Macworld

We are finally back from Macworld. What a week. We took off Monday morning for San Francisco with the software still not quite done. After a long night and an early morning the software was finished at about 10:30 am - the booth opened at 11.

It was a very stressful morning as Trevor raced to finish software and went off to pick up posters for our booth. On top of everything I lost may badge so we had to pickup a new one (I spent the whole week losing things - I have never been so absent minded in my life).

The first day went well. Our booth was very busy most of the day (we didn't even get a chance to eat until 3) and people were very complimentary. But it was the 2nd day when things really got exciting.

TUAW, a very popular Apple blogging site did a nice post on us and a video interview that will be published next week. We then had one of the editors of Macworld come over to the booth. He said that they had a write assigned to our booth to check it out but he was just interested in seeing it for himself.

Then it just kept getting better. Several people we demoed it to said that our product had mad the whole Macworld show worth it. One group of consultants came by who were already users of ScreenSteps and went on an on about how easy it had made their jobs. This was our first time ever really showing this at a conference like this and it was so great to see people's reactions.

The absolute best was a guy who came up to our booth and gave us a thank you card and tin of cookies. He told us that we were his favorite developers of the year because ScreenSteps had helped him so much at work.

The whole experience was completely exhausting. We were up very late every night and up pretty early. We thought that things would die down as the week wore on. But they stayed pretty busy throughout. It was by far the largest Macworld that I had ever attended. There were about 50,000 people there.

My Mom came up to see the booth on Thursday afternoon. She was able to get badge from the front desk that said "Dorothy DeVore, Blue Mango Learning Systems", so I guess we have a new employee.

All in all it was a fantastic experience. We met some great people and were able to see some old friends. It was really fun to get to know some of the other developers as well. I think it is safe to say that we will plan on going again next year. Right now we just want to take a few days to sleep.

Holly was busy while I was gone. I got back and she had repainted the whole entrance way. I don't know why she does these things while I am out of town. Maybe she thinks that if I help on the project I will screw it up.

Brigham's New Shirt

Brigham and Holly saw this in a store. Brigham asked Holly to read it
to him. After she did he said, "We HAVE to get this."

Holly was happy to oblige.

Our MacWorld Booth

Here are some photos of our MacWorld booth.

Going to MacWorld

Trevor and I are getting ready to go to MacWorld next week. We are pretty excited. We even have T-shirts - check them out:

Complicated

Two weeks ago I was setting up our Christmas tree. I was screwing the
bolts into for the base into the stump. Brigham asked if he could
help. I said, "No, it's kind of complicated."

He said, "That's all right. I'm good at making things complicated." A
truer statement was never made.

New Kitchen table

After an exhaustive 3 year search Holly finally found a table for us
on Craig's List. We picked it up yesterday.

That's Just the Way He Was Made

Yesterday Luc was over. Holly smelled something funny so she asked
Brigham and Luc if one of them had tooted. Brigham said, "Mom, I
already told you. Luc is just stinky. That's the way Heavenly Father
made him."

We never found the true culprit.

Jacob Will Rock You

This morning Jacob is singing "We Will Rock You" and playing "We Are
The Champions" on his little keyboard - both by Queen.

He is also a big fan of the MacBreak Weekly video podcast.

Don't You Know How Christmas Works?

Last night we were decorating our Christmas tree. Brigham asked if we
could go into the attic to get some Christmas decorations because we
hadn't done that for awhile. I told him that we had just gone up there
last night to get his little Christmas tree.

He said, "Dad, a Christmas tree isn't a decoration. You put
decorations on a Christmas tree. Don't you know how Christmas works?"

We tried to watch The Polar Express but Brigham is absolutely
terrified of the movie. Loves National Treasure but terrified of The
Polar Express. I don't get it.

Brigham's Feast

This morning Brigham said that maybe we could have Spaghetteos for out
Thanksgiving dinner. I told him that we don't have Spaghetteos for
Thanksgiving. We have turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes.

He responded, "Well, I choose that for my feast" (meaning the
Spaghetteos).

The Marathon

Traffic getting down to Richmond was horrible which meant we missed the whole expo the night before and weren't able to pickup our packets. The next morning we made in just in time to get our packets and head to the start line. It was quite a bit colder this year than last year but I actually preferred the cold.

It turned out to be a nice run. Both Trevor and I improved our times. I hit my wall at about mile 20. But that was much better than last year when I hit it at mile 13. Everything seemed to go by much more quickly this time and I felt much more mentally prepared than I had the year before. Last year there was always that worry in the back of my mind that I might not finish. This year I knew exactly what I had to do to get done and that I would be able to do it. It really was amazing how much easier that made things.

The traveling cheering section was great. Holly said that Brigham had a blast cheering for everyone on the course. She said that after they saw me on mile 17 Brigham wouldn't ride in the stroller anymore. He just wanted to run everywhere.

When I saw the finish line I was amazed at how fast I was able to run. Just a mile earlier I could hardly put one foot in front of the other but somehow seeing that finish line and wanting so badly to be able to stop running gave me the energy to practically sprint to the end.

Brigham was very excited to see me. He especially liked my medal. He told me that I had won the race. He asked if he could keep the medal. I told him that I would loan it to him until he got one for running his own marathon. Then he could give it back.

It was a good time. The National Marathon is coming up in DC at the end of March. We'll see if I can maybe do that one as well.

Here are some photos from the marathon and Halloween as well.

More Notes from The Kids Trip to LA

Here is a photo of the kids waiting to get picked up at Long Beach airport on our arrival in LA.

Sunday we went back to our ward in Valencia. It was fun to see everyone. Brigham had gone to Granny Dot's church in the morning so he was very angry that I was going to make him go to another three hours of church. He was yelling at me an being very grumpy until he saw his favorite babysitter - Katherine. Then his whole attitude changed. It was great to see everyone again.

The kids stayed in California all week while I was in some meetings in San Jose. The kids had a blast while they were in California. They went to Kids Space, Disneyland, a movie and Jacob got to spend some quality time with Granny Dot's computer. Sunday night I asked Brigham and Luc if they were missing their parents and they both said no, they hadn't been there a week yet so they were all right.

I flew back Thursday afternoon, picked the kids up and then my Mom and I caught a red-eye back to DC. That flight was very easy. The kids passed out almost right away. Once we got home a slept for a few hours and then headed out to Richmond for the marathon I was to run the next day. There was a major wreck on 95 south so what should have taken 2 hours ended up taking about 5 1/2. It was awful. When I wen to bed that night I realized that this very long trip had started out Thursday morning in San Jose and gone through Los Angles, DC and on to Richmond to finally end up Friday night.

Brigham is allergic to milk

A couple of months ago Jacob's school had some sort of party where
they were handing out ice cream bars. But they also had big
popsicles. Brigham went up to the lady and asked for a popsicle (he
has always been more of a popsicle guy). She told him that they were
only for the kids that were allergic to mild. So what did Brigham
say? "Well, I'm allergic to milk." And he got a popsicle. Ever
since then he has been telling people that he is allergic to milk. I
finally asked him if he knew what that meant. He said he didn't.
Once I explained to him what it meant to be allergic to milk he
decided that he really wasn't allergic.

Goin' to California

Friday Jacob, Brigham, Luc (Brigham's cousin) and I left for
California. I have meetings in San Jose next week so I decided to
take the boys to see their grandparents for the week. Holly picked
Jacob up at school and he was taking awhile to get out the door. She
said, "Jacob, you are going on the airplane today." He said, "To see
Granny Dot?" After receiving confirmation Holly said that his face
turned bright red and he broke into a huge smile. He went tearing
down the hallway yelling "I go see Granny Dot! I go see Granny Dot!"

The flight went pretty well. We flew Jet Blue which was great.
Everyone was very helpful and the boys were very cooperative. The
best part was that the lady at the ticket counter saw my situation and
gave me the entire bulkhead row to ourselves. That was very helpful
as we were also right next to the bathrooms.

Having those TVs were great. Luc was fixated from the time they went
on until just before we landed. Brigham would watch for awhile and
then switch seats and watch a little longer. Jacob of course was not
very interested in the TV and got a little frustrated that it was
taking so long to get to Granny Dot's house.

We made it though. We waited for everyone to get off the plane and
made our way to baggage claim. Brigham and Luc pushed the luggage
cart while I pushed Jacob in his wheel chair (I actually was pushing
Jacob with one hand and pulling the cart with the other). We had
arrived almost 30 minutes early so we had to wait a little while for
Tiffany to pick us up. Brigham was very frustrated that we had to
wait. He suggested that we take the bus.

Once she arrived I had to install all of the car seats. Let's just
say that a BMW 7 series is not setup for car seats. It took me at
least 20 minutes.

That night was very rough. I don't remember all of the details but it
went something like this. Brigham and Jacob were in the guest room
with me and Luc was in the "Cousins'" room. Brigham was snoring so
loud that I finally had to move him at 3 am into the Cousins' room.
Luc was upside down on the bed so I repositioned him. Jacob woke up
at 4 am (7 am est which is when he normally gets up) ready to play. I
told him that he had to go back to bed. It took him awhile but he
finally calmed down. I had just gotten to sleep when I heard Mickey
Mouse. I thought that Jacob had escaped but he was asleep next to
me. I went to check and Luc was up and ready to play. I told him it
was still night and he had to go back to sleep. He hopped back in bed
and I got to sleep a little longer until Brigham and Luc woke up at
around 6 am. They wouldn't believe me that it was night time anymore
since it was now light outside. Needless to say, I was a little foggy
the next day.

Brigham and Luc tore out every toy in the house and had the time of
their life. Tiffany and Jeff took them to a movie and Nathan come
over later to go swimming. They slept well that night. Jacob just
wants to get as much computer time as possible though we have forced
him to go on some outings, go swimming and attend church.

I asked Brigham and Luc if they missed their parents this morning.
They said "no, it hasn't been a week so we are all right."

"Papa Saved My Life"

Brigham was in the car today with one of his friends. Holly heard him
say:

"Chandler, when I was a baby and was in my mommy's tummy I almost came
out too early. But my Papa saved. Can you believe it? He saved my life.

"When my daddy was little he was his daddy. And when Uncle Ja was
little Papa was his dad too. And all my uncles and all my aunts - no,
just one aunt. Wow he had much kids. (sigh) He had MUCH kids."

Hide and Seek

Right now Luc, Sam, Elizabeth and Sarah are over. They are all playing
hide and seek with Brigham. The only problem- no one is seeking. They
haven't figured out that part of the game. It sure is quiet though so
we aren't going to clue them in.

Trick of Treating with Jacob

Last night we had our Ward Trunk or Treat party. And was it ever a
party. There was a cake walk, haunted house, bobbing for doughnuts and
a moon bounce among many other things. Brigham liked everything. Jacob
loved the moon bounce.

Trick or treating was especially interesting. Jacob was dressed up
like a Buckingham Palace guard. He would go around to the cars and I'm
his sweet voice say, "trick or treat". At almost every car they said,
"You are so sweet. Here, take two." So, needless to say Jacob loaded
up. The best part is he doesn't really like candy so Brigham is a very
happy boy.

Brigham woke up this morning and said, " Trick or Treating was sooo
much fun last night." he couldn't believe it when I told him that we
were going I do it again on Wednesday.

BTW - Brigham was General George Washington (his Captain Hook outfit
with Holly's boots and a colonial hat) and Caleb was a turtle. Holly
went as a hot mama of three boys and I went as myself.

Brigham's Parenting Skills

The other night Brigham was tossing things off of his bunk bed onto
Jacob. He had been doing the same thing earlier to his cousin Sam.
Holly had just about had it with him and slammed hiis sword down on
the bed rail and told him he needed to stop it. Brigham's finger was
right near where she had hit with the sword and he started screaming
that she had hit his finger. I walked into the room just as this was
happening and Brigham started crying that we were a "bad mommy and
daddy".

I told him that if he didn't start obeying his mom I was going to call
the kid police. This resulted in more tears and accusations of
incompetent parenting. He said that I shouldn't do those things
because they make him sad. Here is how the conversation went:

G: Well what should I do to punish you then?

B: I don't know.

G: What would you do if you had a little boy who didn't obey?

B: My little boy would obey me.

G: Then why don't you obey me?

B: Because you haven't taught me to. I would teach my boy to obey.

He then started telling me how much his finger hurt - he just couldn't
remember which one. He kept looking at all of his fingers and said,
"It hurts really bad - I just can't feel it".

Jacob's Powers

Last Sunday Luc was over. Brigham and him started fighting a bit.
Holly came down and Luc was crying. The conversation proceeded as
follows:

H: Brigham, what did you do to Luc?

B: I didn't do it. Jacob did.

H: Brigham, Jacob is at school. He couldn't have done it.

B: No Mom. Jacob sent his powers out and I saw them come in the house
and push Luc.

I told Brigham that we knew he was lieing and that wasn't good. He
stuck to his story all night. I finally told him that I knew he wasn't
telling the truth and that Santa Claus knew he wasn't telling the
truth. He fessed up the next day.

Who Needs a Security Firm?

The Rest of Our Italy Trip

My parents showed up Saturday night. We had a great dinner while
they were half-awake from jet lag.

The next day we went to Pratto to catch a few sessions of General
Conference. It brought back a lot of memories from Spain. The
chapel was very similar to what you would find in a small Spanish
town. I was able to attend Priesthood Session and we caught the
Saturday afternoon session Sunday afternoon. The rest of the
sessions we got on the internet. It was pretty amazing to be able to
catch all of Conference half-way around the world.

Monday the ISUOG conference started for me. Holly and Dot took off
for Pisa while Dad and I were in various meetings. That was pretty
much the pattern for the next couple of days - Holly and Dot went to
Pisa, Fiezole and shopping while Dad and I went our various ways at
the conference. We usually had dinner all together.

Tuesday night we attended the Conference Gala which was held in an
Italian palace. The highlight of the night was Holly and Pops
dancing. Conference attendees everywhere were snapping photos like
crazy.

The next day Holly and I headed home.

What were the highlights? The food was amazing. There was nothing
that was bad. It was just varying degrees of excellent. Our
favorites were the tomato and mozzarella at Gombi 13, pizza in Siena,
gellato at least two times a day and crescents filled with nutella
for breakfast. The Boboli gardens, Duomo, Siena, Academia (where
Michelangelo's David is) and Ponte Vechio were also spectacular. It
was great just walking through the city.

It was just the right amount of time too. We were ready to return
home but well rested. Holly's mom watched the kids and it seemed
like she had survived just fine. At least she put on the appearance
that she had.

If you want to see some of the photos from our trip go to:

<http://gallery.mac.com/gdevore

Siena

Last Saturday we took a day trip from Florence to Siena. It was
beautiful. It is a small town about 90 minutes from Florence with a
very neat plaza in the center. We visited the cathedral and had a
wonderful lunch on the plaza complete with entertainment. A man with
a red hat was in the plaza in front of us doing candid camera type
jokes on the people walking by. He had the entire restaurant rolling
with laughter as he had a little fun with the tourists who came by.

We are also able to go to the top of the cathedral museum for a
spectacular view of the city. If you ever get a chance to go to
Siena I would highly recommend it.

Italy's Answer to the Suburban

Olive Oil and Ash

I forgot to mention in my last post something funny that happened at dinner. The waiter brought us some bread. Looking around the table I saw a small porcelain bowl. So, I took it and poured some olive oil in to use for bread dipping. After we had finished off the bread we heard some Americans at the table next to us ask the waiter if the little bowl was used for the olive oil. He said no, it's an ash tray. Oops. Greg DeVore
Sent from my iPhone

Segways in Florence

Friday morning we went on our Segway tour of Florence. It was pretty
cool. After a little orientation time in front of the Weston hotel
we were off. The Segways were actually pretty easy to drive. It was
amazing how responsive they were. Navigating through the pedestrians
was a little tougher. As Holly said, everyone seemed to assume that
we knew what we were doing on those things.

Watching people's reactions was hilarious. We heard a lot of "Why
didn't we get those?", or "That is the way to see Florence."

We saw quite a bit of the city and it was nice to get a quick
overview. The Duomo Cathedral is pretty amazing.

Later that day we went to the Uffizi (museum with lots of art that
looks vaguely familiar from art history courses) and the Academia
(where Michelangelo's David is). We were pretty worn out by the
end. But we capped the day off with an amazing dinner and gelato.

We'll post more later. We are off to Siena today.

So Who's Smarter?

Last night I said, "Brigham, it seems that you remember everything."

B: "I do Dad. That's because I'm smarter than you."

Is a Fireside a Party?

Holly just got back from a Relief Society "fireside" at 10:30 pm.
Brigham asked her, "Is fireside another word for a party?"

Nationals Game

We took the kids to Mormon night at the Nationals game in DC. I think Caleb had the best time of all. He was clapping and laughing.

A Full Day in Virginia

Well, today was a busy, but fun, day. It started out with Holly going kayaking with the Relief Society. She had a blast. It is definitely something that we are going to have to do with the kids.

When she got back I went for a run while Brigham went with Trevor, Luc and Addy to Mt. Vernon. Brigham came back and reported that George Washington was the guy who “gave us freedom”.

When I returned the rest of us when to the reflecting pool right by the Lincoln Memorial. It was a beautiful day today, about 83 degrees, and we had a great walk down from the Lincoln Memorial to the World War II Memorial.
On the way there we saw a tree that had fallen on the other side of the highway. It was a very large tree and had smashed two cars. The entire side of the freeway was covered with the tree. It happened maybe 30 seconds before we got there. We decided to take a different route home.

Holly and I tag teamed the temple today since it was ward temple night and we didn’t have a babysitter. So, I got to take the boys out to the Arlington County Fair. I met Steve and Mary there as well as Mary’s sister Kate and her husband Chris.
Brigham had a blast. Jacob wasn’t so thrilled. He was kind of freaked out by all of the commotion. Caleb was just a mellow fellow all night.

Latest Update

We are still loving Virginia. This last week was a bit hot but it cooled down enough that we were able to enjoy the weekend.
Yesterday we went with Trevor, Luc and Addy to the Moore Colonial Farm, an 18th century farm right next to the CIA. It was very beautiful and Brigham and Luc had a great time seeing how farmers lived in the 18th century. Brigham was very concerned when a chicken walked in and “made a mess” on the floor of the farm house.

We also picked up some preserves from the gift shop that were quite amazing. I think that we will be returning as soon as we run out.

I also went running yesterday along the W & OD trail. It is basically a bike path that goes over where the old train tracks used to be for the Washington and Old Dominion rail line. I went about four miles towards DC and it was beautiful. We are going to have to get some bikes setup so that we can take the whole family along there.

Brigham and Jacob are having a great time in the house. Jacob has a computer setup and thus is in heaven. Brigham is finding new uses for the house all of the time. He loves to go play in the side yard. This week he started “zipping” (basically repelling) from the banisters in the basement. He was also very excited when we set the tent up in the basement on Friday night and he got to sleep in it. Caleb just keeps rolling all over the place and always seems to be happy.

We are getting closer to being out of boxes. We are still trying to figure out where everything goes. I am sure we will get there soon.

Some More Brigham Quotes

Yesterday I made Brigham take a shower. He was very angry. He said to me, “Dad, I’m taking you out of my will!”

Yesterday Brigham got to be a pioneer in primary. Holly was telling me that everyone thought he was the cutest little Sunbeam. Brigham said, “Why did they think that I was little?”

Holly: “Because the Sunbeams are the littlest kids in the Primary.”

Brigham: “Well, this Sunbeam is big.”

Last night I was saying prayers with Brigham. Sally and Josh’s hometeacher had brought over toys for all of the kids. In the prayer I said, “We thank thee that the nice man brought some toys for Brigham.”

Brigham interrupted my prayer and whispered, “He was a very good man.”

Our Stay in Salt Lake

We are finally here. “Here” means Virginia - not in our house.

We stayed in Salt Lake for about a week. We actually means Holly and the boys as I wasn’t there much. As soon as we arrived in Salt Lake I left to drive across the country with Trevor. Once we got to Virginia I flew back to Salt Lake, stayed for a couple of days, flew to Seattle for some business, flew back and left with the whole family for the long drive to Virginia.

We had a great time in Salt Lake though. The 4th of July was particularly fun. We stayed at Ja and Laura’s the night before (I don’t think that they will ever invite us to do that again). In the morning we did the Freedom run. We just did the 1 mile Fun Run since we wanted to do it with Brigham.

Brigham had been all excited about doing this run but when it was about to start something spooked him. All of the sudden he didn’t want to run. He really didn’t want to run. He was scared of something and I had to carry him for the first little bit. I tried to put him down and he started screaming and kicking. So I told him we were going to quit - we just had to run to Uncle Ja. Once we passed Ja I told him we had to run to the car. He started to figure out that I was just tricking him into running the race and started screaming again. So, I put him on my shoulders. After a bit of that he decided he wanted to run and really enjoyed it. He especially liked running down the street to the finish line. He was very excited for his medal and T-shirt. I have no idea what set him off initially but he was certainly irate.

Later that day we went to Craig and Jill’s. Everyone was there. We went on a hike up in the mountains and Holly and Laura did some shopping.

The most exciting part of the day was when Jacob ran away. You might ask how a boy who can’t walk can run away, but he can. I was on the hike and Holly had gone shopping. She left some of the teenage cousins in charge of Jacob. When she got back the people downstairs said he was upstairs and vice-versa, The only problem was that he wasn’t anywhere in the house.

I returned from hiking to see everyone out in the street looking for Jacob. Finally someone saw him out the back porch. Craig and Jill live on a golf course. Jacob had crawled all the way across the first hole, most of the way across the driving range and almost to the street. When we finally spotted him a golf pro was picking him up in a golf cart.

We still don’t know how he got out of the house. It certainly gave us a scare. Jacob looked pretty shocked too.

Jacob and Brigham had a great time at Grandma and Granddad Hales’. Brigham was especially excited that he got to use Granddad’s tools and that Grandma made a scrapbook for him. I hope that Grandma and Granddad have recovered by now.

The Move Has Begun

The long trek across the United States has begun. We had to be out of our house on June 23rd but can’t move into our new house until July 25th. So, as you can see we have some time to kill.

Loading up the truck was quite the adventure. We used ABF Upack. Basically, they dropped a huge trailer in front of our house and charged us for the number of feet that we use in the truck. The trailer was 28’ long. We thought that we would use about 20’ of it.

Saturday morning we had a good turnout of friends from church to help us load up. We started at 8 am and by about 11:30 we were all done. Everyone was really great and that thing was packed to the top. Final total - 22’. A little more than we had planned but not bad.

We were also moving things out of our office but the plan was for Trevor to put all of our office stuff in the back of the moving truck he was driving to Virginia (he was packing up and moving the same day). I called him at about 11:30 to see how he was doing. He was all done but there was one problem - there wasn’t any room left in his truck.

So, Trevor came up and we spent the rest of the day getting stuff out of our office, taking stuff out of Trevor’s truck, putting stuff in my trailer and repacking Trevor’s truck.

We didn’t finish until about 6pm. By the end both of our trucks were completely full.

We then had to get our refrigerator to Nathan’s house. There was no room left in the trucks so we just rolled it down the street. We got a lot of strange looks as we pushed it down the middle of the road.

On top of all of that we also had a going away party that night. We only showed up 40 minutes late.

We spent the first couple of days in La Canada with my parents and have spent the last week in Utah with Holly’s parents. Next week we will start the drive back east the hang out at Holly’s sister’s for a week until we can get into our place. We are anxious for this month to be over.

Brigham Has a Brain

This morning Brigham told me “I hate it when Granny Dot says that Heavenly Father gave me a brain.”

“When does she say that?”

“When I do something naughty at her house she says Heavenly Father gave me a brain to think. I hate it when she says that.”

Jacob Sings - Brigham Pontificates

The last Sunday before we left Valencia Jacob sang in Sacrament Meeting. He sang “I Like to Look for Rainbows.” That isn’t the right name but that is how the song starts.

We weren’t sure how it would go since sometimes when Jacob gets up in front of the microphone he starts to improv a bit. But he did great. He went up there with Holly and I played the piano. He started off a little soft and then said right into the microphone “Can I sing for Aunt Kiersten?”

Holly said yes and he began to belt it out. There wasn’t a dry eye in place after he was finished.

The high counselor got up several minutes later. He said, “I don’t know if this is something that Jacob does often but I am glad there were some other speakers so that I could compose myself before coming up here. That was truly angelic.’

“We look at Jacob and it is very easy to see all of his imperfections. But if we look through our spiritual eyes we see that we are the ones with imperfections. He is the perfect one among us.”

Brigham Pontificates

Brigham had to give his first talk in Primary. We talked the day before about what he wanted to talk about. He said he wanted to tell about when Joseph Smith got killed. We told him that that might be a little intense for the Junior Primary and maybe we should talk about something else.

So we went over the story of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized. We also had a backup plan that told about the pioneers and “defining moments”.

Well, Sunday afternoon Brigham was sitting in the front of the Primary ready to give his talk. The Primary President announced “We will now have a talk by Brigham DeVore.” I was supposed to help him give his talk but before I could get out of my seat Brigham stepped up, placed both hands on the pulpit and said, “My name is Brigham DeVore and I am going to tell you about how Joseph Smith got killed.”

I ran up there and said “Brigham, why don’t we talk about something else first.”

“Ok Dad.”

So I asked him a few questions:

“When Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were translating the Book of Mormon what did they read about?”

“Baptism.”

“What did they do?”

“They went to the Susquehanna river.”

“Who did they see there?”

“John the Baptist.”

“What did he give them?”

“The Aaronic Priesthood.”

“Then what did they do?”

“They were baptized in the Susquehanna river.”

I had him tie up with some words about how he wanted to get baptized and then asked him to sit down. He slammed his hand down on the pulpit and yelled, “But I haven’t told them about how Joseph Smith got killed.” So we gave a quick summary about how Joseph Smith was killed and sat down.

Latest DeVore Stories

Brigham Cleans His Room

The other day I am on the phone in the hall and Brigham comes running out of his room naked. He throws the closet door open and grabs some Febreeze. I said, “Brigham, what are you doing?”

He responded, “I just need this real fast Dad” and started to run back to his room.

I grabbed the Febreeze from him and went to inspect. There were two poop stains on Jacob’s bed. Brigham had a baby wipe that he was using to furiously scrub them. When that didn’t appear to be working he had decided that he needed some Febreeze.

So, here is how it all happened. He had gone to the bathroom and some sort of accident had occurred where he had gotten his underwear and pants wet. He was embarrassed that he had had an accident so, after he was done on the toilet, instead of asking for help cleaning himself up like he is supposed to, he ran to his room to get some clean clothes. The problem is that he uses Jacob’s bed to climb up to get his underwear out of the top drawer of his dresser. When he sat with his naked and dirty bum on Jacob’s bed it left a mark. When he saw the mark he panicked because he knew Mommy would be upset so he instantly went to work cleaning up his mess.

Caleb

Caleb has turned into a smiley guy. He just hangs out all of the time and smiles. He just seems happy to be alive. Jacob really loves being around him. He is always trying to snuggle up to him and Caleb doesn’t seem to mind at all.

Lobster Night

Nathan received a Lobster-gram from a guy he works with and invited me over to enjoy it. It was incredible. There was lobster bisque, lobster cakes and the two biggest lobsters I have ever seen. We couldn’t finish it all. The two lobsters had arrived alive. Brigham came with us but wasn’t thrilled with the look of the whole lobsters.

Running Day

Yesterday was declared by Brigham to be running day. He got his running shirt and shoes on and he and I went running. We were just barely on the paseo and he started huffing and puffing, “Man, I’m getting really sweaty.”

Pirate Ships

Brigham got a “Black Pearl” pirate ship last night from Nathan and Kiersten for Christmas. He was so excited. We were then watching “Pirates of the Caribbean 2” and when I pointed out his boat in the movie he about went nuts.

Christmas Parties Galore

We have had quite a few Christmas parties this year and they have all been very fun. But the most memorable had to be the Spanish Ward’s party.

The whole family went and the kids had a blast. Santa Claus showed up and Brigham got a big green and silver Mexico soccer ball. He told us that he needs to go to Mexico to play soccer.

They had some musical numbers. Brigham and Jacob had a blast dancing. After the program they cleared away all of the tables so that everyone could dance. We decided it was time to go since it was already 9:45 pm. Brigham was very upset that we had left early. He told us that he wanted to stay and “Dance with the pretty girls.”

The Richmond Marathon

All I have to say is, “ooouch!” I actually have a little more to say but that is the overall theme of this post.

Yesterday Trevor and I ran the Richmand, VA marathon. Well, Trevor actually ran it and I more “barely finished it”.

I had been training for this for several months. We originally got involved with this because my sister wanted to run her first marathon. We did a quick search for a marathon that wouldn’t be on a Sunday and Richmond came up. It also said that it was ranked by Runner’s World as the county’s “friendliest” marathon. Well, that sounded like a good one for first timers.

Trevor had just run his first one in Salt Lake last June and decided he was up for another one. I had just had ACL surgery back in February but had sworn that I wouldn’t play basketball again until I finished a marathon. So we all decided to do it. We actually initially recruited some of my other siblings but they dropped out pretty quickly.

Tiffany ended up pulling a muscle several weeks before the race so it was just down to Trevor and me.

I felt like I was prepared. I had gotten in all of my long runs before the race and had done all right with them. The one thing I hadn’t done was much hill running (read “any hill running”) since, from my understanding, the Richmond Marathon hardly had any hills at all. I didn’t like running hills because they made me tired. I would find out later that that was a big mistake.



Race day was beautiful. We started and I was going at my slow and steady pace. The first 12 miles or so of the course was absolutely gorgeous. It was really incredible. But there were a few hills. They weren’t big hills but they were hills and in hindsight I probably should have taken it very easy on those hills. But I didn’t and by mile 13 I thought I was going to die. I remember thinking at mile 13, “What have I gotten myself into? I still have 13 miles to go.”

Up to that point I had run the entire way. My pattern quickly became, walk a mile and run a mile. Then it became run as far as you can and then walk until you can gain the mental fortitude to run again (I must say that at this point the difference in speed between me running and me walking was not that great - running just meaning that I bounced a little bit.

Holly and Heather had come as well as Heather’s sister Cassidy, her husband Matt, and Trevor and Heather’s friends Matt and Marsha with their four kids. Matt of Matt and Marsha found me at about mile 14 and then everyone else was waiting at mile 17 with some much appreciated oranges.

Here are some pictures of Trevor at mile 17.





Here is me at mile 17. I look much better than I felt.



By mile 20 there was nothing left. I began seeing people with medics on the side of the road with IV tubes and such. My one goal became not to get carried off by the medics. I remember passing the 20 mile marker. The time said “4:48:00” and I thought, “Trevor is probably done. I reeeeeally wish I were done.”

This is a picture of Trevor finishing.



I kept plodding along. I never imagined that I would want to quit as badly as I did.

Mile marker 25 was the best thing that I had ever seen and I decided I was going to run the entire last mile. I just kept pretending that I was forcing Jacob to walk and telling him, “One step more, one step more.”





I made it and it was more relief than anything. My muscles have never felt that kind of pain before. It is the next morning now and I can still very much feel it.



Am I glad I did it? Yes. As Trevor said, the marathon gets better the further you get away from it. I will definitely prepare differently next time.

And by the way, Richmond well deserves the title of Friendliest Marathon. It was extremely well organized and everyone was so nice. Hopefully I will be back next year to make a better showing.

Nacho and Woody

We have been involved in some of the pre-Halloween festivities here in SoCal. Last night Jacob, Brigham and I along with Granny Dot, Trevor, Heather, Luc, Nathan, Kiersten, Henry and Tiffany went to Disney’s California Adventure. They had a special deal that they closed the park at 6pm and then reopened it from 6:30 to 10:30 for a Halloween party. They only sold a limited number of tickets so it wasn’t crowded at all.



The kids had a blast. First up was Soarin’ over California. That is Jacob’s favorite. It was Brigham’s first time and he wasn’t too sure about it.

Next we went over by the Monsters ride. The ride fun but the big hit was dancing with Sully afterwards. Jacob got up out of the stroller and was going wild. He didn’t want to leave.



They had Trick or Treat stands set up all over the place and everything was really fun. Jacob went as Woody and Brigham was Nacho Libre.

Tonight we went to our Ward’s Trunk or Treat. Brigham was a little nervous about going in his costume. At first he didn’t want to show anyone. But as he walked around with his bag everyone kept commenting on how cool he looked. 



After just a few of those comments all inhibitions were gone. He was flexing his muscles, calling out “Nachooooo!”, and striking poses with his “stretchy pants.” Several people wanted to take pictures of him. The best was when he was trying to pose and kept falling over because of the poses he was trying to hold.

Holly made the costume and really did an amazing job. She also decked out Jacob’s walker with horses. She was done up as Annie while I just went as my boring self.




PS
Brigham came in our room this morning and said "Nacho wants to snuggle with Daddy Warbucks" (the outfit I had worn to a Halloween party a week ago).

He also wanted some of his candy this morning. I told him he coudn't have any until lunch. He said, "But I don't feel well and candy makes me feel better."

Henry Mayo 5k

Today the family did a 5k in Valencia. Well, some of us. I woke everyone up at 7am. Brigham was furious. He kept saying, “I want one more nap.”

We got everyone down to Henry Mayo hospital. First came the 1k kiddy run. Brigham took this very seriously. Basically the kids ran around a long center island in the parking lot twice. Brigham was nervous about what to do so we told him that all he had to do was follow the big clown (he was the pace setter).

The race started and they were off. Brigham went running off with all of the kids.

We waited for them to come around the curve - camera ready. First cam then clown with the fastest kids. And then some more kids. And some more. And then the announce said, “Here comes the end of the pack,” but still no Brigham.

We looked on the other side of the loop and there was Brigham jogging along looking a little confused. I went up to him and grabbed his hand and helped him make it to the finish line.

After the race Brigham said to me, “I was a little lost, but you rescued me daddy.”

Next came the 5k. Jacob wore our number and had a great time. The course went through the paseos of Valencia and was really fun. Jacob kept clapping and said, “Is Jacob having fun in the stroller?” We didn’t break any speed records but we did all right.

Holly got to go through a Baby Expo the hospital was having and we came home with more free baby stuff than you can imagine.

Blue Mango in the Ensign

If you check out page 48 of the October Ensign you will see one of our VRs from Virtual Historian. The Church has used a bunch of VRs on the Joseph Smith site. If you want to see more of them check here.

Last Sunday Jacob spent the evening singing for us. I played all the Primary Songs that I thought he knew and he belted out each one. His pitch is really amazing. He is always right on.

What was even more amazing was that he would keep going with the song even when I was messing up. He kept right in time (except for a few times when I really messed up - my piano skills are pretty rusty).
It was great to see him get so excited after he sung each song.

He also played “I Love to Look for Rainbows” for us. He can pick the notes out by ear. Hopefully we will be able to get a piano soon so he can really start working on this.

Some Recent Brigham Quotes

We asked Brigham, “Are you cute?”
He responded, “No, I’m gorgeous.”

Last night we were talking about baby names and Brigham said, “The one I chose was Superman, Superman DeVore.”

Brigham at the Dodgers Game

Brigham got to go to the Dodgers game last Friday. He got to sit in Papa’s seats (which are right behind 1st base). But the highlight of the night was sitting in the Dodgers car. We went up the escalator multiple times to see it again.
He also got some “Shrek” ears which was pretty exciting.

Caleb Comes Home

Caleb John DeVore came home today. I had some early Church meetings then I headed over to the hospital to get Holly.
This was all supposed to happen tomorrow (on an even day) but Caleb had different plans. Wednesday afternoon at about 4:30 Holly called me at work to tell me that her water had broken. I rushed home and we threw things together (we really weren’t that ready since we were scheduled for a C-section on Monday the 18th). We dropped the kids off at my parents and headed into the hospital.

Holly really wanted an even birthday so she was hoping that they would delay the C-section until after midnight (Wednesday was the 13th). But that wasn’t to be. Shortly after we arrived the nurse came in and said, “Dr. Ostercamp” wants to do this in 45 minutes.

About an hour later he had arrived. The C-section went smoothly. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. - just one ounce off of what my father had predicted with his ultrasound measurements.
The only hitch in the whole thing was that we didn’t have a name for him. So far that night and almost all of the next day he was “Cousin IT”.

We narrowed it down to Adam and Ryan but neither one felt right. By Thursday night we were to the point that we were flipping coins (the name I liked won 5 out of 6 times). But still neither one “felt” right. So we threw them both out and started over. Caleb John just seemed right. My Dad says that he is going to call him Kolob but we think he will eventually get the pronunciation correct.

The boys have approached the change cautiously. Brigham was fascinated when I showed him the pictures of Caleb but didn’t want to go near him in the hospital. He likes to look at him just doesn’t want to hold him because “he is too small.” Brigham has a tendency to break things so maybe he doesn’t want to risk damaging baby brother.



Brigham always wanted to come to the hospital though. He had an especially good time creating his “comfy chair” with the pillows.

He eventually warmed up to Caleb but will often say “I want Daddy to hold Caleb” when Holly is feeding him.





The picture above pretty much sums up Jacob’s feelings about the whole thing. We put Caleb on his lap and he about jumped out of the chair. He is pretty much like Brigham. He likes to admire Caleb from a distance.
Caleb arrived home today at around noon. His brothers are still at their grandparents’ house. We will see how it goes once everyone arrives here.

Changing Colors

I was putting Brigham to bed tonight and he told me that he wanted his doggie to be white.  His stuffed doggie is white so I asked him what color he thought his doggie was.  He said it was blue because I had turned the lights off.  He wanted to lights back on again so that doggie would be white.

Jet to Jetty 10k

Trevor, Tiffany and I just finished a 10k down along the beach near LAX. It was great. Trevor got 49 min, Tiffany 50, and I came in with 1:10.
This was my first race since my 2 ACL surgeries and my knees feel pretty good. I was able to run the whole time. But I found out that my running speed isn't necessarily faster than other people's walking speed.
I remember my first 5k race I thought it was really fun to pass everyone at the beginning. The only problem was by the end I was getting passed by everyone else.
I decided that this time I would resist the urge to pass everyone at the beginning and I would do the passing at the end.
Well I only passed 2 people - and old guy and some lady who took a wrong turn at the end.
Afterwards we got some fruit and drinks. We were just walking to the car when the announcer said that the 3rd place winner in the women's 25 - 29 category was from La Canada. We stopped to see if we knew the person and he said "Tiffany DeVore". We were all quite surprised.
I didn't win anything but I think that if they had had a weight group I would have. I was definitely the fattest guy out there - which is great actually. I am trying to get ready to run the Richmond Marathon and I figure that running with this 30 lbs. of extra weight is like swinging a bat with a doughnut. I am bound to loose some of the weight while training so when marathon day comes I will feel like I am walking on air.

Seeking for a Merciful Judge

Brigham bit Luc yesterday so my dad made him stay in his bedroom at their house. Brigham began crying, "I want my Daddy!"

My dad asked him, "What would your Daddy do to you for biting Luc?".

Brigham replied, "He would put me in the naughty corner," and promptly changed his cry to, "I want my Mommy!"

My dad then asked him, "What would your mommy do to you?"

He replied, "She would put a band-aid on Luc."

I guess we all have different approaches to discipline.

Brigham's Obedience

Holly's mom has been here for the last few days helping out. I asked her how it was going dealing with Brigham. She said that she is trying to teach him to be obedient like Hyrum (Hyrum Smith. Brigham is always telling everyone that he is Hyrum. We don't know why). I asked if him if he was obedient like Hyrum. He said, "Not yet."

Later today I took the boys to Krispy Kreme. After we ate our doughnuts the boys (both of them) told me that they had to go to the bathroom. I was floored. Potty training has been quite an issue. We went into the bathroom which had a regular toilet and a urinal. Brigham went in the urinal and Jacob went in the toilet. Afterwards Brigham told me, "I went in the daddy toilet and Jacob went in the mommy toilet."
Greg DeVore

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Hawaii hilights

Top stories from the DeVore 2006 Maui trip:

* Dorothy running up and down the stairs trying to find Luc after he got off the elevator without her.

* Heather hurdling the rocks to save Brigham as Luc was pinning his head under the water at the Pirate Ship pool.

* Luc vommiting at the beginning of the road to Hana. Jacob vommiting at the end. Trevor and Luc getting matching cuts on their knees.

* All day everyday at the Pirate Ship.

* Brigham trying to negotiate with a little girl for her pink heart sunglasses.

* Lavaflows

* Heather searching the hotel grounds for Luc who had locked himself in Greg and Holly's room.

* Brigham running through the hotel with nothing on yelling, "I'm naked! I'm naked!"

* The nice man who brought Brigham to Holly and told her that she shouldn't let Brigham be in the hot tub alone. (Nobody knew he was there).

* Jacob making everyone in the hot tub nervous by doing his impersonation of a drowning child (that is how he swims).

* Dad coming inches away from hitting a moving car with is drive off the 18th hole.

* Brigham sticking the room key into an ATM machine at the airport (he also tried to use it as a credit card to buy candy at the suggestion of Nathan).

* Luc putting a death grip on some other kid's rubber shark

Greg DeVore

Sent via BlackBerry

Brigham's 3rd day in Utah

We woke up early and started the day with a bang. Brigham was refusing to take a shower so he was laying naked on the bath mat. The next thing I know there is a big brown lump sitting on the mat.

We got it cleaned up and got him showered. We then went down to the Inn at Temple Square to have breakfast with my parents. Brigham had a great time eating eggs and pineapple.

After breakfast we headed over to Temple Square. Brigham insisted on pushing the stroller. As we crossed the street a TRAX car came by. Brigham was so excited he could hardly walk straight.

We walked through Temple Square and went to the North Visitor's Center. Brigham got ver excited when he saw the picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. He yelled, "It's Jesus and John the Baptist!". After that whenever we saw a fountain for the rest of the day he said, "Daddy, let's get baptized."

We saw the Christus and the exhibition on prophets on the lower level. We then walked over to the Temple. On the way over Brigham saw the Joseph and Hyrum statues so we had run over and see those.

Brigham was very excited to walk up the stairs of the Temple to the doors. After trying to get in for a bit he came back down.

We then went over to the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Brigham had a great time in Distribution getting photos of Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo Temple. He got his own shopping basket and walked around picking up items. We then went upstairs and he was very excited to see the big Joseph Smith statue. He asked, "Daddy, you want to touch it?"

From there we made a quick trip to Deseret Book and a short ride on TRAX. Brigham was very excited about TRAX.

Later that afternoon Brigham got to see his Tingey and Hales cousins. We then went down to Alpine to a wedding reception for a kid we knew from Boston. It was in the back yard of a house by the mountain. I was speaking with some friends and Brigham was getting board. He decided that he wanted to go over by a rock wall. I let him. In a second he had scaled the rock wall and was running up a dirt hill. I went running after him but I couldn't climb the wall and get up the hill (knee surgery). So the entire reception got to watch as I negotiated with Brigham to come down. He eventually slid down the dirt hill on his bottom.

We made it through the rest of the trip without too much more hassle. The airport was a bit of an adventure. Both he and Luc were very tired and exhibited this by running around everywhere. At one point they escaped around a corner. Wheb I turned the corner I couldn't find them. They had ducked into a shop and were running their hands over all of the merxhandise they could.

Later on we put on Mary Poppins on my laptop. Brigham treated the entire terminal to a dancing rendition of "Step in Time".

He was a little wild on the plane but not too bad. He was very happy to see his mother when he got home. So was I.
Greg DeVore

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More quotes

Brigham was talking about snow so I asked him if he was a snowman. He said, "no, I'm just Brigham Young."
Greg DeVore

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Brigham's 1st day in Utah

Brigham had quite the day yesterday. He started out the morning at the Sal Lake Temple with Granny Dot, Papa and Luc.

He then went down to Provo and went bowling with Luc and some friends of Ja and Laura's while we went to lunch.

After lunch he and Luc hung out with Papa while Trevor and I were in a meeting. After we found them Brigham proceeded to get grass stains all over him by rolling down the little grass hills by the Admin building.

Brigham and Luc didn't last long during the commencement so we went and got ice cream. Brigham adapted to BYU life quickly as he began introducing himself to a cute little 4 year old in line.

He then went back to the Kessler's and had pizza.

Needless to say, he slept very well last night. He only woke up once - apparently from a bad dream - screaming, "I need my ice cream."
Greg DeVore

Sent via BlackBerry

Brigham Quotes

So here are some of Brigham's latest quotes:

We were at the airport waiting to pick up the car rental and Brigham was having a fit because he wanted to go up the escalator. He was crying and thrashing around so finally I gave in. On the way over there he said, "I was sad. But now I'm going on the escalator so now I'm happy."

The next day we were in the car and I asked him if he looked like his grandma Hales. He said, "No. I look like Joseph Smith."

He also went around all day telling everyone that he was Brigham Young.
Greg DeVore

Sent via BlackBerry

Brigham's Buddy

Brigham and Luc have become the best of friends - and enemies. As soon as they see each other they run over and give each other a hug. Within 5 minutes one of them is crying because the other wacked him.

Tonight on the way home from my parents' house I asked Brigham, "Is Luc your favorite cousin?" He replied, "Luc's not my cousin. He's my buddy."

A Morning with Brigham

Here is a blow by blow account of this morning with Brigham:

5:00 am - He comes into our room and climbs into our bed. From the other room we hear Jacob talking meaning that Brigham has woken Jacob up as well. Holly asks me who I want to be in charge of and I vote for Brigham. So Holly goes into Jacob's room to help him calm down.

5:05 am - Brigham says that he want to snuggle with Daddy so he snuggles up next to me and puts his arm underneath my neck.

5:10 am -I rollover and face away from him and he asks me what I am doing.

5:11 am - I hear some rustling behind me and turnaround to see that he has set the pillow up so that it is vertical with the wall. He is lying down with his neck at a 90 degree angle smashed up against the pillow. I tell him that he isn't going to be very comfortable that way. He says, "No! I need my pillow."

5:15 am - He sits up in bed and starts yelling in a low voice, "Marry me! Marry me!" This is from some audio snippet that somehow got downloaded to my mother's computer.

5:20 am - I ask him if he needs a diaper change. He says no.

5:24 am - He runs into his bedroom.

5:27 am - I hear him come back into our room. He opens the drawer that has his diapers in it and says "I need a new diaper." I sit up in bed and he tosses me the diaper. I ask him if he has a stinky. He says yes. He climbs up into our bed and I go to change him and realize that he no longer has any pants or any diaper on - and he just told me he had a stinky. After a moment of panic I realize that he was wrong about the stinky. I put his diaper on.

5:28 am - He says that he needs his airplane pants (his pajamas he had on) and runs into his room.

5:30 am - He comes back in with just a diaper on and his Mr. Incredible pants and asks me to put them on. He then runs back into his room and starts asking Holly for his Mr. Incredible shirt. She tells him it is dirty while he protests. Finally they agree on Batman.

5:32 am - He comes back in and asks me to put on his Batman shirt. He lies down and gathers Doggie, and all of his blankets. He informs me that he doesn't want Mommy's blankets. He wants Brigham's

5:33 am - "Daddy, I want Milk." I tell him that he can't have any until he wakes up in the morning.

5:34 am - "Daddy, I want Ovaltine."

5:37 am - Brigham goes back into his bedroom and starts and Old MacDonald musical toy. I call for him to come back into my room and he yells back, "No, Daddy! I'm in my bedroom!"

5:40 am - Brigham comes back in and lies down next to me. He begins to count - "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 16, 13, 16, 17, 18, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19!"

5:41 am - He now does the alphabet in more or less the right order.

5:42 am - I get up and ask him if we wants to see a movie. He does. He wants to see Shrek.

5:45 am - Shrek breaks a doorway while he is carrying Fiona over the threshold. Brigham says that Shrek "Needs 2 minutes" - Brigham's standard punishment - 2 minutes in the "naughty corner" when he does something wrong.

6:14 am - Has some Valentine chocolate for breakfast.

6:17 am - He asks for his broom. Luckily, I am able to dissuade him.

6:18 am - He asks for his stool.

6:19 am - Apparently he can't find his stool so he drags one of the kitchen chairs right in front of the TV, climbs up and grabs the "Little People" VHS tape from on top of the TV. He tells me that he wants to watch "This one." "I don't want to watch Shrek." He takes Shrek out of the DVD player and I tell him to put it on top of the TV. He gets down, repositions the chair, climbs back up, puts Shrek on top of the TV and then puts the "Little People" VHS tape in the player. It's upside down so it won't go in. Mommy has just come in the room so she helps him put it in.

A Sledgehammer for those Who Don't Catch Subtlety

Last week we sent out an announcement that Holly was pregnant. But some - in fact most - didn't quite get it. So for those of you who missed it this is the remedial version of the announcement. We will say if very slowly - Holly - is - preg -nant. We found out 2 days before I went in for surgery. We just had to laugh since the whole time we were planning for this surgery we kept saying, "Well at least Holly isn't pregnant this time" (last time I had ACL surgery Holly was pregnant with Brigham and on bed rest).

Holly had her first real ultrasound yesterday. The baby looks good and she is about 8.5 weeks along. It looks like the due date is around the end of September. Because we have busy schedules we have already set a tentative date for the C-section of Sept 18th.

Holly will have her cerclage probably near the end of March.

I am doing better. I can now be upright for longer stretches of time. Brigham has come back to live with us. He had been so good. He is very concerned with Daddy's owie and keeps telling me "Daddy get better." He has only had one slip. Last night he got overly excited and attacked my leg. I obviously let out a yell and he felt very bad. He likes to kiss things better so I told him he could kiss my knee better since he had jumped on it. He went up to kiss it and started crying "I don't want to kiss it. That's gross. That's gross." Apparently he doesn't like the look of my knee.

I will finally get to start walking next Thursday. I can't wait.

It hasn't all been bad. I have lost about 10 lbs. on the "I can only get food if my wife brings it to me and she is tired and pregnant so she gets grumpy every time that I ask her for food so I only ask for food if I am REALLY hungry" diet. It is quite effective.

Yesterday I got dressed and forgot to put a belt on. I had to go to he bathroom and got up off the couch only to have my pants fall down. Jacob was in the next room with two of this therapists and somehow I had to make it past them to the bathroom without losing my pants. Let me tell you, walking with crutches while trying to hold your pants on is not an easy thing to do. I remembered the belt today.

ACL 2.2

So Friday I went back in for part 2 of my ACL surgery. By Friday morning I was feeling pretty good and was off of the pain meds from Wednesday's experience.

I discussed things with the anesthesiologist and he said that doing an epidural instead of general anesthesia. This would hopefully result in less nausea. So I went in, got my epidural, got a little "thwighlight" (this basically made it so I didn't remember the operation) and they finished the surgery.

Coming back into the recovery room I had the shakes pretty bad. I guess that is normal with epidurals. It tool awhile for my legs to get feeling back. It was kind of freeky because they felt like they where bent but I could see that they were lying flat.

The big challenge then became to pee. I couldn't go home until I emptied my bladder. I had had problems with that on Wednesday. Well, I found out that epidurals are worse in this sense. Finally at around 5 or 6 the doctor said they needed to give me catheter and admit me to the hospital overnight.

The pain really hadn't been too bad up to this point. They had given me some pain meds that had helped. One of the meds made me feel just a little bit queasy. The nurse asked if I wanted some anit-nausea medicine. I said that I as probably fine but she insisted that it would only get worse if I didn't take the medicine. It completely knocked me out. I couldn't really sleep but I could not keep my eyes open. So I was a bit incoherent for the next couple of hours.

While they were figuring out where they were going to admit me and how they were going to get me there I was detached from my ice machine almost the entire time. A couple of hours had passed by the time I was settled in the hospital room and hooked up again. During that time my leg had really swelled up and that caused a lot of pain.

Nathan and Kiersten came by as did Brad Smith. Nathan and Brad gave me a blessing and then let me rest. I still couldn't keep my eyes open for more than 30 seconds at a time.

I tried to just stick with my Tylenol medicine but by around 2am the pain was just too intense. The nurse gave me some morphine and that helped a little bit. I was able to sleep for an hour at a time and then would just be counting the minutes until my next dose of morphine.

By the morning the swelling had gone down and the pain was much better. They tool the catheter out and gave me another chance on the potty. No luck. At around 12:30 I was about to explode and the catheter had to go back in.

After that I was able to get my best sleep yet. I then spoke to the doctor and he said that they would take the catheter out again at 4pm and if I could empty my bladder before 10pm I could go home.

So after 4pm I tried for the next 6 hours. Finally at 9:30 I was able to. There had been a shift change though and the new nurses didn't seem to understand the instructions. They were going to make us stay until the next morning. We told them they needed to call the doctor. Finally at 11pm they told us we could leave.

By 11:30 we were finally home. Last night wasn't too bad. I started using my perpetual motion machine and that felt good. My pain is really gone as long as I stay horizontal.

ACL

As most of you know I had ACL replacement surgery yesterday. The only problem was that the ACL didn't get replaced. I am having a cadaver ACL placed in my right knee. The doctor got all the holes drilled in my knee ready to apply the graft. The cadaver ACL comes frozen so he had gotten it out earlier to thaw it out. The way they "install" it is by attaching it to a cord that goes into the bottom left of the knee, goes through the joint and then comes out the top right of the knee. They then pull the ACL through and insert the cadaver bone into my bone.

Everything was going fine until this last part. The cadaver bone crumbled. This presented a problem as there was not another ACL immediately available. I woke up and Holly came in. She said, "I have some bad news. We have to come back on Friday." The doctor was very apologetic. He said in all of the grafts he has done this has never happened. It was just a bad bone. The hospital is supposed to have a freezer where they can store backup ACLs in case something like this happens. They have the funds approved but haven't installed it yet.

So tomorrow I get to go back again. When Holly told me I just had to laugh.

This whole process has been full of bad luck. When I went for my pre-op they had to do some blood tests. I don't know if the lady was new or not but she stuck my 4 times. I have these huge bruises on my arms that make it look like Holly abuses me.

The one thing that has been great is this new ice machine called the Ice Man. They wrap some sort of pad in the bandaging that has two tubes sticking out of it. You connect the tubes to an ice machine, plug it in and instant cold on your knee. It is fantastic. The only problem was that mine didn't work. I told the nurse that it didn't feel cold at all. She said that it was just because of the wrapping. Later that night it still feel cold. We checked it out and it definitely wasn't working. Luckily Nathan had just had knee surgery so he brought his over. What a difference when it was actually cooling.

Coming out of the anesthesia was awful as usual. The surgery "finished" at 12:30 but we didn't leave the hospital until 5:30. Every time I tried to get up I vomited. That continued most of last night. I have to say that the anesthesia has been the worst part. My knee really hasn't been that bad.

That is all so far. We will keep you posted on what happens tomorrow.

Races, Ambulances and ACLs

Jacob ran his first race yesterday. The school district here had a fun run for the kids. Jacob's was 1k. All kids ran the same course around the school but they had each grade stagger their start. Jacob went around in his walker. His behavioral therapist, Maricruz, helped push him along. Along the way they had to stop at different stations to do push-ups, sit-ups, etc. Jacob didn't like the push-ups but Greg and Maricruz helped him get them done. Holly snapped photos of everything.

When Jacob got tired he just lifted his legs and sat on the walker while Maricruz pushed. He worked hard though. He was exhausted by the end.

Brigham ran for a bit also and the said, "Daddy, I'm tired."

Afterwards they had a gymnastics show and Brigham was enthralled.

We had a couple of other adventures this week. Thursday, Holly got a sharp cram in her leg and then almost passed out. We called my dad and he said we needed to be worried about a blood clot. So we called 911. A fire truck, ambulance and one of those red trucks that aren't quite a fire truck or an ambulance showed up. They took a bunch of readings and said that she needed to go to the hospital to get checked out. They were going to have me take her but her heart rate dropped when she stood up. So she got a ride in the ambulance.

Luckily Kiersten had been leaving for work when she saw the rescue squad. She had a feeling they were going to our house (she is either inspired or paranoid) and followed them. Sure enough they stopped at our place. So while there were six big guys running around with a stretcher all of the sudden a short blonde girl in maroon scrubs appeared. She watched the kids while I went over to the hospital with Holly.

It turned out to be nothing major. In fact, I don't think we even know what it was. We have figured out that this seems to happen to Holly every 11 years. It happened once when she was almost 12, again at 23 right after we got married and now. We have marked year 45 on our calendar so that we will be ready.

I found out that I tore my right ACL this week. That means surgery again (not the same knee as last time). This will be worse because I won't be able to drive for 6 weeks since it is my right knee. I would say that life is never boring around here but that is pretty much what life is when you have to keep your leg elevated for 6 weeks.

Steve Jobs Commencement Speach

Here is a link to a page that will let you into the Stanford section of iTunes. On the page is a link that when clicked will launch iTunes on your computer and go to the Stanford seciton. On the right is section of new stuff and one of them is Steve Jobs' commencement speach at Standford. It is really quite excellent. The link only works if you have iTunes. The video is a free download.

Sunday 11/22/06

Brigham has decided that he wants to be baptized. I don't know what they talked about in Nursery today but Brigham woke up from his nap saying that he wanted to be baptized. Tonight he went to bed with all the pictures he could find of baptism from the Gospel art kit. As I put him to bed he said, "I want to be baptized now." I am thinking that he will want to wait a little longer before he becomes accountable for his actions.

Today in Primary they were learning about Lorenzo Snow in sharing time. The counselor held up a picture of Lorenzo Snow and asked Jacob who it was. Jacob, who wasn't looking at the time, casually looked over his shoulder and said "Lorenzo Snow" and then turned back around to what he was doing. Jacob can be pretty handy if you ever need to know a prophet's name.

Tonight when I was putting Brigham to bed I asked him if he wanted to say his prayers. He was sitting in his bed and said "No! Like Mommy". He then proceeded to come and kneel down next to me. "Like Mommy" meant he wanted t kneel to pray like Mommy. It was very sweet.

Holly had her first basketball game yesterday morning. Brigham and Jacob had to drag her out of bed to go. Brigham was yanking on her arms and Jacob was pushing on her back. Holly contributed 3 points to a 44 to 26 point loss. They are going to have practice on Tuesday night. She is going to have to take over basketball duties for the family as I have hurt my other knee. I go to the doctor tomorrow to see what I have done.

Yesterday afternoon we got to see Chris Hales and kids. We met them at Griffith Park where the kids had a blast on the trains and at Shane's Universe (a huge playground designed especially for handicapped children). We didn't get much chance to talk as we all spent most of the time chasing our kids around.

Brigham's day

Brigham had quite the day today. While I was getting ready for Church he came in with lipstick all over his face. I went out in the hallway and saw that he had torn out all of Holly's makeup and managed to make our carpet look 10 years younger.

While Holly was cleaning all of this up he took off his clothes and his diaper. He then got a plastic cup a proceeded to walk around the kitchen with the cup over his genitals. When he removed the cup we were able to see that he had peed in it. At least it wasn't on the floor. I guess that it was his version of a port-a-potty.

During nursery Brigham had a major diaper blowout. Holly was conducting the Primary music so one of the counselors changed him. There was poop all over his clothes so when Holly finished the counselor handed her a plastic bag with Brigham's shirt and pants inside. So when Holly went to pick him up from Nursery he was in his Sunday shoes, black socks and a diaper and nothing else. So he got to walk all the way around the Church and out the front door that way. The best was that he had shark tattoo on his stomach. You can see a photo of him here.

Holly's Birthday

Holly decided that to celebrate her birthday she wanted to go bowling. We didn't think that too many people would be excited about it but boy were we wrong. Everyone had a great time - especially the little boys. Jacob had the time of his life. He had never been but he was thrilled from the moment we arrived. They had a little ramp that he could use to push the ball down. He still constantly asks to go bowling again.

Brigham and Luc were everywhere. They were grabbing balls left and right and chucking them down the lanes. It really was an incredible hit.

Jacob's Eye Surgery

Jacob had his strabismus surgery yesterday. It is to help him use his eyes together. Usually, when he looks off to the side his eyes go a little crazy.

The hospital told us to get there at 7am for 9am surgery. We showed up right on time but they had lost Jacob's chart. So they had to fill the entire thing out again. We got bumped so Jacob didn't go in until 11am. They great part is that no one bothered to tell us. We were just left in this room all by ourselves. When no one showed up by 9:30 I went to see what was happening. The nurse said, "Well, not all of his stuff was here so we had to put someone ahead of him." I said, "His stuff isn't here because you lost it." She was not helpful at all. I felt like I was at the DMV.

Poor Jacob hadn't been able to eat anything. He kept yelling for water and couldn't understand why his parents wouldn't give him any.

The surgery itself went well. He took a long time to wake up and devoured 4 popsicles before he got out of the hospital. We didn't leave until about 3:30. As soon as we got in the car he fell asleep again and slept until about 6:30pm.

After that he was wide awake. He didn't seem to be affected at all. His eye looks pretty nasty. All the parts that are supposed to be white are completely red.