H1N1 Vaccine

Yesterday Maddie was able to get her swine flu shot! Phew. Our family doc, Dr. Allred (uncle), called and only recieved 10 shots for his clinic...Maddie was lucky to recieve one being she's in the high-risk category and in 30 days will recieve the rest of the dose. The boys were also able to get the H1N1 flu-mist so a big SIGH of relief for us, hopefully we're covered now! We've had our Flu shots, H1N1, and Miss Maddie now waits for her VERY EXPENSIVE, monthly, super ouchie, 2 pokes each time Synagis shots regime to begin. Poor thing.

baby blues

The biology lesson I remember most was learning how to create the Punnett Square. It was a way of working out what the possible offspring traits of two parents would be by recording the dominant and recessive genes. It's funny thinking back to that same high school biology class that my future husband sat just a row away. We were great friends, who knew we'd eventually fall in love and marry? So what are the results of our square you may ask? We have one of each, how I love variety. Our calico kid's eye colors are as different as their personalities. It's been fun guessing whether the blue eyes these three were born with would change in time or not. But it looks like Maddie's baby blues are here to stay! Here's our little darlings, all at the same age, 18 months...

Maddie with her blue eyes, inherited from my side of the family...
Cade has the darkest eyes of the bunch...brown. He also has the LONGEST lashes too, maybe this darkens them up a bit more from the hazel color they used to be?!? And yes, those lashes have grown back after his trimming :) Jace has his daddy's green eyes that tend to change with what he's wearing...he's our chamelion

soccer fun

It's been so fun watching Jace play soccer this fall! This has been his first organized activity to participate in and it's been great watching him progress. He even scored a goal this season! Bryan coached his team and he and Derek have done a wonderful job with the kids. Before the season began, Bryan and I laughed that he may feel like Will Ferrell in the movie, "Kicking and Screaming" but this blue team was impressive. I do really wish I could have found Bryan that tiger striped blue sweatsuit to coach in though :) They've improved all season long and the smiles on the players faces prove that they've enjoyed it as much as the parents have! Way to go blue!!!

Our little superhero turned 4!

Boy, did we have some great lookin' superhero's at our house last night! I wished I had gotten a picture of all of them at the same time when they were dressed up at the same time :) Cade loved having a few buddies over for his party as well as family to celebrate his big day. Our little man adores his cousins and especially loves superheroes (Spidey still being the lead contender) so what a great time for him. We bared the cold, windy weather and we weren't surprised that these supers could handle the chill!!!
Cade with cousins, Kylie Rose and Jett Henry (aka "Ironman", "Fireball" and "Zorro")
Lots of cousins & friends...a few missed the photo op, gathering up all of the supers was tough!
His cake was totally awesome...made by our talented friend, Alisha!
Pinata time!
Even the Maxwell's made it up for the party, and because of these sweet girls hearts...
their big brother's have become great buds! Happy 4th Birthday to a SUPER son! Caden, we love your cuddles and hugs, your early rising and crawling into bed with us each morning, the creativity you share, your obsession for red, after all, you are an ALLRED, and the fun nature that only you could add to our family. We love you so much and hope that every wish you made will come true!!! Happy Birthday Bubby!

what a process

We have officially started our house! So far it's been a 9 month process...just like having a baby! I'm thinking we're going to learn patience and we're only at the beginning stages. We started designing our plans in January, submitted the plans to the county in July, broke ground in August, poured our footings in September and basement walls will be poured this week! We're so excited and just hope that we can get it enclosed by the winter! Our current home is pretty "squishy" as Caden called it last week, and we all really look forward to our new home. We won't know what to do with ourselves with so much space, room to play and run, and grow up in! Our beautiful view of farm ground, orchards, our little town, Saddle Mountain and even Mt. Rainier on a clear day... our house sits in the middle of the "main orchard" and new apple trees will go in around it this spring. It really is a wonderful location and place to build a home.

Bryan moving ground on the Cat...this took a couple of weekends, we had to dig down about 8 feet. That accounts for A LOT OF DIRT!!! The kids have loved going up to the house site...lots of dirt, hills to climb and slide down and it's perfect for great truck playing and of course getting really dirty.
I even ran the backhoe one day, and boy was it exciting!!! Really, it was lots of fun :)
I happened to be at the housesite when the inspector showed up to inspect the footings.
Our basement foundation after the footings were poured.
Jace and Cade are standing in their bedroom in this pic. Currently, the basement forms are almost all up and walls should be poured this week! Yippee, progress!!!

She's 18 months!

Miss Maddie turned a year and a half a week ago. Amazing. She's really become a busy body lately and her attitude is as spunky as that hair of hers. Here's a few tidbits on our amazing, Little Miss that I don't want to forget!

Maddie's personality is pretty serious. She's reserved around strangers and people she doesn't know well...still stingy with her smiles but has been randomly doing this scrunchy,cheesy grin at people lately...especially if they're not paying attention to her! She really makes you work to get that smile and she pays close attention to who's always around. But to sum her up, she's quiet, shy and sweet. Maddie loves being held, rocked, and is really affectionate. It's so fun having a little girl :)

She just started "jumping" and it's hilarious! Running is her other new skill (just a faster walk with her head tilted). She loves to dance, climb up the bunk bed ladder and of course on top of all of the furniture and into anything she can fit into.

Words she uses often: "itty" (kitty), "beebee" (baby), "ow" (cow), "orsie" (horsie), "oooie" (sophie), "heago" (here you go), "sup" (up), "eeees" (please, cheese), "memememe" (mine), "oys" (boys), mama, daddy, nany (naneeee), ba, papa, ma (grandma), "ace" (Jace), "ade" (Cade), bye, hi, owie, "baba" (bottle), no, "ses" (yes), go

She is still getting up once at night. I can count on one hand the number of nights she's actually slept continually through. After "force feeding" her for all of those months as an infant, she now loves her bottle and enjoys a little snack around 2am. I'm mixing her bottle and sippy cups at 25 cal (half Pediasure/half whole milk or half & half/whole milk). She has actually turned into a great eater and likes a variety of foods. Some of her favorites are green beans, rice, peaches, spaghetti, cottage cheese, grapes, honeynut cheerios, cheese, noodles, and popcorn.

Weight 22 lbs. 6 oz. (21%) and Height 32 1/2 in. (83%) and her 02 Sats range 76-78%

She loves reading books and will sit for long stretches of time just going through piles of books. Maddie also likes her baby doll and especially pushing it around in the stroller. She loves putting on jewelry, shoes, and puts everything over her head to "wear it" (towels, brother's underwear, my shirt). Her absolute favorite though is being outside. She loves to swing, climb around on the playset, play in the dirt pile, and chase the cats and dog around. She's not a big fan of the horses...yet. She also loves to carry around markers, taking off the caps and putting them back on is major business for her as well as coloring on herself!

Maddie Mooms is so much fun and watching her grow, progress and thrive these past 18 months has been an absolute blessing!

200th Post and about 200 things to blog about!!!

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! Things have been crazy + busy around here. Here's the "short version" of what we've been up too, loaded with lots of pics from our last couple of weeks...and it's my 200th post!!!

These two cute little girls have fun playing on Monday's when we have the privilege of keeping Kylie while her mommy teaches
We met our Seattle heart friends, the Cunningham's, at Mar Don for a playdate...Kate and Maddie had some muddy fun! I also made the trip over to Seattle a couple of weeks ago to spend the day with Angie and Natalie, our very first roommates and heart friends. They're from Alaska and Natalie was down having a surgery, her g-tube removed. It was so great catching up with Angie, even if we had to sit all afternoon in the surgical waiting room! Natalie did awesome and I loved getting to see her in action! She's a busy little bee :) Blogs and carepages just don't do these kids justice. Sorry no picture.
Cade and Maddie have been really enjoying each other with big brother away all day...I've been so proud of Cade and how he's stepped up to the plate as my helper and the "bestest" big brother!

A little Labor Day camp-out in the backyard...More marshmallows were burnt to a crisp than eaten. As far as the tent went, at 3 am I'd had enough of it and drug the boys in the house for a good nights rest. Bryan and Maddie opted out of sleeping in the tent and had a great nights rest.These two sure have loads of fun all day but are super excited when Jace gets home...these faces say it all when they see that big yellow school bus pull-up
The first week of school, this is how he spent his bus ride home...asleep. Being a Kindergartner is hard work!
We've been enjoying lots of yummy tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, peppers and squash from our first official garden.
Here's some of the produce. Maddie, Cade and I spent that afternoon canning tomatoes at Nany's. We also had 4 visitors just show up in our shop (the wildest one is hiding from the camera). Needless to say, I'm a sucker for strays and we now have a total of 6 cats. They all stay outside btw. Maddie is especially loving these new "itties". Caden started his first day of preschool. He's loving having his own thing to do. I think someone else thinks she's ready for Mrs. Becky's too! And due to a lovely and very painful "liver attacking" virus I had that presented itself exactly like gallstones, our plans for Bryan's birthday and fun weekend in Seattle for the Seahawk game were cancelled. Instead, we spent much of our time in the hospital. So glad it was me and not one of the kids. Luckily we have a couple more games this season and with fingers-crossed, we'll be able to get away for one and finally celebrate my man's birthday. He definitely deserves it.