The Allen Stephens Family Reunion

So this weekend was The Allen Stephens Family Reunion. For this reunion we all got together at my grandparents house and got some much needed projocts done. We fixed the fence, cleaned out the garage, cleaned and organized the shed, and got started on building a ramp for grandpa's wheelchair to go down so he didn't have climb steps anymore and grandma didn't have to haul his wheelchair up and down the steps. We also planted a Memory Garden for grandma. We all brought flowers represented everyone and planted them with our names by them so grandma could have flowers from each of us and remember who they came from. It was pretty neat. But the COOLEST thing about this reunion was the fact that me and my little sister Emily totally cut down a tree and then dug up the root ball. Yep that's right, a whole tree. It was pretty cool.

So this is the tree that we dug up. It might not be like a huge tree but its definitely a tree.

This is a picture of the stump that was left after we chopped all the branches off. We were pretty excited at that point. We did have one injury during the cutting of the tree though. I did have a branch fall down on my head after I sawed it off. But I was excited than anything to have a casualty of war.

And this is clearly the stump of the tree that we pulled out. We were super stoked at this point because no one thought that we could really do it. But we showed them.

All in all we had a really good time. While I took care of the tree, Brian fixed the fence and Jayanne played with her cousins. She had alot of fun.

They played with sidewalk chalk. In this picture they are stomping on the picture of a bee my cousin Marin drew.

In this one she is helping my Aunt Kristy sort all of grandpa's wrenches.

She had alot of fun with Aunt Emily and cousin Ben playing with rolly polly bugs.

Her and Brooklyn were very excited to get their very own popsicles.

This is just Emily being Emily.

And to end this post, this is a HUGE worm I found when we were digging of the roots of the tree. I took a picture because it had been so long since I had seen a worm that big. Grandma and Grandpa apparently have amazing soil because we saw quite a few big ones. Anyways, we a great time with the family and were glad to be able to help out at grandma and grandpas house.

The Living Traditions Festival

This past weekend was The Living Traditions Festival. Its where all different cultures that are in Utah come together and share with everyone else. They sell their food and put on performances for everyone. It was really enjoyable. Brian was working security at the festival so we went down with my brother-in-law Chris's family. It was really fun. Jayanne has a ball. There was so much to see. We didn't eat alot but what we did have was really. I'm a big fan of Basque churros. They were really good. We watched a couple of performances. The first one we watched was the Salt Lake Chinese Dance Arts. Then we watched a Filippino Dance. They were both really good. The best part of the whole day was watching Jayanne and some other little girl named Marley dance together during the Chinese Dance. It was pretty cute. Marley was way into it more than Jayanne was but it was cute how they had to hold hands. Then this older boy, probably like 7 or something came in and was like trying to break dance or something, it was really funny.

All in all, it was really fun to see all the different cultures that we have here in Utah. You don't really think there are that many until they all come together. It was an enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to anyone.

The Lion King

So on Sunday we borrowed The Lion King from my mother-in-law so Jayanne would have something else to watch since we can no longer handle Cars or Toy Story. We watched it on Wednesday. My little sister Emily was here and we of course had more fun watching it than Jayanne. It had been years since we had last seen it. While we were belting out the songs all of these memories of when we were younger came back. Me, my sister Sheri and my cousins Kara, Kendra and Marissa would make up dances to songs when we were little and perform them at family get togethers. The ones I remember the most were Lion King songs. I have no idea what made us decide to make up dances but we did. My little sister Emily, my little brother Allen and my cousin Desiree always wanted to dance with us but we would never let them because who ever wanted to hang out with their little brother and sister. We also did dances to The Spice Girls, at least one of their songs. Don't ask me how we went from disney songs to Spice Girls cuz I have no clue. Anyways we performed that dance and then our younger siblings also did too but the best part of that dance was that our older cousins helped them out. My brother Jason and my cousins Rob and Mike danced to Spice Girls. It was pretty much the best thing ever. I am really sad that we don't have pictures of any of this. Someone did at one point have a video but I have no idea if it is still around. Anyways, we had a total blast doing it and watching Lion King really brought those memories back and how much I loved being a kid.

Sleeping Habits

So for some strange reason Jayanne likes to fall asleep with random things in her bed. Last night she emptied all the clothes in her dresser and slept with them. And the other night we found her sleep holding a bottle of lotion. I don't get it but hey, she's sleeping.

Puppies

My cousin Krystalyn's dog had puppies a few weeks ago and invited Jayanne to come play with them. There wasn't a whole lot of playing since the puppies were only a few weeks old but Jayanne still had fun. She was so excited to hold them but only if they didn't move. If they moved then it was all she could do to get the puppy off of her lap. She wanted nothing to do with the puppies that were awake, she only liked the puppies that were asleep. She would run back and forth from the puppies to the couch to hold them and right back to puppies to pick another one. She probably did that for about 30 minutes. She loved every minute of it. Thanks for letting us come and see the puppies Krystalyn!!

Jayanne

My little girl Jayanne is my life. I love that I get to stay home with her. She is learning so much. Her words are really starting to come now. There are times that I think she knows the word but has way to much fun watching mommy and daddy trying to figure out what in the world she is saying. Its been so fun to watch her grow up. Sometimes it is hard to believe that she will be 2 next month. She loves to climb on everything. Lucky for me she can climb up on our bed. So instead of her just calling my name when she wakes up she just comes and sits on me. Today I woke up with her on my bed playing with her bath toys. She saw that I was awake, said "Hi mommy" and went on playing. It was pretty funny. Her are just a few pictures of her throughout the years.

Well I did it.

I have finally joined the world of blogs. I have no idea what I am doing and no idea as to why either. I think alot of it has to do with the fact that my sister-in-law told me that she blogs since she doesn't scrapbook. So her blog is more her scrapbook but without the hassle of cutting everything out. Since I haven't scrapbooked in years, it seems like, I figured I could try my hand at blogging and see if that works better for me. Hopefully it does. We'll see how it goes.