to go Mary! You're Awesome!

Playtime with Daddy is Magical

Bryce starts Tech Rehearsals today for his first show at Weber, so last night we had some special time with Daddy. We picked Daddy up from work and took a drive up Ogden Canyon, around the back side of the mountain, and then down Weber Canyon to come home.  And then, after a beautiful drive in the mountains, we found a fun new park on Nichols Road.

This park was fun from the moment the kids first saw it.  It was a playground designed as a castle.  MayLynn was so excited that as she jumped out the car saying "My castle! My castle!" she had a Cinderella moment as she lost one of her shoes. We quickly remedied that problem and the fun play time began.  MayLynn had fun running, exploring, and showing Daddy how much she likes the monkey bars. 

Owen, River, and I had a fun game of hide-and-seek, then of course, there was more running, sliding, exploring, and swinging.

The most fun for me was watching Bryce experience a couple of "firsts" with River. Since he is the breadwinner in our family, he sometimes misses out on our children's first time doing things, but not this time. Daddy got to take River for her first ride down a slide and pushed her on the swing for the first time.

They also explored the castle together. River likes being outside, seeing new things, and spending time with Daddy, so this was a really special evening for her. We all had a fun evening and enjoyed playing with Daddy!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Keeping up with my three beautiful kids has been keeping me super busy the past couple of weeks. I didn't realize how busy until I finally found time to look my pictures from the past couple of weeks. We took this picture after church a couple of weeks ago.

Cousin Emma has come to visit a couple of times.  She is about 2 months younger than River.

 Here are Emma and River side-by-side.

MayLynn has fed the ducks at the pond several times.

And the girls and I have gone walking and exploring at the ponds.

MayLynn spent most of one afternoon playing with homemade paper dolls.  

She drew their faces and clothes all by herself.

I took the kids to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum last Saturday. They were having a special event and we were able to go inside several of the airplanes that are outside the museum.  MayLynn thought they were neat, but Owen really enjoyed himself. He even took several pictures for me.

We visited Grandma & Grandpa Christensen a couple of times and helped them with some yard work.

And the girls and watched and walked with Owen at his school's Jog-a-thon this morning.