Ruining Christmas for my Children
As of the last month or so Karina and I have been having some conversations about initiating a rite of passage for our kiddos. And I am not talking about the rite involving body hair springing up in new places or even the rite of having the kids move on from being the correct age to enjoy restaurant kids meals to having them just pretend to be the right age (for the record, I do not partake in the latter ritual). I am talking about passing along ...
Using music to supplement parental instruction
While I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about pop culture (Kirstie Alley's weight is currently down and Spencer and Heidi are unfortunately separating...who saw that one coming?!) there are a few fads that I have been late to jump on: the cellular phone and Justin Bieber being two notable examples. Well, tonight marks the night that I engage myself in another fad. Yes, I am talking about the fad involving dance-y songs sung by a colorfully ...
Air Show, Air Show!
Those of you who know me well know that I am passionate about a few things: God, my country, my family, and Spongebob Squarepants. As a subset of the second passion, I fancy (translation: “go gaga for”) military aircraft. In fact, growing up I always wanted to be an F-16 pilot (for those of you who do not know what that is, a pilot is the operator of an aircraft). For the last 10 years I have told myself that, if it weren’t for my, to put ...
Disneyland Trip!
We got back Friday night from a few days spent in southern California. Our destination was the Disneyland resort. I believe half of Arizona had the same idea judging by the U of A and ASU apparel we saw during the week (last week was spring break for Arizona). While I was not able to solve the puzzle I had brought up on Facebook as to what was so unique about Cinderella’s feet (I faced two obstacles between me and the answer: 1.) Disney frowns ...
A day in the life of a Kindergartner
As many of you may know, Ashton recently started Kindergarten. As I never attended Kindergarten myself, I am finding the experience fascinating. The word kindergarten is derived from teh Latin root words "kinder", meaning "gathering", and "garten", which means "total chaos". Of course I made this up based on my assumption as to what must happen when you pen up a large group of hyper, energetic 5 and 6 year olds in a room for 6 hours a day. ...
San Diego Fun!
The family and I recently had the opportunity to go on vacation. We decided to go to San Diego and check out a few of the local attractions. A 'brief' synopsis of our trip follows... On Monday morning, Karina and I surprised the kids by telling them we were going to go on vacation that day. Their excitement and enthusiasm was immediately rewarded with a 7 hour ride in the van. Karina had to stay in Tucson a bit longer than me and the kids so ...
Birthing Pains (in the butt)
As most of you are aware, Karina and I are expecting baby number 3 at any moment. Alyson Grace is 39 weeks old and already displaying some personality traits similar to her mother’s, namely the stubbornness as she refuses to vacate Karina’s womb. (Note to self: Karina would probably not like that last sentence, remember to change Karina to “a mule”, but definitely do not leave BOTH in). For some reason Karina is finding having a 10 ...
What I’ve been up to
As you can probably guess by my lack of recent updates, I have had a very busy couple of months. I just want to hit the highlights: Karina and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on December 29. My mom and sister were kind enough to offer to watch the kids so that Karina and I could spend the night together. We decided to head to Phoenix. Karina found a good deal on a nice Hilton resort. By the time we made it to the hotel it was about 10:30 at ...
Moving
It is time once again for my quarterly blog. I have been keeping too busy to post, what with all the work, school, family obligations, and sleep that I have been occupying myself with. Most recently, Karina and I have been busy with all the work that goes into buying and selling a house. We have begun the process of looking for a place to move to before August of next year. Ashton starts school next year and we want to be in a house and ...
Vacation
We recently returned from our family vacation to Monterey, California. Karina, Ashton, Lynsey and myself went out to see my sister Stacie and her hubby Adrian and to take in the scenery/activities in the northern California area. Overall, we had a great time. The scenery was beautiful, there was so much to do, and we were not all swallowed by the earth in a cataclysmic earthquake. Below are a few of the highlights: Arrival in Oakland: ...