We are blogging failures! In the meantime, here are our January favorites:

Tyler's new shape puzzles:

This waffle box. Or, rather, Jamie's easy chair.

And our latest addition to the family: Pierre! (Dad: He's alive!!) This thing followed us home from Goodwill. It earns its keep by singing "Hot, Hot, Hot" whenever we pass it, successfully freaking us out at night. And in the morning when Tyler shoves it in my face while I'm still sleeping. Welcome to the family, Pierre!

November!

(Halloween and birthdays to come - camera cord still MIA!)

Lucky girl Jamie had her 15 month check up yesterday, complete with six shots and blood work. She has been one sad and sick little girl since then. We spent most of the night cuddling in her rocking chair, trying to break her fever. Better one feverish night than polio, right? Today she is still clingy and quick to cry, but she's starting to play on her own again.

One of the nurses gave Tyler a blue tape measure, and he has been measuring everyone since then: I am 72, Jamie is 104, and McKay is 7.

We took down our Halloween decorations on Wednesday to Christmas music. Didn't you know? On Nov 1 it becomes legal to listen to Christmas music at any hour of the day. Or all hours of the day, if you live in our house.

Happy November everyone!!

Quiet-ish mornings

Every morning, after McKay kisses us goodbye and leave for work, Tyler, Jamie, and I carry bowls of steaming oatmeal topped with brown sugar and frozen blueberries to the dining room table. Jamie reigns over us from her high chair smearing oatmeal on everything in reach; Tyler picks out all his berries, puts them on the table, and carefully spoons out the top layer of dissolved brown sugar on top ("DON'T STIR IT MOM!!!"), eats it, and leaves the actual oatmeal more or less untouched. I sit back in my chair and look out our dining room window, which I would show you if I knew where our old camera's cord was.

Our backyard is magic in the morning. The sun at 7:30 just starts to filter over the trees into our yard through all the leaves.

This is not our backyard, but this reminds me of it. I love sitting there for the ten minutes that Jamie will let me, just soaking in the goodness of green and light and life, thinking about big life decisions that have to be made and diving into some good news:

A friend from BYU whose blog I stalk regularly shared her wonderful idea/goal for this year, and I am doing my best to keep up:

http://alicianstephen.blogspot.com/2011/08/goals.html

I am almost through with Acts now. I'm amazed at how much more sense the scriptures make when you read them more than a chapter at a time. Also at the gems I never noticed before like Acts 17:27-28.

Que soul resonation.

Typical conversations

Daddy: Tyler, do dinosaurs eat their mommies?

Tyler: No! They eat leaves!

Daddy: Oh, like these leaves?

Tyler: Yeah! And then they turn it into poop!

(At this point, Tyler finished putting an expired driver's license into his "purse", zipped it up, and announced he was going to the store to buy wheels.)

I love this boy.