Sliced carrots anyone?

Uuuuummmmm......is there a carrot on my head?

Adeline photo shoot

I told Adeline to give me "supermodel" and this is what I got. I don't know...

These bright purple berries are native to North Carolina. Addie uses them in her playdough pies, yummy.

Knighted

"After President Hinckley finished with the sustaining of the officers of the church during the Saturday morning session, Elder Eyring had moved to his new seat on the stand. Unfortunately, they didn't show this on TV, but when President Hinckley turned around, he stood there for a moment looking at Elder Eyring, then picked up his cane and "knighted" him on his shoulder and head. Truly one of the funniest things I've ever seen him do.

I love how President Eyring looks just like a little boy..."

Thanks for the jokes Heather.

Climb Every Staircase

Megan learned to climb the stairs. She cries when she falls. We don't like all that crying. What a baby.

A Flying Shame? I don't think so.

For those who have heard or read the Time magazine article about the V-22, here is a great rebuttal written by someone (NOT ME) who actually knows what he is talking about.

First, the link to the Time article. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1665835,00.html

Here are the real facts.

There's sad news from our nation's capital this week friends. It turns out that the Marine Corps has been run for a quarter century by incompetent leaders who have worked closely with corrupt members of Congress to put young Marines in aircraft that will get them killed. The only thing that can save us from this cabal is courageous investigative reporting that reveals the rot destroying our defense establishment. Oops -- my mistake! I just described the screenplay for Oliver Stone's next movie.

The sad news from Washington I meant to discuss was the continuing erosion of Time Magazine's relevance in the modern world, as reflected in its goofy cover story this week about the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor that the Marine Corps and other military services are buying. Time Magazine used to be a major force in American journalism, but now it is searching desperately for readers in a news market crowded with more engaging alternatives. Faced with the same extinction that claimed sister publication Life Magazine, Time is resorting to an old journalistic tool to hold market share --sensationalism.

Since it's hard to be sensational if you have to report all the facts, Time reporter Mark Thompson has elected to include only the bad stuff.Unfortunately, this results in an account of the V-22's development that could only be true if the Marine Corps had been run by idiots for the last25 years -- idiots who don't care about the fate of their fellow Marines in combat. It isn't really necessary to rebut this ridiculous thesis, because the V-22 is deploying for combat in Iraq and we will soon have unambiguous indicators of its performance. But just for fun…

1. Time says the V-22 was so bad that even defense secretary Dick Cheney wanted to cancel it. Actually, Cheney killed a hundred major weapons programs in four years at the Pentagon, and V-22 was the one program he couldn't convince Congress to eliminate.

2. Time says the V-22 has suffered half a dozen major mishaps during development claiming 30 lives. That's true, but it fails to mention that the CH-46 helicopter the Osprey will replace suffered 44 major mishaps during its first five years of service.

3. Time says the V-22 should be equipped with a forward-firing gun to perform its assault support role. That will come as news to the military,since no assault support aircraft in the joint fleet carries a forward-firing gun.

4. Time says V-22 lacks the "autorotation" capacity that allows helicopters to descend to a survivable landing if engines fail. Well duh: V-22 isn't a helicopter. However, it has more unpowered glide capability than any chopper in the fleet.

5. Time says the latest version of V-22 is only ready to fly 62% of the time. The real mission-capable rate is 70% -- not bad for a new aircraft,and much better than the aging helicopters the Air Force uses for search and rescue in Iraq. I could go on, but what's the point? There's no market for good news about weapons systems. But you're still going to be hearing a lot about the V-22in Iraq, because any aircraft that combines the speed and range of airplanes with the vertical agility of helicopters will change the way we wage war.

Children's Museum

We spent our Friday afternoon at the Children's Museum in Wilmington. It was sooo neat. It was full of fun things like make believe boats, pirate ships, camping sites, a restaurant, and our favorite, a grocery store complete with a cash register, shopping carts, tons of food, and a scale (no, Megan didn't break the scale). Addie was in heaven! Had they not closed at 5, I think she could have played there all night. When I put her to bed she informed me that she will let me use her shopping cart tomorrow so we can play "grocery store" all day. I'm so excited.

Aric's Big Day!

Aric celebrated his 31st birthday on Wednesday. Addie was sooo excited for his "party". She wrapped the presents, decorated the dining room, and frosted the cupcakes. But the highlight of the evening was the card she picked out for Aric. They both got a pretty good laugh out of that one. Addie doesn't really understand why it's so funny, but she's pretty happy to make her Dad laugh. We're so proud.

Megan laughs at her dad's nose.

Just a couple of pictures of Meg and me. She's a laughy one, laughs just like #1.

This is actually pretty close to the truth. While we're at it, click the link below to hear a Slick Willy, Al Gore, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards singing one of their favorite tunes.

http://mfile.akamai.com/5020/wma/rushlimb.download.akamai.com/5020/New/wehatetheusa.asx

Addie's quote of the day was clever enough to earn its own post. When Sally asked Addie why she called her "Mama" instead of "Mom", Addied replied, "Mama, like a cow, Mama cow".

"If I had teeth, I'd chew this thing like a beaver."

The BYU Cougar Speaks

Megan's bath

Just a couple of pictures of Megan taking a bath.

Gas Gas Gas

I got gassed again today. Every year we get trained to use this stuff against nerve, choking, blood, nuclear agents..., you get the idea. About half way through, I thought, you know, this would come in real handy around Clayboy!

Megan crawling...again

Megan is a little more mobile in this video, and you can actually hear her instead of Addie speaking in some foreign tongue!

Here Kitty Kitty

Those may look like two regular balloons attached to some red yarn, but if you look closely enough, you might see that those are Addie's new pets! She has been pulling them around the house for a few days now calling them her "kittens". Yesterday she finally named them; the red one is "Sally", and the orange one is "Lucifer" (named after the cat on Cinderella . . . I hope). She puts them to bed on a blanket and sits on her bed and pets them. It's a good thing she has a vivid imagination because those balloons are the closest thing to a cat we will probably ever have around here.

Sally made it onto her own blog. It looks nice, but it's still hotter than a two dollar pistol. One of my next projects is to clean out that treeline...

Addie and I getting ready to get our biker on. We like to cruise; sometimes we'll finish the ride off with war stories and a new tattoo.

Addie got a haircut. And yes, her curls are natural. Sally uses it as a barometer. The more humid, the curlier they get.

Champion Sleeper

Megan learned to sit up! She likes it so much, she does it while sleeping. Limber little thing. It looks like she inherited Aric's thumb sucking addiction (and Sally's thighs), lucky kid.

Saturday afternoon

Well, our blog is started. We messed around in the yard today and finished Adeline's swingset spot. We also put together Adeline's little table. Anyone notice a trend here? It seems like everything is done for Adeline's gratification. Must be nice... Megan Loves to sit in her swing and make weird noises with her mouth. I swore it was a squirrel until I got close to her.

I guess 13 pallets of sod isn't enough for Sally. We (yes I've got a mouse in my pocket), are going to put in another 5 pallets...at least...by order of the queen. Just kidding, she helped a lot with the last batch of sod. Hopefully the weather cools down a little before that happens. So far, not too promising.