Allee's 6th Birthday

Happy 6th Birthday Allee!

This year I decided to make her birthday outfit, and these leggings and tights completely fit her fun personality.

We love our little girl so much and we are so proud of what a spectacular daughter she is. She is loving, giving, spunky, and always full of personality! She has been such a blessing in our lives and she challenges us and teaches us more than we thought possible.

We LOVE you Allee!

Allee wanted a High School Musical party this year, so some High School Musical gear was a must!

I thought these sunglasses turned out pretty cute and they are just what a girly girl needs! For her birthday dinner this year she picked spaghetti and garlic bread, her current favorite.

A few more of Allee's favorites right now:

Favorite Books: Junie B. Jones and Fancy Nancy
Favorite thing to do at home: Play with Pierce
Favorite color: Orange
Favorite thing to do at recess: Play on the spider web with Oliva and Parker

On Saturday, September 25th Allee had a party with all her girlfriends at the indoor pool.

Allee and Mikiah

I think Pierce went up and down this slide for a solid 45 minutes.

Allee's party was wonderful. All the girls had a blast swimming and then we had some High School Musical cupcakes.

Allee's First Soccer Game

Allee's first game was on September 11th. We were so proud of our little girl. Allee loved getting all geared up in her soccer stuff, she was so excited to wear her pink shin guards and pink cleats. As she was getting ready, I told Derek she reminded me of Fancy Nancy when she says, "Lace trimmed socks really do help me play soccer better." That is Allee for you!Allee and Mikiah
She loves her PINK socks!
Allee has an amazing coach, Derek. He wasn't too keen on the idea at first, but it has been a wonderful thing for the two of them to do together. Allee started as goalie, but it didn't last long. After a few minutes Derek soon realized it didn't matter and she just ran around with the rest of the pee-wee soccer cluster. Allee is a great runner. She loves to run fast and she could easily run down the ball (getting into the mix and kicking it was another story, but she and coach are working on that).

Unfortunately they lost the game, but Allee said she had fun and that is all that matters.

We are so proud of our Fancy Allee.

"Camping"

With Derek having a calling in the Young Men's, he is quickly becoming quite the camper. Every time he goes on a campout, which is at least once a month, the kids always want to go with him. We have been saying all summer that we would take them camping, but it has been so unbelievably hot, that we never went.

We figured that over Labor Day would be the perfect time to go "camping". I use that term pretty loosely because "camping" consisted of setting up the tent in our backyard, cooking hot dogs and smores over the fire, and sleeping 40 feet from our nice comfortable beds.

The fire pit is always a family favorite, lets face it, I love it as much as the kids! There is nothing better than a perfectly cooked hot dog over an open flame, ok, I take that back the ONLY thing better is a perfectly ooey gooey smore.

Allee and Pierce got new sleeping bags and they thought it was pretty cool that we were all sleeping right next to each other.
It was a very windy night. The kids slept great, Derek and I on the other hand, not so much. The bugs are so much louder out here in Missouri than Utah, it isn't the gentile chirp of crickets but the irritating buzz of cicadas. Then there are the animals. We live right up against the woods, and there are plenty of possums, raccoons, and armadillos which I believe were the cause of the shrieking screaming noise that scared me half to death. There was scratching on our tent at least twice in the night and sometime around the crack of dawn Derek and I fell asleep.
Pierce woke up bright and early as always and this is how I found Derek and Allee, she is the lump of red sleeping bag.
I took Pierce inside for breakfast which he insisted on eating outside, so he and I ate cereal outside the tent while Derek and Allee slept a bit longer.

Will I do this again, probably.

Was it worth the sleepless night, absolutely.

The kids were so excited and ate up every minute of "camping".

One of my favorite parts of the evening was staying up and talking to Derek around the fire. We were able to just talk for hours and enjoy the warmth of the fire.

Sweet Pierce

Yesterday Pierce and I were reading books before nap time, and I pulled out the new Friend magazine (a publication put out by our church for kids). We were reading the story of Daniel in the lions den. After reading it I explained to Pierce that because Daniel was good and Jesus loved Daniel, the lions didn't bite him.

Pierce pointed to the picture of Christ on the page and said, "Jesus love me. Lions no bite me. Jesus love me."

All I could say was, "Yes Pierce, Jesus loves you".

St. Louis

This weekend, the 20th and 21st we took another fun trip to St. Louis. We left Friday right after Allee got out of school (it is weird to say that!) and headed out.

It was hot and humid, but what else is new? Pierce was so excited to meed Fred Redbird. He loves meeting characters and they don't scare him at all. Pierce gave him a five and thought it was funny when Fred kissed the top of Allee's head.

There is nothing better than hot dogs at a baseball game! Derek gets these amazing garlic parmesan cheese fries and Allee and I gobble them right up. Pierce loves hot dogs without the bun, so he just carries around his hot dog eating it throughout the game.

Unfortunately the Cardinals lost to the Giants.

The next morning we woke up early and went to Gateway Arch.
This time I bought our tickets to go up into the arch in advance and it didn't disappoint!
This is the little egg shaped elevator you ride to the top. It seats five and is quite small, Derek couldn't even sit up straight. It is a quick ride though, only a couple minutes and you have made your way to the top.
I thought the kiddo's would get bored pretty quickly but we were surprised at how much they actually loved it. They would crawl along the little shelf by the windows and point out boats, cars, the stadium, the mighty Mississippi and as you can see, there was plenty to look at.

It was absolutely beautiful and a MUST SEE if you go to St. Louis. I am so glad we were able to experience this together.