Teeth, Tech and Miscellaneous Stuff

The tooth fairy has been busy at the Payne house. Levi lost his two front teeth within a few hours of each other. He thinks it's funny how he says certain words now and how spitting water out of his mouth is even more fun than before.

Josiah and Nathanael have been very interested in technology. Quite often we see them playing with the mouse and doing their own Google searches. Before we know it they'll be setting up their own Facebook accounts and posting their own blogs.

This post includes some random pictures and a video of Nathanael eating oatmeal. It looks like we finally got a lefty. With four kids, and a mom that is left-handed, I guess it was bound to happen.

Chris

The Drain is Fixed!

I'll try to make a long story short.

Due to a bathtub drain that would not drain, we have been emptying the tub with a bucket after every shower and bath. This has gone on for the past 3 or 4 months. The reason we waited so long is because we thought it was a major problem that would require the pipe to be replaced and we would have to use tax refund money to pay for it. We tried Draino, plunging and a drain snake, but nothing worked. Yesterday we asked our friend Joe (the same guy that has done a lot of work on our house) to see if he could diagnose the problem. After about 45 minutes he found that the problem was some corrosion and a bunch of hair. He used the drain snake and was able to remove the hair.

Now I just have to see if Cari will let me buy anything fun with some of the money that we would have used for the drain. :) In reality we will probably use it to put up a fence and tear down our old garage and put up a small shed.

Chris

Fun with bubble wrap

Not much to say in this post, but this video speaks for itself.

Chris

Twins Week , Sports Weekend and 40 degrees

It was a busy week and weekend for the Payne's. To do something fun during the long winter, some of the people at work decided to do a twins week. You'll see some pictures of Chris' twin and triplet.
The weekend was was filled with sports activities. On Friday night Chris went to Madison to see the Badgers play the UMD Bulldogs. In the old days I used to be a UMD fan. Things have changed and I was going for Bucky all the way. Wisconsin won 3-1. On Saturday the family was split between two activities. Cari took the two youngest on a winter nature walk with some friends, while Chris took the two oldest to a Pinewood Derby competition for Royal Rangers. Saturday afternoon also gave us an opportunity to play outside in 40 degree weather. It was great! The weekend finale was watching the Super Bowl. Chris enjoyed the game at our church's young adult center, while Cari and the kids went to their Sunday school class. Hey, the Super Bowl is only once a year, I think it's okay to miss one week of Sunday school. :)

The Wedding

This past weekend we celebrated the wedding of Jonah and Holly West. It was a great wedding. We had a chance to see family and friends that we had not seen in a long time. Samuel was the ring bearer and did an excellent job. I have posted a slide show of pictures and a video from the weekend.

Chris

Baby it's cold outside...

This week that has sounded like an understatement. It was so cold this week that they canceled school on Thursday and Friday. Levi and Samuel were not at all upset about the cancellation. It meant that they could stay in their jammies all day long. The coldest temperature that we sat was -28 on Friday morning (that doesn’t include wind chill). At that point it sounded very tempting to give great grandma and grandpa a call to see if we could come for a visit. They spend their winter in southern California.

This week will be spent getting ready for uncle Jonah’s wedding. Our next post will probably contain pictures of the wedding celebration.

Chris

New Year's Firsts

The Payne’s started the new year with a couple of firsts. We saw a breakthrough with Nathanael’s sleeping at night. He slept through the night for the first time earlier this week. Remember, he’s 14 months old, so that’s a big deal. With Nathanael sleeping better that means that mom is happy. As the old saying goes “when mom’s happy, everybody’s happy”.

Another first involves a Dixie cup and the toilet. With four boys it’s only a matter of time before something “unnatural” goes into the toilet and the kid attempts to flush it. Samuel learned that if something (the Dixie cup) falls into the toilet that you don’t flush until it is taken out. It was a bit of a mess to clean up, which I won’t go into detail about, but it gave us a chance to sit the boys down and explain that only a few select things belong in the toilet.

Chris