Gaming

Mary and I are really into Gaming.... Board Gaming that is. We ultimately thank our good friends Kari and Adam for both introducing us to the board gaming world and then being such willing participants in our gaming fun. For about a year and a half we lived across the hall in an apartment complex from Kari and Adam and would put our kids to sleep and then assemble at someone's apartment to play games. It was so much fun and so convenient with kids: a rare mixture as you parents know. We've introduced our families to some of these games and were excited to see how they caught on. We started with Settlers of Catan with Kari and Adam and learned Carcassone (with some fun expansions) from Tim and Mindy.

We then learned Ticket to Ride from a family at Church and then played it religiously (The Europe version) with Kari and Adam when we went to SLC to visit them.

We have since found a family from Church here that is into games and we've gotten together with them on several occasions to play games with them and kept our kids up way too late doing so. We've played all three of the games mentioned above with them and then they got a new game over the Thanksgiving break and now we're hooked. I'm itching to play Alhambra again with them and want the game myself. Feel free to send it. Anyway, if you know of these games and know of other similar ones let me know about them, cause I love this kind of stuff! Other simpler games that we enjoy: Sequence, Mexican Train Dominoes, Greed, "Mormon Bridge", Candyland (Sarah), Trouble (Sarah), and looking for more in all categories.

The Bearded Hammy

Okay, so I grew a beard for the first time in ......... forever. I stopped shaving on the Tues before Thanksgiving and then didn't shave again until Dec 2nd before Church... a good 12 days growth or so. It was a clean and trim beard and I shaved the neck area as well as some of the lower cheek regions. Frankly, I was pretty prowd of it. I haven't had any deliberately planned facial hair since high school so it was fun to have for a while and I was really sad to shave it off. I thought it was a pretty good lookin' beard. But looking at the one pic posted on here and the two that were deleted just doesn't do it justice. Then again, I think that my inflated self-image may have been misrepresenting the studleyness of my beard. Maybe there was never justice to be meted out in the first place. Not only that but the pics only look like a goat-tee unless you look really close. This beard was definitely a point of pride for me while it lasted. Anyway, I enjoyed it while I had it, all the while knowing and looking forward to blogging about it. I know, I know, it doesn't look blog-worthy, but come on, most things aren't any. So say what you want, cause I'm proud of my short lived (and short grown apparently) beard. Next time I'll have to get better pics, because I'm sure that the problem was the camera, not the object.

Big Boy Bed!!

Nathan moved into a big boy bed recently and so we documented the occasion. He was pretty excited to come into his room to see his porta-crib replaced by a fully made bed the size of his big sister's. He seemed pretty excited (mostly because we were!) but seemed frustrated by having to use a stool to get onto his bed, though I can't blame him cause I would be as well. Mary has worked really hard on his room and when it's finished we'll post some pics of her creativity-expressed through Nathan's room decor.



















One of these pics isn't very great, but it's pretty cute to see two kids so excited to scream "CHEEEEEEEEEESE". If you can't tell from the pics, Tex (Nathan's bear, typically just called "Bear") is pretty ecstatic about the new pad as well. P.S. could that pacifier be any brighter.

Sarah's Creative Outlet

Alright folks - it's Mary here - and I feel very prompted to blog something so as to bump the wonderfully hideous image of Evil Knievil from the very top of our family blog - Yikes Jeff!!! - what will people think??? Actually, I have been wanting to blog as well, but it seems that Jeff always get to a topic first and when I am on the computer - I am usually working. As many of you know - our little Sarah has an artistic side that doesn't come from either Jeff or I - she loves to color and draw and does so on a daily basis. Sometimes she feels very lazy about it and just scribbles across the page and calls it done and other times she is very slow and meticulous (she has cried more than once when she decides she used the wrong color somewhere and there is no way to fix it - it's usually black). Anyway, I thought I would attach a picture she drew this morning of her cousins Ruby and Alice (Ruby just turned 5!! and Alice recently turned 2). Notice the smile on Ruby's face and the frown on Alice's. Alice has an endearing and sometimes very obnoxious way to say "please","I want that", or "now" with a very distinct shriek - she has greatly improved over the last 6 months or so - but Sarah seems not to have noticed since this is how she always remebers her. She rarely refers to Alice without calling her "Crazy Alice" or "Ali-Bear - she's Crazy." Both Ruby and Alice have 4 fingers and a dark blot which represents their thumbs - which is an upgrade from yesterday's rendition which only included 3 fingers and a thumb - we'll see what tomorrow brings :) I also attached a picture she colored this morning - this was one of her semi-lazy and partially meticulous projects which of course involves many colors. Enjoy!

"Superman just doesn't die, right?"

Even thought the statement above is a little misplaced since the Christopher Reeves tragedy, it was said today by Billy Rundle, referring to his long time friend, Evel Knievel. "America's legendary daredevil" (according to the Smithsonian), Evel Knievel died today at the age of 69. A hero for some, an icon for others and just plain PSYCHO for the rest of us. Seriously, look at some of the videos on Youtube of this guy, he was crazy! He broke nearly 40 different bones in his career, and on one jump at Caesar's Palace in Vegas he cleared the 151 feet, but the crash landing put him in a coma for nearly a month. He tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in a jet propulsion motorcycle ("Skycycle") but had a malfunction which landed him in the canyon itself. He was pretty cool, though. He used to run a motorcycle dealership and would give discounts to guys that could beat him in armwrestling. "Over the Top", baby! This guy was crazy, but it's sad that he passed away today.

Metroblogger?

Okay, so in college I heard the term "metrosexual" which I understand is a male who is really trendy in what he does/wears and spends as much time worrying about what he looks like as an average diva would (some people might consider Braden a metrosexual because he spends a ridiculous amount of time in front of the mirror and generally getting ready for his day [Amanda, has that changed or can I get an "AMEN"] but Braden's clothing choice and the recent pics posted on Amanda's blog might state otherwise, but he's had glimpses of a metrosexual image). I've also heard this "metro" prefix added to other things to denote a male who does things that typically only women do. While in some ways I would like to be able to dress trendy and cool, I'm just not interested in spending the time and could really care less what 60 teenagers think of me when I go to work or what I look like when I run an errand to Wal-Mart. But, since I have been in the blogger world I have realized there is a rare few of us males that blog. I'm really into this blogging thing and find myself searching for fun reasons to take pictures of something or have a cool experience that I can blog about. I also love looking at others blogs and looking at their links to track down other people that I might know that are blogging. And each time I got to a site that might be labeled "The Merwins" or "Braden and Amanda's blog" or something I go there with the knowledge that although the blog is representative of their family or that couple, it is written by the female. This goes without fail. Please find me someone else that you know that has a family blog that is written by the male. Also, do women find it awkward to post comments on a males blog? Seriously, just cause I'm a metroblogger, doesn't mean I have to be shunned from the blogging community... does it? I don't remember anything when I was signing up for a blog that there was a requirement to be a female, even if you represented a male. But then again, I didn't completely read the "terms and conditions" section, which may have included that requirement. I already know I'm an odd man, but does that mean I have to be out? There are only a small percentage of males in the mental health field (I was one of three male graduates in my class of 31), so I'm kind of used to being singled out and being different. And, come to think of it, I did work in the Bridal industry for 2.5 years. This is getting a little creepy, I'll sign off now. Any feedback? Thoughts?

Christmas time is here

I know that some people feel like right after Thanksgiving is a little too early to celebrate Christmas, but I was definitely into starting early this year. Besides, in the Philippines, the people start celebrating Christmas as soon as the months start ending in "ber" (SeptemBER), so late November doesn't seem too early. When we got back from the Farmer's after Thanksgiving Mary set up the Christmas tree while Nathan napped, Sarah played and I cleaned up the house and did the annual fun task of figuring out Christmas lights. My task was frustrating, but I was glad that we didn't set up the tree together, because we both have opinions about how it should be done (mine - let's get this thing up, Mary's - go slowly, make sure each branch is just right... very particular). Even though we were both frustrated at times this year, neither of us was frustrated at each other. A significant improvement over previous years.




Nathan and Sarah loved putting up the ornaments. This was the first time Nathan got to experience it, so he had a lot of fun. If left to his own devices, he is much like his father: get the things in the general area and go get some more... move, move, move! He would just get an ornament, run stick it deep inside the tree area, let go and run for another. Fortunately Daddy was there to teach him the finer arts of ornament hanging and Mommy was there to rehang them once Daddy and Nathan had gone for their next ornament. Nathan was really cute and just so excited. Sarah loved it and was so excited to hang the ornaments in particular places and was very picky about which ornaments she got to hang. We have really enjoyed having Christmas music on the last couple of days. The results are below, though the tree does look a little crooked, which Mary has fixed I believe.


After we got the Christmas tree set up I got to go out and put up our Christmas lights on the house. I had my staple gun and was ready to get the job done, but was happily surprised to find out that a previous owner of our house had installed clips for the Christmas light (a nice benefit of a pre-owned house)! It was my first time, so it still took a little figuring out, but I was done in less than an hour and the results are pretty good. I was proud of myself and Nathan and Sarah were excited to go out after dinner that night and see them lit for the first time. It was a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we headed over to the Farmer's house (my Aunt and Uncle) in Fruitland. They have 10 fun kids (8 girls), so it is lots of fun to go and be there. We have fun with my cousins and Sarah and Nathan are either doted on by the kids or are completely absorbed individually by their immense supply of toys. We had a lot of fun, were well-fed and enjoyed the company and hospitality of the Farmer's and some of their friends. I didn't capture many pics, but here are a few.

Here is Sarah with some of my cousins putting together some kind of Thanksgiving mixture (Bugles - cornucopia, candy corn - pilgrim's corn, peanuts - seeds, pretzels- folded arms/prayer, etc.). As usual, Laurie is very creative.
Here is Mary and my cousin Emma making crescent rolls. I love how easily and comfortably Mary blends in with my family.

We also made a quick visit to Jim and Peggy's house in Nyssa (another Aunt and Uncle) and saw some of my cousins and my Uncle Warren as well. We stayed up late on Thurs playing games and then went home Friday early afternoon. We had a lot of fun and lots of thanks to the Fruitland Farmer's for hosting us so graciously and comfortably! Only one regret: I never actually got to play Guitar Hero even though Jaime invited me several times and I had plenty of other opportunities. I will have to do it next time. I'll admit that I was a little intimidated by their skill in watching them and wasn't sure if I wanted to throw my inexperience in the mix.

6th Anniversary

Mary and I celebrated our 6th anniversary just over a week ago. We plan on spending a weekend away soon (we found a couple in our ward willing to do kid swaps for the weekend... Yay!), but we did go out for a nice dinner in Mtn Home and enjoyed some time out together. It's been a great 6 years with so much change and growth. I'm really blessed to have such a spectacular wife. I even wrote my first poem for her, which will NOT be published here, sorry.

This is the pic from our sixth anniversary, taken by our friends who volunteered to watch Sarah and Nathan for us. PS - Mary doesn't like this pic very much.
This is a pic from our fifth anniversary, taken out in front of my folks' house. Mary was in charge last year and we did a little tour of some of our early dates (downtown Spaghetti Factory and the Seattle Aquarium). We then went and spent a couple of nights in Leavenworth. I was in charge of our fourth anniversary and we went and stayed at some townhouses for two nights out at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. This is us at the lighthouse by the Fort.
This is a recent picture of us, though I don't know from when or for what.
This is us on a hike last summer that we went on with Chris, Rebecca, Jimmy and Shannon and their kids outside of Enumclaw, WA.

Many thanks to Mom and Dad Hamm who have watched our kids for all of our anniversary get-aways. It is so nice to be able to leave your kids in trusted hands knowing that they'll be loved and well taken care of. Thanks and we're sorry you won't be able to do it as much as you (AND WE!) would like.... but just let us know and you're welcome to come and visit for a few days.

Fan's Delight

I figure since most of "my" fans are really just here to see pics of Sarah and Nathan, I'll indulge you: little dialogue and lot's of pics. Below are some recent miscellaneous pictures of us. We didn't take many at Robb and Heather's when we visited there for the baby blessing, but there are a few. If you want to see more pics from our visit there, see Robb & Heathers and Rebecca's blogs (Links over there --------> )


Nathan being held by his Uncle Jordan while watching football at Robb and Heathers in Pasco.
Mary wearing a diaper on her head while sipping some Root Beer. She lost at a game of greed and her loss required her to wear a diaper (a clean one) on her head during dinner. We're still looking forward to Jordan milking a gallon of goat milk (another losing consequence) in the near future at Robb and Heather's neighbors house... should be good and the neighbor has already agreed to allow it. Stay tuned!

Sometimes I make pancakes and get fancy when I do a "mickey mouse" pancake for Sarah and a ball for Nathan (real tricky!). After I had made a couple, Mary enters the picture and asks Sarah if she wants a pig pancake, to which she excitedly yells "yeah!". I'm thinking, I gotta see this... how are you going to get pancake batter to make a pig. Well, the results were quite impressive to say the least! Nice work Mary!



It's so nice to be able to go the park in November. It's a bit chilly, but it's not wet, and if the sun is out it can be quite pleasant. Nathan is a kamikaze at the park and absolutely loves the huge slides. Sarah, prefers the swings and is learning to do them on her own.

These two are just before Nathan got a haircut. We had some fun and spiked it a little bit. He obviously was enjoying something sweet, otherwise he wouldn't be sitting so still.

I don't know why he was doing this but after church he was sitting at the little coffee table and "saying prayers". Of course, we had to capture it on camera. I know that all three of the pics are pretty much the same, but he was so adorable in all of them that I couldn't leave one off. This is a frequent, late evening outfit: diaper, socks, shirt, no pants. Here he is in a white shirt and tie, without pants. At the end of the day, Nathan's often had a little leakage which necessitates losing the pants which we're a) too tired/rushed to replace or b) it's close enough to bedtime that he'll be in jammies in a few hours anyway. Oh well. Also, these pics give the "after-shot" of Nathan's haircut. Good Job Mary!

Tagged....

So I apparently got tagged by my sis recently, so I need to respond. I generally think these things are lame but fun, so I'll indulge. Plus Mary and I had a fun time last night talking about possibilities, for her and me.

Tag Rules
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. When I write emails, I'm usually really wordy. I'm not one of those people who can just reply to an email in all lower cases with a couple of words. I have to have some kind of introduction, use complete thoughts, spell words correctly, use correct punctuation, say thanks or have some kind of final greeting, and sign my name. I just can't do the brief, informal things... except I'm learning to do it in txtng. I put this one first as a warning as this trait of mine will be evident in the subsequent answers.

2. I would guess that some people know about this... but many others don't. Last summer ('06), Mary and I volunteered to tear apart my parents deck before the painters started on the house, so the job could be thorough and my parents planned to build a new deck soon. So we went to the task with ferocity and did the job pretty quickly. After removing the top layer and the rails, we were on to the support beams. These beams stand on end so are narrow (about 3 inches or so). Anyway, in order to get them loose we had to hit them at the bottom. Just before we were about to do this, I gave Mary the following warning (in a very informative and "know-it-all" voice): "Now, be really careful because these things are narrow and if you're swinging up with the hammer and you miss then you could whack yourself right in the head" (picture me illustrating it as well). About two minutes after the "safety tip", I was swinging with two hands up underneath the board, missed the board and hit myself square in the forehead. How stupid can you be! Yes, I hit myself in the head with a hammer. This required a trip to the ER, about six stitches in my forehead, and the retelling of this embarrassing story too many times. This was of course a traumatic event for my daughter, which she has not forgotten, and likes to "build a deck like daddy" which includes several hammer motions and noises, followed by a whack in the forehead. Thanks Sarah!

3. People have a hard time getting use to my humor and wit. I don't know how I would explain my sense of humor, but as I've met new people and received feedback, I've gathered that it's confusing for them and unique. I think that it works so well because I'm able to pull such a straight face that it confuses people. There can often be uncomfortable moments when people are not used to my humor and some people, regardless of how long I've known them, still have a hard time knowing when I'm joking and when I'm not. Because this is difficult to explain, I'll use an example. A couple of months ago, Mary had a good idea to frame some of the pictures that Sarah has colored and she has them up in our dining area. Sarah's really proud of them and likes to show them to other people. Mary's brother Kris came through on Tues night on his way home to Washington from Provo, UT for Thanksgiving. He had a couple of other people that were hitching rides that we had never met. One of the girls noticed the framed colored pictures on our wall and commented how good an artist Sarah was. I replied in a deadpanned face and voice that they were actually mine and that it was something I've really been working on. She actually believed me and apologized to Mary and hoped that I wouldn't take offense! One of the other girls knew right away that I was joking and the other guy, I think, was a little confused. I think that she was a little hesitant the rest of the night whenever I said things. Fun times. For a blog example, please see my Blog announcing my nephew Carson's birth in October.

4. I love my job! I really do! I tell people that I really enjoy it and describe things that I like about it but I really do love it. I feel a little embarrassed about it because I figured I'd be trudging through sessions to get my hours for licensure and then move on to bigger and better things. I might still do the latter two, but I'm enjoying the individual, group and family session that I get to facilitate. I enjoy going to work and I love coming home. It's a great combo!

5. Caution: If this one is kind of weird for you, please read #3 again! Me and Michael Jordan have way too much in common! Remember those eery similarities between those assassinated Presidents and their assassins, this is right in line with that. Besides Michael Jordan being tall and black (I considered adding basketball skills and wealth to our differences, but I decided those were more the result of the previous two). Before going into the details, I have to acknowledge Mary's role in this. His full name is Michael Jeffrey Jordan. I have a brother-in-law named Michael, my name is Jeffrey and I have a brother named Jordan. Coincidence, I think not! If you take Mary and my first initials from our first name, they make MJ, a common nickname for MJ. Additionally, I was 23 (MJ's famous number)when I married Mary and our ages when we got married added up to 45 (number he wore briefly during one of his several comebacks). He played in Chicago, I've been to Chicago... once. He plays basketball, I play basketball. I know, this is all just too much of a coincidence by now. He wasn't very good at baseball and, guess what, yep, neither was I. He has a lot of money, I would like to have a lot of money. He's bald, I'm going in that direction. He got cut from his High School basketball team, I should have been cut from my High School basketball team. He has two kids, I have two kids. He drives really fast cars, my car went fast down a hill once. He probably still believes that he could be competitive at basketball (known as URS - Uncle Rico Syndrome), I still believe in my heart that I haven't lost a step. This is just a taste of the eery things that we have in common. Clearly there is a link, I just need him to acknowledge it.... so spread the word!

6. I LOVE SPORTS! I spend too much time on ESPN.com and follow all major sports religiously. I know stats and can talk about sports stuff with most fans. I would love to play sports more, but I only like team sports, which makes being in shape difficult and more expensive. Some of you already know this, but this is me letting you know that you don't understand the extent of my passion. I'd love to watch sports more often than I do, but that would consume me, so I rely on reading articles on Deadspin.com, ESPN.com, and Seattle's local news sites. My peak performance in terms of knowledge of the sports scene was actually during grad school. I spent between 1-2 hours a day in the car listening to 950 KJR sports talk radio and my favorite distraction from writers block (or writers avoidance) was ESPN.com. What can I say, I'm a sports nut.

That's it about me, sorry for the wordiness. I tag Amanda AND Braden, Mom AND Dad :)

Visit to SLC

Before we decided on a date for me to begin my job in Mtn Home, I was insistent that we take a week off for some kind of a fun family vacation. We couldn't have had more fun! After getting "settled in" to our temporary living situation in Mtn Home we headed for SLC, Utah to visit our good friends Kari and Adam and their two kids. Adam, who was starting his second year of residency, was remarkably able to get that week off at the hospital. On our way down we stopped for a brief visit at the Salmond's residence outside of Logan. It was great to see Bishop Salmond and his wife Patty and hope that we can drop by some more in the future. We just spent about an hour or so there and enjoyed catching up with them and seeing their new house. Sarah and Nathan went into their toy room downstairs and we hardly heard a peep out of them until it was time to go. Patty enjoyed feeding them plenty of cookies : * ) We then continued our cruise down to the Sugarhouse area outside of Salt Lake and began our visit with Kari and Adam. It was really great to see them and spend time with them. We spent every evening playing games (primarily Ticket to Ride: Europe) until around midnight and then did various trips or visits during the day. We spent a day on Temple Square and enjoyed walking around there. We took a trip down to Provo to see our friend Eric as well as Mary's brother Kris. We went to the zoo in SLC and enjoyed doing that. Mary and Kari took a shopping trip up around Park City and Jeff and Adam played tennis a couple of mornings. It really was a vacation reminiscent of old times in this fun friendship of ours! Before heading home we went to another park (the name escapes me) that has a bunch of sprinklers and Nathan and Sarah just got SOAKED! and we weren't even planning on them getting wet so it was pretty funny. While there I met up with one of my old mission buddies, Corey and his wife Rebecca and their two kids. It was fun to catch up with them and hang out for a bit while also trying to keep track of our kids. It was really warm the week that we were there and so the kids enjoyed frequent sprinkler activities as can be seen in some of the pics below. Nathan really enjoyed Kari and Adam's boxer, Dirk, and had fun with him. We enjoyed barbecueing food and just hanging out together. It was a lot of fun. I think we kind of hi-jacked Kari and Adam's unexpected vacation, but I think that we all enjoyed a great time together. A big THANK YOU to Kari and Adam for hosting us and showing us around SLC a bit!!!!!

Sarah and Clate next to some fountains on the side of the Salt Lake LDS TempleSarah in front of the Salt Lake LDS Temple. CHEESE!
Sarah in front of the Christus statue on Temple Square in SLC

The kids playing in the water in Kari and Adam's backyard








Us with Mary's brother, Kris, at Chuck-A-Rama : * )

Pickin' up and goin' away

So, because we have only had this blog for a couple of weeks, I thought I would document a little about our move to Mtn. Home from the Seattle area. We packed up our stuff on Saturday and then enjoyed Father's Day with family and then left first thing Monday morning on June 18th. I left a few hours ahead of Mary and the kids in the big truck and trailer (pictured above out in front of the Farmer's house in Fruitland). We actually made great time in traveling to Fruitland and arrived there mid-afternoon on Monday. We never actually caravaned together but we were in regular phone contact. Fortunately for Mary we purchased a two-screen portable DVD player so the kids were much more content then they otherwise would have been. Nathan got pretty upset toward the end of the trip, but things generally went okay. I really enjoyed just listening to music and driving a really big truck. I think that in my next life I'll be a trucker with a big beard. We enjoyed playing at the Farmer's house in Fruitland that afternoon/evening and they were so hospitable. They have 10 kids (8 girls) so Sarah and Nathan were in toy heaven, let alone having other older kids wanting to dote on them. The next morning we got up and let the kids play a bit and then traveled the two hours or so to Mtn Home. We were still awaiting closure on our house so we were able to rent a brand new townhouse for one month until our house was available. The picture above was our first meal in Mtn Home (pizza of course), notice the coffee table for our dining table! We soon upgraded tables to a card table, which we used until we finally purchased a dining table off of Craigslist in September. We enjoyed getting settled in Mtn Home and adjusting to the stifling heat and were happy to have A/C for a month at least.