Joel's Random Ramblings

While Mommy's Away....

2010-04-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

The Kiddos play.... (click on any pic to enlarge it)...

The Sometimes Scary Christmas Experience

2010-01-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

Don't worry folks, Emrie really loves Christmas....

Nerf Warrior Emrie

2010-01-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

There's something so cute about a little girl (who only ever plays with dolls and dresses) when she discovers how cool her brothers guns are...

Trimming the Tree

2009-12-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

This is a little long...but I was lazy and didn't feel like editing this down. We had lots of fun picking out our tree pigging out on cookies and egg nog while putting up ornaments and lights. This is the first year that Emrie has any clue what's going on...pretty magical.

Halloweenies

2009-11-12T15:04:00.000-08:00

I know Halloween was ages ago, but better late than never, right?

Carl Sagan Autotuned

2009-10-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

This is so very awesome. This guy has taken actual audio of Sagan and several other astrophysicists and tuned their voices into a very cool song.

Also I found one for Billy Mays...

Ghosts from Halloweens Past

2009-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

Went back through some old Halloween pics. Good times.

In 2008 Emrie was a princess (of course), Heather was Super Girl (she went through several variations on her costume, this final version is the only one I'm allowed to post pictures of), I was a snowboard bum, Mason was a skeleton and Gabe was Gandalf the Gray.

In 2007 the boys were bats (or maybe cats??), Heather was a very scary witch, I was William Wallace (not the Mel Gibson mullet version) and Emrie was just Emrie for some reason.

Ok actually looks like Emrie was a Lion that year. I'm guessing she didn't like the suit so we had to take it off of her in the above picture.

Here's Gabe as a Construction Guy in 2003 (I refuse to believe that we would have dressed our son up as Bob the Builder).

In 2004 Heather was a Doo-wop Girl, the boys were soldiers and I was a stick in the mud.

In 2005 the boys little were punkins. Can't wait to show this one to their girlfriends once they start dating.

In 2006 Emrie was a bunnie.

Motivational Churchill Quotes

2009-10-07T14:26:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite sites, artofmanliness.com posted a bunch of Winston Churchill quotes and turned them into motivational posters. You can view them here. Very awesome.

Grandpa Lytle's Visit

2009-10-06T22:49:00.001-07:00

Grandpa Lytle came to visit for a couple days. We ate lots of stuff, played with the kids and watched General Conference. Awesome.

G-dubs turns 9

2009-09-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

My Gabe turns 9 this Saturday. He's such a good boy and it's been so fun watching him throughout the years become the good natured, honest and kind kid that he is. Here is a picture of him from every year of his life. Where on earth does time go?

My First Lasagna

2009-09-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

I made my first lasagna last week. Followed a recipe from epicurious.com. It was actually not half bad. The kids um, really loved it too. Especially the spinach I put in the ricotta.

I am pretty...

2009-09-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

So Emrie cornered me as I was trying to clean her room and she asked me, "You wanna be pretty daddy?". Apparently I did not have a choice as there were razor-sharp hairclips entering my scalp before I could utter a response. I am a hideous girl.

Emrie as Belle

2009-09-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

Creamy Ground Hog

2009-09-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

Warning: This is a Lytle inside joke. If you're not a Lytle and you don't get this, don't worry you are not alone.

There is no denying it. Heather is a Creamy Ground Hog. We went to our little fancy grocery store to get some ice cream tonight (along with a huge "Killer Brownie" and a "Chocolate Chip Crazy Cookie"). As you can see there was plenty of opportunity for the creamy groundhog to emerge, but it got pretty crazy when Heather spotted a container of Caramel Cone Crunch ice cream.

I got her on audio but by then she was covering up the creaminess and was only semi-creamy:

The Lone Lemon

2009-09-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

I bought a dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree for Heather's birthday this year. We soon found out that they are very high maintenance and require lots of love. The tree had pretty much died a few months ago because of over watering with too little sun. I took some drastic measures to revive it and it seems to be paying off as we have our first sign of lemony goodness happening. One single solitary lemon has started to grow.

Meyer Lemon trees are neat because they are supposed to be able to bear fruit all year long. We'll see about that... I'm just glad it's alive.

Good Times with the Blairs

2009-09-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

So Warner, Debbie and Serena rocked Ohio last week. Good times had by all. Evidence below...

The Pretty Twirl

2009-09-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

The shrubs were were so beautiful I couldn't contain my inner dancer, um nor apparently could I contain my happy little inner girl. Notice how I bossed Heather out of my way so I could perform? Yea, that was my inner Diva.

The Many Faces of Our Love

2009-08-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ancient Flashback

2009-08-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Had a flashback yesterday of when Heather and I were dating. Actually the flashback was of the 4.5 hour drive from Rexburg to Provo that I did every weekend during Fall sememster 1998. Lots of alone time on the road washing Twizzlers down with Mountain Dew. This picture would have been taken during that period.

Monkies Destroy Stuff

2009-08-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

So Serena caught me on video chasing the kids whilst pretending I was an out of control monkey. It's pretty scary stuff. I quickly turned on the camera just as any wild animal would do and ended up breaking a glass and feeling like idiot. But that's just how I roll... Monkey Style.

The Princess in Her Element

2009-08-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

Heather and I took the kids to Wegerzyn Garden (our favorite spot here in Dayton) with Heather's parents and Serena while they were out here last week. Emrie has learned how to pose and be "cute" for the camera, which of course makes me want to take as many pictures of her as I can. Here are a few I took on my iPhone.

"Personal blogs are really for girls anyway... right? "

2009-08-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

So about 5 years ago I started my own blog hoping that it would serve as a nice place for family and friends to check-in and see what our little family was up to. I updated it every so often with pictures and video. After realizing that keeping a blog was a bit of an undertaking and with the discovery of Facebook and other social networking sites (which made this process easier and in some ways more enjoyable) I retired the blog and decided it was time to move on... besides personal blogs are really for girls anyway...right?

Well, I've had a change of heart. Facebook, while so much easier, ends up being a lot colder and impersonal than the blog medium. It is the well oiled, social networking machine of our day and I will continue to use it. However, there is something special about keeping a blog that makes it feel like I am sitting down and writing a letter to friends (though it's been so long since I've actually handwritten a letter to anyone I'm surprised I even know what that feels like).

So with that, I'm not promising daily posts, or even weekly for that matter, but I have a pretty great family and hey, a guy needs to brag every now and then.