Tap Dancing and Legos

We watched Singin’ in the Rain last week with the kids. They all liked it, but Ben was surprisingly impressed with the dancing and the physical comedy. He’s decided that he can tap dance and has been doing it all over the house. It can be pretty entertaining . . . especially since he is not shy about telling you what an amazing dancer he is. What he lacks in coordination, he makes up for in confidence.

The kids had some quality Lego playtime with their dad yesterday. Nate dumped out a five-gallon bucket of Legos on the family room floor and he and the kids were busy for the next three hours. It was great. Abby was right in the middle of the action. She proved to be an atypical baby by not putting the Legos in her mouth. She mostly entertained herself by picking up the pieces one at a time and throwing them back in the bucket.

Here are the kids "decorating" the castle that Nate built.

Abby cheesing for the camera after commandeering Ben’s Lego box.

Computer Maintenance

I was just renaming pictures from last week and saw this cute one. Nate is cleaning out the inside of the computer before adding more memory. He’s got the shop vac hose in one hand, the air compressor nozzle in the other, and his quality LED miner’s headlamp on his head. When I first met Nate, I thought he looked like an orthodontist. If you scale down the size and power of the tools, he almost fits that role . . . or at least a dental assistant. He is the cutest computer nerd in the world!

Sunday Afternoon Walk

We took advantage of the unusually warm and sunny weather today to take a little afternoon walk. It has been months since we have gone on a family walk, and it certainly showed in Abby’s reaction. She giggled and squealed for the first half of our walk. It was so cute. She was in heaven. Then she got over it. She wanted to be carried, and Elise was more than happy to take her place in the stroller. I guess we were a little ambitious to go on our "long walk route." By the time we got home, everyone was pretty worn out, but it was nice to get some fresh air.

That just doesn't look comfortable.

How Do I Love Thee?

Let me count the ways. I must say that there are literally hundreds of reasons that I love Nate. Since it is Valentine’s day, I thought I would share a cute one. He recently devised his own movie rating system, so now every movie that we see gets a 1-10 score. He, of course, has started compiling a list of movies and their rankings (along with an accompanying bar graph for easy reference). That is fun to look at, but my favorite part is the grading rubric. You have to love a boy who uses the word abomination . . . and means it!

Happy Anniversary

We are probably only one of seven couples in the world that celebrate our engagement anniversary, but we do. It has been nine years since we officially decided to tie the knot. It is kind of amazing how completely our lives have changed since then, and it is hard to even remember a time when we weren’t together. Life is good.

Nine years ago today.

The kids were excited about the yummy treats Nate left us in the morning. In Ben’s words: "I’m glad that Dad married you so he can be nice to us and buy us donuts."

More Winter Fun

We were blessed with yet another winter storm over the last couple of days. We got about 14 inches of new snow. Ben was in charge of the activity for Family Home Evening last night and decided that he wanted to build a snow cave. Our neighbors made one a few weeks ago, and he thought it was pretty cool. Nate really did all of the work while the kids played. They used spray bottles with colored water to "decorate" the snow piles for a while, and then they were on a quest to knock every icicle off of the house. With a little help from their mom, they were successful. They used their "crystals" to make a cool, Superman-inspired, sculpture. This was the first winter adventure where Abby joined us for the whole time. She was a trooper and did pretty good out there in the cold with us.

Old Man Nate

We celebrated Nate's 35th birthday yesterday. The kids worked out a whole surprise routine for when he got home from work. They hid behind the couch and when he walked through the door they all jumped out and yelled surprise. Then they (mostly Emily) sang "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" ending with all of them giving him a big hug and kiss. It was sweet. They had colored a birthday sign for him and we made a big 35 out of balloons. They were quite pleased with themselves and Nate was great at showing how excited he was about their efforts. We had a family MarioKart tournament, got take-out from Chili's, watched Superman II, and ate cheesecake. It was a great night.