BRRRRRRR!

Hey y'all, It's Scott again on the blog.  First, some geeky things that have been going on in my world:

1.  I passed my prelims!!!!  (for those of you fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the sad world of a PhD student, the prelims are horrible tests which you must pass or you die.)  I go on to live another year.

2.   I have an exhibit in the Pierpont building at the University of Michigan.  I'm displaying 6 of my mobiles, and the display is up all month (so if you are a current Michigander, you can go check them out)

3.   I've been published, and my articles come up as numbers 16, 17, and 18 when one types in "Scott Stapleton" in Google Scholar!!  So there are only 15 Stapletons with nerdier journal articles than mine.  What an accomplishment.  Anyway, for those of you who are curious about what a nerdy engineering article actually entails, I have included a snapshot of the title/abstract.  I would've included more, but I'd like you too see the rest of the post before you fall asleep....

Okay, "me time" is over.  In other news, it's been brutally cold up here in Michigan.  I was walking to school on friday, when I heard on the radio that it was -12 F, and the windchill was around -25.  So, we decided to toughen up our youngster by taking him snowshoeing in the nearby forest (I got new snowshoes right before moving here, and I finally got to use them).  By the dress, it's also apparent that we are preparing Timmy for the life of a ninja, or some other occupation where your secret identity needs to be protected.  
So it's cold.  Oh right, I think I mentioned that.  Well, how cold is it?  A friend of ours had a friend pass away, so we bought her some lilies.  Displaying our botanic ignorance, we took it over to our friend's house without a cover over it.  She only lives about 15 seconds away, and she wasn't home, so we came back.  About 30 minutes later, our plant looked like the flowers in E.T. when he was supposedly dead in the body bag.   Had no idea that plants are so wussy.  So we bought a new one, and took a pic with them together to prove how clever we are!!

Last random observation of the day: not sure why little one's are so fascinated with books, but we got this sweet little plastic book, and I can't get Timmy out of the tub anymore.  He just opens it up, looks for a bit, turns it over, and repeats the process.  I think he's looking for a hidden code in the text, about some clue from the aliens indicating exactly when the takeover begins.  Something like that.  

Also, if you have your own bathtub photo that you want to clean up a bit for use on the internet, here's how it's done: load it into powerpoint, do your editing, and save the whole thing as a .jpg (save picture as).  Random little tip.  

Picky Eater

So, Timmy has turned into a picky face this week.  After getting the stomach flu and his first tooth, something switched.  He won't eat so many things that were fine before!  So frustrating!  Anyway, we are trying not to make food a fight, and just offer him good things, let him eat what he eats.  Anyone have any genius things that have helped them?

I talked to some moms tonight and they said it will get better when he stops teething.  Is that true?

Christmas, New Years, New Tooth and Barfing

So much to report!  I'll just let the pictures do most of the talking!

Here's us in the Denver airport, which we got well acquainted with, after landing there twice, and being delayed there twice in one day. The Salt Lake Airport closed and wouldn't let us land.  We all have headaches and are losing our patience here.  Don't we hide it well?
After arriving in Salt Lake, we enjoyed hanging out with our families, especially the kids!
Timmy got to enjoy Belle, the dog, at Macha's house.  He especially liked her from the highchair, where she couldn't lick him and wack him in the face with her happy tail swishing.
OK - Scott has my permission to delete this if he is so inclined, however, I had to post it because I thought it was HALARIOUS!  Sophie was kind enough to provide sleeping Scotty with a pink blankey and a bear to make his nap more enjoyable.

Snowshoeing in Red Pine.  Timmy's first snowshoeing trip!  He's all bundled up and toasty warm!
Here he is again after SLEEPING for an hour in the pack despite several tumbles as we cascaded the mountain side on our way down.  We were amazed at his ability to sleep through the bouncing and powder.

We love Utah mountains!!

Daddy definitely became the favorite parent on this trip.  Timmy just clung to him!

Here he is getting into wresting with Daddy more and more as the girls showed him the way.

This is our fond farewell to the Preliminary Exam beard.   Scott got cleaned up for the temple the next day.

We had the privilege of going to the temple for Scott's cousin Jimmy, who passed away sadly last Christmas.   Here is Scott and his mom coming out of the Jordan River Temple last Tuesday evening.

Our good friends, the Hopkins were in town as well, and we got to meet their little boy!!  What a doll!

Here's the Parker clan heading up to the cabin for an overnighter!  Macha was so nice to hike up with Timmy so he could be with the family, and take him down so he could sleep.  He had a great time that way!

Timmy really enjoyed hanging with the cousins!

Looking for moosies

Everybody loves Gwampa!

Here's Timmy,  pre-haircut, with his Macha.

Here he is, post-haircut, with me.  His hair sticks straight up when it grows out!

Grandma Parker took us all to the Discovery Gateway!  The kids had so much fun!

It was a great trip!  Great time to be with the family!  After we got home, we saw that Timmy had...

HIS FIRST TOOTH!!!  At age 13 months it was about time!!!

Then, Scott and l got a horrible stomach flu and spent many an hour feeling sorry for ourselves and missing work.  We are getting back into things now!! :)  Purell is your best friend everyone!  Keep it close by you!

-Katie