Allen's Spooktacular 2014

As the girls get older and start to enjoy the spookier side of Halloween, we get to celebrate and see a whole new side of Halloween.  Halloween has always been Nick's favorite holiday.  The spooky decorations, the scary movies and the macabre tales.  I on the other hand, I like Christmas.  The pretty twinkle lights, festive songs serenaded to all by Bing! I guess opposites do attract!  

This year, we did the normal pumpkin carving and decorating as we have each year with our girls.

The girls love to pull out the pumpkin guts and explore. 

This year, we decided to incorporate a new little holiday tradition.  Nick and his Mom painted ceramics during his childhood, they painted some for a variety of holidays and she's kept them over the years.  She displays them and cherishes and I've always admired her thoughtfulness and simple ways she captured a moment and everyone is able to admire it each year.  So, this year I wanted to create the same with my girls; I picked up some fun pieces, paint and brushes and made a fun craft night for the the family.  We each painted our own ceramic pieces. 

The girls loved seeing their artwork displayed.  I can't wait for our Christmas ceramics party and enjoying seeing their faces as we break out our paint and brushes again. 

Another fun Halloween treat we took the girls to was the Hot Air Balloon Trick or Treat party! This was such an amazing experience and one that I will always remember. The event was held at the Talking Sticks Resort in Scottsdale and showcased about 30 hot air balloons.  Each owner of the balloon handed out candy to all the trick-or-treaters along with other games and goodies.  The kids were amazed just as much as we were. 

My little pirates! 

The day of Halloween I was able to help out in Sofie's first grade classroom with the classroom Halloween party.  It's these moments that I adore; seeing Sofie in her element and how well she does in class makes me so happy and proud of her.  

Here is Sofie's first grade class- 

The actual Halloween festivities were fairly low key compared to all the other events.  The girls loved walking the neighborhood and asking for candy in their best pirate voices! "arr matey" 

They even found a house with a mock Jolly Roger! 

I was playing the part of some sort of 1920's flapper girl and Nick was my dapper gentleman. 

All in all, this year was a fantastic Halloween Allen Spooktakular! 

Flash Forward 2014

I’ve decided to revive the Allen family blog!!

When I initially started writing this blog it was meant to capture all the new and exciting moments of our lives and all the exciting adventures we were about to embark on by becoming a first-time parents.  It soon evolved into a place to capture all the memorable moments Nick and I began to share with our little treasure; all the feelings we felt and shared with all the family and friends.The story has continued to evolve and transform, but the blog was at some point left behind and left off of our fun little ride.  
Enter social media!  Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram…Vine! They’ve all played a part in capturing our little quirky moments and fun memories. When it comes to looking back and remembering those times, a Facebook timeline or Instagram feed tends to leave out some of the tidbits.  I've never been one for scrapbooking or maintaining chronological albums, but clicking pictures and posting fun lines, well...it's what I've always done.  So, the idea of focusing my efforts back to this trusty web address seemed right! Most of you reading this are probably on one of my friends or family lists and follow right along in our story.   However, in a moment of nostalgic remembrance, I recently looked back at all the past posts I’ve shared on this blog and to be honest, I laughed, cried and experienced all those moments all over again.  It made me realize the streams of social media timelines, photo feeds and tweets only capture a glimpse, a segment, a partial story.  I want to look back at these crazy years and remember the entire story not just a slice. 

The blog has always been a way to preserve some of the experiences in a way that could somewhat encapsulate those precious moments in time.  It’s a time machine of sorts; it rushes me back to that moment I found out I was pregnant, or the moment Nick came up with the name of our first baby girl.  The moments I am able to read the post, see the pictures and watch the videos are special to both Nick and I and will soon be to our girls.  

I want to redirect my efforts and focus my efforts on sharing them here.  I want this blog to serve as a place that my girls will be able to visit, share and enjoy years from now.  I want them to read all about the moments that were perhaps trying, funny, frustrating and memorable and see the pictures that accompany those moments in our lives.

This blog is not meant to be a platform for any specific purpose; might not have a plethora of devout readers or even make anyone’s weekly “reading list”.  I do hope that those that are not as close as we’d hope to be will visit the page often and keep up with us.  

So, stay tuned! 

With love, 

The Allen's

Catching Up!

Nearly ten months have passed since my last blog entry and I’ve seriously slacked on updating this blog to say the least.  I’ve become blog deficient and blog neglectful.

It’s amazing; two kids, full time work, full time school and commuting makes the free moments so valuable.  When I do have a free moment, the last thing I want to do is reminisce over the crazy and hectic day and rehash it all out in blog form.  However, after Emilia’s bath tonight, I was rocking her to sleep and snuggling with her and realized something, I’m missing all the wonderful moments I documented with Sofia. 

Why is it that the first child always gets the attention and focus of all those tiny “firsts”…

”ah look honey, she just grew out of her newborn clothes”, “ah, our baby is crawling”, “What a big girl, no more diapers for you!”  Now with the second it’s more like “what!? Your already in 6-9 months!”, “Oh no, she’s crawling…no I really have to watch her”, or the best “Gosh, I can’t wait to potty train so we can stop buying diapers”.  

I still look back at this blog with such fond memories of Sofia and the life changing experience she gave to Nick and I and I want the same memories with Emilia.  Emilia is such a soft hearted and lovable little girl.  She looks at you and just melts your hear with her lovable eyes.  She has changed our lives in more ways than one. 

The girls are growing and Sofia is almost 5 years old!! I know it’s not new hearing me say this, but she truly is a unique little girl.  Her personality is filled with colorful explanations, inquisitive interpretations and hilarious remarks.  Just the other day she used the word “dweeb”! Nick and I had to ask her what she thought it meant and she told us it was someone who was not cool.  Where does she learn this stuff? 

Just the other day, while sitting at the dinner table eating dinner, she stopped mid bite and spread her arms and said with such innocent love “I love you guys”.  And then there’s the repeating…I was walking through the house the other day and thought I was alone.  WRONG.  My shadow was not too far behind and head me say “I have so much sh@# to do”, she came into the room repeating me and as I was trying to discipline her, the whole time I was holding back laughter. These moments make all the hectic and stress filled duties of being a parent totally worthwhile. 

Emilia. My little Bubble! She is growing so fast, seeing her grow and transform from this tiny little newborn into a chunky and inquisitive baby going onto toddler is amazing! Nick and I love hearing the two girls interact and play with each other. Emilia is infatuated with Sofia.  She watches her every move, attempts to mimic and laugh at Sofia’s quirkiness. 

 

What I'm Thankful for...

2011 brings a lot to be thankful for. This year I mentioned to Nick that I wanted this Thanksgiving to be similar to last year’s Thanksgiving. I wanted it to be low key, easy and relaxing. I didn’t want to spend the entire day cooking over a stove, getting irritated with dishes piled up in the sink, missing out spending time with the girls and worrying about if my dishes turned out okay. He totally agreed with me and we agreed that we would buy our Thanksgiving just as we did last year. Now, last year was obviously a slightly different story due to having a newborn in the house...but I felt okay forgoing the duty of preparing a feast!

We had invited Nick's parents over for Thanksgiving and everyone was okay with the prepared meal. We purchased the family meal from Sprouts Market and I cannot stop raving about their meal! If ever in need of a top notch premade Thanksgiving dinner, give them a try~!! The turkey is a free range bird, fresh veggies, all the sides and delicious cranberry orange relish!

I was so thrilled to spend the day sleeping in, watching morning cartoons with the girls and Nick, cleaning up the house before the in-laws arrived and getting ready without rushing to blow-dry my hair or quickly put on some make up. I actually got to RELAX!

Here are just a few things that I'm thankful for this year. 


My supportive husband- he loves me and supports me
My two beautiful girls- they keep me laughing!
A home that is warm and filled with love
The ability to set goals and have the strength to accomplish them
Having the opportunity to carpool with the love of my life!
Having family that loves me and supports me
My trusty iPhone...Pinterest, FB, Words with Friends, Pandora!
Sunrise - a beautiful sight to start the morning
My health- I continue to improve it but thankful for it!
My entire life...it might be hectic and chaotic but it's mine!

She's getting so big!

Sofie loves to swing!

She wanted her turn at having fun on the swing!

She finally got the hang of the swing with help from her Ba-Pa!

My sweet little girl!

Cheers! Happy Thanksgiving!

Emilia enjoying her Thanksgiving feast!

Keeping the kids entertained with Playdough.

The Lamp Family - their new addition Caden is adorable!

Good time had by all!

Me and my sister~

Our two beautiful nieces! I can't believe how fast they're growing up.

The Deniz family.  I love the face Arianna is making.  She's such a clown~

This Thanksgiving was special and we loved being able to spend it with our families.  It was simple, delicious and memorable.



Happy Birthday to YOU! Happy Birthday to Emilia!

Our little girl turned 1 and it was such a memorable birthday celebration! It's amazing how quickly time flies.  We say this to ourselves about a lot of things but this time, it really hit hard. 

Emilia Feliciana Allen, born November 19, 2010 at 11:05 am 

it's a feeling that is unique only to mothers- tears of joy, relief, and unexplained emotions

We're the proud parents of baby girl #2~

And a year later...this beautiful precious 8 pound baby is now a curious and inquisitive 22 pound toddler!

 This year for her birthday Nick and I wanted to keep it simple and special.  It was us, grandparents, her Aunti Kalani, Uncle Ryan and her cousins Katie and Arianna.  The day was filled with yummy food, lots of laughs and the best part...the jump house!

I took a homemade approach for the decorations this year...loved the outcome!

Emilia and her Papa!

She really loved the jumper!

Sofia and her Uncle Ryan

cupcakes

She could not wait to open her gifts! Thanks everyone for the thoughtful gifts

Sofie was the official helper

Emilia and her Auntie Lani

All ready for the Polar Express

Emilia's 1st cupcake...and not a big fan.  It's okay, she loves her fruits and veggies!

The 1st year photo wall.

The party was a hit! Thanks to all of you that made the party and to those that were there in spirit.  It means alot to us to have support of our family and friends. 

It's amazing to think that Christmas is coming up and then it's Sofia's 4th birthday! My girls are growing up too fast!