Eyan's Baptism

We went to Dallas for Eyan's baptism. The girls love going to Dallas and playing with their cousins.

Ezra's Cute

Ezra and I are watching soccer again. Well, at least I am watching soccer. Another treat for everyone--you get to look up my nose!
Speaking of noses, I just got sinus surgery. Apparently, four of my eight sinuses have always been closed and I have a deviated septum. In one part of my nose, the septum is so far to one side that my nostrils are split 80:20. I finally decided to get the surgery because when allergy season hits, I get stuffed-up and cannot breathe and my energy wanes badly. It has effected my family and work life ever since I moved to Texas (more mold and pollen here). The recovery has taken a full week, but it hasn't been as painful as some say and, get this, I CAN BREATHE. Why didn't I do this sooner?

A Camera and Closet Full of Mom's Clothes

Savannah and Maya found the camera one day and decided to raid Karen's closet and play dress-up. Maya told Karen when Karen saw these pictures and asked what went on that, "It was a lot of fun and your dress fitted me perfectly."

Maya posing. Where do kids learn this stuff? I don't have a subscription to SI.

Hilarious...just hilarious.

I don't know if it was guilt for not asking or what, but they wrote us a message on the magna-doodle and showed their appreciation for the fun they had.

I guess they are singing here...

...and here.

Silly faces.

Savannah posing.

Ezra had acid reflux

Ezra woke up every hour for much of the first weeks of his life. Just going through sinus surgery and being on medication, I think I understand a bit what that would have been like for Karen. Only, I haven't been doing it for 2 weeks straight. Since World Cup was often on at 5-6 AM every morning, I often made it a habit to grab Ezra and have him sleep on my tummy. Since he had reflux, he made noises and grunts all the time. That woke Karen up, so taking him out of the room to the downstairs really helped her get a few hours sleep without interuption. I am such a nice guy.

No Reasons

Haven't posted Karen and I together for a while--rarely even take a picture together these days anyway. So, here we are.

Maya's Green Party

In the age of hightened environmental awareness, this green party isn't what you think. Maya's teacher gave a possible green, yellow, red, and black mark for behavior every week. Maya got green marks all year, so we celebrated by throwing her a green-themed party. Here she is with Scooty, who moved back to Utah earlier this year.

Shed Continues

The doors are on. Notice the date--only took another month.

Shed Construction - Phase... (I lost track)

All right, so the roof is on and hardi-plank is up. It's amazing how a rickety shed frame could be so solid with the simple addition of cement board. It was a pain in the butt though.
I had just enough hardi-board (cement board siding) to finish the project (because each 4' x 8' sheet is $30) and, after all of the sheets were cut and measured, I leaned them up on the shed, then heard Maggie crying in the house (Karen was gone). So, I thought, there hasn't been a breeze today, I can run and see what's going on. Sure enough, nothing was wrong with Maggie and I returned to see a long piece of hardi broken on the ground. So, I cut a bunch of extra peices to cover what the broken piece was supposed to cover. Then, while installing another piece, I realized I forgot my drill and so I propped up and protected it with the ladder in case it blew over like the other one while I went to go get my drill. This board blew over and slammed into the ladder and broke a hole through the middle. It figured. Needless to say, I got it put together.

Cheer Camp

Well, we have no excuses...Texas is Texas and you just get sucked in sometimes to the way they do things here. The girls were signed-up for a half-day cheer camp. We participate in these as fund-raisers for the kids in the ward, so I guess we do have an excuse in a way. I do want to make it clear, though, I have strict standards on how "far" we'll go with our kids extracurricular activities. We've found it is true what you hear about Texas and how serious they take their sports and pagents and the like. Balance is key to happiness in life and I have seen too many kids without it here.