May, June & July

So.... I guess I'm a little behind on this blogging thing.

Time for a some catch up - Get ready for a long post with a lot of pictures!

May

He always has his hand above his head.
Clayson sleeps like this every night.

First things first: We're having a boy!

We made them take the ultrasound early because I turned 26 and got kicked off my parents awesome insurance. 

That was sad.

Alyssa and I have birthdays one day apart. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings at work to celebrate.

We were in Burley for Mothers Day and they gave all the mothers flowers. I got a few extras to plant my first "garden". 

I learned that gardening is not my strength. These flowers are completely dead now.

Alyssa and I went to Denver for a work conference. 

This is the hotel lobby that we stayed at. It was nice.

Dr Cannon got me dried pineapple! 

For breakfast we would go to the hotel restaurant. I would get oatmeal (the cheapest thing on the menu, but so delicious) and Alyssa would bring her own fruit and breakfast bars. We had the same waitress every day and she was so sweet. I think she felt bad for us and the last day she bought our breakfast for us. We left her all the cash we had for a tip and wrote her a thank you note on random pieces of paper we could dig out of our purses. 

She was the best waitress  :)

Also in the month of May, we went on The Heber Creeper with family to celebrate Memorial Day

June

I went to the doctor and he told me that I needed to gain more weight. 
He recommended ice cream. 

I think I can handle that!

I realized after I came home from the doctor that I had forgotten to tell him I was sick the previous 3 days and was pretty much living off of honey water. So yeah, I had probably lost some weight, but I don't think it was as bad as he thought. 
But if it gets me ice cream, I'm good with that! 

Maternity Shirt!
23ish Weeks

Now my weight is, in his words, "perfect." 

It's good to hear that sometimes.

We had a full house for the month of June! My brother Griffin and Clayson's cousin Taylor both stayed with us. It was a party every night! We watched a lot of Star Wars and basketball and played a lot of Coup (a really fun card game). 

I was definitely out-numbered by the boys, but Clayson keeps reminding me that I should just get used to it. I guess he's right!

Supporting the Jazz
20ish Weeks

Next time we need some girls to stay with us so we can watch chick flicks and paint nails. 

Any takers?  :)

Reading - Clayson is definitely the favorite

My parents offered to watch my brothers kids for 10 days while they celebrated their aniversary. 

We went to Rexburg the first weekend to help my mom out a little.

Picture Credit: Evelyn

I always love spending time with these kids!

We took a trip to Bear World! 

They had baby bears, but no one was watching them because this peacock was across from them.

I always thought bears were more exciting than birds, but I guess I was wrong.

The petting zoo at Bear World

The highlight of the day was the rides!

We all had a good time at Bear World!

Evelyn had fun with my phone.

It was a busy and fun trip!

Clayson says we might just have two kids and call it good. 

So much for his starting line up for his basketball team  :)

July

The whole Searle family

We went to Burley to pick up Clayson's brother, Zach, from his mission.

We crammed 16 people into a 12 passenger van. Good times  :)

All the Siblings back together

We also celebrated the 4th of July in Burley!

We spent the day at Dirkes Lake swimming and cliff jumping. 

Clayson working on the farm

Clayson always gets some farm work in whenever we go to Burley. This time, I joined him for some of it!

His siblings call him "City Boy" but he's still a farm boy at heart  :) 

The next weekend we were back in Burley for Zach's homecoming talk and a family reunion.

This is me trying to get both Savannah and me in the picture. 

I've never been good at selfies. 

Now we are home again and finally starting to get ready for baby boy!
 

Every kid needs a penguin pillow. Right?

Way to make it through 3 months of catch-up!

Now I'll hopefully stay a little more up to date on this blog. 

Life is good!

Oh Baby!

This is happening

Scouts & Laundry Rooms

Ever since we moved into our house, we have wanted to put up a shelf in our laundry room. 

We went to Home Depot and got the shelf, but it needed to be cut to fit our wall - A simple enough task, but one that we lacked motivation to complete.

So it sat in our garage for a while, and life moved on.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Clayson and I have been called to work with the Boy Scouts on Thursday nights. 

Specifically, the Bears (3rd Grade). 

Let me tell you, those boys have energy!

The boys love Clayson! 

They tolerate me because I bribe them with treats.

They refer to us as Brother and Sister Squirrel  :)

I work later on Thursdays, so I usually show up a little after the activity has started. 

This particular night, the lesson was on tools and fixing things.

When I walked into the room, I just had to laugh.

Clayson had all the boys helping to cut the shelf for our laundry room.

They were very into it.

I guess that's one way to get the job done!

I love my shelf  :)

Conforming

For some reason, when you get married, everyone suddenly thinks you like to make crafts.

I guess I'm conforming.

Remember this post about how I was getting all crafty and what not?
Well, I have been crafting some more! (and more then just buying a piece of metal)

First up, Thanksgiving Turkey!

The beginning of November we made a trip to Burley so Clayson could kill a turkey. 

While he and his brothers killed, I opted to stay home and create a turkey with his mom and sisters. 

Much more uplifting. And cute  :)

Next, Christmas Trees!

The girls in our neighborhood get together once a month and have a craft night.
I've started going to these, mostly in an attempt to make friends.
It's fun and I am slowly finding my inner craft.

Also, I'm too cheap right now to buy decorations that will only be up for 1 month, so it's a good alternative. 

This is literally all the Christmas decorations we have. 

Call us Scrooge. 

Last, the Christmas Penguin!

On one of our visits to Rexburg, my mom got craft ornaments for the grandkids to make. 

Addy got the Penguin, which was probably the most complex, so I helped her out a little. 

Please excuse my appearance.

She was the boss and I was the labor.

We make a good team.

I'm so proud of my crafty little self  

(lets not talk about the fact that all the above had all the materials provided, an example/picture to follow, and step-by-step instructions/instructor)

Bring on the next craft!

Taking Over My Life

Last year I made a movie of our family reunion and it turned out really cute, so I decided to make one for this years reunion too.

It is taking over my life!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love doing it.
Sometimes I wonder if I love it a little too much.

Here's a sampling of "the kid section" for your enjoyment:

I'm pretty sure I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever. 

And I am not biased at all. Just stating the facts  :)

I'm still having withdrawals from being away from them.

Warning to my family: This years video is going to be long. I mean, really long. Like we could probably make a full length film out of it.
I guess that's what happens when the kids start getting old enough to say funny things, the adults get better at using the camera, and we have way too much fun packed into one week.

I don't think it's such a bad thing.

I'm Inspired :)

Conference & Princesses

Confession: I don't think I got a thing out of General Conference.
(ok, maybe I got a little.... maybe)

Addy sat with me for a good portion of Conference. She was so good and quiet the whole time!

I went home for Conference, and Logan & Rachel came too. It was so much fun! But with 4 - 8 kids running around (Ty & Cambria were there too) and feeling like I was drugged on sleeping pills, it was a loosing fight from the get-go.

This picture is for Trevor. You know I've been working hard on that face  :)
Also, this is what I look like with no shower for 2 days, not doing my hair or washing my face, no makeup, still in pajamas.... basically all loss of hygiene.
Attractive.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love conference and I'm so sad I wasn't able to be more attentive. I am definitely looking forward to the General Conference issue of the Ensign to come out. You better believe it will be read cover to cover!

This chair was like a kid magnet!

Durring Priesthood session, my mom, Rachel, and Cambria decided to go to the Deseret Book thing (I don't really know what it was....) This left Sierra and me to watch 8 kids under the age of 5. I have to say, it was probably one of the easiest babysitting experiences I've had! We watched Snow White and then made Princesses.

Believe it or not, we actually watched all of Snow White like this.

I made up the name "Princesses" When I made these with Evelyn for the first time. She loves Princesses and I knew if I called them that she would be 12 times more excited than if I just called them Hugged Pretzels. They are the perfect treat to make with kids!

Princess

Pretzel = Throne

Hug = Princess

M&M = Crown

For some reason, I can't cook for people anymore. I ruin it every time.
They were still ok and they all got eaten, but they just weren't as good as they should have been.

For the record, I promise I really can cook!

Coeur d' Alene Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving I went to Coeur d' Alene with my parents and sister to visit my brother and his cute family. Love them!

One of my favorite parts was the annual gingerbread house competition. We split into two teams and put our creativity to work! I am now going to be lazy and give you an excerpt from my brother's blog:

"And of course, we had our Annual Gingerbread House Contest! This is where you come in. We have two teams. We'll call them "Team A" and "Team B." Please look at both, read the descriptions, and then VOTE by leaving a comment on this blog or on one our our Facebook pages. Really, we have a full year of bragging rights at stake here, so don't take this lightly."

Please vote! I need those bragging rights, people  :)

You can vote on my blog or facebook as well. I'll post the winner in after all the votes have been counted. 

Guys, this is so fun! 

Vote!

ok

Well, I was going to write more about how great Thanksgiving was and post pictures on here, but apparently I am "out of space" again. 

Lame! 

But if you want to see some disgusting pictures of me (I loose all hygiene when I travel) and my cute nieces and nephew, you can just read my brother's blog for that too. He's a better writer than I am anyway.

oh yeah, and one more thing....

Vote!

(All links in this post will lead you to the same place, where you can vote.... or here on my blog. or my facebook)

(In case you didn't know, anything yellow is a link)

(And here's the link again, if you still haven't voted)

Thank you and goodnight.

Road Trip

Yesterday, I woke up and realized that I had nothing to do.

So I made the extended movie to our family reunion - the road trip with Evelyn, Jackson and Adalie!

My dad, Courtney and I drove with these three from Rexburg to Oklahoma, and then Texas. Mom joined us for the trip back from Texas to Utah.
It was such a fun trip!

The following pictures were taken by Evelyn

Jackson was the best sleeper

 I kind of have a reputation for never driving on road trips, and it's true. I'm not the biggest fan of driving and if someone else is willing, I will gladly give up the drivers seat. However, this trip, I actually drove!  

DJ Courtney

Courtney was in the passenger seat showing off her expertise on kids songs. We had Evelyn, Jack and Addy all dancing in the back seat while my dad showed off his well known skills of being able to sleep anywhere and through anything. Courtney and I were just as into the music as the kids were, jamming out, showing off our best dance moves.... that's when I saw the lights flash behind me.

Are you kidding me!?

With my warning and police badge sticker

My first thought was that my dance moves had gone too far and I was being pulled over for drunk driving. I knew I wasn't speeding, there were no cars in sight for miles, and I couldn't think of any reason why I would be puled over.

I have a good history of being pulled over for stupid things:

- Suspicious driving

- Driving through a crosswalk with someone in it (It's Rexburg! Everyone does this or we would never move! I actually got an $85 ticket)

Well, now I have one more to add to the list:

Driving on the left side of the road!

What? Is that really a law? 

Apparently so.

The best part was Addy in the back yelling at me to "Go Allison! Go!" 

She got very upset any time we stopped. The traffic jam on the way home about killed her.

Luckily, the police officer was nice and just gave me a warning. 

Addy with her sticker from the police man

He also gave us stickers, which the kids thought were pretty cool!

On the way home Evelyn said to me "Umm.... Allison, next time you drive, can you not get pulled over? K?"

Thanks Ev  :)

Anyway, it was a great trip and it deserves to be documented. 

So, without further Adieu, here it is!

enjoy!

p.s.  I also made some changes to the audio of the Family Reunion movie so the talking can actually be heard over the music. Sorry, I didn't know it would sound so different on TV instead of my computer. Live and learn.

Homeless Aliens & Shoes

Last night I took my green blanket outside to lay on as I looked at the stars. The night was warm and I was waiting for my parents to call. I was enjoying the peace of the night when I suddenly hear

"Hey! What are you doing?"

This voice belonged to a little girl looking out her window on the third floor. I was a little surprised so I didn't say anything. Then she yells to her brother "Come over here, you've gotta see this!" 

Her brother joins her at the window. "What is it?"

The little girl knowledgeably responded "It's a person and I don't like it." Then she shouts, "Hey! Go away!"

"No, that's mean!" was the brothers immediate response. "Does he have a home?"

There was silence following this question as they pondered how I came to sit on the grass outside their window. I was thoroughly amused by the whole thing and wondered what would come next. I was not disappointed.

The little boy seemed to have figured out what was going on and told his sister, "We don't even know if it's a person. I think it's an alien!" 

Hahaha! I've said this before, but little kids are the best!

I decided to move so that I wouldn't disturb the children and give them nightmares of homeless aliens.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Tonight I went to leave and couldn't find my shoes anywhere! It was a little concerning because I rarely lose things, especially something like shoes. I asked Katelyn if she had seen them, but she hadn't. Where could they be?

I did the whole "where is the last place you saw them / retrace your steps" trick and the answer came to me - the homeless alien!

You know the weather is getting nice when I start losing my shoes. I honestly forget that I have them on and I walk away without them and don't think twice about it until 24 hours later! Such was the case from last night when I was talking to my parents. The shoes came off and I never even noticed.

Thankfully, I live in a pretty descent place and they were right where I had left them. 

Shoes = found!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

The Moral of the Story: Don't trust your shoes to Homeless Aliens!