Sunday, February 14, 2010

RD is the slacker...not me.

So I've been gently trying to persuade RD to guest blog again, but he is refusing. He is much more wittier than myself but I promised several weeks ago I'd post some pictures so here goes. Here are a few of our trip to Disneyland in late September.

FYI- I did have my 2nd heart surgery on the 9th and I am doing well. The surgeon said he had never seen anything like the tunnel between my heart wall and the closure device that was put in my heart June 09 to close the ASD defect I have. He put a vascular plug in the tunnel and now it should be completely closed. Yeah for technology, no open heart surgeries! Thanks for all of the prayers and acts of service. We are so blessed.

Emery's favorite part of Disneyland...buying the $8 Minnie balloon. We should ALL buy stock in Disney. I wonder what the profit margin is on that?
Us at Laguna Beach. I'd love to live there.
So cute, 2 little cousins holding hands.

Haden found a friend from our neighborhood...what a small world (ha,ha,ha...)

Emery was always "hummy" for something...






Emery refused to get out of the stroller when meeting the characters.
My personal favorite day, was spent at the beach. It was so relaxing...
Haden did not care for the salt water taste in his mouth.
Emery didn't care for the water but spent hours building with the san.




We took Duane to a Dodger's game for his bday, it was SWEET!


That's why I married him...so SEXY!



Oh #^i*!!!



Run away, run away.





Saturday, January 16, 2010

We are lame...

I am preparing a whole bunch of pics from the last little while for RD to post tomorrow. We are sorry we are so lame at the blogging stuff. RD promises to get better. BTW-we saw AVATAR tonight and I thought the special effects were amazing but the acting and general script was cheesier that the pizza I ate during the movie. BTW#2-I'm having a 2nd heart surgery in February.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!






RD will soon post a 2009 year in review, but in the meantime we wanted to wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Disneyland...

Just thought I'd share something I observed today. So we took the kids to Disneyland and as I look back on the day I think that the happiest part of Emery's day was using the little vacuum in our condo...she is so quirky! Here is a picture of her I submitted to a Smores photo contest.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

From the mouth's of babes...


Even though you might think this is a very heartfelt seminary like devotional blog posting based on the title, it really isn't. Also, if you can't tell, Amanda's guest blogger is back because, well I don't really know why, but I'm here again. Anyway I was going through the kids' school work for the week and I happened upon this little gem. I started laughing out loud and Blakely wanted to know why and so I told her sometimes the truth just makes you laugh. Kind of like when I realized that my ears really do stick out, you just have to accept it and laugh. Anyway, the pure honesty of this paper must be shared with the world, so I have posted it here. Please enjoy the work and I will add a couple of disclaimers after.

First of all, why I'm an eagle...I don't know other than I'm bald, so it makes sense. I also think that I'm watching over them because it's hilarious to sit on the outside and watch. Now, Amanda is curious, apparently as curious and playful as a monkey....I will attest to that. I guess her arms are spread out showing she has no weapons, she surrenders, she just doesn't know what else to do or say. Emery is a chipmunk, chipmunk cheeks (check), sneaky (check), possibly carrying some unknown virus due to her affinity for dirt and grime (yet to be determined). Haden, well he needs no explanation, he definitely pesters Blakely, and he kind of laughs like Woody Woodpecker when he gets hyper. Blakely, she is kind and gentle, but I think we need to let the opposition (Haden) create a totem and see if he agrees. But it's tough to argue with a cat, especially since they can turn in a heart beat and scratch the crap out of you. Finally, Blakely must have had a free draft spot so she inserted one of her favorite cousins Machayla. Machayla loves penguins and while I have never seen her waddle I'm sure it's very curious.

Well I hope that you enjoyed this piece of art as much as I did. I do look forward to more, especially the rebuttals from Blakely's siblings.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Don't die of shock...

Amanda has hallucinated and decided that it would be a good time to have a guest "blogger", even more shocking she wanted it to be me, her portly, vociferous husband. It must be a side effect from her surgery, or maybe something that she learned when she looked death in the face. Well whatever it is, I will do as I am told because I don't want to get her worked up and after 11 years I know better than to disobey a command. So without further ado, here are my comments and musings about the latest photos that Amanda has decided to post.

Well after a couple hours of the kids interrupting our relaxing Fourth of July weekend we finally gave in and decided that we needed to find something to entertain them. After much thought we couldn't think of anything more fun on a warm summers day than a colorful piece of plastic combined with our hose. Amanda probably thinks that I enjoy the hydraulic properties of the exercise, but actually it's therapeutic to see the kids wipeout from time to time (as long as there aren't tears). In this picture Blakely executes a picture perfect knee slide while Haden fulfills his duty of pestering her in all aspects of her life and Emery shows us why big really is beautiful.

This truly is an extraordinary photo that you would normally only see in National Geographic. Here an endangered land bound Beluga Whale directs the X-Men flag football team in the execution of their next play. It's amazing that the children understand all of those squeaks, but it's no surprise that they weren't undefeated. You try playing for a whale.
Blakely did a tremendous job on her "Utah County" term project. She was assigned the illustrious county of Duchesne and after much hard work, sweat, tears, and procrastination she had a master piece. It's good to know that her parents perfection of the art of procrastination will live on.
Here is a photo of Haden with one of his all time best buddies, Jake. Jake came up with his family from Las Vegas and we had a great time (as always) visiting with them. If you wonder where Jake gets those good looks please notice his father Matt, the pater familia sunning himself just to the right.
Here Blakely enjoys a satisfying moment with one of her all time best buddies, Tori (Jake's sister). They are both smiling so either Jake and Haden have both suffered in some way, or judging by Blakely's far off gaze it's not far off in her mind.
Blakely and Tori again, big smiles, focused straight ahead, mission accomplished.
You might be wondering why Emery is looking out the window...is her mom or dad coming home? Is the ice cream truck in the neighborhood? Well no, it's one of her favorite times of the week, the garbage truck is here to take the trash. I love the simple pleasures of little kids.
Kayden and Haden, dynamic duo from this years Pee Wee Marlins and future partners in crime. Let's just hope I'm not speaking literally.
Blakely's piano recital was great as always, but she played the best that she ever has. It seems the piano gods smiled upon her that day.
As I have already said, big is beautiful especially when you're talking about Emery's cheeks. She has more than her daddy wrapped around her little finger, but we all know she loves me best.

Amanda is truly a gifted photographer, especially when you look at this photo and know what a turd Haden was being that morning. He is a good looking kid, even with the West Virginia Hillbilly smile. He gets his looks from his mom.

Well it looks like my gig is up. I did enjoy rambling on to the anonymous masses that may or may not read this. Please don't hold it against Amanda that I took over this week, it must be the drugs...dang Plavix.