The Aller Family

Trunk or Treating

2011-10-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here is our little family in the back of the decorated van. We represented Rapunzel in all stages of her life and Dady was Flynn Rider.

Here is Penelope and her friends Briley and Girl Avery.

This is a good picture of Penelope's tangle hair. Do not call it a wig or she gets upset.

Here is all the girls.

Aunt Sara and Penelope doing the cake walk.

Family Photos

2011-10-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

We had family photos taken today. It is a good thing we have two photographers in the family and our own studio equipment. They started out with just Peanut while mom fed Annabelle and finished getting ready. Then we got in some family photos but we had to bribe Peanut to do the poses, one bribe was to do her "tricks" on dads knee.

Then we got a few shots of just the girls, but Peanut didn't want to hold Annabelle and then started getting upset when she was touching her, so we didn't get too may of them together.

We got the girls Halloween costumes so we thought it would be fun to take some pictures in their outfits. Annabelle was having a rough afternoon so she slept through the pictures with her binkie, but she is still an adorable Rapunzel.

Penelope had stayed up late and was not a very easy child to deal with, but we finally got her to take a few cute pictures and then she took a nice long nap.

Yep we are the parents that have matching children! Dad thought it would be cute to have Annabelle be a miniature version of Penelope and she chose the Rapunzel outfit for Halloween.

The Ultamate Dog Trick

2011-09-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

This is Champ's best trick. He likes to let himself in and out He will even open the door for lady when she wants in or out. Champ is one awesome dog.

Homemade Pumpkin Pies

2011-09-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

We got a pumpkin from a friend. It is too early to save it for Halloween, so we decided to make pies because we have never made pumpkin pies before. Even Penelope helped by breaking the eggs into a bowl. She did very good, no shells at all.

Here is part of the cut up pumpkin. We steamed half of it and roasted the other have to compare the flavors of each technique.

Here is the pumpkin puree.

Here is the juicy pie slowly baking in the oven.

And finally here is four of the finished products. We ended up with eight pies! Its a good thing we have family and friends around that will help take them off our hands.(of course we kept two, one roasted and one steamed to test!)

They turned out great. Even though Zachary only gave them a B + he still took a whole pie home to share with Grandma V. Penelope had a lot of fun making them and we have a pumpkin growing in our garden, so we will be making more shortly. Next time were going to try some pumpkin bread and muffins.

Vaulting on a rocking horse

2011-09-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

So Penelope wanted to show everyone her new "tricks" so here they are.

TAKE ONE.

TAKE TWO.

Two Months

2011-09-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

Man it is amazing how fast they grow. It seems like baby #2 has grown faster than #1. Annabelle has been such a joy to have in our home. She is a very good baby and is usually pretty happy. She loves to smile and jabber, especially when Penelope talks to her.

Here is a picture of her with the puppy again to compare size. At her 2 month appointment she weighed it at 12 lb 11 oz, was 23 in long, and had a head circumference of 15 1/4 in. Its interesting to compare that with what Penelope was since they were the same weight at birth and Annabelle was 1/2 inch shorter. Now at 2 months Annabelle is the same length Penelope was but is one pound heavier and her head is a 1/2 inch larger. It is amazing to see the differences in the kids personalities and will be so much fun to see then play together as Annabelle gets bigger.

One Month

2011-09-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

(This post I thought was lost, I typed it up and when I went to publish, it disappeared, I checked the drafts and it wasnt there so I got fed up with the site and left it, but now its back)

Ok so Annabelle is a month old now. Well actualy she was a month old last week, but I'm just now getting to this. So here are some comparison pictures. First one at a few days old...

Second one at one month...(with her lady dog Penelope picked out for her)

It has been interesting having two children. Luckily Penelope is a great big sister and an excelent helper. Annabelle is a good baby, she sleeps well, is a good eater, and only fusses when she needs something. With Penelope I never understood how people could tell the different cries of their children, they all seemed the same to me, but now with Annabelle I can tell the difference. We have enjoyed our new addition and look forward to fun times with her and Penelope playing together.

Where's Penelope

2011-09-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Chris and I were busy doing different things and it occurred to me that we hadn't seen Penelope for a while so I asked Chris to go check on her. He went to look and came back saying he couldn't find her. Of course when you hear that your little one cant be found you go into search mode. Chris went and looked again and saw a new pile of stuffed animals in Penelope's room. Upon closer inspection she had fallen asleep in the middle of the big pile. Can you find her?

Photos

2011-07-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos that Aunt Sara took. The first two are from our first day home from the hospital. Sara come down to help out with Penelope and she played with the camera while she was here. The others are from yesterday (Annabelle's actual due date 7/15/10) so she was 5 days old.

This little girl has big feet and long toes, they are definitely Eggleston toes!

Annabelle Leeann

2011-07-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Annabelle Leeann joined our family on 7/10/11 @ 6:25. She weighed in at 7 lbs 7 oz (the same as Penelope) and measured 18.5 in long. We went into the hospital at 8 am Sunday morning to be induced. The pitocin was started around 9:15. After several hours my contractions finally got into a good rhythm and so Dr. Lopez broke my water to help speed up the process. About two hours after than I told the nurse I felt like I should be pushing, so she checked me but I was only at 7 1/2. She said she would call Dr. Lopez (who was in the hospital checking on patients) and let him know that she thought the baby would be coming in about 15-20 minutes. So 20 mins goes by and the nurse comes in to check on me and I told her I think shes coming. So she went to check (with one sterile glove on) and the baby's head was on its way out. With no other nurse in the room she started to try to figure out what she was going to do. Luckily another nurse came in and was trying to help her put on the other sterile glove. They finally got the glove on, but Annabelle had already arrived. The nurse did a fine job delivering with one hand and the baby came out in about 3 pushes. After she was delivered about 4 more nurses came in and said "why didn't you tell us she was delivering?" Well I bet you can guess her answer. She was a little busy and just simply couldn't. So anyhow then Dr. Lopez showed up after they cut the umbilical cord and started cleaning her up. Luckily I did not tear at all, but two minor scratches (as the Dr. called them). So a few little stitches and I was good to go. Dr Lopez was great, I had told him I had a history of rapid labor, but I don't think he thought it would be that rapid. So here she is..... She started peeing right away so they got a diaper on her quickly.

Mom and Dad were at home with Penelope when she was born so they came down and were there shortly after her birth. Penelope was a little confused when she came in the room. She saw aunt Sara and headed straight for her, then she realized I was up in the bed with the baby (with a little help) so then she came over to check things out.

She was instantly in love with the baby and was very protective of her. Every time she sees her she says, "aww shes so cute" or "shes beautiful".

Our first family photo with the new addition.

Here's Annabelle with the quilt that Grandma Cheryl and Aunt Holly made for her. Isn't it cute!

Proud Parents

Proud Grandma Cheryl and Papa

Proud Grandma Betsy

On the way to the hospital Penelope told Papa that he wasn't allowed to hold the baby because he was too scary. So they worked out a deal that Papa could hold her if he would be nice, but as you can tell Penelope was concerned that Papa wouldn't hold up his end of the bargain, so she kept an eye on Annabelle while Papa had her.

Chris wanted to let Penelope try to feed Annabelle so we got a little bottle of formula and she gave her a little after she had nursed. Penelope was in 7th heaven being a big girl.

This is Penelope's favorite thing to do now. Hold and kiss baby sister Annabelle. As I said before she is very protective of her. She does not want to leave her behind, doesn't like to hear her cry (she trys telling baby to shush and gets frustrated when she doesn't.), and she does not like when people (other than mom and dad and herself) hold Annabelle.

Graduation

2011-06-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Nursing School is over! We had a nice graduation ceremony last Saturday June 18th. It was emotional, but we were all so glad that it is over. Two years of craziness, stress, and a lot of friendships came to a close.
Our very first nursing instructor Mrs. Boyer was chosen to give us our nursing pins.

This is my goof ball Penelope during the ceremony. She kept herself entertained by dancing around and throwing rose petals up in the air.

Here's a picture of our little family. I look so chubby, I'm definitely ready to meet this little baby inside me.
Me and the Pops.

So it is official, I am an RN. Now I just need to get a state licence to go with the title!

Yard Work

2011-04-11T21:51:00.001-07:00

So our back yard has been torn up for a good seven months now and we have been diligently working the past few weekends to try to get it pulled back together. We are hoping to plant grass seed next weekend and then maybe get some flowers planted also to spruce up the dirt that the yard is now. While digging trenches for the new sprinkler lines, Chris and Sue found this.......

Sheep shears anyone? at least that's what I say they are!

Here is a picture of our before yard. This is from a few years back, but it shows part of the pool and the grass area in the back (pre Penelope's play area)

Here is the current state of the backyard. Things have been a mess and we just can't wait to get the pool done so that it is not so much of an eye sore. (should be done this week :) Yay!)

Penelope decided that she would be helpful and pull all of the garbage out of the pool, of course she had to go in the puddle of water in order to get it though!

This is a little clip of Penelope in the water.

I'll post pictures of the pool once it is finished.

Chris and Zack Go Fishing

2011-04-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Chris and Zack went fishing with penelope. The fishing was horrible but they took her hiking.

It had just rained that week so are the streams were full and Penelope had alot of fun walking through the water. Zack took the pictures you can't tell but in this one there was a big waterfall just to the left. Chris climb up the rock to get a picture next to it and zack didn't get any of the waterfall. Some art major he is. It is still a good picture though.

Cookie Day

2011-01-07T11:03:00.002-08:00

Mom, Dad, Alli, and Holly, Peter and kids were all out in Arizona so we spent Thanksgiving at Sue's. It originaly was going to just be a small thing, but them we ended up having at least 20 people there. We were asked to host the missionarys also. It was great. We had lots of fun just chatting with family and spending time together. The day after thanksgiving we went down to Grandma Betsys house to have a cookie day with them. Penelope Loved It! She played with Erica while mom, aunt Sarah and Grandma made some cookies. Then she got to decorate some of the Sugar cookies. You could definately tell which cookies were hers....she liked to put lots of sprinkles on them!

Swimming

2010-08-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

This is Penelopes first time realy using a ring floatie in the pool. I was suprised how well she did.

Princess Cake

2010-08-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

So we decided to make a Princess Cake for Penelopes birthday party. The first day we made 350 ish fondant flowers.

The second day we baked the cakes it was a two layer cake. The top layer was devils food cake (2 boxes) and the bottom was a mix of white cake and funfettie cake. That one used 4 boxes of cake.

While we baked the cakes we put the royal frosting on all the plastic peices and sprinkled them with eddible sparckles.

The third day was the big asembly. Sue and I worked about 4 hours start to finish with a few breaks to let the frosting set up on the cakes. It was a lot of fun and it turned out amazingly awsome.

The finished product.

After we got it together we realized that there wasnt realy a spot to put the candles, so Chris just put them on the side of the cake. Penelope loved her cake.

Here is a little viedo of when she showed Penelope the cake for the first time.

Molly Mormon

2010-08-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

Ok so we just had the perfect Molly Mormon experiance. I was getting Penelope some dinner when Sue came in from the yard and said "I need your help." She had an ice cream bucket with bush beans in it and said, "This is only one side of one plant." and the bucket was 1/2 full. So I set Penelope up with her Ariel movie and said stay in your room I'll be right back. We came in with two grecery bags and the bucket full of beans. Mostly bush beans, but some pole beans also. Chris kept reminding me that we needed to get them put away so that they wouldn't go bad so we decided to freeze them. (since there are still a ton on the plants that will be ready soon) So we washed them up, blanched them, cooled, and then packed them up to go in the freezer. Here are a couple pictures.

I found these cute pictures on the camera also from last month. We have had an awsome harvest of grapes this season. Last year they all went bad due to a disease, but this year we talked with Chris' Uncle that grew up on a grape vine, got some sulfer dust, and check out the beautiful buches we got. (the kids cute too!)

Trip to Disneyland

2010-07-25T10:19:00.001-07:00

So we have some awesome friends who were able to get us into Disneyland for free. We finally decided to take them up on the offer and took Abby and Penelope to have some fun. We were able to go and see all of the characters (except Mini and Eeyore). Penelope loves the Disney princesses, but was shy when it came to meeting them.

Somehow Belle managed to get Penelope to give her a hug. (What you don't see is she turned and walked quickly away after the hug)

Aunt Sara and Donald met up with us a few hours after the park opened. Penelope was so excited to see Auntie Sara.

The girls had fun trying on the crazy hats at Mad Hatter.

The girls had fun on the Teacups, we didn't spin it much cuz Penelope looked a little queezie.

Penelope and Abby both loved the "elephant ride" they enjoyed being able to control the dumbo going up and down.

You have to be 7 in order to ride by yourself so I got to go on the ride with the munchkins.
Penelope also loves tinker bell. She has never seen peter pan, but she has seen the tinker bell movie.

The first charecter that Penelope actualy talked to was Mickie, but the little boy in front of us was afraid of his so Penelope had to have Daddy hold her. She said "Its Mickie, Hi Mickie." She gave him a high five, posed for the picture and then said "Bye Mickie."

Then it was off to the hundred acer wood. She loves Pooh. She was in aww of him. She touched his face and just stared at him.

Then it was over to Tigger. She went up with Abby and gave Tigger a hug, but then ran back.

Chris then took her back over to get a picture and this is what we got.

Don't worrie Chris picked her up and they got a good picture with the 4 of them. We had such a fun time. The only thing that we didnt get to do/see that I realy wanted to was Tinker Bell flying durring the Fireworks show. (so we may have to try to get in free again).... One last pictue of the best, prettiest Princess ever.......

PENELOPE!

(Auntie Sarah bought her this beautiful dress for her birthday)

1/2 way done

2010-06-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to be 1/2 way though Nursing school. One more year, 5 more classes and then the NCLEX and Ill be an RN! Yay. Can't wait for school to be over!

The Balloon

2010-04-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

The rocket balloon.

Oooh Man...

2010-04-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Penelope eats poop for easter.

She said poopoo everytime except after I get the camera then it is candy. The best part is when you have to explain she doesn't really eat poop. Well it might also be when you send her to church with a bag of jelly beans and she screams poop.

Update

2010-04-07T19:11:00.001-07:00

Okay so I know its been a while since Ive posted so I just wanted to give a little update and Ill post some pictures soon. Last Friday I finished Nursing 3...that was an intense class and I was worried about passing so that was a relief. Today I started Nursing 4...Maternity and New Born...I am so excited for this class. Today's lecture was great and tomorrow I have a 10 hour day learning the skills I will need to use in the clinical setting. This is a 5 week class so its going to be crazy fast and Ill be crazy busy. Then its off to Nursing 5 which is Psychiatric so that should be kinda interesting too. Penelope is doing great. She is such a talker and she loves to eat... She loves going out in the garden and eating the ripe strawberries and picking oranges. She loves her new playset that we got and she absolutly loves playing with Avery (Sues step-grandson, he and his dad are living at the house temporaraly while his dad is looking for a job). Chris has started his senior project and should hopefully be graduating in a year. We both have been crzy busy with school and are so greatful for all our family who helps us with Penelope when we need babysitters.

Weather

2010-01-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

Ok so we all know that the weater in So. Cal has been crazy. Here is a photo of what we have been trying to do in between stormes and some of what the wind did to one of our trees last night.

This is the stump from an olive tree that we cut down...it is realy deep and doesnt want to be removed!(Side note: Notice the planter bed closest to the tree...thats one of our current projects, butilding raised planters to replace our other little ones. That is one of the two layers we are making for each one.)

When we left Maryland

2010-01-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Ok so when we left Maryland not everthing was finished. Here is a little video of how we left the place.

Demo/Remodeling

2009-12-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

Video of the kitchen before major renevations restarted.
Aaron cleaning up the plywood for the door jam.

Aaron seeling off the doorway with his favorite stuff...Great Stuff!

Rachelle vacuming up after she sanded her mudding job.

Family room before any lights.Aaron cutting the holesThe finished product (well the lights at least)The current view of the house...yes that is the kitchen sink...View from the front doorThe kitchen with no upper cabnets and the frig in the middle of the room.

Stay tuned for more updates

Rambenelope: Penelope's New Toy

2009-11-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

Chris bought a new nerf gun and Penelope wanted to try to shoot it.

And thus Rambenelope was born raining nerf darts down on her enemies.

Not only can she shoot all by herself, she also lurkes like a cougar in her fort and pounces on unsuspecting victims.

Not only can she dish out the pain, but she welcomes the counter attack from the fierce Abbey with laugher.

Notice the battle lust in Rambenelope's eyes and the evil smirk on her face as Abbey continues her barage of nerf darts

Trials

2009-11-13T18:01:00.000-08:00

So the lord has decided it was time for our family, mostly me, to have trials. It started with my computer getting a few virus that affected the operating system and would no longer start up on saterday. Now not only did we have all of our phots and music on my computer, but my nursing care plan that I had started was on there. The worst part about it is that it broke at the beginning of the "hell weeks" of the semester. My care plan is due today, I have my pharmacology final is monday, and then I have a midterm on wednesday. Luckaly Geek Squad got my documents off my computer (at an outragus price) and Chris was able to get it started and delete the viruses. The other thing that has broken is my car. Well the power steering in my car randomly decides to stop working. Luckaly it only happened when I was in situations where I was not in the middle of the freeway or something, and it resolved it self the first two times when I was at school and on my way to work. But then it started doing it more and I never knew when it would happen so we had it towed down to Santa Ana to the delership (Yay for AAA free towing!) They then preseeded to tell me that the replacement of the part woud be $1,200 and there was another $3000 worth of work that the car needed so it would come out to $4000. I then told them I had an extended waranty and they found out it would cover the power steering pump, but the car still needs work done. So about $1993 later my car should be better by monday! Hopefully it will last us until Chris or I get a "real" job and we can afford to get a new car that wont cost so much to get fixed....darn minis have to have mini parts and no one gets them except the dealerships. :( Anyhow I think I will be able to make it through the next week with out too much trouble other than the Pharm final. Lets just hope that nothing else happens because we no longer have any money to fix things.

Baby Proofing

2009-11-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

So we finaly got the door knobs on the kitchen cabinets so that we could put the baby locks on the cabnets. It only took us about four months to get it done, but we finaly did it.

Unfortinatly before I could even finish all the door knobs Penelope did this.....

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

Penelope had a lot of fun this Halloween. We went to our wards trunk-or-treating activity will Alli and she loved just watching the other kids run around and getting candy. They did a chili and baking cook off so I decided to make our favorite apple crumble for the baking portion. There were about 10 other entries and the missionaries chose my dish as the winner. I got a cute little light up pumpkin that we used as part of our decorations for the truck bed! For trick-or-treating we met Grandma Betsy in corona and went around a nice little neighborhood there. Betsy had a lot of fun taking her up to the doors and showing off grand baby! We then went out to Murrieta to see Auntie Sara. It was a fun night and Penelope sure slept good!

One down 11 to go!

2009-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well today was the last day of my first nursing class N1A. Next week starts N1B and Pharmacology is still going on as well. The next 5 weeks are going to be absolutely insane with trying to remember all the drugs and doing 1B (which is more intense than 1A) I didn't do as good as I should have on the final, but I got an 85% on the final and an 86% in the class. My clinical instructor was very nice and said that I did a great job. I know there are things that I need to work on...like not being so shy...and she told me to be careful of older nurses trying to bully me around since I am young and "small." Anyways it feels good to be done with one class and I was able to have the sigh of relief...that is until i got home and had to start studying for the next cla

LA Fair 2009

2009-09-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

So Halli had been wanting to go to the fair and since Alli was showing in the Horse Show were could get in the back gate and into the fair for free! So we decided that it would be fun to go and walk around and look at all the fun things that they sell and see the animals. Penelope had alot of fun. She really had no clue why she was looking through a hole, so we had her do it many times.

She finally went down for a nap while we wandered around and she happened to wake up in the dinosaur room. So she woke up in a room filled with roaring moving dinosaurs. Chris being the loving father he is decided to feed her to one.

Penelope loved seeing all the animals. (with the exception of the dinasors! which she was ok with as long as she wanst by their heads!)

Yes that is a monkey...

But her favorite part was the heat.
And watching aunt Alli ride Sassy. Alli did a great job. She wasnt the Judges favorite when it came to flat work, but when it came to the important stuff...JUMPING...Alli did great. The Judge was still a little cofused for the first two classes, but then for working hunters and jumpers he figured it out and Alli placed first in both! Of course she has an awsome horse to ride, but she did a great job also. She ended up winning high point for jumping and I beleve she said she got reserve high point for flat. We left before they announced it becasue Penelope and Mom were extremely hot and tired. It was a great day spending time as a family!

Penelope lately

2009-09-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

She loves her baby doll and enjoys pushing her around in her little stroller.

Today she wrapped her baby up in one of her blankies.
She also enjoys feeding herself...unfortunately shes not very good at it yet....
Fortunately she loves to brush her teeth.
We got some chicks a few weeks ago and they were in a box on the counter. She loves looking at them and calls them ducks. Can you see what she is looking at in the following picture?
Look closer....one of the chicks died and so the other one escaped from the box to try to find its Friend. Its sad, but now it is outside with the other big chickens and is doing fine.

So that's what she has been up to these days. Shes getting so big and she loves to talk. We are just so grateful that she is such a good girl and has brought so many blessings into our lives.

Clinical

2009-09-22T17:43:00.001-07:00

Here I am in my lovely white uniform for my clinical rotation. I assisted with my first patient on friday. It went realy well. I have 6 more days at my current site in Covina, then I start at my site in Chino and thats when we start being able to give shots. Its nice that we can get the hands on and be able to relate what we are learning to actual patients. Lets just hope that everything continues to go smothly until I am more familiar with the things I have to do!

Books

2009-09-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Penelope Loves her books so much.... That she wanted to be in one of them!

cookie shark

2009-09-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

Helpless cookies have been disappearing around the house with no witness as to there disappearance. In a desperate attempt to discover the culprit the Allers had to set up a sting operation. Here is part one of the actual footage of the culprit in action.

After discovering she was being watched the culprit tried to hide the crime. Here is part two of the footage.

Clearly the Aller household is in serious trouble with such a mischievous baby.

Baby!

2009-09-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

Penelope has found a new love for babies. Ever since we went to see Gregory in the hospital she has loved babies. She wanted to hold Gregie, but of course we wouldn't let her. Then at Samantha, Pete, and Hollies birthday party she found one of Abbys dolls and would not put it down. So the following monday Chris took her to the store and bought her a dollie just like Abbys and she love to walk around and play with it. She has since learned to say baby and give it kisses.

She obviously had some other goal, but I cought her saying baby in the begining. The next video is from last night. She picked up a towel and carried it (like a blankie) and her baby off to great grandmas room to go visit. Listen carefully after she bumps her head and when she gets close to grandmas door. Sorry about the crazyness, I realized I was filming sideways 1/2 way through and turned the camera.

She is getting so big and growing up so fast, it is crazy. We just love her to death!

School!

2009-08-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Joys of the Nursing Program....

these are my books for the first semester...and I only have 2 classes!!!

Okay so I start the ADN program on Monday so if the blog gets a little neglected for the next 2 years...sorry, I'll do my best to post at least once a month. It will be totally crazy with such a rigorous schedule and with figuring out babysitting for Penelope, but it will all be worth it in the end and I will be able to get a good job. My other bit of good news regarding school is Chris passed his Vector Dynamics class! Yay...he was having such a hard time with that class, but he finally got a C- (which unless they change the requirements that qualifies him to move on). Unfortunately his friend wasn't able to pass and has to retake it. Lets just hope that Chris can get into the classes he needs this fall in order to graduate with his other friend that started the program before him.

Walking

2009-08-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

Ok I found my camera so here is a little video of Penelope walking.

Random Stories from the last month.

2009-08-03T21:47:00.001-07:00

Ok so I know that I havent posted for a while. I never did an 11 months post and Penelope will be 1 tomarrow. The past year has flown by and soon I will be starting Nursing school and Im sure those 2 years are going to be one big blur. I will try by best to keep the blog updated. We have been doing a lot of things, but I keep misplacing my camera so I never have the pictures when I want to do a post. Penelope and I went up to Utah for Ammies wedding. We flew up the monday before and were there for the week to help with whatever was needed and mostly I was jsut a babysitter for my new nephews. That was fun getting to know them more, that us until their mom started causing trouble. (thats another story) The rest of the family came up thrusday and friday just in time to help with set up of the reception. The weding was very nice, and the reception was also. We then came home and started working to finish my Aunt Linda kitchen. I am excited to say that as of today we are done...that is if Sean can figure out how to hang the last curtin for his mom. We have also killed all the grass in the backyard and we are going to redo the grass this fall when the weather is better. Things have been crazy, but fun and I am excited for all the new adventures that the future brings. Oh ya and Penelope is starting to walk. She took her first step about 4 weeks ago, but lately she has been taking about 3-5 at a time and today she took 10 steps by herself. We realy need to finish baby proofing now.

More!?!

2009-07-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Penelope has started signing! We were given (handed down) the signing to your baby video and we figured that it wouldnt hurt anything to try it out. We had started showing her the sign for more about 4 months ago, but we havent really been consistant with always showing her. However, lately Chris and I have been working with her more and it has paid off. She was doing it here and there while eating lunch and such, but now she has discovered that when she does the sign she gets more food! It is exciting to see her do it and we are going to start showing her some new signs. Babies are amazing.

I Passed!

2009-06-26T15:52:00.001-07:00

So I have been sitting all week on the hardest chares in the world, not realy knowing if I would even be able to get into the progam. They recieved confirmations from 102 applicants that they would be at the orientation then on Monday only 84 people showed up and 14 of them did not pass the test. Then they called out another group of applicants (thats where I came in). Then they said that my group (16 people) would have to take the exam friday and if we all passed and the 4 people that are going to have to retake the exam from last semester all pass then there would be two people that would not get into the program. Well this morning only 14 people showed up which means that if we all pass the exam then we should all get in the program. So I am still not realy sure, but I got an e-mail form the exam company and I passed the test. I did better than average on everything except I was average in gramer. (that is average as compared to my fellow students). Anyhow I am excited. If I do not get in this semester, which I an pretty sure I am, then I will begin in the spring. I know I am in for a long hall, but in two years I will be a RN!

10 Months

2009-06-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so I know Penelope is almost 11 months already but I wanted to do a post of what she has learned. She is getting so big. She has started letting go of things and standing up on her own. She love to talk and point at things. She is still an awesome sleeper and eater, however she wants to feed herself more and doesn't like mom to feed her. She loves being outside and playing in the dirt. She loves the water and would stay in the bath all day if she could (too bad she has eczema and cant stay in that long). She is now starting to watch tv and loves when the charicters (on nogen) are singing and she tryes to dance along with them. She is just such a joy to be around and she always makes you smile. We are so blessed to have such a great baby girl.

Here is a video clipn (comming soon) of her talking and some pictures from the last month.

Nursing Program Here I Come!

2009-06-22T20:24:00.001-07:00

Ok so I was at work today planning for the weekend. I am going to Watsonville for a 4-H horse show that I have helped put on for the past 2 years. I am totaly in charge of the entries and calculating the awards. (well working the program that does that) My mom and I were coming up with the food that we wanted to take and everything we needed. After packing up some of the stuff in the car my cell phone rang. It was a (909) number, but I didn't recognize it. So I answered. It was a lady from Mt. Sac and she said that there were openings in the Nursing program and wanted to know if I could start in the fall. I said that I could and then she broke the news. In order to start in the fall I needed to be at Mt. Sac every day this week for an orientation. So I looked at my mom and said I'm going to have to teach you the program in a crash corse. Any how I am going in tomarrow to orientation and now I have no clue what is going to happen this summer. I had such a busy schedule for the next month and now this week has totaly changed. Im kida sad cuz I was totaly looking forward to the show, especialy since it might not happen next year, but I am so happy to be in the nursing program. I was thinking that I wasn't going to get in until Fall of 2010. I am excited and looking forward to learning about what will happen in the fall.

Temples

2009-06-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at my sisters blog. Over the weekend she had the oppertunity to go to an open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Aaron, Rachelle and the kids, Shwan and his boys went with her, but the most special thing is that my Grandpa and Grandma Mary went also. They are not members, but had promised Aaron and Rachelle that they would go since they were leaving to go back to Maryland this week. It is so great to see the photos of them there at the temple and to know of the sacred ordanances that go on inside the buildings. I am so greatful for the knowledge that our familys do not end after our earthly life, but our familys are forever. I stole some pictues from Ammies blog since hers is set to private and not all of you can see her blog.

Aaron, Emily, Rachelle, Grandpa, Grandma Mary, Isaac, Averi.

Grandpa & Grandma Mary

Shawn, Ammie, and his boys.

I have had such an overwelming appreciation for my family lately. My parents and siblings are always so good to me, my aunts and uncles and cousins do so much to show their love even if we are not able to see them often, and expecialy Chris and Penelope. They are so good to me, they have helped me to grow so much and I love them both.

Bikes

2009-06-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Okay so Chris and I bought bikes about this time last year. They are really nice, but at the time I was pregnant so we didn't use them very much. Then after Penelope was born we wanted to use them more, but we didn't have anything for Penelope. To make a long story short, we finally put a baby seat on my bike and found a helmet that barely fits her, it is a 3yrs+ helmet (which is the smallest we could find) and we had to tighten up the chin strap and it is still loose. Anyhow, I've been trying to take her out riding every other day at least. Its good for both of us. Hopefully after this stressful week of finals for Chris he will be able to come along with us and we can all have fun together. Here are some cute pictures of her in her seat with her helmet on.

Fresno

2009-06-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

Chris' cousin Melissa graduated from college so Penelope and I went up to Fresno, with aunt Sue, for a graduation party. It was a lot of fun. Penelope got to play with her second cousin Lucy, who is two months older than her, all weekend. There was also two other babies that came for the party, one 11 months and one 15 months. It was crazy, but they all had a lot of fun following each other around the house. Penelope and Lucy also got to go swimming. They each had their little floaties and just chilled out in the pool. It took a little persuasion for Penelope to finally be okay with he idea of sitting in her floaty though. All in all it was a fun trip, even though Chris stayed home. One of my favoriate things about going to Fresno is the Sonic that is aroung the 1/2 point. We always stop and get a slushie and a little snack to tide us over till we get to Fresno.

Utah Trip/Memorial day

2009-06-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

Ok so I can not find my camera, so no pictures, but I just thought I'd update whats been going on. We went up to Utah over memorial day weekend so that we could visit with Aaron and Rachelle (and the kids of course) before they move back to Maryland. We had a lot of fun. It was a short trip, but we are glad that we got to spend the time with them. While we were up there my mom (who was also up there) wanted to do finishing touches on the bathroom. She bought a new vanity, mirror, and light fixtures that we installed. I have to say that it looks very nice, its not complete there is some drywall that needs to be retextured, but it looks really good other than that. We also put up a fan in the only bedroom that didn't have one installed yet and Chris worked on the jump standards that my dad started, but didn't have to correct tools to finish them. In the four days that we were there I think we went to Home Depot or Lowe's about 20 times. Anything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong. The vanity my mom bought was broken and the store by us didn't have any more, the mirror that went with the vanity didn't look right in the bathroom, the pluming was in the wrong area so we had to cut holes in the floor of the new vanity, the fan didn't have a flush mount kit, and I'm sure there were others i cant think of. Over all though it was a good time. We also got to meet Shawn and we played quite a bit of rock band! For Memorial day we went down to my Grandpa and Grandma Mary's house and ate lunch and chatted then we headed home and luckily didn't hit much traffic!

Nine Months

2009-05-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Penelope is now all over the place. She is getting so fast when it comes to crawling and she is stating to walk along the furniture a little. She pulls herself up on everything and has learned to climb up on things (like the fireplace). She now has two teeth that have cut through (the second one just came through today) and she says three words...dada, mama (but not very often), and nana (for banana, she loves bananas and now wants one every morning). She is still a great eater, she love to eat and will eat anything, some of the new foods she likes are grapefruit and strawberries. She is also sleeping very well in her new room. We moved her crib into the sewing room and she now sleeps between 11 & 13 hours (7-7 usually) which is so nice for Chris and I cuz we then have time to do homework and clean the house with out having to worry about her getting into things (like the dog food, her new favorite thing to do). I will post some more recent photos soon. Chris and I are so greatful for our sweet little girl and for the blessings she brings to our family!

Tooth

2009-04-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

Penelope has finaly got a tooth. It just broke throught her gums yesterday. Shes on her way to catching up with her little cousin Lucy who is three months older than her and has 9 teeth already.

Easter

2009-04-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

So for easter this year we got together after church at my moms house. We had a yummy dinner and then the kids had an egg hunt. It was a lot of fun watching them runn around like crazy and try to find the “hidden” egges. I tried to get some pictues of each of the kids, but most of them are just of the kids backs so here are a few that are some what good.

Penelople had a great time just sitting in the grass watching the other kids. Alli’s and Sammy’s eggs were hidden harder than the other kids

Chris bought 250 eggs from wal-mart (cuz it was cheaper that way) so we assigned each child a color and they were to find 40 eggs of that color. Can you spot Abby’s purple eggs in this photo

We had 10 extra eggs of various colors that we let Penelope play with and she had great fun. Isn’t she such a cute bunny.

Dano found an blue egg hidden between grandma and grandpa.

Alli had the green eggs. She had a hard time finding the obvious ones (ie the ones just laying on the grass.) She had just found two eggs in this bush, but could not spot the third egg and was getting very frustrated that everyone else saw it but her.

Pete was practicing his veterinarian skills and found some eggs hidden inside the horse.

Noah’s eggs were the orange ones, but he kept wanting to get the blue eggs. He got about 12 of his 40 and then he was tired of the egg hunt and just wanted to walk around.

I just love Penelope’s expression in this photo. She was just so happy!

After the egg hunt Chirs decided he wanted to make a totum pole.

8 Months/Utah Trip

2009-04-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Eight Months. I can't believe she is getting so big. She is now pulling herself up on the fireplace, chair legs, and anything else she can get a good grip on. She is now Crawling. She is not very fast yet, but she has figured out how to move her hands and knees. Oh and She is now saying "Da Da!" it is so cute. She gets so proud of herslef whenever she does somehting and she starts giggaling. She is such a sweet girl, and still no teeth.

Over Chris' break from school we went up to Utah. We had planned on doing a remodle (which ever one Aaron, Rachelle, and Ammie wanted to tackle with us) We ended up re tileing the washroom/mud room. That went prety smothly and we got the room put back together (mostly) before we left. We also completely cleared out the upstairs bathroom. We put in a new bathtub and tiled the tub surround and floor. We were unable to complete it before we left so Rachelle has been doing a lot of work trying to get it back together so they wont have to go downstairs to go potty or shower anymore. It is a good thing that my dads cousin lives close by so that he can help them with anything they are unsure of how to due. I didn't have my camera on the trip, so I will have to get photos from Ammie and/or Rachelle. We had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and enjoyed out busy week there. Penelope got to spend lots of time with her cousins and she got a taste of what it is like to have an older sibling. Emily was very jelous that she was not the baby and would sneakely take Penelopes toys, binkie, or bottle.

Any how I will post pictues when I get them.

Crawling or walking!?!

2009-03-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so Penelople still doesn't "Crawl". She scoots all over the place, but she doesnt crawl. If she is laying on her tummy she can get up on her hands and knees, but she hasnt figured out that she can move her hands and feet. However she gets around by going backwards. She goes backwards fast too. If she is sitting up she can scoot forwardand sideways. Two sundays ago she pulled herself up to her feet from a sitting position and yesterday she started sitting up on her own. We are begining to wonder if she will ever crawl or if she will go straight to walking.

Blessing Dress

2009-03-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

Okay so I know Penelope was blessed like 4 months ago, but I wanted to get some pictures of her in her dress with a black background. I have pictures of me in my dress with a black background and so I wanted her to have some nice ones like that. We set up a little studio in the front room and got some good pictures. She was in such a good mood and I'm glad we finally did it.

Pasta!

2009-03-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Sue had mentioned a while ago that we should make pasta. Well since the Great indoors by us is closing we went to see what they had at a good price. We ended up buying a Ravioli maker attachment for our kitchen aid mixer (which I wanted, I love Raviolis) Well in order to use that we had to buy the pasta roller attachemt, but none of the stores that carry kitchen aid around us had them so we had to order it. Sue has a hand pasta roller so we made some noodles while whe were waiting for the one we orderd to come. We made wheat spaggatii and fedicheni noodles. They were actually prety good. Im not realy into wheat noodles, but they were not bad.

When our pasta roller came it we immediatly made some raviollis. I made two kinds - one was spiage and cheese and the other was salmon and cream cheese.

They actually look pretty good. We froze them and haven't tryed them yet. I have to find some good sause recipes to make for them. We learned though that you should not attempt this with only one person. It is too hard to handle the dough and not make a total mess. It was fun and rather easy though (as long as you had a couple people doing it)

Did you know this about me?

2009-02-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

It's a list of things you HAVE done in your life (in red), things you WANT to do before your time is up (in green), and things you've never done or don't care to do (in black). So I thought I'd give it a shot....

Started your own blog - We'll yes, of course.

Slept under the stars. - Yes, we had a trampoleen growing up and I spend a couple of nights on it durring summers.

Played in a band - does rockband count?

Visited Hawaii

Watched a meteor shower

Given more than you can afford to charity

Been to Disneyland - Of course I live in So Cal

Climbed a mountain

Held a praying mantis - Durring an earth day thing in elementry school

Sang a solo

Bungee jumped

Visited Paris

Watched a lightning storm at sea

Taught yourself an art from scratch

Adopted a child

Had food poisoning

Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

Grown your own vegetables - Yep, we just planted our first set of crops for this years garden and we are getting a green house this weekend!

Slept on an overnight train - while traveling in Russia, although we didnt get much sleep

Had a pillow fight

Hitch hiked

Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

Held a lamb - lots of them!

Gone skinny dipping

Run a Marathon

Seen a total eclipse - in elementry school, they took us out to the playground and we all got to see one

Watched a sunrise or sunset

Hit a home run

Been on a cruise - not yet, but hopefully in the next couple of years

Seen Niagara Falls in person

Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

Seen an Amish community

Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol - many times, first in young womens and now I go with Chris

Seen Michelangelo’s David

Sung karaoke - at my Sr Prom

Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

Bought a stranger a meal

Visited Africa - we weren't soposed to, but we missed our flight and had to wait a day for another one so we checked into a hotel and the next morning we went on a safari

Been transported in an ambulance

Had your portrait painted

Gone deep sea fishing - Chris wants to get the whole family to gether to go

Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

Gone scuba diving or snorkeling - I have gone every time I went to Hawaii

Played in the mud - if you count what accumulated in our backyard in the winter mud!

Gone to a drive-in theater - I always tend to fall asleep

Visited the Great Wall of China

Started a business

Visited Russia

Served at a soup kitchen

Sold Girl Scout Cookies

Gone whale watching

Got flowers for no reason - Chris use to get me flowers all the time

Donated blood, platelets or plasma - I was always under their weight limit, but not anymore

Gone sky diving

Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

Flown in a helicopter

Saved a favorite childhood toy

Visited the Lincoln Memorial

Eaten Caviar

Pieced a quilt - I started one...4 years ago...I will finish it some day!

Stood in Times Square

Been fired from a job

Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

Been on a speeding motorcycle

Seen the Grand Canyon in person

Published something

Bought a brand new car

Walked in Jerusalem

Visited the White House

Had chickenpox

Sat on a jury

Met someone famous

Joined a book club

Lost a loved one - my father-in-law, but he didnt know it when he passed

Had a baby - the best baby ever

Seen the Alamo in person

Swam in the Ocean

Owned a cell phone

Been stung by a bee

Seen Mount Rushmore in person

Learned to play an instrument - if playing rock band counts

Held a tarantula - also on earthday

Touched an iceberg

Changed a baby’s diaper

Taken a trip in a hot air balloon

Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

Had a food fight

Had a snowball fight

Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

Ridden a roller coaster

Visited all 50 states

Taken a road-trip

Milked a cow

Been in a movie

Crashed a party

Made Cookies from scratch

Gotten a tattoo

Rafted the Snake River

Performed on stage - in a church play

Been to Las Vegas

Eaten shark

Bought a house

Been in a combat zone

Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

Touched a stingray - at Sea World

Broken a bone

Ridden a horse

Eaten sushi - and made it

Had your picture in the newspaper - when I was in 4-H

Gone back to school - every year...will it ever end?

Eaten fried green tomatoes

Killed and prepared an animal for eating

Dyed your hair

Caused a car accident - trying to get a fly out of my dads truck and I rear ended my friend Danielle, but we were going slow (on our way home from school) and there was no damage at all

Saved someone’s life - Daniels and Abbys when the fell in the pool

6 Months

2009-02-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

Penelope is half a year old...wow time flyes so fast. She is such a good baby. We have all been sick the past couple of weeks, but she has gone back to sleeping through the nite and making everyone smile. It is amazing how a simple smile from an infant can make all of the worldly cares go away. She has begun to realize that she knows some people and not others, and reaching out to people.
She has taken a liking to the big puppy dog that sleeps in her crib with her. She loves grabbing him and pushing him around the crib. She also enjoys sleeping with his big ear over her head. It is funny to see the positions that she ends up sleeping in with the puppy.

She has been getting into everything. She enjoys scooting backwards and getting only the items that she is not soposed to have that are on the floor. It is crazy how she leaves her toys alone and gets the other items that are no were near her.

She loves to eat and we have not found a food that she does not like. She now holds her own bottles (when she has bottles).

She has found her feet. Feet are so fun to grab and play with. Now when mom changes her diaper she plays with her feet.

Chicken Coop

2009-02-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

Chris and Sue decided that they wanted to get chickens so Chris and I built a coop for them. It ended up looking better than I thought it would. We painted it red to match the barn. It is light enough to pick up and move to clean under it, but sturdy enough that our dogs wont bother the chickens. We are hoping that having the chickens will help with the bugs in our garden. We will have happy chickens that get let out to eat bugs on the weekends.

Penelope helped us build the coop. She was a big trooper and hung out in the garage with us while we built it and painted it. She then enjoyed holding on to the side and standing up on her own inside the coop. She is just too cute.

New Meaning

2009-01-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

Ok church meetings have taken on a new meaning. During sacrament meeting Chris was holding Penelope and reading the schedule thing. Penelope proceeded to grab it from him and begin to eat it. Upon taking it from her she started fussing, so we gave it back. Then she decided that she wanted to talk and we had no way to quiet her down. Chris handed her off to me and I was holding her up so she could see around behind us and she just enjoyed that. She loves to look at the people behind us and smile at them. Sister Gibson was directly behind us and kept Penelope entertained for a while. Finally I got her to fall asleep and we were able to listen to the last talk in sacrament meeting.
During the second hour I was running around doing things for my calling (I am not the Primary secretary) It was only my second week of doing my calling so I felt like a chicken with my head cut off. Anyways Penelope was laying on a blanket in the Primary room (Chris was in the library cuz we haven't been released yet) playing with some toys. As I was coming down the hall I hear her fussing and by the time I got there one of the counselors was holding her.
Then during the third hour I was trying to write on papers to give to the children who I asked to do scripture/prayer and the talk next week and Penelope kept grabbing my pen and the papers so the other counselor took Penelope. By that time she was tires so she took Penelope out in the hall (this was during sharing time) and Penelope fell asleep so she held her until church was over. What fun times that I have to look forward to.

Christmas and First Snow

2009-01-08T22:04:00.001-08:00

Christmas was a lot of fun. Penelope did suprisingly well when it came to unwraping her gifts. She enjoyed pulling the paper and then trying to eat it.

We were up before everyone else so we let her open one gift and then she played with it until everyone woke up.

She is sitting up on her own for quite a while, as long as she does not get excited!

She had fun playing with her new balls.

After opening about 5 gifts she was nocked out so the gift opening was put on hold for a while.

This gift was in honner of Grandpa Mike...Her very first Hammer!

She sure did like the paper.

She was so excited about all of her gifts. She loved them all.

This was Allisons suprise gift...Dixie...she is such a cutie and Rusty loves having a friend around, expecialy since she runs and plays with him.

She also got her first phone...lets hope that she is still happy with play phones when she is older too.

The day after christmas we went up to Utah. We were only going to stay 5 days, but we ended up extending our stay and getting some work done on my parents house. It was a lot of fun spending time with the family up there and Chris was able to teach Aaron how to do some work around the house.

Aunt Ammie was excited to see Penelope again. (along with the others)

This is Jazzy my grandpas dog. Isaac just loved him and they got along very well to get her. Emily also enjoyed him. Emily was swatting at Jazzy and he would swat back at her playfully...too cute.

Chris recruted the kids and Lily to build a snow castle using a storage tub. It kept them occupied for quite a while and they had fun with it.

Alli wanted to go sledding, but she chickened out when Dad took her to a big hill so they ended up going down the little bumps in the front yard and then some how talked Rachelle into pulling them around.

They sure enjoyed all the fun!

This is Penelope standing up in the snow. She wasn't quite sure what to think about it all, but she sure was cute all bundled up in her snow outfit.

While mom and dad were working on the house Penelope was sleeping with grandpa.

Penelope aslo got to meet her great grandpa and grandma Mary for the first time. She was quite content sitting with grandpa in his rocking chair.

Blessing

2009-01-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

Ok I know it was forever ago, but here are a couple of pictures from Penelopes Blessing day.

4 Months

2008-12-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

Ok so Penelope is now four months old. Time passes so quickly. She is learning new things everyday. Her most recent new skills are: Eating cereal, Laughing, Shaking her raddle, Playing in the mirror, Holding and reading books, and falling asleep on her own in the crib. She also continues to be such a sweet girl. Here are some recent photos and a few videos.

First feeding in the Baby Tenta.

Reading her book.

Happy girl after church.

Be sure your volume is up so you can hear Penelope.

Thanksgiving/Cookie Day

2008-12-04T11:58:00.001-08:00

For thanksgiving we went up to Fresno to Chris' aunts house. It was a lot of fun. We had about 20 people there and some yummy food. Penelope finaly got to meet her cousin Lucy. (I guess they are cousins, she is Chris' cousins baby). That saterday we had the annual Aller Cookie Day. A day of complete baking madness. We were baking from around 8 am till about 9 pm. We made tons of cookies and some fudge and bar cookies and almond roca. They were very yummy and we ended up coming home with a ton of cookies to give out to friends and family. Enjoy the photos of the weekend.

This isn't even all of the cookies Shes learning about driving early

Such a sweetie pie

She is already intrested in reading (just gota teach her how to get the book the right way)

Sleeping with Uncle Matthew

Tummy time playing with Lucy

Chris was teaching her to be a teckie

Looking at great grandma Jean

She is always smiling

Hanging out with Aunt Mary

They weren't quite sure what to think of eachother, but they liked holding hands....

And talking to each other!

Three months

2008-11-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

So time has been flying and Penelope is now 3 1/2 months. I never did a post for 3 months so I thought I would just put up some of her more recent photos. We also blessed Penelope and I will put up some photos from that special day when I get them from Sara.

I love this little outfit.

This is how Penelope started...

This is how she ended up!

Sleepy Head

Trip to Knotts

2008-11-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

While Aaron and Rachelle were down we went to Knotts. It was a lot of fun seeing all the little ones have fun and riding some of the bigger rides with Alli. Enjoy the photos!

Adam & Lily

2008-11-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

So over the weekend I gained a new sister-in-law. Adam and Lily were sealed together in the New Port temple. That was the first sealing that Chris and I have attended, and it was so special to have it be for a sibling. Adam and Lily are just so perfect for each other. It was a fun and exciting day seeing so many family and friends brought together for such a special event! Here are some fun photos from the day.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-26T23:40:00.001-07:00

We went with Holly and Peter to a pumpkin patch out in Riverside. It was a lot of fun, hot but fun. We went out to their house friday night and spent the night and then saturday Pete helped Chris with his truck and then we went out to the patch. They had a little mini carnaval including a pettig zoo, bouncie things, and games. However with all the little ones we just walked around, played on the haystacks, looked at all the cool different types of pumpkins, and got some kettle corn (yummy!)

The kids took turns riding in the little wagon thingie and drinking all of my water... :)

I had to get this little pumpkin because its stem is just so cute. Chris liked the green one and we are going to try to dry the seeds and plant them next year. Lets hope it works so we can realy get our moneys worth out of it.

The other pumpkin that we got is about the same size as Penelope. Our little pumpkin looks so sad in amongst these other pumpkins...hopefully next year we will have better luck.

Trunk or Treating

2008-10-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Last night our ward had our halloween party. We enjoy decorating the mini's "boot" as it is soposed to be called and handing out candy to the kids (next year we will have to take Penelope around to the cars), Any how we had a lot of fun and here are a few pictues from the night.

Pumpkins?

2008-10-23T23:09:00.001-07:00

Our garden didnt do very good this year...to may pests eating our plants. We tryed planting pumpkins so that we would have some to carve for Halloween. Last year all of our pumpkins (we got like 6 of them) were ready too early so they were no good for halloween. This year we waited longer to plant them, but we only got one pumpkin, and it is too little to carve!

So Holly invited us to go to the pumpkin patch with her family this saterday so we are going to go and have fun with her kids and maybe get a couple of pumpkins. Ill post pictures of the fun stuff we do there.

Penelopes Photoshoot

2008-10-23T22:51:00.001-07:00

Ok so we did a little at home photoshoot with Penelope and here are the pictues that we got from it. They are scanned into comp using a low grade scanner so they are not the greatest, but you get the idea!

The Red Barn

2008-10-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so Sue stuck with her all red barn and we finaly finished it. (Now we are putting a walkway in that goes out to the barn) Anyhow, here is a picture of it. We still have to put the weather vain on and Sue has a couple of black decorative things that are going on either side of the door. (I still think the white would have looked better! But Sue is happy and its her house!)

Halloween Costume

2008-10-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Ok so as I mentioned in a previous blog I was making Penelopes halloween costume. I realy didnt have to do to much for it, but this is what it looks like. She is going to be wearing nylons that are the lighter pink color. It looks kinda funny in the picture, but Im sure she will look adorable in it. The hat turned out better than I thought it would. We bought the pink hat and then I unstitched it and added in the piglet ears that I sewed together. I am going to wear pooh ears and a red t-shirt (I might make some pants that are "pooh"color, but Im not sure yet (Id have to go get some fabric for them)) and chris is going to wear a white polo shirt and jean shorts like Christopher Robin. Fun stuff. We are just so excited to celebrate halloween with all 8 grandkids together!

Babee Tenda and other pictues

2008-10-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

So we have started using our babee tenda f or short periods at a time and Penelope has been loving it. It will work great for her when we start feeding her solids. Here are some pictures of her in the chair and just some other fun pictures.

Practicing for Halloween

2008-10-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Penelope was practicing holding candy for when we go trick or treating on Halloween with all her cousions. She also was practicing to fight off her cousins for when they try to take her candy. (one hand on the candy and the other ready to throw a punch!) We bought Penelope a Piglet coustume, but it is 3-12 months and is way to big for her so I am going to try to be creative and make a little piglet costume for her (Emily can use the piglet costume if she wants! and Penelope will have to be piglet again next year.) We are looking forward to Aaron & Rachelle coming out in a little over a week its going to be so fun with all the little ones!

Prop 8

2008-10-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm writing to let you know about Proposition 8 which is coming up on the November ballot. Here are some facts and reasons why I will be voteing YES on PROPOSITION 8:

Proposition 8 is Pro-Marriage and Children, but it doesn't take any rights away from gay or lesbian domestic partners.
According to law they will have "the same rights, protections and benefits" as married couples (Family Code 297.5). It will simply state that gay and lesbian partnerships are not the same thing as a "marriage" and so children will not be taught this in school. Same-sex versus traditional marriage conversations are best discussed by parents at home, just like sex education.

To protect the rights of the voters of California.
The California Supreme Court over-ruled the voice of the people when they decided to re-define the definition of marriage (which has existed since long before our government). In 2000 61% of voters voted YES on proposition 22 which defines "marriage" as between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court disregarded OUR VOICE and changed the constitution WITHOUT OUR VOTE. Proposition 8 reinstates what we already approved and undoes their injustice so that our decision can never be tampered with again.

Please register to vote and vote in November on this very important issue, and tell your friends.

You can see more at ProtectMarriage.com.

Puppies

2008-10-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so I really didn't want Lady to have puppies for two reasons. First she needed a break from puppies, and second I didn't want to deal with puppies and a two month old. Well guess what we weren't careful enough when she was in heat and now we have puppies. They are cute little buggers, but I'm gona have my hands full until they are gone. They were just born this morning, but here are a few pictures of them.

Check out this puppy. (it has so much white it looks like a cow)

They are so little they make Penelope look huge.

Penelope got to hang out with me for the last couple puppies, shes getting an early start on her animal rearing.

Two Months

2008-10-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

So Penelope is now two months old. I cant believe it has been two months. Penelope is doing great. She is still sleeping through the night and being a great baby. She is such a smiley girl now. She loves to be in on all the action when we are working outside and wants to see what is going on. She is quite ticklish and I cant wait until she starts laughing. She is very strong and holds her head up really well. Soon she will be holding it up all on her own. We cant wait to see Aaron, Rachelle and their family, Grandma Edna, and Ammie in a few weeks. We are also hoping that Grandpa and Grandma Mary will be able to come out for Adams big day.

I set Penelope down on the couch for a second, to get a glass of water, because she was in a happy mood...this is what I came back to...a sleeping baby. (I guess she likes Grandpa's proped up in the corner position)

Our Family

I've been tagged!

2008-09-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Laura tagged me about the Big 5....

10 years ago I:
1. Was in 7th grade
2. Had a 1 year old little sister
3. Played on the Chino spring soccer team
4. Competed in Vaulting
5. Was raising animals in 4-H (sheep, cows, horses, and rabbits)

5 things on today's "to do" list:
1. Read a few chapters in The Host by Stephenie Meyer
2. Photo shoot for Penelope
3. Call the new doctor and schedule Penelopes 2 month appointment
4. Do laundry
5. Clean up around the house

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Skidos (Skittles)
2. Chocolate
3. Ice Cream
4. GoldFish
5. Fruit

5 places I've lived
1. Heaven
2. Chino, CA
3. Rodriguez (for a month)
4. Russia (for a week)
5. Murrieta, CA

5 things I'd do if I was a millionaire
1. Build a home on lots of land
2. Save money for our children's college
3. Invest money for our retirement
4. Get a job that is FUN and not Work
5. Donate to charities

5 jobs i've had
1. Ice cream girl at the LA Fair
2. Mervyns
3. secretary at Chapman Designs
4. secretary for Coopertive Extenshion in San Bernardino County
5. mommy

I tag...
1. Holly
2. Ammie
3. Lilly
4. Rachelle
5. Kellyn

Auntie Ammie

2008-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

So Ammie came down for a week and she got to finaly meet Penelope. We had fun seeing her and hanging out together. Mom, Ammie, Penelope and I went to Solvang. That was fun just spending the day with the girls. (Unfortinatly I dont have any pictures from the trip, Ammie has one hopefully she'll put on her blog and I can get it.) We went to the Broken Horn sale, which wasnt as good as usual, and celebrated my B-Day. We loved having her down and we cant wait till the rest of the family comes for Adams wedding.

Swimming

2008-09-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Abby came down and spent the weekend with us and so we went swimming. Abby did great with her little arm floaties.
We also took Penelope in the pool for the first time. She loves the water so we have put her feet in at my moms house, but this was the first time she realy went in the pool. She wasn't in the water for long, but while she was in the water she enjoyed it.

White or Red?

2008-09-16T16:54:00.001-07:00

Ok so we first planned to have white trim on the shed, but Sue decided that she wanted to see what it would look like all red. If she likes it better white after we finish everything we will repaint the trim. Let me know which one you think looks better. The roofing, hinges, etc will be black.

One Month!

2008-09-09T21:47:00.001-07:00

Ok so last week Penelope turned one month old. (I know Im a little late with this post) She is getting so big. She is staying awake a lot more and she is getting mroe active. She is still sleeping great and only wakeing up once at night to eat. We are looking forward to being able to play with her as she gets bigger.

Big Carrot!

2008-09-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Ok so our garden didnt do very well this year, but we did get some killer carrots. Abby helped Chris pick a bunch of carrots and then we took them over to grandmas house to feed them to the horses (the only problem with huge carrots is they are on the bitter side.) The horses realy enjoyed eating them though. Abby fed sassy the one in the picture and when she grabbed it she lifted Abby off of the ground. It took her like 10 mins, but Sassy finaly eat the entire carrot.

The Beach

2008-09-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today Chris and I went to the beach to take engagement photos for Adam and Lilly. It was Penelope's first trip to the beach so we took a picture of us while we were there. (even though she slept the entire time we were at the beach) It was fun though and hopefully next time she will be awake for at least part of it!

Smart Dog!

2008-09-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

OK so Saturday was a pretty yucky day. It wasn't extremely hot, but the high humidity made for a sticky, icky day. The humidity was so high that it rained for about 15 minutes that morning. We had let the dogs inside in the afternoon so that they didn't have to be outside in the yuck. I was letting the dogs out to go potty and champ went outside and the door was left slightly open. He proceeded to pick up one of the dog bowls (that had food from that morning still in it) by the rim, he brought it into the house (amazingly enough he didn't spill any of the food) and the he ate the food. I guess he thought that it you too yucky to eat outside. Isn't he such a smart and talented dog!

Talking

2008-08-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Penelope was in a talkative mood a few days ago and she wanted to let her Aunt Ammie, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Rachelle, and her cousins Averi, Isaac, and Emily know that she can not wait to meet them all in the near future.

Ouch!

2008-08-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

Penelope has started pulling her own hair. She started just holding onto a fist full of hair last week. However, while I was doing laundry on Tuesday she began screaming so I went and checked on her and she was pulling her hair. She hasn't realized yet that her pulling on the fist full of hair hurts so we have to pry her hand open to get her to let go of her hair. Babies are so silly!

Thumb Sucker?!?

2008-08-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Penelope has desperately tried to be a thumb sucker. It was not long after she was born that she found her thumb and started sucking. Mom doesn't want a thumb sucker so I immediately pulled it out of her mouth. She took to the binkie right away, but now any chance she gets, she tries to suck her thumb. Hopefully she will loose that desire and just take the binkie.

First Bath!

2008-08-14T22:06:00.001-07:00

Last night Penelope had her first real bath. She was such a good girl and loved it. The only time she cried was when I lifted her out of the tub and was getting her wrapped in the towel. Once she was wrapped up and dryed off she was back to her little angel self. Last friday she also had her first Dr. appt. She did great and she had gained the weight that she lost in the hospital back and an ounce so she weighted in at 7lb. 8oz. She has another appt. tomarrow to make sure she is still gaining weight (shes a good eater so Im sure she has gained weight).

Best Sleeper Ever!

2008-08-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I think Penelope is the best sleeper ever. The first two nights at home (and while in the hospital) I had to wake her up just to feed her. Last night she did wake up to eat, but after that she went right back to sleep. Chris and I are so blessed, we have been loosing more sleep due to our dogs (Lady is in heat so Champ and Deuce have been going crazy) than we have from our new little baby.

2008 Olympics

2008-08-09T16:26:00.001-07:00

I loved the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. It was an amazing show and absolutely crazy how many people were involved and how much was spent on the show. I'm excited that I will be home all month to watch all of my favorite events this year.
Myspace Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Baby Penelope!

2008-08-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

Penelope was too eager to see the world and decided to come 10 days early! I started feeling contractions Sunday evening, but they were few and far-in-between so I didn't think much of it. I had a docter appt monday afternoon and I was plannin on asking how long my Dr would let me go over due before inducing me. Before the appt. however I had some more contractions and they were starting to come more often. I decided to have Chris go to the appt. with me, the docter checked me at about 3:30 and said that I was dialated to a 2 or 3. She said that she didn't think that I would make it another week but we scheduled an appt for the next week anyways. We then went to the bank and Target (to get a new battery for my watch so I could time the contractions). By the time we got back from Target the contractions were coming about every 10 min. The contractions were getting closer and closer. Sue said that I should walk around to help, so I did and about half an hour later I told Chris that I thought I was ready to go. Sue didn't think that I was ready and so her and Chris started working on the front room (we were trying to get it done before Nelly came) After a few more contractions came 3-5 min. appart I called Chris out and told him I wanted to go. He was thinking that we would get sent home so he took his time driving out there. We got to the hospital and they stated observing me at about 9:30. The nurse checked me and said that I was dialated to a 6 and at 90%. At 10:15 they addmitted me and my labor/delivery nurse put the IV in. They asked what I wanted to do for pain management and I wasnt sure so they said they would give me a dose of pain meds through the IV and said I could do an epedural later if I needed it. The nurse then checked me and I was at a 7 and she said that my water was ready to break. Before she finished examining me my water broke. A couple min. later the other nurse came in and gave the the pain meds. She said I would probibly get a little dizzy and that it would help speed things up because it would relax me and if I felt any pressure to let them know. About 5 mins later I was feeling pressure and so Chris paged the nurses. They came in, checked me, and called the Dr. The Dr. came in and they told him that I was ready and he said no shes only 9 1/2 (w/o even checking me) and then left the room. The nurse had me push twice to get her a little further down and then called the Dr. back in. I then pushed about 5 or 6 times and at 10:57 she was born. She was 7 lb, 7 oz. and 19 inches long. Everyone was so shocked at how fast it all went (only 4 hrs of labor). Holly and Betsy got to the hospital about 30 mins after she was born. She was the best baby in the hospital, all the nurses were supprised at how quiet she was, we are just hoping that that will continue now that we are home. She sure shocked us that she came so early, so quickly, and with so much dark hair!

The new Parents

Momma and Baby

Car ride home

Pretty flowers from Peter and Holly

Two Weeks and counting!

2008-07-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

Two weeks from today is my official due date. How exciting, it is getting so close. I have been so blessed throughout this pregnancy and I hope that continues through the labor process. I have not been sick (due to the baby) at all. I have been able to sleep as if I wasn't pregnant. I have not had any problems and all tests have come back negative or good. (the only thing I have been a little low on was iron, but it wasn't by much). Chris and I were able to get so much of what we needed from our baby showers and we are so grateful for everyone who got us gifts. We are now just playing the waiting game and are extremely excited to finally meet our little one.

Weekend with the Kids!

2008-07-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Chris had a job out in Yuccipa so he decided to pick up the kids from Holly's for the weened since it would probibly be our last oppertunity before Penelope arrives. It was a lot of fun having them around, but man was I tired at the end of the day. Chris helped them build a fort that they slept in using the box that my rocker came in, a desk chair, and a few blankets. They realy enjoyed that. We did a lot of swimming while they were down also. We don't have much in the way of pool toys for kids so we improvised. We converted an ice chest into a boat and a kick board and they played with some of Chris' old lego boats.

Chris got all the kids to hold their breath under water. Sammi and Dano went down and touched the bottom of the pool, but Abby just went down a little bit.
The kids all wanted to try to play rock band. Needless to say the game is not made for little kids. Dano had fun hitting the drumbs and the girls just played witht the gitars.
Abby had fun making funny faces at Chris durring dinner time. Abby also loves grandmas new kittie (Lillys find) and the kittie was very good about letting her carry it around.

Family & Friends Baby Shower

2008-07-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

Last saturday we had a Family/Friends baby shower that Aunt Mary put together. We had a ton of fun and we got a lot of good stuff for Penelope. Aunt Barb made/decorated the cakes which were adorable and yummy!

Aunt Sue got me the cutest Juicy purse that is big enough to use as a diper bag (since Juicy diaper bags are way outragiously priced and she got an awsome deal on the purse)

Kellyn has been such a great friend and support through everything and is just as excited as we are to meet Penelope.

This was the most creative present we got. It is a Diaper cake. It is made out of cloth diapers and recieving blankets. The roses are sockies and there are toys, headbands, and binkies for decoration. Pennys Auntie Sara made it for her.

Ok so we totaly do not look related but Tiff, my cousion, is only 9 months older than me. She was totaly excited that I am rounder than her for the first time ever.

Grandma Betsy and Great-Grandma Jenny got me and Penny this glider and foot rest. It is so nice and will help on those late nights. I had to test it out on Penelopes second cousion Lucy.

The three Aller girls. Auntie Sara and Grandma Betsy.

Hospital Tour

2008-07-16T21:02:00.001-07:00

Ok so we've got less than a month left! Yea...we cant wait to meet our little one. We just got back from Pomona Valley Hospital, where she will be born, doing the maturnity tour. Before we walked the maturnity ward they did a little speal about the classes they offer and what to do when you come to the hospital in labor. One of the things they talked about were birthing balls and they had ones that they wanted all the expectant moms to try them. I however didn't care to try one out because I didn't want to spend $20 to get one and I figureed if I realy wanted one Betsy probibly has one I can use. So they were going to raffel off some stuff like free classes and stuff. The first thing they were drawing for was a birthing ball...well guess what they pulled my ticket, go figure that I would win it after not trying it out. I will defenatly use it since we have it, and now I can determine if it realy is worth the $20 to get one. I have been doing great. I haven't had any trouble sleeping or anything and no back pains. The only thing that I can complain about are my swollen feet, but if I make sure and put them up every now and then throughout the day then they dont get that bad.

The Big Red Barn

2008-07-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Since Chris' family was down for the baby shower we also buit the main part of Sue's shed (AKA the barn) in the back. It was pretty hot so I did not help much and stayed inside, but I did go out to get some pictures. The boys worked hard on the framing saturday morning while the girls got ready for the baby shower and then on sunday Sue and Barb helped Chris, Ralph, and Zack with siding and the plywood on the roof. It looks great and we cant wait to get it finished so that we can put all of our gardening tools inside it (and were more excited to get them out of the garage.

Ammie and Dusty

2008-06-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

So my job at the horse show was to take pictures. I got a few good ones so enjoy!

I cought Ammie in the act of tracing her jumping pattern!

Utah Trip

2008-06-24T12:56:00.001-07:00

So Chris and I decided that during our break from school we would go up to Utah and visit Ammie. It turned out that my mom was going up the same weekend because Ammie was going to be showing Dusty. Then Adam decided that he wanted to go up and Ammie talked Holly into letting us birng up Sammy. Ammie threw a babyshower for me and one of our second cousins got married while we were up there. It turned out to be a fun trip and we also were able to help Ammie get some stuff done around the house. The major things that we did were staining the barn and stacking her hay. Ok so I didn't realy help with either of those activities, but I was there for moral support.

This is the cute cake that my dads cousin Lisa made for the baby shower. It was so fun seeing all the relitives that came.

Adam spraying the barn

Chris spraying the barn

Even Sammy sprayed the barn!

Its A ....

2008-06-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Okay so we have arrived at the 30 Week mark! Only 10 weeks left till we get to meet our little one! We had a second ultrasound appointment today and the baby was cooperating so we found out that we are having....A GIRL! Yep that's right we are keeping in line with the family tradition of girl, boy, girl, boy, ext. The Dr. said that everything looks good shes got a good heart, nice head and everything else is where it is supposed to be. We are leaning towards naming her Penelopie Pearl (I am not sure if that is the spelling we want or not, but the name could possible change if we find something we like better, but I doubt it). Here are a few pictures from the Ultrasound and one of my belly!

Little Footsie and Resting on my arm

No modesty hiding my gender this time!

Little arms and little head

Belly at 30 Weeks

It’s been a while…

2008-05-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

We have been doing great. Over mother’s day weekend we made a quick trip up to Fresno for Kristy’s (Chris’ cousin) baby shower. It was a lot of fun seeing her and the rest of the family. We come home Sunday and made it back in time for the BBQ at my mom’s house and got to see her open our gift to her. It was a group gift that Ammie came up with and Chris and I designed and built. A mounting block so that she can get up on her horse easier. It turned out pretty good and she loved it.

The next two weekends we spent getting ready for Memorial Day. Chris’ birthday being the 27th it always falls around Memorial Day so we always do a BBQ. It turned out to be a good get together and we had a ton of food! The backyard turned out looking very nice. I can’t wait until the plants get bigger and fill in the planters it will be so beautiful.

We also found out that we are going to have a second ultrasound on June 5th so we are hoping that Baby will be more cooperative and we will find out its gender. We will post a blog after the appointment to let everyone know what we find out.