family reunion

My Allen Family Reunion picture. We look pretty good actually - unfortunately about 20 of the family members are missing in the picture! We had so much fun though!! And with all those people we didn't have any drama. I can't wait for the next one in 3 years.

We went to Emigrant lake and I actually wake boarded for the first time! I was really proud of myself until Alex got up and started doing tricks. He's such a punk - a really cute punk. Zoë loves makeup and stole my mom's lipstick and put it all over her lips. She's my princess!

My cousin Rachael is holding Ethan (I've blogged him before) and my sister Whoopie is holding Emmett. Good looking group huh?

All the great-grandkids went to a farm with a bunch of animals.
Zoë had SOOO much fun with the horses - she pitched a "little" fit when we left too. She actually liked the big horses more than the kitties, dogs, goats or pony.

We had a talent show on the last day. My dad came out dressed as Donald Duck. The great-grandkids just loved it and wanted to dance with him. Zoë wouldn't let him touch her.

One Big Boy

Last night hopefully marked a momentous change in my life ... Emmett slept until 6am!!!! I think he read my last blog and thought he'd give his poor mom a break. I'm flying with the kids by myself to Oregon tomorrow and have to say I'm a bit nervous.

Zoë's been on 40 flights (seriously) so I'm not really concerned about her - it's Emmett. He throws up all over me constantly. He can shoot 2ft away without taking a breath. It's gross but true. So somehow I have to nurse him on the plane without having the aftermath all over the seat and me.

On a lighter note - Zoë is so sweet with Emmett. She always wants to cuddle him and help me take care of him. Emmett just grins from ear to ear when he sees her near. Oooh and Emmett is two months old and weighs 14 lbs!!!! He is wearing 6 month clothes now.

No Sleep

For those of you who've had a colicky baby - my hat is off to you. I cannot function lately. I try to have a normal conversation with my family and friends and most of the time I can't think of what I was going to say and what word I want to use. Alex is really nice and said that I can go work out tonight and he'll watch the kids. It's tempting...I have 17 more pounds to lose. But nothing is more enticing as my bed. All day long I think about how nice my pillows would feel and how comfy my mattress is. I keep saying to myself that I will sleep all through the night someday. Emmett did not sleep Saturday night at ALL! He finally passed out at 6am and slept until 10am. That was his only nap until 10pm Sunday. The only way I can get him to calm down sometimes is to lay right next to him and curl my arms around him to help his little tummy. I feel so bad for the little guy.


Lack of sleep is an interesting test of character. I'm at my absolute worst lately. I was thinking as I was grumbling to whoever could hear me at 3am that I wasn't going to breastfeed anymore and if I had throw-up catapulted on me one more time I was going to lose my mind. During the day I handle it - but at night I turn into the most ornery person. Just because of lack of sleep! It's crazy if you think about it. Make me clean for 12 hrs straight - ok. Have me juggle two whiny kids all day - ok. Even force me to do all the laundry for the 3rd time that day because Emmett threw up on everything again - I handle it. But you take away my sleep and my world collapses. Why? I don't know. Does my body go into self preservation mode when I know I'm only going to get 4 hrs of sleep? I don't know. If you have any suggestions or magical fixes let me know. Until then - just don't try to rationalize with me or bring anything up that would be in the slightest bit disagreeable after the hour of 9pm....through 7am....and only during the time that both kids are taking a nap...and I've had a shower........so pretty much next year sometime around February!!!

Our Trip to Utah

Alex left to Houston for the week and I decided that Zoë needed a bit more fun in the week than just watching me rock a colicky baby - so - we drove to Ogden for four days to stay at my aunt Vickie's house. I'll give you a quick summary of the week.

Zoë is ecstatic that we are in a fun house. Her first words were "WOW big house!". She fell in love with Vickie immediately and the rest of the week asked about her incessantly.

I think the new saying should go "When the kids are happy - Mommy is happy"

My cousin Tracy and her little girl Lauren played with me and Zoë. Lauren was so cute with Zoë and wanted to share her face paints with her. Zoë was in heaven!

You can tell who I'm going to vote for! Sad thing is that she'd probably be a better president at 2 years old. Vickie took her to an AWESOME children's museum. If anyone is in Ogden you definitely need to go to it! Zoë didn't stop for 1 1/2 hours. Emmett finally called it a day.

We went to Katie's in laws house for 4 days in Heber City. Paul and Shirley have an amazing view of the valley! Alex flew in the last day we were there and took one look at their theater room and fell in love. Alex's face in this picture is priceless. And yes, his hand is over his heart!

I met up with 3 of my old roomies from BYU for lunch. It was so great to see them! They are so beautiful and talented. It's too bad I was such a dweeb in college and didn't take advantage of their friendship. I'm sure I'm singing a song a lot of people do. From left to right we have Melissa, Brooke (holding Emmett) and Becca.

We all went to Brooke's Mom's house in Provo to continue our chat (Emmett needed to eat). I knew Brooke from my Medford days!

By the time the week had ended, Zoë decided that I was easily replaced with either Shirley or Vickie. You can't tell but in this picture Zoë's telling me to "stop mommy" and "go".

Zoë loves to jump!!

Our trip was at an end.
You can tell how she felt about that.

Colorado Rocky Mountain Hiiiiiiiiiiiiigh (I'm singing)

Ok - So several of my good friends had no idea we had moved to Denver. Surprise!! So the next time you are in Colorado stop on by! We never had visitors in Casper (go figure). Did you know that Colorado is the 2nd sunniest state? Who knew? So I've attached a picture of our new home in Denver. This was of course several months ago when our lawn was dead. Now it's just kind of dead. This is the front of our house................

This is the back of our house...........

ok, just kidding. It's not the back of our house - but that would be so AWESOME if it was!