ohio

ok, so it's not totally official when and exactly where, but we finally kind of have an idea of where we are going. we will be heading to the cleveland, ohio area and we'll probably be leaving near the end of june. we are so excited. i have a brother out there in medical school with his family, so that will be great! we wish you all luck wherever you are and whatever changes are coming for all of you. wish us luck!!

the graduate

jeffrey, the graduate! today jeffrey became on official byu graduate in manufacturing engineering technology.

here is jeffrey waiting for the procession to the graduation ceremony. it was a beautiful day despite the cold weather and the occasional snow. hehe. no but really it was a happy day. we were so glad that this day had arrived.

it was so fun to see all the graduates lining up. it started snowing so i ran up into the marriot center while jeffrey and all the graduates had to wait in the cold and snow. they were good sports.

here are the graduates entering the marriot center. the talks were really good. jeffrey's dad, craig came to join me before the ceremony started. it was so nice to have him there with me. my mom was kind enough to watch elliot and sam while i was there.

i am so glad i got this picture. this is jeffrey's good friend ryan. he helped hook jeffrey up with the job interview that has turned into his future job with avery dennison. thanks ryan!

craig is so proud of jeffrey. it is so neat to see a father be so proud of his son. i love my in-laws. they are so great. we will miss them so much when we move away.

we are so happy! this is so great. it feels good to have jeffrey done with school. look at our smiles. yes, we are ecstatic! wish us luck as we move into the next stage of life. we don't know what we are getting into but we are excited!

as we were leaving we bumped into my mother's parents. hi grandma and grandpa! they were there with my aunt and uncle for my cousin's graduation. we were glad we just happened to bump into them out of the hundreds of people there.

to end this post i will leave you with a picture that jeffrey took tonight. the beautiful Y all lit up to celebrate with all of the graduates!! congrats to any other graduates out there!

tigers, swords, and gold

elliot and daddy went to big guys and little guys at the library. it was for 3 year old boys and older and their dad's. they were there for an hour and in that hour they saw a sword fighting demonstration, got face painting as you see above, played clothes pin fishing, got to bring home a harry potter coloring book, dug for "gold", got a hamburger and apple juice, played football and basketball kid style, saw a live rosy boa snake, colored, and played legos. they had a blast!! elliot had the best time fighting his dad with foam swords after the sword fighting demonstration by some old men with beards dressed in knight attire. at home when he plays swords he frequently quotes, "by the power of grayskull, i have the power!!!" he's such a boy!

jeffrey said it was so fun to see elliot get his face painted. for those of you who know elliot you know how he never holds still. i guess he was so excited to have his face painted that he did in fact hold extremely still. it is fun to see that he is getting old enough to choose to hold still, even if he doesn't make that choice often. i love my elliot so much. i love my husband that he would take the time to go do something like this with elliot. it is fun to see their friendship grow!

for those of you who don't know, jeffrey graduates from BYU this thursday! we can't believe this day is here. we are so excited. we don't know where we are going yet, but we do know jeffrey has a job. he has been hired by Avery Dennison. they are working out the details and we hope to know soon where we will be moving and when. we will be sad to leave family and friends, but we are extremely excited to go out on our own adventure. i will post as soon as we find out the details. wish us luck!

the zoo!

grandma homer took us to the zoo!
the crowd consisted of grandma homer, aunt laura, cousin ben, maryirene (me), elliot, and sam. we had a blast. the pictures will show you.

here is the water ball near the entrance to the zoo. the kids could spend hours here.

i tried and tried to get these pictures to rotate. i usually don't have any trouble, but alas i did this time. so have fun tilting your head.

here's ben and his darling mom behind him! we rode the train and saw the buffaloes.

laura and grandma homer riding the train too!

here's cute elliot

sam's star shoes (like elliot)

elliot's star shoes (like daddy)

mom and sammy.

grandma homer, elliot in the back, ben peeking around the side, and sammy front and center!

hello elephant.

go cougars!!

see the penguins way down there?

sammy and the lion!

aunt laura with sammy and ben. we just saw the tigers and lepards. sammy loves the "rauw, rauws!"

please don't feed us! daddy this sign is for you. it made me think of you and your love for crazy warning signs with pictures.

the lion again!

how do you measure up?

sammy too!

here's a full grown screech owl from florida. you can't see it but it only has one eye. lost the other one due to an infection. notice the size of the owl compared to the hand holding it. it was tiny!

the girls. we missed you becky. sorry you had to work.

this was on our way out. elliot and mom. i love you little guy!

wonderful neighbors

we had a little apartment welcome back party for our neighbor jenny and their new baby, callie. we missed her while she away for 2 1/2 months adopting this sweet little girl. jen and marc were so nice to organize this whole party.

cute friends, christopher and sam.



we have loved living here. we will miss you all when we go. best wishes to all. mi

sammy's new smile

yesterday sammy and elliot were playing with the blocks and elliot started calling to me, "mommy, look where sammy's sitting!" sure enough there he was, beaming, sitting in the middle of the block table. hehe. i told him to smile, took a few pictures, and everytime i told him to smile, this is what he would do. mouth wide open! silly sammy (elliot's words).

they return and leave again.

we had the chance to have my brother scott come visit from cleveland a week ago. he, his wife kate, and their darling girl sala spent about 6 days here. we played at the park, went to the gateway discovery children's museum, went swimming twice at the indoor water playground at the pool in sandy, ate lots of good food, including the shish kebabs that kate made, yummm, got to talk and just be together. it was so much fun to have them here. we miss them so much. we are happy that scott is doing so well in his first year of medical school, that kate is enjoying her violin teaching to i think 25 students, and that sal is enjoying her life and all the adventures it brings at 14 months. they are all so great!

here is sala at the bottom of the slide.


grandma lovin the grandma life.

scott and sala enjoying the warmth of the sun.

me and kate. good to be together. i miss the good old days when we would drive over to their apartment and just hang out.

here scott, kate and sal are enjoying the indoor water playground.

that's sammy. look at the air he got from his jump! he's just a little excited. hehe.

elliot and lillie, my friend's little girl, loving the freedom those floaties give them. swimming lessons here we come . . . hopefully soon.

sam and his darling silliness.

this is my friend karie. we were so happy she, lillie, and jozie could join us for some fun at the pool.

again grandma lovin the grandma life. she's gonna miss them.

goodbye scott and kate. thanks for coming!!



dear sweet sala. we loved having you visit with your mom and dad. you are so darling. we will miss you until the next time we get to see you. sorry about all the pushing and shoving (from sam). he really does love you. until next time! love the allens.

happy st. patrick's day

happy anniversary to my parents too!
37 years! way to go.
we love you!