Kiddos Pics

So here are just some random pics of our cute kids. Sarah and Nathan play very well together, generally, and Nathan copies just about anything that Sarah says in her "excited" voice. Sarah adores Jane and Nathan is beginning to clue into the fact that he has a little sister and is starting to show her more attention. Sarah loves to show Jane attention and to hold her, which is great, though her interest in this seems to increase particularly when it's time to go to bed, or clean up, naturally. Jane rolls over all the time and seems to enjoy spending time on her tummy when there's people to watch around her. When she's fed and well-rested, it's adorable to watch her on her tummy with her head high tracking Sarah and Nathan as they play around her. She's also starting to reach out to things and twist around on her tummy. Here are some pics:

Sarah loves to hold Jane this way and Jane generally likes it as well. Sarah doesn't like to do this when Jane spits up or slobbers. They're pretty cute to watch like this, especially if Jane's happy.

Sarah absolutely loves to color and draw. Here she is teaching Jane the ropes. And anything that Sarah does, Nathan likes to mimic!

Sarah goes to school now everyday, which has been an adjustment for Nathan. He looks pretty bored in this picture looking at a book by himself, but he's actually adjusted quite well. Mary says that often this is her most productive time of the day as Nathan is frequently very willing to play quietly by himself while Sarah is gone (we love that about both Sarah and Nathan). This isn't always the case of course, but it's great when it happens. He's always very excited to pick up Sarah though when it's time.

Air Force Air Show

Every year the Mountain Home Air Force Base hosts an Air-Show. Last year we didn't go (I can't remember why) but this year we kind of decided to head out there and take advantage of it. We were really glad that we went. When a town of 12,000 people draws 60,000 people in a two-day span... it must be an event worth seeing. Going to it is free and the Thunderbirds come and participate, which is always really exciting. The weather was gorgeous and it was a lot of fun. The Thunderbirds were so exhilirating to watch, we were just at awe of their sheer power, speed and precision. The kids got bored of their act pretty quick, but I could have watched them for quite a while. We also ran into the Angerbauer's, so we hung out with them and were provided with details of some of the planes that you could go into that were parked from both Mark and their boy Tyler (always full of knowledge!). It was a great time. With the really hot sun and the crowd being out on the runway, shade was at a premium, so everyone was gathered underneath the different planes that were parked for tours and we were fortunate to find a good spot.

Here they are screaming over head... it was hard to catch a good pic of these with our camera, but this works.
This one was cool because he was going really slow and keeping his plane at a vertical slant while not ascending but continuing to go parallel to the ground. It was noisy and looked really cool.
Here are Sarah, Nathan and I in front of some big plane. The kids were exhausted at the end of the show and we still had a long walk, then a short bus ride, then a long walk to find our car. That part of the show was not very fun. Plus there was the long waits in the car lines to get out of the parking lot (think decent-size town Firework show)... it took forever and the kids were hot, dusty and tired... good combo.
While we were exiting the Air Force Base, Nathan, who was eating raisins, started putting up a stink about his nose... yep, that's where he had lodged a raisin. We pulled over and Mary couldn't get to it with her finger, so we had to make sure Nathan didn't play with it during our 15-minute drive home (The AFB is about 15 mins outside of the town of Mt Home). We were able to keep him occupied until we got home. Did we get it out? Yep... evidence below:
It was a screaming fit to pin him down so we could remove the raisin with tweezers. But we were successful without a Doc visit. I remember that I crammed a huckleberry up my nose when I was younger.

LIfe is Precious

I don't post from work on this blog... typically. I just don't know what else to do right now. This morning, I was looking at who had blogged recently and saw that my friend's 15-month old son, Evan, passed away yesterday morning and that both he (Tymon) and his wife (Bridget) had blogged about it to inform people. I'm just sitting here at work balling and wishing I was a better parent and took advantage of each precious moment with my 3 little ones that I love so much but don't always appreciate from moment-to-moment. As a parent, you realize on some level that something like this could happen to one of your kids, but you obviously can't live in a constant state of worry and fear and protectiveness and you have to live with the belief that this won't happen to you (a good and generally healthy defense mechanism). Even though I know that my family (and, fortunately, my friend's) is an eternal one due to the nature of our marriage in the Seattle Temple, a loss like this would be extremely devastating. I work with trauma of all kinds on a daily basis at work, so I know that life goes on but is typically never really the same. I know that such would be the case for me.

While I can't quote it off-hand, I often remember Neal A. Maxwell discussing trials and difficulties and talking about how it often feels that these experiences carve out spaces in our souls. He went on to say that that new space often makes greater room for added love, compassion and empathy for others. I know that Tymon and Bridget will have an added measure of love to show to their three other children (soon to be four as Bridget is expecting their first daughter) in the long-run as they move through this loss of their little Evan.

Any prayers or thoughts in their behalf would obviously be greatly appreciated. I know I'll hug my little ones a little longer and have a little more meaning when I tell them of my love for them tonight. God be with you Bridget, Tymon, Graeden, Elliott, and Jett (as well as Jovana).

Sarah's First Day of Kindergarten

It's still crazy to me that we have a Kindergartner! Sarah absolutely loves it and looks forward to it each day. She's in the AM half of the class and I think we have to wake her up about 15 minutes earlier then she would like. It's a bit of a scramble every morning to get Sarah off to school by 8:30, but it seems to be going well. Mary is enjoying her more focused time with Nathan, and he seems to be benefitting (read: talking somewhat coherently and a little bit more) from the added attention and tutoring. Sarah's teacher, Mrs. Murphy, seems really great with the kids and has over 20 yrs experience teaching. Sarah, who's not used to using Mr. or Mrs. with people, will often refer to her as "Murphy", which I always laugh about. Mary has discouraged me from telling Sarah to refer to her as "Murph" or "Murph-Dog", which I've been able to restrain myself from. We're happy with things so far and Sarah seems to really enjoy it. The routine board has been helpful for Sarah taking responsibility of getting ready each day on her own(though it's certainly been far from perfect!).

Sarah's very conscientious about her manners at school (at least we taught her something... even if it isn't always applied in the privacy of her home... neither are some of our parenting beliefs :*). Anyway, she will often come home and tell something to Mary about another student at school, ie: "Mom, there's a boy in my class named Nathan, just like my brother Nathan" or "Tayah was there today, Mom" (a friend from church). Mary will often then ask "did you talk to them" or something along those lines. Sarah will tersely reply: "No Mom! That would be interrupting!" Oh yeah, what was Mom thinking! It's pretty cute. Anyway, just the beginning of a long road for us and her!

Become a Follower

I know, it doesn't sound that great or that inspirational. Yea! Be A Follower! Kind of lame, I know.
But this is different! Blogger now has this new feature that is pretty cool and allows you to see who actually is a "follower" of your actual blog. If your name/blog appears on my bloglist to the right then I have already done my work to become a follower on your blog. All you have to do is add the widget/gadget which is accessible under your "Layout" icon and then you just select the "add a gadget" icon and then you click the "Followers" icon and... viola, you're a follower. Join the club. I like how blogger is helping this thing to do some of the cool social networking stuff, but not all of the other stuff from those sites that I find somewhat lame.

------------------------------ 30 ---------------------------------

So I turned 30 recently. It's kind of weird for me to realize that I'm that old. Not that it's that old, it's just a lot older than I like to picture myself. I, like many others (I believe), still talk to teens as if "I was just in your shoes" and now I actually agree that they should respond with a lot of skepticism... I'm twice their age (more or less)... I'm twice as old as almost all new freshmen in High School. It's somewhat depressing. Anyway, it's not really that big of a deal, but I will honestly say that I am more aware that I am older now that I'm 30 then I was with any other preceeding birthday.... like when I think "I'm 30", the word "old" or at least "older" comes to mind more readily then before.

Some things that help this... It feels good when I stop to shoot hoops with a teen (at work or if I'm on a jog and stop to shoot with a kid's family I home teach down the street) and they're somewhat impressed with my ball skills. Recently when I went waterskiing with the youth in my church, they were surprised to see me getting on a wakeboard behind a boat. Not knowing me very well, I apparently "wowed" them when I cleared the wake after getting right up. I honestly felt pretty cool with that one. Something else that helps (though I don't know if it's good or not): I generally look older than I actually am. If you doubt this, check out this previuos post. So I think people think I'm an old guy that can do "younger guy" things, so it's nice when I get some props for stuff like that (is "getting props" an old or a young term?)

Some things that I thought were weirdly coincidental: When I had my birthday, I only had 10 clients at work and I shared the same birthday with TWO of them. That's weird right? And then I was sitting in a meeting with a family and it turns out I shared a birthday with one of my client's step-dad's. Weird.

Something else that is cool: I share a birthday with the new President of our Church: Thomas S. Monson! I'm 51 years younger than him! Cool.

FYI

I have been busy and gone a bunch recently (blogs to follow) so I haven't been able to update my own blog yet. Additionally, I haven't been commenting much recently, for the most part. Just so you know I have read your blog (if you have a link to the right) and caught up as of a few minutes ago. Thanks for continuing to post your stuff and to read mine!