Who's Yo Daddy?

Question: Who do the boys look like?

Answer: Not me.

It's Too Late to Apologize

It's been a long time since I've blogged, but I'm not going to apologize. It's too late for that. I've actually been very busy landscaping the backyard, compiling a family history, rebuilding the engine to a car I bought at the junkyard, taking Spanish classes, training for a marathon, and making some new clothes for Owen and Rhett......Who am I kidding? I'm actually just the latest Facebook victim. I put it off for so long, because I knew it would take up all of my free time. I was right. I used to make fun of people that were addicted to Facebook, but now here I am searching for people I haven't seen in years. I've found a few South Africans that I never thought I'd ever hear from again. One of them actually moved to Colorado, and we're going to stop by to see her and her family next time we drive to Denver.

So enough about my new addiction. Here's what you all really came to see:

Kim broke something again! I know, I know. Nothing new, right? She manages to break a glass, a random bathroom fixture, or a jar filled with something at least once a month, maybe once a week. This last one was the granddaddy of all things breakable though: The oven door. Yes, the oven door. How did she do it? I don't know. It blows my mind. See for yourself: Owen is plugging along in Preschool. His teachers are really focused on getting the kids ready for Kindergarten. As a former Kindergarten teacher, I must say that he is really getting ready for first grade. He is doing things that some of my Kindergarten students were never able to do. He knows the entire alphabet and all the letter sounds. He can write all of his letters. He can write his name. He has a list of about 30 sight words from Preschool that he can read, plus I'm guessing there's another 60 or 70 words he knows like family members' names, days of the week, colors, etc. He can also say the Pledge of Allegiance, do some basic addition, tell time, recognize shapes, and wipe his own bum. I had to throw that in there. It's been a long and arduous process getting him to that point. Now if we can only get him to button his own pants and tie his shoes. We're working on it.

He put his Halloween costume on again the other day and wanted us to put the picture on the blog. Here you go: Rhett has achieved a few milestones as well. He says "Mama" and "Dada" all of the time now, but we can never capture it on video. We talk to the grandparents all of the time on the webcam, and he has yet to say it for them either. One of these days someone else will hear it besides us. His top 2 teeth are coming down too. This caused some sleepless nights, but nothing to lose any sleep over. Well, we did lose sleep over it, but it wasn't that bad. You know what I mean. Rhett's hair was getting very mulletish, so we gave him a little trim. You can't really tell, because his hair is so thin, but he was starting to look like Ben Franklin. It was growing really long in the back and over the ears, but nowhere else.

Rhett is also walking all over the place with the aid of his toys. He stands on his own every now and then, but he hasn't officially walked yet. This video is from Kim's cell phone, so please excuse the poor quality. (I know, I sell phones. She needs a better one. I'm working on it.)


Oh yeah. I had to fire someone else again. That brings my grand total to 47,000. Not really, but that's what it seems like. Here's a word of advice: If you want to keep your job, be nice to people.

Someone just commented on my Facebook status. I better go see who it was.

A Tag About Chris

This post is in response to being tagged by Shelly.

So, anyone who has ever read our blog knows that Chris does 99.9% of these posts, and therefore always writes his own stuff when he is tagged. He is pretty hilarious, as you can read from THIS past post about himself. I however, am not a witty writer, so you are gonna get nothing but the facts. So, without further ado, here it is.

1. Where did you meet your husband? We met in Provo, Utah as BYU students. My best friend and roommate was dating his roommate. She thought Chris and I would get along, and she was right. The first time I met him he was wearing this blond afro wig and a red ski mask.



2. How long did you date? We dated for three weeks...I dumped him...then we dated again one month later for four months before getting engaged. In all, we dated for eight months before we were married.

3. How long have you been married? We have been married 9 1/2 years. Look how young (and skinny) we were!




4. What does he do that surprises you? Chris is a romantic at heart. He surprises me at every special occaision (Mother's day, my birthday, etc) with a handmade, original poem and card. I love them! Here is a sample of what kind of poems I get:



5. What is your favorite feature of his? I love his dreamy, blue eyes.

6. What is his best quality? He does all of our laundry. I am serious, he does. I also love that he is very dependable. If someone asks Chris to do something, whether it be for church, work, etc. He does it, no questions asked.

7. Does he have a nick name for you? Yeah, it's "scabe." Now before you raise your eyebrows and say WHAT? The story behind it is that when we were dating, we tried to call each other "babe" or "honey" and just thought it too cheesy for us. So, we rhymed "scabie flakes" with "baby cakes" and called each other that just to be funny. I'll be darned if that name has stuck. We've shortened it to "scabe," but we STILL cannot call each other normal, sweet names. I know, we are weird.

8. What is his favorite food? Texas Roadhouse, baby back ribs. He eats the full rack.

9. What is his favorite sport? It is either football or basketball. He loves to watch NFL football and participates in 47,000 fantasy leagues every season, but he also really loves to play basketball.

10.When and where was your first kiss? Hmm...the when part is a little sketchy. It was about a week after we started dating. The where? On the doorstep of my basement apartment.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We like playing games. Cranium, dominos, the Wii, etc. We make a mean team.

12. Do you have children? Two miracle boys: Owen-5, was conceieved after 3 1/2 years, with a turkey baster in a doctor's office, and Rhett-10months, was conceived after another 3 years, miraculously when we were in the process of adopting. HERE is the link to the post when I found out I was pregnant with Rhett. I still cry when I read it.

13. Does he have hidden talents? Umm...yes, but it is not something I am very proud of. He can fart on command. He is also threatening to teach Owen.

14. How old is he? He is 32 years old.

15. Who said I love you first? He did.

16. His favorite music? He loves Cake, Angels and Airwaves, Box Car Racer, Weezer, Johnny Cash, Modest Mouse, and Carrie Underwood (He loves her, not her music).

17. What do you admire most about him? He is so dang smart and talented at everything he does. He is the master of all games (maybe that is why I like to be his partner so much), and he plays the piano like an angel. He is also such a good dad to Owen and Rhett.

18. What is his favorite color? Blue. Definitely blue.

19. Will he read this? Uh, yeah! He pretty much does everything with our blog and checks it all the time at work when things are really slow.

I love you Chris, thanks for being my hubby!



I tag……Kim Myers, Julie Powell, Annie Kunz, Kristin Eaquinto, Jen Eaquinto, and Stacie Voyles.

Going on 6

Owen turned 5 last Monday. Merriment and frivolity were had by all. We started the weekend-long celebration on Saturday. Kim and I decorated a cake.

You are probably asking yourself, "Why don't they decorate cakes for a living? The use of white frosting instead of blue for the water is pure genius! And what deep meaning is behind the pirate captain laying down in his ship?" Out of the kindness of our hearts, we don't want to put all of the other cake decorators out of business, so we'll stick with nursing and selling phones.

Owen wanted to have a party this year at the newest and hippest joint in town. It's called Pirate Island Pizza. Other than it being really dark in "The Swamp", it was great. A few friends from the neighborhood and Owen's preschool came along, and we invited the Kemp family too. For those of you that don't know, Gina Kemp and I went to the same high school in Auburn, Washington. Our kids love each other, so it's been fun hanging out every now and then.




This guy in the blue shirt with the yellow stripes is Captain Weakbeard. He was trying to help the kids win tickets to redeem for fabulous prizes.


Rhett tried to contribute to the ticket booty as well.

(I apologize for not having any pictures of the party planner. Kim, you were a beautiful wench.)

Owen was showered with Batman, Indiana Jones, and dinosaur gifts. Kim and I decided to get him a scooter since the whole bike thing from last summer didn't turn out like we thought it would.

Thank you to everyone who came to the party or gave Owen a gift. He absolutely loved every minute of his birthday weekend, except for the new 1pm church time on Sunday. They should make a rule in the church that if you have kids under 6 years old, you can go to the earlier time, even if it isn't your ward.

Happy birthday Owen! We love you and are so proud of you! In fact, I'm going to list 5 things I love about Owen, since he turned 5, and that seems to be the thing bloggers do for their kids on their birthday.

1. Owen has a pretty strong grasp of the English language, but I absolutely love when he overcompensates his words.

Example:
Owen: Mom, I want a bolden arrow someday.
Mom: What's a bolden arrow?
Owen: You know, it's something where you get something that looks like an arrow and you put it in this stretchy thing and you pull it back and let go and you can shoot stuff with the arrow.
Mom: Oh.

2. Owen adores his baby brother. I am not exaggerating when I say this. Owen stepped on Rhett's chest when Rhett was a newborn, but that has been the only time in Rhett's 10 months on this earth when Owen has purposely done anything to hurt him. Owen cannot let Rhett go by without smothering him with kisses, hugs, or chubby cheek pats.

3. Owen loves to follow rules. We stole a family rule from one of my friends that if you fart at the dinner table, you have to take your plate to the bathroom and finish eating in there. Owen amended the rule for lunch. You get 2 chances at lunch.

4. I'm sure every other kid is exactly the same, but I love when Owen hears the garage door open and runs out to see me or Kim coming home from work. He is so happy when he his with his family.

5. And finally, this is a bit of a cop-out, but I love that there are a lot more than 5 reasons why I love Owen so much. He seriously impresses me every day, and I am so grateful that he is my son.

Christmas Recap

Wow, I can't believe the holidays are over...come to think of it, I can't believe 2008 is over. It seemed to go by especially fast this year.

Anyway, we had a merry Christmas, even though we weren't able to be with any of our extended family.

We got an early Christmas gift when I was called off from work on Christmas Eve. I was planning on working all night and staying awake for Christmas morning, but instead I got to stay home!! So, we enjoyed our annual roast beef, au jus sandwiches in honor of Grandma Powell's birthday, drank some "spicy" apple juice (Martinelli's sparkling apple cider), read the Polar Express, read Luke 2, prepared cookies and milk for Santa, and 9 carrots for his reindeer. Owen was perfect and went to bed without any fuss. He was really concerned about being good for Santa and was excited for the next morning.

Christmas morning started about 7am. Owen was excited to see all the presents, and Rhett was excited to chew on the paper.

Here is a picture of them before we started opening gifts:


I am going to go cook dinner now, so Chris will take over from here.

Yo yo yo, what's up? Thanks for passing the mic over to me K-Dog. I'll try to keep it real, smooth, and real smooth.

So I have to mention this. Notice in the last picture that Owen is not wearing his Christmas pajama pants. Instead of sugar plums, he must have been dreaming about waterfalls, lemonade, or urinals.

Rhett had a blast all morning.


Owen got exactly what he wanted.


It wouldn't be Christmas without a dinosaur present. Thanks Nana and Papa. I think I had more fun putting these together than Owen did.

I don't know...do you think Rhett loves his alphabet train?


Random picture: Kim wanted to show off the wreath she made for the gingerbread house.


Rhett looks like an elf in this new outfit from Nana.



This is probably getting boring, so I'll wrap things up. Let me go see if Owen wants to say anything...


Nope. I guess he's busy.

We hope everyone had a joyous holiday season. Owen's birthday is tomorrow, so we'll post again soon.

Merry Christmas to All!

Hi! This is Kim blogging! I decided that I should contribute to our blog and not let Chris do all the posting. He IS a much better writer than me, but I want more of a say in important things like our blog's background (think back to our lovely ramen and Seahawk ones), and besides, it looks like a lot of fun. Anyway, here is my first post...although Chris is standing behind me telling me what to do and how to do it. THANKS SWEETUMS!

We want to wish everyone a merry Christmas! December escaped us, and we didn't get Christmas cards out (translation: we were too lazy), so instead, please enjoy a slideshow of our adorable boys. A very talented friend in our ward took these pictures, and we love them! Rhett was very camera shy and not too cooperative as you will see in some of the pictures, but we think it gives them more character. Anyway, if you would like to check out more of her work, visit her website at http://www.dionsenecaphotography.blogspot.com.

We love you all! Merry Christmas!

Quincy and Queenie Quackenbush

Meet Quincy and Queenie Quackenbush, our alter-egos. We are an integral part of the Mesquite, Nevada nightlife. We go from casino to casino performing various shows consisting of annoying yet often catchy medleys of popular songs. We decided to perform at the ward Christmas party last Friday. We condensed our Christmas Extravaganza show into a fun medley of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Silver Bells, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I think it went over pretty well. We were getting a few strange looks from people that normally know us as shy, but by the end, I think everyone warmed up to us and started having a good time. It's a good thing they weren't serving eggnog or things might have really gotten out of hand.

Owen and Rhett aren't quite to the age yet where they are embarrassed by their parents.

Have you ever been to Baltimore? Kim's clothes have!

So here are my excuses this time for not blogging in so long: I have been extremely busy training two new employees, Kim and I have been practicing for the three different Christmas programs we've been asked to perform in, I've been playing basketball late into the night to get back in shape, and my old age causes me to fall asleep as soon as I sit down on a couch.

I'm at work right now, so I'll have to post some pictures later, but I had to blog about our trip home from Colorado on December 1st. We had a great time visiting Kim's family, but I don't have time to blog about that. The trip home is much more interesting for a blog post.

We found some cheap flights awhile ago, so we thought we'd fly this time instead of drive. The drive from Denver to St. George with two kids takes anywhere from 10 to 12 hours. We thought the flight would be much quicker and much less stressful. We planned on landing in Vegas at about 7pm local time, then driving the 2 hours to our house putting us in our humble abode about 10pm St George time. We were wrong.

We got to the Denver airport around 4pm for our 6:05pm flight. We checked in, walked to our gate, saw that the flight before ours hadn't even arrived yet, walked back to the food court area, grabbed some dinner, and headed back to the gate to wait. Owen happily ate his happy meal, Kim and I enjoyed our Einstein's bagels, and Rhett fought his way through a feeding of some sort of turkey and rice concoction. Rhett would not drink any milk, so we were preparing ourselves for a nightmarish flight of baby screaming. The flight before ours pulled up to the gate around the time ours was supposed to depart, so we were told it would be about an hour and a half delay. They were right. Our plane got stuck in a snow storm in Chicago before it got to Denver. We boarded our plane around 7:40pm, and luckily, Rhett fell asleep as soon as we sat down. He was in peaceful slumber during the entire flight, and we thanked our lucky stars as we felt bad for the lady 4 rows up that was trying to console her screaming baby.

We landed in Vegas about 8:30pm local time. Rhett woke up. Owen fell asleep. We found our sit-n-stand stroller at the gate, (the kind where the car seat for the baby goes in front and the older kid can either sit or stand in the back), crammed Owen's limp body into the car seat area because he could neither sit nor stand, and propped Rhett in his car seat where Owen should have been sitting or standing. We made our way to luggage carousel #3 where our 4 bags were supposed to be. We found zero. We walked over to the Southwest missing luggage office and found 3 of our bags. We were told the snowstorm in the Midwest threw everything off. We were guaranteed that our 4th bag would be on one of the final two flights arriving from Denver before the night was over. If we decided to wait for our bag, they would give us a $50 voucher towards a future flight. If we wanted to drive home and have them FedEx us the bag, there would be no voucher. Kim's bag with all of her clothes, makeup, and such was the missing bag. We decided to wait since Owen was asleep and Rhett was happy. The next flight from Denver was arriving at 10:30pm, so we took our time and rode the shuttle to our car, loaded up the 3 bags and the 2 boys, then drove to the parking garage to wait. I went in to check for the bag while Kim stayed with the boys in the car. The Vegas airport uses parking meters in the parking garage, so Kim was popping quarters into the machine every ten or fifteen minutes waiting for me to come back. I made my way to the luggage carousels again, found the one with the bags from Denver, watched everyone come down the escalator and grab their bags, and stood there for five more minutes contemplating what it would be like to dive down the luggage chute. I walked over to the TV screens with the arrival information, found the last flight arriving from Denver, found the carousel those bags were supposed to be on, and walked around for another hour waiting for that flight to land. I called Kim, and Rhett had fallen back asleep, so she was bored out of her mind. At least I had weird people I could watch and shiny signs I could read advertising the casinos and other Vegas attractions.

The last flight from Denver finally arrived around 11:30pm local time. The carousel started churning, and I got a little giddy-up back in my step. I watched everyone come down the escalator and grab their bags, and stood there for five more minutes contemplating what it would be like to throw an airport employee down the luggage chute. I walked back to the Southwest missing luggage office, and the way too happy lady at the counter excitedly said, "Oh! We found your bag! It's in Baltimore! Would you like us to FedEx it to you?" I thought, "No, lady. I think I'll keep waiting here while my wife fills the parking meter with more quarters." I managed to get a $75 voucher instead of a $50 for all of the trouble, and headed back to the parking garage. As you can imagine, Kim was thrilled to see me come back empty-handed. I explained what happened as we merged onto the highway at midnight. I looked over at Kim and said, "The good thing about all of this is there won't be any traffic through Vegas."

If I could, I would shove those words back down my windpipe, because as soon as I said that, we heard sirens. Traffic slowed down to 5 mph as the fire truck and ambulance tried to get through. It took us 50 minutes to drive maybe 3 miles, and all we got to see was the clean-up crew towing wrecked cars away. I stopped at a gas station to get an energy drink because now Kim was asleep and my eyelids were heavier than Oprah in 1990. The energy drink did nothing for me. I had to pull over and take a quick nap. I woke up 30 minutes later feeling ready to finish the drive. After drifting out of my lane a few times, I decided I should stop putting my family in jeopardy and take a longer nap. I made it to Mesquite, pulled over in the Oasis Resort and Casino parking lot, and slept for 2 hours. I woke up, finished the drive, and we were all warm in our beds around 5am St. George time. The whole trip took about 13 hours. We should have driven. Kim's bag was on our doorstep 2 days later.

Good news! Kim has decided she wants to get in on this blogging stuff, so she will now be a regular contributor. I hope. Her motivation is the website www.blurb.com. They can take your blog and turn it into a book. She wants to have all of our family memories in book form. You should check it out.

I Have a Free Minute

After reading everyone's blogs this morning, it looks like our lives are all very similar. Kim saw Twilight yesterday. Our ex-renters haven't paid us according to the court stipulation. We're excited for the big BYU/Utah game today. I fired somebody. We're excited to see family for Thanksgiving. I fired somebody else. Our kids are growing up so fast, doing amazing things. I might have to fire somebody else. Kim's birthday is next week. My employee that has been with us for over 2 years is leaving next month. Rhett's teeth are coming in. I heard a nasty rumor that one of my other really good employees might be leaving next month. Owen, Kim, and I are speaking in church tomorrow. Kim has been working more to make up for the money we're not getting from our ex-renters. Owen absolutely loves Preschool. Holiday hours start on Friday and I don't know how I'm going to keep the stores staffed.

So I apologize for not posting anything lately, but our lives are pretty much like everyone else's, right?

This is how Owen looked one day last week when we picked him up from Preschool.


This is Rhett being held upside down. We were trying to get a picture of his teeth, but ended up getting this great shot of his cheeks. I think he's storing food in his face for the winter. I don't know why he's getting such a head start though. I'm pretty sure it stayed in the 70s all day yesterday.


I see teeth in this one!


Okay Rhett. I understand why you're storing food in your face now. It has been getting pretty chilly during our evening walks.

Obama? Really?

Does anyone else feel like there's a dark cloud over our nation now? I know George W. hasn't been the model President of the United States of America, but Obama? Seriously? Did the voters do any research before they marked their ballots? I am not one who usually tries to wax philosophical when it comes to politics, but i thought it was pretty obvious that the Vietnam veteran who was tortured for our freedoms would make a much better leader than someone who hangs out with Jeremiah Wright. People wanted a change. I guess they're going to get what they asked for.

Daylight Savings, Shmaylight Shmavings

Who needs an extra hour of sleep? The thunder and lighting are competing to see who can be the loudest this morning. I think the thunder is winning. Owen and Rhett were both woken up at 5am, so I thought I'd post a Halloween blog.

A few years ago, I bought a Halloween costume to fulfill my lifelong fantasy of one day being a garbage man. This was my third time wearing it, but instead of just dirtying up my face, I thought I'd go zombie in 2008.

What goes better with a zombie garbage man than a pet skunk?

Owen really wanted to be a vampire this year. This is proof to all those doubters out there that good old dad really did the makeup.

I think he turned out pretty good.

So here's the finished family:

You are probably asking yourself, "Where's Kim?"

That's her with the purple bat on her face. I don't know if you could have been able to figure that out on your own or not.

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat party first. We combined with a different ward, so the entire parking lot was full. After that, we headed over to the local nursing home. The residents all had funny hats on, and the kids went down the line scoring even more candy. We ended the night going door to door in our neighborhood. Sadly, we only found three people home. Owen's teeth will probably thank us later. Here's his haul:

We decided to let Rhett enjoy his first Halloween by letting him attack a blue raspberry sucker. Here's the result:

I have to end with this picture. After our initial attempt at washing Owen's makeup off, he was left with some pretty manly looking eyebrows.

I love Halloween.

Puking Pumpkin and...Spongebob?

I will start by saying that I take no credit for coming up with the idea of a puking pumpkin. In fact, I even copied a design I saw online. Kim's brother, Scott, also did a puking pumpkin this year, but I don't think he added enough puke. So here is my attempt at the puking pumpkin, with extra puke:


Kim, on the other hand, decided she would print out a picture of Spongebob Squarepants and then try to use it as a pattern on her pumpkin. Here is her result:

What do you think? I think it looks like the skull of a monkey. Feel free to leave your impressions in the comment list.

Owen was pretty pleased to help us with the pumpkins this year. Rhett was pretty pleased just chewing on the cord from the blinds as he watched us carve.


Our camera was acting up on us last night, but if you look closely, you can see puke coming out of the pumpkin's nostril. He felt better after I told him not to be embarrassed, because that happens to humans also.