Thanksgiving

We took levi to see Santa Claus for the first time. He was quite nervous and didn't know what to do but Santa was kind and had Nett sit on his lap with Levi. He didn't cry but he didn't want to be there. It was funny because some of his cousins broke out bawling. He got dad some candy and some fruit that he could enjoy. The candy was great.

We had an interesting day for thanksgiving. I had to work the middle of the day shift so Nett went and ate with my parents and grandparents. We then went down to Gunnison and spent the rest of the holiday with Nett's parents. We had a great time with the family and enjoyed tons of great food. We especially enjoyed the Jazz beating the Lakers. At one point we cheered so loud that Levi got scared, and we all laughed at him. Oh well.

Now it is time to prepare for the rest of the holidays.

Oops

SO... It has been quite a while since I have posted. And for sure tons has happened since we last posted. It appears we went camping and fell off the face of the earth. We finally landed back on good ole earth and we are here to report.

I am going to give a quick summary of what has happened and in an out of order sort of way because the dates are a little fuzzy. Kids will do that to you.

I am just going to go down my list. First was in early October. We went down to Gunnison to watch conference. Inbetween sessions we were out in the back yard of the Squires and the neighbor behind them has a pair of cows. Well one of the cows got it's head stuck in a large red bucket. Turns out the cow had gored the bucket with it's horn. It was hilarious. Especially when the cow got spooked and ran into the fence.

Second for those who will find out anyway We are expecting another baby in June of 2011. We are excited to start placing bets for date, height, weight and for now gender. Nett is excited as am I and it should be fun chasing two kids around instead of one.

So we also made another life changing decision. I have gotten sick and tired of looking for a job and not getting anywhere with the looking, so I am going back to school next year. I really need a masters degree in my field and it just seemed like a good time to be proactive and go for it. And knowing my luck when life is busy beyond belief for me I will finally get the job I am seeking.

We gave Levi his first haircut. We bought some clippers and buzzed his head. Then Nett made us get family pictures. That just increased the chances of there being two goofballs in the picture instead of one. Levi didn't want to get his picture taken at the studio, he wanted to play with the props and explore the room.

Levi has started going to nursery with Nett accompanying him. Due to her calling she takes him late and he gets mad because toy time is over. The transition should be fun next month.

The world must truly be ending. My father, the man who swore he would never golf, has taken up the sport. It had to do more with the new job in Gunnison but we have been able to go with him a couple of times and have enjoyed playing palisades.

Nett won a new flat screen tv so we have two. It makes it nice when I want to watch one show and she wants to watch a different one. This is my kind of comprimise.

We had a great time in September praticipating in Brocktons baptism. The spirit was strong and it was a great time for the family to get together. Afterwards Nett, Levi and I went to the Real Salt Lake Soccer Game. Levi didn't want to watch the game and so we have sworn off taking him to sporting events but we are going to take him the the BYU New Mexico game next week end.

We also took him to Cabelas. That was interesting. They have an aquarium in the store stocked with trout native to Utah. He didn't want to leave that part of the store.

Levi also decided that he wants to be a climber and fell out of his crib. So he now sleeps on his matress on the floor and his crib is in the closet stored for the next rugrat.

We took my grandparents up Ogden canyon to go see the fall foilage. It was a beautiful sight and we enjoyed watching levi play around in the mountains.

For Halloween we had a ward party and family party. I was the ghost of christmas yet to come. Net was Olive Oyle and Levi was the alien toy from toy story. We had a great time with family and friends.

So now we are caught up. I am stating a class at the University of Utah to prepare me to take the G-MAT test again so I can get into my program.

Well guys wish me luck and we will repent and try harder to keep all y'all posted.

Summer Fun

This post is going to be a little backwards but who cares. We have been enjoying the last few days of my summer vacation watching the A-Team episodes on TV and relaxing. Here are some pictures that will be further explained below.

Levi saw the dirt and that was his favorite thing about being in the mountains.

Levi's horse ride. He was scared of the real ones but the nice gentleman who let us ride his horses had this in his back yard.

This is Goose. Levi touched the horse and petted him. It was fun for him even though he was scared of such a big animal.

Levi took grandma's broom and paraded it all over camp. He cried when she took it away.

This is simply titled boys will be boys.

So it has been a while since we have been on here. We have of course been very busy. Work has of course taken up most of our time but we press on to better things. Like camping. We had the wonderful opportunity to travel south to Payson Lakes with my side of the family. We were a little nervous because this was going to be the first time we had taken Levi camping. Sleeping in a tent with a little "tornado" was a daunting task but we thought better now than later. So to put captions to the pictures first.

This is Levi with some of his cousins on a wagon ride.

Levi liked to climb and explore everything including the fire pit and the picnic table.

Levi "helping" mom.

Our day at the lake having lunch

Levi's first canoe ride. He hated the life jacket.


Levi getting his Jell-O.

This was after we got back and Levi decided to comb his own hair with his fingers after feeding himself scalloped vegetables. He then got to take a bath and drench mom.

The camping was great. Not a whole lot of bugs and we got to relax. Some of the funny things. First off we went to a co-workers house of my brother Chris to ride some horses. There was a mare in heat penned up with a Shetland Pony. The rest of the horses had been fixed except the mare and pony. The pony was all sorts of mad when Chris took the mare out of the pen. Then the pony tried so hard to "get lucky" but was of course too short. It was funny.

One highlight of the trip was the campfire. The only night we didn't play the guitar Dad and his brother Jack started telling stories from their younger and more "wild" days. It entertained us all and more than a few of us were shedding tears from laughing so hard.

The last month

The Aftermath


Mom and Levi with the Elephant

The cake Mom and Dad and Granpa ate

Mom helping me open presents

Me at the Bird Show

My first ride on the Carousel

Me and My Dad

So here we are again and much has happened in the last month. First and foremost the hard part. I had a job interview and it went very well. That is until I didn't get the job. I was kinda bummed but there isn't anything I can do about it. Back to square one again.

We got to spend some time in Gunnision. The time went by too fast but it was great. I had fun teasing Levi on the piano bench with my guitar. We tried to go take a walk around Palisades but the weather didn't let us do that. They even watched the Real Salt Lake game with me.

Well Levi turned 1! We can say it has been a short time for us. We decided to take him to the Hogle Zoo after our good experience with him at the Aquarium. He didn't see much more than the elephants but he enjoyed watching all of the crazy kids. We took some pictures and I have posted a few. We also had Grandma and Grandpa Pete over for dinner. They helped us celebrate and enjoyed watching him destroy his first cake and then eat most of it anyway. It was nice and low key.

My First Cake

*Untitled*

Oh boy!

Our little Levi sure is trying to grow up fast. He has graduated from just crawling to trying to stand on his own. This is a problem because now the important things are locked up like the guitars and amp cables. Levi even figured out how to unlatch the guitar case so now that has to be stashed in a corner. Each and every night Lynette and occasionaly myself have to clean up after a tornado. The sad thing is he isn't just content with his toys it is every room in the whole house. I think he got that gene from his mother.

On a lighter note we got to spend some wonderful time on saturday night with some friends just catching up on each other's lives. It has been wonderful to keep such friends for so long. The orange chicken was awesome and the company was excellent. It was a great break from the drudgery of our normal mundane lives.

I am a little nervous about my yearly evaluation. I don't know what they are going to talk about because for the first time ever the management is apparently individualizing the evals. It should be good to make some goals and hopefully be able to get some other things taken care of.

I have to say I am impressed with my ward in certain aspects. We have a great group of guys in the elder's quorum who really want to learn the gospel. The manuals although back in the basic doctrines and teachings of the church, have become alive and real to us. We are striving to learn and apply the basic doctrinal teachings to us. The last few weeks have been really exciting. I have never been in an elders quorum class where you really want to be there and praticipate because the teaching has been peer oriented.

I am glad that soccer season is underway and I get to enjoy listening and watching the home team Real Salt Lake. Nett watches occasionally and listens with me. What a wife. Maybe we will have to get her a jersey this year.

March Madness

Welcome to the second craziest time of year. The time where some men and women give up their lives for 4 days of watching basketball and either cheering or crying based on the outcome. I am sure this year that several people who gamble lost a lot of money.

Nett and I got into the NCAA tournament this year. We both filled out brackets and to my surprise neither of us picked Kansas to win. It has been fun to watch the competition and enjoy the close games this year. I don't know if we have anything officially riding on the brackets but I am sure the winner will get something. We both cheered for BYU and Utah State and felt bad when they lost their games.

We got the opportunity to go to Salt Lake this weekend, visit family and enjoy a Utah Jazz game. I do have a few gripes about the Jazz. Number 1 is signing the exclusive contract with FSN so that all of the games are on cable. I have watched 1 game this year and that is the game I bought tickets to. Number 2 is they have these nice folks who work at ESA and take your picture at the game for free. But if you want the picture at all you have to pay $15 bucks to get a copy. Rip off.

We took Levi to the game and had a wonderful time. He made it through dinner and 3 quarters before we left. They were up by 30 points so I didn't feel too bad about leaving early. He enjoyed watching the jumbotron and I enjoyed watching a movie they made of all of the mascot's wiping out on their various stunts. It was a lot of fun.

Nett got to go to two baby showers in one day lucky her. The first was for a great friend of ours in our ward here in the Terrace. The next was for our wonderful friends the Andersens. I had to drop in on the latter one as I was visiting with Beau and he had to go see his grandmother. It was akward. Way too much estrogen and progesterone for me. Poor Beau, I think he had to stay longer than I did.

I must write a little about Stake Conference. The stake president announced prior the induction of more hymns and music for the conference. One of these musical talents is a lady who plays the bagpipes. As she was belting out Amazing Grace for the enjoyement of all, Levi starts bawling in the middle of the song. He heard the warmup and he listened to half of the song so we can't figure out what did him in. We felt bad because we were laughing hysterically at him. It was pretty funny.

We got my parent's moved down to Ephraim UT. The best part was the only damage was a little cosmetic damage to the desk and we hid it in the corner so I don't even think dad remembers. They are settled in and doing well.

I got my one ski trip in this year. It was absolutely the best I have had in a while. Thanks to Beau for going with me and keeping me out of some trouble.

Levi, Nett & I love to go visit my grandma and grandpa. They have a little sheltie called Abbey that Levi loves to chase now that he is crawling. She doesn't like it very much but it is amusing for a little while.

Foyer Rat

This is to officially declare my position as a foyer rat. Now I shall explain. We often refer to people who hang out at certain locals "rats". Like a gym rat or a mall rat. I am a foyer rat. And not by my own choice. Levi can do church for about 2 hours or so then he needs to stretch his legs. So I get to take him to the church foyer to stretch.

We had a wonderful trip to Logan to watch our good friends bless their baby. It was spiritual and wonderful to watch. The highlight for me was not as spiritual but rather humorous. I had taken Levi out into the hall to wind down and I ran into an aquaintance from highschool with her daughter. Levi tried to crawl over and steal this little girls purse in the which she snatched it back, wagged her finger at Levi and said no no no. I laughed.

Levi is now crawling and getting into everything. I had to dismantle the electric guitar so Levi wouldn't drool or smash any of the equipment. While it is sad for me to have to move the equipment until such time as I can get another room, ie a new house, I must sacrifice for his development. It is fun to chase him and he is starting to play back with me more so that makes it worth it. What can I say I love my boy!

Nett has tried to get me to watch the Masterpiece Theater version of Jane Austen's Emma. I just can't watch all of the "girl drama". It is just to much. The plot also moved too slow for my taste and the apparent lack of any action didn't help. I will say at least I tried.

I am enjoying all of my callings in church. I love working in scouts. It is hard for me when I only have one and I grew up with up to 30 something scouts that went through with me. But we are making good progress so my scout will enter the deacon's quorum well pepared.

Reflections and Learning

Where to begin, where to begin. So the new car works very well. December was a crazy and anti-productive month for me. I quit looking for a new job hoping that I would get a call from one of the many I had applied for (yeah right). We set up the christmas decor and got all ready for Levi's first christmas. I learned that you have to be older than three to get really cool toys. I also learned that they still make cool toys even though all of the focus is on electronics such as Wii and Xbox.

We had some fun with our families for christmas. We had the Hancock family party on the 19th of December where we all got gifts from Grandma. The next day was the Squire family christmas party full of food and good talking. I enjoyed both. I also learned how much I dislike working the holidays. I had some instances at work that were unfavorable and made me angry. Thanks to an awesome coworker who switched me I was able to enjoy Christmas with the family.

This year is (hopefully the last for a while) that we had to split. We spent Thanksgiving with my folks so we got to go to Nett's home for Christmas. We had a wonderful time watching Levi open his presents and have his first christmas. We all got wonderful gifts and had a great time enjoying others open theirs. Levi would help a little when we opened his presents. He loved all his toys but then would appear a little upset when we would take it away to give him another present. He never quite caught on but he had a good time.

Then comes New Year's. The most wonderful of Lazy Holidays. I didn't have to work eitherNew Year's Eve or New Year's Day so we went south and spent the weedend at my parent's house. We got their and had a grand time playing guitars and just chit chatting about life. Our good friends Beau and Amber Andersen had a New Year's party. They had a small turn out, but the fun was playing games, eating and talking together. We wasted half a box of matches trying to ignite some fireworks and just had a great time.

New Year's Day we slept in and had fun. We took Levi on his first sledding trip. He didn't know what to think and got to ride down with mom and dad. He did get a little cold towards the end but we enjoyed riding. I can hardly wait until next year when he will understand a little more.

We also had the opportunity to go to the baby blessing for Nett's brother. I learned from this experience that it is not ok to play peek a boo in the middle of the sacrament service expecially during the passing of the sacrament. This little girl was doing just this about 3 rows in front of us and it was making me laugh.

The past year has been one of major adjustment. I survived my first year of mariage and my first 7 months of fatherhood. I may just make it a little longer. I am still trying to rectify the work situation and hopefully that will improve other aspects of our lives. The church thing is progressing well. I have 4 callings and it takes some of my time and I consider it time very well spent. Lucky for me the callings are not time consuming.