Visit

My parents came to town this last week. It was really great to see them. They split their time, spending a few days with us and another few days with Zeb and Leah. This picture was taken last night at Zeb and Leah's house. They left this morning.



Here is one of all of the grandkids. Poor Emmett. 7 girls and only one boy, though my mom says if he is anything like her brother the boy is going to be spoiled.... we'll see.



While my parent's were staying with us we went to downtown Dallas to see the area where JFK was assassinated. This is the building that Booth was shooting out of. If I remember right he was on the sixth floor corner window.




Here are my parents, the girls, and E, out in front of the building. We were fortunate that it was only cold out due to wind. Overall a nice sunny day.


The "tour guide" said the grassy knoll was on the same side as the building, but Dad and I both agree that the side opposite the building would have been a better area to shoot from if there was a secondary shooter. I forget which side this is. (By tour guide I mean the pan handler who hangs around spewing out a bunch of names of people who had reason to want the president dead, and who could have been involved in any conspiracy. He was alright until he tried to tell Dad that there were 12 shots fired, and showed my Dad a mark in the concrete where one of the bullets struck. My Dad called bullshit, good for you Dad, good for you. I probably would have let him rant and then told Carol how ridiculous his suppositions were. And for those of you who don't know, should a bullet impact concrete at a very direct angle [otherwise it would ricochet and leave no mark whatsoever] the bullet would shatter into thousands of tiny bits and leave the faintest if any mark on the concrete.)
Overall it was kind of interesting to see. They have two x's painted on the road where the shots hit the President. And perhaps if you have a small group it might be worthwhile to step into the museum they've created on the sixth floor of Booth's building.
I think that is all for now. In the near future I hope to post on C.S. Lewis' book "Miracles". Quite an interesting read, especially for a scientist.

`Josh

kids......they're funny

I don't remember why Jess and I were talking about this but I just wanted to share this little conversation that I had with her.
Me (Carol): "Daddy wont always to to school"
Jess:" How come?"
Me:"He'll finish and get a job"
Jess:"Really?! Daddy is going to get a job?! Does he want one?"
I couldn't help but laugh. Does he want one???? That is a loaded question.

Happy New Year, and other such phrases!

So we went to Zeb and Leah's for Christmas, and forgot our camera, so you will have to hit their blog for pictures. Beyond that here is a little scan of pictures from the last month of '09. Hope you enjoy.

So Jess decided to make this cute little elephant the other day, I honestly don't know where the idea came from, but I think it is genius.



Not to be outdone, Cora made herself into a bluebonnet. I love the admiration in Maren's eyes, she loves her sisters so much, even if she doesn't always do the utmost to show it.


And of course Maren wanted to play too. She kept showing me her picture and telling me it was for her teacher when she gets in school. We have told her "next year" so many times she has confused it with the literal new year and not the new school year. Wow that is going to be crazy to have her off to school.


As you probably have guessed our kids love the shower. Emmett has shower radar and gets pretty upset if you close the door on him. He also happens to be a little monkey. I don't know how he managed to get over the side with footed pj's on. But as you can see, even with wet pj's he's one happy boy.
I love the devious look of his eyes in this picture. Oh he is so cute. I love my boy.
We were going to make Ginger Bread houses with Claire, Hallie, and Audrey a couple of weeks ago before christmas, but the night before they were going to come Jess came down with a 12 hour case of throw ups. So they got decorated for FHE instead. It was messy, but the girls had a ball.
I think Maren ate as many sprinkles as she used, and that's saying something considering you couldn't see her roof or much icing when she was done.


My little Lizzie. So big. I realized today that she gets baptized this year. How crazy is that? Somewhere along the line someone forgot to tell me that even when your a Dad you still feel like a kid. For some reason I had a misconception that "old people" felt differently, other wise why would they always want to do such boring stuff like sit around and talk when you could play, now I realize you don't feel different you just forget how playing is done, or realize that a big kid playing with three little ones eventually ends one of two ways A) you tickle a little one until they pee their pants (probably on you or your bed) or B) someone gets hurt and all that fun stops being so fun and you feel like a jerk if it's your fault or you have to think of a way to discipline one child for doing the exact thing you were just doing ... Lose lose.

Anyway, I hope everyone had an amazing New Year. We had some friends from the ward over and continued our traditional crab dinner (mmmmm...). They brought a game called quelf that we played after the kids were in bed. Carol's face hurt from smiling and laughing. Really a good party game (though I suspect was intended for less sober parties, in the literal since). Beyond that not much new to report. The next semester doesn't start for a few more weeks, the girls go back on Monday, I have all night classes once I do go back and I am teaching two classes on Thursday (5 hours nearly back to back uggg). I got straight A's last semester so that was a happy day. I think that is about all, everyone is happy, healthy, and wishing you all an awe inspired 2010.
`Josh