Funny Conversations - by Brad

Lindsey is gone for the weekend and I have the boys to myself for a little while. Here are two conversations that got me laughing this evening.

Spencer: Where's Mom?
Me: She's up in Leavenworth.
Spencer: She's up in HEAVEN?!?






Wesley was goofing around in the car talking in a southern accent and pretending to be someone else. I was indulging him by asking several questions about who he was.

Me: Do you still have that girlfriend?
Wesley: Nope.
Me: What happened?
Wesley: She got selded.

First of all how does Wesley know how to talk in a southern accent, and second, where did we go wrong if he thinks you can sell your girlfriend?

"I Can't Breathe" - by Brad

I am reluctant to go to the emergency room with my children. Maybe it is because I don’t want to be an over-protective parent who rushes their kids to the doctor for every little ailment. Maybe it’s because we have been blessed with generally healthy kids. Well, last night I held off as long as I could handle it before I took Elliott.

Elliott has had a fever the last couple days and a croupy cough. Our kids have had croup before and it has never been that big of deal. There were times in the middle of the night were they were having crazy cough attacks, but the attacks would go away within seconds if we simply had them breathe the cold outside air.

Last night around 2:00, Elliott woke up coughing. He came into our room wheezing very hard trying to pull air into his lungs between coughs. We took him outside to see if the normal method would solve his problem. It didn’t work. His throat must have been so inflamed, that combined with a little panic on his part, he couldn’t breathe at all. He looked at us wide-eyes and mouthed the words, "I can't breathe." Once he focused and calmed down, he was able to gasp in a little air and a few minutes later he was able to breathe enough to fall back asleep. Emergency room averted.

To those readers who have had asthma attacks, this probably doesn't sound terribly unique. Nonetheless, our family is not familiar with them.

Elliott was sleeping in our bed so we could hear his breathing and within a half-hour, he was coughing and gasping for air again. Once again he came to the point where he couldn't breathe at all. Seeing the fear in his eyes (again) of not being able to breathe caused me to lose my pride and take him to the emergency room. As Elliott and I got in the car and drove to the E.R., he was gasping for air and for the third time got to the point where he couldn’t breathe.

At the hospital, they diagnosed it very quickly and gave him a breathing treatment for him to inhale for a few minutes. The treatment apparently worked because we came home and he was able to breathe for the rest of the night.

Elliott's inability to breathe was probably caused by two things: an inflamed throat, and a feeling of panic. In hind-sight, if Elliott would have passed out from asphyxiation at home, he might have calmed down in his unconscious state and started breathing on his own, thus not needing the emergency room. Regardless, I am still supporting our E.R. decision that probably prevented us from finding that out.

Undies, Iron Man, Tape Measure, Whatever - by Brad

Still waiting on Lindsey to post...

Meanwhile, here are some more miscellaneous pictures that we have taken over the past few weeks.

Spencer is taking his sweet time in becoming potty trained. There has been much sitting around the house in underwear.


Even as I type, he is listening to my iPod (the song Iron Man) looking like this...


More Spencerness...


Okay, I am done captioning, here are some pictures, narrate for yourself...

Misc. - by Brad

I am waiting on Lindsey to post AB#8, but here is a post for some filler anyway.

Lindsey emailed me this short conversation while I was at work yesterday...

Spencer: I want to go pick up Daddy.
Lindsey: We don't need to. Daddy took his own car to work.
Spencer: What own car?
Lindsey: His truck.
Spencer: Well, that is not a car.


On another topic, Wesley is still loving preschool. Similar to Elliott's preschool field trip two years ago, Wesley's class went gleaning wheat to take back to class and make bread. Lindsey went with and snapped a couple pictures (Spencer tagged along also).


His preschool teacher is pretty creative with the kids. Wesley is looking forward to the day his class gets to ride the city bus! Lindsey told me that on the preschool schedule, there is an evening where his teacher opens up her house to her students and their siblings so the parents can have date nights!



Here are some other pictures Lindsey took that I thought were worthy of posting...

A typical sight around bed time or nap time. Spencer with his "square blanket".


Another common sight, Elliott working on his Legos...


Wesley's bony hands and feet...

Sleeping Arrangements - by Brad

Elliott has been asking about having his own room lately. He gets frustrated at night when his younger brothers are goofing around and keeping him awake. Last night we decided to setup an air mattress in our music room and let him try it out. While Spencer displayed his typical silliness in the room next door, Elliott read peacefully on his air mattress until he fell asleep. I expected Elliott to wake up scared in the middle of the night wanting to go back in the room with his brothers. However, a few mintues ago Elliott woke up and told me, "I liked sleeping in my own room. It was a lot easier for me to go to sleep. My brothers just sounded like whispers because they were on the other side of the wall."

I think we have come to a turning point in our boys' lives that I thought wouldn't come until much later. Elliott is moving out of his brothers' room. He will just have to deal with sleeping by a drum set and guitars for a while.

Fruit Flies - by Brad

Lindsey would not live in peace and harmony with the thousands of fruit flies in our kitchen. So she decided to kill them. I prefer her italian soup...

E 7 - by Brad

Elliott turned 7 last week. Crazy that we have a seven year old... especially when I still don't act older than that. I think I will probably say something to that effect every birthday from here on out.

Elliott's birthday seemed to be an ordeal that dragged out all weekend long. I was at a work conference the day of his birthday so Lindsey brought the boys over to Seattle to stay at the hotel with me on Thursday, the night before his birthday. Elliott had his heart set on swimming at the hotel and I was sure that any hotel with a pool in Seattle would have an indoor pool... but no. Elliott and I went swimming at night, outside, when it was probably 60 degrees out. Needless to say, we had the pool to ourselves.

On Friday (his actual birthday) after I got out of my morning classes at my conference we headed to the LEGO Store for Elliott to pick out a birthday present from us and use some of the birthday money he had already received. After that we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. We were going to do a few more things, but Elliott just wanted to go home and work on his LEGOs.



On Sunday we had family over for a football themed birthday party. The guys watched the Seahawks and their come-from-ahead loss while the women did... well... whatever the women do. At half-time there was a pinata, presents, and some birthday cake. Of course this post is mostly about the birthday cake. We felt that this was one of our better designed cakes.


And one more just because you need a close up...



Oh I am posting this on my sister's birthday, so here's a shout-out to my sister... HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIL!!! (We'll have your Seahawks birthday party NEXT year!)

Spencer Quotes - by Linz

Spencer often sings or talks to himself while he is playing with toys...especially when his brothers aren't around. Yesterday I over heard him saying, " 'Cause I like you and I'll keep you...Do you want me to keep you mom?...well I am not going to keep you, I'm going to leave you at home..."

Last night in the car Spencer was talking to me about his Bible. He seemed to understand that he is supposed to take his Bible to church. So I asked him if he knew what the Bible was about. "Um...God." I have to admit that I didn't expect him to know the answer. So I tried another one, "Do you know who God's son is?"

Spencer: "I don't know. Who is it?"

Me: "His name is...."

Spencer: "OH, Jesus... can I take my Bible to bed?"
Me: "Sure."

Spencer: "Actually, I don't want to go to bed. I'm ready to worship... 'cause I have my Bible!"

And here is a random photo of our crazy boy!

"Auto" Biography #7 - 1998 Grand Cherokee - by Brad

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee

The Jeep previously belonged to my sister Gail, but once she committed to being a missionary in Papua New Guinea (and couldn't easily take it with her), we purchased her vehicle from her so we could have a four wheel drive vehicle to manage the winters in Wenatchee.


Our ownership of the Jeep was relatively short lived and therefore, few memories were developed. Here are a few facts...

This was the only vehicle we have owned that we could reasonably take off road. I definitely enjoyed that feature more than Lindsey (since she was either pregnant or had a baby in the car).

The brakes squealed really loud... we were told the only option was to replace the brake pads (which still had 50% left) and that might not even fix it. I opted to be cheap and live with the noise. I am not sure Lindsey appreciated my decision.

The Jeep was the first vehicle Wesley rode in (well, at least outside of Lindsey's belly).

Years Owned: Fall 2004 - October 2005

"Auto" Biography #6 - 1996 Jetta - by Linz

1996 Volkswagen Jetta Trek

After my first Jetta went on it's way, I got yet another Jetta to take it's place. My dad searched all over town and the internet and ended up driving all the way to Portland to pick this car up for me. This was the car I had all through college. When I lived in Langely, B.C. I made quite a few trips to Salem to visit Brad. I logged a lot of hours on the I-5 corridor.

I loved this car! It also had a few VW flaws. This time it was exterior trim that fell off. I remember one incident when I was out with my sister and I drove through a large puddle in a parking lot, and the whole front bumper fell off. We got out to see what had happened and the only solution was to wade into the deep puddle, dump the water out of the bumper and stick in the back seat to take it home. It looked pretty funny to have the bumper sticking out of the back window on the way home. But my dad fixed it up for me.

My dad ended up with the car. He took the car as payment for work on our house plans. My parents are pretty gracious to give me a car and then "buy" it back! What can I say, I am blessed...and maybe a little bit spoiled!

Years Owned: October 1999 - Fall 2004