Two of my five Valentines....I am lucky. Hope you all had a V-day filled with lots of love!

For President's Day we drove to the Columbia, SC zoo. We went with some friends in the ward- The Lines and the Kikuchis. So much fun!

Lions

Ella-phant. hehe

The hoodlums. Ella, Henry, Lincoln, Elizabeth, Quincy and Malachi.

Giraffes.

Giraffes.

Zebra.

Some of Quincy's favorite people- Henry and his second mom, Elizabeth. :) She worked wonders for me a the zoo.

Kiddos feeding the goats what I teased was "Cocoa Puffs".

You could also feed the goats some hay. The goats were very confused between hay and Quincy's hair.

And now for the STAR of this post.... ELLA MOE turns 7!!! Read on...more to come on that.

                 And this big fatty was four months when this pic was taken. And 16.3 pounds.

She wears her weight so well. 16 pounds does not look this good on me.

Little Lotte's first experience with rice cereal. I wish I hated food this much. Oh, the irony.

We decorated the house (and esp. Ella's bedroom) for her big number seven birthday! She requested Grandma's special pancakes and syrup (buttermilk--recipe on blog) with chocolate chips, whip cream and sprinkles. This girl does things fancy.

Speaking of Fancy....Ella wanted a Fancy Nancy birthday party. Just a little background on that...cute is a big taboo word in our house.

If you call Ella cute she immediately wants to change.

Better use the word fancy or you are in for it.

So, in that spirit we invited some of her girlfriends over for an uber fancy schmancy birthday party.

They all wore their fanciest attire. I really let go of the reigns and let Ella dress herself.

                                                        

   *pat on the back for mom*

They all "fancied" some shoes with feathers and gold buttons, etc. BIG HIT!!!!

The party animals!

I really had such great aspirations for Ella's Fancy cake.
FAIL.
As mothers, we can dream, right? It didn't work out. Time is not in my favor these days.

What did she wish for??? Do you remember the days when wishing on your birthday cake was MAJOR. You really contemplated what you would wish for...it was serious business.

The "teacup" party favors. Again, my intention was to wrap them prettily in cellophane with a big pretty bow. Didn't happen. No one cared though.

They each had a little crown, clip-on earrings, and a little hair clip with a tiara on it.

Lincoln insisted that red was a boy color and so he would make fancy shoes too.

He says the one on our right is the American flag shoe and the one on our left is the Indian shoe.

She just looked too cute on Sunday to not take a picture. Ella wore this when she was one year old. Just a SLIGHT difference in their build. :)

I love her fat, rosy cheeks and easy-to-come by smile.

This girl is nothing but pleasant.

She brings so much joy to our whole family.

We all adore her.

                 DI-VA. No, I am not talking about Jason. Although at times....ok, I should stop here. :)

The Summary

 These first few pics came from my phone (thus the lackluster quality) and just summarize what we've been up to.

Charlotte was hospitalized on Jan. 1st for RSV. Sweet little angel didn't even act that sick but when I saw her laboring to breathe I took her into the pediatrician's office and they advised me to take her to the ER. They admitted her and we stayed the night together so they could monitor her oxygen levels. She had to be on a breathing treatment around the clock for about two weeks...along with all kinds of medicine. It was a little rough on both of us.

Q diddle getting ready to ride the "flo" wheeler (as Lincoln calls it) at Grandma Allred's.

             Charlotte at three months and 15 pounds and officially sleeping 12 hours at night (it really happened around week 8 or 10-- lets give mom a high five!). She's not gonna let RSV get her down.

                                     Ella riding the go cart with cousin Meggie at Grandma A's.

 

This was actually taken post-hot tub at Thanksgiving at the cabin in Blueridge with my parents. Too cute not to post.

Jason and his classmates were a little "over-excited" for the semester to end. They all dressed up. I guess Jason had a different idea than the others of what that meant. Most wore formal suits and dresses.

These pics were an attempt to capture Charlotte's MAD upper lip. That girl can give some drama when she pouts. All you can do though is laugh even though I should feel sorry for her. One day I will get that picture. In the meantime....

OOOOOH my gosh. This picture is killing me.
Laughing as I type.
 So...The kids' school collected money for "leumekia" (lincoln's words, not mine) and if they got some change (I think I scrounged up about ten cents in the couch cushions or something:)) in their collection box they were able to dress up for disco Friday. So....Friday morning comes and the kids think that THAT is the appropriate time to tell me its disco day. So we threw this together. Oh wow, I think it was for purely my entertainment. Lincoln is such a good sport about things he even put on Ella's bell bottom jeans. He didn't care. And her sweater vest (which is super cute on her and not weird).  So...the funny part is I asked Lincoln if people liked his "costume" when he got home. He kinda looked perplexed and was thoughtful for a minute and said, "No one knew I was dressed up...I took off my peace sign necklace". I wanted to laugh and cry. Well, I think I did both. But I was crying cuz I was laughing so hard. Who in their right mind thinks I would put my kid in this on a regular basis?

And this picture off in no-man's land.... What is this doing here? Thanks blogger. ENJOY!

the motherload part I

All of my posts have "part I" or "partII" in them these days. So, if that's not an indication that I am slacker then I don't know what is. Oh well. Here goes...remember to stay tuned for part II- the sequel which is right under this post.

We held the second annual Allred progressive dinner/talent show. Oh...and it couldn't be complete without the ugly sweater contest. Jason and I (I will admit- Jason fully took the reigns on this one) decided to make this a Hawaiian Christmas. Good Will was apparently out of hideous Christmas garb. Here's the group. The winner: Bob and Kristi. I think our family got one pity vote.

By far the BEST talent of the night was our sweet TY break dancing for us to the kids' version of "Boom Boom Pow". Shoulda worn some depends to watch that. I was rolling...we all were. Notice the gold chain. He even did the worm. Yes.

This was me and the two older ones doing the same talentthat we did at the Jewkes talent show, "Skidamarink". Then our family did "The Great Enlarging Machine" which we stole from Em and Jake from the Jewkes talent show. Are you sensing our utter talentlessness? Good. That's what I am trying to convey.

                                                   Charlotte's favorite- Aunt Bessy.

                                                                  Luke and Quincy.

Ali sharing her stunning talent- reading "The Night Before Christmas" one week before giving birth!

I don't wanna talk about this pic. It had to be taken. The annual I-just-got-out-of-bed-and-got-no-sleep-last-night pic. You know the one. You are just probably not brave or stupid enough to put it on your blog. Can't decide which one.

                                               The loot from Grandma and Grandpa A.

                                           

All of Ella's dreams came true with this often imitated but never duplicated American doll -Emily. Its presently sitting in Quincy's high chair having a midnight snack.

Jason handmade something for each of the older kids. He spent all week doing these sweet little tailor-made projects. For our Quinster, a tool box/car carrying box.

For our princess Ella, a jewelry box complete with several rings that are sure to turn her fingers green. You have to see this in person to really appreciate the design- there are compartments inside complete with plush  fabric and pretty little details on the outside.

Jason made Lincoln a "treasure chest". This thing is awesome. You can eve lock it. Its everything Lincoln's little mind could've imagined. I personally want one of my own to keep precious things in. Like chocolate.

                                                       Isn't he a doll? har har har.

Look at these three cuties!!! These are their hat and gloves set brought to them by none other than Santa. How Santa knew they needed them we will never know. Gotta love Link's face in this pic. All of them really.

They are getting ready for the daily "truck" ride around Grandma and Grandpa Allred's. Where (in Quincy's words) they say the boaps (goats), aho (horse), guck guck (duck), dog dog (dog) and other inaudible sounds for animals like ginny foul and pigs.

                     This is New Year's Eve. This girl obviously had way too much egg nog.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!