Dad's Tricky

Porter has had two wiggly bottom teeth for quite some time. I kept encouraging him to pull those babies out, but he did not have much desire to lose his precious pearlies. I could see the new teeth were growing in behind them - and getting pushed on weird, they were overdue to come out. So this past Sunday we were just finishing up with dinner and Peter had Porter on his lap inspecting those shark teeth. Peter pushed his finger against one of those wiggly teeth, it popped out into Port's mouth, he freaked, and spit it out! Peter snatched that tooth mid-air - like it was all some clever choreography! The whole thing made Port go a little ballistic, however we were able to convince him it would be a good feeling to get that other tooth out! With a little kleenex and a little tug - he had both teeth out in the same night!

Way to go Port! The Tooth Fairy is going to love those!

Snow......men?

We got a bit of snow last weekend and the kiddos had tons of fun playing in it. Peter even got caught up in the excitement so he, Port, and Kenna built this huge snowman. It wasn't complete until they made a Porter sized version - and they very fittingly named the two snow buddies "SnoPeter" and "SnoPorter" (Kenna came in after the big guy was complete, and my two "snow men" kept on a goin!) Gotta love it!

Grandpa turned 60!

About 2 weeks ago Papa Liddell turned 60! Krissy had the psychedelic idea to throw a "sixties" party for Grandpa, and a surprise party at that. To make things even more trippy Robin and her kids drove over for the big party to add to the surprise! Needless to say he was shocked and it was a great time. I think "costume of the night" award goes to Eric who came dressed to a T - Trish altered some sweet brown cords into bell bottoms, he had an orange flowery silky button up shirt, peace necklace, Lennon glasses, moustache, and short permed wig. Unfortunately I didn't get a good pic of him in full garb - so these are a couple good ones I did get.

We're glad you had such an awesome birthday Grandpa - you are truly one cool dude.

The Pajama Puppy Party

This year the girls had a joint birthday party! Charley's birthday is on Dec. 15th and Makenna's is on January 4th - and with all we had going on this year with the recital, traveling to Bellingham for Christmas, and just being crazy busy . . . we thought this would work super! Ever since August when we were together in Bellingham for the Hatch Family Reunion and threw a "puppy party" for cousin Emmerson's birthday, Charley hasn't stopped talking about it. Makenna was a good sport and went along with the idea for their joint party. Charley wanted to add a little twist to the idea and make it a pajama puppy party - I loved it! This fun event included everyone coming dressed in their pajamas, we made "real" puppy ears for all, we had puppy face painting,they got to decorate their own puppy collar, puppy paw nail painting for the girls and the boys came up with their own idea: they colored their palms with markers to look like dog paws! We had a puppy relay race - the two teams had to get all their dog bones from one dog bowl to the other - even Grandma joined in! The best thing about the whole party was how much all the kids got into character. For much of the night they were down on all fours, chasing each other, barking, and hiding under the kitchen table which was the dog house! We ended the evening of course with gifts, puppy cake, and everyone got to take home a "doggie bag" - full of trinkets and treats! We love you Makenna and Charley and hope you have many fun memories of your puppy party and turning 4 and 9 - can't believe you're getting so old! What would that make you in dog years?!

Charley turned 4!

Just wanted to take a little walk down memory lane and remember our precious moments with Charley as she's grown up. She was born December 15th in Pleasant Grove, UT. What a tiny little bundle of joy she started out to be and has turned into a joyful, funny, loving, animated, smart, energetic, thoughtful, sweet girl.

Her first days at home

Some fun moments in her first year

First time in the snow

First Halloween

Her first birthday!

Charley's 2nd Birthday!

Charley's 3rd Birthday!

And now look how big she's gotten!

For her birthday we had a little at home party and on Friday she and Makenna are going to celebrate their birthdays together with the rest of the family. So a post will be coming in the future on the "Pajama Puppy Party!" Here are a few shots from her party with Mom, Dad, Kenna, and Port:









We hope all your wishes come true!
Happy Birthday Charley girl! We love you!

Riddle

What do a vampire, a mouse, and a fifties girl all have in common? They are all the offspring of this crazy Mom! I got to be in the classroom with Porter and Kenna this year to take part in all of their Halloween festivities . . . it was ghoulish fun!

We of course could not pass up our yearly tradition of trick or treating through downtown Sisters. It's always more fun when you're punked out zombie cousin comes along.

Candy-crazed

Let's play Halloween I-spy: can you spot a pipi long-stocking, a lady bug, 2 skeletons, a vampire (hmmmm), a zombie diva, a 50's girl, a mouse (this one's especially hard to spot).

Hope your Halloween was as spooktacular as ours!

Parable of the dirty bathroom

As I was passing through my dirty bathroom today, I thought to myself, "This is disgusting, I really hate being in here." I can give you whatever excuse I can think of for why it is still not clean. Somehow, none of them seem to hold any merit. It pretty much comes down to this: it's dirty and I hate being in there. Why, you may ask, do I not just take 10 simple minutes out of my day and spruce it up? Because it's easier to walk on by and try to ignore it. This thought came to me tonight that this is similar to life. Sometimes the things in our life that need some cleaning just get ignored, pushed aside. Why? Because it's easier. However - if we will take a little time and clean it up . . . and continue to do this everyday, the job won't seem so hard, not so bad. And so it is with sin and simple repentance every day. So I'm making a new commitment - to my bathroom and my self, to keep on top of it. To make sure my spirit and my bathroom have gotten spruced up everyday. nice.