Grease

James has been participating in the school musical of Grease. (School version - it's much cleaner than the original). He had such a great time and grew so much through this experience. I took a few pictures of him with the pink ladies and the T-birds. Most of the cast were 8th graders. He is quite a bit shorter than those kids. He played the part of Eugene (the nerd). He really hammed it up and had the audience laughing pretty good each time he came on stage. I could not believe what a natural he was on stage. No nerves, just excitement. Here are just a few pictures for you.

We are all looking forward to getting back to our normal life. I have been there everyday after school working on costumes and RSVP's for the cast party and helping out in other ways. I am so glad the play is finally over and we can get caught up on our laundry and cleaning. I have not cooked a meal for about 2 weeks, but we wouldn't trade the experience for anything. This play has been great for him and I enjoyed it too.

Life

Wow! What is going on?

I know I have not been blogging lately. There is a perfectly logical explanation. Here it is...

A daughter in high school, two boys in Jr. High, one kid in Elementary school, and a baby at home - has caused me to become temporarily insane. I feel like I've been knocked out for the last few months. We are living the best of all 4 stages of raising kids and they are all a full time job individually. I can't even type this with both hands because Bekah finally fell asleep and I don't dare try to put her in bed for fear of waking her. I am loving having a baby again but the playing field has changed so drastically. Seriously, what were we thinking?

Kate the Great

Niagra Falls

Time with Great Grandpa Lindsay

Pirate K8

Kate covering her face for a scary ride

Mischievious grin

With Grandpa Wallace on Huckleberry Hill

Redfish Lake

Tasty

Protective Big Brothers

Holding Frogzilla that we found in our window well.

Yes, he is real!

Posing at the hay bales

Kate made a new friend

Cuddling with Sis

A few days ago I went to pick up Kate from a birthday party. As I walked into the room, all the mothers started saying, "Here comes the artist!" I was confused and thought they must be talking about someone else. As I approached the group, the birthday girls mom said, "I did not know you are a professional artist." I said that I wasn't and that I am no good at drawing at all. She seemed confused and proceeded to tell me how Kate was drawing something and everyone was telling her how good it was. She told them all that her mom is a professional artist.

It seems that Kate was just trying to express to her friends that I was very good at drawing. I think it was so funny that she percieves me to be an artist because I can draw trees that look like Christmas trees and ... No... that's it... I can draw trees... I am actually a really bad artist. Like horrible! What a funny thing for her to dream up in that little head of hers.

Another funny thing she said the other day, first a little background information... Bekah and Kate's birthdays are on the same day of the month. In fact, their birthdays are each others half birthdays. The other day, Kate told me that she use to think it would be fun to have her 1/2 birthday be Bekah's birthday. But now she wishes it wasn't because now no one will wish her a Happy 1/2 Birthday, they will only be thinking of Bekah on Kate's 1/2 birthday. How dare Bekah steal her 1/2 birthday attention. I asked her if anyone had ever wished her a Happy 1/2 Birthday before Bekah was born. She couldn't think of a time when they did. She is such a nut. She sure keeps us laughing. She is a crazy, fun lovin perfectionist and we are so happy that she is part of our family.

snownami

My little Bek, helping me make cookies.
Kate found these awesome icicles out front

We had a wonderful day yesterday. We got about 20 inches of total snow and crazy wind. Schools were closed and even the little snow plow that was trying to plow out our neighborhood got stuck. People were instructed not to leave their homes. It was really fun to just be snowed in and be together. It was not until sometime in the middle of the night, that the plows finally made it through our neighborhood.

This morning it was back to life as we know it. Seminary, School, Music Class and Scouts. Oh, well it was fun while it lasted...

Happy Holidays

I love this picture of Jason and Bek. We were in Racine and did the corn maze. Fun Day in October. It's been a while since I wrote.
Cameron Nelson (Sandy's), Brooklyn Wallace (Josh's) and Bekah.

I got to go home and see my family with Rebekah this last week. It was so fun to be home in Idaho and spend time with my brand new nephew and neice. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family and to be able to spend time with them. Coming back home to Wisconsin was nice too. I missed my husband and children. Jason worked so hard to manage the kids schedules and his own work schedule.

I love this picture of Bekah. She fell asleep on Jasons lap the other day. She is such a sweet heart. We are just really enjoying her.

Still Here

This is a picture of Bekah in the Morris Chair in her blessing dress. We have a picture just like this of Jason's Grandmother in this chair in her blessing dress as an infant. What a family heirloom. We love this chair, and the baby.

Her blessing dress was made by a close family friend. Thanks, Mary-Ann!

We had some pictures taken of our family about a year ago.

Though they don't include our newest addition,

we think they turned out great.

This is a picture of Jason with Monica Nassif and Thelma Meyer. (She is the real Mrs. Meyer) Jason loved working with Monica and Thelma and all the other friends at Caldrea. He learned a lot there and will really miss them.

We made it through our exciting summer and we are doing good. Life has been so busy for us these days.The high schooler, the middle schoolers and the Elementary schooler, and the baby. Many activities and running all over. We are enjoying our chaos.

We made it to the Wisconsin State Fair this summer where the kids enjoyed a famous WI State Fair cream puff. These things are huge. James' face is no exaggeration.

Jason is serving as our Ward Mission Leader and we are loving having the Elders and Sisters over often. We have 3 sets of missionaries serving in our ward. His job and his church calling are keeping him very busy.

The neighborhood is great and very friendly with many children in the neighborhood. We are finally feeling like our house is getting organized and put together.

Jason enjoys his job most days. He has had a record year for Off! as the mosquitos were out of control this summer. For most people, that is not a good thing, but for us it ROCKS!

We took a trip out to Idaho in August to bless Bekah. We got to see so many wonderful family members who made a trip to be with us on this special day.

My mom made these adorable shoes for Bekah. She wore them for her blessing.

We need to get some more pictures of Bekah, but here are a few of our favorites. I will try to write often now and I am going to make my blog public again to make it easier to access. Thanks for checking in on us.

4 Generations. Grandma Lindsay, Shirley Wallace, Kerri Allen and Bekah Don Allen.

I have been so busy with all the relo. stuff that I have not even thought about blogging, but we got home from Wisconsin last night and I decided to put a quick update on here. I am including pictures of our homes. The one we are selling first, and the one we are buying second. We did find a nice home in Wind Lake, Wisconsin and we made an offer and they accepted. So I got one big item checked off my to do list for this summer.

1. Buy House X
2. Sell House
3. Have a Baby
4. Move to Wisconsin

We had a couple of buyers interested in making an offer on our home, but so far no one has written anything up, and now we are forced to lower our price to near the value our appraisals came in at and that is SOOO Painful! But the company will buy it from us if we don't sell it and that takes the pressure off a little. Here are some pictures of our current Wisconsin home that we absolutely love. How anyone could not just fall in love with it like we did is beyond me. The pictures did turn out great too and I really think one family is trying to put together an offer for us still, so maybe we can sell it this week. Especially after we reduce our price again.

Front ViewLiving Room from Upstairs

Kitchen
Family Room/Computer room

Kiley's Room off Family Room

Our Theater Room

(Newest edition)

Side Yard with Tramp

Backyard with firepit

Our New house

We love our new house too and we were so blessed to find it. It has five bedrooms for our expanding family and 3.5 bathrooms. The backyard is 3/4 acre and has a pond back there for the boys to enjoy. The schools there are so great and we are looking forward to moving in and getting settled this summer.
The neighborhood is also fantastic and has many children of all ages for my kids to run around with. The ward is also wonderful and very welcoming.

The kitchen

The backyard

Jason has started his new job in Racine now so the kids and I will be on our own during the week days here in MN. I am still feeling pretty good and trying to keep up with the kids and the house for showings. Jason is able to come home for weekends this month and

we are scheduled for a c-section on June 30th. YEAHHH!

I am getting very excited about having a little baby around. I can't remember if we posted the name we have (probably) chosen, but we are thinking of naming her Rebekah.

(Like from the Bible)

So all in all it should be a pretty exciting summer for us. Just hoping we can get this house sold soon and get one more check mark made on my to-do list.

We love you guys. Thanks for checking in on our life now and then.

Kerri