Remember the Police Beat?

A friend sent this old clipping from BYU's Daily Universe to us in the mail the other day. I'll give you ONE guess as to who the perpetrator was.


If you guessed Christian, you're right. My husband is a criminal, with a record.

Belated Christmas

Since our camera was found, I guess I need to post some pictures of Christmas time, right? This is a major potpourri and I'm not going to go in to detail, so enjoy!

Disgusting, huh? Christian bought these on a whim one day and it was our son's protein for the day.
Oliver got some play-do and Christian was busily making dough cars for him for a few days that Oliver ate with, slept with, and carried everywhere with him.

We got Oliver a "big boy bed" for Christmas which he has yet to last a nap or night in b/c he wakes up dazed and confused and wants to be put back in his crib.

I know it's a bad pic, but you get the idea of the cuteness of this snowsuit. No wonder he didn't want to put it on.
Daddy and Oliver playing in the Utah snow. Oliver wouldn't let Christian put him down his first time out.
JoLynn ended being the one to get Oliver out in the snow on their almost daily walks. Oliver loved spending time with his Grandma and misses her so much!

The ONLY picture we have of Oliver during present-opening time. Let's just say after he saw his cars, he was done.

Ring around the rosies with cousins.

Check out this AMAZING giveaway!

I went to this address: http://inevergrewup.net/giveaway-25-bumbleride-indie-stroller/#comment-6845 and entered this amazing giveaway. See for yourself!

Loved it!

I couldn't make this picture bigger, so what you see is what you get. Anyway- one of my favorite books of all time. I HIGHLY recommend it if you're looking for an easy read, and want to cry, laugh, and gasp in disbelief every time you sit down to read it. In case you can't see the pic, it's The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

UPDATE: We found our camera!!! Well, Christian's Mom, JoLynn found our camera. YEAH!!!

"A Series of Unfortunate Events..."

Ok, so I've been a negligent poster as of late because we LOST OUR CAMERA! And, what fun is it to post with no pictures?? To shed some light on the title of this post, let me start at the beginning. Christian dropped his phone in a water bucket while washing windows about a month or so before Christmas. We got him a new Blackberry because we figured with a new business and him being on the road a lot, it would really help out to reduce the amount of work he had to do from home. As we were checking out at Verizon, the salesman happened to mention something about phone insurance. I'm not a typical warranty-buying, full coverage insurance card-carrying person, but I knew given our rotten luck with phones, this might be a necessity. THANK GOODNESS. Christian dropped his NEW phone in to a bucket of water AGAIN two days ago. One $50 deductible later, he had a new Blackberry. Whew! Now, let's backtrack. Christmas was fabulous- truly relaxing and wonderful in every way. On Christmas day, we were taking pictures of the kids playing "Ring Around the Rosy." Next thing I know, our camera has all but disappeared into thin air. GONE. We looked everywhere, sent out an S.O.S. to Christian's family (we spent Christmas in Utah with the Bells this year), but to no avail. We drove home to Albuquerque sans camera. The tragic thing is that this was an almost brand-new camera, and, hello, we are having a baby in a couple of months with no way to document it! I'm heartbroken for all the lost pictures that are on that camera and also that we now have no way of saving moments for our posterity until we get a new camera (which I don't see happening anytime in the near future). So, don't expect any razzle-dazzle posts in the near future either. On to more recent events. Yesterday, after days of putting off grocery shopping out of pure laziness, I finally made it out of the house. On the way to Wal-mart, I was taking a left when the sun jumped out from behind the trees and blinded me. I ran over a huge curb and my front tire went completely flat in about 5 seconds. I called Christian who came right over, no chiding and no complaints, and changed my tire. Yep, he's a good one. So, I drove to Wal-mart again today to see if their tire dept. can fix my tire. Nope- bent rim. I take it to another place down the road. Instead of waiting there, I stick Oliver in the stroller and head down to Chick-fil-A for lunch. It's January 9th and I'm sweating as I walk down the street. Crazy. As I'm finding a seat in the full restaurant with my tray in one hand and stroller in the other, my tray slips and my delicious cookies and cream milkshake goes tumbling to the floor and splatters all over me and the table next to me. AHHHH! Not only was I really embarassed, but dripping with milkshake that I could obviously no longer enjoy the way I had been looking forward to! The day's not over yet, but Oliver had a total meltdown in Chick-fil-A, wouldn't eat anything, and was throwing himself all over the floor. Before I followed suit, I called Christian and asked if he could please come pick us up and drive us back to the tire store, b/c I had reached my limit for the day/week/month, which he so thougtfully did. As I write this, Oliver, who was SOOOOO tired at the restaurant, has been playing in his crib for the past 2 hours, without even an attempt at napping. And, I'm not getting him out until he does.

If already having a bad day, don't read this

I learned something recently that has changed my life, and I want to share it with all of you because I think it will do the same for you.

I'm listening to a really cool book (The Devil's Teeth, by Susan Casey) about the Great White Sharks that feed on seals every fall at the Farallone Islands, which are 27 miles west of San Fransisco. This island is fascinating for a number of historical and biological reasons, not the least of which is the rare size of many of the Great Whites that hunt there, right off shore. The Great Whites that can be seen in large numbers in other parts of the world (ring of death in South Africa; Guadalupe Islands in Mexico, etc) will average between 10-15 ft long. But the females at the Farallones are between 16-21 feet.

But I already knew those length statistics as I'm sure you did. It was learning the following that has changed me forever:

A 20 ft long Great White will be 8 ft wide and 6 ft deep. That's not a typo. 20 by 8 by 6.

It's important that you measure that out with your family for FHE, with the moral being that we be grateful for every breath we take.