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.

Swingin'

I know that you're shocked I'm posting again so soon. I figured, if I do it now, while I'm thinking about it, it'll be easier in the future. I have to apologize because I have no pictures of Halloween. I charged the batteries in the camera and everything. Not a single picture. So, I'll just tell you that Emma was a butterfly (please feel free to look at last year's picture. She was the exact same thing.) Kaylee was a cowgirl. We had a cute little horse that she wore so it looked like she was riding. I was an oven (get it?) and Timothy was a baker. Anyway, we had fun. Sorry no pics.

I just wanted to share this picture because the girls were so cute, pushing each other on the swings. However, there must be something going on with my camera because it is so dark. Sorry. Just peeked out at them playing one day and found Kaylee pushing Emma. Too cute.

October at a Glance

Do you ever just get overwhelmed with how much you have to post, so you don't post anything...ever? Well, that's where I'm at now. So, I decided just to bite the bullet and do it. I'm going to post a whole month in one post. Sorry for the length, I will try to control my comments.

So, the first week in October, Timothy was supposed to be at training. The girls and I planned a trip to visit cousins! Yeah! (I say he was supposed to be at training, it was moved, but we went on our trip anyway.) We had a ton of fun visiting the Whitehead gang. Thanks for putting up with us Jeff. I haven't been to Calgary in a long time, and not for a visit like this since I've been married. Sorry to all the friends that I didn't get time to see. For some reason, we were crazy busy. Jen's got a busy life and we tried to blend in.

We managed a trip to the zoo, a highlight for me, I love that zoo. However, I took like, 5 pictures. I'm definitely not a photographer. Timothy was disappointed in me. I took zero pics of animals. Oh well. Here are the two year olds eating lunch.

And the big kid table.

We went to the new mall just outside of the city that is absolutely huge. We didn't even walk through the whole thing and I think we went in 3 whole stores. But they have a great play place and of course, Tim Hortons....mmmmmmm. I miss it so much. Timmy's, that is.

These two were so cute together, so very 'two'.

And these four posed for this picture and asked that I take it. However, I had some better ones... I must've deleted them. We need a new memory card. I can only hold like, 25 pics.

We made sure to hit Ikea one day. So wonderful. I could spend a lot of money there. I took this picture because someday, I need to redo my kitchen cabinets and love this color. Nice, dark stain. Anyway, Jen jumped in because she's a nerd and I'm posting it because she looks like a nerd.

The only thing missing from the trip was a Peter's run. Ahhh, next time. We had a day planned and everything but got hit with a storm and decided the trek across town wouldn't be such a good idea. Not for a burger and shake. I think I regret that decision right now.

When we got home, we got to see the new school room. A couple other Mom's and I are doing preschool for the kids. I teach once a week and another Mom teaches once a week. It works out really well and is a super cheap way to do preschool! Anyway, we moved our room upstairs so the closet that we redid was just empty. Now, it functions as the school room. Someday, I would like it to be a den/library. Someday.

Yes, the table is an outdoor coffee table. But it's the perfect size and we definitely won't miss it for a few months. Plus, it's really easy to clean crayon, marker, glue, and playdough off.

One morning the girls asked if we could make 'shape cookies'. I assumed that meant sugar cookies. They had so much fun cutting them out and then decorating them. Oh yah, and eating the icing.

Another random. We were outside playing with our tenant's daughter one day and decided to rake all the leaves into a pile. This worked out great because the kids more than willingly did the work. I never got to do this as a kid. Please feel sorry for me. (Not because I have mean parents but because I'm allergic to everything outside. And some inside stuff too.) I'm really glad that the kids got to play. And everyone was fine after. I'm thinking that the outside allergies were not passed down. (We hope.)

So there's a farm (or something) outside of town here who, every year, does a corn maze and pumpkin patch. Last year I wanted to take the kids so bad but we never made it out there. We got there this year. I was really impressed with it. It's almost like a full carnival-type thing. They've got a huge corn maze, with a shorter route with fairytale clues for kids. There were all kinds of fun activities for the kids to do. There was not, in my mind, a pumpkin patch though. I would have thought that meant pumpkins on a vine. They had some sitting on hay bales that you could buy. Not quite the same thing. Oh well.

So, the first thing you see when you walk in is this huge hay stack. With a slide. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I'm allergic to EVERYTHING. So, I was a little nervous. But the kids were just fine. They loved the slide and did it for ever. Their favorite thing though, was...

the cow train. This was the funniest thing. The kids loved it though. It was actually pretty cool. Some of the cows even moved up and down as the train drove around.

Kaylee's first ride. She's a little bit nervous.

And Emma's first ride. We managed to get her in one that moved. She thought it was so great.

I had to get a picture of this because it was so cute. The girls were just standing, waiting for their turn on the cow train and they put their arms around each other. Of course, by the time I got the camera out and turned on, Kaylee had stopped. Still, melt my heart.

Anyway, this has taken me forever to write and I'm tired of it now. So, for shorter posts, I'll try to post more often. Chances are I'll update again in a month. Sorry folks.

The Ultrasound

So, I just realized that I have not posted the outcome of the ultrasound we had on the 14th. Sorry. We didn't get pictures of the important stuff but everything is looking good, baby is healthy. I have posted this on facebook already so probably most of you know. But, for those who don't, we're having us a baby BOY! We're super excited and I am so nervous! That's about all. Good to be short, sorry no pics.

Labor Day Weekend

We went to visit Grandma Allred for Labor Day and had a ton of fun. We were able to get tickets (thanks Mom Allred) to a football game for Timothy's all-time favorite college football team, the University of Montana Grizzlies. Since marrying into a 'griz' family, I have learned to really enjoy their games too. College football games in this stadium are crazy. Being from Canada, I'm not really used to how big sports are here, even on a high school level. I remember at BYU-Idaho seeing cheerleaders in real life for the first time. I really thought the guy had dropped the girl until I realized that's just how they get down. Anyway, these games are a lot of fun. It's a smaller division school but their stadium has been ranked nationally as one of the loudest, and their mascot is always getting awards for being one of the best. All in all, a great time. It helps that the team is really good too. So, here are some pictures, mostly for those of you, who, like me, can't wrap your head around how huge they do things here.

So, they start every game with three parachuters, who land right in the stadium and all carry 'griz' flags, and the like. (I think every game... I've been to three and they started all three that way.)

Here's their mascot. Emma loves him. He is actually really cool. He does lots of flips and things and he is loved by the whole city.

This is prep for the team to come running out. Always a big deal. I'm sure that other schools are like this too, maybe even high schools. But I've been to professional games in Canada that don't even come close to the hype that they have here. It's crazy. (p.s. the stadium was totally packed, you wouldn't be able to tell from this picture.)

And some of the team, rallying the crowd.

We also had to go to the carousel, the girl's favorite place when we visit Grandma. Emma's favorite horse is named Paint, and he is a favorite of a lot of kids. She never gets to ride him because her mean mom always makes her wait her turn in line. But this last trip, she got to ride Paint twice. She was so excited!

Kaylee was just excited to be able to ride by herself for the first time. (This carousel gets moving pretty fast, she's always been with me or Timothy.)

And my three cowboys(girls). This picture didn't really turn out so great. You can't really see Kaylee but she is there beside Timothy.

Anyway, fun weekend.