I Played Guitar Hero for Two Minutes...

And this is what happened.

I didn't even get to finish one song.  Gracen got one of our markers from the boys' letters to Santa.  I was crushed because the shirt is from the 70's and all 3 of my kids have worn it.

This is one busy little lady.  Her favorite "prohibited" items right now are the toilet brushes and mommy's makeup.

I vow to hold a more vigilent watch from now on! 

This Snow's for You, Jaron

 This post is for Jaron, who is sweating his heart out on Saba.  It's been quite chilly here with a lot of snow lately, as I understand it's been the same up in Alberta and even Saskatoon, where Genny is.  On Saturday we went to a baby shower about 10 miles away and passed 3 overturned cars on the way home!

Sunday we decided to take advantage of the snow a little bit.  Grandpa hooked up the sled to 4-wheeler and the boys got a little taste of heaven.

 They both loved it....until they both got thrown off the sled into a nice, snowy face plant.  After that they were just content to take turns riding with Grandpa.

 We've got even more snow on the ground today.

Oh Eli, you're sooo stinkin' cute!

The whole adventure sure made for some cold kiddos!

Well, Jaron, I hope you feel a little cooler after looking at these!

And here's one more reason we have the best Grandpa ever - I wanted to get the boys some track risers for their wooden train tracks for Christmas but they're pretty expensive - at least $2-3 PER riser.  Instead, Grandpa cut these track risers for us out of a 2x3 board!  We're loving our new, elevated tracks - thanks Grandpa!

My Love-Hate Relationship with School

I have been taking no pictures lately so I'm afraid that once again this week, my blog post reflects my thoughts instead of our happenings.  Sorry folks!  This one's my thoughts on school.

School has been my life for, well, all of my life, in one way or another.  I've been thinking some lately about how I seem to travel this hilly rollercoaster of lovin' school, then hatin' school, then lovin' school again. I thought I'd better get my thoughts down because, even though it seems like it will last forever, at some point in my life I will realize we've gotten off the school rollercoaster and on to different ones (like, rollercoasters with a salary maybe?!!). :-)

Right now Jaron is halfway through medical school and I'm beginning my master's degree in psychology.  I find myself once again filled with this love-hate relationship with school.

The "hate" side of the relationship comes because:

• I hate the sacrifice education sometimes asks - time sacrifices, money sacrifices, energy sacrifices.  These are all limited resources and everyone in our little family has had to give a little in one way or another.
• I hate having to find the time for my schooling on the days when there are just so many other things to do.
• I hate the loss of "me" time.  Instead of popping in a chick flick or doing a project after the kids go to bed, almost every night is spent firing up the computer and reading a textbook or typing the time away.
• I hate the periodic "stress" episodes when I feel like I can't get it all done and start to fear my kids might be suffering because all my time is not theirs anymore.

However, all that said, I cannot deny that I really love school.  I love it because:

• I love the feeling of accomplishment that school gives me.  I'm working towards a goal and it's a big one that I've wanted to accomplish for a long time.  Each paper written and each grade received and each class finished gives me satisfaction.
• I love learning.  OH how I love learning!  I love making connections that feel like little epiphanies along the way.  I love that learning things broadens my perspectives and makes me see the world differently.  I love how learning makes me feel like my foothold in this world is just a little firmer, chiseled a little deeper.  I love how learning makes me consider new possibilities that never occured to me before.
• I love that because I love learning and because school is such a big part of our lives, it will probably be important in our kids' lives too.
• I love the possibilities that education opens up for our future.

So, I guess through this post I've worked out the conclusion that school is worth it.  Which must mean the love outweights the hate. :-)


P.S.  Only 3 weeks left until my wonderful, amazing and talented husband returns home to us.  WOOHOO!!

Why I Love This Age

WARNING: This is a blabber post!

I've been thinking a lot lately about enjoying my kids at these young stages in their lives.  As a Child Development major in college, I remember reading about a survey of parents that asked what their best and worst ages of children to parent were.  The definite "easiest" age range was determined to be 6-10 years old.  Consensus on the "hardest" ages to parent was split - half thought the hardest age was 13-18 and the other half thought it was ages 0-5. 

Well, I've only experienced the 0-5 age and it's been great but there has also been plenty of tough road paved along the way.  When my kids have been babies, it was really easy to want them to hurry along to the next stage because "then it would be easier."  I've been guilty of it often - "If only he was crawling." "If only she could sit up on her own." "OH I dream of the day he sleeps through the night."  With Gracen, it really hit me that she was my third.  What I mean by that is, even though I want a big family, there isn't going to be an endless supply of babyness coming my way.  At some point, we will move on from this parenting of young kids stage and, since Gracen is already my third, I'm well on my way through that stage. 

When she was born, I told myself I was going to figure out just exactly which baby age was my favorite and it's funny what has happened.  When babies are 0-3 months, it seems that life is a blur of night wakings and multiple diaper changes and figuring out how to get out of the house between so many naptimes in one day.  During this stage with Gracen, I thought that even though living on so little interrupted sleep is tough, this had to be my favorite stage because babies this age are so small and they snuggle and are holdable and rockable. Then the 4-6 month age came along and Gracen was laughing and babbling and her sweet little personality started to show and I thought to myself, "This age where I first really get to know a baby's personality must be my favorite."  Then 7-12 months came along and with it a whole bunch of firsts - first teeth, first words, sitting up, crawling, walking.  All those milestones are so exciting to go through and as Gracen went through them I thought, "Okay, this is it: definitely my favorite stage."  With Eli, I remember thinking that I really enjoyed him right after he turned one.  And now Gracen has just turned one and oh boy, this is DEFINITELY my favorite stage.  It is the best and the worst, actually.  It is the worst because my baby is really not a baby anymore.  I feel like I have to say goodbye to babyhood.  But with that, I get to welcome so much funness.  This is such a fun age.  It cracks me up that babies this age can't hear music without grooving to it, bending their knees back and forth or swaying side to side (this includes church hymns - too funny!).  I love watching Gracen toddle around with her wide "I   look like I just got done a day of horseback riding" gait.  Her hair has finally grown long enough that she can sport these tiny little "antennae" ponytails that are just too cute.  She's so independent - I can go to the playplace at the mall and actually sit down while all my kids play.  At this age, Gracen will occupy her own time at home.  And why is it that a simple gesture like clapping hands or waving "bye-bye" elicits so much joy in me?  Overnight it seems that I've suddenly found myself the mom of 3 fun little kids.

Which, in a very round-about and rambling way, brings me back to the whole parenting of ages 0-5 subject that I started in the beginning.  I love being a parent of kids these ages.  For one thing, they listen to everything I say.  They're certainly not always obedient, but my kids are currently under the impression that I know everything about everything.  They also think I can do pretty much anything.  And that is a very good position to find yourself in as a parent. (The bubble is about to burst - Alden asks progressively tougher questions - at some point very soon he's going to figure out that I may in fact not know as much as he thinks I do.)  Another reason why I love this age is because these kids are completely under my wing.  None of them have entered school yet and since I am super blessed to be a stay-at-home mom, I am by far their biggest influence.  (That bubble is also about to start leaking when Alden starts preschool in January.  Am I really ready to let my "baby" out of the house into someone else's hands?!) I'm not even out of this 0-5 parenting stage and already I'm lamenting the loss of it!

I am so honored to be a mom!  Especially to this pack of awesome kids!!

Happy 1st Birthday Gracen!

Friday was Gracen's first birthday but since we were celebrating Halloween, we celebrated her birthday today with Jaron's siblings and their families. (Ironic, I know, since today is actually Halloween!)

I can't believe that Gracen is one already!  The time since her birth has gone so quickly.  Gracen has such a sweet temperment - she is so quick to smile and laugh.  She LOVES her big brothers and can't wait to be able to keep up with them.  Lately she's been getting a lot closer to doing just that - she's mastered both up and down the stairs now so she freely roams the entire house.  Tonight, for instance, she went down and played with her bigger cousins without me.  It's strange that she's old enough and independent enough for me to "lose" her in the house.  Speaking of independence, one of Gracen's favorite things are slides.  At most parks with a staircase, Gracen is happy to climb the stairs herself, find the slide, roll over onto her belly and slide down, feet first.  She'll do this over and over again.  She is starting to mimic things - she always "blows" her nose into toilet paper and tries to put socks and shoes on her feet.  Even though she's getting big fast, she's still cuddly when she's sleepy and I love that.  She is my baby who by far has loved nursing the most - I still feed her about 6 times in a 24 hour period (many of those in the nighttime hours unfortunately!).  Gracen has brought so much joy into our lives.  I really love having a daughter!

We started the day by dressing Gracen in her birthday dress made by Sally, our great friend on Saba who also made her blessing dress.  Sally gave this to me right before we left the island so I've been waiting to put it on her!  Sally also made the bonnet.

Pretty darn sweet if you ask me! 

The dress was a little too big so Gracen had a tough time crawling in it.  You'd think this would encourage a stubborn girl to walk more but...not so!

 The boys helped me choose which cake to make Gracen out of our cake books.  After I vetoed the firetruck and the racecar, they chose a castle cake.  It's nothing too fancy but it was fun to make.

 And now for the famous first birthday cake photos!  Although Gracen likes to mimic blowing on her food to cool it off, we couldn't get her to blow out her candle so Alden helped her out.

I really wish Jaron could have been here with us tonight and I know he wishes just as badly that he had been here. 6 more weeks until we get to see him!

 

We sure love you, Gracen and are grateful to have you in our family!!!

Happy Halloween

Thank goodness I live at my in-laws this Halloween.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to devote an entire week to these bad boys:

When originally asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, Alden replied with "The Earth - so that everyone can know we live on the Earth."  So I bought beach balls and started figuring out how I was going to make "the Earth" when one morning, after Alden "transformed" for her (like he frequently does - it's like narcolepsy - he apparently can't really control when or where it happens), Grandma suggested he be a transformer for Halloween.  Well, Alden was hooked on the idea immediately and of course Eli followed suit.

There's more to these costumes than meets the eye.

Okay, that was cheezy but I had to say it! :-D  It was tricky to figure out how to make a transformer costume that 2 and 4 year olds could actually transform in (since that was the whole point) but I think we did okay, even if the upright Bumblebee and Optimus Prime are not as good looking as the transformed versions.

 Can't you just hear Eli saying, "ta-daa!"

 Grandpa was pretty pleased with his transformers.

 Baby girl and I decided to be witches for Halloween.  Genny made Gracen the cutest little witch tutu.  Sorry so many of these pictures have bad lighting - I've never claimed to be a photographer!

 Gracen can totally walk but really doesn't like to - go figure.

 The first item on our Halloween "to do" agenda included trick-or-treating at the "Brunson favorite place to work," aka Melaleuca.  I think all of Jaron's siblings except two have worked there so far.  They had the cubicals all decorated up and we had fun trick-or-treating to the booths.

This is Alden and Eli straining to pick up candy.  Note to self: bulky costumes are so not cool after all.

 We spent all of our Halloween adventures with cousins.  Thursday night we hit "Boo at the Zoo" but it was so crowded that I didn't get many pictures.  The kids had a good time but there were way too many people crammed into a cozy zoo and it was a relief to me when it was over with.

We did the good ole' fashioned trunk or treating tonight with Jaron's parents' church ward.  It's perfect - the process involves very little walking and receiving candy from familiar faces.

 Hot chocolate at the trunk or treat.

 Still, Alden is a die-hard trick-or-treater.  He really enjoys it so after the trunk-or-treat, we hit a few houses.  Gracen spent most of her time on the ground 'cause she's much too busy these days for my arms.

 And in other news, Gracen has been up at night a lot lately, crying for hours at a time.  Some days, I just don't have the energy to keep up with the messes!  This happened 2 days ago and it still looks like this. :-)

 But I sure do have fun with these three, more and more as they get older.  What great kids we've been blessed with!

 And lastly, here's a little Idaho sunset for Jaron.  I sure do love sunsets!

Tomorrow we celebrate Gracen and Grandpa's birthdays so more pictures to come!

The Rest of the Trip

I decided I'd better get these photos up before Halloween comes or else they'll never happen. 

After Saskatoon, we returned to Alberta for a few days to break up the drive back to Idaho. 

Can I tell you how much I enjoy hanging out with my siblings?  We really are friends.  Heaven knows (and so does most everyone reading this blog) our family has plenty of quirks.  But one thing's for sure - we really get along.  I really appreciate that my siblings are all so great with my kids - they make an effort to be involved with them when we visit and they're eager to help me out.  Even after we set up camp in his room and booted him to the couch, Dustin, for instance, took the kids one morning so that I could laze about in bed for another hour.  Both Cassy and Dustin took time to come with us to the park on several days.

We got a chance to hang out with Jason and his kids, James (11) and Randall (8).  It's funny that my kids have an uncle James and a cousin James who are within a year's age of each other!

 These are all the kids in my family except for Genny, who lives way out in Saskabush.

 All the boyz in the Allred fam.

 We spent a couple of nights at my Dad's place.  Alden made good use of my Dad's extensive collection of Hot Wheels:

 On the drive home we stopped at Gibson park in Great Falls, a favorite place my family used to stop at on our trips down to the U.S.  We fed the geese awhile until one got a little too aggressive and bit Alden on the hand.  Alden was devastated - I think it hurt more emotionally than it did physically, though.  He seemed so upset that the goose would do that to him!  As we were walking away, I was reassuring Alden that I wouldn't let it happen again and the same goose nipped him on the behind!  So BEWARE the geese at Gibson park all you I-15 travellers!!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love having my kids be so close in age?  I really do, more and more so as they get older.

 It again took us 12 hours to make the 8 hour drive because of the need to stop every few hours. (P.S. Portable DVD players are worth their weight in GOLD!)  Between Helena and Butte there was a bit of snow in the mountains.  Alden cried when we descended into the Butte valley and the snow disappeared.  The day after we arrived in Idaho, though, we awoke to this:

Alden was in heaven.  Until the thunder that accompanied the snow scared him back inside, that is. :-)