Jason loves making gingerbread houses every year. He takes the construction of it very seriously. Oh...and the kids love it too! :)
The semi-finished Christmas tree. It's a work in progress. Jason is studying for his organic chem 2 final.....so he's slightly busy! :)

And we were preparing all week for this. Every year the city jason works in, Hampton, has a Christmas parade and after the businesses open there doors for refreshments. The dental office (in the hopes of drumming up business :)) served up cookies and my mother-in-law's famous dutch hot chocolate. There was a huge line outside our dental office. The party was definifetly at our place. I made about 600 cookies (like I said- I've been busy) and my mother-in-law made A LOT more than that. So, above is my picture of the parade. See how fast they were going? :) Grandpa Allred was driving like a maniac!
Before the parade an orthodontist's office in another city was doing pictures with Santa. Obviously this is from my camera, not theirs.


The cutest boy in the world. Quincy is getting huge...and soooo sweet. He's been my best baby thus far. But, that doesn't say much either! He's very gassy/burpy but other then that he's a pretty happy baby. Last night he even slept from 9:30-3 and then to 7:30. SWEET! I actually felt semi-rested.

Re-Do

Here's two of the pics that were tiny....I didn't have the time to do the rest.

Tis the season

Here's our Christmas tree. The cute little old man that took the pic at the top (without the Christmas tree in it mind you) I don't think had ever seen or operated a digital camera. We get our tree every year at a great place where you cut it down yourself and then they drag it to your car via golf cart. It's really fun for the kids. Sorry the pics are so small. I don't know why.

These pics are from Ella's Thanksgiving program at her school. She was soooo cute singing her little songs. We had a Thanksgiving dinner following the program consisting of southern turkey (fried chicken) canned green beans and frozen corn. mmmmmmm.

can't get enough

This little boy....so cute!
Her facial expression in this picture says everything.

Today Ella's school had Christmas pictures (???a little early, I know). She begged me to wear her hair curly like a princess. This was the best I could do right now. :) She loved it although it's a little 1992 Ms. Teen Georgia. Yes, I got the inspiration from my sister Jennifer who actually won that pageant some where around that date. :)

Meet Quincy

This precious boy was born at 5:16 a.m. on Sunday. Jason nearly had to deliver him in the car. We left our house at 3:30 and he was here less than 2 hrs later. It was quick and full of pain, but so worth it! He weighed 8 lbs. and was 19 inches long. It was love at first sight for both Jason and I. Welcome Quincy Theodore Allred!











Ella and Lincoln couldn't have been happier to meet their borther. Link asked if he had legs and Ella wondered how he came out and especially with Lincoln's same haircut (mohawk).

Skinny girls

Only skinny girls can looks this cute in leggings and boots. Dang it! :) Ella looked so cute this morning and was so excited to wear her new fuzzy boots that I had to take a picture. Her thug pose makes me laugh. I can see she's been watching too many Lil' Wayne music videos. Turn that MTV off girl!

ROUND ONE
DING DING DING DING! THANKS FOR SCORING ALL THAT SWEET CANDY FOR ME KIDDOS! :) ELLA AND LINK GOT HOOKED UP AT GRANDMA'S TRUNK-OR-TREAT. THIS IS ROUND ONE OF FOUR FOR LINCOLN AND ONE OF FIVE FOR ELLA. PHEW! I KNOW HER MAKEUP IS A LITTLE DRAMATIC...I AM SURE IT'LL GET TONED DOWN THE MORE TIMES I DO IT. BY ROUND FOUR SHE'LL PROBABLY HAVE NOTHING ON. ELLA IS A FLAMENCO DANCER (COMPLIMENTS OF MY SISTER RACHEL WHO JUST GOT BACK FROM SPAIN) AND LINCOLN IS A PIRATE....AGAIN. THE COSTUME FITS STILL, HE LOVES IT AND AS THE AGE OLD SAYING GOES, "IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT". I LIKE TO THINK OF THIS DYNAMIC DUO AS THE PIRATE WITH HIS LATIN LOVER. OK, THAT'S WEIRD, BUT DON'T THEY KIND OF GO TOGETHER?



ROUND TWO

The city of Hampton, where the dental office is located always hosts trick-or-treating up an down the street. Of course, we had to go. When a man asked Link the stereotypical question, "Who are you?" Lincoln replied as he ripped off his hat, "It's just me- Lincoln!". So cute.

ROUND THREE

This was at our ward's Halloween get together on Halloween. ANYWAY, BY THE TIME HALLOWEEN ACTUALLY ROLLED AROUND THIS WAS THE 5TH TIME ELLA HAD DRESSED UP. SHE DRESSED UP FOR SCHOOL AS WELL (ROUND FIVE FOR HER). SO WHEN SHE TOLD ME SHE WANTED TO BE A BALLERINA...I WAS THRILLED. THIS INVOLVED NO MAKE-UP! AND LINK SIMPLY WANTED TO PUT ON HIS FIREMAN COAT. THEY GOT NO ARGUMENTS FROM ME. THE PRESSURE TO LOOK CUTE ON HALLOWEEN WAS NON EXISTENT. YEAH! As the Young Men's president Jason was asked that they sponsor a game. He chose the donut game and the kids were thrilled. Ella has some serious donut-eating skills of which she got from me.
ROUND FOUR

YES, I HAVE A DOUBLE CHIN. I AM CHINNING FOR TWO! THAT WAS LAME. SORRY. WE ARE COMPARING STOMACHS HERE. THE KIDS THOUGH IT WAS FUNNY THAT HE HAD A BIG TUMMY, LIKE MOMMY. AND I THOUGHT IT WAS PRETTY HILARIOUS HOW UNCOMFORTABLE JASON THOUGHT THIS WEIGHTLESS STOMACH WAS. HE KEPT COMPLAINING THAT IT INHIBITED HIS MOVEMENT. PLEASE.

PS- ON A SLIGHTLY BITTER SIDE NOTE... I WAS CERTAIN THIS BABY WOULD BE HERE BY HALLOWEEN. AFTER ALL, I HAD LINK TWO WEEKS EARLY. HERE I AM THOUGH WITH LESS THAN TWO WEEKS TO GO. UGH. I HAD EVEN BOUGHT HIM A COSTUME. TIME TO RETURN IT! THE FULL MOON ISN'T DOING IT'S JOB EITHER.

Little Cowgirl

Grandma Jewkes gave Ella a horseback riding gift certificate for her birthday last February. We just now redeemed it. It was quite the drive but well worth it. Ella was decked out in her cowgirl boots and practicing for "clicking" and "giddy-upping" all the way there. She got to do everything from brush the horse, clean out his hooves, saddle him, and then of course ride. After she rode for an hour, she got off solemnly and hugged the horses face for about 5 minutes. Then asked if she could go again. So cute. Thanks Grandma!

This picture says a thousand words.

So much to say, so little time

I love blogging and checking all of your blogs. I just have been struggling to find the time to post. Sorry. So, I have a lot to say but as I am typing I have a searing pain in my ribs (thank you baby) and I cannot wait to go home and lay down. After all, it is almost 9 and my body has reached it's upright limit (it needs to be horizontal). So forget the dialogue....it's not that great anyway. :) As you check out all these pictures, one thing is VERY apparent- the seasons have changed. Thank goodness, I felt like I had been sweating for WAY too long. These events are in the opposite order in which they occurred.


Tonight for FHE (in all my makeup-less splendor) we carved pumps, drank hot chocolate, had a fire, and ate smores. Oh, and it was cold. MMMMM, sounds like fall to me.

Then last weekend we went to our local fair where we paid outrageous prizes for our kids to ride dinky rides. I am so glad that they thought it was the coolest place ever. I was glad to be there and pay my admission solely to eat the korn dawgs. YUMMO!












About these blurry pics...Jason had a little trouble with our camera while in Hilton Head ( a beautiful island on the coast of South Carolina) with Lincoln and Grandpa Allred for a dental conference. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Ella and I stayed home and wallowed in our (YES, OUR) hormones. Lincoln still talks about the hot chocolate and fruit loops, that he got to pour all by himself- a very important detail. Thus, the hot chocolate picture. How cute is this little Euro swimsuit? If you have a body like Lincoln's it is DANG cute. :)

PS- On the baby front (cuz I know you're all dying to know), two weeks ago I was dilated to a one , fifty percent effaced and the baby was in between a station 1 or 2 in my pelvis. YEAH! Bring it on. Is it too much to ask to have him on Nov. 1st? I don't want to miss out on the kids' Halloween stuff, but don't want him kicking my ribs any longer either.

Harvest blocks

I had a few requests for directions on how to make the harvest blocks. They are very easy and very cheap to make. Here goes (sorry if I am too detailed...it's in my nature):
1) Buy a long 2x4. Cut seven pieces with these dimensions: 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 (you need two of these), 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 (you need two of these), and 3 1/2 x 7 1/2 (you need three of these).
2) Sand the edges of the blocks. Paint the blocks with craft paint. I like to see the grain of the wood so I put a very thin layer of born on mine. I even watered it down b/c I didn't want it on thick.
3) Make friends with someone who owns a cricut. This is vital. :) My aunt has a vinyl machine so she did it for us. She does ship if you want to order the letters from her. I can give you her contact info. It might take a a few test runs b/c you need three different sizes of letters (my aunt used two different fonts too). Put the vinyl on your cute fall paper (that you already cut a slight bit smaller than the above dimensions to give a cropped look).
4) Next, put the paper with the letters onto the blocks with mod podge (I used matte finish)using a paint brush. Then put a layer of mod podge over that, making sure to continue past the edges of the paper and onto the block, adhering it to the block. You don't need mod podge on the entire block, just the front side. That's it! Good luck!

Some friends came over and mod podged these adorable "harvest" blocks. Thanks to Jana for the idea and vinyl lettering. My finished product is above with yummy caramel apples made by Lincoln and Ella themselves. See below.

What is a girls' night out without chocolate molten cake. YUMMO!!! If you want this recipe it's on our Jewkes family recipe blog (link on the right). It was super easy and incredibly moist and delicious.

I can hardly resist all the marketing ploys during the fall season. There are a million yummy things to make, lost of things to decorate with, and fun activities to do. What can I say....I am a sucker for anything fall and we start the fall celebrations early at my house (in case you couldn't guess that from the painting pumpkins post). Here are some fun fall things we did this weekend.





We got your first pets this weekend! Well, I guess that's not quite true. We are not pet people but three Christmases ago we caved into the pet craze and bought a bunny for Ella that we named Hamilton. Again we are not pet people. Case in point: I accidentally left the garage open when the bunny was "roaming" (we strive for free-roaming, ethical treatment of all animals) ...needless to say, I am pretty sure it was a tasty treat for a fox or some other wild beast that roams these parts. This weekend though we found the perfect pets. CATERPILLARS! Seriously, how can you go wrong? I guess the fact that I have no idea whether or not they are poisonous and could kill my children is a start. Oh well. They are funny looking green caterpillars that we found on our tomatoes in our garden (yum, I know). They have these weird white things on them. The pictures are very blurry but it's the weirdest caterpillar I have ever seen. The type you see on Baby Einstein videos that are exotic.

Someday my prince will come....

Someday my prince will come. That seems to be Ella's mantra these days. She asks me about "her prince" at least a couple times a week. The other day she asked with a tone of exasperation and exhaustion, "Mom, when am I going to find my prince?". Then tonight she asked Jason the same thing and then said, "I think I am going to be shy about my prince". She is hung up on this prince idea and seems to think Lincoln could be her prince. She even asked me how she's going to find him. This is when I chimed in with the good old-fashioned talk about character and finding someone to take her to the temple. Never to early for that. We are a little concerned that she is totally boy crazy. And I might add, that all the boys in her class are crazy about her.

Lincoln has this wonderful (inherently male) habit of picking his nose whenever he is in the car or idle. So we were on our way to church and I noticed he was at work at his nose. He looked victoriously at his finger...he had definitely retrieved some matter from his nostrils. I handed him a kleenex and asked him to wipe it on there. To which he angrily replied, "No, Mom! I am looking at it!". Gross. Only boys. I have NEVER and I really mean NEVER seen Ella picking her nose.

One other absolutely note-worthy conversation I had with Ella this week. (Keep in mind I am very pregnant and getting bigger by the day.):
Ella: "Mommy, is your tummy gonna break when the baby comes out?"
Me: "No."
Ella: "Ooookay. Are you sure?" (I mean really, how else could it get out of there?)
Me: "Yes."
Ella: (with a tone of sudden enlightenment) "OOOOhhh, is it gonna go way down your toes and then come out?".
Me: (hardly restraining my laughs) "Kind of".


These three absolutely precious pics are pics of pics. Obviously. These are her school pictures that I was sure I would not get sucked into buying. How could I resist? I have no idea which one/s I will pick. They are all adorable.
And this is the picture I took when I dropped her off at school for picture day. I guess I was hoping the school ones would be so ugly that this would do.
Pumpkins were $.64 at Wal-Mart and the yelping and begging that ensued when my kids saw them ceased immediately when I decided to spend the $1.28 and fulfill their Halloween fantasies. So, they painted these with me and then the next night, when I was at a shower, they put hair, eyes, and all other parts on with Jason. They were such cute finished products. Then they were destroyed when Ella took hers to class for show-n-tell.

What's more fun than sharing chocolate chip cookie dough with your brother? Nothing.


Lincoln in need of a high-spin cleaning.
The kids and Cooper at a local animal rehabilitation center.

The potty training super hero

TAKE THAT!!!!
AND THAT!!!!

Here to rescue you from all your potty training emergencies such as:
1) Squirting your mom(who knew???I guess I should have)
2) #2 sticking to your bum and you jumping up in excitement because you went stinky....thus causing a serious emergency....poop on on the carpet.
3) Thinking you need to wipe because girls do (maybe boys should...it sure would make restrooms smell and look nicer)

Catch-up

Just playing a little catch-up here. It's all in the name of my posterity. These events are quite old. About a month or more. I can't even remember. Jason's brother and his family came into town at the beginning of July. We visited Stone Mountain where the sweat flowed freely, the kids still have not stopped talking about the laser show where, in Ella's words, "the horses came alive (referring to the carvings on the mountain) and they ran and there were swords and fireworks". That's a perfect summary.




We even got to ride the train around the mountain. It's about a five mile journey that took about 30 minutes. You do the math. It was slow....but soooo fun. The is Lincoln and my other child Jason, watching in excitement as the train approaches to pick us up for our ride.
We also managed to visit the famous Georgia Aquarium. Another highlight for the kids.
Here we are with my sister-in-law's niece and nephew.
Link wishing he was a crocodile..or alligator...whichever. I can never keep them straight.
Looking up at the sharks in a tunnel where you are surrounded by all the sea life. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Allred! We had so much fun!

A foreign experience

After suffering through the harsh dryness of the west (post about that chaos to come), my feet somewhat resembled the grand canyon. I tried home remedies. After all, I pride myself in giving my own pedicures...why pay someone else when you can do it yourself? A spa treatment such as that is a luxury I indulge in only once in a while. After about two weeks of being back on the east coast, I saw little improvement in the coarseness of my feet. And, to add insult to injury, my right toe started getting a little puffy and sore on the edge, indicating an impending in-grown toenail (my first). I gave in. Off to the spa with Lincoln.
Immediately a cute little Asian lady (I am not being demeaning...they are so cute....and I cannot fail to mention that they have AMAZING little figures) came to my aid. I showed her my inflamed toe and she had a look of excitement on her face. I was excited too. It was hurting to exercise. Then, she took out a basket of metal instruments that looked like they belonged in the operating room of the hospital instead of a sap. I immediately braced myself. This cute little lady really started operating on my toe. At first I was able to muffle my yelps by biting my lip or just making hideously ugly facial expressions. Then she took out this tool that look like a knife on the end. The lady (who is not so cute any more) shoved that thing so far down into my toenail that I swear she was digging for a kidney. This is the moment when my screams were no longer muffled. I yelled. I yelled VERY loud. All the cute little Asian looked at me in disappointment while the other customers looked at me with sympathy. I guess my little expression of pain was NOT appropriate. I suppose my little lady friend wanted me to harness my inner kung fu warrior or something. She continued to dig and stab and take chunks off of my toe. I continued to yell and writhe (literally) in pain. I endured several smearing looks from all the employees there. My friend stood up and spoke in her native tongue to her coworker. I didn't have to speak the language to know she was not fond of me, my toe, or my yelling. Then that coworker (apparently the resident in-grown toenail remover) sat down and did her magic. They both had the same method- they would poke, stab, prod, cut, etc. and then ask me innocently, "Does it feel better?". After this second lady sat down and after she had asked me that about three times I finally lied and said, "yes". I guess that was their indicator that they had retrieved the offensive material out of my toe. They stopped. What normally takes about 20 minutes had taken an hour due to the out-patient surgery I endured.

PEDI COST: 16 + tip (I know, it's a bargain)
SURGERY COST: Only humiliation and pain. That's all.

Do you believe in magic?

This week has been a tornado of events. I feel like Dorothy with things flying all around me and out of control. Link would be Toto, always running off and Ella is the nice witch, just because she's pretty. Ok, enough of that. Anyway....We got back from our THREE WEEK trip (I hesitate to use the word vacation b/c us moms know that when you go out of town- especially if your driving 60 hours across the US- without your husband, it's MORE work to be away from home than to be home) on Tuesday night at 9:30 pm GA time. My kids at this point are probably suffering from vertigo or something b/c we have been back and forth between every time zone possible. So they crawl in bed and I have to wake poor Ella up at 7am (5am on her little body) to go to her first day of Pre-K. Waking her up on this particular morning was proving to be VERY difficult. As soon as I said, "it's time for school" she perked up and jumped out of bed. This is how excited she was to go to school. There were no tears from her, but I must admit, I was a little weepy...It was sad for me to let go of the reins in a way...my little child becoming susceptible to other peoples' philosophies and other kids' bullying. That was the hardest thing for me....letting go of Ella's innocent little mind and allowing others to put their foot print on it. Anyway, she loved it. Every minute of it. She even said, "Mom, I met someone today". It was weird to hear that phrase b/c i automatically thought, "she'll probably say that in another context in 20 (hopefully) years." That night Jason gave her a father's blessing for the new school year. We've explained the priesthood before and have compared it to magic...of course...what else could it be compared to? :) The next night at dinner prayer Ella thanks Heavenly Father for "the magic".
PS- I would just like to note that the puffiness you see in my face in this picture is due to my pregnancy. Certainly, it has nothing to do with eating fast food for three weeks.

When Dad's take their sons to baseball games unsupervised

What happens when Daddy's take their sons to baseball games unsupervised??? Funny you should ask that.....see this is what happened.
Jason and Link went to Braves game about 2 weeks ago...unsupervised. :) Link was sitting in the unstable stadium floppy chairs. You know the type. It was flopping. Link was picking his nose or digging for gold...who knows. He's got his finger up his nose a lot these days. All the sudden, his precarious balance on the front of the the floppy chair is threatened and he gets slammed to the back of the seat in mid nose pick. Thus, his finger jammed up his nose. A fair amount of crying was reported by Jason. He was hysterical again when I wiped his face when he got home. The next morning he was sniffling a lot. He told me there were bugars (how do you spell that...it's not the spell check...go figure) in his nose so I gave him a kleenex to blow and nothing came out. The next minute he was sneezing and lot of stuff came out all over the kitchen chair. I looked closely at a brown clump and observed something very strange. There was a peanut in the snot. A PEANUT! So this is the conclusion: Link was playing and putting a peanut up his nose when his balance was compromised and the peanut was shoved up. Poor guy...he slept all night with that jammed up his nose. It reminds of me the Simpson's episode where Homer had shoved crayons up his nose when he was a baby. This was the explanation for his stupidity.

These are the only pics taken on the fourth, given generously by Uncle Ben. Jason is definitely the best uncle ever. I don't know one niece or nephew that doesn't adore him. Above, he is here with his favorite baby- Ainsley.









Link...you look like you belong on the exotic beaches of Italy. I forgot hims swimsuit that day and only remember his uber-classy swim diaper with froggies on them. What a stud. He wears it like a champ. I forgot to blog about this. Ella is taking swimming lessons and is doing a stellar job. I am proud of her. She loves her teacher, Christine. She really thinks she is swimming all by herself. She doesn't even realize that even though she's making great progress, she's got a long way to go.

The reward for not screaming her head off.

A Mother's Intuition

A mother's intuition-I have found- means nothing. For months now (five to be exact) I have been so sure I was going to bringing another Allred lady into the world. I was so sure of it I even bought the most beautiful blessing dress in the world for the little intended one. Well, obviously I was wrong. We are expecting a little boy at the beginning of November. My OB insisted I wait until 22 weeks (TORTURE) to find out the sex. That left me way too much time to find really cute things on clearance that I just couldn't resist...pink things. Oh well. Not that I am disappointed. Really, I am not. I was just so sure b/c of my symptoms and things like that. I really didn't care which I had. I am thrilled to be having another little joy because to be frank, I can't handle the drama of one little girl- much less two. Tell me what names you like!!!!!

This is too cute. This was Ella's response when I told her I was having a boy:
E:Mom, can we name the baby Sally.
Me: Honey, it's a boy. That's a girl's name.
E: Oh. I wonder what it's face is look like. I wonder what color it's eyes is.

Cute little girl! I have been wondering the same thing! We can't wait.

More as promised....again

Ok, so I guess I am a little dramatic. I really thought I lost my pics, but Emily helped me find them in the....wait for it...recycle bin. DUH. So I guess I am a fan of this "green" movement because I am a huge fan of recycling if it means getting my pictures recovered. I am going green. :)











Grandma Becky took all the grand kids out for ice cream (with coupons of course) after a traditional trip to El Charro, followed by a gumball (last pic).


After Link's party on Saturday we had our eyes set on Florida. The cousins were in town and so it was perfect. We all packed in (seriously...you should've seen the car) and drove down. The kids' favorite part of the trip was when cousin Gabe and the Sophia and Lillian would catch little tiny fish in the ocean with a net and then they would put them in the little pools for the kids to torture. It was a fish cemetery by the end of it. Fun times.

More....as promised

I am sure the Allred fans would be thoroughly disappointed if I did not post more pictures, as I had promised. Here's a feast of pics from Link's b-day and other cousin fun.
OHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYY GOSH. I was in the middle of shrinking pictures and accidentally deleted ALL of the pics from Link's b-day, our recent trip to the beach, etc. Depression hurts....yes, it does. I think I am going to cry.

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

How cute does Ella look in this picture. Strike a pose! She's in the red dress in the middle.

These are just some of the pictures I have from Link's B-day celebration on the 14th. I know, I know...I have been the worst blogger ever. What a hypocrite I am. I hate bad bloggers! :) Anyway....as you can tell, we had a firetruck birthday complete with a tour of the local fire station. It ended up being quite eventful because one of the genius foremen thought it was would be cool to turn on the siren and honk the horn right when 16 3-year olds walked up. Screaming ensued and most kids wouldn't even let their mom's put them down. One guest, Toby, had to go home ( I just added the pic of Toby in terror...I shouldn't laugh, but it was funny...and sad b/c he went home!). He could not recover. I have great pictures of the terror. Later, I promise. The highlight of the party for me was when Jason and London volunteered to be "fires". They taped yellow and red crepe paper streamers all over themselves and ran around while I screamed, "Put the fire out!". The kids had water guns and water balloons with which they put those flamers (don't read into that pun) out. :) It was hilarious and soooo much fun. More pics to come....stay tuned.

My brother Jeremiah and his girlfriend, Amy, and Julie came to visit for ten days. We ate A TON and played a lot. Here are two of the events that we did. We had 8th row at the Braves game. Don't ask who they played or what the score was....I don't know. But the funnel cake was tasty.







Then we went down to Palm Coast to mom and Dad's beach house for about four days. We even got a short visit from Amanda and Jonah. Shell seeking was the highlight.
Then Jason and I drove to Alabama to go cruise Florida. Don't ask. We were intended to go to the Bahamas. We ended up really enjoyed Key west though. This is in front of Ernest Hemingway's home.
A direct descendant of some of his famous six-toed cats. Really. It happens to be taking down an innoecnt bird in this picture. But six-toed nonetheless.
The house again.


Bringing sexy to the beach. :) I know I know. Irresistible.

I thought this structure was really cool. It featured a garden inside.


The famous Banyan trees that adorn Key west. They grow horizontally instead of vertically. They were soooo cool.
Truman's little white house. Almost every president and several other nobodies( like Thomas Edison...you may have heard of him) have stayed here. There was a ton of history here so Jason HAD to stop by.
Our dining table group. I am the tan one in the middle. :) We had so much fun just relaxing and eating and sleeping. Did I mention Jason won the ping pong tournament??? I HAD to mention that to make it look like we actually did something on our cruise. That was in between naps. And our kids got the ultimate care from Grandma Allred. She even had their laundry done when we picked them up. That's what I call babysitting!

Jim, you're my hero!

Last week I went to Boston with my sisters, mom and brother-in-law. Here are the highlights from my awesome trip. And here are a few tips:
1. Strollers not allowed in this city
2. Chivalry is completely dead.
3. Babies are a huge nuissance to city folk.
4. Bostonians love to give bad directions just for kicks.
5. It is awesomely accessible through the trains and.......
6. It's cold there in April....very cold.
This is the morning that we all left. We left Boston in the right way though...we ended it all at the climax- breakfast at the highly recommended "Paramount". I can't even really describe the venue but if you've ever been to a town with colonial buildings you know how tiny these places are. Literally my hair could've fallen in someone's food while they were sitting and I was waiting in line (or shall I say hovering) for my food. That's how little space there was in there. We got a lot of dirty looks for bringing carseats and for even being present. How dare us.
I just have to give props to Jim. We went to go watch him run the prestigious Boston marathon
(or at least that was the pretense...it was a girl's trip too). I was proud...only the elite of elite runners get to qualify for this marathon. He has been training endlessly and tirelessly for a few years. That's dedication. So on Monday we cheered him on. I have to tell you about this sign we made b/c I thought it was pretty witty. Jim's desired time was 3:15:24. So those numbers reminded me of the scripture John 3:16. Anywho...so we made a sign that said Jim 3:15 "For Jim so lvoed that marathon that he ran it in 3:15:24." Hilarious. Well, I thought so. Blaspheme? Possibly.

We made these great shirts that said "J. Crew" (Jim's crew).


This above pic and the next few are from our city tour. If you really want to know how to shoot a machine gun(is that even what this is?? ), just refer to this picture. it's standard to kick up a leg. I promise.


The USS constitution a.k.a. "Old Iron Sides".


These next few pictures (and the one above) are from a weekend farmer's market. Everything was so ridiculously cheap. I told Emily, "I would be so hot if I lived here". Really. Eating healthy is very expensive. But not in Boston. You could get 2 lbs. of grapes for $1. A box of strawberries for $1, etc. We bought loads of fruit to snack on for the weekend. Then there was a box of live crabs to snatch up for dinner. Talk about fresh seafood. And of course, who could go home with out their goat, freshly killed- whole or half! The options are endless with goat!



Our harbor cruise.
Our hotel was the center of the town- the clock tower building. It used to be the customs building for incoming ships. Thus the name of the hotel- Marriot's Custom House.
The beautiful Boston harbor.
Famous Quincy market. You go hungry and leave full and totally visually stimulated. There's more food to look at and take in than any place.
One end of Quincy market. Restaurants right and left. People yelling at you, "What can I get you?". It was awesome.
Paul Revere's house.

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday sweetie! He was especially thrilled about his chocolate eclair cake, his rocking birthday glasses, and the hot sauce from Emily and Jake (I was ecstatic...check out that bottle- it's perfect decor!!!). And this post is featuring Hickory Hill farm (my parent's place) at peak azalea season. GORGEOUS!