tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31100250337254534422024-03-18T20:06:10.147-07:00The LONG and short of it...Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.comBlogger163125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-36611720960452941652014-08-07T01:27:00.000-07:002014-08-07T01:27:52.180-07:00Oops...as the whole summer slips away.Just realized I never posted about McKinley's birthday. Seeing as how there are a couple other birthdays coming up, I'd better get her on here. <br />
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My darling baby turned 9. She thinks she's all sorts of grown up and wants to be included in every grown up activity. I recently got called into the young women's program and now she wants to go to all our activities. She'll be bored of it by the time she's actually in it!<br />
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She is a spit fire, who goes her own way. She is ambitious when she wants to be and terribly stubborn. She loves to read, and read, and read. She is athletic and tall and beautiful. Let us be honest.....she terrifies me. I have no idea how to help her along the path of life because she just does her own thing. I'm so glad to call her mine, but also recognize that I need a village to raise this child. So lucky she is surrounded by lovely family who will help her along her path in life. <br />
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We didn't have a friend party this year due to some disobedience issues. Happened last year, too. I know, I'm a horrible mother. She also happened to get strep throat again this year, a week after her birthday. Last year, it occurred on her birthday. Weird. No other times during the year. Really weird. Luckily, no one else got it. <br />
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McKinley is not a cake girl. Love it! (I'm not either) This is one of the few times we crack out our fruit pizza making skills. She and a friend helped decorate it. They had a good time and did an excellent job. <br />
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This can't be the first selfie she's ever taken, but I don't recall any others and I think this one is super cute. She took it while man handling our camera during our huckleberry expotition. I also found a video she took. The cinematography makes you a little dizzy. And I think there is a period where she doesn't even realize she's still filming. Its kind of funny. We love you, McKinley! </div>
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Reagan's version of picking huckleberries. Silly kiddo!</div>
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We are trying desperately to get a cute picture of Reagan while she is a young two. We have one of all our kids and we blow them up big to hang on the wall. McKinley's was taken by a friend who was an aspiring photographer. The rest have been taken by Matthew. It is very difficult to get a natural shot of a two yr old on the run, while looking incredibly cute. These are a few of our efforts. <br />
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Hair flipped out.<br />
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Hair curled under. I prefer it this way. But the flipped out version is a better representation of Her personality. The flipped under is her dainty, I'm so cute, version. Ugh! The flipped out is more of the early 90's mullet rocker look. Not my favorite and not how I want to remember her. Curse her selfie hair cut! Looking at these pictures makes her look like she has an alter ego version of herself. Kind of funny. <br />
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This is titled "mom, a puppy!" She loves dogs.<br />
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Before we got our hydroseed down, and subsequently have to water very frequently, Matthew taught the kids the fine art of sleeping in the back yard. He's been so excited to do this as it was a favorite thing for him and his brother as kids. And our backyard is fully fenced, making me feel more comfortable about it. He sleeps out with them because Reagan and Jamison are still a little young to be without adult supervision. He loves it! For a while, Reagan insisted on sleeping out as many nights as we'd permit. She thinks it's fabulous. This picture includes everyone but Gavin. He has an internal radar for Saturday morning cartoons and was already up. Jamison is under the blue camo sleeping bag and McKinley is under the solid blue. Reagan is the little blond head next to Matthew. The kids really are there....I promise. <br />
I've realized I always blog following a night shift. I fell asleep with Reagan for several hours. Matthew woke me up to move to my own bed. And now I think its time to work. Guess I better try to sleep. I don't have a baby sitter tomorrow. Chao. <br />
Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-26434420211784234392014-06-07T22:44:00.001-07:002014-06-07T22:44:31.249-07:00Lots of stuffHmm...so much going on. Not enough time to blog about everything. Finally got my garden in. Yahoo! I'm so excited to see what grows well, what needs to be changed, and how we deal with our new garden area. I'm already hopeful that the weeds won't be as bad as last year. But I'm also hoping, that with having a fenced in back yard, that I can spend more time in the garden. We are getting along with the back yard remodel. Matthew got the sprinkling system running. It had a lot of broken pipes and heads and other randomness that needed fixing. So going to hire someone to blow it out this fall. I've got little fruits growing on my pear and apple trees, and little cherries on my cherry tree. I'm so extremely pleased! We have some raspberry transplants that appear to be doing okay. Probably won't see many berries this year, but hopefully they'll keep growing strong and in a few years we'll have lots and lots! Also got some blackberry starts. I'm still wondering how they will go. I love watching things grow. <br />
Speaking of growing things, our kids are growing up way too fast. McKinley turns 9 on the 17th this month. Here are some lovely pictures from her recent dance recital. They didn't do professional pictures, so these are just Matthew specials. I can't do it, get them all blurry. <br />
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Can she just stop growing up? She looks so much older than 9. Doesn't help that she's bigger than most of the 10 yr olds. <br />
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My little sister claims I've "gone country" because I make our bread now and I enjoy making muffins from scratch. There is something extremely satisfying seeing these beauties come out of the oven. Plus the fact that my kids think it tastes good. Between my baby and my husband, they eat a half a loaf fresh out of the oven. Sorry...You'll just have to turn your head. </div>
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The same sister came up camping for memorial day. I still feel bad for the drive she had to make, but my kids loved seeing their cousin and aunt and uncle. <br />
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It is the first year in a long time that it has been nice for memorial day. It was so lovely! We used sunblock in abundance!<br />
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The fishing wasn't great, but we caught a few little ones. I did have a big one on, but he flipped himself off my line before we got him on the boat. <br />
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Malcolm and Reagan....such cute, messy little critters. They had a good time. <br />
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This is what my kids have discovered in our ripped up backyard. They think it is absolutely the most fun activity to do. We dislike it. Makes a huge mess in our bathrooms. How can you fault them, though. <br />
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Can I mention, I'm digging Reagan's pixy cut. It is so much easier to take care of. Her long hair was always getting gross with snot, stuck in her nose. Nasty! Not anymore. Its growing on me. <br />
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I suppose that's all for now. McKinley is playing softball this year. Its pathetic to watch...a lot of walking involved as her team's pitchers aren't very good. She is practicing as well...but not good enough to use in a game yet. And we had to laugh, one of the first games, when the pitcher struck her out. She came off the field stating "I swear I didn't swing at that one!". Guess no one told her that if the pitch is over the plate, its a strike whether she swings or not. Made me laugh. </div>
<br />Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-10128915047740746122014-04-26T17:53:00.000-07:002014-04-26T17:53:05.767-07:00Why? Why, why why?My sweet, darling, little girl found the scissors while I was in the bathroom. Why does all heck break loose when a mother locks that door? Can't a woman go to the bathroom without worrying what is going to happen on the other side? <br />
Anyhoo.....I'll post some cute Easter pictures of the girls first. <br />
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Dying easter eggs. I believe this was Reagan's first time. I don't recall last year....at all.<br />
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The boys having fun. Jamison really enjoyed dying eggs. <br />
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The whole family...I'm behind the camera. <br />
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Easter day. We bought these dresses last year, but Reagan's was too big. I'm glad McKinley's still fit her this year. <br />
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Pretty girls.</div>
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This is a result of the picture below. Matthew borrowed the skid steer from a friend. He's been busy smoothing out the back yard in preparation for grass seed. The kids dug a hole and filled it with water....hence the pic above. They enjoy the mud. Us parents, not so much. Lots of baths, lots of muddy clothes. <br />
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Now the scissors. Reagan chopped her hair. CHOPPED! I almost cried. <br />
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She has the most beautiful long hair. You can see the original length where the ends curl all cute. Then the side, where she hacked it off! And she got the top something fierce, too. <br />
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Do you see all that?! Sob. <br />
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Cute little girl. This was something I couldn't fix at home. Emergency hair salon trip. She was fine the entire time. Was really fascinated watching the hair dresser in the mirror. <br />
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I don't think she liked the hairspray that the lady used. She would not smile after that. <br />
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This is how it looks without a style. Not sure how I'm going to style it. Reagan and Malcolm, now more than ever, look like cousin siblings. Cute kids. I bought a bunch of head bands today. Matthew whimpers every time he sees Reagan. He's really having a hard time with her pixie cut.</div>
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On a side note, completed another triathlon this weekend. Sophie and Emily (my sisters-in-law) came to Pocatello to ride along. This one, the Bengal Tri, was kind of unique. You swim the night before, then bike and run the next morning. It was COLD, and raining. We were soaked after the bike. Luckily, they warned us and I brought different shoes and socks for the two events. My toes were freezing! After the first mile, the run went a little better as I started feeling my toes again. Didn't finish with any special times, but I finished where I expected myself to. Since I haven't been training for a tri, I was pretty happy just to finish. It was fun! We are already planning on one in July. Anyone is welcome to join us. </div>
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Much love and a late Happy Easter to all who might gaze upon this blog. </div>
Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-36063387763447651942014-04-11T16:54:00.001-07:002014-04-11T16:54:01.733-07:00Spring Time and Bipolarity<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">With the advent of spring and warmer temperatures comes all of the crazy things that spring brings. Allergies, the weather roller coaster, and mud. Our backyard is still all tore up and the kids got the great idea to dig a pit to make mud. YEAH! for kids being outside and playing. NAY! for muddy children. The other aggravating thing is that every time the kids go outside it looks like we're having a yard sale. I just picked up 3 pair of pants, 2 shirts, 2 pair of underwear, 1 pair of socks and 1 flip flop (I didn't see the other one anywhere outside). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Spring time brings a whole mix of emotions. Bring it on!</span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-81249829986986307312014-03-18T10:35:00.000-07:002014-03-18T10:35:39.676-07:00We've been busy. Too busy to squeeze in a blog. So, here is a picture blog. Some of these were from before Christmas, but had to show you all what we've been doing.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the "library". Just an accent wall in our living room. The Gray is the color we painted everything else. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This color, chocolate raspberry, is truly delicious! I love how it turned out. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sledding in the backyard. I love our backyard! And I so love when the kids have fun together.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before pictures of the kitchen</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was not finished, as it needed several coats, but you can see the drastic difference it made in the kitchen. We are enjoying the pop of color. </td></tr>
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Gavin and McKinley skiing and snowboarding. We have videos of them, but that takes more time than I want to spend right now. <br />
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This sweet, little, doll turned 2. I love her. She makes me giggle every day. She is so beautiful. She thinks she is so special, because her brothers and sister laugh at everything she does. And her curls! That honey blond hair. She is independent and stubborn and loves dairy products. She lives in a diaper. Happy Birthday, Reagan. We love you so much! <br />
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The icing didn't set up right. But it tasted good anyway. Its a melting fish! <br />
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Super excited about finding money in her new book. She loves the book, too. We read it every night. <br />
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McKinley was Martha Washington in a little classroom play at school. She did a fantastic job. I'm extremely proud of my first attempts to help my child make a costume. The dress is a women's size, altered to fit her. (not altered very well, but the apron covers that!) The hat and apron are made by me. I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out. I've never made an apron before. <br />
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Martha with George Washington(Tyson), and a soldier (Joey). The soldier is also a friend from dance. <br />
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Playing outside in the rain. <br />
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This is what happens when we play with glitter at our house. Matthew hates it!<br />
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This picture was actually taken just last Sunday. Matthew took the kids for a hike while I was napping before a night shift. Of course, the two older kids fell in the river. Matthew loves getting them out of the house. </div>
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We are in the middle of destroying our back yard so we can land scape it how we'd like. It looks like a mini war zone. fox holes from moving trees, cut branches stacked to form defenses. Its awesome! Matthew is working on retaining blocks in the garden. It is looking very good. This is were all our tax refund will end up going. Yep. </div>
Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-91616119711134410722014-01-21T16:08:00.000-08:002014-01-21T16:08:02.213-08:00Hey diddle diddle....Gavin reading to Jamison: "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle. The Cow jumped over the moon."<br />
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Jamison: "The cow can't jump that high". <br />
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Apparently my child doesn't have any imagination. Or he's just too smart for his own little brain.<br />
Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-75557855736382748232014-01-19T20:58:00.000-08:002014-01-19T20:58:02.245-08:00Ski Season and Busyness<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Ski season is again upon us. It keeps us hopping on the weekends. I enjoy teaching most of the time, some students are definitely more enjoyable than others. We go up on Friday nights and stay with someone a lot of the time. We've been busy the last while. Take this week for instance; Monday night Erica worked, Tuesday night I worked on painting the kitchen, Wednesday we had friends over for dinner, Thursday night I went with the youth in our ward to the temple, Friday night we went to Logan to my cousin's wedding reception, then got up early to go skiing Saturday morning, stopped at Morgan's house to rock with the band for a while, and then home at 9:30 pm. Whew, it almost makes me tired all over again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The painting of the kitchen is going OK. It will end up taking 3 coats it looking like. We'll post before and after photos when we get finished! It's a process. Some nights it's hard to get motivated after the kids go to bed to clean the kitchen so we can move things around to be able to paint. I kind of enjoy it though. It's amazing how different it looks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Gavin and McKinley are coming up to the ski hill with me during January for their classes. McKinley decided to try snowboarding this year. She is doing just as good as the two 14-year olds in her class. She likes to go out and ride with me but if I try to offer suggestions on things to help her or ask her to try something she gets all bent out of shape. It is incredibly aggravating. It's fun to watch her go though. Gavin zips around on his skis. He always says hi to me when he sees me from the lift. It makes me happy. He was involved in another incident this year. He was riding with someone last year that fell off the lift just after they got on. This year they were halfway up the hill, according to Gavin's account, and the kid started wiggling and then slipped off the seat, and he held on to the pole but his grip didn't hold and he fell. It was probably a 15-20 ft drop. The ski patrol loaded him up and hauled him down. We got word it was probably a broken femur. Bummer. Morgan said that we are starting to see a trend with Gavin. I'm not so sure. It'll make me remind my kids to be careful on the lifts and not mess around. Kind of scary for Gavin but he seems OK. He said the ski patrol talked to him to ask what happened. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Enough about that, how about some pictures!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-39083192761206988092013-12-15T23:49:00.000-08:002013-12-15T23:49:16.916-08:00Happy Birthday, Little Man!On December 11th Jamison turned 4. He is such a funny, little character. He loves to talk, and he does not talk quietly, and he doesn't stop talking when he gets started. My sweet niece, Zoe, can attest to this as she sat next to him at Sunday dinner on our last visit to Utah. It took him a very long time, and a move next to Grandpa, before he ever finished his soup. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy birthday, Jamison!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;">Jamison is a smart, energetic, skinny little guy. He loves to paint and do normal preschool glue crafts. Much to Matthew's dismay, he requested, and received, glitter for his birthday. He knows almost all his letters and is getting pretty good at writing them. He is constantly jumping around, following the lead of Gavin, where ever that might take him. He hates to be cold, but refuses to dress appropriately. He loves to act like a kitten, especially when he is in trouble. Not really sure why he thinks "meow" is an appropriate response to discipline. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We should have named it. Alas, he's a beauty. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double fist pump of joy after blowing out the candles!</td></tr>
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His cake is a lovely creation that wouldn't have worked without my awesome engineer of a husband. He is also the better artist of the relationship. I baked the cake, he cut the shape, drew the plans on a paper, and I decorated the beast. It was fun and time consuming. I have pictures of when I was a kid with the awesome cakes my mom made for me, (She's way better than I am.) and have found that I want my kids to have the same memories. I enjoy decorating, even though I refuse to use butter cream frosting, so my frosting never looks professional. I don't like the taste of frosting, so I use a cream cheese frosting for everything. Speaking of frosting, Jamison loves mint chocolate chip ice cream, along with the color green. I decided to flavor this frosting mint. The first thing he will tell you about his race car cake is that the frosting is "minty and its green"! He only eats the frosting. <br />
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Just a sweet little story about my boys.....they are so funny together. Usually they get along really well, but sometimes they have their moments of disagreement- now more than ever, since Gavin has started school and is growing up. However, today at church we had an incident, and my sweet Gavin showed his true colors. (is showed a word? I think not. what is it? Shown?) Anyhoo....Jamison was bouncing around like his normal self when he jumped, full force, into the corner of a cased in bulletin board, cracking his head on the corner. I picked him up, thinking nothing of it, until one of the young deacons informed me that he was bleeding. Sigh, and rush to the bathroom with a hoard of followers. After determining that it was a small gash, nothing too crazy, and getting the bleeding under control, we left the church. Upon arriving home, I called the pediatricians to get a second opinion. While on the phone, Gavin came upstairs to inform us that he said a prayer for his brother. Then he went to Matthew and started sobbing, so worried that Jamison was severely hurt. I always new he had a super soft heart, but to see it just makes me love my Gavin so much. Such a tender little guy. Just so you don't die of suspense......Jamison is fine, was bouncing off the couches within the hour. No trip to the community care. Just a small gash on his head. Luckily it will be covered by hair, so no concerns for a slight scar that will remain. Double sigh. <br />
We may or may not get Christmas cards out this year. I'm trying! We love you all and hope that the Spirit of Christ reigns in your homes this holiday season. Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-36924595682927449562013-10-27T21:46:00.001-07:002013-10-27T21:46:14.879-07:00Remodeling<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">We're doing a little remodeling at our new house. It's a little scary and after you tear it all up you have the thought of "Oh man, I hope this works out!" Kind of like when you play Rummikub and move all of the tiles around hoping your move comes together with no leftover tiles. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">We've been looking at our backyard since we moved in and were trying to decide what would make it ours and our big plan. A family moved in the week after we did just around the corner that is the same age as us. We actually looked at the house they bought, we liked ours better. One downside of their house was the backyard. They have a big hill. We can just see their backyard between two roofs and he had a little tractor and was making some terraces on the hill so they can use more of it. At church I jokingly asked if he wanted to come work in our backyard. He said, "Sure!" So that started it. I brought home a level and rod from work to take a few survey shots in the backyard to see what we would end up with. We had talked about making enough spaces that we could play volleyball. A quick internet search turned up that a volleyball court is 30' x 60'. After some quick grading design we figured that it would work out okay in our backyard. On Friday Jake brought the tractor over and started on tearing up our backyard. He did a pretty big part of by noon when he had to leave. He left the tractor and said to keep working if I wanted to. I spent a couple hours that night and some on Saturday working at it. See the photos below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> This is where Jake got to. We'll take some more photos when we get finished. It's remodeling, a work in progress!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> The kids loved the tractor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> Whee!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> We couldn't resist a little bucket ride. If you notice, Reagan is the only one looking at the camera. What a good example the baby is setting for the rest of them! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">So now that we've got it mostly tore up, we need to put it back together. We'll probably do a block retaining wall at the back and we need to plant grass. I have no idea how or when to plant grass. If anyone out there reading this is a grass planting expert please contact us and give us some tips. Erica is determined to get it planted this fall. I'm not so sure that is going to happen. Again, some advice would be welcome and may save me some marital strife.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">It was great doing some "MAN" work. Engineering is interesting, but you don't feel super manly while typing on the computer and filing things. Moving dirt with a tractor is manly. Some of you reading this may have a regular manly type job, building houses, welding stuff, driving a big truck or other heavy equipment, farming, etc. You may not have quite the same perspective that I do. I look forward to digging a hole with a shovel, pulling a trailer loaded with something, or any sort of physical work. Erica thinks its funny, but I think she understands. She was talking to Jake's wife Amber, and this exact subject of "MAN" work came up. Jake is a dentist and Amber was saying how much he enjoys getting out and moving some dirt. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">We also dug up a garden spot. We put it up in the very top corner of the yard so its sloped quite a bit. I put three terraces in to level it out. We got some manure from a friend at work so we should be good to go next spring. Erica is really excited. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">You may have noticed the pine tree squarely in the middle of the garden. We decided that we don't want a big pine tree right there, so it will be our Christmas tree this year. We'll cut it down in December and dig the stump up next spring. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">That's about all I guess. There is almost always something going on around here. When winter sets in we'll get back to painting inside. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-88124192918914149732013-10-14T15:19:00.001-07:002013-10-14T15:19:12.482-07:00Gavin's birthday.....a long time agoMy boy turned 6! He is getting too old for my liking. He's such a good boy. His birthday was a very long affair. We went to Salt Lake for my nephew's baptism and went to the zoo for Gavin's birthday. Then his Grandma Janean and Grandpa James came down to give him a present a few days later. Then the next Saturday after the baptism, his actual birthday, we had a friend party. <br />
I made devil's food cake from scratch. I don't like chocolate cake. It was yummy! He had a rocket ship cake, although nothing else about his party had rocket ships in it. It was really a nerf gun party. Party favors for all the boys were palm size, single shoot nerf guns. Matthew had an old calendar from work that was full of wild life pictures. He cut them out and hung them on the wall. The boys had a heyday "hunting". It was pretty low key. Here are some pictures.<br />
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The cake, baked in a 9x13 glass pan, sunk pretty severely in the middle. Matthew always tells me to fill it with frosting, but I think frosting is not very tasty. So I crumbled the cut out parts and mixed them with frosting and used that to fill the gap. Since I piped the décor, it worked out nicely. No one knew it was sunk and it had a better cake tasting flavor instead of frosting.<br />
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Me, McKinley, Michael, Gage, Jaxton, Gavin, Cody, Jamison. <br />
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Its kind of blurry, but I love the excitement on their faces when they all opened their own presents. <br />
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Gavin with his hippy hair. Its short now. <br />
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The happy party.<br />
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Love having a patio to eat outside. <br />
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Happy Birthday, Gavin!<br />
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These are not from Gavin's party, but I wanted to blog about it. This is McKinley's idea of trying to hide the fact that she was sneaking icecream. She continues to be a thief at home, but luckily she doesn't do it anymore at school. Just ask, Child!<br />
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<span id="goog_906847822"></span><span id="goog_906847823">And this picture is very blurry....but Matthew and I are very excited about this achievement. We paid off Matthew's truck. Even though my name is clearly on the title, its still his truck. What a nice feeling! We are now debt free, except for a couple of very large home loans. Sigh. Wish we could get out of our townhouse. Maybe in a couple more years. </span><br />
AdiosMatthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-64659097694110584432013-10-12T14:46:00.000-07:002013-10-12T14:46:16.720-07:00Sweet Baby ReaganOur sweet little baby Reagan is growing up. She is starting to parrot what you say. She loves to eat salsa and that is one of the words she likes. She whispers it and replaces the "s" with a "th" sound. "Thaltha!" She can say puppy and apple. There are a few others that I can't think of right now. It's just been in the last week or so that she has started. It makes Erica sad to see her grow up. 18-24 months is such a fun age when they can feed themselves, start to talk, and do really funny stuff. They haven't learned how to throw obnoxious fits and be old enough to know better.<br />
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Erica has been bottling apples with a couple of her friends. They did a bunch of applesauce and then decided to do some apple pie filling because they had so many apples left over. Reagan looks like she is practicing to be a 'Price is Right' showcase girl. <br />
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I'll be glad when they're done and can have my kitchen back. The apples will be delicious this winter though!Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-31987834022119563812013-09-09T21:51:00.004-07:002013-09-09T21:54:37.335-07:00First day of school, first day of school!I'm so so happy that school has started again. McKinley gets way to bored at home, and when she is bored, she terrorizes her brothers. Then I get angry, the boys get mean, its just not a good feeling in the house. Sigh. School is good for McKinley.<br />
Gavin is super excited about Kindergarten and seems to be enjoying the few days he's been. Both kids are bright and love to read, so I think they'll be okay in school. McKinley just finished the Harry Potter series for a second time. She reads very fast, so I'm not sure how much she is actually catching, but I'm glad she likes to read. <br />
This made me laugh......<br />
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McKinley's night stand. I thought it was pretty funny. She reads several books at once. Not really sure why she just doesn't finish one before starting another. Silly girl. <br />
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Then I went into my own room and realized where she gets it from. Sigh. Matthew already blames me for her late night tendencies. Now I'm to blame for her book fetishes too. What can I say? There could be worse habits. <br />
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First day of 3rd grade. She picked her own outfit. We call this "McKinley in Boots!"<br />
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First day of Kindergarten. I just want everyone to know, he picks his own clothes. I don't make him match. What's the point? The kids don't care. <br />
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A rare display of affection. They are so different, but I love them both. </div>
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I can't believe how fast kids grow. McKinley finally seems to be slowing down. But Gavin, suddenly needs a size 2.5 shoe! Stop, kid! His feet are almost as big as McKinley's! (she wears a size 3) </div>
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Love you, little monkeys. </div>
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Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-24832650815703214062013-08-12T21:37:00.000-07:002013-08-12T21:37:25.907-07:00New toyThe other night, Matthew and I went to lowes to buy paint for our house. We put in our order and then went to find some weed killer. While looking, we found our new toy. We get almost as excited as the kids!<br />
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My computer is being slow and I couldn't crop these closer. McKinley counted the first day we had it up. Over 50 humming bird sightings in one day. This does not mean there are 50 different birds. She kept reminding me of that. Its okay if its the same bird, its still a new sighting. Cute kid. <br />
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There are at least 3 different birds we've been able to pick out. There is one more, not pictured, that has a much darker head. <br />
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The kids think its funny to smash their faces on the back door. Black mail in the future! </div>
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<span id="goog_1732703744"></span><span id="goog_1732703745"></span><br />
We are enjoying our new house. Currently have 2 different 4 foot color squares painted on our walls. Trying to decide on accent colors. Too bad neither of us have any decorating skills. I'll have to take before and after pics. <br />
Until next time.Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-86002672175229182882013-08-10T21:20:00.002-07:002013-08-10T21:20:56.222-07:00GPS directions from a 3-yr old<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Imagine with me for a moment if 3-yr olds programmed GPS units and gave the directions to your destination. Maybe this conversation I had with Jamison will shed some light on how helpful it would be. We were leaving my work headed home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">J: If you get lost I can tell you where we live.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">M: Jamison, I'm lost. Where do we live?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">J: We live in North America.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">M: Uh, how do we get there?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">J: Go to the corner and turn!....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Now, if that's not helpful I don't know what is! If any of you have a 3-yr old, try asking them directions and see how they do. It's guaranteed to be a riot!</span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-13787811346102089342013-07-28T18:36:00.002-07:002013-07-28T18:36:58.655-07:00Picture time!! So, our internet has been connected for 3 days now. Today, I hurried and took pictures of our house. I skipped the bathrooms and the play room down stairs. There was no warning, so everything is a giant mess. Here is our house.......<br />
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The grass was pretty sad when we signed. The previous owner had moved several months prior to signing. Its really looking much, much better! The bushes blocking the other window need to be trimmed, but we have yet to buy pruning shears. <br />
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Matthew's baby.....the 3 car garage with the 3rd bay being double deep. He's thrilled that he may be able to park his truck in the garage. We've yet to unpack everything and make the garage 'car livable'. <br />
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Entering into the front door. Matthew hates the subtle peach color on the walls. We are not unpacking everything or decorating until we paint. Problem.....we can't agree on a color. Sigh. <br />
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Office-currently storage for all the things that should be in our finished living room. <br />
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Kitchen<br />
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Kitchen from another angle. <br />
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One of our favorite parts-the back porch. No-we don't have a dog. We are dog sitting Garrett and Emily's dog. (matthew's little brother and wife) We consider it a test to see if we want a dog. The kids love it, but Matthew and I feel like we can't give a dog the love he would need. Cooper is a very good dog, but it breaks my heart to have him sit out on the back porch, calmly begging to be played with. I hardly take the time to play with my kids. I don't need a puppy guilt, too! Maybe when Reagan is a little older. Right now she eats the dog food (double yuck!) and pulls Cooper's tail. <br />
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This turned out an unintentionally cute pic of the boys. My baby-the back yard! Our lot is 1/2 an acre. Most of it is in the backyard. There are two pear trees, one cherry tree, possibly a peach or apricot tree, and what appear to be a couple of apple trees. The latter 3 are very young, so no fruit, which is why I'm not sure what they are. I'm very excited about the fruit trees. That was an unexpected bonus. We have a lot to do as we need to create a garden spot, level a spot for a volleyball net, and build a shed. Oh, and a sand box. Can't forget the sand box. And stain the back porch. Feel free to come help if you are in the area!<br />
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Hallway. First door on left goes into the office. Last door on left, into garage. We'd like to replace the carpet with wood floor. Just here in the hallway. <br />
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Inside the garage<br />
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Other side of the garage. The previous owners left these shelves, or maybe the original builders? We're excited. <br />
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Blurry laundry room.<br />
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Master, unmade bed, dirty floor. Open door goes into the master bath with jetted tub and separate shower. There is also a nice walk in closet. And a trey ceiling with ceiling fan. <br />
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Reagan's room, which is next to the master bedroom. <br />
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Downstairs we have McKinley's room. We painted the blue wall. She picked out a nice picture of a bird that will hang there. We are happy she has her own room. She's been sharing with the boys. It'll be good for her to have her own space. <br />
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The boys' room. Also downstairs.<br />
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<span id="goog_1957089899"></span><span id="goog_1957089900">Store room and utility room. Downstairs. We were able to use these shelves which use to be in our garage. We were happy about that. </span><br />
There is also a large family room downstairs. Right now there is no furniture and boxes of toys scattered about. It'll be the play room until the kids get a little older. Eventually we'll put the tv down there. Or a second tv. <br />
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There you have it. Our house. We are very happy with our purchase and plan to live out the remainder of our working days here. Of course, we thought we were going to live in Rexburg forever, too. Hopefully our plans won't change. We are very pleased to have a home. Oh, I forgot, I didn't take a picture of the spare bedroom. Mostly its filled with random boxes that need to be sorted and put away in storage. However, if you ever need a place to stay in Pocatello, please come on over! We'll have it cleaned out by then.......maybe. :)Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-22150178222065860592013-07-13T22:27:00.000-07:002013-07-13T22:27:20.630-07:00We have a house.......and no internet. And this isn't letting me type in the body, so its a very long title. Pictures to come, after the 18th, when our internet service will be transferred. Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-16061369395396150622013-07-01T12:27:00.000-07:002013-07-01T12:27:05.668-07:00Reagan didn't make itShe got sick. Not strep....but croup. Nasty virus that causes the upper airway to become inflamed. She sounded like she had laryngitis, which is pretty funny sounding on a baby who can't talk. I couldn't hear her cry, or laugh, or talk her babble talk. It was sad and funny at the same time. Dr. gave her a epi breathing treatment and some steroids and said I just have to wait it out. <br />
She's doing much better in the breathing department and you can hear her now, but its still a muted cry of her normal loud self. <br />
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Poor little thing. <br />
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Everyone else is much improved, thank goodness. Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-1013236297094349332013-06-24T16:49:00.003-07:002013-06-24T16:49:51.308-07:00Ugh<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Being sick sucks. I don't get sick very often, but when I do it is usually a doozy. McKinley came down with strep throat on Monday last week. She started antibiotics. Jamison started running a fever on Thursday. He started antibiotics on Sunday. I stayed home from church with Jamison on Sunday and I started not feeling well. By that night, I had a fever and chills and my throat hurt. Erica had to work so I didn't have my personal nurse to take care of me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Kind of a bad week for this sort of thing. I've got a lot to do at work and I'm supposed to be going to scout camp on Wednesday. Saturday the Hillions are going to rock the Rigby pre-4th of July party. Hopefully I can recover.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Erica, Gavin, and Reagan have avoided it so far. Keep your fingers crossed for them!</span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-1621936645062386422013-06-11T09:18:00.002-07:002013-06-11T09:18:36.824-07:00Soooo Excited!My wonderful sister-in-law agreed to take pictures of my kiddos this past weekend. We only spent 30 minutes give or take a few, and it was free for me, and she got some very fun shots!! I'm posting the ones we printed on the side of our blog and I'll post the out take pictures here in the post. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWNCo5yENwq_GU4CnfW0COxOrXjsDjItVopHjV0xtcrwlStVkyYnafFri-_H4dIUg677W6hgfF2SXAthmyLA5SC22R3X_y0Z4Ma8iynAHncCFYT8oo1DBfYqDjwdew5flOIb-VsHMAM3fY/s1600/IMG_3106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWNCo5yENwq_GU4CnfW0COxOrXjsDjItVopHjV0xtcrwlStVkyYnafFri-_H4dIUg677W6hgfF2SXAthmyLA5SC22R3X_y0Z4Ma8iynAHncCFYT8oo1DBfYqDjwdew5flOIb-VsHMAM3fY/s320/IMG_3106.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McKinley has the best silly faces. Its hard to get her to smile normal.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love this one! </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvWmZGS8VTQ4gBA0qtFQJCv5zawCfvIri9BKsM1pxvFvAcfUEgfY8z1PIQVOAkWsZFWamz4P2PRCBSKh8xrARkLMqd0VaNUEtE7-XLsMElNJNgyksBw5TuFuDLuSdeo9CfwUD3PFsUQhF/s1600/IMG_3168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvWmZGS8VTQ4gBA0qtFQJCv5zawCfvIri9BKsM1pxvFvAcfUEgfY8z1PIQVOAkWsZFWamz4P2PRCBSKh8xrARkLMqd0VaNUEtE7-XLsMElNJNgyksBw5TuFuDLuSdeo9CfwUD3PFsUQhF/s320/IMG_3168.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angry faces! Jamison is smiling too much in the background, but that is his angry face. I love Gavin's face here.....<br />"You take another picture, you will be sorry."</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuRIOFFWixvpBBIGPzRzBMNmM5bxnda8_gNWtBuUIWRDWFONcANCT8de0nTXgaIEq3YAsjsSyoHn70F9pumjtxb5rbVqNUb0fDGMPHTJLnzZxnQ5HmZxs0uNM2dg4JNeZhnYOEfAoU6Ec7/s1600/IMG_3204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuRIOFFWixvpBBIGPzRzBMNmM5bxnda8_gNWtBuUIWRDWFONcANCT8de0nTXgaIEq3YAsjsSyoHn70F9pumjtxb5rbVqNUb0fDGMPHTJLnzZxnQ5HmZxs0uNM2dg4JNeZhnYOEfAoU6Ec7/s320/IMG_3204.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We call these next two "our homemade ventriloquist puppet". Its almost scary!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUxSxWkt0w8o6KLtwh33mwp_5z3uaP7LVgNNiNenPPdUN0GEc5WztWMGStVUWtwuyYpCjPrjzWyFdvIazsAo9Oz9k9ie6tt2EodWNzBavUwH44N_z788K7-G3qUQfXSYHytKY9hg12ACF1/s1600/IMG_3228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUxSxWkt0w8o6KLtwh33mwp_5z3uaP7LVgNNiNenPPdUN0GEc5WztWMGStVUWtwuyYpCjPrjzWyFdvIazsAo9Oz9k9ie6tt2EodWNzBavUwH44N_z788K7-G3qUQfXSYHytKY9hg12ACF1/s320/IMG_3228.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This little one is growing up too fast! Makes me sad. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13HFjWj0cYBfxpOEXXTHgp6CH7C6GreG2s-ByOh-IrkMgJ7048dRho1LAAJAs46a6aW_d0Z6tWPyrh3FamoX-lFuJ_24UY71M8YWaZx7FqMDuHRSb8PuZwr0yHC5pKkvjN1TNNEgq7nSq/s1600/IMG_3264.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13HFjWj0cYBfxpOEXXTHgp6CH7C6GreG2s-ByOh-IrkMgJ7048dRho1LAAJAs46a6aW_d0Z6tWPyrh3FamoX-lFuJ_24UY71M8YWaZx7FqMDuHRSb8PuZwr0yHC5pKkvjN1TNNEgq7nSq/s320/IMG_3264.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elvis lips</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHch-pBTdEAhnFpbxKg9mu9eGmAPmPX39FOo-sC8ez6vqOHXxpBIUtRlJ3HYy6xghY5l1FeyzlHf6uNSd8r7ztRv7LY1onqRDr5nIdFTu7uYYKoYAMAHc18L0nokqIpUKsmBzBxrkHnC-/s1600/IMG_3271.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHch-pBTdEAhnFpbxKg9mu9eGmAPmPX39FOo-sC8ez6vqOHXxpBIUtRlJ3HYy6xghY5l1FeyzlHf6uNSd8r7ztRv7LY1onqRDr5nIdFTu7uYYKoYAMAHc18L0nokqIpUKsmBzBxrkHnC-/s320/IMG_3271.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This picture would have been perfect.....McKinley.....sigh. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-f5AKs9xe8UWcIywMDD8RD8_hVcYda7XPR0fAvs571qrmiQG_ZmQEit1M6TqVLTDIvVl5Dyza3WT7fU7dkwqszfkNijf_-sK3IlPA_2Z7-k5AyrGcqbGYRPZu6FalqSA9nwlMEEVvqwH/s1600/IMG_3285.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-f5AKs9xe8UWcIywMDD8RD8_hVcYda7XPR0fAvs571qrmiQG_ZmQEit1M6TqVLTDIvVl5Dyza3WT7fU7dkwqszfkNijf_-sK3IlPA_2Z7-k5AyrGcqbGYRPZu6FalqSA9nwlMEEVvqwH/s320/IMG_3285.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm Bad! Sophie did ask him to make this face. Pretty awesome. </td></tr>
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My kids are pretty photogenic. McKinley is in her "my teeth are too big for my face" stage. And Matthew's side of the family have some large front teeth, which McKinley appears to have inherited. Needless to say, I think my children are beautiful. <br />
McKinley is turning 8 in 6 days. She'll get baptized July 6th. Crazy!! I can't believe she's that old. Blows my mind how fast time has been going. <br />
My garden is slowly coming up. Corn looks good. Garlic, onions, and carrots all look good. Need to replant my green beans and cucumbers. Potatoes are slowly coming up. Didn't bother with peas this year. Tomato plants are doing fantastic. I have 9 of them. 4 early girl, 3 better boy, and two orange cherry tomato. They are called sun sugar, so tasty! <br />
We are hoping to buy a house this summer. We'll just have to come back to take care of our garden here. Our landlords are pretty cool like that. We'll mow the lawn for them to pay for the water we'll use. I'll post pictures of the garden later.....and the house whenever that might happen. Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-17728588982220566572013-04-29T22:21:00.001-07:002013-04-29T22:21:18.798-07:00Have you ever wondered about your anbrothers?This was our dinner conversation tonight, trying to explain to the kids what "ancestors" are.....<br />
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McKinley: "Like great grandpa Oink is our ancestor?" (He's Grandpa Henry Bradford who just recently passed away.) <br />
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Me: "Yes, he's your ancestor."<br />
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Gavin pipes up: "You mean our anbrother?" <br />
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Oh my! That's hilarious! I hurried and grabbed some paper and a pen and wrote it down. Poor, sweet, Gavin didn't even realize why we thought it was so funny. Sweet innocent little guy! Guess he thought we were saying ansister. Kids are funny. <br />
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Since I'm here, I'll give my side of San Diego. I was completely lazy. Completely, completely lazy. I did try to go running the first night we were there. Got about a mile into my 3 mile run and my right calf cramped up. It still hurts. Did manage to exercise the next day with my Turbo Fire. Successfully rented a car and drove to the San Diego Temple by myself. That was a little nerve wracking. Then, because my name was on the papers, I drove the remaining days of our trip with Matthew serving as navigator. We did pretty good, I think.<br />
Matthew failed to mention our trip to the Mormon Battalion place. It was pretty cool! They completely rebuilt the structure, leaving the original foundation, and created an interactive tour. It was interesting....never knew too much about them. <br />
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I have to say, chilling at the beach was probably the best part. It was a nice day. I, too, wish we could have tried surfing. It would have been fun. Otherwise, I think that San Diego is just too big for my taste. Everything is squished in, no grass, no yards. Where would your kids play? Just not for me. And the bathroom thing in Gaslamp.....I was a little surprised. Not even the Subway sandwich place had a bathroom! What? Just seems a little strange. Of course, there were a lot more homeless people on the streets. Our friends pointed out that maybe the businesses just didn't want those people cleaning up in their bathrooms. It makes sense, but still.....No bathrooms anywhere? Just struck me as odd. And slightly un hospitable. <br />
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Anyhoo... back to real life. Kids did good at Grandma Susie and Grandpa Bradford's house. They love hanging with the cousins and don't see grandma and grandpa often enough. So glad that my parents are willing to take on the challenge of 4 extra kids so we can have a break. Thanks, mom and dad! It is awfully nice to get away. <br />
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Night!Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-42516188124560946662013-04-29T21:01:00.005-07:002013-04-29T21:01:56.228-07:00Homeward Bound<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Here we sit in the San Diego airport waiting for our flight. I'm a little paranoid when it comes to flying and missing a flight. We were at the terminal 1 1/2 hours before our flight leaves. Erica keeps giving me the evil eye because I made her get out of bed so early to make it here. But we had to find the highway from our weird hotel, find the park and ride, drop of the rental car, and ride the shuttle to the airport, and get through security. You can just never be sure how long all of that will take. I'd rather be early than late. It's not like going to church where we are late every week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I had a business conference that I came to. My flight and hotel was paid for so we just had to pay for Erica's flight so she came along. It was fun to have her along. Otherwise, sitting in your hotel room all night is not that exciting. We stayed an extra day and ran around to see a few things. We went to Coronado Island which was pretty cool. We hung out at the beach for a while and really enjoyed it. The sand washing up on the beach had a bunch of gold glittery stuff in it, like pyrite or something. Anyways, when the waves would come in, the water was all sandy and then as it went out, the water would turn gold from the pyrite. It was cool to watch and Erica really wanted to take a picture but we didn't bring our camera so all we had was my phone, which quite frankly is a phone, not a camera. We did our best. Pretend you can see all of the gold and tell Erica how cool it looks.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wZ30iPK5vqhikz0txu6L0fersGFWLHb7-WxDk-i1MKxDROBd1ew0vgNBmcb88JJ-lgCezPFuWFwNheuJHYrmbIkDMGz4FmUBT82uRO47U_VgFs6YaHIW1S1iDblcWN8ZiB4qpHIoqR-1/s1600/Photo0225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wZ30iPK5vqhikz0txu6L0fersGFWLHb7-WxDk-i1MKxDROBd1ew0vgNBmcb88JJ-lgCezPFuWFwNheuJHYrmbIkDMGz4FmUBT82uRO47U_VgFs6YaHIW1S1iDblcWN8ZiB4qpHIoqR-1/s320/Photo0225.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;">We were going to try to take a picture of our feet and the ocean with waves coming in, but we didn't want to sit in the wet sand and all I had was my phone camera which I was afraid of dropping, so it was like '6 strikes you're out'. Here's the result.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It kind of looks like Erica's foot is bigger than mine. Mine is just sooooo much further away. My foot is attached to the hairy leg on the right in case you were wondering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">We were going to try surfing, but the rental shop was out of boards and the shop that did lessons never returned our phone call. We were a little bummed. I've always wanted to try it. One day it <u>will</u> happen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">We walked around Gaslamp Quarters which was OK. It's mostly a bunch of restaurants and no bathrooms. Erica had to go so bad but everywhere we went didn't have bathrooms or public bathrooms. It was a little ridiculous. Ask Erica about it. Ha ha ha. A sushi restaurant finally let us use the bathroom, the bathroom doors had cool pictures on them. Again you can thank my awesome phone for the crappy picture (no flash).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">We walked around Little Italy last night and had dinner which was tasty. They were having an art walk so they had a bunch of the streets closed down with booths everywhere. It was pretty cool. We went to Balboa Park and walked around the gardens. There was a rose garden, a desert garden, and a Japanese garden. They were pretty neat and most importantly, FREE! Erica liked this tree in the desert garden. It looked like a cactus transplanted on a tree trunk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There is a whole bunch of museums but they are all $15-20 to go in. There was one free exhibit that we went into. It was a bonsai exhibit. We now officially like bonsai. When we have a house of some sort and a place to have some, we will find some bonsai trees. There were big ones, medium ones and tiny ones (3-4" tall). It was pretty cool. This was one of our favorites. It was growing over a rock.</span><br />
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Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-40079245340499304112013-04-14T20:21:00.004-07:002013-04-14T20:21:46.699-07:00Sophie, this smile's for you<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This post is for you Sophie. We know what a cute funny little munchkin Reagan is around the house but she doesn't like to share smiles with everybody for some reason. Here are some smiles for you. She just finished eating so she has food all over her face but if you can look past that...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Morgan, that last one is for you!</span></div>
Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-19066633995381886112013-04-05T20:53:00.002-07:002013-04-05T20:53:45.295-07:00Another muddy child!<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Reagan has decided to follow in the footsteps of her older brothers in their love of mud. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> Gavin loves mud</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> Jamison loves mud</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Reagan loves mud too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Reagan has only been going outside for a month or so, but she has already discovered mud. For some reason she has to put it in her mouth. What a silly kid! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The kids had spring break last week so I took an afternoon off and we went for a hike. I let the kids choose which trail they wanted to go up (they had no idea what Gibson Jack or Slate Mountain was). Without knowing, they chose Slate Mountain. As we slogged up the switchbacks through the mud, water running down the trail, snow, and ice I could see the Gibson Jack trail on the south facing slope looking nice and dry. But we persevered and made it up over the top and down the other side. It was pretty good for a while and then started to get muddy again. The kids had a grand time and it felt good to get outside. It will be a few more weeks before the trails are cleared off. Let us know if you want to go for a hike, we'd be glad to take you! Enjoy a few pictures!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Here we go up the switchbacks. Notice Reagan in the backpack and Jamison under my arm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I'm like a machine!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> Reagan loves to go for hikes. She's good in the backpack for a while.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Morgan and Sophie got the kids a little camelback. They always fight over who gets to wear it. McKinley won this time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Gavin's muddy shoes and legs. This photo was taken prematurely. They got a lot worse! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Reagan got out and walked for a little ways where the trail was dry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Jamison loves his mama. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Go Reagan Go!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Quick take a picture, they're not fighting. It was 60 degrees so they all wanted to wear shorts not expecting to be walking through the snow. None of them complained about being cold. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Everybody slipped on the ice at least once. Erica turfed it just before I did right close to the van on the way back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> I would have taken another picture of muddy legs and shoes but these two beat us down the trail and jumped in the creek to wash off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">We had a grand time and can't wait for summer to be here to enjoy some more hikes.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-63992877076823621392013-03-17T21:56:00.000-07:002013-03-17T21:56:27.811-07:00Ketchup (not the food kind)<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This post is to try and catch everyone up on what we've been up to. It's kind of a lot. It's kept us busy anyways. Ski season has been in full swing since the end of December so I've been gone every weekend and Erica and the kids have come most weekends. It's a lot of fun but it makes it tough to get anything done around the house. I feel the need to apologize to anyone who has come to visit in the last couple months for our house. Erica has been looking forward to ski season being over so we can work on reclaiming our house. I've been dreading ski season being over because that means I will be under house arrest on Saturday's cleaning our house! Oh well. It needs to be done. Yesterday was the last day Kelly Canyon was open. We left Reagan and Jamison with a babysitter and took McKinley and Gavin up. It was a pretty quiet day at the ski hill. There were not a lot of people there. It was a nice sunny day to be able to enjoy. 'Til next year! "Sigh". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Because it was such a nice day at the ski hill, when McKinley was finished skiing, she decided to take her ski boots and socks off and run around with no shoes or socks on. Then her and Gavin started messing around running in and out of the ski school office and Gavin ended up shutting McKinley's foot in the door. The corner of the door hit the side of her foot and gave her a nasty gash. Luckily Uncle Morgan was there to play medic and keep the bleeding under control. See the picture below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Kind of nasty. We promptly left the ski hill and headed to the Community Care for some stitches. It only took 6 stitches, so Jamison still has her beat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Also since were are up in the neighborhood, we can't pass up stopping at Morgan's house to rock with the band. Garrett comes down and we make some noise. The Hillions can't pass up a good chance to play. We still have lot of fun playing together. In fact, keep your eye's peeled for our debut album. Morgan has written a fair amount of songs that we have worked out. We have 6 recorded and about 6 more to do. Morgan got some recording equipment for Christmas 2 years ago. He's spent a lot of time figuring out how to record with it. It's fun to hear ourselves. We played at a church party for Dad a few weeks ago. We had to tone things back but it is fun to play for an actual audience that is not captive (Sophie, Malcolm, Chewie, Erica and the kids) in the house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Let's see, what else? Better talk about Reagan. She has had a busy spring already. She had her birthday the end of February and sprouted 4 teeth that week (it was a week of long nights!). Erica used her mad cake decorating skills to make a beauty of a cake for Reagan. She'll have to find the pictures. Our camera was out in the cold garage and when we brought it in the lens fogged up. Sophie took some on her camera. Reagan wasn't too keen on digging into it. I put some in her mouth and she gagged. It was kind of funny. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Gavin had one of those "What were you thinking?!!!" moments last week. He decided to cut his own hair with a pair of scissors. Most of you know the typical Gavin haircut. See below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">You know, he kind of looks like a hippy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Well, after he gave himself a little trim, it took 20 minutes after laughing at him, for Erica to convince him to let her take his picture. He thought that everyone would laugh at him. Rightly so....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Did you notice the inverted mohawk down the middle of his head? Nice huh. Luckily he doesn't read this blog to know that everyone will be laughing at him. After another 20 minutes, Erica finally convinced him to let her cut it. I've never been a big fan of the shaved head look on kids. He kind of looks like a chemo patient. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">It's only hair. It will grow back. That's what I keep telling myself. He wore a hat for the first day. Even at the dinner table. He's okay with it now. I just hope that he finds a new career besides a hair stylist. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I had to laugh the other day, the weather has warmed up here. For the week anyways. It is the first nice day that we've had since last year. The dirt pile behind our house was aflurry with children. They reminded me of ants. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Since the ski hill is closed, we are ready for spring and warm weather to be here. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Sorry for the long pauses between posts. We had a bit a of a break when our computer crashed three times in February. We finally gave up and bought a new one. We debated a laptop but decided that a desktop would be less likely to be dropped by fighting children. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">That's all for now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><br />Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3110025033725453442.post-78553135781643431972013-01-29T19:59:00.000-08:002013-01-29T19:59:03.044-08:00Another month gone by....<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Wow. That month flew by. Technically it has been over a month since we last posted but for three weeks of that our computer was dead. I'm pretty sure that Jamison did something to it. It would try to start up and then go to a black screen that said 'Windows could not start normally'. After several attempts at reinstalling the operating system, we finally resurrected Old Betsy. She's been stable for the last few days so hopefully she'll keep it up. Keeping the kids off the computer would probably help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Kids and technology. That reminds me of one of my coworkers who is older than me, about the same age as my mom. She just got an iphone and is feeling a little lost. I told her just to push buttons and see what happens. Adults are so worried about not knowing what button to push because they don't know what will happen so they just don't try it. Little kids love to explore and just push buttons to see what happens. If it didn't do what they wanted it to, they just try some other buttons. I think that is why kids are better with technology. It's kind of funny.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Life's been busy as usual. I've been working at the ski hill again teaching snowboard lessons. It makes for busy weeks, but I love being out on the snow. The kids get to take lessons which is fun for them. I love to watch them go. It's kind of fun to be able to ski with them and watch them zip around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">McKinley is so silly. She has a homework folder that her teacher sends home. There is also a comment sheet on the back that the teacher can make comments and the parents can respond. Today her teach wrote, "One concern with McKinley's glasses...she cannot keep them up on her nose. Anyway to tighten them? Just wondered."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Some of you may be thinking the same thing I was when Erica told me, McKinley does not wear glasses nor does she need them. We're still getting to the bottom of where the glasses came from exactly and why she's wearing them. What a silly goose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">If anyone needs to borrow some kids for a few days, we have some we'd be willing to loan out. Let us know! </span>Matthew -n- Ericahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15372247865572090436noreply@blogger.com0