Sprout's OCD and Other News

I think it's time we come to grips with the fact that Elena has OCD. Exhibit 1, her set of blocks. You'll notice that all of the blocks on the top row are positioned with the colored letter facing up.
If you carelessly put a block in facing the wrong direction, you're likely to get a look like this:
Once her blocks are all arranged properly, she moves upstairs to spit-shine the floor. Literally.
You see, I am in charge of brushing her teeth, so I made the mistake of teaching her how to spit. She is really proud of her newly acquired skill...but she doesn't save all of her spitting talent for tooth-brushing time. She noticed that spitting on the floor was upsetting to us and that we immediately wiped up her prize. So now she simply carries a rag around with her and beats us to the punch. I will never, ever teach our next kid how to spit. Next kid? That's right, Sprout is going to have a sibling, due June 6. Sib is currently 3.5 cm long. We decided to share the news at Thanksgiving this year.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a nice dinner at home; Karen and I hosted both sides of our family. I had the camera sitting less than two feet from me during dinner and totally forgot to take a single picture. This picture of Elena's artwork from playschool is the only proof we have that Thanksgiving actually occurred. I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving and we wish you happy holidays ahead.

Good November Hunting

First, I would like to warn you that graphic hunting pictures follow......



This year I have been very excited about the controlled hunt deer tag I drew. The first step to successful big game hunting is scouting. This is made a whole lot easier when someone sends you pictures of a nice animal along with a description of where he lives. Can it really be that easy?
Step 2: Make sure you have the right equipment to get the job done. Sometimes, the pursuit of a trophy requires calling in some favors... So I borrowed my father-in-law's boat. For those of you hoping to join me steelhead fishing later this year, um, we may need to find another boat...
This hunt cost me a good boat washing and two bottles of whiskey to the boat mechanic. Anyway, I was successful in bagging the biggest deer of my life this year. I think he will score around 180.
The last picture was taken in my friend's garage in Baker City, OR, because we planned to go steelhead fishing the next day. We had a decent day and caught 3 fish.

Fast forward two weeks. Guinness has been sick from eating deer bones, and lost a bunch of weight. I didn't think he would be able to hunt this weekend, but I showed him my hunting vest on Sat. night and he suddenly started eating again. On Sunday he had what was probably his best hunting performance ever. On three occasions we inched in on birds that I was able to see standing on rocks at 10-20 yards before they flushed.
After the hunt Sprout and I watched her Packers win again, and then I followed the 49ers game on the internet because FOX decided to play SOCCER instead of the the second-best team in the nation. Seriously, who watches soccer?

We're still here

We haven't been up for posting much lately. One, because nothing exciting has been going on. Two, because we've all been sick for the last two weeks with what Barry has dubbed the "daycare super bug". I think we're finally on the mend.
Sprout inherited this table and chairs from her older cousins. They decided they were getting too big for the table and it needed to go. She's been fascinated with it since it first came home. She is also fascinated with her wooden blocks. She doesn't really enjoy building anything, but simply likes to stack the blocks in the box. She also enjoys similar activities with her crayons- who needs to color anyway?