Christmas Program

Stefan and Janine had their Christmas program last Thursday on the 16th and it was fun to have both kids in the same program at the same time! Janine loves to sing and was so excited to do the program. She has been singing the songs since Thanksgiving. Stefan on the other hand doesn't mind singing and will occassionally will join in with Janine. Most of the time though he is just a brother and will only sing to make her upset. Because Princess Janine likes to sing by herself.
The songs they sang were cute. The whole program was cute.

Aftwerwards we got to see Santa again!! First at Maceys and now at school. Stefan doesn't have a problem with the man in red but Janine on the otherhand is more hesitant. She wouldn't get on his lap by herself, but did when her older brother sat on the big mans lap for a picture.

This is a picture of Stefan and his best buddy from school Mason. They have both been on their moms to get phone numbers so they can play....That has finally happened and they will be playing after the holidays!

Jacoby's 1st Birthday

We wish you a Happy Birthday,
We wish you a happy birthday,
We wish you a happy birthday and many more too!

Friday December 10th was Jacobys first birthday! He had a good day. Stephanie and the kids would sing Happy birthday to him and Jacoby would smile and laugh. He knew that day was a special one. we decorated the dining room as always with balloons and the Happy Birthday sign. Stephanie couldn't decide what kind of cake to make Jacoby for his birthday, but finally decided upon birthday hats! Because after all it is a party!! We let him open gifts and he loved his toys. Eric and Stephanie had to get mad at the two older kids because they would "try" their best to play
with Jacoby but naturally they would end up with the toys and Jacoby has nothing and would be upset. We also decided to take the kids to see santa. There was absolutely no line when Eric had been there 30 minutes earlier getting balloons so we decided to race over there and BEHOLD there was no line we walked right up to santa and Stefan handed santa his Christmas list he made at school. Santa was so excited to get Stefans list. Stefan wants a Hot Wheels track from Santa. Stefan loves Santa. He is so comfortable you think Stefan saw him every day!
Janine was scared this year again. Even though she didn't sit on his lap she too gave her list and did speak to him and told him what she wanted. She wants a Dora Doll that sings and dances. I think next year we just might be able to get her to sit on Santas lap! We also saw Christmas Carolers at Maceys too and we had to get a picture because they looked awesome and sound amazing!

Oh Temple Lights Oh Temple Lights!!

Yes we did it again. We willingly went out into the blistering cold and froze to walk around beautiful temple square and see all the amazing lights and watch the life like nativity set they have.
The start of the evening was great. We went to the Gateway mall in downtown and ate at California Pizza. I believe we found the kids new favorite place to eat. They downed so much food. It was incredible.


Then we drove down the road to temple square and tried to find parking. Well that a bit ridiculous. There were NO parking places anywhere!!! We actually drove around for 45 minutes. We were all pretty dissappointed and starting to get testy with eachother. Eric and Stephanie decided they would drive around temple square one more time and if there wasn't a spot we would go home. The time was 8:00 pm at this point.
We just had to find a space to park! Stefan was already crying because he wanted to see the lights, Janine was in the back saying she is hot and just wants to go home and Jacoby is crying. Such helpful children with parents who are already on edge. But wait!!!oh yes you guys we found a parking spot!!!! we had to backpack in but we found one and had a very nice time. Temple grounds always make you happy and you always feel the spirit while there.

A Turkey & A Tree???

Well it just wouldn't be right to just skip over Thanksgiving entirely this year. We must blog about something right?...Well if you can believe it Stephanie forgot to take pictures of Thanksgiving this year! But since we print our blogs into a book we must write about thanksgiving. We were unable to attend Thanksgiving in Arizona with Stephanies family this year. (tear) Since buying Kneaders life has been crazier than ever and there was no way we could leave our stores. As luck would have it our new Managers family got snowed in up in Oregon and couldn't come so we had them over for Thanksgiving dinner. His wife is Russian and has never had a true thanksgiving before so we felt "cool" that her first was with us. We had a great time.




The saturday following Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas. We put up all our decorations and saved the tree until Sunday. Stephanie ordered a few new ornaments this year and our tree looks the best this year than ever before. We actually have a few more peppermints up on the tree now so there is more on the tree than what it shows in the picture. Its always fun to decorate the house with kids because their energy and Christmas spirit just infects you so much that you find yourself just as giddy and hyper as they are. Its really fun.
Of course Saturday after we finished decorating that hyper spirit I was talking about became too much for Stefan we think. He was running, fell and smacked his forehead on the corner of one of Stephanie's glass presents and split his forehead. We looked at his head and it was in between taking him to the doctor or just bandaging it and leaving it. We all chose to leave it. That was quite the adventure to have your child approach you screaming with blood dripping through their hands.....my how the tables have turned.

Halloween Fright!

Well we hope you are sitting down and have fastened your seat belts because this is going to be one long post!! To start out Stefan got these helicopter plastic twirling things for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Powell, and we have spent many days down on the track flinging them up in the air and watching them fly down and trying to catch them! Great Gift. Next on the list is Janine. She wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake this year. She decided this is what she wanted to be back in september. So Stephanie ordered her a costume and when it came in the mail it was too small! So Stephanie mailed it back and ordered the next size bigger and lucked out getting the last one. When we recieved that one in the mail the hat and tights were a small but the dress was a toddler! so again the dress didn't fit and Stephanie sent everything back but the tights and made Janines costume herself! We all tried to convince Janine to be something else. Stephanie even took her to Halloween City and said whatever you want Janine you can have it and she looked and thought everything was cute but finally told her mom that she just really wants to be strawberry shortcake. Making this cute dress was quite the chore to say the least. (I will shorten this story up so that you wont spent your whole day reading this blog.) Stephanie was constantly on the phone with her mom trying to figure out sewing jargin and trying to understand how to make this dress. well after stephanie thought she understood her mom she sewed the top together and pulled it right side out and there was no BACK! so she unpicked everything called her friend Gabby and she came over to help Stephanie figure it out. And of course it is so stinking simple when someone shows you how it is supposed to go! After gabby left stephanie went to iron the dress top out and of course the iron was on too hot and Stephanie melted a hole in the dress! (see what I mean about this dress) well eventually I got it all sorted out and the finished product turned out really cute. We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening last week. The kids still won't stick their hands in the pumpkin and rip the guts out! aaahhhh....someday i guess. Stefans pumpkin is the bat, Janines is the Cat and Stephanies is the diamonds all over. Eric didn't have his own this year. He was the master carver. So he pretty much did 2 pumpkins. The kids had their halloween carnival and program on friday. Both kids did well. Stefan didn't do any hand motions but he did sing which is an improvement from last year. Janine did the hand motions and sang! Which we were very proud. Janine hasn't said a word yet in school but has started to say a few words in Nursery. So we are very excited and know that she will start to talk soon enough in school. Erics family came up to decorate the stores for Christmas. (i know crazy) Christmas has to be up in the stores November 1st. So his family came up to do that and Loni and Whitney stayed with us and joined in on our family Halloween day. We went Bowling as a family and had a great time. The kids are always so good for the girls. Stefan ages 10 years when they are around. This was Stefan and Janines first time "real" bowling. Real as in not on the Wii. They loved it.

Afterwards we went to Maceys to get some groceries to make our Fall Chili for the Chili Cook Off at the ward Halloween Party. We won "The Manliest Chili" Eric and Stephanie figured it was because our chili was chunky because there was no red meat in it. Only Turkey. But we were happy we won an award. Our Family recieved so many compliments on our Costumes this year. Stephanie has finally rubbed off enough on Eric that now he slightly enjoys dressing up with Stephanie every year. Eric was a Pharoh and Stephanie was Cleopatra. Stefan was a blue Ninja and Janine as you know was Strawberry Shortcake and sweet Jacoby was a Chef. We enjoyed our Halloween this year. I condensed each story for the sake of those reading. Happy Halloween from THE ALLANS

Birthday Madness!!

Yes I know can you believe another birthday has come and gone already in the Allan family. Stephanie celebrated her 27th birthday on the 12th of this wonderful month. While the day started and continued just as any other day, when Eric came home from work it was a different story...The PaRtY BEGAN!! Eric was running around crazy trying to get dinner and all the festivities ready. Stephanie was trying to figure out why eric was in such a hurry and so he told stephanie that he had invited stephanie's best friend and her family over to celebrate her birthday. We had chili, ceasar salad and fresh fruit with virgin Margaritas!!! So yUmMy!! We had a great night. Stephanie wanted to have a halloween birthday so we had a Halloweenish style dinner and it was really fun.

Stefans 5th Birthday

Last week we celebrated Stefans 5TH birthday! It was also the very first birthday party with kids that we have had. We had so much fun. While the first 30 minutes seemed like hours the rest of the party just flew by and we actually ran out of time!! Thank heavens though that 90% of parents are always late. Our party theme was iron man. While Stefan hasn't seen the real Iron Man movies he has seen the super hero cartoons on tv. We had a blast watching these 4 & 5 year olds hit the pinata...Maybe its the fact that pinatas give them the opportunity to hit something as hard as they can! The aggression that comes out is hilarious. Simply priceless.


We made a throne out of boxes that we had in our carport for the businesses for Stefan to open gifts while his subjects sat on the grass and watched. Stefan thought that was the coolest thing ever. Troy flew in to attend conference and so we went to Salt lake the next night to hang out with him and we took Stefan to Build A Bear Workshop. That was what stefan wanted more than anything was a buld a bear. It was so much fun to watch stefan create a bear and do all the things they have you do. This was the funnest birthday.

Business Owners!!

Last Monday, August 23rd 2010 Eric and Stephanie became the OWNERS of TWO Kneaders Bakery & Cafes!!!!

We are business partners with erics brother michael who just recently retired from the army and is now as happy as ever to be an entrapenuer and partner with eric.

Saturday the 21 corporate took us out for a celebratory dinner at Carvers Steak House. We had a great time. Stephanie & Eric were able to shop for a new outfit to wear.

Owning a restaurant of our own has been a dream of ours since we have been married, and for Eric longer than that. Now that it is here and the dream is a reality we are exited and so happy. While the days are long and stressful for Eric at the stores trying to build one while transitioning from manager to owner in the other it is definately worth it. Eric says it is a different feeling to go to work and know that you are the owner. Everything he does will actually benefit him. The days on the home front are long and full of cheerleaders rooting on their quarterback. We are enjoying where we are in our lives right now and are thankful to our Father in Heaven for guiding and preparing us for this opportunity and helping make it happen for us.

Stephanie is the secretary and is enjoying the tasks that she has been given thus far. Sometime in the future she is excited to learn the books of the businesses and maybe sneak in a cake or two while she is at it. :)

Gymnastic Fun

For the past six weeks Janine has been taking gymnastic classes. She has been doing them through the rec-center and not a competitive gym. It's half the price and perfect for kids who are just discovering gymnastics. Last week during Janine's class Stefan was wondering when he can try gymnastics.....so I signed him and Janine up for the fall classes. It's really fun to watch your kids do different activities. We had such a blast watching Stefan play T-ball and we have enjoyed watching Janine walk on the beam, swing on the bars, do backward somersaults, and hang from the rings. The Beam is Janines favorite right now because you point your toes and walk like a princess. At least that is what Stephanie thinks. Stefan had his first soccer practice last night and was disappointed it only lasted a half hour. His first game is saturday!

Yellowstone National Park

June 18th we set out on our family vacation to Yellowstone National Park where we met up with Erics brother and his family. On the way there we wanted to take a detour and stop in Jackson Hole for a day. While there we did the ariel tram that took you to the top of the Teton Mountains. Around 10,000 feet. There is snow ontop of these mountains 10 months out of the year. The last of the snow melts around the first of August and then recieves the first snow in October! We had a blast in Jackson. We saw 2 baby moose and tons of deer. The moose were cool. we stopped and watched the two of them eating and we were only 10-15 feet away. It was amazing. When we met up with Troy and Annette we got to see there home. It is way nice. lots of space. We had a blast with them. Not only did we hike a lot but we also stayed at the KOA in west yellowstone and rented a six person bike! Now that was fun. We tasted tons of fudge and then of course you had to buy that too. They had the best fudge we have ever tasted. The kids did so great. they enjoyed all of the hikes and seeing different things. They love being with their cousin Canyon. They get along so well. Yellowstone is just amazing with all the many different types of wildlife, and volcanic activity. We were just in awe of how smart the Lord is. How he can create these many different wonders. Truly impressive. We rented a cabin at the KOA which was really nice. Eric and Stephanie have been converted to the cabins. From now on if there is a KOA by where we are vacationing we will stay there. Its only a few bucks more than a motel and you can save even more by cooking your own food. we just had such a good time. We took so many different pictures that we just can't share them all on our blog. so here are just a few.

T-Ball Anyone?

Last week was the beginning of Stefans baseball career and let us tell you what a blast it is to watch these 4 &5 year olds play baseball. They are either running to third base first or they can't find 2nd base and end up going out into center field!!or even the gatherings tat occur at pitchers mound. For instance throwing sand or building sand mountains. Priceless Priceless moments. So much fun. Stefan is just having a blast playing. He has a really good arm and his coach is impressed. He has never hit off of a tee before until that first game and wasn't quite sure what it was or what to do. STefan is used to us pitching him the ball and then hitting it. But now being in the second week he knows whats going on and he does great. He loves to hear people cheer his name. His face lights up and then he runs 10 times faster. His team are called the dragons. Here is a video of stefan in his first game. Now in this first video the tee was too high. After the first hit the rest of his were really good.
In this next video his hit went past pitchers mound but of course I missed it and only got him running to first!

Graduation Anyone?

Well about 2 weeks ago Stephanie and the kids left to Arizona for her brother Sterlings graduation. Since Erics sister Loni was graduating the night after Sterling we wouldn't have been able to spend time in Pinetop. So Stephanie and the kids left a week early so they could spend time with the family and Eric flew in the night before graduation.
We had a great time in Arizona. Stephanie just enjoyed being back home in the mountains and smelling the fresh pine air and spending time with everyone.
We had the opportunity to go and feed the horses at the equestrian center which the kids just absolutely loved. Stephanie was okay with the idea of feeding a horse until she tried and saw the horses huge teeth and the she frieked out and couldn't do it.




When eric arrived we went to the Mogollon Rim which is just a short fun nature trail along with Serina and her kids.


Thursday night we went to Sterlings graduation and watched him graduate and friday morning we were on the road heading back up to Marysvale to watch Loni graduate and we arrived at the gym with 5 minutes to spare!! We arrived at Eric brothers house to get ready right at 6 o'clock and it was a race for that hour to get everyone fed, dressed and over to the gym. For both graduations Stephanie and Eric rotated with Jacoby. The little stinker didn't like to sit still for long at all.... We do have great kids though. Stefan and Janine were good through out both graduations. They were really good.