Good Morning Montana!!

I just wanted to share with you our adventures here in Montana! This morning around 6am, our power went out. (It's a good thing Timothy woke up.) Hmm, that's funny. I wonder why our power is out? So, Timothy goes to look outside and guess what he saw! Snow! Yeah! The snow was so heavy that it took some trees down. Which took some power lines down. We were without power this morning for six hours. Not fun. We were cold. Emma wanted to build a snowman. So, I guess, it was fun. Anyway, here's some pictures and a little video for your viewing pleasure. Make sure your speakers are turned up. You can't really see the snow that well, but you can hear it hitting the camera. It was really kind of sharp and biting. I just stuck my hand out the door to take it. Enjoy!

This is an after shot. I took this around 2pm today. The snow is already mostly melted. But our neighbor lost a couple of tree limbs. Bummer.

Not so Extreme Home Makeover

So, we found the leak in the bathtub, and decided that we might as well redo the whole room now, rather than wait, like we had originally planned. So, last week, I gave Emma a hammer and told her to have at it. She really had fun, but didn't make much progress. Then I took the hammer. I forgot to take pictures before we started but I got some pretty near the beginning. There is so much nastiness and water damage in this tub. It's really disgusting.

Those are the almost befores, here are the part-way throughs. This is where we were as of Saturday night. Timothy had to work this weekend so we didn't get much done here.

And of course, some really cute pictures of some really cute kids. This is Kaylee after spaghetti dinner. She enjoyed her very first Popsicle! Yum! (And, she might be a bit of a poser. This is the face she made when I brought out the camera.)

Last but definitely not least, my 'princess'... with a dirty face. Oh well.

Rain, rain, go away...

We have had rain everyday, and every night, for the last week. It has been ridiculous! Those of you who are aware of our current housing situation know that we are getting, and desperately need, a new roof. However, our roofer needs four consecutive days of good weather, because of the lift he has to have. I have been really kinda concerned that our falling apart roof would leak during this downpour but, it seems to have held up really well. (knock on wood). So, here's my question. I know that people pray for rain and its really good for the farmers and such but, does there come a point when its too much rain for the farmers? I mean, we were driving and the fields looked more like marshes than farms. That's too much rain right? I don't know. Anyway, let me tell you what Emma did to entertain herself during the rain.

That's pretty much all of my bake-ware type stuff. She called it her store. The picture doesn't really even show it all. But, she really had fun with it. And even helped to clean it up after!

We had a playdate the other night and the girls all sat at the table in Emma's room. Four beautiful ladies! I cannot believe how big Kaylee is getting. She had a doctor's appointment today, just her one year check up, and I was astounded! She is literally off the charts for her height. She has always been in the 97th percentile but today, she was above and beyond that. I think its time to move her into some bigger clothes!
Anyway, yesterday was Memorial Day. Sunday morning, we decided to take a quick trip to see Timothy's family. Timothy has been talking about taking Emma camping, or at least sleeping outside with her for a long time. So, he decided to sleep outside with her at his Mom's Sunday night. Emma was so excited! She kept talking about camping and she loved getting ready. We got them all bundled up. (she doesn't look very happy here because she didn't like having to wear a hat)

Then we got them all tucked into bed. Then Linda and I went inside and made bets on how long they would last. We were both wrong. They were only about 5 min. before they came back in. Emma decided that sleeping outside was scary. Poor Timothy. So, he and I camped outside while Linda took the night shift! Thanks for a good night sleep Linda!

Now, I don't know how people feel about naked baby pictures but I'm sorry, my kids were just so cute in the tub last night, I had to share it at least with grandmas and grandpas!

Pay no attention to the filthy tub surround...just another thing that needs to be redone! Well, I know that this was a lot of pictures that aren't exciting. But I kinda made a decision to update every week. So, I will. Even if it is boring.

My Baby...

Isn't such a baby anymore! Kaylee turned a year old yesterday! I cannot believe it! I don't think I'm ready for her to be a year old yet. I went through hand-me-down boxes the other day to move her from 9-12 month into 12-18 month and let me tell you, I have no idea how she was even fitting into the old clothes because the new ones seem tight already! She is such a big girl! Anyway, here's a couple of pictures from her happy day. Isn't she beautiful?

My Mom was down all last week to help me paint. This is what we did with the girls so they wouldn't get in the way while we worked. Just kidding. They just wanted to play cars in some boxes we had just unpacked. I thought that they were pretty cute.

This is after breakfast yesterday morning. We had waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. It was delicious (even though I do say so myself. I make awesome waffles!) Kaylee really enjoyed them and I'm pretty sure that this was the first time she had fresh strawberries. You can't really tell from the picture but she has cream and strawberries all over her face.

We had a little pool party. It was really warm outside and we filled the pool early so that it could heat up but the water was a little cold. Kaylee didn't have too much fun. In fact, she spent most of the time sleeping. Oh well. We had a good time.

The cake. I would love to learn to really decorate cakes. I think that would be so much fun. Some people can do amazing things with icing. All I can do is write. Plus, my icing was melting as I was putting it on. It was really hot here!

Kaylee ate two pieces of cake. She's a really good eater! She was covered head to toe in chocolate so we had to throw her in the tub. She was so covered that we put her in in her swimming suit. The problem was that the cake moved through her pretty fast. I won't get into too much detail but those swimming diapers don't hold in liquid...anyway, it was disgusting. And we'll leave it at that.

I have to share something that was really nice for me. My parents could not be here for the party but when we did cake, I called them and they were able to watch via the web cam. The best part was they were at my Grandparent's and my other Grandparents were also there. That was just neat for me. I liked that they could all see Kaylee on her special day.

I had to put this picture in. We don't really do presents for birthdays (not for a one-year-old anyway), but a friend who couldn't be at the party dropped it off. This is the coolest toy! Kaylee loves it and quite frankly, I get a kick out of it too. It's really neat so if you're looking for a good toy for a baby, pick this one.

Anyway, this is really long but I just wanted to say:

Happy Birthday Kaylee!! I love you baby!

I found the camera!

Actually, Timothy did. Either way, we have it now. So, here's some more recent pics. I just love this one. This is Kaylee, asleep on the floor. She looked like a dead body. Those of you who are familiar with our old house know, she is about a foot and a half from the door. I think she was trying to make an escape when she gave up and took a rest. She was so out of it when we woke her up and she had carpet imprinted on her face. It was really funny. Anyway, I just had to share that. And now, I'm going to reveal the before pics of our new house. Remember, these were taken when there were renters in it. It's really messy. You'll love it.

This was the entry way. I'm standing in the threshold of the front door. The house had been converted into three apartments. So, straight ahead, you go into the main floor apartment. To the left is the upstairs apartment.

This is just through the door into the main floor apartment. Don't you just love the brick veneer?

This is the living room (one corner). Sorry, I'm not very good at taking pictures of houses. (or anything). But you can see the windows and we love the windows. (Anyone remember our apartment in Rexburg? I say again, we love windows!)

And this is the kitchen. The door at the end there goes outside and to the downstairs apartment. These people really, really liked fridge magnets!

Well, that's our new house. Or at least, it was. When I get my table (that story would take another hour to write. Summary: don't ever buy furniture from Shopko. In fact, don't ever shop there.), I'll take pictures for the after. The change is incredible! We love it!

Hey, to all you mothers out there (especially my own), Happy Mother's Day!

Back in Business

Hey! We're back and I bet you're all so excited about it! That or you've given up checking our blog for updates. We've had a busy couple of months. We haven't had the Internet for a while, hence the lack of posts. We've also been busy moving and our computer has been in storage since mid-Feb. I think. Anyway, we're all set up now, except, I have yet to find the camera, so this is an old picture. Sorry about that. (Well, it's old to me, new to you, I guess. It was taken in January.)
So, here's a very quick update on our family. As I mentioned, we just moved (down the street) to a beautiful home. We are really excited about it. It needs some work, and we've been living in a construction site for a week and a half. But they're done now and its very nice to have our house to ourselves!
The girls are doing well. Kaylee will be a year old next Saturday (the 17th). But I still feel like she's my little baby. She is so cute. She prefers to scoot around on her bum instead of crawling and she's really fast. She loves to stand and walk along furniture but she has yet to take her first steps. She loves to laugh and play with Emma.
Emma loves being a big sister. She has a huge vocabulary and amazes me with the things she says. She's really funny.
Timothy and I are awesome! He loves his job and we're having fun dreaming in the isles of Home Depot. (Did I mention this house needs work?) I am stuck in this country for a while though and that kinda stinks. Mom and Dad will be leaving for their mission in August and I am hoping to be able to visit them before they go.
Anyway, that's us for now. Sorry that I abandoned you all the last little while. I promise that things will be more consistent from now on. As soon as I find my camera, we'll get some new pictures up too!

Surprise!

I have actually posted two weeks in a row! Unfortunately, I keep getting a message from blogger saying that I can't upload pictures right now. Which is really too bad because I have a great one of Timothy & Emma lying in bed wearing helmets! We had a really exciting day today. Timothy & I made a little trip to the ER this morning. Timothy has a pilonidal cyst that was causing him great amounts of pain and his doctor told us to come in. So, they did a little procedure to help him out. He felt better after that but he had to be in bed for the rest of the day. Emma found his bicycle helmet and wanted him to wear it. Then, she wanted to wear her's. It was really funny. They look really special.
Anyway, I've been trying to upload this picture for 20 min., getting the same message. So I guess it's time to give up. I hope everyone has a great Halloween!

Finally!...an update

Well, after much too long a break, I am hoping to make regular posts...which means, probably once a week. And, since our internet is so dang slow, I'll probably only get out one picture. Sorry folks, but that'll have to do!

We are doing great here. Timothy is still loving his job, which is really nice, and is busy busy with Church. But he loves the quorum and they are starting to have lots of fun together. I am just enjoying being a mom. I love my babies so much! We have been going through training classes to become foster parents (I know, half of you are saying "don't do it" and the other half have raised eyebrows). But we have thought a lot about this and really feel that it is something we need to do. We are excited to welcome another child into our home and try to help and teach and love her. (It won't be for another couple of months though.)

Emma is growing like crazy and is really smart. I'm sure that most parents are astonished at how much their toddler picks up, but it almost scares me! She loves being a sister and wants to spend every waking (and sleeping) moment with Kaylee. We recently moved the girls into the same room together and Emma has started climbing into the crib to be with Kaylee. So, we have to put Emma down first, which can sometimes take an hour. Any suggestions?

Kaylee is a beautiful girl! She reminds me so much of Emma, smiling and cheerful most of the time. She weighs somewhere over 16lbs now and has started to eat rice cereal. She loves the stuff and gets really excited for every bite. She is so sweet and we are lucky to have her!

That's about it for us right now, not too much going on. Congrats to the Wadsworth's and the Giles' on the births of their babies! I promise to start trying harder to post more often. Love you all!

More ramblings and random pics

Well, I figure that if I can post once a month, I'm doing pretty well. Sorry for those of you who have been asking for pictures of Kaylee. I promise, she's growing well and is really cute!
This past month has been pretty busy with summer travels and reunions. We had a couple of play-dates with Emma's new best friend Sierra after we got home from our trip to Mom and Dad's. One day, we started to attract the neighbor kids. It was fun for Emma to meet some kids around here. Too bad they're a lot older than she is! Oh well. They seemed to have fun and liked to 'take care' of Emma while they played.

At the end of July, I headed back up to Mom and Dad's for a couple of days for another family reunion. Emma was really excited to see Abbey and Griffin (my sister's kids) again. We had lots of fun riding in Papa's wagon, jumping on the trampoline, eating, riding the pony, and we even had a trip to the beach.

Kaylee is growing so fast! At her two month check up, she weighed 11 lbs 11oz. She's almost in the 75%!! Emma has always been 25% for weight so we really feel like we've got ourselves a Buddah baby this time! We love her rolls! She really likes to talk and smile. I tried to get a good picture, but she kinda looks drunk or something!
Anyway, Emma is a really good big sister. It is obvious that she loves her baby so much. She is very nurturing but needs to learn to control herself a little bit better. I'm sure that will come with age. If she's anything like her mother, she might have control of her excited emotions by the time she's 30.
After ten minutes waiting for a picture to post, I'm going to leave you with just this one. I'll try again later. Sorry!

Summertime!!

I've been meaning to post this picture for a long time, since Father's Day, actually. I just wanted to say how wonderful Timothy is. His girls love him so much (all three of us!) and he is such an amazing Daddy and husband. So, this is my tribute to my most handsome man. I love you Timothy! Thanks for all you do for us!
Allright, now that that is said, lets get on to the fun of summer. It has been so hot the last few weeks! Timothy pulled out the sprinkler one day and made Emma run through it until she found it fun! Then, we couldn't get her to stop! She loved it, and loved trying to get a drink.

The last week of July, Grandma Allred and Great-Grandpa Mitchell came for a visit. It was Great-Grandpa's first time meeting Kaylee, and Emma was so proud to introduce them!

Right after their visit, I took the kids up to my parents for our annual Gibb family reunion and first of July celebrations. (The first of July is Canada's 'independence day'). The town that Dad grew up in always has the same festivities, and though some think they're boring, I love them! Here's Emma with Great-Grandma Gibb, watching the parade... she didn't really get it, but liked the candy.

After the parade, the whole town goes down to a beautiful park and has a delicious roast beef lunch with baked beans and whatever sides your personal family provides. We ate way too much, as usual, but it was awesome! My family has the 'Gibb family brew-off' each year. Various family members make a batch of homemade rootbeer and we have an offical judging for the best. This year (as per usual) my sister won. Yeah Jen! After we've eaten until we can eat no more, we head over to the races! They divide the kids (then adults) into ages and they race. Of course, everyone wins in the end. This was Emma's first year and she didn't really get it, she did like that everyone seemed to be cheering for her though and she stopped mid-field to smile at her audience! I don't know if you can see her, but she's mid-right side, purple shirt, with my Dad.

This year was extra nice. Mom and Dad decided they needed a pool and we hve definately been enjoying the cool waters on these outragously hot days! Emma loves to swim, and has been in almost every day since we've been here!

Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Sorry that this was so much at once!

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!