1st quarter of 2012

Sooooo, I'm not doing such a good job of keeping up on the blog anymore. I still blame it on the iPad. Anyway, here's a quarterly update on the happenings in Athens, AL. The pictures are a little out of order but I don't feel like fighting with the blog anymore so deal with it.

Our tree is even rinky dinkier than it looks in this picture. We've always wanted to buy a live tree and plant it in the yard after Christmas to enjoy for years to come. We found out the hard way it's quite expensive, difficult to handle, and you're not supposed to have it indoors for more than a week. We bought ours the day after Thanksgiving. I don't have a picture of it right now but imagine this tree in our yard and totally orange. Like dead orange. I'm not sure it's gonna make it.

Christmas morning!!! Spoiled Kevin got the Foosball table and the other two spoiled boys each got a Nintendo 3DS from Santa. I think back to my first hand held games and how cool they were. Kids nowadays wouldn't give them a second glance.

Cameron couldn't help but "reorganize" the presents every day or two. I think he secretly untaped the edge on some of his presents and peeked when no one was looking.

Cameron and Cade also got these nifty electric scooters. These, along with the foosball table, are one of the few non-game gifts that the kids actually use on a regular basis. Score one for Mike and Dana!

On the last day of the year, Dana traded our beloved Expedition in on a new-to-us Explorer. This sucker has everything under the sun including the park assists where it parallel parks itself! I'm way too much of a cheapskate to normally buy something like that but we got a good deal on it and, most importantly, Dana absolutely loves it.



Here we are in the church pew waiting for Cade's basketball awards ceremony. More on that later. I looked over and all 3 of my family members had their faces buried in some kind of electronic device. Just like in the commercials but worse! Am I the only one who still interacts with the real world around me?


Dana and the boys bought this recordable book for me for Christmas. They each took turns reading a page. You can tell by the doofy look on my face that I'm enjoying listening to it. What a great Christmas present.


The boys checking the contents of their stockings on Christmas morning. Notice their new Christmas pajamas that they received the night before.

Sort-of-annual picture of the boys with the sleigh and reindeer. This might be the last year Cade sits in the sleigh.

We tried to take a nice family picture but with 5 people it's next to impossible to get a good one. After 30 poses and 1200 pictures, this was about the best we got.

Cade's Valentine card box. Dana got the inspiration from Pinterest. Pretty cool if you ask me.

And playing for the Bulls, #14, Caaaaaaadddddeeeee Reynolds! (Audience roars)

Cade had no problem getting the rebound most of the time. Being the tallest kid on the court didn't hurt.

We had some excitement of a different kind in early March when a tornado came through our neighborhood. Our house was mostly spared, the pickup not so much. As of this writing, we're still working with the insurance to get the holes in our roof repaired.

Kevin is on the school's soccer team again this year. He's looking more like a young man than a little boy.

Speaking of Kevin, we recently discovered he's basically blind in his left eye. Not really, but his vision is 20/200 so his brain has quit using it. He had been complaining of not being able to see so we got his eyes checked and that's when they found that. He now has a contact (for his good eye) and we're pursuing a second opinion on trying to improve his left eye. The optometrist says there's nothing that can be done and it's something they would have had to catch when he was a toddler to have any hope. We don't understand why it wasn't caught 4 years ago when he first started complaining and ended up getting glasses - which he never wore.

Other than that, all is well. Cameron and Cade are playing soccer for the city league and their games start the week after Easter. Dana is substituting for the pre-school at our church on a somewhat regular basis. She really seems to be enjoying it. She has also become a Pinterest freak and has made some pretty neat crafty things (and food!) I'll try to catch up on pictures soon but no guarantees. That is, unless I can figure out how to do it with the iPad so I don't have to walk all the way from the couch to the computer desk.