Back Yard

Our back yard was just as bad a the rest of the house when we purchased it. Solei LOVES being outside so we really wanted to make the backyard somewhere she could play. A few weeks ago we borrowed a tiller, bought some grass seed and fertilizer and went to work.

Here are the results! A patch of GRASS!!!


Here is Solei with Daddy (and his new specs).

Mommy joined in the fun and we got this great little picture of our family.

Here's Solei and Daddy closing up the vent so that she couldn't put anything down it...

And finally! Here is the smartest 18 month-old baby ever. While we are a little biased, she is amazing!

Temple!

Our freakishly smart baby came up to me the other day with a picture she'd found somewhere - it was a gift I'd received in Young Women a mazillion years ago, and along with a sweet caption, there was a grainy black and white image of Christ's face.

"Mamee? Dis Jesus."

I stared at Jared in shock- "Did YOU tell her who this was?"

"Nope." Do you know what this means? This means she listens to me!!! (oh, and also forthcoming is a video of her counting to 10. GENIUS.)

So today, I took her to the LDS bookstore to get a picture of Christ for her bedroom. She really responds to them, and I figure with all the negative images she's getting in the world, she needs as many positive ones as she can get.

Right as we walked in she smiled and pointed at a picture and said "Temple!" Wow. So I went up to a picture of Christ and asked her who it was. "Jesus!" An another - "Jesus!" She recognized every image of his sweet presence. I considered buying a poster of the temple, but I thought about it and I thought it might be nice for her to see a picture of the temple in her room with her in it, so we headed down the street and I snapped pictures while Solei ran around the temple grounds laughing and shouting "Temple!"... and also "Truck!" There's construction across the street and I had to keep her from running to them. In between the wrangling, I got some good pictures that I think are poster worthy. Tell me which one you would pick? (I'm leaning towards #5)

#1.

#2.

#3.


#4.

#5.

An Open Letter to My Husband

Like I could keep my 2 cents to myself:)

Here's an Open Letter to My husband:

Dear Husband,

Over the last few years I have come to realize that you are not as crusty as you pretend to be. Deep down you are a softie, doing whatever you can to help another person in need (especially me), and I don't tell you as often as I should how grateful I am that you love me, despite your better judgement. When we got married I knew that I was marrying someone that was exactly right for me. You are insane, brilliant, and the most service-driven person I've ever known. Most of all you never stop trying. You try to understand me, to understand Solei, to make me happy (not an easy feat, I'll grant you) and to always be better husband and father. You are everything that I need. You never, ever let me get bored and I'm always surprised at how strange our lives can get.

The last three years have been a the happiest, most secure years of my life. Things have never been more in flux - we're always moving, always changing jobs, always flying by the seat of our pants, but you always let me know how much you love me, and that constant is the one reason why I let you get away with most of your crazy ideas. I'm also amazed at how much you do as a husband and a father. I always hear women wishing their husbands would take a more active role, and I am so grateful that no matter what, I can always count you to be at my side and taking care of everything with me- especially all that outdoor stuff and the bug killing duties. And the taxes!!! (I have never been more happy that I decided to say "I do" when I hear you say "Honey, the taxes are done!")

You love Solei, you change diapers, you get up with her in the middle of the night, and you're always thinking of ways to make my life easier, and more fun. You accept my faults and my weaknesses, but you never let me dwell on them and help me turn them into strengths. You are always thinking of ways you can bring a smile to my face - be it a milkshake, yoga classes or 30-second hugs. And most of all: You love me for what I am. This is not nearly as lengthy and thorough as it could (and should) be, but don't worry, I'll probably think of lots more wonderful things to say right when your are trying to get to sleep tonight. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for all you do.

With Great Love, Wife

Open Letter

An Open Letter to My Wife:

Dear Wife,

Over the last few years I have come to realize that I am not very good a making you feel as special as you deserve. You do wonderful things for me and I want you to know how much I love you.

When we got married I knew that I was marrying someone that was exactly right for me. You are fun, energetic, social and loving. Most of all you are forgiving and patient. You are everything that I need. You put up with my crazy ideas, like driving to Alabama to buy a scooter or working on my home Root Beer project.

The last three years have been a roller coaster. We’ve gotten to know each other. We’ve moved four times. We’ve grown. We’ve traveled. We’ve had a child. I know motherhood was somewhere on your to-do list long after “rock star” and “retire” but I am so grateful that you were willing to take that plunge. You are a wonderful mother. We are both kind of lost sometimes as parents, but you are amazing. You’ve stood by my side and supported me through all that I’ve done.

You let me hold the remote. You clean up after us all. You cook wonderful dinners every night. You do our laundry. You love and care for Solei. You, well you know. And most of all: You love me for what I am.

This is not nearly as lengthy and thorough as it could (and should) be. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for all you do.


With Great Love,

Husband

Texamess

SOOOOOOO..... Still no posts by the wife. This whole blog thing was her idea. Let's all leave a comment about how much we wish she would blog instead of boring old me!!!



I've been very stingy about my vacation days over the last year. When you go from a job where you have 4 weeks a year to one where you get a mere 2 weeks a year, you kind of freak out. But it was about time that we took Solei out to meet my aunt and uncle and grandpa in Texas. (Two weeks minus two days...)

They don't get out to visit very often because they have their kids to visit and Jimbo's job at the prison gives him few vacation days (and they use them to plant their Pea Patch). Next time you are in Woodville ask Jimbo about getting locked in a cell...


We had a good a bad visit. It's kind of a long story but let's use these key words to create a mental image:

*10 acres just outside of Woodville, Tx
*Free Single Wide Mobile Home
*No Internet
*Mildewy Mattress
*The Plague

Okay the story really doesn't have the plague in it, but it might as well. After two days sleeping on the item listed before the Plague I felt like I had the Plague. The doctor said it wasn't the plague and gave me antibiotics to treat the sore throat that I got. Although I cannot specifically target the mattress as the source of my illness, Occam's Razor would teach us that it was. No amount of candle or air freshener or fans could stop the smell!

We spent twelve hours in our new van over night the first night. Solei only woke up screaming for an hour. The trip home was better. She loved her time with us in the car (and more so with the "Fishies" on Finding Nemo).

Here is the trailer (painted neon yellow-green to blend into the environment)



The weather and company were amazing. We had wonderful 70 degree, partly cloudy days. Aunt Wendy, Grandpa and Uncle Jimbo were amazing company and Wendy cooked some of the best food I've eaten.

This didn't end up being one of those relaxing vacations. I spent some considerable time underneath the trailer running wire and piping - next to the burrow of some animal that I never identified - thankfully. It was NOT more scared of me than I was of it.

Next time we are going to bring an RV.

Here are some pics:

Solei LOVED riding on Wendy's Golf Cart (Wendy and Jimbo live next door)

Solei had some dessert. The bowl became a hat:

The Stairs on Grandpa's Trailer were a seemingly endless source of entertainment:

The neighbors had goats which Solei had a blast "baaaa-ing" at. The neighbors also had this stone seahorse.

You can see some of the land in the background. We found a golf ball the other day and Solei and I had fun throwing it around the yard.



Here's a pic of Solei with Wendy, Jimbo and Grandpa. Solei had such a great time with all of them!!

Beard, Beard The Musical Fruit

So- nothing is more exciting in life than a beard contest at work. Imagine it, two weeks full of excuses not to hassle with shaving! Can you think of anything better???

Here's my contribution:


As it turns out, I work with someone who is part Big Foot. You'd never guess it by looking at his feet, but those hair genes are unmistakable. (Bigfoot exists and I swear I will prove it some day!).

Once the contest was officially lost by me, it was time to see how awesome I could potentially look with some sort of facial hair.

Here's me sporting the "Friendly Mutton Chops":

This look lasted a full 24 hours. The guy mixing our paint at Wal-Mart was a little disturbed by the look, so were all the other people who saw Creepy McGee holding the hand of our little girl.

The next day was the handlebar mustache! These pictures totally doesn't do me justice. I am actually not entirely opposed to this look. If someday we were to move somewhere a little more rural, I'd totally sport this look (assuming of course my lovely wife goes blind and loses all feeling in her fingers, face, etc.)

In all honesty, this isn't that bad, right?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's the day o' the green, and we celebrated in style.

On Sunday, our valiant hero made a fabulous corned beef and cabbage dinner, traditional Irish fare. And as you can see, like our valiant hero, it was smokin' hott.

Even Wonder Baby got into the spirit. Well, mommy did when she bought her the shirt, but hot DANG that's one awesome shirt.

Then today, I had a show up in Chattanooga and husband actually took the day off and came up with me! In honor of the day, I decided to look like the holiday puked on me.

We had a ball playing...

To.. um...well, no one. For some reason, the people that booked us dropped off the edge of the earth when it came to promotion.

But we still got paid, yo! So we rocked out anyway.

And Jared said I sounded good. And pretended like I didn't look like a raving lunatic. Honestly, this was better than the Ronald McDonald get-up I wore on Saturday, but I'll spare you the pictures.

Our next entry will be dedicated to Jared's face. Or rather, the stuff growing out of it. Feel free to remain at the edge of your seats.

Zoo Zoo Ma Goo

Saturday was arguably the coldest day of the year so far. It was a balmy 33 degrees and snowing. So what did we decide to do? Take our daughter to the zoo.





It all started on Monday when Missy (my co-worker) offered free tickets to the zoo. FREE. (That's my favorite "F" word). The thing was, they had to be used before tomorrow. So, rain or shine we were off to the zoo. (Tickets are normally $20 a piece)





The Atlanta Zoo was the second worst zoo ever (second only to the fake zoo they have in Utah - ATTENTION UTAH: DUCKS, DOGS AND CATS ARE NOT ZOO ANIMALS). At the gate we were told that only the reptiles and the pandas were out. The reptiles are kept in a warm place and the Pandas are apparently used to being cold. In spite of this we persisted. The lady at the gate was about as infomed as the zoo was exciting.

Notice the THRONGS of people behind us.



In spite of the cold we survived well. Solei wore her cute pink hat (she won't ever wear it for more than a few seconds). We hopped from heated (empty) building to building.





Solei did get to see some pretty cool stuff. She insisted that anything with feathers was a duck (especially the flamingos some 20 feet beyond the front gate - how the girl working at the gate missed them was beyond me). We saw elephants. They were huge. We were all amazed by the apparent size of their bladders. If you ever have a medium sized fire to put out and there's no fire hose available, but there is an elephant around, I'd suggest involving the elephant.





We saw the pandas eat bamboo. We saw the Lion on his rock. We saw the reptiles. We saw the Zebras. Luckily on the way out we stopped by the petting zoo. ALL the goats and sheep were out. Solei had a blast with them. Here's some video goodness if you can deal with the forever it takes to watch (Caution it's over ONE minute in length):












After the zoo we all warmed up on the ride home in our van.



We love you Sheep #2!!!

We're breeding a generation of super babies!

Like our Solei the wonder toddler? Then you'll LOVE Sierra the wonder baby! For those who haven't seen it, this video response to Solei's verbosity is now officially my favorite website.

Except for Zombo.com. And maybe emotioneric. But then Sierra calling out Solei is definately number 3.

Go Team Smith!

Alphawesome!

We're not sure, but she might be actually smarter than us. Pardon the nudity.



P.S. She may or may not have learned all these from PBS.

P.P.S. These aren't all the letters/numbers she knows, just the ones Jared could grab in time for the videoing. Thanks to mom for these, Solei is addicted to them!!

SPEAK!!!

Today while I was sitting at a red light at Roswell Rd. and Hwy. 41,when Solei gets really excited and starts shouting "Cuck!! Cuck!! Mamee!! Cuck!!" And she was pointing at...
The Big Chicken. She was yelling "cluck!" in Solei-speak!! She's been paying attention when we read her those animal books!! So we decided to check out all the other animal sounds she knows...

She walked early, now it's just a matter of time before she starts telling off random barnyard animals in their own language.

Political Awakening

Normally I shy away from making political commentary on my blog – although I probably shouldn’t. I’ve had some interesting experiences over the last few months and quite an awakening.

The candidacy of Mitt Romney is something that has made everyone very aware of Mormons and how they perceived in society. During a conversation with a woman I work with the other day mentioned that she didn’t think that Americans would vote for a Mormon. To me that was something odd. I never thought that anyone would seriously discriminate against someone because they were Mormon. People can think you are nuts all they want, but there have been so many successful members of the church that I thought those days were past. I’ve been exposed to SO many successful Mormons that I never imagined that anyone would be discriminated against because of that.

My political awakening began with this conversation. The next step was an editorial piece that I read on the web a few weeks ago. The author essentially stated that if America was not “ready for a Mormon president” then as a Mormon he was not capable of being president and therefore was not a full citizen and did not have the full rights of other citizens.

I thought long and hard about that and the thought really hit me hard – Am I really a second class citizen because of my Religion? I was honestly a little hurt. After all, in Jr High I was voted by the teachers to be the most likely to be the President of the United States. I would never have dreamed that I was somehow deemed incapable of running the country because of my religion.

After some time I stopped and thought about politics in the United States. There has never been a woman elected to the presidency. There has never been a minority elected president of the United States. Suddenly I realized that what I felt was what millions and millions of people have felt. They were all constantly told that someone of their race or gender could never be president of the United States. To me this was a window into the lives of my black brothers and sisters. It was eye opening and enlightening. For a short time I understood a small part of what it was to be a minority in this country. My respect and admiration for the many people who have fought against discrimination grew exponentially.

This election is historic. For the first time ever there are serious contenders for the presidency who are both women and from a minority. While many say they wouldn’t vote for one of these types of people, it for the first time seems like that will not be prohibitive. This is an historic election. This election will drastically change the course of presidential politics, regardless of the outcome.

I don’t like political parties. I don’t really like any of the candidates. My feeling is that Bush has done such a poor job of everything that the Democrats will make it look easy in the next election. Deep down inside there is a big piece of me that is willing to look past some major issues and hope that presidential history is changed and American never looks back.

My money now is on Obama – not because I like him, but because I think he will win.

By the way – when did Bill Clinton go from being an ex-president to being the creepy old guy chasing kids off his lawn?

An open letter to John McCain:

You looked so fresh, so ready to take over the world back in 2000 when you ran against Bush. Your loss was unfortunate, but you took it really badly. You've spent the last 8 years doing all you can to undermine the White House with your nutty legislation to get back at Bush for the nasty fight you two had back then. I'm not a Bush fan, but I'm definately not a fan of your bills and your vindictive attitude.

And now in this race, I'm absolutely appalled at your behavior. And how insanely creepy you've become. You think after your poor performance in the debates and your general nastiness that you can actually win over the rest of the party? I'm so terrified you'll ask Huckabee to be your running mate and then the morons here in the Bible Belt will vote you in, then you'll keel over and die since you're 79 already and we'll be stuck with Huckabee, who has repeatedly made biggoted comments and then apologized like he didn't know if wasn't polite to be a bigot. That will go over REALLY well with Islamic countries.

So Mr. McCain, no way will I vote for you. And if by some act of insanity Huckabee wins the nomination, I'm moving to Canada because I know the South is dumb enough to vote him in, and the apocalyse won't be far behind.

Sincerely,
Rocketgirl

P.S. Vote Floyd 2012.

Sunday Sunday

Happy Sabbath, blog world! Today I was informed by a 21 year old missionary that blogs are for "old people." He was trying to figure out the difference between Facebook and Myspace and blogs, none of which he was familiar with 2 years ago before he left on his mission, so we were trying to help him transition to "civilian" life (he goes home Tuesday. 6 months too late. But I digress.) Anywho, somehow our definition of what a blog is caused him to decide it was for old people.

Hrm... Jared and I have both blogs and Facebooks AND Myspaces. I figure that means we are old but are in denial. Also, we are addicted to the internet. And attention whores. But we all already knew that.

Back to our Sunday. Before I get into the nitty gritty, here is a picture that has nothing to do with anything, except it helps illustrate the points that: A) Our daughter is cuter than any other baby in the history of us having babies, and B) Jared got her to keep a bow in her hair for almost a whole minute.



SO, after Cutest Baby Ever was done being photogenic, we had the Smiths and the missionaries over for dinner. Interesting side note - the Smiths asked if their baby (also known as Cutest Baby Ever in the Smaller and Quieter Than Our Baby category) could sit in a closet the while we were eating dinner. Apparently she likes sleeping in them. Another intersting side note - we have no closets that aren't completely filled with junk, so she slept NEXT to a closet.

For some weird reason, Jared and Joe decided it would be fun to have a dinner made up of Ramen and Spagetti-O's. The Ramen got omited, but we all did have corn dogs -which to my chagrin, our baby adored. Dang it. And butterscotch cookies that Mandy had to make Joe or he threatened to leave her. When he said that he laughed, and I think he was being sarcastic, but he seems like a man who takes his cookies seriously.

It seemed like a good time at that point to take a picture in which Joe looks undead, I look heavily medicated, and Mandy looks creeped out.

I should frame that picture, a memory of how they spent their first wedding anniversary. I'll bet this is how everyone dreams of spending it.

Then, we rushed out of the house to catch a class held at a local Baptist church, with the title: "Mormons, Muslims and Me." - a 6 week course. We'd been curious when we saw the sign up in front of their church, and met our bishop's wife there, mom (she tipped us off about it), the missionaries and some other friends from the ward. We were quite the sight, walking in, dressed up (not a common thing at churches anymore) and with the missionaries - whew!

The topic was Joseph Smith, and was taught by their preacher who had studied the church during his doctorate work. He began his talking by announcing that it was his goal to prove that Joseph Smith was a fraud. He proceeded to attempt it by going through his life, giving half-truths and completly false and widely known refuted falsehoods, with very little documentation. It was so sad to hear someone talk about something so wonderful as the restoration of the gospel, but missing the point completely by only researching the detractors of the church.

His main problems with Joseph Smith were his failings - which he had, just like all of us, and the pastor repeatedly commented how he didn't measure up to Christ. Prophets are people - imperfect, every single one of them. Christ is our example and our Savior, and if God only depended on perfect people to send forth his gospel, there wouldn't be anyone to do it!

One part that did make me giggle though was when he talked about the First Vision and how you should never start your own church if you disagree with yours... good golly, Baptists are Protestants! That's exactly what YOU did!

There are 4 more weeks to go - I may go. We'll see. I stayed in the lobby and kept baby occupied but I could hear over the loudspeaker, and I couldn't help but look at my beautiful daughter's happy face and be so incredibly thankful that I can share with her the gospel - the joyous knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us, loves his Son and that we can return to him. That he didn't leave us here without a lifeline - we have inspired and wonderful scripture, commandments to follow. As difficult as it can be to follow, I'm so thankful we have a path to follow. We have a prophet on this earth that speaks to us in our day. We have a way to return to His presence. And my Cutest Baby Ever gets to know the joy of gaining and having a testimony of that too.

Now that's some good news.

Our Third Anniversary

It's been a tough holiday season, but the best part about the end of the holidays is our anniversary is right around the corner and I get to make our annual look-back-at-what-we-did-this-year video. Some people can scrapbook, heck some people can even cook and keep their house from being a disaster, but this is what I can do. Special thanks to Jared for not minding all the irritating pictures I took all year, and for also not punching me in the face for 3 straight years now.

and here's a tiny version for non-youtube-abled folks:

What's that funny smell coming from the Christmas Tree??

As you most likely read below, we are kinda into our Daughter. She's pretty awesome. I never thought I'd be okay with cleaning a poo covered rear-end, but here i am.

The poor girl was sick this week. We spent most of the day yesterday chasing her around the house with a box of tissues. Every sneeze sent us running to catch things before they hit the floor.

My job has been even crazier in the last few weeks. I've finally gotten to the point where I know what is broken in the company and how to fix it. It's just a matter at this point of getting everyone else to align themselves. I have a big presentation on Tuesday to launch my plan to our executive team. Hopefully it goes well and I am successful. If not, I might not make it another year...

My stunning wife and I had the pleasure of spending the evening with my coworkers in an inebriated state in what was labeled our company holiday party. It was at a trendy place downtown and there were really good appetizers and an open bar - need I say more? (that's actually what the invitation said). Reva was gorgeous (as she always is) and I wore pants.

Other than that, our life is pretty normal. We are excited for the christmas season and even purchased a christmas tree from a local hardware vendor. We named him Harvey and haven't yet had the courage to tell our daughter that he's dead - so we will just leave him where he is until after the holidays (we figure why ruin her second Christmas with such a gruesome fact).

Harvey has 3 whole presents under his boughs - all of them are for Mommy. Baby is a little jealous (I can tell). She keeps trying to take them and hide them from us.

Our big girl has graduated from Formula to Thin Mints. Here's mommy giving her some of the yummy treats. Yes, she is stoned on them.

Have a great time shopping for presents for me!!

Our baby vs. the world

Today in Relief Society, mom made the comment that her children's blogs were a great way to stay strong and together, and that she checked them twice a day she loved them so much. So dagnabit, I figured I needed to give y'all something to read. No interesting pictures this week, unfortunately.

Tonight dad and I played at the Festival of the Nativity at our old ward building. Playing for half an hour to a MUCH larger crowd than I had anticipated - plus a nice huge introduction at the beginning with an extensive bio - made me pretty dang nervous. We pulled it off and people seemed to enjoy it, so all the education and years of learning to fake my way through performances paid off! Dad was a trouper too and played fabulously.

Afterwards I got to help wrangle Solei with mom and Jared as we tried to maneuver the crowded halls and talked to our friends from our old ward. We saw a few people we'd known that had children around the time Solei was born and I broke a cardinal rule... I KNOW you're not supposed to compare your child to other kids, but hey, how else am I going to tell if she's on the right track? Being patient and reading books just ends up getting me all nervous.

First off - Solei is way more mobile than most of the kids I saw. People say she was an early walker, but really, she had wanted to walk far earlier than when she did, so it couldn't have come a moment too soon for her! And she seems to run a lot more than the other kids I saw tonight. She doesn't really like to stop, poor thing. And when I say poor thing, it's because we wouldn't let her run around like she wanted to (Jared stopped her from demolishing a nativity set just in time).

And second - she's getting a hang of this talking thing kinda fast. She's mastered the words "Pease??" and "Up" and "Down" and she uses them like nobody's business. It's remarkable - she knows what they mean and resorts to screaming way less than she did before she figured out the word "Pease??" meant Mommy will give me Gerber Cheetos if I say this enough!!

And lastly - she's a big kid. I'm not saying she fat or an Amazonian or anything, but she comes up to 2 and 3 year olds to give them hugs, and they only have an inch or 2 above her. Maybe we just have short friends, but regardless, she's no tiny gal. People often ask "What do you feed this kid??" and the answer is simple - milk, croutons, Gerber cheetos and pork rinds. And peas and corn, but we've calculated only 3 pieces actually get in her mouth, so they don't count. Yes, the pork rinds are Jared's fault.

I could be way off on this, maybe all kids are this vocal and mobile, but I swear the kiddos we've been running into lately have been lethargic, mute and short. Maybe I should see if I can hang out with some genius babies to give me some perspective.

(oh, and she's also the most social baby in the history of babies. But that part isn't a surprise, seeing as her mommy is a bona-fide people addict too.)

Happy Thanksgiving!! We celebrated this year in Colorado with my family and are very thankful for it! (and Starbucks by the way - more on that later:)

I was SO nervous for the flight that lasted over 6 hours - just Solei and I, but we pulled through. She was wonderful and we got a few awesome blessings along the way.

Like a row all to ourselves on the second flight - wohoo! And even though for some reason all her formula went MISSING before we got on the flight - (no food for a 6 hour flight?!?!) I said a little prayer and found a Starbucks that sold me a warm milk that she thankfully drank. Woohoo!Then the next night, Jared showed up. He's showing Solei her first snow here!

My parents have LOVED having her here! She loves both of them like crazy (like with most people, but since they love her as much back, she is in serious love mode!) Here's my dad:
And my mom:

Day after, we headed down to see Jared's friends Justin and Dixie.

The visit was lovely, but the drive. traffic was loooong. Lots of accidents, but it gve us time for this Kodak moment:

But then Jared left, oh no!! This is a pic for him to remember me if Solei does indeed kill me on our next 2 flights home:

We were all amused at Solei's amazing connection to music - anytie she hears it - she's up and loking for it, sometimes dancing. Here's a quick video of Solei's Pavlov's dog-type tendencies when she hears my cell phone ring.

Our last pic is of my adorable baby with her even more adorable uncle Dallin. Anyone know any hotties that play piano who wouldn't mind checking out my bro? He plays violin better thanme and is a semester away from an engineering degree. Also, he is incredibly hot and nice and funny and cooler than you. Email me a resume and we'll talk:)

Talking???

Jared was trying out a new recording device and lookit what he caught!! Listen close - Solei says 2 words!!!!

Click here!!
OR just listen to it here:

Octoberation!!!

Before we begin here is a short rant brought to you by Stooped Googles

So, Google hates me. Which is fine with my because the feeling is beginning to become mutual. If you are going to be emperor of the internet - you should make sure that people can access your internet, otherwise you are an elitist snob webempire. My guess is that google would probably want to be a non-elitist snob webempire. But that's just my guess.

And now to the real posting.

So- google hates me. No seriously they wouldn't let me log on or something so there have been no postseses in the last forever. All of our halloweeneeneen pictures are on this computer and it hates google.

Anyway- last month was halloween and we celebrated by putting our very cute daugher in a very cute costume and then trying to keep ourselves from passing out from over excitement due to over-cuteness-stimulation (which can be a very serious illness if not treated properly - stupid owls).

Look away now if you haven't be immunized for cuteness:

The event was brought to you by our ward trunk-or-treat party. Mommy made daddy dress up for halloweenennennenn. I dressed like spongebob squarepantses. I looked pretty cool.

Our real halloween wasn't too eventful. Apparently none of the kids think it's cool to go as mountain climbers so none of them had the equipment to get up our steep driveway. Their loss. We actually had candy this year (unlike the previous years where we gave out pinecones with peanutbutter and seeds that they could put out to attract wildlife). I'm blaming the internet generally and google specifically.

Work has been insane for daddy. People keep leaving and he has to pick up a lot of slack. I do enjoy our time together as a family!

That's all for now.