For all of you attending Saturday’s festivities, click on the image below for full size directions.

Well, you got to hand it to him – at least he thinks he’s got it all figured out.  You never know though, maybe I should call Caitlin’s mom and let her know so she can start saving now – just in case.

It’s been brought to my attention recently that many of you have been moving around and changing your phone numbers and emails without first consulting me if I approve of such life changes.  Sure, maybe it was convenient for your new job or spouse, but obviously you didn’t consider the ramifications it would have to me when I suddenly feel like randomly calling you and the number I have on my cell phone instead calls some random guy in Denver with a British accent.  So, since I have yet to plug into the gestalt of full-on social networking so that I know what each and every one of you is doing and every minute of every day, I was hoping for the moment to simply try and maintain my own contact info so that I can better pretend to still be personal friends with all of you.  If you have the time, drop me a line here (so as to keep your info off the web)  and help me out by including as much information as you’re willing to share (name, phone, email, IM, address, birthday, website, etc.).  Feel free to pass the request on to any mutual friends who I might have lost contact with.  I don’t know why, but as soon as I turned 30 I suddenly got nostalgic and wanted to know where all my friends went to and see what’s going on.  Maybe I’ll be on MyTwitterbook or something someday, but for now I’ll settle on hearing your voices and writing back and forth

I realize that a larger and larger percentage of this website has been devoted to explanations, excuses and alibis for growing hiatuses, but in this case I really can’t take all the credit for the lengthy outage.  Due to what I can only guess was a consortium of jealous parents, our site was hacked several days after Hazel’s birth and as such was closed down by my hosting company until I updated all software that might have vulnerabilities.  This might have been easy had they not also shut down all FTP access to my site.  So basically I can access the site until I update, I can’t update until I access.  This circular logic required no less than five lengthy tech support phone calls to finally fix – which ended up being spread across almost two months due to the constant flow of houseguests/roadtrips/baby births which took place between November and now.  The upside is that the problems are finally fixed, the software is updated, we’re back online, and as soon as I have some free time this weekend I intend to dump a good load of baby/Christmas/New Year/family pictures, stories and love on you all.  Until then, enjoy the random pictures below to help jog your memory if you’ve completely forgot who I was over the past two months.

I’ll admit that my modest fare may not be as impressive as some, however I’ve still got to say that I’m dang proud of my family’s venture into agribusiness.  I didn’t even realize how well things were going until I looked at these photos myself side by side to see how things were coming along.  Again, we may not have the space for too wide a variety, but I am willing to bet that none of you up in the Northwest are rocking cantaloupes in your gardens (one of what I think are about three total advantages to living here).  In addition to the ‘loupes we’ve got red, yellow and green peppers; cucumbers, squash, radishes, a bunch of herbs, some green beans and my personal favorite- habenero peppers.  The woman at the store actually warned that we not plant the peppers and the cukes to close because she accidently grew some “spicy cucumbers” last year.  Actually, I wanted to try that out on purpose but got the veto from Jenn.  Anyway, love hearing about everyone’s gardening successes /failures, here’s hoping I’ve got a full salad in a month or so!  Next challange: build my own topsy-turvy and stick ito to Wal-Mart.

So, you’re probably wondering how our trip went and how, since we had all that family around and Chris had 35 days off work that we didn’t post while on our trip. Well, we had all that family around, and forgive us, but we spent all our time with them. And what a time it was: May 2nd we left NM and drove (for forever!) to Las Vegas to have an all too brief late dinner with some friends. The next morning we got on the road early after we all had 5 hours sleep and got to Elk Grove at 10 PM (arriving to homemade chicken soup made it worth it though, thanks Mom!) We had a day break (whew!) before we got on an airplane and flew to Seattle where Caitlin picked us up. She even remembered the boys favorite snacks and brought them with her which made the 90 minute drive to Anacortes much easier. What followed was a jam packed two weeks of family, fun, and adventure which will (hopefully) be described in more detail later. Then we flew back to CA, had a day of rest (whew!) and then drove to the beach for 5 days and 4 nights of ocean and sandy fun. Then we got back to Elk Grove and had a week and a half of family, fun and adventure which will (hopefully) be described in more detail later. Then we drove two days home (skipping Las Vegas this time, sorry Corby and Kristin!) and had two days of rest (whew) before Chris had to go back to work again. It was so much fun and it was totally worth any stress and craziness. Now, you are probably looking for pictures of the boys, and wondering how they are doing and wanting cute updates, but that will (hopefully) be described in more detail later. Because this post is, in fact, not about boys. It is about girls, and more specifically, the girl growing in my belly. (more…)

Statistics I just invented have shown that 84% of people polled believe that of all halves of months the first half of May is by far the most uneventful, followed directly by the second half.  And why not, it’s a vast bridge of ennui between the excitement of April’s Spring Break and June’s Summer Vacation.  Early scientists tried to combat the issue with such winning inventions as “Clean Up Your Room Day” and  ”National Tap Dance Day“, and were completely baffled when even the illustrious mantle of “Asparagus Month” did nothing for May’s front end.  Luckily, researchers here at IHJ have not been so easily defeated.  Now, finally after years of test and development we are able to unveil the cure for the early May blues that have hitherto vexed mankind! (more…)

I can’t begin to tell all of you what a relief it is to finaly have regular access to internet again instead of trying to intermittantly hijack the one house in my neighborhood who doesn’t secure their wireless signal.  This must be what it felt like for early pioneers at the end of the trail when they could finally pickup all their accumulated mail – although even back then it was still probably all just telegraphs about Viagra and letters from Nigerian royalty. 

Anyway, the point is that a celebration is in order, and what better way to celebrate than by bringing back an IHJ favorite with a cross-country family move twist.  Below you’ll find eight pictures chronicling our epic journey across these great (albeit somewhat economically recessed) United States.  While not as challanging as say traveling in a mini-van for a week with two children, a dog and all your worldly possessions, your task is to correctly match each picture with the corresponding state it was taken in.  Click -MORE- and then on each thumbnail to enlarge and get your answers in the comments before next Tuesday when we’ll be back with answers and a new trivia.  Remember, no peeking at the comments with everyone else’s answers until you’ve got yours figured out – Good Luck! (more…)

Alright, really quick post because I just finally got internet set up and I feel it is my duty to at least give the world a little warning that there is a new big kid to watch out for and his name is Jonah!  In spite of the move the actual birthday went great, it turns out all it takes to make my son happy is a day dedicated to WALL-E.  And by WALL-E what I really mean is EVE because as far as he’s concerned she’s the real star of the show.  I apologize that I don’t have a picture of the awesome EVE breakfast I made (cream cheese pancake with Nutella face and blueberry eyes with strawberry stars) but as you can see Jenn did justice to the robotic superstar by finishing the day off with a home made EVE birthday cake.  So anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONAH! I promise to do my best to get some posts going here now that we finally have internet, but bare with me because I’m still unpacking boxes and still haven’t found all my underwear; a guys gotta have priorities.

Just a quick update before I collapse into bed. First, Jonah’s surgery went just fine and he was in pretty good spirits most of yesterday morning. He continues to do well, but it’s like a rollercoaster — up, down, up, down. He goes pretty fast from up to down and vice versa. Fortunately I know that this will only last a few days and then he will be feeling better. We just have trouble right now keeping him drinking fluids and taking tylenol (probably like any kid who just went through this). This morning when he got up he wouldn’t swallow anything (and I mean ANYTHING, he was drooling because he wouldn’t even swallow his saliva). It took two hours and a long bath, but we finally got some juice and medicine in him and he perked up. Then the cycle started over again. He does have his pretty cute moments though. Last night he looked at Chris and I and said “I’m feeling better now!” with big eyes and a sweet voice. Chris said “I’m so glad, because I love you and want you to feel good.” And I said I was so happy too. Jonah smiled at Chris and said “I love you too” and then “Papa, you’ve got a friend in me.” What a sweet boy.

I know that this won’t last long, and I am amazed that he has held up as well as he has. I just don’t understand how parents deal with having kids who are sick for a long time. Jonah’s surgery was pretty minor and routine as surgeries go, and Chris and I are exhausted just trying to keep him and Calvin happy. Don’t even get me started on the state of our house right now. It just makes me appreciate my kids a lot, and REALLY feel empathy toward parents (and kids) who have it rough. Hope everyone is doing well. Give someone you love a hug tomorrow and say “You’ve got a friend in me.”