Some highlights & happenings...

December is flying by and we've had some fun along the way. Only 3 more days until Christmas...yikes, let the festivities begin! Here's a few of our recent highlights & happenings...

Jace & Cade's Preschool Christmas Program (cousin Kate in the middle)

They said their lines, sang their songs, jingled bells, and kazooed...all while smiling to the BIG crowd!
More cousins...Jett & Boo

Our fun baking day at mom's. She made us these cute Christmas aprons...boy are we festive!

Miss Maddie & Miss Kylie in their adorable matchy-matchy gingerbread outfits...courtesy of Aunt J
We'll be having a WHITE Christmas after being dumped on this weekend. The boys are loving the snow, especially being pulled behind the 4-wheeler, even in the freezing temperatures (low teens!)


And Maddie has been enjoying the Christmas tree...pulling off lights, garland and ornaments. She's keeping busy!


She's also enjoying table food these days!

Blood Drive:Part 2 was Friday, with another great turnout! This was organized by the Red Cross for the people who weren't able to donate back in October. Another 29 units of blood were donated (Bry & I included). Our little town is amazing and our thanks go out to all that volunteered and donated.




Finally, it's our anniversary today. Here we are 8 years ago, sealing the deal...seems just like yesterday!

Maddie...

• is 9 months old!
• loves to rock on all fours
• just started crawling backwards
• rolls where she wants to go
• has 2 bottom teeth
• yells "AHHH" super loud to get our attention
• says "ma ma", "da da", "ba ba"
• is a little shy and hides her face to others
• thinks her brothers are so funny!

Sky-high Synagis

Maddie started her Synagis series yesterday. We drove to Ephrata to Dr. Allred's for the appt. and the minute I laid her on the exam table paper, she started crying. Pretty much the entire time we were there, she fussed. Amanda, her nurse, is quite the "bad guy" in Maddie's eyes! It took 2 pokes, one in each thigh since she got a dose of 1.6 ml and her legs are a little too puny to handle that much vaccine in one spot. Her shots are shipped from Central Washington Home Infusion up in Wenatchee to Dr. Allred's office and she'll have her Synagis shot every 28-30 days until the end of April. Our insurance company covers the shot from Nov-Apr but the state of Washington didn't consider us in RSV season until December 1st. The shocking part of this is that it is $1350/50 ml = $4050 for Maddie's shot EVERY MONTH!!! How ridiculous is that!?! I'll be anxious to see what the EOB says and if its price reflects what the home infusion company says it is. Luckily we've met our deductable but starting in January, we're going to have a costly co-pay until we meet our deductible again. We'll do anything though to keep this lil' girl healthy and RSV could be life-threatening if she caught it. We also weighed her while there and the little stinker weighs 16 lbs. 14 oz.!!! She's up 8 oz. in 16 days. That's a great gain for her and needless to say, I'm ecstatic about it!

Sus & Teags

On Monday, my mom, Maddie and I went Christmas shopping down to the Tri-Cities while the boys enjoyed a fun day with Grandma Allred. I got quite a bit of shopping done and enjoyed getting out of the house. We met Susie and Teagan (our heart buddies) for lunch and enjoyed catching up with them...even though Susie and I talk on the phone a couple of times a week! Teagan is so cute and watching her grow up has been so fun. These two girls are pretty amazing cardiac kids!

Gingerbread house experts

We had a great time eating candy & oh ya, decorating Gingerbread houses last night! The kids were so excited for this little tradition with the other Allred's (Bryan's cousin Derek's family)and to have people over! Yippee! We can count on one hand how many times we've had company this year, I think we've deprived the boys trying to keep "germ free"! They were so psyched for having people over. The houses turned out really cute and we had a fun time catching up with our cousins. Even Maddie got in on a little piece of the action!

Frosting may have to take precedence over baby food...she ATE it and loved it! Extra calories are good for her, right?!?

Carly and the kids decorating away, it was serious business!

Poor Kate is the only girl...she's used it though with all these boys. Someday soon Kate, give Maddie a few years, although she'll probably prefer Thomas the Train too! First course=Candy, Second course=hot chocolate & cookiesThe daddy's really did help, especially in the construction of the houses. They must have learned something from last year because the houses didn't collapse! They love pictures, don't they?

The finished project with a smeared candy faced boy!

Kids+Christmas = Good times

Each year Christmas (and the getting ready for) gets better. The "kid" in us shines through with our little guys and gal. Clark Griswold, aka Bryan, did a wonder on the house. Our lights can be seen from miles away, he totally outdid himself! No really, it looks great and the boys and I LOVE it and it looks much better than when I've put them up in the past! He even brought us home a beautiful, fresh Christmas tree...usually we don't put up the tree until mid-December so we're really early this year. Our house smells so good and Jace and Cade are still waiting for Alvin, Simon and Theodore to race out of it! Here's the kids opening their ornaments this year as well as Jace decorating the tree, he really got into it. Even making a few paper transformer ornaments!

As usual, I had no luck getting Xmas pictures of the kids...what's the trick for getting three kids under 5 to all look at the camera, smile, not blink or make a weird face or gesture, cry, or turn away? Really? This year our card will have to do, minus a smile from Maddie...she's pretty stingy with them. The funny part of taking these shots was having the boys yelling "CHEESE" in unison while Maddie joined in by saying "EEEEEE"!

Thanksgiving Pictures

We had a great Thanksgiving this year at my parents. Normally we juggle going to both of our parents' houses for dinner, on the same day, which is too much turkey and way too much running around. So we simplified things this year and started the "switch off" for Thanksgiving dinner. We did miss Bry's family but caught up with them the day after with left overs and games. We had a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving day at my folks' and just enjoyed spending time with one another. Here's a few pictures from turkey day at Nany and Ba's... of course I didn't capture everyone on the camera (couldn't interrupt the guys from watching their football!)

My sister-in-laws & all of our kids...whoa, when did this happen?!?

Maddie really does smile...just never for the camera!

A very exhausted Nany with her wild grandsons, still going strong!

Mooms & Nany just kicking back after all of the action of the day!