Yep, That's Really the Best One

We tried to get a family portrait done at the grandparents for Father's Day, and we utterly failed. We think we know why, and want to offer some suggestions on how NOT to prepare your kids for a decent photo:

1) Don't feed them crepes with chocolate-hazel nut spread, whipped cream, powered sugar, and toffee chips for breakfast. It's great and all to have a dessert breakfast for Father's Day, but we set the kids up for a major crash--and crash they did.
2) Don't expect to have happy kids after an hour drive, where they have enough time to get very, very tired, but not enough time to have any productive sleep.
3) Don't try to do outdoor shots when it's 95 degrees and 80% humidity. The kids no likey.

Monday at Grandma Baker's

The girls got to spend all day in Newberry at Great-Grandma Baker's House--and Aunt Maria and cousin Cadence were there too. Here are some pics:

There are 4 girls in Grandma's Yard. Can you tell which ones?

Well, one of them isn't Mikala, she was sick on the couch the whole time.

Meanwhile, Claire was practicing her parallel parking.

And Cadence was getting down in the driveway.

Amy was found making her mark.

Then the little ones had some bonding time on the swing.

Holes in Nana's House

Nana and Pops (Grandma and Grandpa Hood) had a fire in their house that started in the chimney. We took the kids to see the aftermath, hoping to make it an object lesson about the dangers of fire. Mikala was utterly enthralled with the wreckage. She jumped up and down with glee. Amy, however, was devastated.

Last Saturday Night, Amy was asked to offer the family prayer. She told Heavenly Father that "Nana's house had a fire, and Nana's house has holes in it." She asked that Nana's house could be fixed.

If you are wondering, the cause of the fire (as determined by the Fire Marshall) was faulty construction that did not allow for proper clearances between the chimney and the frame of the house. Nana and Pops are completely covered by their insurance, but will be living in an apartment for a couple of months. Pops will be doing the general contracting and much of the labor associated with the repair work.

And the result of our object lesson for the kids? As far as we can tell, Amy will never so much as roast a marshmallow over a campfire as long as she lives, and Mikala will probably burn our house to the ground as soon as she learns to strike a match.

Christmas 2007

Reserved Assigned Parking

The humble working man has always striven to find new ways to stick it to the man. This resourceful recumbent cyclist has found a way to park in the big boss's parking spot--audaciously attaching his preposterous vehicle to the ominous "Reserved Assigned Parking" sign.

We just got new cell phones. Who knew they were making phones with built in cameras? Anyway, expect more 1.5Mpixel pictures on the blog (instead of the normal 6.0Mpixel ones). It's easy to just pull the cell phone out for random things we see as we're oot and aboot--like Grandpa's bike parked at his work place - the TOC (Transmission Operations Center)

Thanksgiving

Some of the Hood side extended family gathered at the Hood home for Thanksgiving Dinner. Present: Hood[0], Hood[1], Hood[2], Hood[3]*, Jessica with Fiance Jamie, Grandma Scott, Tiffany with this month's boyfriend, and Janis' kids Hanna and Haley. A few more were in and out during the day. We had an excellent meal, and of course, we brought out the traditional "Sombrero of Thankfulness," donned by Mikala this year.


*Family Array Notation: surname[index], will be used throughout this blog to provide a shorthand method for addressing Hood Family branches. Hood[0] refers to the Root Node (Thomas E., Nancy and family members still at home). Hood[1] refers to the branch of the first born (Thomas N., Heather and their offspring). When a Hood child leaves home--i.e. flies the coup or cuts the proverbial apron strings--their branch will then be assigned an index equal to their birth order. This convention can be extended to future generations simply by adding a dimension to the array, i.e. Hood[2][1] for Amy's branch (or Hood[2,1] if you prefer rectangular array indexing). This convention was officially adopted by the Hoods in 2002, and clarifies statements such as: "We'll meet you at the Hood's House at 6:00, and the Hood's will be Babysitting, and the those other Hood's will met us at the restaurant at 7:00."

...and through the woods

Amy and Mikala spent the day yesterday in Newberry with Grandma and Grandpa Baker. Their favorite part about going to Newberry is the trampoline. "I wanna bounce" is the first thing Amy says when she gets there. The rest of our family joined them after work for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. The kid's cousins were there too: Ethan, Evan and Ari. Mikala was pretty grouchy (Grandma let her stay up too long the night before--invoking her grandmotherly right to lax discipline). Amy's cousin Tyler has made Amy scared of monsters lately. Every time she would hear a sound, like an acorn falling or crickets chirping, she said that it must be a monster. Some good news is that we were able to drive the van up to Newberry. It needed a repair that may or may not be permanent. Unfortunately, that leaves us crossing our fingers every time we drive it.