Sprinklers

I have found a new hatred for two people in this world. The guy that invented sprinklers, and the moron that installed them at our house.

where does the time go.

It's almost been a month and I haven't sat down to type a post. There really hasn't been much going on. Winter is starting to lose it's grip and we are starting to see some warmer temperatures. Meaning it's making it up to 40 degrees. The snow has all but melted off the lawn, other than what is shaded by our big pine tree, and the north side of the garage where the snow got piled deep. The one bad thing about all that snow meling is that is exposes all the dog piles that got hidden under the snow. Thank the big guy they have certain spots where they usually go. They leave certain pathways that you know are safe to walk on. I usually wait for a day like yesterday to go out and clean it up. Once the winter nights start getting clear, the early morning temperatures get really cold. This turns everything into a frozen solid mass before the sun comes out to warm it up. So Friday afternoon we stopped by the store and I bought a pair of those yellow elbow length gloves that our moms used to wear when cleaning the bathroom, and get to work. It is actually much easier this way as "do-do" is forzen so it doen't smell. I just go along and pick it right up with my hands, dump it in the bucket that I lined with a garbage sack, and did work. I try to stay on top of it as much as I can, but it never ceases to amaze me, just how many little piles there are. I ended up with two full garbage sacks. This probably groses everyone out, but it is by far the easiest way to get the job done fast. If it isn't frozen, it smells. If you use a shovel, you end up taking a chunk of grass with it.

Last weekend we headed down to St. George for the weekend. It was Valentines and President's Day all in three days. We actaully didn't stay down there for Monday because Deb had to get back to work. Uncle Bryan was nice enough to let us and Anje, Jerry, and Baby Gabe stay at his house. Anje and I ran the Dam to Dam race out at Sand Hollow. Well, we didn't actually run other than a total of 10 minutes. Anje, just had Gabe a month ago so we took it easy. We actaully started off in Dead Last Place, which was kinda fun. I decided that the folks at the rear, have a lot more fun that those that take it even remotely seriously. We thought we were going to be the very last ones to finish, and we even joked about it with some of the other folks that were walk/running by us. We would run the first two minutes of each mile, and then walk the rest of the mile, until the end when we actaully did a bit more running down the last mile. Two of the people were were joking with about finishing last, actually got in the ambulance and hitched a ride back to the start. We ended up passing two people and finished 3rd and 4th last out of about 300 runners. It was great scenery, just like other years, and we really enjoy that fun little run. The reason we run it is that it is part of the Runners Series for the St. George Marathon. They allow 500 runners to sign up and if you run two of the races, you get an automatic entry into the marathon. You still have to pay the money, but you don't have to go through the lottery and wait to find out if you are actually running it.

For Valentines, we really didn't do anything. They guys made dinner for all the ladies. Jerry BBQ'd the stakes, Bryan set the table, and I made the twice baked potatoes, also with Jerry's help, the salad, I cheated and bought the rolls, and we topped it off with Apple Crisp for desert. It was a lot of food but it was really good.

The next morning, Jerry and I headed down to the Oasis Gun club to shoot some sporting clays. Anje bought Jerry a really nice semi-auto Winchester 12 ga. for Christmas and he hadn't had the chance to shoot it yet. I was definatly rusty when it came to clay pigeons. I remember back in the day when I was going to the Provo gun club to shoot Skeet and Trap, I could usually get through a round missing only a few. I missed the better part of half this time. Maybe Jerry and I can make it up the Skeet range a little more often and get back to not missing many

This morning we decided to take the dogs and Rae for a walk down by the Jordan River trail. It was overcast, but not too cold. Skull has a lot of fun when we take him down there and let him off the leash. He gets to run through the fields and swim in the dirty water. Lucee seems to enjoy her little walks, but Broose is a whole other story. We actaully got worried that he wasn't going to make it back. Anistyn wanted to walk, rather than ride in the stroller, so we let Broose have a break and take a ride. He was so proud that he got to be pushed along while everyone else was walking. Hopefully, as the weather gets warmer, we can get out on more walks, and help the poor guy lose some weight.

Anistyn's funny comments this past week.

"I crossed my eyes that I never saw'd that before"

Translation. . . I corss my heart that I haven't ever seen something like that.

I also snuck up behind her the other day and shouted BOO and she truned around and said "Wow, You scared me out of the crap!" I said good, you were starting to smell.

So the gig is up!!!!

I can’t believe that it has been over a month since my last post. Sorry for those that read, although I thing the only people that check here on a regular basis is the family and they pretty much know what is going on. For those that check in from time to time that I have no idea about, SORRY!

It seems like Christmas was so long ago already. There has been so much that has happened since then. We had a great Christmas. We really kept it low key this year as Deb and I both had to work right up until late afternoon on Christmas Eve. We were able to run over to Pa’s house and give him his present. We all chipped in and got him a Radio player that plays Records, Tapes, CD’s, has and AUX input, and can convert anything to CD. We were all pretty excited to give it to him and I think he really liked it. Later that night we also did our tradition of visiting Mom’s grave site and lighting candles in paper sacks. Each year it seems like there is more and more folks that do that. This year was just like last year, very cold, very windy, and very snowy. Here is some video footage of our visit. It isn’t great because we were freezing, and there isn’t much light. We always miss mom, but Christmas time is always hard as it was her favorite time of year, at least that is how it seemed to us. She loved getting the Christmas decorations up, all the lights, and her Christmas Friends. She collected stuffed animals for years and had a huge collection.

Brande came out for a visit on her birthday, Jan 2nd. She was able to bring Porter out with her. It was really nice to see her. He is such a happy little guy. I think it was a real eye opening to Anistyn. She has always had all the attention she wanted. This was the first time that there was someone else that was the center of attention. Brande, Deb, Anje, Porter and Rae went to visit Grandma Nada to learn how to make the “secret family recipe caramel’s”, and when they got in the truck to head over Rae asked “Is it all going to be about Porter?” If she thought that was bad, she is in for a rude awakening.

Brande was here for a week, but just missed welcoming Anje’s baby girl. Gabriele was born on Jan. 12th at 9:00 pm. Lee was overdue by a week, so she was finally induced. It was funny to watch as things seemed to progress really slow throughout the day, then everything sped up really quick and Baby Gabe was here. She is a beautiful little girl. You can visit her blog by clicking on Castle9mm over to the right to see all her pictures. They tell her story better than I could.

In the meantime, Deb and I found out what flavor our new addition is going to be. I have to state for the record that I really didn’t care to find out on this one. I would be happy either way. Deb really wanted to find out so we did a few weeks ago. We decided to keep it a secret from everyone else. Deb wasn’t sure that she would be able to NOT tell. So I conjured up a plan to keep her motivated. I offered up the purchase of a brand new Coach bag if she could keep it under wraps. She told me that “Coach is kinda out”, so I proposed a brand spanking new Rhule bag, and the bet was on. I actually felt that I was going to be a few hundred bucks short, after the first week of not telling everyone. What’s funny is that everyone seemed to think that we were doing this just to spite them. I imagined how cool it would be, to just come out of the delivery room and introduce our new daughter/son. The other funny phenomenon was that most people got ticked that we weren’t spilling the beans. It almost got funny how mad people would get that we I wasn’t letting them know. Some people from work thought that it was a great idea, and other’s wanted to know. I kept telling them that their life wouldn’t change one bit if they knew or didn’t.

The other funny thing that happened was that Deb and I would sometimes slip. For the first little while that she was pregnant, we both though that it was going to be another little girl. Then after about a month or two, we started feeling that it was a boy. About a month back, Deb started thinking it was a girl again. During those periods, we would refer to the baby as he or she, rather than it. So when we told people that we weren’t telling they would try to trick us. I found myself slip quite a few times calling the baby She, and on occasion He. So we had a handful of people thinking one of us had slipped and they were certain we were having a girl. And we had another handful of people, heard us slip the other way and they thought that we were having a boy. For the last three weeks, I have had so much fun watching people read things into what I was saying. I would say things meaning one thing, and people would read into it that they knew the sex of the baby. I was certain that Grandma Carol, and Anje and Jerry thought we were having a little girl.

Well, last night, Deb let the cat out of the bag and she told her mom. So the gig is up, and I don’t have to purchase a new bag. If you haven’t guessed by now from the background, we are having a little boy. We are really excited for the new adventures of a little boy. We love our little princess to death, and know she will make a great big sister.

We hope everyone is well and if you find some time, drop us a line and let us know what is happening in your lives. I promise to be better about keeping updated.
Here are some links to Rae's Christmas.
1 2 3 4 5 6

This is a picture of our house with the Christmas lights on. This was taken 12.22.08 at about 8 pm. once it had stopped snowing.

Let is Snow and Snow and Snow and Snow

I will have to get a picture of this. Up unitl this past weekend we haven't had much snow. In fact, this has been one of our driest Decembers in many years, which is saying a lot with the past 7 years of drought we have been through. Then it decided to start snowing and it hasn't stopped. We got hit this past weekend. Then a small break, and we got sideswiped by a storm that wasn't supposed to reach us, but it did. This morning Anistyn was sick and Deb had to be to work so I left work after being there for about and hour. I shoveled the walks before Deb left and then it stared snowing again. I have now shoveled the walks twice over and removed over a foot of snow. I actually like the winters, but this is a ton at once. The forecast is calling for snow for the next three days, just to make sure we get caught up I guess.

Our Busy Month

December is always busy for us. We didn't plan it out well. Work is always busy for both Deb and I. It is the end of the quarter and end of year for me, and with Deb working retail, this is her busiest month. It seems to always start with Thanksgiving and before we know it, the new year is her. December 2nd is our anniversary, Anistyn's birthday is on the 12th, and then throw in all the christmas shopping, all the family parties, the lights, the tree, and before you know it, it's all said and done.
Ansityn has had a busy month so far. Early this month, she was invited to go with Pa to ride on The Polar Express. It is the Heber Creeper that they create a villiage made out of lights up by Deer Creek, they read the Polar Express story, give out cookies, hot chocolate, a christmas bell, and the jolly old make makes an appearance along with the Mrs. Its a pretty big deal as I have looked into it in years past and people come from out of state to visit family and ride the train. For a couple of weeks before she was telling everyone that Pa was taking her to the North Pole. She always likes visiting with Pa.

With Deb working retail her November and December are pretty much blacked out for any vacation time. So for our anneversary we didn't plan anything other than dinner. We went up to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and ate dinner at The Roof. It was nice to spend time with just she and I. Our table was right next to the window so we had an amazing view of temple square with all the christmas lights on. Deb got me a fun little Flip video camera to use for blogging. It holds an hour of video, and is completly plug and play via usb with your computer.

Deb was scheduled to work a couple of Saturday's this month so she actually had Monday the 15th, off of work. It was Rae's birthday on Friday so we make a trip out of it and headed to Disneyland. I got some tickets off of e-bay which saved us about $100. Children under 3 get in free so we planned on telling them that her birthday wasn't until the 18th. Turns out that if you bring your child in a stroller, they don't even ask questions. If you have never been to Disneyland at christmas time, it is something that I think eveyone should experince at least once. That being said, I don't know that I will ever purposefully plan another christmas trip there. They have everything decorated for with lights, trees, wreaths, and all things christmas. Even raindeer and christmas crafts in frontier land. They also turn the castle into an ice castle with blue and white lights, and fake snow on the roof tops. It is quite a site to see. The prade is different, and so are the fireworks. They even blow out fake snow when the fireworks are over. I mean literally, they blow out soapy, suddsy bubbles that actually look like snow from a distance. There are two problems with this time of year. 1. Is that it is fairly cold. And 2. there are a ton of people there.

We left on Friday night after work and spent the night with Bryan and Lani ( sorry if I spelled your name wrong Lani). We woke up at 4:30 am and drove the rest of the way in. With the long drive, and traffic on the 91 a standstill, we didn't get to the park unitl 11:00. It was overcast and a bit chilly, and there were people everywhere. What was nice is that we were able to just take our time and do whatever Rae wanted. With Deb being pregnant, we were limited as to what we could and couldn't ride. We just gave Rae some suggestions and let her chose where she wanted to go. We spent time over in toon town and got to see Mickey, Minny, and Goofy. Ansityn was brave enough to ride the little rollercoaster as well. We spent the rest of the day in Fantasy land, and she loved riding the rockets.

Day two was a lot better. It was clear and cooler and there weren't as many people. One of Anistyn's favorite things at Disneyland is meeting all the princesses and getting dressed up like one. She has been Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. This time she wanted to be Snow White. It kinda suprised us as all along she wanted to be Belle. We were one of the first in line to meet the princesses again. We went through the line and met, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. Once we were done we went over and bought her a dress, some shoes, and a bow. Along with all that, they do their hair, with flowers and ribbons, and also paint thier faces up (all for a few extra dollars, of course). It is really cute to watch her because she just sits there like an angel and lets them do her hair and put on the makeup, and she doesn't flinch. Unlike at home.

Once she was all dekced out, we were going to go and ride some more rides, but I noticed that they were changing princesses. The line wasn't too long so we jumped back in. Now normally when you go see the princesses, they say hi and to take a few pictures and you move onto the next one. In all you are out about 5 minutes. This time was different. You see earlier in the morning, before we went to the park, I asked Rae if we were going back, and she said "where". I told her we were going "back to the future" as a joke. she got mad because she wanted to go back to the park. For some reason, that stuck with her. When we got back up to meet the princesses it was Belle first. She told Anistyn that she looked beautiful and asked where she was from. Ansityn simply replied "From the Future". Well Belle seemed to get a kick out of that. She asked her if everyone wears Snow White dresses in the future, and Rae said "yes"
"Even Daddy?" asked Belle
"No, he just wears t-shirts"
"what do we eat in the future"
"Beans"Ansityn replied.
"Do we still ride horses and carriages in the future"
"yes"
This went on for a bit and then they took some pictures and then Belle walked Anistyn over to Ariel. She told her that she was from the future and then they all talked for a bit.
Arial asked "how did you get here from the future"
"I flew" said Rae
"Can you fly now?"
"No because I have my boots on right now"
Apparently you have to have the right shoes for flight.
This whole sequence went on for a bit and Ariel skipped Rae over to meet Jasmine. The conversation continued for enough time that it was time to rotate princesses again and Cinderella came back and they talked for a bit longer. By the time we walked out of there, it was fifteen minutes later. I am sure the people in line behind us were mad at how long we were taking. I think Anistyn made their day just as much as they made hers.

We spent the rest of the day riding rides. We headed over to California Adventure and rode all the kids rides, and I mean all of them. We also saw the parade with Jessy, Woody, Buzz, Flick, princess Atta, Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, The Incredibles and all her other favorites. We then went back to Disneyland and saw the christmas parade, rode a few more rides. I fell alseep in the Tiki room, but Rae loved it. We then watched the fireworks and went back to the hotel for the night. We did everything that she wanted to do, all in one day, which was good because we woke up to rain.

I went to walmart early in the morning to get Rae a poncho, and some umbrellas. It was funny because I ran into two other guys doing the same thing. The day before, we had bought two ponchos at disneyland and they told us that they only had adults, which is why we were short one for Anistyn. So we got all bundled up and went back to the park. Well it turns out that they ponchos that tey gave us were acutally childrens and really didn't cover Deb and I that well. It didn't matter because within a half hour, we were all soaked. We rode a few of the rides and got even more wet. We did some shopping and bought decorations for our christmas tree, and we headed home. By the time we left we had done everything that we wanted. it was about 1:30 and the rain had let up quite a bit. This allowed them to re-open the part of I-15 out of LA that was closed due to snow. I was glad we left when we did, earlier than planned, because it took us a long time to get home. We had snow from Hisperia to just outside fo Vegas. Then again from just outside St. George all the way home. There were times that traffic was going 25 and you were driving on packed snow. Made for a long drive home.
This is my first attempt at posting videos, but here is the footage from the princesses. If you listen closely you can hear the conversation. Also a short clip of Rae dancing outside the Tiki Room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMcVjyHJ7Ks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMUHTYrPndM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvlIP9g32cw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBuARjSsHyo


Merry Christmas everyone!