Snow Day

Last Tuesday was supposed to be the last day of school before Christmas break, but it was CANCELED due to hazardous driving conditions. 2 feet of snow fell overnight. School has not been canceled due to snow in 20 years, so the kids were elated! Stephen tried to go to work, but kept getting stuck. Finally, after an hour of trying to find an open gas station & digging out his wheels every few feet, he came home. He called work, & they said they had adequate coverage, so he was able to stay home as well!

Emily & Hannah played in the snow all morning long:






Stephen & Jonathan shoveled our walks & driveway, then joined the crew of neighbors in helping other people dig out as well. The snow plow from the city arrived around noon, doing a terrible job of plowing as usual, mostly pushing snow so that it blocked driveways. Stephen & Jonathan, & Neighbors spent the afternoon cleaning up the plows mess.
Kaitlyn loaded a sled with neighbor gifts & passed them out for me. I walked around, taking pictures.

Christmas Break

I have a lot to catch up on here in terms of pictures & things we have done since school started. Kaitlyn was reading the blog entries I posted last summer & said she enjoyed reading through them & remembering all the fun we had. I resolved then to start blogging again. First, I'll start with the past few weeks, then play catch-up from there.

Hannah's Dance Recital



She performed so well! We really enjoyed watching her & realized what a great dancer she is! Shee took a jazz/tap combo class and said it was ok. She wants to take Ballet & we will be looking into finding a class for her this summer.

King George Returns

This may seem trivial after my last post, but the day after Stephen's step dad passed away, our 8 year old cat disappeared. It completely devestated our children. I have to back up and tell you the story of how this cat came into our lives. About a week before Hannah was born, 2 year old Emily was asked to say family prayer. In her prayer, she asked for Jesus to bring her a black & white kitty. We all laughed, thinking she expected me to give birth to a kitten! '
Hannah was born a few days later & Emily didn't seem at all displeased. I quickly forgot her prayer as I settled in to caring for a newborn & three other children under the age of 5. Two weeks after Hannah was born, I was exhausted. I finally had baby Hannah asleep & needed a nap myself. Stephen took Jonathan (5), Kaitlyn (4), and Emily (2) on a walk so I could rest. On their walk, they found a kitten covered in oil one street over from our house.
They brought it home & cleaned it up. It was a black & white kitty! They begged me to keep it, but I was hesitant since I'd heard the stories of cats suffocating babies. So I made them knock on every door in the neighborhood to see if they could find his owner. They did. Jonathan claimed he was the Comte's cat. Kaitlyn claimed it was the older Allred's cat. But all 3 children insisted the owner said if we wanted the cat, he was ours! It was then that Stephen remembered Emily's prayer and, well, we had to keep him!
Jonathan was not at all happy that Hannah was "just another stinkin girl." He really wanted a brother, and even had a name picked out for him. So, we figured since we didn't give him the brother he wanted, he could name the new male kitten. Without hesitation, he named him the name he'd picked out for the baby brother he'd wanted.... George. At the time, Curious George was his favorite show on PBS!
I made George live outside at first, & as soon as Emily woke up, she would run outside, find "her" kitty, and cuddle him until I made her come in to get dressed & eat breakfast. One day, about two weeks after we found him, she ran outside & he was nowhere to be found. The kids were upset. 2-3 days went by, & he didn't return. At breakfast that morning, Kaitlyn said the prayer. She began, "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless that George will come home. In the name of..."
The phone rang, interrupting the prayer. it was the Brady's & they had found our George. At that point, the kids begged me to let George live inside, & I relented.
George settled himself in. Naturally, he settled him with Emily, her arms wrapped tight around him as she fell asleep. The routine has continued for nearly 8 years.
So, when we discovered him missing the night after Grandpa died two weeks ago, the kids felt like it was pouring salt in an open wound. Especially Emily. Their grief intensified, & since their was nothing we could do about Grandpa's death, we focused on finding George. We all prayed for his return. We have looked every day for him. Searched two shelters. We just kept telling the kids to pray, have faith, & if it was meant to be, he would turn up. A few nights ago, we prayed that George would return home on his own.
This morning, we woke up to find George sitting beside our bedroom door! I scooped him up & took him to each of the kid's, who were delighted to see him! He has lost a lot of weight, needs a bath, but otherwise, in great shape!
Now, I am not a cat lover, but I love what this cat has taught our family. Prayer is real. Heavenly Father listen's to prayers big & small. I hope when my kids are faced with much tougher problems in their lives, that the will remember these experiences with George, and turn to the Lord, trusting Him, and finding peace during the challenges they face.

A final goodbye

It's been a difficult two weeks in our house. First, we found out that Stephen's stepfather passed away following complication from surgery. I wish I could say it was a sad thing because we had a loving relationship with him before he died, but that wasn't the case. When Stephen's mom passed away, his step dad remarried very quickly and then chose not to have a relationship with us. It hurt our children deeply, & as the four years have passed since Steve's mom died, they've come to accept it, but the hurt has never fully went away. His death brought back all those feelings back to the surface, & they've been forced to face them and work through them. They will always love this man who they thought of as a grandfather, and 2 of the kids have forgave him for walking out of their lives. Hannah was only 4 when mom died, so she doesn't remember either grandparent well. We do have one child who was deeply affected by her grandfather's actions, & is working hard to forgive him for the hurt he inflicted upon her. Through this, I've learned that I can't always protect my children from pain, but I can teach them to forgive & feel the healing effects it brings. We've taught them that it is because of the Savior and what he did for us that we can forgive those that hurt us, and only hold on to the good memories. Before Steve's mom died, he was a good grandfather to them, & we are thankful for all the good times we had with him. Those times, have been, and will continued to be missed.

Christ in Christmas

As we were decorating the tree on Saturday, we hung white lights on the tree, and I was reminded of the Tree of Life in the Book of Mormon. I decided that the gift I would give myself this year is to read the entire Book of Mormon by January 1st. In the past few days, I've read about Nephi & his great faith in the Lord. I read the story of him going to get the brass plates from Laban yesterday & it took on a whole new meaning. The first time they tried, Nephi casts lots with his brothers & the lot fell on Lamen. It was Jewish Tradition, & the most practical way to approach it. But Lamen failed. Next, Nephi offered his father's possessions. Knowing Nephi, he was probably praying & it seemed like a viable way to get the brass plates, so off they went. Failed again. The next time, Nephi went with nothing but faith that the Lord would guide him, & he was successful.
I thought of my own life and my approach to problem solving. There are times I rely on tradition. Sometimes it works, other times, it doesn't. I pray & ponder constantly over raising my children, but the ideas I get don't always work out the way I want them too. But, when I let go, and have complete faith in the Lord, that he will direct me, I feel more peace as I am seeking direction, & I have seen great things come to pass as I place my trust in the Lord let go & let him direct me.

So my goal is to worry less and exercise more faith.

So much to be thankful for!

I love the song Thankful by Josh Groban. I listen to it many times during the year & it reminds me of how blessed I am. I also love my busy, crazy, hectic life & when it starts to stress me out, Stephen will say, "we are so blessed by all this, there is so much to be thankful for!"

The usual has been going around here. Term 1 of the school year finished up a few weeks ago. Kaitlyn had the highest grades, but the other children did very well also.

Last post I wrote told you that Kaitlyn had been very sick for several weeks & it took many weeks to regain her energy. I am happy to report that she has made a full recovery, although she still falls into bed exhausted most nights. Her weekly routine of homework, play rehearsals, & piano practice is much easier for her to accomplish. We are thankful for her health.

Jonathan has been a busy boy! He has been working on his Eagle project for the past few months. It is a set of bean bag toss games for the children's unit at the Utah State Hospital. It was a lot of work to build the boards, draw & paint the games onto them, cut the holes, & make the bean bags. He finished & with his scout team, delivered the project to the children's unit last Tuesday! We are thankful for all the helping hands in our family & neighborhood that worked many hours to complete the project.

Jonathan is in California right now. He is at a national debate with his high school debate team. This is a very expensive trip (nearly $700!) There was no way we could afford to pay for it on our own. Jonathan had to earn the money through fundraising to go. I was very impressed with his efforts. He had to keep his grades up, finish his eagle project, & spend hours going door to door selling Lehi Rolling Mills Baking Mixes. There were times he was discouraged, & I told him to pray about it. He did. He said the Lord told him to work as hard as he could, & if he was supposed to go, it would work out. He worked very hard, made it there, & he was successful at his first national debate. He won 3, lost 3. We are thankful for a prayerful, hardworking son.

This trip has hit me between the eyes. Jonathan will be 16 years old in two months. He is becoming more independent with each passing day. I find myself thinking, where did all the time go by? It seems like yesterday he was a little boy sitting on my lap, begging me to read Green Eggs & Ham, or wanting to go on a walk. I miss those days, & it feels like the days until he is a full fledged man are numbered. I am thankful for years I've had to raise him, & for the few more left before he spreads his wings completely & flies out of here.

Emily is busy with her after school choir & worked up the nerve to do a solo part in their upcoming Christmas concert. She practices quite a bit. She is also trying to master the bar routine in gymnastics so she can move up the next level. We are thankful for her quite courage & determination to achieve the goals she sets for herself.

Hannah is preparing for her dance recital in December. She has discovered that dance is not her "thing." She doesn't enjoy it as much as she thought she would. But, she has agreed to stick it out until the recital. We are thankful for this time in her life that she has to explore & find out what she enjoys & what her talents are.

In October, I entered a scrapbooking contest with four other women who are on the same Creative Team as I am at Brownie Scraps. We were given a theme each week & had to submit a layout. The contest proved to be rather complicated, but I enjoyed working with the team & watching their scrapping abilities improve. Mine did also. This month, I am taking a class on learning to design my own kits using Photoshop. I am having a blast. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn new skills.

And the big news of the month is..... Stephen was accepted into BYU-Idaho's online RN to BSN program. I admit, I haven't been a fan of him going back to school. I've had a sour attitude about it. But once the acceptance letter came, I realized that he is really going back & I can either suffer through it with a bad attitude, or embrace it and just be thankful that he has the opportunity for more education that will eventually put our family in a better financial situation. I am thankful for the ability to choose my attitude, & I choose to embrace his decision to go back & to help him in any way I can.

Well, that's the news for the month. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving & Christmas breaks!

Been busy!

It's October 10th, & I haven't blogged about the school starting, because we have been so busy! I've had a few family members write, & say, how are you, haven't seen anything on the blog in awhile. Sorry. So here is what has been going on at our house. I have pictures to post, and if there is time after writing this, I will post them. If not, I'll get to them asap.

Stephen has been applying to bridge programs so that he can get his masters degree in nursing. Basically, he will have to take 9-12 classes that are pre- masters level. He has applied to BYU-Idaho online, which is an accelerated program where he completes all course work in 1 year. He has applied to Weber State University online, in which he'll take 3 classes per semester, but it will take 2 years to complete. Should he be accepted to both, we honestly don't know which one we'll choose yet. There are pros & cons to both. I guess we both prefer BYU-Idaho's accelerated program, but we both worry about the affects that it will have on the family & the stress (ok, I mostly worry about this) it will put Stephen under. We've decided for now to just wait & see where he gets accepted, then to pray & fast about it.
Meanwhile, he's enjoying his job as a nurse & loves serving in the Young Mens presidency.

Melody (me). I've been busy with canning, our garden was a huge success this year. We always over plant, because usually most of it dies on us. Last winter, we took a class on gardening, & learned a lot. I canned (with Stephen's help) salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles, & something else, but I can't remember, It was a lot of work, & I'm glad gardening season is over, but gratified to see so much food storage in the storage room. I've also been working on this year's scrapbook & 2011 calendars for Christmas presents. I'm almost finished with the Calendars, & I am burning out on scrapbooking. The things that keep me busiest is the day to day household chores & managing the kid's lives. Read below for more details,

Jonathan thinks he isn't very busy, because we have him on "extra activity" restriction right now. But from my point of view, he is very busy. The reason he is on activity restriction, meaning no after school sports, is so he'll have time to work on his Eagle Scout project. He is making bean bag toss games for the children's unit at the Utah State Hospital. What he thought was an easy project has turned out to be long & tedious. BUT, the project is 90% complete, & we hope to have it finished in the next few weeks. Then there is all the paperwork on it, that will take a few weeks. We are hoping he'll have it all completed by early November.
School is going well. He is taking a concurrent enrollment class through UVU, Biotechnology, & he likes it ok. He is also taking 2 AP classes as well. He'll take the PSAT in a few weeks, & the ACT sometime this year. Hard to believe he will graduate next year. He also likes going to football games & hanging out with his friends. Typical teenager.

Kaitlyn is in the 8th grade & doing really well academically. She is taking piano from a neighbor, and she is in Chorus II at the Jr. High. She is also in the musical, Beauty & The Beast, Jr. She got sick in early August, & it took her a long time to recover. Only in the past few weeks has her energy levels improved. It has been hard for her to have such a busy schedule of school, homework, play rehearsal, & piano practice, but she is dilligent & doing well in school & her activities.

Emily is in 6th grade and loving life. She has become quite the social butterfly & enjoys being with her friends mostly. We had her tested in August to see where she was with her Auditory Processing Disorder. Her diagnoisis was upgraded to the very mild category. Years & years of work have paid off. Math is still hard, & the poor girl spends at least an hour every night struggling through her homework, but she has an A in math, & she is able to complete most of her homework without very much help from us. Jonathan seems to be able to explain it best to her, & we are grateful he is so willing to help. Gymnastics is going well also. She has 2-3 more skills to pass off, & then she'll move up to level 3. Once she completes level 4, she'll enter competition levels. Her goal is to compete when she is 13, so she is right on track. She is also in the after school choir at school & loving it.

Hannah is in 3rd grade & loves her teacher & classmates. So much so, that I get notes from her teacher to "please remind Hannah to wait until recess to chat with friends." quite often! She loves reading & last month she was the top reader in her class with 1280 minutes read! Hannah is taking a jazz/ tap combo glass this year & is really enjoying it.

Well, it's 3pm, kids are home, gotta run!

Last Week of Summer

Our summer went so fast! Even now, being 2 weeks into the school year, I am amazed at that our summer break is really over! We had a good vacation, & as we are heading into the busy school year, I am glad we took the time to have fun & play together. We ended the summer by hiking up to the Grotto.









You can see more pictures HERE

Maple Dell Pictures

Here is a synopsis of Jonathan's summer at Maple Dell Scout Camp, in pictures:

Summer Week 11

I am 4 weeks behind on my blogging! Opps! I guess life has been busy, & I haven't taken the time to blog, so here goes a catch-up session.
Jonathan was officially finished finished working up at Maple Dell. He received his last paycheck & then debated on how to spend his hard earned money. Basically, it was a toss up between paying for drivers ed or buying a really nice, but expensive bike. We told him we could foot the bill for drivers ed, but he would have to wait a few months since we just spent quite a bit on our vacation to CA & were in the middle of buying school clothes/ paying registration fees. He was good with that, & I took him shopping for a bike. The reason he wanted a bike is because he is an exercise fanatic & needs at least an hour of some type of aerobic workout every day. He looked around & found this one on sale:



Kaitlyn went to girls camp at Heber Valley & had a ton of fun! I "borrowed" these pictures from Norma Barnum's facebook:






Kaitlyn said she had a lot of fun. The cabins were really nice & it felt more like she was at a resort than at girls camp! Someone did her hair each day, they were given facials & pedicures each, hot showers & great food! She said the landscape was beautiful, & she loved hiking around the lake & canoeing.

Summer Week 10

My least favorite week of summer. We arrived home from California 2 AM on Monday morning. Stephen had to go to work at 5:30 am, & Jonathan had to be to work at 7:30 am. Jonathan had to pack for camp, so he & I woke up at 6:30 to get him ready to go. We had such a busy, albeit fun vacation that the 3 hours of sleep did me in. I took him to work, dropped by the store to buy the essentials, then went home & back to bed for a few hours. The girls woke up tired, & we rested all of Monday. I felt tired most of the week, and the children were tired, sick, & grumpy.
There was a lot to catch up on.... laundry, yard work, and our garden. In addition, just trying to keep up with daily chores seemed a challenge. But by the end of the week, we spruced up the yard, weeded & picked the garden and unpacked, washed, & put away all the clothes from vacation. Stephen canned 12 jars of sweet pickles, & I ran enough zuchinni through the food processor to make 40 loaves of zuchinni bread.
Hannah developed a pretty nasty ear infection, so we had to make a visit to the doctor.
Despite being so tired, we went up to Maple Dell to attend the last family night campfire of the year. It was nice to see Jonathan in his element, & we loved watching him perform in the skit, "Tankity Tank." He came home Saturday. Scout camp is over for the summer & he had a great time!

California Vacation- Summer Week 9

Coming soon!

Citrus Heights, CA

Our first stop on our California vacation was to see my Uncle Larry & Aunt Sally, who just moved back to warm, sunny California from Minnesota. We spent two nights in a hotel pretty close to their apartment & enjoyed spending time with them. We arrived around 6pm, and went to see them at their apartment. We then went to eat at Uncle Larry's favorite Burger place, In-N-Out Burger. The next morning, Uncle Larry & Aunt Sally came over to the hotel, where we let the kids swim in the hotel's pool all morning long. My Dad met us there around 11 and we all went out for Chinese food. Later in the day, Stephen & Jonathan went golfing with Dad, Uncle Larry, & Aunt Sally. The girls & I went shopping for Emily's birthday, & then watched Disney TV back in the hotel room. It was a great start to our vacation!

PICTURES COMING SOON

Family BBQ

On Thursday, we headed up to my Uncle Mike's house for a family barbeque. Every one was there execpt Uncle Rick & my cousins Eric, Anthony, & Haley. It was really nice to visit with my family. I hadn't seen any of them since my Grandma's funeral six years ago. It was also Emily's birthday and we celebrated with cake. We also took a few family pictures that I am excited to frame & hang up.

Six Flags Marine World

Since Thursday was Emily's birthday, we let her choose what we would do on Friday. She chose Six Flags Marine World, which is 45 minutes from Concord where Jen lives. Marine World has rides, sea life shows, & tons of fattening, yummy food! We enjoyed all the attractions & it was a really fun day!



More pictures HERE!

San Gregario Beach

We went to CA for two reasons: to visit family & go to the beach. My sister Jen & I were trying to decide which beach to go to when her pest control guy showed up & suggested San Gregario State Beach. It was a two hour drive from Concord, but very worth it! The water was soooo cold, but that didn't stop us from playing in the surf! There was also a warmer bay to swim in, cliffs to climb, and caves to explore. The girls collected seashells & the boys played frisbee & football on the sand. We had a blast!



See more pictures here and here!