Fun with Josh

So Josh loves to climb. Everything.
His favorite is Emily's bed because he can actually make it on top.
Then there's his crib. He can't quite make it in but Emily's there to give him a good push up and over the side an I'm sure he's happy. He's in there with his binky. Silly boy!


This is a classic Allred look. "huh? What did you say?"
And he looks so much like Jake.

STEP 1: Climb and reach as high as possible with foot and puuush up. Try to keep head on the bed and don't let it fall to the side because that hurts and you will eventually hit the floor.

STEP 2: Continue to push up onto the bed and stay focused. Climb. Higher. Focus.

Another favorite past time with Josh is laundry time. And we have plenty of laundry with four children. He really is a good helper and understands when I ask him if he wants to help me with the laundry. He gets it. He's so smart!

So this picture is blurry but he's taking clothes from the washer and putting them in the dryer.

He leans into the washer to get all the clothes out. He likes to get the measuring cup out. There was a time when he was helping with the laundry and started whining. I couldn't see him when I looked around the corner but I heard him whine again. I went in there and he was inside the washer and couldn't get out because the washer would rock back and forth. Back and forth. I would have taken a picture but my camera was too far and I didn't want him to fall out trying to climb out. It was really funny.

He's putting all the clothes into the dryer here and is ready to close the door. He still has a few things in the washer. And a dinosaur sock on the floor.

Still my awesome helper. Love Josh!

GRATITUDE for the Past & Present & Future

So last night I stayed up way too late, a terrible habit I have, while Spencer was at the station. I got on Facebook (my first mistake which led to staying up too late) and started looking for family members, friends from my mission, and others I wanted to keep in contact with. While I was looking for a friend from high school I haven't seen since my wedding day I came across some of the other girls I'd gone to high school with. Now keep in mind I grew up in the same house with my mom and brother until my freshman year in high school then I moved an hour away (near the beach) to live with my dad. In the LA valley where I lived everyone is beautiful- and I'm talking candidate for Bachelor/ Bachelorette beauty. So looking at some of their pictures on FB, one had her perfect wedding pictures in a magazine (she married a producer), while others live lavish lifestyles in with one or two kids. I think, could that have been me? Could I have been one of those girls living the ways of the world and having it all? Who knows. Envious at all? No because I look at my life and think about all the blessings I do have. I may not have the huge beautiful house with the nicest car but I have an amazing family who loves me. I have four beautiful healthy children who are amazing in their own unique way. I have my own health and a strong mind and spirit that keeps me going in the right direction. I have an amazing husband who loves me more than I know and has a honorable job that makes me proud. I have friends and family near and far, that support me and encourage me to be the best I can be. I have a home that I love, even though we are moving, and look forward to making our new house a haven for our family- somewhere they will always want to be and feel safe. Although there have been rough times along the way, we've always been able to have food in our pantry and fridge and have never gone hungry. We have always had reliable cars to take us from one place to another safely.

I truly believe the reason I have these blessings is because of a decision I made July 14, 1996. That was the day I decided to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. My best friend from high school was a wonderful example to me and extended an invitation to meet with the missionaries at her house one night for dinner. We met weekly and as I did so my relationship with my dad, whom I was living with at the time, dissolved. We went in opposite directions and it's never going to be the same although I try to keep in contact with him. I served a mission in Ogden and came home and started working at Warner Brothers Studios while living with my mom. Again I was living near that "Hollywood" lifestyle and I was right in the middle of it with the amazing studio parties! I kept in contact with Spencer and we eventually got married after deciding to move to Texas. Do I regret anything? Not a bit, until I saw a profile picture of my friend in LA with the Rock (Dwane Johnson). She saw him at the gym she was working out at- Can you imagine seeing the Rock at the gym, working out??? Anywho..... I love that I am sealed to my family forever! I love the plan of salvation- it makes such perfect sense as I teach it to my babies. I am forever grateful for Christ and His role in my life and the sacrifice He made so all these blessings can be mine. I am also eternally grateful for the guidance of the Spirit. I would be lost without it!

I love my life even with all the mistakes I've made. I look forward to all the fun times with my children and the adventures we'll take. I look forward to our new house and making it a home. I will admit I'm super excited to be able to have a craft area where I can leave out my sewing machine, make fun crafty things with the kids, and I really want to refurnish old furniture for the house too.

I'm not sure how this post jumped around so much I guess that's how my brain's been working these days!

Lookin' like a Model

So I posted about us packing up the house and getting the house ready to sell.

I had a friend of mine call and offer to help a few days before the realtor was scheduled to meet with us and this is how she left the house.



This is the entry(we've put our shoes away since this picture)


Our living room. I love the high ceilings in this room! not to mention the shutters- we are going to miss those the most!


Another picture in the living room and of the kids sitting on the coffee table, something I never let them do but I have a picture of them doing it-go figure!


Here's the kitchen which flows right into the living room. Again love the shutters!


Clutter free and clean kitchen- Love it!


I think this was a night shot of the master bedroom. I really like how this turned out.



I hadn't put up the picture over the bed when I took this picture but it still looks nice.



This is the girls room. I need to take more of their room- this one doesn't do it justice. It's a hard room to get it all in one picture.

Yes there are a few things out of place that need to be put away which we have done. We've gotten into a routine of cleaning up immediately and before walking out the door I make sure the house looks like the model homes- or at least I do my best to keep it that way. With four kids it's really tough! We really hope it sells quickly so we can move into a house that has more room for the kids to play inside and out. I'd personally love to leave out my sewing machine so I can improve my skills there! I still have a quilt to finish that I started about 18 months ago!

Boxes

So......life is always super busy with four young kids, Josh teething & walking= not sleeping at nights(therefore neither is mom), having a busy calling (YWP), and Spencer working about 70 hours a week. Anyways on top of that we decided its time to move so we've been working really hard on the house to get it ready to sell. This included packing, and a lot of it! I packed everything in the house that we don't use on a daily basis or weekly basis. Its so nice to have nothing to clean up!! I packed 80% of the kids toys and all our fall/winter clothes. Too bad its still cold here! Here are some pictures of what we've been doing for the past few weeks:

boxes and lots of stuff- Spencer took about three truckloads

Avery and Spencer carrying a box upstairs- we're using an empty bedroom at my in-laws.

See our "storage room" just a little at a time.

Jake loves to get down and dirty with dad and the mulch


And there's Emily right in there with the boys. She unfortunately got hit with a small shovel twice. Once above her right eye then on her left eyebrow about an hour later. Poor baby!

Avery's Baptism

Avery had the most beautiful and wonderful day Saturday January 9th. She made the decision to be baptized and asked her dad to baptize her and Grandpa Wayne to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She made all the decisions on the program too. She asked me to give the talk on baptism and Grandma Christie to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. She chose the songs and Lexie for the opening prayer and Laura for the closing prayer. It was amazing!


A quick family photo before the baptism started. It had been an insane week with Satan working so hard to get us fighting and throwing all kinds of obstacles in our way to delay this wonderful day. We discussed it late one night with a meltdown in progress and Avery really understood why things were pretty tough. We decided to fight back with love and stick together. It worked and we made it. She was super excited to be baptized, as were we all.



I went with a white dress theme and had Avery's blessing dress displayed by the programs. I had a lot of fun doing all this. This was the hardest because I didn't know what to do really. I had sick kids, a sick husband, Josh's first birthday(we plan on celebrating this in a few days! But need to get him feeling better first!) and my birthday. We had dr. visits involving shots and after a ER visit my car died in the parking lot attempting to pick up meds for Josh. It was a computer issue with the car which is usually pretty costly but it only cost an arm. Ha! Ha! It all worked out in the end and like I mentioned earlier Satan worked really hard on us!


This is the table with a Baptism Book I put together for Avery that I found on sugardoodle and the dress cookies I had so much fun making.


A close up of the cookies. I made almost 60 cookies and they didn't quite turn out the way I wanted them to but wasn't about to start all over again.


I wanted Avery to have a cookie bouquet of her own so I put 8 of them in a vase just for her.

Loving the family so much. I'm so proud of the example Avery is to her brothers and sister. Emily talks about getting baptized a lot now. She gets it and although she's a fireball she still has her heart in the right place and prays to get baptized like Avery. She's so sweet! I love my girls!

Had to get a shot with my favorite big girl! Such a happy day!

I love this picture of Spencer with Avery! I have to get this framed! What an angel!

I actually took this before she changed into her white baptism dress. She was so excited and nervous! We all were so happy!

I was elated when we were getting there and our very best friends arrived when we did. Avery and Emma met about five years ago and were inseparable! It devastated us when they moved two hours away three years ago. Of course Elena and I just hugged and cried! I miss her so much! Avery and Emma on the other hand had that awkward shyness. Although they don't see each other as often as we'd like they are still best friends. They have the best friend necklaces; Avery has "Best" and Emma has"Friends". I love seeing these girls together!


This is a cute picture of Spencer and Josh. He'd been sick for about three weeks and was on a second round of antibiotics for an ear infection from the runny nose and stuffiness he'd had for a while after his high fever. He's finally doing better!


This is an unimportant work in progress picture of my cookies. It was fun but I'd definitely use a different frosting.

Bath Time

So I'm still playing around with taking lots of pictures of my kids and these are some of my favorites. Who doesn't love bath pictures? Well, ok some bath pictures aren't so cute....but these are really cute!

Happy Josh! He's so little. At 10 months he weighs 16 pounds; he's not even on the charts when we go to the dr.


Love this picture of him playing in the water! Big 'ol cheesy smile!


Splash! Splash! Splash!
Lovin' the water!


This picture's cool with the water in mid splash. We must have gotten back from the dr at Jake's 6 year visit, Josh got his 2nd flu shot you can see the band aid on his thigh still.

This was my favorite and is currently the background on our computer. When the kids see it they say "Awww, look at Josh! He's so cute!" This is one spoiled boy! Maybe spoiled with love from us all- and there's never too much love right? (cheese cheese cheese.....)