June update

Not a lot new this month. We live in a Vegas apartment. I'm working an internship for Clark County Legal Aid in their domestic violence unit. So if anyone is feeling a bit too happy and needs some depressing stories, let me know! There is a lot of child abuse, spousal abuse, etc. It makes me come home and play with the kids until they go to bed because I don't want them to be neglected by their dad like the kids in these cases.
Keresa's cousin teaches a swim lessons class, so she has been hauling the kids over there every day the last couple weeks. Those three are looking VERY TAN! She is really enjoying being close to family.
We got to attend a batman birthday party for Bronson. It was a lot of fun, and the way the Batman pin~ata was hanging, when the kids beat him enough, his body fell off and just his head was left hanging up there. It was cool.
Sydney said that she is a grand child. We asked her why she thought that. She said because she likes graham crackers so much, she must be a graham child!
Jackson is getting the same sense of humor as his dad. Keresa keeps her bobby pins in a bottle/jar that is a lot like a big film canister. Jackson walked up to her and tapped his bum while saying, "poo poo poo!" Then he stuck his hand in there. Keresa freaked (like any good mom would do when her toddler stuck his hand in his poopy diaper) and grabbed his arm so he wouldn't get you-know-what on everything. Then he smiled, pulled his hand out, and he was only holding the lid to that bobby pins bottle. That little trickster. MK KGW SRW JGW

May update

Game night at Chris & Summer's

Keresa now has a picture of Jackson on her desktop background of her computer. Sometimes he'll walk up behind her and when she minimizes a window, he'll say peek-a-boo. So they play computer peek-a-boo now for a while.
This month on EBay we got some special nasty tasting nail polish for curbing nail biting. Our intent was to paint it on Sydney's thumbs so she would stop sucking them at night. It seems better than the traditional entire-thumb paint because this stuff lasts a few days, regardless of whether the kid can hurry and lick it all off, or wash it off by washing their hands, because it is paint, not just some syrup stuff. So we put it on her thumbs. The first night, she came into our room and said, "Eeww mommy I have yucky yucky bubble mouth!" Keresa told her to get a drink. She said that she already had tried that and it was still so yucky.
Sydney and I had a date yesterday evening. We ate pizza, then washed my truck, then played outside for a few hours. When we came in, she told me that we should have dessert. So I suggested Gatorade. She said, no, that�s not dessert. I suggested pancakes. She laughed, "No, Dad, that's just food. I want dessert." So I asked what was her suggestion. She walked over to a drawer and pulled out her cooking apron. As she was tying it on, she said, "I'll make some scones." I told her only Mom knew how to make those, but I would settle for some graham crackers. She agreed. We sat at the table and ate them. I made her a graham cracker sandwich with frosting in the middle. A little of the frosting dripped out onto the side, then onto her hand. She got all paranoid and whiny about it, so I told her to just lick it off. She kind of whined that she couldn't because it was, ��on my thumb with the yucky nail polish!"
Jackson is confused about whether nodding the head means yes, and shaking it back and forth means no. He was walking behind Keresa while she was taking dishes of food from the kitchen to the table saying, "Bite please, Bite please!" So she turned around and asked him if he would like a bite. He responded by shaking his head side to side. On another occasion, she had him in the doctor's office waiting room, and a lady said, "Are you a good boy?" and he shook his head back and forth. We are trying to encourage his English because his sign language is not too reliable.
Keresa is pretty busy making preparations for moving. By the end of law school, I'm sure we will be expert movers! One of her sisters sent Sydney a paper chain that she could tear one link off every day until it was time to go to Las Vegas. I'm not sure who is more excited to count the links and associate that to the number of days left in Grundy: Sydney or Keresa.
MK KGW SRW JGW

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

March update

Enjoying the snow

An overview of our February!

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

February update

January has the record of being the fastest month ever for us. Between finishing our Las Vegas partying, the red eye flight with the Kiddos, getting back into school, and snow days, every day has held something new.
The flight back to Virginia was great. The kids ate the airplane snacks, slept, and only went to the bathroom where they were supposed to. The airport in North Carolina was small, cold, and late at night. I left Keresa with both kids and all our stuff while I rode the bus to long term parking and retrieved our car. It was a chilling 14 degrees, and as I walked up to the car in the parking lot, it looked like someone had dropped a boulder on the windshield because it was all spider webbed and cracked. Magically, as I turned on the defroster and got everything warmed up, the spider web went away.
They cancel public schools here on the mere forecast of snow. I have only had class pushed back on an hour delay on some very snowy days.
Jackson has learned to climb up on stuff. There is a box in our front room that he likes to climb up. Periodically we will hear him do such a sad cry from that room. When we go to see the matter, he is standing up on the box with his hands behind his back. Once he gets up, he can�t get down. Hmm . . . I have a great new idea for time out . . .
Sydney had her birthday, so now she's 3. She carried around a box and sometimes put it on her head, sometimes would stand on it, etc. Then she came to me at the computer and asked for tape. I gave her a few minutes, then went to check on her. She had the box all taped up and asked, "Dad will you take me to the post office so I can send this package to Summer?"
It was great to see almost everyone at New Years and we look forward to returning this summer!
MK KGW SRW JGW

January update

Jackn Ooooh!
Syd and Sagie at Gma Whitney's
Syd and Stelli
Jackn and the crossbred duck-chickens

December update

Kiddos!
The Richlands Branch Nursery! All of us!
"I sure wish there were some other kids in nursery."
Men's work
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Many times throughout the day I try to make a note about writing something they [our children] did or said in my journal. Those are the pieces I send over for the newsletter.
We missed not being around for thanksgiving. It was ironic that Keresa's family called and left a voicemail during the kids' nap. Then when we left and went out for a drive, she received the message so she called them back. That happened right when Gpa Whitney called (or rather, Summer called on his phone) so we had all this excitement. When Syd didn't get to talk to Gma Whitney, she felt pretty sad, so I called her back and put Sydney on. Eventually she said she couldn't hear her anymore and I don't know whether she hung up or whether she didn't make enough noise for Gma to know she was still on the line, so Gma hung up. Either way, she was pretty stoked to be a big girl on the phone, holding it all by herself and such.
We went with another law school couple to Wal-Mart, and out to dinner at a new Mexi place we found in Richlands called Mariachi. The food was great and cheap, and the Wal-Mart trip was fun. On the way home we were talking about what we bought, and Keresa, who was driving, said, "Why did you want that Febreeze again dear? It was for your shoes right?" I responded (from the backseat), "uh, honey?!" in embarrassment. The whole car burst with laughter, including Sydney, who had no idea what was going on, but figured she'd better laugh too, so that made us all laugh even more. I was still embarrassed.
Keresa found an online bra shop called Mardi Bra. I think that's pretty cool.
Jackson has started to try running instead of walking. He sees Sydney do it, and figures he might as well too. He doesn't understand that it is different from walking though � like the different weight distribution, the leaning forward, the pumping the arms, etc. So when he runs, it looks just like as if someone recorded a movie of him walking, then played it back in fast forward. It's hard to do. I've tried. I don't remember Sydney ever doing that.
Thanksgiving day was Keresa's birthday, so in accordance with her wishes, we stayed in a motel in a neighboring town. The highlight for the kids was sitting in the desk-chair that was included in the room while I spun them around and around. The highlight for Keresa was watching her new movie she got for her birthday, The Sound of Music. It's the 100th anniversary edition so it includes interviews with the different actors, including some of the VonTrapp children now that they are old. (okay maybe it's not quite the 100th anniversary, but its some anniversary edition.) The highlight for me was that the restaurant we ate at for Thanksgiving dinner had pecan pie. I had two pieces.
I started taking notes in church. I noted (for the last 5 minutes of a lady's talk) every time I heard something pronounced differently than I am used to, and here's what the notes said at the end of the meeting:
Time - Tahm
Our - Air
About - a-BAY-at
Sense - SAY-ance
Priority - Prah-OR-i-tee
My - Mah
Plan - PLAY-an
Bible - BAH-bull
Jackson has finally started making noises like he is trying to learn to talk. He says Ba Ba Ba Ba for a drink of sippy cup, he says �uh oh� when it is appropriate, he says thank you "de do", he says da da da for mom.
Sydney was eating some special macaroni that I made for her. It was spider man and Shrek, so there were little Shrek heads, Fiona heads, and Spiderman heads. Also the Spiderman macaronis have some empire state buildings. When I asked Sydney who was in her macaroni, she said, "Shrek, Fiona, Spiderman, and Jesus." So I looked and sure enough, those empire state buildings looked kind of like a man with a robe on. So sure, Jesus, I guess. So I told her to eat up.
She is also starting to say knock knock jokes. Her fave is knock knock, who's there, boo, boo hoo, please don't cry. But if you do knock knock to her, instead of her saying boo hoo, she says boo what.
While Keresa was in the back getting ready this one morning, I was out with the kids playing and watching TV. Sydney was in the soft rocking chair lying across it with her head and hair hanging over one armrest, and her legs hanging over the other side. Jackson sneaked up on her head side and with both hands quickly messed up her hair then came running to me before she knew what happened. He looked over to her from me, and when he saw she didn't care, he went and did it again. He did it 3 times to her and she didn't think it was as funny as he and I did.
We also saw Bee Movie this month. Another one to buy that the kids will watch a million billion times and never get sick of I'm sure. Sydney may have even liked it more than Shrek, and that is saying a lot.
Keresa is excited to make it back West this month. She is considering trying to squeeze in a trip to Tucson sometime during Christmas break. Sadly though, we are not considering a trip to Seattle during the break, are Atwoods thinking of coming to NV or AZ?
MK KGW SRW JGW

November update

Pop! goes the Jack-O

Lots of 'em

I was in the kitchen cooking and I heard Jackson let out a yelp/scream in the other room, then Sydney came running into me. I didn't really look at her or question her regarding Jackson, because she had run in all out of breath and I wanted to let her relax a bit. She stopped and kind of had her hands behind her back. While stirring the pot on the stove, I asked, "How you doin?" she said fine. I asked her what Jackson was doing. She said, "Well he's probably sad right now." I asked her why she thought that. She said, "Because he wants this bear." And she revealed a teddy bear she had been hiding behind her back.
We went trunk or treating at our branch meeting house and the senior missionary couple was giving out Capri suns instead of candy. So I took Jackson, and Sydney went by herself. I didn't notice if Sydney made it to the senior missionaries' car or not, so I asked her if she got a juice in her trick or treat. She looked in her bag and said no, so I told her where to find one. She went over and they dropped a juice in her bag. She squealed and giggled, "Oh fank you fank you! Dad I got a juice! I got a juice! He he ha ha he ha!" I guess everyone in our branch thinks we give our kids candy all the time, but don't let them drink juice. Whatever.
Sydney and Jackson were coloring. Then Jackson stood up like he was going to leave he grabbed two crayons and ran as fast as he could (which is pretty slow) then turned around when Sydney didn�t chase him. He gave kind of a sad look that his mischief didn�t aggravate her. Then he turned around and went back, put the crayons back in the box and went on to something else.
I had one midterm in one class during October. That teacher said she was doing us a "favor" by showing us what a law school final would be like. After it was over, I was standing in line to hand it in and the kid behind me asked how I felt about it. I told him I almost blew it because I almost missed that second essay on the back (there was no such thing). He wigged and ran out of line back into the testing center. SUCKA!
Other than that, life as usual.
MK KGW SRW JGW

October update

Walkin!
Wheres Waldo, I mean Sydney
Spiderman Cake!
Eat lots of salad to grow big and strong.

The boy can walk! Jackson finally started walking. I guess it just took him turning 1. Since turning 1 a couple days ago, he has really become a little man instead of a baby. He can walk, he pays attention and responds in conversation, and a lot of other fun personality things.
Jackson's birthday came and went. It was a fun Spiderman bash. He got a Spiderman cake, Spiderman ball, and a Spiderman doll. He also got some hand puppets. They have those at our nursery and he really likes them. Also he received gifts and cards from his grandparents. Sydney was as excited as he was. She opened a card for him (when we weren't paying attention) and shouted, "Jackson got a card! And he likes it!" Then she handed it over and went for another present, but we stopped her. Jackson learned how to hold up one finger when we ask him how old he is.
After the birthday there wasn't a lot of time to play with presents before bed, so we went to bed without cleaning up the fun from the front room. The next morning when Keresa brought Jackson out, he saw all the presents and mess and fun to play in and he got an excited look on his face and held up his finger as if to say, "I'm one! And these are my presents! And I want to play with them!"
We went for a drive and Sydney had us pull over to pick a leaf off a tree. It was a really big leaf. Bigger than a beach towel.
The other day when Sydney was acting up, Keresa asked her if she would like to have a spank on her butt (she usually says bum, but she was getting pretty upset with Sydney, so instead she said butt). Sydney noticed the new word, and with her head cocked and in an interested voice said, "butt? My butt? Butt. You going to spank my butt. Hmm, butt?" over and over so many things that it made Keresa start laughing and she had to send Sydney to me to receive the spank.
Keresa had a stake meeting in September for RS, so we thought we would make a day of it and bring the whole family. It was a 2 and a half hour drive to get to our stake center. When we got there, there was a nursery, so I went in there with the kids. The ladies in charge looked at me with disgust and said dads could wait out in the foyer for the meetings to end. So I walked out there to see a few other disoriented and bewildered dads. But before long we were all settled into the couches with our laptops or Harry Potter books, doing things that dads do.
As much as I thought Grundy Virginia might not impact me, it has already left its mark on me. A mark I will carry forever. A mark about 7 inches long with 9 little pinhole marks on either side of it. That's right my appendix burst, is out, and I am fully recovered. Even more amazing than surviving a ruptured appendix is that I survived missing a week and a half of school. I am finally 100% caught up with that too. And just in time I might add. We had our first big paper due this weekend. It was a fun assignment: the teacher gave us a potential hypothetical client, then gave us 4 cases and 4 laws and told us to apply them to the hypo and write a memo advising whether we should take the case or not. It was hard, but fun.
I had a test today, a midterm. After the test a kid asked me how I thought I did on it. I told him I thought I did okay, but that I almost missed the essay on the back. He freaked! Ha Ha SUCKA!! That sort of trick is way funnier in this uptight law school atmosphere!
Other than that, life as usual.
MK KGW SRW JGW