SuRpRiSe!

We’re in the 5 percent!!!

If your confused…go here.

That’s right. SuRpRiSe!

Sammy’s little sister will be arriving mid May. He’s going to make the best big brother.

For those who need the details…

We have been blessed and literally guided to the right doctors. That’s right. DOCTORS. (after years of “testing” with various doctors without sufficient results either way, and hearing “just try Clomid” about seventeen times…this time I didn’t have to groan or shudder). Thanks to this friend, we finally found one that didn’t beat around the infertility bush. He recommended surgery to remove the cysts on my ovaries and “re-boot” my cycle. Two weeks after surgery, the doctor recommended Clomid (shudder, shudder, shudder). I reluctantly agreed because he promised to monitor its effects to see if it was working. (Brilliant! Why didn’t the other doctors try that?) Well it turns out, it DID work.

SuRpRiSe!

An egg had developed, but hadn’t released yet (common with PCOS – usually they turn into cysts), so the doctor ordered a progesterone shot which would, hopefully, release the egg.

SuRpRiSe!

Four and a half weeks later, I was so afraid to take a pregnancy test after having taken so many with a negative result…I just didn’t want to get my hopes up. Well, on day 40 I finally couldn’t take it anymore and decided to secretly take the test. I was too impatient and wanted to watch the little pink line appear. At first I thought the test had turned out just like all the others, but then, slowly the 2nd pink line appeared. I was in shock…and then I started to shake.

SuRpRiSe!

I honestly didn’t believe it until I went to the doctor a week later and he did an ultrasound where we saw our little bean’s heart beating. That was the sweetest sight in the world!

It’s taken me 18 weeks to finally believe it enough to share it with the world (thanks to the few of you who kept our secret for so long!!!)

We know the Lord has truly blessed and guided our family. I am so grateful to Him for this answer to prayer and for this new little spirit we get to bring into the world. What a beautiful SuRpRiSe!


FYI: So far…pregnancy has been great. I haven’t felt super sick – although I have had to make several dashes to the bathroom to pay homage to the porcelain throne. I haven’t had much of an appetite either, which has meant I’ve been losing weight instead of gaining it (I don’t see what’s so wrong with that, but my doctor isn’t too thrilled about it). For the last 4 weeks I’ve felt “normal,” although I can no longer hide “the bump.”

I was interested to know how Dave would announce our news. You can read his perspective below. DISCLAIMER: I was surprised at how accurate Dave’s account is…not to mention…informative.

Two Parallel Lines

The Engineer's Perspective

For an engineer, two parallel lines aren’t all that significant. But I suppose for an engineer and his wife who’ve been trying to have kids for 5 years, two parallel lines are the ultimate goal. When Samuel came as fast and as sure as he came through the adoption process, we knew the Lord’s path was sure for us. We know Sammy was meant for our family, and through the last 18 months there have been so many personal witnesses of this reality. He has been more than worth the wait, and as we look back, we know the path has been in the Lord’s hands.

But now the question, “We know how the Lord wanted us to get #1, but how is #2 going to come?” We never received an answer from the medical community on why we haven’t conceived. Every test and check has come back as, “things look normal.” It wasn’t as though they told us that we wouldn’t be able to have kids, apparently the Lord had just exercised his birth control until our first born could come to our family. Another tender mercy of the Lord was Michelle’s friend Carrie as we moved into a new ward. She suggested we go visit Dr. Johnson in Layton’s tanner clinic. He had worked as a fertility doctor at U of U hospital previously and now was a very popular gynecologist. So popular in fact, that a new patient check-up wait was nearly a year. Well Michelle took the appointment, and in the mean time Samuel came into our family. So when the appointment came, we got some practical advice as a friend and physician. He recommended exploratory laparoscopic surgery to go in and look at the inner workings of Michelle to see if there was anything that could be seen and fixed to help the process run smoother; reboot the system if you will. At the time we weren’t ready to think about child #2, but decided that when we were ready to start, we would start there.

As Sammy approached a year old, we decided that we would get going again. After all, who knew how long this would take? In July, Michelle set up the surgery date. Dr. Johnson went in with cameras with “frickin lazers on their head” and cleaned things up, including zapping all the extra cysts on the ovaries, and extra buildup on the uterus as well as some guitar-string-looking-thingys that weren’t supposed to be there. TMI right?! Anyway, he came out of the surgery extremely positive and hopeful which was quite contagious. Well Dr. Johnson was awesome and stayed very involved: he gave us some fertility medication, and then had Michelle come in on day 14 of her cycle for an ultra sound. So we did, and during that visit he could tell there was at least one good egg, so he gave a progesterone shot to release the egg, assigned some homework, (Amy, I hope this is vague enough for your virgin ears!) and then wanted to hear if she missed or had a period so they could go on to something else.

So a couple weeks later, we were to the point where the next cycle should start. She didn’t. Realistically, normality hasn’t ever happened, so we didn’t dare get our hopes up. We didn’t really have a clear mind for what a true cycle was. After a couple more weeks we determined that it was time to go in search of parallel lines. It’s interesting, when we were first trying, it seemed that every month we were hoping for a second line. The emotional investment is brutal. After so many negatives, you really don’t have very good feelings towards the stick, and in the last couple years every time Michelle mentioned she was going to take a test, I had to prepare for the letdown and breakdown that followed. Mascara doesn’t come out of a white shirt, so I prepared appropriately.

Despite all the negative vibes the stick surely must have felt, it produced the results we never thought we’d see. Two lines. Distinct. Well of course we didn’t believe it, nor did we dare hope to believe it. I don’t know if it’s a matter of having become hardened? After so many let downs, you just aren’t willing to put emotions on the line. This is partially why we have kept so mum about the whole thing. What if it isn’t for real? What if something happens? If we tell people, the let down would be even greater. Of course we wanted a second opinion. Dr. Johnson confirmed via ultra sound and blood work that we were pregnant. Even so, nobody would find out. What if? A few weeks later, we had another visit, and Dr. Johnson did another ultra sound and we heard a heart beat. I think that’s when we started to break the shell and start to believe. We began discretely telling family. But Mum was still the word for a number of reasons. First of course was “what if?” and second was that we wanted the news to come from us.

The concept slowly started to grow on us. This announcement is more than just us announcing to all our good friends and family that we are pregnant. It is also a step of hope and faith for ourselves to forget about “what if” and acknowledge and appreciate and be excited for the wonderful blessing of our new little girl. We’ve been chosen again, but this time around Michelle is also the birth mother!

Monday Night Football

MVP: Sam

Coach of the Year: Dave

Watch out college coaches! I've got 17 more years to practice!

Football & Family

Can you believe college football season is all but over? As many of you know, Michelle and I have always been big BYU football fans and always have bought season tickets. This year was no different, even though the commute is a lot longer from Syracuse and despite the fact that I'm in my last semester at the U. I guess that football games have been a significant tradition for our family, and the BYU-Utah games have been even more significant since they are always right around the time of our Anniversary. We were married during the U game in 2002, and I don't think that Ralph has forgiven me yet! :-)

There have been some fun memories associated with the "big game" and heading out for anniversary plans that night; including getting lost in a huge blizzard one year.

Well this year, we had no plans for going to the game until Cody & Jen got the hookup from his parents. I would like to take a quick moment and thank Cody's-Dad's-Boss. Thanks for making him work yesterday!

Yesterday as we were driving up to Rice Eccles Stadium, we remembered that 6 years earlier, the night before our anniversary, we went up to the same stadium to watch a football game. Greg was playing for the 4-A state championship, and hoping to give an anniversary present. After Greg and co. took care of business we had a nice meal with our parents, went home for the night and got married in the morning. What fun memories!

Well we couldn't think of anything more fun to do to celebrate our anniversary, than to go and be a little blue sunshine in a dark red storm. (okay honestly I could think of a couple more fun things, but this is a family-friendly blog). :-)

We had a great time! The crowd was very wild and everytime I walked anywhere I wasn't well received, but as the 3rd quarter was coming to a close, the crowd was quite silent and I think more than a few red fans were worried that some last minute herioics were going to ruin their night again. Well I suppose it wasn't meant to be and the night was Utah's. One great thing was that when the game was over, the crowd rushed the field and had a presentation, so we got out without any traffic problems and just drove right home. It was great. Well I guess we'll get them next year, go cougars!

I love you Michelle, thanks for being fabulous and being mine. These 6 years have been amazing!

Personality!

It is so much fun watching Sammy's personality develop. I can't even believe that in one month he will be old enough for Nursery (hallelujah!). Here are some of the new things that Sammy is doing.

Building "Forts" Sammy gets into these creative moods where he will pick a few choice toys and then take them to his special place and sit among them. He is very picky about what toys he takes into his "fort." And we've learned NOT to take the toys away from the fort for fear of retaliation (okay...crying hysterically).

Discovering "new" toys
After building a fort one day - Sammy realized the toy basket was a great thing to play with. He brought it over to me and we sat on the couch with the basket over our heads. The basket is kind of see through, so I would put my hand on the outside and pat it - and Sam would laugh and laugh and laugh and try to poke my hand from the inside.

Later that day - he picked up the basket and put it on his head and started walking around the house. The best part was when he walked into the fireplace and then he couldn't figure out how to turn around - so he kept bumping into the wall. After a couple of minutes of me laughing - started crying. I'm sure it would be frustrating to not get anywhere.

He's always had a love for shoes, especially mom's and dad's shoes. Here he is giving Mom's shoes a try. He didn't walk very far before he fell - but he got a big kick out of wearing these big shoes!

"Demanding" food
His newest trick is walking over to his high chair - pounding on the seat and screaming "Ahhhh!" I guess we taught him this one because we'd try to get him to open his mouth during feeding times by saying, "Ahhh." He also does this to the candy/cookie jar. He knows right where it is in the kitchen and will walk over to the jar and point and scream, "Ahhhh!" What a funny boy!

Feeding Himself
A MeSsY operation! He does great with finger food, but we've been trying to get him to learn how to use a fork and spoon. His cereal in the morning mostly ends up on his bib/pajamas. What fun to develop fine motor skills! (Apparently Sammy has a pushy Dad) :-)


We LOVE this boy so much!!!

Happy National Adoption Month!

A Novel... for my journal

Choosing Adoption is a difficult choice – for ALL parties involved. I don’t even want to imagine the multitude of decisions facing potential birth-mothers. There is just so much “stuff” involved.

For me, as an adoptive parent, it meant the death of a dream. It meant kissing goodbye the realization that I might never have the chance to “enjoy” my own pregnancy (ultrasounds, heartbeats, baby kicks, back pains, to name a few) or labor and delivery (hearing the babies first cry and seeing him all covered in gunk). It meant I wouldn’t get to join with God in the creation of life. It meant saying sayonara to the idea of looking into a face with similar biological features and wondering who he looks like more. It meant that my family would be “different.” We would have issues that “normal” families didn’t have to deal with.

For us, it meant walking away from logic, ie: Doctors (who weren’t helpful anyway) and putting our faith in the Lord that He would guide our family to our home. The birth of a new dream.

We really hadn’t tried very many medical treatments. We knew I had PCOS – but none of the doctors could tell us how to treat it. (They all just said, “Try clomid and relax. If you’re just patient it will happen. It really depends on how long you are willing to wait.” Umm, excuse me Mister Doctor sir. Have you EVER been in this situation before? No! So you probably don’t realize that is NOT what we want to hear right now, thank you very much. We’ve been “waiting” for three years. Something is WRONG!) I can’t even begin to explain the frustration we felt toward the medical community! Think of the last time you were frustrated at something and then times it by ten. It was SO aggravating!!!

We went to a specialist in SLC who told us that we should consider in-vitro. Hmm, $10,000 for a 20% one-time chance of getting pregnant? (FYI, “normal” couples have a 25% chance each month of becoming pregnant – it’s amazing ANYONE gets pregnant). I’m not the gambling type, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the greatest statistic. So…after enough with the doctors - we started contemplating adoption.

We thought about it for many moons. Adoption is expensive. With LDSFS it’s 10% of your combined yearly income, not to exceed $10,000 and there are thousands upon thousands of adoptive couples waiting. With other agencies the cost can be anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 minimum. But…if you wait long enough, you are 100% sure to get a baby. After thinking it over, we thought a 100% chance was better than a 20% chance for the same price. However, we still weren’t completely sure about it.

Our decision was ultimately made in the temple. One early morning in October 2006, Dave and I went to the Bountiful temple for a sealing assignment. While waiting for everyone to arrive, the sealer, Brother Leishman, began asking the couples questions to get to know us.

He looked at us and said, “So…who’s at home with the kids?”

Dave and I looked at each other and then answered, “We don’t have any
kids.”

To which he immediately replied, “Well adoption is good too.
The sealing power is amazing. It allows adopted children to become ‘as if
born in the covenant.’ What an amazing plan the Lord has for ALL of his
children.”

I was in SHOCK. I was in AWE. It was such a direct answer to prayer. I knew immediately that adoption was the choice the Lord wanted us to make. We decided to put further medical procedures on the back burner.

We began the paper work. I should say, we were immediately buried in paperwork. It took us several months just to answer the 44-question questionnaire. Ten pages (12-pt-font-single-spaced-each-spouse) and 3 references (2-sided questionnaire that the agency mailed to our contacts) later we could sign up for the “classes” offered by the agency. We didn’t really know what to expect from the classes, but it was an eye-opening opportunity that I wish EVERYONE had to experience. We learned about birth mothers (“without them, there is no need for YOU”…Ouch. Say goodbye to my pride!). We learned about infertility (“only 5% of adoptive couples end up having children biologically after they adopt”…Ouch. Not the greatest of chances). We learned about openness (“contact with your birthmother anywhere from emails to home visits”…sigh – if we were “normal” we wouldn’t have to deal with that). We learned about race and placement and making yourself stand-out (you mean this is a competition?). With all the sarcasm aside, our eyes were opened. We realized what it would take for our family to have a baby. We realized that our lives really aren’t our own to lead, but that we should follow closely behind the Lord and His will.

After 8-weeks of classes, a thorough home-study, interviews with our case worker, letters and pictures put together for potential birthmothers and waiting for agency approval, we realized what we had gotten ourselves into. It was a whole different way of putting a family together. A way that felt right for us.

We also realized we are not alone (see my sidebar for a handful of other adoptive couples) which brought with it great amounts of JOY. As Alma said in Mosiah 18

“ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and
are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort
those that stand in need of comfort.”

What a difference a friend who understands makes!!!!

The answer to our prayers came quickly. We didn’t have to wait long before our sweet Sammy was loving placed in my arms. We are so happy to have made the difficult choice of Adoption. One that we will happily make again in the future.

(If you missed the earlier installments of our adoption story, read them here and here.)

Super Halloween Night

Happy Halloween! We hope that all your halloween's were just super. We had a fun night. It felt like we were just running here and there, but all in all it was a good time.

We started the day going to get some shots for Sam. What kind of parent chooses to get their boy his shots on Halloween? Yeah we pondered that question for a bit, but I guess we figured that if you start off bitter the sweet would seem sweeter? Maybe that's just what we told ourselves...

So after some shots, and a quick stop at the community center for an early vote, we were ready to start our evening festivities. Okay so seriously?! Sammy has already had way too much candy and we haven't even started the day. Of course the doctor's office gave him a candy bar, as did the Wal-Mart cashier, and the Quizno's cashier. At least the poll place had some good sense and didn't offer the poor guy some more sugar!

Oh well, let the sugar infestation continue, First stop Grandma Pond's:

Visit to Grandma Pond

I don't know why we didn't get a picture of Sammy with Grandma, but we didn't. Her legs do cameo when we went to go visit grandpa, but for some reason we didn't think to get a picture. I guess we at least had the camera with us, so that is a start. This next threesome of pictures is kind of an omen for how the day will progress: Happily eating candy, and then when it is gone, bring on the whinery!

Ah well, it's Halloween.. Even Superman has his weaknesses, and apparently there are few things worse than coming to the end of a delightful bag of M&M's.

Visit to Grandpa Pond

Next on the flight list for the super man is a visit to grandpa. Grandpa was at work and we didn't want to miss him, so we thought we would take him a couple treats and give him some happy Halloween wishes. Earlier in the day we got him a king size snickers and Sammy was excited to fly in and grant some sweet wishes.

A quick sidenote, Sammy recently got a new pair of shoes that are a size too big. Occasionally he trips up on the larger than life shoes...

As we were running to Grandpa's office, the carpet monster jumped up and tripped Sammy. Yep, he did a little spin and landed hard. So instead of a fun smile with a candy bar in hand to greet grandpa, it all fell apart and he screamed in pain. Don't worry we came prepared, and quickly broke him off a piece of that Kit Kat bar (how many has he had today, ugh we are bad parents!)

Also to cheer the little guy up, Ralph offered him a CEO position. He was only on the clock for a few minutes, but come on, the guys handling our wonderful financial institutions make a Mercedes a minute; so we are trying to figure out the payment deserved... Here is Sammy hard at work -- looking at some plans and relaxing in the important seat.


Here is a video of the Tricks and Treats received from Grandpa.

Next on the flight plan was a trip to Grandma & Grandpa Droge:

Visit to Grandma & Grandpa Droge

The Droge home was decorated fun. Dad put a picture of his mutilated hand (taken by the doctor right before the surgery) on the front door as decoration, and it really set the halloween mood. Joseph had a vomiting Jack-o-Lantern which was hilarious as well.

superman with his super grandparents

At this point in the evening, Sammy has figured out exactly what is in these buckets, a whole lot of goodness! The perfect part in Sammy's mind is that wherever he goes, he has the effect of people wanting to feed him. This is actually not just a Halloween spectacle. I swear day in day out, complete strangers ask if they can give this boy food. Does he look hungry? Or is it just so fun to provide nourishment and enjoyment to cute little faces?

Here is a clip of some tricks and Sweets at Grandma & Grandpa's:

Trick - or - Treating!!

By quarter to 6, we were finally home and ready for some trick-or-treating. We didn't go out with Sammy last year, so this was a first for both parent and child. Michelle decided to stay home and pass out candy, so I took the little superhero around the block. We ended up being out for about an hour, and by that point Sam was completely exhausted.

He did pretty good though. After a couple houses he figured out the whole idea of grabbing a piece from their bowl and sticking it in his bucket. The funny thing is that even though we only hit a few houses, he still made out like a champ because they would let him do the grabbing. Of course he wouldn't grab just one, but because of the before-mentioned phenomena of wanting to feed the child, they just thought it was darling! But honestly like anyone would take it back from a tiny superhero.. a 15 year old hardly dressed up maybe, but certainly not a first-timer who doesn't know the rules yet!

Many times as Sam was about to grab some candy, he hesitated for a little while because of the distracting outfits that everyone was wearing! I guess as a little boy you just aren't expecting a werewolf to be holding out a bowl full of candy. The funny thing was that Old Man Hendricks and Old Woman Hendricks didn't slow Sam down a bit. He knew exactly where he was and went right in the house to play games...

Here we are getting ready to go:

Dinner & Relaxation

Well finally the night came to a close (and finally this post is coming to a close). We had dinner and relaxed and watched Sam eat yet more candy. When bed time finally came calling, he was completely pooped. What a fun but exhausting day!

Before bed, we took a picture of Sammy with the pumpkins we carved. All of these came from our garden this year!

Happy Halloween!!

Syracuse Pumpkin Walk 10-24-08

Let's go for a walk!

Every year, Syracuse City puts on a Pumpkin walk. It is a fabulous Halloween tradition: Black Island Farms donates thousands of pumpkins to the city and then anyone and everyone can come and carve and decorate and then give back the jack-o-lanterns. Then they put all the pumpkins in a line around the city park, light them and let everyone come and go for a walk. (They light the pumpkins with lights not candles! Can you imagine trying to light all the pumpkins?? Yes you say, but that is because you don't realize that there are really a lot of pumpkins)

Last year Michelle and I went with little baby Sammy. I think he slept the whole way through. This year he was almost excited. Well at least he actually wanted to try and touch the pumpkins! But we all learned, "DON'T TOUCH THE PUMPKINS!" Not sure why we didn't get a picture of any of the many pumpkins carved with "Don't touch the Pumpkins" (From english, spanish, japanese, Oromo?, Pig Latin, King James).

Anway, we invited family to come along with us to start a tradition of going on a pumpkin walk in the cold and coming back to our place for hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts. We didn't think of this far enough in advance, so some people didn't get the memo in time (Sorry guys!).

Anyway, here are some pictures of the event:
After waiting in line for about 30 minutes, we were ready to begin. Something new this year were all these cutesy little signs. They were painted by the Val Bagley? person who does a lot of church cartoony books and comics. They did a good job and helped bring in the spirit of the festivity!

Waiting in line was not a favorite thing for Sam. He was outside so he really wanted to run around. Instead his mode of travel consisted of (in order from left to right top to bottom): ride on Dad's shoulders, throw a crazy fit, be cute (momentarily), cuddle after being warn out from the tantrum, joust with Nathan (Nathan thought Sam was giving him the sucker when instead Sam's intent was to poke him in the face with it), ride on Mom's shoulders, sit with Mom and Dad in front of a sign, ride with Dad, and finally!! walk and try and touch all the pumpkins. Unfortunately he was held at just the right distance that his final objective was not reached, We Hope.

I think Sammy did have a good time once we got walking. It was great that they had kids posted at just the right intervals giving out candy. By the time most kids got bored walking, there was another station with some candy to keep them going for another leg. Sam ate the sucker eventually and I think ate about half the stick in the process. Mmm Fiber!

Byron, Elizabeth and Nathan came along. Nathan is about 8 months younger than Sammy, and is a favorite friend. Unfortunately Nathan doesn't like balls being thrown at him, but we are working with Sammy on that, at least we tell ourselves that to help us sleep better at night. Anyway, it was great to have them along.

Here are all the attendees to the pumpkin walk on Friday night. Brandon & Kimberly and the boys came Saturday night to the walk, and stopped at our house to chat which was fabulous. As you can see, my parents came as well. Dad's hand is looking very good, in fact he showed us the pin that had been used to stabilize one finger (to which Michelle nearly vomitted). If you were confused about what I was talking about, Dad had a fight with the table saw and nearly chopped all his fingers off; the surgeons did a great job, and he is recovering fantastically.

So here are some of the favorite pumpkins. There were plenty of BYU carved ones varying in degree of professionalism, a whole muppets section, a whole disney section and everything in between. They varied in difficulty from a simple triangle and circle cut to intricate detail creating pictures of christ and the temple. Some of my favorites were pumpkin pi, pinky & the Brain asking for votes on Nov 4th (for world domination), and of course Trogdor burninating the countryside!!

It was an enjoyable time. I mean let's be honest it wasn't Busch Gardens or anything, but it was fun to be with family and see all the creativity. Afterwards we had a great time making homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate and enjoying each other's company.

Halloween Tryouts

So with the pumpkins growing orange and the weather getting colder, it was high time we found a halloween costume for Samuel.

We were at target the other day and they have quite the impressive collection of halloween costumes. Well Sammy loved holding a little puppy costume, which was completely adorable. We also really liked a Superman costume, because we always call him our super sam. We decided we would get them both and then see how they fit and things.

As we tried the two costumes, it was apparant that Sammy had a strong preference:

Not bad..

Not great..

Horrible!!!

Cool..

Distracted ..

Still distracted (which is a good thing!)

Learning to fly

So yes, the poor little puppy costume went back to the store, and Mr. Sammy Kent's cape went into the closet soon to come out and fly to a house near you shouting "trick or treat!" Okay let's be honest he probably will be saying "ball" over and over because you also have a pumpkin on your porch!

One very active boy!

We love our little boy! The little Sam-Man is very active. He is loving his ability to run around and play and get into everything. I just wanted to share a couple of his favorite activities. Some of these movies are a bit long, but oh well.

1 -- The Stair Toss or Gravity Game.

What an incredible idea, create a large pit and then surround the top with turrets so that one can bomb the pit! Also, the magic of this game is that when most the toys have been thrown down the stairs, Mom or Dad will go and pick them all back up and we can start the game again!!

I went down a couple stairs to get him in the middle of the action. I love that his good friend Simba is always curious about his games and wants to play along and watch.

Here is the result of the toy toss on a typical day:

#2 -- Bouncing on the Bed!

In the morning Sammy usually wakes up earlier than we do, so we bring him in our room and he loves to play on the bed with us. Bouncing is super fun and a new thing is to dance or stomp around on the bed. He also does this on the couch and anywhere else that is nice and soft.

#3 -- Playing catch.

Sam's favorite things all start with B's. His Ball, his blanket, and his binky. Sometimes these change order of preference depending on how tired or active he is. Tonight on our car ride home we just had to laugh at how content he was in his car seat: He had his passifier in his mouth, his blanket on his one side and his ball under his other hand, and Mom and Dad were close by. His happy little world was complete! Well he loves to play catch and keep away and fetch and all things related to playing with his two little basketballs. Today we had him in his chair and got a kick out of him playing catch with me. It was a cute little progression of me throwing the ball at his belly with little or no response, to him playing catch, to him getting bored!

My favorite part is when I say, "Ready?" and he throws his hands up in the air.

I often pause and marvell at how fast he is growing up. My dad commented, "just wait till they are 6' 7" and have kids of their own!" Hopefully that doesn't happen too soon, but when it does, I hope he remembers fondly the times of playing with Mom and Dad.

Rise and Shout

Ok seriously, this is my last post today. I guess you aren't annoyed yet because this is the first post you see. Anyway, you should try and be more interested in the first couple posts and then check this one if you haven't already had enough of me (Dave).

I just wanted to Rise and Shout out a big congrats to our cougars. 59-0! That was a magical game. The crazy thing is that at the stadium, we didn't even get bored, it was just so crazy to be a part of a good old fashioned BCS bashing.

We got tickets with Greg and Wendy, and sort of with Landon and Natalie (yeah the ticket office kind of screwed up all the student seats so people aren't really with their groupts); and the Johnsons (Greg's friend Dave and his dad). It's been a fun family tradition to spend these afternoons with 64,000 crazy fans cheering on our favorite team.

I would have started to feel bad for the opposing team, except that it was an "elite" BCS team from an "elite" conference; so it was nice to see a can pulled out on those guys.

Anyway, I suppose it was a great week to be a Cougar or a Ute since I guess I'm a hybrid. Well Aggies. there's always basketball to look forward to... :-)

Happy AnniversarWii

So Michelle and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary this last week. The crazy thing is that it doesn't seem more than 5 years and 9 1/2 months!

We decided that this year we would try and get a Wii for our anniversary. Since you can't exactly go to a store and get a Wii, we decided that over the next few months we would just keep our eyes open and look for some good deals. We were a little egged on by Byron and Elizabeth who just got one and brought it over to our place a week ago when we had a get together with all the family and had a great time. They exhorted us with all diligence to seek out a Wii. We also have played with the Baum's a couple times -- they have the steering wheel for the mario kart, which was a lot of fun.

Well, Michelle being the deal seeker she is, kept an eye on ksl. On Tuesday morning when she looked, a guy had just barely posted a pretty loaded one. He hardly used it and so wanted to get some cash on it. We figured it was a good deal and a couple hours later had a Wii.

I got a little emotional, when I considered replacing our old friend the Super NES. It had been a nice reliable addition to our family. There were many a nights when our marriage nearly ended because of Dr. Mario; Michelle never did attemp to play me in College Football; and we had 10 categories memorized on the jeopardy game -- I think we won the computer once. We'll have to figure out how to download Dr. Mario and College Football onto the Wii. We already have street fighter and a couple others that the guy downloaded so I'm sure we can find those too.

Why is it that everytime we set up something new, I can't get the TV to turn on?!! Anyone know an engineer that could help me out? After a number of near curses (or did Michelle hear me?) we were in business...
Finally wired and ready to go. We even figured out how to turn on everything else as well. I have to say "we" because I was so ticked at the setup that I took a break for dinner. After the steam had settled, Michelle and I together walked through each component making sure all the cables were intact. Sure enough, while moving the TV around, I had popped out one cable that made the satellite not work.
We haven't got a whole lot of sleep this past week, but I did bowl a 173, beat Izod (where do they come up with those names) in tennis, played Zelda for like 9 straight hours one day, and saved one super star on mario universe or whatever it's called. Michelle won't box me yet, but she did kick my trash in bowling. What a great Anniversary. It has been so nice, I think we should celebrate again in a couple months!

Quick Zoo trip

This week Michelle's work did a zoo trip for all the home schooled families in the program. Michelle didn't really go in, but met all the families as they were coming in and made sure they got their tickets and all that jazz. Then all the teachers wanted to go out to lunch. Since I was in between class (I have a 3 1/2 hour break) I came and got Sam. It turned out that they had leftover tickets, so Sammy and I got to take a quick zoo trip while the girls did their thing. It was such a nice day (Thursday) that all the animals were out. My favorite was the mountain lion (go cougars!! great game by the way, but I digress..). When we came up to their cage, one cougar was standing on a log right up next to the fence as if he was staring everyone down. By the time I got my camera out, he had left, but the other one was perched on the ledge just surveying the crowd. It was very nice of it to pose for us:

The warthogs were also out having fun and were very close.
One of my favorites were the cute little penguins. The manager was cleaning out their pool so she locked them into a little shed-like place. Anyway, one snuck out and was playing around in the dirt and apparantly that didn't go over well with all the rest so finally they all sprung the cage, here they are storming up the rocks! What fun little guys! The manager just shook her head and laughed, I bet they give her grief all the time.
One of Sammy's favorite zoo attractions is the small animals exibit. When we went during the summer with Tanna and Megan's families he loved it too. He really likes being able to walk right up to the cage and see the animals up close. A lot of times they will approach him as well, which just makes him all smiles. The Lemurs in the primate house were great too, they came right up to the windows to check out all the kids.

"Hey Dad, let's play a game. I'll pretend I'm interested and watching an animal and then right before you take the picture, I'll look away.

Ha! Too slow! Man you're getting old! Is that all you got, I was barely in the picture!!

Argghh! You caught me!

Wow, caught me on the first try this time, maybe you aren't such a waste...

And what was Sammy's favorite part about the zoo? Why the grates of course! Nice little metal objects in the middle of the floor. Perfect for touching and if I had a toy I could push it through. How do people come up with these things to entertain. Brilliant!!

Well, we had a great albeit brief time. To be honest, it was my type of zoo trip. We just cruised through and saw most of the animals and then shared a snow cone and a sprite, and the weather was so perfect, I think it was only high 70's that day. Couldn't have worked out nicer!

Pet Peeve

Okay MALE population, listen up.

I'm usually not one to share my pet peeves, especially on this "public" of a venu. But this one absolutely requires it, because without this knowledge...you are NOT invited to my house!!!

What could drive me so batty that I would ban all my favorite people??? (Not a joke.)

The toilet.

Image courtesy of Flickr

It's a safety issue....mostly.

I have a toddler who is enthralled with the bathroom.

He loves to toddle in there and turn on the tub and watch the water trickle all over his recently-thrown-in-toys.

It happens daily.

So imagine my non-surprise the other day, after having some fine visitors over, I walk into the bathroom and find toys in the toilet! AARGG!!! Who in their right mind leaves the toilet seat up with a toddler in the house!!!!!

I can see my little ones facination. Children are irresistibly attracted to water. It's sparkly. Things float in it. And it makes a great sound when you smack it. (or when your toys "plop" in it)

Children can DROWN in as little as 1 inch of water, and last time I checked, there's a whole lot of water in the toilet. Not to even mention the sanitary issues!

But it is also a highly avoidable tragedy!

Wouldn't you LOVE to be the cause of my next blog post "Toddler drowns in toilet!" I've tried to ask nicely, but nice just isn't cutting it.

So, I plead with you for the life of my son! If you are male and you want to visit my house you had better put the damn seat down!

Our little drunken parrot

Here is a recent video of sammy.

The drunken refers to his drunken sailor walk. He is doing great with walking and running and standing up without climbing up things. I think because of his height, and the newness of his task, he has a little bit of Jack Sparrow in him. You'll see in the end of this clip as he is running from Mom that he kind of pin balls between the couch and the table. We enjoy watching him, but feel bad when the drunkenness makes him hurt himself. He runs into a number of doorways and chairs and things. In fact if you look at his cheek close enough you can see a little line that might match a bar on our chair.

The parrot part is a new thing of his. Just very recently he is starting to mimick words and phrases of ours (This morning I got a B-Y-U out of him that was darling!) with Uh-Oh being the favorite. He is also mimicking some of the baby signs which is fun, so we'll have to get some of those as well.

Enjoy!

A Lot Can Happen in a Month!

Well it's been more than a month since our last post, and to be quite honest, life around our little household is hopefully going to quiet down soon. Here's a little catch up of what we've been doing.

First off, I QUIT my job at Parkside El and took a new part-time job with Washington Online. This has meant cleaning out and boxing up my 2nd grade classroom (holy fire! I am a pack rat!)and training (in St. George - yeah, what a sad perk!) for this new "teacher" position that will allow me to stay home.

For any of you who know how much I LOVE teaching, you know this was one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make. Seriously, months of thought and prayer went in to this decision. I mean, I know that I'm supposed to stay home with Sammy, and I'm thrilled to do it, but it has been super hard to give up what I've put so much of my grown-up-life in to. I didn't really ever consider it my job...it was more of a hobby. I get a little sentimental as I realize today was the first day of school and all my teacher friends have just met their new students. Sigh. However, I also really like rolling over at 7:30 am and realizing I don't have to get up and go anywhere. So far, I've really enjoyed what I'm doing and my new found "freedom."

On to other news, my sister, Jen, got married on 8-8-08. We spent a lot of time helping out with preparations weeks before and especially the day before and day of the reception. It was a lovely day and we are excited to have another boy in the family. Welcome Cody! Maybe they'll update their blog with fun pics of their new apartment! (hint, hint)

Then, a week ago today on 8-18-08, Kimberly had her twins!!! Yeah cousins! It was super sudden and kind of emergency-ish since she wasn't due until October 8th. K went in for a routine ultrasound and some stress tests and when they checked her, she was already dilated to a 2. So they admitted her to "keep an eye on her" for about 48 hours, but 4 hours later, she was at an 8 and 100% effaced. One of the twins was breach, so after a quick C-section the twins were born!

The babies are both boys (Luke and Lincoln), both weighed 4.2 pounds and were both 17 inches long. They are super healthy for premies and haven't needed any oxygen - a good sign - but will have to stay in the new born special care unit until they can eat on their own and they gain a little more weight. Kimberly was discharged on Thursday, and goes in to visit twice a day. I'm hoping she updates her blog soon with better details. (hint, hint)

Baby Lincoln - (born 1 minute before Luke)

Notice how tiny he is compared to the blue snot sucker (does it have an official name??) - they're almost the same size!

Baby Luke was wide awake the first time I went to visit.
The Boys now officially out-number the girls in the Pond family. We'll have to start working on that one...

Then, two days later, my sister, Nicole, went to China to teach English. This meant going through a lot of donated school items in order to help her pack and keep her bags under the weight limits. People are so nice! and donated a lot of great school and non-school items for her to take. And then, she was off on her adventure. Apparently, she arrived safely and will also hopefully update her blog soon! (hint, hint)

And, not to leave my sister Heather out, she started soccer for Utah State several weeks ago, nearly a month before the semester actually started. Poor girl! Summer's short when soccer season never ends! She's played in 2 games so far and heads out to Oregon this week. Go HP!! We can't wait to come up and cheer for your next game!

Finally, my sweet husband starts school again today - his last semester before getting his masters in Engineering. He was smart though and only scheduled classes on Tuesday and Thursday - so Sammy and I get to enjoy a lot more of his company for the next 4 months! We are going to be so spoiled!!!

On Laughter...

“God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me” --Sarah (Genesis 21:6)

"If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there." --Martin Luther

"The act of laughter, which is a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves." --Sir T. Browne

"Laughter is an interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable." --Ambrose Bierce

"The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." --Bennett Cerf

"There is little success where there is little laughter." --Andrew Carnegie

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." --EE Cummings

"With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die." --Abraham Lincoln

"What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul." --Yiddish Proverb

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." --Victor Borge

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." --William Shakespeare

Good-bye baby Sammy -- Welcome toddler!

It has been so much fun watching Sammy's walk develop. He's been walking along things for several months now.

But...on Tuesday, July 15th he decided that walking has its perks! Here are his first, tentative steps. He's so careful to make sure he's balanced and when he's not, he knows crawling is much more stable! This is also his favorite blanket, could you tell?

Sammy has been practicing his walking all week and he's getting VERY good at it. He's even better now than when I took this short video. He's a very quick learner!!! Yikes! My baby's growing up!

Pioneer Sammy

We had an eventful end of June and beginning of July, with our Nauvoo trip, Sammy's birthday, and Yellowstone. For personal family history reasons, we've wanted to do a detailed job on these posts and we did Yellowstone first because we were waiting to get some pictures from other family members for the Nauvoo trip. Anyway, in the meantime, I thought I would post this movie of Sammy.


The movie was taken in the Far West visitor's center. There is a sister missionary talking in the back ground, and my sound effects may be slightly annoying--for you sound-effect-inept-individuals, I'm making the sound of the whips :-)


We had already posted this on The Sams Blog (the blog for our birthmom) but thought everyone else would enjoy it too.

Yellowstone Vacation July 4--July 7

Yellowstone – Day 1, Road-trip
For the Independence Day weekend, the DaBell family (Michelle’s Mother’s family) decided to take a trip up to Yellowstone. It was actually just Dan & Jean’s family as well as Michelle’s immediate family (minus the Baum’s). Anyway we took the road trip starting Friday morning (after I finished putting up flags for the scouts of course!). I was pretty excited to go because I had never been to Yellowstone. I think Michelle was more excited for me to have my first time. It was like the first time we went to Disneyland, I think she was more excited for me to go my first time than I was excited for me to go my first time. What a fun wifey she is!

Nicole was the lucky person for the ride up that got to sit in the back seat with Sammy. He had a rough time the first and last hour of the trip, and Nicole nearly lost her sanity. It’s funny because Michelle and I usually can just tune him out when he is being fussy, but not some of the aunts who aren’t used to him. So after a little while of fussing, she is going nuts and we aren’t really paying attention to it. That was probably exaggerated by the fact that I was listening to Eragon on cd, so I was only focusing on that and the road. :-)

We stopped for lunch at Bubba’s BBQ grill in Jackson Hole. It was great food!


The route we took went through Jackson Hole and up through the Tetons. They are an amazing ridge of mountains, and we’ll have to plan a vacation there sometime as well. I’m sure there are some fabulous hikes and views to enjoy!

The lodges in Yellowstone we stayed in (Lake Lodge) were quite cheap. They were pretty simple but did the job. The cabins were located just off of Yellowstone Lake. Of course it was a beautiful area, and we even enjoyed some roaming Bison right close by. In fact one evening 4 Bison came roaming right through our little cabin area. A couple nights we heard Coyotes howling and they sounded quite close. Our neighbors got up early to see some bears in the area, but we weren’t ever lucky enough to catch a glimpse.

Here are some pictures of us by the lake.


This is Heather with Sammy. After Nicole went crazy on the way up, Heather became our passenger in back with Sam. I think her tolerance level is a bit higher from tending Sammy throughout the month of May, but Sammy did his best to try her patience at times! These road trips really make us thankful for the pacifiers! Remind me to congratulate Ronald Binky on an amazing invention. (M– is that really his name? D – Crapper invented the toilet, so why not?)

At nights we talked and played games all together. It was pretty fun even though there were 16 people crammed into one little 12’x12’ room. We played “The Name Game”, and “4 Socks on the Couch” and “Catch Phrase”. Aunt Jean was getting a little rowdy and unsportsmanlike with her post game victory dances, and so Ralph did some post victory antics to offset those. One night Ralph and Jean were actually on the same team so we did our best to ensure they lost so that it didn’t get too out of hand!

Yellowstone – Day 2, Old Faithful
Our second day of Yellowstone we hiked to the Natural Bridge, went to Old Faithful, and saw some of the geysers and hot pots in Biscuit Basin.

The Natural Bridge hike was funny because we heard some information that said it was just a 100-yard hike out of the parking lot. Well it turns out that it was probably a mile to the spot, and then a 100 yard hike off of the path. Oh well it was a fun hike and we had a great time with it.


Cousin’s (in law) and second cousins. Sammy’s second cousin Blake was only around for half day Saturday because they had to get to another “work” conference in Alaska. We thought it was funny that the whole trip was Mike’s idea and then he tried to get out of it, but we were glad to see them for a couple days.
Below the bridge
Above the bridge
Tanna, Jed, Pete & Abby. Pete & Abby were so cute with Sammy! They would always come say hi, and try to include him in their games. Later on there is a picture of Abby and Sammy holding hands as we walked along one of the boardwalks. Darling!
Wildlife on top of the bridge

More wildlife
More wildlife
Sammy really enjoys going on hikes, though half the time he just enjoyed the nap! So did we!
Old Faithful was pretty cool. As we were driving down the mountain to get to the Old Faithful area, it was going off and steam soared above the trees. That was a fun start to the Old Faithful experience. I couldn’t believe how many people were there to see this geyser. There was a massive parking lot and a huge crowd around the boardwalk waiting for it to blow. We had some lunch then found a shady place to sit and watch.

Hurry and get a picture while it is going!

Then we went on a walk around some of the boardwalk trails that have a bunch of boiling pots and mini geysers in the Old Faithful area. They were fun, and amazing to look at and think about how thin the earth’s crust is around here; but the smell wasn’t too pleasant! We termed those areas free fart zones. :-)

Goofing around on a random rock that looked like it was the base of a statue at one point. We tried to see how far back we could lean before we tumbled off. Easily amused I suppose.
Relaxing after some ice cream. Those rocking chairs out front are for sale, but who would pay that much money?!

We then went to see some smaller geysers and springs in the biscuit basin area. To be honest, we enjoyed those more than the Old Faithful area. Old Faithful was cool, but the surrounding boardwalk wasn’t as cool as the ones in the biscuit basin boardwalk. There were a couple deep clear awesome springs, that were really amazing.

Michelle with the Sapphire spring. This was one of our favorites.

Sammy, Daddy, Grandpa

Baby plumber crack to go with Grandpa’s plumber t-shirt
The water 100 feet downstream was still VERY Hot

We then made a quick stop at the Blacksand basin:

Let’s be honest, Sam doesn’t mind if I’m wearing his hat, he tries to pull it off most of the time anyway.
Annette & Ralph aka: An’ma & Am’pa
Heather & Nicole in front of the Sunset spring.

We finally finished the day at Keppler Cascades. This was an amazing slot canyon view with a big waterfall and sheer drop off. Totally worth the 3 minutes to pull over and see the view.

On the way back to the cabin we saw some Bison, the final picture being just west of our cabins.

Heather: Hey! Is that a bison? Or a really dark rock with horns?

Yellowstone – Day 3, Grand Canyon
The third day of our Yellowstone trip was for the Canyon area.

The first stop was at Dragon cauldron’s. My favorite part about these was the dragon’s mouth. It was a big cave that looked and sounded like a Dragon was breathing inside. The steam and mud gushed out of the entrance with a sound of a Dragon. Pretty Cool!

Here is the darling little picture of Sammy and Abby.
Stinky Sulfur Sauna
Heather trying to decide what stinks – Sammy, the sulphur pool behind her, or the fact that all we keep seeing are Bison! If only a bear were hanging out on the other side of the pool!
boiling mud pot

In front of the dragon’s mouth
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was awesome! I think these were my favorite sites to see. There was the upper falls and the lower falls. There were a couple of viewpoints to see the falls from above, and then a hike “Uncle Tom’s trail” which was stairs to about ¾ down the canyon. From here you could see the larger lower falls about as close up from the bottom as you could see. It was totally worth the 300 something stairs!

The upper falls. We would eventually go to that viewpoint on the other side just above the falls where you can see people standing.


The lower falls

The next few pictures are all from Uncle Tom’s trail bottom

Another destination of this Grand Canyon area was Artist’s Point. This was downstream of the lower falls and had some breathtaking views.

Nicole and her Mom

It’s a bit rough on a little guy that doesn’t walk. He doesn’t really have much freedom to move around – he’s either in a stroller, a car seat, on being held. So when we stopped for a bit, we let Sammy forage around in the bedding that was used by Jen’s fiancé Cody.

We stopped for lunch at a little pull out area down by the river.


We finished out the day by seeing the other side of the canyon at the viewpoint that could be seen in the Upper Falls pictures. This was awesome! We were super close and Sammy even thought it was cool.

Family photo time!
On the way home we stopped at a little visitor’s center. They had a bunch of the animals found in the park taxidermied and on display. It was pretty cool. Jen found Sammy a little ranger hat that looked darling!

Sammy thinks it is funny to bite daddy. My first defense is to just rub him with scruff and make him giggle. The problem with this method is he thinks we are playing a game – if I bite Daddy he’ll tickle me.

So I had to resort to biting back! That seemed to do the trick. It is like a game of mercy. I think he finally realized that this is not a game he would win
The lodge had an LDS sacrament service at 7pm. It was a nice testimony meeting.
Yellowstone – Day 4, Road trip home
Alas, the quick trip had to come to an end. We went to see a couple more sites on the way out, and then started the journey home. On the way to Yellowstone we went through Jackson Hole and up through the south entrance, so on the way home we decided to go through the West entrance and come home through Idaho. The West entrance road had quite a lot of wildlife so that was fun. We saw herds of elk, moose, had a bison cut us off when he crossed the road, saw a bald eagle in his nest, and smashed zillions of bugs.

Here is our last little hike around steamboat geyser:
Sammy thinks Cody is cool. And Nicole is too!

And our final stop was for one last waterfall:


On the road again!

We stopped at Craigo’s in Rexburg for some buffet lunch. It was excellent and we were glad we got the referral from the Grunigs.

Well the trip was lots of fun! We only wish we had more time to do more hikes and see more sites and even take our bikes to do some of those rides. We’ll definitely have to do it again!

Yellowstone Conspiracy!
Heather had a running joke with us that the geysers have died and are run by machine and pipe. Old Faithful has a guy down below the surface opening up a valve and then closing it. We found some evidence supporting this claim:

Pipes! So why would pipes be run right through the middle of nowhere!!

A shovel! If these holes appeared naturally, why the shovel?! We performed a quick carbon dating test (we looked at the rust) and it appears to match the date of the appearance of the holes!! Aha!

Thanks Heather for keeping it fun.