New Years Eve and New Years Day

Well, New Years is always a fun time for Mike and I because we got engaged on New Years Eve. That is a fun day that will always be remembered. The last two years we have spent New Years Eve at my brother Scott's house. They have a bunch of friends over and we eat and play all sorts of fun games. This year we played Mad Gab, the Sign Game, and Dippity Dippity Dip. We always have such a great time.

Here is a shot of everyone just hanging out

This is what Alena thought of all the games and craziness :)


At midnight we did the count down thing, the kissing thing :) and the sparkling cider thing. Can you tell we are tired and ready for bed?


We then went home and went to bed rather quickly. On New Years Day we decide to meet up with Mike's cousins Brian and Carrie and their daughter Addie. We always have so much fun with them. We went to the new San Tan Mall for a little shopping and looking around. We had a great time. It was so beautiful outside we loved it.

Carrie and I were happy because we hit up some awesome sales at Bath and Body Works.

Alena didn't mind the shopping either.
She was such a good girl the whole time. Isn't that a sweet face :)

All in all it was a really fun day. Happy New Year from the McAllisters. We love you all!

Yay for Christmas!!!

So I will start by warning you that this is going to be a very long post :) The Christmas festivities started on Christmas Eve. We went in to my parents house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Dad reads Luke 2, we have a little bit of a program from the grand kids that have stuff to share, Emily sang Breath of Heaven and that was beautiful and then we have a song that we sing every year as a family. Loser me, I forgot our camera :( After dinner we came home and got into our Christmas PJ's. It is a fun tradition from Mike's family that we have decided to continue.


We then went to bed, anxious for Christmas morning. I love Christmas, I don't think I will ever sleep through the night on Christmas Eve. 7:00 finally came so I started waking Mike up. He came around at about 7:30 and we headed in to open up our Christmas presents. Mike and I opened our presents before we got Alena up. She sleeps till about 8 so we wanted to let her sleep for a while longer.

I think we made out pretty good, what about you?

My wonderful husband got me a sewing machine :) I was so excited!!!


Then it was time to get Alena out of bed. She was not very happy with us for waking her up, but I couldn't wait any longer. We took a quick picture and then I feed her while Mike opened up her presents. I'm sure she loved every second of it :) At least it was fun for Mom and Dad.


After the fun of opening presents we headed back in to my parents for Christmas Breakfast. All while I was growing up, we always had Christmas Breakfast, which was always Waffles, at Grandma and Grandpa Hall's house. The family has gotten to large to continue doing that so it has down sized to just our family at my parents house. The waffle tradition has continued though. It is still a task to make waffles, bacon, sausage, and eggs for nearly 40 people. We split up all the food assignments and went to work.

Here we are busily preparing the food.

Isn't Brad a great Waffle maker?

See here is the proof!!

The kids sure do love Christmas Waffles


Now it was just time to hang out. Alena loves being with the family. There is always someone willing to hold her :)


Alena had to have a fun Christmas Outfit. I'm a dork and she has had an outfit for every holiday so far. I'm sure she will end up with one for every holiday till she turns 1 :)

Isn't that a funny smooshy face? She sure can pull a face.


The rest of the day was spent playing games, hanging out, eating lots more food and just creating great memories.

Here is the fam just sitting around. Do the parents look tired to you?


I told you we like food :)

So Preston is the king of goofy presents and this is what he got my dad for Christmas. The kids were having so much fun playing with it.



It was a wonderful Christmas, and I was sad when it was over. I am even more excited for next year when Alena will be a little older and we will be able to make even more memories as a family.

Alena's Baby Blessing

Alena was blessed the Sunday after Thanksgiving (November 30) and we were so happy that we were able to have so many family members present for it. Mike gave the sweetest most special blessing and it is a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was so great to feel the support and the love from both sides of our family.

Alena with Mom and Dad and her Grandparents

Alena with Great Grandma Hall

4 Generations of lovely ladies :)

Afterward we went over my sister Emily's house for a luncheon. Thank you so much Emily for letting us invade your house like that. Thanks also to my sisters and to Holly for helping with the meal. It was so fun to be able to sit around and eat and visit. There is nothing better than food and loved ones, it sure does make for some wonderful memories.


Preston was pretty sleepy :)

Thanksgiving

So I know this is way late but I figured I would catch up on the Blog :) Thanksgiving was very exciting this year to say the least. It was our first Thanksgiving in our house, and crazy us we decided to host. Mike's family came to town and we managed to pull off a wonderful dinner cooking in our little kitchen. We started the day by going in to my parents for Dunkin Donuts. That is a family tradition for us, and I wasn't about to miss it. Thank heaven for Bavarian Cream Donuts!!!! We then went and saw Mike's Aunt Gloria so that she could meet Alena. She was only in town from San Diego for the day and we really wanted to see her. I'm glad we were able to have a nice little visit with her and Donna and Amanda. Then we went home and the craziness of preparing a large Thanksgiving meal ensued. We pit roasted a turkey that was amazing and we furnished all of the other Thanksgiving necessities. I love food, what else can I say. It was funny, because of course we made way too much food and ended up eating Thanksgiving left overs for the next 5 days. It was great to have all of the family here and to be able to spend some time with everyone.