It's Inevitable

When you're starting to see how your kid does without naps, this is definitely inevitable at times. Today, Mary went to the broadcasted dedication of the Twin Falls Temple (click here to see our recent visit). After the kids cleaned-up the mess they had made, I put on the movie Legacy and they sat down to watch it while I was in the other room. About ten minutes later, Sarah came in the room excitedly and announced that Nathan had just fallen asleep on the couch. So I went out and snapped some cute pics. The kid slept for a good 1.5 hours before I woke him up (with much effort), and it was a late nap, so it turned mostly into crankiness.

Then this evening, after we got the kids down to bed, Mary ran to a friends house to return a borrowed book and got caught up in some good conversation. While she was gone, I was watering the plants in the front yard. I decided to lay Jane down on the grass. She tracked me while I watered and then I decided to read outside on our front porch for a bit. I had to distract Jane a little as she got somewhat upset, but then she fell asleep. The only reason I woke her up was because it was dark and I was worried about her getting bug-bites. She slept for a good 30 minutes out there. I had the touch today!

Jane Is Now Rolling Over...

.... but she doesn't really like being on her tummy. She sure smiles big and easy!

McCall Summer '08

We had a great time in McCall this year! We were there at the end of July and beginning of August and it was so great to spend over a week there... we haven't done that in quite a while! This has already been blogged about quite a bit by family members... and you can see their better pics and some good descriptions about our time here and here. So here are the pics in no particular order.

My Uncles Jim and Warren got some sweet new Sea-Doo's. I haven't ridden on one of these in a while. I couldn't believe how fast they went and how quickly they accelerated! Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hold on it took off so fast! I enjoyed taking lot's of kids for rides, including this hotty I picked up off the beach one day! These certainly are babe magnets! (These last two sentences sound like something my dad would say, kind of corny)

Opa holding his newest little granddaughter... she's not so little now!
Oma with her "touch" and ability to get kids to fall asleep in her arms. Do you like her sporty "Lifeguard" chap-stick?

Due to Nathan's fractured foot, he had to wear hard-soled shoes the entire time. He didn't seem to mind but I could tell it made it hard for him at times and he had a lot more on his feet. It was obviously more of a process to clean him up when we came up from the beach, but it worked out fine. The hard part was keeping the dry shoes dry and keeping the wet shoes somewhat clean. He was a trooper though!
Jane did pretty good, though there wer some rougher evenings and we obviously had to have some restrictions when we were down at the beach or when she needed to take a nap. We generally had some takers to hold her though! Here she is with Sarah's little visor that she made. Here's Nathan with the visor that he made. It was an activity that we did with all the kids one morning.
We played games quite a bit in the evening. We played cards quite a bit (Hearts and "Mormon Bridge") and also played Ticket to Ride: Europe and Alhambra. The above picture is me and Jane playing Alhambra. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in the evening when the kids had gone to bed.
The kids had fun when a mother goose visited the beach with her goslings. They would come up on the beach towards us and then go back in the water and then come back up on the beach. It was cute... I think they were looking for some hand-outs and eventually left when we didn't give them anything after a while.

Some things that I love about McCall: Being there usually means that there is at least some extended or immediate family, which is great; lounging on the beach; watching my kids enjoy the beach as much as I do/did; My Father's Place shakes and food; the town; The Pancake House for breakfast around lunchtime; the reunion; games at night; and many more little things. We enjoyed all of these things up there and more.

Uncle Warren's Cooking!

Another thing I love abuot McCall is the occasional opportunity to be fed by my Uncle Warren... who is a great chef. After Braden and I went wakeboarding on Saturday morning with my cousin Jimmy, he mentioned that Warren was cooking breakfast and asked if we wanted to come along. Uh, yah! He's got a sweet outdoor grill and this is what he had for us when we arrived:

Hash Browns (w/ plenty of onions of course), eggs ("fried or scrambled"), bacon, toast and OJ! It was good stuff! Below is my Uncle Warren getting ready to crack an egg. Thanks Warren!

I made sure to make up a plate of breakfast for Mary before we left, which she enjoyed. Mary and I have enjoyed being treated by Warren to fabulous breakfasts specifically, but he's also a master chef with other things as well, it's just that breakfast is always a particular treat. When Mary and I were engaged, we stayed at Jim and Warren's cabin and enjoyed this a few times. We also enjoyed being there when he "broke in" his griddle this last winter when we were up there for the Winter Carnival. I hope this continues to be a tradition!

Twin Falls Temple Open House

On Friday, August 8th, our little family drove to Twin Falls (about an hour away) for the Open House for the temple that they have finished. The temple will be dedicated this Sunday afternoon and will be broadcast to our church building. The people running the tour showed us a brief video in the adjacent church building and then went with our tour group. All temples are beautiful and are certainly fitting to be called a "House of the Lord" and it's so neat to be able to go inside them as they are all unique in their own way, while the Holy Spirit's presence is consistent among all of them. They are all definitely houses of prayer, worship, and holiness!

This is the "celestial room" of the Twin Falls Temple.
This is the "sealing room" where couples (and families) are married to one another for eternity. As we walked through the different rooms, it was amazing to be in there as a family together. When we went in the sealing room, it was so neat to stand with our little family (us holding our kids up high enough) and look into the large mirrors that face each other in the room that symbolize the eternal nature of our family as a result of our sealing in the Seattle Temple almost 7 years ago. It was really special to be there together. The kids did great generally and were fairly reverent throughout the whole tour, which was nice. If you would like to see more pictures of the Twin Falls Temple with the different rooms and such, click here.
Here is our family at the back of the temple. It would have been nicer if it was more close-up for us, but my sister wasn't there to help out with all that. But it is a pretty good picture for us!

After we toured the temple we went back to the adjacent church building where they had cookies and drinks as well as pictures and different things that teach about the temple. We then went out on the temple grounds and had a "picnic" with just a bunch of snacks for the kids to eat. I loved how when we were just sitting there snacking, Sarah asked me out of the blue: "Daddy, do you feel special here?" That made me smile! And I certainly did! We had a fun time sitting in the shade of the temple by a little fountain and were able to get some good pictures. The kids seemed to enjoy the trip.

Here is a cute picture of Sarah and Nathan together. Enjoy these pictures of Nathan's adorable hair and it's luscious length, because it's now much shorter... and Mary is actually more devastated about having to cut his hair then I am/was.

Behind a Boat

There are few places I love being and few things I love doing more than being in or behind a boat. I LOVE IT! When I was in McCall I had a couple of opportunities to do some skiing and wakeboarding. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.

Here's me making a cut early Monday morning behind my Uncle Jim's boat. It had been about two years since I had slalom skied, and I was somewhat proud of myself that I got up the first time. I went twice and was pretty sore for a few days (not as proud of that!), but it was a blast.
I went wakeboarding at the end of the week with my cousin Jimmy and my brother Braden, that was also fun, but I didn't do as well as I would have liked. Again, though, it felt so great to be behind a boat.
Robb also came with us and he did good on the slalom ski as well.
Jordan went too! After several attempts at getting up (definitely the hardest and most exhausting part) he was worn out and threw in and opted for the towel.
Braden went wakeboarding with me too and I think he had a fun time. This was my best shot of him.

Sarah's B-Day stuff in McCall

I'm sure this will turn into an annual event for as long as we live so far away from our family, as Sarah's birthday is close to the annual "Farmer Family Reunion". So, for the second year in a row we had a birthday celebration for Sarah up in McCall with most of my family. Sarah enjoyed getting presents from her family and everyone LOVED the large ice-cream cake that her Mom made, with Heather's little message on the top.

Sarah's B-Day Celebrations

Braden and Amanda came up and spent Fri night with us and got up here in time to enjoy the bed-time routine with Sarah and Nathan. We are a good mid-way stop for them on the way to McCall and it worked to have them participate in Sarah's birthday fun in the Boise area on our way to McCall.


It's crazy to think that my baby bro is going to be a dad very soon. And the cool part is that I could totally tell that he is excited about it. He was very engaged with our kids and they seemed to really enjoy being with them (both in the time that we had them to ourselves and when we were all in McCall). It was neat to see and he and Amanda are going to be great parents! Here is "Uncle Braden" holding his newest niece, Jane.

A well-known Hamm tradition (from when I was growing up) is getting to choose your favorite cereal for your birthday. This year Sarah chose Froot Loops and enjoyed them for several days!

She was looking forward to going to the zoo on her birthday.... even if she really just wanted to ride the carousel. The zoo was a lot of fun and it was great to have Braden and Amanda with us on this leg of the journey as well. We next went to Red Robin... Sarah's favorite restraunt. Nathan loves ketchup, so he decided to dip his straw in the red goodness and then put it in his drink.... stir... and:
...bottoms up. He probably did this 6+ times and seemed to enjoy the extra flavoring.
Sarah was really shy when the RR crew came and sang her happy birthday, but she enjoyed the sundae they provided.
Here is a pic of us at the RR in Boise. It was a lot of fun!

Sarah's Birthday Party

Sarah had her Birthday Party to celebrate her 5th Birthday on 7/25 (the day after Pioneer Day and the night before we left for McCall... busy!). The theme was a "Jungle Expedition" or Safari. Mary did an AMAZING job planning and putting this cute idea together based on different ideas she saw on-line. The invitation is below... I hope you can read it.

This was the invitation to the party, which I think is very creative. Then on the back of the invitation is this:
The kids "passport" where they are supposed to paste a picture of themselves and then write their name and favorite animal below. The kids then brought this and we hole-punched it and put it around their necks with strings.

Sarah showing her friends how old she is. When the kids arrived they made bags wherein they would put the things they "caught" along the way. Crayons, glue and little animal cut-outs were available for them to decorate their bags.

The safari began once all the bags were made and started with a story in the tent... the kids seemed to really enjoy it!
As they went around the yard they would find various "animal trails" that were bags of different goodies that lead to specific animals (peanuts: elephants; cheetos/tiger tails: Tiger; banana's: monkey; gummy worms: snake; tootsie rolls: giraffe spots). On each trail their were enough baggies or goodies for each kid to put in their bag. After each animal was found, Mary would tell a story or give some interesting facts about the specific animal. Above, she is telling the kids about how a tiger's tail can indicate his mood or his current plan of action. While Mary was getting all of the glory, I was behind the scenes keeping Jane happy, laying out the trails in the areas the kids had left and taking pictures. After the actual hunt, the kids went inside and made their own safari animal stick puppets. It was hard to help the kids all make these, but they mostly did a good job being patient with us and they seemed to really enjoy the results.

After they fininshed the puppets, Sarah blew out her candles on her cup cake and then the kids enjoyed their cupcakes and then Sarah opened all of the fun presents that she got from her friends.

Again, Mary did an amazing job with this party and I was so happy to be involved and to help out with the stuff behind the scenes. She often says how stuff like this is "not her thing", but she always amazes me with the job that she does! The kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy this safari and it was nice to send them home with some fun stuff and not too loaded up with candy.

Pioneer Day Tradition

On th 24th of July our church (and the state of Utah) celebrates "Pioneer Day" which is the commemoration of the day that the early Pioneers for our church entered the Salt Lake Valley. We've decided to do some fun things for this day, though we don't have many pics. We usually have a lesson in our weekly "Family Night" (typically Monday evenings) preceeding Pioneer Day that talks about Pioneers. On the actual day there are two main "events": cooking in a fire or in the BBQ and sleeping out in a tent. We made some delicious foil dinners this year and cooked enough for leftovers the next evening.


The kids enjoyed the meal.... well, Sarah did, once there was Ketchup involved. We then set up the tent and got the kids "to bed". They didn't last very long.... We found Nathan playing on the ground outside the tent. He needed a diaper change and then chose not to sleep in the tent, which was a surprise considering how much he enjoyed sleeping out there for camping. Sarah stayed out there and slept 'til around midnight when she wet her bed and had to sleep in her own bed in the house... which she was disappointed about, but too tired to put up too much of a fuss. It was my year to sleep out there with the kids... we'll see if Mary counts this one for me so she can be on for next year.

Oops!

So I think this was on 7/23 or sometime thereabouts, but we were preparing to go to McCall and have Sarah's b-day party and stuff and I wanted to install a security bar in our rear sliding door. This door was mis-installed backwards so you can't just put a stick in the slot because the slot is outside instead of inside... anyway, it's annoying. When installing a normal security bar for a sliding door you are typically installing this into the frame of the door. Not the case in our situation.... of course, even though I knew that, it didn't really click into my head until after the glass pane completely cracked while I was drilling a hole in the middle metal frame. Nice work Jeff! Why don't you just hit yourself in the head with a hammer.... darn it... I've done that one too (6 stitches in the forehead). Here are the results:

We heard little cracking throughout the night. We were already really busy prepping for the upcoming stuff, but we were up 'til almost 1 pm that night just trying cover the window with the tarp and stuff in case the broken glass actually fell out.

Here was our patch job, which held up until the next day that we needed to remove the glass to make our house both safe and presentable for a kid's b-day party.

Mary did the actual clean-up while I was doing various other things. It looks okay, but now we just have one pane for the time being.

I don't know how I got by as the "maintenance man" for 3.5 years while we managed apartments.

Nathan did fracture his foot...

He has to wear shoes night and day. That was a lot (read the sarcasm) of fun at the beach in McCall, but he did pretty good with it. He fractured some metatarsal bone on the front interior of his foot and we'll probably keep him in the shoes at least another week before getting it re-examined. Fun, Fun, Fun

Three Jobs

So I'm ridiculously behind in blogging due to a week-long vacation in McCall (yes it was wonderful and yes I hope to blog about it soon!), but this is one I've been wanting to do for a while.

I've decided that I've had quite a diversity of jobs in my brief "career". Though, like most people, I have had a decent number of jobs, I will focus on three that underscore the range of my jobs.

1) My first job after my mission was at a place in Bellevue, WA called "Fox's Spy Outlet". Yeah, it was a spy shop, kind of a little hobby store and most of our traffic came from curious businessmen on their lunch break. Though we got a few sketchy characters in there occasionally. I was typically alone in the store and ran it by myself. And because business was SO SLOW typically, I did two things: read and watch re-runs of the Cosby show. Even though I had served a mission and enjoyed really reading the scriptures... I developed a LOVE for reading during my 6+ months I worked there. I started the "Work and Glory" series, and completed a good list of other books that I hadn't had time to read/study on my mission. Three highlights from doing the actual job: letting two guys experience being tased at their request and watching their knees buckle (that was pretty funny!), being able to shoot one of those launching wires tazer things at a poster and watching the shocks spread down the wires and then all over the wall (I felt real cool) and lastly: I sprayed some pepper spray in the front of the store just before closing (I was bored at times and tired of reading) and then went in the back of the store to do some closing paperwork. When I came out ten minutes later I was surprised when I started gagging and my eyes started running and my throat was on fire. I couldn't believe that the stuff was still in the air and that it was that potent still after ten minutes. I hope I (and you) never have to experience pepper spray again!

2. Just before I got married I took a job with David's Bridal and spent 2.5 years working for them in the bridal gown industry (primarily dresses). For most of my employment there I was the only male that worked there.... when people asked what I did my response (if I wasn't very comfortable in my manhood) was that I was a "shipping receiving manager at a local retail store". I did enjoy my job for the most part, though it was often really busy, especially during "Bridal Christmas" (Jan 1st - April... but it seemed to continue into the summer). I know all about A-line dresses, fancily-named-colors, and everything from bustles to boustiere's to bridesmaids gowns. The job allowed me to work full-time while completing most of my undergraduate studies. It also had great benefits. It was an interesting job, but it felt like I was undergoing estrogen therapy the whole time!

3) For the last year I have worked for Three Springs, Inc here in Idaho and serve male teens with Sexual Behavior Problems. Although in some ways it's a difficult population to work with, I really enjoy my job and the work that I do and the change that I get to see with juveniles and their families. It has allowed such a diversity of work, which I really enjoy (running groups, family sessions, individual sessions; coordinating treatment with education, behavioral, medical and psychiatric staff; and interfacing with state agencies).

Anyway... these are some pretty diverse workplaces in the last 7 years! Oh yeah, and Mary and I were Landlord's for 3.5 years!

I would love to hear about your three craziest, strangest jobs.

Recent Tidbits from Sarah

So tonight Mary mentioned that Sarah had woken up last night and come and complained to Mary that her "bed was all messed up" and that she needed help (I have a very vague recollection of this episode). Mary told Sarah to go back to bed but Sarah insisted, saying "Mom, it's like a jungle in my bed". Mary got out of bed and helped Sarah back to hers.

A little while ago Sarah was going through an episode where she would report in the morning, or cry out at night and complain about bad dreams. We try to be validating during these moments (it requires a little more effort in the middle of the night), knowing how real these dreams can sometimes be. Then after this happened off and on for a little while, Sarah started reporting that "Dad, I started to have a bad dream last night, so I just fast forwarded through the scary part... and I was okay." I thought it was another one of Mary's innovative ideas to help deal with these types of situations, but I recently asked Mary if this was the case and she reported that it wasn't and Sarah must have come up with it on her own. Pretty adorable thought process. Oh and yes, we do still have a VCR!

We're Pretty Sure that Nathan Broke His Foot on Friday...

He had X-Rays on Saturday and we'll find out the results tomorrow. Should make McCall pretty fun! We'll tell the funny/sad story when we know the results for sure. Poor little guy won't even put weight on his left foot and wants to be carried to different locations of the house, depending on what he wants to do and then scoots/crawls around in the little areas. He's been quite a trooper though, or it must not hurt that bad. He's himself, except that he can't walk or run around.