Santa and the Boys

One of Sara's aunties had a party last week and invited Santa. PJ is used to Santa by now but Kohan, not so much.

Parker's First Lost Tooth

November 23, 2011, PJ lost his first tooth. He seems pretty happy about it.

Halloween 2011

PJ and Kohan playing on a tractor at the pumpkin farm.

Dustin carved the pumpkin on the left.

PJ in the halloween parade at school. If you can't tell, he is Indiana Jones. I got him an Indy hat that wouldn't fit because PJ's head is too big. I also got him a whip which he told me he couldn't take to school because "it is a weapon".

Indiana Jones (PJ) and Adrian Peterson (Trey) at school.

PJ and the Primary Program

A couple of Sundays ago, PJ was with us on Sunday and, just by chance, it was the ward primary program. PJ only comes to church with us about once a month so we didn't know if he'd want to be involved or not. He actually wanted to get up on the stand with his class and sing the songs (he didn't seem to be doing much singing). The primary even gave him a part to say. As the primary president whispered in his ear, he spoke loudly and clearly. He was especially happy when JoAnn told him how much better he did than Richie oh those many years ago. When JoAnn whispered in Richie's ear, he would whisper in the microphone. PJ thought it was quite funny.

Stupid Chickens

For about a month, one of our big white hens has been missing. Well, not entirely missing because we would spot her every now and then. We wondered if she was sitting on some eggs but I could never find her. I searched the entire acre and no luck (not surprising when the grass in the pasture is 4 feet high). Anyway, last Friday she finally showed up with her 9 chicks. Why did she do this at this time of the year instead of springtime? Anybody care to become a chicken rancher?

PJ's First Soccer Game

Today, we went and cheered PJ at his first soccer game. He is playing indoor soccer at the Herriman Recreation Center (that place is a Taj Mahal). He seemed to have a lot of fun. To see more photos, click on this link.

PJ's Fun Run

A couple of weeks ago, I got invited to go see PJ and Trey participate in the school's fun run (I think they were promoting fitness or somesuch nonsense). After it was over, PJ swore he would never ever run again. He was pretty tired but that was because he was going as fast as he could the entire race. He hasn't learned the tortoise and hare story yet. The funny thing is that later that day, after we had all been to lunch and took Trey home, they raced each other to the corner and back several times.


PJ appears to be thinking about the race and developing a strategy to defeat all of the other kids.


PJ and Trey lapping the field.


Getting caught behind a group of slow girls including the teacher.


PJ sprinting his guts out.


Oh oh, someone appears to be getting tired and slowing down.

Scenes from a Farewell Dinner

As summer drew to a close, and Richie prepared to leave for DC, we had a farewell dinner for him. PJ listens as Richie talks rubbish, Kohan tries to get something to eat, and Dustin and Sara enjoy a semi-quiet moment. With Kohan around, quiet moments are few and far between.

PJ's First Day of Kindergarten

This was a day PJ has been looking forward to. He was so excited, he made his Mommy get to school 20 minutes early and then they had to wait for everyone else to get there. He picked out his own clothes, his Mario Cart backpack, and was ready to begin his education. He is especially happy to be in the same class as his best friend, Trey. For more photos, check out this link.

Balloon Animal for PJ

The other day I picked PJ up over at Trey's house. To my dismay, they had been to the Dollar Store and bought some long thin balloons. They were impossible to blow up unless you used the pump which didn't work either. Anyway, while we were waiting for Nana to get finished in Hobby Lobby, PJ wanted me to make him an animal. Like any good Papa, I did what I could to make him happy. My first and only balloon animal!

Kohan Keep-away

Last Monday was JoAnn's birthday and we had dinner over at Senta and Burke's house. While we were there, JoAnn and PJ played keep-away from Kohan. Hardly seems fair. Kohan was a good sport about though.

Kohan and Mud

When Kohan comes over, we have to be careful if the back door is open. He runs out, climbs down for the stairs and heads for the chicken coop where he likes to play in you know what. If we have irrigated recently, there will be mud in the shallow ditch on the way to the coop. That is about the only thing that slows him down.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I just found out that my all time favorite book will be made into another movie. I say another because back in the 1970s, it was a mini series on British TV, widely acclaimed as the best movie from a book ever. If you don't believe me, click on this link to read an informative article. To see the trailer click here. If you haven't read the book, you should certainly think about doing so. Soon.

Ophir

When Richie was home in June, JoAnn wanted to take a road trip with to someplace where we could go rockhounding. Ophir seemed like a good place so away we went. We stopped at the Camp Floyd State Park (where PJ and JoAnn made friends with a goat, went to Ophir (where we collected some interesting rocks which are full of fool's gold), and then drove through Tooele, around through Magna and home.

Playing in the Irrigation

The other night, Dustion brought PJ and Kohan over to hang out. As luck would have it, I was scheduled to irrigate that evening. PJ asked if he could play in the water and, since Kohan loves all things wet, he got to have some fun as well. Unfortunatley, I had a smudge on the camera lens so the photos look a little weird.

Days of 47 Children's Fair

For the past couple of years, we have taken PJ to the Days of 47 Children's Parade. It works out well because the start of the parade is outside of the building where I work. This year we were late so we headed directly to the fair which is held at Washington Square. PJ had a blast because he had the inflatable slides and jump houses almost to himself. He also got a spiderman eye.

Working at the DI

Another thing we did over the holidays was to volunteer to work at the West Jordan DI. We wanted to make it a family thing but everyone was busy except for JoAnn, Richie, and me. It's not bad work and goes pretty fast. Our job on this day was to put the price stickers on the "as is items" and put them on a cart. We would take them off of a shelve which is labeled with the amount the price should be. They are put there by someone on the other side of the shelve. I got to witness a manager and worker looking at items and debating their value. They did this to calibrate what shelve the worker put the item on.

The interesting thing is, the time it takes for donations to get out on the floor after you've dropped them off is probably 30 minutes or less, including clothes; no, they do not wash them.

PJ Asleep at Church

Last Sunday, PJ agreed to go to Sacrament Meeting with us if he could wear his regular clothes and bring his Spongebob and Patrick legos along with the Crabby Patty Car. He didn't last too long before he fell asleep. I think he was a little sick, if you look closely, his cheeks are reddish.

Dead Cottonwood Tree

When we moved to Bluffdale in 1990, one of the first things we did was plant a cottonwood tree in the front yard. In was hoping to see brilliant yellow foliage in the fall like the cottonwood trees along rivers and streams in back country Utah. However, the leaves never turned yellow; just brown. The tree did provide shade and a lot of leaves and twigs in the fall that had to be raked or mulched.

Anyway, in the spring of 2010, we noticed that the tree did not fully leaf out. Over the course of the summer, it just kept dying back. Since it had been trimmed by Rocky Mountain Power about 6 months previously, we wrote a letter to RMP asking them to come cut the tree and take it away. Although they denied responsibility, they did cut the tree down in October of 2010 but I had to haul it away. After cutting it up as best I could, I loaded my trailer 8 times with chunks and branches about 4-5 feet deep and hauled it to the dump. My left elbow has still not recovered.

And I still have the two-ton tree trunk in my front yard but I've made arrangements to get rid of it soon. More photos can be seen here.

Messiah Sing-In

I think I forgot to mention that this last Christmas season, I think it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, JoAnn and I went to the Messiah Sing-In at Symphony Hall. We bought tickets for Senta and Greg but they ended up having other plans. For the uninitiated, the Messiah music book is about 3/4 inches thick and weighs about 5 pounds. Luckily, it only takes about 1 ½ hours to sing it. I really developed an appreciation for the music and I now keep a copy in the stereo in my car and listen to it quite often.

PJ's Fifth Birthday

The first leg of PJ's fifth birthday began on January 22 at Jungle Jim's. It is amazing how much fun a five-year old can have at a place like this especially when his five-year old best friend, Trey, is with him. The second leg was on Sunday at our house when he got to open presents again. Unfortunately, the Lego toys his dad ordered him from Brick Trainshop have still not arrived. More pictures of the birthday boy can be found here.

Christmas 2010

One of the things we did as a family this Christmas past was to visit Temple Square on Christmas Eve. It was rather cold so we didn't stay all that long, but we had an enjoyable time. Unfortunately, at the time I couldn't find my camera so I didn't take any photos. Fortunately, Richie had his camera and took a lot of them. They can be found here.