Our Kids in a Nutshell

This video perfectly encapsulates the personalities of our three kids.




http://youtu.be/VwHgCCOzqHM

Chickens

Bobbins has wanted chickens for a long time, mostly to have fresh, organic, cage-free eggs of our own, instead of having to buy them for $5 a dozen at the store.  I think she's also fascinated with the idea of having them, even though she doesn't like to touch them and thinks they're gross.  She talked Jack into housing them in his backyard.  The afternoon of the Maggie's Run they went out and bought the first three, making a coop out of an old shed.  Since that time they've added two more, and we've enjoyed about 5 eggs.  I'm just hoping the whole thing pays off.  We paid roughly $30 per bird...

 

Some Good Material

An Italian Missionary in S Korea
(story from when Pope Francis visited the country)

Cardinal Wojtyla's Address to the Eucharstic Congress in Philly, 1976 
(old JPII talk I just recently came across)

Also a very provocative video on homosexual Catholics, nice distillation and presentation of the Church's teaching:
Third Way 
 

Family Crest

At work a couple months ago we had a team-builder where we had to design our family crest to represent what we stood for.


Can you guess what 4 things I drew to represent us?


The top left should be easy, bottom right the hardest.

2014 Race for Maggie's Place

Did the 10K again this year, running alongside Kevin and trying to catch up to Jack.  Which I did, but he somehow managed to pull ahead at the very end.  Made him earn it though.  I finished in just over 48min, which is roughly an 8min pace.

The girls did the Kids Dash, which was fun.  That's JoJo in the center in the blue shirt.  Their favorite part was probably running with their neighbor friends.  It was nice to have Bobbins and Owen out there too.  A great family event.

End of Summer Golf Outing

The guys at work had our annual end-of-summer scramble golf outing back at the beginning of Sep. at the Scottsdale TPC Champions Course (sister 18 to where the Phoenix Open is played).  It was analysts vs. SOSs, more or less the old guys vs. the young guys.  The old guys prevailed.  The pic at left is my buddy Dennis on the green of a wicked dog-leg left that he managed to drive.  We couldn't sink the eagle putt, unfortunately (just cool to even type that!), but it was nice to tap in for birdie.  I think we finished at -4 overall, pretty good for this group, and Dennis & I were on the winning team for the first time in years.  (We're the organizers.)

Wallop of a Storm

On the 27th we had a wallop of a storm.  I managed to get some yardwork and a swim with the girls in before it hit right after 2pm.  I had just gotten out of the shower and sat down with a book under the lamp when the power went out.  The rain and wind lasted about 30 minutes, but the run-off in the street for almost an hour.  The girls loved it.  They splashed around and floated a coke can down "the river."  We didn't get power back until 1am that morning, which prompted some good discussions about what we'd do at the end of the world.  We BBQ'd on propane for dinner, then went to Kate and Zach's, which had power, for a couple hours.  Our Lenten Friday blackouts came in handy for training in no lights!
Video of the storm out our front door 
(http://youtu.be/8ZkQWStXf-I)

 

Last Swim

Video of both girls swimming the length of the pool

(http://youtu.be/FLOVVmMpEIM)

Really impressed JoJo made it the whole way.  She always imitates her sister, which isn't always bad, I guess.  Not sure why Bobbins was so afraid of JoJo doing it.

MM's First Dentist Visit

 Her thumbsucking and overbite didn't come up, which I guess is good. Her chipped tooth wasn't an issue either.

Steak for a Man

Our future linebacker/US Marine already loves steak (and bananas).

 

 

More First Day Pic's of MM

I had bought sunflowers to celebrate her first official day.  Her new backpack already broke, either on its own or through her use somehow.  She walked right in and barely even said goodbye to Bobbins.  She's doing quite well.

 

 

3 Owen Shots

 

You can just make out his first two teeth on the bottom.  They really stand out now.

The other day he grabbed a hold of my cheek, then got his mouth on it, and took a nice hard chomp.

I can assure you they're real teeth.


(by the way, this is the 1000th post on this blog)

Rushing to Church

Little D-backs

Before Grandpa took us to the D-backs-Padres game.