Future Missionary

The other day at dinner, Dylan, Ben, and I were discussing where Dylan might go on his mission someday. We asked him where he wants to go. Dylan said, "Sea World."

Where I Work

For those of you who don't know, I work for my dad, part-time. He's a CPA. I scan old files onto a database. It's so simple that a monkey could do it, literally, but I really like it. It's solitary and quiet, and no one whines, barfs, or diarrheas on me (Sadie has had the flu all week, and it's been torturous!!). Here is my desk - that pile to the right is prepared for scanning. I have to take all the staples out, tape small reciepts and business cards to bigger paper, etc.:

And this is the rest of my office. All of the files and boxes of files that you see will eventually get scanned into the database. It looks insurmountable, but it goes pretty fast. I estimate that I'll be totally done scanning by the time Micah arrives in June. Then I'll be too busy breastfeeding, etc. to work, so Ben will have to probably get a part-time night job, just to make ends meet.

Dad is sooo nice to let me do this. I can set my own hours, which is really great. It's the cushiest job ever!!

The Perfect Accessory

One of Titan's favorite things to do is to nestle into the pillows on my bed after I make it. It kind of bugs me, but it's also kind of cute. And he matches my bed set perfectly, doesn't he??

The Greatest Aunt Ever!

Ben took this picture when we were all playing a game on Saturday night. Beads is the best. She is so good with my kids, and they just adore her. Beads, you are a great sister and a great aunt. Love you and miss you.

Swimming at the Apple

On Saturday, we all thought of going sledding, but we just didn't feel like braving the cold. So we went swimming at my parents' athletic club, the Apple. They had these weights that are for the water aerobics classes, but the kids kind of...took them out of the locked cage. (The slats were really wide.) Is it bad that we didn't stop them? They don't allow you to bring your own toys, or even floating devices. Maybe we felt a little vindictive, deciding to let the kids get the weights out. Dylan soon figured out that these weights work as floatation devices, so he was swimming all around the pool. He would jump into the pool with them, holding on tightly. He has no fear, that little man of mine. Ben threw Dylan a few times, which he loved:

Sadie and her special boyfriend, Spencer:

Ben, right before he threw me over his shoulder and made water go up my nose:

Beads and Sadie:

Beads and Spencer:

Me in Ben's scuba mask:

Troy figured this out by himself - biting on the weight like a dog bites on a bone:

Dylan and Ben:

Me and Sade:

Dylan showing his muscles:

Me, Dylan, and Sadie:

Sadie. She hung out on the stairs for most of the time:

Dance Dance Revolution!!

The first time I ever tried Dance Dance Revolution was at an adult arcade in San Diego called Dave & Buster's. Oh my gosh, it's so much fun!! When I heard that Beads and Spence got Dance Dance Revolution for their Playstation, I was sooo jealous. They purchased a second pad a few weeks ago, so now they can do competitions, which is cool. They brought Dance Dance Revolution up this weekend, and we had a ball. Here are Dad and Beads:

Mom is so funny in this picture. This is her and Ben:

And this is her and Dad. She looks like she's doing aerobics when she plays Dance Dance Revolution. So cute. And Dad dances like a dork, but I love it:

Me and Beads:

Pete and Ben in a picture:

Pete and Ben in a video. Ben looks like he does an Irish jig when he plays this game:

The kids wanted to get in on it, too. Here is Troy with Pete and Nat. He was ticked about something - I can't remember what:

Here's the Dylie. I love this picture, because you get a nice shot of my pregnant belly:

Me & Sadie, Nat & Jake. I love my facial expression in this photo:

Here's a random picture of Dylan, rocking out on my parents' blow-up guitar:

Spencer and Beads, being the sports enthusiasts, thought it would be cool to have a tournament. They drew up a little chart. First, it was Mom against Dad. Mom had surgery three weeks ago. She had taken a couple of turns, and then felt too wiped out to do our little tournament. So Dad won by forfeit. Then it was time for Ben and me. I won! Then it was Nat vs. Pete. Nat has a hard time jumping back together when she does the jumping-apart moves. Ah, the many joys of being pregnant:

Nat won. She is REALLY good at this game. She has fabulous eye-foot coordination. Maybe it's something like reading music? She is an excellent pianist. Then it was Beads vs. Spencer:

Spencer won. Then it was me vs. Dad, and I won. Then Nat and Spencer, and of course, Nat whomped on him. Then it was Nat vs. me, and Nat killed me. Dang. How embarrassing! I'm the former ballerina! You would think that I would have beaten her, but oh well. Here is the finalized chart:

We played again the following night. Here is Sadie in a photo:

And Sadie in a video. I focused on Pete's hand for a moment in the video - he makes this weird little gesture when he's concentrating. It's pretty funny:

Here are Dylan and Jake, teaming up:

And me and Nat. We both have to hold our bellies when we do the jumping-apart moves. We both feel like we're going to pee our pants when we have to do that move. So funny:

Stripes

Beads and Spencer came up this weekend, and it was so. much. fun. I loved every minute of it. I had a bad reaction to a bean burrito, so I was extremely sick on Friday. I started to feel better at lunchtime, and they brought me a Monte Cristo sandwich from Babe's Bakery. Yum.

A couple of hours later, they brought their last remaining puppy over. Beads' girl dog had pups at Thanksgiving, and all but one have been sold. The pup is named Stripes, and I can tell Beads really wants to keep her. But we'll see. Dylan is always saying that he wants us to "take Titan back" and get him a "small, white, fluffy dog" instead, so we thought it would be fun for him to play with just that for a couple of hours. And we wanted to see if Titan and Stripes would get along.

Here are a few shots of Stripes. She is soooooo cute. And very chill. Not as hyper as Titan. She wasn't very interested in Titan, but she was interested in Titan's bones.

Here are the kids with Stripes:

Titan was a little too rough for Stripes. He would kind of... box Stripes. He's a teeny bit bigger, and he was getting way too rough. This is him, trying to get Stripes' attention. Stripes was too busy with Titan's bone to pay him much attention, except to snap at him occasionally:

Eventually, we had to seperate the dogs, because Titan could not calm down and leave poor Stripes alone. Here's Sadie, hanging out on Spencer's lap. She has always been totally in love with Spencer. She used to flirt with him, even as a baby: