Where Did He Come From?

Last night we were all sitting downstairs watching our latest addiction “So You Think You Can Dance.” If any of you haven’t seen the show it’s akin to American Idol only for dancing, even to the point where the entertainment in watching the auditions is for the really bad dancers that inevitably show up because no one in their life loves them enough to honestly tell them “You can’t dance, and I won’t let you go on national television and make a fool of yourself.” Honestly, is it just me or does anyone else out there wonder where the constructive criticism in these people’s lives has disappeared to? Nevertheless it makes for great TV so I suppose one could argue it’s a necessary evil? If you’re a producer that is.

At any rate, as we sat there watching many a fool who thought they could dance, Austin and Lucas naturally decided they needed to start dancing too. So what did Angie and I do? We encouraged them! Austin was doing some sort of wacked out schizo’ dance which served only to cause Angie and I to laugh uncontrollably. Angie naturally quipped, “Where did he come from?”

Austin immediately stopped his dancing, walked over to both of us, and in all seriousness stated, “I came from Heavenly Father.” We shared a family hug and he merrily went back to his dancing as Angie and I sat there in utter amazement. It was definitely one of those “I can’t believe he is actually listening to anything said in Primary or Family Home Evening” moments.

On a separate note, this past Sunday was Austin’s first Scripture and Prayer assignment for opening exercises in Primary. He was so excited to speak into the microphone. We practiced all week on the assigned scripture as well as some appropriate things to say for a Primary prayer. Angie and I went in to watch him, and when his time came I proudly carried him to the front of the room (he wouldn’t walk), I delivered the scripture into the microphone, and I finished it off with a wonderful and simple Primary prayer. Austin sheepishly stood next to me the entire time, face buried in my shoulder. In his defense I must add that we have church from 1 – 4 and he fell asleep in Sacrament Meeting. So we had to wake him up just to get him to Primary in the first place. He’s quite talkative normally so we think he would’ve done just fine were it not for the fact that he had just been woken up.

Ready, Set, Stimulate the Economy

So we received our stimulus payment via direct deposit last Friday. However, despite the urging of several well-intentioned advice givers, we’ve not yet run out and blown our allotment. In fact, we haven’t spent a single dime of it and it still remains untouched in our account. As much as we’d like to keep it that way, as new homeowners we do have some pressing needs that need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

And so it is that I find myself researching lawn mowers and weed-wackers online in preparation for what is sure to be a painful shopping experience this weekend. Though most of our yard is covered in moss which smothers any grass growth, nevertheless, we have several areas of our yard that are in desperate need of a good mowing/weed-wacking. So much so that our neighbor has even graciously offered us the use of her mower so we could get the job done. Not to worry, we got the hint loud and clear.

I can’t help but to wander back into the recesses of my mind to a time about 20 years ago when I, as a little kid, along with the rest of my family (Dad, Mom, big sister, and little brother) would all tackle the yard work together. Dad would come home from work and set about mowing the lawn. Mom would follow behind raking the clippings (no automatic baggers back then). And the 3 kids would bring up the rear loading the clippings into the wagon and hauling it off to the vacant lot across the street. I remember it being a lot of hard work on hot summer nights. I remember thinking that the work would never end, that our yard was just too big, it would take forever to complete! What I wouldn’t give now for a yard that size for my boys to play in. And the best part? After we were all finished, each of us received our eagerly anticipated compensation of …wait for it…$0.25. Oh how we coveted those big bright quarters. At that age you could do anything in the world with a quarter. Mine usually went for baseball cards or stickers for my Thundercats sticker book, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkPnBRwD66Q.

Now it’s my turn to be the Dad and run the big lawn mower. But first we have to go get one.

Family Pictures

We had pictures taken back in April by our good friend Shelbi Owens. She’s terrific. Just wanted to post a few for all to see.

If you look closely you can see that it’s actually hailing on us. Poor Austin and Luke’s hands are bright red from the cold. Why no jackets? Try reading our post from April 21st for a reminder on that. Enjoy!

The Whole Family

Just the boys

Austin

Lucas

Survivor's Ready

Friday night when I got home from work I was greeted by the boys in the customary manner. Luke yells “Daaaaaaaaad!” and comes running to the top of the stairs. I always pick him up, then Austin’s right behind waiting for his hugs and asking if I brought him a surprise. Well, on this particular Friday, Austin couldn’t wait to ask me if I wanted to race him. “Sure, I replied.” So we got ready to race. We had to stand at one end of our house and would be racing to the other end of the house. But we needed Mom to start the racing.

So Austin ran to get Angie. She came out and started us racing:

“On your marks, Get set…”

“NO MOM! NO. YOU’RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT!”

“I’m sorry,” Angie replied, “what do I need to do?”

“Mom, you’re supposed to say Survivor’s Ready…Go.”

“Alright, alright. Survivor’s Ready…Go!”

And thus the racing began.

CBS must be so proud of us. So that’s how we start all races at our house now.
“Survivors Ready…Go!”

Sleep Punched

Anyone ever been sleep punched? That is to say, punched by someone who is still 100% asleep? I’m not talking about the accidental slap in the face, kicked in the ribs or whatnot that occurs while rolling over, shifting, or whatever it is you do to get comfortable. I’m talking about manifestations of actual anger resulting in a full-out punch, all while sleeping. As funny as it was, it wasn’t funny last night when I got punched for something I didn’t even do. Let me explain.

Yesterday something happened that made Austin request to watch E.T. No, not Entertainment Tonight, the actual movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, originally released in 1982. I don’t know what he saw or how he even heard about it, but he really wanted to watch it. Luckily we own it, but unluckily this request began to be repeatedly called in around American Idol time. We’ve dealt with this situation many times before, and the only solution to stop the incessant requests is to let him watch the movie in our room while we watch whatever we want downstairs. Thus sets the stage for why later that night, as Angie and I were preparing for bed, we had a 3 year-old already soundly asleep there.

Knowing he would shortly be moved into his own bed, I decided to climb in next to him and cuddle for a few minutes while Angie continued getting ready. As I did so, Austin totally freaked out, yelled “No Mom! Ugh” and proceeded to punch me square on the chin. Then he rolled over and went back to sleep, or rather that is, continued to sleep, as he never once opened his eyes during this whole episode. He was still absolutely 100% asleep.

Angie was laughing hysterically, and after a few moments of complete shock and amazement, I too joined in the laughter. I don’t know what she did to deserve to be punched, but whatever it was, it must have been serious. A few minutes later she scooped him up and deposited him into his own bed without further incident. Why I should be the recipient of the punishment clearly earned by Mom’s actions is beyond me. Whatever the reason, we got a good laugh out of it, which, I suppose, is perhaps the most important thing really.

Long Awaited Home Photos

Just a quick blurb today to show you the front of our home. Kind of weird actually, but some stranger actually took this picture and posted it to our home's profile on Zillow.com. Luckily it was after we cut down A LOT of the shrubbery out front such that you can actually see the front of our home. Believe me, before it was all cut down you wouldn't have been able to see our house at all from this view. In fact, here's a view of our yard from our front porch before the bushes were cut down:

You can't hardly tell that there's even another house on the other side of the street. Now we can see the road, the house, and everything. In fact, Austin's friend's with the little boy who lives there, Peter, and he contstantly looks out our window to see if Peter is home now.

At any rate, our inside work is almost all wrapped up. Pics of that are coming soon.