Thanksgiving amendment

The family picture is missing two people: Jimmy - he was taking the picture, and Jimmy's daughter, Ellie. She was already back at her mom's house for the day. Here is a picture of Ellie with Christopher. It's a little dark, but you can still see the gap where her front teeth used to be!

Thanksgiving - Only a month late!

My goal is to have Christmas pictures up around the New Year - okay, maybe Valentine's Day, but I'm trying to be optimistic!
We went to Utah for Thanksgiving to see Emily's family.

Christopher shared some of the music from Daddy's iPod with his uncle Jimmy.


Cold weather was a new thing for him, so he had to get all decked out in his long pants, sweatshirt, jacket, hat and closed-toe shoes. We don't use those things much in Arizona!

Here's the whole family, use your magnifying glass: From the left, Jennifer and Ben, Scott & Kathleen, Stephanie, Sergio, Jimmy's wife Daisy, Emily, Christopher in front of part of Synthia's face, and Matt with Emma and Dana sitting in the chairs in front.

Christopher with his cousin Dana. Aren't those precious smiles?

We went to see our friends Todd & Beth at the end of the week. It had been a long week for Christopher, so he and his Bear took a nice 3-hour nap.

Christopher's 2nd birthday party

Our baby suddenly (or so it seems to us) is not a baby anymore, but a walking, talking, funny, happy little boy! We had his second birthday party just a little over a week ago. He got a little overwhelmed and spent the last part of the evening playing cars with Mema in the back room, but here are some shots of his more social moments.


Mesmerized by the flames.


The frosting was his favorite part. He took a couple of bites of the cupcake and then decided to concentrate on the good stuff. At one point he just leaned over and started licking the frosting off the top of the cupcake.

Elmo is a new obsession. He likes to watch the "Elmo's World" part of Sesame Street in the morning. This toy has buttons and snaps and zippers and all that good stuff for him to learn to do.

One of the other favorites of the evening was this huge dump truck. He promptly dubbed it "Big Truck" and plays with it constantly. We had to explain to him that Big Truck doesn't get to go to bed with him.

We love this smile! Our friend Jenny made some really yummy #2-shaped sugar cookies for Christopher's birthday. They had frosting and different colors of sprinkles and M&Ms on top. Christopher especially liked the "candy." He also enjoyed naming the colors. He's getting pretty good at that!

The Great Pumpkin - and his daddy!


Christopher loved holding the candy bucket. He would walk up to people and say "Candy, please!" but he wanted them to hand it to him so he could put it in the bucket himself. Then when he felt like he had enough, he started handing the candy back to people.


Everything seems to be running! The sheer descents are going here. There is a bench right underneath them, so when it's really hot you'll be able to get in and sit with the water flowing over you. We're looking forward to it!

FINALLY!!!! Sort of.

I simply do not understand the blogger thing and how it works. I finally got one picture to upload, but now I can't get any others. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime here is the filled pool. The little posts to the right will be where the diving board is going.

At long (?) last

I've been trying to post pictures for several days now and haven't been able to get the pictures up for some reason. But the pool is finally done! I will spare you the pictures of it plastered but not filled. If you want those, submit your request and we will consider it. I would love to show you the pictures of the pool filled and the sheer descents running, but I've tried three times just today and can't get the pictures to upload. So I'll have to leave you in suspense. I also want to post pictures of Christopher on Halloween. No luck. Stay tuned....

Almost there.....

Last week Christopher and Grandma Nell (and mama, the photographer) went to the Botanical Gardens and spent some time with the monarch butterflies.

We also made pool progress. Decking is done. It's hard to see in the bright sunlight, but it's a very neutral, hard to describe color called "fawn." Lovely.

Next came the fence. Another hard to describe neutral color but it had a name instead of a number. It's darker than the deck, but somewhere in between on the colors of the house. It works.

Next will be the interior and then we fill 'er up!

Tile is done!

Next step: decking coating on Wednesday. Stay tuned.....

Heaven for the boys!

Christopher got sheared this week by a really scary lady at Great Clips. I told her I wanted it shorter, but she didn't hear the part about using the scissors on top. She took the clippers right over his head. Luckily Grandma Truitt is on vacation for three weeks and it'll have a chance to grow back a little before she gets home! She likes it a little longer than this.


Nothing like a big pile of dirt to keep the boys occupied for awhile in the evening. Matt ended up with an eyeful of dirt when Christopher pulled his arm back for a big throw, but after a lot of rinsing we think he'll keep his sight in that eye. ;) Christopher later discovered how to slide down the backslope on his belly, just like the slide at the park!

Decking is done!

This is the view from where the diving board will be.


Here is the opposite end, the play pool (shallow) side. The next step is for us to pick the tile.

We are constantly amazed by construction

We had no idea that they were going to come out today to frame out the decking. It's a little disconcerting to wake up to the sound of voices and hammering in your backyard. But it brings us one step closer. With 100 degree temperatures forecast for all this week, we're wondering if we might get some use out of this pool this year after all!

Pictures of the other babies

The cat who still thinks he's the only child. He still loves sleeping in bowls & sinks.

The son who loves the cat like a brother.
Christopher got some sunglasses this week and he's modeling them here while standing in a box and asking Grandma for "more" singing. He likes having her sing "Pop Goes the Weasel" and he sits down in the box on the "Pop!"

Next phase completed

It's amazing to me what can be done with rebar! The steel went in Monday and Tuesday. We thought we would have to wait for a couple of weeks for the shotcrete to be done, but they came today. Now it actually looks more like a pool! We have to spray it down a few times a day for five days to slow the curing process and help prevent large cracks from forming. Then the next phase goes in at the end of next week.

The pool has been excavated!

Here is the finished dig! The left picture is from the diving end and the one on the right is the play pool end. All of the white layer that you see along the sides of the dirt is the hard clay. It's like natural concrete. They had to use a nasty-looking pick attachment to break through it. But it's done, and the plumbers will be here tomorrow.

Trying again. The last picture didn't post.
And I've added one showing how he likes to watch TV.

The things they learn on their own....

We swear we didn't teach him this - well, I suppose I can only vouch for myself, but I've never known Matt to be a nose picker. The problem is that if you laugh, which is hard not to do, it only encourages him!

Finally, some updates!

I'm so motivated by Melisa & Josh's diligence at keeping their site updated that I decided to take advantage of a little free time (Christopher is riding around on his toy fire truck) to post a few pictures of our own! Here is one showing the excitement at our house yesterday: We paid some people to put a big hole in our yard. We're hoping it will eventually be a pool.
They ran into hard clay about 4 feet down, so we have a slight delay until the jack hammer shows up!

We've joined the ranks!

We're going for the "everybody else is doing it" reason. It feels weird to say we're bloggers. Not much to say yet, just setting it up.