Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is having a rockin Christmas season.

Zoo Pictures From My Sister

My sister usually puts more pictures of Ian on her blog than we do, so I thought I would download a couple and put them on ours. I love the picture of Ian sizing himself up to the gorilla. Jon and Ian went back to take another picture on the next visit and it was closed. Ian was so sad!

Unbelievable! I am actually updating our blog!

School's out, which means I finally have time to do something other than homework. It also means that it's been more than eight months since anything has been posted here. I don't know that anyone even visits this site anymore since it hasn't been updated in so long. But, for those of you die-hards who haven't given up on us, here I go.

As I mentioned, school is out for the summer. Two more semesters and this whole d@m# thing will be over (apparently if I use the @ symbol, it thinks it's a weblink). It's now time to clean up the eight-month-old mess that's been living in our house. The yard could use a little work, too. We've already got the garden going. Outside we've got peas, onions, carrots, radishes, cabbage, and corn in the ground. Inside we're trying some starts for beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, as well as some zinnias and some other sort of fern-looking thing. We also just planted four strawberry starts that are already producing tiny green berries, and our raspberries we planted last year are thriving. Once it warms up a little more, we'll get our tomatoes and peppers going, too.

I just tilled under a big strip of lawn on the east side of the backyard. We're going to plant a shrubbery (yes, that's a Monty Python reference) so we don't have to expose ourselves to the neighbors everytime we go out back. We're also working on getting rid of that horrific gravel and weed pile on the side of the house. If anyone desires to donate funds or time to our cause, we will reward you with a glass of lemonade and a homemade peanut butter sandwich (the peanut butter will not be homemade, just the sandwich).

Ian just had himself a run in with a bicyclist on Monday evening. He thinks he owns the sidewalk, and the bikers didn't see him until it was too late. Luckily all that happened was a killer scrape on the side of Ian's face where the handlebars caught him. He was a little traumatized, but after a few binky sucks and a couple of episodes of Spiderman, he was feeling better again.

Jenny is twenty-five weeks along, and doing well, but she's feeling a bit stretched out. The baby really seems to be riding forward. Last night I was pretty sure I could see his bum print through Jenny's tummy.

If you'll notice in the photos below, Ian has developed two new fascinations. One is with butter knives, the other is with ropes. The knives are Ian-sized swords and daggers. The ropes are webs, vines, or just ropes. He's been watching too much Peter Pan and Robin Hood. Of course, Spiderman hasn't helped much, and neither has his obsession with George of the Jungle. He has also taken to calling hs male cousins by two generic names. If you're on the Welch side, he calls you Ryan (except for Scott, whom he has called by name since he has been able to speak), and if you're a Kramer, he'll call you Joe, after Joe Prusse.

Well, I think I've gone on long enough. Hopefully you'll get more before school starts up again.

Family Photos

This blog entry is a shout out to Elder Bobby Welch who is serving an LDS mission in Thailand. In every email we receive from him he informs us that he has seen enough of the babies and wouldn't mind seeing photos of the rest of the family. So, here are some photographic memories from the Chandler family reunion, plus a few remaining shots from Bear Lake. There are still babies in these photos, but just consider them colateral damage

Alright. It's now my turn at this so-called blog thing. Jenny is the computer savvy one around here, so she's always been the one in charge. But watch out, because now I think I know what I'm doing.

So far, Ian is the only one of our children to have been showcased in this digital display. Now, it is time for the photographic premiere of our other children. We've nurtured them since they were sprouts. With tender loving care we've brought them through their adolesence into adulthood. We've heartily sown, and soon we will reap with delight.

I give you...our garden.

Bare Laked

Since we finally downloaded the pictures from our trip to Bear Lake, we thought we would share. Ian actually slept because the condo my parents rented had a crib. It made for a very fun trip. Ian loved the lake and would walk so far out into the water that he was swept off his feet. We were happy that he loved the water, but it made me a little nervous! We were too scared to take our new camera to the beach, so we only have pictures at the raspberry shake place and the condo.