He's One!!

Here he is - our little caboose: Carson Scott Alldredge. He turned one on Tuesday, Feb. 26th. He is such a happy, go-lucky little boy. He is always smiling and so content. He loves to get into mischief, and when you get after him, he just gives you this cute little smile. Don't you love it - how can you get mad at this face!

Still as bald as can be! Carson is as active as can be - he goes, goes, goes from the time he wakes up until he crashes for his nap or bedtime. He hates to be held for anything. He is walking - almost running - and is into EVERYTHING! It was quite a shock one day when I was babysitting EmmaLee that he wanted to get in his swing. He hasn't wanted to be in it for a few months. Think he was a little jealous of his little niece - for she had been in it for awhile?
This is a cute picture that his Aunt Jana took when we were up in St. George last November.
Here he is - one year ago. Cute then - and cute now!
We all love Carson! In fact - he is loved by all the neighbor kids. They all want to play with him. He is a special little boy - and we are blessed to have had him come to our family - surprise and all!

Glance in the past - Dani's November b-day

I had meant to post these pictures for a while. Dani had a very special birthday in November. She turned 8 years old. She was so excited. Dani is such a loving, happy girl. She has so many friends and people are really drawn to her. She is very bubbly and outgoing. We are so blessed to have her join our family. We love you Dani!

This is from her family party. Dani was very excited to get this "Littlest Pet Shop" game to play on the TV!
Here she is at her friend party. She had a hard time on deciding who to invite - she couldn't invite everyone she wanted too! She had a dinner and movie birthday party. Everyone got to make their own personal pan pizza and decorate a cookie. They then got their own bag of popcorn and treats to eat while they watched Disney's "Ratatouille". They all seemed to have a fun time.
Here she is with some of the toys she got. She told everyone she loved the Littlest Pet Shop toys - and she sure got them!

Award night

Kino Junior High had their winter sports Freshman award night - which included wrestling. Here are a few shots of Jason getting his awards.

Jason got the MVP award for the team. Congrats Jason!
He is getting his medal for placing 2nd in the city championship. He also got an award for being a scholar athlete.
Here is Jason with his two coaches (on each end) and with his best friend Nick Willis, who was also a wrestler. I guess I should say - he and Nick have every single class together this year! It's a good thing they like each other.

Wrestle Mania!!!

Kendall's picture was on our Mesa School district's website informing people about the state tournament.
Here is Kendall and Carson at the semi-final/final tournament held in Glendale. (Phoenix Coyote Ice Hockey Arena). Carson has a jacket in the Westwood Warrior colors. Go Westwood! You can see all the mats in the background. They had 8 matches going at the same time. It was confusing. Also, they wouldn't let you down close to take pictures. Sure wish I had Jo's SLR camera!
The awards ceremony at the finals.
One of his final matches. Gee, would be nice to have a SLR camera. Hardly any of my pictures turned out from the tournament. This was the best of the bunch.
This is a picture of the state team tournament. It was held at a high school. Kendall won his match - which made the team win to go into the next round. Only 16 teams made it to the state tournament. Westwood was ranked 10th and beat the 7th ranked team. Kendall was the last match and the teams were tied 31-31 - He won, the team won and he did it! Way to to Kendall!

They ended up losing to the 2nd ranked team, so the team finished in the top 8.

Wrestling season for this school year is officially over! Kendall did really well! He went into the individual state tournament with a record of 27-13. He ended up taking 4th place in the 135 lb weight class! Yea Kendall!! He qualified to go to the national wrestling convention in Virginia Beach, VA the last week of March. Kendall decided not to attend - it isn't a school sponsored event so he would officially be missing 5 days of school. He loves wrestling. In fact - that is the only sport he is doing now. He decided not to go out for baseball this year, but to focus on his wrestling for next year.

Wrestling time!

Those of you who know me - know I love sports. In fact, in some ways I am a sports fanatic. I used to love watching Doug play baseball in high school and college. I love watching sports on TV and follow it in the news. I was so looking forward to watching my kids play in school - which most of them have done. I was thinking of them playing football, baseball, softball - but I never thought of wrestling. Wrestling is a hard sport to watch as a mom. You see the intensity of the struggle, the pain that it is at times - all on their face right before you. Many times I have just wanted to bury my head in my lap and not watch. But, I have learned to really appreciate the training and the endurance that they get from this sport - more than football or baseball. Here are a few pictures of Jason from the recent freshman city-wide championships. There are 13 junior high schools in Mesa that were competing. Jason wrestled at the 140 lbs weight class. He lost twice all season - both to the same wrestler. Once during the regular season - and the other for the city championship. Jason took second. Way to go Jason. Dad and I are proud of you and your dedication and hard work all season! This is the ceremony introducing the wrestlers in th championship finals. Jason in the 5th from the left.

The championship match. Jason in the one with the darker uniform.

Jason doesn't particularly like this picture - but you can see the strength both boys have.

The awards ceremony. These boys all look worn out. This tournament started at 9 am and didn't finish until 9 pm. Even though each match only has 3 - 2 minute periods, they are very intense, draining 6 minutes of work.

This is the match which got him into the championship. He won!!

Related or what?

Lisa and I hardly ever see each other - with her living in Ohio and me in Arizona. In fact - our kids really don't know each other. But, it isn't hard to tell that some of them are related. Here is Dani and Lisa's youngest girl - Melissa with each other. We had met up at Mom's house and here are the two girls - not only looking a lot alike - but also dressing in the same color. At Jeri's funeral - they were asked many times if they were sisters. Dani is 8 and Melissa is 6. Maybe they can become as close as friends as Lisa and I are. They would be great!

Family

For the end of November and all of December, I did not keep up this blog at all - and a lot happened during that time. So, I thought I would catch you all up on a few pictures during that missed time. Here are pictures of my family when we went up to my sister's funeral Thanksgiving weekend. It was the first time we had all been together since my dad passed away nearly 11 years ago. (What a sad commentary that is about our family. Isn't it hard to be a together forever family if you never get together?!) Funerals are a hard way to have to get together - but it is a great time to catch up with family - and we all had a lot of catching up to do.
This is all of the kids with my mom. For those of you who don't know us all - let me tell you who we are. The boys across the top are: Vaughn, Kevin, Brian, Garth and Bruce. Us girls on the lower row are: Lisa, Micheline, Mom, Jeanene and Pam. Can you guess our birth order?
Here we are all again - this time with our spouses.

Now, here is a picture of all the grandkids and great-grand kids who came. There were a bunch who weren't able to be there.
Here are the all the grands - the spouses and the great-grands. What a bunch.