October fun

Here is Cora and Jess going "jeepin'" My sweet partents brought this from my sister Annette's house for my kiddos. They LOVE driving it around the cul-de-sac. Thanks again Annette!

More Jeepin' pics..................................

Here is Emmett kneeling down for family prayer. My mom wanteed me to get a picture of him.
Here are some pics of the family at the park



I don't know what Cora was doing here
The rest of the pics are when we went to the Dallas Zoo a couple weeks ago for a birthday party for a little friend in the neighborhood.




I thought that this was a cool place to take some cool photos but didn't get more time to take more. Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the hightlights of our October. I haven't transfered Halloween to the computer yet, so this will have to do for now. Oh, and good news! I got a vehicle over the weekend!!!!!!! We now have two cars!!!!!!! I no longer have to use a friends car to go to the store or wait until 9:30 pm to go get groceries. I am one happy and grateful girl.

song

Here is a video that we got of the girls signing a primary song "I Know That My Savior Loves Me". It's a few months old, but I love to watch it. Listen for Maren's vibrato. She cracks me up!

-Carol

I've got moves you've never seen before!

In case any of you wanted further evidence that Jess is in fact also related to Carol (behaviorally she is much more like me) here is this video. If any of you have seen me dance, you know that I don't dance like that (I don't have that much rhythm). Oh, and that is Cora supplying the strobe light. Enjoy.

~Josh

Redemption.....hopefully

This post is dedicated to my little sister who was bitterly dissapointed in the # of pictures I posted last time. So, little sister of mine (you know who you are) this is for you. Enjoy!

This picture is so cute. I think that we were heading home from Ft.Worth one Sunday in March or April. I looked back and saw that. Maren got a raw deal. Poor thing.
This was sometime this last summer in our front yard with a neighbor girl.
Yes, I know that these pics are not recent but oh well. Here is Miss Lizzie on the first day of 2nd grade.
Jess Bess on her first day of 1st grade.
The three girls on the first day of school!!

School started a few days before Maren's 4th birthday so we got to celebrate her birthday with all of her new friends in Pre-K! Her teacher even gave her a birthday crown.
Emmett loves shoes.....especially mine and Josh's. No, I am not worried about him! He's fine.
Emmett making a cute face at me/the camera. He loves the camera. Anytime he sees me with it he stops whatever he is doing and faces me while he says "teese"
I hope that ya'll are pleased with the pics. I also wanted to include a funny little story about Maren that happened a few days ago.

We were all in the truck driving home when Jessica smells a stinky smell and starts accusing everyone in the car if they are the culprit. When Maren is accused she defends her self saying: "NU, UH, my body doesn't make toots that smell!" We all burst out laughing, which made her start sobbing. In between breaths she declared to everyone that we hurt her feelings. Oops!

Catching up.....sort of

Ok, so there have been a few people (Josh, Coco, and Julie) that have been getting after me to post. And to make good on my promise to them, I am now posting.

Because I blog so infrequently, blogging is a learning process every time I post.......so the pics are in reverse order I wanted them and I don't know how to fix it. Oh, well.

Here we have Jess in the lineup first. She wanted me to take a pic of her with her very first lost tooth!

Yep!!!! Jessica got glasses. Her teacher noticed that she was squinting to see the board and that her work was alway incomplete/wrong. So, she is the proud owner of "The Little Mermaid" glasses!! With seashells on the sides!!!! It is quite exciting!!
A couple weeks ago Cheyenne, Meredith their two beautiful kids came for a visit. It was about 10 min before they left when I realized that we hadn't taken any pics. So I hurried and got a few. Here is Taylor. I am her favorite aunt on the Fish side.......and I will fight any of her other Fish Aunts who say otherwise!
Here is Ethan.....I don't think that I am his favorite. But I love him anyway.
I am running out of time, so this is the "cousins". They are so stinkin' cute.
Sorry this post is so short. Josh needs his computer(with all the pics) to go to work. So I find myself blogging at 6 am before he leaves. I will try to write a little more later......but if not, it should hold you over for a month or so.

-Carol

Update

Okay, I keep thinking that if I hold out long enough Carol will post, but clearly that is not the case. So, just a little update on what has been going on here. I am approaching what should be my last year of school. I am going to be teaching an intro to psych class, as well as TA-ing for an Intro to psych II class. Also, I am working on my last two research projects before I can do my Dissertation. One of them is all done, with the minor exception of writing it up (which I am loathing, since I have written the same thing in two other papers with slightly different analyses, which got scrunched down to one and is now waiting for final review before it gets sent out for publication). On top of that I am studying for my comprehensive exams which are scheduled for the 30 and 31 of August. (Extra prayers would be much appreciated). Beyond that, I had an interview today for a job at Bank of America. The guy that I count tithing with on Sunday's works there and has helped me out a lot getting me the interview, and hopefully a new job. The actual job is underwriting mortgages, but since my minor has been stats, I am hoping that some time in the future I can transfer to a research area, and use some of this education that I have been accumulating for what seems like forever. If I get that job, I will be working in Plano from 7-4, head home for dinner, then off to school to work on my proposal/research/teaching/TA-ing. I gotta say, I am a little worried I might be spreading myself a little thin. Anyway, whether or not I am we will see if I get the job. Beyond that, the girls are starting school next week. I don't know how excited they are, but Carol and I are looking forward to it. Hopefully, I can get a little more studying in while they are at school. Maren will start Pre-K, which she has been excited for since ohhh, December of last year. Thursday is Jess' birthday. Cora and Emmett are doing great, and we just keep on going. Hope everyone is else is doing well.

`Josh

Here are just some random shots we have taken lately. And a few of my own ramblings. You have probably all seen the photo of the escalators out in front of a gym that get passed around in emails. I used to think that was just a great job of photoshopping, however, I have had time to hit the gym this summer and am beginning to doubt that. I quite frequently find weights just left lying of placed in the wrong spot. It kind of bugs me, mostly because I want to be able to put things back where they belong and when someone has failed I end up fixing it. But beyond that the irony of it astounds me. You came to the gym to workout. Why on earth would you do that and at the same time be lazy. The very concept of a gym is the opposite of economy of motion. Anyway that is about all. The pics are of the girls with their dollies that we sent to Leah for Claire's birthday party. The last picture is at a friends house. They have little sticky doll things made out of foam. Kind of like paper dolls with a safari theme since they are lions, giraffes, etc... (or at least what I have seen of them). Emmett came out with this piece which looked kind of like facial hair so we tried it out. I honestly don't know what it is supposed to go to, but he looks pretty good with a go-t. Hope you all have a great week.

`Josh

A few recent pics

So we went bowling a little while ago. I threw down a 143 with two strikes and a 9 in the tenth frame. Not bad for not having bowled in 2 years. Cora, Jess, and Maren all broke 80, and Carol scored in the 60's. Jess and Maren played together because Jess didn't want to bowl when we got there. Our friends Casey and D came too, we went fishing and had dinner together after. It was our low key fourth celebration. I was going to add more photos but the bloody thing won't load.

Cora waiting to see what she got.

Had to get a shot of Carol in the bowling shoes. She looked HOTT!

My sweet, sweet boy. I think he is due for a hair cut, Carol disagrees. What do you all think?

We also went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Jess quitting sucking her thumb. We didn't get a ton of pictures but here are a few. We had a lot of tokens! and I mean A LOT!

Maren going for a little scoot.

Emmett cruising with Stuart Little. Horrible movie. CUTE BOY!

Have a great week.
`Josh

Little Authors

A couple weeks ago the girls were into writing their own stories. Jess and Maren created their own stories and Josh and I wrote them down as they spoke. The stories are without titles but fun to read. I thought I would blog them so I don't feel bad throwing them away. Enjoy!

By Jessica
One morning, a girl named Rosa went to the store. She bought a box of cereal. Then she bought a box of candy. The kind of candy was suckers. Then she went back home. She gave out suckers to her neighbors. Rosa went to the library and got a dinosaur book and she got a recipe book. Then she got a movie for her kids. One was named Maria and one was named Jonathon. Jonathon made a cake recipe and Maria watched the movie. When Maria was done with the movie, she did art. The kind of art was painting. She painted a rose and a blue bonnet. Then Jonathon watched the movie. When he was done watching the movie, he painted. He painted a normal car and a race car. Maria made the rest of the cake. When she was truly done with the cake, she went to the park and Jonathon went too! Jonathon swung on the swing. Maria went down the slide 20 times. THE END

By Maren
One time a girl named Hallie and she was going on a trip with her mom and dad and she fell into a ditch. Her mom and dad were still riding their bike and she died. Then she was in the desert and her dad was named Uncle Rollie. He was a different uncle Rollie and she was a different Hallie. Then he died. Then he fell on the board on the forest. Then he wrote down a letter of a scorpion. In our room there is a scorpion. I'll go get it! Like the one in the picture and like the desert in the picture. And then uncle Rollie gave a chair to Abuelita. And he went to the circus and felt the sand. THE END

I wonder what a child psychologist would say after reading those stories
J.K. Rowling watch out!!!

Random rantings, ravings and grumblings or a few of my thoughts as I did the dishes

As I was doing the dishes tonight, I began to think. At first, I was doing a little self analysis. (This is what psychologists do when they aren't mentally engaged elsewhere, it's really kind of sad.) And I was thinking to my self, "Self, why do you have such an aversion to using the dish towel on the dirty dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. The purpose of the dish towel is to clean the dishes, so why are you so aversive to getting it dirty?" As I contemplated my cognitive misperception the thought occurred to me "I am not so much adversed to using it on the dirty dishes, as I am to using it on the dirty dishes that are going into the dishwasher." Carol and I have a long list of dishes that are to be hand washed, including but not limited to all cutlery, and pots, pans, etc... These, I have no problem cleaning with the dish towel, (so long as it goes in a logical order, with the dirtiest of the dishes waiting to be cleaned last). So, my cognitive misperception is not actually a cognitive misperception but actually a sub-concious anger at my dishwasher for not doing its job. Here is how I perceive it. The dishwasher has two functions: 1) clean dishes, and 2) drying the dishes. My dishwasher does neither. This upsets me. When I have left some small bit of food or heaven forbid, a chocolate milk ring on a plate or cup, my dishwasher does nothing. Ergo, I am putting clean dishes into the dishwasher so that it can splash some soapy water on it, and then rinse it, and attempt to dry them. I continued to think, "Why do I do this, it would be far more efficient to simply wash the dishes by hand and let them air dry. I would probably use less water, less electricity for sure, and they would certainly be drier by morning than they currently are when they come out of this POS." To that end, I decided the reason I tolerate this, isn't because it is efficient or saves me work, the reason I tolerate it is because I can stick the breakfast dishes out of site, not have to dry them and so on through out the day, until the next morning when I wake up to supposedly clean and dry dishes. If I had the room in a drying rack it would certainly be better to simply leave them out. Then my imagination got to working and I started thinking of products that would be better. I began with a dishdryer. Essentially looks just like a dishwasher but only dries, and ideally since it only has one function it should at least do that well (but if chalkboard erasers have taught me anything, it is not to rely on something that has one simple function to actually function). Then I started getting elaborate, and since it is my imagination, some day I may just build a cupboard system with a built in drying rack on a conveyer belt so that I can load wet dishes into it above the sink, and when I go to get out dishes by the range and or oven, they should be dry (however, this may take purchasing more dishes than it is worth). Either that or as Carol just suggested, we will just eat on paper plates for the duration. Anyway, small glimpse inside my continually overcrowding mind. Enjoy.

`Josh