It has been a while since we did much blogging and I found some old pictures on our camera. This picture here with the kids in front of the our tree that they are so proud of decorating is one that I felt had to be given its moment even if Christmas is a month and a half past. Fortunately the kids know that we care more about getting their picture, rather than the tree, and stand right in front of it so that we all can't enjoy looking at how haphazardly they decorated it.
Here is a great picture of Brock asleep. He will sleep in the funniest positions. In this one he has no blankets around his lower body and you can't see them, but his legs are up on the sides of his pack-n-play. I am sure that his head and shoulders did not get cold.
Brock has decided that he likes to wear a hat just like dad. Here we are together showing off our awesomeness. On an aside about awesomeness... Ady recently decided that we all have super powers. She informed us that we all have up to two super powers. Her's are that she can see things far away really well and things that are close she has super seeing power for also. Brock we were told has a super finding ability, because whenever we ask him where something is he can go and find it right away(usually this is because he is the one that has put it somewhere). Ady then went on to list 4 super powers for Kasey(super driving was one of them-she almost never drives, I do the driving). Well I asked her what my two powers were, and was told that I am super strong. I was feeling quite flattered and figured that the second power must be something great also. So I asked what my second power is. She paused thinking for a moment so I decided to inject a bit of influence into her choice. I simply asked, "is it super awesomeness?" She looked at me with big eyes and a confused look, then after a moment of thought said, "ummm... that is not what I was going to say." Ouch.
Ady is really into helping out around the house when it suits her. She loves going to Grandma Haddocks and working on the vinyl machine. She has asked several times when we will be moving back to Morgan to live by Grandma and Grandpa again. Kasey and her made some labels for our canisters and Ady is very proud of them. Something that is quite impressive about Ady is that she knows left and right. She loves giving us directions now with left and right. If only she was as good with right and wrong as she is about left and right. I shared this other story also on facebook, but will repeat it here for those who don't use facebook. We have been trying to work with the kids about being obedient and listening the first time we ask or tell them to do something
. In order to reinforce our attempted teachings about obedience we had a lesson about Jonah one night for family home evening. A couple of days later Ady was not behaving well and I told her that she needs to work on being more obedient. Then I reminded her of the story of Jonah when he wasn't obedient. I asked her, "do you remember what happened to Jonah when he didn't obey?" She recapped the story and told me that he was eaten by a fish. I told her that people who are obedient get blessings and those who aren't are punished.
Her response: "Don't worry dad, I am not in the water-no fish can eat me here".
Here is Brock showing off his new outfit, complete with a tie. He seems to really like wearing his tie and even likes the suspenders. Such a dashing young man! Apparently Brock is really into sharing lately. I was in Chicago recently exhibiting for a sport show and while packing my suitcase Brock and Ady were enjoying some Jello. I wasn't paying much attention but was reminded the next day when I unpacked my suitcase and found the remnants of a fairly large square of Jello in my stuff.
Kasey and I have been very busy lately. We originally thought that having a business like ours that we would work hard in the summer and then have most of the winter months off. That is not the case. Not even close. We have been very busy working on a new website. The old one was outdated and had incorrect information. I never realized how much time and effort went into websites. Here is the link to the new site
www.clearwaterhistoriclodge.com. Also Kasey has been very busy getting the books in order so that tax documents could be sent to various institutions and people. Along with interviewing potential staff, writing a new employee handbook, redesigning our menus and finding a new dehydrated food supplier, coming up with plans for the spring's construction projects, ordering items for the store and so much more, I have been traveling a bit for sport shows. Last month I was in Des Moine, Iowa and then Chicago, Illinois. This month I will be in La Crosse, Wisconsin and then Duluth, Minnesota advertising for the resort. Busy, busy, busy.
Over the summer we had a jar in the lodge store for collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House. Ady got to be very good at taking them off of soda cans. Ady would even tell people that we stayed there when her brother was in the hospital and collect them to give them so that we can help other sick kids and their families. We decided that today was a good day to take our jar in and donate it. So here are the kids giving the jar of pop tabs to the young woman who worked there. Afterwards I asked Ady how she felt inside since she did such a good thing like giving the jar of pop tabs to the charity. She looked at me and said, "Dad, I think I feel hungry". We decided we should probably go get lunch.
We have started having Ady and Brock do the dishes occasionally. Usually this consists of several minutes of cleaning up water and soap that is all over the floor when they finish. I thought I would share a picture of our family "activity". And yes if you look closely you will notice that Ady is wearing two dresses. I guess when you can't decide if you want to wear a purple or a pink dress you wear them both.
Another thing lately is that we have started to play more board games with the kids. Usually we play dominoes and after one or two rounds just end up setting them up on end so that Brock can knock them down.
I was up at the lodge a couple of weeks ago and thought that I should share a picture of the place in the winter. It was so peaceful and quiet. We had about 16 inches of snow to trudge through, but that was better than the almost 3 feet that were on the ground last winter when I was up there.
Kids sure are cute sometimes. Somebody once gave us some parenting advice that you shouldn't just ask your kids what do you want, but instead give them choices. Makes sense to us since that is also a great principle in sales. Well Ady seems to have picked up this technique. A little bit ago she went up to Kasey and said, "Mom, I am going to give you three choices and let you pick one. We can either have some candy, or watch a movie, or eat lunch." She was fed lunch.
