January Journal

I almost skipped this month's poem,
But not for lack of bustle at home.
What could it be that had me so wary?
Not much rhymes with Jan-u-ary!

Nate's doing great with his workout routine.
Soon you will see him, all fit and lean.
Six days a week, he goes for a jog.
In ten degree weather, through all the fog.
One neighbor said, "Your hubby is crazy...
....to run so early, with everything hazy."

I tried to quit my job-----again.
This makes nine times, or is it ten?
My firm is great, I can't gripe a bit,
I work twice a week & get full benefits.
So I gave up, and promised to stay.
Next time I'll bargain for a little more pay :)

Deacon is growing by leaps and bounds
He's tipping the scales at twenty-five pounds.
Crawling on furniture, and up every stair,
All sorts of things that give us a scare.
And who can forget the crock pot trauma?
Not a good trick to play on a mama.


Tthere was one thing, we did retire,
The pump I've longed to throw in a fire.
Five times a day, my milk it would rid,
Nate says it got more action than he did!




P.S. My Valentine's gift came a bit early,
It arrived in the hands of a man so burly.

Yellow Snow

When we first moved here, snow was such a magical thing! But after five years of shoveling the driveway, it's lost the allure. Here's some pics from our first snow shoot:

There aren't many things that Nathan and I disagree on......

.....but there is some contention when we do our grocery shopping together. It wasn't always this way; when we were newlyweds we would hold hands while skipping down the aisle and staring into each other's eyes. But now that we have been married 5 years, we let our true feelings out.

If you know Nathan, you know he likes to cook and he is very good at it. He loves to watch cooking shows and is inspired to try new things. This, I am grateful for and love. It's the shopping that's a problem for me, because really, who needs 'Mango Gunda Pickle'? (See photo, second from the left). This is what we argue over: Nathan's desire to buy eccentric food. Apparently, he's been sneaking off to the Asian Market to get his foreign food 'fix'. How do I know this? On Saturday I was cleaning out the fridge and discovered a ton of hidden condiments in languages I couldn't read. This picture displays just a few:

Sunday

For you Seinfeld fans, here's a picture of our maestro;
he takes his pants off to crawl around so they don't get wrinkled:



We had friends over for dinner & games Sunday night and they were nice enough to take a picture of us. We didn't plan it, but we all wore vests to church that day.

The Anniversary Date That Almost Never Was....

We almost didn't make it out for our anniversary date. Our babysitter, Wyatt, brought Guitar Hero with him and I think Nate wanted to change our plans. Eventually, we made it out of the house. We went to Matilda's Fair Dinkum, an Australian themed restaurant, and then.....dat duh duh da (drumroll): we went to a movie theater and saw a recently released film!!! This might not seem like a big deal but we are Red Box junkies & haven't been to a movie in over a year, and that was a dollar movie. So, I don't know if National Treasure 2 is really that exciting, or if it was the thrill of being back in a movie theater, or just the smell of buttered popcorn...but we really liked the movie.

This is the only picture I have of "us" celebrating our anniversary---notice the intensity on Nathan's face as he tries to master the song.

We haven't had a poll in awhile---thanks to those that took the poll to help us choose Deacon's Halloween costume. We've added a new poll to the right and are wondering: what is the going rate for a babysitter? Wyatt is only our third babysitter, the first two charged us $5 per child, per hour. Wyatt on the other hand said he'd do it for free (we paid him Ü). Take the anonymous poll & vote (per child/per hour).

Happy Anniversary!! 0-5 Years in 30 Seconds

Happy Birthday Callie!

Happy Birthday to Nathan's Sister Callie!

This is what happens when you don't wear your headgear!
Have a safe trip back to Hawaii. We love you!

Happy Birthday M&M

Maci & Madison (Aubrey's Sister's Daughters) turn four today!
Seems like only yesterday you were born...

And puked all over my face. Oh well, it was a good excuse to replace that orange shag carpet Ü

Caution! This Post Contains Violent Images....not for mothers, or the faint of heart!

I came home from the store last night, to find Nathan acting hysterical saying something had happened to Deacon. I came around the corner into the kitchen and this is what I saw:

My crockpot was in pieces on the floor and Deacon was bleeding from the head..... or so I thought (only after realizing my boys were playing a joke did I have the idea to grab my camera). Nathan had even gone as far as to mix food coloring with the catsup for the desired color of blood (FYI: food coloring stains skin, so this morning our son had to go to church with what looks like a newly-developed port wine stain).

Maybe Nathan was trying to get me back for when I played this same trick on him during our first week of marriage? Or maybe he was trying to distract me from the fact that Deacon broke the crockpot while he was supposed to be watching him....
He even added some 'coagulated blood' to the corner of the crockpot for good measure.

Me and My (little) Man

Since I'm usually the one behind the camera, you won't
see too many pictures of me on this blog. However, this
is one of my most recent favorites. Especially since Deacon's
hair was particularly fuzzy that day.

Christmas Conspectus

Off to Arizona, for the Christmas holiday,
Load up the car and we're on the way.
Twelve hours of driving to visit our 'fam',
The car packed tight with all we could cram.
Deacon was great, as we traveled down.
No screaming, no crying, not even a frown.

Christmas Eve with the Hunts, and we each brought a gift.
For an Elephant Exchange that made our lips lift.
Dad's was the best, and we all heard the moan,
As Lindsay unwrapped an ancient cell phone.
Our son was excited, to play with the kitten.
He'd stroke it and pet it, I'd say he is smitten.

Then off to the Gavin's to spend Christmas Day,
“Mom's meals are the best,” is what I always say.
But what's this mom is serving? A lump of coal?
No, just a 'wheat rock'---disguised as a roll. Ü
Now time for presents, Deacon opened his toys.
He's not sure what it is, but it makes a fun noise.

Christmas Conspectus Continued...

Back to the Hunt's for Callie's BIG presentation.
We were rolling with laughter at each observation.
The video is a secret---that's all I can say,
Maybe you'll see it on YouTube someday!

The next few days....don't need to be known.
Suffice it to say, we both 'knelt at the throne'.
We got over our sickness, and went on our way,
To the Marx's in Vegas, for an overnight stay.

We got back on the road and then stopped to eat.
There were lots of stares when we picked our seat:
It was a bank parking lot, on a small patch of grass.
We were having a picnic, after buying some gas.
We must have looked homeless (we were dressed pretty crummy).
Maybe that's why the stares, and the offers of money!

Now we're back home in the “Land of Zion”
Arizona was great, but next time----we're flyin'.

Is it 2008 already?

Did anyone else forget to ring in 2008? We spent the day driving home from Vegas, so we forgot that it was the 31st. Deacon was sick so we put him to bed early, then we were tired from unpacking and went to bed around 10:30pm. We couldn't figure out why there were a bunch of fireworks going off around 11:30pm....are we an old boring couple already?