Happiness is...

In the words of Charles M. Schulz, "Happiness is a Warm Puppy." David found this to be true when we went to the Curtis residence this evening for a graduation party for their oldest son. They just got a litter of puppies, so David was excited to hold them and pet them. Analeigh is still a tad shy around puppies at the moment.

Daddy's Hat & Analeigh's Button

Sometimes Ben wears his Newsies hat, which he got back when he was a teen and every girl he knew seemed to have been in love with the movie, Newsies. Interestingly enough, Ben now wears the hat when he goes frisbee golfing with a friend from work, since the hat makes him look more like a real golfer. Sadly, Ben cannot turn this game into a career as he is nowhere near good enough to turn professional.

Anyway, David and Analeigh love to wear the hat too - which makes for adorable pictures.





On top of all that cuteness, Analeigh has learned where her button is (that is to say, her belly button). She is quite proud to show off this new knowledge (as long as you catch her in the right mood) - which could make for awkward situations in the future.

The Un-Bounteous Harvest

This year's garden has been officially declared a flop. We are considering applying for bailout funds since we believe our garden was too big to fail!

To be quite honest, we never got into the rhythm of gardening this year. That, and for some reason bugs were very dominant this year. Even though we did our best to weed and salvage the squash, watermelon, and corn, bugs ate the plants to death.

Thus our final harvest was a few small squash and zucchini, no watermelon, and three tiny cobs of corn (two of which David and Analeigh started eating on the way back home).





Oh well, at least we have our two tomato plants on the front porch area.

David the Excavator

Among the many machines David admires is the excavator. David admires excavators so much, that sometimes the only way we can get him to eat is by encouraging him to act like an excavator to put the food in his mouth (sometimes called the dump truck - since that is where excavators dump things). So far it has been a fairly successful technique.

Fun with Sidewalk Chalk

While David plays in the sandbox, Analeigh often likes to join him. However, sometimes we are able to broaden her horizons and expand her interests by offering other alternatives. One of the things Analeigh enjoys doing is drawing on the cement with sidewalk chalk. She enjoys it so much that sometimes she tries to apply the chalk to herself, rather than the cement. Perhaps this is why she has such soft skin. Hmm...

Happy Toilet Paper Day!

Everyone enjoys a celebration... especially Analeigh. And even though Toilet Paper Day isn't until August 26th, it seems Analeigh just wanted to celebrate - mostly by tearing off chunks of toilet paper and scattering them everywhere to spread the joy!



Seriously though, there really is a Toilet Paper Day, and it really is on August 26th - just one week away! You can even send an e-card to your friends here. For more information on Toilet Paper Day, click here, or do a Google search.

Six Years of Patience

For the last six years, Liz has been very patient. Specifically, patient with Ben. Today, we mark the anniversary of when Liz decided to promise to be so very patient. Someday we hope Ben will be more sensitive, but until then, Happy Six Year Anniversary!



For those of you who are curious, Ben & Elizabeth were married during the famous Northeast Blackout of 2003. Also going on that day was the Woodward Dream Cruise, an event which features classic cars (some of which are very loud) traveling up and down Woodward Avenue, which happens to pass right by the Detroit Temple. Thus, it was a very interesting wedding, since the temple was opened for our wedding only and promptly closed after the ceremony, as the water was unsafe to drink and the health risk wasn't worth operating the temple any longer that day.

It is also worth noting that, since our wedding, the Detroit Temple closes on the third Saturday of August every year, due to the traffic and noise created by the Woodward Dream Cruise. Thus, our wedding was an experience not likely to be replicated in the near future!

Rain Sticks

About a year ago, Ben got a couple of cardboard mailing tubes. He had intended to make rainsticks out of them, but never had gotten around to it until tonight. So we went to the store, bought some nails and duct tape, returned home and started putting things together. We put uncooked rice inside the tubes and voila! David and Analeigh love them. Luckily, Analeigh lacks the dexterity to become annoying with the use of hers. David, on the other hand...

Treadmill

One of Ben's co-workers is moving to Wichita to pursue her master's degree. Thus, she has been trying to offload a number of her belongings. So, when she offered Ben a treadmill for cheap, Ben persuaded Liz that we wanted one.

This particular model, the Image 10.0, brings back fond memories of Ben's days working in a sweat shop. While in school at Utah State, Ben worked for ICON Health & Fitness on an assembly line building treadmills. Image was one of the many brands ICON manufactured. In fact, ICON manufactures so many different brands that, if you don't like one and you decide to teach them a lesson by switching to a different brand, the odds are pretty good that the next treadmill you buy will still be made by them.

Anyway, since Ben's co-worker said she got it only a few years ago, there is a pretty good chance that Ben was involved in building this very treadmill. It must be one of those circle of life things.

The All-New Front Loader

On Thursday, David went to see one of his idols, Matthew Cheney, who is 10 years old. David also loves Matthew's 11 year old sister, Nicole. However, Matthew scored a few extra points by giving David his old front loader. This same front loader can be seen in our Ramming Speed! entry, in which we mistaken labeled the front loader a bulldozer. We apologize for the mistake.

Anyway, on Friday, David was very happy to use his new toy to make himself a wet mess at the park. Of course, Analeigh followed in the fun and got equally wet.



David loves his new front loader and has been riding it all around the house every day since he got it.



Thank you Matthew!

Going Shopping

Liz took the kids shopping with her to Dillons this morning. While she would have normally used a standard shopping cart, she saw one with a toy car attached to the front and decided to see if the little tykes would stay seated in there. It turned out to be a successful experiment - David and Analeigh loved their "car" so much they hardly wanted to get out.