March update

Lots happened in February.
A guy I sit by in Property had a news headline pop up on his computer. He then whispered over to me, "The Mormon president died. That cult..." So I whispered back, "You know I'm 'Mormon,' right?" He didn't believe me, and it led to some funny discussion. Given our many previous conversations and our friendly joking relationship, I didn't feel offended, and he didn't feel embarrassed after apologizing. It sprang some interesting deep thoughts for me though - how could I prove to anyone I was LDS? I couldn't show him my underwear, I didn't want to flash my temple recommend, so I ended up showing him that I have various LDS magazines downloaded on my computer.
I was very touched that many youth wore their Sunday best to school on the first day back after Pres. Hinckley's death. How cool. Also, what a vision of how the church could mass communicate from one another. For any who are unaware, the LDS newsroom site has a press release describing it. Someone decided they would wear Sunday best to school, they texted their friend, who texted their friend, etc. etc. until there was massive text messaging traffic that spread through Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, and other western states.
We've got Sydney trying to memorize the Articles of Faith. Keresa's favorite saying of Syd's is "...that man's gunna be punished for his own sins..."
Sydney and I got into a discussion about our moms. I asked if she knew who was my mom -- Grandma Whitney. I asked if she knew who was Mom's mom -- Grandma Gifford. I asked if she knew who was Jackson's mom -- Summer... Jackson fell face first on our concrete. It scraped up his nose pretty badly. Usually he holds his nose and says "P-U" when we change his diaper. Well, he tried to do his normal thing, but it hurt really badly when he squeezed his nose, so he started crying.
Jackson and I had just filled our mouths up with chocolate before jumping in the shower. It was a minute or so into the shower before I realized he was still chewing on a chocolaty caramel bite. So I had him spit it out on the floor of the tub. It eventually went near the drain. By this time Keresa usually comes in to get the boy from me and go get him dressed. So she walked in and caught both of us boys trying to smash a soft brown thing down the shower drain with our heels. I got in trouble, and she wouldn't let me explain, so I'm explaining now.
Sometimes Jackson feeds me some of his cereals during church (corn chex). We have taught him to always say please or ahh to get a bite of something. He tried to feed me a cereal and instead of opening my mouth, I just caught it in my lips so I could hold it for a bit. He forced his hand into my mouth, pulled down my jaw with all his strength, then with the other hand shoved the cereal in. I was very surprised. On the next bite, he held up the piece for me and said, "Peez ahhh." As if to say, "Okay, Dad, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."
In blessing the food the other night, Sydney said, "And please bless it will get warm outside so we can go out and play with bubbles."
Jackson is very interested in wearing snow boots recently. He will wear his cool camouflage ones, but only until he remembers about Sydney's cool bright pink ones! Then he carries around her purse and pretends to be talking on the phone. oh no.
MK KGW SRW JGW

April update

Happy Easter from Grundy, VA!
Snow during Spring Break?

yo yo yo
Early in March we had Spring Break. The weekend before, we got plenty of snow, by Grundy standards. We built a nice snowman. Sydney was very excited to see if the snowman would come alive when we put a magic hat on him.
After the snow, we drove to nearby Gatlinburg, TN. While there we went to a petting zoo, complete with camels, emu, zebra, cows, horses, deer, and of course, goats. We went in the goat pen and they thought Sydney was one of them. They would come close to her and butt her in the chest with their horns. She fell down a lot. One just wanted to be near Jackson, but after he watched what happened to Sydney, he just walked away. It followed, and it looked like a slow speed chase. He kept stopping and looking over his shoulder, then in terror keep walking away from the stalking goat. Keresa was most excited to see the zebras.
Also in Gatlinburg, we swam. The boy is a chip off the ole block. He loves to kick and splash in the pool. Sydney swam and swam and even went in to the spa with Mom to play in the bubbles. Mom and Dad enjoyed how much the kids were worn out after swimming, so they would take good naps.
Finally in Gatlinburg, we found a park with slides, monkey bars, and all sorts of toys. After watching Ninja Warrior, a funny show from Japan where people go against an obstacle course of giant foam blocks, rolling logs, and other funny things, and they fall in swampy water if they can't make the jumps, we thought we would try out our ninja skills at the park.
When we got home from Gatlinburg, the snowman had melted, and we left the pile of rubble (his eyes, mouth and nose) for a few days in his memory. The kids wore their snow boots one last time, but they didn't wear any other snow apparel. (see pics)
When Easter came, the girls dyed eggs and the boys ate the eggs in delicious sandwiches. When Keresa asked Sydney to help her dye some eggs, Sydney replied, "That's not nice mommy to make the eggs dead!" We snapped a few shots in their Easter outfits, dug up the front garden and put in some flowers, then the egg hunt began! Keresa went outside to hide the eggs. I was supposed to keep the kids occupied indoors until she was ready. I was pretty tired, so I sprawled out on the couch waiting for Keresa to come back in. Before long, I heard a laugh and a frustrated/ laughing Keresa outside yelling, "HONEY!" I looked up and in my snooziness, I didn't even notice that both kids had been standing at the window watching Keresa hide all the eggs. Oops.
Sydney led with Mom close behind. Since she found them all before Jackson even realized what was happening, I took a few from her basket and each time Jackson would bend down to get one, I would pull another from his basket and put it up ahead a few feet. So he "found" 10 or so, but only ended up with 3 in his basket. Weird.
We will be on the road to Vegas in only another month. My last day of school is May 2, so we expect to be there some time around May 6 or 7. Is Tucson on the way there? ;)
mk kgw srw jgw