The Guddat Gang

We finally got to get back to Rexburg after a three-year hiatus. We've been looking forward to getting back over to see Jerrod, Megan, Jocely, Jayden and Jeffery for a long time for Thanksgiving and to see their house, which, by the way is awesome. They have a great home and Megan has decorated the home very well. She's got class. Good call, Jerrod to allow her to marry into "Club Guddat". This was taken the night before we left. The girls decided to comb grandma's hair. As you can tell, they're very proud of their work. Forever my copilot. I absolutely love road tripping with Brittany. Before we had kids, she would go to pretty much every game that took me out of town when I worked as the sports editor for the Daily Record, where we would just talk and laugh the whole way. This trip was no different. Adelyn, obviously too busy to peek around her interesting book for a photo. Playing "Duck, Duck, Goose" while waiting for the Thanksgiving turkey to...

Here we go with another round of pictures. Sure, it might not be good for his eyes, but I thought this was funny how close Jayden was to the TV. Grandma Debbie, Nana, reading stories to surprisingly attentive grandkids. This photo is out of sequence, but I had to take a picture of the girls. This was taken Sunday night, after a 10-hour drive and after a trip that included the initial 10-hour drive. Basically the girls were inches away from each other all week long and not only did they travel perfectly, but as soon as they got home they put their jammies on and cuddled on the couch together. Jerrod and I putting up lights. The guy is motivated to be the top house on the block. He'll be one of those houses that the newspaper lists as a decorated home to see during Christmas light season. Jerrod negotiating a part of the roof with snow. I'm high centered on the roof above him. Craft time for the girls. While the girls were making crafts, Jerrod, Jayden, Jeffery and I all went...

Here are more random pics from our Rexburg Thanksgiving trip. I'll admit it. I'm a minivan fan. We needed more room for the trip since we were taking a full house plus luggage for everyone. (By the way, my needs fit into a corner of a suitcase, the clothing for the other four women in the van? Not so much). Here I am proud as a peacock in Pendleton. Love's gas station in Oregon. Seriously. Cool. Name. Delaney spent a combined 11 hours climbing up the stairs and sliding down. I've encouraged her to do the same on our back porch stairs, but hard, freezing concrete in the wintertime isn't conducive to fun. What's Jayden doing? Yeah, that sign says "Rigby, the birthplace of television", but everyone knows that factoid. The photo isn't significant. What's significant is the action immediately before this photo was taken. The neighbor dogs had a tendancy to try and sneak into Jerrod's garage, but he wasn't having any of that on his watch. ...

This is Jon. I'm gonna man up and say that I was excited for New Moon, the second installment in the Twilight series. So excited that I blogged it. Jon and Britty Bear on the way there. Cathy met us at the theater. She was just as thrilled. That's right, I'm proud. Satisfied movie goers. There's a rumor that I hooted and hollered during the movie. That rumor is 100% true.

This is Jon. As you know, I've been the PA announcer for all CWU football, men's basketball and women's basketball games for the last four or five years. And before that, I wrote for the Daily Record and Britty and I went to Central, so I've seen a lot of CWU sports since 1996 and am a pretty rabid fan. Lately, Brittany has taken a turn to the dark side and is starting to get a little crazy. She's caught the feva' and now bleeds Crimson and Black along with other Wildcat fans! CWU is 12-0 and ranked #1 in the nation right now and she caught the game with some 6,192 friends yesterday (to give you an idea, Tomlinson Stadium's capacity is 4,000). The place was jacked packed. One of my many CWU shirts. "Crimson Attack!" Yeah baby! Brought to you by Wells Fargo and the fat logo on the back of the shirt! Britty reminiscing of the good ol' days of IKE marching band, I'm sure. You can't see it here, but the stadium was standing room only. Thi...

.........my kid's a genius. At least that's what Delaney's teacher said today (or how I interpreted it) in this morning's parent/teacher conference at Head Start. We've been thrilled to see Delaney's improvement in her vocabulary, sentence structure and creativity. We're still working on her hand-eye coordination and her confidence in learning new things. Her imagination hasn't taken a back step to anything either. Must be good parenting..................(good job Brittany!)

I had Wednesday off for Veteran's Day and we started our morning with a walk at the park along the river. Best scenery of the day. Typical J and B pose: Jon holds the camera, Brittany smiles. Smiles all around. The girls really liked throwing rocks in the river. Little rocks were not interesting for Delaney. She threw the biggest rocks she could lift and enjoyed the huge splashes they made when hitting the water. Sometimes they were too heavy to throw into the river, therefore I stood away from her as she smashed them just inches from her toes. Wow, a photo Addy's actually paying attention to. "Such a cute picture." Brittany, Nov. 11, 2009. (She's right, I'm gorgeous.) Girls got tired of walking, so they decided to climb onto me and let me carry them along the trail back to the car. Really cute, dontcha think? If you think so, look below and see how Addy reacted when we put her on the ground to use her own two feet to walk herself. Oh yeah, that's ad...

This is Jon. I came home to this the other day. Brittany put up two big pieces of construction paper and let the girls get creative. I thought it was a pretty genius idea. Proud Picasso. In typical fashion, Delaney would dance after changing marker colors. Afterward, Delaney and Adelyn sat down as Delaney read her a story. Very cute. As you can see, Addy was very happy and entertained.