Katie's Maternity Photos

Katie and Rob are some of our favorite people - and they're expecting a little girl in about 4 weeks. I can't wait to meet baby Addie! I am so excited that they asked me to do some maternity photos for them - we had a lot of fun at the beach today. Hope you don't care that I'm posting these, Katie. You guys are just too cute!

Has it really been a year?

...since I took this picuture?


When I open up my photo folder on my mac, pictures from exactly one year ago pop-up first. This is what I saw today. I can't believe we've known about little Ry for a year already. That was a crazy day - lots of mixed emotions. Today we couldn't be happier, of course! Ryland is the best thing to ever happen to us - and although it's been life changing, I enjoy life now more than ever.

Time is going way too fast.

Allred Family Reunion - in pictures.

Birthday Party for Brent, Summer, and Sara

Pretty sunset

Iron Horse Inn B&B

Grandma, her boy, and his boy

Brent and Ry hanging out on the porch

Uncle Neal is SOOO funny

family shot

Cousins!

I love Lori's belly

I hope someone's camera captured a better family shot than this.... blegh.

all the cousins minus Ry and Alice

and we left 5 minutes too late - and were stopped for the rock blasting on the pass (where we sat for 2 hours!!)

I am constantly amazed by how GOOD this baby boy is. He refuses to sleep when fun stuff is going on around him, but never gets too grumpy. He had a great time at the reunion - here's a pic of our very sleepy but still happy baby.

Brent is 26!

Brent turned 26 on the 27th - we usually go all out for his bithday (1984 themed party in 2008, beach party in 2009...) but this year we didn't do much. He had the day off work so we pretty much just relaxed all day. We went out for an awesome lunch at Duke's at Greenlake then had a few friends over that evening. I think he had a good day though. I have to brag about the ice cream cake I made... it turned out pretty darn good.

Cast Your Vote...

Most people claim Ryland is a little Brent - except for my mom who swears he's a mini-me. I just found a baby picture of myself at 3 months, and I already had one of Brent. I tried to find a picture of Ry with a similar expression for a good comparison.

Baby Brent - 2 months

Baby Ry - 2 months
(couldn't find a nice open-mouth shot, but at least they are looking the same direction)

Baby Brandi - 3 months
Baby Ry - 3 months

What do you think? I still think he's a pretty nice blend - but definitely looks a lot more like me than I originally thought!

High Chair Makeover

My mom and I found this high chair for a great deal at a consignment shop last weekend - it is the perfect height for our counter-height table, had a removable tray, and is in super good condition. The problem? The vinyl cover is pretty ugly. But I decided to try to make a new cover for it.

Here's the result:


Much brighter and more colorful - it fits us better!

Ry loves hanging out in the kitchen with us while we cook. He's "talking" so much - he really keeps us company!

New Couch

When we got married and moved in together, we went to IKEA and bought one of the cheapest futons there with some of our wedding money. It was one of our only pieces of furniture for a long time. BUT - 4 years later and too many friends sleeping on it - the futon was broken, the cover was faded, and it had become a glorified dog bed.

enter: new couch. New couch is sexy and sleek. New couch is nearly new, and the previous owners were moving to Massachussettes and she needed a new home. We love her - she is a couch of the grown-up variety.

Ryland enjoys sitting on new couch. He looks super tiny.

New couch was pretty bare - so I made her some throw pillows today.

the flowers are my favorite but I only had enough energy to make 2. More throw pillows and flowers to be made tomorrow.

Trip to Ephrata... without "daddy"

Last Thursday we attempted our first trip across the state with just me and Ry. It was Ephrata's annual music festival and it had been awhile since we had seen my dad and sisters and brother. So Ry and I left Seattle at 4 pm... and arrived in Ephrata at 10 pm. This is normally a 3 hour trip. I never thought about how lonely he would be in the back (I normally ride back there with him on long trips) and he CRIED nearly the whole time. I had to pull over every 5-10 minutes to comfort him and play with him unless he fell asleep (and in his sleep he sniffle - so sad!) So needless to say we won't be doing that again. I learned my lesson and we left to come back to Seattle when he was sound asleep - around 10 pm.

this is Ry - about 4 hours into our trip

The rest of the weekend was fun - Ry got to spend a lot of time with his aunts and uncles and visited his grandparents on both sides of the family.

My mom "Mimi" bought Ry this fun exersaucer at a consignment shop we wandered into - we put him in there to play while we shopped and he loved it so much we had to get it. he is still a little small for it, but he loves to play with the toys - I just prop him up with a pillow.

of course all the toys go in his mouth.

I love this picture of Ry with my dad "G-Pop"... I was really bad about taking pictures over the weekend - I completely forgot my camera while we were helping Brent's mom sell apricots at the farmer's market and when Ry was playing with his cousins. Now that I am looking at the pictures, they are mostly Chase's guitars (he must have gotten ahold of my camera) and self-portraits of Callie.

It is HOT here

Seattle wasn't made for days in the 90's. No one has an air conditioner. Of course there are a few ice cold lakes and the ocean to dip in - but that's no good for a baby! So today we are living in our shady backyard.