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My favorite part of this picture is not that my new house is in the background, it's Rylee in her bright pink coat sporting a sweet & sour grin.

We collect Tiaras. Blue ones, pink ones, fuzzy ones, sparkly ones, you name it we collect it.

I just had to throw this one in here. Lauren is working on her crystal growing project for Kindergarden. Obviously, this picture didn't make it onto her display board at the contest. But if I were the judge I would have awarded her something just for this picture. "Most enthusiastic about Crystals."

This is our new game. Toss the socks up into the chandelier and see if you can get it to hang on the brass rungs. Then see how long it can stay there before mom notices.

Stupid pumpkins

Lumber, Lumber, Lumber

January 13th.

January 16th

Bring some more wood.

'Scootin' away cabin fever

Breaking Ground

Well, it's official. They finally broke ground on our new home on Wednesday this week. They say it will take 90 days + weather days from the day they break ground. If that's true then we should be moving in sometime in the last half of March.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16TH

Janna is working today, so me and the girls took a few minutes to go check out the footings that were just poured this morning. The cement was still steaming when I took this shot.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18TH

Rylee keeps asking: "Where's our house dad?" She doesn't understand my explanation but she's still glad for the chance to have her picture taken anyway.

I have no explanation for this... Well, maybe I can sum it up in just a few words: Rylee & Lauren.

It finally snowed in Ogden, and it really snowed. This is our snow turtle. We were bored of a regular snowman - everyone already has one.

Unknown Emotion

Enjoy your chocolate, no matter what you look like. Is she just mid-blink, sleepy, or about to sneeze?

The last 'Call girl' has found her match. Adrian will be the new Mrs. Tyler Gibb this March.

Dad Call is finally getting more boys in this girl dominated family. Tyler fits right in with his love for soccer and snowboarding. And my girls are convinced he's magic.

Way to go Adrian and Tyler, we're excited for you guys!

This is just the artist's rendition of our house in the works. The finished product will be a little different, but this is the jest of it. I wish the trees appeared as effortlessly as an artist's brush stoke. We'll have our work cut out for us starting over on a garden and unfinished basement. We are anxious for apartment living to be over :) Hopefully by March.

This is our temporary mailing address:

2637 N. Washington Blvd. #302

N. Ogden. UT 84414

This photo was one Mark found on Nana and Papa's camera when he went for baby Annie's blessing a few weeks ago. (Thanks, Robin for feeding and watering my sweetheart, he had a fantastic time! Annie's a keeper, what a beauty!)

This photo's classic as it captures Carl teaching a fasinating fact from his every learning mind and Paula's beautiful smile enjoying every minute.

Catching up. . .

When Lauren's at school Rylee enjoys full reign of entertaining Bianca, the rat.

What a spoiled rat!

During my latest shift at the hospital a new game was invented involving socks on the lovely 1960's chandelier in our department (the girl's name for our apartment :) It was tons of fun until Rylee commented, 'Dad, it smells like popcorn'. I guess fried socks and popcorn have similar smells.

You can have a lovely bruise too if you take a running leap and slide head first across the kitchen floor! All you gotta do is land on your chin.

Rylee's 4th birthday! What a joy and blessing she is in our lives.

We love her determination, her vivid imagination. Her taste for things that are sparkly, purple, and frilly is carefree and addictive. I need to get a suit that fits this description.

It was a treat to have Grandma Sharon, adopted grandma Pat and Rylee's birth mom, Dana join us and some good friends at 'Pop's Malt shop'.

Lauren the ladybug, and Rylee the moth. I was trying to figure out how to be a flyswatter.

How exactly do pumpkins fit into the whole "Halloween" historical picture? Better yet, why exactly do we even have Halloween? Best yet, why do people cut open giant squash and remove all the guts? Genius idea for a holiday.

A favorite from the Halloween buckets, watch out Edward!

Fun at Black Island Farm.

Rylee swept the whole hayride tractor with her 'Broom Corn' stalk.

An engineers mind at work. The girls spent many quarters filling the little food bucket to pulley it up to the greedy goats.

This family's got TALENT!

To add to Friday night's celebration, Lauren put on quite a show. She definitely took the cake!

Red Rock Relay, 2009

Janna and I just completed the Red Rock Relay with 10 other good friends of ours. We had a 12 person team, two teams of six. Each runner ran three seperate legs of the race. The total distance was 180 miles going from Brian Head Resort, UT through Cedar Breaks National Monument, Zions National Park, St. George, La Verkin, Hurricane, Gunlock, and finally ending at Snow Canyon State Park.

To cover the total distance took us 26 hours - straight - no sleep. We paid money to do this. Sounds crazy doesn't it? Our team name: 24 Calloused Soles.

This is the end of Janna's first run and the beginning of my 1st run. It was a great experience for me and Janna to get to do this event together, we both had fun and made some memories that will last a lifetime.

Our whole team at the finish line.

Janna supporting me and giving me water and passing me my inhaler.

Janna scribes our team number on the back of Riley's calf.

The six runners in Van 1 gather at the starting line at Brian Head Resort, UT. Start time was 8:30 am.

Janna and Rachel hide from the hail as we wait for Marianne to finish her first leg of the relay. This area is some of the most beautiful country on earth.

Cedar Breaks backdrop

Although the race ran through southern Utah, it was not hot during day 1 as we started at an elevation of 11,000 ft. In fact, it hailed on Janna during her first leg of the relay.

Reflective vests and headlamps were required all through the night. This picture was taken while Janna was out on her 2nd leg of the relay.

Yep, it was crazy. But I don't regret it. Check out the COOL VIDEO at our team blog:

www.thecallousedsole.blogspot.com

Litros does Antelope Island

Come on! Dad in biker shorts! That's Awesome! Me and dad took a little trip to Antelope Island on Saturday morning, it's about 40 minutes away. The place is a wildlife refuge and is absolutely deserted except for long open roads for biking, randomly scattered buffalo in the fields, rolling hills, the occasional Egrid flying overhead, and lots of salt water surrounding the island. We took a good paced spin for about an hour. He did so good, if we lived closer together we would go biking together all the time Dad! This was one of my personal favorite times ever with dad.

We also went to Pineview Reservoir the night before Mom & Dad left back to Louisiana. We played in the mud and had home-made ice cream made in a bag, wrapped with newspaper, and precisely shaken for a half hour by mom.

Aaron! May I propose your next business plan. Insurance just makes the waters muddy, keep it simple with this plan. In my opionion - controversy is an effective form of advertising. I took this picture in an old blacksmith shop at "This is the Place" monument in Salt Lake City. You need this sign for your office.

There was a train car ride at "This is the Place" monument. We also met Brigham Young. Have you ever met Brigham Young?

So I put dad to work, we sanded our deck off and are now in the process of restaining it. I couldn't breathe good for 4 days after this dumb project.

Rylee gets INTO the water fountain, being small has its advantages.

Janna's new hairdo number 2,589..... in 2 hours. Guess how much water spray it takes to do this?

We celebrated Lauren's 6th birthday in style. Also Mom & Dads 41st anniversary, but I couldn't get mom to go on the slip & slide. All of Lauren's little girlfriends loved it though.