He Almost Left Coal...

Well Ladies and Gents...he came! The Big Man Came! And let me tell you, he was one 3-year-old tantrum away from heating our home with coal for the next few months... But Thatcher pulled it together for the last week before Christmas, and behaved like the "big boy" he thinks he should be treated like.

All-in-all, we had a nice Christmas. Both Luke and Thatcher were spoiled (mainly Thatcher, since Luke could have cared less that it was Christmas) and now we are shopping for another home with an extra bedroom just for Thatcher's new toys. Not really, but the space would be nice. Needing the space in his room, we decided to have Thatcher go through his toys and give away those that he could do without. He was very generous when we told him that these toys would go to boys who probably didn't have many toys to play with. He filled an entire box...



Luke is getting huge. It was fun for Thatcher to open Luke's gifts for him, and show him how to play with them. I think these two will be good buds as they get older....they love each other so much right now.

Here is a little video of Thatcher singing to Luke. This is his own version of "Hush Little Baby", so if you don't remember the specific verses that Thatcher is singing, don't worry.

Back it up Folks...this baby's dumpin'

Uncle JT made this onesie for Thatcher when he was born and it's as true for Luke as it was for Thatcher. Both of our boys love to poop! We have had to cut off many a onesies that were unsalvagable after a number from this kid. I don't know if anyone else experiences this or if my boys are just extra special, but it is an incredible feat each and every time, not unusual for it to reach clear up to his shoulder blades.... it is quite amazing!

Luke is such a happy and smiley baby, it's so fun to have him around. My favorite part of the day is going in to get him out of his crib in the morning. He looks up at me with a huge grin on his face and starts giggling until I pick him up and get the best littlest hug in the world.

The Season Begins

Ahhh Christmas time. Here are Thatcher and Luke sitting on Santa's lap for the first time this year... Luke of course is too young for any kind of request and will get the mundane baby stuff like rattles and sippy cups and a new toy to drool on. Thatcher on the other hand knows exactly what he wants - a Light Sketcher! This is the one thing he has been talking about non-stop for the past two months. I don't think he knows what it is or does, but he sure enjoys mimicking the "light sketcher" robot voice on the commercial. I hope he's not disappointed! (In a few years we'll get him this http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=22207)

It's fun around this time of year with a three year old around. He sings all the Christmas songs from Jolly Old St. Nicholas to Frosty the Snowman, and on tune too! He's so cute and so enthusiastic about everything. We sadly use Santa Claus as a parenting tool to help discipline our child. He is always on his best behavior when he knows an elf is watching and will report his findings to Santa whether or not Thatcher has been a good boy on a daily basis. I don't know what we are gonna do when we can't use that as leverage after he has already come to our house on Christmas. It's been a fun month so far with both boys! Thatcher is a good older brother and makes sure Luke is never short of entertainment.

Disneyland Baby!

So this is the third time we've been to Disneyland in the past 18 months, but I gotta say... WE LOVE IT! I think the saying rings true that it really is the happiest place on earth.(that we've found anyway... aside from our own loving home of course)

Last November my parents took everyone to Disneyland for an early Christmas present and we decided to go the week before Thanksgiving. It was such a perfect week with short lines if any, great weather, and the beginning of Christmas decorations and parades in Disneyland. So after having such a good experience last year, we all kind of decided to make it a tradition, hence our trip there last month.

Thatcher was just one inch short of being able to go on some of the faster rides like space mountain and star tours. Mat tried the old putting lifts in his shoes trick (folded up newspapers), but that didn't work out as planned and he will have to wait yet another year to ride the big boy rides with his Dad.

Thatcher did get the chance to drive the car in Autopia...quite an experience. We wonder if it will be a similar experience in another 13 years when he's really driving for the first time.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA

We were on our way to Disneyland, and we decided to get to California a day or two early so we could spend some time on the beach. Luckily, Newport Beach is only a few miles away from Anaheim.

This was the first time that Thatcher and Luke had seen the ocean... Luke just hung out in the Baby Bjorn (he couldn't do much else), while Thatcher spent time chasing seagulls around, and getting sand down his underpants. I don't know how he got sand down his underpants, but he did...when we put him in the bath that night, the bathtub had a good cup and a half of sand in it. Yeah, fun stuff.

Anyway, there are a few pictures below of our Newport Beach experience.

Snowbird Mountain Resort

We started off the month doing what we do every first week of November... SNOWBIRD! My family has had time shares at Snowbird for the past thirty years and this was the first year we ponied up the dough and actually bought one of our own.

Above is a picture we took on the deck of our newly aquired condo.

Its a fun week to just relax, play games, swim in the pool and eat way too much. So starts the first week of Holiday pigging out. Just seven more to go...

Here we are on the deck again playing games. The hoodies are just for effect, it was unusually warm this week and we spent most of the time outside! It was beautiful...

Mat and the boys kickin it watching a movie...

Fun times to be had by all

I Think I Love My Wife

OK, well, I know I love my wife! She is amazing! What other woman would go out in public without shaving first?

In case you haven't figured it out already, this is a picture of the wonderful April at a Halloween Party last week. Since Thatcher had a clown costume, and we found a cute hot dog costume for Luke, that we would make it a circus/carnival themed Halloween. April went as the beautiful bearded lady, and I was "The Great Matini", a magician of sorts. We have some fun pictures, so check it out below.

Being a dad is awesome. I was at the Jazz game tonight, working for the Jazz PR department, and my seats were near a Dad who had brought his 6-year-old daughter to the game. It was cool to see him explaining everything to her, and to see her excitement to be with her dad at the game. Then I looked around the arena and saw quite a few dads with their young kids...what a cool thing for these kids to hang out with their dads at a Jazz Game. It made me want to take Thatcher to the game sometime...anyways, I truly love being a dad!

The month of November is typically becoming a good month for the Allred family.

• We recently bought timeshare condo at Snowbird, which is always the first week of November...it's a good chance to get away for a break, without really getting away. The drive is only about 20 minutes from my office, so we sleep up there, and April and the boys get to hang out with April's dad and his family.
• We are going to Disneyland next week. We went last year at this time (the week before Thanksgiving) and never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes to ride a ride. It was great last year for Thatcher, but I am really excited for him this year. I think we will have a ball.
• I turn 29 on the 18th.
• THANKSGIVING...this is one of my favorite holidays. We love the fall, and this is a great time to just hang out with family and relax.

Anyway...things are good for the Allred clan. Luke and Thatcher are healthy boys who make us smile...April is still at home with the boys, which is good for all three of them, and life is coasting along without a hitch.

Check back often. I will do a few Disneyland posts next week.

Just Clowning Around

Well here we are again...two months has passed, and again I have done nothing to improve the frequency of my blogging. I guess it doesn't matter though, when you only have two readers (Hi Mom and Dad). But to keep the general public satisfied, and my German blog reader (Wie Ghets Josef?) happy, I will post more often. SCOUTS HONOR!

From the age of 14 on, Halloween kind of lost it's magic. No more trick-or-treating, you were "too old" to dress up, and until you moved out of your parent's house, you were usually the one assigned to answer the door and hand out candy to cute kids in costumes, and a handful full of teenagers who had no sense of decency, and were out knocking doors, sans costume. (However, I learned a good trick from my mom on how to deal with those type of kids...if they were older than I thought they should be, I would make them trade me a piece of candy in their bag for one in my bowl. This was cool because it made them mad, and at the end of the night, there was always a nice variety of candy in the bowl at home...no need to go out when I could do this at home.) Anyway, where was I? Oh Yeah...so Halloween started to suck around 14 until now! Now I have a three-year-old and it has become exciting again!

Thatcher had his Halloween Party today at his preschool. We dressed him as a clown, and he wore the same clown costume I wore when I was his age, 26 years ago. Same wig and everything. I think Thatcher would have been anything we decided, but back in August, my brother Taylor thought it would be fun to dress Thatcher up in full Clown Make-up, and the idea stuck in Thatcher's head. Sure he has varied in his opinion every once and a while (a ghost, a ninja, a pirate, a pumpkin), but he always came back to wanting to be a clown.

So, I have attached a few pre-Halloween pix below, and a cute movie of the boy-child singing for your enjoyment (let it load for a minute after you click on it before you start to watch).

Check back after Halloween to see more fun pictures of the whole Allred Clan dressed to impress.

Cheers! Mat

The Holy Day of Blessing

It has been a while since my last post, too long in fact. Seeing that the last time I updated this site was three weeks after Luke was born, and now he is shaving and just finished the last Harry Potter book, I figured it was about time.

We blessed Luke in church on the 5th of August. We had all of our family there in support as I had the opportunity to bless our second boy. It is not an easy thing to give a blessing to your little boy in front of a congregation of 300+ people, but I managed to stumble through it, sans tears, and got the job done. I'll tell you...this was a far cry from when I blessed Thatcher in church three years ago. The second I started, someone turned the waterworks, and I proceeded to give the blessing, crying and in a voice that sounded something like Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

July was a pretty good month for the Allred family. Luke hit the 10lbs mark (now at about 11.5 lbs), Thatcher finished his first round of swimming lessons and then started Pre-School on the 9th of August. We are happy that he has the opportunity to hang out with kids his own age. He has only ever hung out with adults, and needed the social interaction.

I really think that he is too smart for his own good. He is an Allred to the Nth degree...and has been given the gift of fabrication...the other day when April picked him up from his first day of school, she said "Thatcher, how was your first day of school?" to which he replied "I ripped the school apart, and then the teacher threw me out on the street!" This was the story he was sticking to, and April had to give him a talk on telling the truth. He later gave up that story, and told us that he sang songs, and learned the other kids names.

We are also learning that you really have to be careful with what you say around a 3-year-old sponge. We were driving down the street the other day, when all of the sudden we heard "MORON" come from the back seat. In complete shock, but trying so hard not to laugh, we turned around and April asked Thatcher why he said that. He said "Because that guy stopped his car in the middle of the road." Oops! Then again, I first learned the word "DIPWAD" while driving in the car with my sweet mother.

Yo Ho Yo Ho a 3-Year-Olds Life For Me!

Well ladies and gentelmen...we have officially crossed over the threshhold and entered into "Toddlerville". Thatcher turned Three yesterday in style. We threw him a huge pirate party and all of the family was there to celebrate it with him. He is such a good boy and we had the best time with him all day long. He woke up with a smile, and had it until he fell asleep in his new Spiderman jammies at 10:30pm.

There is no greater joy in life to have a son that you love, and who you know loves you! I am lucky to have two! I was told "Daddy, I love you!" about 20 times yesterday, and I know April was told the same (with "mommy" substituted where applicable) all day long. How cool is that! We are blessed.

Check out the pictures! We had a good time. April and I made a Treasure Chest cake for the party, and we order pizza. Pretty low-key for everyone involved (except for me).

Thank you to all involved who made Thatcher have the best birthday.

Dramatic Squirrel

Pretty Cool Video

Somebody Sent this to me in an email. Kind of worth watching!

Geez...Okay, I'll do another post...settle down folks!

At the request of a great majority of the two people who have actually logged on to read this, I have decided to post another blog about the "on-goings" and "happinings" at the newly renovated Allred Household.

So, it's not like I have never been a new father before, but I find myself completely befuddled when it comes to takeing care of a new little baby. I find myself asking stupid questions that I should know the answers to... "how long does it take for the belly button to heal?", "do all newborns sleep this much?", "why can he have just a little peice of my pizza?" You know, simple questions I should know the answer to, but forgot.

But we love having Luke around. He is so fun (when he's awake) and he has such a light that is felt by everyone who holds him. Thatcher has taken on the role of big brother with ease, and only has occasional issues with not being top dog in the pen right now. One such "issue" happened on Wednesday, when April put him in the Playland at Smiths while she went shopping. About minutes later, she heard her name over the intercom at the store, paging her back to Playland. Our son, our perfect little angel had been kicked out of Playland at Smith's for picking on the other kids. I guess he needs to find dominance somewhere, caring not that he embarasses his parents in the process.

But we're having fun with the boys. April is happy being home, and I am back at work trying to make a buck. We're happy and healthy though, and life is good!

The Newest Allred

So, I am sitting here in a hospital room, looking at my new son. In my desire to share him with the world, I have decided to start a blog. That way I can post pictures, stories, or just give my random opinion on things that probably don't matter.

Yesterday was a crazy day. We knew that we would be going into the hospital to have a baby. They told us to call in at 6:30 am, and they would let us know when to come in. We called at 6:30...they told us to call back at 7:00. We called back at 7:00...they told us they would call us back and let us know when to come in, but that it would probably be before 9:00. Well, they called us at 8:45 and told us to come right in.

We got here at 9:45 and they admitted April right away. They started to induce her around 11:00 am and by 11:05, April was having contractions. 12:30 was the epidural and at 1:30 they broke her water. The epidural was working great until about 2:20 when it just went away. April was feeling her contractions and was in tears from the pain. The crappy part was, that I couldn't do anything to remedy the situation.

Our nurse Wendy came in around 2:35, and saw how much pain April was in, and then went immediately to get the anesthesiologist. He came in and gave April a direct injection (which didn't work), then another one that was supposed to work quicker (it didn't.) April was feeling everything, and by this time the baby had dropped. April was screaming bloody murder by this point, and her Doctor was not at the hospital yet, so the resident OB doctor got ready to get this kid out. Dr. Johnson came in right at about 2:55 pm, by this time April was about ready to pass out from the pain, and he delivered the baby with one push from April.

I will tell you right now, this had to be the scariest 25 minutes of my life. My wife was dying (or so she kept screaming at me) and I couldn't do anything about it...nobody could. But the amazing thing is that as soon Luke came out, the pain went away immediately.

Our boy came into this world with a blast. He is a cute little man, with blonde/red hair, 7 lbs 6 oz and has made us very very happy.