Vegan Pooch

I've heard that if you eat too many carrots that your skin starts turing an orange hue. I didn't realize that you would turn green from eating lettuce. Our dog is wierd, that goes without saying, but the dude likes eating vegetables. We were having salad with our dinner recently and I dropped a piece of a carrot on the counter. Counters weren't terribly clean and I didn't feel like eating it. I was turning to trash it and he was looking at me quite eagerly. Naturally I thought, "I wonder what would happen if..." So I threw him a carrot and he ate it. Then I threw him a piece of cabbage and he ate that too. Then I tried some lettuce and he ate that too. It's funny that we've never given him any meat or any other table scraps but we give him veggies!! We refer to him as Ally's brother so if he's my son then it makes sense as to why he's a bit odd.

Alright, so eating his greens isn't really turning him green, but he is green nonetheless. I had just finished mowing the lawn and ran the sprinklers to make sure they were all working right and the dumb dog went running through. Mix in a little bit of water and freshly mowed lawn and voila! You end up with a green thumb. Don't ask me how we got him to sit still long enough to snap these. We must have been bribing him with a carrot.

I wish I had more time to blog but I just don't have the kind of time that allows me to sit down at the comp and do this all day long. A full-time job and a 4-year old don't allow for much. Not to mention that hockey season has started... game on! Let's see, what is going right now? Kid has the flu with a high enough fever to keep her from going to preschool. That caused me to leave work early on Monday and stay home on Tuesday. Because of that, I returned to work today only to find a load of emails to respond to. Most of the time, I'm copied on emails just to keep me in the loop. Not this time. Most of the emails required my response and I had to spend too much time dealing with all of that. Mix in a few meetings and my day was much longer than I would have liked. What do I get the rest of the week? Thanks to my boss being on vacation for the next 2 days I get to spend most of my time in more meetings while also trying to make a deadline tomorrow afternoon. Do I love it? The job has its perks so I won't complain. But in the meantime... argh!

One thing that I don't have to worry about at least is the backyard. We're happy to say that we are done with it finally... well almost. We got the last of the grasses (no, we're not growing that grass) a couple weekends ago and got them planted. Now that the planting is done, I can get the remaining sprinklers for the drip system done. I had never really done a drip before so it was definitely trial and error. There were certain types of sprayers that I tried at first but because of the amount of water pressure we get in certain areas, they didn't really work. Then there was the issue with the type of drip hose I was using. I decided to replace the original with a different kind to reduce the amount of water needed per cycle. Now that I got some things figured out, it seems to be working alot more like i had planned. Hey, plants are growing, that's all I know.

Are we excited about it? I know the dog is. The other day Coach and I were back there and I was digging some more trenches for the rest of the drip and he kept following me around. He started running his laps and started getting winded and just plopped down. I sat next to him and then laid face up on the grass. He just rolled over on his back and we just hung out for a minute just enjoying the new lawn. Now if only the kid wasn't sick I'm sure she'd be out there with us. Oh yeah, that and the storm that just came through.

Here are before, during and after pics. We have more pics of the finished product that are yet to be taken. We kinda wanted to wait until all of the plants were in before we finished our album but just haven't had the chance to do that as of yet. I tried to get some pics of the same side of the yard so that you can kinda see the dramatic difference. What do I love most about having the yard done? Not having to worry about sitting around and watering it. I love having the sprinkler system and the timer that goes with it. Do you know where I can get some gadget that does the same for kids?

Backyard Update... 7/25/09

One of the things that attracted us to our house when we were in the market was the fact that we had endless possibilities witht he backyard. The house itself was in good shape but there was nothing out back but dirt and broken concrete. For the last month now, we've had one project after another in the yard. We started by redoing the patio concrete, then moved on to the patio covering, and are now working on the lawn area. We've mixed in some painting here and there and are coming along nicely. The best part is that it's been a family affair. Here are a few pics to show some of the progress:

We had a couple of huge truckloads of dirt delivered the other day and I've been out there shoveling some into a wheelbarrow and going back and forth. It's been quite the workout and Ally's been pitching in with her shovel as well.

We've had a great time doing this so far even though working outdoors is just not that fun. At least it's been breezy over the past couple days, that's made a big difference. Just this morning we had a crew of a few over that were helping shovel in some of that dirt. We started with about 10 yards on Thursday and I was able to do one by myself. But we must have knocked out about 8 cubic yards today with the crew we had. Now that was a workout. In fact, I'm so impressed with how hard we worked and what it's done for me physically that I just had to brag a bit. Hope you enjoy the following real-time pic of me as I can't guarantee that I will keep this up for too long. After the project is done with, I'm going to need a break.

Yes, that's really me, I promise!!!!!

Train Your Kids, Please!

I'm not sure if it's because Michael Jackson has dominated the news over the past couple weeks, but I've noticed a trend with my last couple of posts being about some pretty whacked out people. Here's the next in line...

It was around 90 degrees on Friday afternoon. What else are you supposed to do when you are in a home equipped with A.C.? Why, leave it turned off and go out to dinner, of course. This isn't a multiple choice exam so please keep up. We began deliberating on restaurant choices (i.e. scouring through our stack of coupons) and decided on Sweet Tomatoes. This is far and away Ally's favorite place to eat and it's a place loaded with salads and things that are kept cool. Logical choice on a hot day. Did I mentin they got all you can eat frozen yogurt? Yep, Ally's favorite place to eat. Everything was fine as we were sitting there enjoying dinner and conversation when the distraction came.

I stopped chewing the moment I looked up and saw a kid standing behind Becky. This kid must have been about 11 years old or so and was standing there licking himself. I noticed he had chocolate all over his face, his arms, hands and shirt. I wasn't sure if I should feel bad for him for whatever may have caused that mess or for the family that was sitting at the booth where he was standing. I thought of 2 ways to describe what he was doing: 1) Have you ever seen a cat licking the back of its paws and then proceed up the length of its arms? 2) It kind of looked like a sci-fi movie where a a deformed alien pops out of someone's stomach and is trying to pry its way out. OK, so maybe that sounded a bit gruesome but so was this kid. He was standing right next to this poor family licking himself clean and it was disgusting just standing there watching him. A few minutes later, he came back with his mom behind him. I can overhear her say to him, "Now do you see why I kept telling you to tie your shoes?"

OK, now that really set me off. I started piecing 2 and 2 together and thought of something that made this kid even more disgusting than he had already presented himself to be. He was carrying a bowl of ice cream when he tripped over his shoelaces. As he fell, I envision him putting his hands out and falling face first but using his hands to cusion his fall. Instinct would tell you to do that. Another thing your instinctswould tell you to do is to go to the nearest bathroom and clean yourself up. Nope! Dude came back still smothered in chocolate and licking off the same hands that had just landed flat on the floor. Like I said... DISGUSTING. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse...

Well, they might have but I couldn't look anymore. Once the kid returned with a bowl with his mom, he sat and began to eat it. I looked over once and saw him sitting with his elbow on the table. His arm was in an "L" shape with the portion from hand to elbow being vertical. This was the hand he was holding the bowl with. He was holding this bowl at an angle with ice cream about ready fall out. Every time he stuck his spoon in, he do so from the other side of the bowl which caused the ice cream to get ever closer to falling out. I chose to look away at this point because I didn't want to see him licking the table clean. That's why they hired busboys, dummy. I had to look away because I fully expected him to do just that.

I'm not sure that's what mom means when she tells everyone that she has a sweet little boy. What do you think?

Street Performer.... Literally

This is more of a blog for ourselves so that we don't forget perhaps the funniest thing we've seen... possibly ever. We were heading out for some Cold Stone on Wednesday night and were driving along Old San Francisco Road... aka Reed... aka Monroe. Why California streets change names every 2 blocks has never made sense to me. There can't be that many important people around to name a street after. Anyhow, we're driving and we see this guy riding a bike with a backpack on. Becky mentions that she noticed he had a microphone in his hand. I quickly peeked in the mirrors to catch a glimpse but couldn't tell. Who said the Lord doesn't have a sense of humor? Right then the light turned red and we had to stop long enough to let this biker catch up to us again. I turned my radio off and rolled down the window and I can already hear him while he was still a few feet back. Call this stereotyping, I don't care because I'm sure everyone would have thought the same thing. This guy had dreads longer than my arms and a mic in his hand and I'm expecting him to be rapping. Nope! He came riding by singing, or at least trying to sing. And let me tell you- he SUCKED! But I gotta hand it to him tho, he kept right on crooning. He too had to stop at the light and had to put his left foot down to balance. He happened to have the mic in his left hand as well so he'd sing a line, hold the mic in the air, and start rocking out. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he tried singing out loud but he couldn't hear himself with them big ol' headphones he had on. It's safe to wear a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads and other safety equipment whlie riding a bike, I get that. What I don't get is why you would hold a mic in your hand with a wire. Wireless mic? Sure. But there was a freakin' wire attached to the bottom of this thing leading to his backpack. I haven't seen a show that entertaining since... since... since... well I guess since Grammy and her cousin Spencer performed their duet at Grampa Great's bday party. We considered a some possibilities of why he was doing what he was doing:

1. He was recording a demo.
2. He was rehearsing for his upcoming audition for American Idol.
3. He realized that summer television sucks with reruns and baseball as the only sport on TV and knew that we had to get our cheap entertainment some other way.

I'm shooting for #3. I've been eager to drive along Monr... Ree... Old San Francisco Road at 6:30 the past couple nights just to find out guy. The only thing he was missing was a tip jar but I'm not sure there was enough room in his backpack for the jar and his karaoke machine.

Busy Summer... and we're only a week in!

Over Father's Day weekend, we made the trip out to New Mexico just as we did last Father's Day. Last year we simply made the trip as a vacation. This year was to celebrate Becky's grandpa's 90th b-day. Since I never knew either of my grandpas, I've adopted her grandfolks as my own. So off we went to the b-day party/family reunion. This was the first time I'd met most of the relatives on her mom's side of the family. We spent weekend in Virden, New Mexico and chances are you've never heard of it. It's a very small town that's about 45 minutes from the nearest anything. But there's alot of history there nonetheless and I've heard many stories about the mischief that took place there. The party started with a roast of Grandpa that included some of his own mischief that he was responsible for in his early days, capped by a once-in-a-lifetime performance by my mom-out-law and her cousin Spencer. I'm glad I got a video of that and I'm sure I can use it as blackmail when necessary. Who says in-laws can't be fun?

The only drawback about living in Cali (besides the fact that Cali folks forget how to drive at the first drop of rain) is that we don't get the Arizona sunsets. The pic above was taken at the Virden cemetary. It must be appreciated when you consider what I had to go through: We had just finished eating dinner and I was loaded with shredded beef tacos. [Thank you aunt Laurie and uncle Dale for some great munch!!] Becky's bro wanted a pic of the sunset as well so he and I ran off to get the pic as the sun was setting. We ended up running part of the way including uphill with all that food in us. I'm still not quite in shape yet so this wasn't easy. Then came the problem with finding the right spot to snap and I hope I found it. We made it with about 12 seconds to spare. You want to know what the hardest part about chasing the sunset was? Missing the Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live performance. I tried to youtube it so you would get a better idea but if you can remember the skit he would do with some lady where they would play the guitar and sing old folk songs... well we were treated to that same thing. It was something. I'm just sad I missed the performance but the Yamaha keyboard was in full effect.

I've put a couple pics up of our buddy Coach before and even he's made news lately. Because he's part pomerainian he tends to shed a bit with his long hair. Since summer's upon us and he's quite hairy, he was in need of a haircut. I don't think either of us realized that he was gonna be buzzed. Poor thing looks more like a chihuahua than a pom now. We're getting used to the new Coach and we think he actually looks kinda cute now. I'm not too sure what he thought of it as he wanted nothing to do with us that first day. I went to get him out of his room and he wouldn't even stand up for me. But he's back to normal now and dive-bombing on me when he gets his chance.

Now comes the fun part... the groundbreaking in our backyard has begun. We got back into town Sunday night and I took Monday off as our backyard is now under construction. Our contractor came out with his Bobcat and started dismantling the old piece of junk slabs that we had before. When his guys took off to dump the first load, they left the keys in the ignition. Big mistake because I was 5 years old all over again. I got a bit giddy and hopped in and went for a spin. I drive a forklift all the time at work so it didn't take me long to get the hang of this. And once I did I went for it. I've had quite the entertaining weekend doing things I'd never done before in my life (not everything can be discussed on a public blog). The concrete is now completely gone and the framework is underway. More pics will come in the future as it shouldn't take more than a few more days to complete. The lawn will be installed in mid-July. The guys are bringing the Bobcat back tomorrow to do a little more work with the dirt. I guess I know where I'll be going on my lunchbreak...

Is this for real? Seriously?

I could not believe what I saw on television the other day. I was watching the Eastern Conference Finals last week between the Cavs and Magic and I saw a commercial that I thought I would never see in my life. They talk about the Super Bowl ads and the ridiculous amount of money paid for those 30-second spots. Could it get more ridiculous? It can, and it did. Not that it cost more to run an ad during the basketball game or anything but rather what was aired during the basketball game. Now mind you, I don't watch much basketball anymore. I've been a Laker fan since I first started playing ball but I've never a fan of Kobe. The way he screwed Shaq out of L.A. and hasn't won since didn't help. So rooting for the Lakers but not wanting Kobe to win a ring kind of defeats the purpose of getting into it. So I don't watch much basketball on T.V. anymore. Now I know I'm not supposed to watch basketball on T.V. anymore.

During the game, a commercial very similar to this one, but better, came on. I was at the computer and heard Becky tell me that I had to rush out and see something. So I rewound for a bit and sat there with my jaw to the floor. It takes a lot to leave me speechless and this did it for at least 2 full minutes. I could not believe what I had seen until I checked the website myself. I know someone meant this to be serious but this has to be about the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. If anyone is offended, watch it again and tell me that you didn't laugh at some point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-_1xM9zucM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFmAsiY21K4&feature=related

Ice Cream & Mammals

We enjoyed a nice holiday weekend without any need to worry about work. Judging by the day I had today being audited THE ENTIRE DAY, I needed the entire 4-day weekend to make up for today alone. We hooked up with our friend Rachel and did something that we had to go all the way to San Diego for because we just never did it here: we played at the zoo. The last 3 trips we made to the zoo were in San Diego and Salt Lake. Why we couldn't just go to San Francisco (awful city) or Oakland and catch one of those zoos that are less than an hour drive away is a question we can't really answer. But we muscled up and made it to San Francisco (awful city) after all and spent Saturday there. We took the kids and they just had a blast. The entire day was overcast and I never once removed my hoodie. It was that cold. But that meant the animals actually came out to play without battling the heat. They still didn't do much but at least they were out in view and not hiding in a rock or cave and out of the sun. Ally and I have found a new favorite cartoon, The Penguins of Madagascar on Nickleodean. These guys stole both of the movies and we are highly entertained by their scheming in their own cartoon. So it was without question that the penguins, lemurs and chimps were the highlights. We had a funny little lemur who was tanning under a heatlamp. I didn't realize until we got home that he was sticking out his tongue. Reminded us of our pup Coach when he's laying on my lap. I'll lay him belly up and rub his chest and he just lays with his head cocked to the side and his tongue out. You'll see what I mean in the pic below.

The other pic that you see here is of us in the maternity ward at El Camino Hospital. For those who have delivered or visited there, I hope you caught that. That is either the biggest head-scratcher or the funniest joke anyone's ever come up with. Who had the idea of placing an enormous hippo statue sprawled out on the floor on the maternity of the hospital? I've never given birth myself (not a fan of Oprah and don't feel like taking her calls) but I don't think that I would want to have a hippo be the first thing I see after carrying an extra 40lbs. for several months.

Switching topics for a moment... Ally dropped another funny little nugget on us a couple days ago. We have this ice cream truck that comes around every day and circle our court. He did this in the middle of December, he's relentless. He doesn't have that catchy little radio jingle that most trucks of his kind normally have. Instead, he rings a bell over and over again. We were sitting inside as Ally was lost in her toys when the bell rang. She looked up at me and said, "Dad, it's Choco Taco Paco." Umm oops! I don't know where she heard that one, I swear. That's it, I'm not letting her watch anymore Dora.

March Madness

The month of March has been a pretty entertaining one for us. It started out with Coach graduating from his training classes. Ally is referring to him as her little brother now which is just fine by us. Do we want her to have a little brother or sister some time? Of course, but we don't have more kids than we can afford right now and let me remind you that we did buy a house in silicon valley. So lets revisit this thought months (possibly years?) down the road. Back to the pooch... He was mad at us for leaving him behind for a week while we went to San Diego and he wouldn't follow any of the things we had been trying to train him on for a while. Even the morning of the graduation we were concerned. But he performed under pressure without a hitch and passed his test. If only he was a little bigger and could bring in the paper. He's already got the slipper thing down, although it's not quite on command. We were asked ahead of time to practice putting a hat on him for his picture and this is the best we could do. If you have any suggestions- not involving the use of tranquilizers- on how to calm an active puppy down enough to keep a hat upright on his head, feel free to post your suggestions.

Just this afternoon we did another fun and exciting event. The last few times we've gone to Sharks games Ally has asked if she could come. Unfortunately they play so late that we never get to take her as it past her bedtime. [Kids staying up way their bedtime is a great form of birth control,in case you were wondering] I checked the schedule months ago and saw that they had a 1:00pm game this afternoon. I'm sure you can only guess how long it took us to decide on whether or not we should buy tickets. We actually bought her her own Sharks jersey a while back but we kept the game a surprise all the way until the very end. We snuck our jerseys into the car and didn't pull them out until we parked. She figured it once she saw it. On our way into the parking lot, she recognized the Shark Tank as the "Sharks game place." I love her. She was a little scared at first with all the noise and with the crowd getting loud but she got over it quick. She's watched enough on TV and has practiced the Sharks song cheer plenty. She even has the song as part of her compilation CDs that I've burned for her. In the first period, the Sharks scored 2 goals :29 apart and then scored 2 more in the second period only :19 apart. With 5 goals to cheer for, she got plenty of practice today. And she clapped pumped her fist for all 5. You'll see her below in action after goal #2 in the first period. So we had lots of fun today and can't wait to do it again. She may not grow up to be a pro athlete (every dad's dream) but as long as she's loving moments like this, who can complain?

In case you're wondering, this is not her first game. We took her when she was 10 months old back on March 18, 2006 and ironically enough, that game was against Dallas also. I don't particularly agree with disgracing the national anthem, but it is kinda cool when the entire stadium boos loudly every time the word "stars" is mentioned when we play Dallas. GO SHARKS!!!!

Vacation Time!!

We have returned from our trip in San Diego and kinda wished we hadn’t. It’s good to be back and get things back to normal again but it was fun to break from the norm for a bit. Ally had herself a blast at the different parks. We were able to get to the Zoo, Sea World and the Wild Animal Park and Ally loved them all. She definitely liked Sea World the most, mainly because of the different shows that they had. Not long after we got there the dolphin show was beginning. We got there right as it was starting so we sat right in the front row. Big mistake. If you’re in the front row of a big fish tank and the surface of the water is at or near the top of the tank… don’t sit near it. We were not warned at all that anything was happening and got drenched almost immediately. Salt water taffy is one thing but salt water itself kinda sucks. Even though we had a great time there, Ally’s take on the whole thing is a bit different. We asked her upon our return what her favorite part of the trip was and she said, “My bathtub.” We spent x amount of dollars on this trip and she enjoyed the john? Could you not have fun in your own bathroom at home? Kid, you’re killing me. She has this weird fetish for soap. Don’t ask me why but she likes getting the bars of soap and unwrapping them. She had to go each bathroom and grab the one from the sink and the tub and undo the wrapper off of each one. She even got mad at me for unwrapping the one on our sink first after washing my hands. We spent $50 on her ticket to Sea World so we hope she wouldn’t freak out over something that cost the resort $0.12. We do have a 12-pack of soap in the cabinet at home if she’s really that bothered over it. Anyways, the trip was fun nonetheless and all is back to normal now. Here’s a couple of our favorite pics of the trip:

This may look like just another goofy pic of the kid but this one is pretty memorable. There was some baby animal that was sniffing around behind her so I sat her on this fence to snap a quick pic with the beast behind her. Don’t ask, I don’t remember what kind it was. As I was getting set to click, I started counting and here was the exchange:

Dad: One, two, three…
Ally: Poopy!!

I was expecting “cheese” or maybe “smile”, but poopy?!?! I couldn’t help but start laughing and the kid was too goofy not to capture in the moment. I'm not sure you can even see the creature anymore as I wasn't able to center anything while laughing so hard.

This is known as the Castle. It’s actually the San Diego Temple for those not familiar with it. Coming around the bend on the 5, Ally looked up and spotted it and referred to it as a castle. It does look like one and our little princess looked right at home. It was a nice little way to cap off our trip. After returning to work this morning, I think we both had the same reaction: When’s the next vacation start?

This one I just simply refer to as "Twins." Monkeys are known for just being silly. This is nothing but a bench carved and painted to look like a monkey and Ally decided to amuse herself by making faces at him and laughing about it. I really don't know where she gets her sense of humor from. DNA tests revealed that it was mom's fault.

Ally-isms

This is something that is constantly in progress and requiring frequent updates. Just a random collection of one-liners and phrases she throws out there that i don't want to forget. Examples:

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Recently she had a doctor's appointment because her bottom was red and hurting. Doctor reminded her to make sure she wipes really good when she goes to the bathroom. She's been using the Scott and Cottonelle flushable wipes and she got her hands on several the other day.

Mom: Ally! You don't need to use 4 wipes.

Ally: I didn't. I used 5!

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While watching the Lakers/Cavs game with me this afternoon, she noticed LeBron James had both of his arms covereed in tattoos.

Ally: Dad, look at him. I don't like him, he has a stamp on his arm.

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At dinner at Red Robin, she untied her balloon and it flew up to the ceiling and out of reach. She was pretty upset about it but I told her I would fix it. I was waiting for a second balloon to be delivered and stalling as long as I could.

Ally: Where is it, dad?

Dad: I'm thinking of how I'm going to fix it.

After 4 seconds or so...

Ally: Do you have a really good plan yet?

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Ally refused to sit with Santa while at my work Christmas party. She refused every option we presented to her.

Dad: What do you want for Christmas?

Ally: Princess jammies.

Dad: How do you expect Santa to bring you any if you won't take a picture with him? You need to sit with him and take a picture so that he'll remember your face.

Ally: That's OK, I'll just tell Grammy.

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It Wasn't Me!! It Was (insert name)!!

We weren't sure it would be appropriate for Ally to walk around church or other public places and yell out something like "I farted" or "I burped" or anything like that so we've coined some other phrases as codewords. She refers to a burp as a moose and the opposite end as a buffalo. Now she can yell out "Dad, did you hear the buffalo?" and no one will have any idea what she's talking about. Everyone has their own way of raising kids and this is ours. Well, before we had our puppy Coach we got another named Jackson. He was short-lived as we had to give him back the next day: He was too big for Ally and she kinda freaked. The funny thing about this dog was that he freakin' wreaked. We got him on New Year's Day and he was hanging out with us that night for a bit. I was sitting on the floor and Becky was up on the loveseat. Jackson was laying somewhere between us and I took a whiff of something that made my eyes water. I couldn't believe it when Becky all of a sudden accused me of burning some incense that was long past its expiration date. I was offended by this as I'm NOT known for being a regular culprit in those circumstances. But she blamed me nonetheless. My problem was that I was both laughing and crying so hard that I couldn't say or do anything to defend myself. It took a good while before she realized the origin. Oh but don't worry, that wasn't the only incident with this pooch.

Now fast forward to this afternoon just after dinner. Ally let one rip pretty good and had this embarrassed look on her face. When I looked at her in shock, she simply said "Hey, I didn't do any buffalo. It was Jackson!"

I'm not sure which position she was in at the time of the infraction. Just by the smile on her face, I vote for pic #2.

Greatest Hits

As most of you know, we listen mostly to country in our home. So naturally, Ally has taken a liking to country music as well. When Tim McGraw's last CD came out, he had a song called "Fly Away" in which he laughs part of the way through. We didn't think she was paying much attention to it until she laughed the same exact way right on cue the next time she heard the song. This was nearly 2 years ago when wasn't quite 2 yet. As she's gotten older, she's gotten more into the music to the point where she's singing along to everything and now requests songs by name. Since she keeps asking, we decided to burn her a compilation of her favorite songs. Little does she know that it's really a great way to keep ourselves from having to hear the ABC song or "Ring Around the Rosie" 40 times in a row. So here's how the compilation shapes up:

• Sugarland - Already Gone (she started singing the hook one day in the car, before I had heard the song for the first time myself)
• Sugarland - All I Want to Do (known as the Monkey Song, hear it for yourself to know why. Listening to her sing this is probably the cutest thing. Top requested song.)
• Andy Griggs - She's More (all she needs to hear is the line about green eyes)
• Brad Paisley - Whiskey Lullaby (the Angels song)
• Jason Michael Carroll - Livin' Our Love Song (there's a line where he says "Fairytale Princess" and that's all a 3 year old little girl needs to hear)
• Keith Urban - Jeans On (she likes to clap along to this one)
• Keith Urban - Got it Right This Time [The Celebration] (known as the "Ohh" song)
• Keith Urban - It's a Love Thing (loves singing the hook)
• Keith Urban - Raise the Barn (this is the Hallelujah song)
• Keith Urban - Sweet Thing (do-do-do song... she actually knows the words to part of it. I thought it was great the other day when I asked her how was the big girl class at church and she said that they sang songs, but they didn't sing the do-do-do song. She looked disappointed.)
• Kenny Chesney - When the Sun Goes Down (another catchy hook)
• Kid Rock - All Summer Long (there's something funny about a little girl rocking out to Kid Rock... this is probably the next most requested song on the compilation)
• R. Kelly - Red Carpet [Pause, Flash] (yet another catchy hook)
• Sheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun (upbeat happy song that she likes moving to)
• Tim McGraw - When the Stars Go Blue (perhaps the song she knows best)
• Tim McGraw - My Little Girl (do I really need to explain this one? There's a line that she likes to sing out loud that goes, "Daddy, love you more! Every time that line comes on or when he says "my little girl," it's necessary that we hold hands)
• Tim McGraw - Last Dollar [Fly Away] (any song that features counting and little kids singing tends to attract the attention of little kids)
• Tim McGraw - Grown Men Don't Cry (features a line that says "I love you, Dad.")
• Raffi featuring Keith Urban - Apples and Bananas (a traditional kids song from an album of Raffi songs performed by country artists. Keith Urban + kids' song = an instant favorite.)
• The Spaniels - Good Night Sweetheart (I got this from "Three Men and a Little Baby" and I sing this to her at night. She now knows the words herself.)
• Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push (see below)

Lupe Fiasco is actually a Chicago rapper. I don't know much about him except that he's into skateboarding. This song is actually about skateboarding... kicking your foot out and then pushing with it to gain speed, get it? Anyhow, the hook basically goes "Kick, Push, Kick, Push, and Coast." She's not really into skateboarding or anything but this song has now become her theme song for potty-training. Grammy became one of her first students so you can ask her about it. See, what she does is she'll be sitting on the toilet when she needs to poop and she'll teach you that in order to do the business that you need to Kick, Push, and Coast. She uses the leg motions and everything. This doesn't end at home as she taught class at Sweet Tomatoes the other night as well. My one question regarding this is why does everyone look at me as though I'm the one who taught her this? Can't you see from the picture above that I'm raising a perfect little princess?

I'm going to be searching for new material before she wears out this CD. Any suggestions?

It's a BOY!!!

We’ve got some big news! And we figure it’s time that we share it publicly and let everyone else in on it. As you know, we bought a home a few months ago and now we’ve got all this extra space to fill. We went from a 2-bedroom apartment to a 4-bedroom house, and we’ve only got 1 kid. That means we’ve got 2 extra rooms. So what are you supposed to do with that ratio? Well, only 1 logical choice and that’s to fill in the cracks and even things out.

We’ve been considering the possibility of an addition to the home and it’s something we’ve been planning for a while now. We knew we wanted our family to grow and have the type of fun we’ve been having with Ally all over again. Now that we’re settled in our new home and we’ve kinda figured out the dynamics of the home, we decided it’s time for something to happen. So word came down today of what we were having and... ta-da!! It’s a BOY!!! Here are the initial first pictures.



So this is our new little boy, Coach. He's a purebred pomeranian. he's currently 4 months old and has more energy than the 3 of us put together. He likes to chew on whatever he can fit in his mouth. He had a hold of my sock while it was still on my foot. So I lifted my leg (no, not like he would do... get that out of your mind) and he held on and started spinning around. It was actually rather funny. He still needs a little more training as he's only had 1 class so far. We just got him this afternoon so we were not there for the training but we plan to continue on. He even arrived with puppy diapers and everything. We're playing paper-scissors-rock later to see who changes him first.

The previous owner lived in an apartment so he was couped up inside. You can imagine how much of a little fireball he was when he got his first taste of the backyard. Not sure how we got him to settle down long enough for these pics but we managed. It wasn't easy.

Well, there you have it: The first exclusive look at Ally's new little brother. If you thought anything otherwise at the beginning then I apologize for misleading you. It was never my intention. I say that with all honesty and without a smirk. The same goes for that last line. So til next time, rock on and... gotta go, he's going after the remote. Toodles!

Trial Run

So for those of you who may remember, I used to have a lot of fun writing a weekly newsletter of my daughter Allyson. It featured a few pictures and a description of each picture as well as a few updates of what we were up to during that particular time. This became a weekly ritual that took place every Sunday (usually) night. I guess you could say that I was "blogging" so I figured... why not just start a blog? This way, folks don't have to spend 3 days trying to open an email containing 3-4 pictures. Thos who have still use dial-up I'm sure will appreciate that. So I'll pop in every now and then and see what comes to mind. I can almost guarantee you that it will almost always have something to do with Ally. In fact, here's a preview of the type of thing you may find...

A couple days ago I went to the grocery store with Ally. They have a Red Box just inside the door. If you're not familiar with Red Box, it's just a DVD rental kiosk that costs $1 to rent/day. Ally's under the impression that we're getting a movie every time we hit the grocery store so naturally she asked if we could get one. She recognizes Batman and is dead set on watching the Dark Knight with me one of these days. No, I have not let her watch it. I know it's too intense for her and some of the movies I rent tend to be higher than a G rating so I watch them after she goes to bed. So as we're approaching the door, she tells me, "Daddy, can we get a movie? I don't want one of those bad ones that you watch after I go to bed." I'm not sure what was running through the minds of the 2 little old ladies walking beside us who began chuckling but I didn't exactly want to see the look on their faces either. If there's a moral to this story is just be sure that you know what you're doing when you decide to have kids. Be prepared to handle being embarassed in public on numerous occasions. This is why I may choose not to have more than 2 kids; 1 kid to a parent or you're outnumbered. Best form of birth control? Try raising a monkey like the one we got.

I'm sure this will improve over time as I get used to this and learn more about how all this works. But until then, enjoy...