The Club

My family has a club and I am not a member.

What is this elite club you ask?

The Nose Club

Ryan Jack Addy

As you can see, they ALL have the same nose.

It never bothered me to not be a member until I realized that membership has its privileges.


Jack recently started kissing Addy on her nose. He loves to kiss her and really only kisses her nose. Then the other day while Ryan was laying on the floor Jack leaned down and kissed Ryan's nose. When I complained to Ryan that I had never been kissed by Jack his response was, "You don't have the same nose."


I began to think that the only way for me to get a kiss from my son was to undergo rhinoplasty. Last night Jack gave me one little kiss.
Not on my nose.

Warmer Weather

We've had warmer weather which means we are headed outside to play. However, the lawns are wet and full of mud. Perfect for a two year old who loves water and mud. My friend and I bravely took our toddlers and newborns to the park to play. (see K1) We have no picture of the actual event but imagine two blond boys running and jumping into a muddy puddle. You can imagine their joy. I, of course was thinking, "Who's going to get this muddy boy home." Luckily, Ryan made it to the park before we left and hefted the boy home.

Here is Jack when we got home. If you blow up the picture you can see the mud up to his knees.

See his dirt streaked face? Can he get any happier?

Yes, that is a pizza box he's crawling on. In our defense it was a windy day and the contents of our recycling was spread out over part of our backyard. It has since been cleaned up so that we aren't the trashy neighbors.

All clean.

And what was Addy up to during this adventure?


Sleeping.

Adeline Louise

Ryan took these beautiful pictures of Adeline in her handmade blessing gown for her birth announcement. Look for her announcement in a mailbox near you.

Clean Addy

Check out the rolls on that girl.

I only point this out because I am so proud of her growing body because her only nourishment comes from me. MIRACLE!

All wrapped up and warm in the towel Dorothy made her.
(Notice the hood is around her feet. Not sure why. )

Happy Helper

Jack is really becoming a grown up boy. He likes to do whatever we are doing.
He is helping us rake the leaves in the backyard.

Our leaves fell late and the snow fell early this year so we're cleaning up fall's mess so we can move on to spring planting and fixing up the backyard.

He filled his own paper sack with leaves and sticks too. I guess we need to get him his own yard work tools. I see lots of fun this summer working in the yard. Do they make children's work gloves?

It was just a matter of time

This toothbrush is now in the garbage!
The good news is that Jack's teeth are clean. The bad news is that he used toilet water to rinse his brush.

Jack has been fascinated with tour toilet for a long time. He loves to flush it and watch the water swirl down. Or if you're lucky, he'll walk into the bathroom while you are using the toilet and flush it for you. So helpful. Except for dipping Ryan's watch in the toilet once, he has not put anything in it or played in the water until today.

This morning, I let jack stand at the sink himself to brush his teeth. He wanted some privacy and pushed me out of the bathroom and closed the door. Now, I am smart enough to know that a 2 year-old does not need privacy and is probably up to know good. So I peeked in on him and he was standing at the sink brushing his teeth. So, I went to get his clothes from his dresser. When I returned to the bathroom I saw the toilet lid up and water dripping on the seat. You can guess the rest. Just to prove my hypothesis correct, Jack immediately dipped his toothbrush in the toilet and stuck it in his mouth. After I stopped gagging, I grabbed the toothbrush. Without a toothbrush to dip, Jack immediately put his hand in and gave the water a swirl. Good thing he was headed into the tub.

Bye bye Nemo.

16 hours in a car

We spent 16 hours in the car this past weekend to attend the wedding of a good friend. We drove out of town Friday night with an almost 2 year old and a one month old. What were we thinking?

Jack is a GREAT traveler. He loves cars and trucks and diggers and spent the entire trip to Washington, D.C. pointing them out as we drove while snuggling his favorite puppy.

Addy slept between feedings and only required a few extra stops along our way. Unfortunately, one of our stops for a feeding lead to a drained battery in Lewisburg, PA. The good thing is that we happened to be near a Taco Bell/KFC with a nice manager and 7 boys to help push start our car when the jump start did not work. Thank you boys!

While Ryan, Amy and Tracie (Ryan's sister) were all inside the D.C. Temple, Brother-in-Law Jay was taking one for the team by watching all 4 children back at the hotel. 4 children under the age of 3 with the youngest just 5 weeks old. Yep, he's a saint. Especially when the sealing ran a little long and the youngest baby was SCREAMING for food.

So we're all dressed up at the reception eating a lovely meal without children in tow and this is the only pictures we have of the four of us. Notice no Ryan and no Tracie and just Amy's hair and half of Jay's head. (and the bride and groom are not even aware the picture is being taken). So sad to not have a picture of the four of us looking smashing. It just shows you what a great time we were having that we forgot to take any pictures.

Here is a picture of Mariam and her lovely bouquet.
She did not put it down once it was in her hands.

We would drive the 8 hours again just for the pleasure of cousins spending time together. The added bonus was that Jack got to see his cousins on his birthday.

Mariam helped Jack open his Toby train and she sang him happy birthday.


We got to see, not so little any more, Joshua too.

Ryan and I took the kids to the temple on Sunday before we drove home. Jack would not put his new digger down. (thank you cousins for a great present)


On the way home, Jack got to eat his birthday donut. (Notice that he is still not putting down the digger. The digger and puppy kept him happy the whole way home.)