Metal Mouth!

Is that a mean thing to say? So Drexy got his braces on last Wednesday. It actually turned out great because his aunt Maren was working that day and got to put the braces on. That made things a little easier and more fun for Drex and worked out great for me because I got to lean over the chair the whole time asking annoying questions. Drex finally conceded to get Diamondbacks colored bands on his brackets, after his mother disappointedly told him that he couldn't get the "bracket jackets" because they cost extra money. That may or may not have been the truth. Consider the fact that he wanted to get jackets that would spell DREX on his top teeth and then money signs for the bottom teeth, and you decide. Anyway, he's doing great so far, and we have only had to go back to the orthodontist twice since Wendesday. Three times in one week isn't so bad, right?

A Great Birthday and Baptism Weekend for Braden

It was a great last weekend as Braden turned 8 on Friday, then got baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

It all started Friday when Braden woke up to his chosen breakfast of Eggs, Bacon, Donuts and Juice. We opened presents (his favorite present was of course the baseball glove that Dad picked out for him, and that is getting worn in as we speak.) Later in the afternoon he took a couple friends to the junior high pool with water slides and stuff, and had a great time. Then when Dad got home, our friends the Palmers came over and joined us for some cake, ice cream, and general merriment.

Here is a picture of Braden before blowing out his birthday candles, including a big #8 candle:

Saturday brought an amazing day. Braden and I had to be down at the Stake Center for his baptism at 9:30. There were 2 other 8-year old kids getting baptized that day. We had a LOT of family there from both sides. Braden had asked Drex to give a scripture on baptism as part of the service, and he did great. Braden also had Amy's dad (Pops) give a talk on baptism. He was very thorough in his preparation and delivery.

I got to baptize Braden. Then we changed out of our wet clothes, and went into the chapel where just our family was to do the Confirmation. It was a very spirtual experience for me personally and many others expressed the same. We were so grateful and appreciative and humbled to have the love and support of so much family and friends. Braden is one lucky fellah!

After the baptism we came back to our church building for a great luncheon. Everyone brought food, which was great. But of course, the centerpeice of it all was the Krazy Subs, particularly the Krazy 8 sub. The Krummenachers always do a fabulous job and we encourage any and all to visit their shops here.

Here are some pics of some (not all) who were in attendance.

Grandma and Grandpa Ras with Brades

Great Grandma Ras with Brades

Grammy and Pops Lange with Brades

Brades with cousins Crew and Noah

Abbie going crazy!

We finished up the night with our family birthday tradition. We take our kids on a 1-on-1 "date" with mom and dad on their birthday. The birthday kid gets to choose where to eat dinner and what movie they want to go to. Braden chose Texas Roadhouse (also a family favorite). He likes that he gets free ice cream and can ride the bull as everyone gives him a big "Yee-Haw". It's shown below. But after a great dinner, Braden chose to see Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D. It was a lot of fun.

I know that both Amy and I were exhausted at the end of the day. It had been a crazy 2 days, but all well worth it. We are so proud of Braden and the life he has lived up until now and for his correct choice and worthiness to be baptized. We are very proud of you, Brades!

Prescott Trip

At Granite Creek Park. I used to play here all the time as a kid, catching tadpoles and crawdads in the creek. There is very little water now, but we still had a ball just having a picnic, playing at the park, playing frisbee, catch and hula hooping. Great time!






Building new tree house steps. A few years ago, my brother, Chris, built this tree house in my parents backyard. The kids love it! My mom keeps it stocked with little chairs, games, toys, coloring stuff and snacks. It needed new steps, so I enlisted my boys in helping Uncle Chris build them. Drex worked especially hard at it. It was a good project!





At the 4th of July Parade. Every year Prescott has two 4th of July parades: the kiddie parade on Friday (15 minutes long, with tons of candy thrown out and free icecream afterwards) and the regular parade on Saturday (2 and 1/2 hours long with a million lions club guys in old cars, dancing grannies and borderline sacriligious church floats). We opted out of the regular parade this year and just did the kiddie parade.





At the Prescott Courthouse Plaza. This "wishing" fountain is a favorite of my kids. The courthouse was crazy packed as always, but we had a good time getting yummy frybread and playing ball.







The infamous Whiskey Row Boot Race. So every year Prescott has the Whiskey Row Boot Race. Basically, you mad-sprint down Whiskey Row (dubbed such because of the many bars that line the street) to the finish line at the end of the street. This was my kid's first year running. Let's see: Braden's boots were about five sizes too big, Drex's we had to squeak on after smothering his feet with Gold Bond powder, and Sadie's had Hello Kitty isignia dangling off of them. We were novices. Noticably. But the kids had a great time! We didn't take any trophies home, but the kids are already planning their strategies for next year. And when my kids show up at your house to play wearing a shirt advertising Whiskey Row, you'll know why.


This is Matt's favorite picture. He absolutely loves my parent's dog, Bailey. He's big, slobbers a lot, sheds like crazy, and Matt just loves to cuddle up with him. Okay, so he's not Matt's favorite, but my kids adore him. This was Atlie's first close-up time with a dog, so she was pretty amazed by the whole thing. She would just squeal everytime she saw Bailey. Even Matts got to admit it was pretty darn cute!





Picnicing at the Courthouse. Aside from the fact that Drex managed to throw both of his brand new tennis shoes into the middle of a 20 foot tree, unable to be recovered, we had a great time playing downtown a couple of times while we were in Prescott.







Just had to post. Too cute.









Great action shot, Braden! The weather was so nice on our trip that we played outside most of the time. We bought some frisbees, hula hoops and bats and balls and just let the kids have at it!






Hula hooping became a favorite pass-time while in Prescott. We had competitions almost every night, and Braden won every time. But Abbie has since mastered her technique and is up and coming. I think she's about ready for a re-match.

Matt's Trip to New York City

A few months ago, a good friend of mine, Daniel Palmer, asked if I wanted to go on a free trip with him and some of his work associates and clients to NYC. Hmmm, let's see. Free trip. NYC. Oh, and also, we were going to a Yankees game. And since Yankee Stadium is getting torn down after this season, it didn't take a whole lot of arm twisting. In fact, none at all. Not even a little. And Amy was 100% on board with the idea since she went to NYC last year with her sister. So now, Amy and I have both been to NYC, but not together.

And just for the record, NYC is a crazy place and I loved it, having never been there before. And since I'm in tip-top shape, even marathon runner shape, the extreme walking, 98-degree temps with like 80% humidity didn't even phase me. Hardly broke a sweat at all. Others in the group didn't fare as well.

Some highlights included visiting Ground Zero, harbor cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, eating at Carnegie Deli, buying a beverage from Rupert at Hello Deli (of David Letterman's The Late Show fame), Times Square in general, watching a Yankees game and seeing the new Yankee Stadium getting built right across the street from the old one, being crammed into the subway like sardines, eating at Angelo's on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, and watching The Dark Knight in Times Square (and getting out at 2AM and seeing that Times Square was still packed with people).

Me and Blogspot are in a fight

So I have attempted, very unsuccessfuly to post pictures of our trip to Prescott twice now. Both times it has taken like two hours (that's an exaggeration but I have to say it for effect) to download the images and then they all come up as symbols. Grrrr. I'm glad that Matt at least got our hamburger and Christmas morning photos to work. Obviously both highlights to the trip. Although not nearly as funny as our Sunday experience, the rest of the trip was a ball. I know Matt will be on here posting shortly after his return from NYC (I'm interested to see if this trip will bring any closeup shots of his "butt"), so hopefully we can throw a few Prescott pictures in there. One of these days I'll figure this all out!

Misinterpreting signs

So, I got confused by these things in Prescott this last weekend and had my picture taken with them.

Spot On Personality Test

So, a good friend of ours introduced us to this great personality test that you can take to see what you are like. Her personality test showed that she would be good at being a Mafia Don, which is really pretty close. See it here. It all sounded way above board and legitimate, so I took the test, and here are my results:

Your personality:

Quiet, humble, yet giddy and often exuberant. Tends to focus on animals for comfort and support, often to the detriment of more pressing tasks. Will spend time riding his horse “Charlie” bare-back across an open range with nothing but the wind and the sky, with young “Lassie” running along side. Excels at picnic lunches (for he and “Lassie”, his prized purebred Golden Retriever,) of peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches, Spicy Nacho Doritos, luscious grapes and a glazed honey bun, all the while providing great oats and water for “Charlie”. Well-developed sense of when to get back home before the storm hits, to ensure that “Charlie” and “Lassie” will be ok, and that he gets to the cellar and locks it so that nothing bad happens, like in The Wizard of Oz, because even though something bad happened in the movie, it did end up ok in the end for everyone. Plus it was a dream. But still.

Careers that could fit you include:

Dog Catcher (and the Lover and supporter of said dogs), Bee Catcher (for the sweet honey), Horse Feeder, Storm Sensor, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Maker, Oat Provider, Spicy Nacho Doritos Purchaser, Honey Bun Enjoyer, Cellar Door Locker, Putter of Names of “Animals” in “Quotes” ”,” Wind and the Sky Lover, Luscious Grape Licker, and The Wizard of Oz Watcher.

Anyways, anyone who knows me must realize that it was spot on! Try it here. It's a game the whole family can enjoy!!!

So, sometimes crazy stuff happens at church

Ok, funny stuff happened yesterday at Amy's parents ward in Prescott. Remember, it was Fast and Testimony Meeting.

1. So, with all the family staying at Dave and Georgia's house over the 4th, we took up 2 big rows in church. Drex was sitting next to Jenny and JR, and right in front of Amy and I. As the Sacrament hymn was beginning, Amy whispered to Drex asking if he wanted a hymn book. He got a way-excited look on his face, and enthusiasticly said "Yes!" So, Jenny leaned over and gave him a hymn book. Then he got this confused look on his face, not sure what had just happened. He turned around and Amy asked him what was wrong. He asked, "What's this for?" Amy answered, "You said you wanted a hymn book." The clarity on his face was classic as he realized the miscommuniation. "Oh, hymn book. I thought you asked if I wanted a hamburger!"

Yes, Drex, on this Fast Sunday morning, we grilled up some burgers and have them here in the purse for you. But hurry and eat up, because the Sacrament hymn is almost over. Oh, and do you want fries with that? Just wondering. And take this large Coke with you as well. Share some with Braden. Crazy.

2. During testimonies, a little kid got up. We found out later that he gets up every Fast Sunday and bears a thematic testimony on different topics. Yesterday's was on rain. He started, "some people like rain, some poeple don't. I like rain. Raise your hand if you like rain." (Everyone in the congregation raised their hand). "Ok, now raise your hand if you don't like rain." (no one raised their hand). "Ya, that's about what I thought it would be." He then went on to tell us why he likes rain, but that the last few days the rain has been "annoying" him since it would start to rain and then stop. Start and stop. Start and stop.

It was cute, but I don't think he heard the counsel from the First Presidency a few weeks back. No audience participation during Sacrament Meeting. The next thing we know, he will be using props for his testimony and asking the congregation to turn to the scriptures with him. Not cool. Someone needs to sit down with him and ask him if he really is going to follow the prophet. In fact, raise your hand if you're going to listen to the prophet from here on out, kid!

3. The weirdest part happened to finish testimonies. Drex, apparently hungry from no burgers earlier in the meeting, asked me how much longer til the meeting was over. I checked the time and told him 6 more minutes. At about the same time, a testimony ended and 4 more people stood up and walked to the stand. Admittedly, I groaned a bit inside, knowing that we were gonna go over, a pet peeve of mine.

The last 2 testimonies were this young married couple. She got up first and introduced herself and her husband who were visiting, but had come for the baby blessing that day. (Great, I thought, visitors making the time go over. Double pet peeve.) And then she literally spent 2 minutes (of overtime, mind you) telling us about the debate she and her husband had about "if I go up then you have go up, but if you don't want to go up, you have to go up anyway because I want to go up.....blah blah blah." And then for 5 more minutes she continued to go on about how fun the family reunion this week has been, how her husband is the best returned missionary ever, and that hopefully she has done a pretty good job being the big sister to 3 brothers, but that she still has time to do better if she wasn't. Thankfully, she finally sat down

We were WAY over time when the best returned missionary ever stood up. He expressed his love to his crazy wife, and then acknowledged the time was short by saying (and I'm not kidding)....."Since our time is up, I want to bear my testimony today by singing you a hymn. Now, I haven't been singing for very long, but I want to do this. And this isn't a normal hymn for right now, but it has a great message about Christ. But due to the time, I will only sing the first and last verses of (wait for it...) 'Silent Night'." At this point I almost dry-heaved and burst out laughing at the same time. Amy and I made eye contact. There was the most uncomfortable feeling in the chapel, like everyone was thinking "no way this is happening". But it was. And sure enough he sang the the first and the last verses of a Christmas hymn. In July. For his testimony.


To top the meeting off, we all stood (which I don't think we are supposed to do) to sing all 3 verses of The Star Spangled Banner, including the verses that nobody knows. I wanted to shout "Play Ball" at the end of all the verses. What a crazy 90 minute meeting that should have been way shorter than that. But after church we went home, opened presents, then went driving aroung looking at Christmas lights. Oh, and ate candy canes too.

That is all.

Matt