Growing up

Kaed is 6 and in Kindergarten. He has officially made the jump from "mommy and daddy" to "mom and dad". This has really depressed Leah and John (Kaed's dad). It makes him sound older and more grown-up. He calls me And now too. He's dropped the "ee" off of all our names. What are they teaching him at Butter Lakers?! Here are some other mis-pronounced words he's said lately: caferteria (where he eats), and belcrow (what some shoes have instead of laces). Oh, and his new nickname is Cake. One of his bball buddies coined it for him. I'm not sure if it's because his shot is so sweet or if he thinks he can whip him everytime; I'm not sure. Cake it is.

Dash has taught me 2 new games this week - that he invented. Both involve close-quarters Binki manipulation. The first involves him taking the Binki out of his mouth and putting into mine. It can get a little messy. The other involves him throwing his Binki and I go get it as fast as I can and make loud noises. He's pretty much got fetch down. Smart kid. Still bald.

Back to Kaed. He started basketball this week and I am not coaching it. His dad got him some Air Jordan replica shoes that are pretty sweet. He's on a great team with great parents. And suprisingly, he can dribble with both hands fairly well. I think he gets that from my side of the fam . . .

Last week Kaed got an abscessed tooth. Yuck. So we dropped in at my Dentist's and they pulled it out. It was literally that quick too. I was shocked. When I told Kaed that they were going to do that he gave a Tiger Woods fist-pump and said, "YES!" I'm not kidding. So when I inquired as to why he was filled with jubilation upon hearing of his upcoming molar removal, he said excitedly, "It's show-and-tell tomorrow!"
Maybe he's not quite as grown-up as his mom thinks he is.

By the way, he was bummed that he only got "a dollar" and put the buck under his pillow to see if the tooth fairly would swap him back.
Have a great Christmas.

Handsome Dash and Dashing Kaed

"You can do what you want to do, but don't step on my blue suede suit." (it's val-oor)

"Just two guys taking a bath together, no big deal." Side question, who is more buff, in the buff.

"Good Morning!"

"Olive you this much!"

It's entirely possible that my captions don't match up with the pictures. I'm at school right now and the pictures don't show here. Come up with your own if you've got better ones.

A quick Chrsitmas question:

What's the best part about Christmas? Celebrating our Saviour's birth? Being with family? Getting presents (be honest)? Giving presents?
God is God everyday and not just on Christmas, gifts can break or go out of style, people pass and go in and out of favor. I stick with what is constant: food. I've always been partial to Grandma's lu-te-fisk, I mean honeybaked ham. With mashed potatoes, green bean cassarole, corn, jell-0 and salad. And some sparkling cider to wash it down. Then, only an hour or so after a huge meal, I'll make a ham sandwich with GG grandma's buns (did that come out right?). I can't wait.
I'm going to die a fat man.

Griswold Thanksgiving Vacation

No pictures this time, sorry.
It was bound to happen someday. The Lemiere family (me,wife,kids) had our first terrible road trip on our way to Yakima. Here's how it began:

We had some all-weather tires put on Leah's car the day before we left and as a result the car started to make a noise (wububububububububububub) and it got louder the faster we went. Turns out that when we finally checked, there were two lugnuts on a back tire that I could turn with my fingers! So once we got that taken care of, and were 45 minutes later, we hit the road. Leah was already apprehensive about going over White Pass at night because it's dark, could be icy, could be foggy, could have elk strewn about the highway that we'll have to avoid. So Leah was panic-y. Then Dash started to fuss. He was hungry and when we pulled over at a gas station, she fed him. Kaed and I ran in to use the loo, and when we got back Leah had somehow managed to set the car alarm off. I jumped in and started the car, but it was still going! So I hit the gas and got out of there like I stole it and we were literally driving down the road with the horn and lights going nuts. Dash had resumed freak-out mode, Kaed was telling Dash to be quiet, and Leah's sphincter had just tightened to DEF-CON-5. All of a sudden, the alarm stopped. So we pulled off again at the next gas station to check on Dash (in our haste of leaving the previous gas station, we thought we might have pinched him with the seatbelt or something). But as soon as the door opened, the car alarm went off again! I immediately told Leah to get the owner's manual and find "fuses" because she was about to blow one and I wanted to rip one out. But honestly, I had to laugh. So I did, and Leah swore at me. It was complete chaos in our car and we weren't but 40 minutes into the drive. Eventually, Dash cried himself into a coma, the alarm stopped (but was set to go off again as soon as the next door was opened!), and Leah had relaxed enough to ask Kaed, "You ok Kaed? Wanna kill your brother?" (I'm sure reading that looks pretty bad, but she was only jesting. I promise. Seriously.) To which Kaed replied in his infinite wisdom, "No . . . but I wanna kill myself." Thanks Kaed for the relief. The rest of the drive went off smoothly (if by smoothly I mean Leah pointed out every wildlife creature, sharp corner, passing car, snow patch, "possible" ice patch, guard rail, tunnel and cloud on the way - she never really recovered).

When we got to Yakima, the alarm did go off again, but we had passed Dash through the window to Leah's folks so it wouldn't scare him. Then we took care of the alarm situation which fortunately, did not require Leah's dad to hit the car battery with his wrench (but he was standing there ready if needed).

Thanksgiving was a success after that. Hope yours was as eventful, but in a less-stressed way. Oh, and Dash was not content with one tooth erupting; he has both bottom front teeth coming up. He's averaging one shiny chicklet penetration per 11 days and is on pace to have all teeth coming through by his first birthday. Fussy.

Big D, Little Tooth

Before I get to Dash's newest aquisition, forgive me a rant about the American Music Award's from last night. First, the goods. Every drummer that performed was great, with the exception of the Duran Duran guy. He had a rack full of drums and insisted on using a little electric drum pad for basically all of his fills. Dork. Now the bads. Jimmy Kimmel doing the "SoldierBoy" dance was pretty funny but since all the writers are still on strike, that was as humorous as it got. I was left wanting. Here's the point of my wasting 5 minutes of my life on the AMA's - Duran Duran was awful. The AMA's hyped them up and featured them late in the program (when everyone who used to like them would be in bed - right Greg Cullen?). Apparently, they're trying to make a come-back, and they should really reconsider. If you didn't see it, they really were bad. Up until last night, I kind of knew them as a decent band from the 80's. Now, my feelings of Duran Duran are the same as if Edna and the Boys got tight pants, highlights in their Grecian Formula and hit youthgroups in the greater Northwest. Yikes. You know what? I apologize to Edna and the Boys. They went out with style and grace - unlike Duran Duran. Simon LeBon must be broke.

Ok, I feel much better. Thanks.
Dash's first tooth popped up lst weekend. Next thing you he'll be driving dear old dad to his yearly physicals. Eric got him some jammies from DisneyWorld (where he was deflowered) that have Dash from the Incredibles on them - appropriate. They are 2T's and we were saving them for when he would be older. Unil we realized that he can wear them now. Maybe he's big (he's not that big), maybe they're small 2T's (likely). Anyway, they look good on him.

Time for this blog's "random Kaed quote".
"Andy, when I'm seven, can you get me an ipod. They're like, 80 bucks." When talking about money, Kaed has about as much cents sense as RainMan. He throws random numbers out with no rhyme or reason. I blame his teacher. It's always the teachers fault.

Happy travels over Thanksgiving. I love all of you guys.
Seriously. All.

And now for some more Duran Duran bashing. Here are some songs off of their new tour:

Girls on Metamucil

A View to a Crappy Band

Ordinary World Where Washed Up Bands Never Die

Notoriously Awful

And finally . . . Hungry Like a Wolf But I Gotta Mash Everything Up First Through My Strainer On Account Of Me Running Out Of Polydent So I Have To Gum It.

Tickets are on sale at a pharmacy near you.

Dash's Tricks or Doggy Treats

Dash is now .5 years old and he has grown up a lot in the last two weeks. If you prop him up, he can sit by himself now. His "weight of head" to his "weight of gut" ratio is evening out (close to 1:1) which makes balancing easier. He can also roll over. He kind of did it in accident the first time and it bugged him being on his tummy so just kept rolling. He officially was log-rolling. Genius. He went from not rolling at all to having me time him in a sprint-roll across our bed. Can't leave him alone now - not that we could anyway. (Do all babies need to be where the action is all the time, or just mine?) So far, when Dash gets a mind to do something, he does it to the nth degree. When he eats, he eats (look out Kobayashi). When he rolls, he rolls. When he grabs ladies earrings, it's like he's holding the reigns of Secretariat. When he poops . . . man is it gross. Not to get too graphic but the next time you go to Dairy Queen, watch them make your cone and imagine there's a diaper underneath it, and then let it go for about 4 minutes. There's no half-way with this kid. He's kind of Chuck Norris-esque like that. But we'll see.

Halloween was fun. Dash didn't dress up per-se', but he did have the whole Stay Puft Marshmellow Man in a diaper thing going on. His shirt did say "I Vant Your Candy!" so he was semi-festiv. Kaed was a skeleton and wanted to squirt fake blood over his face but we didn't let him. By the end of the eve he just wanted people to give him the candy without wearing the costume. I told him it defeats the whole purpose! I mean, if he didn't wear the outfit and "work" for the goods then what's the point of Halloween? If I have to sit and drive all night long so I can take half of his candy, I will, but he's got to earn his half. Life lesson: there's no freebies. (We have this deal that he gets all the little candy bars because he's little, and I get all the big ones because I'm big. It's pretty sweet.)

Oh yeah, the dogs got into the spirit of things thanks to my brother Eric. Super Murd and Bat Buster were out fighting for truth and justice with their powers of fart and slobber.

Kaed said a pretty funny thing which made a whole lot of sense to me (he does this a lot by the way and we should all learn to see things through a kid's eyes - like when he was 3 and asked me what God and Jesus looked like. After I failed miserably in my explanation he calmly said, "I think they look the same." Perfect.) Anyway, he went to church with his dad last week and he said that he saw people get "bathtized". Sure he did.

Nick and Tiffany's wedding pictures are done now and can be seen at http://daleyhake.smugmug.com/gallery/3779603#217798117 . There are around 270 of them so grab a cup of coffee and maybe your lunch too as you look through them. I can't say enough about the photographer. Good eye, that guy - and it's not even a queer eye.

Paternity Leave

And . . . We're back! It's been around 6 weeks since the last post because I've been on family leave to bond with Dash. Very cool huh. So much has happened in that time and I will try to fill you in as best as I can. I don't have any pictures to post because my computer is on the fritz again. I would have posted pictures of Dash and I doing all the things we would do on a normal day of paternity leave: grocery shopping, golfing, playing Wii, fishing at Sacajawea, etc. I can do just about everything that I'd normally do with Dash due to two primary inventions: the moby-wrap (long toga-like sheet that ties twists and turns around your body to form various baby-holding positions. It's comfortable but I kind of feel like a gypsie-hippi-roman senator-ninja. The other invention is kangaroo-front-pack. It's a little easier to handle although it looks like we're going tandem sky-diving. Dash likes both.)

Staying home for the first 6 weeks of school was awesome. Doing laundry (sometimes), dishes, cleaning stuff, picking Kaed up from school, and performing basic maitenance (I think I just murdered that spelling) on Dash - and still finding the time to coach football, well, just say I could get used to it. One thing is for sure, Dash knows his daddy. I can't tell you how cool that is. At his 5 month Dr. appt. he was 18 lbs (but he hadn't gotten any taller...). He's good size and good natured. He prefers standing to sitting. He loves food (all kinds) and really digs peaches and prunes (but not alfalfa...). His gas is tremendously audibly frequent, but poops very little. This concerns Leah and I, but I'm sure he knows what he's doing. When he's sitting in his Bumbo chair, he actually leans to a side before he toots. I love that boy.


Leah is now working 3 very full days with mom and grandma watching Dash during those days. Her energy levels amaze me. God gives much grace to moms. She's giving me lessons on how to parent. I will say though, with all that goes on in our lives, she has her moments of craziness. For example, this weekend she asked me, "If I wear my sweater-dress to church, are you going to make fun of me?" To which I replied, "No, you wore it last week and I didn't." To which she replied back, "Yes you did. You said 'is that new?' which we both know means that you hate it." Yes, she was serious when she said it, but as soon as she made that remark, she started laughing because it sounded so ridiculous.


Kaed and Kindergarten go together like me and Halo 3. Perfect. He loves it. He can't wait for Halloween (I think he's gonna be a skeleton, Leah's not dressing up, Dash might be a tiger, and I think I'm going to be "the Force"). He's making friends and behaving - which is all I can ask for. I too, love that boy.



We are still getting bids on our house (I'm asking a bunch of contractors) and that whole process has slowed a bit. I'm not worried though. It'll happen.

Will Kaed Dash?

(There's two new Blogs today so don't forget to keep scrollin'.)

Will Mathews met his boy cousins this weekend and it was great. His mom got matching bibs for them. Sweet. They got dedicated this weekend (not baptized, it's different) and it was great to see them. Will is 3 months older, they weigh the same, and are built completely different. Will is long and pliable, very flexible. He can literally put his big toe in his ear with ease. Dash however, is more of the shorter, chubbier, less flexible variety. He can't get his knees past his belly-button. Rigid. Both have hair issues, but are cute.

Kaed starts Kindergarten today. It's weird that I now have a kid in school. It's a complete role-reversal from teaching. He's getting old, 6 on Friday. That means I'm old.

A&E

Pictures from Eric and Amber's wedded Day: (with much thanks to photographer Daley Hake - the man, he is.)

Wedded Summer

Nick got married last weekend and it was fantastic. Good times. I know that our family is big and can fill up a half a church for a wedding, but Tiffanie's family may be able to 1-up us. We have Lemiere's, Nordstrom's, Snyder's, Zerby's, Burnett's, Alexander's, Sanchez's, and so on and so on. As far as I could tell, Tiffanie's side of the church had Hutton's and Huhta's. And that's it. Crazy. On the one hand I could see them blowing up and having 7 kids, but on the other hand, have you seen their pictures in the previous post??? You can see some wedding pictures at http://www.virb.com/daleyhake . He's the same photographer that did Eric and Amber's - and there are a couple of them on there as well. Please check it out.

Kaed had his Kindergarten orientation this week and seems to be looking forward to going to a real school. He has embraced Butler Acres fully, but I'm going back and forth on whether or not I should tell him that Butter Lakers isn't quite the correct name... Should I say anything? He had another cute name-twist last week in the car. Dash sneezed and Kaed said, "Oh man, Dash just Blessyou'd all over the place." I absolutely did not correct him because we all should call sneezes "blessyou's". Here's Kaed in his new robe - when he wears it, he prefers to be called Obi-Wand.

Dash will be 4 months on Sept. 7 (when Kaed turns 6 by the way), and is getting chumpy as ever. He's laughing and in general just being a thick kid. He's getting dedicated this weekend at Leah's dad's church (he's a pastor) along with Leah's brother (Jesse)'s baby son Will. Pics will follow. New tricks? Not really, although at three months he was capable of holding his own bottle and actuall feeds himself. I'm not saying he's doing it on purpose, but he has drained a few bottles by himself. We're very proud.

Lastly, Dash had this picture up on the wall at the doctor's office for "breast-fed babies" and I think it fits better on a milk-carton. Please reply to this post with your caption for this picture:

Think twice about having kids...

My camera has a feature on it that allows you to take half a picture of one thing and half of another. When used incorrectly, you can produce some pretty interesting pictures. For example, this is Dash and Leah. Creepy.

Here's Kaed and his dad John. Smurf-like.

Here's Eric and Amber's first born.

And their last-born (for a reason).

Nick and Tiffanie will produce a "very beautiful" boy, named Sabian.

And his twin brother, Randal (after his gramps), but his dancer-name will be "Galaxy".

So be careful everybody. The next post will be after Nick and Tiff's blessed union.

Crash and burn Mav . . .

My computer crashed on me last week. Total bummer. I lost about 200 pictures (of baby Dash, and Kaed playing t-ball - bigtime bummer) and all my music on my itunes (about 2400 songs - ouch). So, my bloggies, if any of you should happen to have any of the many pictures I have emailed out in the last 4 months, email them back so I can retrieve a few. That would be great.

Speaking of great.
Two of my favorite people in the world, Great Uncle/Aunt Gene and Dodie will be enduring some tough times ahead based off of some bad news from the doctor. I love them very much and would appreciate it if you could mention them in your prayers in the next few months. They are two people I don't see enough of and like I said, I love them.

Two quick things:

One, two days ago, Leah was walking through the living room (where I was watching ESPN), stops mid-stride and goes, "Wait. Barry Bonds is black?" I couldn't even respond. The only other Barry's she knows are Manilow and the "guy on the BeeGees". Sorry fellas, she's taken.

The other is that Eric recently purchased a 96' Subaru Impreza, wagon. Maroon. Gray interior. Very similar to Nick's 95' Honda Accord, wagon, maroon, w/ gray interior. Which was similar to my old 93' Saturn, wagon, maroon, w/ gray interior that I sold 3 years ago to a guy named Chuck (who is not my stepson). Crazy huh? There are times, as an oldest brother, when you hope your younger siblings follow in your footsteps. I'm not convinced that owning a mid-90's maroon wagon w/ gray interior is one of those times. I will say this though, I did upgrade after the Saturn. I now own a 99' Toyota Tacoma.
Maroon. Gray interior.

Now we're bloggin'!

So upon the request of some family members, the Lemiere's have a blog. Crazy. I foresee this as replacing my emails, but we'll see. I hope you all enjoy it.
Dash will be 3 months old on the 7th. He's close to 15 lbs. as of a week ago and looks every bit of it. I took him in for his first round of shots and it was ok, but just ok. The nurse hit him with the 3 shots so fast that he was still inhaling from the pain/shock from the first one before she was done. After 2 good minutes of what I call the "next level" of crying, he resumed his chill-mode and we moved on. However since then, he has pooped all over me 3 times and still takes every opportunity he can to barf on me. Think he's still sore at me for those shots? . . .
But, I am happy to announce that on Aug.5, Dash laughed for his daddy for the first time. I have seen him laugh twice before (earlier this week) but it was his mommy that made him do it. She'd sing "Another One Bites the Dust" to him while he was lying down and he'd crack up. Not a full out laugh or giggle, but he definitely chuckled. I guess I would too if Leah did that to me.
Speaking of chuck. Kaeden, who is staying with the Mathews grandparents this week, called and informed us this weekend that he no longer wants to go by his name. And I quote, "You can call me Chuck now. Or Boyd. Or if you think of something else, call me. Bye." So, Chuck it is. Kaed, I mean, Chuck, has also given Dashal a nickname too. "Chumpy". As in, "He sure is getting chumpy mommy." It's been really fun lately hearing him come up with some real off the wall things. He's been great at making up his own words. For example, he likes to go "snerkling" in our pool. He absolutely gets it from Leah. In fact, just this weekend my cousin Greg was describing all the problems he was having with a boat he recently bought and Leah said, "Sounds like you got a melon." Which as we all know is an anagram for lemon. She was speaking in code. She's way into the Bourne Ultimatum by the way.
Well, we got our well in up on the property a few weeks ago, and it was good. Good water at a much lesser depth than anticipated. Saved us mucho-DeNeiro. We got our soil test too for our septic as well and we came out pretty good. The ball is beginning to roll and so far, everything has been in our favor. God is good. All the time.
That's all I have for now. Nick gets married this month so that will probably be my next post. Let me know how you like the blog set-up. Anyone can comment, or email back.