stuff lately

While mom Flake was visiting with Justin's kids, we had the unique opportunity to meet Clifford...the big red dog.

none was more excited to see the big red dog than this big grinning man...


except maybe Eliza, who was trampling people to get to new buddy.

Two cuties

The Clifford thing was all good until mom Flake's stalker showed up!

Weird!

a good valentines day was had by all.

New snowpants from Heather's mom - thanks!!

FUN WITH BLOCKS (YAH, THATS RIGHT ALL CAPS)

Lego Battleship (USS Iowa?)

Lego Aircraft Carrier

clear the flight deck!

lego astronaut trainee Luke Kramer

Austin and the boys will play legos for...as long as possible, which is usually until the blocks run out.

Yeah!!!! Chocolate breakfast! Every year in Des Moines a bunch of food vendors sponsor a chocolate breakfast where they all bring their chocolates and eveybody's invited to come sample. We had never been, so this year we told the kids we were going to go, until we found out that we would have had to get there by 5:30 to get anything good. At this point, we just got our own chocolate breakfast consisting of doughnuts chocolate milk, candbars, hostess, etc. I think you can tell whether or not the kids cared that we didnt go to the "real" chocolate breakfast.

Butt I thought you love to swim

Austin swims a lot. He swims anywhere from 2 to 8 miles at a time, usually at least 4 days a week. He goes through a good quality swimming suit pretty fast. Today, the lifeguard at our YMCA, stopped Austin before he got out of the pool and told him that he had a hole in his swim suit. He reached back there to feel how big it was and he could fit his whole fist in there! This poor high school girl must have been horrified! You could see...everything! Here is a picture of the hole, but we put a white washcloth underneath so you wouldn't have to be scarred like the little girl at the YMCA. This picture doesn't do the hole justice though, seriously it's HUGE and the pool was totally full while he mooned everyone swimming for an hour. Also the little child watch area and the fitness center and the cycling room and the weight room all look into the pool area, so who knows how many people saw! I can't stop laughing!

Also, last night Austin came home and told me that he twisted his ankle and fell in a parking lot and fell flat on his face, with his whole body, including his chest, on the ground! On top of the that, his keys went flying, 3 feet under someone else's parked car. He's had a rough couple of days! Poor little fella.