Dancing

This is what I walked in and saw at shower time tonight.

Isaac: Brother, look what I found, this will make me mighty rich - gold!!

Baby Maddie

Niece #8 - yay!! Congrats Bri and Kat! This is Maddie. She was in the NICU for 8 days with a lung infection, but she's home now!! Soooo teensy! Can't wait to meet her!

Hyrum's Commercial Debut

So we have some friends here who are contracted to work for Ann Arbor Annuity. Every year at their annual conference in Las Vegas for the last 5 years they have been filming a parody of the show The Office, This year, they are doing the episodes for the show, *and* they are also doing parodies of popular commercials from the 80s. This is the parody of "Mean" Joe Green's Coke Commercial - the first link is the original commercial, the second is our friends' parody.

Original commercial

The Parody

No Funny Business

Harper: Hands up!! No funny business! It's Captain America! [shooting]

When I Get Older

Samara: Mom, when you get a little older, I'll teach you how to play this game.

Iron Man is a WHAT?!?!?

Harper: I love Iron Man!

Samara (4): Me too. Iron Man's a good guy!

Harper: No, Iron Man's A GIRL!!!

She's categorically unwilling to even consider otherwise, and quite beside herself when we try to convince her that her favorite superhero is a boy.

Basketball knowledge

Hyrum: Blake Griffin is a terrible free throw shooter!

Brad: Yeah, he's good at other stuff, but free throws are a huge problem.

Asher: Sounds like he's good at everything except practicing.

Ice cream truck

Ganglion cyst

Barry, Illinois

Independence, Missouri

Photo Shoots - Asher

THIS

 GUY - 

 SO

 SMASHINGLY

 DASHINGLY

 AWESOME!

Photo Shoots - Hyrum

THIS

 GUY

 CAN

 EXPRESS

 REAL

PERSONALITY!!

Photo Shoots - Isaac

WHAT

 A

 HANDSOME

 YOUNG

FELLA!!

Photo Shoots - Harper

THIS

 GIRL

 IS

 WAY

 TOO

 ADORABLE!!

Photo Shoots - Samara

THIS

GIRL

MAKES

IT

LOOK

SOOOOO

EASY!!!

Another "Real" Dad Discussion

Asher's first comment, from months ago, is here.

Isaac: Dad, do you like having such short hair?
Brad: Yeah
Asher: It makes him look cool. It makes him look like a real dad.

Jonesville, MI

Brad and I recently took advantage of a free babysitter (Grandma T - thank you!!!) and went on a romantic getaway to Jonesville, MI. It was a lot of fun and nice to get a reminder of what we are like just as people.

 We stayed at this awesome Bed and Breakfast called the Munro House.

 They had a grand piano in the living room and Brad provided the tunes.

Our self pic in our room called George's Room. What fun! And great food, but no pics of that, sorry...

CHA-CHING!!

Just picked up Hy's prescription allergy eye drops. 5ml = 1tsp = $190. Wowzah!

Raining

Asher: It's raining like an elephant spraying water in your face.

New Addition to the Family

We finally did it and got Hy (and the other kids, but mainly Hy) his first (of probably many) snake. Name to come. We vote tonight for FHE.

Another Bus Story

This one is much lighter than the last.

So we went and met Brad for lunch again.

We got to campus just fine, nothing out of the ordinary to report. I had the stroller for Harper and both girls were perfectly quiet and well-behaved. Had lunch at Pizza Hut - it was a sturdy ok.

The girls and I walked back to the bus stop. The bus that had left suddenly that other time would have done the same thing, our timing was just horrible, so we decided to wait out the few minutes between buses at the stop. I folded up the stroller and the girls ran around, a safe distance from the street and were earning loyal fans with every gut laugh and giggle.

The bus arrived and we got on, in our usual spot in the back (we try to stay out of the way). Harper sat on my lap, grabbed the wheel to the stroller and asked if she could drive. I said sure. She then called out in her loudest voice, "I'm pirate - ARRRRRRRRR!! And I driving!" Everyone started laughing. Harper again, "I pirate Harper!!!" She repeated it every 10-20 seconds, every time met with smiles from her fans, egging her on.

After about 3 minutes, I said "What else drives besides a pirate?"

She replied, without consideration, "Two pirates, here Samara [offering the other wheel of the stroller], you pirate too!"

Eruptions of laughter.

Seriously, she just charmed every person on that bus and hopefully made their day, possibly even their week. Of all the times we've been on the bus, I've never seen so many people respond to my kids like today.

Weather Girl

Today, it's 22 degrees, windy and snowy in Michigan. Brad isn't feeling well, so we went to go pick him up to prevent a long wait at a bus stop. On the way, Samara proclaimed, "Mom, it's cold in Michigan, warm and hot in Texas, and rainy in Utah." Apparently, in her 4 year old mind, this is what has stuck!

Nasty

Asher mixed Claussen pickle juice with Crush orange soda tonight. He thinks it's delicious.

Oh, yes, he did!

Out to Dinner

@Chili's
Waiter: let me know when y'all need refills or anything
Harper: HEY GET ME SOME MORE CHIPS!

Valentine's Day

For Hy's Valentine's Day party at school, he decorated his bag with the lyrics to Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. :)

Scripture Time

Tonight, we read Mosiah 12. It was Harper's turn to 'read' verse 5.

BRAD: ...before...
HARPER: be-fow
[Hyrum makes eye contact with me and starts quietly laughing]
BRAD: ...like a...
HARPER: lika
BRAD: ...dumb ass...
HARPER: dummm ass
[Isaac and Hyrum both laughing]
TRACEY: It means a donkey.
SAMARA: That farted?
[eruptions of laughter]

Bus

Just went through quite the scare.

We went to campus to have lunch with Brad and we took the bus (because parking downtown is ridiculous). We got there fine - we've taken the bus hundreds of times - found Brad lecturing about chimps (what else?), ate lunch and headed back to the bus stop.

We got to the stop and the bus was already there, so Samara (4) hopped on the very full bus while I stood outside with Harper (2) to fold up the stroller. In that 15 seconds, the bus doors closed and it started leaving, with Harper and I still on the curb, and Samara on the bus. I saw her face, she was freaking out and was screaming, "OPEN THE DOORS!!!" The bus came to a stop about 10 feet away and let us on.

The entire ride back, she had some stray tears and said, "Mom, I love you so much, but we almost just left you. I was screaming and shouting." I told her that she reacted perfectly and I was so proud that she freaked out, probably one of the only times I'll ever say that!

Magna Doodle Art

This is how Hy spent the evening of No Media Day. He said, "There was nothing else to do." Love it!!

Anniversary

11 years ago, Brad and I got married.

To congratulate us first thing this morning, Harper woke up in her own vomit and poo. She held up her blanket and reported, "poo-poo come out my mouth accident." Sigh. At least she's cute right?

Today

The kids have today off of school, 'cause, ya know, it's...Tuesday. So we went to campus, saw Brad teach the last few minutes of his class, and walked to lunch. It was about 54 degrees F today and we played outside all afternoon. I did homework for Sport Psychology and got a 100% on my quiz!

Samara's epic dream

Samara: "Dad, I had a dream about a dragon and Isaac was a knight trying to kill it and guess what I was."

Me: [please, please don't say princess...]

Samara: "I was a superhero helping Isaac kill it! My power was stinging and I stinged the dragon's eye and its eye FELL OUT!!"

Growing Girl

Six Flags

We went to Six Flags while in Texas. The weather was gorgeous.

Samara did not love the teacups. They kicked Hyrum off because he was too tall. The frustrations of getting bigger...

A REAL dad

Asher: "Dad, why do you get so many haircuts? Is it so you can look like a *real* dad?"

Hitting 100,000

We've had the car for less than 18 months, but recently hit 100,000 miles.

Tracey and Harper playing Fruit Ninja

...at Grandma's house on Uncle's B's Kinect.

Good Name for a Horse

Samara: Hey, dad---know what's a good name for a horse? Plossy.

Harper singing

Green Bean Juice

Asher, after dinner tonight, holding a straw: "Can I please have a drink of the green bean juice?" We let him. Afterward, he said it was delightful and warm.

Hyrum

My Hy turned 10 today. Wow. A whole decade. I feel old thinking about it, but it feels right.

Hy is kind, helpful, precocious, considerate, intelligent, thoughtful, observant, easy-going, sweet, and analytical.

...and awesome...

Best prayer ever... so far

During the prayer tonight, Isaac ended with "and please bless that tomorrow we will have a proud and happy day and please bless that tomorrow Mom won't be so anxious."

Harper's Laptop

Harper modeling what she observes (with a Nintendo DS).

Baby Luke

We have our first ever nephew!! His name is Lucas, but we call him baby Luke.

Congrats Whitney and Marcus!!

Burnin' Cowboy

We had just crossed into Texas. Isaac noticed a large bonfire about 50 yards off the freeway and he said, "Ya think they're burnin' a cowboy?" Upon further questioning, he was wondering if they were burning a cowboy like they burn Darth Vader in Star Wars. Cremation people. Cremation, not torture.

Samara: "And it came to pass that the Lord of the princess and the dad..."

ROAD TRIP!

On our way to Texas!

Samara: What would happen if we had 3 moons? Would we all be cows? Cows live in barns.
Me: Maybe so.

The name of the blog

This chica is the little lady that first uttered the words, "Dad's a super villain" in the summer of 2011 when he caught a fly in his hand.

Story

Hyrum and Isaac are collaborating on a comic/movie project. They've written and illustrated a prologue and the first chapter. Here's the Prologue (written by Hyrum):

"It is 2030 in San Fransisco. War is raging in the streets. The Ultimate Spy Association (U. S. A.) is battling against the evil wizard's army. Many USA agents fall. Only one remains. Meanwhile, on the Golden Gate Bridge, the wizard's army threatens to take over the city. The one remaining agent, Dark Chameleon, arrives on the scene..."