Just for fun

Adventures in Taking Pictures of My Own Kids

I've done these type of shots with newborns before, and I just wanted to try it with my own kids. Oh, and if any of you are wondering, how I get my kids to look at the camera and smile I just talk about eating poop. Works everytime!

"My Twinkle Lights Shots"

Luke is becoming such a good model. His smile makes me melt.

Grady, on the other had is becoming a little turd when it comes to doing what I ask him to do. I got some smiley ones, but I've always prefered his serious face for some reason. And yes, his eyes really are that amazing in real life. I have Ty to thank for that. :) 

This little bugger just wanted to eat his hands and stare at the lights, but I still got a lot of keepers.

I really love them in B&W too.

Read on. I just posted our Christmas letter and pics yesterday.

Our 2011 Christmas Card & Letter

2011 Allen Family Christmas Letter

Ty – Most Likely to be Tackled by a Herd of Crazy Toddlers. . Ty is a great dad, and we had a lot of fun just hanging out at home this year. He also planned an awesome family vacation to Disneyland for us this past January. The kids are still talking about it. Ty developed a newfound love of professional soccer this year. We were also crazy enough to coach Luke’s PeeWee soccer team together this year. It was a lot of fun, and it ended up being a great thing for us to do together. A big highlight for Ty this year was going down to watch a couple of ASU football games with one of his best buddies, Luke. Ty also had a lot of crazy fun with his brothers running in the Camp Pendleton Mud Run in San Diego for the second year in a row.

Rachel – Most Likely to go Crazy. – a good kind of crazy though. I spent most of 2011 pregnant, and I am now seriously outnumbered. Going from 2 kids to 3 has brought quite a change in my life. It’s a crazy life, but I am so lucky to be able to spend so much time with my little boys. I spent most of the summer at the pool working on my tan while having fun with Luke and Grady. One of my highlights from this past year was being able to play in the pit orchestra for EAC’s production of Oklahoma! .  I’ve been able to see some improvement and growth in my photography this year. Check out my blog rachelbellephotography.blogspot.com.

Luke, 4– Most Likely to Circle the Globe in Under 60 Seconds. If you ask Luke what he wants to be when he grows up, he’ll answer that he wants to be a super hero. He loves jumping off of furniture with or without his cape on. He’s a good helper and loves making Reddic happy. Now that he is old enough, he has really enjoyed playing T-Ball, soccer, and doing Karate this year.

Grady, 2- Most Likely to Stick a Foreign Object up his Nose. He is just our goofball. What more can I say about him? He can turn anything into a hat. He insisted on wearing his bicycle helmet and his ASU jersey almost everywhere this summer. On Halloween he enjoyed growling loudly at all the teenage trick-or-treaters this year. Even though they argue a lot, his favorite person in the world is Luke.

Baby Reddic – Most Likely to Get Everything He Wants for Christmas.  Reddic joined our family August 24^th weighing 8lbs 11oz, a whole pound bigger than either of his brothers. He has been a good, healthy baby, and such a joy to have in our home. There are 2 reasons he is going to get everything he wants for Christmas: #1 All he really wants is some loving attention and a full belly. #2 I turn into a puddle of goo when he smiles.  

Love,

The Allens

and here is our card. This is the first card that I have ever designed myself in photoshop. It was quite the learning experience.

front

 back

One for the record books

Let me start this off by saying that I know compared to a lot of people we are so lucky to be as healthy as we are, but that said, I wouldn't wish this past week on anybody.


Saturday & Sunday
It started off with Reddic. He started running a fever on Saturday. In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday it spiked to 103.7 F. That really scared me. I've never had a baby that young be that sick. I woke up Ty, and Ty and his dad gave him a blessing. After sitting with him for a couple of hours his fever started to go down a little and he finally went back to sleep. I talked to my dad about it. (I am so lucky to have my dad who I can call in the middle of the night, and is so happy and ready to do anything for me and my family.)

Monday
12am Luke starts throwing up, and threw up at least 6 times that day. Needless to say, between the 2 sick kids Ty and I didn't get very much sleep. I do believe I got the better end of the deal though since I was up with the baby most of the night. Not every dad would be willing to help a kid that is throwing up, and would even clean-up afterwards. I love my husband. First thing in the morning, I called the doctor's office to see if I could get Reddic in that morning since he was still running a high fever. They poked and prodded him for about 2 hours, but I was actually relieve to see that they were taking it so seriously and being very thorough. That afternoon Luke started running a fever.

Tuesday
Reddic's doctor wanted us to come back in that morning. He looked him over and decided that it was most likely just a virus, and that it looked like he was starting to get better. Yay! Reddic still didn't feel good though, and Luke was still running a fever. I started feeling miserable too. I remember just sitting and looking at Reddic while I held him in the recliner he was screamed. I just started crying, because I knew he wanted me to just get up and bounce him or walk around with him but I couldn't because I was too sick. I was running a fever too then. Thank goodness for my great husband again who just happened to be home from work then for lunch who took the baby and told me to go take a nap. At around 5pm Grady started throwing up. He probably threw up at least 10 times before he went to bed and went through at least 6 different shirts. Reddic's fever did seem to stop Tuesday, but for some reason Tuesday night was actually his worst night yet. No matter what Ty or I did, we couldn't get him to stop screaming, and he refused to eat or sleep. He has never done anything like that before. He actually didn't eat from about 4pm to 4am, and I could really feel it. I drove around with him for 30 min. after 11pm to try to get him to go to sleep, but he woke up right after I came home. Ty tried taking him out, and drove around with him for over an hour at 1am. Did I mention that Luke was also running a fever all day long, and that Ty was really feeling the effects of the loss of sleep on his health?  Tuesday was by far the worst day.

Wednesday
Grady's throwing up stopped, but his diarrhea began early early Wednesday morning. Reddic started feeling a better, but still wasn't quite himself. Luke was still running a fever. I was feeling worse, and found out that I had strep throat. I felt so horrible. It hurt so bad to talk that I couldn't even enough to read books to my sick kids. :(

Thursday
I had high hopes for Thursday. I proclaimed to myself Wednesday night that Thursday would be the day that everyone started feeling better. I was wrong. Grady was a lifeless miserable blob all day, and so was Luke. Reddic was acting normal again though,and I was slowly starting to feel better. Ty felt pretty miserable and sick all day though.

Friday
Friday, I woke up feeling so much better. Luke felt better. Reddic felt better. Grady felt better. Ty still felt yucky, but headed off to work anyways only to come home early. Luke hadn't had a fever since the previous afternoon, and I hadn't given him any medicine either. That morning I did a newborn photo shoot, and my kids went and played at my mother-in-law's house. When I got my kids back home Luke took a serious turn for the worse. I took him in to see the doctor, and found out he had strep throat. I feel horribly guilty about that. I started having fevers on Tuesday, and by Wednesday evening I was on antibiotics. Luke started having fevers on Monday, and I didn't get him antibiotics til Friday. The poor kid. I feel so so so horrible about that. I think I just assumed that he had what Reddic had had. It never even crossed my mind that he would have strep throat like me.

Saturday (Today)
Today is the day that everyone is finally feeling better. Finally. We are just laying low today.

So needless to say, I have done nothing this week that I was planning on getting done, and now Christmas is right upon us.

Okay, I'm done complaining now. I am thankful for our health this year, and I am so glad that our sicknesses have been only minor and temporary. I am also so grateful for kind friends and neighbors who have brought us food and treats. Merry Christmas everyone!

All About Reddic

I've decided that I really love this age. Reddic is 3 1/2 months old now. He can hold his head up now, so I don't have to be super careful when I hold him, but he is still so cuddly, and floppy, and warm! He is starting to go bald now, but he is still adorable. I think that with every baby I have had, I've enjoyed all the baby stages a little more. I'm not in a hurry for him to grow up, like I was when Luke was a baby.  He is getting fat, and weighs well over 14 lbs now. I love his round little face! He smiles. He laughs. He says "goo". He is perfect. I love him.

Luke has taken a special interest in Reddic. Reddic loves Luke.

He can blow bubbles. I am a proud mother.

He loves his mobile. These pictures also mark a special milestone for me. I remember when Grady was this age and I tried to take pictures like this of him with his mobile, and I couldn't figure out how to do it. I have learned a lot since then. :)

He loves taking naps with dad.

He is figuring out his hands and fingers. He is starting to grab at toys. He can now successfully put his fingers in his mouth, sometimes he can even fit 4 or 5 at a time! 

He loves bath time.

He just brings so much joy into our home with that gummy little grin of his!

Thanksgiving 2011

Okay, so I know most of you have moved on past Thanksgiving in your brains, but for posterity's sake, here is the account of our Thanksgiving this year. Our little family made the short trek up to my parent's house this year. My cousin Lauren and her baby Carter joined us for the ride up, and we really tested the capacity of our Tahoe. We had 4 car seats and 3 adults in the car along with all our luggage! The trip actually went perfectly and all the little ones were happy the whole way up. My Aunt Trudy (Lauren's mom) and Uncle Greg were down from Idaho with their with their boys Michael and Ryan. We had so much fun together. I love it when my family gets together, and I'm so glad that I got to stay for so long too. I had lots of fun shopping on Black Thursday/Friday too. It was a lot of fun to go this year with Necia, Lauren, Devin & Martin(our exchange student)!

My mom and her sister with their grand babies. Aren't they cute? - The moms that is.

Jeffrey was down from BYU too, and my kids always have so much fun with him. Here they are, very appropriately, playing football on Thanksgiving morning.

Ty even helped out in the kitchen too. -mashing the potatoes with Devin

When your husband is wearing flowery oven mitts you just have to take a picture. :)

Emily made this amazing cheese ball that looked like a turkey.

The real turkey. Yum!!!

Caption to this picture: "Really? This is the spectacular Thanksgiving feast that everyone has been talking about. I do not want to eat this. Where is the candy?"

My mom cutting Reddic's nails. I think I have a picture of my mom cutting all my kid's nails when they were babies.

Then it came time to say good bye to cousins. Luke cried and cried when Michael and Ryan left. He cried again when Jeffrey left. He is such a tender hearted kid.  

He did not want to let go of Ryan.

A pretty impromptu picture of the whole gang before everyone left.