Family Spotlight - Steven

STEVEN

Little Steven James was born January 5, 2003. He is the only one out of all the children to be born in California - in fact, in the same hospital as Jon. Always happy and content, Steven can enjoy himself doing almost anything. He's progressed from being a fan of Barney to Thomas the Train, to now being a big BYU and Lakers fan, much to Jon's delight.

Steven enjoys school and is currently the top reader in his first grade class (the picture above shows him holding his very first "chapter" book). He loves to learn and insists he knows how to do everything by himself, which doesn't always go well with trying to help him with his homework.

His favorite color is blue and his favorite thing to do is to go outside and ride his bike, which he learned how to do without training wheels this past summer. When we are inside, his favorite game to play is Lego Star Wars for the Wii, but he also enjoys a good game of Trouble. He is very competitive - definitely an attribute he got from his father. When he grows up, he wants to be an astronaut.

Something you may not know about Steven is that he loves to sing (and sing, and sing). He especially loves to sing to his baby brother Tyler, who he loves so much.

We are so glad that Steven is part of our family. He is a great big brother and is very sensitive to other people's feelings and does not like it when others are upset. We love him so much.

Family Spotlight - Brandon

I decided that I wanted to begin spotlighting each one of the kids. I just got to thinking how important each one of them is and wanted share a little bit about them and how special they are to our family. Since Brandon is the oldest, he gets to be first.

BRANDON

Brandon is now ten years old and in the fifth grade. It is amazing how much he has grown over the years. He enjoys school and loves to play sports. He recently played flag football over the summer and is looking forward to playing basketball this winter. He has also been such a great help with his baby brother Tyler, who he loves so much. He even said he would give Tyler his heart if he could.

His favorite colors are red, black and blue. Brazilian chicken, pizza and buttermilk chocolate cake are some of his favorite foods. When he grows up he wants to be a basketball player, an astronaut, or a lawyer. Something you may not know about Brandon is that he is a good artist and writer, but he's very private about his work. :)

We love having him in our family. He is a great big brother and a great son. We look forward to watching him grow in to the wonderful young man we know he will be.

Busy day today

Errands to run in the morning, BYU football game in the afternoon. I got see my friend Blair, his wife Jenny and Blair's parents as they were gracious enough to watch Tyler while I went to a portion of the game. Thanks to Blair for letting me use his tickets as well.

In the mean time, Jamie was out with the kids seeing A Christmas Carol. Apparently, it's pretty frightening for kids. Kylie said she would never, ever (repeat ever 15 times) see it again. The kids were interested to learn that I once played Jacob Marley's ghost in my 5th grade class play. Do you remember that, Mom? I digress (as usual).

After I got home from the game (and some brief Christmas shopping), Jamie went off with the housewives of the neighborhood to see New Moon. I took the kids to Wally World to get some milk and baby wipes. Jamie's not home yet. I'm sure she'll be drooling all over Jacob's abs when she gets in. Everyone else on Facebook is, anyway. Good thing I'm working on mine. Oh Yeah! (You gotta say that in the Randy Savage voice from the old Slim Jim jerky commercials).

After the kids went down, Brandon I stayed up and watched GI Joe. Silly, mindlessly entertaining flick. Probably wouldn't watch it again, but worth one viewing, I suppose. Unfortunately, probably the most interesting thing for me was seeing which LOST and 24 characters were in the movie. I counted 3, but there could have been more. Dennis Quaid totally mailed that flick in, but I digress again.

Sorry, no pics today. I thought about putting a Christmas Carol image on here, but then I started thinking about copyright laws and yada, yada, yada. So ya'll are out of luck. Peace.

Update on our little Tyler

Tyler turned 8 months last week and I just can't believe it! He is getting so big and for the most part doing well. He had a cardiology appointment last week. Dr. Everett said that he is looking really good. He was able to come off of his lasix (his medicine to help with fluid overload). But he did have to go up on his blood pressure medicine. I was really hoping she was going to take him off of it, but his blood pressures are still high, hopefully we can get it under control. Other than that he is in good over all health and I hope and pray he will stay that way!! The kids continue to love and spoil him, he is so lucky to have so many little mommies around!! Anyway, lets all hope everything will continue to stay nice and calm around here!

UPDATE: We just found out Tyler cut his third tooth. He's been fussing all day - that must be why.

Halloween!

I can't believe October will be over in a couple of hours. This month has just flown by. A lot has happened and we've been slacking a the blog. Jamie and the kids went to Disneyland and the beach last week and had a blast. Work has been busy for me. I think Facebook is the biggest culprit though.

The kids were very excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. Brandon was a Blues Brother, Kaylin and Kylie were ballerina's (Jamie made the tu-tu's herself), Steven was the Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader, and Tyler was a firefighter. Jamie and I went as Adam and Eve, fig leaves and all. Just kidding. Neither of us had a costume for the occasion.

Here are some pics of the kids.

The camera was tricked by the reflective parts of Tyler's costume.



The kids and their cousins.


Tyler really wanted some candy.


Christmas is already just around the corner.

Temple in Concepcion, Chile

President Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced yesterday that the church would be constructing a temple in Concepcion, Chile - where I served my mission from 1996-1998. I am extremely excited for the members of the church down there. During my mission, church leaders were looking for the right spot for a temple. So this announcement has been in the works for at least a decade.

Here's a view of Concepcion. You can click here if you want to learn more about the city (and I know you do).

I can't wait to see what it's going to look like. I've told Jamie that we're going to go there some day.

Here's a picture of the Santiago Temple - the only other Temple in Chile.

Confession

Okay, so we don't really have a friend in the ward that does wax sculptures. That picture below is really of Tyler. It just turned out so he looked rather fake. For those that fell for it (cough, Angela, cough), ha ha ha. I mean - sorry for the joke.

Oh, and to Anonymous (James), you're brain has a shell on it.