3 months old

I don't know where the time has gone, but somehow my sweet baby Eliza is 3 months old!!!! How could this be???? why do i still feel (and look) like i have a brand new baby??? She is such a sweet baby!!

with all 3 girls i've absolutely LOVED this stage--the smiling, laughing, but still not moving stage :) She does SOOO well at night, too--i'm talking 10 hours straight! and she's tolerating little bits of dairy in my diet now--yipee!!! She smiles so much, laughs when I tickle her neck (this is total Allred thing) and I just cannot get enough of her! She still has earned herself the Fussiest Of My Babies award, but most of you know how insanely easy Abby and Grace were, so it's not saying much. She does like being held more than her two sisters did...but i think that I'm mostly to blame for that :) How could i possibly not hold this little thing?!?!?!

Cassi--am i right that you gave these p.j.'s to Grace? well, they're one of the only hand-me-downs that i'm not completely sick of...they're too cute!!!

She still sleeps tons during the day. She was looking like a "light sleeper" there for a while, but she has adapted quite well to the constant noise her sisters make, and is learning how to sleep through it really well. Abby loves nothing more then to go talk to her while she's napping--you can imagine how much I love this--yet Eliza sleeps right through it. I am a big believer in kids' ability to adapt to their surroundings, and she's proving to be capable of doing so! (Maybe in a few more weeks we'll move her out of our closet and see how well her sisters adapt to her sleeping in their room. ) She's in her crib for probably 70% of her sleeping time, the other 30% is in her carseat or here on the couch with me, or in her swing :) I should probably have her going to bed before 10:30 each night, but i LOVE my evenings with her too much to put her down with her sisters. I need my Eliza time!! And she doesn't wake up until 8am, when her sisters come in demanding breakfast. I don't know why all of my children have been such good sleepers...but i'm not complaining!!!

Three months ago i would have guessed that I'd feel a little more "together" by now. "Together" is the last thing i feel. But I don't exactly feel "separate" --if that's the opposite.... Somedays i feel like having three kids is awesome, and that having two would somehow be boring. And then on other days I feel like Grace and Abby are being cheated out of fun mom-time or crafty projects because i don't have enough hands. Somedays I just love watching my two "big girls" play with their baby sister, and play with each other. And then other days i feel like I have three babies who all need my complete attention and each one is more demanding than the other. Someday i'll have it all together and i'll know exactly where all my tupperware pieces are and I'll arrive to church meetings less than 45 minutes late and i'll get the oil changed in my van before the dealer has to call me and remind me that we're four months overdue and I'll finish the Christmas dresses that I started this time last year....but not today. Today i've got to go pretend to be a wicked witch with Grace, help Abby color another masterpiece and get at least a hundred more crinkled-nose smiles from my Eliza.

and maybe we'll survive another three months....maybe.

They DO love us!!

We've had so much family come visit us the past 2 months--it's been awesome!!! Over labor day Reid's mom and sister came and just hung out with us. Eliza was just 10 days old, so we didn't do much, but it was so fun having them here. Karen helped take all those cute pics at the top of my blog, and Marie made sure that Eliza got plenty of Grandma snuggles in :)

Then my sister, Julia (former blogger, current Facebooker), came out for a weekend in October. We had plans of going to a local historic farm's Fall Festival and drinking Postum, but the rain ruined the festival, and Kraft ruined the Postum plans (that's right, fellow Postum lovers--that beverage is no more :( ) We still managed to have a great time. We made some AMAZING pumpkin cookies (of course we used applesauce and whole wheat flour (: ), watched some classic Arrested Development episodes, stayed up too late playing Settlers--needless to say we were sad to see her go...

Aunt JuJu with sleeping Eliza

The following weekend my mom, dad and sister, Melanie all flew out. It was my mom's first time here, and it was so fun having them here. We cooked lots, visited lots, and we tried to go to the Zoo, but gave up after seeing that about a billion other people were there for Free Zoo Days. So we walked around downtown and enjoyed some delicious Indian buffet. The girls LOVED playing "fox" with Grandpa (he chases them, they scream--you know the game) and sitting next to Grandma in her rocker. Melanie was so helpful, changing diapers, getting the girls dressed, and cooking us some delicious food--and i somehow didn't get any pictures w/ her in them!!!! A day hasn't gone by since they left that Abby hasn't asked "where's Bangka? (grandpa in dyslexic) On airplane, now home." It was so good to see them it ALMOST made me think that it MIGHT be SORT OF nice to live near them (gasp) in utah (yikes!!!) there, i said it! :)

Not the greatest photo, but here's Bangka playing "fox" w/ the girls

Grandma w/ Eliza--thanks for all your babysitting, Grandma!!

And then last weekend Tom and Jana came to visit. Jana, who's 6 months pregnant, sat in a car for 8 hours, spent less than 48 hours here, and then got back in that car for 8 more hours--You're a trooper, Jana!!!

Tom and Jana w/ Eliza

We were starting to wonder if our families really loved us. Now we know that as long as we have little babies for them to hold, they'll do what it takes to get out here. We'll just have to have more babies, more often--ha ha ha!!!!!

We really do love having visitors. It's especially nice on Sunday's when Reid's gone from 6am-6pm--Sundays get lonely with an absent Reid. So, if you're thinking of coming out here, work Sunday into your schedule and save my children from a lonely and ornery mom:)

And now i've gotta clean up my disasterous house because Reid's aunt and uncle are in town for a quick visit and will be here in less than an hour!!

Christening Eliza

Last Sunday we blessed our sweet Eliza Mae. Reid's brother, Tom, decided to come out for the BYU v. CSU game, and his wife, Jana, decided to join him when she found out it was Eliza's big weekend. So, we did end up having family in town for it--a pleasant surprise. Our neighbors, and good friends also joined us that day.


Eliza is just the sweetest baby ever. She smiles all the time--except when the camera comes out! She reminds me of Grace as a baby in so many ways. She's got a similar calm, mellow temperament. She sleeps ALL THE TIME! She's overall just a really content baby as long as her needs are met. And she has somehow not caught the Fever/Rash virus that Abby had a couple weeks agao, and now the terrible cough that Abby has. Maybe i'll have a baby that actually has a bit of resistance to germs! Maybe she really does get my antibodies!!

I finished this dress the morning of her blessing. It wasn't exactly what i had in mind, but that's the risk i take when i refuse to use a pattern. Why do i refuse you might ask? I have no idea. I'm ridiculous--that's the only answer i can come up with.

Goodies for friends

Grace and I had so much fun getting these little Halloween goody bags ready for a few of her friends. We started by decorating the bags with glitter and glue.

And needless to say, the glitter ended up all over my deck.

If you zoom in on this photo, you'll see that, not unlike Edward, my deck glistens in the sunlight

We made these cookies that took WAY longer than i could have anticipated. And i don't know why i thought that Grace would be interested in frosting these, cause she wasn't. All she wanted to do was eat them. But I still had fun decorating them :)
We had fun delivering the goody bags. Abby cried everytime she realized we weren't staying at our friends' houses, but Grace really enjoyed giving her friends presents, and seeing their faces light up.

One of my favorite things about being a mom is doing things like this with my girls. It's so fun to see Grace's understanding of giving gifts grow. She's really into gifting right now. She takes my scotch tape and wraps up just about anything she can find and then gives it to one of us. She keeps saying how excited she is for Christmas to come because she "can't wait to give everybody presents."

I love me my Bosch!!!!

I'm on a bread making kick! I've made bread 4 times in the past 5 weeks. Since each batch makes 6 loaves --way more than we need--we've had a fun time sharing yummy hot bread with many of our friends and neighbors who've helped our family out so much since Eliza was born.

When it comes to bread-making machines, there are two types of people in this world--KitchenAid people and Bosch people. I am a Bosch person. My mother's day/birthday/anniversary presents for the past few years have been this bosch-motored wheat mill and Bosch universal mixer. i think i only need to make about 200 more loaves this they've paid for themselves--and at this rate, that'll be before the year's out!

My dear friend, Kristin, was over here the other day when i was making some bread. Now, bless her heart, this girl has eaten a total of 2 whole grains and 3 vegetables in her life. (I cut her some slack since she's from Texas, where the last line in their pledge of allegience is "a cow a day keeps the doctor away.") She was completely fascinated by the fact that i could put this

in this

Where it turns into this

add some water, yeast, oil and honey, mix it in this

and get this

Perhaps, to better understand where she's coming from, I should spend a day at a farm and then a slaughterhouse....yes, i think i'd absolutely LOVE that! :)

Seriously, though, there is only one thing in the world that is better than hot whole wheat bread (with butter and honey..yummmmm). And that is hot whole wheat bread made from freshly ground whole wheat flour. Even Kristin, with her explicit disdain for all that is natural and nutritious, enjoyed a few slices on Sunday.

So, if you're reading this, and you live nearby, and you've never had my bread, and you're not a stalker, please let me know--we'll take right care of that! And if you don't live nearby, but you desparately want some hot bread, then you should think about moving here. I promise it's worth it!!

SNL

Reid and I have thoroughly been enjoying SNL lately. They're our favorite thing about the presidential campaign. Tina Fey does Sarah Palin better than Sarah Palin does!!! We are also both in LOVE with Kristin Wiig. And we have been singing the song from this sketch non-stop the past 3 days, so Reid posted this clip on his family's website. It didn't surprise us at all that they didn't appreciate it. But there's gotta be someone out there who thinks this is as funny as we do! Or maybe it's just cause it's Kristin Wiig and we think everything she does is hillarious!

Anyway, click here if you're in a good mood, have semi-low expectations and your name is not Anne :) (actually, anyone who admittedly has an extremely selective sense of humor and hates the Christopher Guest mockumentaries is uninvited to view this clip :D )

It's worth it--it really is!!!

I was starting to wonder if this whole "no dairy" thing was really worth it. Passing up the Cheetos, the ice cream, the DELICIOUS meals that SOOO many neighbors and friends made for our family has been SOOO hard for the food-lover in me. I was thinking of throwing in the towel this weekend when my sister comes to visit, but now i know better.

Last Saturday we went with some friends to Applebees. I ordered what i was SURE was a diary-free meal. But the next 3-4 nights were awful with Eliza. So i called my local Applebees restaurant to see if i could talk to a chef in the kitchen and find out if there was by chance some butter or something in my entree. Well, she referred me to their 1-800 number. I wondered how in the world the people at the 1-800 number would know what they do here in Littleton...well, it turns out that they don't prepare ANY of their food onsite! and it also turns out that i am the only one completely shocked by this! Apparently ALL chains (chilis, outback, olive garden, etc) receive their food frozen!!! And i'm the last to know! I've since been appropriately ridiculed for my naivete.

Anyway, they verified that the food i ate did have dairy--something in the seasoning of the rice. I was pretty sure it did, but it was good to confirm. It makes this whole thing TOTALLY worth it. Since about Wednesday night Eliza's been SOOOOO calm, and such a sweet, content baby! It's crazy the difference it makes!!

we've gone from lots of this

(Thanks, Jenny, for this ADORABLE outfit!!! She gets more compliments on those jeans than i knew was possible for a baby!!)

to lots of this

And she still only manages to be awake about 6 hours a day...so most of what we see is this

And the moral of the story is that this has dairy:

Cajun Lime Tilapia

and this is not fresh food: