By 9:45 this morning

David had already managed to push a kitchen chair to the sink and flood the counter and floor, filling the breakfast cereal bowls with water and dumping everywhere. Lovely. Of course, he was having a marvelous time.

Then when I shooed him from the kitchen so I could mop up the mess, he found the camera in the computer room and managed to break off the little lens cover thingy--definitely the technical term--and lost one of the teeny-tiny practically-microscopic springs necessary for the "magic" that is our Canon powershot camera to work. Lovelier.

Did I mention that he and Anna both (I guess it's not always just David...) broke a leg off the coffee table yesterday after repeatedly tipping it on its end and using it as a slide for their dolls, cars, and I'm guessing themselves. I'd take a picture of it, but David broke the camera...

They're partners in crime most days, and I'm feeling outnumbered during the day! Good thing they're both so cute, and they know it, and they know that I know it.

It's like he knows that something's in the air, or something. We are, after all, having the coldest temperatures of the season this week (10:00a.m. and still sitting around 25 degrees) and the forecast says snow sometime in the next 24 hours! Now to try to figure out how to fix the camera so if we do in fact get snow, then I can have proof--we're rather deprived here in TX. Ah well, I'll deal with the deprivation for an early spring anytime, though. And not having to drive in snow is a great thing. And hey, if we get a few flecks of white half-floating in the sky, Dan gets to come home from work early! Houston is an odd place, the whole city practically shuts down at the mention of freezing temperatures.

I'll leave you with a sampling of David's photography--looks like he's already got some mad skills. We'll title this one simply, "Self Portrait".

Oh, and where does one take a simple point-and-shoot Canon powershot camera to be fixed? Or to at least purchase miniscule springs to help reassemble the pieces?

Anna turned 4

Back in August... Happy (blog-belated) Birthday, Anna!
We have a 4-year-old! We had a fun week full of little celebrations, as every 4th birthday should have, of course. Grandma and Grandpa Birnel sent the fun balloons for Anna and she and David both had a blast playing with them.

Until they found out what can happen to helium balloons in a vaulted family room...

Luckily, and to Anna's delight, when he got home from work, Super-Daddy built a sophisticated balloon-snatcher--that's the technical term--and saved the day! I guess you have to be creative when you live in a 2-story house with a vaulted ceiling and haven't invested in a ladder yet... hmm, that's going to have to move up the short list of "To-Buys".


For the foodies out there, here's a peak at our 4-year-old's ideal and oh-so-very gourmet birthday dinner. She's all about the good stuff!


We had a fun little family party on her actual birthday and let her open her presents. I just love having an overly-exuberant little girl--she makes even the tiniest present or surprise seem like the best thing in the whole world with her little giggles, smiles, and squeals. We've got a cute little girly-girl!


The Saturday after Anna's birthday, we had a little (actually, slightly smaller than little in terms of numbers of kids running around!) fun backyard swimming birthday party. We blew up a few inflatable pools and turned on a couple sprinklers, and let the kids run crazy in the backyard while the adults visited. Popsicles, juice boxes, and cupcakes made for a fun party full of hyper little children, though!
All in all, we had a thoroughly celebrated little girl. I hope she got her party fill, because I think I'm done on the friend party department until she turns 10!

Pools, Princess(es), and Pianos

Anna had her first swimming lessons! She loved going to her everyday lesson for a couple weeks in the summer. We got really lucky when we found an opening in the little class at the last minute. Anna loved her teacher, a sweet woman in our stake who teaches private swim classes in her backyard pool. Apparently Anna was internalizing everything she learned quite well--Dan and I got a really good laugh one night after the kids were asleep when we heard a loud thump upstairs, then repeated thump, thump, thumping quickly on the floor. We darted upstairs and discovered Anna "swam" her way out of bed and was still kicking and "swimming" on the floor in her sleep. She woke up pretty confused when Dan picked her up, to say the least! We'll see if she does anymore sleep swimming when the weather warms up enough for swimming this year...

Of course, Anna loves all things princess. Dressing up is one of her favorite thing to do, and David didn't want to be left out of the frilly fun. Poor kid, tutus and bows, Anna and I must be torturing him. We carefully put away all the dress-ups before Dan got home from work, but we still had to document with pictures! Dan decided we didn't have nearly enough "manly" toys around, and has since remedied that with cars and trains and all that good stuff.

We also said a fond good-bye to the old beautiful piano we brought with us to Houston 3 years before as it left on its long journey to San Francisco. My brother Jon graduated from BYU, accepted a job offer, and moved his little family out to the Bay area and decided that it was time to claim his piano. We miss it, but I'm grateful for the time we had with it and glad that Jon and Carrie and baby Shayla get to enjoy it in their home now.

Testing...

Testing, testing, 1...2...3 Testing...

Is this blog even on??

...must be...

some major...

technical diff...

.....difficulties going on since......

been MONTHS with...

..without posting...

Hello?

Hello, world? You're really there? Can you hear me now? Good!

Now that my typing/blogging connection has been worked out, I might just actually crank out a post--even if it is short-lived. Ok, ok, I can't really blame blogger for my lapse in blogging. We've kind of gotten sucked up into this vortex known as preschool, work, juggling the family car, teaching piano lessons, church callings, sewing and "crafting" a bit, choir rehearsals and singing in choir concerts, celebrating birthdays for 3/4 of the family, and the holidays. Oh, and cold and flu season, always cold and flu season, blech!

Of course you're all rolling your eyes saying, "But Liz, those are all the important things to actually BLOG about!" I know, I know, but apparently I suffer from this disorder that affects my living-life-versus-typing-and-uploading-pictures-to-the-good-ol'-family-blog ratio. The diagnosis is half the battle, though, and I have high hopes of improving the journaling and documentation of everyday happenings around here. So bear with me as I take you on a wonderous journey of a few highlights of the last 6 months over the next few days and blog posts.
That is, if there's anyone left in blogland who remembers us!

Eat Mor Chikin

Yesterday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, so we took advantage of the "holiday" and dressed up as cows for some free dinner! David even got to make good use of his old Halloween costume from last year (huge back then equals tight but manageable now). Funny kid, I can't understand why he would possibly want to lose the pajama-ish long pants, long arms costume in this hot summer heat before we got the camera out, though...

I love a good Chick-fil-a sandwich, they're so yummy. And we had a fun dinner with some friends we met up with at the restaurant. We'll definitely be waiting for Cow Appreciation Day next time again!

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken a month or so ago by a friend from the ward. I just love how they turned out! It's nice to have a family picture for the wall finally, too.
Here are some of our favorites.









If you live in the area, give April a call for your next photo session!
http://photosbyaprilwilliams.blogspot.com/

Happy 4th of July!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!