Justin's trip to Germany

For Justin's AT (annual training) this year, he went to Germany. They were stationed in Hohenfels. He got to visit the Nuswanstein Castle, which is the castle that Walt Disney modeled the original Disney castle after. It was also right next to Swan Lake! He was in Germany for a total of just over 3 weeks. He also visited another town-I can't remember the name of it. He got some cool pictures of the cathedral there. He also got to eat German ice cream, which is supposedly the best ice cream on earth. I was so jealous!!! I think he had fun, but we're all glad he is home. So is he!

Fun at the park

On the 29th of Aug, the kids and I went to the park with Grandma Neece. It was Grandpa'swork party, but he had to work, so we just went. They had all sorts of huge blow-up toys and games. We had a blast! I sure got my workout though! Maycee wanted to go on the big blow-up obstical course-I can't spell-, and she wasn't big enough to go alone; you guessed it. I had to take her. And the huge slide at the end was her favorite part, so we went over and over and over!!! It was a nice distraction since our daddy is gone to Germany. He left the day before, so we're really missing him!

New Family Picture

So when Sarah and Josh and the kids were here, Sarah was soooo kind to do our family pics again. I don't know if we'd have any pics if she didn't do them for us! The ones she sent us turned out fabulous...I have no other words for them. She is such a great photographer. She seems to catch our personalities in the photo...How does she do it!??? And Ty's cast is hardly noticable.

Oh, I love my Hunny!!!

Blessed

As I sat in church today, I had the overwhelming feeling of how truly blessed I am. Have you ever noticed sometimes at church there is an underlying theme in all the testimonies and lessons; as if everyone knew just what to say to tie everything together? That is how it felt today, and I thought, "Everyone is talking just to me!" Apparently I needed to hear what the Lord had to say, and I wasn't listening to the still small voice, so he had the bulk of our ward tell me! That underlying theme today was trials and how to overcome. In the last two weeks I have felt like the world could crash around me at any moment. I've had some personal trials I've had to deal with, and at times I felt hopeless. But today as I sat in church, I couldn't help but start counting my blessings and all those hard things seemed to just melt into the back of my mind, as if they weren't even there. It felt like the Lord took all those hard things and tossed them aside and reminded me of the things I really need to focus on. In Relief Society our teacher had a couple of wonderful quotes. I can't even remember who they are by, but they made me really think about a couple of things. The first quote was something along the lines of fear and faith cannot coexist in the heart at the same time. How true is this, especially in the world today. If we go along and worry and fear about all the things that come our way, there is no room for faith, which means there is no room for the Lord. The second quote was something like we as women need to have courage to realize our imperfection as we strive for perfection. WOW! That really hit home. I know for me, I am so hard on myself if everything and everyone are not just pefect. We need to forget about the things that don't go right and keep striving for that perfection. I just feel at peace today as I realize how abundantly blessed I really am.

Allred Reunion

We just had our Allred family reunion this last weekend. We had lots of fun together, but we're all sooo tired!!! We stayed up late, ate good food, and chased kids til we couldn't run anymore!!! We had a surprise early 50th birthday party for Grandpa Kevin. Teralyn made wonderful cake for everyone. The kids even got their own cakes! Sarah took family pictures, and she did a great job. (She always does!) We can't wait to see those. It was so fun to see how much the kids had grown and how cute they played together. We only had a few "misunderstandings" but over all we had a great weekend. I can't wait to do it again! Love you all!

Fishing again

Yesterday Justin, Tyler, and I went to Matt Warners to try our luck at fishing there. Maycee wanted to stay with Grandma Neece. Well Just got Ty's pole ready and threw it in while we got mine ready to fish. About 2 minutes later, Ty had his first fish!!! He was so excited. He wasn't quite sure what to do, so I had to help him a little. So to make a long story short, Ty ended up catching 2 fish. Justin caught a monster of a fish. It was about 18 inches long, and probably close to 2 lbs. It was a really nice fish. His face was just priceless. He was just like Ty; the excitement was hardly containable!!! We talked to some older guys that had been there for 2 days and betweeen the two of them, they caught 3 fish. So we did really well. It was so nice to get up on the mountain. Thanks Grandpa Kerry for the advice. He told us the secret, and aparently it worked! We also saw lots of wildlife. It was a good day!

A visit to Aunt Teralyn and Uncle Kevin's

We went and visited Teralyn and Kevin a couple of months ago. (It has taken me this long to get it on here!) We had a really nice time. We played lots of games and had lots of time to chat and just hang out. We put a movie on for the kids and they got to eat popcorn before bed. They were so cute sitting on the couch together. You can't tell they're cousins, can you?!!!