Carnivore

I'm not sure what inspired all this, but my kids have had a thing with where meat comes from. They know perfectly well that it is animal muscle, so they always ask what animal it came from, what part of the victim it is, and how we came about having it on hand.
I'm cutting chicken breasts before dinner...

Bekah: What's that?
Me: Chicken.
B: But what animal did it come from?
Me: A chicken. You know, the bird. Bok, bok.
B: Is he dead?
Me. Yes. Definitely dead.
Pause.
B: Does he even know that you're cutting him?
Me: No, I don't think he cares right now. He's dead.
B: What part of his body is that?
Me: His chest.
B: And you got part of his chest at the store?
Me: Yep.

Once I caught her making sawing motions, so I inquired after the purpose. She was cutting a little army man up for his meat to feed to Megatron.
We might have a future butcher in our midst.

A lot to live up to

 This new baby has to be pretty cute to be able to compete with these three...

I'm not trying to brag, because if you consider what kind of gene pool they had to work with, you'd think they were genetically engineered.

Oh, I hope her eyes stay that color.

blue eyes, fat thighs

Our computer decided to hibernate for the winter, so we've been a little disconnected from the outside world for a while. Turns out, when you have no TV, cell phones, or internet, you can still live off of chocolate. Survival Skills 101. So we rescued our pal out of his coma and now we are back to life as we knew it.
We celebrated Keturah's birthday about a week ago, but it felt like she was already 1 for the past 6 weeks. She's been walking, stalking, and squawking for at least that long, so there really wasn't anything to graduate to. But, it was really fun to spoil her (more) for a day. We had the Crellins over for the weekend--appropriate since they were the first ones to meet her besides her own family.

The cake fun:











































The evidence of her distant doting family in Cali...


Bekah requested this picture of them both on their horses.

It was hard to get her to look up for a picture, but at least that means she was really into all her gifts.


Also, the drool gets progressively worse as she opens more and more presents.

Oh boy.

Alex is singing praises. He's getting a brother.

Cheeky Fellow

Matt and I arrived at Walmart last Saturday, only to find that Alex had quickly applied his war paint to both cheeks before we could protest and have him scrub it off. Oh well, at least we fit in at Walmart.
Later that night I told him to go get in the bathtub and while walking past the bathroom, I did a double take. He apparently had had the time to graffiti his other set of cheeks as well. I almost could not hold in the laughter. I found Matt and told him, "Don't laugh, but go check out Alex in the tub." He was dying. Of all the available canvas of skin, who pulls their pants out to try and jam a marker down at that awkward angle? What a strange bird we have. I was extremely tempted to take a picture, but I didn't want it to come back and haunt him for life.

Also, he swallowed his first lost tooth amongst some apple , but thankfully there was another loose one to follow and this one did not go down the hatch.

Up the hill to fetch a pail of water

We drove up towards the Sierra Nevada mountains to reach Matt's parents house. The evergreens make it incredibly beautiful all year round. And the water--oh the water. It tastes soooo good, it is clear, it actually rids the soap from your skin, and these towns know the true meaning of water pressure. Can you tell I'm not a fan of our soft, iron-ridden, pressure-less, wanna-be water?
Okay, enough about liquids, good and evil. The foothills of the SN mountains are home, yes, but there really is no better place. Somebody back me up on this. Beauty, charm, trailer parks. Seriously, what town have you been to and not seen a trailer park? I'm pretty sure even Beverly Hills has one lurking somewhere.

Anyway, here we are on the lovely Christmas morn (a snow-less one, I might add. A minor annoyance, however), with smiling faces. Matt totally cheated and got dressed, whereas Jenny joined me in keeping pj's on like you are supposed to do on Christmas.

Alex can hardly contain himself.

Bekah got some girl toys that she loves and plays with all the time, but she still shoots people in the halls at church with her cannons. Sweet little angel.

Matt's grandparents were there for the week also. Grandma's stories and Grandpa's smile. Can't top that.

Keturah tried pretty hard to grab Grandpa's smile from off his face.

Matt's other grandma made her debut as well--she was really good at being interested in all the features of Alex's latest transformer. Such a sweet great-grandma.

Keturah did her best to charm Grandma...

...and Aunt Jenny...

...and Great Grandma...

...and Grandpa...

...but not without competition.

Again, thanks so much to everyone for a wonderful time. See, you made me post this and now I'm homesick already. Is it really still January? I swear this month is never-ending.

Just like the good ol' days

Yes, MORE Christmas junk. Apparently we have too much family or something. Anyway, this was the ragin' occasion at my dad's joint. Since I was 15, we have crammed more people in one living room than any fireman would be comfortable with. Each year seems to add more bodies, and I'm pretty sure there are always some people missing. Usually this is me and my clan, but this year, we were privy to the party.

Bekah hangin' with Grandpa Robin (my pops)

This is the kids' own dance party in the garage.

Uncle Danny's illegitimate child. Just kidding--that's Keturah.

Let me tell ya--I know this is a really dumb picture. However, I'm never in any pictures. So this is the proof that I was there and this is what is produced when Matt has the camera. Mona Lisa.

And some happy kids...

And this is just the view around the room

Thanks to everyone who made this night memorable. We loved every minute of it.