We've been busy...

We move tomorrow! Hopefully that will explain why it's been two whole weeks since I last posted. There's just so much going on, what with packing, work being a little on the busy side, my transcription work, Cody having a couple of job leads (nothing definite yet, though), and Joshua becoming increasingly mobile. Speaking of Joshua, he's changing so much these days, learning more, and bringing us more and more joy every day. He can get up on all fours, but isn't quite sure what to do once he's up there. It seems like he'll probably be crawling within the next month. He's actually learned how to scoot himself backwards, which sometimes gets him into hilarious predicaments, like this time when he scooted himself almost completely underneath the couch:Anyway, I thought I'd talk a little bit about what's been happening with us, and there are plenty of pictures of Joshua peppered in to make things interesting. First of all, last week I was able to get together with some friends from my freshman year at BYU. Laurel and Amy and I got together first--we all had babies within a month of each other. Then, a couple of days later, Jenna and her almost-2-year-old son Daniel came into town, so we got together with Laurel again. It' s good to see old friends, isn't it? Here's a picture of our babies from the first get-together; they all fell asleep in the car on the way to lunch. On the left is Amy's Madelyn, my Joshua is in the middle (I hope you could recognize him), and Laurel's Noah on the right:My transcription work is going pretty well. I have anywhere between an hour and two hours of work a night, and I'm learning a lot and helping my family earn some money as well. My company had their summer party last Friday, and so we went (mainly for the free food). Interesting side note: while there, we just happened to sit down the table from a family from Fortaleza, Brazil. The president of the company, Kent Gale, was talking to them in Portuguese, and so I joined in the conversation. Come to find out, Kent was actually my mission president's companion in Brazil 30 years ago! It's a small world after all...oh, and here's Joshua chewing on the seatbelt from his stroller. He seemed to much prefer that to the squash we fed him later that night:
This picture doesn't really have a story, but I thought it was cute so I'm throwing it in there. I've started bathing Joshua every night as part of a bedtime routine to help him wind down. It seems to be helping, and I usually have him in bed by 8:40 or 8:45, allowing me plenty of time to get my transcription done. Anyway, as I was lotioning him up one night and flipped him over to get his back, apparently the hooded towel came with him, creating a sort of cape-look:
Like I said before, Joshua is just growing by leaps and bounds. He's thriving on solid foods! He's practically become a pro. So far, we've given him rice cereal, carrots, squash, and peas. Next on the list: green beans. Hopefully he takes to those as well as everything else. We may start introducing fruits for breakfast next week, I'm not sure. Oh, and new development: he's getting another tooth! Cody noticed it last night...it just broke through. I tried to get a picture of the tooth he got a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure if you can see it very well, but it's there:This last picture is just fun. Cody and I got new phones a few weeks ago because our old ones were starting to die on us, and my new phone has a flash for the camera. Result: sometimes Joshua can't keep his eyes open long enough. I promise he's not drugged up or anything, even though it may look like it:That's about it for us! In a couple of days we'll be Orem residents. Exciting stuff. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and I'll post more once we get settled in at our new place! =)

6 months old, a tooth, and solid foods!

Joshua had his 6-month appointment on Monday (a little overdue, but that's okay). Our little (big) boy is now 19 lbs 12 oz and 28 1/4 inches long! If I recall correctly, that's in the 80th percentile for weight and the 92nd or so for length. I think he's going to be long and lean like his daddy. Everything else looked good, the doctor said! He even had a tooth looking like it would come in any day...which it started to do that night, actually. It's not very visible yet, but I can certainly feel it. Anyway, since Joshua is now 6 months old, the doctor encouraged us to start him on solid foods. Kind of intimidating, but Cody and I were excited for this new development. I went and bought spoons and some rice cereal that night, and we planned to do it the next day. So, Tuesday evening, we gathered in the kitchen, armed with the video camera, the digital camera, some rubber-tipped spoons, a bib, and some really runny rice cereal. We sat Joshua in his swing (still haven't bought a high chair, so the swing has to do for now...thank you, Dana and Melissa!) and started trying to feed him. I won't say he's a champ at it yet, but he certainly seemed to be interested! We gave him another spoon to play with beforehand, but we had to take it away because he would rather suck on that than eat the food. Here he is beforehand, just patiently waiting...he had no idea what was in store for him:And here he is sucking on the spoon...that kid will put anything in his mouth:I love this facial expression. My little bug-eyed boy!:Cody took a break from the video camera and tried it out:Yeah, it got everywhere, and it was really really runny. But he's getting better at it!So, we'll just keep trying it every night until he gets better, and then maybe we'll introduce some veggies or fruit or something. It certainly is fun, and definitely a new experience! If anyone has any advice on this whole new deal, we'd be happy to hear from you!

We're moving!

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted, hasn't it? We've been pretty busy at the Alleman house for the past couple of weeks, so I apologize for the delay. Our biggest piece of news is (as you can tell from the title): we're moving! We've been looking to find a place with cheaper rent for awhile now, and we finally found a place that we love. It's a duplex, but we have the entire top floor (the bottom floor is kind of a basement...there are about 7 or 8 stairs once you get inside the front door to get to our floor), and it's in northeast Orem. So we're moving to a different city! We're very excited. The rent is a lot less than what we pay at our current home, there is a garage there (yay storage!), tons of closet space (yay storage again!), and we won't have to worry about lawn care as the landlord takes care of that. Those of you who have visited us at our current home may have wondered why there are boxes all around in almost every room...that's because there's hardly any storage space here. So, things will be a lot nicer with closet space and an actual pantry. Oh, and having a garage means no needing to scrape off the icy windows in the winter! And no incredibly hot steering wheel in the summer! Yay! As you can tell, we're looking forward to the change. Plus, as Joshua is becoming increasingly mobile (more on that later), we're seeing the need to have carpet again. Hardwood floors all over the house just aren't a good idea with a baby/toddler. We don't have an actual move-in date yet, but it'll be sometime around July 10-15th. It's coming up! This move will give us the chance to baby-proof our house, too. So we're excited.

Our second piece of news: I got a second job! Now, I know what you're thinking...I'm going to kill myself working so much. But this is a work-from-home job. I'm transcribing phone conversations for a company called KLAS. For now, I'm only working 1-2 hours a day, but once Cody gets a job and I'm staying home, I'll get a few more hours. It seems like a job that I'll be able to have for awhile, so I'm excited to be able to contribute to the family income once I'm a stay-at-home mom. Although, right now it makes my days pretty crazy: I work 8am-5pm at BYU, come home and watch Joshua while Cody sleeps, try to get Joshua to bed by 9pm (I'm hoping to move that bedtime up a little bit over the next couple of weeks), transcribe from 9-10:30 or 11 (depends on how much work there is), spend time with Cody, and then go to bed before Cody leaves for work around 11:45. It's a crazy schedule, and I have no idea when I'll have time to pack everything by the time we move, but at least I'll be bringing in more money. Now, everybody please keep praying that Cody will find a job so our life is a little less hectic!

Anyway, I mentioned earlier that Joshua is becoming increasingly mobile. He's not crawling yet, but it sure seems like he's getting close. In fact, just in the past couple of days he's learned to use a combination of rolling over and over and turning 90 degrees every so often to get across the room. His little legs kick everything in sight and he reaches for literally every single thing he can, so we have to be vigilant. Here are a couple of pictures:What a cute kid. We have his 6-month appointment tomorrow (almost two weeks overdue), so we'll let you know how big he's gotten. It's such a joy to be his parents.

Anyway, that's the update on the Allemans for now. I'll try to get more pictures and videos posted soon, but if I don't, know that I'm working away and getting ready for our big move and I'll get things posted as soon as I can! =)

Happy Father's Day! (a little bit late)

What a wonderful privilege it was to celebrate Cody's very first Father's Day this past weekend! We had just come off a rather rough week...we learned that Cody didn't get the job that he had interviewed for, and Joshua had been giving us a hard time (we think he's teething). So, to distract ourselves, we all went to the Hogle Zoo in SLC on Saturday and topped it off with a trip to Leatherby's (since there is no longer one in Provo...). It was really fun. Sunday was a good day. We had the missionaries speak in Sacrament Meeting, and one of them was from Brazil! Luckily, he was still around after I finished playing the postlude so I got to talk with him for a little bit. He had only been in the field for about 6 weeks, but his English was great. He really appreciated the chance to speak in Portuguese with me, though. And of course, I loved the chance to speak with a native! I realized I'm a little out of practice, but I still pray in Portuguese, read the Liahona, and IM with friends from Brazil...so I hope I'll at least keep it for awhile longer. Cody was sweet enough to keep Joshua during Priesthood/RS, so I actually got to pay attention to the lesson...and Joshua was nice enough to sleep for Cody, so he got to pay attention as well! When we got home, Joshua and I showed Cody what we got him for Father's Day--two framed pictures of the one at the beginning of this blog post. One for work (once he gets a job) and one for home. I had taken Joshua to get professional portraits taken on Wednesday, and they printed out this picture so I could give it to Cody. The pictures are great--I'll try to post them on our website if I get the chance later today. We ordered several prints, so if we don't have enough for you, then just let me know which one you want and I'll try to get you a copy! Anyway, back to Father's Day. After looking at all the pictures and seeing how happy Cody was to see his son looking so cute, we took a family nap and woke up just in time for me to make dinner. I made grilled salmon with garlic and lemon pepper--my first time making salmon, and Cody simply raved about it. It was pretty good, I must say. Also on the menu were rice pilaf and asparagus, and we topped it off with an ice cream cake I had bought at Dairy Queen. It was a great day! Happy Father's Day to one of the best fathers ever...my husband. He's so wonderful with Joshua during the day, works the graveyard shift so we can meet all of our expenses, and treats me like a queen. I'm so grateful to be sealed to such a wonderful man. =)

More videos!

Okay, so I'm a slacker. I promised to update this blog at least once a week, and look at me--I haven't posted since last Tuesday. I'm sorry! To make up for it, I have a few videos to share. Once again, I apologize for the lack of quality, as these were all taken with my cell phone. It's just so much more easily accessible than our video camera. They seem even worse on here...they really do look better on my phone. Much more fluid on there, even though it's a much smaller screen. Anyway, we'll start with the oldest one, which was taken about a week ago:

He's also learned how to blow raspberries. At least, I think that's what they're called. He'll just sit there, making noises and trying to get our attention all the time. It's a little hard to tell the difference between the noises I'm making and his noises, but it's still cute, I think.

Joshua loves to be bounced by his daddy, as evidenced by this next clip (please ignore all of my comments in the foreground...I think I was talking way too loudly):

And finally, this one is probably the best video we have of him laughing so far. This one was taken on Saturday, as Cody was blowing on his cheek and bouncing him on the bed:

I know, I know, maybe someday we'll post videos where you can actually see facial expressions. I hope these will do for now!

He's learning new tricks =D

So, Joshua has learned a couple of new things recently! And my dearest husband has been so sweet to send me pictures and videos via our cell phones so I can share in the joy while I'm at work (isn't technology amazing?). Anyway, the first trick is that he can kinda-sorta sit up on his own. He needs to be put that way first, and he'll usually fall over after a minute or two, but it's pretty cute to watch. Oh, and he's getting really good at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth. We should probably wash his toys more often. Here's a picture of him performing both of these tricks (the picture was taken last Friday):
And for his next trick, which seemingly came out of nowhere (for me, anyway): he grabbed and held onto his bottle! Of course, I'm not usually around when he takes bottles, so I had no idea he was anywhere near this milestone. Lo and behold, Cody sent me these two pictures today:I couldn't believe it. Our little guy is growing up so fast! It makes me so happy. I miss being home with him during the day, so I make sure to treasure the weekends. Cody has another job interview on Thursday, so everyone please keep him in your prayers! If he gets this one, I may be able to finally quit and be the stay-at-home mom I've always wanted to be. Thanks!

Our little kitty?

As many people can relate, it's pretty difficult to keep a baby's fingernails trimmed. Joshua doesn't seem to like it much, so we try to do it when he's sleeping--but those nails grow so fast, it's hard to keep up! Plus, even when we do trim them, they still seem pretty sharp. In fact, last night he scratched me on my neck while I was rocking him before putting him to bed, and it hurt so badly I could barely finish singing his bedtime song! The past couple of days, Joshua has taken to scratching our couches, just like a cat. He seems intrigued by the plaid design, and I guess he can't help but reach out and try to grab something. I wonder if it almost seems 3D to him or something? Anyway, since they're pretty old couches, we haven't tried to stop him and instead took some pretty cute pictures of him going at it: I think you can see the scratch marks best, accompanied by the ever-present spots of drool, in the last picture. Silly kid. We really need to be better about trimming those nails...