Thankfully

we at least had the two girls together for Thanksgiving. And look how excited they are about dining with their parents. Texas was toasty warm for this cowboy.

Baby Max has gotten chubby for the holidays. Look at those arms. Talking about Max here.

Kirsten and Emily feeling festive, put buns on top of their heads, but kept to the no photos policy.


The blanket came off and still no peeking at the buns.

Advantage with the I-phone is photography over the shoulder made easy.

Max remains the master of sleeping.

Does not matter whose lap he lies upon.


Colton finally noticed he had a baby brother or maybe it was the big truck on his p.j.s. that distracted him.


We were back on the road to Dallas Friday. The hotel had a view of Cowboy Stadium but no cowboys.

The old guy from Six Flags seems to have developed a thang for Emily.

Do other states have amusement park rides involving cattle?

And in the dark Emily found two friends. She had the sweatshirt, they had the tights.

Usually it is Emily with the tights.

My favorite veteran

would have to be my dad. Definitely.

I grew up during the Vietnam War. I remember the draft, the protests, the nightly newscasts of casualties and devastation and prisoners of war and missing in action. It was just a part of life. Yet I know of no one my age that served in Vietnam because thankfully it was over that spring of 1975.
I was 16.

My Dad enlisted in the army when he came home from his mission. He had already entered the Salt Lake mission home when he was drafted. He was sent home while the Church and the government played tug of war with his life. The Church won with the understanding that he was only delaying his entrance into the Service. My mom and dad married while he was in the army. Two months later he was sent to Berlin, Germany for 13 months without my mother. The Korean conflict had recently ended. Dad was a clerk at the Spandau prison where the Nazi war criminals were held. Boot camp and all those rifle and survival training exercises in Yakima prepared my dad to sit facing a typewriter. He may have been through East Germany but I think the enemy was loneliness and boredom. I love that my dad served in the military. Thanks dad and servicemen everywhere who protect our freedoms and this great country.

Sleepyhead

woke up. Once. When he had a firm grip on all that was left of his previous life.

Otherwise he slept in our arms.

And the carseat.

And the baby chair.

His little life was exhausting.

It all happened so fast.

Emily had fall break. We could be in Midland by Tuesday night. Riding in to town for the main event. Except Jenny woke up early Sunday morning. She thought she might have wet the bed. Thank goodness she came to her senses because Max was born in a hospital less than a hour later. All that drama wore him out. He napped for the rest of the week.

He slept if you were looking.

Or not.

With the pacifier.

Or without.

A prodigy of baby sleeping.

Papa came for the weekend.

No one asked Colton about having a baby brother. He took it like a man and ignored the thorny issue.

Their is mischief in this boy but no front teeth. Max is safe from the little vampire.

Maybe.

Kirsten got the Hollywood treatment before her debut in the ward Primary Program. The shades. The tinted windows. The mature driver. She is such a star. Get your autograph now.