She's Here!!

Well, sorry that it took me so long to get some pictures posted, but at least I'm doing it! Kaylee Hazel Allred was born on Thursday, May 17th at 5:38pm. She weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 20inches long. I must say that I much prefer a 7lb baby to a 8lb! Things went very well with labor and delivery and we are all doing great! Emma loves her little sister and loves to hold her. It makes us a little bit nervous but so far, she is being really soft and a really good sport about all the time she takes up. We'll see how that changes after Grandma goes home! Anyway, here's some pictures of our new addition, I must say though, I think she is absolutely beautiful! And she's got a little bit of hair! All that heart burn paid off!

A Much Needed Update

Well, we don't really have anything exciting to post right now. We're still waiting for baby to come, but hopefully, only for a few more days! We'll get pictures posted as soon as we have some!

Timothy started a new job on the first of the month. He is a counsellor (or case manager) at the Pre-Release Transition Center here. He absolutely loves it! And we love the hours! He is really excited to be able to actually be working in his field. He really liked FedEx, it really is a great company, but this has been his dream for years. I am happy for him to be able to do what he loves. Today starts his third week there and he already has five cases (that's five people who are working through the program. These are people who have committed a non-violent crime and have less than 24 months left on their sentence. They finish serving it at the center.). They seem to be impressed with him because they said they don't usually give cases until after someone's been there a month.

Anyway, I'll try to get a recent picture of Emma posted, but that's all of our news for now. Again, we'll get something up as soon as we have something exciting!

Happy Easter!!!

Well, I have a ton of pictures to post today, we have had a busy weekend! I hope that everyone else had as much fun as we did this Easter weekend. Before I get into that too much though, I want to say congrats to Jen and Jeff and family, baby #3 came this evening! A little boy, 7lbs 12oz. Both Jen and the babe are doing well, thanks for asking. Anyway, back to me...
So I was asked to do some baking for a bake sale this week and I made my 'famous' (they're not really famous, I just like to call them that because I really like them) mint chocolate chip cookies. Emma really had a lot of fun helping me clean up and I just had to post this picture.
Service sure is delicious!
Anyway, onto Easter. We went up to Timothy's aunt's house about an hour away for the day on Saturday. They live on a ranch and Emma loved to see all of the cows and the calves. I think the highlight of her day though was her horseback ride! She absolutely loved it! She was a little bit nervous at first but as soon as they started moving, she was grinning ear to ear. She stayed on the horse for like, 45 minutes before she would let us take her off. This picture is kinda bad but she was a little bit too distracted to look at me. She even got to ride bareback!

The community up there puts on an incredible Easter egg hunt in the afternoon for all of the kids. They have a special area sectioned off for kids two and under, the eggs are just sitting on the grass and there were tons of them! So, we had to wait behind a fence for a buzzer to ring before we could start and Emma was just itching to get at all of those 'balls'. I had had her in 'training' for a few days before hand, filling a little plastic egg with M&Ms so she would understand that the 'balls' had candy in them. It took her a minute to really get into it but after she opened one and chocolate fell out, she started grabbing two at a time and even trying to pick up three. She had so much fun and got way more candy than she needs!
Here we are before the hunt with Grandma Allred, waiting patiently to get at those balls! And a couple of Emma actually 'hunting'.

The town there also has a dinosaur museum-thing so we figured we'd see what Emma thought of them. She was fine being next to the concrete beast, even giving it a kiss, but she would not ride the thing! Timothy had to be holding her too. They're kinda scary you know.

And now for today. I don't know why it meant so much to me but I was so excited for Emma to be able to wear this dress as her Easter dress. It was Abbey's flower girl dress from our wedding and its kind of a mini version of my wedding dress. Anyway, after I put it on her, I had her stand in front of the mirror and she just grinned. She knew that she was so cute! And then of course, everyone at church had to tell her too. It was a good day for her, she felt really good about herself. Plus, she did really well in nursery for the first time ever! She had so much fun, except that she kept getting her feet caught in her beautiful frock. Oh well. It was only once. I don't know why she insists on looking drunk in her pictures but she did it again. You'd think with a digital camera I'd be able to get a better shot. I just don't have the patience for stuff like that. And we were running a little late for church. Timothy was a little disappointed that I didn't get any of her standing up and now I kind of am too but she was really happy sitting in the chair and I didn't want to mess that up before making her sit quietly for an hour. But come on! She looks like she's totally posing in the second one!

Alright, that's all for now. Sorry that this post was so long with so many pictures! I hope that you were able to get through it. Or at least look at all the pictures. Anyway, hope all had a good Easter and were able to spend some time with family and remember our Savior.

Sick and Tired!!!!!

So, I have been sick for over two weeks now!!!! Note to self: don't get sick when you're prego...there's not much they can do for you and your body is already working double overtime...there's just no hope for recovery!!! I have some virus or something in my throat. Basically, extremely sore throat, no voice, pain, pain, pain. But, that's enough complaining. My whole family is probably annoyed with my constant complaints the past two weeks so, I'll get on with the good news.
I am officially 32 weeks along now, getting large and quite frankly, uncomfortable! (But, there I go complaining again! Sorry.) We still have no idea for a name, I'm sure something will strike us once we see the baby. Thanks to all for your suggestions...we'll think about them and get back to you =).
Timothy was able to get off early on Friday so we did a quick run up to the temple this weekend. We, of course, also saw my family...who put up with my complaining, hacking and honking. (Is that too much information?) So, thanks to them. Anyway, here are some pictures of our weekend.
Here's another tummy-to-tummy. Jen is due on the 9th but they are going to try to get that baby out this week. Good luck to you Jen! This will probably be the smallest baby yet (the others were 8 and 9lbs....so, smaller might be nice for a change!).

Here's Emma and Grandma looking at the cows. Emma loves cows but has not said 'cow' until this weekend, just 'moo', so, it was exciting for her to see the cows... I think it helped her put the two together.

Here's a nice shot after an ice cream cone...not sure what was in that ice cream...she looks a little tipsy.

And Griffin, still enjoying his. So, when we asked him if he wanted ice cream after dinner, he kept asking if there was cake. He could not understand why we didn't have any cake to go with our ice cream. Then, he was convinced that there were cookies we were hiding on him. He loves his food!

Emma and Abbey, best cousins! Emma loves to follow her cousin around, and Abbey loves to boss Emma around, so it works out nicely. Abbey got a kick out of Emma because she would ask her to pick her up and Abbey would say, "I'm not your Mommy!" and laugh. It was really cute.
Well, sorry that this was so long, and probably boring for those of you who aren't the parents and grandparents of these children. I'll try to be more exciting next time. Give me a break, I'm sick!

Big Girl!

I just wanted to post some pictures of Emma in her new 'big girl' bed. We finally got the bed almost a week ago, I think, and she has done really well sleeping in it. We took these pictures right after we got it set up. She loves to lay in her bed and play on it. I think she feels really grown up. I don't know what I'm going to do about her blanket though. It's the one from her crib but she loves it. It's her blankey and she carries it around the house with her. I might have to make a bigger one from the same material or something. Anyway, here's the pictures.

She was laying down in it but as soon as Timothy came in with the camera, she sat up to pose! (how do you spell pose? That doesn't look right...) Anyway, we finally got her to lay back down.

Happy Birthday Babe!!

We celebrated Timothy's birthday on Tuesday (its really the 29th but we didn't get one of those this year), he's the big 27 this year! Yeah!!! My Mom and Dad came down for a couple of days and tiled our bathroom for us (pictures coming, I want to finish painting first). Anyway, we went to Fuddruckers for lunch on Tuesday - it was delish - and then had some 'cake' after Dad and Timothy finished up in the bathroom. Timothy has gone off desserts and so instead of cake we did a fruit pizza, which was really good. The glaze was a little sweet, I definately will cut back on that next time! Anyway, here are some pictures, enjoy!

Emma wanted to help open all of the presents. She didn't quite understand that this wasn't for her. She loved when we sang 'Happy Birthday' to her though.

Timothy's favorite show is Leave It To Beaver, (seasons 1 and 2 now available on DVD), so of course, he got season 2 to complete his collection...so far.

A nice new shirt. (So, our mail man smokes and I guess he smokes while driving the postal truck? Are they allowed to do that? Needless to say, the shirt is airing out.)

Doesn't it make your mouth water? It was so yummy! You may not be able to tell but there are blackberries and blueberries in the middle. I was surprised to learn that it really doesn't require that much fruit. I had bought everything at Sam's Club (Wal-mart's version of Costco, for those of you in Canada) but only used like, 3 kiwis, 4 strawberries, and handfulls of the other berries. So, we've been eating a lot of fruit lately. And I made fresh blueberry muffins. I love fresh muffins. Anyway, Happy Birthday Timothy! I love you so much! Thanks for being born!

P.S. Joanna - I'm due May 29th but chances are, we'll go in a little bit sooner.

Little Mommy

I know that I've been posting a lot lately and that's probably taking some of you by surprise. I guess sometimes, I just get in the mood. Anyway, I just had to post these becuase it was too cute! Emma has her baby, a little cabage patch that she always carries around naked (I don't know why, none of her babies can wear clothes) and she feeds her all the time with the little bottle that came with her. Well, this evening, Emma found herself this empty milk jug by the garbage and took it into her room. When we peeked in on her, she was unscrewing the bottle (well, pretending to), filling it with milk, screwing the top back on, and then feeding her baby with it. She was concentrating so hard and was trying to be so carefull. It was the sweetest thing ever! So, enjoy the pics of our 'little mommy'!


You can't see here but she's got the bottle in her other hand.


I don't know if she'll be quite so helpful when little sister arrives, but we can hope!

Once there was a snowman...

Timothy has been putting in some long hours at work this week, and considering that he usually works 5am-4pm, that's really saying something. So on Friday, we were pleasantly surprised when he came home for the day around 11:30am. After some lunch and a nap time for everyone (except me...) Timothy wanted to build a snowman with Emma. One of her favorite songs is, 'Once there was a snowman' (you know, with the actions and the snowman melts), but I don't think she's ever seen one before. Anyway, I did some painting while they were outside but snuck out a couple of times to take some pictures of the progress. Timothy said that while he was rolling the balls, Emma was walking behind him grunting like she was really working hard. Here they are, rolling the first ball.

I thought that this was really cute. I didn't see Emma really helping too much. When I looked out, she was eating a snowball. But, Timothy assures me she was a big help, and it was obvious she had a ton of fun.


Here's the finished product, they're really proud of their accomplishments!

And Emma goes in for a kiss! We love you snowman!!

Thanks for the fun outside Dada!

She's quite a swimmer!

Emma had her last swimming lesson on Saturday, I think it is something we will miss. We'll have to go back as much as we can so she doesn't forget what she's learned. She really made some great progress over the course of the class. She can actually swim! I have a video of it but I don't know how to post movies. Any help would be appreciated. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of her last class.

Here she is, ready to get in the pool.


Here, she has to sit on the steps, water to her chest, and reach for toys under the water. This helps her get used to putting her face underwater. She doesn't really enjoy that though and cheats all the time by just reaching down and turning her head to the ceiling. I look dumb because I'm counting. We always count to three before she puts her face under, so she knows it's coming.


This doesn't really show it very well but she kicks her feet and splashes her hands to move. I am holding her up though. She doesn't swim by herself on top of the water, just under. Basically, you have to let go and it's kinda a sink or swim mentality. Literally. But, she does great, kicking her little legs to get her head up.
Anyway, it was a really fun class and recommend it to everyone. The class here started at six months. I say, start them as early as you can because its harder when they get older!

He's a travelin' man

Well, Timothy spent the last week gettin' some learnin' in Pittsburgh for work. It was very sad for us to be apart and Emma really missed her Dada but we are glad to have him home now. I went home for the week so as not to be so lonely and was able to go to Shelby's wedding (my best friend from home). Anyway, here are some pictures of Timothy's travels. He was able to go downtown one day and do some sight-seeing. Oh yah, read the previous post because its new today too!

Here's my handsome man posing by a parking meter. And a gas station. Niiiice. Just kidding. I think the point is to see downtown. (We're 'downtown' deprived here. Oh how I would love to be in a real city again...*sigh*)

Timothy said that you drive through a really long tunnel and when you come out, downtown is right in your face. I don't know if this is a picture coming out of the tunnel or what but I thought it very pretty. I like bridges. As long as they don't sway. Or collapse.

I miss anything with any sense of design or architecture. (No offense, Montana.) But I really like this picture. I hope that its an apartment building. I would live there. As long as I could be on that corner.

Ahhh, buildings! I think the tallest building in our downtown is like, three stories. What I wouldn't give for a skyline! Anyway, Timothy learned lots and is home now and we are happy!! He says he has another training course that he's supposed to go to but he can choose between Pittsburgh and Phoenix. I say, if he goes to Phoenix, we'll be going with him! I would love some sun right about now! There's like, a foot of snow outside and it's been coming down all day. Hey, at least it's not 15 feet!!

IT'S TWINS!!!!

Just kidding! Ha!! I have started to get complaints about the lack of posts coming from our house but, I have nothing to really report so, I had to dig out some pictures from somewhere so that some of you would stop harassing me! Here's a nice tummy shot of Jen and me taken Jan. 19, so we're both a little bigger now. Notice that I seem to be carrying much higher than she is...why is that? Anyway, for those of you who don't know, these cousins will be born about two months apart. So, that's exciting. I'll have to get Timothy to take another picture when he's home because I seem to have, um... blossomed within the last month.

Anyway, I just thought that this was really funny. I went in the kitchen a few weeks ago and poor Wicket had eaten all of his food and drank all of his water and pulled the dishes out around himself. His little head was so low on the floor and sad!! It was so cute! But as soon as I got the camera, he looked at me. Oh well. Just picture the most pathetic looking dog around...that was him.

And now for my cutest ever baby girl! She loves to help in the kitchen and always pulls her chair to the counter whenever I start to do anything! I just thought that she looked so grown-up so I had to take a picture. She's wearing the apron that I made her for Christmas (yes, I made it all by myself, without a pattern!). She doesn't really get it yet but she sure looks good in it! Anyway, we were making cookies for the young women in my class. Emma loves to eat the dough. It really gets very messy. Speaking of her being grown-up, Emma is offically 18 months old (as of last Friday) and went to nursery for the full two hours yesterday! She was only without a parent for like, 40min. but at least we're getting there! I can't believe how big she is and how much she learns everyday! I have to start watching myself more. The other day she had taken off her diaper (she wouldn't let me put pants on her) and she walked into her bedroom where Timothy was. Timothy was a little surprised to see naked buns and said, "What the?!" and started to laugh. Emma smiled and said "what the?" and laughed too. So now, she walks around saying 'what the' all the time. Hey, at least it didn't end with a swear! We better start watching our mouths more!

Little Fish

Timothy has been wanting to get Emma into swimming lessons for a while now and, we finally did it! We had our first class today. It was really nice because we could both get in the pool with her (spoiled brat). We needed the tag team because the little monkey would not let go of me. It took her about ten minutes to stop crying and by the end, she was loving it! We sang some songs and learned to blow bubbles (Emma didn't quite get her mouth in the water, but she has the right idea), and we kicked and splashed our hands and chased some toys. It was fun and really neat to see Emma react to it all. They had a little slide that went into the water too and that was probably her favorite part. She loved going down that. All in all, it turned out well and I think when we go back next week, it may only take her five minutes to stop crying. Anyway, here's some pictures of swimming and some of just hanging out.

The Winds of Change

So, we came home from church last Sunday (the 7th), and discovered that the winds of change were indeed blowing. Very strongly. I sat down to take off Emma's shoes and coat and looked out our front window. A branch the size of a tree from our neighbor's yard and been broken off by the gale-force winds and had landed on our fence, flattening it. People complain about the wind here and when some find out where we live, they ask how the wind is. We always thought people were exaggerating or something. But these last few weeks have changed my opinion. The wind keeps me awake at night and sometimes wakes up Emma. And now, the 'branch'. The pictures just do not do it justice! Fortunately, the fence was chain link, which is fairly bendable, and our neighbor works for the city's forestry division or something. I think we were his first job Monday morning. Anyway, enjoy the pics, I'll start another post.
Oh yah, I almost forgot, we had an ultrasound on the 3rd. They said that everything is looking good, all the parts are there and that we will stick with our due date of May 29th. They also said that we should be preparing ourselves for a baby sister. Any ideas for names? We're taking suggestions!

A Belated New Years

Well, mostly because I'm lazy, I haven't posted anything in a long while. I guess it's about time. I have a lot to update you on, so I'll have to do it in a couple of different posts, so that it makes sense. Anyway, Grandma Allred came up for the weekend for New Years. We had fun, I don't know if you would say tons of fun (who puts Grandma to work when she comes for a visit?), but fun. We wanted to get some painting done (we've lived here for 8 months and figured its time to make this house our own), so, we put Grandma to work. Emma did some painting too, as you can see in a picture. I striped one wall in her room and she really wanted to help out. Fortunately, the paint was dry. Grandma also brought Emma another Christmas present, her baby. We were amazed at Emma's mothering instincts...she immediately fed and then burped her little bundle of joy. And we had to take her to church because, well, you can't leave a child that young at home alone! Emma would not let her out of her sight all weekend. She is still fascinated with her baby and as long as I tuck baby into bed before Emma, things are alright. This makes me nervous to see how she handles the real baby...she's a very attentive little mother but, a little bit violent. Oh yes, and, the baby is not allowed to wear her clothes, or diaper. So, we'll see how things go in a couple of months here. Anyway, here's some pictures. I'll get started on another post.