Papa

Anyone who knows my dad will appreciate Theron's observation...

"Papa says his favorite tickling spot is under his little toe nail, but it's not. It's a joke. Everything he says is a joke."

Calling All Fans...

Travis' mom, Judy, is a champ. She suffered a stroke several days ago and is fighting back just like everyone would expect her to.

We have every reason to expect her to recover completely from this. With her positive attitude and determination she'll be back to helping save the world (one daughter-in-law at a time) before we know it.

Apparently it takes more than a stroke to shut this grandma down.

Root team Judy!

Army Dude Update

Things are looking pretty bad for this armless soldier...

Feelin' the Love

"Mommy, I love Burke-y more than life."

Charlie Chatter

Sometime before the holidays Charlie decided that he always wanted to have someone in the room with him. If his companion of choice left the room he started to panic and said, "I comin'."
Now that the holidays are over and we're all through singing Christmas carols, Charlie still panics when we leave the room, but now he says, "I comin' to town." I still chuckle every time I hear him say it and think, "Yep, and Santa Claus, too."

Saved

Our boys know that when a toy breaks in our house it goes in the garbage unless it can easily be fixed. They often come to me and say, matter-of-factly, "Mom, this toy needs to go to the garbage." Well, this army dude made his way upstairs a couple of days ago with one arm missing and the other barely hanging on. I glanced at him and tossed him into the kitchen garbage. As I heard him hit the can I also heard a voice in my head say, "A good soldier never leaves a man behind." Too much Toy Story?? No kidding after hearing it over and over in my head I turned around and pulled the guy right out of the garbage can. Yep, I saved him. How could I not? He has been sitting on our computer desk ever since. What do I do with him now?

Mt. Laundry

I asked Isaac and Theron to help with the laundry today by lugging it all down to the basement. This involves two flights of stairs. They did it excitedly. After it was all over they came upstairs to report, "We made a HUGE pile of clothes!!" When I came down later on to address the situation I took one look at the pile and laughed out loud. No joke, it was HUGE enough for me. I know what I'll be doing all day today.

Introducing...

...the iPhone...


Bringing families together.

Burke Thinks

"If I could just get my leg a little higher, I could get that chubby big toe into my mouth."

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Charlie!! As noted in the photo, Charlie is 2 years old. Until yesterday, every time I asked Charlie how old he was, he always said, "NAME," in a flat robotic sounding voice. Now he plainly states, "Two!"

Sticking with tradition we pulled off breakfast in bed for the boy this morning. Travis left for the hospital at 6:00am this morning but slipped back home for twenty minutes at 7:00am. I got Isaac up at 6:30am so he could be all ready to board the bus at 7:20am just after we planned to finish the early morning bash. Theron was flexible and Burke slept like a gem so I could pull the whole thing off. Complicated but successful. He loved every minute of it.

The boys

One of the best things in the world is to be a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one.

--Charles Dudly Warner

Oh! By the way...

...Merry Christmas!!