Tina

I know it's been awhile since we've posted, mostly for lack of anything really interesting to say. The only news is the recent addition to our family, the goldfish Tina. We brought home about 12 goldfish from Dad's office halloween party. I keep a small goldfish bowl and some food in a cupboard for just such occasions. For some reason Jody took a real interest in them, even researching them on the internet to know how best to care for them. The week following the party it wasn't unusual to hear "Noooo!" from the other room, and we all quickly learned it meant another fish had not made it. Well, one single survivor was left and Jody declared that it had lived long enough to give it a name- Tina. The other day I was waiting for Jody out in the car and after awhile I came in to find him. He looked so distraught and said "Angela, we have a problem". It seems the fish had gone down the drain while he was changing the water. Jody could see it but didn't know what to do. I actually had to stick my hand down the disposal (gross) and scoop it out (even grosser). Well, Tina survived. She now has a new small aquarium with fake plants and everything. Why Tina you ask? Every time Jody feeds the fish he says "Tina, eat the food. Eat the food!!!". It hasn't got old yet. We laugh everytime he says it. I guess a fish is better than the two dogs, two birds, or the pot belly pig Jody has brought home throughout the years! We love all of you and miss everyone that's away.

Saturday night fun

Hello all. We had a nice Thanksgiving even though we couldn't be there. Alan started cooking at 6:30am and I started at 7am and we both finished about 4:30. We enjoyed the process but enjoyed the food even more. Alan's smoked turkey turned out fabulouso and the fried one was good too. It was a little different smoking in 34 degree weather but he did just fine. We had a great time at the Simister's home with 6 or 7 couples all of them ortho residents and about 12 kids. It was a lot of fun, food and noise, alot like home. We missed you all and hope you had a fun and thankful time. I tried to take some pictures of our day but they all ended up fuzzy. I guess I can't hold a baby and take pictures at the same time. Mark and Bradley are off to a little party at our neighbors with silly pajamas and crazy hair so I had them pose for some pictures. These are hot off the presses. I took them about five minutes ago. Happy blogging to all!--Amy

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to say hi and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. William just had his own Thanksgiving feast--his first time eating rice cereal. He did pretty well and I think he liked it alot!

Hope you all have a fun day. Love you!
Amy B.

Dad Blogged!

Dad blogged- well actually he commented. I was pretty excited. It's pretty fun if you let yourself get into it Dad. I know you check the page but it would be awesome to hear from you too. I love you! Angela

New beenie and mittens

The cold weather rolled in on us all of a sudden so Amy went out and bought William some new mittens and a beenie. 

The Beenie comes off!

 

Smoking a Turkey?

Okay dad, I thought this might get to you easier if I posted on the family site. Most poultry is smoked with sweet light woods. I suggest apple or peach. Look at the following websites for more specific information. If you have any questions, call me.
http://bbq.about.com/od/turkey/a/aa112297a_2.htm
http://bbq.about.com/cs/turkey/a/aa110103a.htm
http://bbq.about.com/od/brinerecipes/r/bl71122a.htm
I am going to add some brown sugar and honey or maybe molasses for a sweeter flavor. However, that is at your discretion when you brine. Remember to get lump charcoal. I might have left some there. You can get a large bag at Safeway. As for the wood, there is a place down by Wallace theaters that sells wood chunks. Too bad you got rid of those peach trees.

On another note, yesterday I saw the patient in which I placed the implant. Everything is looking great, and we loaded it. It looks like I will get to place a few more in the next couple months.

Tallon won't smile

Everytime its picture time, Tallon freezes and WILL NOT SMILE! Don't judge him, he really is a happy boy! I've realized that he loves to take the easy way out. At 14 months, crawling is still his number one means of transportation. He has a general term for a group of people or object. every adult male is Daddy (the old men in the grocery store love this one), every little girl is "Ha-yee" (hadley), all food is a "nana"(banana), and "dane-du"(thank you) means please, thank-you, give it to me NOW and your welcome. He got his first buzz-cut the other day and I thought he would never forgive me, but he seems to have forgotten.
We are really liking it in the city. I never have to drive anywhere because everything is within walking distance. We do wish we could see Andrew and Jessica more though, and we are going to be so sad when they leave next year. Aric is doing very well with his first year. He has had a few "I want to quit school" moments, but they are short lived.
Anyways, we miss you all very much and we love to see and hear from everybody. This was such a great idea!-Jessica

Dreaming of Arizona

Just thought I would say hello to all of you in beautiful sunny Arizona. We are freezing our tails off here in the worst weather ever in Missouri. How could this place ever be Zion with the horrible summers and horrible winters. I hear there is good weather for about three weeks in the fall and three weeks in the spring. That is so wrong. It is a balmy 20 degrees outside and all I can think of is how I would much rather be in 117 degrees in Arizona. I realized we are seriously unprepared when it comes to winter clothes, and I thought I had bought too much. I hope we acclimate quickly to the cold so we can survive this winter. I don't remember Utah feeling this cold. Maybe it is the combination of the wind and the humidity or maybe it is having to take four kids out with me that makes it so much worse. The most pleasant thought is that it is just beginning and is only going to get colder. I love it!
We had such a great time with Mom and Dad here. It was wonderful to have them come and visit. The kids are already asking when they are coming back. We welcome any and all visitors but advise you to plan well to hit those six weeks of great weather. Mom and Dad completely lucked out. They must have taken all the warmth back to Arizona because as soon as they left it got very cold. I apologize for the non-humorous nature of this post but we can't all be as funny as Alan. I am off to a parent-teacher conference and then to go buy more warm clothes. Hopefully Goodwill will have the goods.---Amy

Installment Two

As I sit down and put pen to paper, I stop, I need to type or there is no way you will ever read this. I thought of so many funny things to say, but I posted this already, so I couldn't include them. It was fun to have Mom and Dad here this week. Dad tried to get me to quit school and go into day trading. That would be a bad idea unless I could get someone to give me some money to trade with. Hmmm who could I ask. I wanted to share some of my other memories of growing up. I remember breaking my arm, Angela's rabbit being torn through a 1.5" x 1.5" hole, a flooded basement that cost me my savings, doing a 180 on the freeway offramp, hitting the gas and not the brake, Andrew throwing my super cliffhanger's racetrack against the wall, Andrew pulling out the antenna on my remote control car, running into Aaron's wheelhouse pillow swing and being slammed against the wall- and wanting to do it again, shoveling manure, moving the woodpile 4, no 5, no 6, like 25 times, weeding the flowers dad just planted, the 8-ball flying slow motion into the television, eating beets, throwing them up, rounding the corner and seeing dad picking up piano keys off the road, trying to flavor my broccolli soup with peppermint extract, wearing 4 pairs of underwear and 3 pairs of levis for when dad got home, that's about it. Enjoy your week.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Here we are in Missouri with these four little munchkins. Mark is somewhat toothless; Bradley is all over the place, Ellie (Elie-nor) loves to be read to; Little Luke is so loving. We're having a good time playing games, going to the Science Museum, eating....ahhhh.

Grandparenting is a blast. It is, of course, fun to visit with parents of these munchkins as well.

One more Halloween group...

Here they are!

I had to have costumes ready very early this year. Our first costume party was October 11th. (By the time the 31st came I was Halloween-ed out.) The kids all had a great time and have way too much candy!

We are slow - but we are here!

Screaming and Blogging are just not a happy mix! I only sit at the computer as long as I have to - but I am ready to do my part. I haven't been on since Saturday (I think) and I can't believe all of the posts!

I'll see if this actually works and then maybe I'll try to get our Halloween kids on.

Here goes...

Melis

Tallon the Great!!

I knew Jessica would never post a picture of herself...so i did. It's just such a beautiful picture of here and Tallon looks rather ravishing in both.

Birthday Boys, etc..

Caden & Crew both had their birthdays last month. The one with all of the kids is their first day of school. Obviously I don't know basics of photography-none of them could keep their eyes open! The picture of Cannon was too cute- shirt, face & hair all ORANGE!

Braelyn

Here's another one from the summer. Isn't she beautiful? 

Cannon

I just remembered this cutest picture we had of Cannon from this summer, and I thought you all would like it. What a cute little red-head! 

Bath Time!!!!

 

Bath Time Continued....

 

Where are they?

Ok, I have decided that someone needs to send a message by way of carrier pigeon or the Pony Express to Aaron and Melissa. I'm sorry, but I just don't think they know how much it hurts not to have your blogs read. Stab a needle in my eye. Hey Aaron, if you get this message, how would you treat that? This reminds me of the time when I, oh wait, Amy is coming in the room, better get back to that paper.

Sunday night

Yes, I am still checking the website. Amy wonders why my papers I am working on look so much like Solitaire. There are just so many things about orthodontics she still has to learn. Dad knows. Later

fond remembrances

I was recalling the best vacation of my life, and this image came up. What this has to do with the best vacation I do not know. However, since it came up, I was reminded of the beautiful summer vacation spent in a hot, swerving back and forth 'til you puke, ever moving, claustrophobic tenement on wheels. Remember those good times? We can laugh now, but if I went back in time and said to my 12 year old self that I would look back on that trip and laugh some day, I hope my 12 year old self would have the presence of mind to punch my lights out. Oh yeah, and don't forget that it's not polite to make wet toilet paper wads to throw at other motorists or particularly motor homes that are parked right behind you. I will liken this trip to Zion's camp. I don't know how it has made me better, but..... Where was I? Well I do know that the two short papers I have to write tonight will be more unbearable than a motorhome. The cellular and subcellular mechanism of action of bisphosphonates and growth factors VEGF and, well who really cares? Take care all.

Fall Fun

Tallon the bumble bee

William's First Kiss!

From Ashlyn Dahmer 

House on Country Plaza

Hey everyone-
Craig & Dondea Merrill have sold their house and she called Joan to see if I would want to walk through it. I went over there and what a flood of memories. Of course it is really different-she's built walls in front of doors and closed off hallways, but I could remember what it used to be like. The big orange playroom that we built so many forts in doesn't seem as big now that I'm older. Remember the shiny gold wall paper? That whole room is a kitchen now with an arch leading from the family room to there. The old kitchen is a little sitting room and the covered room that used to be behind the kitchen and family room is now open to the house. I guess Aaron has probably seen it like this. The garage is a big bathroom, storage room and bedroom. I got to see our old bedrooms. Remember when the back room was a food storage room and the shelves tipped over and there was jelly and other messes all over the floor? Also the dressing room off of Mom & Dad's room brought back memories. There is that step down to get into it and the closet had that fake wall that Dad's gun cabinet was in. I always thought that was so cool that we had a secret wall! Dad loved to hear the birds right outside his bedroom window. Looking at the back yard and the pasture that was once full of goats, chickens and usually a calf made me want to go back and play Annie Annie Over, or a game of baseball with koolaid when we were done, or run over the berms to see who could play, or start a game of war between our treehouse and the Packer's fort. I know it was only six years, but it is the bulk of my early childhood memories. It was fun to go there. I love my memories there with my awesome family. I love you guys. Ang

At Big Lake...

Action shot! Don was teaching us all how to skip rocks across the lake and it looks like Braelyn is finding the perfect rock.

Could the kids get any cuter? Jency and Hadley on Halloween, oh what a treat!!! Then come the fashion divas: Audrey, Braelyn, and Alyse.

The cheeks, the rolls, the smiles!!!!

As you can see, the kids love to pose! And if you didn't guess, the cute little bottom with the pink shoes is Eleanor.