My Better Half

Something that I preach to my single buds is that you know you found the one when you'd rather hang out with her than your roommates. That says a lot about Emmy, because I had some fun roommates. From day one Emmy was just awesome. First time I talked to her was in October 2006. Pdub (Sara Skids) went to General Conference with her and later mentioned that I should ask her out. I remember being in Sacrament Meeting and trying to look her way without being creepy or obvious that I was interested. My first conversation with her was after a ward FHE activity where we talked about the best drinking fountains on campus. A few months later I took her to a basketball game and then ice cream afterwards. After the date, I don’t know why but I didn’t wipe off snow that accumulated on her car as we parted. That’s still one of my biggest regrets in life; that and losing to Travis in the squirt gun war (some things I’ll just never get over, ya know). Fall 2007, when I was home working for Mitt Romney’s campaign, out of the blue Emmy emailed me, so I emailed her back and ended up going to Provo for a weekend. I introduced her to werewolves, a boyfriend, a best friend, and then took off. Winter 2008 I was back in Provo for school and me and Emmy pretty much hit it off right away and started dating. The rest is history.

Some of my favorite stories that describe Emmy well:
-When she was a kid and she’d get scared at night, she would go to her parents room and stand by her mom’s side and just looked at her. She didn’t want to wake her up, but she needed her at the same time. Sometime she’d be staring for like an hour before her mom would wake up. It’s just funny because Emmy needs love/comforting, but she doesn’t want to be a burden either. A few times I’ve opened my eyes and seen Emmy looking at me. Makes me wonder how many times she’s done it. I joke about this, but seriously, the only things Emmy needs in life are sleep, a water bottle at night, love, and giving love to others.

-Emmy’s family went to Europe and on the long flight over, her bro fell asleep on her shoulder. It made it really difficult for her to fall asleep or doing anything else like read a book. She didn’t want to wake him, though, so she just sat there for like 3 or 4 hours with him on her shoulder.

Emmy is the best example of Christ-like charity that I know of. She has a natural love for people, which is really difficult to have. The side that I wish more people could see of her is how funny and witty she is. She’s had these alter-personalities since she was like 12 and they are hilarious. She’s also great to talk with. When we go on car rides, it doesn’t matter if the car ride is 14 hours, 3 hours, 22 hours, it doesn’t matter, we never get bored talking to each other.
I definitely married my best friend.
Happy b-day Emmy!

You got Jo'd

Before there was Jimmer, there was the more famous Jimmer, and before that, there was the Jo. Early on, Carrie was that little sister who annoyed you cause she wanted to be around you and play with you, terrible, huh? Growing up in a boy-dominated family she realized she had a few weapons in her arsenal against her brothers- her violin and singing. She successfully got me and Skyler in trouble, mostly Skyler, by utilizing these weapons. Sky often had to dance with her as punishment. Later on in jr high and then high school when girls were alright, a sister close in age was no longer an enemy but an ally. I realized she was pretty cool and fun to be around...it also helped that she was a cheerleader which meant she had cheerleader friends too. My senior year me and carrie did show choir and were in a play tgether. We were tight and only became more and more tight since then. College was awesome, and a big part of why it was awesome was because of Carrie. Our tightness is what led to moving to park place and played a contributing part in me meeting Emmy, Kyle meeting Becca, Alan meeting Nieman, and Carrie meeting Bret.

Me and Carrie are still tight as evidenced by this sweet gift she gave me (some think it was for Jimmer, but please).

Getting Jo’d means chatting with Carrie, doing fun things with her, and seeing how neat of a person she is. She’s a thoughtful and awesome sister, and life just really would be much more dull without her

Anyway, hope you someday get Jo'd. Happy b-day Carrie Jo!

This is the beginning. Don't forget this day.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/18/lingodroid-robots-develop-their-own-language-quietly-begin-plot/

Yeah buddy

Jimmer doing his thang

2 months!

Well 2 months ago we were at the hospital as Emmy was going into labor. It's crazy to think how fast it's gone and how much I forgot what it was like when it was just the two of us. I'm so blessed to have Jimmer in my life, I feel like I've changed a lot in the past two months...for the better. It's just awesome being a dad! It has helped me understand better the love Heavenly Father has for his children. I'm not completely sure he's my kid because I don't think he looks like me. I'm not sure he's Emmy's kid either cause he doesn't look like her. None of our families claim him either- with Emmy's family saying he looks like me and my family all saying he looks like her. But, ya know, I still love the little guy and just assume he's mine.

He's been smiling and coo-ing a lot. He has a lot of different type of smiles- he does this smile that's kind of like a sarcastic, making fun of you-type smile. My favorite is when his whole face smiles. It's fun to see his personality, it's like, "oh, there you are Jimmer, where have you been?" It's fun that he's starting to respond to us. So I'm trying to do exercises with him where I lift him up like 10 or so times. If I keep it up and do that his whole life, imagine how strong I'll be when he's 18!!

Jimmer's first trip to the Temple.

A couple things about Jimmer:

-He grunts all the time, a few of the videos show that too. We're not sure if that's a normal thing with other newborns, but this kid is always doing it.

-He gets the jimmy leg a lot.

-The whole soft spot in the head kind of disturbs me. I mean, I can see his pulse through his head. I got a haircut this last week and the girl who gave it to me said she was born without a soft spot and had to have 7 surgeries because of it, so I guess I'm grateful for it.

-He's not doing the mouth shiver as much as when he was first born, but he still does it quite a bit.

-Again, not sure if these things are normal with other babies, but when you lay him down to change him or put him in the crib he'll turn his head back and forth over and over, it's pretty funny.

-He likes sticking up his arm like the black power sign.

-He's outgrown his newborn clothes and is doing pretty good with his 3-6 month clothes. He's not growing out of the clothes wide-wise, but length-wise. Go figure, I got a tall son.

-His hair is starting to come in better. It's kind of coming in blond and light brown. I was born brown and then went blonde until I was like 6 or 7, so I dunno, we'll see.

Utter tings:

-Really glad it's spring/summer. I like the springs a lot here in Utah! I love it when it's nice down in the valley but still a lot of snow on the mountains. Today it's nice, cool, crisp, weather. It's great.

-Playin softball this summer for intramurals, it's my last chance to get a t-shirt, man I want one!

-Taking out our fence, putting in a nice white vinyl fence. It's become quite the project because of all the vines back there. The roots grow deep. This fence is the one of the major steps of our plan to really beautify our yard.

-I don't know what it is, but the last 2 days it seems like everyone in Provo is out on the roads, it's just been so packed on the roads. Provo is a growin methinks.

-Getting pretty excited for jet skiing and then college football--seriously, the best time of year!

-I'm venturing into the computer building world. I guess it doesn't take that long to do, so I've been buying parts that Emily's bro, David, is showing me to buy. He'll show me how to put together the computer and hopefully I can make a few hundred. Trying to build up our jet ski fund. It was around $800, lost a few hundred in some stock gambles I took. If anybody reading this wants to donate to my jet ski fund, please feel welcome to.

-Been riding the good ole scooter to work and softball games...it's so fun. Man I love that thing when it works.

-So we're tentatively scheduling a trip to Europe next year. I think the plan is to do Holland for like 5 days and then SW Germany, Luxembourg, and Paris for like 7 days. If anybody is interested in doing the second part with us, let us know.

-Shout out to Alan and Nieman for getting engaged!

Papa glove, mama glove, and baby glove

Am I a bad parent for hiding notes to Emmy in Jimmer's rolls?