The Shafer Allens

Happy Halloween!!

2009-11-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a fun and spooky Halloween.....

On Friday Ella, Mavyn and I hung out at daycare for some fun Halloween activities, including playing with slime! (cornstarch and water).....

We also read lots of Halloween books, played games and ate green mini cupcakes!! It was lots of fun!

On Saturday, we got the kids all dressed up. Ella was Cinderella and I am very proud of myself for sewing her dress myself! It turned out good, although with the time and money spent, I will not do it again - jeez! Mavyn was a pink jaguar (yes jaguar like on Diego, not a leopard! LOL!)...

I took Ella out around the neighborhood along with our neighbor boy Caleb and Jake hung back with Mavyn to hand out candy since it was too cold to bring the baby with (boy Halloween weather in MN sucks most years). Glory came with us and she was shivering, even with her doggie jacket on!

Afterward, our other neighbors came over and hung out for a while. Here's a pic of the girls with baby Brevick.....

It was a nice evening. Ella even stayed up until 10pm! She was soooo tired.

Ella (and maybe Jake and I too) is enjoying her Halloween spoils. Every morning when we get up.."mommy, can I have some candy."

In other news, tomorrow I go back to work.... *sigh*

Until next time!

Love,

The Allens

Spooky Patch Diablo

2009-10-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 10th we had to say goodbye to Spooky. It was with very much sadness we made the decision to euthanize her. We had been trying to find a new home for her for over a year for other reasons, but recently she had proven more unpredictable with Ella and we decided not to wait until something worse may have happened. She was truly the sweetest dog with a wonderful personality that endeared everyone that knew her. With the face of a puppy and a tongue to deliver unlimited kisses, she was truly loved by us and many of our friends and family.

This was a difficult decision and a terrible weight on our hearts and we thank all of you who have been there for us.

If there is a heaven, she is there licking everyone to death!

We love you Spookers!

The Allens

Mavyn Olivia

2009-08-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yay! She has finally arrived!

Mavyn Olivia was born August 10, 2009 at 10:10 am. She weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces (6 ounces bigger than her big sister was!). She is healthy and beautiful!

I had to be induced, but like with Ella, they only had to use the hormone stuff on my cervix. No other drugs or anything and once things got going it went really fast. After my epidural was in place I was very relaxed and had a great birthing experience!

Ella loves her little sister and wants to hold her all the time. She has had some indications of jealousy, but is adjusting well to the fact that mom can't do everything now. Daddy has stepped up in my place and I think Ella will soon be a daddy's girl!

Jake took Ella to the zoo last Friday to get Ella out of the house and give me more nap time. Ella had a blast seeing the animals and riding the rides. She even got her face all painted up and her hair done crazy! I did not recognize her when they got home!

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful wishes and thoughtful gifts. And thanks also for those who took time to come out to see us so far!!

A special thanks to the grandmas for helping take care of the house and Ella while we were in the hospital.

Thanks to those who took some time to cook for us. Although we enjoyed to food, we loved the company as well! Jessica made us anniversary chicken; Meenu and Jim made chicken cordon bleu; Becky and Neil made us a waffle brunch; and Rachel and the girls brought us Famous Daves. Everything was wonderful and we have left overs galore!!

We feel so lucky to be surrounded by great family and friends!!
Thank you, thank you!!

Love,

The Allens

A Few Updates Before the Big Event...

2009-08-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to update on stuff up to this point since the next blog will (yes, WILL! I am certain she will come someday!) be about the new arrival. We have an induction scheduled for Sunday evening if she doesn't decide to come out by then.

On July 18th Ella and I attended Adrian's first birthday!! I can't believe how big he is getting! We had a great time at the party and it was nice to see some people that we don't hang out with very often. Sabrina took time to hang out with her and Ella just loved it! They drew with chalk, blew bubbles and she even kicked the soccer ball around a bit (adding to Christmas list - check!).

Adrian was so adorable in his overalls and took a liking to the "Raven" doggie that Ella had to bring a long that day. Ella did good sharing for a while, but eventually we had to sneak it away from Adrian.

It was cute to see Ian and Zack interact with ther little cuz too!

Ella even sat nice for a picture with great grandma Betty.

At this point the camera battery died and I have no pictures of the rest of the day - Boo!

Anyways, after the party we stopped to watch Jake and the Tiff's Two for Ones play a tournament game for Highland Fest. Ella loved seeing the game and trying to pick out all of "her boys" in the field (this included Daddy, Jeremy, and EZ). It was cute.

Then we headed off to the Howland's for their annual BBQ. It was fun to have all the kids together playing and just hang and eat and talk.

A couple weekends later we had another birthday party to attend for Sophia who is now 4!! It was at Lake Elmo beach and the weather was so perfect. We had good food and all the kids had a blast swimming (or trying to learn in Ella's case) and playing on the beach. The girls also dug right into their tinkerbelle cupcakes!! (Somehow I missed getting a pic of Nora! - sorry Sonja and Nate)

Otherwise it has been a fairly typical summer, except for the cooler weather. We have managed to get out and enjoy the nice days when we can!

The dogs have been enjoying the cooler temps for sure...

Glory Girl Frankenstein

Spooky Patch Diablo

Ella has been very insistent on playing with other kids lately so we have tried to hook up with the neighbors more. Here is Ella and Caleb having fun in the pool. It actually wasn't even that warm out by adult standards, but they just kept swimming and laughing with their purple lips!

I finally managed to remember to get a picture of Ella with my big belly....

..and then Ella had to play photographer as well....she didn't do too bad!

Last night we found Ella had an enormous splinter on the bottom of her foot! After a couple ours of negotiating, trying, failing to get cooperation, then negotiating again we finally just held her tight and got it out. I am sure our neighbors were wondering what the hell we were doing to our child to make her scream and cry so much (the noise began as soon as we grabbed her foot). Jake was the surgeon and I was the restrainer. She flailed the first time, but after saying her other option was daddy holding and mommy being the surgeon, she grudgingly succombed. She cried and it must have hurt a lot, but she managed to not kick and Jake finally got it out. She was really brave in the end and it was hard to see her in pain, but it had to be done. It was a quarter inch long....

Soon after she was blissful again with a baggie of gummy worms and a cup of ginger ale!

Hope everyone is well and we shall be talking to you again very soon!!

Love,

The Allens

Summer is Here!

2009-07-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

I know it may be late to say it, but it seems summer is in full swing the last few weeks.

We have been busy going places and visiting friends and family, as usual and trying to get out and enjoy the great weather when it decides to show up.

For once we left town for the Fourth of July! I found a great little resort in the middle of no where thanks to the neighbors. Since I am preggo I was not willing to tent it and cabins tend to be pretty spendy, but this place was not. It is call Crooked Lake Resort. Its on crooked lake about 20 miles northeast of Finland, MN. There are only 11 cabins and some camp sites so it is nice and small. all cabins are on the lake or lake view and most have their own dock.

We borrowed Tom's (my mom's husband) boat and it was fun cruising around on the lake. Ella loved going fast!

We didn't get much for fish, but Ella reeled in her first fish ever, with daddy's help.

The cabin was nice and had electric and a gas stove. The only amenity missing was water, but it wasn't too far to walk to retrieve that. Ella had some misgivings about the outhouse, but she seemed to get used to it quickly.

The area was beautiful and it was just nice to relax with no schedule or technology to bother us. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we couldn't have asked for a better weekend! We will definitely be visiting again in the future!

Last weekend we visited Dr. David and Leslie, I had worked for them several years back. We still keep in touch and like to go visit them in WI. They have added some livestock to their place this year so we were excited to see the new additions!

Emily the donkey was so sweet and did such a great job with letting Ella ride on her a bit.

They also have a horse (a Canadian) name Camanche, he is big, all black and just gorgeous! Ella refused to go near him most of time so I neglected to get a good picture of him. By far Ella was most obsessed with the chickens! They were still young and some were friendly so she got to pet them and feed them some yummy veges!!

We had a great day there with the animals and taking a nice walk around their property. The weather couln't have been better.

We have a busy two months ahead of us, not including the new addition!! I am due in less than 3 weeks so we hope to make it to most things that are going on, but we will be missing some of them unfortunately.

Hope you all are well and look forward to seeing you yet this summer!

Love,

The Allens

Long time......

2009-06-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

.....no blog!

Quite a while since I have updated here. We even have a computer at the house now and it still doesn't seem that I get to things! Its been a busy year so far......

Ella accomplished the feat of potty training with flying colors several months back. I finally just forced her to try when I asked her to for a couple days and its been easy cheesy since. She is even dry 98% of the time overnight and wakes up to go sometimes! Its amazing what candy and consistency can bring!!

Ella attended her first horse expo and rodeo at the Mn State Fair grounds April 24th. She had a blast and loooved all the horsies! She also sat enthralled through the two plus hour rodeo performance!

Here is Jake and Derek at the expo...looking particularily red-neckish....

The next day Ella turned three years old!! I cannot believe how fast she is growing! We had fun celebrating with her and we even managed to get the moonwalk set up for when we had friends over with their kids...it was a blast (Thanks Joe and Rachel!!).

May flew by, but Jake did good for mother's day and set up a vegetable garden area in the yard!! It was nice to have him around for mother's day for once too! Since he went on a Boundary Waters trip the week after he skipped fishing opener this year! Ella had fun helping too! We did lose some plants because I apparently planted too early and we had two nights of frost after that Sunday - jeez! Uh well, we figure this will be our experimental year to learn some lessons....lesson 1 learned!

Jake went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) for over a week with Erik, Jeremy, Jim, and Dan. Apparently they had a good time, and Ella and I did ok without daddy around. Ella did miss him though and so did I (I hate doing the dishes!).

While Jake was gone I managed to finally get some photos of Ella as her official three year photos. I used my old(er) non-digital professional camera in the back yard. I got some nice ones...

We are starting to get ready for baby number two and I got all the clothes washed and in the drawer (how did I end up with so many onsies?!). We know its a girl, at least thats what the ultrasounds indicate. We have decided on the name Maven Olivia...I know its different, but we love it and I think we will call her Mae for short. I am now 33 weeks so under two months left!! I do get another ultrasound tomorrow...I am measuring small so the doctor will double check the growth - not really worried, I measured small with Ella too and she was above "average" size everytime they checked!

Ella is excited to be a big sister, this being perpetuated even more by big sisiter books that we have been reading. They really did the trick to get her to think about it more and identify herself as the big sister. She talks and sings a lullaby with me to Maven several nights a week before bed....too cute!

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far and I will hopefully bring updates on a more regular basis.

Love,

The Allens

December, December....

2008-12-12T08:19:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great Turkey Day! We ate lots and had a nice 4-day weekend (well, Jake had to work on Friday - oh well).
So now Christmas is around the corner. We did get our tree. As usual I picked one that didn't look so big in the field, but ended up being 8 feet tall and stands about one inch below the basement ceiling now. But it is so pretty and full, so its all good! Ella had fun picking it out with us and then watching the trains in the barn at the tree farm. We enjoyed some hot cider and ginger cookies as well - yum! Ella had fun helping decorate for about the first 20 minutes, then she moved on to something else.
I did get her to pose nice for me the other day in front of the tree....

We have been trying to work more on poddy training lately with a little progress, but still changing lots of diapers. Ella has just been a little reluctant to use the "poddy like a big girl." M&M's work sometimes, sometimes they don't. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she clowns around....

We will continue to pursue that.

For those of you I have not had the chance to notify yet, our family will be growing! We are expecting our second child sometime around the end of July! We are hoping all goes well and I will keep updating on the blog as to whats going on with that family member too.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from our family to yours. I have decided to cut out sending Christams cards this year to save a little cash.
So here is the cheap version...

Happy Holidays
Love,
The Allens

Halloween!!

2008-11-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!!

Ah, my favorite holiday!!

We have had a fun Halloween season with lots of activity. Last weekend Ella and I went with Celeste, George, and George's daughter Danielle to a Halloween party in out old neck of the woods in Forest Lake. We hung out at their house first while George fixed my car (thank goodness for friends with skillz!! - George, you know who to call when you need a plumber!) so Celeste had Ella and Danielle ride Jezabelle, her horse. Ella loves riding and I am so glad she has the opportunity to do so once in a while.

At the party we got to go on a long hayride and Ella thought that was fun. We even stopped at a spooky abandoned barn - crazy!

Ella wasn't really into the pumpkin carving, but she liked coloring on it!

This last week has been strange for us. Ella was sick early on and I stayed home two days. I also noticed that one of her front top teeth looked odd so we went to the dentist. She had smacked her mouth on the bathroom sink a few weeks back. Dentist said it was not viable (dead) so it would fall out on its own and to watch for abscesses....*sniff*....our little cutie is gonna have a gap tooth smile until she is 6 or 8!!! Oh well.
I took Friday off to work on stuff for our party over at Becky's. Sophia and Ella got to decorate their own cookie and eat them, they loved it!

Friday evening we went trick or treating with the neighbors and their two boys - Jonny and Joshy. Ella loved it! She was dressed as a Snow Princess and walked around the whole block (in our neighborhood that's like 3 or 4 city blocks) and received plenty of candy.

We went back to Jon and Jackie's to help hand out candy while the kids played. During that play, Ella got clocked in the forehead with a toy gun. It left a small but deep puncture that bled like crazy at first. So, we went off to the ER to make sure it would be okay. On the way there she kept saying "my face is broken" and " Mommy, Ella sad." She ended up getting a few stitches. She was very brave and patient girl at the hospital. Since then you wouldn't even know she was hurt, except for the stitches on her forehead. She has been as crazy as normal.

We had a great party. Becky and I worked together to get everything done and had lots of fun doing it!

Jake dressed up as Ghost Rider (minus the flames I guess) and gave some motorcycle rides. Kati got to go and even Rachel took a spin around the neighborhood!

Sunday was a nice lazy day and I got to take a nap (so grateful for the simple things!!) in between the cleaning and we got outside to enjoy the beautiful weather for a while as well.
I hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Arrrr!!
Cheers!
Carissa

Hello, hello.....

2008-10-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Boy, I really thought that I would be able to get this updated more often, oh well...

We got out to Shafer Days on the 4th of October. I figured we should check it out this year since I designed the button (he he). It was something different to do. Grandma Nancy and Gary came up and walked around with us. Ella rode the kiddie car ride and I took her down the big slide. It went pretty fast so I wasn't sure what she would think of it, but she loved it! There was a small parade and we watched that and she scored big time on the candy (which Jake and I have eaten half of I think).

Just this last Friday we had our first Halloween party at the Waalk's. Ella was an adorable snow princess; unfortuneately her face paint didn't stand up to toddler hands (not sure what I was thinking). Well, you could still see that she had white paint on her face at the end of the night, it just wasn't in any particular pattern anymore. Ella had a blast hanging out with her cousins and all the other kids (I mean a lot of kids!!). She even participated in her first doughnut eating race and once she saw Megan chowing down, she followed suite. I must say that Megan's ability to shove the whole doughnut in her mouth was very impressive. Ella only got about half of it in at once. It was just hilarious!

We took Ella bowling for the first time this last Sunday and she really enjoyed it. She took all her turns for two frames (there was one frame in between them when she wandered off to the video games though). She loved using the ramp thingy and I would lift her up into superman position and she pushed the ball with both hands. She got so excited after it hit the pins and she screamed and jumped up and down.

P.S. Thanks Anna for telling me how to rearrange pictures on here!!

P.S.S. Here is my political input for the month - go to Pheisty Blog's post on the ideas of what constitutes anti-American behaviors...I really agree with her on this one http://www.pheistyblog.com/archives/1974
By the way, this girl has such a great blog!! I keep a link for it on the left side there.

Cheers!!

Time Flies....

2008-09-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted new stuff I guess. I suppose time has really just slipped past me lately. It seems I have so much I need to do and before I can check one thing off my list, two more things get added on! So, I will get you up to speed on what we have been up to...
On Labor Day weekend Jake and I took an over night motorcycle trip up to the north shore area with some neighbor friends. Erik's parents were nice enough to host the seven of us at their home on Saturday night. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. It was my first bike trip ever and only the 2nd time I had even been on the new bike! Generally speaking, I was scared to death for several reasons. Anyways, I had a great time and we made it back in one piece. I am still waiting to get photos from one of our friends from the trip, so maybe I will post them up here later.

We were visited by the Nukie Fairy a couple weeks ago (no, not Nookie you nimphoes!). We rounded up all of Ella's nuks (pacifiers) and put them in the mail box so the fairy could come and take them to new little babies that needed them. The next morning we found the fairy left Ella a nice little gift for being such a nice girl (a froggy backpack). The first thing she said when she put that backpack on was "I go to school?" It was so cute! She is doing well and the whole fairy visit really helped her let go of something that brought her a lot of security. She even found one in her room on Monday and asked me to was it off for her. Thankfully once I explained that that one also had to go to the babies, she was very cooperative. It takes her longer to fall asleep still, but she does not wake up in the middle of the night anymore.

We stopped up at the Shafer Saloon the other weekend for a short bit when they had some karoke going on. Jake and Ella dances some and Ella came up and sang "Any Man of Mine" by Shania Twain with me!! Meenu, you would have been proud!! It was so funny and adorable! Maybe if my husband would have been thinking, he would have grabbed the camera and recorded it on video!! Oh well.

Last weekend we were invited up to a house that friends of ours (Matt and Jesse) rented. So we had a nice long weekend away from home. Matt and Jesse's two kids Marissa and Jack and Jeremy and the two girls were there as well as his sister from WA with her little boy, so Ella had lots of kids to run around with. Jake caught a lot of Northerns and now I am tasked with finding a pickling recipe....yuck! Well, I guess I will try it and then decide if its gross, but my first instinct is still "yuck"!

It was also my Grandma Grace's (she helps care for Ella 3 days a week for us) birthday on the 7th so we had dinner and cake at my mom's for that. I finally got a good picture of Ella and Great Grandma. It seems either grandma or Ella are not smiling in all the others I have.

On a more serious not, Meenu's dad is in the hospital. He had a severe stroke over a week ago and although things are looking a lot better now than they did last week, there is still much concern for his recovery. My thoughts go out to Meenu and her family and please visit the caring bridge site they just set up for Don to get updates on how he is doing
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/donvoss
Thanks.

P S
If anyone knows how to put pictures in where you want them (not just at the top all the time) please share this knowledge with me, thanks!!

Wedding Weekend....

2008-08-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

Erik and Sara got hitched this weekend so Jake and I had our hands full dealing with all the wedding activities since we were both standing up in the wedding. It turned out to be a wonderful day with beautiful weather. The ceremony was outside and the Cedarhurst Mansion in Cottage Grove and everything seemed to go great! We had a fun time seeing our friends and doing a little dancing. Jake's mom took care of Ella during the wedding and dinner, so that was a big help. She had lots of fun with everyone and even got in a few dances before I took her to great grandma's for the night. I was able to get a lot of great pictures of everyone all dressed nice!
My best to the happy couple and I hope they have fun on the honeymoon (so jealous!!).
On Sunday Ella, Erica and I tagged along with Jake and James to the property where they are bear hunting. The gardens at this place are spectacular. The two guys that live there are so nice!! There is a big metal turtle statue down by the river, it was really cool. Apparently it weighs about 1200 pounds!!
Hope everyone has a good week!!

Love,

Carissa

News I didn't get posted earlier....

2008-08-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

So this is a little late, but when it happened, I was just trying to figure out the blogging thing and didn't get it on then. Back on July 14, my cousin Jessica and her husband Moises welcomed their new baby. His name is Adrian Moises and he is such a beautiful little boy with lots of hair!! Ella and I stopped to see him at the hospital. He is now about 6 weeks old and is doing great!!
Hope everyone has a great weekend...we will be busy with Erik and Sara's wedding!! Whoo hoo...free beer and wine!!

Cheers!!

Carissa

Another addition....

2008-08-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

We seem to be at the age where everyone around us is having babies. Lisa and Clinton had their first little one about three weeks ago and we finally got up to see him this weekend (they live about an hour and a half away). His name is Samuel James and he is a beautifully little guy! He slept a lot, but we managed to peek at is eyes a little bit. It was a nice day and Ella loved little Samuel and all the horses and kitties at Lisa and Clinton's. I must admit that I loved seeing the horses too. I love watching them and the smell. Someday I may have to get some ;)

Hope everyone is well!

Carissa

Here is the link....

2008-08-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

Apparently I cannot figure out the linkitty link thing here so you will have to copy and paste to see the video I mentioned on the previous blog...

http://www.americansolutions.com/Blog/Read.aspx?guid=2dc1fff2-3fe1-473f-b20a-a0c5e07e41a5

Sorry 'bout that :)

Have you heard this?......

2008-08-07T08:39:00.001-07:00

House Democrats turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones at the Monday hearing when they were supposed to be discussing and voting on new energy legislation. Instead of addressing the energy problem that is affecting us all, Pelosi and most the dems turned tail and left, now taking a 5 week recess. The GOP stayed, got the lights and mics back up and continued discussions the issue that is affecting us all so much today. Is it that the dems now realize that 75% of the U.S. wants to drill domestically or is it that book tour Pelosi needs to get to? I am sure its a little of both, but however you look at it, they have abandoned the average American citizen.

Here is Newt Gingrich at a conference, commenting on the situation..

Cheers!

Carissa

Abby Leigh

2008-08-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

My boss has a grandaughter who was born with a heart condition where only half of her heart works. She is now five years old and after waiting over a year on transplant lists, she has finally recieved a new heart. I am so thankful that she was able to hang in there this long and that her new heart has finally arrived! You can view more on Abby by viewing the caring bridge link I have on my blog list.
When I think of this amazing family I try to remember not to take for granted the blessings I have in my own life.

Family Weekend

2008-08-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

We had a nice weekend at home, for once! It seems we have had stuff going on every weekend this summer - crazy! Jenny came up to hang out on Saturday and Sunday and Jeremy had his two girls up. The house was busy and fun! We set up several kiddie pools and got some sun and splash time on Saturday. Sunday was dreary so I set the girls up for paint time and they had a blast. Ella stayed at the table and painted for over an hour, even after Jeremy took the girls home! I can't help but wish she has a passion for the visual arts. Somethimes it seems she must, but you just never know. I am sure I will inadvertently encourage her to be artistic, but in the end she will love it or not.

Our friends Lisa and Clinton had their baby last week on July 29th; congrats to them both and welcome Samuel James! Hopefully we can get up to see them soon.

Cheers!

Carissa

First Blog

2008-07-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I am trying to keep up with the Jones' so her is the first blog. I have found that I enjoy reading friends' blogs and decided to take a dip in the great blogosphere!

More to come....once I figure this all out.

Carissa