Sorry it has taken me so long to get these pictures and videos on here, but we have been having fun. My family has been visiting from Florida for Christmas and we have all been having so much fun. On Christmas morning everyone was awake except for James. We had a big breakfast then cleaned up and tried to start opening presents. It seemed like every present we looked at was for James so we had to wait for him. By the time he was up he had a huge pile of presents to open. this video is the first he opened and he was so excited when he saw what it was. Sorry we tried to edit the videos so they weren't so long but then we can't put them on the blog so you just have to sit through the long versions.

James gave his dad matching t-shirts for him and dad. Doug always calls him little man so they got shirts that said Little man and Big man. Don't they looks so cute!

James loved opening presents, OK not really. But he did enjoy playing with the toys after. We bought him this piano with some money that he got from Great Grandpa and Granny Westover. He loved playing with it in the store and he loves playing with it in the car. We just set it on his seat and he just hits the keys. And surprisingly it is not very annoying.

James loves the Lightening McQueen car he got from his Grandma and Grandpa. He likes to sit on it and hit the buttons. When the music starts playing the he rocks back and forth. Sometimes he can make it move then he gets a little scared of it.

After opening all his presents James decided that his favorite was still crawling around on the kitchen floor and playing with whatever he found there.

For dinner we had Prime Rib. The dogs got to eat the bones after. James found one and decided to join Loa in a snack.

After Christmas we went to Bear Lake to go Skiing and play in the pool. James started getting sick and was pretty grumpy the whole time. One night he was so tired and wouldn't eat his bottle or anything. So we took him in the bedroom and took his clothes off to change him. As soon as Doug took his diaper off he was gone. He was crawling all over the bed and laughing. It was so funny.

Last night Doug and I were talking about how great it is to have James. I think every night before we go to bed we think about how much fun he adds to our lives. Yesterday James learned a lot of new "tricks". He crawled up on the fire place and was playing with the doors. He took is Loa ornament off of the Christmas Tree and most amazingly, he climbed the stairs. Doug and I were just talking in the basement about some home improvement projects we wanted to do and James was just crawling around. We were not even paying attention to what he was doing and when Doug walked over to the stairs to look at something there was James one stair up and working on the second. In the video he only gets one stair but after he made it up three before we helped him down. I guess it's time to get some gates at the bottom of the stairs now.

This is just a picture of me and James and Loa hanging out. James and Loa are so excited for Christmas. They keep playing under the Christmas tree with all the presents. I think Loa is the most excited of anyone because when I was changing James this morning she opened two presents. I think Doug would like to just give her a lump of coal in her stocking.

Now that James can crawl he is into everything. I don't really mind because I love to watch him learning. His biggest goal right now is to try and get under the coffee table. He tries and tries but cannot understand why he keeps hitting his head. It is hard to let him just figure things out for himself and not just do everything for him. Yesterday he made a few great discoveries. First he found the dog food. Loa was eating breakfast and James crawled in there and started playing with her food. She got pretty annoyed and left. And being the great mother that I am I ran to grab the camera so we could get a picture of James playing in the dog food. Later we went upstairs to clean the kitchen and when I turned around there was James playing in the dogs water bowl. He loves water so he was having a blast splashing in her water. When he tried to leave his hands were all wet and it made it pretty hard to crawl so he just kept going back to play. I think the best part was when he got it tipped over and could really splash in it.

James loves to sit in the sink. He can play with the facet, look in the mirror and kick the counter.

Two videos in one day! Well this just happened to day and it is the first time that James has stood up on his own. I was so glad to have the camera nearby. I guess we moved the crib down just at the right time.

Well our big news for the week is that James can officially crawl. This video is from Friday night when he first started doing it. Now he can pretty much go wherever he wants to. Usually he crawls over to me and camps out at my feet. Loa pretty much follows him around because he spits up much more now because he is always on his stomach. So what usually happens is James crawls somewhere, spits up, then Loa gets her head down in his way so he turns, dragging his hand through the spit up until he finally gets away from Loa and crawls somewhere else and it starts all over again. Loa also makes it difficult because she likes to put things on the floor, mainly chewed up paper and wrappers. Which just happens to be James favorite toys. So we spend a lot of time picking up after Loa and taking things away from James. He also likes to crawl into the kitchen and laundry room. I guess he likes how the tile feels but he always likes to lay down on the tile and take a little break which seems really odd to us.

We also moved his crib down so that when he learns to pull himself up he won't fall out. He seemed to really like that. We put him in there standing up holding on to the side and he smiles and talks so much. It is really cute. James also found his voice this week. While he has always likes to talk it seems like now he knows how to be heard. On Saturday we went out to dinner and he was just yelling the whole time. People kept looking over at him and smiling. When we got home we tried to watch a movie but James wanted to talk to us instead and was so loud that we couldn't even hear the T.V. Then on Sunday he yell all through sacrament meeting, especially during the song. We like how much he likes to express himself.

Oh and Loa didn't want to be left out so here are some funny things that she has done recently.

Well Thanksgiving was fun but I didn't get any pictures of James with his Grandparents or Uncles. We had Doug's family over for Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun. James enjoyed all the attention and loved showing off all of his "tricks". He had some sweet potatoes during Thanksgiving dinner and for the first time didn't put it directly into his mouth, he just played with it for a while then when he discovered that his fingers were sweet he tried a little. He also tried some pumpkin pie. The thing about James though is that he shows no reaction to different foods. It's not even exciting to feed him new things because peaches and applesauce gets the same reaction as peas or carrots. He just likes to eat.

After Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas Tree. We discovered that somebody, (Loa) had gotten to it after we put it away last year and chewed some of the lights off so the bottom of the tree didn't light. But Doug was able to fix it and now everything lights except for the branch that she chewed up. James loves the Christmas Tree. Luckily he can't really get to it yet but when he gets grumpy I just take him to look at the tree and he just stares at it.



I also have a video of James trying to unwrap the presents. He can't wait until Christmas.

James is so close to crawling. He can move himself around pretty good but hasn't quite got the forward motion down yet. He loves to try but he gets pretty frustrated that he can't do it yet. He also loves to laugh. He is so ticklish and laughs so hard. He also things it's hilarious when Dad is taking him up the stairs and I am below them on the stairs. He laughs so hard so we start laughing because really there is nothing to laugh about.

Well James has been sick this past week so really there is not much to write about. He hasn't been wanting to play very much. He just likes to sleep and be held by Mom or Dad. One thing he started doing that is very cute, when he is playing on the floor and he sees one of us he reaches his arms up so that we will pick him up. Another thing that he likes to do is "swing" in his Johnny-Jump-Up. He "walks" himself forward until he can't touch anymore then lets his feet drag as he swings back. Here is a video of James in the bathtub. He loves to splash with his hands and lay on his back and kick as hard as he can. We need to put some non-slip stuff on the bottom because he also likes to slide around and I am sure that one time he is going to fall back and hit his head.

Also congratulations to Doug. He passed his LEED test (which he thought he would fail.) And James and I are glad that he doesn't have to study every night anymore.

Well it has been a very busy week. After a few weeks of working every night we finally finished the laundry room. Well....almost. We have a few more things to touch up. It looks really nice though. I am just happy to be able to relax for a little when Doug gets home from work. After completing the laundry room we had the HUGE task of cleaning our house. It was so dusty after all the work from the laundry room. We rearranged the basement so it is less crowded and gave Loa her own room in the laundry room. I think she really likes it. We also got a few movie posters to hang in the basement (that is our movie watching room). Doug got one of the Godfather and The Incredibles and James wanted a Cars one. (He really does love Lightening and Mater. We should have a video of it next week.)

James has decided this week that he is no longer going to eat a bottle. This causes a problem because he is supposed to still get most of his nourishment from his formula. However, whenever we try to give him a bottle he throws a tantrum until we give in and feed him oatmeal. That is the only way we can get him to eat his formula, by hiding it in his oatmeal. This is one kid who knows what he wants. This video is right after one of these tantrums.

Another thing James as started doing is "rocking". He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks. He is going to be crawling in no time and I am ready. James is at the point where if he sees something he wants he tries to get it. However, he can't move himself very well yet so he gets really frustrated when he can't get things that he wants. So he cries and I have to pick him up and comfort him and he usually wants to be held for awhile. Once he learns how to crawl then he can just go and get things for himself. It will also be nice because during his naps he often scoots himself into a corner then wakes up crying and wont go back to sleep. So once again when he can move himself he will be able to just get himself out of the corner and go back to sleep.

Well we made it home! After two weeks in the warm weather of Florida we came back to the cold rain in Utah. I am glad to be home but I wish that it was warmer. The last few days of our trip were busy. We went to church on Sunday and James screamed the whole time. I had several people offer to help me and had to have others run to get me paper towels after numerous spit-ups and a kicked over bottle. James is really busy now and is a lot of work to keep up with him. On Monday Dad and Jordyn skipped work and school to spend time with us. It is really the first time we had gotten to do stuff with them. In the morning we went to some gift shops to find some things for our husbands (I didn't find anything). In the afternoon we went to Singer Island to play on the beach. On the way we stopped for lunch. James hates to be left out of anything so we took turns holding him. He has been really interested in food and cups lately and kept trying to drink from Granddad's cup. So this video is James drinking from Granddad's cup.

The beach was fun but the water was hard to play in. The waves were so strong we could feel them pushing us as we tried to walk out into the ocean so I was so tired after a short time. James had fun putting his feet in the water and he didn't even cry after a big wave came and washed over him and Grammy.

The flight home was long but we were lucky enough to get an empty seat next to us on every flight. I say that we were lucky but really it was because James was screaming. The flight attendant tried to have one lady sit but us but she refused saying "I am not sitting next to a screaming infant." That was fine with us. James was so busy the whole flight it made things difficult. He loves to drink out of cups now, which you have seen on the video, and so when he saw my drink on the tray table he grabbed it, spilling soda all over. Luckily it didn't get on the woman's computer which she had on the same tray table. Needless to say I am so glad to be home. Doug is happy to have us home also and even though he didn't get the laundry room done he did switch the mattress so that I would be able to sleep better. That was a very nice thing for him to do since I didn't even ask him.

James and I have been hanging out at home and trying to get back on our regular schedule. James is growing up so fast and has been so much fun. He loves to take baths in the big bathtub and spending time with his Dad. Loa is happy to have us home too. She was so excited to see James and hasn't really left him alone. James also has been sitting up very well. This video is James sitting up all by himself. He loves to be able to sit up and play on the floor but he still tips over and gets knocked over by Loa.

Well it would be nice to be home for a while but we are headed to park city this weekend for a training. It should be fun and Doug will finally get to swim in the pool with James.

Death is inevitable yet so many are unprepared when it comes. There are some who worry about insignificant details like life insurance and wills and so forth. This if fine and dandy for your loved ones but what about the unknown masses that will pass by your grave. What will you say to them? If you leave this up to your grieving wife or children your grave stone may say something as meaningless as “Doug Allen, beloved husband and father”. No one will stop and read this. Considering the importance of this statement I urge everyone to take time now to decide what you want your final immortalizes words to be. Currently I have chosen the following, however it is continually being revised.

Here lies the festering body of Doug Allen, Super joker of Doom irregardless of what anyone says ish. While he died after being captured by a pack of ravenous Martians who where jealous of his incredibly comfortable rocker recliner and box set of the Godfather Trilogy, who then tied him up in the walking path of a hippo* he lived with no regret and killed with no remorse. May we all never forget his fateful words “A hippo can’t run, but he never needs too”.

*Actual cause of death to be added once it is known, although this was the most likely one I could think of.

We finally made it to the beach! It was a lot of work with three adults and three babies to get everything we needed from the car to the beach and back again but it was still fun. James loved to listen to the waves and feel the wind. He fell asleep on the beach. The waves were so strong that we really couldn't swim but I would stand in the ocean right where the waves were breaking to collect sea shells and the waves would come and knock me down. It was pretty fun. When James woke up he came and sat with me in the water. He loved it! On Saturday we went to Miami. James did really well for not having a real nap all day, but he slept really well Saturday night! We went to Seaquarium which is similar to Sea World, only a lot smaller. I think James enjoyed watching the Dolphins and Sea Lions, but because he can't talk I don't really know. The Sea Lion show was by far the best, and we got to have our pictures taken with Salty the Sea Lion. They took a much better picture, but then wanted $20 for it so we decided that this would be the best.James also got an alligator to replace Tom his turtle, but I really don't like it as much as Tom so I am still really sad that we lost Tom. James and his cousin Lexi were so tired after that they fell right asleep and slept most of the way home. I think James will be happy to get back to Utah and have things slow down again.

James and I have been in Florida for this past week and we are having so much fun. We got here on Tuesday evening after flying all day. James was much fussier on the plane ride but we were fortunate enough to get an empty seat next to us for him to lay on. On Wednesday we just relaxed and tried to let James relax for a little while. Thursday we went to the Sea Turtle rescue place. We got to see lots of baby sea turtles and some older turtles that have been injured in the wild. Friday we had a long day of driving. We drove down to the Keys. We left really early in the morning and drove for about 2 1/2 hours before we got the the first key, Key Largo. We went to a park there saw some fish then back in the car to drive to the next key. In Islamorada we went to an aquarium. There was a neat Dolphin show and I got a hug from Seth the Sea Lion. It took a few more hours to drive to Key West where we walked around to look at things. After being there only a short time a storm came in and within minutes we were soaked. We got home very late at night and I don't think James enjoyed the trip very much. James has had fun seeing his cousins and grandparents. He loves the swimming pool and taking baths. My parents don't have a bathtub for the sink so I have been putting him in the real bathtub and he loves to just lay in the tub and kick forever.

I always feel like we only put things about James on here. But other then play with James we don't do very much. Here are two new videos of James. He is just so much fun to watch.

Here is James after watching the awful Bronco's game. He wears his Bronco's outfit every time they play and it was working as a good luck charm, but not this time. James loves to watch sports and gets really upset when he has to go to bed or when someone gets in his way and he cannot see. Oh also James is learning to sit up and does really well some days, the hardest thing for him is that he likes to lean forward too much. He has the same problem in his Bumbo.

James loves to play in his "bouncy chair". His favorite things are the frog and the mirror. He really enjoys talking to "the baby."

Well some of you have asked to see some videos. Here is James eating some rice cereal. He loves it (probably because I mix it with pear juice). The first few times that he tried didn't work very well and it mostly ended up on his clothes but now that he is getting a little older and has had more practice he does very well. Tonight he kept asking for more and ate three bowls! (Probably about a 1/3 cup total.)

Being a stay at home mother is great however, there only so much you can do with a 5 month old baby. I found myself getting pretty bored during the day and getting upset with Doug when he wanted to work on his projects at home. So Doug and I both have projects to pass some of the time that we are at home. I decided to make a quilt. So I gathered together all of our old pants (8 pairs) and cut them into squares. I got some dollar fabric at Walmart so by the time I am done with this quilt it will only have cost $6 plus the cost of the batting. I am enjoying the project and it is turning out to be really cool.

Yes that's right...Children. I have three. It is only 9:45am and I have already had a pretty busy day. It started at about 2 in the morning with my oldest child. I was pretty sound asleep when I woke up to Doug yelling (at least it seemed really loud to me) "Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh Yeah!" Worried that maybe he forgot something, and now fully awake I said,
"What?"
"We got those things for you to hang on the wall downstairs."
"What things?"
"You know to put on the wall"
"What do we do with them, Why do we need them?"
Frustration: "I will explain in the morning."

Turns out he was asleep and there is really nothing to put on the wall.

My second child acts much like a jealous older sibling would. I constantly follow her around all day saying "Loa No!" I think these will be James's first words. Loa No! could mean many things:
Leave James's toys alone.
James does not want you to sit on him.
Pencils/pens are not for chewing.
The toilet is not your water bowl.
and my favorite: Just because James has spit up and is opening his mouth (wide) does not mean you can clean it up!

Loa probably keeps me the most busy, I have had to baby proof my house not for James but for her.

My third child is probably my easiest. He is content to entertain himself. The most I have to worry about him is putting him back in the middle of the floor after he has rolled himself into a wall or the fireplace (which is never used). James likes to content himself with sucking. He will suck on whatever is nearby (including Loa). He usually sticks to his fingers or a toy he can reach. Recently he started trying to suck on his tongue which creates the cutest face, I can't help but laugh. Today however he found his arm. I walked in the room and he had his arm in his mouth for I don't know how long, and he was not interested in anything else. When he finally let go of his arm I noticed he had given himself a hickey! Now there is something I thought we wouldn't have to deal with for a long time!

Well my children keep me pretty busy and I enjoy each of them.

• A Hippo can't run, but he never needs to.
• There are two kinds of beautiful, Karen beautiful and Pam beautiful. Find your Pam.
• Today I meet the sky and I asked him why this guy is blue. (Say it out loud, quickly)
• Ipods are a plague on society. When listening to your Ipod no one is impressed, no one wants to talk to you and if you get hit by a car you deserve it.
• Never send a "Thank you" email. If you are trying to be proper and polite email is not the way to go.
• When a task has been performed well we use the term "You nailed it", yet when a task has been performed poorly we say "You screwed that up". A screw is a superior method of fastening over a nail. These terms need to be switched.
• A chicken egg takes 21 days to hatch. No matter how many chickens you get it will still take 21 days. If you try to speed this up you will not like the results.
• The fax machine is a dead technology. Just accept that and stop wasting time. I can not figure out why so many people will prepare a document on their computer as well as a cover sheet then print them out walk to the printer then proceed to the fax machine dial the number and wait for the pages to feed through. If the document is in any way important you will then have to go back and make sure the fax went through. The person receiving the fax is now burdened with keeping track of the piece of paper is stead of being able to place it with the vast majority of their correspondence in their email archives. Email saves you time and it saves me time. No more faxes.