Some pics

Hives

Just like the big kids

Rough housing

My favorite

Early music training

Halloween

at least he likes pickles

Happy Baptism!

Hanging

trouble

trouble

trouble

but I don't want to be a girl!

more trouble

ditto

hmm..

yes he did it himself

too tired to make any more trouble

I'm not much of a blogger lately so I hope you enjoy these pictures...we sure had fun taking them!

Happy Birthday Isaac

Isaac wins the prize for best two-year-old this year.

10 points for snuggles.

15 points for messes.

10 points for best and worst temper-tantrums.

Best light blue eyes.

20 points for character.

I hate that you are growing up so fast…but so far I like three-year-old Isaac just as much, so I guess you can stay. 

Goodbye my sweet two-year-old!

The Winter Months

Mostly we like to dress up.

Occasionally we take baths.

More dress up.

It’s fun to go exploring.

That makes us tired.

Laundry baskets keep babies out of trouble.

Big kids too.

We’re so glad spring is here….

Go Cubs!

Married?

Hey, sorry about that last post. I suppose there are some who read this blog, but still don't know me well enough, to know whether I'm joking or not about some things. If you didn't know for sure whether I was joking, then don't worry - my wife never does either. So maybe it isn't about knowing me well - just don't ever take anything I say seriously... ha ha!

Well, having said that, I do have something serious that I'd like to publicize. I am working on developing an instrument to measure marital quality and we're currently collecting data to test it. If you are married (you must be married to participate), and would like to help me out, please click here. It takes about 20-30 minutes to complete one time through; you will be asked, after a week, to take it a second time.

Thanks for all your help, and for forgiving me (if you so choose). Peace.

Big News!

Sorry it's been so long, but we have been so busy with a new baby and a new semester...that is almost over, now. In fact, I'm not quite sure I have a whole lot of time right now - being busy at work and everything. But even though I'm extremely busy now, I'm just tying up loose ends - 'cause I won't be working at BYU for much longer. Here's how it came about:

About a year ago, this guy moved into one of the units above us. His name is Chet, so of course Beth and I spent our evenings making fun of his name when he first moved in. But one day, he came downstairs and knocked on our door to borrow a cup of flour. Beth wasn't home, so I invited him in while I searched for it (let's just say I don't know my way 'round the kitchen too well). After about ten minutes of searching, I had found the flour; during that time, however, I had found a friend, and Chet and I have been virtually inseparable since then. Okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration. We did become good friends, though, and even though he's single, he hangs out with us quite a bit.

So turns out Chet is a bit of an entrepreneur. As we've gotten to know each other, he's been really instrumental in helping me get my marriage workshop marketable and conceptualized, and he's done all this thinking and stuff for free. He's said all along that there's good money in my ideas and has been nothing but encouraging. So every now and then, he and I would talk shop and in just the year I've known him, I've made serious strides in getting my business idea off the ground (for those who don't know, I've been developing a marriage workshop and pre-marriage education program that I've been trying to market for a while).

In the meantime, Chet has made friends with pretty much every family in the building. He's done wonders for making us feel like a community - he just has this magnetic personality and everyone just can't seem to avoid his charm, no matter how cold they are personally (or, no matter what language they speak - we have a couple of Spanish speaking neighbors...). Well, a few months ago, Chet starting going up to Idaho every two weeks on business (not my business, but we've talked about that option). Every time he goes, he buys lottery tickets. About two months ago, he started asking us (and the other neighbors in the building) if we'd like to play. He's not Mormon, and found out soon from some of us that Mormons aren't supposed to gamble. But when he asked me, I thought, 'what the heck, this guys my friend.' So each time he went to Idaho, I'd give him a couple bucks.

Then came Wednesday's drawing - the jackpot was $187 million. I didn't actually find out about it until today, but with our pool of money he had bought 12 tickets (that's six of us, at $2 a piece). Chet didn't actually get home until yesterday night, but early this morning he came down before I went to work and told us that the six of us would split the jackpot - that's $15.7 million each (after taxes)! I'm sure it's hard to believe, especially given today's date, but isn't that something?

Beth and I are still in shock, but we've come to some conclusions: I'm retiring (early) from BYU and will now be working full time with Chet on my marriage workshops; we'll be buying a house real soon (not sure where, if we'll stay in Utah); and each of siblings will get a very special surprise from us. So that's our news; hope luck will shine down on you all soon!

...sleep in heavenly peace!

An Early Morning Intruder

Sunday, 19 December, 2010, 2:21 AM:

I woke to a rustling that was obviously coming from outside. Late at night, when these sounds occur, I have to say my heart gets to racing a little. My wife trusts me to protect the house, and I do keep a fire bat under the bed - not just for breaking windows during fires. So I know, when there's a sound, it's up to me to confront whatever is lurking in the darkness.

But before I confront anything, I try to listen closely to determine what I'm up against. In the past, I've never been up against much: a child wandering around the house; neighbors up making a lot of noise outside, or even upstairs. The scariest moments I've had to confront up until last night is Liz crying about some nightmare she's had. Typically, I'm pretty asleep, and I hear her scream out for me. In my fog, I try to understand why she's crying - only to learn that it was a nightmare from which she needs a parent's comfort to calm her.

She would wake from a nightmare on this night, too, but that isn't the sound I was hearing at 2:21 AM.

Instead, the sound I was straining to hear was something I hadn't heard before. Foreign sounds are definitely the worst. At first, I couldn't locate the sound spatially. We live in a bottom-level condo that is partially underground. All of our windows are on the south side of the building. Each bedroom has its own window; ours has a sliding glass door leading to our back porch. As I strained to hear, I knew the sound certainly came from outside, but at times it sounded far away, as though someone were trying to open the blinds in one of the kids' rooms; at other times, it sounded quite close, like someone were on the back patio - right outside our glass door.

But, after a bit of straining, I was sure that whatever was making the noise was on our back porch.

I now knew where the noise was coming from. I lay for a few moments trying to determine what was making the noise. I'll admit, I was a little scared to get out of bed and look out the blinds.

Sometimes, it's harder to be brave when my wife doesn't hear the noises. I suppose that's because if all else fails, I want her to hear me falling to floor and writhing in agony when whatever the disturbance is beats me up or shoots me. Even if there's nothing she could do at that point, it would be nice to know she knows I'm risking my life for her.

It was quite a relief when, through the fog of being just awoken, mixed with the emotion of having something just outside our door, to hear my wife speak up:

"I think there's an animal on our patio."

I could be brave now, because when she said that, I was finally able to place the sounds that were being made: a rustling of leaves (we have something of a collection on our porch from all the storms lately) and the scratching on the glass of the door, that could not have come from anything larger than a ... cat? No, too small. Mouse? No, too large. Rat? Outside of our door?

Sort of.

Turns out it was a muskrat (we have a creek that runs through our property). I'm glad I didn't have to use the fire bat. But I did have to get the thing off our porch. Since the porch is underground, the walls are cement; a cat could get in or out; a muskrat would be stuck there all night, scratching at our window.

Anyway, long story short: went to the dumpster and dragged a large tree limb over to see if I could get it to climb out on its own; that explains all the sticks in the picture; he used it as a good hiding place. So I removed the limb and used a shovel to...

...scare it into a bucket, which I promptly threw over the side of the porch (hey, I thought it could be rabid or something). I think it was just as relieved to be out of there as I was to get back into bed.

Home Security

1 Fire-bat

1 Shovel

1 Bucket

A whole lotta courage!

A pinch of wimpering in bed

P.S. In the middle of the ordeal, Liz woke from her nightmare - which I think turned out to be a half frightened/half irritated man walking through her house trying to decide how to get a muskrat off the porch.