"He was a skaterboy..."

Proof of Life

Just some random recent photos - nothing exceptional - just proof that my kids are still alive....


in spite of the toxic McDonald's french fries...


... and lack of regular dental care

...and close supervision.

Hayden is our little daredevil. He'll climb on any toy and stack up toys to climb on just to get closer to those "no-no" items that mommy and daddy keep up high. And he does it with a smile!

Easter Bunnies and other creepy characters

Is it just me or does any one else find the ritual of dragging your kids through a long line at the mall to sit on the lap of some unknown man/woman dressed as the Easter Bunny JUST PLAIN WEIRD?

I find it a little disturbing...

The unmasked Easter Bunnies are oddly the most disturbing to me. It's all the makeup I suppose and the similarities to a clown ( I loathe clowns).

I also find it disturbing/sad that my daughter has a classmate who has never heard of or been to a church or other place of worship, yet visited the Easter Bunny and received the bounty of sugary sweets on Easter morning.

For the record, the Florida Gove's did not visit the Easter Bunny this year and sadly, there was no egg hunt on the agenda either. Small baskets of treats did appear Easter morning - much smaller than in years past. And other than missing her Aunt Lala's annual Easter egg hunt back in Arizona, Amanda seemed perfectly content. The primary has a wonderful lesson about the atonement and the resurrection that Amanda *sort* of listened to. But I am happy to say that though this years focus on the true meaning of Easter was a little blurry, the gimmicks and characters were greatly minimized. This should help set the stage for next year when the "Easter Basket" will be transformed into something more spiritually focused and less chocolate filled.

A short story by Hayden Gove

This weekend was a big weekend for me. It was the weekend that I got duped by my daddy.
He totally tricked me. Let me explain...

Daddy had a very important project he was working on.
He was building something and I could tell he needed my help.


I fixed his spinning tool thingy...




I got into those small spaces that daddy's can't fit into...


Then I took inventory of the parts...



I thought that a Dr. Seuss style project would be more interesting,
but Daddy insisted on "correcting" it...



And then (this is where I got duped) I realized what the big project was! I was SO OFFENDED! I was so IRRATE! To think, I worked my little diapered butt off putting together a PRISON GATE to keep "toddlers" out of "danger". phftt.


W h a t e v e r...

That innocent little face...

This morning was a wild one. Little Man Destruction woke up before the rest of us at some ungodly hour and quietly made his way downstairs - where he stood screaming bloody murder. I think he thought we'd all be down there to greet him and got freaked out by the dark silence. I went downstairs picked him and and he promptly fell asleep in my arms. I put him to bed.

Sometime around 6:30 this morning when Michael and I are usually *sort of* awake he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. I heard him but didn't quite register the danger. Normally the baby gate is up and he can't get into the kitchen so I didn't see much harm or reason to run down the stairs. Not so this morning. We could hear him moving a chair to climb on the table and Amanda went running down the stairs to help. Hayden knew he was in trouble and decided to go for broke. He threw a glass that was on the table at Amanda! Glass shattered, Kids screamed, Mommy screamed and ran down the stairs in record time. Oh the drama! Oh the TERROR!

Fortunately the only injury was a small pin-sized cut on Amanda's foot.

I guess it's time for ANOTHER gate!