It's been ages!

First of all, it is really hard to maintain a blog when you don't actually OWN a computer... And I really need one for school and work... eek. Maybe for Christmas. Anyway, just thought I might leave a quick update to prove that I haven't forgotten my blog entirely!

My Birthday/Disneyland Trip

Hey Guys, I have been on a posting kick, so here's the latest. I wanted to post these pics a long time ago, but left the post unfinished, and forgotten in the "drafts" folder. I decided to dig this post out, dust it off and publish it.

The following pics are from my birthday, March 21, 2009. We went and saw Carly, Reed and the babies, went to Disneyland, and had Caleb's baby blessing. (We also went to Utah for Abby's baby blessing too. I will post those pics when I find them)
Here is Uncle Thomas giving little Emory a "five". All of our nephews and neices LOVE Thomas!

Here is my sweetie in front of one of the rides in Disneyland... I think it was splash mountain.

In the tradition of our dear friend/"sister", Rebecca, we always have to take pictures of eachother eating. Honestly, they are always good for a smile or laugh! How is that million-dollar Disneyland lunch, babe?

Thomas and Emory in line at California Adventures' Toy Story ride which is AWESOME! Even for adults!

Here is my Reedy and Carly and hidden baby Caleb (who loved rides at the tender young age of 3 months old)

Here we are in front of the interactive Mr. Potato head. You pass him while you wait in line... and he talks to you and answers questions, and sings... the technology is AMAZING!

Here is little Phaedra Grace. What a beautiful girl! And she is beyond sweet and cuddly!

Hip 3d glasses. Very trendy!

It's a Small World, afterall...

I hadn't been on this ride since I was 4 years old. Thomas and I really loved it. It was beautiful and very entertaining. I am sorry we didn't go on this ride when we went the year before last!

Me and Yoda had to wait outside when Thomas went potty... :o) And everyone kept saying "wow!! Where'd you get that backpack?" (The answer: Disneyland!)

Too cute!

Aw, happy little family!

Pretending to be scared... Thomas was supposed to pretend too.

These guys were waiting in line too long, and kicked the bucket, so to speak.

Here's my Disney magic bday card. Since we went on my birthday, I got free admission. We already bought a two-day ticket, though, so we got other prizes offered to us. I chose this card which had 70 dollars on it, a wonderful giftcard! What a deal!

waiting in line...

can you even believe that there was no one in front of the Mickey?! And he had a festive bday hat on, just for me!!

Finding a place to sit...

On Space Mountain. This is a dangerous manuver. Do not attempt this unless you have a wrist-strap on your camera!

Trying to be funny. I think I succeeded. I LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS!

It was a really great trip, I have a million photos just waiting to be scrapbooked, but I thought I would at least share a few... I hope that everyone gets a chance to go to Disneyland/California Adventures soon!

Welcoming Zephaniah Lee Hamblin

Here is the sweet sweet boy. He is beautiful and healthy and adorable!

Here is the happy family! And may I say that Zenobia is glowing and beautiful, she doesn't even look like she just had a baby... Bet there are a lot of jealous moms because they didn't look this good right after giving birth. ;o)
Here I am, holding Zephaniah (whose name means something like "Treasured by God" or "Hidden by God") I am his Aunt Alli. Zenobia was "adopted" into the Albert family years ago. Since she is my sister, I get to be an Aunt! And I love this boy as though we were related by blood.

The proud mommy! And I am so proud of Zenobia! She was so strong and brave... No epidurals here. She has done so good! I love her so much. She is a good sister.

Who knew when we met in Newspaper class, in 2000, that we would be so close, and that we would have families of our own. Who authorized us to grow up so fast?

I am so happy for Luke and Zenobia! Congrats to them for such a beautiful baby boy! Thomas and I care about and love them all so much... and we look forward to watching Zephaniah grow. I also would like to add that Zenobia's dad, Steve's health is failing. Any extra prayers would be welcome and appreciated. Thank you....

Sarah's Baptism

Here are some pics from our friend's baptism. Sarah's husband, Levi, (who baptized her) was baptized himself in February and their sweet boy Donovan-Max was baptized last month. They have two other sweet sweet kids, and one little runt on the way :o)

They are such great people, this was one of the most spiritual experiences ever. They are truly golden. Thomas and I really admire and adore their whole family. They are great, and we were glad to participate in their baptisms.

You may notice the towel on Sarah's head. It might have been the cutest/funniest baptism moment EVER when she came out like this. When she was "dunked" one of the little kids that had gone up to watch the baptism, said (loudly) "woah, that was cool, dunk her again!" and we all laughed. Then Levi came out, and we kept waiting for Sarah to come. Levi leaned over to Thomas and said "If we hear a blow dryer, we're in trouble!" And a few minutes later, Sarah came out with a towel wrapped around her hair. Everyone chuckled. (The baptism remained spritual even with a swamee headed baptizee). Afterward, I went up to her and said "congrats Towel-head" and she said, "I know, I'm such a wierdo, but my hair looks really BAD!" So, of course everyone wanted to get pictures of the memorable towel moment.

Here's Sarah with a huge piece of cake. Everyone walking by would look at her and say "wow that's huge" and she would try to say it wasn't for her... She was actually taking the piece to Thomas because she knows he loves cake!

Here is Donovan-Max... Such a sweet boy. He is one of the most behaved kiddos in my primary class. After his dad came back out after baptizing Sarah, Donovan ran over and hugged his dad so tight and said "I love you, Dad!" and gave him a big kiss on the lips. It was so sweet to see this little eight year old (with so much love) being so proud of his dad and mom. I cried, it was beautiful.

This crazy-eyed guy is one of our favorite missionaries. He is dilligent and fun! He came back specially for the baptism, and it was really really good to see him again. We miss him. He is fun and fiesty, but carries the spirit with him :o) It was a great time!

Kitties

This is our new little bambina, "Stickers". She is a sweet little orange tabby (who coincidentally looks like the "Mini-Me" version of our other kitty, Bella). She is a short haired, yellow-blue eyed little runt. Some of you may know the story of how we got Stickers, but I will give you the reader's digest version here. On Sunday, a couple of weeks ago, Thomas and I went over to Mom and Dad's for family dinner. Mom went out to the garden to pick some tomatoes, and called out to me sarcastically, "Hey Alli, did I tell you that I have a kitten?!" I walked outside, and said, "huh?" (because mom doesn't want any pets, though she loves animals). And I could hear a tiny kitty crying. It was loud and constant, and a little unsettling, because it sounded sad or hungry. So I followed the sound, and saw the tiniest orange face peeking out from below my dad's woodpile. I love kitties, and it looked just like our Bella did last year, so I had to get closer. As I got a better look and the kitty, I noticed something was wrong with its eye. It kept crying as I got closer.

I became worried that it might have a foxtail in its eye. So I tried to get really close to see. Its little left eye was half closed with its third eyelid closed, and it was watery. The little kitty kept coming out, and running back under the woodpile when it would hear a car (East Ave. is so close to that woodpile). I saw what looked like a few foxtails around its eye. I was then determined to catch the kitty to remove the stickers. I tried to coax the kitty for about 20 min with no success and I finally got the idea to "meow" at her (thanks, Heavenly Father for that idea :o)). It worked, she came right out. I caught her, and as soon as I got my hands on her, I knew something worse than foxtails was wrong.

Her entire little body (about the size of a potato) was covered in cactus stickers/needles (cactus needles were donated by my parents' cactus, which is generous enough to have 2 different kinds of prickers. She was covered in the tiny hairlike needles and the large thick ones too). I was so upset! There was no way I could just put her back down, she was so young, she could've died.

I took her inside and Thomas held her while I pulled over a hundred needles from the tiny thing. She didn't cry or yelp at all, but she did purr like the dickens. We even put her in a bath to try to wash her off a bit. She didn't flinch, but started to try to lap up the water. We took her to the Humane Society and they gave her a shot, and sent her to be fostered by one of our tenants (who spent a further 2 hours pulling out needles). We decided to adopt her, and nurse her back to health. We still find stickers in her, the small ones are so hard to get. Obviously, this is how we came up with her name. "Stickers" just really seemed to fit. Her little paws still have little scabs and needles so far in, we have trouble getting them. Luckily they will dissolve soon enough, if we can't get them.

Hopefully you can tell from these pics that she is doing GREAT! She is happy, and purrs a lot! She has doubled in size and her fur looks clean and healthy. It broke my heart to pull cactus from her little lips, nose, paw pads and ears. She had several that went all the way through her ears (she did not enjoy those being removed). She doesn't like when we remove the stickers now, but it must have felt good to get all of the first ones out (or she was in so much pain, that she couldn't tell)... But, she is sweet, and funny and clumsy like all good kitties should be. Bella is still having a hard time sharing her castle with Stickers. Here are some pics of them:

Here is Bella hazing Stickers. And Stickers is up on the cat tree eating Bella's food (that didn't go over very well for Stickers). Bella is better now, but she is kind of a terrorist. She herds Stickers and wont let her come out of certain spots. Stickers keeps to the bedroom or bathroom and if she tries to venture out, Bella will chase her back in. I stopped calling Stickers to come out to the livingroom, because as soon as I would call, she would come, and Bella would pop out of nowhere to chase the little one back to the room where she APPARENTLY belongs!

But, here they are playing near eachother, but not really TOGETHER.

Here is little Stickers on the other cat tree, which she shimmies up like a squirrel, she climbs, but doesn't jump up there yet.

Anyway, that is the story of the sweet Stickers... Perhaps I will tell you all about Bella's hard time adjusting sometime. It's quite comical. I am glad that we rescued this cute baby, and I am happy that I have been blessed with a deep love for living things!

Its Never too Late for Girls Camp Pictures!!

For some unknown reason, I have been the Chico 1st Ward Girls Camp Director for the last 3 years. Here's some of the cute pics from camp this year.

Here's (from left to right) Elaine "the Girls Camp Goddess", Bethany, Brianne, and Jessika (I dunno if those are spelled correctly...) You may notice that the girls are sporting some sassy pink and black "Super Girls" shirts, necklaces (or "bling" for those of you who speak ghetto), and hot pink capes! Elaine made the girls shirts for 3 days, 2 different capes, bandanas, placemats, backpacks and awesome fleece blankets! I made the girls an additional shirt too. We were all stylin'!

Here I am with Sharmaine. She is a snuggly little "bug". When we get together, there is trouble. I am sad that next year, her and the other soon-to-be-fourth-levels will not be camping with me. Sharmaine said that she will go on strike, and said that she wants to camp with me still. I don't want to let her, my Brianne, or Bethany go... I think I am going to cry.

This is where all the hip girls spend their time. THE CRAFT CABIN!!!! it was awesome, and everything was a hit this year. On Thursday we had an excess of 60 people in there. It was cramped and packed. But we had fun! Sharmaine and Brianne both made me some "shrinky dinks" with sweet messages on them... I will keep them forever. Such sweet girls.

Here I am with Jessika, the little trouble-maker. (Naw, she didn't really cause trouble.... She was a handful from time to time, but we had a blast together. You should ask her about tying knots...) :o)

Here is the lovely Sharmaine singing at the campfire. The song said "I am the one who writes my own story" It was so beautiful... this girl has talent. If only I could get her to sing with me in church.

This is Jessika's "curmudgeon" picture. She caused a scene, and every time I would get up to take her picture, she would stand up too. Just like a little shadow that can't be away from me. I had to tell her to "sit down!" and she said, "don't leave me!" Everyone was looking... it was great.

Well, I think that's all I want to share for now. We had a good time... I definately had the best girls there, and I am thankful for Elaine and all that she helped me with. My life is so crazy and busy, I really really really couldn't have done it this year without her.

The Temple-- A Tradition

So, here we are at the Sacramento Temple. We went down recently to see some good friends of ours be sealed together (Karen and Mike Nattress), and to their children(Tyson, Lily, and Elizabeth)! It was an amazing experience, of course. Seeing them all in white was beautiful. I know that God loves us and wants us to be in families forever.
I wanted to tell you guys about a tradition that Thomas and I started several months ago. But let me step back a bit further to set the stage. Thomas and I are in our second year of going to the temple once a month (at least). It has been the most incredible blessing, and I recommend everyone to be worthy and go to the temple as often as you can. Make it a priority and the blessings will come spilling in!
Anyway, I thought (this is my scrapbooking mind thinking) that it would be an awesome heritage to leave to future generations if we took pictures every time we go to the temple! So I haven't started the scrapbook itself, but we have been taking pictures every time we go. We are very excited about this, because we want everyone to know how important and sacred the temple is. So don't sell yourself short... Do what it takes and go! :o) So here are some pics from the last temple visit:


We usually go down to the temple with our dear friends Branndon and Leanne Mohr. Without them, we don't think we could have gotten into the "habit" of going every month. They are great people and friends.

Who is this girl? Its me! And I look good because the temple makes me soooooo HAPPY!!!

Here is one of our favorite-est missionaries. He got to come see the sealing because he was one of the Elders who aided in the baptism of Karen. You can't see it, but he has a fake tooth in front because of a freak missionary accident! :o)

Here we are being goofs. The temple rules. That's all I'm sayin'.