Annie and Jack have both said their first words.  I sure hope that your first words are not a prediction of your future or a reflection of your mom!  Annie’s first word came a while ago.   She poked Jack in the nose and said "Stop it". Now she is an old pro.  We hear "Stop it" all the time from our bossy little one. What kills me is that she puts her hands on her hips!  Jack’s first word came just this weekend.  I was going a little crazy this week. I had over booked myself everyday because I have a saying no problem. So I gave in and introduced the twins to the Teletubbies.  Annie can’t sit still long enough to enjoy them, but Jack has found something he really likes. Yikes! So yes, his first word is Teletubbie. He’s so funny. He gets so excited if he hears that word. He stops what he is doing and goes to the TV and turns it on.  Funny little guy.  He is walking now and gets embarrassed so easily. So maybe these crazy creatures will pull him out of his shyness.  There must be a good point to them!

Annie and Jack are only barely a year old, but they definitely know what they like. Annie seems to be a bit more energetic than Jack at this point, but they are both very opinionated. One particular case in point… the other day Annie decided she wanted to wear my running shoes that I left in the front room. She spent a good 5 minutes trying to get them on by herself and after a couple near faceplants, I decided to give her a hand. Once she got them on, she stood there proud as can be. She even tried to take a step, but quickly found that they wouldn’t stick to her feet. Silly Girl.

Well, another year, another deer hunt. This year was unlike the past several years though because we didn’t come home with a deer. This was not due to a lack of deer availability, but a lack of being able to locate the one Ben shot. We assume that it wasn’t very badly hurt due to multiple factors, but regardless, it was able to completely evade us after having been shot. Ben felt a combination of anger and sorrow for how things worked out, but ultimately, there was nothing more we could do. We did have fun 4-wheelin’ and hiking around the mountain and just spending time outdoors watching nature though. Our annual hunting ritual always serves as an excellent bonding experience for the boys in our family and we mostly just enjoy spending the weekend together whether we actually get a deer or not. And it’s always fun to watch all the animals in their natural habitat. This year we saw around 100 deer, 5 or 6 moose, a few elk and even a bear and her cubs (luckily from a safe distance). It’s definitely awe inspiring to spend time in the great outdoors.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our weekend to help inspire awe in you dear reader (especially the first few which were of me trying to kill the almost dead batteries in the camera).

NOT WINTER!!!

Just wanted to let y’all know. Don’t get me wrong, I do like certain aspects of winter such as skiing (when I can afford to go)… and… umm… uhhh… well, I guess that’s about it. Other than skiing, winter is pretty crappy. Snow is crappy, cold is crappy, icy roads are crappy, shoveling walks is crappy and the list goes on. Not to mention the fact that the mood of winter is just dreary in general. It’s like all the color in the world has been washed down the drain. A fresh snowfall is beautiful for about 20 minutes until you realize that the whole landscape has been covered in a big fat freezing blanket of gray and depressing. The funny thing is that every year I seem to forget how much I hate winter until the first snow falls and the first bitter cold wind bites at my ears and then it all comes crashing back to me. Call me a wuss, but I much prefer being able to wear sandals every day and being able to lounge outside in shorts and not having to freeze my butt off just to grill hamburgers. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that winter blows! Nuff said.

Well, Mallory started pre-school today. I never went to pre-school, but I remember that I was very nervous on my first day of kindergarten. Mallory, however, seemed not to be concerned in the least. She was excited to use her backpack and get to school to play with the other kids. I’m not sure if she gets her temperament from Papa, but she’s definitely a little fireball. According to the report I received from her when I got home, she apparently got to play with puzzles, read books and play outside today. And to top it off, they got some cookies for a snack. I just wish I still got to do those things every day.