Christmas Recital

Here's a video of Mallory's dance recital. She is the one with red tights on the far left. Sorry it's not very clear; we were in the back.

Max's first haircut

Before

After


Snow in Houston!
Really, it is quite amazing. Houston gets snow about once every ten to fifteen years.

The two girls on Mallory's left were my piano lessons at the time of the snow. It was their first time seeing snow, so naturally we had to end lessons a little early.

Who dunnit?

Ben, Jason's brother who is living with us for a while, found Tansie like this the other day. Yes, they are Mr. Potato Head glasses. And yes, our cat doesn't seem to mind at all. What a good kitty.

Here's the culprit. I don't think she feels any shame.

Ben mowing our lawn in the rain. It's nice to have some slave labor.

These are some pics of the Texas renaissance festival. It's very huge, and after pushing the kids around in their stroller we were exausted.


A rare glimpse of Max sleeping in the car. He has to be VERY tired to do this.

Face painting at the Festival
Here is a belated picture of our Halloween costumes. Jason was miraculously able to catch max with his hat on, one millisecond before he tore it off. We trick-or-treated with my sister's family, which was awesome.

ugh...backed up pictures

Long time, no pictures.
Here's a good start

Mallory learning how to play baseball with her preschool buddy, Casey. He's an old pro.

Mallory and Katie about to dive down the bouncy Titanic

Mallory, Tiffy, Lisa and Grandma Brenda at the pumpkin patch

Payson Canyon Park (Beer can flats)

Bouncy gym video
My favorite part is Katie's feet slipping out of view.

Max's Birthday

Max turned 2 years old on Sept 22nd. He loved his birthday presents, and his activity at Pump it UP (an inflatable party place).






No Fear

Before and After Ike

Our power is back!!! Yeah!!! After nine days of darkness, humidity, weird-smelling fridge and silence, except for a crackly radio, we're back in the modern world again. It came on today, which was a surprise, as we had been told it might be another week. Jason and I danced and said woo-hoo! in the driveway. Luckily, half of our neighbors have wimped out and left so I don't think anyone noticed. All in all, it really wasn't that bad for us since we were pretty prepared (we try to be good little Mormons), but it was definitely getting old. Well, here are all of the pictures from the last two weeks before and after Ike.

Mallory and Maya on their way to dance class.


This is so cute, I could pinch myself.

We live 80 miles away from the coast, but Ike was a very wide and powerful guy. Here is some tree damage and flooding in our neighborhood. Luckily, we were spared both as we have well planned water-retention routes and no big trees on our street. Although, we did lose a lot of fence slats.






Above: I was trying to capture the new brick wall in the distance that was smashed by a falling tree.

Here is Max on our crappy trip to Dallas in the middle of all of this. Jason is the IS Director, and somehow that translated into carrying the company's entire server room to their Dallas office so they could continue to operate. I guess Jason didn't want an angry mob storming the building if payroll didn't go through. I should have stayed home, but I thought it would be a nice trip to get away for a couple of days. I'll spare everyone the tedious frustrating details, and leave these two pictures. I drove the two kids home by myself, (a 3+ hr trip) and we needed a mid-way snack. One sucker just wasn't enough. I would have bought him a pony if it could have helped.


See the tounge? His trademark.

First Kill

This is Max's first spike. Besides the net violation, I think he's got it down.

Hmmm. I must have been pretty lousy at taking pictures this week. Yesterday we even went to the Science museum for the first time and I've got nothing! In short, you could have seen Max running up and down the long marble corridor, with his legs pumping at "Dash" speed, and me trying to subtly chase after him. I love the looks that I get from people. One is a pitiful smile that says, "I'm so glad he's not mine." Another is a double feature, starting with wide eyed "There's a minor on the loose in my establishment," followed by bored relief when they see me close at his heels. My personal favorite is from dogs. They seem to be the closest in spirit to Max. When they see him whiz by they'll just about strangle themselves on their leashes trying to follow him and see what's so riveting up ahead. You know, I kept telling Jason that I knew three weiner dogs named Max, but he was very persuasive. I think it was fate. Have you ever seen one of them run? My neighbors, the Blanchards had a weiner dog, Max, and he ran as fast as any greyhound that I've seen.

We had the first cool morning in 4 months. Jason and I stood outside and almost cried in amazement. I've been steeling myself for a summer that lasts until October, but this week has been a blessed 89 degree average. Oh, I can't wait to spend all day at the park where Max can be free to wander within a full perimeter fence. Squirrels and frogs, beware.

Oh, and one more thing. Just in case my blogs become a little sparse, it may because I have an onslaught of piano students this Fall (and one harp student--whoopee!) The last time I counted, I was at 17 total. I meant to have a cap at 15, but I had a hard time saying no to little brothers and sisters of current students that wanted to take from me as well. They're so cute!

Thanks, mom, for committing yourself to 20 lessons a week so that we could all have our own private lessons as kids. Teaching is even better than playing.

chocolate pudding

I have a lot of random pictures to post today. I hope you like them.

What blog of mine would be complete without a critter? This is a tomato worm, and the reason why none of my blossoms have turned into tomatoes. The little "big" dude suffered death by suffocation in a ziploc baggy, since I didn't have the guts to squash something with so much....guts. Jason's first thought when he saw him was "That's a great breakfast for Bear Grylls."

No idea what this one was, but he was fraternizing with the Tomato worm. He's on the watch list.


Mallory holding Jason's giant oreo cake for his 30th birthday. Max was sick, which made his birthday take a backseat, but we still had some fun. Mallory got to play some Frisbee golf with us at the Woodlands, and she did very well with her 4 inch wide Cinderella frisbee.

Chocolate pudding. Every night at dinner, I say the same thing to Jason, regarding Max: "Just don't look at him, and you won't get mad."


This is the way Max can get out of his crib, even when we jerry-rigged the mattress 6 inches below the lowest setting. Thus the crib tent.



I couldn't figure out what Max was imagining during this little dance until I saw the same thing while he was watching Blue Clues. He is doing the "think....think...thi--i--nk" of the thinking chair song.

Memories

I liked this post from my friend, Andrea's, blog. I usually don't do this stuff, but here goes.

Here are the directions:

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

lunch time

I made one surprise lunch when I was feeling generous, and Mallory has never stopped asking for them since. I try to tell her that I'll only make her one if she has a friend over, and that helps. Thanks for all of the bologna-and-cottage cheese-face surprise lunches, mom.
Oh, and Mallory insisted that I take this picture because she was upset at herself for messing up the hair. This way she could look at it before she messed it up completely and "immortalize" it in its perfect state.

This looks bad, but considering it's Max self-feeding chocolate pudding, I'd say it's a major step forward. He gets points for a clean forehead, nose, ears, and hairs.

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Jason insisted that I post a blog about what Mallory did yesterday. He was playing pool with her, and while he was pulling balls out of the pockets, she began to guess what numbers they were just by seeing the color and nature (solid or stripe). After getting two in a row correctly, he continued with the rest, carefully covering the number with his fingers. She guessed every single one correctly, with only one hesitation. Jason was very proud, because he thinks she's inherited the Miner gene for remembering number patterns. His dad, Jim, is the parts manager at M&R and he has most if not all of the parts numbers memorized. (I'm not sure of how many parts there are at that store, but it's a LOT.) Jason, has also discovered a knack for recalling long number sequences while doing programming and Excel codes. We really enjoy discovering the ways our kids are smart, like most parents. And I am a little relieved at the idea that Jason might have someone with which to share his computer/mathematical nerdyness. While I comprehend mathematics and computer jargon enough to get the grade, it's about as exciting to me as one waiting for the drop of drool to fall out of my classmates snoring mouth.
On a side note, I think my dad was a little disappointed when I didn't share his love for equations. But at least we've got Politics, right dad?
Another tangent:
Jason's parents were at Sturgis last week and apparently John McCain was there giving a speech to the Veterans. No comment needed.

Mallory has been a little upset that Max commandeered her beloved high chair. So cute.



Looks like Clark toes to me. We Clark women can do amazing things with our toes, and consider them as important as our opposable thumbs. Welcome to the club, Mallory.

Cardboard Dreamhouse

I've been aching to make one of these things since I was seven. At my Grandpa Glover's house, we would get to use the packing boxes of his Matco Tools shipments for pretend houses. Sipping tang in the summer heat, filtered by the luxurious cardboard shading of my pretend dream house, was the best entertainment imaginable. Max and Mallory have spent hours with it, and I regret the day that I'll have to throw it out.





Grandma Glover told me once that she never thought I could get Jason out of a plaid shirt. He wore this shirt to my cousin Ricqelle's wedding, on our 1st date, and on Mother's day when we first met. I love it. So, we now pass the tradition on to little Max. Forever Plaid.