The Piano Has Landed!

The neighbors are being serenaded by musical banging now that the piano has finally made it in the house. Chad and Dax were able to get it to the garage, but there was no possible way the two of them could have maneuvered it down seven stairs, around a sharp corner and into the family room. Seeing as how asking the High Priest's Group to help move a 400 pound piano would have resulted in at least five strokes and/or heart attacks, Chad approached the Elder's Quorum for help. They arrived on a sunny Saturday to help make my dreams of a piano-free garage come true, and what a good job they did too! The children are excited to have a new toy and I hope that excitement continues when lessons inevitably start, next year for Merritt, but I'm told that the surest way to get kids to leave the piano alone is to ask them to practice. Hmmm. I hoping that is NOT the case.

The Day Before Yesterday

That IS a yardstick in the snow that fell Tuesday...and yes it DOES say 11.5 inches!! That is our second major 10+ inch snowstorm in the past two weeks. The snow is crazy thick everywhere you look and so beautiful. It looks like we live in a gingerbread village. Shoveling has become quite the work-out because the snow has been wet and heavy. I have super nice neighbors who are generous with their snow blowers, bless them, and we shovel their sidewalks too. It makes me feel so cozy to be surrounded by wonderful, caring people. With all the snow we've had lately, we've been able to create some mighty mountains with all our shoveling. This is the mountain range that surrounds our backyard concrete pad. Impressive eh? My mother-in-law lives closer to the bench and gets even more snow than we do. She says I sound awfully cheerful about shoveling snow and I suppose I am. We could be out shoveling the walks and steps of 56 apartments rather than the driveway and sidewalks surrounding our sweet little home. It's all in the perspective really.

Hair cut

Grant was born with old man fringe...not a lot of hair on top and loads around the bottom. While the top has steadily grown longer and thicker so too has the fringe. One day, after Grant's nap, I noticed that his hair in the back was not lying flat, instead it looked like a hair ball, a bird's nest, a you name it! He had four inches of hair back there! He'd roll around on the couch and come up looking like Albert Einstein...his hair was simply incredible. I would comb it into submission only to find it standing and ready to fight 5 minutes later. He looked like an orphan or a step-child or any other fairy tale child of neglect. I hated to take his hood off at church because his hair would be sticking straight out the back. Ack...the horror! We finally took the clippers to his hair before it took over the house. It now is as straight and well-behaved as I could hope for. I win...for now.

Now That's Love Part 2!

Lest you think that we ignored our children on Valentine's Day I offer the following as proof of what parental love, 1/3 of their respective chocolaty treats, and three helium balloons can do...

Now That's Love!!!

The roses are a gift from Chad to me.
The chocolate ganache cake is a gift from me to Chad (along with a yummy dinner of bacon wrapped tenderloin, loaded mashed potatoes, and a mixed greens salad with raspberries and almonds).
The bears are a gift from Grandma to our three munchkins.
There's a lot of love going around in this house!

Door Art

Merritt spends most of his free time drawing...mostly it is dinosaur books but he has recently branched out into other areas. Since his taste runs to the ferocious and deadly, he has entitled his latest works: "Dangerous Animals." These, he has decided, should decorate his door - perhaps this is a warning to those who would step inside. (Featured are a lion, tiger, shark, rattlesnake, crocodile, piranha, komodo dragon and a poison dart frog. The self portrait at the top was made in his first grade class.)






Grace's taste in door art is more peaceful. We have been working on shapes, particularly circles, in our school time and she is very proud of her snowman, flower, and caterpillar. Wait a minute...did I say she had more peaceful taste? Disturbed is more like it! Each segment of the caterpillar and the snowman has a face. She's making a mutant door art army! Run for the hills!!!

A Tragic End

This is Wilby...he was our fourth fish following in the fin-prints of Fishy, Walden, and Bob (Merritt names our fish, if you were wondering). We all loved Wilby (that's a cross between Fishy and Wilbur...again, if you were wondering) but no one was more fascinated with our red and blue beta than Grant. Many was the time where I caught him with his hand in the water, trying to play with the fish, or found a small water puddle next to the tank, which indicated prior water playing, or saw Grant scooting the tank closer to his face, and thus the edge. Chad and I had both talked to him many a time about not moving the fish tank, but hey, he is 17 months old and most of what we say probably sounds like it came from the mouth of Charlie Brown's mother. Anyhoo, the fatal moment finally arrived...Grant pulled the fish tank off the table and poor Wilby is now in fish heaven. Chad thinks Wilby died upon impact with the floor, more from shock than anything else. His final fish-thoughts would have been interesting to hear: "I knew that kid was going to be the death of me!" Or something like that I'm sure. Merritt and Grace, who were eye-witnesses to the accident, were incredibly traumatized. Grace came crying to me saying, "Fish." Sob. "Hurt." Sob "No swim anymore!" Chad mopped up the water/rock/fish mess while I dealt with the emotional mess. Merritt was very sad, but after a good cry and a good talk he decided he wanted another fish. On the fish-wish list this time: 4 sharks.

No That's Not Atomic Fallout...

That is an impressive number of candles don't ya think? The mushroom cloud of smoke that arose from this bonfire was even more so.

Yum!

We had markers for dinner. Yum! What are you making at your house?