with pathetic tree, ornament and blanket!

I found the World's Greatest Christmas Decoration last night. I think it will end up being the one that the kids really look forward to seeing year after year. (And P.S. Charlie Brown: I'd have never gone so far as to call your choice of tree pathetic, but I guess if the shoe fits.....)

Virginian November

77 degrees and sunny on the day before Thanksgiving is something to be thankful for, indeed. So I took my kids and our friend Salt Lake Jake to a park so we could store up Vitamin D and some warm sunshiney memories to help keep our spirits warm in the coming winter. The kids ran around like maniacs and were filthy and exhausted by the time we headed home. Angus is in full blown hero worship mode over Jake now. I don't blame him either. Jake's funny and sweet and kind and patient and genuinely likes to be with the boys. Noah is way into him, too. You did good, Salt Lake Amy. Your boy is a winner in the game of Life.

Last September

Last night, our friend Steve just gave us a disk containing some pictures taken last year, just one month before Noah popped into the world. I really can't remember where we were when these were taken. And even better, I have almost forgotten what it felt like to be that uncomfortably pregnant. Almost......

Fall

Shorter days mean that the boys need to work harder to achieve maximum giddiness before sundown.

Dancy Pants

Noah rarely passes on the opportunity to dance. What kind of music he hears is not important. It could be carnival music, a bass-heavy car stereo rolling past the house, or just someone whistling. All he knows is, he's got to move. He's got quite a variety of dances in the old repertoire now. What each of his dance moves have in common are (a) deep knee bends, (b) one arm doing the majority of the work, and (c) a look of total concentration on his face while he grooves. Here is a bit of a peek at what I'm referring to. This kid rules.

do good

Hat Weather Arrived

skybaby

i swiped this from the webiste which was set up to honor the memory of, and memories created by and with, our friend patrick. ladies and gentlemen, i give you “skybaby.” jeff gay submitted this classic. it is taken directly from a letter patrick once wrote to him.

enjoy.


"Once when i was younger like 12 or something I was a jr. counselor at this soccer camp in Massachusetts and I was standing out in this field jumping up and down on this piece of wood that was laying across this big log like a teeter totter. I was standing with my back to the wood which made a cool sound when I jumped backwards on it like “dannanannannna” and I was zoning out, staring out at the field. Suddenly I saw a child falling from the sky. I couldn’t believe it. It was a 3 year old falling from like 50 feet up and it landed directly in front of me. I ran over to it and it was fine. It just looked up at me a little dazed. I looked up in the sky and there were no planes or trees or anything the kid could have fallen from. I was truly amazed. I heard screaming from the parking lot and a woman, the kid’s mom i guess, was running and screaming towards us. She pushed me aside and grabbed the skybaby. The kid started crying like crazy and the mother was screaming at me. Apparently I had launched her child when it crawled away from her over onto the wood i was jumping on. I felt a little disappointed as she walked away. It was my first encounter with something totally mysterious and within moments it was taken away from me. Even though the kid was fine I was still fired from my position as jr. counselor at the soccer camp. I don’t think i cared as much about losing the job as I did about losing the mystery of the skybaby. "