::i know you're wondering::

I know you're all wondering what we do around here when it's cold and gloomy outside. (Like the entire winter.) I know it's just eating away at you. So I'm going to relieve your mind and hip you to some of the stuff we've been doing.
First of all, it's dang cold here. When I was in UT it was around 40 degrees. And it was nice. The sun shone and when I went out I hardly felt like I needed a coat (some of the time.) Out here the air is wet and damp and heavy and 40 degrees is SO cold. Yesterday it was 40 and being outside for 5 minutes was painful.
So the jist of all that is, we don't spend much time outside once it gets cold. I just can't take it.

We tease Sultan (well, not me, but Max.) He loves to try to get Sul to chase him around and stuff like that. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

So we get creative.

Well, Sultan doesn't get creative. He just pretty much sits around and sleeps all day. But others come up with weird things to do.

This particular activity was extra cool because it combined creativity and teasing Sultan. At some point Max called Sul to come under the table, which he somehow did. Then he got really interested in the sucker Max was eating. It was pretty funny to watch. It entertained me at least.

Max practices guitar. Let me explain this a bit. "Practices" might be too strong a word. Max practicing equals about 10% playing the songs in his book and 90% playing the guitar as loudly and obnoxiously as is humanly possible. It also involves dropping the pick inside the guitar at least once every 10 minutes. Entertaining.

We play with friends, animate and inanimate. (Though more often it's the inanimate.)

Like these guys for example. We also take pictures of friends--sometimes group family pictures--monkeys, jungle animals, fish family.

We watch movies. Fun movies. Like this one Max got for his birthday.

It's a bunch of the old Pluto cartoons. They're pretty fun to watch. Especially if two Plutos are watching with us.

We do laundry. We clean. We cook. That's not the fun stuff though, so we won't dwell on it.

So there you go. Is your curiosity satisfied? Now if only spring will come soon we might not go crazy.......

::all about Guy::

It's my dad's birthday today!
I wish I was in Provo to give him a Symphony bar. Or a tub of Almond Roca. Mmmmmm.

Here he is pretending to be surprised by the can of Almond Roca I gave him back in 1987 or maybe 1988. Convincing, right? One time I gave him a Symphony bar for some holiday and when I wrapped it I put a brown bow on it. When I showed it to him he said something about the color of the bow giving away what was inside. I just couldn't figure out how he knew what it was!


My dad, circa who knows when. Actually it's circa no beard. And that must mean it was before I was born because I've never known the man without his beard. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, to maintain a serious beard for thirty years. He deserves credit for that.

I love my dad! He's the best dad, the hardest worker and such a faithful and strong person. I wish I was there to give him a birthday hug, and of course go out to dinner! I hate missing birthday outings.
But since we're not there, we just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY and WE LOVE YOU!!


And to close, here's a story that I found in one of my old journals. I wrote this when I was about eight. It's based on one of the fun stories dad used to tell us about when he was a kid. He has some good ones. My favorite was one about him falling into a red ant hill. I wrote and illustrated that one at one point but I don't know where that is. Wish I did.

Love you Dad! Happy Birthday!!

::welcome::

Welcome to our house. This is what our front door looks like:

(See Nancy, it's red!!)
It's also outdated. Max was concerned that there might be somebody out there unaware of the date, so that's where the "Januay" sign comes in. The others mean "No cats No dogs" and "No people." These two confuse me. I mean the no cats thing works for us, but the no dogs and no people? Plus the dog in the picture looks so happy.
Mysterious...

::::

It's March 2nd! My goodness, February went fast because we were traveling for most of it. And that's a good thing for me. Though there are really fun things to do during the month of Feb, and happy days to celebrate, it's not one of my favorite months to get through.
Max and I have been back home for a week now, but I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. And I'm trying to do a GOOD job of that, like making sure that things actually get done around here. So I've been running around planning meals, grocery shopping, doing laundry, cleaning up. You know, all that stuff that just has to get done no matter what--and stuff that's always waiting to be done whether you're home or not.

So I haven't been playing around and taking pictures at all. Bummer. Part of that is because it's been so gloomy here. In fact the sun came out this afternoon for a couple of hours and it was amazing. It felt like the first time I'd seen it in MONTHS. So I took Sultan on a walk out to our little beach while Max was at school. Sultan was more than happy to hit the trail. The water looked amazing with the sunlight glinting off of it. I wished I'd brought my camera with me.

By the time Max was done with school (remember it's not that long--half day Kindergarten!) the sun was back behind the clouds and it was too cold to go back and let him play at the playground by the beach. Bummer. Hopefully sometime in the next week it'll be warm enough to go back.

I have some UT stuff left over still to post and hopefully we'll be having some fun once we get ourselves rolling again. Maybe if I could catch up on my sleep I could do more.....It always takes Max one day to deal with travel time changes. I feel like I'm suffering for at least a week.

Just for fun:
Today 6 years ago (MAN!! Could it really be SIX?)

Kris home from school at BYU making lunch for us. He has brand new baby Max in the carrier. Max wasn't even a month old yet and he never wanted to be put down. They're so cute. I wish Kris was home to make me lunch more often these days. What an awesome husband!

::scenes from provo pt 2::

We're back in Rhode Island now, but still enjoying the fun of our trip--through pictures of course. Here's part two of the fun we had in Provo!
On Max's birthday we got to go and visit my lovely friend Megan. She made him a special birthday peanut butter sandwich complete with candle. Yay!

I have some more fun pictures from that visit, but they're not ready for posting just yet.

Here's Maxles communing with one of my parent's new puppies (well, they're not really puppies anymore, but compared to Sultan they'll always be puppies!)

This one is named Tucker. He's adorable. So is the other--Toby.

Tucker looks all innocent, but look out. When he first sees you he gets so excited he might jump up and smack you in the eyebrow with one of his teeth. You might bleed, but it's ok because he's your best friend after that.

Here's Max playing Give Said the Little Stream with Grandpa. There wasn't as much guitar playing as we'd planned on, but as usual with traveling, plans are hard to follow through on.



And some more dogs. Max out in the light snow shower playing tug of war with the goofball crazy puppies. They all got along well.



We had so much fun. I thought I'd have more photos of other family members--Char, Cammon, Lorri & Scooter. But I get a yucky stomach bug one night and nobody really wanted to come over after that. So we watched a lot of olympics, played and lot of cards and hung out at home. That was nice too.

::scenes from provo pt 1::

Max and I have been in Provo for the last week visiting my parents and family. Here are a few fun photos to show you what we've been up to:

Here's Max eating bran flakes on his birthday. The milk is pink because in my house growing up the "birthday cow" would come in the morning of a kid's birthday and bring colored milk. Cool, right?

We went to Burgers Supreme for dinner on Max's birthday--his special request. Here he is eating the teeny weeny ice cream cone that they give to kids. He loves them.

Hanging out in the studio with Grandpa:


(My mom took these two photos, thanks mom)
Max has really been enjoying the studio. He's been playing the drums and the piano a lot and my dad unearthed our little old keyboard for him to play with. It has all kind of drum loops and rhythms and he loves it. He disappears out there whenever we let him.

To be continued.......

::max's party part 2::

Our last party activity was a little photo shoot. A STAR WARS photo shoot!!

And the finished product follows:

Fierce!!!
Max:

Parker:

Jennifer:

Derek:

Jennifer & Derek:

Scooter:

Watch the fingers on that left hand little padawan!!
Charlotte & Max:


I couldn't get KC to pose for me. I must've been yelling too loud and scared him. I almost lost my voice directing little kids where to stand.
And finally, the group:

I thought these turned out hilarious. When Max first saw one of the photos with the glowing light saber he was so shocked he jumped and gasped. It was very satisfying.

It was a fun party, thanks for coming everybody, and we missed you Kelly, Lechelle and Murphy!!!

::drums::

This is another instructional video in Max's series.
This is really for Kris since he's far away, but everybody else is welcome to watch it too! It's pretty cute, but not super funny like the Halloween movie was.

Max is definitely enjoying the studio at my parent's house.

Eye of Max, car dealership

Often, when we need to get something done and Max is making life difficult, we give him one of our phones. Sometimes it distracts him from being annoying and lets us get a few things done.

He tends to take a lot of pictures. I really like them because it gives you an idea of his perspective.

Take for example, a trip to the car dealership. I really like this series because it really captures the scene of young kid disrupting his parents while they are doing something important. But at the same time you really get a feel for how he perceives the situation.