The Two are Two!

It's hard to believe, but Hannah and Noah are two! (Maybe not so hard if you consider Hannah's attitude lately.)

We had a wonderful day last Saturday with Nana, Papaw, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amber. Everybody came over in the morning for presents, a great lunch (Papa John's), and ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Grandma and Grandpa also stayed to watch General Conference (a semi-annual church-wide conference; we watch it via satellite).

Probably the most fun part of the day was presents! It's so much more fun now that Hannah and Noah know how to open presents and get excited about what's inside. Here's a couple of pictures of them opening presents.




Hannah got a very special present from Grandma. The cradle in the following picture was made by Elizabeth's grandfather for her when she was a little girl. Hannah has loved playing with it now that it has been passed down to her. But now it's super-special because Grandma made a matress, pillow, and blanket for the babies!


On their actual birthday we took them to Bouncertown here in Greenwood. They had a really fun time in the toddler bouncer. We also had some more yummy pizza! Here are a couple of pictures from there.





Click here if you're interested in seeing the rest of the pictures.

Fall Premier

Okay, hopefully I'm back for the fall. I don't really see things slowing down anytime soon, but I've heard there are some readers that are disappointed that I haven't been keeping up. I'm happy to oblige.

I just spent the last hour trying to put a fancy new background on the blog to celebrate autumn (my favorite season by the way). Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out an easy way to change the template HTML without getting rid of all of my widgets I have set up. If someone knows an easy way, let me know. Otherwise, I guess I'm going to have to spend a bit of time getting familiar with the code to pick out the parts that I need to move.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Spokane, Washington on a business trip. I really enjoyed the area a lot. There is the Spokane river that runs right through downtown. There is a very nice park that you can walk around in. Outdoor activities are within a 10-15 minute drive in any direction. Beautiful parks, mountains (even ski resorts for the winter), lakes, rivers, etc. One of the afternoons after we got done at work, we made the 30-minute drive over to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (think the skinny part). It was absolutely beautiful. It is home to the world's longest floating boardwalk. The water is crystal clear. We were at the end of a pier where the water was 14 feet deep and could still see the bottom of the lake! We even got brave and took a seaplane ride over the lake and mountains. For $60, it was awesome! Here's a picture of my colleague and I with the pilot and the plane, a nineteen-fifty-something de Havilland Beaver. The pilot has been flying since 1942 if I remember correctly. Click here if you're interested in seeing more pictures from the plane ride and trip to Coeur d'Alene.


Like many parents of the 21st century, we utilize timeouts as a way to discipline our children when they act...well...two.

Hannah has gotten really into acting out traumatic experiences she has had. It's hard to determine how much diaper rash cream some of the baby dolls have on them at this point, if you catch my drift. Apparently, one of Hannah's timeouts was particularly traumatic. See what I mean.



Here's a few other fun and goofy pictures of the kiddos.

Summer Haitus

Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know we are still alive and having a great summer. With all of the great weather, fun activities, work, etc., I haven't had time to post anything. I promise it'll pick back up as we move into the fall. Perhaps when the good shows like Chuck and The Office come back.

American Idols Concert

We went to the American Idols concert on Tuesday night. Our friend Andrea was able to go with us. She ended up serving as our photographer since she had the aisle seat. She took some great pictures. You can see them here.

The concert was great. I was very disappointed that David Archuleta didn't sing "Imagine." It was still a great show though.

Busy Summer

Time flies when you're having fun. It's been a month and a half since my last post. Most of our loyal readers have probably given up on me by now. Hopefully you all understand!

I've just got a collection of some photos to share.


We had some friends over to celebrate my birthday with dinner. Elizabeth made this wonderful birthday "cake" for me.



Earlier this summer, Elizabeth bought the kids a small pool for the backyard. Of course, since I'm so crazy about the grass, she's not allowed to leave it out overnight which means she spends more time setting it up and emptying it than they do playing in it each day. Anyway, they really like it.


Here more recently we picked up a little Elmo sprinkler as well. Anything helps on these hot days!





On the Fourth of July we had some friends over for a cook-out (we mostly stayed inside though since the weather wasn't that great). We did go out for a few fireworks after dinner. Here's a picture of Hannah and Noah enjoying the show. We finished the night off with some homemade ice cream. Yum yum!


On a more serious note. My Aunt Candy got married on July 4th in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to a man named Jim Long. They had been together for quite some time (years) and finally tied the knot. They had a reception in Greenfield at he VFW where Jim was a Commander and bartender on Saturday, July 12th. Unfortunately, the following morning Jim passed away. The funeral was this past Thursday. It's really hard to find any silver lining in all of this, but if there is any, it's the fact that he ended on such a happy note and got the opportunity to see his friends and loved ones one last time just hours before he left us. Here's a big group picture with Candy and Jim in the front and all of my family. We even had some surprise visitors from Ohio and Georgia.