Happy Birthday Kate!

Happy birthday to my beautiful, fun, kind, loving, and all-around amazing wife. I hope you have a wonderful day. You have made my life so much better because you are in it. I love you!!!

Magic Blanket

So we are about a month away from having an ultrasound confirm what is already known: the bundle of joy we have on the way is, in fact, a boy. Now some of you more skeptical types might scoff at the notion that we could somehow know such a fact before any medical examination, but let me tell you the story of the magic blanket.

The story begins on an Indian reservation in the Dakotas, long long ago. My father served there as a missionary and was well liked by many of the tribe members. One good sister hand-made a beautiful quilt for him as a parting gift. Before giving my dad the lovely blue quilt, she presented it to the holy man who blessed the blanket. My dad accepted the gift and returned home with it. After my dad married my mom, they kept the blanket on their bed. The years passed and my the little family grew. First was Jeremy, then Andy, and then myself. 3 boys all in a row and the blanket remained on the bed. Normally, this succession of events would not seem out of the ordinary, but, the holy man had blessed the blanket that it would endow the recipient with many sons. After I was born, my dad decided that he should tell my mom the full story of the blanket. When mother heard that story, the blanket immediately came off the bed and the next child born was Tracy, my little sister and the only girl.

Well, the blanket was retired from service and nearly forgotten. Then one day I remembered the fabled treasure and asked if it was still intact. Indeed it was and I promptly returned it to service on my own bed. Less than a week after doing so, our little boy was conceived.

Now you know why I am so sure of the gender of our little fetus.

Bun in the oven

Yeah. We are pretty friggin' excited. Kate is 13 weeks along and due on July 10th. We've been keeping it a secret for a few months and finally dropped it on our families on Christmas. Fun stuff. To add to the excitement the baby will likely be a Texan. We will be in San Antonio for this internship from June to August. Oh, and I am about 99.9% sure it's a boy; this will be confirmed in February.

Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Christmas in St. George and Pine Valley with both of our families. I can't believe the holiday season is already over, it went by way too fast. Here are a few pictures of some of our fun.The view out of my parents cabin in Pine Valley, we love being up there it's beautiful!

Zak attempting the sledding hill the boys made

Zak rolling the snowman
Zak, Christian and I and our cool snowmanChristmas Eve dinner with the JohnsonsOur cute niece BreeAllie and her Christmas present Lucky. He was so cute!
Zak was pretty jealous, he's wanted a lab ever since
their family dog Domino died...maybe someday.Arden playing with some fun toys on Christmas Day,
we have such adorable nieces!Arden and I at Bree's blessingAllie, Bree and I on Christmas Day. I loved their cute Christmas outfits.
We had so much fun with our families and can't wait to see them again. Thanks for the fun Christmas everyone!

I should be studying...

I've still got 3 finals to study for, but a break was in order. Just to solidify my geek status in everyone's mind I thought I would share a few comics from one of my favorite websites, xkcd.
If any of these are hard to read just click on them and it should show a larger version.

Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree last weekend. It snowed a lot the night we got it, but we were determined to bring something home. The tree had to dry off in the kitchen for a day before we could light it. We go to this little tree lot a few blocks from our house and they usually have a nice selection.

Mounting the catch on top of the trusty Intrigue.

Sorry the picture is blurry, I really don't know how to use a camera.

Each year our Christmas tree selection sparks an interesting debate. I grew up mostly with fake trees, Kate grew up with real ones. I have to admit that the real ones smell good, but they take a lot more work. I have yet to convince her to sell out to the dark side.

Here is our attempt at a gingerbread house. It's pretty amazing.

Burnout

I kinda feel like this bus. On Wednesday I finished a major project and presentation for one of my classes and I just finished another major project for another one of my classes... and I still have homework to do. Tis the season I guess. With this week out of the way, I am looking down the barrel of next week's loaded shotgun. They (teachers and former students) call next week INTEX, for Integrated Exercise. Sadly, it is not a fitness program; It's a week where we have no class, no teachers, no help, and enough work to fill the semester. Oh, and we have no idea what we are doing until it starts on Monday. It should be fun. This is a project that I do with my group, as have been the aforementioned projects, so I should be thoroughly sick of them before Friday. Work is on notice that I might not be around, and Kate is preparing for a week without her husband. I should mention that compared to my little sister and brother-in-law, I really can't complain. They are seasoned veterans at dealing with this kind of stuff. Still, for me it's new territory.