Pre-Halloween dilemma

Halloween season is hard around our house. (I didn't know it was already Halloween season, but Teri informed me that it was.) One of the main dilemmas in the Keller household is what we should be for "All-hallow-even." Nothing like celebrating the sixth most profitable holiday (or one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent). Anyways, Teri is gung-ho about Halloween this year and especially what the options are for Crew. So far we have two pretty good options. The first is a cross between Grandpa Keller and Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his Mister Universe days.

"Howdy, ma'am, dawgone it. C'd yo' show me th' way t'th' bunkhouse? ah need t'git me mah spurs an' lasso fo' th' roun'up. Do yo' happen t'knows when they will be servin' th' grub? By th' way ma'am, hyar's a li'l piece of advice: Nevr approach a bull fum th' front, a horse fum th' rear, o' a fool fum enny direckshun."

This next series of pictures is the second costume option. At first I thought that a bee costume was only for sissies. But then I started thinking, bees are pretty tough. You pretty much don't want to mess around with a bee. I guess a bee costume would be okay for Crew to wear (this once).

This is a picture of Crew's face, just after he learned that somebody was "messin' with his hive." You never mess with another man's hive, I guess. His mom even had to hold him back.

And this is when we told Crew that he was exempt from cleaning the toilets, and that it was Jett and Wynn that had toilet duty.

Crew just learned that he can't have honey until he is older than 1 year.

Wynn's "At-Home-Losing-A-Tooth-Surgery"

Wynn has had a tooth that he has been passionately wiggling the past few days in hopes he would have a tooth to present to the tooth fairy this weekend. You remember being a kid, having a tooth seem loose, and wiggling it until it actually was loose. Well, that was Wynn this weekend. He wanted to get that three dollar bill from the tooth fairy. We told him a two dollar bill was the closest he would get, although he might even get a nickel. He was even more excited about the nickel. Finally, today after church, he had wiggled it the the point that it probably was actually loose.

When the loose tooth was confirmed loose by our family dentist, (We'll give her a fictitous name-Teri), Wynn decided he wanted to try the "plier method." It is a method often used by parents to tease their children (and by dentists using methods originating in the Revolutionary War). So we located an old pair of pliers for the occasion. We made sure they were plenty rusty or it wouldn't work just right. (See enlarged picture).

As with most surgeries, large amounts of gauze and blood-soaking material were needed. However, no anesthesia was needed, the tooth came out, and Wynn was as excited as could be.

Now all that was left to do was prepare the tooth for showing to friends by soaking it in a glass of dihydrogen oxide. And smiling for the camera. Thanks for doubling as a dentist, Mom!

Good Times

Once again, Teri exhorted me to post more pictures. Here it goes.

Everytime Rook gets in trouble and cries, he says, with big alligator tears, "I want my Grandma!" So the other day we said fine, we will ship you to your Grandma. We found a box that seemed to work nicely. Every couple of days, Rook liked to climb into the box to "testfit" it to make sure that when the shipping day came, he would still fit. Problem. There was only room for Rook and not a couple days worth of Poptarts. So Cannon, being the good brother that he is, said he would "make that box a little bigger, even if I have to talk dirty to it!" Well, here is Cannon "talking dirty" to that box.

So's dere ah' wuz. At da sweet neighbo'hood bike rally. Slap mah fro! All de cute goats wuz dere t'see mah' sweet ride and check out mah' skills. ah' figured ah' betta' do whut de big boys do t'impress oders, so's I showed dem mah' underwear. Ah be baaad... ah' dink it wo'ked. ah' gots some few rap rod numbers.

A direct quote from Rook: "Holy crap! Sweet Transmogrifer! The most stunning machine made out of one of America’s finest raw materials: corrugated cardboard! With the Transmogrifer we can turn anything into anything else! Even make the Rockies have a real Gold Rush, or even make our water pure, and our air breathable and unpolluted!"

Wynn was trying to help out his mother one day figure out how to get Cannon to quit licking Crew's head. they didn't know why it happened, it just happened. Maybe there was a little maple syrup on it. Maybe he thought that because cats lick themselves for bathing purposes, he was giving Crew a bath. Maybe it was a puppy kiss. Whatever it was, it just wasn't coming to them. Wynn came up with a better idea. "Mom, we should put our heads together!"

Nothing better than a Sunday nap.

Response to Dave's Comment

So, Dave previously posted this comment: "Post some more pics eh...it's been like a week...what are you guys on vacation or, like, tending to your 5 boys or something". Is that even a sentence? Like okay already. It is not like we have only one kid or something.

First of all, I've been working out. But I've been getting these little black hairs all over me and this craving for bananas. Teri describes it this way: Gary eats, shoots, and leaves.

A trip to the zoo is always in order before school starts. Our zoo likes to bronze the dangerous animals, as shown here.

Rook and Cannon have lately been obsessed with hot-rods and mustangs. In this picture, Rook just saw a mustang.

Crew smiling.

Crew being kissed. Our kids love to kiss Crew on the head. In fact, Cannon told me that less than 37 kisses in one setting just doesn't cut it.

Yesterday was the first day of school for Jett and Wynn. Jett will be in the third grade and Wynn will be in the first grade. Rook and Cannon are heading off to school next week, but of course had to join Jett and Wynn.

For the new school year, Jett and Wynn received new backpacks embroidered with their names on the back. Kids nowdays sure are spoiled. I was lucky to get a brown paper sack from Waremart in which to carry my books.

This is the final neighborhood bike rally before school started. Teri wanted to label this as "Cannon is the man."

Other Important Life Skills

Other life skills, besides diving in the previous post, include vacuuming, mowing the lawn, and synthetic cheese cutting. Wynn has recently developed the excellent skill of using his armpit to synthetically cut the cheese. I'm not sure where he learned his new-found skill, but I am not complaining. I like it much better than the alternative because there are no side effects, such as gas pains, embarassing sounds, and probably most important, unpleasant odors.

On a happier note, here is a pretty good picture of Crew smiling.

Passive Babe Trolling

This is the epitome of passive babe trolling. Hanging out at the pool by your mom and brothers, acting like you're not interested in anyone, and showing off your tanned, muscley body. But making sure everybody knows you have skills, evidenced by the diving mask. Nothing better than being able to dive for stuff. The good life.

Another good technique, not quite as passive, is grabbing your infant brother and displaying him. It is a proven technique in attracting babes (grown-up babes).

And here is Wynn and Jett at the Hanscom park swimming pool practicing those life skills discussed earlier. Like diving for clams and pearls and diamonds on the sea floor.

The Waterskiing resurrection

Teri has been "patiently encouraging" me to post these pictures of our waterskiing outing this past weekend. A friend of ours recently bought a house south of Omaha in a private community with lakefront houses. They invited us to go waterskiing for the evening on Friday. Here is the "barometer of fun" - Wynn's smile. (And the matted hair.)

Here is another "barometer of fun" - self portraits. As always, there must be a self portrait. It is a good one isn't it?

Jett acted as the flagger. He wasn't kept very busy until I tried to ski, which is in the next picture.

I can waterski on two skis really well. And I can drop one ski. But I have never been able to get up on one ski and slalom. But I tried and succeeded. But this isn't the time I succeeded. Here, I was in the process of going down into a watery grave.

But the next time, I came up out of the water and finally got up. It was like a "waterskiing resurrection."

And here I am crossing the wake and cutting some sweet roostertails. Well, at least crossing the wake.

Here is Teri and Rook being happy as always.

And Cannon with his wind-swept hair and his beach-bum-blond hair.

Towards the end of the evening, everybody jumped in the boat and went for a ride - even Crew. I think he had a blast because he didn't cry once.

Cannon took a picture of bliss

We like to let our kids take pictures with the camera because they are often able to catch more candid shots than when an adult is taking the picture. I think Cannon captured these shots. I think I am going to name this first one "Bliss I."

And this picture I name "Bliss II."

The old car, the new car

Well, after 10+ years of no air conditioning, we decided it was time for a new car. We are sad to sell the red car because it has served us very well and has been easy to become emotionally involved with. As you can see, our boys will dearly miss the car. We sold it for a nominal price to our neighbor's sister-in-law's husband. It was a little sad to see it go evidenced by Rook when he cried a little when it was driven away. Isn't it amazing how we get emotionally attached to our cars?

This is our new emotional attachment. It has air conditioning and it is a race car. Sweet!

Flight of the Conchords

Good stuff

Summer Fun

We are teaching our sons the joy of extreme sports. Cannon has really grasped the concept of Nebraska cliff jumping.

For all of you Crew watchers, here is a picture of Crew chillin'.

Those Keller boys really enjoy a hearty dinner. We told Rook we were having steak that night and asked him how big he wanted his steak. This is how big he wanted it.

It is all the rage to go to the neighborhood sprinkler parks in the summer. That way, it is easy to wash off all the sand from the playground next door. This is a playground at a nearby sprinkler park. We still found sand in the bottom of the bathtub at the end of the day.

Jett has been working on his tan this summer. Can you tell?

Harry Potter has been popular at our house these past few weeks. Jett is already halfway through the fourth book. He has been teaching Wynn a few spells. Like the one he is using here: Wingardium aqualeviosa!

The Wild Life

Ah, yes, the self portrait. And the self portrait of you with your child singing your praises. Actually, this was the best one, one of the few where Crew wasn't grimacing or wondering what in tarnation was going on. He probably still wondered what in tarnation was going on, but we all usually do.

As many of you may know, we have quite the assortment of wildlife that comes to visit us. This week we snapped these pictures of a whitetail buck from our front room. Ah scooted t'git th' rifle so we c'd haf us some venison stew. But t'no avail, ah reckon, as enny fool kin plainly see. We inded up wifout venison stew.

Two Days, Two Posts, One Record

This picture was taken yesterday. The onesie says it all.

Here is Crew in a very deep thought process. It went something like this: Mmm, that last bottle was good. Is that a new bottle on the nightstand? Mmm, food.

This picture is a few weeks old. We recently visited friends in North Platte, Nebraska and visited the local swimming pool. Some sweet photography skills by yours truly caught some diving action by Jett. He is the fish in the family. I think he is a marlin. Marlins are cool, aren't they? This is also the trip that I put sunscreen on too late and my whole upper torso peeled for a week. Good times.