Dental Dillemmas

According to Carol, Amya chipped a tooth and Dan accidentally brushed the chip off the table so it cannot be attached by the Dentist. Here are Amya's before and after photos. Poor Baby!

The Reward System

To avoid potential bankruptcy from purchasing band-aids every three days we implemented a reward system for Kadence. Every time she does something really good she gets a coin to put into her reward cup and she can cash 5 coins into us for a band-aid. Coins can be taken away for bad behavior. If Kadence has spoken to you on the phone recently it was probably because we bribed her with a coin. In any case, it seems to be fairly successfull , I am just worried that the poker chips and whiskey glass will entice her into cocktail waitressing in Vegas someday. (in case you didn't know she has an unnatural love for band-aids)

Ballet Recital

Kadence had her first ballet recital this week. In case you are afraid that you missed her cute dance moves, close your eyes and envision this: Kadence's back turned towards you in total refusal to cooperate with an occasional call out of "My Mommy!". Those $23 tap shoes were completely silent and remain in like new condition.

I would like to post a short clip of this so if anyone knows how to copy a short segment of video off of a windows media file and post it into blogger let me know. I would call John and ask him how but since his goal in life is to make me uncomfortable while speaking to him on the phone I am going to avoid this method at all costs.

Memorial Weekend

We spent Saturday at the beach and Bryce and Kadence practiced their sandcastle making skills! The waves were big and people were actually surfing on real surfboards instead of skimboards or bodyboards. We don't see much of that on the gulf side of Florida.

Garden Pests!

Growing a garden has taught me one thing....to hate wildlife! 4 tomatoes have ripened this week (1 each day) and before we can touch them something has stuck its nasty little teeth in and left a gash. It doesn't even bother to eat them! I am so mad I am considering getting John down here with his concealed weapons permit to do a little target practice. I hope Hank and Lily don't like tomatoes they will be here tomorrow!

We Miss You!

Kadence misses her cousins Christian and Evan! They are coming at the end of the summer and she can't wait! She keeps saying she wants to take them to the beach to eat fish and I am afraid she is referring to the day she picked up the live minnow and chewed him up (poor little guy never knew what hit him!) Hugs and Kisses!

A message for Amya

Never Trust a 2 Year Old!

Kadence was given 10 seconds to spray Bryce with the hose because he sprayed her first, the rest of the video explains itself!

The Garden: Before & After

Here are some pics of our garden. The before pic is taken on 4/25 and the after pic is from 5/21. What a difference a month makes! I can't wait to eat something from it! A banana pepper and green pepper are getting close and some cherry tomatoes turned a pale orange today! Yeah!

Ballerina Girl

Kadence has a ballet recital next week so we went and bought her a pretty outfit to wear. She did not want to do the ballet pose therefore she had a shy face in that picture. She is also sporting a tattoo on her arm of "Squirt" from Finding Nemo.

Gardening Help!

Our cucumbers are doing really well and I think we need to put up something for them to climb up. Anyone have an idea for a homemade or bought trellis? We have some wood lattice but I am not sure if it will work. Bryce put it out for our peas and they have not attached to it yet after several days so I am thinking it might be too big!

My Little Brother

Kadence is always telling us all about what she and her little brother will be doing in the future. Here is a little of what she has in store for him:

(we don't actually know if it is a little brother and if it is not she will be in severe shock!)

Important Life Lessons

Life Lesson
First-year students at Texas A&M's Vet school were attending their first anatomy class, with a real dead cow. They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet. The professor started the class by telling them, 'In Veterinary Medicine, it is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor'.The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the animal body. As an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the dead cow, withdrew it and stuck his finger in his mouth. 'Go ahead and do the same thing,' he told his students. The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead cow and sucking on it.When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and said, 'The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger and sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention. Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid.'

Diagnosis: Achoo!

As everyone probably knows I like to find out about people's quirks and then harrass them relentlessly. I don't know Uncle Bill very well so I am not comfortable enough to harrass him but am hoping to someday reach that level. Uncle Bill has a quirk where when he goes outside without sunglasses on and it is bright outside(basically Florida 362 days a year) he sneezes. I am proud to say I was reading a magazine that had a medical explanation for this phenomenon so I am diagnosing him. (My fee will be collected in mango margaritas and lobster at his house someday) Here is the info:
ACHOO syndrome is a generally benign condition characterized by sudden, uncontrollable sneezing after viewing a bright light.
Description
The ACHOO syndrome, standing for autosomal dominant compelling heliopthalmic outburst syndrome, is an inherited condition where a person will involuntarily sneeze after seeing a bright light. A person with this condition will sneeze multiple times, and in rare cases may sneeze 30-40 times. The syndrome is usually more intense if the person with the condition moves suddenly from darkness into an area with bright lights or sunlight.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11491

For all of you wondering how I know this about Uncle Bill-I remember all your little quirks! Dan Shaw-I will try to diagnose you next!

Fear Factor for Toddlers

Well here is quite a fish tale: Last night Bryce took Kadence to the park down the street which just happens to be waterfront. Something was spooking the fish and the schools of minnows were literally jumping onto the little beach to get away. Kadence reached down and picked one of the minnows up. The rest of the story goes something like this:
Bryce: "Kadence, are you going to throw that back in the ocean?"
Kadence: "No, I am keeping it"
Bryce: "Are you sure you're not going to eat it?"(as a joke)
Kadence: "chew, chew, gulp"

Bryce could see the tail sticking out of her mouth and wriggling for a few seconds before it went down the hatch. She claims it tasted good so she should be willing to go out for sushi with us in the future!

Friends

Here is a pic of Kadence hanging out with our friends' little girl Morgan.

Kadence and Cassie

Kadence loves Cassie Tait and apparently speaks "baby" because she insisted Cassie kept asking her to give her a potato chip!

Bryce the Chemist

For mother's day all I wanted was to NOT have to clean and to go out for dinner somewhere. As the dutiful husband should, Bryce insisted he clean the floor in the kitchen since it was so dirty after our party yesterday. I walked out to see how it was going and noticed there were small water puddles in many spots on the floor and Bryce was spraying windex all over the floor also. It turns out the puddles were a bleach water mixture and he was basically spraying ammonia into them. He had no clue that this was a bad idea. We are lucky to be alive.....

A True Floridian

For anyone who doubts the theory that if you are born in Florida you are "cold-blooded" and therefore you can even get cold in 80 degree weather here is proof. Kadence refused to get out of the new sprinkler pool we bought her even though she shivered like she was in the arctic. She had a ton of fun playing in it with all of her friends that were over at our big BBQ yesterday. We had a bbq with the Hook and Tait clans just like the good old days. (Lots of other friends too! It was a packed house!)

The Reason for Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day I would like to share a Haiku written by Carol Shaw. I believe it is written in the mid 1980's but she can correct me if I am wrong.


Mother

My heart's refuge
Gentle motions of love
Warming embrace, tender comfort
Shelter


Now I would like to share a special thought about mothers on this day to share with everyone:

Your Momma's so old, when God said "let there be light" she flipped the switch for him!

A Shout out to the Land Down Under

The great thing about the cluster map on this page is that it only took me one day to get Australia to show up thanks to my cousins in Sydney! Thanks guys-we miss you!

American Idol Audition

Kadence singing her own rendition of BINGO!

Crawfish Mania

If everyone remembers correctly, I seem to have an obsession with catching crawfish when I get to Mackinaw in the summer. This year I am envisioning an end of the week crawfish boil-this is where Kevin Priest comes in....I have a few ideas after searching the web: it does not seem very hard and you are somewhat handy according to the view I see out my beautiful French doors(he ripped out a window and some of the wall to install them!) so I was thinking that you could choose one of the following options........
1. possibly make a crawfish trap out of some simple materials and we could see what kind of damage we could do to the Lake Michigan crawfish population. There is a detailed guide at the following website: http://www.ehow.com/how_2072181_crawfish-trap.html
2. Here is another simple idea that the web has offered: Take an empty 3 liter bottle. Cut off tapering bottle top Cut off cap top leaving 2inch opening. Reverse pop tophalf so funnel goes into former bottom half off bottle. put in small rock for weight and bacon strip for bait (yes bacon) come back next day for alot of crawfish
3. The simplest idea for you yet: I purchase one of the web and have it shipped to you for safe keeping so I don't have to bring it on an airplane!
4. This is a longshot but we could put snorkeling gear and headlamps on your kids and not let them back in the house until we have buckets full of crawfish.

Child Prodigy

Kadence had to come get me off the computer and lead me out to the living room because she made a triangle out of noodles. I can't be sure but I think she is probably a genius.

TomTom

I've had mixed success in the past but this year I succeeded in getting Bryce a birthday present that he is wonderfully addicted to-a TomTom navigation system. He used it this morning when he walked down the alley with Kadence and is using it everywhere he goes whether he knows the way or not because it is so fun to watch.

Bryce's Birthday Dinner

We went to a Japanese Steakhouse for Bryce's birthday last weekend. Kadence was very excited about the chopsticks but by the time dinner was served they were almost all on the floor somewhere due to chopstick swordfights. Kadence and the chef were bickering the entire dinner. He would say something to her and she would just shout "No" because she wanted to be left alone but he insisted on picking on a 2 year old who was not impressed. She got a little spooked by the onion volcano of fire that he did-even two year olds know that a fire in the kitchen is bad.

It's finally here!

Enough Already! Here is the blog you have all been waiting for! I would like everyone to know the main reason this took so long is because we could not agree on a web address. (I know what you are thinking, how is our poor child going to get a name......we will just let Kadence spout off something randomly when she sees the kid and that will be it....kind of like how Peekaboo Street got her name!) Now we never promised to update this site or anything so don't set the bar too high for us!