falling in love with real food

We recently started feeding Hadley solids, if you consider carrot and sweet potato mush solid. I tried starting her on rice cereal a little while ago, but for some reason she didn't like it--maybe because it tastes horrible--yes I tried it--or rather doesn't taste at all. She likes it so much that she's decided to wear it as often and as liberally as she can.

Now if only I could get her to use the spoon herself without speckling the house in orange-colored puree...

"picture me, daddy"

Whenever Allie sees a camera in action or inaction, she walks over, looks up, and, with her gorgeous blue eyes wide and her most subtle (or not so subtle) smile says, "Picture me." And unable to resist her toddler wiles, I do picture her. Here are two recent results of her request.

five going on twenty

For Sidney's fifth birthday, we threw her a swim party. She said she had fun, but I'm not so sure...I think she was expecting more presents (as if she didn't get a hundred too many!).

pineview dam family

On July 5, Kip and Camille (the sister-in-law whose father owns Fred's Marine in Layton, Utah, took the Ames family to Pineview Reservoir for half a day of tubing and wake surfing. As you can tell from the pictures, most of us made it out alive...

story time

One of Sidney's and Allie's favorite spots: on Grandpa Chadwick's lap behind a good book (or two or three, sometimes even ten). I'm sure they'd be quite content to spend their lives listening to someone read.

watch out for the rooster

One of Sidney's more frequent faces: bottom lip out, the perfect perch, as they say, for the rooster to land on. Allie, on the other hand, is quite content just to laugh at her older sister's feigned discontent.

who's the nerd?

One of these grins is not like the other; one of these faces just doesn't belong.

(Full disclosure: I, Tyler, didn't know she was actually taking the picture. Either that or I'm just a big cheeser, goofball, nerd, minus the glasses--at least in this picture that is--and wanted to stand out. You be the judge...)

hippity hop, hippity hop: sidney's a preschool graduate

At the end of May, Sidney graduated from Hippity Hop Preschool. We're pretty sure that she was at the top of her class-with parents like us, how could she not be? As you can see by this picture, she's excited, but a bit unsure about the future: "Work or college? Ivy League or local?" We are extremely proud of her for her commitment to education--on non-school days, all she wanted to do was go to school--and know that she can and will succeed in whatever she does (even if she decides Ivy League and leaves her parents in the shadow of the west).

Hippity Hop Preschool, class of 2008 (Sid's five from the left, as always at the center of attention).

Sidney and Teacher Brooke.

halfway there

Hadley's just recently, in the past few weeks, learned to roll herself onto her belly. This is what happens when she gets there: She's all smiles for a while, making fake coughing noises to get our attention until she starts fussing because she doesn't quite know how to roll back onto her back. I'm confident, however, that she'll learn quickly...infants, toddlers, and kids don't know any different than to learn fast (especially to do the things you don't want them to), do they?

summer snow bunny

While I (Tyler) was de-junking kitchen drawers, Allie found this stocking cap. Pointing at it, she said, "Mine?" then, "Pud it on." So I slipped it over her golden locks and she smiled. Isn't she the most adorable (yeah, that's right: adorable--I'm the proud at-home father of three girls; I can use the word adorable whenever I want!) two year old with her huge blue eyes, little nose, half smile, and the remnants of baby fat still clinging to her cheeks?