The race against time begins...

Can David finish his dissertation before August?

That's the big question here. Graduate school has been part of our life for nearly 6 years. Classes and comprehensive exams are done, research is done, qualifying paper and prospectus are done. "All" he has left to do is to finish his dissertation. He is really ready to be done with it.

Now he has another motivation to finish as soon as possible:

Last week, David was offered a principal job at Scera Park Elementary in Orem! We're really excited. The school is just three miles from our house. Nathan will be going to kindergarten there. Anyway, David is really hoping things move quickly with his dissertation this spring and summer so he can get it out of his hair before he loses it all, (his hair, I mean), AND before this new job starts.

Here's some of the other news from our neck of the woods:

Nathan has started being genuinely helpful around the house. He can feed a crying baby, set the table, wash a few dishes, make sandwiches for anyone who wants one, and help his younger siblings when I am not available. I can't even express how nice it is to have him cheerfully go around being helpful for an hour, rather than pestering the other kids during that time.

Grandma Manwill gave Nathan two little wooden model kits to build a bulldozer and a ship. I was intending to help him put them together, but he couldn't wait. Next thing I knew he had pulled out the instructions and partially assembled the bulldozer himself. He also did most of the ship unassisted. He was impatient for the glue to dry, so he pulled out the blowdryer to speed up the process.

If we end up moving to a bigger house, we're looking for one with space for a workshop. Nathan has turned our laundry room into a workshop, but we're running out of space for things like, well, laundry.

Christian REALLLLLY wants to crawl.


This picture is to prove that Clara is slowly emerging from her "raggamuffin" phase. She has actually been allowing me to brush her hair every morning. Sometimes she even lets me put something in it. It helps that I made her morning snack contingent on having her hair done.

Goliath the Snowman

It snowed 4-5 inches last Friday morning and luckily daddy had school off that day. We decided to build a Goliath snowman. Once he was built, we made snowballs and tried to hit him. While we did hit him, we were not successful in knocking him down. The warm weather later in the day managed to do that. It's getting harder and harder to pull the kids around the yard on the sled. It's almost impossible to pull both of them at the same time. Either they're getting bigger or daddy is getting older and fatter, or both. We love the snow, but we are also super excited for spring!

Mice Beware!

Nathan made a mouse trap out of paper clips and wood. He baited it with peanut butter, honey, and Nutella, confident that within a short time some poor unsuspecting mouse would be tempted to have a taste (in the same way I am tempted by Nutella), only to find itself hopelessly entangled in the trap. Nathan put it in the cupboard and checked it every couple minutes. So far, no mice have been caught, but the trap may be effective at attracting bugs.

On Wednesday, my mom came down and watched Christian and Clara, while Nathan and I spent several hours together at dentist and eye appointments. No cavities for either of us.(hooray!) Nathan got bored and kept trying to press buttons and take apart the medical equipment. He couldn't understand why I did not want him to do this. "But mom, I want to figure out how it works!" I was sure the eye doctor was going to kick us out of the room, but he didn't. My mom referred us to this Dilbert video clip on Youtube, called "The Knack." It suits Nathan to a "T." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw
I just had to put this cute picture in. This is Christian and his cousin, Sarah. It's from two weeks ago, when David's family visited for Melani's show.