Uncles... again

Uncles are dangerous. They will corrupt your kids, teaching them all kinds of "bad" things; like how to jump on furniture, how to mess up the bed, and other horrible things. I was merely a casual observer to these events and bear no responsibility...

Baby P

J and C had their baby (in May I think...) and we got to go to the blessing. Afterwards we all went to the park to eat lunch together and talk. We all had a good time, and P got just enough attention. Congratulations to the parents and grandparents, and good luck. It's hard at times, but oh so worth it!

Lady Bug turns 2

Here are some 2 year pics of Lady Bug that I took in our back yard. Her birthday was last Friday. She is a cute two year old and loves to run around and play with her brothers. She is very feminine and loves pink, purple, and princesses. She is talking very well. The other day we were at the pizza store and she started to run around in circles singing "we get pizza, we get pizza, hurray! hurray!" I had to look twice because I couldn't believe it was coming out of her mouth.

Uncles...

J is holding a very tired Lady Bug, she is so tired in fact that she doesn't even protest when J tries to eat her caterpillar.

The house is different

After much deliberation and agony choosing colors, as well as a few delays, the house is finally a different color. I like the new color, it really grows on you. It is much different from the white it used to be. The painters did a very good job with it too.

Camping in Narnia

We went to Narnia! This is the Lantern Waste in western Narnia; if you keep going up the path to the right, you will get to the wardrobe...

The boys and I went camping at Anderson park in Pleasant Grove this weekend for the fathers and sons outing. They thought it was the best thing ever, there were other boys to run around with, a canal to through things into, dirt, and food. What more do you need.

Cabela's

Cabela's is a great place to take the kids when you need to get out.

fire-man pole

Lightening and Spidey are getting pretty good at the playground toys. Getting ready for preschool...
Of course Lady Bug won't be too far behind. She holds her own on the rope bridge and slides.

Huh?

One of Lady Bug's favorite new words...

Lightening and Spidey's dance recital

The boys sure had a lot of fun doing this. I'm glad they had the opportunity.

Spring time!

My irises have bloomed! And so have everyone else's in the neighborhood. I think they are very pretty flowers anyway, but they always remind me particularly of Grandpa Dover and going to the iris shows with him as a kid. Now I just need to get some different varieties to give a little more color.

Creepy Crawlies

Small creepy crawly things are fascinating to the kids right now. Every rolley polley bug, ant, beetle, and spider gets instant celebrity status when they spot it.

Like mommy like daughter

It was dessert night, and a little late; and mommy was feeling a little crazy...

Mommy's little helper

When Rachel got the stuff out to give the boys a hair cut, Lady Bug started following her around and trying to get her own apron out. So Rachel found the smallest one we had and tied it on Lady Bug as tight as it would go. Then Lady Bug had to observe how it was done, and make sure it was done right.

I have survived

Summer is finally here! My first two semesters of graduate school are over. I'm a little battered but none the worse for the wear. The first semester I learned that even though you take fewer credits, the work load is at least twice the undergraduate load. I had to try and cut back on extra things like movie nights, late nights, web surfing, and pleasure reading to focus on getting my work done in class and in the lab. We'll see if any of the sacrifice has paid off when grades come in next week.
I'm trying to get my committee together this week and write my prospectus which will serve as a road map for my project. It is hard to narrow down the aspects of the work our group is doing into a concrete set of goals for a project. Even my advisor agrees with me on that. It's been a little difficult to get used to the idea of doing an applied physics project. It seemed a little too 'engineering' to me at first, and I thought that I would have a tough time selling the idea to a committee. After talking with my advisor and others, I have learned that what we are doing falls very nicely into the field of applied physics, and no one but a theoretician would bat an eye at it.

Finals Week

It's finals week next week, and, of course, I don't think I am quite
ready. Maybe if I had another week or two... Even then I wouldn't be
ready. I think I am doing better in my classes this semester than last
semester. Last semester was a big shock on the system, especially after
being out of school for 8 months. The time a grad student is expected to
dedicate, and what they are supposed to accomplish in that time is nuts
it seems. Yet we all press on, and they haven't kicked me out yet.
I have to get a committee together, approve my study list, and write
and approve my prospectus in the next 2 1/2 weeks as well. The trouble
is that my project, while a good one, isn't well defined enough for a
PhD project. PhD projects are supposed to contribute something new to
your field, but so far what we're doing is just take existing, tested
materials and put them in a different shape. Nothing new about it. If we
can find some more uses for the shape we want to create, then I might
have something for a project.

Ah, the life of a grad student...

Rachel's art

The boys thought it was sooo much fun to shovel snow with me. I only hope their enthusiasm lasts when they are older.


I want a T-shirt out of the top right card. In case you can't read it, the word across the middle says "Legendary".

Takin' care of kids...

If only it were always this easy. The Friend has been a good thing so far. (that is what Rachel is reading to them here) They get so excited when 'their magazine' comes in the mail, just like mommy's and daddy's. Unfortunately, this didn't last long enough. As soon as the story was over they scattered to wreak their separate mischief on the house.

magic olive fingers

You can remember doing this when you were this age... (we all know you did, so don't try to act all sophisticated)

Silly kids in rain slickers

We have had some crazy weather here the last couple of days. Two days it has even snowed! Thankfully it only stuck to the grass and not the driveway; but even still, there were 2 inches of new snow on the grass in April.
After the snow melted it was still grey and cold, but the kids still wanted to go outside and play. I can't blame them. They really love their new rain coats.

popcorn pop

In Lightening's dance class they do a dance called 'popcorn pop' to warm up before they begin doing their other stuff. His teacher sent home a cd with that song and the song they will be performing for their recital so Lightening could practice at home. Spidey and Lady Bug like dancing too, and are sometimes a little jealous of Lightening getting to go to class. But they love dancing together at home.

K visits

Last month Rachel's sister K came in to town from Oregon to visit for a couple of weeks. Rachel had a lot of fun visiting with her. We tried to get a picture of all the cousins together, but this was about as good as it got.


Luckily, the sisters were a little more cooperative, if just as rambunctious. (you wouldn't think so from looking at the picture...)
For fun, all the girls went out and got pedicures/manicures. They were so proud of their toes afterwards.

Conference Weekend

We had a good time listening to General Conference this weekend, even with three small children. Rachel planed ahead this time and prepared some conference packs for each of the sessions for the kids. They still need some tweaking, but it was a much more enjoyable experience this time than it has been in the past. I have some pictures below of the first activity, making fruit loop necklaces. Lady Bug was really good at not eating them and just giving them to mom to put on her string. Lightening quickly caught on and started working on his by himself, but Spidey just wanted to eat them and had to work with dad to make his necklace.








After the necklaces were made, mom went into her scrapbook room to finish something while listening to the end of conference. Lady Bug didn't want mom to get away from her so she tried to follow.

(I learned this from my brothers...)

I don't have pictures of the other activities that Rachel had for the kids, but they seemed to have fun and let their parents listen to most of conference.

In other news...

A little while ago we got Rachel a bike so we can start taking family bike rides (we have a trailer for the kids) and try to save a little on gas for short errands. It has been a lot of fun to go out together and the kids like it too. But then tragedy struck on Saturday. We were on our way from a picnic at a park to the store to get a redbox movie for Rachel to watch while I was away at priesthood session, and Rachel tried to ride up a driveway. The driveway had a tall curb and she tried to take it at too much of and angle, and she ended up sprawled on all fours on top of her bike. Luckily she wasn't hurt bad and she was wearing a helmet. She is finding new bruises as time passes though but I think she'll be just fine in a day or so.