In search of the Perfect Chrsitmas Card Picture

Well, it's that time of year at the Allred house. An attempt to have a perfect Christmas card picture. All I have to say is Thank Goodness for digital cameras. I've been known to take 3 or more rolls of film in search of a good picture. That number would surely double or even triple now that there are 2 Allred children. Below are some of our first attempts. Will they ever look at the camera at the same time? Will Alex ever smile a normal smile? Will I ever get a picture where at least one of them does not have their finger in their nose? Stay tuned to see if any other picture perfect moments make the blog. And you'll just have to wait until the card arrives in the mail to see which perfect picture(s) makes the annual Allred Christmas card.

Turkey Hats and Indian Head-dresses

Here is a picture of Alex and Emily the day before Thanksgiving. They both came home with their very own preschool versions of Thanksgiving head gear!

Emily is 2!

Emily turned 2 on November 21st! She was all excited about having her Mickey Mouse birthday party! We are not quite sure why she loves Mickey so, especially since we haven't been to Disney yet and we've only watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse a handful of times, but she was very adamant about the fact that she wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party! All of our family came to our house to help us celebrate! It was lots of fun!
It is hard to believe that Miss Emily is 2 years old. The first few months of her life were so crazy as we packed up in Rockwall and made the move to South Carolina. I tell people often that Emily was a very easy, quiet baby. She was fairly content to sit in the bouncy chair and just observe life happening around her....I think that was God's gift to Ryan and me! I think he knew we wouldn't be able to handle a high strung baby in the midst of our move!
However, the laid-backness from her baby days are gone now and she is a very demanding, outspoken 2 year old (That's the nice way to say she is HIGH maintenance)!! She absolutely loves life and keeps us laughing. She talks non-stop! For those of you that think Alex talked a lot when he was little.....it doesn't even compare to Emily talking!
We wouldn't know what to do without her!

Alex's Thanksgiving Feast!

I'm still playing catch-up on posting pictures. These are from Alex's Thanksgiving Feast on Monday. He is 3rd from the left on the bottom row.

Fall Leaves

These pictures were taken around our house. Unfortunately these pics don't really do the fall colors justice!

Halloween Pics

Here are my 2 favorite Halloween Tigers! Alex helped Ryan carve our pumpkin this year. Didn't they do a good job!

Blog Catch-up

Somehow I managed to miss posting anything most of this month. I even skipped posting Halloween pictures. So, I am going to play a little catch-up and post some pictures and fill in some of the details from October and November.

Basically we have had a great fall! The weather has been great and the leaves have been beautiful. We have had lots of fun watching the leaves change colors and then fall off the trees. Many of the roads around Rock Hill are covered in leaves that blow all over the place when you drive through them. I had forgotten how much I love this time of year in this area.

For Halloween, Alex and Emily were my 2 favorite tigers! Alex was a Clemson Tiger Football Player, and Emily was our #1 Tiger Cheerleader! Emily loves her cheerleader outfit and asks frequently if she can wear her "tiga skut"...that's Emily speak for the skirt that goes with her cheerleader outfit.

This past Saturday Alex, Ryan, my sister, Brooke, and I all headed to Clemson for the Homecoming Ballgame. It hit me the middle of last week that this year was my 10 year College reunion. Yikes I feel old! The day was beautiful. It had rained much of last week and we were a little worried about the weather, but it ended up being a great, cool, crisp, football weather kind-of-day. And to top off the great day of walking all around Tiger Town, the Tigers pulled out a super win against Duke!

Now, I know that was brief, but I think I am caught up on most of the details from the past month. We are now very quickly headed for the holiday season! We had our first taste of Thanksgiving today at Alex's Thanksgiving Feast. Alex's class along with the other three 4K classes performed several songs and poems about Thanksgiving and then we got to eat a very yummy Thanksgiving meal with Alex! Ryan and I both enjoyed it and were very thankful we got to be there for Alex's program! This weekend is Emily's 2nd birthday. My baby is growing up! I will post pictures after the party!

Soccer Season

Alex participated in his first round of organized sports this fall. We signed him up for an indoor YMCA league. Honestly, I was a bit selfish in how I chose which league to sign up for.....this one lasted for 7 weeks and was only 1 afternoon a week. It sounded like a good deal to me. Alex gets a chance to try out something new, but yet we weren't pouring a whole lot of time or cash into it if it ended up not being his "thing". We had a great time! One of his little buddies from church also signed up to play so they were on the same team. I know I am a proud mama and everything, but I have to admit...Alex is a pretty good beginning player. Now, I will admit, this league didn't do much in the way of teaching the basic rules of soccer. The goal was to get the kids all running in the same direction towards their goal and try to score without anyone getting injured! We had one week where 2 of our goalies were taken out by flying balls. Alex is a smart boy.....after that game he told us he did not want to play goalie, and he didn't for the entire 7 weeks! However, he became very good at playing defense! And he is a fast runner! I think we are probably onto something a little more involved next time around. He says he wants to play soccer outside next time. If our schedule works out he will probably go to a soccer day camp in the summer and then we will move on from there. So, at least for 7 weeks this fall, I was in a brand new category...."soccer mom"! Alex may give t-ball a try this spring, but for right now we are taking the rest of the fall and winter off from our sports adventures. For now, those will take place in the backyard and the playroom at home!

Bye-Bye Paci

Well, Emily has bid farewell to her paci! She has been without the paci for 2 weeks now. She had only been using it during naptime and at night for at least 6 months. But 2 weeks ago, we took it away for good! I thought I had let her keep it a lot longer than I did with Alex. But when I started looking back at Alex's baby stuff I realized that I took his away at about this same time. I just took it away....cold turkey! Emily adjusted fairly well. She did shed a few tears when it was time for a nap or bed, for the first few days, but she has recovered nicely! We told her teacher at her preschool that we had taken it away and they made the one at school magically disappear as well. They said she did great....maybe the crying at home was more for my benefit than anything! : )

So, I guess we are one step closer to officially not having a baby anymore! The paci is gone....now, on to potty training. YIKES....that is going to have to wait until school is out and mommy and Emily have several days at home together

Emily & Her Paci - February 2008

31 Days...

Our church started a new 5 week series this past Sunday. "31 Days to Live... Life is Short, Make it Matter" This past Sunday's message was a challenge to all of us to prepare for the next 4 weeks...... let's live the 31 days of October as if they were our last. For some reason, this sermon series seems to be challenging me (in a positive way) more than others. I have tried to come up with reasons why: 1. It is a hard concept to try and think of your days as numbered. For so many of us, we just expect life to keep going until we are really old, wrinkly and gray. 2. Ryan and I have seen this past year just how short life is when we attended the funeral of our college and seminary friend, Michael, who lost a 2 year battle to melanoma cancer. and 3. I am such a planner....I like knowing what's happening and when and what to expect and how I plan on getting from point A to point B. This sermon series is just another reminder of the fact that no matter how much I plan, I am SOOOOO not in control.

Chris, our pastor, gave us several things to do and think about as we go through this series:
1. Commit to memory Psalms 39:4-5
2. Make a list - if you knew, for whatever reason, that you had 31 days left, what would you want to do. Cross through any on your list that are not feasible for you to do during this month (like quit a job), but if there are some things that you can do during the next 31 days, then do them now. Don't wait until your days are numbered.
3. Commit to be in the moment....wherever you are, Be All There!
4. Embrace Christ....if you don't know him as your Savior and Lord, now is the time to seek that relationship. Everything that matters flows out of your relationship with Him

So, as I go through this month, the questions I keep asking..... What really matters? What is most important?

Our church has a big sign out front advertising this new series. Many people who work at my school pass by our church each day on their way to work. At the beginning of the week I had several people ask, "Hey, what is this 31 days to live" thing all about? It was a great chance for me to share what our church is talking about. Our church also passed out bracelets for us to wear during October as reminders of what matters most. As I was talking to co-workers, several made the comment, "I'd rather not think about things like that." I agreed that the idea is not a fun one to embrace, but as I have continued to think about this over the course of the week. I can't help NOT thinking about it. I so much want to one day, when it is my time, be able to cross into the gates of heaven ready to worship the King of Glory. Thinking through these things now I hope will prepare me for that day. I want to spend the next 31 days trying to grow in my knowledge of Him, pray for His guidance, and deepen my relationship with Him, so that no matter what happens, the most important thing, my relationship with Him is solid as a rock! And then I will be a little more prepared to celebrate life and family and friends no matter how many days I have left!

Any thoughts?

Alex is 5!

Well, we have a 5 year old. It is hard to believe that Alex is 5 years old. It seems like not that long ago we were excitedly awaiting his arrival, not having a clue what having a baby would do to our lives. Now, we don't remember much about what life was like before he showed up! And last weekend we celebrated his 5th birthday. If you read my previous post, you know that everything that was planned had to be revamped at the last minute due to really crummy weather here. But the party turned out to be great! I was tired once it was all over, but Alex had a blast and that was the most important thing! We had to cancel our bounce house rental due to the rain and a very, very mushy backyard. We moved the digging for dinosaurs game into the garage and I planned a few more dino games and then we had Alex's 2 favorite things....pizza and birthday cake! It was all "DINO-MITE"

Ideas, Ideas..QUICK!!!!!!!

Okay, here's what is happening. Today is Alex's 5th birthday...crazy I know! I will blog more about having a 5 year old later. Tomorrow is Alex's birthday party. We have had the whole thing planned for a while now. Dinosaur theme....dino bounce house rented...invitations sent.....cake ordered! Then this little tropical storm that is not really a tropical storm gets stirred up in the Atlantic right off of South Carolina. We have had 30 mile per hour gusts the last day or two and today it is POURING!!!!!!!!!! It is supposed to last all night and finally quit raining just in time for Alex's party. Problem one - You can't put up a bounce house with 30mph wind gusts. Problem 2 - our back yard is now soaking wet. The whole party was supposed to be outside. Problem 3 - I have around seven 4&5 year olds who will be at my house at 10:00 in the morning ready to party. I am having to replan the party NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, what ideas do you have? I just made a "Pin the Horn" on the Dinosaur Game. We already had plans to go "Digging for Dinos" in a swimming pool of sand. We will just move that to the garage instead of the backyard. So, what else do you have for me? Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Once our rainy day Dino Party is done, I will post pictures and give you a full update!

Emily Update

Emily is growing like crazy and talking like crazy too! She is lots of fun and many nights Ryan and I just shake our heads listening to the things she has to say. There are still times we don't understand everything she says and we both agree that is probably a really, really good thing! She has no trouble speaking her mind. Her favorite thing to say is "no, no". And typically "no, no" is paired with shaking her finger at whatever or whomever she is unhappy with! For the most part she is pretty laid back and happy. There are times when I start wondering where she is, and I will find her up in the playroom playing with something. That is where several of these pictures were taken. I found her laying in the bean bag feeding her baby. Such fun memories!

Sports Camp

Alex spent a week this summer at a Sports Day Camp. It was his first time to do anything like this. He was a bit nervous the first day because he didn't know anyone, but he quickly made new friends and had a BLAST! Each day the kids focused on a different sport....soccer, beach ball volleyball, basketball, and track and field. They learned some basics of each sport and then talked about how to be good sports and play together as teams. It was great and he is wanting to go back again next summer!

Future Clemson University Ultimate Frisbee Champ

Speed Racer!!!!!!!!!

More race action

End of week Awards Ceremony

Summer Memories

Well, Summer is officially coming to an end in the next few weeks and I thought I would do a quick summer recap and post some pictures that we've taken since June that have not been posted. We had a pretty laid back summer at home playing, but we did go to the beach back in June (see beach pics in an earlier post). One of our other favorite things to do is go out on the boat. We took several Friday or Saturday mornings and made the short trip to the lake to go for boat rides. Alex has begun to learn how to knee board this summer. We have pictures of him sitting on the board, but none of him actually being pulled by the boat yet....it's hard to take pics when one of us stays in the water with him, while the other drives, and yes, we just pray that Emily stays in the seat beside the driver and watches without moving! Both kids took swim lessons this summer. Emily LOVES the water and has NO FEAR! Her favorite thing to do is jump off the swim platform on the boat whether Ryan and I are ready for her to jump or not. Alex has definitely improved in his swimming this summer. He has the basics down....it isn't a pretty stroke, but he does pretty well at keeping himself afloat!