Warren and Trish

More Ducks

2009-02-05T15:01:00.007-07:00

The weather has been so nice these last couple of days. Today when I started my car the thermometer said it was 55 degrees!!! It felt like it to. I decided that since it was so nice me and Kyler should go feed the starving ducks.

This trip to feed the ducks was different from last time. Last time Kyler didn't know how to walk and this time he could! He was all over the place. He is such a little boy. He loved running up and down the hill. (he only fell a couple times) He giggled when the ducks surrounded him and ate the bread right out of his hands. He didn't even mind when a couple of the ducks nibbled his fingers. There are about four big white ducks that are not afraid of anything. Kyler walked right up to them and grabbed their beaks! It was so funny to see.
It was really fun to play outside without it being totally freezing. We had a great time until we had to leave. Kyler was not happy about that. When he throws a tantrum he fake coughs...it's quite entertaining.

Bumps and Bruises

2009-02-03T10:20:00.013-07:00

I have decided that Kyler is accident prone. I know most kids are clumsy but he's a walking disaster. He had some small bumps and bruises when he was younger. Mostly from bonking him self with his toys. Now that he's walking places he his so clumsy.

He tipped over and landed on his toy which hit his mouth. He cut his upper lip and it bled pretty bad. He also had a pretty fat lip.

Then another day he was running out of my bedroom when he tripped and landed face first into the corner of the wall. He had a straight line down the middle of his nose which stayed there for a week or so. He also hit his lip which bled. (but not as bad this time)

A few weeks ago he was eating lunch at my moms house when he rocked in his high chair which tipped over and he landed on the kitchen floor. Thankfully the tray took a good hit before his face but he still managed to bite his lower lip and hit his shins which bruised them up pretty good.

Last night he was running around when he fell and hit his forehead on the corner of our end table. The 'thud' sound was so loud. Poor little kid! He had the biggest goose egg on his forehead.

I am hoping this is just Kyler being a toddler and not taking after me. Hopefully this is the worst of it all!

A New Christmas Tree

2008-11-30T19:48:00.004-07:00

This weekend Trish and I went with our friends up to Ashley National Forest. The goal of the trip was to come home with a perfect christmas tree on top of our car. The permit to cut down a tree is pretty inexpensive, but with a three hour drive cost obviously wasn't the reason we went tree hunting.

I was secretly hoping for snow to have some fun in the Forester, but all we got was the cold without the moisture. The area was really prety, not to mention packed with a variety of connifers.

Thanks to the generosity of our friends, we were able to search for trees on four wheelers and stay in a nice warm trailer. The trailer was good news, but I did have to get over the dissapointment of not being able to snuggle with a bunch of dudes in the tent.

We found a tree that both Trish and I liked, so I went with a couple of the guys and cut it down and brought it back to camp. We were having a great time, but both the wife and baby weren't feeling well so we left a bit early. We had tons of fun hanging out with our friends, and are so glad they invited us!

*trees in nature do not come with lights or ornaments

Tootsie Roll Pop

2008-11-21T13:22:00.005-07:00

Kyler had his one year doctor appointment today. He had to get 5 shots! (poor kid) On our way out of the office there is a sucker jar. I picked one up hoping to distract Kyler while I paid our bill. Since we left the office this morning he has not let go of that sucker! He carried it all through Costco while I did my shopping. When we got home he carried it with him while he played with his toys. It turned into a drumstick on our living room table and a holder for his binki.
Then he started to get tired and was snuggling it.
He even held onto it the whole time he was eating his bottle. When I laid him down for his nap I took the sucker away. (not wanting him to hurt himself with it) He got so MAD. After he screamed and screamed I decided I'd give it back to him and just keep an eye on him. He took the sucker, snuggled it, grabbed his blanket and fell asleep. I never knew a sucker could make him so happy.

Duck!

2008-11-19T15:11:00.006-07:00

I love feeding ducks. I remember being very young and my dad would take me and my family to feed the ducks. It was one of our favorite things to do. I still feed ducks all the time.

We have a pond by our house and we've been there to feed the ducks before. Most of the times we've gone the ducks swim away and don't care if we throw bread. But not today.

The ducks were asleep on the grass and when I walked up with the stroller they stayed right where they were sleeping. Kyler was able to lean out of the stroller and touch them and they still didn't move! As soon as I pulled the bread out to start feeding them they went CRAZY. They were all over the place. I could barley get Kyler a piece of bread before they were grabbing it out of his hands. He was loving it. He was smiling and pointing the entire time.

After we were done we went and played on the swings for a little bit.

I've decided ducks are funny. When we were getting ready to leave we walked around the pond. All of the ducks came out of the water up the slope and crossed the path right in front of where me and Kyler were walking. We had to stop to let them cross. I was laughing so hard.

Then they all gathered on the grass and quacked to each other. It looked like they were having a great conversation. It was funny!

Sign Language

2008-11-18T19:12:00.004-07:00

We've been trying to teach Kyler sign language. He seems to get frustrated because he can't tell us what he wants. We've tried to teach him bottle, bath, help, thank you, yes, no and eat. So far the only one he knows is eat. He will do this sign when we say eat OR when he's sad, mad, hurt, hungry, thirsty or just plain wants attention.
It's the cutest thing ever when he does it so I thought I'd share it with you all!

Walking!

2008-11-18T18:50:00.003-07:00

Kyler is going to be one tomorrow! I can't believe he's already been around for a year. He is developing such a cute personality! He's learning to walk. He can take a few steps here and there.
The other day we were at Warrens parents house and we were trying to show them how Kyler can walk a few steps. After walking from Warren to me everyone erupted in cheers and applause. He then turned around and walked from me across the room to his Grandpa. He was totally showing off! He's such a cute little guy.

Quiet.

2008-09-21T20:45:00.005-06:00

It's been about a week since out little dog passed away. It has been so quiet without him. I find myself talking to him without realizing it until I notice he's not coming when I call. Kyler is still looks and calls for him.
It's getting easier to talk about him without sobbing. It is still hard coming home to a quiet house knowing he isn't here anymore.
Ramses was such a smart little guy. I think he really did know english he just didn't want to talk. He knew we would give him what he wanted anyways.
As the time goes on our hearts won't feel as empty but we will always miss him.

That's a good boy

2008-09-16T09:42:00.003-06:00

Our little dog, Ramses, passed away yesterday evening. He has had problems with his lungs for the majority of his life which had progressively gotten worse. After greeting us at home and being silly, he couldn't catch his breath. His heart stopped beating in our arms. We cried.

This dog has been a member of our family for more than 3 years. This is a significant loss for us. Our dog was blessed with a quick-witted brain, a pair of gigantic persuasive-eyes and a loving heart. He at times seemed a bit too smart for his (or at least our) own good, and it is my hope that he had discreetly learned how to read the english language, navigate the internet and, recently, how to do both of those while in doggie heaven. So Ramses, this goes to you.

You have been a blessing to our family.

We love your silly expressions. The little clacking of your nails on the wood or tile when you came to check up on us always brought a smile to our face. Sometimes the smile was upside-down when you were travelling to the bathroom garbage in an attempt to pull out the tissues inside, but I still don't think you really would have wanted to eat those.

We're sorry that we hadn't gotten you a new squeaky monkey recently. You had become so good at killing the squeaker inside, it usually wouldn't last for more than a day! Now we aren't made of money, and since Costco didn't have them in bulk it would have required us to spend wads of cash to supply you with the little fuzzy yellow toys. However, in retrospect, I don't think it would have come close to the value that you hold to us.

You helped me become a better husband and father. For the times that I was ignorant of the needs of my wife, and being just plain old mean, you were there for her. You would sit your warm little body on her foot, bite her chin or just lick her hands to comfort her. Your eyes were so disarming, yet I can remember a few occasions when their powers were too weak to overcome my mood. You still forgave me, though. I never knew something so small could teach such important lessons.

Ramses, we thought you would be with us for a greater portion of our lives. I wish we could just, really quick (longer would be better, though), take you for a ride by the river in the bike trailer. Just one more time: to explore, to smell, to watch your surroundings with perked up ears. We have solace in the memory that you left while being happy. We woudln't have wanted it any other way.

We will miss your snuggles, your compassion, friendship, and love. We will even miss finding the occasional chewed-on baby toy. We hope that we gave you as much joy as you have given to us.

We miss you, and we love you. Rest in peace, little friend.

Our Silly Baby

2008-09-05T21:46:00.004-06:00

Kids are funny! Kyler makes me laugh every day. I though you all would enjoy a good laugh.

Kyler is to the age where he wants to stand up, although, he can't stand up alone. He still needs some assistance. Lately when you go to sit him down on the floor, he will arch his back. Doing that makes it very hard for you to get his bottom on the ground.

Today when I went to sit him down for a few minutes he arched his back and would NOT bend to sit down. Normally I would just lay him down but today he was pretty close to the couch so I thought I'd lean him up against it and see what he'd do. This is what happened.....

He sat like that for about 3 minutes watching cartoons while I LAUGHED! Needless to say, I didn't get anything done because all I was doing was watching him and laughing! He is such a funny kid!

The DNC and RNC

2008-09-05T09:47:00.006-06:00

To preface these comment (for the 2 people that read what we write, including our dog): these are Warren's opinions on politics. Trish and I have different opinions on different subjects, and these are mine. I am glad to have a wife that is an independant thinker.

I watched both the Democratic and Republican conventions while trying my very hardest to keep my pre-conceptions down to a minimum. Keeping an open mind is pretty difficult, and there will always be some sort of bias, but I made a few observations.

I can see why there are seperate political "parties". It makes sense, though can be extremley frustrating to see both sides act like children at times. I don't know what a better solution would be. I expect both sides to criticize the other's political choices. If one candidate doesn't think the other is doing something wrong, why would they be running as an alertnative? I watched the Democrats lay down criticism, and the Republicans do the same. They both had points that need to be addressed.

From my point of view, the DNC really had a lot of diversity in the crowd. This may have had to do with the size of the venue in comparison to the RNC, though. I listened to about an equal amount of speeches for both parties before the acceptance speeches. It was interesting to see the mix of Ethos, Logos and Pathos between the conventions. The DNC, I thought, focused on mostly on the current administration and used differences in policies as their ammunition (Ethos and Logos). The argument seemed to mostly be, 'This will not be a continuation of the past 8 years'. The RNC speeches I listened to portrayed Obama as un-patriotic and used emotional arguments (Ethos and Pathos). There wasn't much substance about policies until the final acceptance speech, but there were a lot of Commander-in-Cheif arguements because of McCain's military experience.

I didn't see much of the Joe Biden acceptance speech, partially becasue I don't really like some of the positions he has taken and partially because the baby needed some attention. I did see Sarah Palin acceptance speech, though. In contrast with McCain, she is a very good speaker. Also, she is compelling, likeable, attractive and confident. Despite this the content of her speech, to me, was very dissapointing. She was pretty much like an attack dog on Obama, with sprinkles of her accomplishments throughout. The attacks lacked substance and were strongly emotional. Even more dissapointing, though, was the half-truths given as her accomplishments in office after some fact-checking following the speech.

Both of the final acceptance speeches were better than I expected. Obama is an excellent public speaker, he is eloquent and confident. McCain's strong point is not speaking, but he is confident and he comes across as speaking his mind. Obama's speech was inspiring. He spent, by far, the majority of his time talking about policies. He did make some jabs at McCain, though in my mind they were policy based. He acknowledged the service McCain has given to his country which I appreciated. He brought up the importance of energy, oil, foreign policy and gave some detail as to what his policies would accomplish. He also alluded to the fact that our economic situation requires us to take some personal responsibility. McCain's spoke much better than I expected. He was pretty clear, and finally did skim over policy decisions (which hadn't been addressed much in the convention beforehand). He toned down the attacks on Obama, and acknowledged that his intentions were good which was also appreciated. He brought up some of Obama's policies and pointed out flaws which contradict what Obama's speech was about. That didn't make much sense to me. He spoke a lot about his service in the military, and his life in general. I would have liked to have heard more details on policy decisions.

It's nice to live in a country that we are allowed to question our elected leadership. I would like for it to stay that way. It's good to see a lot of people get involved in this election. I hope that, regardless of your beliefs, you do get involved and let our leaders know that we really do care about this country and how it is governed.

The TV really can be entertaining

2008-08-26T19:24:00.002-06:00

I'm sitting here watching America's Got Talent on the ol' Television and I heard a fantastic comment from the super-cool David Hasselhoff. There was a group that I guess does hip-hop with music from the 20's. He said: "You are as american as the olympics!". I looked on the trusty Google to see if there is another Olympics besides the International sporting event, but no luck quite yet.

Now there is some guy pretending to be Brittany Spears dancing on stage. I need to find another book to read.

Splashing and Growling

2008-08-18T20:50:00.007-06:00

The baby usually likes taking his bath, but doesn't like getting water in his face. Recently though he has gotten a little bit braver and doesn't cry when water creeps by his nose and eyes. Today he was going a bit crazy with his toys in the bathtub and was splashing with what seeemed like the goal of wetting the whole bathroom floor. He did pretty good for a 9 month old.

I don't know if the fearless splashing has anything to do with it, but he has a new habit of doing baby-growls at his mom, dad and dog. It's a bit too adorable to be intimidating but he sure puts a lot of effort into it. Maybe he needs to spend less time with the dog.

Woot! Camping!

2008-08-04T10:20:00.005-06:00

Camping is fun. We were lucky to get to go camping two weekends in a row. The first weekend we went with Warren's family. This was a great camping trip. Warren's sis and her kids were in town so we got to have fun with them. Kyler had a great time with his cousins! We had really yummie tinfoil dinners and a really yummie breakfast.

The next weekend we got to go to the annual Durfee Campout! We had fun playing games, hiking, riding bikes and taking picutres! It was great to see all my cousins and their kids.

Fourth of July Fun!

2008-07-16T10:06:00.010-06:00

I know, the 4th of July was a while ago....I have been so busy.

I love the fourth of July. I love the fireworks, the loud bangs and booms, the parades and most of all the hot air balloons! This year we got to go to the hot air balloons TWICE! The first morning we got up late and didn't get to the field until 6:45am and by that time the balloons were already in the air. I really wanted Kyler to see the balloons up close so we went home and planned on going back the next morning.

The morning of July 4th we woke up at 5:20 just so we could make sure we were on time. We rode our bikes to the field and made it before all the balloons were in the air. We met up with Warrens sister, her husband and kids. I was hoping Kyler would LOVE the balloons as much as I do....but he didn't care. Even when the balloons shot their huge flame into the air Kyler didn't even flinch.  He just sat there like he was still asleep.  Then after a few minutes of walking around I could hear Kyler squeeling with delight!!!  When I looked to see what balloon he was looking at I noticed he wasn't even looking at a balloon...  A few feet away from us were these two huge rottweilers!  He was trying to talk to the dogs! There were a few people walking around with dogs there and everytime we passed them, Kyler let us know with his cute little scream.

Later that day, after Kyler went home and crashed...
we rode our bikes to the Provo parade in search of Warrens dad but didn't have any luck so we went back home.

That night we went to the Sandy parade and fireworks. I had a lot of fun at the parade with my family. We are all really loud and we attract a lot of attention and candy for the kids. The fireworks were fun too. I was interested to see if Kyler would like the loud noises but he didn't even care. He noticed the fireworks in the sky and seemed to like watching them.

It was a great day.  I can't wait until next year!!

Bell Concert BYU

2008-06-19T23:02:00.007-06:00

I have decided that Blog != MySpace, so I will contribute to the jabbering about our little family.

The BYU bell tower has an annual event where they play various songs for about an hour. They have a few songs that require a couple of players, since they pretty much can just play one note per hand I guess that lets them play the uber music. It's pretty cool to listen to and a lot of people seem to come.

My boss gave us a bike trailer that he got at an auction, and the baby loves it which is great because I love to ride whenever I get the chance. Trish suggested we ride to the listen to the bells, and we both were pretty excited about it. We loaded up blankets, drinks and other goodies then embarked to the BYU campus. It's not much more than 2-1/2 miles from our place and is a pretty nice ride.

We got there early to get a good shade spot, and a good shade spot we did find! It's great living in a climate with not much humidity because being in the shade is actually cooler than the sunny parts. Take that Missouri!

When the first song started, the baby got pretty excited. It was the national anthem, and everybody stood up in a sort of confusion - no flags were in sight. It was neat hearing the song from bells.

Without question, the best part of the show was at the end. The last song stopped about a minute before 8:00. I was starting to get up when people above us (the bell tower is on a grassy hill) started to scream! I turned my head in the direction of the screaming, but didn't really see anything. About a couple of seconds later I felt something cold and wet on my face. As I turned to look farther up the hill I saw sprinkler heads rising all over, and water surrounding us! Kyler was in the bike trailer at the time, and make a squinty face because a few water droplets made it to his face. I walked the bike and trailer down the hill, and wondered why everybody was still standing there. Trish was nearing the point of uncontrollable giggling, but that would be reached later

We both helped our neighbor bell-watchers (or hearers?) get their blankets, chairs, bags, sunglasses, oh and another pair of sunglasses, and a bottle of water. Yes, bottle of water. Now that I think back, that might be kind of ironic, but maybe I need to look up irony in the dictionary first. We all stood at the base of the small hill, which happened to be a paved pathway up around the tower. We were totally safe from the sprinklers at that point. I was consumed with the fact that my rims were now wet and would be squeaky for the next stop or two, when the sprinklers on the other side started to turn on as well. Ha ha, suckers! I thought, and continued to glare at my rims. About that same moment Trish started laughing progressively harder, and I couldn't really understand what she was trying to say. I started to walk - you know, to get the journey on the road, but communication from her was pretty much done at that point. She was at least able to breathe, which is important. I thought it was about the sprinklers still, so I just worked my way through the groups of people leaving.

On the way back she told me that when the sprinklers on the other side popped up, there were a couple of ladies sitting next to us that jumped up to avoid getting wet. Well, maybe one of them needed to wear a belt, generally they keep pants on pretty well. When one of the ladies stood up, Trish was priviliged to be introduced to a complete view of her bare bottom. "She was actually very tan too". Sometimes it's better to just not ask...

Camping at the Willows

2008-06-17T22:31:00.005-06:00

So this last weekend me and my family went camping. It was so much fun. It was Kylers first camping trip! I was amazed at how well he slept outdoors. He was always so bundled up, thanks to me being a new mom, I wouldn't let him get cold.

For fathers day I got Warren a fishing pole and license. We had a lot of fun fishing and we each caught our first fish! They were pretty ugly cat fish, but atleast we caught one!

It was fun having the family together (even though everyone wasn't there) It was fun hanging out, watching movies and the food was great!

(if you look close in the family shot Warren and Randall are making silly faces)

(thanks Ryan and Cindi for the use of your trailer!)

I'm excited to get out there and go camping and fishing again. Hopefully we'll go somewhere with better fish.

A lot of catching up...

2008-06-17T18:44:00.002-06:00

There is a lot to catch up on. I've decided to do what some of my friends have done and have a flash back Friday. Every Friday I'm going to flash back to a memory I've had in the past and try and get up to date that way. As for now I'll start with this month.

New Blog...

2008-06-17T10:24:00.002-06:00

It's crazy how I married a computer smartie but I don't know much about them. I've been able to figure out facebook and myspace but this blogger stuff has got me all confused. Hopefully over time I'll get a little better at it.