{Traditions of a small town}

Brecken's Elementary school had GrandParents Day on friday. My Parents and Aaric's Mom were able to come. This is such a fun tradition for the kids. Brecken was so excited all morning, and could hardly stand it. Breck's Grandparents got to come and pick her up from her classroom and take her to the cafeteria for lunch. Then they headed back to her classroom and she got to show them what she did each day and what she had been working on or any part of the classroom that she wanted to show off. And yes I am the annoying mom that tags along just to get the pictures! But I just snapped a couple and then left I swear. Brecken was beaming the whole time and had a blast with her Grandparents, We love them so much and as a mom I'm so thankful for their support and really appreciate them making memories with our kids!

This is Brecken's cousin Ashton, they are only one year apart but Ashton is on the tall end of the spectrum and Brecken is on the short end. I think it's hilarious how opposite they are. hhmmm I wonder if my genes are playing a role here? whoops!

Despite the growth chart they are cute little friends and love being in the same school. But what's even funnier is what's in the next picture.............

Here you see the whole group. Brecken's two cousins and their two Grandma's. Well my little nephew Davin (Ashton's brother) is actually a year YOUNGER than Brecken! yep next to each other he is a full head taller than Breck but she is a year older.

Ashton is in 2nd grade....

Brecken is in 1st grade and

Davin is in Kindergarten.

But Brecken definitely looks like the Kindergartener here. It's hilarious, me and Kami laugh about it all the time. We'll cross our fingers that Brecken hits a growth spurt here sometime soon, but I won't be holding my breath for it!

How was my night last night?...Let's just say Lesson learned!

Warning......don't look if you have a weak stomach, motherhood is NOT for wimps!!

I don't want my blog to come across as a perfect peachy life of nothing but wonderfulness, this is the real life of the Allreds. We take the good with the bad and want to remember both!

Last night Aaric had run in from work, changed his clothes and ran back out the door to a stake leadership meeting so I thought I'd let the kids have some fun. They thought it was so cool that I was letting them watch a movie in my bed, and were thrilled when I told them I would get them all a sipper of chocolate milk. They were giggling and all excited all lined up together with their drinks and pillows and bears. I left such a perfect fun moment to get some things done, and I came back to this!!! Are you kidding me?

Avery had thrown up all over my bed...she was standing there saying "I throw up, I throw up" I went to pick her up and BOOM there she goes again...this time ALL over me and the carpet and the dresser, and all the pillows from my bedding that I had stacked next to it! With one more good hurl onto my pants I finally just grabbed her and made a run for the bathroom. Oh the joys of motherhood. I quizzed the older kids about the episode that I didn't see. Avery did have a cough but wasn't really that sick. She's done this before by just chugging it too fast.......

Then in the mess I saw a big slimy round thing and asked Brecken what it was. She simply said " oh that's a crabby patty I gave Avery from my backpack"

I said, "A CRABBY PATTY...sick, Brecken you have to ask me before you give her any candy okay, especially if it's from school."

I was scrubbing the carpet and almost throwing up because of the real "throw up" smell and my mind got running here's what I was thinking:

"oh seriously it's 9:00. By now the kids should be in bed, I wish Aaric was home helping me with this, shouldn't I have some sort of entitlement to a guardian angel when my husband is gone for church meetings every single night of the week? My nights should be calm, collected, and completely watched over because of our sacrifice for the church. But here I am all alone, 3 kids running around, no husband, covered in throw up. Something is wrong with this picture."

Then Bam....The spirit hit me so strong I couldn't believe it. Here I was complaining about having no guardian angel to keep my home perfectly content, when really that very gaurdian angel was probably the one that saved my 2 year old from choking to death when I wasn't in the room. DUH how could I be so negative? How could I be having this pitty party for myself right now? I have no idea what exactly happened but suddenly I was very very thankful to be cleaning up throw up and not on my way to the ER with my child turning blue!! I had to hit my knees and thank a loving Father in Heaven who taught me a good lesson last night. oh ya and thankful for my rainbow vacuum system, what would I do without it!

{Cute ISM's for the week}

AVERY

I pulled into the garage, opened the door to unbuckle Avery from her car seat and noticed her upside down water bottle next to her.  Her car seat and bum where soaking wet.  I picked her up and I said:  "oh boy Avery"

she looked at me and said:     " I'n nodda boy mommy,  I'n a Avery girl!"

TATE 

Tate:   "Mom I was thinking, you know how it's St Patrick's day"

me:    "ya"

Tate:     "I bet the Hulk is going to come to our house today! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day.....We believe in Leprechauns!!

The kids were so into St. Patrick's day this year. Brecken wanted to be decked out in green and she looked adorably festive. Tate on the other hand was all about the pinching! He purposely dressed in red and wanted people to think he didn't have green on so that when they pinched him he could suddenly flash his hidden green shamrock and pinch them 10 times. He couldn't believe there was a holiday that I said he COULD pinch people....he loved it and thought it was hilarious and loved being sneeky!

Brecken came straight home from school and made a paper Leprechaun house. She said that at school when they went out to recess they came back into the room and there were tiny Leprechaun footprints everywhere so she knows they exist and was going to catch one in a tricky little house. Her house was complete with stairs...and a pot of gold inside. The Leprechauns did come late that night and dropped off some green cup cakes, there was glitter instead of footprints and the kids followed the glitter trail until it ended but never found the leprechauns. I guess they were just too sneaky this year! Since Brecken was sad she didn't catch one in her house I put the movie "The Gnomemobile" on my Netflix queue so tomorrow we can at least watch a movie with the little gnomes in it. (It was the closest to Leprechauns as I could do). She's so excited! If you haven't seen it...shame on you it's a kids classic!

This is why I live where I do.....

I love living in the only town in the state that doesn't get snow!! Seriously, my kids have been playing outside for weeks now. The other day I looked outside and saw Tate and his friend out jumping with no shirts....I asked them what they were doing and they said

"we're hot mom"...........okay no it's not quite that warm, I knew they just thought they were being cool. It's not quite shirtless weather but it has been great outside weather lately....With the way all the mountains face around us we hardly get touched with the snow...even though 15 minutes away has a foot...it's weird and I don't get it but I love it!

That day the boys wanted to be DARTH MAHL.....I had 10 minutes to paint a rough version of him. The boys thought it was AWESOME and had a blast..... Now comparing it to the real darth Mahl...um I might have to go back and take some art classes.

{Whatever Works....}

Now some people would look at these pictures and find them very disturbing, they would jump to conclusions and blame me for poor parenting.....but before your mind goes there let me simply explain. I always thought video games were so annoying and useless, however I have had a change of heart.....they are the best BRIBERY on the whole planet. They can be a women's best defense at times. I use to find myself saying the same things over and over every morning........ " You guys hurry put on your shoes" " come on we've got to brush your teeth" "hurry take another bite" " Tate grab your coat" "Brecken come get your hair done" Well my friends, I am now a firm believer that it is not how good of a mother you are, it's simply how good of a briber you are!! I tell the kids whoever gets ready first can play their DS. Each morning the kids race to get ready for the measly 4 minutes of DS playing. Now I find myself running from one to the other because they are yelling to me "mom hurry do my hair" "mom where are my socks" "mom help me put this on"

Yep they are like putty in my hands now, no more fights, and no more begging them to stay focused on getting ready for school......I LOVE IT. Here they are ready and waiting for their ride to school, and believe it or not we all have smiles on our faces still.

Unfortunately Avery doesn't seem to understand my rule that you have to be dressed and ready to play the DS....I heard her say "Dang it" about three times in 1 minute so I came in to see what she was doing, and this is what I found....oh how would it be to be so shameless!