Merry Christmas!

I am sure the next 3 days are going to fly by, so I wanted to take a few minutes to send Christmas wishes from our family to yours! I hope that each of you has a wonderful time celebrating the holiday with family and friends. My prayer for all of us is, that in the excitement of gifts and food and fun, we will be able to take a few minutes to remember and reflect on what this special holiday is all about. May we find a way to share the love of Jesus Christ with those we come into contact with during the holidays and in the year that follows!

Merry Christmas!

The Allreds.....2009
Alex - age 6
Emily - age 3

Charlie the Elf

We have a new "family member" this Christmas Season.....meet Charlie the Elf! Charlie arrived at our house last week with a copy of the book Elf on the Shelf just for Alex and Emily. The first job Alex and Emily had was to name our elf. After much discussion they decided on Charlie. Did you know that Charlie is in the Top 5 of Elf names....who knew? Charlie has stirred up much mischief at our house over the last week, but his nightly reports to Santa at the North Pole have kept the kiddos on their toes as far as behavior goes! Charlie first showed up in our kitchen basket, and has since made appearances on our Christmas tree, in the kids' bedrooms (he built an elf-mobile out of Alex's LEGOS in his room, and made a mess in Emily's dress- up clothes). Sunday, he made his biggest mess yet by digging into the cereal box (Lucky Charms, no less....what else would an elf eat?) and leaving a cereal mess all over the kitchen floor and table. He is hanging out in a Christmas Stocking today. The kids wake up each morning searching the house to find out what kind of trouble Charlie may have stirred up while they were sleeping. They are already sad that they will have to tell Charlie good-bye on Christmas Eve, since he will leave with Santa on Christmas Eve! Charlie has been a great addition to the Allred Family Christmas Tradition!

School Christmas Program

Alex peformed in his first school Christmas Program last week! He even had a special duet part with a little girl in his class! He did a great job! We were super proud of him and had fun watching him sing with all the other kindergartners!

Santa Pic 2009

Today was the big day..... the day for our annual Santa Picture! Emily and Alex were both excited and Emily was pretty certain that she was going to walk up to Santa, hop on his lap, tell him her wishes, all without crying. This would be a first for her! We were first in line....Alex walked right through the gate without any hesitation and Emily immediately put a death grip on my leg. So much for her bravery! In a few seconds I put her on Santa's lap for the obligatory picture. Thank goodness you can't see me in the picture, but I was to her immediate right. BUT, the most exciting part of all of this is that I have a picture of Emily with Santa and she is NOT crying! It's not her most genuine smile, but I will take it! Alex is an old pro at talking to Santa and he was excited to get one last chance to whisper his wishes in Santa's ear before he begins his big flight on Christmas Eve! It is so much fun to see their excitement as Christmas nears!



Alex and Emily, Christmas 2009
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Trip, part 2

Boone, NC : December 2009

Christmas Tree Trip

The first weekend in December our family took a weekend trip to Boone, NC. We had SOOOOO much fun! We had been to Boone a couple of years ago with friends from church, but this year it was just the 4 of us who made the trip. We left on Thursday afternoon after school and drove up to Boone. By the time we got there, it was really, really cold and we were beginning to believe that the weekend forecast of snow might be a reality. We spent all of Friday driving through the mountains admiring all of God's beautiful creation. We were on several 2 lane winding mountain roads. The higher up the mountain we went, we found snow on the mountain tops! It was beautiful. We visited the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis and loaded up on candy from the candy store. We had lunch at a cafe in Banner Elk, made a pit stop on the side of the road to take some pictures of a beautiful waterfall, went to The Blowing Rock where Alex and Emily tried out their rock climbing skills (I tried not to watch) and then finished up our night with all kinds of good food at the Daniel Boone Inn. We woke up on Saturday morning to snow falling. The kids were beyond excited. We left our hotel and made our way back up the mountain to the RRR Christmas Tree Farm where we picked out a beautiful tree that we put on our front porch! It snowed the whole time we were looking for our perfect tree! We were completely frozen by the time we had our tree cut down and tied to the top of Ryan's Tahoe, but we went back to the hotel, changed clothes, warmed up, and headed home! It was a great trip and I hope we have a chance to do it again some time! There were lots of good memories made on this family trip!

Emily turns 3!

I cannot believe that my baby is 3 years old! But she is! Yesterday was her birthday...I know, those of you who actually read my blog are amazed that I am posting something in a timely fasion and not months late! We had a great day celebrating! We rented a bounce house for the occasion and for the first time Emily wanted to invite "Fwends", for all you non toddler speaking people that means "friends" to her party! We had several little friends from church that showed up for the occasion along with lots of family! The funniest part of the whole day had to be when we sang Happy Birthday to Emily. I don't know if we sounded that bad or what, but she started crying! I think she was a little bit overwhelmed with so many people singing to her and was a bit embarrased! At any rate, it made for some great pictures....check out photo #2 below. Mommy came to her rescue and held her hand and even blew out her candles for her! Needless to say even with a few tears we had a great day and Emily recovered quickly and was more than happy to open gifts and entertain the crowd! Emily just came upstairs as I was typing this. I asked what her favorite part of the day was and I quote, "Bouncing in the bounce castle." It was a day fit for the little princess that she is!

Halloween '09

We had a great Halloween! Alex wanted to be an "army man" and Emily found a Curious George costume in a catalog that she liked. It was an easy year for Halloween costumes! The kids both racked up on lots of goodies that they are still munching on! We will probably still have Halloween candy left at Christmas time. Alex is giving super cheesy grins in these pics, but I can't blame him....he had a virus on Halloween weekend. I gave him some Children's motrin before heading out to trick-or-treat to try and combat his fever. "Army man" was going to have a serious melt down if I had told him he couldn't go trick or treating! He survived the virus and trick-or-treating!

More birthday pics

Alex turns 6!

Can you believe my baby is six years old? I cannot believe it at all! But at the end of September Alex turned 6 years old! Alex wanted to have a LEGO party this year. At first we were going to have a LEGO party at our house, but them Alex started listing off who he wanted to come to the party. When he got to boy #9, I said, "I don't think so." We went to plan 2: The LEGO store at Concord Mills in Concord, NC. We told Alex he could pick 3 of his friends to go with us (that's how many would fit in the car with us) and we would go to dinner have cupcakes and then go to the LEGO store for an in-store party! It was awesome! Alex picked a Star Wars LEGO theme and the boys built a clone walker lego machineThe boys had a great time and it was so easy. The hardest part of the trip was being the outnumbered female for the hour long drive up to Concord and back home on a Friday night! : ) Then the week following Alex's birthday, we had our family over to the house for a family get together. Celebrating with family and friends was so much fun! And Alex was thrilled.....I think every gift he opened was a set of LEGOS......he and Ryan built new sets for at least 2 weeks following his birthday! His train table has officially been converted to a LEGO table. He builds all sorts of cars, buildings, airplanes, and anything else his imagination can think of! Here are some pics of my big baby boy.

Beginning of School

Alex's first year of school is going great! He loves it and he has adjusted well to being at a new place and even having mom around all the time! He got his first report card this past week.....he has no clue what a report card it, but basically he is your average kindergartner who is doing a great job learning all that his wonderful teacher is teaching him. He and I have both adjusted to having the other one around...he knows I pretty much ignore him when he comes to library and is always saying mama, so he has gotten pretty sly and now calls me Mrs. Allred if there is something he really feels the need to tell me! It is pretty funny! His favorite part of Kindergarten besides recess and PE is Writer's Workshop. I never would have imagined Alex would love to write, but he is doing an awesome job writing and illustrating books every week. He gets to choose the topic of each book and they have ranged from stories about going boating with dad to more nonfiction books on Water animals, or African animals. He also has stories on Star Wars and Monster Trucks!

We are so proud of him and cannot wait to see what else he accomplishes this year!

Playing Catch-up as Usual

Well, I can't seem to keep up my blog as of late...... Things are a little hectic around here and everytime I think I might have time to catch up this blog, other stuff keeps popping up. Things at church have kept Ryan hopping the last 3 months and school stuff always keeps me busy. Not to mention soccer games for Alex and chasing Emily around wherever we are! So, I guess I am going to do a blog info dump this afternoon and try to catch everyone up on the last 3 months. I promise to try and do better at this blogging thing as we head through the holiday season! I love reading everyone else's blog and always feel bad that I've left mine sitting for so long! So here goes....the Allred Catch-up since August.

Boating

One of the highlights of our summer is being on the lake in the boat. This year we have had lots of fun because Alex has been trying out skiing! He is so close and today was probably his best effort yet! He was up out of the water and let us drag him a bit before he turned loose and fell! Here are a few pics from one of our recent outings!

Kindergarten here we come!!!!

Alex then....

Alex now...

It is hard to believe that in 2 weeks I will have a child old enough to start school. I cannot believe that 5 years has already flown by so quickly. It truly does seem like yesterday that Ryan and I were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Alex! We have not had one dull moment since he came into the world! He is a super sweet boy, who is wild and rambunctious at times, but he loves life, loves people, and has approximately 1 million questions that he wants answered in 1 millisecond! He likes to try new things, but he wants to be great at whatever it is immediately....a quirk he got from both me and his dad. We are going to have to work on that one...you don't get it right the first time, every time! He is very competitive (another inherited trait, I am afraid)! All I have to do is tell him I am timing him and anything gets done quickly! He is trying out the world of soccer and baseball and seems to love both! I am hoping that he will pick one someday so that we are not running around like chickens with our head cut off trying to get from one sports practice to another!

I know that when kids get ready to start to Kindergarten, parents are filled with all kinds of emotions! Since I teach school, I have seem many of those emotions play out year after year on the first day of school. Some are excited and send their kids in with hugs and kisses, others linger outside the classroom door to see how their child will do once inside, others are crying for days leading up to the first day of school and have their kids so freaked out that mom is crying all the time that they spend the whole first day or two in tears as well, some don't care one way or another, they are just glad to have some free babysitting for the next 7 years of their kids' life, and then there are those who I have probably had the most contact with.....the ones who refuse to let go of their sweet baby and let them go in their classroom so they hang out in the classrooms, the hallways, and anywhere else they can find a spying point to watch their kid. I have seen those the most because they are the ones that I am usually trying to help get back out the school door to their cars and off school property until dismissal time!

Now though, it's my turn...what kind of kindergarten parent will I be? Granted, my view point is a little different. I have been surrounded by the school world my whole life. My mom is a teacher, I am a teacher, and Alex will be starting Kindergarten in the school where I work. I have moments when I watch Alex do something or say something and I do get quite teary-eyed that my first baby is growing up, but come August 19th I want to be the mom that sends him into his classroom excited with hugs and kisses (more likely it will be high-fives because he probably want let me kiss him in front of people...we can take bets on that part and I will let you know how it goes!) encouraging him to do his best and be his best with the talents and gifts God has given him! I'll let you know how it goes!

My prayer has been and continues to be that God gives Ryan and me the wisdom we need to give Alex the best opportunity to become the man God wants him to be! Every day is a new adventure and I am sure there will be many new ones as we face the real world @ school!

Just a side note: Because I do actually have to work the first day of school, and that usually means I end up directing CRAZY parent traffic for at least an hour and a half (because the parents who are so happy school has started won't leave), Ryan is actually going to bring Alex to school and do the whole drop-off routine! So it may be August, 20th that I have to be the mom who sends him off with hugs and kisses! Does that mean I can cry like a baby on the 19th? I guess I could, but I doubt it! I truly cannot wait to see how Alex embraces school, friendships, and dealing with his mom "always being down the hall! There will probably be many more blog posts to come about what happens when your kids goes to the same school where you teach! Good idea?.....we will have to wait and see!

Pardon my Venting....

Since I have been doing major blog catchup over the last few weeks, I have become quite irritated at the picture import feature in blogger. Has anyone else had issues with it? It never imports my pictures where I want it to...I place my cursor in the location where I want the photo and then once imported it always posts the pictures at the top of the page. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I like to post my text first and then pictures, not the other way around. It has taken forever to then move all my pictures where I want them. I am wondering if there is a quicker way to upload my pictures. Any ideas? Thanks for letting me vent! : )

Celebrating Ryan

July 28th was Ryan's birthday! The kids could not wait for him to get home so we could have dinner and then do the most important thing you do on birthdays.....EAT CAKE!!!! And his was one of the best kinds....an ice cream cake! Even presents come secondary to the birthday cake in their minds! We had fun celebrating what a great dad and husband he is!