Our Christmas

We spent Christmas in Indiana this year, creating new traditions of our own and enjoying the last big holidays in Bloomington. For the last several years we've been going to Colorado for Christmas but with Kris pressed for time to complete his dissertation and mail off job application packets, we've decided to postpone our annual winter trip until the middle of January. We also have a litter of puppies, which are gradually going home to their new owners now. By the time we pack, fill up the car with all our necessities and adventure across the country, the pups will be gone, and Kris will be a couple steps closer to a graduating doctoral student and professor.

One great thing about Kris' schedule right now is that he makes it up, so if he wants to spend some time with us during the day, he goes into work a little earlier or stays at work a little later. The week before Christmas we took advantage of his flexible schedule and adventured out with the family on several different occasions. The first time was to have the tires on the Sedona replaced and the oil changed on the Pathfinder. Our appointment was at 1:00 pm, so we dropped the cars off and walked downtown stopping to eat at a little cafe. Then we walked around the square and got some cookies at the Bakehouse. A little cold from our walk, we decided to stop in at the little mall on the square and found an adorable little dress to take Ellary home from the hospital in, and then discovered that Santa was there too. Luckily I had the camera in my purse...

The Mall was decked out for the holidays...

We also went to an IU women's basketball game vs. West Virginia in which I have already wrote about. A Bug at Christmas Time

Our family went through a bout the stomach flu bug this Christmas season. The last time we got sick at this proportion was when we were on our way back to Grand Junction two Christmas' ago and found ourselves puking along the way. This time around it started with the infamous Alyson Allee projectile vomiting spells. A week later I found myself hovering over the toilet for a few hours in the middle of the night. The next day Kris wasn't feeling so well, and Kourtney, who hardly ever pukes, woke up saying "My tummy hurts." Needless to say, we spent a good amount of time in the bathroom. Two days later, after all seemed healthy in the Allee household, we found ourselves out doing some last minute shopping and decided, at Alyson's request, to use our Red Lobster gift card. Sitting at the table, on a Friday night, when the restaurant is packed, Alyson started complaining that she didn't feel well. Minutes later she was pale, and seconds following she began her general routine of "Oh no..." followed by the horrifying sounds of food exploding from her stomach. Kris and I did our best to clean up, but her little belly must have held food in there for days before deciding to erupt. After notifying the wait staff of what had happened, we hightailed ourselves out of there. $40 bucks in gift cards down the drain and a sick little girl holding a cup in the car later, we found ourselves at home relieved to have that all done with. Needless to say, Alyson was feeling almost back to normal the next morning, and keeping our fingers crossed, no one else has been sick since.

Christmas Eve

It's been a long time tradition in Kris' house for Eleonore to break out the guitar and sing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve. So anticipating holding this tradition in our family, Kris broke out his guitar and some Christmas music several weeks ago and brushed up on his guitar skills. We sang songs and recorded much of it on the camcorder. Then the girls and I made cookies, and Alyson, four years old and loving to write, wrote a letter to Santa with our help. Then they were off to bed, and surprisingly went to sleep much quicker than I think Kris or I had anticipated.

Oh Christmas Tree...

Christmas Morning

Alyson was the first to wake up around 8:00 am, probably too excited to see if Santa had brought her the ballerina jewelry box she's been asking for for months. Kourtney slept in until 8:30, so that's when we began our Christmas festivities.

The girls waiting to come down stairs on Christmas morning...

Santa's Surprise...
Knowing the Girls have a lot of toys and that the girls love to camp whether it's indoors of out, Santa brought them a tent and sleeping bags.Oma gave the girls a lot of books, Koco a Little Einstein baton and Alyson an art set plus some money to spend.

Nana and Papa Bear gave the girls PJ's. Koco got Dora the Explorer pajamas and Alyson was given 5 Little Monkey pajamas (Papa and Alyson know why!).
Alyson also received the ballerina jewelry box she wanted, plus a few other ballerina items, and Koco got a few more Dora items including a hooded towel and a blanket in hopes she will retire the old one Nana made for her before it falls to pieces.

Daddy thought it would be a good idea to get them a learning game. Here is Kris with the girls teaching them how to play a V-Smile game.

Kris received a pair of new dress shoes, a music stand, and a tie with pictures of the girls on it. I received a pair of shoes as well, a purse and a laundry hamper. Kris surprised the family by buying a large griddle. Now we can cook fench toast on Sundays 8 pieces at a time!

Best of all, we had a lot of time together, and we were able to reflect about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ through songs and prayers. We are grateful for the love of our Heavenly Father, and of Jesus Christ, and for the love of family...

A Night at the IU Women's Basketball Game

We've been to two women's games as a family this winter because it's cost effective, Kris and I like basketball and the girls stay entertained by watching the game, dancing to the music, and playing with some toys we bring. Here are a few pictures from the latest game we attended where IU beat West Virginia. Yeah-GO HOOSIERS!!!

Daddy and his girls.

Koco watching the players shoot hoops at half time.

Don't let the picture fool you. We did have fun...Really!

Alyson and Kourtney Recite Abraham 2:11

Alyson recited Abraham 2:11 in Primary about a month ago. She still remembers it...

"In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed, with the blessings of the gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even life eternal."

Here is Kourtney's version of Abraham 2:11 and proof that older siblings are examples to their younger ones.

We are Having a Girl!

Our family went in for our mid pregnancy ultrasound two weeks ago, and guess what...We are having another girl! While most people thought we'd be having a boy, Kris was right on and knew all along that we were having a girl. Kourtney got her wish for a little sister, and Alyson quietly whispered into her daddy's ear after hearing the news, "Next time can we have a baby boy?"

As with tradition, we have already chosen a name and have begun calling our baby girl by the name of Ellary. Her full name will be Ellary Evelyn Allee. Alyson has a friend that she likes very much whose name is Ellary. Kris' mom, Eleonore will also have a name sake, and my grandmother on my mom's side was named Iva Evelyn. Also, keeping in tradition with Alyson and Kourtney's full names, Ellary's first and middle names both start with the same letter and have Y's in them. She will be called Ella for short.

We are so excited to welcome her into the world some time in April. She will be loved very much, and her arrival will come at a bitter sweet time when we are preparing to relocate. Ellary will be our little beacon of light as we await the many transitions our family will make in the following months.

Our Thankgiving Holiday

We spent Thanksgiving at our home in Indiana as we have since we moved to Bloomington. Kris' mom, Eleonore has made a tradition of visiting us for two weeks during this time of year. Her friends, Cathy and Roy, originally from California but traveling the country to watch their daughter bowl in the PBA, joined us for several days. Here are pictures from their visits.

Mutti's (mom in German) arrival at the Indianapolis airport.

Oma (grandmother in German) went to school with Alyson and even rode the bus.

We spent one afternoon at the library and walking around downtown.

Later that week we brought a bagel to Kris at his office in the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University.

We also went to the children's reading hour at Barnes and Noble. The girls made a craft (two baskets that look like turkies).

We went to the playground at Alyson's school.
During the middle of the second week of Mutti's visit, her two friends Cathy and Roy arrived at out home. This is a picture of them at the Thanksgiving dinner table that Alyson took. She's quite the photographer!

We borrowed a bigger table for our Thanksgiving meal.

We spent "Black Friday" in Brown County at the State Park and in Nashville (Indiana of course).

The girls got to sit on Santa's lap in Nashville.

We enjoyed a walk through IU campus on Saturday.

Daddy and his little girls.
That was our past two weeks in a nutshell. Hope all of your Thanksgivings were enjoyable too!

Things to Come

Kris asked me a few days ago if I would create another post about our family...I can't say too much has happened since our last one. However, I can tell of things we expect to happen very soon so I think this post will be a foretelling of things to come.

Kris is almost to the point of proposing his dissertation idea. Believe it or not, he first has to have his dissertation basically completed. So, he has been working very hard on that. His dissertation proposal defense is on December 7th. If Kris' committee accepts his idea, then he can start applying for jobs. Great news! That means he is almost done with his doctorate!

Kris has also been teaching a class for seniors that he personally designed. It's been very time consuming as he has no assistant to help grade homework assignments and tests. But he loves it because his niche is teaching.

(Kris recieving a teaching award from the Kelly School of Business in the spring of 2007.)

Alyson still loves school very much. She comes home singing songs, pretending she's Ms. Ruthie, and would prefer to write or color rather than play with her toys. I can't believe she is getting so big, growing so fast, and will be in kindergarten in the fall. That's something Alyson can't wait for-kindergarten. The last two times we have been to the library she's wanted to pick out books with stories about kindergarten or going to school.

When I checked on the girls before coming downstairs to the computer this morning, Kourtney stirred a little when I entered her room as she usually does. Alyson remained very quiet and still. Looking at Alyson on her side, curled up in a ball with her hands beneath her head reminded me of when she was about 4 months old and I took pictures of her sleeping. I still have one of these pictures in my wallet because I loved it so much. There's no doubt in my mind that almost anyone could tell by the picture and looking at her now, that it is indeed a picture of her. But sudden little subtleties have changed. Her face isn't so round, her nose is longer, her head of course larger, and she most definitely has more hair. Still, there's a part of me that will always think she is a little girl, my baby, as some parents choose to call their growing children. And there is nothing like the love a parent has for their sleeping child! I hate to see her grow up, and yet I look forward to the adventures she will have, and then again feel somewhat frightened because of some of the experiences I know she will have to battle through. Alyson has such a good, little spirit that I can just imagine she will rise victoriously to any occasion...

(Alyson at about 4 months old.)

So, back to telling you of things to come. Eleonore, Kris' mom, will be arriving in Indy on Monday. She is going to spend two weeks with us as she traditionally does around this time every year. I especially look forward to her visit this year more than I have in the past, and so do Alyson and Kourtney. It will be good to have a little variance in our lives after a few months of what have seemed very much the same. Work and sleep, work and sleep...The girls will love spending time with her, making her read stories to them, playing games, and going to McDonald's. We'll have a nice Thanksgiving dinner with "Mutti" and some of her life long friends who will be visiting us for several days as well. Then she will go home after her lengthy travels which include a visit to see her other grandchild, Leighton, in Maryland, (which she is currently doing right now) and then us here in Bloomington.

Two days following Eleonore's departure, we will have an ultrasound on the baby. Of course we hope to find that it is healthy, but we also look forward to seeing what it is. Neither Kris or I have a big preference. Sure, it would be nice to have a boy following two girls and no sons, but then again, we know all about little girls, and therefore, it would probably make parenting somewhat easier on us if we had a baby girl. Kris says that he loves his "daddy's girls" and wouldn't mind having one more. My gut feeling initially said that it is a boy, but lately my gut feeling hasn't been so strong. Two and half weeks and we will know whether to keep all the pink clothing, or trade them in for blue.

We also have another female pregnant in our household. Cloe is expecting her first litter of pups around Thanksgiving time. For all those who don't know, we breed Pembroke Welsh Corgis (bloomingcorgis.googlepages.com). We currently own three, Cloe, Kota and Gracie May, however, I gave Gracie to a friend in order to concentrate on bringing Kota, our adopted corgi, and the father of Cloe's litter, out of his shell. So although we still technically own Gracie, she is living with one of my best friends and her family here in Bloomington. We've had quite a bit of interest in this litter even though they will probably be unable to go to new owners until after the new year.

(Cloe's pregnant belly.)

Cloe is handling the pregnancy very well especially considering the size of her belly! I was so afraid that she might have worms a week and half ago because she was so huge then and has become even bigger now. I took her to the vet, and although they couldn't guarantee she was pregnant without doing an x-ray, they said they were pretty sure she is by the feel and size of her uterus and the development of her mammary glands. Since then these parts have grown even more. Cloe's energetic nature has also somewhat diminished making her a much more calm, obedient dog. She's spent a lot of time sleeping and following me around the house.

I think the only person I really haven't talked too much about in this blog is Koco. She is doing well and growing fast as Alyson is doing. I have say that Kourtney is really into babies right now. Koco loves to talk about "our baby", what she wants to name it (Sally), and how she wants to have a baby too when she is married. Mutti gave Kourtney a gift card to Toys R Us for her birthday in September. The closest Toys R Us is in Indianapolis, so when we went to Indy to have lunch with Muttie while she had a layover at the airport last week, we also stopped at the toy store to use Koco's gift card. Boy, are there lots and lots of toys to choose from, and I really didn't want to be walking around the store all day! So, I asked Kourtney what she wanted while we were still in the car. She immediately said "a baby toy". "Do you mean toys for your babies at home," I asked. She emphatically said yes, so Kourtney spent her birthday money on a baby stroller, swing, high chair and a baby with long, blond hair (she named her Peggy) that she can accessorize. She's played with these things every day for the past week and two days. Needless to say, I think Kourtney is going to be a great little helper when "our baby" comes.

(Alyson got her hands on the camera and took this picture of Kourtney with one of her oldest babies. Notice how beautifully she colored its head!)

As for the Christmas holidays, that's still all up in the air as far as where we will be. Our traditional trip back to Grand Junction for Christmas may be nonexistent this year, or may be postponed depending on how quickly Kris can get out his application packets. The puppies could also cause a potential problem for our plans. Depending on their health, how many there are, and if we have them all sold, we may find ourselves really having our own little Christmas in Indiana. We will have to see what happens as time progresses and things happen. The only downside to staying put is that we won't be with our parents over the holidays or see one of my sisters and her family. It also means that we will be away from Grand Junction for about a year and a half by the time we return next summer. One thing is for sure. We will make the best of the holidays no matter where we spend them!

Well, that's all for now. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a chance to be with some of those you love. Take care!

A Hodge-Podge of Activity...

The Allee Family has a hodge-podge of recent activities to report. For starters, Kris got a motorcycle at the end of the summer. He really likes to ride it, and so does the rest of the family. Alyson and Kourtney like to take slow rides around the neighborhood wearing Alyson's bicycle helmet for protection. Kris likes accelerating fast, and I like snuggling up behind him and putting my arms around his waist as we zoom down the road. I like to think the rebel side of him is getting it's fill when he revs up the motor really loudly and takes off for a spin.

Secondly, Alyson began her second year of preschool in the HeadStart program. She loves to learn, play and help out in class. Alyson's teacher, Ms. Ruthie, says Alyson is her little teacher's aide because Alyson likes to help the younger children in her class with projects, and helps get everyone organized to go outside and for story and circle time. Alyson brings her work home with her...meaning, she likes to play teacher at home too. Luckily Kourtney is usually a willing participant and does just about anything Alyson requests of her.Kris' birthday was last week. We spent lunch together at a park near Cascades Playground, ate Chipotle fajitas, and Kris opened his gifts. We also took some pictures of the family. That evening the missionaries brought over a woman interested in knowing more about the church for family home evening. Following their departure, we had cake and ice cream. It wasn't the most traditional birthday, but we hope Kris enjoyed it.

The weekend before Kris' birthday, the girls and I developed some pictures I had taken of them in our front yard and in our neighbor's yard. We took these pictures to his school office and replaced the old pictures of them with new ones. The older they become the more willing participants they are. They liked getting dressed up and posing with flowers. Luckily the flowers they held were artificial otherwise they would have taken a beating! The following are a few pictures that turned out really well.

While Kris was away for the annual BYU Accounting Conference, the ward had a chili cook-off get together with some fun things for the kids to do. Alyson and Kourtney chose what they wanted to be this year for Halloween and wore their costumes to the ward party. Alyson originally wanted to be an angel, then changed her mind to Cinderella and finally settled on being Snow White. Kourtney found a Dorothy dress, but it was too small. After a vast search and coming up empty handed, I decided to make a dress for her. It gave me something to do while Kris was away and also helped me with my limited sewing skills. Needless to say, they both had fun at the party and won 1st and 3rd place ribbons in the costume parade.

Lastly, my pregnancy is going well. I just had an appointment today and heard the baby's heart beat for the second time. The doctor says it is a very strong heart beat, and so that was great and reasurring news that things are going well. I am 14 weeks tomorrow, and we will find out the gender of the baby in five weeks. Wow-it's so exciting!