Color

Today I am thankful for color.

little son answers the hard questions

Last night The Wife put Little to bed. He told her stories as he likes to do and she asked him questions to clarify things. She asked all kinds of questions about the main character (a little baby) and then came:

"What's her favorite day?"
"Monday."

"What's her favorite month?"
"Sectember."

"What's her favorite season?"
"Cayenne pepper."

Little Son, you're too silly.

i work from home

The other Friday The Wife had Friend in town to visit. To do my part to aide in their amusement I worked from home and watched the boys while they went on an adventure...

Why the heck do bus drivers turn on the heater?! The body heat is E. NUFF.

Anyway, so we had some good times. Started the day with some Krispies. Then played Legos the rest of the day (literally). Big Son built this crocodile (using instructions and a tiny help from me--I checked his work).

Then on Sunday before taking Friend to airport, we had a picnic at the falls--yes, we ditched second and third hours of church :<.

Planking and "Baby Jimmer"

Almost 35 Months

It seems like yesterday that he was 31 months! And he still makes me smile:

funnies

Tonight we had pork tenderloin for dinner. During the meal Big Son exclaimed, "I LOVE PORK TENDER LION!!"

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During FHE tonight I asked the Sons if they knew what the four food groups were. Little Son raised his hand and said "I DO! I DO!!" I asked him to answer and he responded: "DESSERT!!!!"

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The Wife took the Sons to the park today and they got to talking about some serious stuff (this is all paraphrased in my own words):

"Your spirit is inside your body," said Big.
"It is. Can you see it?" asked The Wife.
"No, it's just inside so you can't see it," responded Big.
"You're right. It's not something you can touch like you can touch your body. But it's real and it's really inside of you," The Wife expounded.

Quite a bit later as they were walking in the grass Big Son exclaimed while groping his neck, "I can't feel my spirit in my belly, BUT I CAN FEEL IT IN MY NECK!!"

me and big son are cooking up some goodness

Tonight Big Son and I decided to baste our brains with hot creative juices. We put on our thinking aprons and took some ideas to the cutting board. We whisked some things together and seasoned to our liking. Lastly we put our concoctions into our ovens to warm up a little. We can't wait to see the results.

And I'm sure you can't either. Unfortunately the recipe is top secret right now.

(If you hadn't guessed we're working on something that deals with cooking. Stay tuned.)

i love fall

Every morning when I leave for work I take a large whiff of the brisk autumn air. It is delicious! But wait, it isn't fall yet. Well here in Washington it has felt like fall ever since I got here back in June. It's absolutely marvelous. Each time I breathe that cool autumnesque air it reminds me of one of my greatest childhood memories...

When I was a kid back in the early 90's I was in love with video games. The Super Nintendo was the latest and greatest shiznat back then and I wanted it BADLY! I was out of school from Thanksgiving until after New Years (it was the best) and so I would beg my mom to take me to Target so that I could sit and play their demo SNES for hours and hours. I'd sit there and play Super Mario World and lust after the thing. It was awesome.

That same air that I breathed in those 20+ years ago is the same air I breathe in each morning before work and it makes me giddy inside. Thank you mom. Thank you Mario.

Little Son prays

Last night Big fell asleep on the couch before prayers and The Wife was out running errands, so it was just me and Little. I carried Little upstairs and he said to me, "we forgot to say prayers and brush teef". I reassured him that we hadn't forgotten, but we just hadn't gotten to it yet.

When it was time, Little volunteered to say the prayer and let me know he wanted to say it by himself. He whispered an awesome and thorough prayer full of thanksgiving (for toys and foods mostly) and righteous desires ("bless Brighton and mawma").

This morning he blessed breakfast himself.

I love hearing little kids pray.

pine lake park

Everyone else was posting about beach days, so I decided to join the club. I don't say this about outdoor activities very often, but yesterday we truly had some heavenly fun at Pine Lake Park. The Wife and the Sons had gone there twice before and were very excited to show me how awesome it was.

PLP is about 3 miles away from our place. It sits nestled amid large evergreen trees. Within the sanctuary of pines lies multiple play areas and a decent sized lake. The lake is surrounded by houses (which have private access to the lake) and PLP. There is also a swimming area with lifeguards and various depths for swimmers with varying degrees of swimming abilities.

We started at the play areas and then retired to a nice quiet corner of the beach. I could spend every second of my life sitting out there on the rocks. That is saying A LOT for a dude who traditionally loathes being outside an artificially tempered building.

Not only was the sun out, but the moon made an appearance too.

It was a gorgeous 66º day. We decided we're going to live on a lake like this one day.

The beach isn't a sandy beach, but a pebble beach. The Sons "cooked" The Wife and I "food".

There were fish. I told the Sons if they caught a fish we'd go to Ben and Jerry's.

They tried a little bit to catch one between preparing "meal courses".

Here's my b'ug' mug telling The Wife a story.

Even though it was 66º, the water was superb! Both boys got all the way in.

Big Son's Recipe Book

Tidbits to look for:
-"root beer, Mug not beer" (we love mug root beer)
-"wine, opt" (optional)
-"rost duck" (I just love that)

Random Quotes [of Joy]

Big Son told me yesterday, "Dad, when I grow up my name won't be [Big Son] because I am going to be Italian!"

"Dad, you're just a stink nugget of joy!" said Little Son yesterday.

In his prayers, Big Son states "bless us to nourish our bodies".

Big Son helps Little Son say the blessing and says, "bless us to be safe" and Little Son echoes "bless us to be saved."

Another time I was helping Little Son say nighttime family prayers and said "bless uncle Ben in Chile" in which he responded "bless uncle Ben AND Chile"..."help him to be safe"..."help THEM to be safe."

Big Son: "When I grow up I'm going to go to church, the temple, and home on Sundays."
Little Son: "When I grow up I'm going to go to Dairy Queen, McDonalds, and the museum on Sunday!!!"

big and little make me proud: tribute to my father in law

Tonight me and the family ventured out to try some of the local cuisine (non-chain restaurant stuff). We found a place called Macky's which specializes in dim sum dishes. Big ordered a plate of soy sauce chow mein. Little got the fried rice bowl. Wife got mongolian chicken and I got the special seafood curry in pumpkin base.

We all loved our food! It was really yummy. The boys food came out first and then the wife's and they started eating. Then mine came out and the wife gasped and asked what kind of seafood was in mine. The waiter/probable-owner stated, in broken english, that there was fish, prawns, muscles, and calamari.

"WHAT IS CALAMARI?!" Big piped out.

"Um, just something weird," responded The Wife.

"It's squid son," I openly exclaimed.

"Ohhhhhh! I want squid!" Big gleefully answered.

"I want squid toooooooo!" Little mimicked.

So I shared my calamari with my 4 and 2 year old sons (while The Wife gagged). Awesome!!

recent photo of yours truly

(working at popcap is affecting me)

life without the wife...

The last couple of days we were in Las Vegas, The Wife went on an adventure with her momma, sister, and JL. This is what me and Big and Little Sons did in her absence.

Little Son scarfed some pizza.

Big Son scarfed pizza.

Sons played in the empty house with their kitchen toys. 

Little Son insists on wearing his chef hat.

Had lunch at McDos and I really wanted a sundae.

Brighton didn't shave all weekend!

We went to Best Buy and purchased some flicks for the 20 hour drive.

We played with the iPad.

Thanks to Papa, Nana, Grandma and Grandpa for housing us during our last days in the desert.

welcome to the neighborhood!

This is our new place! Three floors of excitement.

This is our front yard.

These are our neighbors.

bear "hunting" with big son...

Last weekend Big Son and I decided to go looking for a bear!

The start of our adventure.

Mid-way through our hike we found this park. Stopped to play for a bit...

Big Son scaled the crag.

Later on we found some rentable gardens. Big Son spotted the dinosaur kale.

Deep into the hike we found a hidden neighborhood. Sweet!

At the end of the trail we saw this. Beautiful!

...and another park that we needed to stop at...

...and this lake.

Fortunately we did not find any bears (they are up there though!!)