Tubes and Vampires

Becky had her sisters over last night to watch the Twilight movies in preparation for the 3rd installment's release this weekend. That meant that the husband and the little girls who don't yet appreciate smoldering had to be out of the house. We went to McDonalds, where nary a sparkly, J-Crew-wearing vampire doth go.

Then we rocked out at ToysRUs for a few minutes before they closed.

It turns out that the ladies only managed to watch the first movie, which is interesting because watching the first movie is like having a pitchfork colonoscopy.

This is a clever edit that Jeremy and Megan had posted on their blog.

Papa's Job

We've kept this a bit of a secret over the last month or so, but I got fired from my job at the hospital. The reason for my termination was a few "documentation issues". I didn't murder any patients or steal any drugs or make out with any doctors.

Anyway, this would be a long, uncomfortable post if I talked about getting fired. Long-story-short, I was out of work, sent out about 75 or 80 applications, and I've been hired at Hospice Company here in Kansas City. I start next month.

In the mean time, we found that we still require money to purchase things like food and diapers and electricity, so I went and got myself a job that I had 10 years ago.

Nothing says 2 Bachelors degrees and part of a masters like matching hats for you and your car. Oh well. We're just really grateful that this very stressful time only lasted a month or two.

Real and fake children.

Strawberry pie, minus the pumpkin

These are pictures of Becky's parents and their time in Hawaii. If you want more, you'll have to talk to them, because when we see them, we just get bitter.

Becky's mom brought back some tropical fabric, which Becky promptly made into tropical dresses. We're hoping they'll help the Polynesians in our ward like us.

Lucy's 3rd birthday was yesterday, the same day as Father's Day. Becky gets crafty on most occasions, so the girls got t-shirt dresses to wear to church.

I know we keep going on about our garden, but it's kinda the only thing going really well at the moment. Here's a picture to give some scale to the pumpkin and zucchini sections.
You may need an interpreter to understand this, but for those who are truly gifted in baby talk, you will see the genius in our child. Also, you will see the results of trying to steal the spotlight.

Hot Cakes

Some of you were wondering where Lucy gets it:

Growth

Well, there's been some progress of late.

This...

has grown into this.

with these...

becoming these.

Our psychopathic first child has grown into a pre-kindergartner. She's attending school 5 days a week in preparation for "real" kindergarten this fall. I'm really not sure what the difference is.


In Sam's absence, Lucy has assumed the role of big sister and socialite. Here, she frolicks in the meadow with her rotund friend, Jacob. Watch out, Hunter, this guy could crush you.

This is a hot dog that grew into an octopus.

Shakespear in Love

Well, it's in a notarized contract. In 19 years, expect to see the following picture amongst the photographs displayed on the welcoming table at the reception of the newlywed couple, Hyrum and Samantha Shakespear. We took a little day trip down to Springfield Missouri, where the Shakespears have recently relocated. Jeremy and I were roommates in college. He's now a dentist with four children. It's been determined that one of his boys will marry one of our girls. I'm not sure if we should encourage Hyrum and Lucy, as that would be simply too Mormon.

Nora and Hunter could work out, but he's currently looking for someone with more hair.

We spent much of the afternoon clinging to the shade along the back wall of their house with the twin babies. Here, Megan is in the middle of describing the size of her appendix.

The children got wet and probably sunburned. Lucy is amused at Hyrum's pasty studliness.

Samantha: "Hey, guys! Watch me shake my hair....out....."

Hunter is actually 6 months younger an d much more even-tempered than Lucy, but he doesn't seem to mind a challenge.

Hmph.

Only 7 years ago, Jeremy and I were beginning to feel pretty hopeless at BYU.

And there stands 5/7 of the fruit of our loins.
Not my loins and his loins together. We had to get two other sets of loins involved.



And on the way home:

The Wilderness

We camped out in the backyard. We had originally planned to campout at an actual campsite, but it turned out that the backyard was a much better idea, since we would have been without things like lighter fluid, and a roof.

Little Nora in the great outdoors.

Little Becky roasting marshmellows over an open flame.

Four girls enjoying nature's bounty. Sort of.

The two older girls actually slept really well in the tent. We eventually moved everyone inside on account of the thunder and lightning.

Damp

For the following pictures, I will attempt to transcribe the thoughts that are running through our daughters' beautiful little heads:

"Ooh, I hope Mommy doesn't think to look under her own socks....WHAM-O!"

"Someday I'll own you, Dad. You take that picture now, and put it on your little blog, but someday, I will OWN YOU and then I'll sell you to Belgium."

Lucy: "I wonder which one of us is going to be more popular in high school?"

Sam: "Me."

"Whenever we come to measure something, we ultimately create that system, by giving it meaning, texture, colour, shape ect - and the information thus floods into our beings/consciousness. The human mind is a dimension of its own, threaded into the external world of reality."

"SPRING!"

A Tribute to Deanna

Everybody else seems to be doing blog postings that honor their mothers, and I was beginning to feel like a slacker. I don't have any good recent pictures of my mother. Most of the images I have are from before she went to New York to get her doctorate and get skinny. She'd be embarrassed if I put up one of her old fat pictures, but she'd also be embarrassed if I put up one of her new skinny pictures, so I'm going to put up some photos that represent her awesomeness.

She's like the statue of liberty, except that her arms get tired more quickly and she hasn't corroded green.

She's like Xena, but she's not quite as handy with sharp frisbees and she's not as much of a Lesbo.

She's like Queen Elizabeth, but her family is a little more functional and she's more anxious for her son to take over for her.

She's like a gazelle, but wears clothing more often and has fewer ticks.

She's like Florence Nightengale, except she believes in the germ theory, and though Florence Nightengale might not be able to beat up your mom, my mom could beat up your mom. And she would, so keep your mom away, for her own safety.

Love you, mom.

Wood

So, I made a porch swing. Turns out, all you really need is some wood, a few power tools, and a willingness to ignore your children for a couple days. It's also helpful to have a wife who's willing to do the more annoying parts like sanding and staining.

Another recent project:

Avid tolmanitude readers may recall that we have a big shed in the backyard where we keep tools, sleds and corpses. Behind the shed, we had this:

<- This picture was taken a couple years ago before the weeds got out of control.

So now it's this.

With cute little squash and pumpkin plants like this.
And now we can do something productive with those decomposing Albanians.