I officially have two teenage kids. Heaven help me.

Happy Birthday Caleb. I can't believe he is only three years away from driving. Why do we let them drive so soon. Will he really be ready by then? Will I be ready?

Here you are in the beginning. 7 lbs. 10 oz. most of that weight was from your cheeks.

You and your big sister became fast friends.


Two months after you were born we headed north to Alaska. Dad was in some crazy unit up there where he did skiing and rock climbing (and he got paid for it). This was the hat he wore

Here you are with your favorite blanket. Remember(I know you do)when we left it in a hotel on the way to Utah from Germany. You were so sad, there may have even been tears.I don't blame you even if you were 10 at the time. That blanket had seen more then most people do in there entire lives at that point. Needless to say it was well traveled and deeply loved. I'm sure the poor house keeper who found it threw it quickly away. It looked like a dirty rag by then.

Alaska tough! Burrrrr

Here you are at 4 in a tire swing at Powell park. We only spent three short years in Utah but you made strong bonds with your cousins that last even still.

Off to Alabama. You and Logan were quite the team there. Exhausting! How did you ever make it to be this age. Most mothers would have maimed you. Lucky for you I was to tired to do any damage.

See what I mean. Look at the smile! Ahhh!!!!

Here you are again in Dad's hat. This was minutes after he returned to us from Iraq. Out of all of us, you took this deployment the hardest. You really are quite sweet. That was a great reunion.

And now here you are all grown up.

Spring break in China

We just got back from china. It was a great vacation. We went to Beijing and Xian. It was a great spring break. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Chinese Acrobats. These people were amazing. I can see why their gymnastics team kicks butt. They are built so compact. Although they do seem so be a little more curvy then the Koreans.

Emma skipping on the wall. The tour guide gave us a choice between an easier climb and a steep climb but better view. She said if we had little kids we should stay on the easier climb. We went the hard way and the kids did far better then the adults. It was so steep and allot of work but it was really cool.

Now whats for dinner.

This is me with our Korean tour guide. This was our last dinner it is called hot pot. Everyone gets their own hot pot(even the kids it was a little scary) The pot has water in it and then they come and light the flame under it and you just start adding what ever ingredients that you want. It was crazy. It is really hot plus you get on set of chop sticks to add the raw meat with and then to also eat with. This would never work in America. Still it was O.K. and a great experience.

One night was all dumplings. it was cool because they all had a different shape. Emma is holding a pig. We had duck, fish , shark fin,walnut, and a few other ones.

Here is the fish one.
One night we stopped for street food. nasty but a fun opportunity.

Harold and Logan ate a whole scorpion(they fry them first) Caleb tried the tail and I ate a cricket leg. That was all I could get down. Miranda's friend ate 2 whole crickets (or are those grass hoppers?).

We took a flight to see the Terracotta soldiers. It was pretty cool. That emperor was crazy. I wonder how he got them to do all that for him.

remember these from the Olympics? They are huge.

Speaking of the Olympics here is a shot of The birds Nest

From our tour guide we learned that in china you have to retire at 55 so at the parks we saw a lot of retired people. The were playing insturments, singing, dancing, doing Tai Chi, playing games. It looked like fun, they were very friendly. I just wish they would have paid us a dollar for every picture they took with Emma. One lady kept saying "good luck to take picture with her" Emma did pretty good but was really getting tired of it by the end.

One of the funniest thing that i learned there was the concept of split pants and squatty potties. It was really hard to use those. Koreans have them too but they seem to be more modernized here so there are almost always normal ones also. I really hated them but I guess if you get used to them maybe they are not so bad.

Now as for split pants. When a baby turns one they are out of diapers and in to split pants. It was so cute to see all those little cheeks. I guess it just makes the process quicker. I tried several time to get a good shot but was to slow. Plus I didn't know if it was rude or not.

here she is from the front

there's a shot from the back. Darn 12 was in the way. It just made me think of how we all take a different approach to life's little adventures.