The boys and Natalie

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Another Parker-ism...

Our little Parker is just full of fun phrases and actions. And since we update this blog so often (not), I thought I'd share his latest.

We were watching a DVD with an old TV show called "The Flash." It was a show which Heidi and I watched together when we were first married. We liked it, but it was canceled after the 1st season.

After watching a couple of episodes, we turned it off and sent the kids to off to bed. Parker got up, stretched his arms out towards his back in a flying motion and started to run upstairs, while making a swooshing sound. He was pretending he was the Flash, a character he had been doing earlier while we watched the show. After a few steps, he stopped abruptly and said, "Wait, I'm a kid. I'm not the Flash." And then he walked normally up the stairs.

At least he is recognizing reality......

Little Mac

Parker is so funny. We went to McDonalds last week for dinner and as always, Dev got the Big Mac value meal. The last time we went to McDonalds, Dev didn't eat it all, so she saved it and put it in the fridge. Well, Parker loves hamburgers and he ended up eating Dev's Big Mac. Last week when we went again, Parker wanted a bite of Dev's hamburger. Dev said no. Zach then told Parker that when we go again, we will get him a Big Mac. Parker replied: "No, I'm little, so I get a little mac." We were laughing so hard. Kids say the funniest things.

Our Oldest

It has been a long time since I have written. I just need to come up with a plan on how often I am going to write and stick to that. Well, nothing has changed too much since the last time we wrote, but we did have another birthday in our family. Dev had her 16th birthday last week. I can't believe that she is that age. She has her learner's permit and is taking drivers ed in school. We are trying to get her to drive, so she can get the hours she needs to get her licence and well, she doesn't really want to drive. That is fine with me, but she needs to get over her fear. We will see how that goes. Dev also has a cell phone and she loves it. She wanted to get unlimited text messaging and we knew that is what she and her friends would do now that she has a phone. And with some money that she has earned, she is paying for it. Bret wouldn't do it any other way. I have to say that I am not use to texting, but it is pretty fun. She also got a new ipod nano, purple of course, for her birthday. Dev is doing really well in school. I am really proud of her and what she is accomplishing so far in her life.

Happy Birthday

It is Bret's birthday Monday. He is a young 43 years old. As you know, he is still in middle school. It is too bad that his birthday wasn't on the weekend, then he wouldn't have to go to work. I hope he has a good day. Happy Birthday Bret!!!!

This is fun....

Lately, I have been checking out Facebook and connecting with old friends. Not that they are old, it is just been a while since I have seen them. This whole social networking part of the internet is sort of fun, though the privacy issues have me a little concerned. It is fun catching up with everyone. I still have some catching up (read: responses) to do with people on Facebook.

Hopefully, you all had a good weekend. I did. The first weekend in October is always a good time and/or memorable time for me. I enjoy listening to the speakers during LDS General Conference, but the Sunday Afternoon session is usually the hardest. The part I enjoy the most is sort of stepping out of the world and listening to the speakers. Their words uplift and edify. But Sunday afternoon is when the realization hits that it will be time to go back to the "world" and face the concerns and problems. For some of the current problems, answers came to me this weekend. And that is always neat to see how those answers come, because I know where they come from.

The other thing I have noticed as the years go by, is how easy it is to "ponder" the messages. Actually, fall into a deep pondering..... (as you can tell, by the picture. Heidi was really "pondering"...and Parker, being the good kid that he is, was following her example.) In a spirit of full disclosure, I was also deeply pondering for a bit. No one had a camera during the time, though.

Another advantage of living in a digital age- We TiVo'd conference and will convert so we can watch it on the kids' iPods and on the computer.

Our kids: The shy ones....

Remember back when you first got your hands on a cassette recorder? You could spend a whole day recording various audio tracks and really having a good time. Later, when you came to your senses (read: matured), you'd realize how lame they are and hope they got erased.
Well, our kids aren't any different. The only thing is that they are using the 21st century version of the cassette recorder, the computer. Our computer has a built-in camera with a program called Photo Booth. This provides great opportunity for the kids to have fun recording video and audio of themselves. And great black mailing potential for us as parents... Thinking of that, I am sure glad it is difficult to find 8mm film projectors.....
This is a version of our very shy daughter and her interpretation of a 80's song.... Enjoy
I finally got it to upload. I'll have to see if it worked.

It's just peachy...

When we finished our yard last year, we had planted a peach tree. It is only about 5 ft high. This spring we noticed we had quite a few little peaches on it, about 40 or so. In speaking with some people who had some experience with gardening, it was suggested we trim that number down. I was concerned too because that little tree wouldn't be able to hold that much fruit. So in late spring, I picked about 20 of them. I tried to leave just a couple on each limb. A few weeks later, I went to check the progress and all but two had fallen off. That was sort of disappointing, but I figured that the tree had only been in a year and I shouldn't expect a big harvest.

I had noticed lately that the two peaches were ripening up prettty good, although they weren't that big. Last Sunday, I looked out the window and noticed one of the peaches had fallen off. I sent Zach out to check the other peach and it came off as soon as he touched it. Our first harvest!!!

As you can see, we first got a picture of them and then we cut them up. They tasted pretty good, although the skin was a little bitter.

Speaking of our peach tree, last year when we put it in we noticed that Parker has had a lot of exposure to gaming systems. When we told him we had planted a peach tree, he asked if we were going to plant a Bowser tree and a Ganondorf (Legend of Zelda) tree.

My two bits....

Well, Bret started this and it is great. I decorated it a little, which Bret didn't want me to. He likes the plain look. Well, I found a background that he likes or at least he said as he grumbles. I just have to have it look like a scrapbook page. That is what this is; a scrapbbok page on the computer. We will be putting family pictures on and info about how things are going with Our Tribe. I have a picture to put on, but I am new to this so I will have to have Bret show me how.

So what do I write in a blog...

I am trying to design this blog and it is a little bit of a learning curve. I'd like to customize it a little more and add some of my own background colors and such. I haven't quite got that far though.
I did have fun editing the picture in the title. What do you think? I wish I knew more about photoshop and could really spice it up. Hopefully, someday....

I am still wondering what to write about. I could write just my ramblings (which is pretty much what this is) or make it sort of like a journal (isn't that what blogs originally were?) Well, I'll have to try and write something that might offer more enjoyable reading than my simple ramblings. Maybe read my sister's blogs for more inspiration.

Let's try this

Since both of my sisters blog about their families, I thought it might be a good idea to do the same. I am not sure how much I will update this and how often I'll have time to write, but we'll sure give it a try.