Beautiful

I don't know if I have ever felt more beautiful than the day Kyle and I were married.  And it's not because my hair was done perfectly or that I had new high-end makeup on or because I was wearing a wedding gown that I loved so much.  Don't get me wrong - thoses things definetly helped, but that's not why.  I remember walking up the spiral staircase in the Nauvoo temple feeling and thinking this is the most important thing I'll ever do in my life - get married for to time and eternity in the Lord's house, in the Lord's way.  I felt so much love.  I felt so, so blessed.  I knew I was doing the right thing, the thing that my Heavenly Father and Savior wanted most for me.  And it made me feel beautiful.   For a moment, I saw and felt how They must see and feel about me.

After I got my gown on, I headed around the corner to meet Kyle.  He was standing there waiting for me.  Most of that morning, I hate to admit, is kind of a blur.  I remember bits of pieces of it, but it happened so fast and there was so much to asborb.  But the one thing I remember most was the look Kyle had when he saw me when I rounded that corner.  I'll never forget it - I saw the love he had for me in that look.  I saw what he hoped our life would be in that look.  It was tender and loving and I once again felt more beautiful than I ever have or probably ever will. 

Today is our 8 year anniversary.  Kyle is all the way in Delaware for work.  It stinks.  However, its given me some time to reflect and remember that perfect, beautiful day 8 years ago.  It hasn't always been perfect these last 8 years, but when I think about that day everything falls into perspective and I think how incredibly blessed I am to be married to Kyle.  He's the best.  He makes me better.

Love you babe.

Our Favorite Books

 

I love reading to the boys.  It's probably one of my favorite things to do with them.  Their attention is focused and it's something relaxing and fun to do with them.  I love to get into the books.  I love doing voices.  They love it too.  I always see all of these list of the best books for kids.  Well, I've put together my own.  Here are some of our favorites:

Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman

Grandma and Grandpa Allen own this book.  Leon loves reading this one every time we go there.

 

 

Olivia by Ian Falcon

What can I say.  I love Olivia.  She's a cool pig and a sassy attitude.

 

 

Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman

About a boy and his friend Robot.

 

 

Ruthie and the (not so) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin

A great book when teaching kids about lying.

 

 

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (or Little Pea or Little Oink - they're all great).

These are my absolute favorite.  Little Hoot is about a little owl who doesn't like to go to bed late.

 

 

If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff (or any of the "If you Give A" Books)

I love little pigs.  All of these books are so fun.

A Bear and His Boy by Sean Bryan

About a bear who wakes up with a boy on his shoulders.  All of these books are fun.

 

 

Little Critter Book by Mercer Mayer

Leon loves these.



 

He's Growing Up

 

Leon is at his first day of pre-k.  We've been counting down the days.  He has been so excited.

 

 

 

 I'll admit that as he walked away I started feeling anxious.  I love this boy - his sweet, pleasing personality.  This is a new chapter in life for him, for us.  As his mommy, his protector, I know it's natural.  I just want him to stay this sweet, loving boy forever without all those outside worldly influences on him, you know?  Depsite all those feelings I have, I'm so excited for him.  He's going to make new friends and become more independent.  He's a little sponge and loves to learn.  He's going to love it.

 

 

 

I can't wait to pick him up and have him tell me all about it.

 

The Allen Family

About 2 months ago, we had a big Allen family reunion.  It's been 7 years since we were all together.  If you don't already know, Kyle has 7 brothers.  Kyle's mother is a saint!  There are 21 (or is it 22 now?) grandkids!  I feel so blessed to be apart of this family.  It's crazy and wild and sometimes overwhelming - especially at big holiday get togethers in my in-laws little house - but I wouldn't change it EVER. 

While everyone was together, I took some family pictures for my in-laws.  This may be the last chance we ever are all together to do this.  Grandkids are going to be going off to college or on missions so these were really important to all of us.  These are just a few of my fav's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my two personal favorites - I could be a little bias.

 

 

 

The New House

Ugh...a little over a year since my last blog post.  Why did I stop?  I used to love it so much.  Maybe, I'll start again?  Make it a weekly thing?  We'll see. 

I wanted to blog about our new house for friends and family who are curious about it.  We are so excited about it.  I love it.  Seriously, everytime I drive up to it I do a little happy dance.  It's kind of a fun story too.  Here we go.  First, the story -

When we started looking for houses, I was really disappointed.  There wasn't anything I was really excited about.  Kyle had seen this house months ago when we were playing around with the idea of moving to Indy.  He said, "Kelly, come look at this one.  What do you think?"  I laughed at him and said "NO WAY!"  It just needed too much work to make it the way I'd want it. 

Well, we got here and started our search.  This house came up and met all our criteria.  I still dismissed it.  As the week went on, this house kept popping up in my head.  I knew Kyle was interested initially (although he had kind of dismissed it in the mean time because of me) so I figured it wouldn't hurt to just go look at it.  Just go look...

I drove up to the house in the evening by myself after Kyle got home from work.  The drive was so refreshing.  5 miles out of town.  I've missed these old Indiana country roads so much.  It felt so good. 

I pulled into the drive way.  I started laughing.  It was SO us.  I got butterflies in my stomach.  Yes, I know, so ridiculous.  It was like I was falling in love ;)  I walked around, looked in all the windows (I knew it as vacant).  While doing this, I could see us here - in the yard, in that kitchen, Kyle and the boys working in the garage, having a garden and playset in the back yard.  It was surreal.  I got in the car and called Kyle.  I went home, got him and the boys, and we came back. 

We looked at it as soon as we could.  We took a few days, looked at a few more house just to be sure, and then we put an offer on it.  It was a low offer.  We felt like the house needed way too much updating and cosmetic work AND appliances (it didn't have any) to pay as much as they wanted.  After a few negotations, we still couldn't aggree on the offer so we walked away.

In the mean time, we found another house we liked.  It was a lot like our last house.  We weren't as excited about it, but I liked it and I knew we could be very happy there.  We put an offer on it.  While we were in negotations for that house our relator called and said that the first seller called back and WAS GOING TO ACCEPT OUR OFFER!  We were thrilled!  We got out of negotations with the other sellers and started on the buying process with our current house.  Things from there went so smoothly.  The insception went really well.  It's in great shape for being 30 years old.  They fixed everything else that was a major concern of ours without an negiotating. The sellers were this really nice middle ages couple.  They were excited to know that we were going to raise our family there and fix it up.

Okay,  here are the pictures.  It's got 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a loft, a huge garage, and 1 acre of land right in the country.  Have I mentioned that I love this house already?  It needs a lot of paint (and I mean alot!) and love, but it's going to be perfect for us - our little heaven on earth.

The Outside:

 

 

 

Living Room:

 

 

 

The Entry:

 

 

 

The Kitchen and Breakfast Knook:

 

 

 

 

Loft (4th Bedroom thru that door):

 

 

 

Leon's Room (please, forgive the mess - we've already started workng on it):

 

 

 

 

Grady's Room (currently being used as the boys entertainment room):

 

 

 

Boy's/Guest Bath:

 

 

 

Our bedroom (it was hard to get a good shot of it):

 

 

 

Our Bathroom:

 

 

 

The Oversized Garage (pretty sure this is why Kyle wanted to buy this house):

 

 

I have more, but blogger is just way too slow about uploading pics.  My patience is all GONE!  Maybe that's why I stopped blogging!  Ugh.

 

So there's lots of painting on my plate right now.  LOTS.  And maybe a few bathroom makeovers in the future.  But I think we are going to really love this house! It has so much potential for us.

 

I'll try to keep you up on the progress.

Funny Leon

I'm trying to make more of an effort to record the silly things Leon says.  Here are a couple from yesterday.

While I was getting ready, Leon piled all of the pillows into the middle of our bed.  This is how our conversation followed:

Leon:  "I'm the king of the castle!"
Me:  "Does that mean I'm the queen?"
Leon: "No."
Me:  "How about the princess?"
Leon:  "No."
Me:  "Then what am I?"
Leon (with a big grin on his face):  "The Dragon!"

I then proceded to eat him up like the dragon I am.


We were watching the "news" yesterday (I write "news" because I think it's sometimes funny what they call news these days) and there was a photo of a celebrity from a swimsuit shoot.  This celebrity was showing off her big booty.  I looked at Kyle and said "Whoa.  Look at that booty!"  Leon looked up at the TV and said "Yeah.  It's a big one!"

HA!  Kyle and I couldn't help but busting up.  I still laugh out loud every time I think about it :)  I honestly don't know where he comes up with some of this stuff.

3.5

Yesterday, my Leon turned 3 1/2.  Three and a half!  And I don't think he has ever been cooler than he is right now.  This post is dedicated to him. 


Kyle and I joke that he is our little guinea pig.  It's true.  Poor kid.  As the first kid, he is the one that we have to test all of our parenting ideas on.  Luckily, he is so naturally awesome that we have been pretty lucky.

A year ago, Leon was still barely talking in sentences.  Now, he's full of things to say and questions to ask.  His favorite word right now is "why?".  And after I give him an explanation, his next favorite word is "why?".  He says the funniest stuff too - I wish I could remember it all.

He loves transformers, superheros, pirates, and trains.  When ever were out and he sees a yellow vehicle (and it doesn't matter what kind) he yells out "Mommy!  I see Bumble Bee!"

He loves to sing the ABC's and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

The nursery leaders at church say he is very well behaved.  He stays in his seat when it's time and plays good.  Although, he likes to hoard his favorite toys (one broken train in particular) and doesn't give them up easily. 

His favorite friends are Jared, Gabe, Lars, Shelton, Colsen, and his cousins.

He loves milk.  If it weren't for milk, he'd be dead.  The kid hates to eat.  His favorite foods are bacon, cheetos, icing, and icecream.

He can be quite the cuddler.  My favorite is when he comes and lays in the square of my legs when I'm laying down on the couch. 

He is a good big brother.  He sometimes loves Grady a little too much.  However, Grady is starting to get more interested in Leon's toys, so I think he is going to be sick and frustrated with Grady soon.

He loves to read books, play outside, run and run, play with any type of electronics, watch TV, and wrestle. 

He really likes to say the word "Poop".  He just cracks up SO BAD when he says it.  It's funny.  Luckily, he hasn't said it anywhere but home.  I'd be mortified.


Oh I love this boy.  I love those blue, blue eyes.  I love his laugh.  He's getting so big.  I'm going to miss him at this age.  I just know it.