2+2=4

2011!!!!!

2011-01-11T17:30:00.003-05:00

WOW! Christmas was a blast and we are very quickly flying through the month of January! The highlight of the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 has been SNOW!!!!! Pictures to come soon as well as highlight pics from Christmas!

The Days Before Christmas

2010-12-21T17:22:00.004-05:00

I truly believe that no one enjoys days off from work more than school teachers! I don't know why....but there is immense joy in knowing that I have time at home with MY kids for several days! Other parents are usually grumbling because their kids are going to be home and they have to figure out what to do with them for 2 weeks, but for me and my kiddos, those days are golden! I get to spend plenty of time with other people's kids and I love the time I have with just MINE!!! As my kids have gotten older the days and time at home with them is even better! We have so much fun just being together. Yeah...we do have some errands to run and things (like laundry and grocery shopping) that have to be done, but my children LOVE getting to spend half the day in their PJs. Alex thinks getting to eat breakfast in his pajamas is the best thing ever! And I must admit, waking up in the 7:00 hour to go to the gym is MUCH better than the alarm going off at 4:30 AM!!!

So, in our "days before Christmas" we have visited with Santa (see previous post), gone out to lunch, made and decorated Christmas Cookies, visited Gaffney to hear Gan and Mrs. Allison play their Organ/Piano duet of Christmas Music, and we have gone to see a movie! Here are some pics of our "Days Before Christmas"! I hope you and your family have a chance to enjoy your days before the big day!

A Visit with Santa

2010-12-21T17:18:00.003-05:00

Alex and Emily had a chance to whisper their Christmas wishes in Santa's ear yesterday at Carolina Place Mall! This is the first year that Emily did not show any signs of hesitation! No tears, no grabbing my leg, arm, hands, etc! A true Christmas Miracle! : )

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-21T17:01:00.004-05:00

I LOVE Christmas! Ask Ryan, he will tell you! When we buy houses, I always envision what it will look like at Christmastime. If I that it will look good at Christmastime then it might be the one for us! I bring out the Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving is over, and there is nothing better than lots of sparkly red and gold and silver decorations! And then we had kids..... and that makes Christmas even BETTER! We got our house decorated the weekend following Thanksgiving...partly because I wanted to get out all the Christmas stuff and partly because I knew if I didn't get it done before I went back to school, it might not happen at all!

So here is the Christmas decor 2010.... I don't have TONS of decorations but I do have visions of grandeur....but for now, I am more than happy with sparkly decor that I do have!

Emily is 4!!!!!!

2010-12-07T21:22:00.005-05:00

Can you believe that my baby is 4? Neither can I!!! But the week before Thanksgiving we celebrated Emily's 4th birthday... We have called her Princess Emily since the day we found out she was a little girl and she has completely lived up to those expectations (for better or worse)! So, it was not a shock when she told us she wanted her birthday party to be a Cinderella party. We celebrated with our family and had a blast! Emily is light and laughter to our days! She is silly and loving and drama queen all wrapped into one 4 year old blonde-headed, blue-eyed little body and we cannot imagine our life without her!

Emily and her Rapunzel dress!

Blowing out the candles on her Cinderella Doll Cake!

Her new big girl princess bike!

The look on her face when Ryan brought her Princess Bike into the family room!

Princess Emily....hands on the hips....eyes cut to the side!

Halloween 2010!!

2010-11-02T13:57:00.005-04:00

Here are some Halloween shots of my favorite pumpkins! Lucky for me this year both of them wanted to use costumes that were in their dress-up baskets! Emily chose to be Cinderella. She has been Princess Emily since the day she was born, so she wanted to put on the dress and sparkly shoes to prove it! And, Alex, of course could not resist being a Clone Trooper! I think he really wanted to wear the costume so that I would buy him the Clone Trooper gun to go with it! At first I told him he could carry his light saber, but then he informed me (in a tone that only says, duh, mom...how could you be so clueless) that Clone Troopers do not use light sabers. I am not sure how I have gone through life not knowing that one simple fact! : )That was my Halloween deal with them...once they both told me they wanted to use the costumes we already owned , I told them I would purchase the accessories.....soooooo the princess got her sparkly shoes and the Clone Trooper has the proper weapon. And they both had a blast trick-or-treating around our neighborhood!

Soccer Mom

2010-11-02T13:13:00.004-04:00

Alex and one of his buddies from school ended up on the same team. They are reviewing their game strategy before one game! : )

This is what I mean when I say Alex isn't into the game when he plays goalie! He;s watching the games on all the other fields around us.

Going after the ball!

And yes, this is what Emily does at the games. She is usually dirty from preschool and then she takes down her hair and creates Emily styles. And usually she dances around and sings to entertain herself and anyone else who might listen to her!

More action shots!

Good Game!!!! Great Season!!!

Alex has been playing soccer for several years now. However, this fall soccer season is the first time his games have been even halfway competitive. And guess what I found out..... "I am one of THOSE moms"! Yeah, you know the one...cheering, yelling, intense. The other moms are asking me the score because they haven't been paying attention. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised...I have been going to football games my whole life and love watching the game and all the yelling, competition, etc. I, however do not yell at refs or yell at the kids if they make a bad play. (I do have standards, you know!) I have on several occasions "encouraged" Alex to pay attention....especially when the coach has him play goalie. He absolutely hates playing goalie. Take a look at the pic above that shows Alex leaning against the goal totally unengaged in the game as the goalie. Now put him in as a forward or playing defense and he is all into it! It has been a fun season. Tonight is his last game. He says he wants to play baseball again in the spring, so for now, I can put away the yelling soccer mom, until she returns as the yelling baseball mom!

Alex's Birthday

2010-10-23T13:57:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe, but I am now the mom of a 7 year old. A month ago, we celebrated Alex's 7th birthday. When I think back to the day he was born, I don't think I ever imagined him actually being 7. At that point in time I was just so thrilled to have that little 7 lb. 1 oz. bundle in my arms that my thoughts really didn't go much further than cuddling him and feeding him and changing diapers. But wow, time flies and that baby is now 7 years old with a mind that thinks and wonders, and dreams, and a body that runs and jumps, and slides and a mouth that closes only for the hours that his eyes are also closed! : ) My prayer is that God will continue to grow Alex and draw Alex closer to Him with each passing day, that Alex will develop a heart and mind that stays focused on the things of God! And that God continues to grow me as the mom of a boy.....that I will know what he needs as well as the wisdom to say and do the right things at the right time.

For Alex's big day, we celebrated with a friend party at the bowling alley and a family party at our house. Alex wanted everything to be Clemson Orange....so we had a Clemson Tiger Football field cake at the bowling alley and then we had what else, but Tailgating Food with the family that night. It was a great day, and we were thankful to share it with so many friends and family!

Alex was super happy when he finally got a strike! It made the bowling birthday party even better!

Lake Pictures

2010-10-23T13:51:00.003-04:00

Lake Days

2010-10-23T08:43:00.003-04:00

Now that fall is setting in (although the weather here has been warmer than usual, and most days have not felt very fall-like) we have had to put our favorite summer toy away for the season....the boat. We had a blast out on the lake this summer. Alex continues to get the hang of skiing and towards the end of our boating season, Emily surprised us all with her announcement that she was going to try knee-boarding one day. And, she did!!!! We look forward to those summer Friday or Saturday mornings or summer evenings when the 4 of us can hop into the boat, find our favorite cove and spend time together laughing, splashing, and skiing!!! Ryan, of course, likes that time the most of any of us. And to make this year's boating season a little sweeter, he was able to do something he has wanted to do for a long time, he bought a "new-to-us" boat. The red Stingray, after 20 something years of faithful service was beginning to be a little less than faithful. So, Ryan started looking around and we said good-bye to the noisy, little red boat, and welcomed a Malibu skiboat to our family! I will admit, it was a lot harder than we thought to bid the red boat farewell, but we have LOVED our family time on the new boat!! There is more room and we don't have to worry quite as often about making sure we have an oar on board in case we need to row back to the boat ramp!

Cleaning up the "red boat" before selling it.

Getting ready to bring the "new boat" home!

Alex's 1st Day of School 2010

2010-10-23T08:25:00.005-04:00

Alex has just finished his 1st 9 weeks of 1st Grade. He has had a great start to his 1st grade year. He loves his teacher and his friends in his class. As a mom, and as a teacher, I could not be more thrilled with how much he is enjoying school. His reading ability continues to improve (and even though he won't admit it, I think he is actually enjoying the fact that he can read more things). He LOVES math and science and excels in both. And of course his favorite time of the day is recess where he can run and play with his friends.

My first grader....I can't believe he's already 1/4 of the way through the year!

I can't keep up! and God's Blessings

2010-10-23T08:05:00.003-04:00

Let's just be honest here....I can't keep up with everything. This blog is piece of evidence # 1!!! Summer ended and school started and someone still has not let off the gas pedal! In all of my 13 years of teaching (yeah...I did say 13. I am getting old!) I can honestly say that I do not think I have ever had a year as crazy busy as this one. And to be perfectly honest, I have yet to put my finger on why the start to this school year has been NUTS!!!!!!! Nevertheless, this blog along with several other things have been a little neglected over the last 2 months.

But as I sit here on Saturday morning, and listen to the sounds of my kiddos running around playing I can say that I am thankful even in the midst of all the craziness of schedules, school assignments, presentations, church work, meetings, soccer games, etc. As I have rushed through the beginning of fall trying to take one day at a time and on some days, one hour at a time, I have friends all over the place who are in the midst of all sorts of trials that are far worse than my crazy life! Currently I am receiving 4 Caringbridge updates via e-mail. If you aren't familiar with Caringbridge, it is a website that allows those in the midst of all sorts of medical needs, a way to keep friends and family up-to-date on the progress of a family member. I am blessed to call these folks friends and see how each family is handling their "medical crisis" with the help of friends and family and a loving God. And every time I get a Caringbridge e-mail in my inbox I am reminded of what a wonderful God I serve and how blessed I am. And I am also reminded of how selfish I am when I have a "bad" day and think that no one could have possibly had a worse day than me.

God has been with me each step of this crazy fall. And in the busyness of life I know that I have forgotten to take time to worship Him, praise Him, and allow Him to be at the center of every part of my day and my life and thank Him for the blessings he has given me. Will you join with me this week to truly be thankful for all the ways God has blessed you? And will you continue to pray for your friends and their needs as I continue to pray for the families in my life who have needs? And, if you have a minute, leave a comment and let me know what you are thankful for. When I hear other people talk about the ways God has blessed them it always reminds me of other things to be thankful for!

Other Summer Adventures

2010-07-28T15:14:00.001-04:00

Our summer has been fairly low-key! We have spent a lot of time at home and at the pool where we have a summer membership, but in addition to our beach trip, we have had a few other summer adventures! Alex went back to soccer day camp for a week this summer. And once again this year it was incredibly hot outside! But he loved every minute of it. I think he is going to play soccer again this fall. We also made a trip to Jacksonville to see Ryan's family right before the 4th of July. We got to spend a couple of days catching up with the Allreds and the kids were thrilled that they got to go on a boat ride in Granddaddy's boat and spend time with their cousins. We also had a chance to watch some Pre-4th of July firewors with Granddaddy and Nene before coming back home. Our other summer adventure was swim lessons. Alex is basically our resident fish...his lessons this year consisted of working on his freestyle stroke and learning to dive! I think he would live in the pool if we would let him. Emily, on the other had, is a different story! God bless our friend, Heather, who has done swim lessons for the kids the past 2 years. Emily went the first day, feeling very brave and bragging that she was not going to cry this year. I think that lasted for one lesson. By day 2, she was in complete tantrum throwing mode. All Heather wanted her to do was put her face in the water adn Emily was having NONE of that! I owed Heather a lot more than her money at the end of the week! She probably needed a huge bottle of Advil in order to survive Emily's 5 days worth of lessons. But I will say, that Emily has made major improvements after her lessons! She still doesn't like trying to swim without her swimvest and she still doesn't want to stick her face in the water all the time, but she is improving! I told Heather, after our week of lessons, that "Stubborn" should have been Emily's name. It isn't that she is scared of the water, she apparently just wanted to do it all in her own time! Lately Emily's favorite things have been jumping off the side of the pool and practicing using her arms and kicks with her swimvest on! Her face is going in the water more often, so hopefully by next summer she will LOVE swim lesson days! (I'm not betting any money on it, though!)

Soccer Camp

On the Boat with the cousins

Waiting on the Fireworks!!!!

Emily....will she swim, or won't she? Only time will tell! : )

A Few More Beach Pics

2010-07-28T14:49:00.002-04:00

Family Beach Pic 2010

The whole gang before dinner one night!

I think this is one of my favorite pictures that we took this year!

Beach Trip 2010

2010-07-28T14:42:00.001-04:00

We took our annual trip to the beach back in June! We went to Surfside Beach (just a little south of Myrtle Beach, for you non-SC folks) with my parents and sister! And as usual we had so much fun! Our week ended way too quickly....we always wish we had enough money to make our vacation 2 weeks, but I don't see that happening anytime soon, so we make the best of our 7 days! We are pretty low key beach vacationers. We really do like the beach and that is where we spend the majority of our days. Alex would be out on the beach at 7AM if he could get the rest of us moving that fast! We take our big tent and "stake our claim" on the beach each day. And we spend most of our time under that tent playing in the sand, enjoying frozen lemonade (from the poor girl who pushes the lemonade cart up and down the beach every day) and watching Alex and Emily run back and forth to the ocean to get the necessary amount of water needed for their daily sand creation! Emily told us on this trip that the frozen lemonade was her favorite part of the beach and that when she got bigger she was going to have that job! And because she said the lemonade was her favorite part of the beach, Papa (my dad) made sure she had one every single day (and the rest of us too)!

Our other beach adventures this year included the annual family putt-putt challenge! And of course, I won first place again this year! It is an honor to beat my husband, sister, and 2 kids every year. And even if I don't always win, I still claim to be the putt-putt queen every year! HAHA : ) We ate lots of seafood! We cannot take a trip to the beach without consuming lots and lots of shrimp and fish! We spent a day at Broadway at the Beach and we surprised the kids by letting them each build a new creation...Emily got to go to Build a Bear for the first time and Alex went to a place called Ridemakerz. Ridemakerz is similar to Build a Bear, but he got to make a cool car instead where he chose the body style, the tires, the rims, and all the mega car parts that make his car very cool!!!!!

Below are a few pics from our trip and I will post a few more in the next post....(my Picasa account is only letting me post 4 pics at a time.)

Playing in the ocean

We love Aunt Brooke!

Alex and Ryan after some wave action in the ocean!

Our beach tent dwelling for the week!

Almost Caught Up!!!

2010-07-26T10:18:00.002-04:00

Okay, so in about 25 minutes I think I have caught you up from February thru May! I still have most of the summer to go! For any of you that are on Facebook, you may have already seen some of these photos, but for those of you not in Facebook land hopefully you have a better idea of what has been happening with the Allred's during Winter and Spring! I am going to try and do better this school year at keeping up with this blog....maybe if I put it on my calendar every week it will actually get done!

More summer photos coming soon....hopefully later today! I want to be caught up with this before I start back to school in 2 weeks. ICK...did I just say 2 weeks......

Allred-Krick Memorial Day 2010

2010-07-26T10:12:00.002-04:00

We spent Memorial Day in Lexington, SC on Lake Murray with our friends the Kricks. Andrea and Kevin always graciously open their homes and their lake front to us. Our 2 kids have a BLAST playing with their 4 kids! Who knew a house with 6 kids and 4 adults could be so much fun! It is always a great time catching up with friends, playing in the lake and eating good food!

Kevin, Ryan and 4 of the kids tubing on the boat!

Krick #3 playing in the lake.

Krick # 3 and Allred #2 playing some music!

End of School

2010-07-26T10:07:00.000-04:00

Emily before her end-of-year performance! She was so excited to get to sing with her friends and share it with us!

Alex's last day of Kindergarten! He survived, I survived! I might blog more about our first year at school together after I get a few more pics posted!

Spring 2010

2010-07-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Easter 2010

My child who has more imagination than we know what to do with!

Alex played coach's pitch for the first time this spring. Daddy was an asst. coach!

Running the bases!

Spring Break

2010-07-26T09:55:00.000-04:00

Clemson Tiger Baseball Game

Greenville Children's Museum (thanks to Aunt Brooke for a FUN day!!!)

Winter Pics

2010-07-26T09:47:00.000-04:00

Here's what happened on snowy days this past winter.... Alex and Emily made "forts" with all their stuffed animals. I should have known something was up when they both were playing quietly upstairs for such a long time!

One of our many snowy days this past winter!

Well, hello there!!!

2010-07-07T16:04:00.002-04:00

Have you missed me? I apparently forgot about blogging over the course of the winter, but the Allreds are alive and well! And now that we are half way through the summer, I thought perhaps it was time to give the blog a little TLC!!!

Since I didn't bother updating through the winter and spring, here is the low down:

church
work
school
snow (we had more snow this year than I can remember in a long time)
church
work
school
spring break (We went to a Clemson baseball game, and to the Greenville Children's Museum)
church
work
school
Coach's Pitch for Alex
SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, are we all caught up? Hopefully your life is a little more exciting than ours! I will post some pics from Winter/Spring 2010 so you can see my kiddos. Who am I kidding! That is why I really do this....so I can share my 2 sweeties with whoever chooses to read about them!

Video of Alex Snowboarding!

2010-02-01T14:15:00.002-05:00

SKI TRIP!!!!

2010-02-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

Alex and Ryan made their way to Winterplace, WV this past weekend with some other friends for their first every boys ski weekend! Our good friend, Kevin Krick, called Ryan earlier in the month and threw out this idea of a boys ski trip to teach his oldest 2 boys how to ski. He wanted to know if Ryan and Alex wanted in too. Of course, the answer was yes and Ryan and Alex have looked forward to it fora month. After Alex's head injurt (See my last post) we didn't know if Alex could ski like planned, but all went well and he got to go tubing and try out snowboarding. Thanks to the Krick boys for being understanding about Ryan and Alex having to adjust the schedule due to "the head" and for inviting the Allred boys on this fun adventure! Alex is already wanting to know if they can go again next year! Here are some pics of Alex and his buddies. There is one of Alex and his best buddy of all, DADDY!!!!!!!!!!

The last week in January.....

2010-02-01T14:01:00.002-05:00

You know that everybody has "those kinds of weeks" every once and a while. Well, this last week in January has been one of "those weeks" around here! All in all, it could have been much worse, but there was just a lot of stuff going on this week and then you throw in a couple of unexpected occurences and what you get is what is detailed below!

* Sunday, Emily wakes up with a fever. The kids and I stay home from church on Sunday. We decide it is best for Emily not to go to school on Monday and thankfully, my mom came over to keep Emily for me that day.

* Monday night I had to speak at the school board meeting. Not bad at all, just a little nervewracking! It all went well and I was happy when it was finished.
* Tuesday, Emily went to school and seemed to be feeling better. No problems at all!
* Wednesday, Emily wakes up in the middle of the night with a fever, again! I have a meeting on Wednesday morning that I am in charge of....Ryan stays with Emily until I can get back home and then I take her to the doctor. She was complaining of her ears hurting, so I assumed she had an ear infection. I took her to the doctor Wednesday afternoon and they tell me she has a little fluid in her ear,but it is not infected. No antibiotics, just a bad cold. (Insert lots of sarcasm here......not infected, yet....but fluid means it will be infected and I will have to take another day off work and come back to the dr. and pay more money so they can write me a perscription later in the week.)
* Emily seems to be feeling okay and Alex and Ryan are getting excited because they have plans to go to West Virginia on Thursday afternoon with some good friends! We spend a lot of Wednesday night, getting their stuff packed up and ready to go.
* Thursday, Emily goes back to school and had a great day! My day on Thursday was busy, but good. And then came 1:30......I am holding open the library door for a class to leave and I see Alex coming down the hall with his kindergarten asst. He looked upset and I thought he had gotten sick in the classroom....not quite. She tells me to come look at his head.....he ran into some playground equipment and had a gash in the side of his head. We very quickly walked him down to the nurse's office, where she took one look at his head and said, you need to take him somewhere to have that fixed. Remember....... Alex and Ryan are leaving at 4:30 to go to West Virigina for Alex's first ever SKI TRIP. SKI TRIP and HEAD INJURY don't go well together! I look at my watch and realize I have 3 hours to get his head fixed, most importantly, and then make a decision on this ski trip.

* I call Ryan, and he meets us at Urgent Care to have Alex's head fixed. We left an hour later with 4 staples in his head and a warning that a ski trip is not such a good idea.
* After much talk and deliberation and phone calls to various friends in the medical field, Ryan and I decide that he and Alex should go ahead and go on their trip, with Alex knowing he may not get to do everything as previously planned. Ryan promised to keep me informed and promised to watch Alex closely for signs of a concussion or any other problems related to the bang on the head.

* You would think that would be enough for one week, right. Well, my day/night only got more interesting. Remember Emily and that fluid in her ears....I finally got home after getting the boys off on their trip and finally had begun to settle down from the adrenaline that pumped through my body for about 3-4 hours earlier in the day. Emily was fed, bathed and in bed sleeping and I was vegging on the couch watching TV, and I hear a strange noise from Emily's room. It is 10:30PM at this point, I go upstairs and see my sweet baby rolling in her bed, in pain, grabbing her ear. EAR INFECTION!!!! surprise, surprise (sarcasm again!) She was miserable and I knew I could not keep her comfortable all night long, so at 11:00 PM, I loaded Emily into the car and took her to Urgent Care (a different one than I had been to earlier in the day with Alex) where we waited about an hour until we saw the doctor and they told us both ears were infected and then wrote us a perscription for an antibiotic. At 12:30 AM, I was in the drive-thru lane at the 24 hour CVS and by 1:00 I was home and had Emily sufficiently medicined up and in bed. By then, I was wide awake again, and finally went to bed around 2:15. Then I woke up at 5:15 to get ready for Friday at school. Luckily Emily never had any fever and with a dose of antibiotics in her she was as good as new. We went to school on Friday and ended the week of craziness with a snow and ice storm.

I am very thankful that we do not have these kinds of weeks very often!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

100 Days

2010-02-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

As of Friday, January 29th, Alex has been in school 100 Days. In order to celebrate the 100th day of school, each student in Alex's class had to choose 100 items to display on a poster board and bring it to school. I was very proud of Alex! He came up with the idea for his project all by himself! He asked Ryan and I to help with some parts, but he did all the creative thinking himself! He wanted to use 100 pieces of bubblegum. He first talked about grouping them into groups of 5 or 10 and then he decided he wanted to draw something and fill it in with the bubblegum. So we made one BIG piece of bubblegum out of 100 little pieces. I helped him draw the outline of the big piece of bubblegum and together we used the gluegun to glue on all the pieces of gum. We had fun and he was proud of his work. And, his daddy and I are proud of all the hard work he has done during his first 100 days of Kindergarten! Only 80 days left before he will be ready to be a first grader!

2010

2010-02-01T13:08:00.003-05:00

Wow! The first month of 2010 has blown right by me and I am now a whole month behind on my blogging. Let me give you the quick run down of January up to this past week. It is going to deserve it's own special post, if not multiple!

We ended December with a trip to Jacksonville to see the Allreds. We had a great trip and got to catch up with Ryan's parents. We got to visit with his uncle and aunt as well as his grandma, who had made the trip down from Indiana!

We spent New Year's de-christmasing, and we made a quick trip to Gaffney on New Year's Day to hang out with the fam and have a traditional New Year's meal of Pork Roast, Turnip greens, Mac and cheese, pinto beans, cornbread and I don't remember what else. Needless to say, we were plenty full at the end of the day!

Of course, we also spent some time watching the end of the college football season and all the bowl games. Ryan goes into a period of mourning every year when college football comes to a close!

The rest of January has been spent doing our normal stuff of church, school, and laundry!!!! Don't know why, but it seems I have done laundry nonstop this month and it is never done!

Of course, we have had some fun....I will attach some pictures of Emily, the dress up diva, and some of my latest pics of Alex! He usually runs when I pull out the camera, but I do have a few of him during the last month!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-22T22:12:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-21T14:40:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-21T14:03:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-17T22:11:00.002-05:00

Boone, NC : December 2009

Christmas Tree Trip

2009-12-17T21:46:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-11-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-22T17:46:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-08T15:02:00.002-05:00

Alex turns 6!

2009-11-08T14:32:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-08T14:26:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-08T14:21:00.002-05:00

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

2009-08-08T17:30:00.003-04:00

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!!!!

2009-08-06T17:23:00.004-04:00

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....

2009-08-06T17:19:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-06T16:58:00.004-04:00

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!

Visting with Cousins

2009-07-30T17:50:00.006-04:00

OK, I am still playing blog catch-up, but one of the highlights of our summer has been getting a chance to visit with cousins from both sides of the family. I grew up getting to go on vacation with my cousins every summer and spending countless hours playing in Pearlie's and Poppy's backyard with them, so I am thrilled that Alex and Emily have had a chance to play and get to know their cousins a little better this summer.

Cousin Encounter #1

My cousin Ivey, her husband Jonathan and their 2 kids were at the beach with Jonathan's family the same week we were at the beach. They came to our beach hang out one day and Alex and Emily had the chance to dig in the sand and play with their cousins. Noah and Alex are only 1 month apart and Emily and Carter are 2 months apart in age. Noah and Alex have a blast any time they are together. Here are some pics.

Alex and Noah

Carter

Ivey, Brooke (my sister), and me

All 4 cousins....Emily wanted no part of this picture. Can you tell?

Cousin Encounter #2
Jason and Jessica came to spend a whole week with us. Alex and Emily were so excited they were coming to visit. Since Jason and Jessica live in Florida we usually see them at Christmas when we visit Ryan's parents. So the fact that they were coming to our house and spending the night at our house and their parents weren't going to be here was a HUGE deal. To be honest, I was a bit leary of being responsible for 4 kids, but I think the week turned out to be a success. I hope Jason and Jessica agree! : ) We played on the Slip-n-slide, we went to the pool, we went to the movies, and went out on the boat. I could not have asked for 4 better children. We literally did not have one fight or argument the whole time they were here! I am so glad my kids had a chance to play and visit and get to know their cousins! It was lots of fun, and we also have a deal worked out with Cara and Heath....we had all 4 kids this summer, they get all 4 next summer!
I took a ton of pictures while Jason and Jessica were with us, but here are a few of my favs!

Cousin Encounter #3

I don't have any pictures to prove that Cousin Encounter #3 happened, but I am so thankful that it happened! We got to spend about 2 hours with Ryan's Uncle Tom, Aunt Linda, cousin Megan and her husband Jamie, and their 2 kids, Evan and Carter. The fam was headed to Myrtle Beach for their annual vacation and made a pitstop in Rock Hill to see us! The Smart gang lives in Indiana so we rarely get to see them! The last time we saw them Alex was 4 months old...that's how long it has been! We hope they are willing to make more pitstops in Rock Hill on future trips to the beach! It was so good to see them and for Alex and Emily to have a chance to meet more family members and get to play!

The rest of June

2009-07-28T09:06:00.004-04:00

After lounging at the beach and soaking up the sun for a week, we returned home to more summer fun! Alex had a week of Soccer Camp and LOVED it. In case you haven't figured it out, he loves sports and being outside. Not once in 5 days did he complain out being outside for 3 hours in close to 100 degree weather! I think the week he had soccer camp was one of the hottest weeks we have had all summer! He learned lots of stuff and got to hang out with some of his favorite buddies that he went to preschool with the past 2 years! Parents got to go on Friday and see the kids demonstrate some of the skills they learned during the camp. Alex is now ready to play some more soccer.....sign ups for fall soccer are next week! Can't wait to see how he does on the field this fall! (Alex is the one in the orange ball cap in the pics.)

After soccer camp we spent a day and a half catching up with our college friends, the Kricks! On Saturday we got to see around 40 Clemson friends. This is the 3rd year Kevin and Andrea have hosted our "family reunion" with the gang from Clemson. We always have a blast at their house and it is so much fun to see who comes each year as well as watching our kids get to know each other and have a great day of fun on Lake Murray! Who knows, maybe some of our kids will be future Tigers and get to spend 4 (or more) great years together in Tiger Town like their parents did! I would love to post some pics, but unfortunately I didn't take any that day. I had too much fun talking and visiting and never picked up my camera!

Beach 09

2009-07-21T16:33:00.008-04:00

Summer Vacation

2009-07-21T15:52:00.004-04:00

As soon as school was out, we packed up and headed out for a week at the Beach! We went to Surfside Beach, just a little south of Myrtle Beach with our family and my parents and sister. We had a blast. Ryan and I were talking on our way home from the beach that it is the best vacation we could take at this point in our lives with our kids the ages they are. We rented a house on the beach and played on the beach most of each day. Ryan and Alex were usually the first ones out on the beach and the rest of us slowly made our way out each morning after breakfast! Emily and I usually made the trek back to the house first each afternoon so she could get in a quick nap before any evening adventures. We played in the sand, Alex rode the waves on his boogey board, we played Putt-Putt (It was Emily's first time.), and ate lots and lots of seafood! We also went to see an I-Max movie..."Under the Sea", and went to see a Myrtle Beach Pelicans Baseball Game. We had so much fun! We really, really hated to leave. I think all of us would have gladly spent another week in our beach house! Here are some pics of our beach adventures!

Family Tradition: Photo opp outside of Lee's Inlet Kitchen in Murrels Inlet, SC

Emily's first time to play Putt-Putt!

Alex is a putt-putt pro. He played 2 rounds this year. Round 1 with us and then Round 2 with Ryan and some friends who were at the beach at the same time as us. He scored a Hole-in-one on his round with friends!

Emily eventually got tired of using the putter so she started rolling the ball to the whole. Quiet effective method for a 2 year old! : )

Aunt Brooke played with us!

Daddy and Alex at the Pelicans Baseball game! Alex is sporting his new baseball cap that he bought!

More beach pics to come in the next post! They will actually show the beach!

Playing Blog Catch-up

2009-07-21T14:18:00.004-04:00

Okay, it has been a LOOOONG time since I posted something new. Sorry! I am going to try and play catch up this afternoon and get you updated on the last 2 1/2 months of life around the Allred house.

Basically, May was CRAZY! May is always busy with end of school year stuff, but now that the kids are getting older, it is even busier. We had the T-ball season that wouldn't end due to games being rained out, end of year programs and parties, not to mention all the normal craziness that is just part of my job at the end of the year. There was one week where I literally went to the grocery store every day. The kids needed special snacks for different things and we had 3 or 4 different receptions, showers, parties at school that required food. I lived day to day and survived! YEAH!!!!! Emily finished her first full year of preschool, and Alex finished up his last year of preschool. It was a crazy, busy, fun month!

Then we moved right on into June and summer break!

These pictures were taken of Emily the night of her end of year program. It was great! Each class had 2 or 3 songs to sing. There were only 5 kids in Emily's class this year and they were too cute singing their farm animal song and the "Pizza Hut, McDonald's" song! She had a great year at her school and will be headed back in a few weeks to start year #2.

These are the only pictures we have of Alex the day of his End of Preschool program. It poured down rain the whole day and we were not able to get him to stop and pose long enough after his program for a picture. I managed to get the one of him coming down the aisle with his class! Thankfully it turned out well! He has a few more weeks of summer left and then will be going to Kindergarten at my school. I am sure I will have more to blog about on that subject in a few weeks!

Baseball Pics

2009-05-11T22:03:00.000-04:00

Play Ball!

2009-05-11T21:55:00.000-04:00

Alex is playing T-ball, and he LOVES it! These picture are from his first game. He woke up that Saturday morning by 6:30 AM, came downstairs and was fully dressed in his shorts, team t-shirt and cap. He was definitely ready to play! He has gotten better with each practice and game. He is learning how to catch the ball and play different positions. Everyone gets to hit every game and everyone plays all positions, so this has been a great introduction the world of baseball! I'll post some more baseball pictures showing Alex in action!

Emily's Big Girl Room!

2009-05-11T21:43:00.000-04:00

Emily got upgraded to big girl furniture at the end of April! We celebrated her move with a big girl bedroom party. In case you're wondering, the party consists of cupcakes and a Hello Kitty Balloon....not that big a deal to any of us, but Emily thought it was the best thing ever! Her new furniture consists of a day bed(with trundle for overnight guests), 2 new bookshelves, a dresser, and a nightstand. She loves being a big girl, and we love watching her grow and try out new things!

Easter 09

2009-04-21T21:52:00.001-04:00

We had an awesome Easter! It was a great weekend of celebrating. We had super church services and were able to celebrate our risen Lord! We were able to spend time with family, and the kids had an awesome time hiding eggs and playing outside in the beautiful weather. They even stopped for a few minutes on Easter Sunday to pose for pictures!

Sweet Sounds

2009-03-18T20:20:00.003-04:00

Emily decided to perform for me last night! Here is a video clip of her tunes. She started with Zaccheus, but then switched to Jesus Loves Me.

She keeps me smiling!

Blessings and Faith

2009-03-18T20:10:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since my last post..... I haven't posted mostly because life has been full of a whole lot of normal. School, work, church, and kids, and life. Nothing to exciting to put out there to the blogosphere.

But this week I have been reminded about how blessed I truly am! I have been following the blog of some acquaintances the past few weeks. I know them through Clemson friends. After dealing with infertility issues, this couple through an infertility specialist became pregnant. They found out that they were going to have multiples......6 babies. WOW! Needless to say, they were excited and a bit overwhelmed at the news. Over the course of the past week, the couple lost all 6 babies at 20 weeks. Reading their blog and seeing what their friends are saying about their faith through this sad time has made me so thankful for God's blessings in my life. Especially the two little ones that I have running around my house every day. You can read more about the Tipping Family on their blog.

2 years....

2009-02-14T17:37:00.005-05:00

It is hard to believe that we have officially been in South Carolina for 2 years now.... A lot has happened in those 2 years! Emily has gone from an itty-bitty baby to a walking, talking, full of life little girl. Alex has gone from being a happy 3 year old toddler to a full fledged 5 year old boy who loves light sabers, playing soccer, and is getting ready to be enrolled in Kindergarten. Ryan has gone from wondering what in the world is he supposed to do in his role as Small Groups pastor at North Rock Hill to wondering how in the world will he ever get everything done! And I have gone from a stay-at-home mom (can you believe I survived those first 7 months we lived here....) to back where I am most comfortable.....an elementary school library.

Although things are still different and we wish we could see Texas friends more often, we have embraced life back in SC. We have great friends here and I hope those relationships continue to grow and mature over the years to come. Our church has seen tremendous growth in the last 8 months and it is awesome to see God work in so many ways around us. And it is humbling to think that He brought us here to be apart of all this change, transition, and growth! Our children are growing and moving into new stages of life. That is always a challenge for us as parents, but also lots of fun because we never know what to expect from them next. And I too am growing in so many ways.....change has never been one of my most favorite parts of life, but knowing God has been and is and will be in control of all changes makes me excited to see what our future holds as we head very quickly into year 3 of this part of our life!

These are some pictures from when we left Texas to life in 2009!

Potty Training

2009-02-14T17:28:00.002-05:00

Emily is potty training! And she is doing great! Everyone always says girls are faster at this than boys and if my kiddos figure into that count then it is so true! I really had planned on waiting until summertime to take on the potty training task, but at the encouragement of Emily's teachers we took the plunge about a month ago. The first day was a disaster.....we changed clothes 11 times, but that was all it took. We have only had 4 or 5 accidents since then and not one at school. Emily is still wearing diapers at naptime and bedtime, but hopefully by summer we will be $20 a week richer and won't have to buy diapers or pull ups ever again! I don't want to wish her life away, but the prospect of me not being a "pack-mule" and having to travel with diaper bag in tow is a very exciting idea! I could be diaper bag free by the time we go to the beach this summer! YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Snow Day!

2009-01-20T12:37:00.002-05:00

Today is a SNOW DAY! We woke up this morning to 28 degree weather and snow falling. No school today. We were outside playing in the snow at about 8:00 this morning. Alex was thrilled to see the snow and Emily was super excited. This is the first time she has really seen snow! It snowed a little the year we moved to SC, but since then we haven't really seen any. It snowed most of the morning, and I enjoyed opening all the blinds to see the snow falling while I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate! The sun is starting to shine and the snow is starting to disappear....it looks like we will back to a regular schedule tomorrow. It has definitley been fun to see this little touch of winter!

Christmas in Jax

2009-01-02T20:51:00.001-05:00

A Christmas in Jacksonville wouldn't be complete without a ride on Granddaddy's boat! Alex and Emily had so much fun playing with their cousins, Jason and Jessica! We all enjoyed our time with the family...Granny even came for Christmas all the way from Indiana! We were so glad to get a chance to visit with her!

More Christmas

2009-01-02T20:48:00.000-05:00

In case you are wondering about the beads around Emily's neck in almost every picture.....both she and Alex got a big basket of dress up clothes and accessories from Santa. They have had so much fun already! Emily loves Fancy Nancy....for those of you who don't know about Fancy Nancy, go to the bookstore and read one of the book. The books are by Jane O'Connor about a little girl who loves being fancy. The books are great and now of course Fancy Nancy has gone commercial with sunglasses, purses, feather boas, etc. And of course, we can't leave Alex out....he was thrilled to find a Darth Vadar mask in his basket along with Batman, a clone trooper outfit, and race car helmets, light sabers, etc.

Christmas Morning!

2009-01-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

Alex and Emily were up at about 6:15 on Christmas Morning ready to see what Santa delivered. Alex was excited to see a Star Wars Ship in his stack of goodies, and Emily was excited to try out her new "wheels". Both Alex and Emily had to check out Santa's snack plate....he ate everything that they left for him! And the last picture is of my sweet Emily.....the thing she wanted Santa to bring her most of all this year was a Candy Cane. He didn't bring her just one....he left her 12 candy canes! And by 6:30 on Christmas Morning, she had already eataen one. I will include some of those pictures next!

Christmas Pics #1

2009-01-02T20:38:00.000-05:00

The first 2 pictures are Christmas Eve. Alex stayed at church to help daddy turn off lights and lock doors, so we never got one of both kiddos together. The last 2 pictures are my happy, silly, Christmas PJ clad
sweeties!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-02T15:10:00.004-05:00

Wow! It is hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone! It seems we spend so much time preparing for the big day and then it is over in such a hurry! We have had a great Christmas Season in the Allred house and I hope yours was great too! Here is a recap of all the fun we've had since getting out of school for Christmas Break!

Playtime outside with Dad......
Making Christmas goodies together
Spending time with the Great-Grands and Poppa and Gan and Aunt Brooke in Gaffney
Going to talk to Santa
Christmas Eve Services at Church
Opening that one special gift on Christmas Eve (although Ryan and I have discussed that Alex doesn't think our tradition of Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve is that special anymore.....I am going to have to add to that special Christmas Eve gift next year!!! Otherwise, Alex is going to start planning a revolt!)
SANTA came and brought loads of toys and goodies!
Christmas with Gan and Poppa and Aunt Brooke
Trips to Gaffney for extended-family Christmas
Going to Jacksonville, FL for Christmas with the Allred family. Alex and Emily were very excited to have play time with cousins, Jason and Jessica!
Back home from FL to have some play time with all the new Christmas toys!
Undecorating the house....actually, I think my statement to Ryan yesterday was that "we need to set off a bomb in this house. That is the only way we are going to get it all clean."
Cleaning out old stuff to make room for new stuff. Putting away all the new stuff, to find in a matter of seconds that one unnamed 5 year old and one unnamed 2 year old have pulled it all back out again.
Clean some more....clean some more....clean some more!
Watching lots of college football on TV. Sadly, our Clemson Tigers did not pull out a win against the Cornhuskers of Nebraska in the Gator Bowl
Enjoying time together as a family!

WHEW! I think that is everything. For me, the most important part of this Christmas Season has been to enjoy the time with family! I don't have a ton of great pictures from our Christmas this year. But honestly, I'm okay with that because the pictures are the memories we have made together. I do have a few pics from the past 2 weeks and I will upload those in the next post!

I hope you and your family have had a great Christmas together! Now....on to 2009!

In search of the Perfect Chrsitmas Card Picture

2008-12-07T15:22:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-07T15:16:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-12-07T14:17:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-11-21T17:39:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-17T20:35:00.003-05:00

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

Halloween Pics

2008-11-17T20:21:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-17T20:06:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-02T16:47:00.001-05:00

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

2008-10-18T21:49:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-10-02T21:09:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-10-02T20:50:00.001-04:00

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!!!!!!!

2008-09-26T09:39:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-09T18:25:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-09T18:18:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-09T18:11:00.000-04:00

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!

4K is AWESOME!

2008-08-19T18:28:00.001-04:00

Today was Alex's first day of 4 year old Kindergarten. And in his word it was "AWESOME"! He is going to the same school this year that he did last year and knows a few of the boys and girls in his class. He met his teacher on Sunday afternoon at Preschool Popsicles and Playtime @ the Playground. It was lots of fun! His teacher is originally from Texas, so never fear, Alex will not lose those Texas roots this year! I think he is going to have a great year! We will have to see what new things he learns as he goes through the year! He is starting to get interested in the whole reading thing! He was even able to read a page in one of his books last night. It was really exciting to watch him figure out the words. I get to see kids do that same thing every year at school, but it is really special when it is your own little boy who is doing the reading!

Below are a few pictures of Alex before he headed off to school this morning! I am turning into one of "those mothers" who makes my children take random pictures for the sake of tradition.....oh well, it won't kill them! Please notice the backpack...Alex was very proud of his camo backpack (that he picked out himself) with Clemson Tiger Orange letters on the front. (no redneck jokes, please!! : )

It's that time...

2008-08-07T14:20:00.002-04:00

Well, it's that time of year...Back-to-School time! In my life, the year is measured from August to July instead of January to December like most of the population. Things have happened this week that prove "Back-to-School" is just around the corner. Here's what has been going on this week:

Mommy and Alex shopped for his 4K school supplies and a new backpack on Monday.
Mommy made "Back-to-School" Lasagna on Monday. (This is when Mommy makes a really large recipe of lasagna and most of it gets frozen for those days this fall when school ends and dinner begins all about the same time.)
Mommy and Alex spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning at mommy's library trying to clean up and organize for the coming year.
We made multiple stops at several random stores getting really random things that mommy needs to make the year go smoothly.
Alex got his welcome back to school letter and found out who his teacher would be this year. We had been waiting all week for the letter to arrive.

I officially start back to school on Monday. This will be year #2 as an India Hook Elementary Pirate for me. Last year there was a lot of adjustment. I expect some of the same again this year, but at the same time I am excited to see what all lies ahead.

Good luck to all of you who will be going "Back-to School" with me over the next few weeks! And to those of you who have little ones who will be going to school for the very first time....Good Luck! The teacher in me wants to tell you......Your kids will be fine. They will adjust quickly and have FUN! Give them a hug and a kiss and leave so that teachers can get the school year started. The mommy in me says.... Give them a hug and a kiss and linger outside their classroom door just to make sure they're okay and to get a quick glimpse at what they look like as "big kids" in Kindergarten! And then, turn around and get to your car as quickly as possible, grab the box of Kleenex that you conveniently placed in the passenger seat before going inside the school, and cry until you feel better! : ) Happy Back-to-School Season!

Daddy's Birthday!

2008-08-01T16:25:00.008-04:00

We were able to celebrate Ryan's birthday on Monday! The kids and I had fun getting ready for his "party". We actually surprised Ryan with a brand new grill. Alex managed to keep it a secret for an entire week! The grill we have been using was 10 years old...it was a wedding gift. And it has been well used and well loved! It was time for the "grill-man" to get an upgrade! Alex, Emily and I took daddy out to dinner and then we came home and had the best part of the celebration...... BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Alex and Emily truly believe that its a HUGE crime to have a birthday with no cake. And we love the fact that Ryan has a summer birthday because we are able to have one of our favorite kinds of birthday cake..... a Baskin Robbin's Ice Cream Cake. Ryan is a great daddy and husband and we hope we get to celebrate many more birthdays together (with ice cream cake, of course)!

What makes you happy?

2008-07-24T14:28:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week I was taking some pictures of Alex and Emily as they were playing. Alex has a chronic issue when it comes to taking pictures.......the totally goofy smile. It is never a true Alex smile and his eyes are all squinted and closed. Usually if we get him talking about stuff while we take pictures, the pictures end up looking much more natural! So, that is what I did. I asked him to tell me "What makes you happy?" These were his 3 totally unsolicited answers:

God Loves Me
Playing with my Daddy
Playing at my house

Now, that makes me happy! I haven't been able to get his answers off my mind all week. I could not have been a happier mommy than I was at that moment. Alex is continuing to process and learn about what a relationship with Christ is all about. And he is getting a pretty good grasp on the concept that God Loves Us! Ryan and I continue to pray that his knowledge and understanding of a relationship with God continues to progress so that one day he can make a decision to allow God to be the center of his life!

Of course all of this has made me think....if I had been faced with the same question what would my answers have been? Having a child-like faith is so awesome! I think we need to let go of our "adultness" (if that is a word) and strive to have faith like a child more often! So, I guess my question to you is "What makes you happy?"

My baby is growing up

2008-07-16T14:51:00.005-04:00

My baby girl is turning into a big girl. Tuesday was her first day of preschool. We were very fortunate to have a wonderful sitter to keep Emily this past year while Ryan and I were working. But as Emily gets older, we want her to be around other kiddos and get used to the ideas of playing and learning and sharing with others her age. We found out back in April, after being on a waiting list since we moved to Rock Hill, that Emily had a spot in a preschool program. The place she is attending is open for kids 18 months thru 4K. She will attend 10 times this summer before I go back to school, sort of as an adjustment period. For those of you who don't know Emily that well, she has pretty bad separation anxiety! We keep praying it will go away or at least diminsh soon, but so far it has been going strong since she was about 9 months old! Therefore these 10 days to get used to the "new place" are pretty important!

She did pretty good on Tuesday. She cried when I left and the teachers told me she had a couple of small melt-downs during the morning. But she was playing on the little playground when I arrived to pick her up and seemed to be taking in her new surroundings pretty well. We only left her for a 1/2 day on Tuesday. She goes back tomorrow for day #2. Tomorrow she will stay through lunch time....about 45 minutes longer than on Tuesday. Say prayers for my sweet Emmy-girl...that she will like her new school and that she will quickly become accustomed to new routines, new people, and new things! I am excited to see how she grows in this new place this year.

One of THOSE days....

2008-07-16T14:39:00.006-04:00

Well, today has been one of "THOSE" kind of days! You know...the kind that never seem to go the way you planned, no matter how hard you try. I think we are at the point in the summer where all the vacations are over, the newness of hanging out at home is gone, and the no routine has become, well, too routine! I had visions of a good day, and it started out pretty well, but the middle part of the day definitley hit bottom. As nap times have ended and the day turns to evening, we can hope that things only go up from here!

Here are a few pictures of the sidewalk chalk creations the kids and I made this morning. I wanted pictures of them actually making the creations, but I had to settle for pictures of the final project without the kiddos. They weren't in to picture taking today....just another example of the kind of day it has been.

Alex's Jet Ski....use your imagination and you can actually see the jet ski : )

Alex and I decided the big creature in the middle of the picture is a hammerhead shark. He said he just drew a creature and then decided what it was. I'm not an art person, so I do't know if that is considered Modern Art or something else. : )

Looking at all these pictures does tell me that we did have some fun today in spite of the things that were not so fun... Please tell me I am not the only one that has these kinds of days! The good thing is that tomorrow is a new day! : )

Charleston, SC

2008-07-14T17:58:00.007-04:00

Ryan and I were able to spend a few days in Charleston, SC last week. It was our belated 10th anniversary trip. Our 10th anniversary was back in May, but we decided to wait until school was out and our new church building was complete before heading out of town for a few days. We have no idea where 10 years went! We talked on our way down to Charleston and said some days it felt like it wasn't that long ago that we got married and other days it seems like it has been forever! My parents graciously agreed to keep Alex and Emily so that we could spend some time together. Neither Ryan nor I had been to Charleston in many years and we had a great time walking through the city and eating some really good seafood! We took a harbor tour, a carriage ride and caught up on our SC and American history. History was never my favorite subject in school and anytime I go to some really historical place, I wish I had listened in class a little more.

For those of you who may not know the story of how the Allred family came to be, here is the quick recap..... Ryan and I met while at Clemson. We begin dating in November of my Junior year and in May of 1997 we were engaged. I wasn't graduating until May of 1998, so we lacked 2 weeks having a full one year engagement. Ryan stuck around CU and finished up his 2nd engineering degree while I finsihed my teaching degree. We got married on May 16, 1998 at my home church in Gaffney, SC and then on May 28th, we left Gaffney to head to Dallas, TX so that Ryan could attend seminary at Dallas Theological. We thought we would be in Dallas for 4 years while Ryan completed the ThM program and then be headed back to the good 'ole Southeast. God had other plans though....4 years in Dallas turned into a full time job at Lake Pointe Church and 9 total years in the great state of Texas! A seminary degree, 9 years of teaching experience, and 2 kids later, we returned to SC in January '07 for Ryan to pursue a new job as a Small Groups Pastor at North Rock Hill Church.

God has been faithful every step of the way from finishing degrees at Clemson, to getting married, and doing something totally crazy like moving 1000 miles away from everyone we knew! We laughed on our ride to Charleston....we think we left for Dallas with $2000-$3000 to our names and no jobs....you know God had to be in it! And now here we are 10 years later. God is good......our prayer is that he will continue to walk us each step of the way through whatever is in store over the next 10 years!

More Pics

2008-07-04T09:58:00.000-04:00

A few more beach pics.....

A Few Pictures

2008-07-04T09:52:00.002-04:00

I've been told that this blog is no good without pictures. So here are a few pictures from our family vacation at Myrtle Beach a few weeks ago. We had tons of fun in the sand and surf!

Recap

2008-07-04T09:25:00.007-04:00

Well, this is a quick recap for anyone who doesn't know what has been going on in the life of the Allreds. We moved to Rock Hill, SC a little over a year and a half ago. We made the move after Ryan accepted a job as Small Groups Pastor at North Rock Hill Church. Shortly after moving, I was hired to be the library/media specialist at Rock Hill's newest elementary school. I was hired in March and started working from home to order about 9200 brand new books for the library.

As my school year was coming to a close it was probably Ryan's busiest time, because our new church building opened June 1st. Our church started 10 years ago as a church plant. It has grown tremendously and we were finally able to build our first "real" building this year.

God has been good to us during this year of transition. Leaving Texas and all our friends was hard, but God brought us through it one day at a time. I finally feel as if we have totally made the transition back to life in South Carolina.

So, that's the recap of the past year and a half......We will try to keep you updated on a more regular basis as we make our way through year 2 here in the Palmetto State.

A blog by any other name....

2008-07-02T14:37:00.001-04:00

Well, Ryan and I have been talking about creating a family blog for a while now. However, neither of us has actually gotten around to doing anything about it. So, as kids are taking afternoon naps, I decided today was the day to get started. Now, this is the Merri Anna version. Ryan has visions of grandeur....as his grander plans take shape, I will let you know and share his blog with you as well. For now though you are stuck with me and 2+2=4.

I've spent a large portion of the last 2 days thinking about my blog name. The teacher in me is always trying to come up with something cutsie and "teacher-y". But I didn't want just cutsie, I wanted something that would truly represent our family. And then, it popped in my head.

So, where did 2+2=4 come from..... basically it is a good description of our family! There are 4 of us: 2 parents and 2 kids; 2 males and 2 females; it is a math equation.....Ryan and Alex love those. And as much as the librarian in me would love for Alex to want to spend his summer learning to read, he is much more interested in math and numbers and science and how things work. Yikes....another little Ryan in the making. So I guess I should really thank Alex for naming my blog. He has been working hard this summer to grasp the concept of adding, and he constantly walks around telling me that 2+2=4.... 2cars + 2tractors= 4, 2dinosaurs + 2insects= 4, 2soccer balls + 2baseballs= 4.....and 2Allreds + 2Allreds = 4!

Check back to see what us 4 Allreds have been up to and please keep us updated on your life as well!