Photos of the Kids

I know its been a long, long time since we last posted on the blog, but life has been busy. Laura and I wake up at 4:52AM every morning. She goes to the gym for an hour and I read my scriptures and eat breakfast. She gets home around 6:05 and reads her scriptures and eats her breakfast and I leave to go workout. She gets the kids ready alone - an amazing feat - and gets Haley to school by 7:45AM. Then, she goes to work around 8:00AM with Allie, Emily, and Joseph and works until 2:30PM. She makes a quick deposit at the bank for work and runs to pick Haley up from school by 2:55PM. She's home with all four kids by 3:10PM and by that time they're all hungry. I stay at school from about 6:30AM to 6:30PM every day and usually from about 9:00 - 2:00 on Saturdays. Sunday is my only day off. By the time I get home Laura has helped Haley complete her homework, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, fed everyone a snack, made supper, bathed four kids, done a load or two of laundry, swept the house, and managed to keep a smile. After I get home she feeds me and then I go study while she packs lunches for everyone for the next day. We usually try to meet up around 8:45 for 15 minutes of "together" time before going to bed around 9:00PM. Then, it all starts over again. So, it's not that we have procrastinated posting on the blog, it's that we have not had any time to do so.

This is Emily. She loves to crawl up in Joseph's highchair and also to get into his walker. She thinks it's fun. She's not really that far removed from the highchair.

Joseph always says, "Overweight is something that just sort of snacks up on you, Dad!"

Do cannibals get hungry one hour after eating Mexican?

Laura: Hey Emily, why does a milking stool only have 3 legs?

Emily: Because the cow has the udder.

Silly Haley and Allie.

What do you call a brunette with two blondes on either side?

An interpreter.

Why didn't Indians scalp brunettes?

Because the hair off a Buffalo's butt was more manageable.

A brunette says to a blonde, "Look, a dead bird." The blonde looks up and says, "Where?"

Haley loves grits, eggs, bacon, biscuits, and muffins.

Allie dressed herself.

Joseph looks like an ape.

You should see me flip Emily over the bar she's holding, she loves it.

Raise your hand if you're sure.

Emily didn't get the part in the Yoplait commercial. She did get the part of Pigpen in Charlie Brown Christmas though.

The cats left us a present. Haley and Allie wanted to cook it and eat it.

See, it's not very big.

As you can see, Emily is eating the breakfast of champions . . . Trix.

Thank you PopPop and Grammy for the swingset, the kids love it.

Emily loves being outside. She says that word very well.

Haley saved Emily from an Eagle that swooped down and tried to grab her.

Allie should have been named Plato

This morning, while eating breakfast, Haley, Allie, Emily, and I (Brent) were discussing the ice skating rink at the Eastdale Mall in Montgomery. It is currently undergoing some construction. The girls and I were discussing why it was closed and when, perhaps, Laura would be able to take them ice skating. I told them that the ice had probably melted and that they were having to fix it. Allie furrowed her eyebrows, folded her arms with exclamation, and said, "Dad! If the ice melted they would be offering swimming lessons!" I knew she was ready for kindergarten; I never realized that she was ready for Philosophy 1010.

pictures

Joseph's first portrait.

Allie and me at the skating rink right before we left Utah. Beautiful Emily. I figured Haley and Allie would be tired of ice skating after 15 minutes or so. They skated for an hour and a half. Allie said, "I love this. I could skate right to heaven."

My happy boy. Check out the eyelashes!

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

At the office today, while Dad was on his lunch break, one of his customers came through the door while Emily was standing there looking out the window. Emily turned and looked at Dad's office and told the customer "gone gone." Grammy was teasing Haley about having a boyfriend, trying to tell her she didn't know what it meant to be "in love." But Haley told Grammy, " It's when you love someone so much, you don't want to be married to anybody else." Grammy said, "Actually, that's a really good answer." I know there's been a serious lack of posts for the last two months. I'll try to do better, but for now here's an update: We're living in Millbrook, Alabama. We're home! Emily turned two this last Sunday. Happy Birthday Emmie! Haley and Brent started school Aug. 9 and Brent recently was recognized for receiving the highest grade on his first Legal Writing and Research paper. (He had to write three more this week.) Haley is taking Ballet at the Alabama Dance Theatre. Allie and Emily are taking gymnastics at the Armory. Joseph is six months old, still the most smiley baby, and he's teething. I'm working part-time for my dad and I get to take my three youngest children to work with me. We're loving it! We love our new house and our new neighbors! We have a great new ward and we live on a dead end street so the girls can still ride their bikes and scooters on the road. Life is good all the way around. We're a little busier than usual, but it has some real benefits. Namely, we're not all missing Brent desperately while he's stuck in his books and glued to his computer. We're keeping busy like him.

Happy Birthday and Happy Graduation!

Emily didn't care much for eating the birthday cake, but she loved the ice cream!

We thought Haley would want Tinkerbell, princesses or Strawberry Shortcake on her birthday cake, but she surprised us all when she asked for Spiderman.

Who knew? For Allie's preschool graduation we planned a cookout with all the preschool families. The kids really enjoyed themselves. I don' t think they understood what was really happening. They pretended to be dogs while we took their group photo. They were all excited to receive the little photo albums we made for them. Allie still asks when she gets to go back to preschool. Haley wanted her picture taken with her teacher, Miss Harms, on graduation day. She was pretty sad to think that she wouldn't see Miss Harms again. We were really blessed that she had such a great teacher. It was a great Kindergarten year!

Pictures

Allie, Emily, Joseph and I went kite flying yesterday. I think Allie's neck started to hurt from staring at the sky because she just laid down in the field to watch her kite.

Joseph sat in his car seat to watch and Emily played with his feet.

He's such a happy boy!

Baby feet.

Emily found dandelions in the field. I wonder what she wished for. Allie's helping Emily learn to ride her trike.

Allie is such a happy helper and is always ready to try something new. She did a great job mowing the yard.

Emily loves to lay with Joseph in his play gym.

Joseph in his church clothes.

Isn't he handsome?

Emily helped herself to the cake.