These are pictures I took of Benjamin this morning before he went to school. The outfit is a new one sent by my mom for Benjamin's birthday. As you can tell, he's working on developing a full range of 'looks' for these impromptu photo shoots. We call this one "half-smile into the distance (where my toys are)"... This one is "pensive confrontation" (i.e. Mom, I'm tired of this!)...
And this one is "Pizazz!"

Inkblot

Unsightly, mismatched spackle spot, you say?
How could you?!

Jackson knows better. On the way to do laundry in our basement, we pass his friend, the dog.

"Hi, Dog!," he's greeted it for months now.

What do you see?

This weekend we went to the air show at Luke Airforce Base outside of Phoenix. Benjamin was very excited to see the "airplanes up high!" and Josh was beaming from ear to ear that his son shared his passion for planes. Here we are at the end of the day looking at the F-22 Raptors. Benjamin is clinging to me a little bit because an F-15 Strike Eagle was screaming by over our heads. This was another of our favorite moments, eating ice cream in the shade of the hanger.

Watching the aerobatics planes do tricks. You can't tell from this picture, but Benjamin was having a hard time relinquishing control of the ice cream bar. He kept saying "I hold it!"

Jackson is starting to move from single words and two-word phrases to full-fledged sentences. When I got him up yesterday morning he told me "Scared. God helps. Scared." (He's been scared of snakes lately, and we've been telling him that God comforts us when afraid.) And then he continued, "I wanna see God." He's particularly articulate at the table these days when things aren't moving quite fast enough. This morning after finishing a couple of muffins: "How 'bout an orange?" And from his highchair as we finished setting the table last night: "I'm gonna need some dinner."

Harry at 4 months

Happy Birthday, Benjamin!

Today Benjamin turned two, and I almost feel like this is the end of an era - the firstborns are no longer babies.




We love you, Benjamin, and we can't wait to watch you grow up!

Dave and Lynn were kind enough to brave the icy roads to come see us this last weekend.

Adam & Katrina Johnson, friends from Biola (Adam is a Princeton Seminary student, and they live in the housing here with us), came over for a St. Patrick's Day dinner Saturday night. Here's Lynn with the youngest Johnson, Nathan Rainier:
And here's Reuben, who's the same age as Jackson. I include this picture to show you the incredible amount of drool that constantly issues forth from my son. Notice how saturated his shirt is. It is always like this. If you click on it you can even see it close up.

J spent awhile today making sure that each of his stuffed animals used the toilet. Now if only. . .

Harry the Hefty

This morning we headed out in the sleet and snow to Harry's 4-mo. appt. and shots. The whole experience was more traumatic for J than H, who kindly gave J the two stickers and sucker he earned. Here's H bulking up for the appt., doing stomach crunches. He does these about half the time I put him on his back. He weighed in at 17 lbs, 9 oz, 26 1/2", placing him in the 90th percentile. Your work paid off, buddy. Good job.

Snow Pictures

Who knows if we'll ever live north enough for snow again, so I've made sure to document this winter in pictures. The first is, of course, us heading out the door all bundled. Keri, Harry wears that green bunting constantly - every time we go out and often for naps because he goes right to sleep in it if he's tired.
Notice the three hats on Jackson, requested by him; he also had on one of Matthew's baseball caps heading out the door and I had him leave it. Mama & Daddy, the bottom (a Spiderman hat which he requests by name) and the top hats were sent by A. Diana for Christmas.
I asked Jackson to stand for this picture:
And then he asked me to take his picture "by the tree":
These were taken last week; this week has been incredibly mild - the snow is completely gone; the mud has even dried, and I just finished cleaning all our muddy shoes tonight, thinking that spring has sprung. And then of course I went to weather.com and learned that more snow is predicted for tomorrow!

Reading to Harry

This was taken before Jackson's bedtime a few weeks ago. Notice the piles of toys he brought Harry first. It amazes me how sweet he'll be to Harry one minute, asking that I move Harry next to him when he sits at the table to eat, yelling, "Help Harry!" and searching for a pacifier as soon as H starts to cry, rocking him in the carseat, etc., and then something frustrating will happen, like H crying a little too annoyingly, him getting a little too much attention, etc., and he'll bop him on the head. Oh, brother.

How to Post Videos

Emily asked how to post videos, and as I want videos asap! (not that that implies pressure, of course), here's what you do. You have to upload your videos to someplace like www.sharkle.com. I use Sharkle only because my friend Wendy (co-worker in CA; I don't know if any of you know her? She made the green boppy cover in the sick picture) uses it, and she's the one who gave me original instructions. There are other video services out there. Once it's uploaded, you copy & paste the tag info into your post. It's really fast and easy. If you have any trouble, comment here or call me.

Heads Up in Arizona and Alabama!

For those lucky enough to be in or around Flag on April 24th, Nickel Creek is playing at the Orpheum Theater. And Mike and Renee, NC is in Mobile on the 15th if you're down that way. I wouldn't exactly say that anyone has a moral obligation to go, but keep in mind that this is the final tour (and tentative names for our next three children are Sean, Sara, and Chris). More info is here: http://www.nickelcreek.com/tour.htm. Makes me remember all the good music out in LA down at the Largo.

Dave's comment

Wanted to make sure you all saw Dave's response to Keri's "where are you w/Catholicism" question:

Keri! We are bloggers, we blog! I definitely want to see pictures and hear Sophie's brilliance.It is a great starting point for Catholicism. I understand that word has now made it into the hills and desert lands of Arizona that we are looking at a lifelong commitment sometime sooner rather than later. I certainly didn't intend to keep the developments in thought from you all. How does one decide about lifelong commitments? It seems that lots of prayer, thought, discussion, and moments of realization would be involved. All of these have been in the process up to now, and I want to continue the discussion with you all. Most recently it's been moments of realization that have made me think that we are possibly ready for such a commitment sooner rather than later. I won't get into moments, as that's off topic, but happily another time.So, to get back on topic, we've been making eyes for a number of years, dating steady for a while (it varies for each of us), and have recently had some realizations that have given us much more peace about settling down. There are still important, deal-breaker things I want to study: Apostolic succession, Papal authority, and the Eucharist. But, as my reticence regarding issues I take to be more central(salvation, justification, etc...) has repeatedly been assuaged and even exchanged for sincere appreciation of the Catholic perspective in these areas, I anticipate that, for me, gaining a better understanding of their position is likely to leave me with a new appreciation of their way of thinking.

Free 411 calls

A friend sent this via email and I thought y'all would like to see this too:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/free411.asp

You can now dial 1-800-FREE411 to receive directory assistance calls for free.

Day #527 of being sick is beginning like every other day. Matthew did come down with the dreaded bug and so yesterday was more Sesame Street and sherbet. Today proves to be much the same, though less fun as M will make himself study today. I had hoped we would wake up improved this morning and make it to my Women's Bible Study (which has 2-hr. childcare, glory hallelujah), but J turned up not fully well (when I told him a few days ago he had diarrhea, he repeated back "quesadilla?"). Thankfully, it's bright and sunny here, so just looking outside lifts our spirits.

The following video M took yesterday while I was gone to get a movie (Stranger than Fiction, which I loved, but M was unimpressed). Sorry it's so long - if you can't view it, here's a recap: J spinning and narrating it to Harry, as he does much of his life, and then after falling, saying "recover" and continuing. The Superman t-shirt is his second favorite shirt. He usually asks to wear the "tiger shirt", a green Chuy's t-shirt that Laurel and Clint sent for Christmas, and if that's dirty, the Superman shirt. Why do kids latch on to wearing images on their clothing?

This picture is of Harry (who is 4 months today!) in an exersaucer, which is borrowed from a neighbor here. . .

We've had a rough few days around our house. Jackson woke up Friday morning with a stomach bug which last night made its way to Harry and myself. The picture on the left is of Jackson Friday after he asked that Harry lie down with him for comfort. "Harry hand" & "Harry blanket", which was cute at the time but now that Harry has been throwing up I regret. I'm now praying that Matthew doesn't get it. We're pretty pitiful; today we've been watching too much TV, the house is a mess, & Matthew's quotable of the day was, "You have to finish your ice cream before you can have chips" to Jackson, now the only recovered among us.

Happy Birthday to my Daddy!

Belhaven Update

I waited to post this until the blog was made private, simply because this is still a tentative, unofficial arrangement. So please keep this information to yourself--especially if you live in Jackson, as news there tends to travel fast. Read on...

Just in case you didn't hear, we did all finally make it home from Jackson this week. Josh was the last to arrive in Phoenix at 2 pm Monday. And I think I've also told everyone in some fashion that the week of teaching went well... very well... better than I would've expected actually.

The first day I was there they had what they call a 'soul day', a day once a semester when they cancel all classes and rehearsals (within the dance dept) and come together for times of corporate and individual worship and prayer, discussion, etc. I led a dialogue based on some of my research questions (which I recorded as supplementary data :). It was a nice introduction for me and a way to ease into the week. The rest of my time was spent on a regular, and rather grueling, class schedule: technique, rehearsals, theory, composition, production, etc. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be because the regular professor had left detailed lesson plans for some of those classes. And I enjoyed the students! I felt like I established a nice rapport with them. I had some great conversations with Cynthia (dept. chair) concerning her vision for the department and the ways I might fit into that vision. Leading me to the big announcement, which is that essentially I have been offered a position there. It's still very fluid because I'm not finished with my MFA until December, but the position is there.

Thank you so much for praying for us! Keep 'em coming because now the question is--do we take it? Do we move to Jackson? In all honesty, at this point we can't see why we wouldn't but we want to depend on God's wisdom and not our own. I will see Cynthia again this summer in Houston at Ad Deum's summer intensive, so we will talk again then. I probably need to make a decision by the beginning of fall term for Belhaven's planning purposes and our own (Benjamin's school does full-year contracts and we have to find a replacement for him in January or we'll be committed to paying for the full year). It's exciting to contemplate this very positive transition!

Questions about your interest in Catholicism

This is my first time blogging, too, Dave! Hopefully, I will manage to continue and will eventually include our family news, cute things Sophie is saying and doing, and photos and video clips chronicling it all, but for the moment, I'm just bursting with questions about your cryptic comment. I'm very interested to start the discussion on Catholicism, beginning with your and Lynn's current level of interest. Are you two making eyes at Catholicism across a crowded room? Asking her out for coffee? Seriously dating? Talking about a lifetime commitment? It seems to be an issue with serious ramifications, and I'd love to know where you are starting from to get the discussion going.

This blog is now officially private, so if there's ever someone you think would be interested, just send me an email with their address. The only people we plan to exclude here are Cody's patients. :)

Intriguing Blog

Check out this blog I recently discovered: http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/crunchycon/

Scroll down and read his post "The sunny side to global warming". This made me think of you, Bill.

I have been meaning to read his book, Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican party), for ages. He also has a Crunchy Con Manifesto:

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”

10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.

Thoughts?

who could it be?

I've been racking my brain, racking my brain, and I just can't come up with whose birthday it is today. March 1, March 1. Sounds familiar, sounds like someone's birthday I know. Sigh. . .