Merry Christmas

Love us!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, as we did.

P.S. Here's some pics from the morning. We didn't get any while out visiting all the family. Bummer. Ammon wasn't spoiled. Not at all. "See, Bud. You tear a little here and then......Ta-Duh! A new toy was hiding under there." Ammon was pretty interested in tearing the paper. Obviously he didn't really understand why, nor did he really seem to care in the toy. He just wanted the paper back."Oh boy! My own Real Salt Lake soccer ball. I am way too cool."

Rockin' Out

Ammon was a little grumpy the other day (it was lunch time, and he is NOT patient when it is eating time - he wants his milk 10 minutes ago). I was doing laundry at the time and as I walked past the washer it was shaking like crazy (on the spin cycle) so I laid the grumpy Ammon on top of the washer. If I only had captured his first reaction! He thought it was the greatest thing ever and completely forgot about his milk.

But that leads us to this dilemna: Our washer tries to run away during the spin cycle. We've tried to make it as level as possible, I put the clothes in so they aren't all on one side, but still it rocks out and tries to escape. Any solutions? In this picture, the dryer is parallel with the wall behind it and the washer is so obviously not parallel to anything. What do I do to keep the washer standing still?

Although, Ammon really enjoyed it. He would be disappointed if we figured out a way to get the washer to behave!

Up close and personal...

...with Brett's toes. He's had a couple of bad ingrown toenails and I got tired of him complaining about them (just kidding Brett, I did it out of love!) so I made him a doctor's appointment to fix them. As a brief sidenote, Brett stuck around for my whole C-section...didn't pass out, or get sick, or anything. Why mention that? Because he just about passed out today - and he couldn't see anything, or feel anything. Go figure! He's sitting in his chair with the doctor tray strategically placed so he can't see his toes. The Dr numbs up the whole toe, asks Brett if he can feel anything (to which Brett replies "Just pressure"), then starts his work. I was fascinated and was busy watching him and thought it odd that Dr. Stagg asks Brett 2-3 times in a row how he's doing. If he was fine 5 seconds ago, has it really changed? Then I peeled my eyes away from the toes to look at Brett's face. It was so white (except the facial hair...that stayed the same color as always!!). Brett normally has pretty red lips and rosy cheeks. His face was rivaling the paint on the wall. Poor guy. His chair got leaned back and he had a cold towell placed on his forehead, and then the Dr continued on. This time though, I would occaisonally glance up from the toes to make sure his eyes were still open. He made it and his color came back. That's good news. Here's pics to remember the big day. If you don't want to see close-ups of his toes then scroll on down to see Ammon.

All covered up.

He has to soak his feet every day for a week in this stuff that is that gross orange-ish red color. I didn't feel like rotating this picture, so just tilt your head!

What a hairy - I mean cute - foot!A man happy with his toes again!

Make sure you keep scrolling down. I added 3 (yeah, I know, I'm a bit bored tonight!) posts of Ammon. He's much cuter than these toes :)

TEETH

...Well, tooth anyway! At Target on Tuesday Brett says "Hey! Is that a tooth?" Sure enough. One has broken through. We didn't even know for sure if he was teething. Guess he was/is. He sticks his tongue out everytime we try to look at the tooth (protecting it, I'm sure) so maybe pictures will make it here. Maybe not!

You may have won the battle...

...but Mom won the war. With a little (okay a lot) patience and routine I am very happy to report that Ammon loves his cereal! He gobbles it down and can't get enough of the stuff. Hip, hip hooray!! We use a spoon, but tonight I think he was spitting most of it out on his hand then eating it off of that. It got messy! Notice the cereal got on me too.
He gets so excited and grabs my hand with his tightest grip and pulls my hand toward his mouth. It hurts pretty good, but I'm so thrilled he's eating that I just don't even care! He can pinch my skin all he wants.

Jumpin' Bean

There are 2 places you can set Ammon where he'll be quite content for a while. One is his swing (an instant sleep-inducer) and the other is his jumper. You may recall when we first bought it. We don't need a pillow anymore. My little budder is growing!

Seven = Perfection (Part 2)

7 Things I do:

7...Compute

6...Sleep

5...Eat

4...Watch Sports events (i.e. RSL, Jazz, Utes)

3...Watch movies

2...Play wth my Son

1...Cuddle sounds good too.

7 Things I can't do:

7...Do things before Crystal asks me too

6...Feed Ammon between 4pm-7pm on days Crystal Works

5...Swim

4...play an instrument

3...keep a job

2...avoid sugar

1...be quiet when with a group of people

7 Things I always say:

7..."Yes Crystal"

6..."Yea"

5..."Hey Boba"

4..."What do you want to do?"

3..."What do you want me to make you for dinner?"

2..."How was work?"

1..."Oh for the love of Pete!" (Whoever Pete is, he seems to be loved a lot)

7 Things I always eat:

7...Cereal

6...Pizza

5...Chicken Sandwiches

4...Ice Cream/ Shakes

3...Anything with Chocolate in it.

2...Onion and garlic (pretty much those 2 go in everything Crystal cooks)

1...Meat & Cheese Sandwiches

7 people I tag: (Same as Crystal since she stole anyone I know, and it's the same blog anyways)

7...Crystal

6...Scott

5...Greg

4...Monica

3...April

2...Jenefer (I dont know you, but good luck.)

1...Jeremy

Seven=Perfection

7 Things I do:

7...Work

6...Sleep

5...Eat

4...Play with Ammon

3...Watch movies

2...Blog Stalk

1...Cuddle


7 Things I can't do:

7...Make empanada dough (how many times have I tried now, Brett?)

6...Crafty things of any sort

5...Run

4...Carry the laundry hamper to the Washer/Dryer closet

3...Park on the first try in the garage (it's at a weird angle)

2...Parallel park (good thing that's not a critical part of the Driver's Ed course - I failed!)

1...Get out of bed after only pushing the alarm clock once (it's more like 3-4 times)


7 Things I always say:

7..."Honey, will you [do some thing]?"

6..."BRETT ALLRED!"

5..."Aye, aye, aye"

4..."What?"

3..."Hey! That's my hair. Let go!"

2..."What's for dinner?"

1..."I don't want to get out of bed"


7 Things I always eat:

7...Lunch meat and Cheese Sandwiches

6...Cold Cereal and Yogurt

5...PB and J sandwiches

4...Cookies

3...Chocolate

2...Onion and garlic (pretty much those 2 go in everything I cook)

1...Salty and Sweet combo (they have to equal each other out)


7 people I tag:

7...Brett

6...Scott

5...Greg

4...Monica

3...April

2...Jenefer

1...Jeremy

Neighborhood under seige!

Hello again everyone... it is me, no not the cute girl that tends to write this, but rather the dull annoying guy that she is married too... yes you in front very good, my name is Brett.

Anyways, with all this unemployment stuff going down I figured I could add a couple of works to this here blog of Crystal's... though I should apologize to her, because she was unawares of me doing this, and is probably regretting March 10, 2007 a lot at this very moment! :-) Anyways, here you go... our Neighborhood Under Siege... Chapter 1.

It started off as any other bright December day. Decent weather, and no sign of an attack in sight! But little did I know what would be lurking in my very neighborhood just mere hours later.

I spent the morning doing the normal stay at home mom things, and taking care of the little monster than now lives with us... a cute monster mind you, but with all the people he has spit up on today... and monster all the same! Anyways, I then had a couple of jobs interviews to go to (cue the applause... and the spell checker!) So in my nice shirt and tie, I went off and wouldn't return for a number of hours! (cue the Oooooh's...) They both went well, but that is beside the point and not what this story is about, so could you please let me get on with it? Yea you in the Red, I will explain the interviews to you later, but now is not the time, I have a story to tell!

So I pick up my son, who obviously wanted to go home and sleep, and that was the plan. Everything was going great, as we listened to Christmas music on the way home. Oh, nice job Blondie, Ammon obviously wasn't listening because he was sleeping, if only the rest of you were listening to the story enough to keep up!

So we get to the street that I live on and as I am turning in I see it... and lots of it's really...

The Black evil birds were everywhere...

down the street...

across the street...

on the house...

Everywhere a bird could be, they were! What was a poor father (yea unemployed...get it?) and his little son to do?

Well obviously he was sleeping and didn't care about the moment that faced us. But luckily I had my game face on... I opened the garage door, and with all the 007 skills I could muster and turned a couple times and sped into the garage, quickly shutting the door behind in case of any intruders... and this point I figured they would be on to me.

I took Ammon inside to sleep in the protection of the lock down area... which consisted basically of our house. While I dared go outside to take the pictures as evidence. The birds were not just going to let me do that though... and they tried pooping on me, while I continued in the moves I learned from James Bond himself (watching the movies of course). The camera wouldn't work due to not having a card in it, then it wouldn't because it was on the wrong setting... seriously I felt more like the guy in Get Smart with all the bad luck I had. But as luck would have it, I figured it out, and finished this story. But is it really done? What is going to happen to my home? Will we have to evacuate, or maybe invest in some very large bug zappers? Only time will tell. Now I must go and warn my wife, because she comes home in 90 minutes... and the attack from these birds seems imminent! Save yourselves!

-Brett

P.S. Crystal has some posts that are really worth reading that she just put up yesterday, so you can check those out below... and we will see you in Chapter 2... if I am still alive to tell the tell.

I eat my friends...

...don't you?
Make sure you keep scrolling to see Ammon as a Bronco Fan.

GO BRONCOS!

This is for Aunt Carrie. I'm not a football fan. Never have been and don't really think I'll ever get into it. Thank goodness Brett isn't all that into it either. I don't ever have to sit through a game with him! I haven't ever had a favorite team...until last night. We put Ammon in the Bronco's jammies and he slept - soundly. He went to bed at 8-ish. Woke up at 6 (longest stretch yet!) but we plugged him up and he slept again until 7. Downed 6 oz of milk, then slept again until 10:45. Go team, go! I was actually quite worried most the time. He normally sleeps only 11-12 hours at night then is up for longer stretches for the daytime. The 3 hours 45 minutes from 7-10:45 were killer! I checked on him probably 4 times...touched his cheek with my cold fingers twice to get a response from him and whispered his name a few times to see if he would stir. So...the Bronco's put him to sleep, and kept him asleep. Does that mean they're a good team, or a really boring team? Let the debate begin! In the meantime, here's my cute buddy. See the blurry arm? He was so excited he couldn't hold still.

First Bites

We tried cereal for the first time last week (it's taken me awhile - a LONG while - to get this posted). Ammon wasn't such a fan. After watching this movie again I am actually amazed how well he did eat this first time. He has gotten worse, not better. Now it's almost when he sees the spoon that he starts whining and crying. He likes his food NOW. Does not like waiting for it, or putting out any effort for it. I think that's why he was done nursing after only 3 months. Mr. Impatience is his new name. So...to all you moms out there: How do you get your baby to eat, and like, rice cereal? I'm open and ready for ideas - Ammon is too :)

UPDATE: So the computer is silly and went through all the trouble of uploading the video, but then once it was done, it decided it didn't really want to put it on here. Since it took forever to upload, I don't feel like doing it all over again! Sorry. Just a short diddy of Ammon spitting out his cereal and crying. We'll get pictures of it sometime...

Happy Thanksgiving

Oct. 3, 1863: In the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln proclaims a national Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday in November. The proclamation reads, in part: "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

With the troubles that come and go with life it is important to remember that Heavenly Father knows and loves us. In Sacrament Meeting last Sunday I was reminded that I receive blessings everday. But do I look for them? Do I recognize them as blessings? And do I give thanks for them? So I created a poster where daily I can remember that I am grateful for my blessings. It is important for me to remember that although life may be rough right now, I am still a child of a Heavenly Father that loves me and is watching over me and my little family.

I am thankful...
...for my family - my sweet baby and his smiles, my wonderful husband and his diligence, as well as my parents and siblings.
...for the surprise blessings that still find us.
...for answered prayers.
...for Carrie and her gifts.
...for health, happiness, and hope.
...for thoughtful co-workers and turkey dinners.
...for warm baths, big sweatshirts, and snuggly blankets.
...for foot rubs, and back tickles.
...for Christmas music.
...for lots more, but it's Ammon's nap time. So...for nap time, too.

OH NO!

A computer nerd in the making:I came home last Saturday and found Brett teaching Ammon how fun it is to bang on the keyboard. Ammon loved it! He had such a serious face on as he hammered away at the keys! It was pretty cute, actually.

Ammon is 4 months old (and working on 5 already:)). Last week at the doctor's his measurements were these:

Weight~14.2 lbs (32%)

Length~25.5 inches (71%)

Head~16.9 inches (67%)

He is a tall, skinny little smarty!

Need firewood?

We were sitting on our couch minding our own business last week when we saw a man climbing the tree out behind our house. Random. Upon investigating we discovered he was getting the tree ready to be cut down.
The neighborhood with the tree standing:
TIMBER!!The man I spied on and took pictures of! Hope he doesn't mind being on the internet:)And the neighborhood without the dead tree. Personally, I wish it were still there. Hopefully they plant a new tree (that'll grow fast) so we can have shade on our patio like the others that live here.

Brett's One Word

1. Where is your cell phone? Bedroom
2. Where is your significant other? Bedroomtoo
3. Your hair? Messy
4. Your mother? Powerful
5. Your father? Able
6. Your favorite thing? Soccer
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your favorite drink? Lemonade
9. Your dream/goal? Employment!
10. The room you're in? Denishbedroom
11. Your hobby? Soccer
12. Your fear? unsuccessfullness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Denishbedroom
14. Where were you last night? Bed?
15. What you're not? mywife
16. Muffins? Yesplease
17. Where you grew up? Layton
18. The last thing you did? Read
19. What are you wearing? Pajamas
20. Your TV? Grayish
21. Your pets? disowned
22. Your computer? Crystal's...
23. Your life? good
24. Your mood? good
25. Missing someone? companions
26. Your car? Mazda!
27. Something you're not wearing? shoes
28. Last summer? Hot
29. Like someone? Crystal
30. Your favorite color? Red
31. When was the last time you laughed? today
32. Last time you cried? lastweek

We tag Jeremy, Brooke Guymon, Scott... you know who you are!

Crystal's One Word

1. Where is your cell phone? Couch
2. Where is your significant other? Bed
3. Your hair? Messy
4. Your mother? Beautiful
5. Your father? Amazing
6. Your favorite thing? Time
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Violinist
10. The room you're in? Cold
11. Your hobby? Mommy
12. Your fear? Unknown (as in "the unknown" not that my fear is unknown :) )
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Settled
14. Where were you last night? Costco
15. What you're not? Sleeping
16. Muffins? Cupcakes
17. Where you grew up? Utah
18. The last thing you did? Breakfast
19. What are you wearing? Jammies
20. Your TV? Annoying
21. Your pets? None
22. Your computer? Slow
23. Your life? Fast
24. Your mood? Content
25. Missing someone? Nope
26. Your car? Red
27. Something you're not wearing? Socks
28. Last summer? What?
29. Like someone? Yes
30. Your favorite color? Blue
31. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
32. Last time you cried? Weeks

Brett gets bored sometimes...

...and this is what we end up with!

Me and My Sweets

Dangers in Blogging

Just thought I'd share with ya: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4699330

Hey and will someone teach me how to add links without putting the link? Example: Amy will type "see HERE" and the "here" is a link. How do I do that?

Cutest Lil' Punkin!

I don't like squash particularly. Zucchini is the only squash I like. I don't even like pumpkin pie. But...I could eat this Punkin right up! Yummy, sweet pumpkin :) So as you can see we visited Gram Great yesterday. Ammon sat and chatted with her for awhile. He was a good little man.

Are we done yet?

The last few posts have been nothing but Real Salt Lake. Well, here's another one...but maybe it'll be awhile until the next one? Never mind. My husband is Brett. Real's Number One Fan. I'm sure there will be something more this year! We (yes - "we" includes me) wanted to get Ammon a Real jersey but they just don't make them small enough. But they do make onesies! Still not small enough (the smallest was a 12M) but if he wears a shirt underneath to make him a bit chubbier and pants to tuck the extra material into, it works!

My Family of Fans:

Since you can't really tell from the picture, the onesie says "My first Real Salt Lake Tee!"

Last Time...

...for this year anyway. Because of the stair railing at the last game we were able to go to the October 18th RSL game also. Since we were getting free tickets we invited Kirsten and Jeremy and Aaron to come with us. This was a much better game than last (we won 3-1) and we are so happy that we went. My favortie part of this game? The awesome 2nd goal (check out http://www.mlsnet.com/ to see it) and the wave. They got it (the wave) to go all the way around the stadium twice and it probably would have continued but something happened on the field and everyone got distracted (I know - funny that we got distracted from doing the wave by something that happened in the game!). The pictures:

They turn the sprinklers on right before the game so the ground is nice and wet. When the players fall they slide far. It's so funny! I guess they do it because the grass at Rice Eccles was always wet so it helps our guys and hurts the opponent (RSL is used to playing on wet grass).Wouldn't it be fun to be the little soccer team that gets to escort the players out to the field? Amy, maybe you should look into that for Oakley's soccer team. They can do it next year.He loves me cuz I take him to soccer games.

Aaah. Brotherly love.
Poor Jeremy couldn't go to the Ute game but had to come to the soccer game! It was a blast...thanks for coming! Glad you made it to your car ok after ;0)

Measuring Up!

Just look how tall my little man is! Three months and still stretching! Go check out the August 10 post for a comparison.
Sweet baby cheeks
Total trust in his Daddy He'll be rollin' soon!