Sydney's School

Yes, the school is called Grundy United Methodist Preschool, but they promised me they wouldn't baptize her. Notice the sign, because there are SO many churches in Grundy, they try to out do eachother when it comes to clever phrases. Also not every building in Grundy has air conditioning, so sometimes the ones that do will advertise it. I guess this is also a spoof on that. Good ol' Grundy.

Sydney's first day of school!

Virginia Life is in Full Swing

I am in class. The rigors of 2L law school life are much more manageable than 1L life because I know what I’m doing this year. In one class I am in a group with 5 people. I got to name the group: Hook, Line, Cinco. I think I am the only one who appreciates it. It’s nice to focus in, read, and come home at the end of the day knowing that I am all caught up. It’s also nice to know that a person only has one appendix.

Keresa hauls the kids to and from the library, preschool, and the park. The kids have a weekly library class. They read a book and do little crafts. Keresa likes to take them early so they play for a while before. Someone made a donation and enabled our library to build a children’s wing. You might say it’s “hooked up.” Sydney’s preschool is 3 times a week. It’s at the Grundy Methodist Church. They said they wouldn’t baptize her, but maybe Keresa can always keep Sydney’s hair styled in a frizzy way so we will be able to tell if it got wet during the day.

Keresa is dreading training Jackson to do his job in the toilet. We have pp candy and a little kid toilet. He often tells her after he has done his job in his diaper, so I guess it’s time to start. His word of the month is now. He uses it like this: “Mommy! Drink! Please! Now!” Do the please and the now cancel each other out?

Our branch had 60 people for two weeks in a row, and we had to overflow people into the primary room during sacrament. I don’t think its enough to get our building remodeled and some rooms added, but if it happened for several weeks I think they would do it. Keresa now changed from a RS counselor to a Primary counselor. This is a welcome change. Now she gets to be in our huge primary and prepare the kids for the primary program. I say huge because it has grown by something like 400% since last year. We now have 11 kids in there. Size is relative, right?

MK KGW SRW JGW

1st Week of School

Today is Friday of the first week of school. McKay is loving being an experienced 2L. One week down...how many to go? We just won't think about that right now.

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