Turkey day snapshots

The feast.

The beasts.  They started the afternoon with a good ol' dirt kicking fight.

The carcass of my iPod.  Or more accurately, what used to be my iPod.  I attempted to repair the screen, which ended with a broken ribbon cable, and a broken screen.  Not sure that one is salvageable.

Poor uncle Steve.  Guy just can't handle his liquor any more in his old age.  One bottle of wine, and he was down for the count.  Or, he made the mistake of falling asleep right in the family room, with his mischievous nephews around to strategically place a wine bottle and photograph.  Ella rescued him by waking him up before we could find any more props.

It's official

We've got a nephew (and cousin) on the Addink side!

We woke up all four kids bright and early, for a healthy breakfast of Dunkin Donut(holes) and Jamba Juice, while watching cartoons.

Then we packed 'em all up, and headed down to the courthouse to meet up with a whole bunch of the rest of the clan.

Obviously this is also the courthouse that hears the cases of juvenile delinquents, as evidenced by the benches outside the courtrooms.  One would think that possibly the courthouse bench outside the chamber of the judge who will hear your case isn't the best spot to carve your initials.

Asher, the star of the show.

With his proud parents (almost.)

He even learned to walk for the big day.

Making it all official.

My sister and brother-in-law officially adopted Asher last week, so they are now "mom" and "dad" by law, not just by function and their love for this little munchkin.  They did it on National Adoption Day, along with around 330 other children.  And since this was a big event, there were a bunch of games outside for all the kids to celebrate.

Luke getting his bi-monthly bath in the bubble machine.

My cousins helpfully teaching my boys how to shoot a basket (since I've got no clue how.)

Then the very next day they had Asher baptized.

After the "baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"... Asher actually turned to the congregation and clapped.  If he isn't related by blood to my sister, he certainly has some of the same personality traits.

Congratulations guys!

Grumpy old man cleaning implement

This is turning out to be a mighty handy tool, more useful in the playroom than in the back yard.



Generally weilded by a man muttering about how if he had left all his toys out like this as a kid, it would have taken 6 weeks for the skin on my rear end to regenerate (not really true.) And that if he finds these toys out one more time, he might just have himself a bonfire (not really true either.)

Fairly soon I'll be asking Jonathan if I can borrow his gas powered lawn vacuum.

Please... no more toys for Christmas.  College funds, people, college funds.  Either that, or a life supply of Prozac (for me, not the rugrats.)

Just because I like it so much

From almost exactly 3 years ago, when they were Luke's age (2-1/2.)  Man, have they grown up a lot already...

A post in which we attempt to get our children to pose for a nice picture

Paige purchased a bunch of Groupn deals for Canvas on Demand.  She gave all of them away as gifts, except one, which she saved for us.  Which means that we had to come up with a picture of our kids worthy of being printed on a 27" x 18" canvas.

You have met our children, right?

For lack of a better place to go, we headed to the railroad tracks around sunset so I could do my best impersonation of a photographer.

"Ella, turn around.  Levi, quit bugging your sister."

"Ella.  Turn.  a.  round."

Hey, one decent one out of 22 attempts.  Not sure it is exactly what we are looking for though.

Ok.  Telling them to make monster faces may not have been the best approach.

Aaaaannnd, now they won't stop making monster faces.

"Ok, everybody walk down the tracks, like little tiny hobos"

Here we go.  Everybody sit on this filthy log, stare into the sun, and hope a train doesn't come by.

"Everybody.  sit.  still.  And Luke, quit throwing rocks."

Levi is apparently lost in the wonder that is his fingernail dirt collection.

"Everybody.  look.  at.  the camera.  And Luke, quit. throwing. rocks."

"Ella and Noah, hands down!  And Ella, what happened to your shoes?  And Luke... do not pick up that rock to throw!"

"Ok, how about this?  Everybody just turn around, and wait patiently for a train to come by.  Ahhhhhh, there we go.  A nice, peaceful, serene set of well behaved children."

(This was the one we ordered, after 116 pictures, and a little post editing)

Actually, they did pretty well.  I only exaggerate their misbehavior a little.  Canvas shows up in a few days.  Hope it looks good!

Those SLC Mormons aren't the only ones who know how to throw a parade!

We throw a pretty mean Veteran's Day parade out here in Gilbert as well.  But come to think of it, since Gilbert is known for having a whole bucket load 'o Mormons, maybe they were behind this one as well?

Well, at a minimum I can try to compete with that Utah Bakker guy's attempt at choking the blogspot servers with random parade pictures!

What better way to celebrate veterans than by recycling!

This poor girl nearly got thrown off her skitterish (is that the right farm lingo?) horse before her mother wisely got her off the crazy beast.

No celebration of  'murica is complete without a biker gang...

...annnnd inappropriately dressed dancing girls.  Levi and Noah were, however, mesmerized.  While their father did his best grumpy old man imitation, muttering about kids these days.  But seriously... zebra shorts, leopard print tops, and red fishnet stockings?  Even Paige commented about it, so I know it wasn't just me.

Darn right...

More dancing girls.  And more mesmerization.  At least these are dressed slightly more appropriately.

The lone tractor in the parade, just for the Utah Bakker guy.  Apparently we aren't as proud of our tractors out here in Gilbert.

And again with the dancing girls.  And back to inappropriate.  And mesmerized.

Spotted my next vehicle.  Not sure what exactly it had to do with a veterans day parade though.

I think this guy just got lost on his way to a furniture delivery, and got stuck in the parade.


Ahhhhh, Levi.  That kid just makes me smile, always with a song in his heart and a spring in his step.  Unfortunately for him, this was the only marching band.  He said his favorite was the trombone (there might be hope yet mom.)

Ummmm, no comment.

The other tractor, but considering what it was scooping in the bucket, it wasn't exactly on display in the parade.

Some guys with some seriously crazy bikes.  Hopefully Levi and Noah filed away some ideas on these so we can build one when they get a little older.

The Wells Fargo stage coach.

Not all of us enjoyed every moment of the parade.  Not sure what the issue even was, but Noah got to spend a few minutes not watching the parade.


While Levi enjoyed more dancing girls.  Seriously???

A whole group of military restoration guys rumbled through with a ton of old (and very cool) vehicles.

(Pretty sure this one ain't exactly regulation.)

 And what parade would be complete without some inappropriately dressed dancing girls?  Wait, I think we already saw some of these...

A bunch of rockcrawlers were in the parade as well.  Unbelievable machines.  You could hear these guys coming a from the staging area of the parade.  While everyone else drove smoothly down the center of the road, these guys were doing full throttle four wheel burnouts down the parade route.  And then stacking their trucks all over each other.  I heard one old lady say "I thought they just had a wreck!"  No ma'am, they are just having fun.

I found them all later hanging out at Campbell Enterprise's shop down the street (and talked to them about putting a cage in my Bronco.)  See here and here and here for the kinds of things these rigs can really do.  Amazing.

And finally, the reason we were really at the parade in the first place.  Ella got a call the night before to see if she wanted to be on the Gilbert Christian School float.

And of course, she was on the opposite side from us, so I had to run across the parade route just to wave and get a picture.

Levi said when he grows up, he wants to be inside the bounce house in the parade.  Don't we all buddy.  Don't. we. all...

And finally, no parade would be complete without the old men with funny hats in tiny little cars, bringing up the rear.

Fun times for all!