Monday, June 23, 2008

three monkeys on the bed

We caught these three monkeys on our bed last night when we were winding down for the day. As you can see, that can be a difficult thing to do when your kids are so cute and full of energy.

Needless to day, most nights we let them stay up far later than they should...

our house is a very, very, very nice house..

Since it's in our family's best interest to move to Pocatello before Tyler starts school this August (especially since driving up there from Ogden three times a week would put us into bankruptcy due to the outrageous price of gas and he doesn't really want to travel Greyhound for four hours a day--as exciting as that sounds), we need to sell our house. We wanted to get the word out via blog so here's our ad, the links to our online postings--one on ksl.com, the other on utahrealestate.com--and some pics.

If you know anyone that's looking for a great home in Ogden, send them our agent's way (see the sidebar for a permalink to this post and for our agent's info).

This (approximately) 1,656 square foot, 4 bedroom, 1 ½ bath, multi-level home sits on a 0.16 acre lot within walking distance of the 9th Street climbing rocks and Bonneville Shoreline Trail North to the east and Ben Lomond High and Horace Mann Elementary to the west. The spacious, fully-fenced backyard has a newly established lawn (as of July 2007), an in-ground trampoline, a large dog run, and a 10 ft. by 10 ft. storage shed. With updated paint (inside and out), three upstairs bedrooms, a recently finished basement, an open floor-plan, and a large kitchen with a great view of the mountains, this home is a must see!

Front of house.


View to the north east.



The backyard (and Sidney teeter-tottering).





Main level: the living room and kitchen.








Upstairs: the full bathroom and three bedrooms.





Basement: the laundry area, half-bathroom, family room (Sidney coloring), and fourth bedroom (currently a toy room).

Saturday, June 21, 2008

two raisins in the sun

The girls got to play with some of the neighbor's grandkids today. They had a big water slide and popsicles--a kid couldn't ask for more.

Popsicle brain freeze...


At the Melting Popsicle Convention.


Allie up...

...Allie down...


...Allie proud (and Sidney cut off)!


Sidney up...

...Sidney down...

...Sidney cold!


Hadley, being camera shy.


"Oh, there it is," she says.


Hadley, Dad, and dimples.


Hadley, Dad, and halitosis.

can't say they're not related


When I (Tyler) got home from running yesterday morning, I found these two matching ragamuffins lying in bed together. The little one (Allie) is always trying to take my spot, so I finally let her. Even though her genes say she's Dad's, she acts an awful lot like her mom.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

welcome to our family

Beginning in August 2008, we (finally) begin the final phase of Tyler's education, this time at Idaho State University (Pocatello), home of the Bengals. He'll be pursuing a Doctor of Arts degree in English as Jess works toward completion of her PHT-Putting Husband Through-and the girls toward their PDTs-Putting Daddy Through. When we're done, it will be a day of rapture, quite literally, as Jess keeps reminding him, because the end of the world will probably have come. Then our lives can be defined less in terms of degrees and more in terms potatoes.

By that time, this is how we imagine our family will be:

Tyler and Jess, beyond their academic lives, will be old and decrepit, curled up in front of a fireplace all day watching reruns of Scrubs, Bones, Lost, House, Heroes, and Celebrity Circus (not really on that last one), waiting for their daughters to get home from some social function or another, and wondering whether or not they took their last dose of medication.

Sidney, now five and ecstatic to begin Kindergarten this fall, will have probably joined her dad as a college student. She will probably still be into playing princess; love purses, babies, cell phones, and writing; and excel at putting her parents in their place with her remarkably apt insights into being grown up.

Alex (Allie), now two, will finally be toilet trained and beyond the point (we hope) of slipping into our bed at night and taking up the middle half with her sideways sleeping. She'll also still enjoy playing princess; love purses, babies, cell phones, and writing; will more than likely be close to joining her sister and dad in college; and will also excel at telling her parents how it is.

Hadley, now four and a half months, will also be toilet trained (we really hope-that could make for an odd social experience!) and will continue to run her family's lives as she does now, though with fewer bottle feedings and less crying. She'll have an excellent vocabulary, far beyond the spitting and mumbling she does now, and will be nipping at her sisters' heels as our third purse-baby-cell phone-word-loving-know-it-all princess.