Lance's Ordination

October 15th Lance was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood by his dad. We traveled up to Vienna to be a part of this special experience! I can't believe he's old enough to be a deacon!

Lance is a lucky guy to have so many fine men in his life!

Grandma was in town for Cassidy's birth and came to be with us, too!

Attempting a group shot... getting 7 kids together is no small feat!

Eh, close enough.

  

We love you, Lance! 

Welcome to the world, Baby Cassidy!

On October 13, 2017, Laura and Tyler welcomed Cassidy into the world! I was excited to meet her a few days later. 

First niece on the Allred side!

I love you already!

HallowSCREAM!

Our kids are always begging to go to Busch Gardens with their cousins. It's hard to coordinate schedules with family, but this year we were lucky enough to find a day that worked for everyone and attend Hallowscream together with the Scholz and the grandparents.

The kids are getting bigger which makes our visits even more fun. Jude can ride many of the rollercoasters and even Cole was able to ride the newest coaster, InvadR!

The kids LOVE having Grandmom and PopPop come, who shower them with snacks and treats all day long.

Cole's first time on a "real" coaster!

He loved it!

Now that Lexi can walk, she can ride several of the little rides. She thought that was pretty neat.

On the look-out for scary clowns! At dusk, the park turns into a haunted house with clowns and other characters that pop out to scare you. Most of the kids thought it was fun and silly, although a couple had to be convinced the people in costumes weren't real.

It was a GREAT day!

Shameless selfies, Pichu, and Lexi

Indulge me for a minute while I record for posterity that once I really was fairly fit.

I finally dead-lifted close to my goal of twice my bodyweight! I lifted 255 lbs for one, although my body weight keeps going up (stupid muscle weighing more than fat...) so I can't really mark it off my list until I lift 260 lbs. 5 lbs doesn't seem that much, but when you're pushing the max of your ability, 5 lbs might as well be 50. 

With Halloween right around the corner, I've been working on Cole's costume:

He wants to be Pichu:

Of course they don't make costumes in this Pokemon character, so I had to construct my own. Here's his mask, ready to go!

It looks okay. Not as perfect as I would have liked, but Cole is excited, so that's all that matters. I'm super behind so he may be wearing this mask and some yellow sweats for Halloween.

Grandma came into town for Baby Cassidy's birth (Congratulations, Laura!!) and took a day to come down and take Lance on his Birthday outing. They drove to PA and saw a neat production of the story of Jonah. Lance said he had a great time!

This cute girl just gets more and more fun! She is seriously the happiest person ever--always smiling and laughing. We can't get enough of her!

I can't get enough of this sweet face!

We also got to celebrate Melissa Elmer's 40th Birthday! They hosted us and lots of other friends at a local restaurant that had some pretty sweet old arcade games.  

The kids thought it was pretty neat and we had a great time catching up with our friends!

September happenings...

Grandmom and Pop Pop plant a garden every year and our kids LOVE to harvest all the vegetables whenever we go to visit.

Jude had his first official sleep-over! We invited his buddy Ashton to come over one night. They played video games, ate snacks and stayed up WAY too late!

It was a success! Jude has been asking to do it again ever since.

Soccer season is in full swing. Cole has fun every week, although the rules of the game are still a little tricky. I think he'll stick with this sport for a while!

Lance stays busy with school and scouts. He, his dad, and his troop from Vienna went hiking up Old Rag one weekend during their campout. 

Cole's Kindergarten class took a field trip to Carter's Mountain and I got to come along to chaperone. I had fun watching him run around with his little buddies.

George and I also got to get away for an evening to attend Mary and Tom's wedding close to Virginia Beach. It was a beautiful day and so fun to be just the two of us!

Remember the "Unite the Right" rally that happened in Charlottesville that turned deadly? Several prominent muscians and artists came together and threw a free concert for the city. The Dave Matthews Band was the organizer. George was able to work the event and said it was really neat! They gave out tickets by raffle. Since George had worked the shift when they brought in the casualties during the rally, he was given two tickets to the event, but he ended up giving them away since he was going to work the event anyway and I couldn't find a sitter. 

Jude and Bender have been sleeping buddies for a while now. Jude is going through this phase where he's scared at night to sleep in his bed, so most mornings I wake up to this:

Good thing Bender has a big bed!