a MILLION pictures

Because I find that I have little to no time these days to sit down at the computer, I'm just throwing all these pictures at you at the same time! Hope you don't mind... they are not in any sort of order.

We got to go to the zoo here in SLC the other day with my mom and my sister and their little ones. We had a lot of fun. So much fun, in fact that I didn't want to ruin it by taking pictures. Here's one of Gareth looking at the Rhinos eating lunch.

Gareth and Ruth are very proud of the fact that we now have stairs. Ruth has already sustained multiple rug burns on her belly from sliding down. She also sustained a couple hand-prints on her butt after putting Gareth in a bucket and rolling him down the stairs. (yes, Gareth is okay...just a bruise or two).

Since we don't have a baby bathtub, we use the sink. It works out nicely. Ronan loves his bath time.

We went ahead and did some dishes while we were at it....


Provo does a cool Balloon Festival during the Fourth of July festivities. Here is Ruth with her cousin Ember waiting for the balloons to all fill up and take off.


I love this picture. I especially love that Jonesy looks like he's saying a certain swear word. Come to think of it, he probably really is.....


Here is Gareth in the car on our three-day trip from Texas to Utah. This picture captures the way he felt pretty much the whole time.


Ronan is mad because he knows that it's not a good idea to hold a baby and drive at the same time. (in case you didn't catch the background images, we are actually stopped at a gas station...not driving)

Ahhh, finally some peace and quiet.


Ruth and Gareth sitting down during a stop to feed the baby.


And now, the rest of the story. They were sitting on top of the car during the stop to feed the baby. Ronan didn't think it was safe so he cried.
Sleeping baby. About a week and a half old.



Gareth loves to hold his little brother.


Sometimes he drops him.

Kids will be...........politicians???

Yesterday evening Ruth decided she wanted to be Gareth's campaign manager. "Let's pretend I'm your campaign manager." is just something I NEVER thought I'd hear coming our of a 5 year-old's mouth.

After a while, Ruth realized that it's much more fun to actually be the candidate so she launched her own counter-campaign against Gareth. All by herself she set up a stage for the debate. Here were their speeches:

Ruth:

"I promise to make you whatever you want for lunch. I promise that if you want to go somewhere, I will take you there. I promise that I won't make you go to bed unless you want to. Vote for me!"

Gareth:

"blah blah blah lunch. Vote for me, I vote for you!"


Since it was such a difficult decision, Jones and I told the children we wouldn't be casting our ballots until they were both in bed and asleep. Luckily they forgot all about it this morning, because we didn't actually make it to the polls.

Who would YOU vote for??

Death and Gravity

Most of you who know Ruth know that she talks a lot. It can sometimes be funny to just sit back and listen and see where she takes herself in her conversation. This works best in the car. Tonight we were driving home from dinner at my parents and we had a lovely conversation with Ruth. It started by her asking how the moon and the sun go up and down. We answered her by saying that it it's not the sun that's moving but its us on the earth turning and going around the sun. Then she was a bit confused about how the earth can be moving cause it doesn't look like it's moving. "Then why don't we slide around and stuff?" She asked. We then started telling her about gravity. I asked her if she's ever noticed that every time she drops something it always falls down and never up. Then to be silly I pointed out that the only exception would be if you dropped a bird cause it wouldn't drop cause it could fly away. Then she and Jones at the same time pointed out that it would fall if it were a dead bird. It was at this point that Ruth decided to try to think of things that wouldn't fall to the ground if it died. (strange I know). Jones and I gracefully took ourselves out of that conversation and left her to figure it out on her own. Occasionally I would listen in to check up on how our conversation was going. Here are some things I heard:

"A deer would fall to the ground when it died."
"A tree would fall to the ground eventually when it died."
"Rocks don't die so it wouldn't fall to the ground."
And then my brilliant daughter came up with the answer. Can YOU think of what doesn't fall to the ground when it dies?? Cause Ruth can. Didja think of it? Well I'll tell you. This is what she said:

"I got it! I know what doesn't fall to the ground when it dies! A battery!!"

Mensa here we come!

Quick Update. More to come later...

We have officially arrived in Utah and are moved into our new town home. We love it! Jones loves his job and the kids and I love being near family. We do miss Lubbock terribly though. The people there are the nicest in the world.

We signed Ruth up for Kindergarten. At this school, they test each kindergartner before they start school. The teacher who tested her offered to skip her to first grade because she was so smart. Ruth quickly declined, pointing out the fact that you have to start with Kindergarten before you can do first grade. (I think she was just kidding about the skipping to first grade, but she was very impressed with Ruth). I was proud.

Gareth is probably having the hardest time adjusting. He's having to deal with moving AND with the whole feeling-like-he's-been-replaced-by-this-squidgy-little-baby thing. He's still super cute and super sweet though.

Ronan is growing very fast. He spends his days eating, sleeping and pooping, his evenings being pretty fussy, and his nights eating, sleeping less than I'd like, and pooping. He has started smiling and making eye contact though (which makes it fun). we'll post pics soon!

Anyway, our computer has officially died. I can get online in the evenings using Jonesy's laptop from work but not during the day. It will probably be a couple days before I can find the time to upload pictures, but we have some for you so keep checking in!