Evan's big day!

Evan turned 1 on Saturday. He celebrated by sleeping until 8:40 am! So by the time we finally heard him playing in his crib everyone was up and ready to sing. We went into his room singing "Happy Birthday" and the child smiled and glowed like he knew EXACTLY who's special day it was.  So cute.

We asked a wonderful neighborhood family and some other kids over for cake and ice cream. Just to keep things simple I got the same Costco cake Brett selected for his party. We put Evan in his high chair, sang and let his brothers blow out the candle. We gave him a piece of cake and he just kind of poked and prodded it until Scott cut it up and gave him a fork. What I have noticed about Evan is that he does not make much noise while he eats and it is a bit painstaking but eventually he eats everything on his tray. So it was with the cake. With a great amount of perseverance he polished off the entire piece. Then he laid his head down on his tray as if he found the whole process simply exhausting!

Evan and mommy before the festivities begin!

Evan and his big brothers!

All clean and waiting for cake!

During the cake eating process!

Evan - the after picture - heading toward sugar coma!

Two weeks ago the boys started school.  Chad and David both marched fearlessly toward third and first grades respectively.  They have adjusted well to the transition from lazy summer days of hours spent playing legos to early mornings and the after school homework routine (no friends, no playing, no video games until homework is done).  Brett, on the other hand, has not adjusted very well.  I was "invited" to his kindergarten class after school one afternoon to consult with his teacher and vice principal on how we could help Brett follow directions in class.  This was the third day of school.  On the fifth day of school I got a call from the vice principal.  Brett "made a sad choice.  He punched two 'friends' in the stomach."  Jeez.  And I thought they were calling to tell me Brett was selected to be part of the Gifted and Talented program.  As a result of his indiscretion Brett lost his computer privileges for the week-end.  Last week was marginally better but Scott and I are really struggling with Brett right now.  He has never been the most cooperative child but lately he basically fights everything we ask and need him to do.  From getting up in the morning, getting dressed, and riding his bike to school to sitting at the table for dinner and going to bed ever thing is a struggle.  I am very depressed about this and think I will escape from Brett tomorrow for two free yoga classes (it is Free Yoga Day in Dallas!!).  Maybe downward dog will lead to inspiration!

Edgeworth brothers on the first day of school

Brett is definitely not a happy camper!

July trip to Nashville

Scott recently brought home some very anemic looking tomato plants for our garden.  He explained to Brett that they would need some love.  He said, "Brett, I need you to water the plants."  To which Brett replied so earnestly, "Is water love??"  

I cannot believe it is August already which means the boys, including Brett, start school in a few weeks!

Last month we took a very spontaneous road trip to Nashville for cousins Andie and Brady's birthday party.  We left Dallas Friday night around 6:30 and rolled into Nashville around 5 am.  The big boys slept fine but the baby definitely objected to sleeping all night in his car seat.  From about 2 am on he did that annoying cry-out-every-five-minutes routine while he was still asleep!  Needless to say Scott and I got no sleep but managed to sneak a few hours when we arrived at Carrie's.  Another major reason for the trip was to see Carrie's new Nashville home!  They recently purchased a gorgeous home about a mile from their old house.  The new house is definitely Carrie.  Perfect for entertaining with beautiful flooring throughout, a gorgeous open kitchen (very difficult to find in Nashville for some reason), huge windows and lots of light.  Best of all a pool which is where the kids spent all day Saturday.  I especially loved the sunroom off the back of the house overlooking the entire back yard and the surrounding green hills.  Nashville is stunning this time of year.   

We could only stay a few days and had to drive back on Tuesday but it was worth it to see our Haslam cousins and the new house.  I think that is one of the greatest blessings of our living in Dallas.  Frankly a family of 6 does not fly anywhere cheap so we are extra grateful the Haslam's are within driving distance.  

Crazy Brett in the hot tub

Adorable Andie at her 9th birthday party!

Brady and David swimming in the hot tub

Happy Birthday Andie and Brady!

Scott and Becky looking tired!!

Happy 5th Birthday Brett!!

Brett and his best friend Luke Johnson (the sprinkler park is in the background)

We celebrated Brett's 5th birthday this Saturday at the local sprinkler park.  He invited his two best friends from the gym and a neighborhood family with 5 children which worked out well because they also have kids both Chad and David's age.  In fact my kids have spent a lot of time with this family during the summer vacation going back and forth from our house to theirs.  They spend hours upstairs in the playroom building legos.

At 9 am on Saturday I wondered if we'd have to cancel Brett's party because of the torrential downpour ripping through Dallas.  His party was scheduled to start at noon and (literally) around 11 am the heavens parted and it was sunny and blue skies for the rest of the day.  So we got lucky.  

Neighbors Zoe and Paulie with Chad

I love this particular park because the water activities are right next to the play structures.  So the kids had a blast running back and forth between the sprinklers and the swings.  I grilled hot dogs at home and brought them to the park for lunch.  And of course we had cake.  Brett has pointed out a particular cake at Costco each time we went for the past couple of months.  After spending hours on Chad's snake cake I was only too happy to oblige and let Costco do the work!

Brett blowing out 5 candles!!

Waiting for CAKE!!

More recently overheard at the Edgeworth house:

Brett:  "I don't want to die on the cross because it hurts."

David:  "Don't worry, they don't do that anymore.  Not since, ummmm, 1973."

Whew.  Glad I wasn't alive in 1973.

David, Scott and Chad working on our Frisco garden

Brett is in charge of composting

Recently overheard in the Edgeworth house:

Brett:  "Chad, I just found your (Nintendo) DSi in my closet.  I don't know HOW it got there?"  Stated in a voice that could only be described as incredulous.  

Earlier in the day:

Chad:  "I wish it was my birthday everyday."

David:  "But then you'd be 300 years old!"  Smart little guy.

Beautiful picture of Evan and Grandma

I reluctantly drove my mom to the airport today.  She arrived last Friday for Chad's baptism and spent a lovely week with us.  I really appreciate how my mom just pitches right it and helps us out with the kids and the house.  She fed Evan spaghetti and meatballs (minced in my food processor of course), watermelon, homemade banana bread and tons of oatmeal, bananas and Greek yogurt.  She took the boys to the pool and the movies, Brett to McDonald's twice, David once and both Chad and David to Target on a Lego shopping spree.  In between all that she did laundry, cleaned my kitchen daily and even made it to the gym with me twice and once to yoga.  

She is Wonder Woman (or Wonder Grandma!).

Meanwhile I was studying like mad for the ACE certified personal trainer's exam which I managed to pass by the skin of my teeth on Friday!!  Yeah!  It was a great feeling of accomplishment. 

So we are all depressed now and Evan will probably lose the five pounds he gained while Grandma was here because let's face it:  no one loves you (and feeds you) like your Grandma!! 

One last picture before leaving for the airport

Chad's baptism and Edgeworth happenings since April!

Patriotic David on Fourth of July 2009

Our families gathered this past week-end for Chad's 4th of July baptism.  Carrie and the Haslam cousins drove over from Nashville and arrived on Thursday.  On Friday we did three airport runs to pick up the rest of the gang.  The best part is watching the kids jump right back into playing as if they just saw each other five minutes earlier.  

I really enjoyed the wonderful spirit at the baptism.  It was a tender moment as a parent to see the front pews of the stake center filled with children dressed in white.  Unfortunately Chad was very sleep deprived and cranky.  He had been up until 10 pm the night before and naturally Brett woke him up early on Saturday morning.  Then we realized afterward that he never ate breakfast because he was too busy playing.  So between his low blood sugar and lack of sleep he was surly indeed.  

After the baptism we had the obligatory 4th of July barbeque, went swimming and watched the Frisco fireworks at the church.

Other highlights from the past couple of months:

Evan and I flew to Las Vegas Easter week-end to celebrate my Grandma Waldron's 85th birthday.  Between the eleven adults present the baby was hardly a moment without lavish attention.  It was a fun trip for me, catching up with family I had not seen for ages.  

The last month of school was one continuos celebration.  At one point I felt like I was at the school as much as the boys!  I was pretty glad when the end finally came and we could enjoy the respite from homework and the early 7:50 am start time for a few months.  Our summer routine is pretty basic.  We ride our bikes to the gym each morning.  The boys need a morning outing or they are bored by 9 am!  We go swimming in the afternoon and in between the boys have some reading quiet time and journal writing.  Brett is really into writing letters and drawing corresponding pictures in his journal.  I had despaired thinking he would not learn to write his name or any other letter of the alphabet before starting kindergarten this fall.  But he finally rose up and figured it out on his own.  Typical Brett.  

And then there is the fighting and agitation...sigh.

Chad turned 8 in June and had a fun birthday party the Friday after school got out.  We rented an inflatable water slide that was actually enclosed in a bounce house.  The kids had a blast in that thing although this might be the last year we can get away with inviting the whole class.  I definitely noticed that the girls did not want to play as rough as the boys and were not always amused by their antics.  He also joined cub scouts and spent a week going to cub scout camp each afternoon.  I chaperoned one afternoon and despite the scorching heat and humidity it was a blast watching these boys and their excitement about shooting BB guns (we are in Texas after all!).  

Evan is 10 months today and is crawling everywhere, banging his head on everything and eating like a professional sumo wrestler.  He is still a joy and puts up with his brothers wanting to carry him around and thrust toys in his face (Brett).  

I posted some fun pictures from the above events on a Picasa web album.  Here is the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bedgeworth/April09July09Highlights?authkey=Gv1sRgCJuxiva19oDvLQ#     

Soccer Saturday

Both Chad and David played their first soccer games on Saturday. And while the entire day was spent running from activity to activity (not my favorite way to spend a Saturday) it was really fun to watch them play. Chad's team, Fire and Ice, played in the morning and despite having no prior soccer experience he ran with the best of them.

David's team, Shooting Stars, played in the 80 degree afternoon. Afterward David's coach told Scott David was an aggressive player. He said, "some kids have it and David has it." What?? This is the kid that regularly walked off the baseball field last year. But sure enough I did notice that David seemed to be hustling after the ball and kicking it pretty ferociously. So maybe this will be good anger management for him!

I am just glad they are having fun. It was so discouraging last year to drag David to baseball practice. I really do not feel the need to push my kids to play sports but I did not like the idea of just giving up as well.

We also enjoyed our housing development's Easter Egg'stravaganza. We were joined by our little neighbor Zoe who is quite a regular at my house. She plays with the boys practically every day and spends nearly all day Saturday with them as well. I think she keeps them in line so naturally I am always glad to see her smiling face come through the door. The kids wanted to get their faces painted afterwards and Brett asked for a black widow. Is that strange? I think so. The poor face painter forgot the red hourglass until Brett reminded her. Can hardly blame her as I am guessing she does not get too many requests for black widows.

The next David Beckhams??

Zoe and Chad giving "Peace a chance!"

Brett and his black widow (complete with red hourglass)

Post egg hunt:  checking out the goodies inside the eggs

I did not fall off the wagon on my New Year's blogging resolution. It is just that absolutely nothing of interest happened in the Edgeworth household for a couple of weeks. The highlight of one week was outfitting the whole family with two pairs of Crocs each for $48 (courtesty of the Croc outlet store in Allen, TX). School, homework and housework do not an exciting blog post make.

But then a few weeks ago the most interesting thing that could happen did. A visit from Grandma Riddle who flew in from Las Vegas on Friday. She came to share her birthday week-end with us. And for her birthday we generously allowed her to babysit the kids all day (Saturday) so that we could run all our errands. Hey I did schedule her a massage for Saturday afternoon so I am not completely heartless. But as soon as it was over she was back on the job - no allowance for the post-massage nap! On Sunday after church we celebrated her birthday with filet mignon, mashed potatoes, fresh corn, homemade rolls and a half eaten chocolate cake from Costco (bought on Friday so it had been "sampled" a few times in the prior 48 hours!). The boys love these grand family dinners. I suppose they do tire of brown rice, sliced chicken and broccoli. It was so nice having my mom around on Monday and Tuesday as well. She helped me with laundry, cleaned and vacuumed the boys' rooms and bathrooms and took each child out for a solo meal with Grandma. Chad, always up for a fun restaurant experience, chose a nearby pizzeria. David and Brett chose. . . (drum roll please). . .McDonalds. Sheesh. Anyone else tired of McNuggets and Apple Dippers??

The Friday after my mom left was the last day of school before spring break. We spent all day Saturday packing and preparing for Scott to drive with the three older boys to Nashville on Sunday. They left at 9 am and pulled into Carrie's house at 9 pm. In the meantime Evan and I were enjoying a little peace and quiet! I spent the next couple of days restoring the house to some semblance of order before my Tuesday afternoon flight to Nashville. When we made our spring break plans several months ago I thought it might be nice to have a few days to myself. And I cannot lie - it was nice. And then I began to fantasize about having the whole week to myself ("Gee, sorry Scott, I missed my flight...). But in the end I would have missed out on a wonderful family vacation so I am truly glad I did not "accidently" miss my flight. Uncle Evan, Aimee and their two children arrived from California on Monday so by the time I arrived the gang was fully assembled. Carrie and Sheryl took such good care of us; from organizing massages and babysitters to cooking steak dinners and lots of fun pancake and waffle breakfasts. Wednesday night was a Sushi/Asian fusion dinner out followed by an intimate VH1 Storytellers-esque experience at Nashville's famed Bluebird Cafe (www.bluebirdcafe.com). Now for the sake of full disclosure I must admit that I opted out of the latter as it commenced at 9 pm at which time I truly do turn into a pumpkin. But Scott who is a lover of all things music had an incredible time. On Thursday we took the kids to Family Skate Nite at the local skating rink. Chad struggled a bit at first because roller skating is inexplicably more difficult that roller blading. True to first born form he has a bit of angst when things do not go as easily as expected. But after a few tears and some free Sprite courtesy of the center's number game he started to enjoy himself. We really enjoyed watching David as he spent the entire night studiously skating around and around the rink, innumerable falls notwithstanding. Brett, on the other hand, was not exactly in top form. Already sleep deprived from consecutive late nights and early mornings he could not abide that four year old conundrum of wanting to do everything himself yet seriously lacking the gross motor skills required to actually skate unassisted. He basically flipped out and turned into, for lack of a kinder explanation, the Sith Lord.  After Scott fell and hurt his knee trying to help him I decided he was done and carried him screaming and crying to the car. Ask me how fun it was trying to get skates off both of our feet in the midst of said temper tantrum! On Friday morning I took Aimee to Bikram Yoga and she was a natural! Despite the appalling heat in the room she did great and worked hard. And it was a treat for me to have a yoga friend. Afterward the kids spent the afternoon at Jason's parent's house riding the quads and playing in the mud. Jason's parents built a gorgeous house about forty miles outside of Nashville on twenty acres of land - basically a kid's paradise. Saturday morning we packed up the car and were on the road by 9 am. One would think that spending twelve hours in the car with four young boys would seem like an eternity but the odd thing was it seemed to go by so quickly and somewhat pleasantly. I have to admit that the end was rather comical because Brett, having drank at least thirty ounces of gatorade, had to go to the bathroom about every thirty minutes. It was frustrating but perhaps his parents should not have allowed a child with the bladder the size of a pea drink so much liquid! A few minutes outside of Nashville David started crying and said, "I miss my cousins." That pretty much summed up all our feelings. For me, the most beautiful part of the trip was watching the cousins play together. We are so grateful for our Haslam/Edgeworth family. 

The gang on St. Patrick's Day

Baby Evan (6 1/2 mos.) swinging on Carrie's backyard balcony

Visiting Dr. Jason at work so he could check Chad's leg for us

Family Skate Nite

Our Dancing King!

opps...I did it again!

Fun at the Haslam farm 

The Cousins 2009

Our week in pictures

David's teacher called Thursday night and told me that David had been chosen as one of the weekly World Class Students.  His name would be announced at the conclusion of the school's Friday assembly.  Arriving early Brett, Evan and I camped out in the multipurpose room with our fully loaded stroller to enjoy the spectacle.  As luck would have it Chad's class and another second grade class opened the assembly with a rousing number about synonyms and antonyms. So I got to see both my boys in action.  And I finally got to hear the pledge to the Texas flag ("Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.").  Gotta love the Lone Star State.  Brett particularly enjoyed singing the Hokey Pokey with all the kids.  I captured that on video - Brett trying to figure out which arm and leg to put in!

Our World Class Student on the stage looking a bit nervous...

Chad's class waiting to perform

Happy Evan (5 1/2 mo.) in his jumperoo

Brett waiting for the assembly to start - holding the flashlight he carried around all day.

Brett's "Bear" impression - that is Bear from "Man vs. Wild."  My kids are obsessed.  Yesterday they put together an entire show called "Kids vs. Wild."  I'm pretty sure they could take "the Wild!"

Our Snow day

You will notice that Snow is capitalized.  That is because I refer not to the white fluffy stuff but to my dear cousin Snow who lives a few hours south of us in Austin, Texas.  On Saturday morning she drove up to visit us for the week-end.  Knowing how much the boys love their own cousins I told them that while growing up Snow was my special "best" cousin.  We used to visit each other every summer and to this day there are three things that still remind me of those fun and carefree vacations:  the intro music from the soap opera Days of Our Lives ("Like sands through the hourglass so are the days of our lives..."), Fruity Pebbles cereal (not that our health nut mother's ever let us eat it; but we spent one summer together with our Philadelphia grandparents and rocked the sugar cereal!), and any 80's hair band (Bon Jovi, Guns'N Roses and especially Skid Row).  As we grew up our paths diverged but have surreptitiously crossed again in the great state of Texas.  

The boys are old enough to appreciate the concept of Fresh Blood.  Someone who has not heard the latest knock-knock joke one hundred times, someone who still thinks playing crack-the-egg on the trampoline is a novelty, someone who is not trying to multitask while playing Guitar Hero.  So between playing with the boys and holding Evan we miraculously managed to get caught up in the past five year of each other's lives.  When she left this afternoon both Scott and I felt truly blessed by what we shared.  Once again living apart from family we realize how much visits from loved ones lift our spirits.  I am not sure if I should let this secret out of the bag but Snow is also a top-notch baby sitter.  Scott and I took advantage of her presence to go to the movies on Saturday night - we saw Taken which was the perfect action/thriller type movie.  

Snow and the boys - she's got in all under control!

This week the boys enjoyed fun Valentine's Day parties at school.  I helped out with the craft activities in David's classroom on Friday afternoon.  It was a great chance to get to know some of the moms and dads of his classmates.  David's best friend in the class is a boy named Aaron and boy, I can see that those two combined give their teacher a run for her money - they could not sit still or keep their hands off each other.  Hopefully it was the excess sugar and they are not normally that obnoxious!  Everything is definitely bigger in Texas; the kids actually decorated ginormous sugar cookies with gobs of frosting and sprinkles - Arnold would not have approved!  It was like a clip from a childhood obesity documentary - supersize me anyone?? 

     

Rub-a-dub-dub

Four boys in the tub!

The Zone

Friday found me in the zone.  And shockingly it was not the "zone" of nutrition and exercise.  Rather it was the Lego zone.  Chad brings home a color coded behavior chart each day.  A few weeks ago he excitedly brought home his first highly elusive purple which represents a GREAT day.  Knowing how much Chad is motivated by a reward system I challenged him to bring home 20 purples upon which he would earn something very special.  Friday was Day 20 so when Chad came home from school I was excited to show him the Lego Star Wars set he earned.  Turns out it was a bit too complicated for him to put together by himself and I, being quite the Lego fiend back in the day, immediately offered my assistance.  An hour later I was left wondering where the time had gone!  It was 6:15 pm and, while nary an item was on the table for dinner, our Naboo Starfighter looked awesome!  I really do find myself scoping out Lego sets at Target and Walmart.  So I wonder if I had girls would I scope out Barbie Dolls?

the finished product

On Monday I took cookies to school for David's birthday.  Thanks to Ah-nold in California kids are no longer allowed to bring yummy treats for their birthdays.  Instead you are left to choose other fun options such as a pencil or sugar free popsicles.  WooHoo!!  Clearly going overboard to compensate for prior treat deprivation I brought bags of homemade heart shaped sugar cookies sprinkled with red sugar crystals and large chocolate chip cookies made with Valentine's M'nMs.  Oh and little bags of mini M'nMs.   I am sure the parents were loving me that day!  Saturday afternoon we took a few of David's friends to Gatti Town - an overpriced Chuck E. Cheese-esque place - here in Frisco.  While Scott and I rolled our eyes quite a few times the boys seemed to enjoy themselves playing endless games of skee ball and it was fun getting to know a few of David's friends from school.  He also invited a friend from his church class.  Jackson has an absolutely delightful personality and I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of him.  So David's 2009 birthday is officially OVER.

The Birthday Boy eating his cake.

The gang at Gatti Town

In other news:  Evan was 5 months on Thursday but is really not doing anything new.  Except sleeping through the night which is probably of interest only to me!  But I did bust out the Jumperoo which he seems to LOVE already.  Except when the boys (i.e., Brett) try to bounce the heck out of him.     

Birthday Boy!

David waited impatiently ALL week to open these Legos from Grandma!

Hard at work!

Happy Birthday David - love your little brother Evan!

David's 6th Birthday dinner:  scrambled eggs, Hawaiian rolls w/honey butter,  fruit salad and ice cream for dessert!

I love birthdays.  This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me as I unabashedly love my own birthday.  But I really love my boys' birthdays; from the planning to the presents to the party.  And I must confess that David's birthday is my particular favorite.  He is the only winter birthday in our family and I like having something to look forward to after the holidays.  By the time February 1st rolls around I am ready to get my party on!

David has grown up a lot this year.  He started kindergarten and learned how to read.  He made his first "best friend" (Landon Telford) with whom he had special play dates in California.  He discovered a passion for legos and with his excellent fine motor skills spends hours following the detailed instructions for which even his mother and father have no patience.  We have discovered this year that David is the jokester of the family.  He loves to hear new jokes, compulsively re-tell old jokes and make up his own.  At six his favorite color is blue, his favorite foods are scrambled eggs and toast, grilled cheese and Reese's peanut butter cups. In other words don't waste your money on a Michelin three star restaurant when a Sonic kid's meal will suffice!  He is, like his mother and namesake grandfather, a creature of routine.  Don't rock the boat folks! 

Most importantly we have learned a lot more about what motivates David this year.  He is, perhaps, our most private and complex child.  We know that he values one-on-one time with either Scott or myself and try to use this as a reward for good behavior.  I have also noticed that with heaps of positive reinforcement he is much more apt to listen and help around the house.  The minute I go negative he tunes me out.  This has been a difficult adjustment as the past year has been challenging for our family and I have not always had the energy or patience to be the kind of mother he needs.  In fact over the past couple of months I had two very distinct dreams about David that caused me to reflect very seriously.  I believe that this coupled with his growing maturity will make for a wonderful sixth year for our beloved David! 

We had a fun experience at church last week. As I was standing in the hall about to collect the boys from junior primary Brett's CTR 5 teacher came out into the hall. She told me that Brett had lice. Now that is what every mother wants to hear! He had fallen asleep during class and when I went in to examine his head sure enough the bugs were visible to the naked eye. I was so grossed out that I could not bear to pick him up but made him stand up on his sleepy, wobbly legs. Poor kid was about to fall over, having just been awakened from his nap, and I was not about to touch him. Had there been a lice colony at my disposal I probably would have committed him. Ewe! The sad thing is that over the past couple weeks I witnessed the child frantically complaining about and itching his scalp and truly thought it was just because it is so dry here. Then Scott tell me he noticed something in his hair and thought it was dirt. Talk about not making the c-o-n-n-e-c-t-i-o-n. I am sure our church congregation here in Frisco, TX is glad we joined the ranks.

On the way home from church we bought lice shampoo and threw him in tub immediately. After shampooing I used the accompanying gel and tiny comb to try and remove the bugs. We did not make much progress. A few minutes into this exercise in futility I reached for the hair clippers and did the unthinkable. Moments later I hardly recognized the child staring back at me in the mirror. Surrounded by his precious, golden locks I was the emotional one while he was completely blase, commenting, "I look like Chad now."

Brett - the AFTER picture

The other boys were not affected but in an act of brotherly solidarity offered to shave their heads as well. Really it was not too much of a sacrifice on their parts as they both needed a trim anyway . Regardless they are now all sporting matching hair cuts - we are calling them the buzz brothers. I suppose this is sort of a motherhood rite of pass age but definitely one I could have done without. A ll of a sudden I found myself nostalgic for puke.

The Buzz Brothers

After the lice outbreak we thankfully had an uneventful week following Grandma Sheryl's departure last Sunday. Scott took David into his office on Monday (Martin Luther King Day) which is something he tries to do when he sometimes has to catch up on the week-end or holidays. They love going to work with daddy (hello Office Supply Closet - no the apples do not fall far from this tree!!). We enjoyed all the inauguration excitement on Tuesday and on Saturday Chad got a bed! What a trooper - he's been sleeping on the floor for a month. But thanks to Craigslist his parents finally ponied up for something a bit more comfortable. We had not noticed so much time had passed until he actually started complaining that his back hurt. Nice parents that we are - one son has bugs in his hair and the other is sleeping on a hard surface for a month. Meanwhile we are nice and cozy in our super supreme cal king mattress downstairs!

Is this what daddy does at work all day??