The Paleontology Museum

We went to the BYU paleontology museum a few weeks ago for a field trip. Eric loved every minute and would have stayed for hours. Beth, on the other hand, would not be in a single picture because: "Dinosaurs are yucky and mean and we need to cut their heads off." I'm not sure where she learned to "cut their heads off," but I'm relatively sure Eric had something to do with it.

Here is Eric with a small T-rex.

He thought the giant crocodile head was the coolest ever. They said that a head this size belonged to a beast up to 22 feet long. No thank you!

"Mom, if I waved my arms fast enough could I fly too?"

I had to get a picture of this rack for my dad. It came from an ancient Irish Elk with a spread of nearly 10 feet!

Eric was duly impressed.

It was a really fun day. I think we may have to do it again some time.
Because I had to post something about Beth, here is a new face she is trying out on us. Appropriately called her fierce face.

Thanksgiving? Is that the one before Christmas?

Ryan here.

Christmas came early to the Alleman house. Most of Provo shut down Tuesday, bracing for a blizzard. It hit Salt Lake pretty bad, but we barely got a 1/4 inch of snow. So I had half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday off. The kids voted we put up the Christmas tree early, and Cassie and I didn't put up too much of a fuss.

Here's a video of Eric fetching the branches to our artificial tree for me. He was so jazzed, singing Christmas music to himself the whole time.

And the finished tree, sans star.

Here we are for Thanksgiving dinner. We later visited grandparents in Orem and Springville, but we enjoyed having a quiet little family dinner together. And this way we got leftovers.
"Sweetie, put the camera down and let's eat!"

Beth's practicing her eye-rolls for when she becomes a teenager and knows everything. She's getting a little too good at it. I think Cassie's coaching her.

We asked each kid what they were grateful for. Here's Eric.

He'd just watched Disney's Prep & Landing earlier that day, about elves who prep houses before Santa arrives. If you haven't seen it, it's a cute show.

Here's Beth's contribution.

We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, and now we have Christmas to look forward to.

Better Late Than Never

I decided that because we are starting another holiday, I should post the pictures from the last one. So, hopefully, better late than never.

Here is our group before our ward Halloween party. We have Ryan as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, Eric as Thomas and driver, (Yeah, I know that last one was a huge surprise for everyone) and our cute little pirate. My mom sent us the most beautiful princess dress for Beth to wear, but she wouldn't hear of it. To quote her, "I'm a pirate, not a princess!"
And she loved being a pirate. Here are a few shots of her "acting" like a pirate. (You might want to note that she had to have a pink-handled sword.)
Sorry this one is a little blurry, but she was showing me her tough face and I had to post it.
Here is our very happy engineer. He was so excited and helpful, what a joy to be around him.
Here are our pumpkins this year. Because the kids weren't allowed to handle the knife, I let them pick the faces from some online photos. These are the ones they chose.
Here we are on Saturday the 30th, ready for trick or treating. It was so cold out! A great big storm blew in with rain and terrible winds. We were out for under an hour and everyone was ready to come home. You can also see that we were able to talk Beth into being a Tiger for this one night. (The costume was a little warmer then the pirate.)
They loved knocking on doors and talking to people. Once Eric impatiently opened the door and walked right in. We apologized profusely to the people inside, who were heading to the door when he barged in. Afterward, we had a long talk with Eric about privacy and appropriateness. "But I knocked!" he kept telling us. It was a really fun Halloween.

2010 National Champion!

Earlier this month my mom became the new national champion in her age group of 50 to 54! My mom is amazing and I look up to her so much. Thanks, Mom, for showing me what you can accomplish when you put your mind and heart in it.
Mom is in the middle. (Don't mess with me, my mom can bench press you!)

October Update

Things have been good around here this month. Eric and Beth love school and are keeping me really busy. We went to a production of "The Reluctant Dragon" for a field trip and both kids did great. Beth still insists that the dragon was a "bad guy" though.

The weather has turned a little colder and we got the kids some warm clothes. Here is a picture of the them before church.

Here they are wishing Alison a happy birthday.

Beth and I.

Our charming Ryan.

For those who remember a few posts ago: Eric seems to be allergic to mosquito bites. He got one on the ear and it quickly looked like this. It was standing out off his head at a weird angle. We took him to the doctor to see if this is something to be concerned about, but all the doctor said was that it looked like a staph infection and to put some cream on it.
I knew that if I posted all the pictures I wanted to, this would be an annoyingly long post. So here are a few collages of the kids. Ladies first, here is Beth. The one with the purple face was her version of finger-painting. I was at the kitchen sink helping Eric wash his hands and she pulled this.
We started taking pictures of Eric on Sunday and he pulled out the GQ poses.

Family Pictures

Here are a few family pictures we took when Zach and Alison were visiting a few weeks ago.

Visits and Bear Lake

Mary and Sam have a time-share up at Bear Lake and generously offered to let us join them up there for the Labor Day weekend. My mom and dad joined us on their way to the Viking Man Triathlon in Idaho (Mom is the race director). We had a WONDERFUL time together playing games, going to the beach, swimming in the pool, and enjoying each others' company. A big THANK YOU to Sam and Mary for the invite.

Here's a mish-mash of pictures of our time at Bear Lake, and from Mom and Dad's visit the following week.

Here is Beth with Dad's hat. The kids loved reading stories with Papa and Lela before bedtime. Here's Dad reading scriptures with them.

Here's Lela's rendition of The Three Little Pigs.

Eric loved using Papa as a TV-watching perch. Dad was a good sport.

This was the deck of the condo up at Bear Lake. The kids loved eating out in the sun wearing their shades.

Puddle-jumping Beth. This is at the tennis courts at the resort, across from the restaurant that looked like a lighthouse. It was a really snazzy place.

Sleeping on Papa was a favorite pastime for the kids.

This is a beautiful pic of Ryan and me. And Bear Lake, of course.

Beth loved Papa's style of playing.

We had a fun time, and it was great to see everyone. Hey, Mary and Sam--how about next year? Same time, same place? Huh? Huh? Please? What do you say?