Important Books

Jason here.



This is our library. I love it.

On the bottom row is a set called "The Great Books of the Western World." I purchased these from the Flemming Library at GCU for twenty bucks. They are in rough shape, but I love them and am proud of them. I may even read them someday, who knows? On the right side are childrens' books from Christine's teaching days. Awesome picture books, funny Fudge storybooks, things like that.

There is a religious section in there with a signed Elder Holland Christ and the New Covenant that I received while on my mission. I have a couple signed copies of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, which is easily one of my favorite books. I also have my history books.

I love this room and all the books in it.

There are five books though that I love more than all the rest. Here they are:

These precious volumes are our blog books, the printed hardbound collection of each year's posts. This is Christine's doing and she deserves all the credit. I am an infrequent contributor at best. But these books are magical, at least to me. The wonderful pictures and stories are more than just a pleasant stroll down memory lane. There is something wonderful about them, even the mundane stuff, that makes them transcend regular books. There is the funny, ordinary, sad, and joyful. Our life.

I know some folks gauge how well a blog is doing by how many people read it or by how many comments are generated. By this criteria we are not doing very well. But Christine looks at her blog posts as more as sections for the blog book and, ultimately, a future audience reading not on a computer, but in print.

Lately our blog has gained one little subscriber, Brendan. When Christine showed him the blog books, he was amazed and read, mainly the posts about himself, for hours. That is what led to his earlier posts today. Welcome to the book club, Buddy!

This is a source of immense satisfaction for Christine and I. Hopefully years from now we will look back with joy on what may seem to be minor things like scribblings and odes to Legos.

Another note about Christmas

Jason here.


That is the oven thing I got for Christine. That is 3 days after Christmas and yes, it had not moved since she opened it. When she says she wasn't "over the moon" about it I take that to be the understatement of the year.

The cookies we tried making on it were lousy but the taquitos were awesome. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Impossible to do in a microwave and hard to do unless you pre-heat the oven (and who has time for that?). I figured that since Christine loves her taquitos (almost daily) and we eat frozen pizza at least a few times a month this would be perfect!

But there it sat and I had to admit that my gift was on the lousy side this year, especially compared to the awesome gifts Christine gave. I knew I should have gone with Willow Tree!

Ninja Pic

Jason here. I am always getting cool pictures from Brendan. Check this out:
"Dad, your a ninja, Dad!"



The Boy thinks I am Snake Eyes. Who am I to disagree?

Ninjago (A Brendan Post)

I have a lot of LEGOs and I am a big fan of them. But I don't have a lot of Ninjago ones. (I only have Ninjago spinners.) One set comes with two minifigures: Jay and Frakjaw. I have others too. Here are some pictures.

Here is Jay (Blue Ninja, Master of Lightning).

Here is Frakjaw.

Here is Kai (Red Ninja, Master of Fire).

Here is NRG Cole (Black Ninja, Master of Earth).

Here is Lloyd Garmadon, not Lord Garmadon.

Rookie Blogger Boy

Today, my mom asked me if I wanted to blog. I said, "I don't know." My dad agreed with Mom that I should blog. And my name is Brendan. Also, after chores this morning, I went to read some post's on the computer. (I enjoy reading post's on Blogger.) And, to tell what time the question happened, it was after church (otherwise known as lunchtime).

Brown Eyed Girls

Don't be fooled though. These sweet pictures were quickly followed by a choke hold and headlock.

Miss Independent

Oh Darby! I am not enjoying this new phase though I see how it will be very helpful in the days to come. She thinks she's bigger and older than she really is. Darby is WAY too independent!

Examples:
Jason helped her out of the car. She screamed and cried and said, "I do it myself". He had to reopen the car door. Then she climbed back into her seat, just to get out again, on her own terms.

I picked her up to help her get down some stairs. She promptly climbed back up them to do it again without help.

She will NOT let you hold her hand to cross the street or a parking lot or anything.

Last night, when Daddy made a move to hoist her into her bed. She yelled at him, "I wanna do it myself!" and struggled into the bed and put her own covers on.

Christmas 2012

The kids didn't wake up until close to 8am (awesome!!) which is abnormal for them since they are solar powered. However, it made for a more pleasant Christmas morning than say, being awakened at 5:30 am by excited children jumping on you. Anyway, I came out to the living room to see this. They were all pretty excited about the contents of their stockings.

Opening the presents was a bit chaotic. We made them take turns opening them and that just about killed the older two to have to wait. Paige didn't really get the whole present thing. She wasn't even very excited about ripping the wrapping.

She just wanted to chew on her new teether and watch. The new teether is NOT the lollipop and guess who gave her that? Not me.

Darby opened a play dress as her second gift and promptly put it on. Then she left the room to play and we had to coax her back to open up her other presents. The girl is very pragmatic. Remember how she opened her first piece of Halloween candy and instead of getting more, she savored that lollipop until the end of the night? When she finds what she likes, she sees no need to look for more. That's just how she is. In the end, she enjoyed all her gifts.

I earned serious brownie points with all of Jason's gifts. He even watched his new DVD of Duck Dynasty while doing the dishes for me (without being asked). Sweet!

Brendan disappeared after the gifts were opened and emerged when all the Legos were built and books were read (well really, he is still working on the Harry Potter one as a bedtime book).

He is actually pretty good at the Wobble Deck too, which makes me happy since I bought it as more of occupational therapy than a toy.

I think Eva was the most excited for her presents. She has played with each one a great deal since receiving them. She's been an artist, a chef, a farmer and a vet recently.

As for me, I like my gifts to be either sentimental or practical. Jason went the practical route this year and bought me a Presto quick oven. He was disappointed that I wasn't over the moon about it but its really hard to get super excited about an oven. However, I used it to cook taquitos for lunch and they turned out fabulous.

A few funny things to relate and remember. First, Brendan is wearing his summer Batman pajamas because he said they were "in a Christmas song". Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg . . . You get the idea.

At one point in the day I noticed that each child was playing with someone else's Christmas gift at the same time. I guess the toys were multipurpose. :)

And lastly, one of the most admired new toys is for the baby yet she hasn't ever played with it. She doesn't care about her new interactive puppy. However, all three older kids fight over it. Sheesh.

A special thank you to my mom who made the kids such wonderful gifts. The superhero cape, chef hat and Humpty Dumpty are all winners for the girls.

Merry Christmas!

Trails

Trail running is cathartic. I have found that bike riding is cool, but it requires gear and a willingness to share the road with cars, a dangerous proposition especially in Fayetteville. Swimming laps is like being in a giant aquatic hamster wheel. Going to the gym is vanity fair. Road running shares the dangers of biking along with the monotony of the pavement, a brutal and unforgiving surface to plod along. But trails have rocks, streams, hills, dirt, sand, trees, fresh air, and the possibility of seeing or hearing nothing man-made. Its refreshing and I love it. Luckily there are miles of trails just around the corner from the house here in Fayetteville. Disappearing for 45 minutes to explore these trails has become one of my favorite things to do.

Sick

The cold sickness has descended upon our house. I guess it's easier to deal with coughs and snot than vomit. I'm trying to be positive about this. Brendan had it last week and then the baby. Now it's Darby and me. It doesn't seem to phase her much after a day but I feel awful. Doesn't this illness know that mamas are off limits!! Here's to hoping that with Christmas Break and Jason on leave that I can get done rest and kick this sinus thingy.

Thwarted

New passcode feature on iPad makes for one sneaky but now frustrated toddler.

Table Rock UltraMarathon

Jason here. About 2 months ago I decided I needed a challenge. I need challenges to get excited about exercising otherwise working out feels boring and pointless. About that time a buddy of mine invited me to run an Ultramarathon with him not too far from Fort Bragg. It sounded intimidating, but I have run a couple marathons and figured that with some training I could do it. So I signed up and started running.

After work on Friday I drove to Morganton NC, which was a couple hours away and spent the night there talking run strategy with my friend who invited me along. Good thing too. I had the wrong shoes, the wrong strategy, and the wrong gear. So he lent me his brand new shoes (he was injured in training and was going to crew for another guy), his water belt, and gave me some crucial advice.

Needless to say I was worried. New shoes right before a 54 mile race? The recipe for disaster was there and I spent a sleepless night worrying about what was to come.

I woke up, ate a huge breakfast at the Waffle House next to the hotel and then we left to the starting line. It was pretty foggy but surprisingly warm; all I needed was a t-shirt and shorts. The runners got some info for the course and then away we went.


(Myself and my 2 buddies)

The first 15 miles were very hilly. Apparently they were "category 2" climbs, whatever that means. I walked a lot. I wanted to conserve my quads. It was also scenic in a way that you wouldnt expect in North Carolina which doesn't have much in the way of mountains.


This course seemed like one never ending hill. I joked about rounding a corner on a hill only to find another as some kind of sick game show "Congratulations on finishing this hill! What does the lucky winner get? Its... another hill!"

The first 18 miles were like that. Then came the downward slopes which were nice. About this time I ran into this little guy hanging out at one of the aid stations and was thinking about dropping. Mike decided to keep going and we ended up running together for over 30 miles, him talking for most of it.


Thats Mike.

About 32 miles into the race you have to climb the actual Table Rock, an intimidating peak rising over 2000 feet over the valley floor. I looked up at that thing both impressed and dismayed. We made it up though. Here's me on top.

By this time it was getting late in the day. After Table Rock there were no real tough climbs and the rest of the race was relatively uneventful. I finished the 54 miles in a less than spectacular 12 hours 30 minutes, but I finished.

(thats me standing at the finish line like a boss)
For finishing I got a sweater and some very sore legs.

Trimming the Tree

I'm a little late on this. The tree has been trimmed for over a week now and I just realized that I didn't post anything about it. The tree trimming came in two phases - the Darby "helping" phase and the Darby-is-in-bed-now phase. Little two year old just couldn't handle taking direction and not causing chaos.
The two older ones were still awake when we told the story of each family ornament and they took turns placing them on the tree. Then we let them put the unbreakables down near the bottom so Paige couldn't destroy anything. Jason and I decorated the top part.

Even decorated by kids, there is definitely something magic about a Christmas tree.

Girls in PJs

There's just something about a kid in pajamas that makes them instantly cuter and more huggable.

During our Girls Night while Dad and Brendan were out together

Playing with Daddy's hat

Using her cuteness to stay up way too late at the cousins'

After bath but before a family viewing of Frosty the Snowman

"Reading" a bedtime story

Brendan's Award Ceremony

Jason here. I got to attend one of Brendan's award ceremonies at school. It was fun. He got a perfect attendance award again.



He was glad that I was there and he held the award over his head to show me.

For almost 5 minutes.

Thanksgiving dinner with Eva

Jason here. Since I was on leave I had the opportunity to attend Eva's Thanksgiving Luncheon at Chason's Grandson Buffet. Its one of our favorite places.






This is Eva on round 2. I think she is reaching maximum capacity.