6 month update

So there are those among you that actually expect me to UPDATE my blog??!! What? Really? Just cause it's ben 6 months since I wrote something? Okay...

So life has been rather interesting for the last bit.

The girls were born in June and the first part of August, D left for Afghanistan. Luckily I had so much help from the ward and Heather was here too. Not to mention the couple VERY good friends I've made here in Tucson, Lauren and Courtney.

If you want a day to day account of the life in The Allen home for the 3 months D was gone, there's a blog for that. If you want the overview, let's just say, it was an experience.

In October, we decided to be crazy and took all four kids, Heather and me on a trip from Tucson to Provo, UT. We were able to stay with my wonderful brother and drove him crazy for a little over 2 weeks. We went up for two sealings in the Bountiful temple there in Utah. Mike and Mariah Smith got sealed on the 14th and Pama and Derek Alder were sealed on the 29th. The trip went better than I thought it would be, mostly because we ended up driving the long distances at night, so the kids could sleep. Though we did all get pretty sick, Uncle Ammon gave us all blessings, which was a cool experience.

The biggest project I tried to get accomplished was the backyard. I wanted to get it finished before D got home as his Birthday/Christmas/Going Away/Homecoming present. While I didn't get it completed, I got a LOT done on it. I planted several trees, put in edging stones and tree rings and block around the new garden area. Then, with a LOT of help, we got gravel delivered and hauled by the wheel barrow full to the back yard. Thanks go out to the Nichols, the Ards, the Rosenbaums, the Scouts of the Valencia ward and mostly to my fabulous Dad! It was 13 TONS of gravel! Whew!

The week of Thanksgiving, Heather decided it was time to move out. She moved out on Monday, and moved in with a couple friends. I think she is an amazing person and am so grateful for the help she was to me when I needed it. I don't know how I could have handled this pregnancy and the early months with the twins without her. She has recently become engaged and I wish her peace.

D came home a couple days before we had been expecting him, which was wonderful. We were able to spend a little time together before we started traveling for the holidays.

We were able to visit all the grandparents for Christmas this year. We decided to drive at night as that had worked so well on the trip to Utah. So we left in the afternoon on Sunday and drove to El Paso and visited with Auntie Marcia and Uncle Steve for a little bit, then drove over night to my parents house. They watched the kids while we attempted to sleep that day, then we drove on again the following night.

We went to Arkansas first a spent time with Tom and Dorothy. We got to spend Christmas at Rachelle and Bills house, with Donna and her kids, Brent, Alex and Evan. For our Anniversary, D and I spent the day in Eureka Springs, which is where he proposed to me (Awe!!)

After that, we headed to Paula's house in Texas. We got to spend some time on "the property" in Memaw's 5th wheel, where they're building a house for Memaw. We also got to see Miss Teri, Uncle Tom, Auntie Laura, Auntie Lori, Uncle Andres, and the cousins, Julian, Marcelino and baby Kiev. We got to spend a couple days there and had a second Christmas on New Year's day.

A couple days later, we drove the couple hours to my parents house and had a third small Christmas and some play time with Pat and George. We even got to eat some freshly caught fish the first day we got there, caught, cleaned, and cooked all by Dad.

On the way back, because we were starting to get sick, we decided to spare Marica our germs and drive straight through. On a whim, D decided to head up to Taos, NM to see the earthship community up there. (check it out here) I was amazed to see one in "action". After a couple hours in Taos, we headed the rest of the way home.

And it is GOOD to be home!

At 6 months, AR has decided that crawling is okay, but she prefers walking. So rather than perfect her crawling skills, she has started pulling up on EVERYTHING and is most content when standing. LS is doing a great break-dance move to get where she wants to go and so doesn't feel the need for that whole crawling thing either. They are both happy babies which is such a blessing.

HT is so spunky and so smart all at the same time. He can get into so much trouble in so little time and then just smiles. But, oh, what a smile. There's a little hint of trouble in each one of his smiles, which just seems to make them that much more endearing. He has learned to count and is working on potty training.

AC is such a sweet little man. He is a great help with his sisters and loves to help with anything. He's decided he wants to start reading and writing and will ask me over and over how to spell this and that through out the day. I plan to start working more on his home schooling and want to be a bit more organized in it.

We recently turned off the internet at home so the kids would spend less time on the computer and we can have the time to spend on home schooling. I'm planning to start that this month and get a little more scheduled and a bit more structured in our lives.

So that's kind of an update on the last 6 months. Hopefully, I'll find time more frequently than that to update this. Though I make no promises!