Happy January Birthdays 2011

Spencer started somewhat of a tradition: doughnuts for birthday mornings. The kids love it! I refuse to eat it. He's sweet though trying to find a "healthy" doughnut. I'm sorry but there's no such thing.

So Avery requested to eat at her favorite place: The Olive Garden. So we made it and enjoyed every bite.

The girls were occupied with coloring the kids menu.

While Josh was busy taking out the sweetners and putting them back in. Whatever keeps them quiet and busy.

I had to include this picture of Josh. I'm considering making it sepia or black & white.

On her birthday she gave her Aunt Heather a foot massage using her new lotion. She even put the shower gel and lotion in my bathroom for me to use one night. She's a keeper I tell ya!

Avery loved opening her presents. Grandma & Grandpa Allred came over with Heidi, Heather, and Stephen, Heather's fience'. She sleeps with her Unicorn pillow pet every night and loves to take pictures with the camera. Thanks Grandma Kathy for the pink camera!

I thought this was cute of her! She's so pretty and grown up looking in this picture.

This one too!

I had to get a picture of Josh playing with his trains. See those lips making the "choo! choo!"

You don't get very many opportunities to get a picture of these two sitting down and relaxing. So for the record, they do relax- sometimes.

Singing Happy Birthday to Avery. She requested brownies instead of cake for the second year in a row. Mint brownies, that is.

Avery loves her birthday being on January 1st. We've tried to make it exciting for her with all the fireworks done at midnight and all. I can't believe she turned 9 years old. I suppose it just goes by too quickly for me though. She's been wearing my socks for a year now and is looking forward to me washing a particular white sweater because it shrinks a bit each time so she can have it. She walks around in my shoes and my jackets. I let her wear one to church one Sunday- the sleeves were about 4 inches too long but everywhere else fit. She loves anything girly and feminine.

She is still my best helper and wonderful example to her younger siblings. I feel bad at times comparing them to her in my head. Although I think, "why can't you do ______ like Avery" it very rarely comes out of my mouth. She loves school and does very well. She loves to read! and already has quite a collection of books in her room. I got her Anne of Green Gables, since we had recently watched the series. She said she'd read it over the summer. She is my shy girl, but loves to have fun, and make new friends.

I have a new toy that was a Christmas, birthday, Valentines, anniversary, etc gift. Spencer got me a Nikkon 3100. I love LoVe LOVE it! I really want to learn how to take better pictures and it certainly helps to have a wonderful camera. The kids grow up so fast and I feel like I've missed so many opportunities to capture the moment by not taking pictures. With Avery, I took a lot of unnecessary pictures. With Jake I used the camera from my phone which produced little square pictures you can hardly see. With Emily I feel like I've taken a few pictures but I really have been busy with three. So adding Josh, ummm yeah, I'm lucky if I get some for the major events like Christmas & birthdays. Having this new "toy" though is great and I love being able to take great pictures. Now I need to decide on a photo editing software.

Oh and turning 35 is just another day for me.

But turning 2 is really fun for Josh! For months now he's been telling me he needs to go potty and I've been the one dragging my feet- I'm not ready to deal with it all! He's been doing really well overall and I'm starting to kick it into full gear now that Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays, and Spencer's arbitration is all over. Yeah, it's really been THAT long!

Josh is all boy, but not as rough as Jake and Emily, even though she's a girl- she got stitches at this age! Josh loves to play with cars, trains and firetrucks. He loves Thomas the train and anything with firetrucks! He talks SO much and understands almost everything. He loves to know where everyone is: Avery at school. Jacob at school. Emily at school. Daddy at work. or Daddy sleeping. He's a great helper too. He's great a cleaning up when you ask him to. He's a sweet boy and I can't believe he's getting so big.





Josh loves Thomas the train. Mom is quite the bargin shopper and found a great deal for a set of tracks.



I had to get my little boy a firetruck too. I'm not sure who plays with this more, Jake or Josh. Probably Jake since he seems to put it away aka hiding it.

Emily was really excited when I was opening my gifts. I do love the gummy colas- its one of my weaknesses. Sooo good!

I had to include these pictures of Josh when we sang Happy Birthday to him. Please don't mind the appearance of the cake. With arbitration so close, my mind was elsewhere. Plus I only had like 10 minutes to assemble it, frost it and attempt to make it somewhat presentable. I did a terrible job. Oh well!





So adorable and he blew the candles out all by himself! What a big boy he's getting to be! Sniff. Sniff.

Family Pictures

It's always an adventure taking family pictures.

It was even more adventureous- is that a word? taking family pictures with 5 more kids around. I actually think it helped them to smile and behave so they could have fun after!

Merry Belated Christmas!

Christmas for 2010 was great. We stuck with our traditional Christmas Eve at our in laws home with a big dinner and gift exchange. The kids bring a toy that is in good condition they want to exchange. And the adults do a white elephant exchange. One year it was a live lobster! So some of us are a little nervous about what could be lurking in the "gift."

Here are some pictures of our Holiday celebrations:

All the grand kids that live in Texas reenact the Nativity every year. This year Lexie was Joseph and Emily was Mary. This picture is super cute of "Joseph and Mary."

Christmas morning was great with the kids. Spencer had to go to work at noon but I continued the celebrations with a great ham dinner and all the sides.

Our Christmas tree before it was invaded by excited children.

Santa was a good boy and ate his cookies and drank his milk. He left a note for the kids telling them to Always Remember that Jesus is the reason we have Christmas, and to be good. It had been a rough month with lots of teasing and fighting so they almost were put on the naughty list.

I made sure to feed the kiddos before breaking into the stockings and presents. It was also a stall tactic to let Dad sleep a bit more too.

After a waffle I couldn't keep Josh away from his "firetruck" any longer so I told Spencer that it was almost 9 am so he HAD to get up.

We open stockings first and I love how Avery tries to avoid looking at the camera- just like Mom!

Emily going through her stocking gifts and loving her new pink poodle she named Cupcake.

Jake loving his Transformer walkie talkies.

Harley didn't know what to do with his gift from Santa. I think he eventually buried it in the back yard. I never saw him with it for more than 10 minutes and he did some digging outside. I'm looking forward to seeing him chew on it this summer when he decides to dig it back up.

This has been the prized gift. A pop up Firetruck. All four kids get in it and walk it around like they are going to a fire. I have a super cute picture:

I finally found Avery's pink boots. She's been asking for these for two years now and I FINALLY found them. Most of the Academy's were out of them and wouldn't get very many in the next few weeks. A lady had called the day before to put them on a 24 hour hold but she never came to get them and I snatched them up as soon as they were shipped to the closest store. Oh, the things we do for our kids! I am so glad I did- she wears them ALL the time!

It looks like Avery's pushing Emily away but she wasn't. Sisters gotta hug!

Josh got a pair of boots too although his were two sizes too big. It was so funny to watch him walk in them. He had to really stick his legs out.

Josh also got a toy tool set. Yes, he likes to watch Handy Many- I'm telling ya, he's all boy!

Emily got a pair of pink boots also. It was the year of Christmas boots! Spencer already had a pair and mine were the warm soft kind of boots. The boys and girls both got nearly matching boots. It will be a super cute picture of shoes when I get them all together, even if Josh's are too big.

Houston Fire Fest

I should have posted this back in early October when we actually went to the Fire Fest but got "busy" with I don't know what.
Last year Heidi and I went together with the kids. She came to visit from Idaho and we had such a great time!
This year Spencer was again working so I braved it solo. It was a lot of fun and we all wore our matching Jahnke Fire shirts. I must admit I was a bit nervous about going solo. Two years ago, when the kids bounce house was blown over by Lifelight, we lost Jake for about 5 minutes. It was pretty scary but we were making sure our friends were alright since they were almost hit by the blown bounce house and Jake was looking at a Dalmatian he liked. The distractions hit at the same time and I'm glad we were able to find him!
This year we stuck together and no one was lost!

This was Josh almost the whole time. Enjoying the ride in the stroller.

Can you FEEL the heat from this oil rig fire demonstration? These demos get really hot even standing far away from them. Emily was hiding her head in my legs almost in tears to make the fire go away! I felt bad but kept explaining the firemen were there and would put it out. She did NOT like the fire. A month later and she still asks that our house doesn't catch on fire in her prayers.

Jake was so excited to be able "put out the fire" in the house. See the guy standing in the left of the picture? The guy in blue? Jake turned the hose on him while he was setting up the fake flames in the windows. I'm sure he appreciated it a little bit since it was pretty warm and he'd been standing there a while. I think I need to work on patience with Jake. He was just so excited to put out the fire!

And we have Emily waiting patiently for her turn to go into the bounce house. You know those inflatable big bounce things. When she was in there Avery & Jake watched her just stand in there. REALLY?! You asked like 10 times to go in the bounce house and you just stand there? I know she knows HOW to jump she gets in trouble for jumping off her bed occasionally.

I finally got a somewhat normal picture of Avery. I had to sneak this one. In the other picture of her she's acting like an elephant; all hunched over with both arms swinging- What is that? I asked her.

THIS is by FAR my favorite part of the Fire Fest! The Ladder Competition. It's a timed competition and two firetrucks come in from opposite sides and there's a small fire near the trees that whoever puts out first wins! It's so exciting to watch!

While this event was going on I found some friends to cut into line with to go up in one of the towers. So the kids were up in a tower watching- with the BEST view- the competition.

So this is Ladder 26. See the water all over? Yeah, the hose wasn't attached properly so I counted them out.

Boy was I wrong! While FF 1 was fixing the hose connection FF 2 was getting the ladder in the air and getting it angled in just the right spot then the next thing I knew......

FF 2 (or was it FF 3) was doing a little dance. So happy with the SUCCESS of winning the ladder competition! He was hooping and hollering and doing a little dance with his arms! Pretty cool- the competition, not the dancing of FF 2.

WAY TO GO Ladder 26! You put the fire out first!

This was the view that I had of my kids in the Tower. Julie Hunt took her two kids and my two kids. What a brave woman! Emily, Josh and I kept our feet planted on the ground. Safe and sound. I'm not one for heights. I always hated the Parachute ride at Knott's Berry Farm!

And down come the brave souls who dared to enter 18s Tower.

And back to the ground our brave children come; "That was so cool Mom! You should have come!"

The last fire of the day was the "house fire demonstration." I was a little worried about how Emily would react again but the kids climbed into a older firetruck that was displayed and watched the blaze from inside.

And the fire begins... Not too hot yet.

The fire got pretty big but was in the end put out by the wonderful Houston Fire Fighters. It was all great until this big smoke cloud came rolling towards us. There was no turning back as I called to the kids, "Let's GO!" It got us from behind and *cough*cough* cough* choke* "Mom! This stinks!" We smelled smokey until we had our showers a few hours later that night.

We had such a great time at the Fire Fest and look forward to going again next year. Hopefully Spencer will be there with us!