Happy Holidays!!!

I know that this is a little late, but Happy Holidays!

Just a few more...

Copyright Infringement

I took everyone of these photos off of my wife's blog without her permission. :)

"Hey, open it up and let the sun out!"

I am just now noticing that I have not blogged for a really, really, really long time. I used to complain that I had nothing to blog about, but that has definitely not been the case. We had a new addition to our family in early November, our entire family got really sick and some of us are still battling it and it's been a month, I trained for ten weeks for a half marathon and then was so sick that I had to pull out. Hmmm, the list could just go on and on. I kept telling myself that I really needed to catch up and get back on the blog, but that's not practical. I'm just going to fast forward and blog about current events.

Last night we were at the mall so Nicolette could pick up a few gifts for her mom. I took the boys over to a new play area in the mall and we had a great time. On our way out of the mall I was telling Tyler (4 years old,) that I was really happy with how he acted in the mall. Usually when I tell him that he expects to receive a treat of some kind, or to be able to maybe do something fun, but that was not the case. I told him that I didn't have anything for him, and that when we got home it was already late so we would need to put pj's on and get to bed. He asked why and I told him because it was really late and dark and that means its bedtime.

We walked out to our car in the lot and Tyler seemed okay with the conversation we just had. Right as we approached our car and started getting the baby into his seat Tyler lifted his head toward the sky and in a really loud voice said, "Hey, open it up and let the sun out!" I thought I had heard him correctly, but I had to make sure of what he said. I asked him to repeat it and he said it the same, "Tell him to open it up and let the sun out!" I paused so that I could try to think of who "HE" was, but I had nothing. "Tyler, who are you talking to?" I asked while preparing for a crazy answer. He replied, "Jesus. I'm asking Jesus to let the sun out so I can stay up." Okay, now it totally made sense. :)

My wife and I got quite a kick out that. We have had a bit of a struggle in learning to work with the three kids all at once, and yeah, some days have been a bit harder than others, but little experiences like this really make it worth while. Actually, as I woke up this morning to two screaming kids at 5am'ish I even found myself secrectly asking Jesus to please put the sun away and make my kids go back to bed for a few more hours. Heck, it's worth a shot.

Ty's First Night Away

Last night was really nice. Nicky's mom had the idea of having Tyler over for his first sleep over. DEAL! Over the last week Tyler has not allowed me to sleep in past 5:00AM. He has just had a crazy amount of energy and at the same time every morning he has come into the room and wanted breakfast and a morning show; not negotiable. I have tried to get him to go back to bed but he throws such a fit that he wakes up Tanner and now I have two kids to deal with before the sun comes up. Not cool.

Tyler and his grandma said goodbye to us at about six last night and Nicolette went to get him this morning. I guess the night went perfectly and he had a blast. Nicolette and I were also able to have a great night together. We took Tanner out for ice cream and came back and had him in bed quite early. Our family has been battling a bad cold over the last week and the last couple of days have been my turn to try to get over it and I'm losing currently. It was nice to just be able to sit back and watch a quick show until Tanner fell asleep. Once that happened we both went to bed. The best part of the entire night was that Tanner let us sleep in until almost eight this morning. That never happens!

Okay, so the real reason I am blogging about this is that something hit me last night. I was noticing how easy it was to handle Tanner with both of us keeping him under control at the ice cream store. I then reflected on how different, and hard it is when we just add one more child to that mix. Tyler and Tanner are pretty dificult together...Yup, then it hit me again that we have number three coming just one month from now. Yikes! I guess we just won't leave the house anymore. Seriously, no more venturing out for anything. We will just have to take turns in letting each other go out to keep ouselves sane.

Start of a Long Day...and that's the "Tooth"

This is going to be a quick post today. I have a couple of things to write about from the weekend, but something happened this morning that I have to share first.

My kids have a habit of hitting their front teeth on things. Tyler has hit his teeth on Tanner's head on a couple of occasions and we thought he was going to lose them based on how loose they were. Tanner actually fell off of a little chair and faceplanted into the cement and chipped his front teeth. Luckily though things went over well after each accident.

I took Tyler to the dentist months back and when they did his cleaning they did x-rays as well. The dentist looked at the chart and the first question from him was, "Has your son bonked his fronth teeth on a couple of occasions?" I told him what had happened and he stated that it wasn't a concern, but that he wouldn't be surprised if Tyler lost his front teeth much sooner than expected. Aparrently when you hit your teeth really hard it damages the roots and what is actually holding the teeth in place. Tyler's teeth were barely hanging in place. He said if Tyler got one more really good hit the mouth he would lose them both.

Well, months go by and we have had nothing but good luck in that category. This morning we did our normal routine; breakfast with the kids, read our scriptures together, said our prayer and then I left for work. I work about five minutes from home and before I was even half way to work I got a call from Nicolette. She was in a bit of a panic. I guess Tyler had gone up to her and told her that her tooth hurt. She opened his mouth and noticed that his front tooth was very loose. She had him close his mouth and she was going to look for the number for the dentist. Tyler closed his mouth and then began to freak out a little bit. His tooth just fell out. Seriouslly, no pulling or anything it just fell out on it's own.

To me it seemed kind of cool. My son lost his first tooth and it didn't hurt him one bit. What a way to lose it! Then I thought about it from my wife "the photographers" point of view. Yeah, the missing tooth changes things up a bit. The front teeth usually don't fall out for a couple more years and sometimes they won't grow back until age 7 or 8. That is going to be a long wait, and some very interesting photos for the next few years!

I haven't seen him yet, but I am already planning ahead to have an ice cream night and make sure that he has a blast tonight and that we celebrate the tooth fairy...etc. Actually, I don't know if I should plan the fun night for the kid that lost the tooth, or the mom that has a son that lost his tooth. I don't know who is taking it harder. :) I'll make sure to post pictures later!

Do You know what Sucks More than Running? Man Boobs; they really Suck.

This is one of my favorite Nike commercials. It's one of the reasons that I started running.

This is my Why

New Found Passion for Running

I have never really enjoyed running. I used to be a very good runner, but I always took it as a form of punishment dished out by heartless coaches. I still remember my freshmen year of high school when the track coach decided that I would be a great distance runner. I didn't mind the sprints, not even the various 400m dashes done during practices, but I was not a fan of the drive and drop method; he would drive us 5 to 8 miles out of town and drop us off and tell us he would see us back at the track. That sucked.

Years later I now find myself training for a half marathon, which is much farther than I have ever needed to run before in my life.....and I'm loving every minute of it!? It's odd, but I really like what I am doing. I have a support group to run with, I'm tracking my progress with Nike Plus to improve split times, and I'm even studying how to be a better runner and how to eat like a runner. This is totally not me. Growing up I always saw my father as a crazy person. Every day he would come home, strap on the good ol' New Balance shoes and run 8 miles. I would even see him with ten pound weights in each hand while running to add a little more "oomph" to the workout. I am slowly becoming my "crazy old man." :)

Two weeks ago I traded in some credit card points for a subscription to Runner's World and every day since then I have gone to check on the mail like a little kid waiting to get a present. Nicolette noticed this the other day and made a bit of fun about it. I also signed her up for some magazines so I know she is just as excited about it...I'm just beating her to the mailbox.

Anyway, I'm hitting my running goals and on track for my 13.1 mile run on Nov. 15, (one day after my birthday...mark you calendars,) and I've currently dropped 8 lbs since starting my training a bit over two weeks ago. I have about 20 lbs more to lose and it would be great to drop it before race day, but we'll see.

Take it Like a Man

Tanner is quite the character. He has had a very hard last couple of weeks. He has been sick, he had various spider bites received while sleeping that bothered him like crazy, and he is just getting over a bad diaper rash that caused him tons of grief.

During all of this, he has started a new habit that is quite entertaining and a bit creepy all at the same time. When he is in pain now his cry has become very different. Instead of his typical I'm in pain cry that just breaks your heart, he has a very deep, manly, almost "Tim The-Toolman Taylor," type cry. I don't even know how to describe it. His face gets all scruntched up, and this deep, creepy voice starts coming out; almost like he is possesed and we are trying to exorcise the demon from him.

I am contemplating getting a recording of it and using it somehow during Halloween. Heck, maybe it could be my new ring tone.

Sports Sayings that Now Make Sense

We have all heard them; sports sayings that coaches quote to motivate us. "No pain, no gain...etc." You know what I mean. This last Saturday I gained a testimony of one specific saying, and it was the one that I would have least wanted to learn first hand. "Run until you puke."

Sorry about the nature of this blog, but yeah, I totally lost it on Saturday at the 4.5 mile mark of our five mile run. I actually felt great the entire run, and I had plenty of energy left. Jared and I were just passing my house and had another half mile to go so we just kept on running down the street. About thirty minutes before I had gone running I was cleaning up the house and I did what any good father would do; I made sure to not waist food that the kids didn't eat and downed it myself. I specifically ate chunky apple sauce from Trader Joe's. Yup, it's even called Chunky Apple Sauce. How ironic is that.

When the 4.5 mark hit I didn't have time to think. "It just came right out there..." (Sorry, but if you have seen the cartoon Anastasia you would recognize the quote.) Jared's first reaction was, "Bro, we can walk back to your house." My reaction was that I all of a sudden felt ten times better and wanted to keep running. It was pretty strange. It was humorous actually. The only thing that kept me from going back to take a picture of it for my blog was my little shoulder angel, oh yeah, and my wife that threatened to divorce me if I even mentioned that idea one more time.

Love and the Olympics

One thing that drives my wife crazy is that I will blurt out the most random fact sometimes when we are in a group of our peers. I have always found it entertaining to be a source of random facts. :) I visit various sites, read up on everything, and then share...share...share.

One of my latest web surfing ventures allowed me to come across this photo from the Olympics.

"Finding true love and harmony at the Olympics, priceless."

Yes, Nicolette, another random pic and bit of news.

This is Why I Run

I am just finishing up with my second week of training and things are going really well. It helps to have two other people training with me (Brent and Jared.) The increased mileage isn't as big of a deal when you have someone to run with to pass the time.

Brent, has mentioned a couple of times how every time he goes for a run he notices the bikers zipping right past him and it makes him question why in the world he would be running instead of on his bike training. Today he is actually riding 70 miles. He's a sport to be running with us because I know it is so much slower than what he is used to. However, I present exibit A (photo) on why running might be a good alternative to bike riding. Yes, I know that this is an extreme example, but very possible. Running on trails will at least help us to avoid certain death.

Happy ride...

Orkut.com

I have just recently come across a service that Google offers; Orkut.com. I know that you are all familiar with myspace, facebook...etc., and you probably have accounts there. I know that I do. What I like about Orkut is that when I sign into Gmail, Blogger, or Orkut I am signed into all three. I like the fact that I don't get popup adds of half naked people when I am logging on or off of the Orkut site. I also like the features and apps that can be added very quickly to my profile.

For all of you that are blogging you might like Orkut because not only can people see your profile on Orkut, but they can read you blog on the same site. It's pretty cool. It's hard to explain everything about it so my reccomendation would be to go to: www.orkut.com and activate your account. You can also find the site by going to the Google homepage and then clicking on the "more" tab on the top left of the screen.

Here We Go

Today I begin my 11 week training for my half marathon. The training schedule I am using isn't too bad, except for Saturdays. The runs during the week are to just stay in a groove, but every Saturday you turn it up a bit and run a bit more. It should be fun. :)

I am using Nike Plus to track my progress. It's convenient; it keeps track of my times, tracks my distance, and I can load it all onto the computer and see graphs of my progress. I think the hardest part of all of this is just to be consistent, and to keep the diet going strong. I am used to weight loss meal plans, but eating for a marathon is a bit different. It includes a lot more carbs.

I'll jump on here from time to time to give updates. Wish me luck!

Marathon Rookie

I think I might have officially gone crazy. Nicolette, might argue that I have been crazy for years now, and that might be true, but now I even think I'm crazy. I decided a few days ago to run a mini marathon. Yeah, I know it's only 13.1 miles, but I'm not too used to going much more than five miles...ever....that's it.

It all started while I was working the other day. I walking around handing out flyers to market my place of work and I passed by a great running shop out here called, Fleet Feet. They had a Nike rep showing people new technology in the lastest shoes and I dropped in to learn a bit. I filled out a card to put my name in a raffle to win shoes later on that day and went on my way back to work. Well, I actually won a pair of shoes. That's awesome. I went to pick them up and I found myself talking to people inside about putting the shoes to good use and training for a marathon. Well, I took it to heart. I actually started training yesterday. It was my unofficial first day of traing. I have friends that are going to train with me and we all start on Monday.

I am a bit nervous about this entire thing, but it is something that I have always wanted to do. I acatually want to eventually run a full marathon, but I will take on the mini first. If I live through that then I'll try for more. I'm going to blog about this from time to time. The runs start out shorter; around 4 miles each time, but after a while they get much longer. I typically run my longest runs on Saturdays.

Anyway, that's what I'm doing right now. Yeah, it's boring, but that's all I've got right now!

Please Help My Sister Win a Scholarship!

This is pretty simple:

1. Watch the video
2. Sign up and vote
3. Tell all of your friends and family to do the same

Getting Out of China

Over the last couple of weeks I have been glued to the tv watching the Olympics. I am a huge sports nut all of the time, but when it's Olympic time I get really bad. The worst part for me is when the games are in a country in some crazy time zone....Like China.

Every morning I have a habit of getting on the internet and reading the news. It's just something that I like to start my day by doing. The problem with that right now is that China is practically a day ahead of us and when I read the news I end up reading the results from the Olympics; the results that I won't be able to see until later in the evening when NBC puts it on the air. I hate knowing what is going to happen before I can see the sporting event. To fix that problem I figured I could just not read the news. Yeah, that lasted for about one day. I felt like a drug addict trying to stop cold-turkey. I was back on the web very fast. The second idea that I had is that if I just stay up really late then I could watch the Olympics at night when they are actually broadcasting them live. That is what I have been doing for a number of days. I really need to sleep about now.

Tonight is the men's gold medal basketball game so I'll probably be up until 1:30AM or later to watch that, but tomorrow they are ending the Olympics. It makes me sad to see them go for another four years, but I seriously need to get some sleep.

51st Thing about My Wife

Everyone that reads my wife's blog on a regular basis has been entertained by a list of 50 things about her. I've been married to her for six years and I was surprised by some of the tidbits that she posted. Yesterday my wife and I took our boys to the State Fair and it is there, on a blisteringly hot afternoon that I learned about the "51st thing."

When we go to the State Fair we always start on the opposite side of all the rides. It's on this side that they have all of the animals, kids booths, and petting zoo. It's a great place to start for our boys, but it's quite far from the food and other entertainment. As many of you know Nicolette is very pregnant at this point. She has a lot of energy considering she is 7 months pregnant, but walking forever in the heat, carrying a little kid, and not having anything to drink can conquer even the toughest person. By the time we got to the food area she was hot, miserable, and craving a beverage. I explained to her that I would hunt down some awesome drinks and then come back. Then I would go out for food.

I walked rapidly looking for a fun drink stand. I didn't find one. I saw a little booth to the side with frozen lemonades for sale. That sounded awesome. I purchased two of them for Nicolette and I and then ran back to her table. She had a puzzled look on her face when I showed what I had purchased, but she said thank you and let the kids start drinking them. I then walked over to where we were getting our food. Well, since Nicolette and I had lemonades and I figured the kids would want the same, I purchased a large fountain drink of lemonade with our meals for the kids to share so that we could enjoy the frozen lemonades by ourselves. I was quite proud of myself. I had managed to make everyone happy....almost everyone. I sat back down and Nicolette grabbed the drink out my hand. She immediately took a drink and then slammed it down. She had thought it might be Coke or some other kind of soda. Here is what she said, verbatim, "Lemonade?! Stop buying lemonade! I hate lemonade! I hope you plan drinking all of this." Um, so the 51st thing about my wife is that she doesn't like lemonade...at all. Not even a little bit. Lesson learned.

Just Put the Cookies in the Bag and Step Away...

"My cookies....my chocolate milk." I ventured out to the store a couple of days ago to pick up some items for dinner. Nicolette was at home cooking, Tyler was terrorizing our dogs and chasing them with his motorized jeep and Tanner was excited to follow dad anywhere and everywhere. I took Tanner with me and went to Raley's.

For those of you that know Tanner you know how sweet he is. He is just the cutest little boy with a great attitude, (he has you all fooled.) He was extremely good in the store. On the way to the store I had helped him memorize that mom wanted us to buy salad, tortilla chips, and juice for dinner. I was impressed to see that he did in fact remember all of those items, and he had also taken the time to make a mental note of a couple of additional items that I had failed to mention; cookies and chocolate milk. When we walked into the store he was quick to inform me of the update.

Shopping went really well, and he was being so cute that of course I purchased his cookies and milk. How could I not? We got up to the checkout line and a young girl was removing the items from our cart. She looked at Tanner and said, "Oh, you're cute. What's your name?" Tanner looked at me, then glared at her intensely and stated, "My cookies, my choco milk." Yeah, no kidding around in his voice. It was really surprising. The girl looked at me and and put her head down and just kept on scanning our grocery items. Tanner, obviously noticing he had won this encounter just kept on mumbling under his breath, "My cookies...my choco milk....my cookies....etc."

Six Years and Counting

Waking up today I can't even believe that it has been six years since the day of my marriage. It really has gone by so quickly...in a good way. Nicolette and I joke around a lot about the early days of our relationship. One of the strangest things for us is that on the night of our first date we hung out all night long...movies, chatting...etc. (we obviously kept this from BYU.) The part about the night that is strange to us is that we can't remember how she got over to my brothers house, or even worse, we have not idea as to how she got home. You see, we had hung out with a couple of mutual friends that night and we just can't remember who did the driving. My car did not work at the time and her car...as far as we know...was parked at her apartment all night.

Another fun part of that night is when I called her earlier in the day to ask her on the date. I had met her friends prior to knowing her. When I met her I fell for her immediately, but I didn't want it to be too obvious, so when I planned things to do I usually invited her and her friends. On the day of our first official date I called her and at that time I asked her on what would have been our first official dat together. I invited her to lunch and then a movie later that night. After calling to invite her I then followed up with our friend Noel to let her know that I would be taking Nicolette out on a date. Apparently Nicolette had just gotten off of the phone with her to let her know that I had called and that I would like to take all of them out to lunch and a movie. Yes, everytime I asked Nicolette to do something with me she always assumed I wanted everyone else to come as well. Noel caught onto this when Nicolette called and explained to her the obvious...that I wanted to take HER out...and HER alone. I did manage to take her out by herself, but the damage was already done for the movie...I ended up taking three women to the movies (yes, I'm that cool.)

The movie that we all went to was the opening night of Pearl Harbor. The movie was fine, but the kneck cramp I left the movies with about killed me. Noel and Shay were running completely late...of just on time for the standard girl, and when we arrived to the movie during the opening previews. We showed up so late that we had to sit in the front row. THE MOVIE WAS THREE AND 1/2 FREAKIN' HOURS LONG. I don't think that any of us felt great after that.

That is when the night became quite the blur. We don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the night. You know, come to think of it I probably hit some sort of nerve in my kneck that affected my brain for the rest of the evening. I guess that could explain why we don't remember much. :)

After that night everything moved along rather quickly. We were engaged with 6 weeks, married 9 months later, and I've been the happiest man alive for the last 6 years...I see no end to my feelings for her. She is an incredible, talented, forgiving (she forgives me all of the time,) passionate women and I'm lucky to have her.

(Sorry if there are typos or anything. There is a lot more to this story...I'll have to continue it...at least before my wife tries to tell her side and stretches the truth.)


-E.

Proud Parents

Over the last couple of weeks Nicolette and I have seen our three year old Tyler do amazing things. It has just been one of those weeks...You know what I mean; out of the blue your child starts speaking complete sentences, throws out words you can't believe he knows, learns to draw something so detailed you can't believe he did it, just starts reading....etc. That is the kind of week we have had.

Nicolette picked up Tyler on Thursday from preschool. As she was driving home she heard him talking to himself...for those of you that know our son you know that this is completely normal. (Yes, even when he is talking to himself he still speak five thousand words per minute!) Anyway, she starts to listen it to what he is saying and she notices that he is spelling something. HE WAS SPELLING HIS NAME! To be exact, he was licking his finger and writing his name on the window. She was very proud of him.

I came home later in the day and he immediately came out to me and showed me how he can spell his name. The funny part about that is that even though he's not in a car, if you ask him to spell his name he'll still lick his finger and and draw the letters for you on an imaginary window. It's a riot.

Anyway, to make a long story short this morning he was drawing and he wrote his name all by himself on a paper. In addition to that he drew an amazing face. I may be mistaken, but I think this might be his first drawing of a face that we could actually tell what it is.