Occupy Kasey

It's been awhile since I've done a good blog entry. I'll blame it on a few things- not usually in the mood to sit down and write down some thoughts and then also just lack of time. Our life these days revolves around Jimmer naturally. I'm trying to do my best to play with him for the 3-4 hours between getting home from work and putting him to bed. He's changed a lot in a month's time. He's a big crawler these days and so busy making his rounds around the house from the shoe rack to the ottoman with his toys to the vent in the kitchen and the books under his crib. He's so full of energy and doesn't like to focus on one thing, it's kind of funny to watch. I'm not sure how I was when I was a baby but sometimes I feel like my life is like Jimmer's- not able to focus on one thing and lots of things occupying my mind.

Some of the things occupying my mind these days:

-Trip to Europe. Me and Emmy are stoked about going. I haven't been back to Holland since 2007 so it's about time I get back there, show off my pretty wife, and check up on the people I love there. In the two times I've been back I've gone to all the cities I served- we're doing that this time but the next time we go to Europe we'll just do one or two cities in Holland so we can spend more time in another part of Europe. The region we're visiting in this trip to Europe is Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Western Germany and Northern France. We're going to rent a car and stay along the Rhine and see lots of castles and pretty cities in Germany. We're doing the whole backpack thing and stay in a few hostels along with some hotels. It's kind of how I like to do it- the 2006 Europe trip was just so awesoem and it's a style I like to do. Turns out that Groupon and Living Social are really big there like they are here. We've been buying some good deals that will help us eat nice for not too much. So yeah, we'll see a lot, eat a lot of cool foods, get some cool souvenirs, some cool pictures, and just enjoy ourselves in Europe. It'll definitely be tough to be away from Jimmer for 2 weeks but he'll have fun with my parents. There's lots of new toys for him and Skybekah's kids he can play with.

-The Republican primaries. It's pretty fun to watch. I still think there's no way it won't be Romney. I actually don't mind the bickering in the debates or just from the campaigns...it's politics, that's what happens. As long as the Mormon card doesn't get played I'm fine with either campaign doing what they're doing. The schedule favors Romney- he'll win Florida and then Nevada and Maine favor him, he won Colorado and Minnesota in 2008 so he'll do well there and then Arizona and Michigan are two states he'll easily win. All this momentum early on will pretty much just make him the inevitable candidate. It's interesting how many top Republicans just do not like Newt, that's another thing that's been working to Romney's advantage.

-House Projects. I think we will rent out our house when the time comes to move out of Utah or move to a different house. It'll be a good addition to our retirement portfolio, shouldn't be hard too stressful since there are some good property management companies here, and it's kind of fun getting the house ready to be able to rent. We finished the fence in October so we have a new white vinyl fence in the back and on each side of the house. We still need to either close off the fence or extend it into the front yard- that'll be a small project this summer. We're also looking forward to landscaping the yard with low-maintenance plants, painting the shed, leveling the garden area, putting crown molding in our bedroom, doing some small projects in the house, and putting in a sprinkler system. I really want a sprinkler system in place so the grass doesn't go downhill. Anyway, it's fun working on the house/yard and it'll probably take 2-3 summers of doing all this, but it's fun doing the prep for the projects.

-School. So I'm starting to come around to realize more education is a good thing that I'm anxious to do. For one, I think more business education will help with my career and two, I want to make myself more valuable.

-Church calling. I work with the priests in our ward. It's a calling that I really enjoy but just wish I was better at. We have good young men in our ward- they need some encouraging and some of them don't have strong families. Sometimes I want to shake them, take away their agency, and force them to get their Eagle and Duty to God. It's something I think a lot about--how can I help them more. It's not a new feeling, it's something that I constantly dealt with on my mission. It's just tough to help people progress when they don't have that desire. How can you help others have more desire? Like today in Sacrament meeting--we were a tad late and sat in the very back--I couldn't believe how many people around us were on their cell phone. In just a small sampling there were 12 people looking down at the phone...it really frustrates me and just makes me feel sad for them.

-Family History. When my died last year I went down to the funeral in Mesa, AZ and then we went to Virden, New Mexico for his burial. Virden probably has the population of 50 people? I would be shocked if there were more than that. It's way out in the middle of no where, it felt like we were in a desolate part of Mordor to be honest. But the whole experience really had a strong effect on me. First of all our family is very representative of the urbanization of America. Grandpa grew up on a farm in a small house with a large family. Sounds like a pretty typical story you'd hear from a grandparent, right? When I hear(d) stories from my two grandpas or about them you can't help but be impressed at how down to earth they are and just how good they are. They are very good men who lived in very poor circumstances, but they aren't complaining. They lived in smalltown, USA without tv, internet, electricity. They didn't need to live close to a mall or close to a place with a lot of entertainment. They had little but appreciate and are grateful for the things they did have. They worked hard growing up which made them the men they are and were. I'm frustrated right now because I can't quite put into words what I think/feel about the situation but I think it's sad that those days are over. It's not the same time, it's not the same country where people grow up like that and I think it's sad that we're missing or aren't going to have the experiences they had. I think it's sad that my generation has everything and therefore feels entitled to more because that's what we're accostomed to. It's sad that smalltown, USA is pretty much non-existent now because those experiences produced great people as evidenced through my grandparents. Virden used to have more people, it used to have a pretty vibrant ward and high school. Grandpa's brother told the story of how they would go to church dances and perform a skit that would get girls. I thought that was funny. They had hard experiences, I can't imagine what it would be like to have the chores they did or to live in those small homes with so many family families. I'm grateful they went through those things and turned out the way they did which in turn has influenced me. I guess I just want my kids to somehow learn those same things and turn out to be good Church members, good citizens, just good respectable and decent people.

-Jet ski.

-Exercise. So we bought a treadmill in November. It's pretty sweet. I think it's probably one of the best investments I've made. We only have one body, right, so might as well make it healthy and fit. I'm trying to lose 12 pounds this year which is crazy for me because I don't think I actually need to lose weight, but it's just more of a by-product of the real goal to be healthy and exercise a lot this year.

-Emmy!

Colbers

So we have Brian's b-day on the 19th, Jamie's on the 21st, and Colby's on the 23rd. I remember being confused on when Jamie's and Colby's b-days were, but then I remembered that the 21st is younger than the 23rd. When Brian was born that still worked. I was worried that Annie would be born sometime after the 19th and mess up the system but she was born on the 15th so it still works.

When Colby was out here for college I got to know him a little better- he's really fun to play mariokart with, was always willing to take me and Dallas out to eat with his meal deal and was just a really fun, cool guy to be with. He also shares my love for playing Risk, and once he gets back I'm ready to schedule an all nighter for Risk.

A few memories of Colby growing up- he was pretty chill, he was totaling willing to let us give him a swirly until Mom found out. He was the same height as Jamie for awhile, while that could be humiliating, he took it in stride and was cool with it.

A few years ago Dallas asked me if I had to choose to kick someone out of the family who would it be. Ya always hate to answer a question like that but if I HAD to pick, it would be Colby. A couple reasons why- whenever me and Emmy talk about Colby, somewhere in the conversation Emmy will say how cute Colby is. He makes us older kids look bad. He's pretty much good at everything- he got straight A's through high school, was good at the cello, varsity in football and baseball, Prom King, and student body something, VP I think. See what I mean? Getting his mission letters has been great, and we can all tell that he's a really good missionary...one more thing he excels at...what a stud!

Now Mom, of course I don't really want Colby out of the family, just trying to make a point.

Happy b-day Elder Beck!

No one understands us.

Jamie Lynn--I gotta say that Jamie is the most interesting of the Beck bunch. She's definitely a leader and not a follower. Jamie likes to have fun, likes for others to have fun, and makes sure others are included. She was a cute baby and a cute little girl. Jamie was as tall if not taller than Colby for a few years. She was into sports, especially volleyball. I don't remember talking to Jamie much before my mission, but after my mission she was really into the color effervescent. It was kind of her thing. In school she decided it was her favorite color and everyone thought she was cool because she was different like that. Jamie made varsity cheer as a freshman and pretty much got straight A's through high school, I'm telling ya, the younger kids make us look bad.

Nowadays Jamie is up here in Provo and we're getting to know her a little better. She's always willing to watch Jimmer and to teach us how to dougie or to do other dance moves. She also does the freshman thing of taking us out to eat or buy us food with her meal card which we think is pretty sweet. We have chocolate ice cream ready for her for when a guy breaks her heart but so far she's been doin' the heart breaking.

She's a cool sister, an excellent addition to the family and life would be boring without her. Props to Jamie.

Happy birthday Jamie, love ya!

Emmy's gift to me, that's just great. For the background on this is when we had Jimmer it was just a thing I would say to him if for example he would cry as I dressed him: "son, we do hard things in this family." It's kind of turned into a funny thing, but I absolutely believe it, and it's kind of our family motto: we do hard things.

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v196049xZeGjNk9

Haha, this one is great too

I have a dream to be able to do this someday

Jimmer saw santa and did what we thought he would do




This is a pretty typical Jimmer face



I try so hard to do the same face as Jimmer and finally got it right this time

I can't seem to find my video of me doing this dance so I thought I'd post this guy's video instead.

This is Jimmer in the car on our way to Tommy's baby blessing tomorrow (David and Lindsay's baby) in Boise. It's Jimmer's first time out of the state. He's done really well for his first car trip. Man I love this kid. I've been thinking a little bit lately about happiness. I've defintely had my fair share of happy times in my life, but it's amazing how happy and neat it is to be a dad. Ya know the feeling ya have at 5:00 on the Friday before a Christmas weekend? That's the feeling I have all the time when I'm home from work and can just be with Emmy and Jimmer. It's so awesome and special being a dad.

Happy 11:11 on 11/11/11!!!!

WINNING!

So at work we have a raffle every Monday meeting for a $30 gift card, in the last month I have won that twice, won another $30 gift card for winning 2nd place for the Halloween contest, and won an iPad at a conference in DC. Yeah, so I'm pretty much out the door already to Vegas...lata

In order for me to post this, Emmy made me promise I would never do this to our kids

I have a lot on my mind and even though I don't think I'll be able to really express my thoughts and feelings, but it does help to blog them.

I love fall, we've been on a few drives to enjoy the foliage- the Nebo and Alpine Loops. Man the colors are amazing, and the pictures don't do it any justice. I've been in DC the past couple of days and have really enjoyed the scenery, experience, and feel of it. There's a familiar Fall smell that resembles the same smell in CB...it must be the humidity.

I've really enjoyed DC- the architecture and the feel remind me of my mission and living in some of the big cities in Europe. It'd be really fun to have the urban/metropolitan experience. My co-worker and I walked a few miles trying to find a restaurant and there's just something to taking an evening stroll in the city, enjoying the atmosphere, and thinking about what it's like to live here.

Jimmer made me real happy tonight. I called Emmy and heard Jimmer being fussy in the background. Emmy put the phone up to him and he stopped crying and made his funny little noises when he's excited. Me and Emmy talked a little more and then Jimmer was again fussy, she put the phone up to his ear and again the same thing, he got really excited. Man I love Jimmer and Emmy. I never could have imagined how much I could just love Jimmer and Emmy so much. That probably comes out weird, but man I just love them so much. I know Emmy loves me, and now it's special to know that Jimmer loves me too.

I've been really disturbed by some of the international political events recently. For one, I'm glad we're getting out of Iraq because I don't honestly think things will ever fully improve to where we could feel totally comfortable about leaving, but it's just frustrating because this feels like it's a political move only by Obama and that I think things could really get bad in Iraq with Iran next door. The Gaddafi killing has really disturbed me and I'm not quite sure what my opinion or feelings about it are. I mean he was a bad dude who did bad things. He killed a lot of his own people and deserved punishment, but how he died is really uneasy with me how he was captured and paraded around and then executed in front of the masses. It's just interesting and disturbing to me how a brutal dictator of 42 years is one day ruling the country and later is at the mercy of the people. Man, I think I'm probably not clear at all, because I don't even know what I'm really thinking. Maybe it comes down to just pitying him. I mean, he was a bad person, he did bad things to his people. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Here he was pulled and beaten out of his hiding place, bloodied and shoved out of the truck...begging for mercy from the people he never showed mercy to. And then he was shot in the head and his body is still being paraded as a trophy. It's very disturbing to me, and I feel really really bad for him. Watching the footage on the news channels is disturbing, but also fascinated me because in that footage Gaddafi is not a leader/dictator of a country, but a person. Just a regular person, a child of God, someone as reliant on the mercies of the Savior as I am. He controlled billions of dollars, an entire country, navies, armies, but this did nothing for him in the end. He's just a regular person- nothingness. The whole thing also reminds me of the scripture about Korihor and about how in the end Satan abandoned him, like Satan does with all those who choose to follow him. It's just amazing to me, and I realize my thoughts are confusing and I'm probably feeling/thinking too much of this situation, but I pity Gaddafi. I pity him for going back, unprepared, to his maker, having to be fully accountable for everything he did. The whole thing is disturbing and creeps me out, but ultimately I'm just sad for him and his soul.

Emmy blogged by the way. She's trying to do it more regularly. Check it out:

http://kaseyandemily.blogspot.com/

Sky

If there's one guy who's gone through a lot, it's Skyler. Growing up he got like 3 or 4 broken arms that I was somewhat responsible for like when I encouraged him to be superman and jump off the pool table or when I chased him during a water fight and he tripped over something. I think I did something else to him but I forgot. Probably the worse thing I did was when we were playing basketball, we were both going after a loose ball and I fell on top of him, pushing his head into the corner of a brick wall. Yeah, it wasn't pretty, he could have died if it went a little deeper. I didn't push him on purpose though. Man I was cruel to him at times. We boxed once and I just took it to him, poor kid. When he had appendicitis on a band trip I was still giving him a hard time, I think I pushed him or something. We haven't lived in the same place for a few years, which is probably why he hasn't broken anything in awhile.

In college I really started noticing how laid back, chill, and fun Skyler is. We had some fun time together throwing pumpkins off a bridge, little vacation trips, going to basketball and football games. He has always been someone that I admire, because of how he treats others, and how he always is interested in those around him. He's a good dad, a good brother, a good son, a good worker, a good friend, a good Priesthood holder, etc. Sky's just a good guy.

Happy b-day Sky!

Little La

Kasey: Little La, why are you so little?

Kayla: I don't know

That's pretty much how most of our conversations started the first 10 years of her life. It's really crazy to me that she is 16 now! The baby of the family is driving and dating now. I remember Kayla's birth better than the rest of my siblings...obviously because I was 12. Kayla has the personalities of everyone in the family and she can easily turn one on and the other off. A couple combinations in the family are a little strange, like when me, Dallas, and Jamie went to Grandpa's funeral together in Virden, New Mexico, I think that was the first time just the 3 of us had been together...a little strange. We need a connecting person, I think Kayla can be that with every combination.

The younger kids definitely make the rest of us look bad. They're good at pretty much everything. Kayla is the fun one, good at sports, good at school, good at music, and solid in the Church. She's also a sweet baby sister. One reason why I like Kayla so much...or like Emmy so much is they both remind me of each other. Kayla needs love, and loves to give love. She loves Mom and Dad so much, loves cuddling with them and just loves being their baby. It's cute.

Happy b-day Little La!

Some little known facts about Mom

-Probably the biggest multi-tasker I’ve ever met. When I go home it takes me about 10 minutes to see what Mom is up to by looking at the 2 or 3 calendars in the kitchen of things going on, her to do list on the kitchen table, the scriptures she’s memorizing inside the cupboard, the stack of books she’s reading all at once. It’s pretty incredible…I’m very much like her except my lists are all online.

-Mom has a lot of faith and is very obedient. She does what the prophets say because…well, they’re the Prophets! It certainly wasn’t easy rounding up the 7 kids for FHE or to read to us as we ate dinner, but she’d always do it…while exercising at the same time!

-Mom’s a Richardson and loves to travel and have fun. It was important to her when we were little to take us all over the country, and we certainly did. She’s definitely kept that up. She also likes to plan fun activities.

-Mom was a heartbreaker when she was in college.

-Mom’s the oldest of 13 kids

-I honestly have no idea what Mom’s favorite food is. I don’t think it has to do with me not being very observant but more about Mom being very chill and accommodating.

-If you ever want to see how important family is to her just go to her house and you’ll see pictures of her family EVERYWHERE! When Colby and Dallas were on their missions she would call their cell phones a lot to hear their voices on voicemail. She likes for the family to be around and together. Sometimes she wants everyone to be around, but mostly she just wants to bask in the togetherness of her family being around.

-Mom’s a nurse and has done a pretty good job for them at Mercy, she’s made herself very valuable to them

-Mom loves the Church, loves her family, and is the best Mom ever

...That's actually pretty well-known

Happy Birthday Mom, love you!

Haha, this is hilarious, good find Russ

"Mitt is so Mormon..."

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/5103/how_mormon_is_mitt_romney/

Came home from my mission and this was the big thing in pop culture

This also changed my life...and my roommates lives, when we first saw it, probably for 3 days straight someone in the apartment was watching it

Haha, this never gets old

About a year ago I first saw this video. My life has never been the same.

DJ

Dallas was the first baby to be born in our family that I remember really well. I don’t really remember Carrie as a baby, probably cause I was only 3, and with Sky I was only 15 months. We were at a pool party at Bruce and Starr’s house in Mesa and Mom’s water broke. It was pretty exciting and was fun later getting to hold the baby and everything. From day 1 I thought I would make Dallas the mini-me. I taught the kid football, read the Book of Mormon with him, and got him all excited about BYU. I’m not sure if Dallas remembers me doing some of those things with him. It’s kind of a joke now, but in the family we have the older kids (me, Skyler, and Carrie), the younger kids (Colby, Jamie, and Kayla), and Dallas who thought he was an older kid, but really is a younger kid. But Dallas had it made because he got to be the oldest kid with the younger kids and the youngest with the older kids. He also got his own room which I was jealous of. We treated him pretty good, I don’t ever remember picking on him, Skyler probably did. They say that the middle kids are normally the peacemakers, and it’s pretty accurate in our family.

My junior high and high school memory isn’t that great, but fast forward to when I got back from my mission, Dallas was a stud- he’s always had his head screwed on right. He did well in sports, school, music, and is pretty good at dancing doing his Johnny Appleseed dance. On my mission I was pretty good at picking out the members “that got it.” Dallas “gets it.” He understands what this is all about and that’s very important. It’s pretty cool that he’s up here still, we’ve had some good times. Last fall we threw a pumpkin off a bridge. He’s also the only person that was around for the two events in my life (getting shot in the squirt gun war and losing the intramural softball championship) that just make me mad every time I think about them. He helps me laugh it off. He’s just a good buddy. Dallas is good to everyone around him. I really don’t think I’ve ever heard him say something negative about anyone. That’s pretty cool.

Firebolt - BYU's Divine Comedy

Haha, this is pretty funny

ksl.com - Builders bring 'Up' house to life in Utah

A little disappointed it doesn't come with balloons.

ksl.com - Builders bring 'Up' house to life in Utah

Jimmer laughing

Advice from Elder Busche

Always a good one to post

We're trying to slowly make kaseyandemily.blogspot.com our family blog. So we put up some videos there.

Jimmer's a really smiley baby, we love him.

He's drooling ALL the time.

Sometimes we think he looks like Emmy, sometimes he looks like me, I think this is definitely one where he looks like me when I was a baby.

He's always very interested in what's going on

He's been doing a good job keeping his head up

He probably gets tired of us playing with him for hours

This is almost perfect symmetry

Emmy made my b-day amazing, although she got the wrong turtle on my cake, Raphael was the best. (Dallas actually told her wrong).

Interior Crocodile Alligator

There are a few videos that should be viewed regularly, this is one of them

So that's weird...Google says 4:54 on that post, but it was actually 5:03 when I posted it...strange

28!

The even years are much better than the odd years...27 was a pretty cool year. So far the b-day is going pretty good too. Last year on my b-day I lost an softball intramurals championship game and got in an accident on my b-day...no bueno.

Exactly 28 years ago in Provo, on a Friday, at 5:03 PM, was when I was born.

Little did I know then that I would blog exactly 28 years later to the minute on a Friday and about a mile away from where I was born.

I'm pretty sure I was born with BYU clothes on.

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?

Today I was going to work on the yard all day

Ah ah ah, merlin! -says the weather

Jimmer didn't wake up at all last night! That's 3 days of only 1 or no feedings at night, I'm lovin this kid even more!

Yeah! I'm going there!

Alright, can't believe I'm weighing in on this, but I think the royal wedding stuff is pretty rediculous, mostly because kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes, earls, pied pipers, sirs...are all pointless. Seriously, what is the point of having them these days. What's the point of recognizing families and individuals as your leaders, and then giving them money, simply because of the family they were born into? Ok, I guess sirs are pretty cool and they have done good stuff to be recognized. I won't lie, I'd like to be a sir someday.

I keep hearing over facebook and the news about how majestic it was, how great Kate's dress was, blah blah blah, well, yeah, when you're able to throw tons of money that you made simply by being in a family that receives money from every person in your country for no reason other than to support a ceremonial role...of course it's going to be all that! Shoot, give me half of what they had on their budget and I'll make it twice as good.

Anyway, I'm not down with this, though I did teach the exiled king of Sri Llanka on my mission, that was pretty cool, he's a pretty nice guy too.

In other news, search google news and you can find the world's first zombie safehouse.

Jimmer's awesome and I love it when he smiles!

If guys were like girls 2...

Lol, so Emmy says this is exactly how girls are. It is pretty funny, but she couldn't stop laughing.

So I had to take Jimmer away from Emmy. She needed to get some stuff done and he was just being too cute. It was for her own good too, her heart can't take it, at least that's what she keeps telling me. It's been just tons of fun with him, especially lately with him smiling and responding to us. He's doing pretty typical newborn things of kicking all the time, looking around everywhere, staying at the darkness if he's in a lighted room and then at the light if he's in a dark room. Man, though, he is just so cute and fun to be around, I can't get enough of him. It's been rough to go to work and be away from him. I need to figure out how to bring him to work or something. Or maybe I can convince Emmy to be the breadwinner of the family and I'll be the one at home. He did great yesterday with his blessing, that was neat. Family was all here, that was cool too.

The videos will be up on kaseyandemily.blogspot.com

We finally got Jimmer smiling on the video camera

The first movie Jimmer saw was Ocean's 12 with Mommy. They watched it 3 times.

This is Jimmer's first attempt at Frame 3 face.

Rushin the court after the San Diego St. game. It's like playing "Where's Kasey?" (hint, I'm pointing to the camera)

His favorite toy is the massage chair

I think he finally realized he doesn't have any hair and is embarrassed.

Me and Rose (the Lil Caesers lady)

Spring football game yesterday.

You can tell he's mad at Daddy for making him do tummy time

TEMPEST FREERUNNING ACADEMY - GYM VIDEO

This is what I do in the early hours of the morning.

Freerunning? Or survival traning in the zombie apocalypse?

Cute little guy

Jimmer's first football jersey, from Unkie Dallas

FREAKING OUT!

So one thing neither me or Emmy thought would happen is her getting really scared at night.

Allow me to explain.

The past two nights Emmy woke me up because she was really worried Jimmer was in bed with us and we were crushing him. She says she wakes up every night and thinks that he's in bed and we're crushing him, the past 2 nights she dragged me into it as well. I only remember last night's experience, here's what happened:

Probably like 2 or 3 in the morning Emmy wakes me up to tell me that she's done feeding him. That means it's my turn to put him back into the crib, which is to my left. She then got really panicky because he was not anywhere to be found in bed, I got really panicky too as we are both looking...scared to DEATH that we rolled over and are crushing him. This goes on for probably a minute and then I tell her that I found him and he's in the crib. I made sure he's breathing and then we went back to sleep once all the adrenalin has subsided. So we're both in that between stage of asleep and awake, and we're both FREAKING out! It's not really fun, and makes me scared/nervous just thinking about last night.

Anyway, weird, huh? I guess it happened pretty similar to that the night before but I don't remember it. Emmy does it each night, poor kid.

Sup Angelina Brolie, Bro Naimith, Bro Paterno

this blog ud mostly with my right hand because i got a baby wuth the left. life is kind of interesting being a dasd. here are some thoughts and feelings about everytginh including some things about baby jimmer.

-it was so neat seeing him come out. many probably know that i really strygglr with blood, needles, and stuff like that. but i was able tyo watch the water break and go everlywhere. i watched the head come out, while helping emmy push obviously. my ange wasnt very good, so i first thought it was a small head, then saw a bigger head and then the arm and shoulders, and he was/is a big baby. i might ber qrong but i think dallas was the biggest in my family and he was 8 lbs 6 oz. jimmer came out at 8 lbs 13 oz. well actually thats wgat he weighed after pooping 6 times before he was put on the scale. the doctor thinks he lost 5 or 6 oz with that. emmys family is used to big babies, her one bro was 11 lbs 6 oz! look at me talk and be all interested in weight of babies, defintely not a conversation topic i wasnt interested in before emmy got pregnant.

anyway, it was such an amazing experience seeing him for the forst time andthen seeing the doctor rake out the gunk in his mouth and then hearing his voice. He opened his eyes and saw his dad for the first time. That was neat. The whole experience was just so special.

(got 2 hands again)

-I don't think Jimmer knows that he's a newborn. Emmy's family all say he's a super active baby. The other day he rolled over his whole body except his head, he couldn't quite figure that out. He's so rythmic when he's eating, Emmy sings songs to the rythme he provides. He's a night owl, he likes to stay up late and doesn't really want to sleep the whole night. This is all probably the same with every newborn I'm sure, just sharing observations about this kid. A few positions he really likes to be in: sitting up (with our help of course) and being over my shoulder. He lifts his eyebrows a lot- that's a cute look. He gives kisses already (I'll have to post a video of that sometime). When he roots he goes all out and really lets you know he's hungry. And when he's actually eating he reminds me of the cookie monster. He handles stress differently than most people. When he was circumsized he did awesome, didn't cry or anything. But once he realized what happened as he was being cleaned afterwards, he pooped, peed, and spit up at the same time. The pediatric said that was a first for him. He does that a lot when he gets excited/frantic when he gets changed or have a bath. Again, all probably normal newborn stuff...but I don't know that! He growls and grunts a lot...and I mean it. Sometimes he growls or grunts like he's having a conversation. He's very flexible and if he had it his way he would go his whole life with keeping his legs up in a frog position. I try to stretch out his legs for him once a day because the frog position has gotta be uncomfortable! His smiles are cute, it'll be fun when it's not just gas that causes them. He squeels sometimes when he's upset. Emmy likes getting the boogies out of his nose, it's so satisfying to her, maybe I'm missing out.

Um, this parenting thing aint so bad. It's still kind of weird to be a dad. The sleep loss...well that just stinks. But he's a pretty cool kid who knows it. He's got a cute chin and a really nice profile. Even though we did it, it's just strange to me that you go to the hospital as just you and your wife, and then you leave with a baby...someone who's totally dependent on you. I'm giving a talk in a few weeks about this, about how his total dependence on me and Emmy is like our total dependence on the Savior.

Anyway, cool kid, he's fun. He's a handful, but he grows cooler by the day. Hopefully he thinks his dad is cool too. He better, I change that kid's diapers, he better be grateful. I thanked my mom the other day for dealing with me as a newborn, though I'm sure I was easy.

Wow, that was a long post. I've been blogging a lot. We don't leave the house much these days, so there ya go.

Jimmer often has a turtle look to him. This is the best picture I could find that looks like the below Jimmer picture.

Our form of entertainment has changed a little

Jimmy's down!

One of his many funny faces

Hilarious, I'll be playing BYU Bingo tonight.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1087380/BYU%20Basketball%20Bingo.pdf

Baby Jimmer (for you huWhit) and his muscles

He likes to show them off to Daddy

OK Go - End Love - Official Video

I feel like this video is unappreciated. It is so cool!

So look at Jimmer's faces in the previous posts. I can't help but think of the beavers from Chronicles of Narnia everytime he makes that face (which is a lot).

He's been doing this face for five minis now

Mom requires one picture a day for awhile

Kyiv Ukraine Temple - Youth Cultural Celebration

This is a really touching video

Teach Me How To Jimmer (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Haha, only in Provo

Jimmer Mania

What a guy!

Really good Danny Ainge interview on the BYU Honor Code

http://audio.weei.com/a/37354448/danny-ainge-on-byu-s-brandon-davies-and-the-celtics.htm

BYU Student Section Flash Mob 2011

This one may be a little better

BYU Student Section Flash Mob Dance - BYU vs. Wyoming - March 5, 2011

Well, here's the video. The video really doesn't do the justice it deserved. We were opposite the students and it was impressive seeing several thousand do this dance. It was much more impressive than this video shows.

Well, Emmy went to the doctor's, she's dialated to a 2. Doctor said the baby can come any day, especially since he has no room to go cause of how small Emmy is. Emmy had a pretty lousy weekend- not feeling well and just being very uncomfortable, so it helped to hear that she's up to a 2. There really is no more room for the baby to grow, he's right up to the surface, I'm already playing with him- got him all excited for the San Diego State game the other day. AWESOME game by the way! The doctor also said they want to induce Emmy the 10th or 11th if the baby hasn't come yet. 11th is nice because it's a Friday...and his daddy also came on a Friday. But the 10th would be better so I don't miss a BYU basketball game...me and the baby would be off to a bad start if he makes me miss a game. I may have to punish him if that happened, a timeout or stand in the corner or something.

Ramblings of a soon-to-be Dadda

Well in a few weeks I'll be a dad. The last few months have gone by really fast actually. I don't quite know what to think about everything. It's all happening so fast, and yet nothing has really happened at the same time. Baby is coming, I'm going to be a daddy, ready or not here he comes. I know many people that read this blog are already parents and so you all have felt the same feelings that I'm having...anxious, excited, nervous, scared, and a whole lot of other emotions and feelings that can't be described. I'm excited to have a son who I can watch as he goes through similar experiences that I had. It's anxious to have a baby around- someone that me and Emmy created together who has attributes of us both. It's amazing how there's not a cap to the amount of love you can have for people. Of course I loved my family growing up and continue to love them, then Emmy came along and I had more love for someone than I thought I could have. And now baby is coming. In those quiet moments where I think about him and wanting to be the best dad I can be to him, I always tear up a as I think about how much I already love him*** and how he'll come out loving me so much. I won't have to convince him to love me, it's just natural, the way I naturally love my parents. Nervous because I'm responsible for his survival, safety, and well-being. Scared because BAM, tons of responsibility on ya. When I got married I was hit with responsibility but ask anyone I'm still the goofy kid I always was. Things change when you have a kid, you are responsible for teaching him the Gospel, you have to be an example 24/7. I don't know if being goofy will get the job done. So you know, some things will probably change...and they probably should. Some things will stay the same obviously. Anyway, I hope this kid knows he's causing some weird blog posts. If you don't like this blog feel free to email him. We set up an email address for him and someday we'll give it to him. If you want to email him- either send me an email or leave a comment and I'll forward it on to him.

***All bets could be off once the diapers and cryin happen, j/k.

Follow-up to my Saturday, September 9, 2006 blog post

http://councilbluffs.blogspot.com/2006/09/date-tonight-was-awesome-except-lady.html

Yeah, Lady in the Water is still terrible. Emmy found the movie at Provo Library. Neither of us was crazy about watching it, but eh, why not give it another chance, ya know. Well, we watched it and it's just lousy. I guess there might be people out there who like it, maybe even people that read this blog, so maybe I should tone it down a bit. But I'm sorry, it's just so lame!

Jimmer Fredette - Court Intruder

Friends and family often ask me what's going on in Provo.

One word...Jimmermania

Haha, it was a fun day on Cougarboard. A BYU student wrote a letter to the editor about how there's too much Jimmermania. Man Cougarboard let her have it...but in a good way. Most of the responses were just funny statements about Jimmer, not mean things to her. Overnight people swarmed her facebook profile. I got to it a little late, I think I was the 600th person to post. Anyway, I hope that she thinks it's funny, takes it in stride, and comes to a basketball game with a Jimmer jersey or something. What's crazy is how this has made national news. Some of the comments are a little sacrilegious which I don't like, but some are just downright hilarious!

Here's the link to her facebook wall:

http://vrusp.com/jimmered/

Here are the national stories about it:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/22753/jimmer-mania-gives-us-epic-facebook-thread

http://beyondthearc.nbcsports.com/2011/02/08/jimmer-fredettes-growing-more-powerful-by-the-moment/

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Letter-besmirching-Jimmer-inspires-hilarious-Fac?urn=ncaab-318567&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

http://college-basketball-blog.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26283066/27441707

Here are my favorite Jimmer references:

"Why did Jimmer cross the road? Because he got tired of crossing over Tre'Von!"

• 
  

• "Jimmer can kill two stones with one bird."

• 
  

• "jimmerboard.net because he never hits rim."

Jimmer once lapped someone...in a 50 yard dash...

Jimmer Fredette can speak French...in Russian

Jimmer has never had a heart attach, nor will he ever. Not even his heart is foolish enough to attack.

Even Jimmer's enemy's list him as their emergency contact

Jimmer can get McDonalds breakfast AFTER 10:30 am

Someday 9th East will be named after Jimmer. Students living east of the street will be out of luck because nobody crosses jimmer and lives

Am I surprised that Jimmer goes sledding uphill?

Jimmer doesn't need night vision, the night needs "jimmer vision"

Jimmer is the reason why Waldo is hiding!

there is no control button on Jimmer's computer. Jimmer is always in control

Jimmer put humpty dumpty back together again

Why did Jimmer cross the road? Cause he got tired of crossing over Tre'von!!!

If Jimmer ever got pulled over for speeding, he would let the cops off with a warning

UFO's spotted over Utah on Jan. 26? The aliens just wanted to see Jimmer drop 43 on the Aztecs.

Your facebook page has been Jimmered. If you don't know what that means, ask Tre'von Willis

You've been Jimmered music video

The Jimmer Jammers

Yes, that's right, that is LaVell Edwards, Chad Lewis, and Shawn Bradley in the group- the Jimmer Jammers, singing the song, "You've been Jimmered."

We went to AZ last week. Holy cow it was sooooooo nice! We might become snowbirds later on. The reason we went down was to see Grandpa Richardson. It was nice spending time with him, we took him on a long walk and went on a drive with him. Grandma posted pictures on her blog:

http://jayandlavona.blogspot.com/2011/01/our-oldest-grandson-and-wife-visit.html

We went first to Vegas to see Em's sister, Becky. When we went from Vegas to Phoenix we went on this new bridge to bypass all the windy roads (the English language stinks again! Windy and windy (air--wind) is the same spelling, that is terrible-- maybe I should have said winding) to the Hoover Dam. Anyway, it was really lame driving on it, until we saw this picture of what we actually drove on. This picture is old, though, and doesn't have the completed road, but you can imagine it with the road.

John Buccigross Talks to "The Best Scorer In The World", BYU's Jimmer Fr...

Jimmer shares his testimony

Editor's note: So this is written in Council Bluffs font, but I guess it won't show up as that if you don't have it installed. This post probably won't make much sense either.

This post comes to you thanks to Kyle. Freshman year he made my handwriting into a font. It was all fun and dandy until one day I came home from classes and saw a note that ready something like this; i

Dear Kyle,

Hope you had a good day at school, I’m going to clean the apartment, starting with the kitchen and then the bathroom. Go ahead and eat my ice cream too, watch out for spatulas in the ice cream, though.

Sincerely,

-Council Bluffs

Something like that.

So yeah, it’s pretty cool to have a font named after me. I can’t do apostrophes, but who needs those anyway!! I don't have a colon in my font, so I just use the lowercase i. Sad thing is that my handwriting literally hasn’t changed since like fifth grade. I guess I don’t have numbers on here either.

Kid History - Episode 1

Haha, these are pretty funny. I usually am not that entertained with kid stuff, (maybe that'll change when I have kids) but these are funny to watch at least once, especially 1 and 3.

Kid History - Episode 2

Kid History - Episode 3

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - ...

Pretty neat, huh?