Monday, December 29, 2008

All I want for Christmas...

Tank worked really hard and got one of his front teeth out just before Christmas.

Of course, once it was out, he didn't like it at all. He was really upset and wanted it put back in. I asked him to let me take a picture, but he really didn't want to. You may not know this, but my boys know that I am a mean dad and insist on pictures even when the kids are mad. It was really hard for him, but tank really tried to smile. After all of the pain and suffering, we ended up with this cute series of pictures, with C-dog "helping" by sticking his head in front of the camera.

































This was the cutest. The other tooth is sooo loose and could fall out at any time.

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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Halloween!

Halloween was great fun. This was probably the best Halloween I've had a quite a few years. We had a bunch of family over and the weather was great. The kids are a bit older and not quite as whiny. Plus Halloween in AZ (or at least where we live in AZ) is a social holiday where everybody gets outside and has a good time.


By the way, sorry that I'm posting about Halloween 2 months late!


This is a photo of the twin cousins next to this creepy guy that came to our party. I told them to stay away, but they wanted a picture!





In our neighborhood, the neighbors get together and have driveway get-togethers. So a lot of houses are dark and empty, but the people are over at the neighbors. It's fun to see everyone, and it's really warm outside still. The witch's brew on the table is homemade rootbeer. Thanks, Brad!




The kids had a blast carving their pumpkins. Do you see any resemblance between the jack-o-lanterns and the carvers?






Mouth wanted to be some sort of death-demon. He looked pretty scary, even though the face paint gave him a rash.





Mouth really loves Star Wars (who dosen't?). He had a blast being a clone trooper (do not call him a storm trooper, or face his wrath!). It was really hard finding a star wars blaster in the stores. We had to order one from amazon.



C-dog was an Arizona Cardinals football player. He's really into football. It was funny how much heckling he got from the neighbors. I guess 30 years of the Cardinals sucking has turned some people off of them. This year they're pretty good 8-6 so far and they clinched their division for the first time since 1975.


Oh the horror! can't you hear the screams as the pumpkins melt into the earth!

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Fun Family Visits: Kristi


You thought I was kidding about a lot of visits this fall, didn't you. Well, it was awesome. Kristi, Kelly and Chase came for Halloween.

Fortunately, I had recently switched to DirecTV, so I finally can watch BYU football on the Mountain channel. I haven't been able to watch football ever since some genius decided it would be a good idea to broadcast mountain west football on a channel no one gets. But I digress. It is germane that I discuss the acquisition of the mountain channel (DirecTV channel 616), because there was no way that Kelly was going to come down unless we had it ;). The game was really exciting and it was sweet for me to have the expert on the couch to answer all my questions. Thanks, Kelly!



We went to the zoo, which is always a good time. It was really hot that day and everyone was looking for some shade. So we hit the stingray exhibit( I apologize to any marine biologists out there if these are not stingrays, maybe they are some other kind of ray). It was really neat, and we all got to pet and feed the rays. There were also some sort of bottom feeding sharks in there and some other icky creatures. The kids loved it.
The funnest part was, of course, Halloween. Halloween is really fun here because it's not freezing so people can go outside and par-tay. The kids can also show off their costumes, because they don't have to wear coats. Most people get some friends and neighbors and sit in their driveways and chow as the kids go by. We went trick-or-treating for a hour or so until the kids were done, then just sat around and talked. It was really fun. I'll post some more Halloween pictures and details in another post, because this one has too many pictures already.

Thanks for coming Kelly, Kristi and Buzz Lightyear!

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

My Complaint List


Mouth handed me a sheet of paper during church last Sunday. It was titled:

My Complaint List December 7 2008.


My dad is a big fat meanie and this is why. He made me pick up the dog poop with my crazy brother. And my other crazy brother yelled at me while I was getting dressed. And my mom she had to leave at 6:45 AM in the morning. So now at church my dad forgot something so he had to go home to get it. So now my brothers and I are all alone. And now my scout leader is telling us about the Gospel being true and all. And now a lady is talking about something tender about the Savior. Oh and I forgot when we came to church we had to sit on the hard chairs all of them are so hard and not comfortable at all. And that's all my complaints.

Here was my response. It was titled:

Complaint list of a 9 year old African boy.

My dad is dead
My mom is dead
I live with my grandmother in a one-room shack with 12 of my cousins
I sleep on dirt with no blanket
I have to get up at 6:45 AM to go out and try to find a bug to eat before the other kids eat them all.

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Don't read this post...

...if you have a sensitive nature and do not like salty language.

So tank came up to me the other day and said:

Tank: Dad, I know a bad word
Dad: Oh?
Tank: Should I tell it to you?
Dad: Well, sure, if you want to.
Tank: OK, I don't want to say it, I want to spell it
Dad: That's probably better anyway
Tank: It's A-S-S-O

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Sunday, December 7, 2008

Fun Family Visits: Angie

The next to visit us was Angie and her two oldest boys. (She has not yet begun to blog, so I cannot provide a link. Here's how to sign up, Ang!). Her daughter was so upset to be left behind- I hope she's forgiven you Angie. Thanks to Tyler for watching the other kids so Angie and the boys could visit.




They came in the middle of October, so we were able to go with them to the Schnepf farms fall activities. We went last year as well. It's a fun working farm with a mini carnival and hay ride and pig races and chili cookout and pedal carts and so forth. It's really a lot of fun.




















We also went on a nature hike with them to show them the unique desert landscape (and to get the wiggles out!)








Homies in the house!

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

Fun Family Visits: Bucket Heads



























I went through a blogging slump recently, if you haven't noticed, and quite a few important events were not immortalized in this historical record. One of the reasons for my slump was that as the number of missed posts grew, it became daunting to even think about starting again and catching up.

In order to catch up, I'm going to briefly review the amazing amount of family visits we've had here this fall. Thanks everyone- it really makes us feel less isolated when we live so far away!


The first to visit were the Bucket Heads, minus the main bucket, John, who had to stay home and work. It was really fun to see them! The kids had SO much fun running around, screaming and singing with the girls. I'm not sure that "Lucille" was supposed to be running around, as she had just barely suffered a horrible accident that cut her leg badly and severed most of the important bits in there. But she apparently cannot be stopped from loving life!

I don't know why I don't have any good pictures of their visit. I think we were enjoying chatting with Laura and Jill too much to remember. These shots do capture the insanity of dancing to the radio.

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Friday, December 5, 2008

Soda Pop by Any Other Name...



Delicious Soda Pop. I love the fizz that fills the air with moist aroma when you first pop open a can. I love how that first big drink burns as it cleans off the back of your throat. Dee-licious!

I grew up always calling it Pop. It wasn't until college that I noticed that some people call it Soda. Then I started getting a complex that it was supposed to be called Soda, and only redneck-hicks-from-the-hills ever called it Pop. I've tried switching to using the word "Soda", but it always felt foreign to me. Like saying "tomatoe" instead of "tomato".

I was thrilled to find this map showing that a large portion of the country uses the term Pop as a generic name for soft drinks. Only the southwest, northeast, and a strange cluster around St. Louis commonly use the term Soda.

Oddly enough, the south seems to use the term Coke. Doesn't that seem confusing? It seems to me that a lot of Abbott-and-Costello-style "who's on first" conversations go on at restaurants in the South.


Southern Waitress: Howdy, y'all. Wouldja like summat to drink?
Yankee Customer: How about a Coke?
Waitress: Sure, hun. Whatja like?
Yankee: Uhh, a Coke please.
Waitress: Well, dumplin', of course we have Coke here. Wouldja like a sprite?
Confused Yankee: No, no, a Coke!
Waitress: Now puddin', don't get all riled up. How about a nice Grape Nehi?
Disconcerted Yankee: Never mind, just get me some ice water.


Is this really true? Can anyone out there confirm it?

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Thursday, December 4, 2008

We forgot to have a concert!

When school started in August, C-dog had to choose between the dance/theater/video production class group or band for the year. He really wanted to do video production, but there was no way he was going to do dance! So it was band. He picked the trumpet because it was small and only has three valves. (he thought it would be easy, Ha!)

He's been playing trumpet for 4 months now. The first few months were pretty rough, but he persevered and in the last couple of weeks, he's starting to sound pretty good.

He was really upset that we forgot to have a concert for the cousins who were just here (more about the many visitors soon). So I agreed to post a video for them to watch of him "in concert". Enjoy!


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