The Allan Family

Weekend Getaway!

2012-01-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

We decided to take a little family trip to the Park City area. We know that since we are opening up a new store in March we won't be able to take a family vacation for spring break. It has been a very dry winter this year with hardly any to no snow. We stayed at the Zermott Resort in Midway and eric gave the kids permission to jump on the beds and they were so excited. Stephanie had to finally say no more after it started to get a little out of control! We went on a carriage ride which was supposed to be a sleigh ride but again since there wasn't snow it was a carriage ride. It was really fun. The kids enjoyed themselves too. Eric enjoyed how peaceful it was and relaxing. We also went Tubing at Soldier Hollow. The only place with snow because they make their own! Tubing was such a blast. We couldn't believe how fast you go down this hill! The first time we went down we were like, "Oh my gosh!" Janine hunkered down in the hole of her tube and you wouldn't see her again until you were stopped! Hilarious. Stefan kept going and going and going. This kids had a blast. Jacoby was a year to small to go on the big hill but they did have a little kid one that we would try and sling shot him as hard as we could so he could have a fun ride! Oh and he did. so much in fact that he fell asleep!

At the end of our trip we went over to the Olympic Park and Eric did the skeleton sled. Its the sport where the olympians lie on their stomachs and fly down the track on a little sled, 2-3 inches off the ice! So crazy! The picture of jacoby where he is sitting on the black sled is the same kind that eric went on! Out of 20 people he took 2nd! Going 49.4 MPH! He was flying! He had a blast. There wasn't time for Stephanie to do it so one of our next dates will be going back to Olympic Park and both of us doing it together!

Merry Late Christmas!....And A Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T08:18:00.000-08:00

I know this post is almost a month late! But oh well its getting done. We had a very busy christmas season this year. Stephanie helped out the most she ever has at Kneaders during the Holiday season. She enjoyed herself alot. Janine also had a little dance recital this month as well. While there wasn't enough seating for everyone we were stuck standing in the back and we completely missed Janine dancing! We were so sad and dissapointed. Eric saw her a teeny bit but Stephanie missed her completely. She was quite upset.
This month was also Jacobys 2nd birthday! We had so much fun. We took him out to lunch and then since there was no snow we gave him a one man JEEP. He loved it! Took him a day to figure out the gas pedal and the steering at the same time. He has it down now and enjoys it. Stefan is bummed because he is too big for it and Janine can ride it. Jacoby got a Christmas Birthday Cake because he didn't get it for his first birthday. We put on Ipad ontop of his cake because he is into technology and was born knowing how to work an Ipad.

Christmas eve as always is fun. We all enjoy making our own pizzas and getting our Christmas Jammies. This is always a great time of year for us to think about the Saviour and what gifts we can give to him this year. We don't do new years resolutions. Instead we have taken that and have turned it into our gifts for Jesus. This is a tradition that we enjoy and really helps us keep the goal the whole year. To truly honor our saviour and the many blessings he gives to us on a daily basis. We always enjoy watching the Nativity story and the kids enjoy talking about what they know.
Christmas Morning this year was on a Sunday and at first we weren't too excited because it was going to break up our routine of how we do things on Christmas. However, we all really enjoyed going to sacrament on the sabbath and the special feeling that came home with all of us was different. It really helped us keep the true spirit of Christmas.
Jacoby got his ipad for christmas, Stefan got his Nintendo DS, and Janine got her craft table and easle with art supplies. Eric and Stephanies gift came a few months ago as we finished our basement.

Photo Card

2011-11-30T10:09:00.001-08:00

His Grace Alone Christmas

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Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

This was a great Turkey Day this year! We were finally able to spend thanksgiving again with family and it was so nice. We spent Thanksgiving this year with the Allan family down in Marysvale. We woke up at home thanksgiving morning and drove down to marysvale and then helped finish up with the dinner. The best part of the Allan feast are the pies. We believe in there being a pie for everyone. The picture of the pies that was taken doesn't even show all the pies that we had. Insane? Yes, and we love it. You just have a sliver of every pie and then 2 hours later you have some more! What a great day thanksgiving!
We were able to spend all weekend there and we went to the elementary gym and played basketball together and Eric and Stephanie woke up at 5 o'clock friday morning and went to the walmart in richfield. They were having a deal on the motorized Jeeps and so we got one for Jacobys birthday that is coming up in a week and a half! It was fun to do some shopping together and get movies for $1.96 each. It was also free babysitting and a great date for the two of us to have together. We ended our little holiday trip with an outing to Pizza Hut. Richfield has one of the only Pizza huts in the state where you can sit down and eat there. All other places are "to go" only. So the kids love going to Pizza Hut at Grandma Allan house.href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pY8a5niTeF4/TtZloa2seqI/AAAAAAAAAgU/8_n90uOcKUI/s1600/DSCF0274.JPG">

That Sunday evening we Decorated the Christmas tree together as a family. We bought new ornament this year and got rid of our firt set of bulbs ever. Traded out the breakable bulbs for the non breakables. Tree turned out great.

Another thing that happened over this Thanksgiving weekend is we finally became members of YouTube!!! We made our own video of the Allan Christmas Lighting 2011! Click on the link if you dare!

Halloween 2011!

2011-11-18T05:40:00.000-08:00

First and for most we want to give a big shout out to those who are able to update their blogs on an almost daily basis. We think about it on an almost everyday basis but finding the time right now is difficult!
At the start of the Halloween season (september end of august) Stefan said he wanted to be a pirate. Well the costume that happened to fit Jacoby this year was stefans old pirate costume from when he was 2. Stephanie then said that the whole family was going to be pirates this year! Janine absolutely refused to be anything but a princess. So stephanie said that the whole family will still be pirates and Janine will be the princess that we have captured! This was a great plan until October rolled around and Stefan changed his mind and wanted to be the blue ninja from last year. OH well saves us money right? Stephanie's plan didn't turn out. the only one who happened to be a pirate was Jacoby, but a cute pirate he was! Stefan was the blue ninja, Janine was sleeping beauty. The whole day was fun. In the morning Stephanie and the kids went to the elementary and watched Stefan walk around the school halls for his parade and took pictures.
Then he went to a carnival. Later Stephanie took all the kids to the school carnival. Then we came back home and decorated the back of the Armada for the trunk or treat. The kids always enjoy this. They get to go through the house and pick out what they want to put in the car. This is the first year Eric and Stephanie didn't dress up. Excuse no.1 we had no time to get dressed. Eric got stuck at work all day and the trunk or treat started at 5. Eric pulls into the driveway at 4:55 runs inside for a fresh shirt and good smelling stuff and we left. The trunk or treat was a lot of fun, but different than what we were used to in Pleasant Grove. In PG, all the kids would run crazy going from car to car multiple times and wouldn't stop until all the cars were out of candy! Here in Salem, we were the ones going crazy trying to chase kids down to get them to take our candy and they wouldn't because they said that they had already been to our car! Eric and Stephanie put the candy in their bags and told them not to tell their parents!!
We had a great time!

This year we also did pumpkins of course! This is always an adventure as none of our kids will stick their hands into the pumpkins and rip out the guts! The love to carve and get so excited, but they refuse to stick their hands in there...maybe next year. Stefan and Eric teamed up and made the cool scary one. Janine made one with her name on it and Stephanie and Jacobys was the spooky face. good times.

Stephanie's Birthday!

2011-10-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

This year for stephanies birthday the thing she wanted and needed was a new camera. Which she did recieve. This is the reason not too many pictures have been taken. What has been taken was on her phone and even though they tak good pictures they will never be as good as an actual camera. We have been taking pictures like crazy now trying to get the kids yearly pictures one which has been kind of hard this year. Jacoby is not very cooperative. Janine has been sick as well and so getting a good picture of any kid while they are sick is hard.
Anyway.....Eric went to work for 2 hours and then came back home with breakfast and ate with us and then went back to work for 2 more hours and then came home and worked on his office for the afternoon. The evening before we went on a date to Little Italy in Provo. Best Italian food you will ever eat. We got the birthday cake from there too. sssooo good. Eric made pumpkin chili for dinner and we went and watched stefan play a soccer game where he scored 3 goals! Stephanie had a good birthday.d

Stefans Birthday & Soccer Life!!

2011-10-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

this fall all began with Stefan starting soccer. Fall soccer started with 2 and ends with 1. Janine started to play as well but about half way through the season she decided she was a dancer and not a soccer player.
Stefan however is a soccer player and does very well. His last game stefan scored all three of the teams goals! The other kids on the team told their coach that Stefan is their leader. when the coach asked stefan if that was true Stefan shook his head and said quote "Ya, I am". Too funny. Stefan loves soccer and really enjoys playing the game. He is always the first one on the field ready to go.

Stefans birthday this year happened to be the week of General Conference so his Uncle Troy was in town so we had a family party where the grandparents uncles and cousins came. We had a lot of fun. Uncle Michael even performed some magic tricks for everyone. Stefan wanted a race car cake with monster trucks in the middle doing jumps! Well our kids may not have elaborate parties but Stephanie tries to always deliver what the kids would like for their birthday cakes.
Stefans present that he got from his parents was a Bearded Dragon Lizard! Now as his parents it is our job to try and talk him out of this, right? Well try we did to no avale. A lizard is what he wanted. His cousin Canyon has one and loves his, so we went out on his birthday and got the lizard and some things to go in its cage. We thought that Stefan wouldn't even touch it or anything but he did. He lets the lizard climb up his arm and everything. They are very friendly and you can train them to do things. In Stephanies mind this is a way better pet to have right now than a dog!

Kindergarten.......And the adventure begins!!!

2011-08-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Stefans first day of Kindergarten!! Stefan was so excited to start school. when taking him to school he walked 3 steps ahead of his mom. That was bitter sweet. Stephanie was so happy to see him confident and excited about being in the "big kid" school as stefan puts it. It seems like Stephanie has waited for this moment for a very long time, and on the other hand it feels like not too long ago that the two of them were going to mom and tot classes together!
Stephanie helped Stefan put all his homework papers into the different bins that were given to the parents on orientation night. He then hung up his backpack, and his teacher Mrs. Smith took our picture and he went to find his name tag on his desk. Stephanie stayed by the door for just a minute to watch him find his desk and sit down. At that moment Stephanie got choked up and could feel the waterworks so she quickly turned and left before the tears had a chance to make it to her face.
Its a good thing Stefan is strong and doesn't have separation issues because that helps keep his mother strong too. The only dissapointment of the new year is Stefan really wanted to ride the big yellow bus to and from school. You have to live 1 1/2 miles from the school in order to ride. We live 1 1/4 miles from the school. So unfortunately the only thing he will be riding in is our big red Armada! HAHA.

Today was also Janines first day of dance class. Janine has been on both of us parents to sign her up for dance since she was just shy of 3. She is now 4 and today is her first day. Janine has come a long way in not being shy and at least talking to her teachers. While she didn't speak at all last year to her teachers, she has already talked to her primary teacher and her preschool teacher that we met at the open house. Right after her dance class she came home and put her shoes back on and showed Stephanie everything that she learned. Then when eric came home she put her shoes back on and showed her dad everything that she learned. When we signed up for class and Janine saw her costume she would wear for her performance she was overly excited. the tutu was her favorite part. oh and the sparkles. She says she will look really pretty in it. Whbich she is right, of course!

Lake Powell Trip

2011-08-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

About a week and a half ago we went to Lake Powell with the Powell family. Our sister Serina just had a baby 2 weeks before that so she didn't come but Grandma and Grandpa Powell took the 2 older boys with them to the Lake. This was nice because it kept Stefan entertained and then Janine was entertained by Scotty and his kids. We had a fun trip. Thankfully we missed the sand and rain storm thursday night! Every time we go to the lake we rent a boat and go wake boarding, water skiing and ride tubes and stuff. Stephanie wakeboarded for the 2nd time in her life and she did great! Try after Try after Try after Try she finally made it out of the wake! wwaahhooo!!! Then of course Sean goes and he just makes it looks so easy. going in and out of the wake. coming up on the side of the boat leaning way back.
He is just good. We all took turns with the water hot dog. The kids loved it. We built a waterslide down the beach into the water. This was so much fun. we poured some bubbles on the plastic and then when you were ready to slide we would dump a bucket of water and you would go at the same time. Skyler was the best to watch. He brought a lot of water down with him and speed. Grandpa took braxton (scotty and danelles son) on the water hot dog with him and Braxton fell asleep!
Was the funniest thing ever. We stopped the boat and asked if he wanted off and he said no and so they rode for 2 more minutes and the boy was out again! so we took him back to shore! Hilarious....The water was 30 feet higher at this point than it was last year and so the Sand Slide was back. We went to that and climbed it. The little boys climbed that thing twice! They are all truly Rockstars!!I took more videos than pictures but for some reason I have sound on my recorder but not when I put them on my computer. so I can only do some of the pictures that I have.

Anniversary & A Camping Trip

2011-07-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

On July 10,2011 Eric and Stephanie celebrated their 8 year anniversary! Crazy how time really flies. Stephanie hasn't had a bike since she was like 12 yrs old. So eric took her out and bought her a bike for their anniversary a "specialized" bike. So we went biking for our anniversary. We had a great time. We always do when we spend time together.
This past weekend we went on a family camping trip to Payson Lakes. This is a really beautiful lake to swim in and fish. We of course wanted to stay in the campground just next to the lake but naturally when we arrived they were all full. So we were forced to drive a little further of the Mountain and rough it. meaning no toilets! It seems that when we have to camp like this we end up enjoying ourselves more. Probably because we are completly by ourselves. We went on a family hike and collected leaves and laid them infront of our tent so we wouldn't track in the fine black dirt. It actually worked! That was a fun family project. On saturday we went to the lake and stayed for most of the day. We aired up our boat and went out and had a great time. Jacoby however hated hit life jacket and screamed the whole time....aaaahhhh family memories.

Janines 4th Birthday! + The 4th of July

2011-07-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

When Janine turned one we had a birthday party where all of the allan family came with some of our friends and it was a great birthday. Then she turned 2 and Stephanie started to feel as though we would always have a big to do on her birthday since it is shared with a major holiday. Then she turned 3 and it was just the 4 of us. This year on her golden birthday (cause she turned 4) Stephanie's oppinion has changed. We love having her birthday on the 4th. Not only does this girl love barbeques and shrimp, but we celebrate her birthday for 3 days every year! She loves how the television and radio and people in the store know its her birthday. Everytime someone says July or the 4th of July, Janine always tells her mom, "that person knows its my birthday." We love Janine and are so happy she is in our family.
In preparing this cake for Janine, stephanie made a rainbow cake for her. While visiting for Aunt Lonis wedding, Aunt Annette showed Janine a cake that she wanting to do for Canyon for his birthday. so naturally janine wanted that as well. It was fun to make and super easy.
When it is finished it looks something like this. Next time stephanie wont pour all of one color in at once. she would do half so she could do 2 patterns. This way all the colors will have big sections, instead of like this one where you can barely see the red on the very outside. if that makes any sense. Stephanie and the kids enjoyed baking this cake together. The kids were actually hanging around the kitchen this time while Stephanie made the cake. Probably because it was a neat cake that Janine wanted. Some kids get really cool big toys and over the top parties.....our kids get CAKE! But what is better than cake!? Since Stefan and Stephanie had pinatas for their birthdays this year we couldn't leave out Janine so we got a Dora the Explorer pinata and enjoyed beating the candy out of her.

Do I have a Blog???........I Do!!

2011-07-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a blog post in a long time! The reason being internet! Or lack thereof for that matter.
To re-cap what has been happening in the Allan family these last few weeks has been quite a lot.
After our family trip to Arizona two weeks later we packed up our house and our now living in Salem Utah. Where is that you might ask? Just north of Payson and South of Springville/Spanish Fork. We are sandwiched in the middle. We love it out here. We feel as though we can breathe. We loved living in Pleasant Grove and had many good friends. We are excited though to be in our home and begin a new chapter in our lives.
Stefan did participate in Baseball here in Salem. They got a shirt and a Baseball hat with a MLB Team logo on them. He was a New York Giant this year. Stefan has improved so much. He can almost catch every ball you throw overhand, and the ones that he doesn't he at least moves his glove right where the ball is. He just misses. We are so proud and happy to see the progression in him. Next is soccer and he is really excited for that and Janine is excited to Play with Stefan.
The Month of June brought unpacking boxes and getting a little more settled.After not seeing one of stephs cousins since we got married, he contacted stephanie and him and his family wanted to rent our house and buy it the first of the year! They moved in June 25th!! We are so excited to have someone there and someone who can see the vision that we saw of what that house can be.
We also had a sister get her endowments out and get married. The week of Loni's wedding we also had the Kneaders Convention in Park City. Stephanie went up and spent a night with Eric. We had a blast. It was a nice date that we were able to have. We had the banquet of course and then we went miniature golfing where Eric kicked Stephanies butt by 10 strokes! He even got a hole in ONE!!! Then we went swimming. we had races and Stephanie won in those. So we both won something. Sssooo Needless to say the whole month was crazy! Eric & Michael catered the event with food from Kneaders. It looked amazing. They did an amazing job. Stephanie did the wedding cake which turned out well. The wedding was nice. While at the temple we ran into the Tolds from our old ward. They had moved from the ward 2 years ago. It was fun to run into them. On our way back from temple going to Marysvale we got a flat tire!!! so stranded on the side of the road trying to get our tire changed in church clothes we thankfully left before the rest of the family and so we had Kendal and Dale's families who stopped and helped us. Troy & Annette stopped, picked up Stephanie and took her to the church so she could finish the cake before the reception. It was quite an adventure, but it all worked out.This past week we went to a Salt Lake City "Bees" game. They are a minor league team that utah has. that was fun.
Now it is the 4th of July weekend and we all know what that means! Janines Birthday!!!.....oh and the countrys too.
Stephanie is working on Janines Tinker Bell cake. We are hoping it will be done before her birthday!
Well for having so many things happen in these past few weeks we were able to get in all in, in a not so very long post!

Arizona!!

2011-05-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well about a week and a half ago we traveled to arizona for Sterlings farewell and also to catch a D-Backs game with Scotty & Danelle and their family. We decided to drive through the night instead of sleeping at Kendals (erics bro) house. We were about 20 minutes outside of Flagstaff when Serina calls us and informs us that Scotty is in the hospital with his 1 yr old Brenley who has menengitis! So instead of going to Phoenix we decided to head east and go straight to Pinetop. Brenley is doing well. She can hopefully go home on Wednesday. Very blessed little girl.
We had a really good time in Pinetop.
On Friday we went into some caves with our private trail guide Sean. We lucked out and there wasn't 3 inches of water in the begining like there usually is. However, in Arizona you have thick clay like mud. Quite a bit different than your typical mud. This quickly became an adventure with our 5, 3, & 1 year old kids. But we had a blast.
Grandma tripped on a mud hill because it is so dug up from people trying to find indian pottery. We must say she falls with style!!
We had to crawl at parts and Eric tripped also. When the mud got so bad that even us adults were starting to lose our shoes we decided to turn back.
As we were almost back at the beginning Stephanie slipped in some mud which made her off balance and while holding Jacoby ends of falling backwords and lands on her back and butt. But she kept Jacoby from getting in the mud. What a fun family activity though.

The kids did enjoy getting in the back of the truck afterwards and taking off their socks and shoes and wiping their bodies off with wet wipes. A genius invention....the wet wipe.
We had fun playing basketball, going on 4-wheeler rides, playing volleyball and soccer, and just hanging out as a family. Sterling gave an amazing talk on sunday which also happend to be mothers day.
Luckily Stephanie got the chance to pick Sterling up from the airport and take him home with her, fed him his last family meal at Kneaders and Eric came to take him to the MTC. He was very nervous but sssooo excited. He will do great. He is serving in Villahermosa, Mexico.

Tonsils & Cake? Go Together?

2011-04-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

We know this is such a late post but hey since we use this blog as a family journal it has to get put in!
On Thursday april 14th, Stefan got his tonsils taken out! The night before his big day the family went to "The Pizza Facotry" for dinner. Sort of as his last real meal for awhile. We brought along Aunt Whitney and as you can tell the kids love their Aunt Whitney. On the day of Stefans surgery he was very brave and listened very well to the nurses and Doctors. He wasn't scared we (his parents) talked to him about this before and of course he was excited because he gets to eat junk food! popcicles, pudding, juice, jello all his favorite foods!

After his surgery the nurses have mom sit on the bed and then they place the child in your arms and you hold them for the next 2 hours until they release you. What a nice thing though to do that. Helps the mom feel like she is helping her child while the child at the same time is comforted by his mother holding them. (aaahh tear)

Well you are probably wondering where the cake comes in to play? Well the week of Stefans surgery was the same week Stephanie had a Wedding Cake due! Stefan got his tonsils out on Thursday and the cake was due Saturday!! Thanks to a wonderful husband who took all day thursday off, Stephanie was able to get ahead on her cake so that friday when she was alone to take care of stefan she didn't have too much to do. But Stephanie always wakes up early in the morning to do most of her cakes so that she can be with the kids and not feel as though she neglects them for a week!Stephanie did the wedding cake for a friends sisters wedding. After setting up the cake everyone loved it!
Stephanie was later told that her cake was a huge hit. Everyone was so impressed. The director of Noahs in South Jordan liked it so much he asked Kayelene (stephs friend) if Stephanie would like to be the main contact for wedding cakes at that location!!! Whaaaahooo!! Stephanie told Kaylene to give her info to the guy because that would be awesome!!

Texas Vacation!!

2011-03-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Austin, Texas from March 12-17th to celebrate Troy & Annettes spring break with them and we had so much fun. It was a very lazy and relaxing vacation which was nice. Time meant nothing to us. Most of the time we didn't even know what time it was we just did things when we felt like it and then just chilled. It was nice. The SUN that was supposed to be in Texas decided to not show up! While it was still warmer than Utah it wasn't quite what we were wanting.
We flew into Austins Airport and the flight over was very helacious and not a friendly group of people either! which always makes things was more fun. Troy, Annette and Canyon welcomed us to Texas with Texas A&M shirts for us to wear. Too bad we weren't wearing "you got Jimmered" shirts! We had the best barbeque ever while there! Stephanie had a brisket sandwich that was the size of Texas and of course she DOWNED IT!!!! The place was called Salt Lick

Then we made it to Troy & Annettes home in Lampasas.

We went to a park not far from their home and fed some ducks. And then at the end it was just Stephanie, Janine & Annette and the geese came over and man they are vicious. I have never heard a goose hiss before. crazy frieky.

Then we went camping with them in their huge Motorhome which camping in general is just fun. One day we went to San Antonio to see the Alamo, and then did the river walks which is just a bunch of restaurants and shops along a big river. The sun did find us there that day though!

Another day we had the opportunity to see a Professional Rodeo! Now that was some crazy fun. Stephanie bought herself a cowgirl shirt from there that is erics new favorite.
Stefan did his first Carnival ride afterwards as well. He absolutely loved it. Janine wanted to a slower paced ride and even though we only had enough coins for Janine to ride the guy let Stefan and Jacoby ride as well! Eric & Stephanie couldn't believe that Jacogy could ride by himself. Both parents were nervous the first 2 times around but then relaxed when they could see he was having a blast!
We were so sad to see our vacation come to an end. they always fly by which just seems so unfair.
This is the shirt that stephanie bought. The picture was taken on the side of a Steakhouse that we ate before we flew out. Oh yes the day we left the sun was shining and later after we left Troy & Annette and Canyon hung out at the pool! so unfair!

We are so happy and know that we are truly blessed by our Heavenly Father that we are able to take vacations as a family.

Sickness, Sickness??....MORE Sickness!!

2011-03-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

In the last week of January Stephanie went to Las Vegas for the Convention with her mother-in-law Brenda and brother in laws wife Jennee. At the convention they go to the different vendors and can buy for all the holidays in the year and then everyday knick knacks and things to go into the stores to sell....Saturday evening when she returned she came back to a house full of sick kids. Then monday Eric came home feeling sick. The Allan family was sick the entire month of February! There is no exageration in that statement. Eric still has a slight cough and just yesterday was Janine's last day of antibiotics, and Stefan and Jacoby's last day of breathing treatments!! Jacoby would get sick back to back and then stefan would get his cough back and that is never a good thing. Our doctors office is about ready to give us a personalized room, and we are on a first name basis with the pharmacy!!! Unvelievable!!

Yesterday was the first time it has been warm enough and the kids have been healthy enough to go outside and play. The fresh air felt so good. Today we have been sanitizing everything!
We are now just trying to stay healthy for our vacation to Texas in a week in a half!! We can not wait to go where it is warm for 5 days!!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!

2011-01-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas One And All!!!
We had another wonderful Christmas this year. It all starts off of course with Christmas eve. Every year on Christmas eve we each get to make our own individual gourmet pizza! Afterwards we watch the Church video called "Joy To The World" its the Christmas story and then it has the tabernacle choir afterwards that sings a few songs. Then we write our gifts to Jesus and stick them in the tree. After wards we do Christmas Pajamas, and then read the night before Christmas. In years past we were able to get away without leaving milk and cookies for santa. This year we were not so lucky. We had to leave 4 cookies and Chocolate milk. Stefan was insistant that it be chocolate milk because Santa likes Chocolate milk.
After the kids go to bed eric spends his time putting some kind of toy together, and stephanie is a wrapping fool! How we get so far behind we aren't quite sure but nonetheless it happens every year. Stephanie doesn't mind, she actually enjoys wrapping. (which is probably why its like this every year)

Christmas day was great. The kids loved everything and Eric & Stephanie got some neat things as well. This year was a dry Christmas. For the past 3 or 4 years it has snowed every christmas morning and we would go Sledding across the street on Christmas. This year no snow, but was kind of nice not having to rush to get everyone dressed to go sledding. It was a very relaxful day.

Christmas Program

2010-12-20T11:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

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!!

2010-12-13T06:48:00.001-08:00

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???

2010-12-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-10-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-08-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-06-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-06-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Fathers and Sons

2010-05-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Eric took Stefan and his cousins Aadric and Kaedrin on fathers and sons! They had a blast. While they were gone Stephanie and Janine painted their nails and went out to dinner and then went to Claire's in the Mall and bought Janine som big girl jewelery. Janine came back with headbands, a bracelet, ring and necklace. Stephanie and Janine both had a lot of fun together.

Eric and the boys showed up back home the next morning and boy did the stink like the outdoors. Eric was in charge of breakfast that morning and had 3 little helpers to assist him. They all had a great time. Each boy had their own stories to share about what they did and what happened.

Feel Like Camping?

2010-04-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

We bought a new tent this year! This tent is ssssoooo much easier to put up than our other tent! Our old tent is almost 7 years old and has started to leak when it rains...and we broke a pole last summer when we were camping. it was actually pretty funny because we were already tired from breaking camp and just when you are almost done and you just want to get the tent down and in the car SNAP!! there goes the pole! HAHA!
We wanted to buy a tent that was easier to put up and we did find one. This tent is a 6 man tent while our other one is an 8 man tent. but the new tent is perfect for us and will fit in camp sites. the other one was always a tight fit and most of the time we were Squished.

We put up the tent and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon just laying down and relaxing in the tent. It actually did feel like we were camping. The kids were upset when we took it down but Eric promised that he would sleep outside with the kids in the tent before fathers and sons.

2010-04-06T08:05:00.001-07:00

Easter!! Easter!!!

2010-04-05T13:42:00.001-07:00

This post has the allan family dipping and coloring eggs and also tells about the easter holiday. WE have gotten behind on our posts that this one I think we can combine them. This year for Easter the Allan family was blessed to be able to spend some time with both sides. Stephanie's Dad and two Uncles; Rick(dads bro) & Todd (dads bro-in-law) They came up for Conference and stayed from Friday night and stayed until early Sunday afternoon. Erics parents and sisters came up on saturday night to have a easter meal with us and then left after. We enjoyed spending time with everyone and reconnecting and getting to know eachother. Friday night Scott,Uncle Rick and Uncle Todd took Eric and STephanie out to dinner at Magelbey's. We had a great time and then afterwards went home and had some birthday cake!! Yep that's right Uncle Rick made it to another birthday!! we will leave the age out for his sake but we did have candles. Only the # candles that way he only had to blow out 2 candles instead of dozens ! Saturday night Eric and Stephanie gave Stefan and Janine their easter gifts so they could enjoy them before sunday came around. Stefan recieved a basketball hoop and janine got a new bike since we ran over her tri-cycle. Sunday morning we had our easter egg hunt and saw what the bunny brought. Everyone enjoyed helping Stefan and Janine find their eggs. This was a wonderful easter!

Baby Shower Cake! March 27th

2010-04-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Stephanie was asked to make a Baby shower cake for a friend. The theme was a Luau! So stephanie decided to stick to the theme and create a volcano, palm trees, and Hula dancers! Eric is always relieved when Stephanie finishes a cake. "Sometimes she gets out of control" eric says. which is probably true. Although the outcome is always worth it. This cake with the right planning would take a stress free week. That was the plan but then things happen and Stephanie busted this cake out in two days with extremely late nights. (midnight!) But again the outcome was worth it.

Baby Blessing.

2010-03-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

We know this post is a month late, but since we are wanting to put all of our blog posts into a book this june we needed to create a post about Jacobys baby blessing. We had his blessing February 7th. Yes super bowl weekend. We had a great time with everyone. Eric blessed Jacoby during sacrament meeting and then afterwards everyone came back to our home and we had a big lunch. Later that evening we watched the super bowl. Kendal and Lisa stayed for a little bit of the game and Stephanie parents left during the 4th quarter. It was a blizzard that night as well. Stefan and Janine just love having their cousins over. Stefan loves playing with Kaedrin. Even though Janine is very shy at first, eventually she will start to involve herself with others. Pictures are always crazy after blessings. Jacoby fit in the blessing outfit alot better than Stefan. Probably because Jacoby is a chunkier baby and Stefan was just a skinny binny. Jacoby is a sweet, cute little baby.

Bunkbeds!

2010-02-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since we last blogged! So much has happened so we will just start at the beginning. February 1st (Monday) we went out and bought Stefan and Janine Bunkbeds! Since all the stores we were interested in that had bunkbeds were all down in provo, so Eric went in and did all the looking so that in the end we would only have to go in 1 or 2 stores. which is what ended up happening. The bunkbeds are full over full!! I know you are all thinking why would we buy such big beds for 2 little kids? Answer?...These beds will come in handy for company and they come apart so in the future we can have two separate full beds. Jacoby has graduated from his parents room and to have the most space it made the most sense to have stefan and Janine share a room for a little while. When Jacoby is big enough for a bed he will share the bunkbed with Stefan and Janine will use the Daybed. Which is why we didn't splurge for character comforters. Stefan and Janine are still so excited about their beds. They play on them all the time. Stefan says his bed (on top) is the Race Car Tower. This boy loves racing. Now everyone who knows Stephanie knows she doesn't care for white wood. But we bought white bunkbeds one because it was our only option in the style we liked and also we can paint them later.

Winter Fun!

2010-01-23T14:30:00.001-08:00

Hallelujia!!! We finally have some snow again!! Snow has been in the forecast for weeks but the storm always seemed to miss us. We have about 4 inches outside. Now of course we don't have nearly as much as Pinetop,Az got this past Thursday. Stephanie's family got 4 feet of snow!! Her family was without power from 7:30a.m to 5:30 P.M.
This morning Eric took Stefan and Janine across the street to go sledding. Stephanie forgot to give him the camera to take pictures so we don't have a picture of that, but apparently Janine loved sledding this time and she went down the hills by herself and went the furthest of anyone. Stefan always has a blast while sledding. Eric also likes to stand on the sled and go down the hill. The first time he said he ate it but then the next two times he made it all the way down without falling.
Stephanie would have gone but Jacoby is still a little congested so we didn't want to risk him getting sick again after we just barely got him better.

After lunch Stephanie took the kids outside to build a snowman. we don't have any sticks in the driveway or around the road so we went in the backyard to the wood pile and found to big sticks or really small logs. whatever your opinion is. This is our first snowman of the year! Stefan was a great helper and rolled the middle ball. he did awesome. Of course we had to get our pictures taken with the snowman so Stefan took the picture of Stephanie and Janine and then Stephanie took the picture of Stefan and Jainine.

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-01-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you had a merry christmas and wonderful New Year. This year has been a vacationing year for us. In February Stephanie took the kids to Mesa to see her sister Serina and sister-in-law Danelle because they had their babies and Stephanie wanted to see them when they were newborns. Then we went to Florida to go to Disney World with Troy and Annette. We had a blast over there. Another thing we love to do is camp. We went camping a couple of times this year. We camped up in American Fork Canyon and went to Fish Lake with Erics family, and in July we went to Lake Powell with Stephanie's family. This past summer Stefan enjoyed hiking up the "G" to the waterfalls. Stefan also started pre-school this year and is loving it. Janine loves musice so we have her in a music class that teaches notes, rythms, and songs. In the beginning she was very shy but now sings and participates in everything the teacher has planned. This past september before Stefans birthday Eric and Stephanie went to Vegas to spend some time together before we had our new baby Jacoby.

Every Christmas eve we make homemade pizza and this year we did individual pizzas so everyone got to make their own.

Christmas this year really fun. Stefan brought home some oatmeal with red glitter in a baggie from school. The oatmeal was for the reindeer to eat and the red glitter was to attract Santa and the reindeer to make sure that they came to our house. So Christmas eve stefan made sure that we went outside and sprinkled the oatmeal on the ground. Janine recieved princess stuff this year and she put the ear rings on, the bracelets, the crown and a necklace. That is who she was for the day. She was a princess and she acted like it. Stefan wanted his parents to play with him and Janine wanted to be left alone to be in her own princess world by herself. She was something else on christmas.

Stefan got a huge remote control tank from his Uncle Sterling. This thing has power. Definately not an inside toy. When that thing hit the wall we thought it would go through the wall! The thing has power.

This year eric loved Stefans toys just as much as stefan...if not a little more.

Erics main gift was the Wii Fit, Stefans was legos, Janines was a pink/purple Keyboard that came with a microphone, and Stephanie's was the Bullet Express. That thing is awesome!

Jacoby Dale Allan

2009-12-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

Born December 10, 2009 at 2:27 p.m Jacoby Dale Allan joined our family! While it was a little rough getting him here we are so happy that he is healthy, happy and not born the week of Christmas! Stephanie was starting to wonder if this baby would ever come and Eric was praying he would be born on a Thursday. Just to explain, Thursday was just the best day of the week for Eric to take time off and wouldn't you know it little Jacoby must have listened to that conversation because he was born last Thursday! He was grunting and not breathing well so the doctors put him in the NICU (nursery intensive care unit)and we were able to bring him home sunday the 13th. We were so happy that the nurse taking care of Jacoby was the same one who took such good care of Janine when she was in there.

Stefan and Janine are so excited to have a baby brother and just love to hold him. There have already been fights about who gets to hold him first. Although Stefan thinks he is super big we must watch him and Janine at all times while holding the baby. Especially Janine. She hasn't quite figure out that you can't just toss this baby like you can her baby dolls.
We have taken many many pictures of this little guy and here are just a few for you to look at and enjoy.

ThanksGiving 2009

2009-11-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

This year for ThanksGiving this Allan family stayed home. Stephanie is very largely pregnant and we didn't think it wise to take the risk of her having a baby anywhere but here. While we tried to convince family to come to our house.........it just didn't work out. So we had our own 15 pound turkey for just the four of us! It was awesome. We didn't even make through 1 breast!! The rest of the turkey we put in the freezer for when the baby does come and some in the fridge to eat on of course for the next couple of days. This turkey was the best tasting turkey we have ever had. Eric was simply amazing! Check it out for yourself.

All morning Eric and Stephanie make stuffing,prepared the turkey, prepped potatoes, made muffins with fruit for breakfast and had fun in the process. Before we feasted we took the kids to the park and let them play around for awhile.

Eric had extra pies from Kneaders and brought home a few while Stephanie also made a pumpkin pie and a Chocolate Pecan Pie that was sssooo good. It made the tongue slap the brain! Stephanie wanted to get a family picture for the day. we only got one shot at it and this is the outcome.
Stephanie is always the perfect temperature while pregnant...or at least she thinks so. She is fine when everyone else is freezing. Thus a fire was built and we had one for most of the day. Eric was a good sport and let the kids help build the fire. Stefan threw in wads of paper and Janine placed in the wood.

Swine Flu/Hee Haw Farm.

2009-10-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well these past two weeks have definately been an adventure for the Allan family. Two weeks ago Eric was diagnosed with the SWINE FLU! So we were out for a week. Nobody else caught the bug from eric thanks heavens but of course Stephanie couldn't take the kids out in public by chance they were carrying the flu virus and us just not knowing it.

Eric was diagnosed on a tuesday and so Janine missed her music class that week and Stefan missed his school field trip to HEE HAW FARMS. He was pretty upset about it so we promised that when Dad was better we would go as a family and have an even better time than what he would have had with his class. :) Eric was out for a week and went back to work last week. Last Monday was Stephanie's birthday and Eric bought her a prenatal massage which stephanie loves and when she returned home Eric and the kids had balloons floating from her chair and the table set with candle light and the fancy dishes and Stephanie's favorite Eric dressed up like a Chef and cooked her Chicken Corde on Bleu with Alfredo. Oh so good!

This past Thursday we went to Hee Haw Farms and did the corn maze, pedal go carts, train ride, swings, corn pit, corn guns. And we can't forget the animals. The chickens,goats,cows,pigs. Which of course was totally appropriate since eric just had swine flu. LOL. Hee Haw has tons of fun stuff and we had a great time there as a family.

Stefans 4th Birthday!

2009-09-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

This year for Stefans birthday we celebrated just as a family. Stefan had a hard time deciding if he wanted a Spiderman cake or a Batman cake. He really likes both guys obviously. So Stefan compromised with his mother and made a cob web on the cake with Spiderman defeating Batman. It turned out really cute. Stefan was the special helper in his pre-school class and helped pass out different papers and at the end the snack that he brought. Stefan says his teachers had him stand on the table and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. A tradition that Stephanies mom did with their family is she always took them to lunch on their birthday and Stephanie is excited to pass that along in her family so she took Stefan to lunch and then when dad came home we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner and games. Everyone had a blast. Then we came home and had cake and Ice cream. This year stefan got spiderman that came with a three wheeler, batman, 2 transformers, A huge cherry picker truck that you can buy at Costco, $20 from Grandma and papa Powell for him to pick a toy and a batman hot wheels car from his friend Jake. Next year stefan says he wants a Party so that he can have lots of friends over. So next year I guess we will have a party.

Lake Powell

2009-07-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

During the weekend of 18th the whole Powell Family got together for a fun family trip.
Stefan got really comfortable in his life jacket and was swimming everywhere with it on. Janine of course still doesn't have an a appreciation for water quite yet but she will. Stephanie being 2 wks shy of 4th months was dissappointed that she couldn't try wakeboarding or tube fast. She did however waterskii since she knows how to do that.
Not too much excitement or worthwhile stories to share. The trip was just a great visit with family and really great to have everyone together.
The weather was great except for the last night when a sand storm decided to blow through. Mom and Dad always sleep in the bed of the truck however on this peticular storm they went to a motel. (lol) since it was the last night the boys broke down camp so that nothing would blow away.

4th Of July & Janine's 2nd Birthday!!!!

2009-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

On this particular day in the allan home we celebrate more than just the 4th of July but we also celebrate Janine's birthday! This year was her second birthday. This year was in the first year since eric and stephanie have been married that they were able to participate in some 4th of July festivities. at 5:00 a.m Stephanie woke the kids up and got everyone ready to go to the "Balloon Fest" which is where you get to walk around and watch 20 hot air balloons fill up all around you and then you watch them one by one go up in the air. Doesn't sound too exciting to some people, but it was really cool. We had a lot of fun. Then we went and walked around a bunch of different booths and saw some different cars. Stefan (almost 4 yrs) wants to be a race car driver and there was this electric powered racer that we took his picture with.
We went home and started setting up for Janine's birthday! Janine loves babies and Tinker bell right now. Every time we sang happy birthday to her she had a big smile on her face. She absolutely loved all the attention that she got. Stephanie made a Tinkerbell cake and decorated with 4th of July colors and green and purple balloons. We just had a small barbecue with family & friends and that nignt we lit some fireworks and then watched the town fireworks go off directly across the street from our house.
we had a great 4th of July. Probably the best one since we have been married without question!

Walt Disney World

2009-05-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we left for a family vacation to Walt Disney world in Florida! Our brother and sister in law asked us if we would post pone our vacation in April so that we could go with them to Florida. We did because anyone who knows Troy and Annette know that you will always have a good time with them. We were so excited to go. Eric troy and annette were was the only ones in the family to have ever been to Disney Land or anything like that, so it was exciting for all of us to go. We bought 5 day passes and went to all of the different disney parks. One of our last days we went to Wild Kingdom and saw some kind of snake. We don't remember...a snake is a snake. Annette started by touching it and then Eric and Troy soon followed and everyone finally convinced Stephanie to touch. While it took her what seemed like forever she did eventually touch it! Stephanie convinced everyone before we left to schedule a beach day. This ended up being everyones favorite day. Except for the sunburns. We were unaware that Florida sun was different than Utah sun. well we quickly found out that Florida sun burns so much faster. The funny thing is that we were in Florida for a few more days after the beach and in that time nobody was peeling. However, the day we returned everyone notice the bumps you get on your skin right before you start peeling. (Dang dry air)The humidity was something else as well. After the first night of being there you got used to the humidity enough that you could breathe! Plus you always looked and felt wet. Not a great feeling. Not much else to say about it other than it was the best vacation ever!!

1 New Niece & 1 New Nephew

2009-03-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

The second to the last week in February Stephanie took the kids and went down to Phoenix to help out her sister Serina (who now has 3 children) and so that she could see these babies when they are newborns. Our new nephew who is Scottys son was born February 6th and his name is Braxton Scott Powell. Our new niece who is Serinas baby was born 2 weeks later and her name is Daphne Joyce Harrop. Both babies are very cute.

While Stephanie was down there she enjoyed the company from the rest of her family.
stephanie discovered while down there that Stefan was misdiagnosed up here. What was claimed to be a sinus infection turned out to be bronchitis! This in turn made the trip a little more interesting. We were and still are upset with the pediatrician who saw Stefan. All is well now. Stefan is better and back to his normal self.
One hilarious story that I have to tell you is about two of my younger brothers. Sean and Sterling. I tell you this because it just shows how silly but fun they can be.So sean and Sterling started out pulling eachother in Serinas wagon and of course they found a shopping cart and took turns pushing eachother into a brick wall!! It was hilarious. They went as far as putting a football helmet on and then went crashing into the wall like a crash dummy. only one minor injury to report and that would be from sterling. he just bent his thumbnail back half way. Never a dull moment with any of my brothers.
We had all of the Powell grandkids together and took their picture as well. Good Times. Here are just a few of the pictures.

Dipping Strawberries

2009-02-16T13:10:00.001-08:00

One of Stefans favorite things to do is dip strawberries in chocolate! Last year for Stephanie's birthday(2007) Eric bought her a 5 gallon bucket of ganache! so we love to dip different things in it and use it in recipes. Anyways...we bought two things of strawberries this year for valentines day and these strawberries were huge! Janine as you can see doesn't mind being a mess while she eats. Stefan on the other hand is a lot cleaner.

Cross-Country Skiing

2009-02-02T09:32:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday Eric and I went cross country skiing up at Soldier Hollow and got a babysitter for the kids. We had a great time. We of course took lessons and are so glad we did! We wouldn't have even known what to do. We haven't been skiing since middle school. We understand we are on the "loser chain" for living with snow our whole lives and not skiing or snowboarding. But things are looking up for us! (lol) After our lesson we (in our minds) thought we were taking the shortest trail, however we later realized as we were looking off in the distance and could kind of see the lodge! oh ya you guessed right we took the longest trail Soldier Hollow had!! Only the two of us woulld do something like that! The funniest thing. At the end we were just trying to survive and didn't care of improving technique or anything. After returning we ate lunch and regained some energy and went out again. On a much shorter trail of course. Next time we will be better. What great adventures We always have together. life is never boring.

Winter Snow

2009-01-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

So far this winter we have recieved a lot of snow. It has been awesome. We have a track across the street that sits on top of this hill so we slide down that hill when we have a good snow storm. It's a perfect hill for kids. Our kids love to play outside and build their own snow hills and slide down them as well. Janine loves how she looks in her snow outfit. If you tell her that she looks pretty she smiles and points to her clothes. She's a lot of fun. Of course Stefan sees this and so he posed all gangster for us when we had the camera. He's hilarious. Both of our kids have funny personalities like most kids do. We don't have many pictures of the family together but we will try and do better. There aren't many pictures of Stephanie because she is always the photographer. But like I said we will do better. On our last snow storm we all took turns doing cannonballs into the snow, but of course when you do funny things like that nobody has the camera. but here are a few of eric and the kids.

Remodeling

2009-01-19T08:52:00.000-08:00

Last year around this time we took on the project of turning our garage into a master bedroom. The kids had two different sleeping patterns and kept waking eachother up which meant sleepless nights for Stephanie.
Stephanie told eric that he needed to do something and so being the great man eric is he built the family a new bedroom.
The project started around the end of January beginning of February and we finished that following June (I think). It is always fun to do projects like this. We enjoy working with eachother and spending the time as well.

I have a slideshow together so you can the pictures of what is looked like before and what it looks like now, just so you can see what a monster of a project this was. we took out the garage door obviously and built a wall with a window. We had to bring plumbing into the garage and so we jackhammered the cement floor where the bathroom is to do plumbing. while doing any project in this house we always come across some issue that sets us back a couple of days while we tried to fix that. but after some swear words and laughs we feel we did a pretty good job.

Trying to blog once again; Saw Santa

2008-12-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't tried this in a long time. I'm just kind of clueless with this stuff I guess. but I will try until I become an expert!

We went and took stefan to see Santa Clause at Costco this last friday and he absolutely loved it. Stefan thought that he was just the coolest. It was so much fun. Then you have Janine. She wanted nothing to do with the man. We had a really great time.

2008-06-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Many people we know have been telling us that we need to create a blog page so here it is.