Feeling Domestic

I love harvest-time! When the mornings and evenings become cool. The sun rises later and sets sooner. The trees and plants in the garden finally bear their fruit. And thanks to my great neighbor Tracey, she shares in the harvest of her peach tree every year. It is the saddest looking tree around, but it grows the best peaches and this year was a winner crop. I picked a 5 gallon bucket full for our family and went to work. I made fresh peach shakes, several batches of peach jam, peach cobbler, pies and had fresh peaches in my cereal. After all of that, my bucket was still almost full. What more could I do with these peaches? Wanting to learn a new skill, I called Tracey over to help teach me how to can them. I have never canned before and thought this would be a great opportunity. After some tutoring(thank you Tracey) and messy work(can you say 'brown fingernails'), I had a dozen beautiful bottles filled with peaches. What a nice addition to the food storage. I now feel like a true mormon wife, and, Oh, grandma would be so proud!

It has happened!!

So......for all of these years I have been so grateful that my kids have never cut their own hair, or worse, someone else's hair. But, IT HAS HAPPENED. Somehow I thought we just might make it through these toddlers years unscathed by the 'I cut my own hair' catastrophy. But, alas, it has happened in the Allred house. And many of you may be in shock that this is something Cody hasn't tried yet (I am a little too). Let me give you the details :).

It was a beautiful day and Mom needed some time away from the house and kids. This leaves Dad as the only supervising adult in the house with 3 kids and a very important football game to watch. You know where this is going. Upon my return home I notice scissors in the front room. Questionable, but I then think nothing of it. After giving Lauren a bath I notice TONS of hair in the tub. Questioning, I ask her,"Why is all that hair in the tub." She responds, calm as can be,"Oh, Cody gave me a haircut while I was practicing the piano." In my mind I refer back to the scissors I saw in the living room. I then frantically look at Lauren's hair to assess the damage. Not too bad (luckily), just bits and pieces gone here and there. I then run to the living room looking for precious locks of Lauren's hair on the ground. None to be found. Strange. Later, I ask Tony if he knew that Cody had cut Lauren's hair and he says,"Oh, that explains all the hair I found in the toilet." Now I am really questioning what all happened while I was gone when my husband did not seem alarmed by this discovery. Then, I go to comb Cody's hair and something is not right. Could he be a victim too??? Sure enough. A big chunk gone right out of the front. I ask him,"Cody, who cut your hair?" He responds with famous words,"Lauren did it."

So.....there you have it. The 'he cut mine, so I cut his' barbershop playtime that occurred while mom was getting some time off.

Mother-Daughter Team

Mothers and daughters do lots of things together, like: go shopping, go to lunch, get pedicures, visit grandparents, go to movies and Jazz games, go to quilt shows and so on. But not many mothers and daughters run races together. I am so proud to say that my mom and I ran in the Legacy Parkway 5K race together on Saturday. We had a blast!!! My mom was very apprehensive about it, but I kept telling her she could do it and that we were going to do it together. Once we committed to do it, we decided we didn't want to just run to run. The Hess Cancer Foundation was the charity sponsor and we got to thinking of all the women in our family who are battling cancer. My cousin Cheri (who is only 37 years old) has breast cancer and just had a double mastectomy and is undergoing chemo-therapy. My Aunt Deanna has ovarian cancer and is on her second round of chemo. And my Aunt Sharry is on her third round of chemo for ovarian cancer as well. These women who we love so much and have prayed so much for were our reason to run. We ran the whole race together and as we held hands and crossed the finish line my mom got all teary. What a great accomplishment and a great reason for us to have finished our race together.

In addition to my mom and I, all of my cute friends also decided to run this race too. We started the summer with the Syracuse 5K and wanted to end the summer with one too. It has been so fun to have run all of these races together. What great inspiration and motivation they have been to me. We even met up with other ladies from our ward who participated as well (and my bro-in-law Mike rode his bike). Here we are the day of the race.....
And here we all are the next day - cleaned up and rested.....
Congrats to everyone for not only running, but for finishing in style!! I figured that between all of us: Cami, Natalie, Rachael, Hollie, me, Joni, Faye, Melinda and Judy running - plus Mike and Ashley on their bikes, we covered 77.6 miles!! What a way to start a Saturday morning. Now I can cross 'running a race with my mom' off of my life's list of goals. And I can hope there will be more opportunities to do it again!! I love you Mom!! I love you girls! Way to go! We did it!

Go Cougars!!

Another season of BYU Football has started. And as tradition goes, my dad takes Connor each year to a football game. They went to the game against UCLA on Saturday which was a complete blow-out for BYU, winning 59-0 (as Connor says ..."TOTAL DOMINATION")!! Connor loves spending time with his grandpa and enjoyed having an entire day full of 'boy' fun. They stopped at Cabella's on the way down to Provo and played in the shooting gallery. They went out for lunch and hung out at the tail-gating party. They got pretzels and drinks and snacks. Talk about a young boy's dream day. Connor is now working on memorizing all of the players names (thanks to Grandpa buying him a game program) and is already looking forward to next year's game with Grandpa.

Finally.....Back to School!

So...many of you are probably thinking, "school started a couple of weeks ago." And, yes, for everyone but us, this is true. This year our kids started in a brand new school that was not ready for the kids to start until last Friday. We tried our best to enjoy our pro-longed summer vacation without any harm coming to any of us (barely made it :)). As much as I LOVE being with my kids, having them around me and doing fun things together.......105 days (who's counting?) of summer vacation is an extremely long time to be an 'entertainment director'. We definitely enjoyed our time together, but it was sooooooo time for school to start. Connor is in 3rd grade this year which is just crazy. He has already made so many new friends (no surprise) and has all their phone numbers scribbled on little scrap pieces of paper. Lauren is in 1st grade and can't get enough of school. I miss her being home with me. We are best friends and I am so sad we won't get to have any time during the day together. She is such a social butterfly and loves to learn. She has always been the teacher's favorite.
One thing the kids are most excited about is that they get their own locker. Yes, I said, locker. Lockers are no longer saved for Jr. High anymore. They are small lockers that the kids keep their coats and backpacks in. This is just another way that the kids are growing up way too soon.
As for me, I hope to get a lot accomplished now that the kids are in school. 105 days without a break from the kids can leave you a little crazy, and your house a little crazy too. Cody and I will have lots of one-on-one time which I think will be good for him (for me, I'm not so sure). I definitely plan to help in the kids classes a lot and hope to have more time to finish all my unfinished 'projects'.
More than anything, I am so glad that my kids are back learning and studying and expanding their minds. I really think this will be a great school year for us all!!!

Cody's Birthday Extravaganza

We have had quite the party weekend at our house! Friday, Saturday and Sunday consisted of birthday parties for Cody (we call this the 'birthday mardi gras'). I think Cody was slightly disappointed that nobody showed up tonight to bring him presents :). He loves trains so he got some for his birthday to both eat and play with. He got a whole Geo Trax set which has been so much fun! He loves it! Cody thinks that driving the train himself is just the coolest thing. Forward, backward, forward, backward, up-the-hill, down-the-hill, up-the-hill, down-the-hill and so on. When we would ask him how old he would be on his birthday he would hold up three fingers and say,"seben(seven)." He loved all the attention and company this weekend and will hopefully just want to play with his Geo Trax for hours on end.

Happy Birthday Cody!!

I can't believe my little Cody is 3 years old today! He has brought so much excitement and joy to our family. There is never a dull moment when Cody is around. He keeps us all laughing and loves being the center of attention. None of us can keep up with all of his energy! He loves to play outside and would ride his bike all day if I let him. Reading books, playing with trains and driving his trucks are some of his favorite things to do. He is sweet when he wants to be, and gives the biggest hugs and kisses around. Being friendly comes naturally to him. He will talk to anyone and always asks me,"How you doin', mom?" What a sweetie! He is so smart and can do anything that he sees you do (this has been a problem). He goes by many names: bud, buddy, chubba-bub, bubba and sometimes, trouble. We love Cody so much and are so glad he is our little buddy. Look how much he's grown........

My 'Good Fortune'

Somehow I got the luck of the draw as a teenager. I was blessed with the most wonderful friends through Jr.High and High school! Friends who helped to make you a better person than you thought you could become. We all still stay in touch and get together for dinner often. Tonight we met at the Mandarin in Bountiful and had a great time. It is so nice to get together and see that none of us have changed. Our friendship now seems just as it was 15 years ago. As we talk, we all have the same worries, fears, goals and hopes for the future. We still confide in each other and draw from each others strength. I feel so blessed to have these wonderful women in my life. I love you girls! Oh, and my fortune was: "You have a fine capacity for the enjoyment of life". I think it should have read: "You have been blessed with great friends who've added much enjoyment to your life."

Fun at the Zoo

Summer would not be complete without a trip to the zoo. In my new quest to be more fun and spontaneous (thanks to the last camping trip), I woke up one day and decided we would pack up and go. Forget making beds, chores, laundry, dishes.....we left it all. A quick stop to pick up Grandma Juju and we were on our way. My kids love the zoo!! Connor loves the adventure to find all the animals. Lauren is the animal-lover and likes to watch for new babies. Cody is the observer - pointing out to us all the poop and stinky smells. All day long he kept saying,"Eew, mom. It stinks''. We saw all the animals and especially loved the bird show. I also reminisced about all the years that my Grandpa Jensen got a season pass to the zoo. He loved taking the grandkids to the zoo each summer. That was back in the day when there was a petting zoo, when you could feed the elephants, when you could ride an elephant, and when you could get a wax figure of any animal you could imagine. I had a whole toy box full of those thanks to Grandpa. What great memories I have with my Grandpa at the zoo!! Here are some fun pictures of our day.

Lauren's favorite animal was the giraffe. She especially loved the baby giraffe.

Gotta love the train!!

My sweet boys!!

Fly by the seat of my pants

Last week Tony came home from work one day and says to me,"My next job won't be ready for a week, so, lets go camping tomorrow". Now keep in mind that he is saying this to his wife who likes to plan and prepare and organize and have everything 'just so'.
"Tomorrow?", I say (knowing I would have no time to plan and prepare and organize).
"Yes, let's just go", he says to me.
"OK", I agree.
So, in 24 hours we borrowed my parents trailer (thanks mom and dad), packed some clothes, gathered some food, reserved the last camping spot available, made 100 phone calls (seriously) to rearrange our week and prior commitments, loaded the trailer, cleaned out the car, picked up the house, did a few loads of laundry.......... and then we were off. We headed to one of our favorite vacations spots - Island Park Idaho. Tony has been going here his whole life and it is fun for us to now take our kids who love it just as much as we do.
A few highlights of our trip include:

• A whole day in Yellowstone. We played the license plate game (almost got them all) and the kids were on the hunt for every possible animal that exists there. We saw the geysers, Old Faithful, the falls, Mammoth, the stink pots (gotta love those), lots of buffalo, elk, deer, 2 bears, and even coyotes. It was quite the adventure!!
• Floated the river. As tradition goes, we rented a canoe and floated the river one afternoon. We love doing this!! It is so peaceful, relaxing, and fun. The kids each took turns paddling and we even got out and played in the river. Towards the end a storm was approaching and Tony and I had to paddle like mad to get us back before we got rained on.
• Food over the fire. Nothing is better than meals cooked over the fire when you are camping. We had hot dogs, tin-foil dinners, marshmallows, and of course, smores!
• Shooting. We can't be in the mountains without Tony dragging out a gun for us to shoot. He has a favorite .22 that the kids love to shoot. I think Lauren outshot us all.

It was so nice to get away, have a change of pace, and have a change of scenery. More than anything, we just love being together as a family. Once we got home and were unpacking, Cody says to Tony,"Can we go camping tomorrow?".
I think that says it all.........

Have I done any good in the world today???

For family night this week we had a special evening with our good friend and neighbor BJ Warnick. She recently returned from Zambia where she does Humanitarian work for the Mothers Without Borders organization. She visits there once or twice a year and leads teams of other volunteers. The volunteer teams work to help villages and people there have a better way of life. Most of the children there are orphans as AIDS has killed so many of their parents. The work they do is helping to build a better and stronger generation as well as saving lives. BJ is an amazing person and such a great example of love and service. She gave a great lesson and talked a lot to the kids. She wanted them to know that there are other children around the world, who may not look like them, but that they are also children of God. We were able to taste, and feel, and see the way people live in Zambia. She also told us incredible stories and experiences that confirmed to her that we are all children of god and that he has a plan for each of us. We were all so inspired by her words and testimony. Her daughter, McCall (who also went to Zambia this year), told us how her work in Africa has changed her life. It was definitely a night to remember. Since then I have been asking myself, 'Have I done any good in the world today?? Thank you BJ and McCall!!

Big Boy Bed

The exciting news at our house this week is that Cody now has a big boy bed. Yes, the crib is down and Cody is loving having his own big bed. After a week of painting 5 coats to get his bed just the right color red, and searching for the perfect bedding, we have it all done. Several times this week I asked myself, "Why am I doing this?" (those of you who know me know that I hate to paint). What came to mind was "it's for Cody". I love this little guy and wanted him to have a fun bed and a fun room for him to play. He now will tell the kids "Get out my room!". He has really taken ownership of his room since getting his new bed. He is growing up too fast and I am falling more in love with him each day.