Never a Dull Moment

See these cute little feet??

Well, lately they're always jumping. Jumping is VERY fun, especially when there are others jumping too. So Chris, because he's a really good Dad, was jumping with Audrey on Wednesday night. But his motto, "Go big or go home" did not serve him very well that night. First, he jumped over her head. Awesome stuff. But that wasn't enough. So he jumped up onto the counter top. Do you know how difficult that is? He looked like spiderman - and Audrey squealed with delight. A few minutes later a little voice saying, "Daddy, daddy, counter!", made Chris attempt his spidey acts one more time. But not before telling his wife that he's going to "mess up" his shin. Did you know that the average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm³ ? That means it's very, very hard. Any guesses as to the average density of someone's shin?

Chris' shin didn't stand a chance. He fell to the floor and pinched the flap of skin together so his bone (which he touched) would be covered. After convincing a screaming Audrey that Daddy is "okay" (she repeated this over and over again all night), we made our way to the ER. Twelve stitches later we were home. Just to clarify - 9 of those stitches are on top and 3 are under the skin holding the fatty tissue and muscle together..gross.

We learned two great things that night: 1.) Bones really are white. 2.) Don't jump on the counter!

Audrey's Many Faces

Audrey loves to show off her "tricks". Lately it's been all the different faces she can make. Here are a few:

"happy face"

"sad" or "mad" (they're the same thing when you're one)

"surprised"

A few weeks ago we had a family bowling day. Audrey thought it was AWESOME. Throwing balls, banging noises, pins crashing to the floor -- this is really fun stuff for my little maniac.

She was a very good cheerleader - it didn't matter how many pins you got down, this was the response from Audrey.

She also had her first experience blueberry picking. And can this girl pick! I only found a couple stems in her poop the next day :)

Pine Tree Deletrius!!

It's not that I despise all pine trees, but the tree behind our house was HIDEOUS. It was also rotting at the base. Not cool.

And as you can see, it was also enormous. Last fall, we decided it had to go.

After much deliberation over whether or not we should hire someone to do it (Chris' argument: I'll save money by doing it myself; Meagan's argument: let's hire someone because I want you to be alive) we were extremely blessed with a great compromise. The guy who originally gave us the bid started his own business and for the price of a professional chain saw he felled our tree for us. He was an awesome climber!

Chris was able to save money and I was able to keep my husband alive. After the tree was felled it was ours to haul away.

Needless to say, Chris got really clever with an axe. And with some help from our neighbor, Brian, he succeeded in cutting up the entire tree.

But that left us with the problem of the stump. It was a big stump.

And it made for a great looking volcano in our backyard.

After burning it, digging it out, hacking it, and tugging it out with our 4-Runner and a friend's truck...

Chris conquered the beast...in only 8 short months!