Rooooaaar!!!!!

Halloween was a blast this year, Leta finally caught on this year. And boy was she excited! With a bunch of different things going on I was to busy to get a pumpkin sooner so just a few days before Halloween I decided to forget the pumpkin patch and head to the store and Leta pick out a few pumpkins. She was disgusted with "guts" and didn't want to "hurt" her pumpkin so I pulled out her pumpkin decorations (they resemble Mr. Potato head pieces) and she went all serious decorating them her way! On Friday we dressed her up and did the Trunk or Treat at the dealerships. It was fun, but boy was some of them packed! And Saturday we went for round two and I took her around the neighborhood to show off her cute outfit and despite the cold weather she decided for candy it was worth it. As soon as that was done we headed to the local spooky hayride..lame enough Leta didn't even get spooked hahaha. And from there we headed to town and caught the end of the Christian Halloween carnival ( I think it was called Hallelujah night or something) where Leta enjoyed free bounce houses, carnival games and free food! ( We got the last two hot dogs and ate them plain since the buns already ran out). All in all it was a blast and she was super tuckered out.

A special thing about this years outfit was again it was homemade but first I wore it! That's right, it was my costume from when I was 2 1/2 :) It needed a new tail a few torn seams patched and the mane touched up but not bad for it's age.

A miserable, no good, very bad hunting trip....

What do you get when you add an ancient leaky camp trailer with horrible weather???? Another memorable Allen family camping trip! Anyone and everyone who knows us knows that anything we do turns into a adventure and this was no exception :) For starters the roof above the bed is horribly water damaged which causes a bit of sagging where the water pools and starts to leak, Jayme's fix... wedge a tripod between the roof and bed and whala no leak. And luckily it was on Leta's side of the bed so she wasn't bothered by the tripod. And the reason why Leta slept with us is because the heater doesn't work properly so it's warmer to crowd into one bed. And to add to the fun his truck started acting up on us and going through gas super fast and losing power (no worries it was the choke and plugs nothing a bit of a tune up didn't fix!). Those are pretty much the highlights of this years trip, and no we came home empty handed apparently the animals found the weather just as miserable as we did and stayed hunkered down.

Leta was a trooper, I think she has accepted her lot in life of parents who drag her along with all there adventures. She loved catching the "ice" with her tongue. And she slept like a champ at camp and idling through the hills...

Small Steps...

So I have had allot of people ask for updates on my Cousin Sarah. Sorry for leaving you hanging..She is off all major support. They removed the breathing tube and she is breathing fine on her own though she does have a trach in for moisture for her lungs, no more brain probe for the swelling has gone down and stayed down, no more arterial blood pressure but an arm one (this was a needle in her arm that read her BP internally for better accuracy) all stitches and staples have been removed and although they still look nasty they really are healing nicely. As I mentioned she has a trach and also a feeding tube down her nose an IV start for meds and such and a catheter. Right now it's just a waiting game on her waking up. The Dr. is saying that this is going to be the hard part and will in his opinion take awhile!

For those that didn't hear the story here it is. She and her two young daughters where headed to Ogden for a friends wedding. Twenty Minutes from her destination she was texting and drifted over the line and jerked back clipping the car in front of her sending her into a full spin into a ditch which then led to her car somersaulting at least once and then rolling ( the amount of flips and turns are unclear) she was not restrained and ping ponged around the car and then was ejected and went through a barb wired fence before coming to a stop. She was so bruised you could see bruises between her fingers even!

Thankfully the Lord spared the little ones from any serious harm other than restraint bruises.

Now we just continue to pray for another miracle that there mommy will wake up and begin her road to recovery.

She is in a special hospital that treats patients in comas through special therapies to hopefully help wake her up and once awake the therapy she will be in need of.

Let this be a lesson to All of you. Nothing is so important that you have to put yourselves and other in risk by texting. So please put the phone down while on the road!

ONE TEXT IS ONE TO MANY

When it rains it pours :(

This afternoon we had to say our final goodbyes to an amazing women who has been a big part of our lives and who we affectionately called our "Adopted Grandma". The service was beautifully done and well thought out. Her sweet husband displayed an amazing vase of 43 stunning red roses for every year they spent as husband and wife! And at the grave side service they had a gentlemen playing the bagpipes, amazing!

Goodbye Bumma we love and miss you.....

On the way home from the funeral I got a call from my mom to tell me my Cousin Sarah who is a couple years younger than me was in a horrible car accident here in Ut. She had come for a wedding from Wyo. the details of the accident are still unclear all we know for sure was the vehicle rolled ejecting her and sending her through a barbwire fence. She was life flighted to a SLC hospital in critical condition. Her two little girls (One is four the other is two days older than Leta) Luckily escaped without serious injury. Right now they are still running tests and working to get her to a more stable condition. Her main concern is the brain which took a serious blow and is completely bruised (think shaken baby syndrome) and we are waiting on the swelling to determine the outcome which could take days to peak. Other injuries include hundreds of stitches, but no broken bones.

Please pray with us for a miracle tonight. We need all the faith and prayers we can get...

(Can't get the pictures in right order :( Sarah is in green on the right of the group shots)

Catching up!

I keep saying I am going to keep more up to date blog and I always get behind :( Oh well it's really boring around our place anyway!

Our days have been pretty much just Jayme working and helping me bottle up the goods from our garden. I would have never guessed I would enjoy it so much and we have done allot! It about sunk us buying all the bottles and such, but at least its a one time deal or until we break some right? Some boring numbers for you are we bottled up 23 Quarts and 16 Pints of Green beans, 4 Pints of pickled beets ( plus his moms we helped with), 30 something quarts of peaches, 14 pints of peach puree, 14 quarts of pears and around 35 pints of diced tomatoes...Not bad for our first try at canning :) And we have a possibility of apples now.

Leta is finally feeling out so she doesn't look as scrawny, it is different to have her outgrowing her clothes width wise opposed to height! She has literally changed into a different person in just a month. Everyday she blurts out 1-3 new words and is getting better at making longer sentences. I need to find a way to video her talking and post it. My personal favorite is umbrella the way she blunders her way through is hysterical. Another bigger word is Donkey which she can say clearly, some animals get identified through the proper names such as donkey, dog, duck where others are identified through the sounds they make a meow, a honk honk ( that's pig), neigh neigh for horse you get the picture. She finally will call people by there names unfortunately for Uncle Adam she says it more like dum dum and Grandpa is clear where Grandma is more Maa ma her favorite is Daniel and if she don't know your name you have a good chance being called that :) One of my proudest moments as a mother was over conference weekend when on the way to town I was reading the latest addition of the Ensign when Leta asked to see Jesus so I turned to the right picture and handed it back. A few moments later I hear "Mom, Temple" and I turned to see her pointing out one of the Temples! I was so stoked as you can tell :)

Potty training is still a day to day or week to week adventure although she is getting consistently better about doing #2 on the potty, there is hope yet :)

Apparently the hunger for a new baby is contagious since all three of us our anxious to add to our little family, Leta is great with babies and loves to give them a blanket or help with there binkys or just play period. When her Cousin baby Emma comes to plays she is estatic and there a few babies in playgroup every week she loves on. And she constantly rocking and sushing her dolls, I find it amazing how there born with the instinct to care and nurture others and the mommy instinct shows so early!

Well once again the post turned out to be long and boring so sorry, at least there won't be a ton of pictures. Our camara died so we depend on his Dad's when we can borrow it.