November 2013

It's January 17 and I'm finally getting to update the blog for the last couple of months. Check out some of our Fall Pics, 2013:

 

Halloween 2013!  We all met at Grandma and Grandpa Luke's before we departed into our own 'hoods for some trick or treatin'.  Seriously, every kid looked awesome. 

Andi and Abbey were "Monster High" dolls, and Ava was a My Little Pony ("Rainbow Dash.)  --They're latest favorites.  :)

My dad's 75th birthday on November 1st.  We gathered at a Luke family favorite--El Matador--and partied it up!  :)  I was actually not able to go because I had a little medical procedure done.  It was actually not very little and it was definitely not very fun.  I was sad to miss the celebration...I can't believe my dad is 75.  So proud of all he still does.  He's awesome.

More celebrating for dad's birthday at Mom and Dad's.

Abbey being a cute goofball on Eric's weight stuff.

The girls got to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Zimmerman.  Here they are enjoying a little time with their grandparents who had just returned from their mission.

Here's Andi with her good friend Macey.  This picture totally captures their personalities.  Can you tell that Andi needs her own space?  And Macey is just right there, ready for love and friendship. :)  So cute.  They're in kindergarten together and Macey just lives down the street.  They spend each Tuesday afternoon at our house hangin' out, workin' on crafts, and having fun.

Mom and baby Bowen, my sister Leslie's baby boy.

Andi LOVES her cousin Bowen. She just can't get enough of him.  It's adorable.

 

Look at Ava's cute smile here.  Good pic.

They dressed as twins on this day! It's not very often you see these two enjoying time together, so I had to capture the moment.  :)

I saw this idea at a boutique and I loved it.  I made some Christmas gifts kind of like it.  I totally want to do more sometime...When I have/make enough time to be a crafty crafter.

Eric will periodically take pictures of the sunsets from our balcony's view.  I always love to see what he comes up with.  Love the view.

Lots of leaves to keep the girls busy with this fall.  (And mostly, to keep Eric and I busy with...whether we like it or not.)  Our first fall in this beautiful yard.  I have to keep saying "beautiful yard" over and over again when we have gigantic yard projects such as these.

Eric got some really fun shots of the girls that day.

Enjoying a fall football game at the U.  Eric and I went, along with Gabe, Scott, my dad, Spencer, and Luke. Here's Luke and Spencer bein' goofballs.

More Fall fun.

Oh, man....I love this dog.  Look at him.  Look at him!  Oh...so cute.

Andi insisted on wearing my pajama pants this night and she thought it was hilarious.

Workin' on Kindergarten homework. 

I have a weekly Relief Society meeting (usually at my house) and I just had to take a shot of my fellow Relief Society friends as Harry makes himself comfortable while snoring in between them.  He's gotten to know Susan, Marylou, and Amy well.  As a matter of fact, so have I, and I am feeling pretty privileged to have such good friends.  Love them.

Look at this darling hair.  Andi's hair is growing so much lately.

At a Utah basketball game with Andi, Abbey, and my dad.  Go Utes!

The best picture EVER!  We got Swoop to come over and say hi to the girls.  Andi hasn't stopped talking about it since.

Eric got right on the annual Christmas card.  You may not guess it when you first meet him, but Eric's a pretty creative and artistic guy.  (Which is why he's now in charge of our Christmas cards each year.)

We had a Family Home Evening in which we used some of the Thanksgiving activity packets Grandma Joann sent us.  Sure do love Grandma Joann.

Behold, my first homemade pie.  In the works.

The final product.  Pear Pie.  Thank you Mark and Julie Chandler for teaching me the tricks of the pie trade!  I was so excited for Thanksgiving just so I could finally achieve my goal of learning how to make PIE!  I was determined this was the year and I did it.  I can finally check that one off my list. 

Thanksgiving afternoon at the Luke's.  Here's my brother-in-law getting his turkey-carvin' groove on with my mom's apron on.  :)  Love him.

The girls (including Leslie's Chloe) love Eric.  :)

Abbey, Luke, and Carter havin' some fun at Grandma's for Thanksgiving.

Doing crafts with Leslie and the kids after Thanksgiving dinner.

Abbey displaying her Turkey Day craft with Grandma Luke.

The day after Thanksgiving, all the Allen-Schmitz grandchildren gathered in Eric and my backyard for a photo session.  Leslie took the pictures and she did such a good job.  Eric also did a good job of standing on his head to get those cute kids to smile and look up.  :)

Bethany ended up giving these pictures to my in-laws for their Christmas present.  So cute.

From left to right:  Maelee, Leif, Abbey, Ava, Gigi, and Andalyn.

Ron and Joann stayed at a hotel in Salt Lake over Thanksgiving (now that they are Montanans.)  The Allen-Schmitz clan gathered the day after Thanksgiving for some old-fashioned swimming fun, and it was a PARTAY.  Really, it was super fun.  We went to the Crown Burger afterwards. 

Abbey is getting to be such a good swimmer.

I did it...I got the tree up by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas décor.  Beautiful, yes...A pain in my butt, Y-E-S.  All for a meesley four weeks.  Yeah, I get a little Scrooge-ish about it all.  Pre-lit trees help with my grouchiness, though, which is somewhat redeeming.

The lights of the Christmas season.  When all the work is done, it's a beautiful way to mark a beautiful season.