Pumpkin Carving

Addison enjoying a tasty piece of the pumpkin

Here I'm am creating my masterpiece. Oh the focus and the skill as I make razor sharp cuts within micrometers of the line. I should've been a surgeon.

The pumpkins shriveled up a little bit so they don't look as good, but here are the final products. Brittney's is a witch, and mine is a skull.

Thoughts for Today

today i am sick. i think i have strep throat - not fun. every time i answer the phone the person on the other line thinks i just woke up because i sound so awful. i have gargled and am drinking my second glass of water of the day. i know i should drink more but it hurts so much to swallow. i have no appetite for food at all - which is not like me. is it common for your ears to hurt with strep? mine do, especially when i blow my nose. i have a photoshoot tomorrow morning so i hope i feel better soon. my day has been filled by sitting on the couch, changing diapers, and watching my wedding video. right now i am listening to classic christmas songs by mahalia jackson, the andrew sisters, bing crosby and more. christmas music makes me happy.addison started giving kisses this week. she isn't consistent with it yet, but it is so cute to see her lean forward and open her mouth! it is a sweet, slobbery kiss and kyle and i can't get enough of them! it has been really hard for me to not kiss her chubby little fingers and cheeks today so i don't get her sick. just today while i was sitting on the floor addison crawled to me and pulled herself up. then for some reason she chose to let go of me. there she was standing all by herself. i quickly grabbed her and sat her down, but she did it again two more times. i couldn't believe it! is it common for babies to do this just before eight months?

today i am feeling so greatful for kyle. kyle works so hard for our family, making sure we have everything we need and keeping me in line. i know he loves me very much and he certainly spoils me in many different ways. (since he doesn't have work until the late morning, he will get up with addison and make me breakfast while i sleep.) i love talking to him and cuddling on the couch. this morning i couldn't sleep and i found kyle on the couch, online. i told him how growing up when i didn't feel well, my dad would sit on the couch and hold me for a while. sometimes he would talk to me, sometimes we would watch tv together. i asked kyle if he would hold me while he was typing. kyle kind of laughed as if to say, "you're 21 and you still need to be held when your sick?!" but he was so sweet and held me for a while. that's the kind of memory i never want to forget. i love you so much kyle!

Jackrabbit PRIDE!!

Last Friday the fam went the the Mesa High Homecoming game to show our support the Jackrabbits and show our pride. We all dressed up in our royal purple and gold to cheer the football team as they crushed the Desert Vista Thunder 19-0. It was fun to go back to our roots with me graduating in '03 and Brittney graduating in '07. That's pretty crazy to think that my wife was a "squash" more while I was a hot and popular college guy preparing for my mission. It was fun to see the homecoming nominees and the floats from the different classes. The funny thing is that the juniors won the float contest (usually the seniors win by default) but this year the seniors must have been really lazy putting together their float because it looked like a junkyard sale on a old trailer. Addison loved the game and was a great cheering Bunnie. Everybody loved her bunny ears! Though I think she'll be a better powder puff player than a cheer leader, but we'll see.

MESA RABBITS WE ARE #1!!!!!

Double the Fun

last tuesday for a birthday celebration, kyle, addison and i went to DISNEYLAND with kyle's parents. wednesday was my 21st birthday and it also happened to be kyle's dad's birthday too! mickey and i have been tight since we met when i was five, so he pulled some strings to get us in for free. don't you wish you had such a friend?! the five of us left tuesday night after kyle got off work and arrived in anaheim at 2:30 am. addison was great - she slept the whole way!

the weather was amazing - in the low 70's during the day and the 50's at night. great change from the summer heat. we had such a fun time together. i hadn't been to disneyland in fifteen years and many of the rides had changed or were completely new. kyle got really tired of me saying "COOL!" to everything. california adventure was awesome too. i love toon town!

i love roller coasters, even though i am scared of heights. but the one thing i refuse to ride at theme parks is free falls. tower of terror is a ride with a story that takes you to the twilight zone. the 11 story-high elevator is equipped with hydraulics to make you fall faster than the pull of gravity. just as kyle's dad got our fast passes, i started to feel sick and decided not to go. while kyle's parents got in line, kyle began to try to persuade me to go with him next. he wasn't nearly as pushy as he usually is with something he wants me to do, which told me how badly he wanted me to go with him. when he finally gave up, he sent me to find some food. i came back and he was gone with his dad on the ride. i felt bad (why do i always feel bad when he is trying to make me do something i don't want to do?) so when he was done i told him i would go with him. i got so nervous that i made myself sick, but i went. yes, i had fun. my face was so funny we had to get a picture. notice how everyone loved the fall except me. we are in the middle:here is a close up of our faces. i thought i was going to die with every drop. this was the highest one that lets you look over the whole theme park!
addison loved the rides she went on. this was the winnie the pooh ride on grandpa's lap. her favorite was the merry-go-round where she even went with no hand on her second turn!my favorite ride that i can remember from 15 years ago. it is the one i chose to go on first.

i got a birthday tag to wear around disneyland - it's amazing how many birthday people were there.

if you go soon, make sure to get clam chowder in a delish sourdough bowl. you won't regret it! oh and tell mickey hi for me!