Some New Videos

I always feel like we only put things about James on here. But other then play with James we don't do very much. Here are two new videos of James. He is just so much fun to watch.

Here is James after watching the awful Bronco's game. He wears his Bronco's outfit every time they play and it was working as a good luck charm, but not this time. James loves to watch sports and gets really upset when he has to go to bed or when someone gets in his way and he cannot see. Oh also James is learning to sit up and does really well some days, the hardest thing for him is that he likes to lean forward too much. He has the same problem in his Bumbo.

James loves to play in his "bouncy chair". His favorite things are the frog and the mirror. He really enjoys talking to "the baby."

Rice Cereal

Well some of you have asked to see some videos. Here is James eating some rice cereal. He loves it (probably because I mix it with pear juice). The first few times that he tried didn't work very well and it mostly ended up on his clothes but now that he is getting a little older and has had more practice he does very well. Tonight he kept asking for more and ate three bowls! (Probably about a 1/3 cup total.)

Family Projects

Being a stay at home mother is great however, there only so much you can do with a 5 month old baby. I found myself getting pretty bored during the day and getting upset with Doug when he wanted to work on his projects at home. So Doug and I both have projects to pass some of the time that we are at home. I decided to make a quilt. So I gathered together all of our old pants (8 pairs) and cut them into squares. I got some dollar fabric at Walmart so by the time I am done with this quilt it will only have cost $6 plus the cost of the batting. I am enjoying the project and it is turning out to be really cool.

Doug is working on the laundry room. It has been a long slow project, mostly because I don't let him work on it enough. He is almost done framing the walls and taping and mudding. Soon we will be able to paint and while I am in Florida Doug will put the tile in. We got some really nice tile for really cheep. It is going to be a lot nicer then our kitchen tile so maybe I will spend more time in there!

Living With Children

Yes that's right...Children. I have three. It is only 9:45am and I have already had a pretty busy day. It started at about 2 in the morning with my oldest child. I was pretty sound asleep when I woke up to Doug yelling (at least it seemed really loud to me) "Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh Yeah!" Worried that maybe he forgot something, and now fully awake I said,
"What?"
"We got those things for you to hang on the wall downstairs."
"What things?"
"You know to put on the wall"
"What do we do with them, Why do we need them?"
Frustration: "I will explain in the morning."

Turns out he was asleep and there is really nothing to put on the wall.

My second child acts much like a jealous older sibling would. I constantly follow her around all day saying "Loa No!" I think these will be James's first words. Loa No! could mean many things:
Leave James's toys alone.
James does not want you to sit on him.
Pencils/pens are not for chewing.
The toilet is not your water bowl.
and my favorite: Just because James has spit up and is opening his mouth (wide) does not mean you can clean it up!

Loa probably keeps me the most busy, I have had to baby proof my house not for James but for her.

My third child is probably my easiest. He is content to entertain himself. The most I have to worry about him is putting him back in the middle of the floor after he has rolled himself into a wall or the fireplace (which is never used). James likes to content himself with sucking. He will suck on whatever is nearby (including Loa). He usually sticks to his fingers or a toy he can reach. Recently he started trying to suck on his tongue which creates the cutest face, I can't help but laugh. Today however he found his arm. I walked in the room and he had his arm in his mouth for I don't know how long, and he was not interested in anything else. When he finally let go of his arm I noticed he had given himself a hickey! Now there is something I thought we wouldn't have to deal with for a long time!

Well my children keep me pretty busy and I enjoy each of them.

Doug's Words of Wisdom

• A Hippo can't run, but he never needs to.
• There are two kinds of beautiful, Karen beautiful and Pam beautiful. Find your Pam.
• Today I meet the sky and I asked him why this guy is blue. (Say it out loud, quickly)
• Ipods are a plague on society. When listening to your Ipod no one is impressed, no one wants to talk to you and if you get hit by a car you deserve it.
• Never send a "Thank you" email. If you are trying to be proper and polite email is not the way to go.
• When a task has been performed well we use the term "You nailed it", yet when a task has been performed poorly we say "You screwed that up". A screw is a superior method of fastening over a nail. These terms need to be switched.
• A chicken egg takes 21 days to hatch. No matter how many chickens you get it will still take 21 days. If you try to speed this up you will not like the results.
• The fax machine is a dead technology. Just accept that and stop wasting time. I can not figure out why so many people will prepare a document on their computer as well as a cover sheet then print them out walk to the printer then proceed to the fax machine dial the number and wait for the pages to feed through. If the document is in any way important you will then have to go back and make sure the fax went through. The person receiving the fax is now burdened with keeping track of the piece of paper is stead of being able to place it with the vast majority of their correspondence in their email archives. Email saves you time and it saves me time. No more faxes.

The Allen Family

Well I guess it is about time that we joined the world of blogging. It seems like a great way to stay in touch with old friends so we will give it a try. To many of you this may be old news but I will give a brief recap of the past year to benefit those who my not be up to date our our lives. Last May Doug got a job with Okland Construction and we moved to Salt Lake City! In November we bought our own townhouse in Murray, which we have been having a fun time fixing up, even though it didn't need much. I know Doug wishes there was more he could do. Doug has been working on the Draper temple for the past year and he loves his job. It is fun for me to hear all of his stories and to see the progress on the temple.

I have been working at home raising James who joined our family on April 23. It has been so much fun to be with him and watch him grow. I love to call Doug during the day and tell him all the fun things James is doing. Recently he had learned to roll over both ways so if I walk out of the room he is always in a completely different spot when I come back. It makes it more difficult because we can't just leave him on the couch or bed anymore, but it is fun to watch him play.

James had his first airplane ride in July when we went to Colorado to visit Doug's family. James seemed to enjoy the airplane ride more then he did Colorado. We went to the mountains and enjoyed some slightly cooler weather. James took is second airplane ride in August when we went to Florida to visit my family. We enjoyed the humid weather and swimming in the inter coastal waterway. We went to the everglades and saw some alligators and James went swimming for the first time. He liked to kick his feet in the ocean and play with the sand.

After all the excitement we decided to take September off and just stay home. Doug is finishing his laundry room project which will hopefully be done soon. James and I are getting ready for our next trip to Florida in October.