Baby Blessing, Easter and General Cuteness

I guess if I posted more than I do, this would be easier and quicker. But, I don't, so, it's not. So, again, this will be long. Bear with me. Or don't, who will know if you just move on? Anyway, here are some pictures of Eli's blessing weekend. Well, I was really busy so, there's not alot.

Saturday, Timothy's Aunt and Uncle arrived with his Grandma and Grandpa and we were able to spend some time with them. Just as we were starting dinner, my parents and sister and her family arrived. (that sounds like they were being rude... they weren't, that was planned.) After dinner, we had a little fire and roasted marshmallows. It was fun but cold.

Had to get this face. Kaylee really likes marshmallows.

And then the babe Sunday morning. I almost forgot to take pictures but Jen reminded me and we snapped a few right before we left. This is the best one. It really shows his personality. Fat and happy.

So, on to Easter. We headed to Grandma Allred's for the weekend. Saturday night we set up some eggs in the basement for a little hunt. Sunday morning, the girls had a blast finding them.

A four generation.

The girls got to dye some eggs with Grandma, Emma thought it was so neat. Kaylee wasn't too much for the mixing of colors but enjoyed herself.

The hunt.

I had to put this picture in. One of the treasures was a Dora Memory game. Kaylee loves Dora and her face in the picture says it all.

The loot.

In other news... had to put this pic in because we have a very stubborn two-almost-three-year-old. She is super cute alot of the time, a headache some of the time and always a sweetheart. She has entered the 'scared of the dark' phase. One night, I heard her at the top of the stairs, but she didn't come down, so I just waited. When we went up to bed, this is what we found.

So, some of you may remember that we live in a fixer-upper. Well, we are doing some fixing currently. Among the projects, our floor. It is really unlevel. So, we're having it levelled. Well, we thought it was going to get done (thought, long story) and so the kids and I moved out for the week and went, first to Mom and Dad's, then on to Jen's. We have a great week hanging out and just becoming part of the Whitehead family. Which means, a lot of taxi driving. I even got to watch all six kids at bedtime while Jen went to a presidency meeting. Anyway, when I got to Mom and Dad's I was saying how Eli doesn't hold his head up while on his tummy yet. So, to demonstrate, I put him on the floor. And this is what he did for like, 5 minutes. I promise, he just wanted me to look like a liar. (p.s. Don't you love the fat? I do.)

While in Calgary, we went shopping. Jen had mentioned that she might like to get her ears pierced. (Yes, you heard that right. She's... I'm not sure right now, older than me, and has never had her ears pierced. She comes from a long line of chickens. She was present when Mom had her's done. Timothy was with me when I had mine done. Anyway,) I knew that she would never do it on her own. So, while at the mall, we stopped in at Clair's. Please enjoy.

Here she is deciding which studs to get (I believe we settled on 3mm stainless steel.)

The gun. I really should've filmed this instead of taking pictures. She whimpered the whole time. I wish I would've thought of that before now.

Emma holding Auntie Jennie's hand. She didn't want her to be scared.

Done!

As we were walking out of the mall, Jen said she felt like everyone was staring at her ears. It probably didn't help that she was carrying a bag that said, "I just got my ears pierced!"

This was our last night together and we were a little tired. I had found out that our project was not going as planned and I do not handle unexpected change well. So, after everyone made fun of me for an hour or so (and I was able to let out some frustration...aka. crying) I received some counsel from my brother-in-law (who is actually a counsellor). He pretty much told me to suck it up. Mind you, I didn't pay for my session, so I don't think that was real 'counsel'. Anyway, here's how we cheered me up. I think I make this face way better than either of them. And I'm not really sure if that's something to be proud of or not.

On our way home, the girls got to take a tractor ride with Papa. Emma was super excited but it took Kaylee a while to warm up to the idea of the big scary machine.

You see the sandwich in her hand? She was so scared that by the time they got off, she had squished it into two pieces.

All right, so, that's April. Sorry about that. I'll leave you with just this...

Wayyyy Overdue

Well, as usual, I have waited too long to post anything and have too much of everything to post. So, I'm just going to make this post really, really long and be done with it. I was going to try really hard to update often because I know everyone wants to see pictures of the baby. (family does at least, sorry for those of you who wish I'd stop talking about the kids. that's all I've got.) Anyway, let me briefly fill you in on the last two months of my life. From Feb. 7 to Mar. 5, Timothy was gone. Well, he got to come home on the weekends (Friday night to Sunday afternoon). He had to go to the Law Enforcement Academy. "Is he a police officer?" you ask... no. He's a Probation and Parole officer. But he still had to go for a month to learn lots of stuff. The first week he was gone, my mother-in-law came to help out. The second week, my sister and her kids came. Unfortunately, she had to cut her visit short because we all got sick. So, that was about the 17th of February. Just so you know, I'm still sick. Almost better, but not quite. So, I've got a brand new (well, not so much anymore) baby, I was a single mother, and I was sicker than I can ever remember being. Please forgive me for not having the energy to blog. I'm shocked I kept the children alive. I blog now. Again, forgive me. Here we go. (this is in no particular order...)

Here is Timothy at his graduation from the Academy. My picture is really bad because he was moving really fast and I couldn't get through the crowd. Please note the little blue and white sock. Yes, he was holding Eli. He refused to release him. He missed us while he was gone.

Just a couple of pictures of a walk down by the river. We love the river here. It is beautiful.

Wish I had the talent to take pretty pictures. This was a really cool view.

As soon as any bit of spring set in, the girls had a picnic. They're so sweet.

Just another reason I love living in Montana. The obsession with all things hunting. Seriously, who would wear this and why? Next time I'm at that store, I'll take a picture of the camo pacifier and onesies. Lovely.

While Jen and fam were here, we (of course) had to do a McDonald's trip. Here's Jen. Just being Jen. Even though it was chaos and we were so tired, we had a great time. I love laughing till you almost pee.

This was the best picture I could get of the kids eating. They were so busy.

And Griff holding his little baby cuz. It didn't last long before he got bored. They don't do much, you know.

Some pics of Eli. Here he is in his cutest ever little church outfit. He's already starting to not fit 0-3 month stuff. He's a little chunk. Unfortunately, I don't have any really recent pics. I've got to start taking more. Sorry.

The girls both love their brother so much and really are good with him.

All right. I think that I'm starting to recover from the last month and a half and am hoping to be more consistant. For anyone interested, my parents got home from their mission on Mar. 4. For pictures of that, see Jen and Jeff's blog. I didn't take any pictures when they came to see us. I will this weekend for sure, we're having a gathering for Eli's blessing. Anyway, it's really nice to have them home. Sorry I'm so random all the time. Thanks to those who still have faith in me and check back every so often!

Nothin' Much

Here are some pictures of Eli and a little video, so that my sister will start to feel like she knows what he looks like. Seriously Jen, I took the video just so you could see more of his face. Hope you enjoy him, we do!



p.s. Monday night, we had some friends over for FHE. Kaylee and their daughter were playing upstairs and Emma came down telling us that Kaylee was drinking out of the toilet. Love it. She had a cup and was scooping water up and literally drinking it. Awesome.

The "Just Because" Party

Emma has been asking for months to have a party. Finally, Timothy caved and yesterday, she had her party. She wanted to invite everyone she knew, and also one person she didn't know (seriously, she said she wanted to go to someone's house that we don't know and invite their kids. I was like, which house? She didn't know. But she was die hard. How do you explain how weird that would be to a four year old?). Anyway, we let her have four friends, at least one for Kaylee. It turned out pretty good. Everyone had fun and our house wasn't too badly trashed after.
Here we are playing musical chairs. The two year old's didn't quite get it. Kaylee would not leave her seat. But the big kids had fun dancing around them.

Eating cake. What's a party without cake?

Coloring in dress-ups. Always have to be in dress-ups.

Emma saw a commercial on one of the cartoon channels that said to make a video of you singing a song and send it in and it could be on tv. So, of course, everyone had to sing a song. They loved picking their outfits and making a movie though. It was cute. However, I didn't press the button hard enough at the end so you see our floor and my hand for a second. Sorry. Please forgive the technologically impaired mother. (I promise it felt like those awkward times when the parents bring in the huge old camcorder and film like, the kid's breakup or something, and they forget to turn it off so there's this totally awkward footage... do you know what I'm talking about? Anyway...)

Some Pictures.

All right, just a couple of pictures, I'll try to keep commentary to a minimum, because I'm on a tight time frame. So, here are a couple of shots from Christmas, as that holiday was forgotten due to baby.

Here are the girls Christmas morning in their Christmas jammies.

Sledding Christmas day. Kaylee would not get on the sled. We forced her once and she loved it but she wouldn't do it again. Don't know why. We went a few weeks before that and she went again and again. Oh well. Emma had a blast. So did Timothy.

And I had to post a pic of my pumpkin cheesecake. I love cheesecake and love to make it. However, mine always crack and fall. But not this one. It was the most beautiful cake in the world.

And some shots of Emma and Eli. Sorry about his face, I didn't notice how long his nails were until it was too late. (p.s. Mom, these were taken with your camera, nice, huh?)

And just another random shot. (Mom, I'm not a photographer but I can tell the difference in quality from the Christmas pictures - my camera - to these. Hope you can too.)

Eli's Comin'

All right, I've figured out the camera. Here are a couple of pictures from the hospital of our sweet little man.

The proud Papa. (please note the hair... Eli's, not Timothy's)

I just want to kiss that face!

The girls were so excited when Eli came home from the hospital. We didn't get home until Monday about 7:30pm and I hadn't seen the kids since Sunday about noon. I thought they'd be excited to see me. No. They hardly noticed me walk in the door.

And just for fun, Eli's theme song. This seriously is where I got the name from. I remember talking with my Dad when I was a teenager about how I loved the name Eli, after I listened to this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdpEyxS0988

I've got some more pictures on another camera that I need to get posted too. I'll work on that.

The new man in my life

If you haven't heard already, we welcomed a new addition to our family last week. Eli Isaac Allred was born on Sunday, Jan. 3 at 5:47pm. He weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 20in long. He came three weeks early. In fact, my water broke in the middle of church. That was a great adventure. (Did you know that only 10% of births start with the woman's water breaking? And it is very rare to have happen in public. Or so they say. Who are 'they' anyway?) Anyway, we are doing well. Unfortunately, my camera is acting up again and I can't get pictures off of it. I'll keep working on it and post some pics of the handsome little guy as soon as possible.

The Rest of November

So, this is going to be long because I've left it for so long. Sorry about that... again. Anyway, one day, Timothy came home for lunch. Emma wanted him to handcuff her (not really sure why...). As soon as he said he would, she turned around and put both hands behind her back. She's four. How many times has she had to do this before? How on earth did she know that's how they cuff you? She cracks me up. Anyway, we ended up binding the girls together, you know, to help them bond. (Emma cannot take a picture without trying some kind of pose...)

Next up, my birthday. I had a great day. Timothy had the day off work so I got to sleep in. It was awesome! When I came downstairs, this is what I saw.

The girls had made lots of pictures and cards (with just a little help from Daddy). It was really sweet. Emma asked if we could leave them up forever. Do you see the red headed princess, middle right? That's me, I'm told. We had the whole day to play and then some friends of ours showed up unexpectedly (to me) and Timothy and I went on a surprise date. He took me to see the new Christmas Carol. I had been really looking forward to seeing it. I thought the animation looked incredible. It was really good but I have to tell you, I don't think I like 3D movies. My eyes were really strained by the end of it. But it was a pretty good time besides that. Anyway, when we got home, the girls had made this. (with help, of course)

It's a hippo. I was like, what are you trying to say? I've put on some weight. I get it. (Not really. It was a really cute cake.) Speaking of, here's the first profile shot we've taken this pregnancy. I think that I need another because Timothy said that this one doesn't do my justice (in a good way, or a bad way?). I feel smaller this time around. Or at least, I did last week.

I think maybe the shirt is too tight. Not that I'm looking at it, I really don't look that big. This was taken on my birthday, so that's two months to go.

Next up comes the tree. The unwritten rule in this country is that you don't set up your tree until after Thanksgiving. We set ours up a few days before but only because our neighbors had theirs up and we really wanted to. Plus, we weren't having Thanksgiving at our house so we figured it would be ok just this once.

Here we are building the tree. (don't you miss the days when you didn't build your tree? not me. never been a fan of the real trees. I was always scared the house would burn down.)

The girls put all the decorations on this year and I made myself let them. Guess what? I haven't even tried to change them. I'm slowly overcoming my OCD. Or at least pretending to. I still sometimes twitch when I look at the tree. But it is really cute.

I caught this one as a snapshot but of course that meant Emma had to pose...

And that paper is an ornament that Emma made. Isn't it lovely? (and it's still on the tree. I'm really proud of me.)

And the finished product. There are a lot of ornaments on the bottom, and lots on the top (with help from Daddy), but not so many in the middle. They did a really good job.

Now just a couple random pictures of the girls being super cute.

Emma got all dressed up and so of course, Kaylee had to put the same things on when she was done.

Ya gotta love static hair in the winter. At least, I enjoy it.

And Emma, dressed as Mary. One of her favorite games. And yes, she plays it year round.

I'm really going to try to post again soon. I started painting in the baby's room and need to get those pictures taken. Anyway, this was long. I tried not to talk too much.