June Random

Twenty two years!  

We celebrated at our favorite restaurant-Carvers!  Their stuffed fillet minion is to die for-literally.  Every single day I am thankful I decided to marry this handsome fella.

  He completes me.

Alyssa went to a week long camp with her bff Lil.  Clear Creek is a tradition around these parts.  She was so excited.  She missed us horribly, slept in the counselor cabin, sang songs, went on hikes and caught herself a real live pot gut. in that very can she is holding.

  It doesn't get much better than that!

Meanwhile back at the home front,  I found this note on the whiteboard written by a very sad, very forgotten and apparently very lonely Ashlyn.  

She can barely breath without her sister.

It was a really really long week!

One word:  World Cup  (okay that was actually two words)

The boys convinced us that this was so special, so rare they just had to watch it, even if it meant breaking the Sabbath.  And.......we let them.   

 At least they stayed in their church clothes.

Our first ever Sunday evening Preach My Gospel study group.

Look at how hard we are studying.

I love these boys!  

They are going to make great missionaries. 

 Every single one of them!

Happy June!

May random

Legacy School Choir Spring Concert. 

 Alyssa had a big ole solo in this here production.  She belted out "Let it Go" like never before.  She even had an Elsa braid.  Where does she come from?!

They call me mother. 

 It is music to my ears-most of the time :) How have I been so blessed?  Look at them.  Healthy, happy, showering me with gifts and food.  It was a wonderful Mother's Day.

But the best was yet to come.  Skyping with my firstborn, the one who started me on this amazing journey of motherhood.  Hermana Allred was also healthy and so so happy. 

 Best Mother's Day present ever!

Pokemon.  

He eats, sleeps and breaths them.  He sorts and trades and collects and organizes and re-arranges--all day, every day.  He is obsessed and he will tell you all about every single one of them.  All you have to do is ask.

Braces.  

Again.  

Because we like to do them twice around here.  The first time he didn't get his "last meal".   I promised him that he would get it the second time around.  And I am a woman of my word.  He didn't touch the corn, and I believe the apple bite was just staged.   I think he only ate the caramel and the heath bar.  That's my Brycie!

In honor of Kara's birthday we hunted down a donut truck with the Matthews.  It was delicious.  Don't believe me.  Ask the dishes.

A typical Sunday afternoon.  All of the board games are pulled out and played.   No friends, just brothers and sisters and soft hymns playing in the background.

 It makes me smile.  

Bryson's countdown to the last day of school.  I will translate because no one on this earth can read this child's handwriting.  It says "can;t touch em they are for school countdown."

  Your welcome.

Senior recognition night at the high school.  

Craig, Caleb and Tyler. 

 All received scholarships.  

All are incredible young men. 

All have some pretty incredible parents also.  

I turned 44.  I am old.  And I am loved--just look at that spread!

Third grade economics fair.  He sold pet rocks and tickets to play his Verticon game.  I am hoping he made millions. 

Almost every day these girls are outside playing in these high heel shoes.  Every day.  One day I asked them, "what exactly are you playing?"  The reply came easily, as if I should have known.

 "We are playing high school."

How silly of me.  

I totally should have known that!

April random

Presidents Report.  He did this all by himself.  Not one lick of help from anyone at home.  He did it all in school.  Oh how I love his teacher!

My teenage boy's toothpaste drawer.

Now that is just sick and wrong.

And I couldn't help myself.  I had to clean it.

But give it a few weeks and it will be festering once again.

I love boys!!

March random

Kara's best friend got married this month.

Kara was not there.

Well, not really there.

Lindsey had Kara's picture blown up and she put it on a stick.  Stick head was waiting outside of the temple.  Stick head was at the luncheon and stick head was floating all around that reception.  Stick head was definitely there, Lindsey made sure of that.
 I sure miss that beautiful stick head.

This picture is all about Moby, our neighbors dog.  Our neighbors dog that my kids consider their dog as well. This week a tragic accident occurred.  Sister Capell tripped and fell.  Sister Capell tripped and fell right on top of teeny tiny Moby.  Sister Capell broke her arm and she also broke Moby's back.  I knew my kids would be devastated by this news.  I was right.  But I was prepared.  I slipped out that morning right after I heard the news and picked up some chocolate covered dog bones and some chocolate for humans too (both from the same store--that is a whole other story)  After school my kids wrote notes and drew pictures for Moby, oh, and for Sister Capell.  They delivered them with the bones and chocolate.  Both are going to recover, Moby probably sooner than Sister Capell. 

 We hope the chocolate will help.

I had to work early on St. Patrick's Day so I couldn't wish them luck as they left for school, but I could leave them this treat to wake up to.

And when I came home they had the green dinner all served up and ready to go.

  I am the lucky one!

Ashlyn came up to me to show me her new teeth.

  She is an Allred all right.  Poor thing!

First ever General Women's meeting with my sweet Alyssa.  I loved being with her.  I loved when they had the Primary aged girls stand and sing "Teach Me To Walk"  I felt the spirit strongly.  It is a privilege for me to teach her, to walk with her, to witness her light.  It was a fabulous night.

I believe this was a game they called "Queens and servant."  He pulled them around and around like this.  He didn't mind being the servant.  And they loved being the Queens.  So it worked out quite nicely for everybody involved.

And now it is time to March on....right into April.

December random

The view from our bedroom window.

  Let it snow.  Let it snow.  Let it snow. 

 I love Utah!

It wouldn't be December without our traditional gingerbread houses with the Walters.

This is Brandon's house. 

 I heard him telling someone, "I am just filling my house with candy so I will have more to eat later."  Very nice.

It also wouldn't be Christmas without a visit to the Festival of Trees.  

I never got tired of it.

The Legacy Christmas Concert.  Another must.

Why do I leave my Christmas cards to the very end.  It totally stresses me out.  I really didn't think I would get them done this year.  But I did, with these two little workers by my side.  We set up a table in my room.  We worked for several nights in a row.  We made it into a game.  We called our game "Card Factory"  I told the girls to pretend we were really really poor and had no food and only rags to wear and the only way we could get any money was to make cards.  Over a hundred cards.  And we did.   We worked our fingers to the bone.  We got our cards done and in our pretend game earned ourselves enough money to buy a tiny ham for our Christmas dinner to share with our 17 brothers and sisters.  

Ethan made himself this cool land form in school, which has nothing to do with Christmas but it happened in December so here it is, in all it's land and form and glory.

We had Grammy and Poppy over for dinner to celebrate her birthday and his birthday and their anniversary, which all happen in the same week.  And even though I hate their December birthdays, I sure love them.

Bryson earned some very important rank in scouts this month, so important that both Trevor and I got to go stand by him.  As I am typing this I have no idea what that rank was.  Forgive me.  I have a lot of boys.  I have done a lot of scouts.  I am a year behind in my blog.  I just don't remember.  But I am sure it was important.  And I am sure I was proud.

The elves in our neighborhood and ward were busy this year.  We were well taken care of and so touched at the kindness and generosity of so many in our time of need.

A couple of hours after I was called to be Young Women's president by our Bishop there was a knock on our door.  These 2 cans were on our porch.  One was filled with almond roca.  One was filled with so much more than that.  It was a spiritual night, a thought provoking night, a night of miracles.

November random

Red Ribbon week at the elementary school.  I think it would be a good idea to keep a box somewhere filled with crazy socks and weirdi hats for occasions such as these.  I do not have one.  I wish I did.  Monday it was "wear red" day.  This is not easy for us BYU fans.  Ashlyn only had a pair of skin tight red leggings and Alyssa didn't have anything so she had to wear a red shirt of Bryson's that looked very boyish, but we did succeed in all wearing red.  On Tuesday it was crazy sock day and we rummaged around through Kara's long forgotten sock drawer and found some bright green and white polka dot socks for Ash and some big fuzzy green and red knee highs for Alyssa.  Eto wore some of Tyler's soccer socks that went all the way up past his thighs. Wednesday was neon and sunglasses, hence the picture.  On Thursday it was jersey day and we had that covered pretty well.  But Friday, oh Friday.  On Friday it was Duck Dynasty Day.  What?!  How in the world was I supposed to dress my kids like Duck Dynasty?  More importantly, WHY was I dressing my kids up like Duck Dynasty and what did that have to do with saying no to drugs?!  But, I am a dutiful mom, so I ran down to good old Hob Lob and bought one single camo bandana, cut it into thirds and had them tie it around their heads.  And that was about all of the Duck I could pull off.  I hope all this dressing up and rummaging around keeps my kids off drugs.  I am a little worried that big long beards and head to toe camo might make them want to do drugs, but what do I know?

Bryson got to skip school for the big "job shadow"  day at the Junior High.  He choose to shadow his Poppy and really see what a private investigator does.  They went to BYU, went to the police station and I think ate lots of food.  Pretty sweet job, don't ya think?

I saw this in Walmart and had to buy it.  We saved it to drink as a special November treat for family home evening one night.  We decided it would be the perfect compliment to our apple pie.  We were wrong.  When you are eating actual apple pie, apple pie flavored apple juice doesn't taste like apple pie.  We were disappointed.  But we gave it another try a few nights later when we weren't eating apple pie and it was delicious.  Go figure.

My last Wolf. 

 Look at that face!  

I think that is the most adorable wolf I have ever seen!

I love November!

October random 2013

Annual leaf drive.  

We spent the majority of the time collecting leaves to send to Kara since she is really missing the gorgeous Utah falls.  I was pretty picky about the leaves they picked.  I wanted them all different colors and all different shapes and all different sizes.  We were sending a pretty good sized box filled with leaves to her so we needed a lot.  They were all pretty good about it except Bryce.  He picked up one leaf early on that had a spider on it.  He spent the rest of the trip jumping around trying to steer clear of any and all leaves (which is pretty hard to do up in the canyon)  We all laughed about it.  He was not laughing at all.  He has true arachnophobia and he is not ashamed to admit it.

Another shot in the leaves.  I just can't get enough. 

 It is so beautiful!

This was the one year that Brandon and Bryson could have been on the same football team.  I sure wish I had remembered that when I signed them both up--separately!!  Ugg!  Well, despite my dumb mistake the season went on quite smoothly, until this game, the first game in the double elimination tournament where, yep you guessed it was Brandon verses Bryson.  I was dying.  They were both nervous and I was a wreck.  Okay, not really a wreck, but I was a little nervous too.  We all went to the game and I just kept yelling, "GO B. ALLRED!"   Actually it turned out just the way I had hoped it would.  Brandon's team won, and they should have because they were all 9th graders and are a really good team,  BUT Bryson's team really gave them a run for their money, in fact, they scored first and were leading at one time and my tiny seventh grade Brycie even scored a touchdown!  So he was happy, Brandon was happy and I was happy for both of those cute B. Allred's!  

Peter, James and John.  

My trees.  As you can see Peter is sick, they are all actually sick.  So sick in fact that we called in the professionals.  Yes, we called a tree doctor.  One came out and took a look at all 3 trees and then he felt it was beyond his scope of knowledge so he called in a specialist.  The specialist came for the examination when I was at work and Trevor was out somewhere.  He left a written note on our porch of his diagnosis.  My trees have chlorosis.  They will each need a ginormous injection of something right into their trunks.  The tree Doctor has assured us that this expensive injection will save their lives.  I sure hope so.  We are spending more money on our trees than we are on our own children.  Sometimes I wish there was a tree hospital.  Because I would take them there.  I really would.

What a treat and a blessing to have the missionaries over for dinner.

  Love their spirit.  Love the message they left.  Love their example.  

Trevor was nominated for a scout award called the Second-Miler.  Somebody in the ward nominated him for his service as Scoutmaster and how he always went the second mile with the boys.  He received a letter this month saying he was chosen for the award.  This is the award ceremony.  He stood up there all decked out in his scout uniform as they read off why he was chosen.  

Scouting...it's in his blood, and going the second mile....well, I think that's in his blood too!