Potentially embarrassing confession

So you know when your children/nieces/nephews/'babysitees' see a new movie and suddenly it seems that is all your DVD player is playing? Whether you are in the room or not you hear it playing on the tv?

Well, Jameson bought me Tangled and you want to know how many times I've watched it since he bought it for me at 4 am? 4. Well, I'm on the fourth time. I don't know what it is about new movies but I just can't help myself. But as I've thought about why I do this today I have also realized it is only with Disney movies.

The most recent of these, Princess and the Frog. I think it is because I enjoy movies where I know I'll be happy watching it, good music, happy endings, funny one liners, good lesson/morals, goofy expressions... basically there are no downsides to Disney movies. Especially princess ones. You may disagree with me, that's cool too. I mean, I do like watching mysteries on tv but those are different. I cant watch the same episode time again because there is always more to see with the next episode. But movies aren't the same.

In the meantime, I suggest all of you watch something that makes you happy. Life is too short for miserable endings and guys that don't get the girl... and music-less-ness.

"The most difficult tickets to get will be for a Broadway musical"
"Okay"
"That means that the performers will periodically dance about and burst into song"

One crazy trip

We're a little overdue with a post, so I hope this is a good one. We have good news after all: a wedding!

Tommy and Carly, some of our best friends, got married yesterday morning and it was fantastic. Of course, it was a little traumatic getting to the wedding, as we had an accident.

We left Thursday around noon to get to Rexburg. Carly was receiving her endowment at 5:30 and we wanted to get there with plenty of time to go through with her. Becky was super excited as she LOVES the Rexburg temple and has not been able to do a session there yet. So off we went!

Around 3:30 we were 30 miles out of Pocatello and we had passed all the snow on the ground, but it had just started to rain/hail. All of a sudden, the front of the car started moving to the side of the road. Thinking I was just drifting a bit, I corrected my wheel to realize: I was not in control of a car moving at 80 mph with my wife and child inside.

Luckily there was no metal railing. We went off into the gravel and slid while the car spun completely around (360 degrees here)and stopped just off the shoulder of the oncoming freeway. Luckily the car didn't roll and shook very little, and we were all okay (just very shaken). Chloe, the person we worried about the most, was of course the best off as she slept through the entire ordeal (including Becky's scream!) and was strapped down tight.

Well, the tire popped off the bead and the metal was on the ground, so we drove to the shoulder and I figured out where the spare and jack were. A man stopped to help and was very kind, even giving me a pair of gloves to use. Turns out! Our spare was flat as well. A policeman came to the scene and actually drove to the nearest town and filled up our spare and brought it back. He refrained from giving me a ticket saying he appreciated that I was honest with him when I told him what happened. We got in the car and drove slowly to Pocatello, where they told us that the tire had no punctures or tears and was actually still full of air, just popped off the bead. They pulled rocks out from between our other tires and rims and put the tire back on free of charge while the women inside doted on Chloe. We thanked them and were off to Rexburg; leaving around 5:15.

While we missed the session, we were so blessed during that ride. Becky's mom had put our names in the temple the day before and we prayed for safety before we left and our prayers were so obviously answered that it's incredible. Every time I think about it, I can't believe how much we were looked after and am so grateful for it. There have been more blessings than we can count, and I know that God truly does look after His children.

We made it to Rexburg and were surprised with more blessings. We spent some time with old friends from WA, and it was late before we finally were going to the home we were going to stay at in Rigby. Bro. White, the father of the bride, a good friend of Becky's dad and an amazing person was kind enough to get us a hotel room so we wouldn't have to do any more driving that night. We crashed.

The next day was the wedding. It was beautiful! And simple and just a good spiritual time. I always like to watch the parents rather than the couple during sealings. I think it's much more impressive and moving.

We took pictures in freezing wind and snow and then had a great lunch. I was able to spend a lot of time with my old friend Alex on the trip and that was great, and seeing the newlyweds was fantastic as well. After some errands and visits, we caravaned back home with Alex's parents and made it home very late but in one piece. The Bushes were kind enough to be patient with Becky feeding Chloe and putting up with my new found paranoia, and now we're home safe and sound.

Anyway, I have learned three things this short trip: be grateful for your family every second, old friendships are more than worth renewing, and God is watching us all and will take care of us.

God bless you all, especially the happy newlyweds.

Getting so big!

The first video is of Chloe when she first started Tummy time at 2 weeks old. Apparently my video camera doesn't record when the video was taken. Well, it does. But it says it was taken January 18th 1957...Yeah...But I know it was the first time. My money is on Feb 4th the day of the appointment.


This second video is Chloe TODAY! She has gotten a lot better at holding her head up and she just started smiling this week :)



Please ignore the silly goading of my voice :P

Photoshoot

Lissa Chandler, a talented friend, took pictures of Chloe as a gift. Obviously, it is quite impossible to pick favorites of such a sweet baby. What is even more difficult is narrowing them down. So I made my best attempt to be unbiased and pick from them the best I can.















Chloe has been making leaps and bounds! Saturday night she slept ALL night in her crib. Now if she sleeps 6 hours in a row I call it "all night" even if it from 9 to 3. It is still a solid 6 hours. She has begun to smile on purpose :) Which makes us smile! She has always smiled in her sleep or half smiled or randomly but she has learned to control it sometimes. She instantly had a hold on our hearts the moment we knew she was coming and continues to strengthen it every moment of every day. Not hard to see how :)

Big news

So a couple weeks ago I went into the advisement center with a purpose: I was going to drop my minor and try to graduate early. I deliberated about this decision for a long time; I didn't know if I would regret it. My original plan was to finish my major this semester and then go straight through spring semester finishing up my minor and graduating in August to go on to grad school (hopefully). I decided this was way too busy for me; I would burn myself out before I even got to grad school! I wasn't sure however if I really would regret dropping my minor; after all I only had three more classes to go to finish it. But then I figured, hey when I have a PhD, nobody will care what I minored in for my B.S.

So. I had originally went in about three weeks ago and scheduled an appointment with the adviser for the next Tuesday when I would already be on campus. Lo and behold, come Tuesday morning there was an emergency and she had to get called out of the office so I had to reschedule. Thursday it was. Of course, I get a call Thursday morning as well saying there was another emergency and she wouldn't be in that day either and they asked to reschedule again. Honestly? I'm not sure what emergencies school counselors have that would require them to leave.

I decided to go into the office again and yell at (talk) to the people because I needed to know pretty soon whether or not I could work all of this out. Turns out I didn't need to meet with her after all! I just had to fill out a petition and turn it in. They said it wasn't a guarantee but pretty much nobody gets turned down from it. Sweet.

I wait the requisite week for my petition to be processed and I get back online. My minor was dropped! But I was still slated for an August graduation. Weird. I waited another four or five days and it stayed the same, so I went in again accompanied by Becky and Chloe. The receptionist disappears for about five minutes and comes back saying, "it's a good thing you came in. It was processed and approved but nobody made the changes in the system."

I'm so impressed with this office.

But the news! I'm done with my undergrad in somewhere around six weeks! I am excited. I'll graduate in April, spend the summer working and spending time with my wife and daughter. And it will be fantastic.

Anyway, it's the weekend! So here's your weekend playlist. It rained the first good rainstorm in a while yesterday and so I whipped up a bunch of songs that are perfect to play in the rain. Here you go:

1. Duffy - Warwick Avenue. Fantastic song and voice, but I have a hard time loving all of her stuff.
2. Breaking Benjamin - Rain. One of the most chill songs I know from a band that most wouldn't consider chill. Or listen to around parents.
3. Brandston - Parallels. Too bad there's no video for this because this is one of my favorite indie bands
4. Ben Folds - Carrying Cathy because nobody can have a chill playlist without Ben Folds.
5. Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body. Um, duh. Video starts at 30 seconds sorry.
6. OK Go - 1000 Miles Per Hour I used to listen to this song literally every day
7. Colbie Caillat - The Little Things. She's pretty too.
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr Song. I hope you know this song
9. Mana - Bendita Tu Luz. This is my favorite Spanish band of all time. I think they're...Mexican? Not sure.
10. Finger Eleven - One Thing. Much better than their old name. Trust me.
11. Waking Ashland - October Skies. One of my favorite bands of all time, and it's too bad this is the acoustic version.
12. Simon And Garfunkel - The Boxer. Need I say more?
13. Jack's Mannequin - Annie Use Your Telescope.

Whelp, there you go. Off for a walk with Becky and Chloe!

Heart Attack

Last night was a rough night for me. I have been having problems getting Chloe down. She'll fall asleep for 10 minutes and wake up because she has to poop. Then an hour later she'll fall asleep but wake up 10 minutes later. And it goes like this from when Jameson leaves (10pm) until about 1:30.

I think she understood me cause I was trying to get her sleepy again when I started to get the clenched throat 'i'm gonna cry' sound and told her very frankly that if she did not go to sleep this time around I couldn't do it anymore. I would leave her in her crib to cry for a while because I was too exhausted and my back hurt too much to continue this charade.

She slept.

Which, ironically enough is when my heart attack night started. You see, I've noticed that Chloe takes better EVERYTHINGS in her crib. But I've loved having someone in the room with me again every night and I am scared to death that when she sleeps in her crib that I'll go check on her and she'll be dead. So last night I sucked it up and did what I knew was right. I put her in her crib.

I went in to check on her this morning and she is safe! She didnt sleep through the night. She woke up once for a period of 20 minutes to eat. But she is still sleeping right now :) (9:30am) and I am very pleased! So pleased in fact that I am going back to bed!

Op....

She woke up.