Have I been M.I.A.? Naahhh!

I had a friend ask me recently, "so what have you been up to?"

I didn't know what I'd been doing but I knew I had been busy. Does that mean I've been doing unnecessary things? I don't feel that they are unnecessary when I'm doing them!

It made me think what have I been doing to keep my head up when all I really want to do is go back to bed and pull the covers over my head and just sleep until Spencer gets his job back and a public apology from the city.

Here are a few of those things. And I'm posting this for myself so I know that I have been doing things.

This is my most recent project: painting the TX flag in the boys room. I did a post with more detail & pictures.

I made this nap mat for Emily's Pre-K. My first solo sewing project. Hopefully not my last.

I've been trying to take more pictures of the kids. I've wanted to play around with Photoshop Elements too but haven't yet. But I plan to.

I took the kids to the Fire Fest. We love going to this annual event! So much fun to see the fire demonstrations. I don't think I've posted this yet. I better get on it- maybe tomorrow.

I've also been doing a lot of reading. I read all three books in the Hunger Games series. I read The Help. The Shack. And I am currently trying to catch up on my Ensigns. I'm in August 2010 now.

I've been cooking a lot more too. I've been making our sourdough bread- although Costco's is better. For November I have the whole month planned for dinner. And there are at least two or three new recipes every week in addition to a weekly bread baked.

I'm attempting to keep up with four kids and their school schedules.

I was recently released from the Presidency in Relief Society. I helped plan the RS Meetings. I was only there for about three months.

Three mornings a week I ride my bike with Emily and Josh in a two seater bike trailer. We ride for almost three miles each day. They love it saying, "Good Morning!" to everyone we pass.

I think that about covers it. Like I said this post is more for me, so I know I'm doing something productive.

Preschool for Emily

For a long time I've been wanting to learn how to sew. In YW a few years ago we started a quilt class and I have 25 finished squares to quilt together. I chose three styles: log cabin, a star, and the 9 square. I probably didn't get the names right but oh well. I still need to finish that project.

Emily needed a nap mat for pre k and I thought it would be fun if I made one for her. It seemed easy enough and I found instructions online so I headed out to JoAnn's and picked out some fabric with Emily and started a new sewing project. This is what we chose to use:

I had already started sewing from this picture. It doesn't look terrible but it looks very homemade. Of course I see all the flaws. I left the bottom open, but sewed velcro to close it, to take out the pad so it can be washed. I originally had buttons to keep it closed when rolled up. But I also changed that to velcro because it would be easier for Emily to use herself.

So the finished product. I love the fabric! Emily carried it around most of Conference weekend. It was cute. Avery mentioned that she wanted one with bunnies on it- she LOVES bunnies! So I suppose that's my next project..... but until then here is a few pictures of Emily's first day of school.

She was so super excited to go to school! She'd ask me weeks before, "Mom, when do I start school?" "Not soon enough." I'd tell her. The night before she could hardly sleep she was so excited to go to school. Jake was excited for her also and he loves to watch over his sister- and partner in mischief. We see these two as Calvin and Hobbs.

On the way to school, Emily was telling me to just drop her off and stay in the car. She would walk to the door by herself. I told her since it was her first day of school I had to take a picture. Ok she says but don't walk in the door. I laughed and said I have to because I have to sign you into school. Oh, alright she says. She's so funny!

I had a hard time getting a good picture of her since she was so excited to go to school but this is one by the door. Oh my little Emily! You're growing up! Too quickly!

Courage to Stand Up

The past few months have been really stressful with our family. I'll post the newscast of the investigation that Spencer is involved in and has been causing so much stress in our family.



nbc: http://www.click2houston.com/video/24932595/



abc: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7657412



My favorite part in the abc release is when the mayor in recorded on camera saying: "If the firefighter who did this would stand up and acknowledge his action, we wouldn't be punishing two innocent firefighters, but we had to take a stand." Parker said.



So she's on record admitting she fired two innocent firefighters! What a crock! It makes me so mad that she has no problem with this. It not only affects the firefighter's career, but his family and his reputation!



I know without a doubt that Spencer is NOT involved in this in ANY way! I am so proud of Spencer and his decision to stand up to acting FC Rick Flanagan and not take the 60 day suspension with no appeal. If he did take the suspension he would be accepting guilt and it would stay on his record ALWAYS and would affect future promotions. This is wrong and we are going full force to fight this head on. We have most of the HFD supporting this decision which is great! This is the first that a firefighter has NOT taken the suspension. This again makes me proud of Spencer and his decision. He has too much honor, integrity, and courage to be blamed for something he did not do.



What I want to know is what does acting FC Rick Flanagan have to say about his terrible decision to fire two innocent firefighters. This was a racial issue and I'm sick of it all! I just hope this doesn't drag out for 6 months. Spencer loves his job and needs it back ASAP!

1st Day of School

So I'm trying to catch up on some of the events going on in the Allred home. School started 4 days ago and I can't tell you how grateful I am that summer is FINALLY over and the kids are back in school. Well summer isn't actually over but that the kids are in school. This has been a really tough summer for me! But I can actually feel my sanity coming back to me even after only a few days. I love school!

I took this picture of the kids walking down the driveway and off to school. You can see the cars parking along the street to walk their kids to school too. I love. love. love that we are so close to the school!

There has to be a together shot right?! Avery has grown up so much and I can't believe she's in 3rd grade! Jake keeps right up with her and he amazes me. I can hardly believe he's in 1st!

I think he was a little nervous in this picture! I still love it though! My boy's growing up but still attached. When I kissed him goodbye today he said, "Aww Mom! Do you have to kiss me in front of the carpool drop off!" All I could do is smile. He loves it deep down but has to keep up the tough guy image.

Jake did a great job taking this picture! What can I say about my Avery? She already made a new friend, Paige, on this day; I knew she would. I love this girl so much and she will never stop wanting the hugs and kisses! She's my modest, shy, girly girl and I love her to pieces!

Home Improvements

A few weeks ago this is what my bathroom looked like. Luckily it was only for a few hours. Our toilet had a small leak and so being the amazing handy man Spencer got a new toilet and replaced got rid of the old one.

He's great at fixing things in the house. We've just recently had to call out a repairman to fix the downstairs AC- it went out 44 hours ago. Yes, it's hot downstairs and I'm keeping track! I'm currently waiting for the repaiman to get here between now and the next 4 hours!!

This is my wonderful husband displaying all the wonderful new toilet parts on our bed. Nice place to display it all. Oh well at least it was the brand new toilet!

Is this kids for you or what!? Boxes are so much fun to play in- if you fit inside. Jake and Josh had so much fun playing in them.

It kept them busy and out of the way for a while. I actually had to tell them to NOT destroy the box until Dad said it was ok. They can get pretty rough with things- hence the Gorilla Glue that comes out a couple of times a week!

So the toilet was Spencer's home improvement and mine was the front door. We didn't mind it too terribly with the open glass looking straight into the house living on such a quiet cul de sac but at night it makes us a little too uneasy.

We eventually want to replace the whole front door but we're on a tight budget. So in the mean time, I heard about frosted spray paint. So I told Spencer about it and picked some up at Lowe's.

This is the result. I'm not 100% happy with it but at least it gives us some privacy until we can replace the door. I'm terribly picky about how uneaven it came out but what can I say, I'm far from an expert spray painter.

This is what you can see looking in- not a whole lot! My next project might be to paint the door black. I don't think Spencer will let me, and I'm ok with that. I have plenty of other projects to work on.

Emily's Haircut

I'm still not sure how I'm feeling about what I did to Emily's hair about a week ago. Her ends were so. dry. and I knew I had to at least trim them and decided to take a few inches off since it's been so hot here. Well I went a bit shorter- not taking into consideration her curls would make it shorter and that hair shrinks a bit once its dried. I like it though and she LOVES it; so that makes me happy. I just miss the Shirley Temple ringlets she'd get after her hair was wet and just dried naturally.

So this is an older picture, about 5 months ago to give some idea of how LONG it was.

I had her sit and watch a movie while I did the dirty deed. She did great sitting in this hard little chair watching "Thumbelina" I had actually already cut half of her hair before I took this picture but wanted to get a "before" picture.

This is the half I had already cut. Her baby curls! Her baby hair is all gone now so her hair is a lot like Avery's: tons of hair! I think the layers I put in took the longest. I was nervous the whole time though. I've done my boys with the clippers all the time but never a major cut like this on my girls!

I tried to style it a bit after I cut it so I just pulled the middle back a bit.

I think my favorite is the cheesy smile with the messy face. They were eating lunch and it's all over her face.

It's taking me a bit to get used to it but she loves it and she can still walk around with bedhead and get compliments on it. Not that I let her walk around with bedhead on a daily basis.....