Reason # 1

...to not take your husband grocery shopping with you.

You might come home with a

giant tennis ball!

I am still waiting to see exactly what he plans on doing

with this great find of his!

He endures it well!

This is the doctor's office waiting room. It is where Tyler and I spend every Monday afternoon together. Because of Tyler's severe allergies he has to get shots every week for at least 3 years! We have been having this little mother son date for almost 2 years now. We visit, read magazines, read books, do homework and people watch. (there is a lot of interesting stuff that goes on in a doctor's office)

When they call his name he goes into the back and Wendy, our wonderful nurse, gives Tyler his shots. We love Wendy and Tyler actually refuses to have anyone else give him his shots. He also figured out that if he holds his arms exactly like he is in the picture, the shots hurt less. He then comes back out into the waiting room, pushes the button on his timer and we wait out the required 20 minutes to see if he has a reaction.

Here is one of his arms after his shots. This is not a bad reaction, they usually look like this. The allergist told us that you can fit 50 allergens into 1 shot (to build up the immunity) Tyler gets 2 shots every week which means he is allergic to up to 100 different things. He is allergic to weeds, pollen, dogs, cats, horses, cockroaches (really!) and dust to name a few. These weekly visits are a pain and time consuming, but he endures it well and rarely complains. And I don't mind the good one on one time I get with this cute teenager!

Love this girl!

As I was cleaning out Alyssa's school box I came across

this paper she wrote entitled-

IF I WERE THE PRESIDENT!

In today's day, after reading this, I wish she was!

"If I were the President I would make everybody have a home. (Not a house, but a HOME) Then I would let everybody go to different schools.

Then I would tell the world to follow Jesus."

Alyssa Jane Allred for President!

She's got my vote!

Oh, what do you do in the Summertime?

I have not blogged lately. Our summer has been very full-and I truly haven't had the time. Here is what we are trying to fit in this summer: (all of these things have nothing to do with the pictures. The pictures are some of the things we do, in between all this other stuff!)



1 week at Snowbird

1 week of Scout Camp

1 week of Soccer Camp

3 weeks of swimming lessons


1 18 year anniversary

1 Cub Scout Day Camp

1 family reunion at Bear Lake

1 week of Girls Camp


1 week at 5th Grade Clear Creek Camp

1 Fathers and Sons Campout

1 birthday celebration for a great 42 year old guy

1 parade that Kara is in


1 very full 4th of July weekend

1 High Adventure Scout Camp

1 Soccer Tournament

1 Week at EFY


2 Student Government Retreats

1 eleven year old campout

1 family reunion in Oregon

3 business trips

I will try to document most of these activities in future blogs.

It is busy.

It is often crazy.

It is our life this summer!

Summer lovin with some cousins

Nothing says summer better than a hot June day, a plastic pool with a slide...

..a wild and wacky slip and slide....

...and some of your best friends to share it with!

Memories in the making!

Brace yourself!

We now officially have 3 boys in braces--this was not necessarily part of our plan, but here we are. Bryson was very excited to get his on to be like his older brothers, but has since changed his mind and now claims he hates his braces.

And while we are on the subject of braces, I will give a brief update on the orthodontic perils of these three stooges.

Brandon had his teeth pulled over six months ago. As you can see from the picture they have not come in yet. They keep wanting to take off his braces. I keep saying no. We are now scheduled for an appointment next week where he will have his gums lasered open to hopefully help his teeth come in faster. That really doesn't sound fun. My hope is that he will have some teeth before he starts 6th grade in August!

Bryson just recently had his first appointment since getting his braces on. Things are looking OK, but the orthodontist says he needs to have major oral surgery this summer to get rid of 8 more teeth (4 baby and 4 permanent). That's just the way he wanted to spend his summer.

And Tyler...oh Tyler. We recently found out that the roots of his front four top permanent teeth are damaged from the excessive crowding. When I asked what the worse case scenario was they said bluntly, "he could loose his front four teeth!" The goal now is to keep his teeth as long as we can. That's reassuring. They are still trying to get the impacted teeth into position so they can start to pull them down, but this requires frequent visits that are very painful. Tyler claims they hurt worse than getting his wisdom teeth out. OUCH!

At the last visit I told the orthodontist that my oldest daughter didn't have any problems with her mouth, just a normal orthodontic experience. He stopped what he was doing (which happened to be digging around in Tyler's mouth to get out a spring that had embedded itself in his gum) and looked at me in disbelief. He said, "I can't believe that !" Neither can I, because it is looking like the last 3 are going to be just as bad.

Give me strength...oh, and a give me a few million bucks!

Our Graduate!

Ethan graduated with honors from Busy Bear Pre-school a couple of weeks ago. The ceremony was precious. It does not get cuter than little 4 year olds in full length gowns and caps. My favorite line of the whole program was

"My name is Ethan Kurt Allred, son of Lisa and Trevor."

Here he is with his good buddy, Jared.

They had so much fun together this year.

All of the Busy Bear Boys.

Thanks Ms. Sherri, for a wonderful year!
We are now officially kindergarten bound and we can't wait!