The Allen's Ranch Blog

2010 in REVIEW

2010-12-12T15:07:00.000-08:00

JANUARY

Reagan has a blast with the kids home from school for the Holidays!

Andie is student of the week. She gets to make a poster all about herself and explain how she is our "Andie Pandie Bear."

Bryan participates in his last pinewood derby as a cubscout. Doesn't win but beats out best fuel economy!! Finally!!

Jayme is diagnosed with Scholiosis in her back. We decide to homeschool her and put her through rigorous therapy to try and correct her curve. We are successful!!

While at home, she and Reagan bond and have lots of fun! We also got lots of fun learning in too.

FEBRUARY

Reagan gets a HUGE suprise for her birthday - a SNOW DAY! Schools are cancelled and the kids stay home. We all bundle up and play.

Jayme turns 14!

MARCH

Bryan turns 11 and becomes a Boy Scout! His cousin Brayden comes out to help celebrate the big day.

We take a fun trip to Houston, Texas for Spring Break. We see the big rodeo and Keith Urban concert and NASA.

APRIL

We celebrate EASTER.

MAY

Andrea performs in the Silver Bells Singer's Company. Their theme this year was "Broadway Our Way" and performed songs from Annie, My Fair Lady, Les Miserable, West Side Story, and Hello Dolly just to name a few.

Bryan's 5th grade trip to Hawaiian Falls Water Park.

Memorial Day at Friends!!

JUNE

Andie and Jayme take dance lessons and have their recital in June. Both girls did a great job!!

Andrea takes a jazz class....

Jayme takes a contemporary class......

Andrea also takes hip hop - which is her favorite!

Our cute little one.

Bryan Graduates from Elementary School!

JULY

Our vacation to Newport Beach, California and Seattle, Washington begins. We start out in California for some Sun, Sand and Surf.

Day to trip to Disney's California Adventure.

Off to Seattle.....

Andie and Cousin Maggie play at Lake Wilderness Park.

This post is still under construction. Please come back in a day or two.............

2009 - The Year in Review!

2009-12-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

JANUARY I am ready to pop and have to take it easy because I had started to have some contractions. Jed and Nancy came to babysit me in late January because Jay was out of town and I was so close to having the baby. Bryan finishes up his Basketball season.
FEBRUARY

Baby Reagan suprizes us all by arriving early and on her own! Thanks to a tornado that blew through town, my water broke and it was off to the hospital. She was born on Feb 11, 2009. Later that month, Sam and Maggie and Grammy came from Seattle to visit and enjoy the baby. We had a great visit and my mom was a HUGE help.

Jayme celebrated her Birthday by going to the spa with her BF Stephanie.

MARCH

Bryan turns 10. He gets a new bat and glove for his birthday. Spring Baseball is starting and he is excited!

Reagan gets blessed.

APRIL

We celebrate Easter.

Reagan gets RSV. Luckily it was a very mild case. We were able to treat her at home with the breathing treatment. She was only sick for about a week and bounced back really well.

Bryan catches a baseball with his face. Not the most ideal method. Luckily lips heal quickly.

With the arrival of Reagan - we were faced with many challenges. Probably the most painful for Jayme was having to let Riley go to a new home. We found him a new home that could offer him tons of love.

Bryan earns his Bear and moves on to Webelos scouts.

April

The girls show off their talent. Andrea and her 2 friends tryout for the school talent show - and make it.

At the beginning of the year, Jayme tried our for a girls "pop group" choir for her school and made it. At the end of the year, the showed off their talents with a fun medley. We enjoyed watching Jayme's solo.

We are busy with 4 kids and doing a lot of running around. Poor Reagan hated her car seat at first but by now she finally succumbs and learns to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Reagan begins to eat cereal!

May

School is winding down. The kids enjoy the end of the year parties!

JUNE

Andrea performs her dance recital to the Miley Cyrus version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!"

After school is out, Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Jed come for a visit. Along with Jerry, Cathy and Nicole.

Mom takes Reagan in the pool and she loves the water!

Cathy, Nicole, Bryan and Andrea in the pool.

JULY

We celebrate the Fourth of July at a ward brunch and then in the evening catch a fireworks show with friends. Texas is really hot on the 4th of July.

AUGUST

We take off on our summer vacation to Newport Beach and then up to Seattle. We have a great time!

We had some friends from Texas meet up with us in California. While in Newport Beach, a huge storm comes in. We travel to the "Wedge" to see 25+ feet waves.

In Seattle...

We picked raspberries at the farm,

Went to dinner at the Country Club,

Went to the skate park with friends,

Went to dinner with friends,

Went to the zoo with friends,

and rode a camel,

hung out with friends,

spent time with cousin Maggie,

and had the time of our lives!!

SEPTEMBER

Reagan is diagnosed with PLAGIOCEPHALY which is a crooked head and gets a doc band to straighten her up! Reagan's was due to a restrictive intrauterine environment. For more information you can look up this website http://www.cranialtech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=79

We were very grateful for the people at cranial technologies that helped treat Reagan. She wore her Doc Band for 3 months and now looks great!!

The girls get some pink paint and decorate the band. They callled it "pink camo." You can be the judge!

Andrea is awarded "Leopard of the Week."

OCTOBER

Andrea turns 8 and is baptized!! We have lots of family fly in for the occasion.

For her birthday, Andrea has a swim/slumber party.

Reagan turns 8 months.

For Halloween we go to the church's "Trunk or Treat" party. Jay and I go as Jon and Kate Gosselin. Jayme is a zombie prom queen, Bryan is Jason from Friday the 13th movies, Andrea is Tiger Lily, and Reagan is a pink butterfly.

NOVEMBER

For the Thanksgiving Holiday, we head to St. George, Utah for a family reunion. It was so much fun getting to see everyone. Almost all of Jay's family was there and the kids had a blast with their cousins. We visited the community pool,

the Christmas tree festival,

ate a huge Thanksgiving dinner at the church building and participated in the games including the bubble blowing competition.

We also went to the lazer tag place.

Reagan took it all in and was never in need of any entertainment!

DECEMBER

We celebrate the season with singing!! Bryan goes to the mall with the school's choir and

Jayme goes on a choir tour too.

Then we torcher Reagan by taking her to see Santa.

That brings us to today....still trying to get cards out for Christmas, get those last gifts purchased and in the mail, attend neighborhood parties, trying to finish up the year end things at home and at church, etc.... and still trying to remember the reason for the season! I recently heard this beautiful song called, "Do you have room?" You can listen to it too at http://songsbyshawna.com/Site/Home.html I hope we can all find room for the Savior in our schedules, in our lives and in our hearts this Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Easter

2009-12-21T13:03:00.000-08:00

4 months and 2 teeth!

2009-06-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

Reagan is already four months old. Can you believe it? I can't! She unfortunatly had to get shots. :( poor baby re. every body loves reagan!

Reagan's 3rd month ~A day in the life~

2009-06-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Reagan here! (or rather Jayme pretending to be Reagan, after all this is all about her, and her personality says it all.) I'm going to show you a day in the life, my life actually!

Pretty much I wake up, eat, get a diaper change (sometimes followed by baths), take spit-up medicine, get dressed, see the kids off to school, another diaper change, eat again, watch tv with mom, watch tv while mom folds clothes, eat, sleep, diaper change, play peek-a-boo with mommy, kids come from school, play with them, eat, sleep and the next day starts it all over!

Reagans Blessing Photos

2009-04-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

Reagans blessing photos! Aww, so cute!

No Braces, Reagans B-day and Pi day

2009-03-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

No braces: HI! Jayme here! afer 2 long years of braces, they're finally gone! now all i gotta do is get rid of these glasses...

Reagans Birthday: Our newest addition to the allen family 6 is Reagan. She recently turned 1 month old.

Pi day: Tomorrow is pi day, get it? 3.14, march (3) 14th? any way, in math class we had a competition to see who could memorize the most digits of pi. i got 3rd plac ce memorizing 47 digits. 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937 is what i memorized. yeah me!

Baby Reagan

2009-02-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

Reagan is the newest addition to our now 6-person family. she was born on feb. 11th at 6:42 a.m. She was 7 puonds 12 ounces and 19 in. She is adorable, sweet and CUTE cutE cute!!!

University Interscholastic League (uil)

2009-01-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

This year I competed in an area league of UIL, in science. My district competed against 2-3 others in various academic competitions. I competed in Science, for the seventh grade When it was my turn to compete, I went to the room and had 45 minutes to complete just about the hardest 35 question science test i have EVER taken. I placed first (one of the medals) and another boy on my team placed 3rd, resulting in a team victory (other medal).

My friend Nemul placed 4th in Modern Oratory. GO NEMUL!

My school placed 1st over all!

New Years & Christmas cont.

2009-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

If you are wondering, for christmas we all got:

Mom: A new pan! HOORAY!!!

dad: A Wii (not as cool as mom's pan)

Jayme: An iPod, a cell phone and other cool stuff like makeup

Bryan: two airsoft guns (oh no...), a pocket knife (again oh no...)

Andrea: a GIANT barbie house (3 barbie stories tall) an easy bake oven (yummm)

and well, yah....

We celebrated new years this year by having our family come over. Grandma and Grandpa Allen came and brought along Uncle Jerry, Aunt Cathy and Nicole. We have spent the last couple of days shopping, playing rockband, playing Scum, more rockband and more Scum. We have stayed up really late each night and had a ball. The photo is of me and nicole.

My mom is 6 weeks from today until Cookie is born!!

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-11-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

This year we thought we would enter into the digital era. We are going green and sending our love and well wishes via our blog. (I would like to mention that this would not be possible if it weren't for my computer savvy 12 year old because this web stuff totally confuses the heck out of me.) We are also going to update you on some of the things we've done this past year; from getting a family dog to Jayme's wheelchair experience and from our vacation to Orlando, Florida to our vacation in Newport Beach, California and a couple of places in between. We hope you enjoy reading about the crazy but fun life we have in Texas; but most importantly, we want to wish y'all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The FAMILY DOG
By: Jayme

Last year, each of us kids got $100.00 from our Grammy and Pappy. Bryan and Andrea really wanted to get a Wii with their money. I wanted a hamster. But that's another story that isn't worth talking about, stupid cannibalistic hamster.... Anyway, when we were at the pet store, we saw Riley. He was the cutest thing I had ever seen. His shaggy blond/brown/ hair, his big brown eyes and 4 little paws that are so cute. He had a brother which we fondly (not) refer to as Dog-Zilla. He was as monstrous as the Japanese dinosaur. He would bite poor Riley in places we won't describe and drag him around the glass cage. Riley would never retaliate. He just sat there and melted us with his Cocoa eyes. We decided to buy him instead of a Wii. We took him home, named him Riley from the character in the movie National Treasure. He was a 3 pound (at most) runt, that took our breath away. Then he was a 3 pound ball of energy. Apparently glad to have a family, he ran, and ran, and ran. We loved him and still do, even though he is lacking training and good manners!

WALT DISNEY WORLD VACATION - FEBRUARY 2008
By: Tracy

In February we took a vacation of a lifetime - we went to the Happiest Place on Earth with our Best Friends from Seattle. Mike, Janet, Jessica (15), Josh (8), Haylee (7), and Caleb (4) joined us the fun-filled 9 day vacation. We all stayed together in a 3 bedroom condo, rented a huge 15 passenger van, we fondly referred to as our Schmutzmobile, and got 5 day park hopper passes to the park. We spent a day at the Disney MGM, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and the Animal Kingdom. On our last day, we hit our favorite attractions from MGM and Animal Kingdom. The kids were old enough to ride all the scary roller coasters except for one; Andrea was too short for the Rockin' Roller Coaster at MGM. Jayme's favorite was Tower of Terror - which Bryan chickened out and didn't go on. Bryan loved the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Andrea loved the Test Track and Space Mountain and my favorite was the Mount Everest Expedition.

We also spent a day at Cocoa Beach and a day by the pool. We had great weather and the kids had a blast. It was one of the best family vacations we've ever had. It was great that each of the kids had a buddy to play with and hang out with. Especially while waiting in line at the parks.

We learned a lot about the Bowcuts on our vacation and they learned a lot about us. We learned that Mike and Jay really can talk for 9 days straight about sports. And how much the Bowcuts love Denny's. The Bowcuts learned that the Allens can sleep through anything. All in all it was a fabulous time and we can't wait to do it again - maybe Hawaii....

JAYME GOES UNDER THE KNIFE
Oct 2007 and April 2008
By: Jayme

Hi! I am Jayme and I get to tell you all about my surgery. This past year has definitely been the hardest of my twelve. It has been spent basically off my feet, I have pretty strong arms now! I had to have an extra bone removed, a cadaver bone put into my foot to give me an arch and a tendon in my legs lengthened. Because of the cadaver bone, I had to spend two months in a wheel chair (it was fun for the first day, then it was boring, except when I would pop a couple Wheelies.), 3 months in a boot (ugly!) and a month in tennis shoes (annoying!) I had to go through that twice once in October 2007 and then again in April 2008. So it was a year until I could walk completely barefoot. I hope I haven't completely bored you with this, but my mom insisted I write about this, since it was a pretty big adjustment for the entire family. I can't imagine how it was for my family to have a big sister/daughter in a wheelchair and basically helpless. I hope I NEVER have to go to a hospital again.
-Jayme

We didn't mind too much. Jayme was remarkable strong and non whiny through the whole ordeal. One thing she didn't mention was that she got to be home schooled because it was just too darn hard to maneuver through a full day at school. The two of us had a great year together and learned a lot about each other. I learned that Jayme is very smart and even with a whole year of non-teaching, she learned enough to get back into all her GT (Gifted and Talented) classes with almost all A's. We are very proud of her and can't believe the transformation. She can do all sorts of things she couldn't do before and NEVER has any pain in her feet. So the operations where completely successful and worth it!! The miracle of modern medicine has definitely blessed her life!
-Tracy

BRYAN - OUR SPORTS STAR

By: Tracy

Bryan has continued to play sports - in Fall of 2007 he played his first and hopefully last, season of tackle football. Poor kid just doesn't have the size to be a football player. Despite his size he did play fairly well. Their team made it to the Arby's Beef Bowl and got to play at the local high school. It was a fun season. Since football he has played Basketball, Soccer and Baseball. Basketball was fun because his dad was his coach and we recruited a team of all his buddies from the elementary school. They play in the beginner division and made it to the championship game - which unfortunately they lost. But had fun along the way. Soccer has been fun but his real passion is Baseball. He was able to be a pitcher for his team. He does pretty well and loves it. If you ask him what he wants to do when he grows up - it entails being a professional sports player. We wish him well...

DANCING QUEEN

by: Tracy

Our little girly girl, Andrea had another fun year at the dance studio. She participated in the annual dance recital in June. Unfortunately, she was feeling under the weather but she still did well. She loves dancing, singing and art. We have a wall in our house that is her art wall. It is about 20 feet long and filled with all her artwork. She is constantly singing, dancing or making master pieces.

She did have a challenge this summer when she had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Her tonsils were so large they touched. This caused her to have a major gag reflex, a big snoring problem but most of all sleep apnea. Because of the sleep apnea, we decided she needed to get them removed. She underwent the surgery fine but when she came home she got so dehydrated within the first 24 hours she ended up back in the hospital on an IV. After another 24 hours of hospital monitoring and IV she was able to keep food and water down and go home. It took her a full 2 weeks to recover from her ordeal. Her voice has changed - it is much higher now and it took her 3 months to gain back all the weight she lost but the sleep apnea and snoring are totally gone. She sleeps so quietly now it is strange. So, she is sleeping much better now and we are glad it's all over.

TRIATHLON

May 2008

By: Tracy

I finally completed a long time goal - to complete a sprint Triathlon. It took me 6 months of training but I actually did it. There were about 16 of us from the ward who did it together. The race was a 300 yard swim, 12 mile bike and a 3.8 mile run. It was one of the hardest physical challenges I've ever done and I am so happy to say that I did it!!

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Summer 2008

By: Tracy

Tracy and the kids took a month long vacation over the summer. We spent 2 weeks in Newport Beach, California and 2 weeks in the Seattle area. Newport Beach was so much fun!! Sam and Maggie, Pappy and Grammy and Jay all were there for some of it. We also have really good friends from here in Texas that were there during the same time. The kids had so much fun playing and swimming. Bryan learned how to skim board and boogie board. Jayme was still in a walking boot so her activity was limited and Andrea's favorite activity was digging and burying herself in the sand. The weather was perfect and we can't wait to go back next summer.

After leaving Newport, we headed up to the Pacific Northwest to stay with Grammy and Pappy and see all our old buddies. We did our usually Seattle activities: the pool, park and playing with friends but we added a little side trip.... Tracy, Jayme, Grammy and Sam had all read the Twilight series and had fallen in love with Vampires and Werewolves so we took a road trip to Forks, Washington. We spent 2 days touring all the Twilight sights in Forks, Port Angeles and La Push.

We met: the Police Chief, the hospital with Dr. Cullen's reserved parking spot, the Swan residence, the Cullen residence, the high school, the poorly stocked library, the outfitters, the meadow, the "ball field," the Bella Italia restaurant, the dress shop, first beach, the Black house and we drove home through the Olympic Rain Forest. We had a great time. Unfortunately we didn't see any vampires or werewolves while we were there, but that doesn't mean they weren't there!

HALLOWEEN 2008

By: Tracy

For Halloween the kids had fun at our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat and then did Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood. Jayme went as a Geisha, Bryan was Davy Crockett and Andrea was a 50's girl. Bryan wore his hat that he got when we went to the Alamo in the spring. They had tons of fun and when it was all done they had collected over 1500 pieces of candy. Pretty scary!!

SWIM TEAM

By: Tracy

This year Jayme was on the middle school's swim team. It worked out great because it was an activity she could do to gain back her strength and not hurt her feet. She had a lot of fun and did really well. Her favorite stroke is the breaststroke. They had a swim meet and Jayme swam the 100 free, 50 Breaststroke and the 100 IM. She did well and got 2 second place ribbons and one fourth. Next semester she wants to try Golf.

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COAT

By: Tracy

Jayme's middle school put on the musical - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat. Jayme loved it!! The kids did a great job. She also tried out and made it on the regional choir. I think it is fair to say that she loves the performing arts. She hopes to one day make it on Broadway.

LOCKS OF LOVE

By: Tracy

Now you see it, now you don't. This week Jayme donated her hair to Locks of Love. It is something she has wanted to do for a long time. Her grandma Nancy is a breast cancer survivor and lost all her hair during Chemo. She had to wear a wig for a while. Jayme wanted to do something for kids that were going through the same thing. It is her way of giving a gift of love for Christmas.

FOR THE REST OF 2008 AND LOOKING FORWARD TO 2009

By: Tracy

For the rest of 2008 we plan on enjoying the time at home. The kids are working hard at school, Bryan's playing basketball again with dad coaching, Jayme is doing school plays and made it to the regional choir, Andrea is still dancing, Tracy is doing a little substitute teaching and working in the primary presidency in the ward and Jay is working hard trying to sell golf clubs. And we are all preparing for our new addition that will be joining us in mid February - a baby girl. Yes, it is hard to believe that we are having another baby. It took us all by complete surprise. The girls are excited and Bryan is well....dealing with it well. He is going to make someone a great husband - growing up with all these girls. So that is pretty much it for us...Seems like a lot of things happen but not too much changes for us - the baby will put an end to that! Wish y'all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!