Guilty As Charged

Songbirds

Someone tell me...at what point will it get easier to have them all do something at the same time? Love how Alex is lagging about 7 beats behind the other two the whole song.

Real post coming soon(ish), with all sorts of random happenings and photographs. The Studer blogging machine seems to have lost most of its steam, but I am hopeful that nicer weather will bring a fresh dose of inspiration. Or at least the chance to go outside.

Let's Take a Moment: Shameless Plug

For those of you who don't know, my youngest brother Nate & his lovely bride Alissa are part of a band called Scattered Trees. Their 3rd album was just released yesterday, and for a month, they are giving away the whole album FREE!!!! Their first two albums are available on iTunes, and this one will be eventually. But check them out! Here's a link to the free downloads with a word from Nate:

http://scatteredtrees.bandcamp.com/album/sympathy?autoplay=true

I don't know if many of you were aware that Scattered Trees was recording another release. Well, it's finished.

I want to let you in on some of what the album means to me. Before I do, I have to say that I think music is in one of it's most powerful forms when it starts belonging to the listener. When it's just you, the music, and what it means to you. Somewhere it becomes yours. Sometimes we share with others what a song means to us, other times it's just too deep. This is what the record is to me. If these songs find a place in what's going on in your life please let them become your own.

For the most part these songs are about my Father who passed away last August. The album is full of conversations I had, or wish I had, with him. Some of the songs deal with the inevitable emotional shit holes we climb out of when we go through something as final as the death of someone we love. This record is full of the heaviness of honesty in times like these. It is a look into my grieving process.

We are going to try something risky. We are going to give the record away for a month. We want to ask you to please spread this record around as much as you can. Go ahead and give it away. Right now Scattered Trees needs you to help us make as many new fans as possible. We need new people at our shows more than we need the money in your itunes account. I hope you enjoy the record. It's called Sympathy.

See you at the shows,

Nate

To Satisfy Your Adorable Quotient for Today

Staying Afloat

Many apologies for the long lapse in posting. Life at the Studer house has been anything but boring the last few weeks. The picture above is of our basement, and yes, that is an inch of water covering the floor. This is our first spring in Huron, and what a wonderful initiation to the flat plains of East Central South Dakota we have received. Massive amounts of snow this winter melting in a short period does not make for a great situation, and we are now the proud owners of an in-house wading pool!

Chris was out of town for work when the water problems started, so thanks to some wonderful friends and their giant Shop-Vac (Hi, Justin & Allison!), we got the carpet ripped up and started the water removal process. Our problem seems to be of the seeping-water variety, so despite our almost daily use of the Shop-Vac, by the next morning we are greeted with an inch of water lining the floor again. The waterproofing contractors have been out for an estimate, and they are confident that the problem is fixable (at no small cost, of course!) but since this is their busiest season, they cannot return to fix it until April 19th! So we continue to plug away with the Shop-Vac and thank the good Lord that 95% of the stuff in the basement was just Rubbermaid totes full of baby clothes. Seriously, if I ever meet the person who invented those things, I just might kiss him/her right on the mouth. And although this would not have been our method of choice to inspire a full-scale basement remodel, we will certainly not be sad to see the nasty dark wood paneling go far, far away. There was only one room of the basement that was carpeted, the remainder was just concrete-floor storage space.

And when we're not busy removing water from the basement, we are busy dealing with this...

Yes, that's right, he can fully escape the crib on his own. Full-fledged battles of the will occur daily at naptime and bedtime, and I am confident that Alex will soon learn that Mommy means business! What's funny about this is that every time he climbs out of the crib, he gets a swat on the behind. And Maguire is there to provide colorful commentary EVERY SINGLE TIME. When Alex cries after a spanking: "Alex, he's very sad, Mommy." Or, "Is it ouchy, Alex?" Or my personal favorite, "You gotta learn, Alex!" Good stuff.

Maguire, surely spouting his knowledge on the evils of crib escape.

And here's some other random pictures, just to amuse and satisfy the grandparents...

Lord, Help Us!

I am SO not ready for them to give up naptime! The little monsters darlings just turned two!

Winter. I'm Officially Over It.

So this is a picture of one of the drifts in our backyard. We've got piles of snow like this all over our yard, easily 4 feet deep in some places, courtesy of the lovely SD wind and snow. Doesn't make it very easy to play outside with your children when the drifts are twice as tall as they are!

The other day we (finally!) hit a stretch of warmer temperatures with not much wind, so we headed outside to play. The boys were both a little skeptical, and pretty much bawled through the entire getting-ready portion. Chris suggested that maybe, just maybe, Maguire was crying because he had to wear Ellie's hand-me-down powder blue snowpants, but I beg to differ.

Little dude rocked those baby blue pants.

Once we got outside, they had a blast.

We made snowballs...

And taught the boys the finer points of catching snowflakes on your tongue....

This is the view of our front yard and street. Since we took this picture we've had no less than 4-6 more inches of snowfall. There's our lonely giant Christmas card still buried in the yard. Maybe by May, the snow will melt enough for us to take it down.

The kiddos were having so much fun playing outside that we decided to go sledding at THE hill in Huron. Really, there is one hill in this town. It's pitiful. When we go over a highway overpass these days, our children all scream with delight "Wheeee! It's a hill." Seriously. Pitiful.

The boys were much braver than I expected they'd be, and took turns piling on the sled with Chris or Ellie. Maguire took a flying faceplant off the sled one time, but he jumped right back up to get on again.

There they are, waaaaaay down at the bottom of the hill (on the far right).

Poor Chris, I think he hauled kids up and down that hill for an hour. My feelings were only the teeniest bit hurt when they all wanted to ride with Daddy every time.

But I'm pretty sure I got over it.