Happy Birthday Adrianne!

ADRIANNE!!
You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too, yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you!!!

It's not really my birthday, too, but that is part of the song. Anyway we all hope you have great birthday. I hear you got some pretty great presents! Yeah! Enjoy your cake. We love you!

MUTE!!

Today as the kids were asking question after question and not listening to the answers, I started to think how nice it would be to have a mute button on every child. Then I though of how smart my family is. Surely one of you could come up with a mute button. I'm not talking about putting duct tape on their mouths, that would be cruel and they could still make noise. Anyway, if anyone figures this out, it would make you millions. In the mean time, I guess I'll just keep answering their questions.

We have the coolest neighbors--except of course when the Richey's were our neighbors...Anyway, this couple has two children, both married. They live across the street from us and have kind of adopted us. In the summer, they invited us to bring the boys over and swim in their pool. At Halloween, they made special cupcakes just for the boys and gave them candy for their bags. They live between two houses that are empty. There used to be widows that lived in the houses but they have either died or been placed in a nursing home. When they were still in their homes Max (our neighbor) would regularly mow his lawn and both of these widow's lawns. One of the widow's would call out his name at 2 am and he would go over to her house to see what she wanted. He came and set the mouse traps for us when Mike was in Guam and also jump-started our car when the battery was dead--and he got out of bed with the flu to do it for me because Mike was out of town! They are such great people. When Isaac was born, Sheree made a monogramed blanket for him with his name and birthday with the onces and pounds he was when he was born. Tonight they came over to our house and brought this diaper bag and two burp cloths that she made for us. They are awesome! I love them. We are just so grateful they live next to us. Mike invited them to come to church when we bless Eli and they said they'd come. Mike and I would love to do something for them in return but don't know what to do for them. They are in their late 40's, early 50's and their kids are our age. So what would be appropriate to do for them? Any ideas?

Becca is playing Varsity Softball!

Becca is playing Varsity softball as a freshman, she is the only freshman on the team. She usually plays in left field, and she has been the lead off batter (the first batter on the team). She loves playing for the school and has made some great friends. In the first picture she is bunting and the 2nd picture she is about to take off from second and run to third (she did eventually make it in to score).

Creams

Adrianne just sent me to grab the desitin. She is on the phone and changing a diaper. I hopped up and went to the bathroom. I pulled out the drawer where we keep the desitin and grabbed it...luckily. Right next to the desitin is a very similar looking tube of icy hot. Wouldn't that be a nasty surprise for a little baby bum. I suppose I ought to go move that...

On another subject, I would like to write a book about a world of shapeshifters. I decided to call them shimatims because writing shapeshifter gets old really fast. I haven't decided exactly what the story will be about, but as soon as the first book gets super popular, I will carry on the story, as well as telling the stories of the evolution of the shimatims from people-like creatures. I want the story to be as feasible as possible, so everything I think about these creatures, I try to come up with a fairly reasonable explaination. It's fun to do, and I wish I had lots of free time when I had nothing else I would rather work on...maybe someday.

Mike

Just for fun

Braden saw the camera out and wanted a picture taken. Here are the boys!

W-4

Does anyone have any advice about the number of allowances I should claim on my W-4? I have claimed 0 for the last eight years. I just looked at my last pay check and I get about 71% of what I earn. The rest goes to taxes, SS, and medicare. I would like to get more of that, but don't want to have to pay taxes at tax time ever again...Any thoughts?

Check out our blog.

You should all check out our blog.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We hope you have had a great day! What fun things did you do?

Too soon???

Do we think it's still too soon to talk family reunion again?

Too bad if you think that. I just want to voice my opinion that we have a Mexican food night, or two. I'm talking chile rellanos, chimichangas, guacamole, homemade salsa, sopapillas, etc. Then afterwards we can go for a 10 mile walk to try and burn it off. Any other food requests? Mom mentioned that she could make and freeze some things ahead of time.
I love to play games, so I am resubmitting a game night. We can pull up the proposed activity plans soon, too and refine, rediscuss them.
I just have fun talking about getting together! Have you got anything to say??

Time/Money Saver

As I was cleaning up after lunch a fabulous time saving idea came to me. Instead throwing out the food after I have prepared it and served it my family, who refuse to eat it frequently, I could just throw it out before I prepare it. For example instead of making a yummy chicken and sauce dish that you serve over pasta with a nice salad, I could just throw half of those ingredients away and not bother cooking it. I could dump half each cereal box and gallon of milk down the drain before I put it on the table. Think of the time cooking and cleaning that would be saved, but wait.
It then occurred to me that I could just go straight from the store to the dumpster and throw out half the bags of food that I buy. However that sounds rather ridiculous. Smarter would be to only buy the fruit snacks, cookies, candy and juice and forget the rest. If I gave only those foods to the kids, I wouldn't have to do dishes, you don't need plates for fruit snacks. Mike and I could order in or go out with all the money we saved. I would never have to do dishes again, although Mike does like his cereal in the morning, but still way less dishes!!
What a great way to save time and money, no more grocery shopping, no more dishes and no more cooking.
Somehow the kids would find a way to complain about even this, I am sure!!

AUSTIN!!!

Happy Birthday Austin!

We wish you a wonderful birthday full of fun and presents and cake!

This is the best picture I could get. I know you are way bigger than this now!!

The Guessing Game

The time is swiftly approaching for the next in a line of marvelous children to enter this world. Adrianne's due date is May 4th and I am guessing that she will deliver him April 24th. Any other guesses? The prise for winning is that you get to be the favorite Aunt, Uncle or Grandparent if you win. The prise of course is subject to new baby's approval!