About girl dogs and casting aspersions

Just a comment about Linda's story: Dad sometimes sings with an Irish accent, too.

When Rebekah was about 3 years old, she and Dad went for a walk around the block. When they returned home, Bekah said, "I saw a girl dog." I asked, "How do you know it was a girl?" She answered, "Because it had long hair!"

When Matt was only about 5, he ran upstairs to tell Dad that Linda had gotten into the fireplace to play. Dad asked, "Matthew, are you casting aspersions?" Matthew answered, "No, Dad. I didn't cast her in there; she got in herself!"

Today Bethany (just turned 3 last week) was running around the house singing over and over again, "I'm not a dog; I'm not a squirrel; I'm a girl."

A Little Family History

I just spoke to Gan this afternoon. She told me a story which I recall hearing before, but did not remember well enough to recount on my own. It's a fun story and I want to record it, and I thought the family blog might be a great place for it.

When Dad was young, he was called by his middle name, Waddy, after his uncle, instead of by his first name, Tom. When he was in second grade he came home from school after their Valentine's Day celebration and announced that he did not want to be called Waddy anymore. When asked why, he poured out his bag of Valentine's from his classmates and said, "Look!" There on the cards were written, "Wooley, Whitey, Wally, Wendy..." you name it. All sorts of names that started with 'W' but not one that said 'Waddy.' And ever since he has been 'Tom' instead.

Also amusing was that having an Irish teacher with a thick accent, he read with an Irish accent himself during the second grade.

If you have family history stories you can share, I'd love to see them posted here. I know we have lots of great stories, but whenever my children ask for one, I draw a blank. Please share your stories for all of us to enjoy!

Favorite Pictures

So I just commented on Karen's post and decided maybe I'll just post a few favorite pictures from the last few months. I hope I can figure out how this blog thing works (I had a hard time with the post I did last year).

Look what I can do! Chuck's sister, Cerah, showed me how to do this braid on Adaline back in June, but I thought I'd never be able to do it. Finally in August I tried and was successful. After the first time going out with this "do" Adaline loved the attention she got so much that she'll willingly try to sit still for her hair to be braided these days. I don't do it often, but it's a lot of fun when we do.

The kids were looking for ways to have fun while we were shoe shopping. I thought it made a cute picture. Just clowning around!

The kids planted and watered their own sunflowers this year with amazing results! We loved these enormous flowers. I had to measure them because I was so amazed- they were 11-12 feet tall!

I get the biggest kick out of Adaline's expression as she watched Chuck lick the drips off of her ice cream cone. We got homemade frozen custard from a local place after FHE one night.

I just love this picture because it's a classic. It's like the one on the book about motherhood that mom gave us a couple yers ago, but this was not staged.

Maybe I'm not as much of a ludite as I thought! That wasn't so hard after all!

Oh, how I love Conference weekend!

This blog has been abandoned for a long time, so I don't expect anyone will read this. But can I just say how much I love General Conference weekend? I mean, even with all of the kid noise and minor squabbling (ok, and some major squabbling). I love it. I love the leaders of our Church. When people say that they are "out of touch", I really have to wonder if they've ever heard them speak. And the choir sang "O Divine Redeemer" this time. Ah. It was good. It is worth watching TV for 4 hours each day of the weekend. Not many things are worth that.

Is Everyone Ready to Party?

I'm not sure if anyone is checking the family blog anymore, since we've all been such slackers about posting. But we're in the home stretch for the family reunion this weekend, and in the midst of all the laundry/packing/cleaning that needs to be done in order for us to leave town, I'd just like to share some of the enthusiasm that is running rampant at our house in anticipation of this great event.

Topher: "Is my friend (interpretation: cousin) Jacob going to be on the airplane?"

Mom: "Yes, he will be on the airplane once we get to Utah."

Topher: "Oh ye-eh-eh-eh-eh-ah!" (accompanied by fist pump)

Hope you are all as excited as we are!

Greg Needs to Stop Making Other Guys Look Bad

OK, a lot of time has passed since I last posted anything, but I couldn't let this go by without sharing it with you all. Back in December, Greg really wanted to have a party for our 10th anniversary. But Maggie was still pretty little, and life is always hectic around the holidays, so he decided to put off the party for a little while. Since my birthday is in February and Greg always feels a little blue during the winter, he decided it would be the perfect time the throw a 10th Anniversary/Bekah's Birthday/Get Rid of the Winter Blues Party. He had everything almost completely planned in his mind before we ever talked about it, and I just helped him execute his vision.

Greg really loves a good party, so we ended up with about 60 people, a DJ, a game room with projection TVs and Wii game systems, tons of food, and even a chocolate fountain. I don't think we've had anything even close to it since our actual wedding receptions 10 years ago. And then he surprised me with a video that his cousin helped him put together, which made most of the other men there tell him to "stop making them look bad in front of their wives". I tried to upload the video, but the size limit was 100 MB, and it turned out to be 103 MB. If I figure out how to shorten it or split it in two sections, I'll post it eventually. But it's about time one of us posted something!

2008 in Review- Kind Of

So I am finally getting around to contributing something to the blog. Part of my delay has been due to the fact that our pictures have been in such disarray. But I had a couple reasons to spend a little time organizing some of our digital picture files this weekend, so I thought I'd start by posting some of my favorites. Nothing in particular, just a partial (very partial) year in review for us for 2008. Hope you enjoy the photos and someday I'll get around to posting again and will be able to make it more interesting next time. I enjoy everyone else's blogs so much, I guess it's time I contribute something.

Myrtle Beach May 08

Peter Pan, Captain Hook & Tinkerbell

Halloween 08

Happy Kids July 08

November 08