My Birthday Week..........

Wow! what a week I had. Let me tell you how it started. My sweet friend Diana called me a few days before my Birthday and asked me if i wanted to go to Oprah! Well who doesn't want to go to Oprah. So that is how I started off my Birthday. We were able to go downtown Chicago and stay overnight in a GREAT Hotel. It was awesome! The Oprah show was about the Dr. Suess book Horton Hears a Who! Well the movie is coming out on March 14th and so we were lucky enough to preview it the night before the show. It stars Jim Carrey and Carrol Burnett and Steve Carell. It was AWESOME! your families will love it! Then Those stars were on the Oprah show. We were on the 3rd row center stage. Most of you watched it today.(did you see me?) It was a great show. Thank you so much Diana for such a great time! I love ya! Here is our hotel room. These were the most comfortable beds ever......we slept very well. I love the decor.

I have never seen so....many pillows on a hotel bed..I felt like I was right at home. I LOVE pillows.

This is us waiting in line at Oprah....bright and early...6:30am

Gotta have the Harpo picture!

Now on to the rest of my Birthday celebration. Can I just say that I have the BEST friends EVER! I love you all so much. Ruth was not able to make it last minute, poor little Lili was sick.I missed you Ruth! We went out for some Mexican. None of us were really keen on the place, but they had GREAT guacamole!

We celebrated Taunacy's Birthday as well. Happy birthday T-Ho!I couldn't think of a better person to celebrate with.

I had to talk Jill into letting me have a picture with her. She is pregnant and does NOT like pics of herself....I would kill to look llike her when I am pregnant. she only has like 4 weeks left. What is she talking about!

Now on tho the best part....Desert!
Have you EVER seen a piece of cake this big? No, I did not eat it myself. We all shared one piece. It was YUMMY!

Thanks again everyone for a wonderful birthday! My friends for being so great. I don't know what I would do without you! You are the BEST. To my sister's and sweet Steph for the sweet birthday blogs. I love you!

Look at those EYES!

Last week was quite the week at the Allred house. Lets just say that I thought the week would NEVER end. Ellie was home most of the week not feeling well and we all know what that did to me! I really do lover her, she just requires ALOT of attention and as my sister Tara says, she is my ticket to Heaven! We still are not sure what is up with her stomach issues. I have to take her back to the doctor by next week if we don't see some changes in her stool. I was called the BUTT doctor last week. I had to keep a diary on Ellie and boy was it FUN!!!! I thought it was frustrating making Ellie take her medicine, well try giving that girl an enema. I thought we were going to kill each other. After about an hour and a half I finally got done with the enema and ellie stopped crying and said, "Mom, I didn't even feel that". That made me want to you know what.......Then Gracie got pink eye and woke up twice in the night because she couldn't open her eyes. This picture is not at her worst. To top everything off. I got a call on Friday about 11am saying that we were having a preview on the house in 1hour. I was FREAKING out! My house was a MESS with a crazy week and all. I frantically started shoving stuff hoping that I would remember where I had put everything. In the dryer, washer, dishwasher, oven. Did I say oven? My friend Stacy came over to get the kids out of the house and helped me run through and pick up so I could clean bathrooms, vac, dust in less than 1 hour. I have never sweat so bad in my life................anyway, I got it done and the next day, Taylor had some friends over and she was pre-heating the OVEN for pizza.....I smelled something and remembered ALL the stuff that was sitting on my counter that I shoved in the oven for the showing......MELTED PLASTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YUCK!
what a pain to clean out. Moral of the story.....keep up with your house and don't get behind like I did!

Happy Birthday Diana

Happy Birthday Diana! These photos are not in order (dang it) but I thought we would take a trip down memory lane of the last year of knowing each other. I can't believe that I have only known this girl for 1 year! I feel like I have known her FOREVER!!!! I love ya!
Thanksgiving time!
Our AWESOME trip to New York.....
Max and Laura from GREASE.......................
Diana, Me, and Jill at Christmas walk.............

This is actually the first time that I met Diana..Her Birthday last year, a few of us took her out to dinner to get to know her. She had just moved into the ward.............. This was when I REALLY got to know Diana. We knew we were suposed to be friends! We had a blast together and had alot in common. She LOVED my fart machine!
A lunch date...............................
TOFW trip..............this was another great time together!
Last but not least, the TEETH!!!! This picture of Diana will always be in my mind. We have had more laughs over these teeth. She has them with her at all times. And has brought them out many times such as lunch dates, just driving down the road in the car....now that is the funniest thing ever to see people look at her throught the window as she is driving. She just looks at them and smiles with these BIG teeth! Diana, I am so glad that we have become such good friends in such a short amount of time. I look at all the fun things we have done this last year and want to thank you for being such a great friend!!!! You are such an example to me. You are always happy and always have a smile on your face. You are a wonderful mother, a wonderful wife, you are a wonderful friend! I hope you have the best Birthday ever!

I love music....

I love all kinds of music, but I really love Country Music. I love the lyrics. They always tell such a meaningful story. Music has always been a big part of my life. Starting at a very young age, I remember singing in church with my brothers and sisters. Singing in talent shows and all kinds of things that my Mom could get us into. Then as I got into my teenage years i was even in a band. Growing up my Mom always had music playing and I remember it making me feel happy. I find myself doing that same thing with my children , as we clean the house. The fun music helps us work faster and have fun! While on Sunday mornings the soft music helps us feel a bit calm and have good thoughts. It really is amazing what music can do, and how it can affect us. I see the joy that music brings to my children as I see them singing ALL the time rather it be at the piano or to Hannah Montana. They truely have a love for music. So I would like to thank my Mom for that. Thanks for starting something that has brought so much joy to our lives! What are your thoughts about Music?

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! We love you so very much and hope you have a wonderful day! It is fun to look at the past couple of years and remember all the fun memories with you in our lives...thanks for being you! Love Mom, Dad, Taylor and Gracie.

Christmas Walk

Oswego has a fun Christmas walk every year. So we went with some friends and had a great time. It was pretty darn cold, but nothing a little hot cocoa couldn't help! The girls LOVED this Elf! He was really fun, he was dancing around with the kids...............
This is my sweet friend and neighbor Sarah. We love hanging out. Her son Matt and Ellie are in the same class and are with each other ALL the time................ I love this picture!

Gracie loved all the animals........we took a trolley ride and sang Christmas songs, drank hot chocolate, ate, and had a great time with friends. Thanks everyone for a great night!

Happy Holidays..........what are your traditions?

I took a little break from blogging and am happy to be back. What a wonderful time of year! This is my favorite. Not because of all the presents, but its the time for traditions. I think back as I was growing up, and remember some of our family traditons. That is something that I have always wanted to carry on with my own family. So if you don't have any, well its time to start! It is fun to hear the kids talk about them and remind me of them. I'm sure many of you have heard about our little elf at Christmas time, well I will blog about him and take his picture when he comes!!!! This is something that my kids LOVE at Christmas time, they can't wait fot Fiddles to come. They are trying really hard to be good so he will come. Ellie is struggling a little with it! We have a few traditions that I would like to share throughout this month. I would love to hear about yours as well.. So here's to Traditions!