She's here!

                                                                       Two days old

 One day old

Introducing our sweet baby girl- Charlotte Alexandra Allred. She came after an extremely difficult 24 hour labor. SO worth the wait! Seven pounds four oz and 20 inches long. She was born on Thursday, the 6th at 10:24am. More details, pics and birth story to come soon!

Still cookin

Remember this? October 2010

 Yup- Ella can still wear this outfit she wore last year. Tiny little thing. I am thrilled though b/c its too cute to wear just one year! And check out these awesome gords! They are the prettiest ugly things. The kids think they are disgusting.

Don't get all excited now. The baby is still in there cookin' away. We just had a false alarm on Saturday night. I started having contractions around 11:00 pm. I wasn't about to jump the gun so I timed them for TWO hours. They were about two min. apart around 1 am. I knew it was unlike my previous labor (with Quincy they were so close together and progressed soooo fast) but I just figured this baby would take her time coming. Anyway, we called our poor neighbor, Debbie and she came over at 1am and stayed here through the night. Of course when I got to the hospital I had to go to triage where they make the decision if you are really in labor. They hooked me up with this flattering green smock and then connected me to the machines. Yup. Contractions. Strong ones every 2 min. After an hour there was no change in my cervix but I was still contracting. Weird. So they admitted me. Because I have had a c-section before they wanted to be extra cautious and watch me through the night due to the risk of uterine rupture. UGH. They pumped me full of fluids for about four hours. Finally around 5 am the contractions really slowed down much to my disappointment. Jason and I finally got a little rest. Then the next morning a doctor came in and wanted me to stay at the hospital ANOTHER night just to monitor me. Crazy folks. He was worried about uterine rupture. So Jason went home to relieve Debbie (and his mom at that point) while I enojoyed my night away. The End.

Family Day

Last weekend was family day at Georgia Health Sciences University (the name recently changed from The Medical College of GA) where Jason attends dental school. We had Jason's alumni brothers and his parents come. It was so fun to see what Jason does on a day-to-day basis. I like to keep tabs on those things....sometimes I wonder if he's just on facebook all day.

This is HIS sim (simulation) lab complete with his name on it. See it? :) There's a little manequin attached to this station that you can pull out and work on.

Jason's dad- Dr.Bob, borther-Dr.Bo, and brother- Dr.Ben. Living the Allred legacy! :)

P.S.- Nine more days to go! I am "patiently" awaiting our baby girl's arrival. Dilated to a three and 90% effaced and SUFFICIENTLY uncomfortable. Ob informs me she thinks she'll be "just on time". GRRRR.

Link's first t-ball game. Baseball was always "Jason's sport" so he was sooo proud. Lincoln is on the Cardinals. The game was so entertaining. I thought I would pee my pants when Lincoln ran from second to first. That was just one of the incidences that kept us laughing the entire game.

Holy cow

Ok, so this guy thought this shirt was appropriate at a commemorative concert for the victims of 9-11 that we attended at a local park last week.  Dude- seriously? Yes, terrorism is of the devil. Islam however, is a religion. And not all Islams are terrorists. And not all terrorists are Islam. This shirt just SCREAMS ignorance.
And of course I am the suuuuuuuuper classy, educated, non-ignorant lady taking a picture of this dork. HA! :)

Lincoln rolling down the hills at the concert.

Ella at the park. Dang it. I thought this pic was going to be the official cast picture but obviously you can't even see her cast. Well....she got her cast off today! So, those tiny tiny pics from the previous post are just gonna have to do. She is wearing a sling for now. Apparently it is against her fashion code, it is a dinosaur sling. *GASP* She tells the nurse, "You guys should really have barbie slings".

How precious is this little guy's bed head? SOOOOOOOO cute. This is nap time bed head too, not even morning bed head. Good quality stuff right there.

And now....for the title. HOLY COW! :)
Don't mind the facial expression in this pic. Jason was the photographer and I didn't have any warning. I think I was in the middle of something something to the effect of, "Honey is this a bad angle?". :)
And I would just like to note that this was taken after the wrestling of three kids  church. I am 37 weeks. Jason says to me, "Honey, why are we taking a pic now? You are going to get bigger". He says it so matter-of-factly I wanna punch him. Little does he remember that I had Lincoln at 38 weeks.

Now these pics were taken by a real pro. Ella. Now the expression holy cow really takes on new meaning. The side angle is painful looking, right? I have to say my tummy feels bigger with this one than the others. It just feels very pokey-outey. :) More so than the other kiddos. But I have put on the least amount of weight (pat on the back...zumba up to 32 weeks really paid off!)....so maybe I am not as big as I feel.

I am in the mood...

For...FALL! This fall weather (that lets face it- will not last) has given me serious fall itch. I have taken out my fall decor and even made caramel apples with the kids today.

We have been enjoying the outdoors like no other. Eating on the porch, going to the park, etc.

Is it too early for fall decor? Perhaps. Oh well. I could not resist.

I have been searching and searching for a really great yellow. Our Master BR is like the restoration hardware color (that blueish, grayish, greenish) and I have wanted to put some yellow accents in. I have been wanting to paint this table above, our lamps, a mirror and some frames. And MAYBE even those shutter I picked up about a year at a garage sale.  I was scared. So, I followed a blogger's advice and painted something that was non-committal. Something that could be re-done. So, I bought some krylon spray paint today, put on a few coats (wearing a dress, 36 wks pregnant and looking crazy no doubt) and fell in love. The shade is perfect. I am officially obsessed. This is the table which is serving double duty as my fall decor table....for now.

These are our cute neighbor friends. How lucky are we that Henry (age 5) and Elizabeth (age 8) live directly across the street and go to our church? Soooo lucky. THEY were lucky today...coming over on caramel apple day. :)

Carry on fall lovers....carry on.

Pics may cause a squint and neck cramp

I took these pics with my phone....so, I can't figure out how to make bigger or turn them. Yes, I am challenged. Anyway, I forgot to announce (and it is an announcment!) that indeed, Ella's arm is broken. I took her into the ER on Monday morning after Jason and I noticed it was a little swollen. On Saturday night Jason was jumping with the kids and Lincoln landed on her elbow. Crying and drama ensued, but that's pretty normal for Ella. The x-rays indicated there was lots of fluid around her elbow which usually indicates a break but b/c of the fluid, the break couldn't be shown on the x-ray. She wore the splint for a week and just today got a fancy glow-in-the-dark cast on. Bigger pics to come soon!

The Quincy and Claire show

That's pretty much my life these days. Quincy and I send off the kiddos on the bus every morning and then its him and I taking on the world. We pretty much invent things to do to make our days together interesting.

After we send the kids on the bus his favorite thing to do is sit on the porch and watch all the cars and trucks go by while he mumbles, "vrrrooom".

He's a super helper in the kitchen. Here he is helping me make oreo truffles. There will be a few less oreos than called for in this batch.

Since we have moved here our kids get on the trampoline no less than once a day. Quincy gets on it probably three times a day. They NEVER got on at our old house. Must be about the nice fenced-in backyard, soft grass, and its only a few feet from the back door. Back in Brooks you were taking your life in your hands going to the tramp. Who knows what kind of critter might jump out at you. :)

I realize this is very fuzzy. Its cropped. I just wanted to capture his feather hair. Or, as some would call it- "dandelion" hair. So sweet.

This little creature in Link's hand has a death wish. It was found roaming our front yard a few days before school started. Besides providing the kids with tons of entertainment, I mostly don't like her. There. I said it. She meows INCESSANTLY and the little feline thinks she invincible. She practically walks under me when I take Q out to the tramp multiple times a day. Does she not know that would be like an elephant trampling a mouse. Did I really just compare myself to an elephant? Yes. Its getting to that point. I have five weeks to go.
Anyway....on to the death wish. She climbs ridiculously high in the tree in our backyard as if she thinks I am going to rescue her. She's almost fallen out a couple times. And she actually lets Quincy hold her which is terrifying. He will procure her by any convenient limb and hold her by that singular limb. He has sat on her and thrown her several times. And let me just clarify...while I am not an animal (I should say pet) lover I do not allow pet cruelty. I just had to put that out there for all of you who's mouths are agape that I allow such treatment. I don't. Quincy has become quite familiar with time-out due to his accersion of power with the cat.

Did I mention that Ella gave her cat quite a clever little name? She calls her MOW-E. Get it? I assure you she doesn't but I think its a little ingenious. The letters M-E-O-W switched around. So its pronounced like Maui, the island.

Now this...this could be child cruelty. :)


I knew Quincy's diaper was wet.

I was preoccupied and it was almost bedtime. Meaning: inevitable diaper change.
The kids have gotten really quite methodical when it comes to getting Q off and on the tramp. Well, one of these times his diaper just gave in and fell down. But for some reason the sticky tabs were still stuck to him. Q did not even notice.

Way too busy to care about public nudity.

The kids' favorite trampoline partner. And he also just could be the cause of what could possibly be a broken arm right now on our sweet Ella. Double bouncing should be for older kids not 2,5,and 6 yr olds. Jason thinks its for him. As for the broken limb-we will see in the morning. You never know. She's great at the drama act. We will wait for swelling. Its just one of those risks you take with owning a trampoline. You know at some point, someone will probably break something.

J's first day :)

Of course I HAD to take a picture of Jason and his first day too. I would be remiss if I didn't document this important day in Allred history. And up on the shelf you can see the huge jar of preserved teeth he took to class that his dad has been collecting for him. Who wants to take a whiff of that? YUMMY!!!!

PS- I am sure you notice the bright green "cast" on Q's leg still. He was supposed to get it off on Monday and he did but they refashioned it into this boot called an RFC just to protect him for two more weeks. The good news is its removable so I was actually able to wash that nasty leg and toes. OH- the smell. And cutting his nasty toenails has never given me so much pleasure.