Dental Updates

Today was enjoyed as the summer days dwindle in unbelief. We went to an end-of-summer pool bash for the kids and had a good time. Natalie is getting used to swimming and tried out some new water wings today, and Emily had a good time splashing the other baby in the kiddie pool. We then had to head up to Fountain Valley to take a friend places, and then went to Art Supply Warehouse for some back to school shopping. We got everything we need, but get us both in an art store (especially when they have sales) and it's like the proverbial kids in the candy store. Luckily we both shower restraint and got only what we needed. Upon picking up Natalie, we discovered that Emily's first tooth had popped out. It came rather suddenly (well not spontaneously, though that would be cool; *pop!* and there it is!) and came straight out as opposed to poking a timid corner out first before showing itself. This makes it easier on mom as there is no sharp pointy tooth to inflict pain. Our little cub is growing up.

Guess who's crawling?

Emily is crawling around the house like mad. She can military crawl, and gets faster everyday. She loves to discover every nook and cranny of our house, and usually ends up stuck in a corner somewhere. She can get on her hands and knees and crawl a bit but likes the speed and stealth of the military crawl. She loves to get on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. She's sitting up by herself better and can almost sit from a crawling position. It's a beautiful sight to see her smiling red head poking up over the crib padding in the morning. Every day she seems to get faster and stronger. We need to put a brick on her head; she's growing too fast. Some pictures and a video taken last week of the speed demon herself.

And the winner of Art on the Green is....

...not me. So yeah, after all the prep and pomp the scores are in and the judges have spoken. At least they saw fit to give me fourth place, and a small amount of moolah. But it's not about the money so much as the fame, power and prestige that only a first place award can give. Still I have my integrity and my family who love me for who I am. I think the judging process needs some tweaking. I did get some sleep last night though, turning in at 2:00 am and returning in the morning at 7:00. Still, my mind is worn out and my body feels like something soft and dough-y. So here's a few pics of the competition as well as my painting from drawing to final product. Now, off to bed.

The Ol' West

So as part of preparation to do this cowboy painting for the Art on the Green, I have been watching my dad's old westerns with Roy Rogers, and his horse Trigger. Some great stuff. I learned a lot by watching these, and it makes me wish I was a cowboy back then. Roy is one of the best and cleanest cowboys I've ever seen. According to his movies, there's always a guitar handy for whenever you need to croon out a song. (It's okay for men to sing, and garners much respect from the other cowboys.) Before the day is out there will be a horse chase, which can rival even the best car chases I've seen. Your six-shooter never runs out of bullets, and it's easy to shoot from the back of a horse running at full gallop. You can win over friend and foe just by flashing your winning smiling and acting polite. If requested you can sing a song in Spanish as well. Things are always clear cut right and wrong, and Roy is always on the side of good. You can always be in the right place at the right time to save the girl. And the Sons of the Pioneers are always on hand to help out when you need it. It's okay to get into a fist fight with the bad guys, and you even let them land a few good ones. Your hair will always go back in place no matter what. And even Roy loses a few fights sometimes for the benefit of advancing the plot. In the end, you always get your man. Well and the girl too. Yessir, it's good to be Roy Rogers.

Wyoming musings

I am out here in good ole Wyoming preparing for the Art on the Green competition. I've been taking pictures and gathering visual information for my painting to be. It's been great to come out here and hike around and not have to worry about the kids and everything else. But don't get me wrong, I miss my girls. I never realized how noisy it can be until I headed out about ten miles outside of Rock Springs to take some pictures. It was absolutely quiet; no cars, no planes, no kids asking questions, babies crying, people talking, air conditioners humming. It was great to sit there and listen to yourself think. Sure is nice to get away from it all. Then last night I went up to the Owen's ranch to take some pictures of a family friend who kindly posed for me with the whole cowboy outfit; homemade chaps, pistol and all. The nice thing was that he let me ride his horse around after all the pictures were done. It was fun even though the last time I had ever gotten on a horse was when I was ten at a ward picknick and they had pony rides. The outfits all wrong though for all this country livin'. I should get me some boots and a hat here soon. Might a be fixin' ta do so. Yeeha!

Ward Corn Roast

Yesterday we had a corn roast down at T-Street beach as a ward. It was good times, even though Mike forgot his surfboard. Still it was good eating and good friends. For those that have never been to a corn roast (we never had) it was pretty darn good. You take a big barrel and fill it with salt water from the ocean, and bring it to a boil over an open fire. Then throw in the corn and cook. The corn is then salty and ready to eat. They had a big bucket of melted butter to dip your ear into as well. It was delicious! They had smores as well. We wish we could have spent more time there; most people were there all day surfing and relaxing. Mike had to finish up a big illustration project and Mary had to babysit for some of the afternoon. But we did get to see the sunset which was amazing. This beach is down in San Clemente, and the trains run right next to the beach. Natalie still loves to see the trains so this is always a plus.

Emily and Brayden

These kids are dang cute. Emily is getting ready to crawl these days, and will military scoot all around the place. So anytime you put her on her belly she pushes up and rocks back and forth. Brayden loves to try and eat anything, as you can see him trying out Emily's shoulder. It was fun to see these two together.

Joe and Liz come to town

On Thursday we were graced with the presence of Joe, Liz and Brayden. They had come to California and stopped by our humble abode for a day. It was great to see them and spend some time with them. Brayden is getting so big! He has the biggest eyes and loves to stare at Mike. Emily and Brayden got to spend some time getting to know each other rolling around on the floor. We headed out to the beach late in the afternoon for some relaxation and boogie boarding. Joe and Mike had fun our in the surf and the girls enjoyed sitting in the sand. It was good to see them, and we wish that they could have stayed longer.

Mirror

Emily has recently discovered herself in the mirror. She will make her way over to the mirror in the morning while we are getting ready and look at herself. She pats the mirror and even tries to take a bite out of her head in the reflection. She is more interested in the camera in these pictures though.

Arachniphobia

As was mentioned in the previous post about our camp-out, we did see a real tarantula. It was crawling in the road and Mary came running, calling for us to come and see, as we were setting up the tents. Sure enough it was a real live tarantula. We think it was a Eurypelma californicum. Natalie and Maddie thought it was pretty neat, as did the boys from a neighboring campsite. But there's something about boys and the need to destroy and squash, because all they wanted to do was throw rocks at it. This of course made the spider very mad and it rushed the girls (to the delight of the boys). Aimee was not too thrilled about seeing a giant spider so near to where she was going to sleep. We had to coax her out for this camping trip in the first place, so this wasn't helping convince her of the pros of camping. But she was brave and didn't get in the car to squish the spider. The park ranger said that there are wasps that prey on these tarantulas. They sting him until he's dead and then lay their eggs on it and when they hatch they have some food all ready to go. I'm more scared of those wasps to be honest.

Camping!

The Parkers went camping! We headed out on 8-8-08 for a camp-out with the Bowles family. They have two girls as well, one Natalie's age, and the other about a year old. It was fun to get out with friends and do an overnighter with the kids. We headed up to Trabuco canyon to O'Neill Park (neighboring canyon to Santiago Canyon were the huge fires were last year) but they were all full. So we headed to Caspers Regional park off the Oretga highway. It's a pretty nice campground, but there was no water as the wells had run dry. We had plenty o'water though, and it's only an overnighter. It was pretty warm though, even through the night. Natalie and Emily did great sleeping in the tent. While we were setting up tents we saw a tarantula in the road (see next post) and Natalie did stand in a pile of red ants. They had a Nature center that we stopped by on the way out, and the girls had fun there. They had coloring pages and animals to look at and touch. Then we headed home and to the Bowles apartment pool party. There was good food and the swimming was great after a hot day in the sun.

Natalie and Emily

Just a few pictures of the girls from this last week. Emily rolls around too much now. She always ends up under the piano. She is getting up on all fours and rocking. Looks like we are going to have to baby proof the house for real. She can scoot forward doing the military crawl if there's something she really wants, which is pretty much anything that happens to be on the floor. Natalie's favorite thing to do these days is put all the pillows on the couch and pretend she's in a boat. When asked where she is going, the reply is always "Wyoming". Didn't know there was water all the way there...

Eights

Happy 8-8-08 day! To celebrate I got up at 8, and ate some food. I thought it would be nice to have a few laughs this morning so I got some Brian Regan clips to share. The last two are part one and two. It is eight related too, but I'll let you figure it out. Enjoy.

Breaking Dawn

Mike here. Everyone has been so hyped up about this book coming out in the "Twilight" series that I had to jump on the bandwagon. So we threw on our homemade "Twilight is my life" T-shirts and headed out to the release party at the local bookstore. (It was actually the day after the release, because no one showed for the midnight release.) There was a huge line, maybe 6 people waiting for the store to open that morning. We jumped in line quickly to secure our place. It was mayhem as 7 of us crawled over each other for a copy. After a brief but fierce scuffle, we got our hot little hands on a brand new copy of "Breaking Dawn" As I held it in my hands, the chess piece graphic on the cover seemed to glow and pulsate. The best thing was that we got it at a 20% discount. Woohoo! I think they ordered too many books or something. Anyhoo, I read until noon and got to page 24. I think I may pick it up again sometime this week, but I don't want to rush things. But I do want to find out if these rumors about Edward not being a vampire are true, and if Bella really does die. Hope I didn't spoil anything.
PS, I'm just poking a little fun at the fanaticism that has enveloped the ladies of the nation with "Twilight" fever. Luckily that fever has died down with Mary and she didn't even want to buy the book. Of which, I noticed, they have many copies in the Costco here. Oh Edward!

PSS, Mary informed me that it's not that she didn't want to buy the book, but was being frugal and would borrow it from someone later. I recall her saying something to the effect of not being really too excited to find out the new twists and turns. So please, sisters, sisters-in-laws and lady friends, don't hate Mary for her lack of excitement over the new book, it's not really her fault.

Bill Cosby

It's soo true.

Bug party

Yesterday was the Mission Viejo Library summer reading party. The theme is "Catch the Reading Bug", hence the bug costumes. Luckily we found some wings at a garage sale a while back for cheap (cheap as free!) and Natalie went as a butterfly (see previous post for butterfly dance around the living room). It was a good time had by all, with ice cream, face painting, and a magic show. Even dad got one of the cool visors.

Natalie and some of the friends from the ward

Picnicking outside after the party with the Bowles