Discoveries in Solitude

Kat and Lily and Jake have been gone for the last week and a half. I thought I'd share some of the things I've discovered about life since I've been alone:

1. When you go to bed alone and wake up alone, life is like one long day.

2. I wash and fold clothes much faster than Kat.

3. I don't know how to work the dishwasher.

4. Writing happens when little kids don't need books read to them.

5. My kids actually miss me when I'm not around.

6. Socks can be left on the floor for a few days and then gathered up at laundry time.

7. I'm lazy about cooking. My lunch for the past few days has been cereal, plums, yogurt, carrots. Dinner: string cheese, milk, pizza, or plums.

8. After about three days of no wife, dreams start getting really weird.

9. It's nice to come and go as you please.

10. Being a family man is the best way to live.

Patterson Fruit Farm

Yesterday we went to a cute little farm. It was our first family outing in a long time. Jacob thought it was extremely over priced and maybe it was a little but it was still fun to get outside. It was basically just a bunch of slides although the kids really enjoyed them. Above are the kids and I sliding on the big one.
Here is Lily just looking cute
This is Jake falling down a slide
Lily and Jake in an Indian teepee
Jacob pushing the kids on a cart
Jacob and Lily walking through a corn maze that was extremely muddy. We had to cut through the corn to get out. Jake fell down a couple times and we all got pretty muddy.
Jake hiding in the corn

My favorite part about the farm was the all you can eat apples. They were so fresh and sweet.
Here is Jake (the hater of food) taking a bite. I was impressed that he even took a bite.
Here he is spitting it out and getting ready to wipe it on his shirt
And here he is throwing it in t he trash

They Didn't Get it From Me

Don't get me wrong, I love books and I love reading, I just can't sit and read for long periods of time. It takes me at least a month maybe more to finish a book. Jacob reads all the time and can sit and finish a book in one sitting. I'm pretty sure my kids got the ability from him. They will sit and read to themselves FOREVER. I'm always so amazed at the attention span they have when it comes to books. Jake especially pretty much reads all day long and that's not an exaggeration. He brings me one book after the other non stop. This morning we read 9 different books several times each all with in the first hour of his waking up. If I am doing something and can't read to him then he will go sit and read to himself. I can always tell when he is reading Cinderella because when it gets to the page where the step sisters are ripping her dress I hear a big gasp from the other room. Many times he gets so excited about a certain part of a book that he comes running down the hall with the book yelling "Mommy mommy" because he is just so excited to show me what is happening in his story. I can also tell when he is reading his dinosaur book because every page he is so amazed and yells "DINOSAUR" in his most monstrous sounding voice. I'm pretty sure he will be smarter than me by the time he starts kindergarten.

Lily also loves her books and has memorized so many of them that she reads them to us. We are going on vacation soon and she is having a hard time deciding which books she wants to bring on the plane with her. This particular night I put her to bed at 8:00 and then at 10:00 I found that she was still awake. She told me she had been packing her books and had them all stacked up and ready to go to grandma and grandpa's house. We still have almost two weeks until we leave. Many times I find her reading in bed when we think she is asleep which means she has been reading in the dark. I'm not quite sure what to do about that.

And here they are reading together. It was one of those moments where the house gets too quiet so you get nervous but I found them like this which is usually the case when the house gets quiet but not always.

Attempted Photo Shoot

I decided to try another photo session with the kids and although it turned out differently in my head I still managed to get a few good ones. I hate that when I edit them they look ok in the window I'm editing in but when I put them on the blog they don't look as good. Oh well I tried.

And yes Jake has the same facial expression in every picture

Lily's eyes looked really neat in this one but like I said it looked different in the editing window. If you click on it and make it bigger it looks better.
All these poses were her own doing

A Father and His Daughter

The other day while we were at Target we were walking past the entertainment section and Lily said "Oh hang on mom I'll be right back." Then she ran down the isle and around the corner. I followed her down wondering what she was up to and when I turned the corner I found her standing right in front of a big TV staring at the football game that was being displayed. I watched her for a minute then told her it was time to go and she replied "Hold on mom it's BYU."Lily and Jacob watching the BYU game last night. Sadly it didn't last long since they didn't play well.