Happy Birthday Marcus!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Marcus. He is 1 year old today! I can't believe that he is getting so big so fast. I Love his so much. He is walking, talking, eating pure adult food (and lots of it), playing with his sister, pointing and saying "go" every time football is on the TV, and so much more. Marcus is the coolest, most happy, energetic, bubbly, happy kid that you have ever met. He is happy only seconds after his sister beats up on him, and he will give you a smile that makes you feel like you are the most important person in the world. I don't know how he does it, but he makes people fall in love with him left and right. Happy Birthday Marcus!!

Football Pictures

These are pictures from the football game against Wyoming. We are so grateful that Eric's dad has gotten season tickets this year for the football games. We love going and spending time with him. Emma has adopted a new (5th) grandma. There is a lady that sits behind us every football game who loves our kids. She happens to be Max Hall's Aunt. Every game thus far at home she has bought Emma one of those Frozen Lemonade's. Emma loves that she has another person to spoil her. We enjoy having such fun people to sit by at the games.

Family History

Many of you know that I LOVE doing Family History. I often get people who ask, how do I get my family history started? Well instead of procrastinating helping multiple people start their family history, I have decided to create a Blog all about Family History.

For those of you who don't do Family History because you feel it is for 90 year old's or because you have a family member who does most of your family history, I challenge you to go to my blog and check it out. Try to get your 4 generation of genealogy and start your personal history, and let me know if you like it after that.

I can guarentee that it is very addicting. The link to my new site will always be posted on my right side tool bar, as well as below.

http://familyhistoryvoyages.blogspot.com/

Girls Only!

A week and a half ago I was bored on Friday night and I decided to take Emma to the local school Carnival. Emma loves the Girls Only nights. She actually calls them 'no boys allowed'. Whenever she gets to go anywhere with me she calls them 'no boys allowed' nights. I love being able to spend time with her individually. This is a picture of her doing the duck game at the carnival.

Corn Belly's Fall Fun

We Went to Thanksgiving Point today for some Family Fun. We had some coupons to get into Corn belly's for 93 cents a piece. This is Emma jumping on the Jumping Pillow.

This is Emma panning for Gold in their pretend river.

This is Emma in the princess land playing dress up. I dont know what I was thinking letting her put on a wig that 1,000 other kids had put on, talk about lice.

I really didnt think that Emma would go on the cow ride train, but to my surprise she did. She had a blast playing on all of the playgrounds as well. We attempted to do the corn maze, but me got lost right off of the bat and ended up at the entrance again. We decided that since Emma was complaining within 1 minute that we wouldnt have much fun going through it for about an hour. Anyway, all in all we had a great time together today as a family.

Family, Food, Family History

Hello All,

I originally started this blog to keep my family in touch with what we are doing as a family. It has evolved over time into my personal cooking and project blog. I am going to try to keep them all separate.

The McAllister Family Blog (this one) I will try and keep about my kids and our personal craft projects and things.

My Cooking Blog I will keep all of my Menu Planning, Cooking, Grocery Couponing and such there.

I also have a Baking Blog, but I don't post on that one often. Mostly when we have a birthday or wedding around here that I make a cake for.

I have also started a Family History Blog. I hope that any of you that are interested in Family History will keep up with me on that one. I Love Family History, and I am hoping to put a lot of information on how to get your own Family Histories started. I also wanted to do this for my Family so that they can see my progress on our Family History.

Menu Planning Monday

Hello again everyone...Hopefully this weeks menu goes a lot better than last week. I am still trying to adjust to my new work schedule, and some days I have to cook dinner at noon so that it is ready for Eric and the kids while I am at work. Wish me luck!

Monday-Navajo Tacos (I love Navajo Tacos, especially made by my sisters boyfriends mom...they are the best)
Tuesday- Sweet N Sour Chicken (This is a classic for us)
Wednesday- Lemon Chicken Croissants (this is a new recipe for us)
Thursday-Black Bean and Tortilla Pie (with Chicken this time)
Friday- Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Saturday-BBQ Chicken Pizza
Sunday-Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans

I am going to do a Lunch menu as well for my sake, so here it goes...
Spaghetti
Quesadillas
Tuna Melts
Turkey Sandwiches
Leftover Black Bean Pie (it is the best done as a leftover)

Lake Powell Trip

I know that many of you have already seen the pictures from out Lake Powell Trip this summer, but I was playing around with scrapblog again, and I was excited how it turned out.

Marcus loves to climb

Marcus' favorite thing is to climb on all of the furniture or anything else that he can get on. I thought this video was funny, he was trying so hard to get the shaving cream.

Marcus Walking

Marcus has finally started walking everywhere. Over the past couple of weeks he has started to explore how far he can walk. There have been multiple debates over what he looks like while he walks. The discussions usually start by saying that he looks like a cowboy, then a cowboy who just got off of a horse, then a Chimpanzee swinging its arms.

Now whenever he walks he holds his hands up high, it is quite funny. Enjoy the video.

Nicole...your awesome

Some of you may have noticed my new so cute Blog design. My cousin-in-law (Eric's Cousin) created it for us. She is amazing and very talented. If you want to know how to get one just as cute, find more information at Nicole's blog. Thank you so much Nicole, you are awesome!

My Attempt at Scrapblog.com

I wanted to try out scrapblog.com to see if it was easy and worked well. I am thinking I LOVE it!! What do you think?

Menu Planning Monday

This weeks menu includes all things that I am trying to get out of my freezer that have been there for a while. Sorry about missing last weeks menu, I started working and my brother in law and sister in law are in town from Ohio, which means we end up doing things with them and I don't cook as much. Anyways, nothing really exciting this week....

Monday- BBQ Chicken Pizza's (BBQ Chicken done in the Crock-pot). Then I usually put Chicken, Mozzarella, Green Peppers and Onions. Yummy!

Tuesday-Chicken Pillows (Chicken, Cream Cheese and Broccoli mix in cresent rolls)

Wednesday-Chicken Fajitas

Thursday-Spaghetti Cups (Cook crescent rolls in muffin cups around the edges, then when they are done cooking, place regular spaghetti inside and top with sauce)

Friday-Salmon (Before Baking each individual side, sprinkle with Lemon Pepper and then Brush the following mixture over it - 2 T. Soy, 2 t. Olive Oil, 2 t. Sugar. Broil 6 min. on ea. side), Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

Saturday-Leftovers or eat out.

Sunday-Turkey Burgers, Fruit Salad (anyone know a good recipe?)

No Shopping concluded

Some people have been wondering how my no shopping for 3 weeks went. I actually only made it 2 weeks 3 days. I could have made it 3 weeks on my dinners and meals, but I decided that when Emma started complaining about not having any food, that I needed to get get Lunch and Snack stuff. Suggest that all of you try this at some point, it makes your meals a lot more creative. I will probably do it every 3 months or so.

Marcus and Emma playing

This might be a little boring for some of you...it is mostly for grandparents to see what their grandchildren are up to. These are basically some videos of the kids playing in their room. Marcus thinks he is so cool when he gets up onto Emma's bed without any help. He has figured out how to mover her little couch up next to it and use it as a stool.

Scipio

Sunday Night we went to visit our friends Rob and Erin in the town of Scipio, Utah. For those of you not sure where that is, it is about 1 hour south of Provo. Rob's family has an older house down there where they go to relax and enjoy themselves while being uninterrupted. These are some pictures of the kids playing outside while we talked about stories from the boys' childhood. We had a great time. There is nothing like enjoying family and friends without the business of the world interrupting you.

This is video of Emma trying to push Marcus in the swing

Marcus pushing Emma

This is video of Marcus using his walker. Emma loves to sit in it, so it ended up with Marcus pushing Emma. One of my favorite things about being a mom of multiple kids is seeing how they interact with each other. I love watching them play and get along.

BYU Footbal Season Starts

We have season tickets to the BYU football games this year. We had a blast on Saturday taking the kids to the game...even though marcus was a little grumpy. Marcus fell asleep during the game. This is a picture of the kids and I.

Happy Labor Day - family BBQ

This is a picture of my cute aunts (and my cousin playing with one of my aunts hair). We had a family BBQ up at my uncles house tonight, and we has so much fun seeing family that we dont normally get to see very frequently. Everyone was taking lots of pictures, but I just forgot, so I will post more pics when I get them.

Menu Plan Monday

I am really excited to announce that I am going to start joining with orgjunkie.com and doing Menu Plan Monday. I love to plan my meals ahead of time because my week ends up going a lot more smooth. Today is my first blogging menu plan. It is an interesting week because I have family in town and it is the week of a holiday. So, here it goes....

Monday- Family BBQ, I am going to bring my Fresh Spring and Poppy Seed Salad

Tuesday- With Family in town, my Sister's Boyfriends Band is playing for us and his mother is Native American, and is making us her homemade Navajo Taco's...I am so excited about that.

Wednesday- Chicken Kabobs (Chicken Marinated in Lawry's Mesquite Chicken Marinade), Brown Rice and Green Beans

Thursday- Taco Soup (made from leftover Mexican Meatloaf from last week, I will probably add a couple cans of red Beans and a couple cans of Black beans)

Friday- Shrimp Stir Fry

Saturday- BBQ Chicken Pizza, I will probably make my own crust from Rhodes Rolls and I will probably just use bell peppers instead of pepperoncini, and I usually cook my chicken in the crockpot in some BBQ sauce and then I shred it before I put it on. This is supper Yummy, and Pretty good for you. (for body for life recipe, use whole wheat pitas for crust and use fat free Mozerella)

Sunday- Turkey Burgers (made with Jennie-O Italian Seasoned Turkey)