Sunday, June 15, 2008

I want my say in all of this. I have enjoyed viewing other family blogs and am thrilled to have a computer literate daughter to get our family's blog started.

A brief history of our family. Eric and I met through Japanese associations. We both served missions in Japan. As I was going through the MTC (Missionary Training Center), Eric had returned from the Japan Sapporo Mission and was teaching at the MTC. I remember him as one of the "senseis." but noticed a ring on his finger. After returning from the Japan, Kobe mission, I returned to BYU and while waiting outside the doorway of my Japanese 202 class, I noticed Eric also standing there. (He was then employed as a Japanese Assistant at BYU). We reintroduced ourselves and with a little manipulation, I was placed in his section and was under his tutelage for the full semester.

We were engaged on December 13, 1988. We were married on March 11, 1989. Eric graduated from BYU in April 1989, I walked through graduation ceremonies in August 1989, but still had a few classes to complete. We left for Eric's first big career move in Japan that same month. I completed and mailed in my last final on October 10, 1990

Our first child, Elise was born in Japan the next day on October 11, 1990. She was heaven to us...and still is.
Every family has a miracle story and Rachel is ours. We were still living in Japan and we thought things were going just fine. A trip to the states and I was noticing very little movement during my second pregancy. A doctor's nurse took way too long to find a heartbeat and had me convinced that our baby had died. Finally, a more seasoned nurse found the heartbeat and discovered the breach position of our little one. On the return back to Japan, the Japanese doctors assured us that the baby was just going to be small, but that our due date was wrong and we had an additional month added on to our original due date. Eric and I knew that was wrong and Eric immediately tried to secure a job transfer to the states. He sent me back home (to the states) and a doctor confirmed our thoughts that our original due date was right, but that something wasn't right. He asked me to go to the hospital and have an amnio. Long story short (if it isn't too late already), Rachel was born the next day c-section. She weighed in at 3 lbs. 6 oz. We moved to Chicago 6 weeks later.
Nicole was born in Chicago in April 1995.
Lauren joined our family in August 1998 and we moved again to the Dallas area.
Our Grand Finale is Brookelyn, born in Dallas in June 2001.

In June 2005, we moved to the Seattle area, where we currently are now. We've been here now for the past 3 years and hava another move to Utah in the near future.

I wish I could add pictures to what I just wrote, but don't know how to do that yet. I'll save it for another day.

Some Pictures...











NEWS UPDATE!

Eric has just accepted a job at Omniture in Orem, Utah, so we will be moving down there in the summer of 2009!

Our New Blog!


Hey! We got a blog to share the amazing adventures of the McAllister familiy!

Right now, we're living in Sammamish, Washington near Seattle.

Elise is a junior, driving, teaching piano and is excited for her senior year

Rachel is a freshman, has her permit (eek!), and is a social butterfly

Nicole is in 7th grade, was just in a play (Annie), and likes to hog the computer

Lauren is in 3rd grade, is friendly and sweet and loves gymnastics

Brookelyn is the little princess, takes jazz classes, and is a vegetarian besides chicken nuggets

Suzanne is teaching piano, and working as the 2nd counselor in the Stake YW presidency

Eric is working at Microsoft and is the Ward Mission Leader