Evidence

Not that I'd ever really enter Tony in a "Father of the Year" contest (since I think that's kind of cheesy), but if I did here's the evidence I'd give.

• After one day of working on the house Clara and I were exhausted. Even though we were both exhausted Tony spent the rest of the afternoon building a fort in the girls room while I rocked Clara. I know lots of dads will build forts with their kids but Tony does it because he wants to, not because he has to. Seriously, he thinks it's really, really fun!

Here's the fort. It took up the entire room.

• I bought a new mirror for the bathroom. I asked him to put the cardboard it came in into the recycle bin. A few minutes later he came back the the bedroom with this creation:

He made this because he knew it would make the kids laugh. He will do literally anything to make them laugh. And he will never miss an opportunity--even if it's just drawing a face on a piece of cardboard.

• Nearly every time the kids ask him to jump on the trampoline his answer is yes. My answer is nearly always the opposite.


• Mostly he just loves playing with the kids. Sometimes I think he'd rather be outside playing with the kids than visiting with the grown-ups.

He really is an amazing dad. He is willing to do anything for his kids. He works hard for them all day long, then comes home and plays with them until bedtime (and even after bedtimes if I don't make him stop). The kids say all the time "dad is funny and mom is serious" (really, they do say that a lot!). But I wouldn't have it any other way!

You know when you have so much to do that it completely overwhelms you so you don't even start? That's how I feel about this blog. So much has happened since my last post I don't even want to try to organize it. But I don't want to stay away forever, so here goes.

Soon after my last post (where I got our kitchen floor redone) we started adding a shower to our bathroom (it was only a 1/2 bath). So we closed off our tiny closet to make a shower and built ourselves a closet out of the girls room. Every step along the way I thought "I should take pictures of this" but it turned out to be way more stressful than I could handle. Honestly, I was lucky to keep my kids fed and clothed. Half of the reason it was so stressful was that we had to have it done before our family came out for Will's baptism. That gave us less than 3 weeks. It came down to the wire, but we got it done. Now we have 2 full bathrooms, a bigger closet in our room and new carpet in all the rooms--that's because I spilled paint in the one room we weren't going to re-carpet. I don't love the new carpet, but that's a different story.

So now on to Will's baptism. He turned 8 on February 8, 2011. He got a new bike on his birthday and new scriptures the next day (when grandma and grandpa brought them from Utah). He was baptized on Feb. 12. My parents came a few days before. We had tons of fun but the part the kids liked the best was teaching William and Hallie to ride bikes without training wheels. Now they spend all afternoon outside riding circles on our patio.

The day of his baptism Tony's parents came, along with is sister, Elly, and brother, Corey. They stayed a few days after the baptism. It was so great to have everyone here. It always goes by too fast! Unfortunately for me, I got sick the day before the baptism--it started a cold and ended almost 2 weeks later with a sinus infection. But it was great to my both my mom and mother-in-law to take care of things for me. They are the best!!

So here's a few pictures of my missionary man. He also got a new suit for his birthday and it makes him look so grown up!

Doesn't he look like a little missionary? It makes me want to cry:)

Will and Tony just before the baptism. We are so proud of him!

Now that he's 8 he starts cub scouts. It's only been a few weeks, but it been way more money and time than I bargained for!