Just Some Pictures

Thought I'd post a few of the pictures I've taken in the past several months...

Soccer has started and this was Bryce taking good care of his baby sister during Rece's game.


Yes, that is two paci's you see. we like to play that little trick...

There's a french fry in there somewhere, that's why she's soooo happy.

Slideshow

On Saturday we had a party for Keeley's 2nd birthday that was February 8th. I put together a little timeline kinda slideshow of her first 2 years.

Sledding Adventures

This past weekend in Nashville we got about 3-4 inches of snow. I know all you northerners are thinking, "That's nothing!", but for Nashville, that is more than we've had in years. And it didn't melt the next morning, another strange occurrence for the south. So, of course this means we've got to get out and play in it. I grew up where snow like this was somewhat normal, so I wasn't too anxious to get out in it, but the kids just had to be in it - lots. It started Friday, so Liesl took them out and did snow angels and just let the kids slide around some. Friday night the snow turned to sleet and so the top layer was icy. The boys discovered this quickly and started using anything they could find that might work as a sled. Several people around the neighborhood decided to slide down the hill at the top of the street. I say people using napping mats, and laundry baskets, we got out a cookie sheet and a rubbermaid container. All three of them enjoyed this for a while. So Sunday was more of the same, the snow still hadn't melted much so we decided to join some of our friends and sled at a park near their house. But before we made it there, one of their neighbors had hooked up a sled and an inner tube to his Rhino (kind of a heavy duty golf cart) and was pulling kids (and adults) up and down the street.

After making a few runs around the neighborhood, we decided to head over to the park. The park has an amphitheater with a grassy hill all around it, perfect hill for sledding. The boys were into it as fast as they could get up the hill. Liesl made several trips down with Keeley. After the first time, Keeley was so scared she didn't even want to look, so she covered her eyes and snuggled in with momma just to be able to make it down.

Don't they look beautiful?

Candy Craziness

Halloween Candy. Perhaps an even scarier thought than any other shenanigans that happens around this time of year. It's fine to actually acquire the candy, but the sugar overdoses and the constant, "I want some candy..." "Can I have some candy?" is now compounded with "treat?" "pweese?" from the newest sweets addict. So after doing some impromptu trick or treating at the local outdoor mall while shopping Saturday afternoon, we dressed the kids all the way up. Bryce as Darth Vader, Rece as Optimus Prime (Transformer) and Keeley as the Sparkly Angel.

Keeley is ready to go (looking off camera thinking "Momma, where is that candy bag. I'm ready to go dominate the neighborhood!)

Bryce ended up getting invited to a friend's Halloween Party. I took him there, while Liesl took Rece and Keeley to one of his friend's neighborhood. They all loaded up with candy, with Keeley turning out to be the most hard-core Trick-or-Treater. She would not let go of her bag and with freezing hands and feet wanted to continue to fill her bag with the precious candy.

It's Pumpkin Farm Season

Every year around this time, the kids have the opportunity to go to pumpkin farms all around the area. We have a pumpkin farm fairly close to us that has free admission. Of course they make their money in other ways... Anyway, Liesl has taken them and a few times and we've got some pictures from a few of the trips.

Without Momma

With Momma, everything is OK...

Review - Where The Wild Things Are

Last Saturday, I took the boys to see "Where The Wild Things Are". The movie based on the children's book. After my wife read multiple reviews and comments about how bad and how kids shouldn't see this movie, we still went ahead with our plans. The book, by Maurice Sendak, is for relatively young kids, and is really a very short story. The charm of it mostly being the illustration and the imagination in invokes. So I wondered how Spike Jonze was going to turn a this book, which can be read in about 5 minutes into a feature length film.

My first complaint to the folks that said this movie is too scary for kids, I'm just not sure what movie you were watching. I didn't find any suspense in this movie. There's some yelling and arguing that goes on between characters, but nothing I would consider frightful. Even though the monsters are imaginary, they represent real life in that people are fallible. Folks don't get along easily in life. Humans (and monsters) are dysfunctional. That's truly the beauty of this movie. Max has a hard life, lonely and afraid, things don't work the way he wants them too. He's on the outside. Some of the same things that lots of kids face. The movie portrays very well what kids go through in life and helps the viewer to really step into the story. When Max fights with his mom, and runs away (replacing being sent to his room, in the book) It's real life. It's not some fluffy interaction that might happen on the Brady Bunch. This may be considered something kids shouldn't see, but I beg to differ. In the context of the whole movie, this is exactly what they need to see. To be able to see that parents stink sometimes, families will let them down occasionally, people, in general, are broken and suffering too. When Max runs away, and comes upon the monsters he hopes that he has found his ideal place. It turns out that everywhere he goes, no matter in real life or his imagination, people are the same. Yes, this is a sad commentary on human existence, but in the end, he decides if life is like this everywhere, then he should go back to the people that truly, and realistically love him, his mother and sister. People who he can also love back in the same way. Realizing how important they are in his life, even if they let him down sometimes.

I am so glad this movie doesn't sugarcoat real life. Did my boys get the full meaning of the theme? I'm not sure. Do I think they at least got pieces of truth through it? Definitely. I believe it was very worthwhile to bring them. And I thought the movie was brilliant.

Chicago in July

I realized that I had posted a story here before we made our trip to Chicago in July, but I never posted a follow up with pictures from our trip. So here goes. I made my pilgrimage to the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha Wisconsin to get the delectable cheese curds and other assorted goodies, like sausages and preserves.

Made sure I had some of the Italian perfection from Giordano's, left Keeley in good hands with Grandma Lou, and headed downtown to show the boys a few sites before heading out to US Cellular Field to watch my beloved White Sox put a beat down on the Indians. It was a great night with Liesl and the boys and glad they got to experience a great Major League Baseball game. Paul Konerko, the Whitesox first baseman, went off and had 3 homers, one of which was a grand slam, all of them prompting the score board at "The Cell" to explode with fireworks along with the deafening cheers of the crowd. The Whitesox won 10-6.

Overall it was a successful trip.

Fall Soccer Season

We are half-way through fall soccer season and both the boys are doing well. Bryce is playing a lot of offense and scoring in just about every game. He is still on the smaller side compared to a lot of the kids, but he is really starting to use his stride and speed as an advantage. He's made some fairly good friends on the team, which is always nice. Compared to last year, this year's coach is much better, we actually have practice and he calls us when games have been cancelled. You'd think that would be pretty standard, but apparently not with last year's coach.

Rece is with the same coach and most of the same teammates that he's been with for several seasons. Most of his team is now on the upper side of their age group so his team is pretty much taking care of every team by a lot. Rece has developed some really good ball handling skills and is passing better than ever. He scores a lot, but gets put on defense when he scores too much. He's also been playing goalie a lot. I love it when he plays goalie, so much that I told him if he plays voluntarily, I'd buy him some goalkeeper gloves. He's very proud of the gloves.

Next fall we have the opportunity to put both of them on the same team, which will be nice schedule-wise, but we'll see how the boys handle their own competitiveness.

Keeley Words

Over the past several weeks Keeley's vocabulary has greatly increased. She's finally understanding the value of verbal communication. Although at this point most of her words are still "repeat words" meaning we tell her to say something and she repeats it. She does understand a lot of them. So here's a brief list of the most popular ones.

"Momma" is most popular, she loves her Momma

"football" is one of my favorites. When she sees the Tennessee Titans logo she will say "football". (although it's debatable at this point whether that's actual football with how bad they're playing)

"Bubba" is Bryce

"Ree" is Rece

"Kee Kee" is Keely, but also a nickname we call her sometimes, so that one is accurate.

"coke" yummmy

"kitty" "doggy" she loves animals

"broccoli" not quite clear yet, but Liesl loves the way she says it, it's really cute

"fishy" most of the time it's because she wants goldfish crackers

It seems she learns something new every day, especially with two crazy older brothers who teach her all kinds of boy stuff, yikes!

Successful Trip

Bryce, Rece and I took a trip last weekend to Cincinnati for Rece's Birthday celebration. What a trip! It was about a four hour drive, so I'm glad the boys now each have their own Nintendo DSi. When we got to the hotel (actually in Covington, KY) we checked in quickly and started the 1.5 mile walk across the Ohio River and to Great American Ballpark. Our seats were in left field, right next to the foul (fair) pole. In the second row. Manny Ramirez was playing left field right in front of us. So at one point between innings we got up to grab a bite to eat and just as we did and I turned my back, Manny threw his warm-up ball into the crowd. I noticed a ball land at my feet and in my stupor, I just stared at it. Someone else picked it up before I could figure out what happened. Then as we were walking in the concourse, a Reds player wrapped a homer around our foul pole. Thankfully, upon watching the replay, some folks on the other side of the camera pit (right at the foul pole got the lucky bounce, so I don't think I would have been able to get that one. Anyway, we loved the game, even though the Reds lost. It was entertaining. We ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel, and getting more to eat, then we went swimming in the hotel pool. The boys were more than happy to just relax in the hot tub, but we got a little bit of "dad throwing the boys" in the big pool too. It was time to go to bed, so we all snuggled up together in the king-sized bed in our room. I set the alarm kind of early, knowing that we wanted to do some more swimming before we checked out and wanted to make sure we hit Skyline Chili before we left. So overall we had a really good time, I really cherished the time with my boys, I hope we can have more adventures like this one.

Dad from a distance

It's been hard, these past few weeks to be without my kids. I am trying to talk to them on the phone as much as possible and be dad for them, but it's just hard to not be physically with them. Bryce called me the other day. He sounded very down, said he was homesick. He wanted so much to be with his toys and bed and house, but most of all with his dad. He said that he got a new football with rocket fins on it and he couldn't wait to play catch with me. If there was any possible way I could find to play catch over the phone, I would do it in a second. Can't wait until they get home.

wonder what, wonder if

As some of you may know, the past several weeks have been kind of crazy to say the least for Liesl and I. While enjoying a pleasant dinner with the kids and Liesl one night, a few weeks back, Liesl simply says, "By the way, I'm late." She wasn't late for a meeting or anything. Her time of the month was late. She took a home pregnancy test the following day. While I'm sitting in a meeting at church that evening, she calls me hysterical. I knew right away. She was pregnant. We were both so scared. Really, really scared. Over the next few days in chatting through this whole pregnancy thing with God, I started to feel some peace about it. If God really wants me to have another child, He will prepare me. He has already made me into a better man and a better dad through my marriage and with my kids. I can do this again. He has made me capable. It was also something that I grew to experience more joy through. This is a precious life! I was surprised after the birth of each of my children so far, that God increased the amount of love I had to share with them. He would certainly do it again. Yet, I was still scared. A few short weeks later, the baby miscarried... How could we go from one to the other so quickly? My fear turned to sadness. Great, intense sadness. Which is where I am today. So here I sit, wonder what he/she would have been like, wondering if there was anything I did, or didn't do. Even through my life goes on, it feels different. Just a little lonelier, like I am missing someone who would be here. Like I was meant to give someone part of me, that I am no longer needing to give, but I still want to.

Burgess Falls State Park

Last Sunday, I took the boys on a hiking adventure to Burgess Falls State Park, near Sparta Tennessee. I was looking to get them out of the house for a little activity so I looked for a close state park. For some reason I'd never heard of this park, and from the pictures on the website, I was not terribly impressed. But what the heck. So we took the hour and 15 minute drive east on I-40 and then turned off into the land of nowhere. There were very few signs for this place and my GPS told me where it was supposed to be, but it wasn't. So we kept driving. Another few miles down the road we found it (we were about to turn around). Immediately after getting out of the car we could hear the sound of rushing water. Yes, just a few yards from the parking lot. The map I had said the trail was about 1.5 miles long. I was thinking, "easy trail, it's probably even paved..." I'm glad I had my hiking boots on. It was fairly steep and very rocky. and in several places, if we took a few wrong steps, we might have fallen off the bluff and into the falls. There were three main falls and the last was the most impressive. We actually could hike down the cliff to the bottom of the third falls and sit where the spray cooled us off. It was very steep and me, being afraid of heights, was terrified in one part where there is a set of metal stairs with a cage around it that scales the cliff wall. Once at the bottom, it was just large boulders that we climbed over to get to the bottom of the falls. It was truly amazing, the power of the water rushing over the top of the cliff and hitting the bottom. The wind was strong simply from the water coming over the 136 foot drop. after climbing back up the freaky stairs, we found another trail that had some nice views over the back side of the park that looked out over the lower river, past the falls. It was beautiful. I'm so glad that I got to spend time with my boys Even though they didn't want to go hiking originally, they were both asking when we could come back.

From Collages

Chicagoland

Tonight we are headed up to the Chicagoland area to see some friends and family for a long weekend. It's so funny, I always tell people I'm going to "Chicago" and they always ask what we're going to do in Chicago. Then I have to explain that I'm actually going to the suburbs some of which are really no where close to Chicago (Woodstock...) Anyway, since I had an extra day off work for observance of the 4th of July, we thought we'd take advantage and make the trip. We are going to be stopping in Louisville, KY to visit our newly married friends, Brad and Rachel so that will split up the drive a little. And it'll be good to hang out with them. Then off to Chicago Suburbs on Friday morning. Although we never go into Chicago, one of the regular highlights is to get some real PIZZA. Although the southern food is great in Nashville, the pizza, for the most part, stinks. I will at some point during this trip, get Giordano's Pizza. The best pizza in all the land. We will also make a trip to Culver's, home of the Butterburger. And last, but not least will be the yearly pilgrimage to the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, Wisconsin for the dairy indulgence of cheddar cheese curds.

Yummmmm.

Anyway, we do look forward to seeing family and friends also. Really, we do. Somehow we have always avoided going downtown with the kids, so this year, I'm changing things up. We are going to visit US Cellular Field, the home of The 2005 World Champion Chicago Whitesox. Since they've been on a little mini- hot streak lately, it should be even better. I love the Whitesox and I am so looking forward to this great opportunity to bring my boys. At the very least we should have a few good pictures and a blog entry out of the whole thing. Hopefully Jermaine Dye can "put one on the board" for us and light up some fireworks during the game.

Diving Catch

On Saturday evening, our whole family went to have dinner at a friend's house in Spring Hill Tennessee. Their house has a huge yard and we got all the kids playing a little baseball (really wiffle ball). Bryce was in the outfield and i was pitching. My friend was batting. He hit a fly ball well over Bryce's head and Bryce was digging hard for it. at the last moment, I yelled out "dive for it!" When I was a kid that's what we always yelled to each other to at least make a good effort and have a little fun, knowing if we ever made the catch it would go down as legend. Bryce however, did not make the catch. But what an effort. He did stay on the ground for a little longer and I knew he had hurt himself in the process. As I walked over to check on him, he had some tears in his eyes. I felt sad and guilty. Had I caused his pain? He had hurt his hip landing on the ground awkwardly. I first made sure that he was physically OK, but the tears really weren't about the hip pain. He was angry and ashamed about not making the catch and that I told him to dive for it. Wow. I am so glad he could be honest with me about that. He is so much braver for telling me that then even for diving for a ball that he couldn't reach. What a great moment , I am so proud of my boy. He may not have physically caught the ball, but he still made a diving catch in my heart.

Turtle but not Terrapin

This past weekend, as we travelled to Maryland for the funeral, we stayed in Virginia with Liesl's cousin, Kate and her husband Ben. They are animal lovers, so all over the house they have animal habitats. There were two guinea pigs, a large lizard, and the most popular was the turtle. Now we are in Virginia, but close to Maryland, where the University of Maryland's mascot is the Terrapin turtle. But this, I guess was not a terrapin, but a large turtle none the less. It loved trying to eat Rece's crocs, and was big enough to let Keeley have a ride around the deck, where it lives.

Keeley seems to love all animals, but this was a very captivating creature for her. she kept going over to the sliding glass door and saying "meh, meh" meaning "I want to see the turtle some more." Thanks Mrs. Turtle for the entertainment.

We made it

The baby does not want to go to sleep. It's now 10:10 pm central time and she hasn't slept much in the car all day. Ughh. It's going to be a long weekend. Overall she did fairly well in the car, she didn't have any complete meltdowns, just a lot of whining. The boys had their Nintendo DS and a movie on the portable DVD player. I love technology. If only Keeley were so entertained by technology as much as my boys and I are. Must try to get sleep now....

Where the heck are you?

For those few that have wondered why I haven't posted anything in a while, well, I have no excuse. No real excuse anyway, but I'm going to attempt a cheap one. The past week or so we've had a few visitors to our humble (but slightly bigger) abode. Liesl's mother, Gail came last week during the week. And since the series is over, I'm really glad the Blackhawks won. Gail is from Canada and was rooting against (I don't know how to type with a Canadian accent, but you can hear the word "against", can't you?) the Blackhawks. Well, playoff hockey is another reason I haven't posted. Playoff hockey is almost as good as March Madness in my book. I only wish my beloved Predators were in the playoffs. Anyway, back to my poor excuses. Gail left and Liesl's sister, Audrey, and her two younger sons, Cameron and Jobe, came. Wow, that's 5 kids and 3 adults in our slightly bigger humble abode. it was a little crazy. We went to the Adventure Science Center here in Nashville on Sunday, and celebrated Mother's Day. Somehow in the chaos of getting out the door, I (really we) forgot the camera. Audrey and her kids leave today. Then we have Liesl's youngest Brother coming in another week. I don't want to hear any more of this, "I don't get any adult interaction" stuff out of you know who. Hopefully I can post some random pictures I have on the camera soon and maybe I'll have more grill stories. I seem to have grill story competition.

Easter Extended

The Easter story is a great one with Jesus rising from the dead to redeem his people. But sometimes it is hard for me to really grasp the beauty and perfection of it all. I think that God tells me that same story in other ways to point me back to Jesus.

First, Bryce and Rece are in a home school tutorial, where they get together for a few hours each week and get taught some stuff with other kids that are home schooled. They had a science project of bringing home a caterpillar and watching it make it's cocoon and then become a butterfly. It has been kind of a long process, but they both yielded beautiful butterflies this past week.

They boys were so excited. We released them both to the wild but had to get a picture first. We also grilled for the first time this year. I know, you're probably thinking how does that tie into Easter? It reminds me that spring is here after being cold and rainy, there is life again all around. We enjoyed several different kinds of food, this is only about 1/3 of it.

We had our friends, Brad and Rachel over with their girls. Another picture of redemption for us, as their marriage is one of two tragic stories coming together to make something new and full of life again. We also had all the kids enjoy a little wrestling match against me, it's amazing to me that I can be a dad and someone that is fun and has a little bit of a child-like heart. Yes, that's me on the bottom.

Boys, Beer, 'Bama and Blood

So the boys weekend is off to an exciting start. Thusday night we cracked open the beers (root beer, that is) and watched a movie.

The boys insisted on sleeping in the living room, I chose to sleep in my comfy bed. Up early the next morning, we decided to make the trek to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama home of Space Camp, to go to the museum. They have a great collection of rockets including a real Saturn IV, missiles, some rides, a Mars terrain climbing wall, and a real space shuttle.

On the way home, as the boys were enjoying another refreshing root beer, Bryce stuck his finger in his empty root beer can, and sliced it open as he pulled it out. Yikes!

As we sped up route 65 to try to get to the doctor, we were able to stop the bleeding. We made it to the doctor as they were closing the door, only to find out that it was not deep enough for stitches. So overall, it was an adventurous day.