An Ian Update

Ian is fast approaching 3 years old! He is learning and growing so fast I thought I had better write some things down before I forget them.

Ian has been in preschool this year at CCNS. He goes 2 days a week and loves it! I can't believe how much older he seems from the beginning of the year.

Ian is now potty trained and it was easier than I expected. I was a little hesitant to start him before he was 3. Probably because that is when we started with Dane. What worked for Ian is that he has an obsession with gum balls from our Gumball Machine. So instead of giving him gum balls all day long he got one only when he went in the potty. It worked so well and only took a few days. It is such a wonderful freedom to be diaper free!!

Some funny things Ian says:

"Mom! What is WRONG with you?" (He says it like a teenager would if you tried to give them a hug in public.)

He can't say the letter "f" or "s" so sentence structure is kind of funny. He is also into potty language (thanks to Dane). So the other night he said, "I harted (farted) on the heat (seat)" and then both boys laughed and laughed.

He calls cousin Sam, "Ham or Hammy" and Grandma Sherrie is "Grandma Hairy".

He says upside down like this: 'Up-a-hide-down'

Getting out of the car to meet cousin's Abbey and Sam, Ian said, "Hi ya little Jerks". Another word courtesy of Dane.

Ian: "Mom! I need to tell you hump-ing (something)!"

Me: What is it?

Ian: "Everybody Poops!"

or

Ian: "Mom! I need to tell you hump-ing!"

Me: Ok, what?

Ian: "Everybody likes beer!"

(said while drinking root beer at a restaurant)

Ian is such a joy to have in our family. He is so mellow, happy and accomodating. I feel so lucky to be his mommy. Each morning he rushes to my side of the bed for a cuddle and I love that.

Escaping the Inversion

One particularily yucky weekend this January in Salt Lake when the Inversion was so bad it had moved up to our house we jumped in the car and drove south to St. George for some sun and 55 degree weather. We stayed with Cuzzy Hannah and Josh and had a great time. The kids rode bikes, and we went to Snow Canyon State Park for some hiking.

All of us on the sandstone in Snow Canyon.

Just Girls! Me, Gma Sherrie and Cousin Hannah.



Cute Couple Ma and Pa Wray.
My parents were in St. George too!

Dane and Ian exploring the lava tube caves.

Go Speed Racer!

Dane and his buddy Julien have been skiing this year on the Snowbird Devolopmental Ski Team (Devo's). This is like the pre-ski team to get you ready for the real thing. The Devo's have the option of participating in 4 races during the season and of course they both wanted to do it! I think mostly to wear the cool race outfit (I got Dane's at a garage sale for $5!). Both boys did great and even got the exact same time of 57 seconds. The fastest GIRL in their age group (she was 8 years old, i think) finished in 28 seconds. Just to put it in perspective for you. Regardless of his time Dane LOVED every minute of it and kept saying, "Thanks Mom for taking me to my race today. I had so much fun!".

The Best Day!

Dane missed the first day back to school after Christmas break to go to the dentist. That experience was traumatizing and I had to bribe him with a new DS game to open his mouth. So he got a new game then we went to see Cannon at Ski & See where we rented a snowboard for Dane to try. I took both boys up to Snowbird and we played on Chickadee for the afternoon. The day was beautiful and sunny. The boys did great! Ian is skiing by himself and Dane picked up snowboarding really fast. It was such a fun day!

New Year's Resolutions

1. Eat Less Crap & Exercise More

2. Complete one 1/2 Marathon

3. Learn to knit

4. Remeber my reusable bags when going to the grocery store

5. Turn the last 2 years of my blog into a book

6. Finish 'Atlas Shrugged'

The World According to Dane

Dane got a hold of my camera and this is what I found. He is always flashing the Peace sign because cousin Jackson does it.

I like the way this shot looks.


The kid is OBSESSED with Red Bull for some reason. We don't let him drink it but he does see Red Bull sponsorship in the dune buggy movies he likes to watch. He wishes his daddy raced for Red Bull.

This is Filbert our Elf. He was hanging out in Dane's Construction Company he made at school when they learned about communities.

For the Love of Family!

On New Year's Day we finally were able to get together with the Emmett cousins. I just LOVE these girls and we don't get to see each other often enough! Whenever we are together we always get a group picture.

(Back Row: Max, Dane, Ian, Abbey Front Row: Sam, Jack, Merrick)
Here are all the great grandkids. This was the best picture we could get. Dane is the oldest at 6 years old and Merrick is the youngest at 9 months.

Grandpa Allred with some beautiful ladies!

Christmas Concert

Dane's piano teacher organized a Christmas recital and sing along at a retirement center. Dane and Daniel played the piano and Patrick and Nancy played the violin. The residents loved it.

After the recital part we did a sing along. All the boys wanted to hold up the word sign but they didn't do a very good job because one lady in the front row kept yelling at them to "HOLD IT STILL!"
Nancy gave Ian this hand-me-down sweater from her boys. Ian fell in love with it and kept pointing to his belly and saying, "My no-man".

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was wonderful. Both boys were so into Santa, making a Christmas list, finding Filbert the Elf everyday, gingerbread houses, and reading Christmas books. It was fun for Dustin and I to watch their eyes light up when they would discover Filbert in a new spot in the house or when Ian would ask about Santa coming to our house. It was like he just couldn't believe Santa would bring us presents.

This is Dane's Christmas list. I am sure you can read it but if you can't it says:

"I want the Razor dirt bike, remote control truck, montenue Bionicle, Rino, Red Bull picture, Monster Energy hat, Razor Sparks scooter, FOX hat, Fire Bionicle. And for Ian: Lightning McQueen, and dinosaurs"

Pretty cute, huh? I love how the words all run together and the spelling. He sounded out everything himself.

We started the festivities with our annual Wray/Allred Family Christmas Eve Dinner of steak, cheese and chocolate fondue. Delicious! We sang some karaoke then we opened gifts with just the immediate family. My mom is so good at finding fun, practical gifts for everyone. We were all (kids and grandkids) spoiled rotten with games, warm gloves, play dough toys, & gift certificates.

Christmas morning started early. Dustin and I tried to make the kids wait for their gifts so we could sleep a little longer but the incessant jumping on the bed and whining made it hard to relax so we got up and stumbled to the living room to see what Santa had brought. My video camera died right after the kids ran into the living room and saw all the loot. And, unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them tearing through the wrapping paper! Ian was so cute though and kept looking around saying, "Oh, my! Oh, my!". Ian also was really into Santa's leftover cookies and Egg Nog. He finished the cookies and all day he would ask, "Santa ate cookies?". Dane was really into opening gift after gift and hardly stopping to enjoy any of them. The kids got some good stuff. The highlights being their own remote control monster trucks, Ian's scoot bike, and Dane's Star Wars Lego set. Family gifts of Wii games and board games were a hit too!

Dane disappeared for about 20 seconds during Christmas breakfast prepartion and came back looking like this. He said he looks like one of the guys from a ski video he has been watching. I am a little nervous for when he turns 18! Those are dinosaur tatoo's all over his face.

After spending the whole day at home playing with the new stuff we went to Grandma Janene's for Christmas dinner. She always puts out a wonderful spread. Then it was Christmas gifts round 2! The kids and adults were spoiled here too! More Lego Bionicle sets and a DS for Dane. A HUGE dump truck and ski helmet for Ian.

Phew! The Holiday Season was a wonderful whirlwind and we LOVED every minute of it!

Sun Valley Serenade

(Miller Cuzzy's)

We had another great trip to Sun Valley this year. Oh, how we love that place! It is so magical for parents and kids alike. What couldn't you like about skiing, eating, hot tubing, ice skating, sleigh rides, caroling and spending time with friends and family?!

Matt, Jenn and Kids

Aren't they so cute and colorful?

Our attempt at a family photo but the sun was so bright it was just painful!

Ian strapped on ski's for the first time this year. He was sooooo excited and did a great job! I think we have another 'lil ripper on our hands!

Ian, Julien & Dane riding on the magic carpet. The magic carpet is the best thing invented for beginner skiiers. It is so easy for them to get on and off.

Look at that form!

Even Abbey tried skiing and she did great too. She would just squeal with joy the whole time.


Julien mid-jump
Dane post-jump

Dane and Julien are both good little skiier's. They can go down pretty much any type of terrain. They can be pretty competative with each other, too. Julien will say he skiied a double black diamond and Dane (not wanting to be outdone) will say he skiied a quadrouple black diamond. They are both excited to be starting on the Developmental Ski Team at Snowbird this year.

Our good friend Kathy took family pictures for us while in Sun Valley. I don't like how I look in ours but I love this one of the boys with their grandma, don't you?