Fun times

(FYI: the following pictures are not in chronological order)

On Saturday we went to the Post Office to see Santa. I've been prepping Hailee for a few days because she has not liked sitting on his lap in the past. This year she did great, she was quite excited to see Santa, and as you can see Spencer didn't mind either! Then Saturday night was our ward party and Santa came again. She didn't smile for the picture, but she will sure talk about sitting on his lap if she hears mention of the word Santa!

Spencer got tired of waiting for us to get ready and getting locked out of the bedroom/bathroom and decided to just take a nap before we went! I love that he will fall asleep anywhere!


I took Hailee with me to Young Womens last week. I told her we were going to decorate gingerbread houses. Man, I have never seen her talk so much, she was Soooo excited. She told everyone in the hall (at the church) what we were doing and loved that she got to help set up. She would hold onto a table as we pulled it out and set it up, and carried the bags of candy. Then during opening excercises I was talking (when i shouldn't have been) and she was shushing me-it was so funny! She was a great little froster and candy placer! She pretty much helped with the whole thing. BUT she did NOT want to eat any of the candy-from the bowl or from the house! When we were done she insisted on carrying it, and she didn't even drop it the whole ride home(which was all over town dropping off girls and such) Then she came home and showed Dad and had to do some serious protecting of the house so that he would not eat it. She almost took it to bed with her-she was pretty worried! We had a great night!




We've started going down to visit our cousins Addy (Heath's cousin) and her kids Rio and Krey. Rio and Hailee are 8 months apart. Our first visit wasn't the best, Hailee wasn't feeling great at all, but the next time we had a blast!
I had promised Rio we could have a jamma party next time we came, and she was sure to remind me right away! So Hailee and Rio picked out a pair of jammies and spent the afternoon in them!

The both found our cell phones and were having a good time with them.


They had to play with 'pretend phones' until they found ours. But they had a great time calling each other.


Addy might not think she's a good cook, but for not knowing what she was doing, she sure outdid herself this day. She made both of us dinner-which included homemade rolls and homemade au jus and roast for French dip and banana muffins-yum! Hailee loved them and everytime she ate one (at home) she told me that only her and Rio made the muffins-not mommy! (They got to mash the bananas)What a great way to spend the day (for me!) play all day and have dinner ready when you get home! Thanks Addy!



Spencer had a great time with all the balls-and all the food in the kitchen. Two of his favorites!


This is the fashion show/dance party that kicked off our jamma party. I know this one is blurry but it was too funny to see them strut their stuff! They were so cute!




Last week we met up with some college friends from USU and went to dinner and to see the lights at Temple Square. I forgot that my batteries were all but dead, so I didn't get many pictures and I had to be quick about it-turn it on, snap, watch the camera die, hope it turned out! (reminds me of film cameras! Thank goodness for digital!)
So the group picture is kindof dark, and then I just zoomed in to get our family one-not the greatest, but it shows we were there!
We almost ditched the whole idea-the weekend after Thanksgiving and parking was awful. I think we parked at least 2miles away and carried one of our kids the whole way. Spencer was crying on the way back so I held him-and he fell asleep-man that kid weighs a ton!-my arm was huring for a few days after!
But we were glad to be able to spend time with our friends-even if it was short lived with cranky and wild kids! Thanks Casey & Ashlee and Sean & Caroline for inviting us!

Happy HALL-oween!

We had a really great Halloween. On Friday Grandma and Grandpa Hall came to visit (because we were all sick the week before and missed their Halloween party)
Grandma and Grandpa helped us carve our pumpkins-Grandpa is really great at cutting into things!



Spencer was just enthralled with all the excitement the entire time Grandpa and Grandma were here. He loved having so much attention-and I loved that it didn't all have to come from me!


Hailee was pretty excited about the whole thing...except digging out the pumpkin guts. She wasn't sure she liked how they felt. She kept saying "Look, I got some!" and her hand would be empty.



Hailee was a cat for Halloween and Spencer was a mouse.


(he hated wearing the hat, but was sure a good sport for pictures!)

(Bragging moment: I am not an amazing seamstress, I don't even own a sewing maching-YET! However, I am quite proud of myself because I made Hailee's cat costume all by myself!-and I did it in about a day! She had a teddy bear jacket(refer to Spencer's 1wk pictures) and I used that as my pattern. Changed the ears, added a tail-Badda Bing! You have yourself one cute Kitty Kat!)

Our Cute Little Cat and Mouse!






Hailee has now lost her cute innocent smile for any picture. Here she is showing us her smile...I can't see it, can you?


HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Some of our latest pictures and stories

I am way behind it would take ages to catch up...boring. So here is just the most recent stuff.
Conference weekend Hailee, Spencer, Grandma, Kellee and I headed up to Boise to see the newest addition to Becca and Mike's family.
Little Amren (I'm not sure of stats, just sure that she's adorable!)

This is Hailee holding the baby. She really enjoyed it and if the baby would cry I would say Shhh! then Hailee would hold her finger to her lips and say Shh too.
I was trying to get Amren to smile, Hailee was too.


I think that Ben liked having a boy around the house. He didn't want to have his picture taken (typical Ben) but he didn't mind posing with Spence!


Spencer got SOOOO excited everytime he got a good look at Amren, he was laughing and giggling all the time it was so cute! I'm thinking maybe he remembers her from just a bit ago!


This is Amren, she was really good at making this face, it was so funny! Isn't she adorable!


This is the best group picture these kids were willing to give at the time...notice Ben is missing! and Hailee will NOT smile and tries to avoid the camera if at all possible...happens all the time for me, not fun for someone who likes taking kids pictures!
Makayla is the oldest and holding Amren, Spencer and Hailee are sitting next to her and Savanah is on the back of the couch.


This is Hailee and Amren again


Amren Faith Breinholt


Spencer has been crawling like crazy lately. (I had the funniest video but can't download it yet, it's too big) But he seems to get himself into some predicaments that I find rather funny-he doesn't mind too much either!

He can now crawl up the stairs, and isn't afraid to dive straight down! Lucky for me, our stairs are split and the most he falls before I realize it is 3 stairs...and it's only happened once (so far).
He started pulling himself to standing at 6M and now tries to stand on anything he can find that is higher than the ground. I am constantly finding myself a human jungle gym!
The other day I was blow drying my hair and asked Hailee to go check on Spence, she left and didn't come back so I went to find her and she came running to tell me that Spencer was playing in the bathtub. Not uncommon since he crawls in there everytime he sees the open door and bangs on the side of the tub, but when I went to go get him out it seems he really was IN the bathtub and obviously having a great time!!!


Another big event...mostly for Heath, is that I chopped my hair off. No i do not have a picture, I don't have many of myself and I didn't take one the first day and it hasn't looked as good since (I just can't give myself that professional hairstylist look), so I've avoided it. But here you can see how much is missing and imagine how great I look!
Heath had asked if I would save a lock of hair for him, so we cut it off all at once and I brought it home like this. It sat on the counter for a couple of days and I asked if I could throw it away yet. Heath wanted to keep it, so it is now in a ziploc bag on his dresser (oh wait I moved it to inside a drawer) He is very attached to long hair!



The other night I went visiting teaching at 7pm and ended up staying out til 8:15, I left the house saying that I hoped my kids would be in bed. This is what I came home to: (at least they were all asleep!)



They fell asleep listening to a Jazz game together-so sweet!

We left Spencer on the floor cuz I knew he would wake up and about an hour later he did...kindof.
He had rolled to his tummy then he got on his hands and knees and sat up. I hid myself in the kitchen so as to watch what he would do, and what he did cracked me up!
Heath had told me that this is what he was doing before they fell asleep, but actually seeing it was too funny! I even had to sneak past him to my room to get the camera and he stayed asleep like this till I picked him up and took him to bed. Then of course he woke up and wanted to eat-no surprise there!



I think this happens in his crib quite often. I've told Heath that he sits up and cries but I don't think he realizes he needs to lay back down yet, so he just falls asleep like this!
He did it again this afternoon-ah what a funny boy I have!

Hailee and I got some crafts the other day and she has been having a great time finger painting, sponge painting and gluing fuzzies to make shapes.
Today she wanted to play with the fuzzies for the second time and so she climbed up in her chair and tried to get started. She kept telling me "Mom, I do it myself" then a few minutes later "Mom, it's not working" (speaking of the glue bottle.)
Well then she said she got it to work and I just kept on doing what I was doing. Heath got up and noticed what she had done. She figured out how to take the entire lid off-what a smartie! Plenty of glue and those fuzzies aren't going anywhere! Heath was a bit annoyed but I just pointed out that she was able to keep it all on the paper so it wasn't a big deal!


In other Hailee news: She has been a big girl since Tuesday and is working very hard on potty training. She filled up a potty chart with 20 stickers on Wednesday (after weeks and weeks of trying) and now it's Saturday and she is 3 stickers away from filling a second chart of 25!!!
On Tuesday we wore panties in the morning and by afternoon I needed to go to the library to return books. We were almost done checking out when Hailee decided that she had a poopy diaper-which she now hates (meaning wet or poopy, doesn't matter)
and she pulled off her shoes, pants and diaper. She was wearing panties over her diaper but REFUSED to put them on because she was poopy. So I hurried and loaded up my bag of books-stuffing her clothes inside, picked up Spencer, picked up her, and used the bag to shield her bum from the world and rushed out to my car. I was SO mad I didn't think I would ever find humor in the situation...but here it is Saturday and I find myself thinking, that's pretty funny!
Wednesday we went to Grandma Gardners and she brought her potty chair. She did great. Three accident and 4 successes, and the best part is she told me "Mom,I'm gonna go potty on the toilet every time!) Let's hope!
Thursday was AWESOME. In panties all day and NO accidents, not a single ONE! Yipee, I can do this potty training thing after all!
Friday morning we went for a walk and had to make a stop. She was willing to go at someone else's house! 3 accidents, but all on the kitchen floor-I can handle that. We had to go run errands so I put her in a diaper and after 2 hours we were at lunch with Heath and she said she was pooping and wanted to go in the store potty. (Beto's) I said just go in your diaper-she wasn't too happy about that-Good news, right!
Saturday-only two accidents (3 if you count when I tickled her leg and she peed a tiny bit) but we even wore panties to the grocery store-and used their potty and to the aquarium and used their potty twice!
I really think she is getting the hang of it, and I'm happy. She even has told me several time that she will do it herself and that I'm not allowed to come in with her. Today I had to stay outside while she went in Caroline's house! What a big girl! (and maybe a little too independent!)

I am also proud that I was able to stick to my guns and only bought a potty seat for the big potty and never bought pull-ups.

My question for those who have trained: what do you do at night? (or do your kids stay dry?) and what about long trips? we've made it 45min but what about 2 hrs+??
What are your suggestions and ideas?

Wow that's long, hope you enjoy!

Fun Family Photos...Cartoon version

We had these done at Copperton Town Days. We had one of our local artists, Chad Lee, create a cartoon sketch of each of our family members. We thought it was pretty cool, just one of the fun things going on at town days! (He mis-dated the first two photos on accident, so we had him mis-date the rest on purpose) Enjoy!


Dad


Mom


Hailee


Spencer


Arriving April 2010

A Taste of India...Hailee's future career???

What a night of entertainment we had.
Uncle Chris came to stay the night and wanted to have Indian food for dinner. Heath and I had been to India Fusion awhile ago and decided to take him there. The food was great and even better-the entertainment. Every weekend they have live entertainment in the form of belly dancers.
Spencer was the first to spot our entertainment last night. His eyes were wide with curiosity and excitement. Then I told Hailee to turn around and she thought this 'Princess Dancer' was so great, she couldn't stop watching or talking about it after the girl left for a break. The bellydancer then came to our table and said Hi to us and told Hailee that if she ate all her chicken nuggets that she could clean her hands and come up on stage and dance with her the next time.
We kept talking to Hailee about it so she would be prepped for the big event and not get scared, and when the time came, she did so great!
It was so fun to see her up there with her hands on her head trying to shake her hips! It is not a crowded resturant but all the guests were cheering her on and clapping for her, it was so cute.
Even our waitress was so great with our kids, I think she's the other half of the reason Hailee ate her chicken nuggets.
We've been out to eat with kids before and I've just walked away wondering why I do that to myself, but last night was so fun! Both of our kids were so happy and well behaved, I was actually able to enjoy my meal...still the last one to eat, but it was still yummy!

This handsome young fellow is Six Months Old! I can't believe how fast it went. His stats at the dr.'s yesterday are
19 lbs 11 oz -down to the 95% (from 100)
I think he was 29 inches-97% So he seems to be thinning out just a wee bit, he might have lost one fat roll!
He is such a cutie! He loves to sit up and can sit by a basket of toys for long periods of time, which is so great for me! He also is working on scooting from a sitting position-it's pretty funny, he leans forward on his arms and scoots forward. He can move a couple of feet doing this-once he learns to crawl I am in big trouble- you can see how bad he wants to move already! He loves following his sister and would chase her everywhere if he could!
This picture also give you a sneak peek at what our new patio and porch look like. I am waiting until everything is farther along to show before and after pictures. But I am SOOOOO excited to have a patio and almost front yard-the past two weeks have been crazy with a new change happening everyday...it is very exciting to wake up and look out your kitchen window to see this...
...only because it means something is finally happening! Yipee!

It has been a very busy and fun month. Some other activities we've participated in are...Zoo trips one with Grandma, Nathan, Jeremy, Taryn, Dustin & Laney. And another with the neighbors, Megan, Dylan, Abbi, Lily, Emily, Colby and Caroline. It's always fun to go to the zoo!


The Allred Family Reunion-


So much fun...hiking, food, water, basketball, adorable cabin...too many details to share right now! Thanks Kathy for hosting such a wonderful event!

Spencer's first camping trip. We went to White Rocks with my Mom and Kellee over the 24th. Hailee and Spencer actually did very well-especially at night compared to previous trips! Hailee only woke once each night-Spencer only woke the first night because of Hailee! Overall I think it was a great success and we had a wonderful time! My mom hasn't been camping for about 12 years or so, so it was fun to have them along too!





Ending with lunch and a visit at Grandma Great's!


A playdate at Dustin's house. With swimming, lunch and this fabulous tent!-and too much fun to take naps! Around 3 o'clock we were getting ready to leave when I noticed a package on Taryn's front step. It just happened to be Dustin's new, bigger and better pool, so of course we had to stay and go swimming again! Thanks for sharing a fun day with us Dustin. My kids slept the whole way home-It was GREAT!


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