Visit to Santa and Mrs. Clause

This year the boys got to visit with Santa and let him know just what they wanted for Christmas. Unfortunately, Nate was a little too scared to show much emotion. Luke just wanted to smile at him and not say much. But we think Santa will do just fine for them this year.

Jared's Favorite Pic of Nathan

So, this is now my absolute favorite picture of Nathan. It was taken Thanksgiving 2007. If you want to print it out, it's cropped as an 8"X10". How can you not want a houseful of these little folks when they're that cute (just kidding Mandy)!!! We'll post again in a few days. We don't have to go back to work until Monday, so Mandy or I one should have a little time to post a few more pictures. We might even post a video.

We hope all of you had a happy and safe Thanksgiving!!!

Love To All,
Jared

Plumber Nate

We have a new plumber in the family. Poor kid, you pull them up they slide right back down.

Breaking mom's back

They decided to see how tall they could stand and how fast they could sit down. Not a very nice thought for mom, as her back was about to break with both boys having fun. At least two of them were laughing and having fun.

Luke and Nate's Halloween 2007

The boys loved being something else for a night in their Dinosaur and Monkey costumes for Halloween this year. The minute Nate had the Monkey on, he started acting just like one. (Unlike every other minute. Ha, Ha!)
Luke just wanted to chase his tail in circles. He thought that was so funny to have on his outfit. We took them to the mall again this year, which for mom and dad is an absolute delight compared to walking out in the freezing cold. I guess in a few years we will have to face it, but for now we can get away with the warmth.

Eat Your Heart Out Dad!!!!

On Sept. 18, Mandy and I had the absolute pleasure of spending the evening with The Dave Brubeck Quartet, at Abravanel Hall, for the old boy's last show here in Utah, compliments of Mandy's boss (and when you see the cost on the ticket, you'll see why that was important). First off, that man is phenomenal! Even at 84 (or eighty something) he was awesome. The other guys in his band were fantastic as well. Mandy and I both had one of the nicest nights out we've had in a long time thanks to Mr. Brubeck. And to top it all off, our company was actually the main sponsor of the show.
Now, besides the music, what a night!! The average age of the first 10 rows had to be about 106. The poor old lady one row back and three seats over vomited all over herself during the first song and directly behind me was a lady on oxygen. That's right... pssssst (pause 15 seconds) psssssst (pause 15 seconds) ad infinitum for the entire show. However, there were a few of the more upbeat songs where her and her machine were actually on beat, so that wasn't bad. Until next time....

Nathan's walking on his own now!!!

Allright, so here's the vid of Nate walking on his own. It's been really fun for Mandy and I to watch him expeditiously hobble down the hall chasing after Luke... we're such the proud parents!! -Jared

Oktoberfest 2007 at The Bird

Kaltes Bier, gute Freunde und Sonnenschein. Das ist Oktoberfest für Sie! Even though it's only September, Oktoberfest 2007 is in full swing right now (through Oct. 7 if your wondering). We got there around 4pm, so it wasn't too crowded. Plenty of boths, beer and brats. But, if you want to get fed and have a couple of steins of beer, you better bring about $50 because after all, it is Snowbird (aka for spendy). It's a great escape from the valley and the boys sure loved doing the polka! -J

Finally...

I finally got my stupid camera to let me capture the video from it to a workable file format that you could actually see. And lucky for you, I can upload it to our blog. So here it is... our boy Nate tooling around behind his walker. Be on the lookout for one of him walking sans Mandy or I soon (he can go about 10 steps on his own). Now that I know I can get my camera to work, I'll try to be a little more diligent passing these along. Enjoy!

Jared

Luke's first day of Pre-School

So yeah, Luke just started pre-school. He loved it of course, but Mandy and I had a rough time with it. He's only 3 and I guess we just figured we wouldn't have to deal with this for a few more years, but what do you do?? He's got a speech disorder called Verbal (or Speech) Apraxia. Some of the signals his brain sends to his mouth to tell it where to position itself for talking and eating get lost between his mouth and his brain. So, he's getting help teaching a different part of the brain to take those functions over. Our brains are cool that way I guess. And honestly, he's no worse for wear because of it. He knows more words in sign language than most 5 year olds can speak, so once his brain is fully controlling his mouth again, speech will be a breeze. And he does speak and eat, he just doesn't have the vocabulary most kids his age do and he has a hard time chewing some food up. He's really probably too smart for his own good.