Happy Friday

This made me laugh.

Sweetness

Thanks again for the sweet birthday wishes. Yes, I had a fantastic birthday weekend. James made the celebration last from Wednesday to Sunday-it was AWESOME. My mom created the tradition of the "Birthday Dinner" on the Sunday near our birthday. We choose the meal, the cake-the works. My dinner of BBQ'd steak, salmon, corn on the cob, fruit, Sarah's salad (pure yumminess from Pinch of Salt Lake) and red velvet flag cake. Does it get any better? I didn't think so.
My grandma and I at my birthday dinner. We got in a little fight that night and no it wasn't about me allegedly stealing her money (for the record, I have NEVER...I repeat...NEVER stolen from my grandma). Our fight was about me coming to visit her on Tuesday...she's a silly lady.

Happy Birthday Babe

Happy Birthday (yesterday) babe. Here are some reasons why I feel so blessed to have such an amazing wife.
1. DeDe is so loving and supportive of me. She has helped me in more ways than I could ever try and explain in everything from school, work, and church callings. She is always encouraging me and building me up.
2. She is an incredible mom who loves and cares for Oliver so much. There will be times when he is fussy and she has all of these little things that she has figured out to help calm him. She will tell me to do some of them if I am holding them and usually I think, "Ya right, like that is going to help", and then I do it and it immediately soothes him. I am so grateful to know that she is going to be able to spend a lot of time with our little boy.
3. She is very smart, and a very hard worker. Our family would really be up a creek without her hard work and dedication in helping provide for our family ever since we have been married, and especially during my grad school. Her employers have all been extremely complimentary of her, and she has really progressed in her career in a really short amount of time.
4. She has a genuinely good heart and is a genuinely good person. It is not in her nature to be bad or do bad things. When she hears about some of the bad things that go on in this world she is shocked because it is so against her nature.
5. She is a really good cook. I have never had to pretend to like anything she has made.
6. She is an incredible sister, daughter, grand daughter, and friend. There is nothing she would not do for those that she loves.
7. She is patient. If anyone has ever lived with me then they know that I know how to be really annoying and how to tease. She deals with this behavior very well.
8. She gets my humor and laughs at me. Her uncontrolled laughter is one of my favorite things about her, and I try quite often to get her laughing. She does think that I already have a lot of what she terms "Bad Dad" jokes. I don't know what she means by that.
9. She is drop dead gorgeous. Enough said.
10. She likes soccer. She knows nearly all of the ReAL team by name. I think she has a small crush on Coach Kreis. She gets into the games that we go to. I even overheard her twice talking about the game to some of her friends.

I love you babe and I am so glad that we met. I am even more glad that you agreed to marry me. I hope you have one absolutely amazing year.

Raspberry Days

We have so many raspberries on our bushes! I love it. I've been going in the morning and picking bowls full and freezing them for jam. Anyone is welcome to come pick some for your self. Just email me if you want to come down.

Oh and our neighbor has the most amazing clematis that blooms in our yard. It is the most beautiful clematis I have ever seen.

Oliver vs. the Real Game

I don't know how much he likes the game, but I do know he LOVES the jumbo-tron. And, he looks pretty cute in his jersey.

Poor Ramonie

The last couple of days our little Ramonie has had some sort of allergic reaction. He has sensitive skin, this isn't the first time he's had hives and a swollen face. It's so sad.

It's hard to tell but his face and eyes are really swollen.

These are kind of hard to tell too, but he has hives all over his body. It's really sad. I think he's pretty miserable.

Oliver + the Bumbo

Thanks Jamie and Christy!

A Summer of Memmories.

So, 6 long years ago I talked my little brother Jesse and 3 other good friends into selling videos door-to-door in the cool Nevada summer. We drove our cars way more than any car should be driven, and we sweat more than one should sweat. We experienced rejection and disappointment, skin falling off our hands from stress, manager's "bearing down on us", and tear jerking films that we had to cry during or we would be considered "heartless" by one of our teammates. We slept on beds, couches, air mattresses or cots, and any where from our own apartment to a local cow pasture or a scenic overlook parking lot. We ate a lot of PB & J sandwiches that were dry on one side and wet on the other from sitting in a small cooler with an ice block in our car for 5 hours before we ate it. We all felt like we were going to make millions or at least 20K, and we celebrated this excitement every morning for the first week of the summer by having 8:00 a.m. sales team dance parties to Billy Joel's "Easy Money", that was until reality hit us or our neighbor asked us to keep it down a little in the mornings. Some times were bad like when Jesse's car wouldn't work, or when it was broken into and my CD's were stolen as well as his speakers, or the following week when his entire car was stolen. Other times were good like when friends came and visited us and we went to the local buffet, or Vegas, or Club Oasis (where everyone had to think we were gay because we all stayed pretty close to each other), or friends coming and going to see Modest Mouse in Reno, or sneaking into Incline Village at Lake Tahoe to see fireworks on the 4th of July. Pretty much any time we were not working and were able to hang out was a very memorable experience. We met a lot of interesting people like the 18 year old kid who was from Ogden but had to get out and see the world so he moved to Elko, Nevada. a This kid would drink soda as a weight gainer, and he was an incredible singer-song writer who's songs sounded surprisingly like Creed's. One of his songs that he performed for Ryan and Lindsey in his studio apartment while seated on the end of his bed with Ryan and Lindsey a mere foot away facing him while seated on his couch was "With Hands Wide Open". Apparently he had written it the night before, interestingly enough it was the exact same song as Creed's "With Arms Wide Open" but he was genius enough to substitute "Hands" in place of "arms". There were funny times like when Jeremy ran after a girl who had just left our often found oasis (the local library where ever we were) and asked her out only to find out she was only 15, or when he tried to get something out of our studio apartment's overflowing closet and while climbing out he said, "Every time I come out of the closet I feel like I am being born again." Needless to say it was a summer of many memories. Lindsey came by the other night and brought with her this little gem (seen below) from our time selling that summer. I don't know how she got a hold of it or how she has held onto it for so long but I am sure glad. It is a fitness center registration card that Jesse filled out for me as a joke, without my knowledge. I think it is pretty hilarious.