Happy Birthday, er, Merry Christmas!

In anticipation of the birth of our second boy we bought a Baby's First Christmas ornament that has Winnie the Pooh telling Piglet, "How delightful to be so brand new." We thought it was cute then, but we especially liked it after little Gibson Brock was born on December 23 at 8:16 PM. He was 8 pounds and 3 ounces and 20 inches tall.

Gibby, as we like to call him, seems to be a pretty peaceful baby (judging by the statistically insignificant amount of time we have been able to have him here.) He is already accomplished at both sleeping and eating - things his older brother McKay kind of struggled with.

Gibby was also a lot of fun to have around at Christmas. He certainly added a great deal of perspective to our holiday. The hospital was actually a lot of fun to be at, even though you perhaps wouldn't think so. Our nurse Diane came in on Christmas Eve with her 12 string guitar and sang "Silent Night" - a song that is special to listen to while watching your beautiful wife and sleeping newborn. Another nurse brought in a knitted Santa Hat for Gibson to wear instead of the traditional baby beanie.

Even Santa Claus got into the act. He stopped by everyone's room and gave the newborns a bear for Christmas. Even though Gibby is asleep here, he was pretty excited.

It was just a wonderful Christmas. We were able to bring Gibson home on Christmas Eve, about 24 hours after he was born, because he and Teri were both doing so well. This was great because it meant that Teri and I could be home with McKay for Christmas.

McKay has been one of the big surprises of the whole season. He used to be very possessive of Teri, even going so far as to try and push other babies off of Teri's lap when she would hold them just to make sure that she was still "His Mommy." But McKay has been so kind to Gibson. It's actually kind of funny because whenever McKay would first go up to Gibson we would tell him to give Gibby a hug. As soon as he started to hug his brother everyone would go "Awhhhhh. That's so cute." McKay, ever the learning type, then decided that whenever he wanted to see Gibby all he had to say was, "Awhhhhh" and hugging time would commence. It's been good for McKay too because as long as he can see the baby every once in a while and give him a hug, he really doesn't care too much about the baby - meaning he doesn't get jealous.

So this Christmas we're now a family of four. We're sure that it will still take a little while to settle in to our new roles and new responsibilities. (It's funny that last week McKay was a toddler and now we expect him to be a big brother.) But we are confident that everything will work out all right.

We are very grateful for the many miracles we have seen and been a part of this season and we hope that you and yours will be able to experience the joy of this wonderful season as well.

New Baby Update

With Teri's due date fast approaching (Dec 21) and Teri having regular contractions, albeit 30 minutes apart, our doctor has decided that Teri won't have to tough it out too much longer. Teri is scheduled to be induced on December 23 in the morning.

We'll keep you posted, but in the meantime if you wouldn't mind thinking positive thoughts so that Teri can go into labor on her own before then we'd be appreciative.

Tennis League (Happy Anniversary)

I just finished the regular season portion of the 7 week long winter tennis league. My partner Jared and I played pretty well. We only dropped one set the entire 6 weeks. It didn't look like that at the start of the season though. While we had played in the spring league, both of our jobs had us pretty busy during the summer and fall and by the time we played our first match in October, I was feeling like Lightning McQueen - the spokesman for Rust-eze medicated bumper ointment. Everything just felt a little bit off.

Fortunately, we were able to play regularly after that first match and things seem to be falling into place. The unlucky part of the story is that although we're 6 -0 in league play, we'd really rather be playing in the division we belong in - even if that meant having a mixed record. Our last stint in the Mesa league featured us playing teams really close but just not being able to finish. So even though we were tied for 5th after the regular season, a coin flip left us in the 7th -8th place game where we won handily to avoid last place. But the league doesn't reward close finishes and so even though we had at one point defeated the team that ended up winning that league, we were demoted to a mixed league that included two teams who were pretty good and two teams who weren't very good.

All in all it is fun to be playing tennis again. It reminds me of when Teri and I were dating. I had signed up to be in the Mesa league with a law school friend and we were playing in the 4.0 league. 4.0 is a tennis term for a good but not great tennis player. Truthfully, we were over seeded and most matches weren't even competitive as we lost again and again. The one match we won that season was the first match Teri attended.

The week before that match, Teri and I had just started dating. I was leaving to go up to Utah to see my brother Russ off on his mission to Maine. Teri and I were getting to know each other and we had some definite mutual interest in one another. The night before I left I had decided that I was going to kiss Teri prior to my trip - leaving her yearning for me the whole time I was gone. It was a clever plan, but it didn't work out the way I'd hoped.

As Teri says now, she knew something was up that night and she was terrified that it meant I wanted to kiss her. The problem was Teri had never kissed anyone - at least willingly. One of her old boyfriends tried to kiss her and Teri made him regret it. Poor Teri was a conflicted young woman. While she liked the thought of being in love, she was terrified of the physical attraction and the kissing that came with it. All night, Teri rebuffed me. We'd cuddle and then she'd break away to get or do something. In her mind she was just to delay the inevitable kiss.

Finally, towards the end of the night Teri broke away to the kitchen to get a drink. I followed. I embraced Teri around the waist. She, now feeling trapped and helpless, leaned away rather than in to me. Then she began to shake. At first I thought it was cute. "Teri's probably a bit nervous," I thought. "And she is awfully young so she might not have kissed too many times before." Then her light shaking turned into a trembling. If Arizona had regular earthquakes I might have mistaken her reaction. But even though Teri was obviously nervous to the point of impairment I still figured that only a kiss could ease her tension.

Our foreheads met; our heads started to turn; and just as our lips were about to touch, Teri turned her head to the side and blurted out at the speed of the Micro Machine man, "How many girls have you kissed?" It was like one of those last second shots from beyond the half court line - you figure it won't work but at least it gives you a chance. Teri would have done anything not to kiss me that night. And in this case Teri's prayers were answered.

I told her 6. I thought that was a low number. She was appalled. Quickly recognizing that I had seen her surprised look, Teri tried to make amends by saying, "So am I going to be number 7?"

"Yes Teri. You're going to be number 7," I replied. "But not tonight." No, that night was pretty much done for in romantic terms. I kissed her on the cheek and said my goodbyes.

While I was in Utah I played tennis every day with my dad and brothers. I also talked to Teri a few times on the phone. I had let her borrow my car with the hopes that she could pick me up from the airport and then take me to my tennis match which she ended up doing. That match turned out to be the best I had played in a long time (including since then). Teri saw us win and that's not all. We went back to her apartment after the match and there with no trembling and no awkward questions we had our first kiss.

It's funny that tennis has always been a little more special since then. I guess it's because Teri is special. Happy Anniversary Teri. I love you.

Tag! I'm it.

Here are seven things about me (and Teri).

1. Teri and I only went on two official dates before we got engaged. One was to the Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers game, where Teri freaked out when I explained infield defensive shifts by "drawing" a baseball diamond on her leg near her knee with my finger. Our second date was going on the paddle boats at Tempe Town Lake. The rest of the time Teri and I would just be with each other doing exciting things like watching the 2004 Olympic coverage every night, swimming, and playing Texas Hold 'em - where Teri would eat all of my high dollar chips (Starbursts).

2. If given the opportunity I will pump gas into my car exclusively from Pump #11 regardless of gasoline brand or station. I will use any other gas pump number if a) Pump #11 is broken, b) someone is already using Pump #11, c) I feel like I'm getting too neurotic for my own good or d) if Pump #11 is the diesel pump, ethanol pump, or something else that would ruin my car. I'm not particularly sure why I started doing that other than 11 has been my lucky number since before I left on my mission on August 11 and most good things have happened to me either in sets of 11 or on the 11th.

3. I am a sucker for certain TV shows - some good, some bad. For instance, I think it's funny when people ask me "Did you ever see the episode of the Office when..." because they should know that not only have I seen the episode, I own the DVD...and a Dwight K. Shrute bobblehead.

I also am planning a big get together of fellow Children of the 80s on January 6, 2008 because - yep, you guessed it - the new version of American Gladiators comes out on NBC. I'm still not sure about the blonde guy in front.

4. In 6th grade I was the student body president of Horizon Elementary School.


Apparently believing that the student body president actually meant something I tried my best to be active in the school politics. Looking back I suppose I was fairly successful. For instance, when the Principal cancelled the annual 6th graders vs. Faculty softball game because, as she announced it, "the faculty wasn't interested," I conducted my own poll of the faculty and found 12 teachers who were willing to play but had never been asked about it. I took my findings to the Principal (and the 6th grade teachers) and the game was reinstated. Unfortunately, there were 90+ 6th graders who signed up to play so I batted 77th. I never got up but I was happy that we had gotten to play. By the way, 6th grade won 11-7.

5. My top 5 radio stations are: Alternative Rock, News / Conservative Talk Radio, Hip-Hop, Top 40 of the past few decades, and Sports Talk Radio. It's kind of eclectic, but so are my tastes.

6. Teri and I have been married for three years come December 16th. Teri has been pregnant for half of our marriage.

7. When I graduated from BYU in 2003 and decided to go to Arizona State for law school I was heartbroken about leaving BYU right before the glory days of football began. Back then everyone was excited about the prospects of Ben Olson and Ofa Mohetau returning the Y to its prime form. Of course, now we know that the 2003, 2004, and 2005 seasons weren't that great; Ben Olson went to UCLA; and Ofa Mohetau transferred to Texas Tech and then disappeared.

As it turns out, ASU didn't work out too bad for me and I really didn't miss good BYU football because of law school. Now I just miss BYU football because the mtn. has adopted the Copper Hills High School motto. "We aspire to mediocrity...someday."

Tag You're It:
Andrea (Frost Yourself), Dallas, Scott and/or Heather, Matt, Jeremy & Brittaney, and Kristen.

Headed to Hospital (Updated)

I've been working on my tag response for a few days now but I can't seem to break away from Teri for 10 minutes to finish it. We are now heading to the hospital. Looks like I won't finish it tonight either.

More details to follow.

UPDATE:

Teri was having contractions about 4 minutes apart from 5:30-ishish until 7:30-ish but they weren't that severe. Then from 7:30 until 8:30 she started having contractions 3 minutes apart but still not too severe. So we went to the hospital. Although Teri had contractions in the wheelchair up to triage, once she got into the hospital bed they stopped - on a dime. Teri had one contraction in 20 minutes, but she had dialated to a 2. They took her off the monitor (so of course she immediately had a contraction) and sent us home. Teri's now had contractions all night, but they are inconsistent still.

We'll see how things go.

Pre-Halloween Thanksgiving

Perhaps this isn't the most timely of posts (seeing as though it is just after Thanksgiving), but it is a funny story nonetheless. Teri's cousins invited us down to Sierra Vista just before Halloween for Thanksgiving dinner. After quickly perusing Wikipedia to confirm that F.D.R.'s fourth Thursday in November rule was still in effect, I began to ask, "Isn't it still October?"

It was. But actually Teri's aunt, uncle, and cousins were being very accomodating and were trying to have their big family get together (aka Thanksgiving dinner) at a time when Teri can still travel. Actually, at a time when Teri and Britney, our sister-in-law who is due the same day as Teri (Dec 21), could travel. Still, it is a little unsettling to be having all the Thanksgiving goods like turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and Cheez Whiz before you've even gone trick-or-treating.

Thanksgiving weirdness aside, I enjoyed my first stop in Sierra Vista. I saw the Wheel of Progress, something that can only be described as the poor man's perpetual motion machine monument. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I wanted to get one, but at the time I pulled of the road to figure out what the heck the thing was, Teri was pretty hungry and wanted to get home and eat. (I know - let's get our priorities straight.)

I also went to the Sierra Vista mall. McKay had lots of fun romping on the plastic/foam rubber tree in the playground area. His frustration was while the tree had two "slides" (basically the foam rubber went down at a 45 degree angle) there weren't any stairs to get up. For the bigger kids it was a problem. But McKay could not get up there despite his toddler stregth. So I spent my time there heaving him around.

All in all it was pretty fun. Teri and I even started to get into the Thanksgiving mood when we stopped for gas. This gem in Sierra Vista isn't quite the pilgrims and the indians, but it's pretty close. Here's Teri and the pilgrim,


Tad and the Indian,


McKay and his nap.

Funny things I have actually heard lately

These are actual thing I have heard recently. I think they are either silly or very silly.

1) The Writers' Guild of America is on strike. These are the guys who write the scripts for most all televisions shows and movies so you'd think they'd be pretty clever when it came to writing some kind of striking chant. They came up with,

"Eva Longoria -we write the storia."

Yes, I'm being serious. I guess I now know why it is that I have a hard time finding much of any television worth watching. Although, for the sake of the Office and Chuck, I hope the strike ends soon.

2) Arizona is growing like crazy and people are trying to figure out how to keep the growing transportation problem at bay. One suggestion has been to build a series of toll roads. As I was watching the local news one man they interviewed thought that they should just turn the HOV lane into a toll road because, "Everytime I drive on the freeway I am stuck in traffic and the people who are carpooling keep wizzing by. It's obvious that this system [the HOV lane] is not working."

Ok, I get it. If the car pool lane were as clogged with traffic as the rest of the freeway then it would be working right?

I have some more, but these were my top two.

Live from the Turkey Bowl

Ah, the Turkey Bowl. Who doesn't love a game with 17 wide receivers facing off against 15 cornerbacks and two safeties? Today's Turkey Bowl ended up being standard 14 vs. 14 football with no offensive line so not quite the full effect but still enough to be fun. We still decided to divide up and play 7 on 7 with two different fields.

Final tallies:

Games 1 and 2

Davis, Tad: [Offense] 2 receptions out of 2 intended passes (100%), 45 yards, 2 first downs

End of offensive highlights

(Yeah, not a whole lot of action offensively)

[Defense] 1 touchdown saving interception (which complements my 1 near Pick-6 which I wasn't able to intercept which led to an opposing team touchdown)

6 "tackles" (which really means I just got the guy's flag), 4 solo

5 quarterback hurries, 1 pressure sack (I can't really count it as a sack because right as I was about to pull the quarterback's flag he fell down)

End defensive highlights

Halloween 2007

Ugh...Halloween 2007.

Much as we tried to get all geared up for McKay's first Halloween as a mobile person, things just weren't quite working out our way. For all the ambitious plans we started out with, everything seemed to be converted to a Plan B, C or even Plan R.

For starters, our original Halloween costume ideas were, well, awesome! McKay was going to be the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. I was hoping for something cooler like everyone being Snap, Crackle, and Pop, but Teri was convinced that the Scarecrow costume would be adorable and so I relented. My costume - which apparently will be for the Halloween 2008 extravaganza - was the ever topical and relevant, Hamburglar. So cool. Teri hadn't decided on a costume, and being pregnant limited some of her options so she was going to be a Rubik's Cube - also a funny, topical costume.

But after making our grandiose plans, we got caught up in the storm of life. Teri has been doing her student teaching this semester and she has to teach full time for 6 consecutive weeks. That has been really hard on her physically. All the standing and walking has just worn her down a little bit. She does love teaching, which was a good thing to find out, but I think she will be very happy when she can just take a break and be home with McKay. The student teaching put a crimp in our plans as Teri simply didn't have enough time to make McKay's costume, or my cape. I would have volunteered to make my own cape, but I know how I get along with manual dexterity tasks and I backed away. After all, the Hamburglar costume is a once in a decade costume and it needs sufficient craftsmanship to outclass all the other costumes. Teri's Rubik's Cube also got put on hold for time reasons.

We ended up repeating our previous performances for costumes. I was Woody from Toy Story. Teri was the Chick-fil-A cow. McKay was a monkey.



Besides not being able to finish the costumes, we never got to carve pumpkins. We bought pumpkins. We even put them on our porch. McKay thinks they're funny and likes to try and pick them up, but he can only really get a hold of the little one.

Then there was Halloween itself. We went to our ward's trunk or treat. It featured a chili cook-off which was interesting. I'm sure the good people at Hormel would be proud of how many votes their chili from a can received. While the chili cookoff didn't have its usual sizzle, the trunk or treat proved to be pretty fun. McKay got up close and personal with a horse. He liked it.

After we got back from our trunk or treat we still had some time for trick or treaters so we popped in a movie and waited for the masses to arrive. As it turned out we only had 10 total. But get this - 4 of the ten came twice. And not only that, but I wanted to unleash some Halloween shock and awe on those kids.

The problem stemmed from the fact that when I was a trick-or-treater I always liked it when adults would allow me to select my candy of choice. That way I could acquire the right mix of candy and make sure that my mom's "taxes" didn't mean I was left without a Snickers. So naturally as an adult now I wanted to give that same experience to other kids. But I found out the hard way that some kids these days have no self control.

The first time the four kids came to our door I told them Happy Halloween and then said "You can choose what you would like." To my honest shock the first little boy, probably about 8 years old grabbed a handful of candy, then another. His sister followed suit and found Hot Tamales whereupon the little boy came back - yes, came back - and grabbed some of those too. His other two siblings were far nicer preferring only to grab one handful a piece. It was absolutely shocking! They did this right in front of their mother and she must have not even thought about it because she brought them back again. The second time they came back they each only grabbed 1 additional handful despite me telling them that they could choose whichever piece of candy they would like. Wow.

But I guess Halloween will probably get more fun as McKay (and bro) get bigger. Besides, Teri and I are excited for our first Thanksgiving and Christmas at our own house (largely due to Teri being unable to travel) and for our new baby boy to be born. And in the larger scheme of things that sounds like a lot more fun than Halloween anyway.

McKay Chips a Tooth

McKay is becoming quite the adventurous soul. As his coordination allows him to do increasingly more things, his fear of potential consequences drops dramatically. It's like living with an invincible teenager only without the sass.

Truthfully, we would probably have a little bit of sass from McKay if he had learned how to talk yet. While he has mastered "Mommy," "Dada," "side" (short for outside), and "mallo" (short for marshmallow) talking seems to be about the only thing McKay hasn't tried to already figure out. Within the past two weeks McKay has started opening doors, and drinking from a straw.


And he even figured out how to turn on the dishwasher.



With McKay's ingenuity I'm beginning to think that child labor laws may be a bit outdated. Give McKay a few more months and he could probably earn twice as much as me.

The one concern with all this development is that McKay finds himself in situations above his head. And that's saying something considering he's 36 or 37 inches tall already. (I'm not really sure how tall he is. I tried to measure him with a tape measure as he was sleeping, curled up in the fetal position.) One of those situations has already occurred in what many people are calling McKay vs. the infant car seat.

McKay's friend Sadie came over for a visit and McKay wanted to play in her car seat. But he didn't just crawl in there, he tried to climb in and to the top. Just as we were trying to get over there and catch him the car seat shifted and McKay came crashing down face first into the tile. The end result was that he chipped his front tooth.


While the idea of baby dentures did sound promising at first, we figure that baby teeth just aren't worth whatever it costs to make them appear more cosmetic - or the flight to the Philippines. Plus, the chipped tooth just adds to McKay's personality.

Post Script - Just after I had finished typing out my thoughts Teri called me downstairs because McKay needed some help. It turns out that McKay might not be ready to enter the workforce after all. His twin cousins were outside playing with McKay when they rushed inside to tell Teri that McKay was eating mud. Of course, it's possible he just has a more refined palate. That's usually what they tell rich people when they like something that no other normal person likes.

Lisa's Wedding

Congratulations to my sister Lisa and my new brother-in-law Tyrel. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple in September and we had the great opportunity to be up there and share that experience with them. It's always fun to go to weddings, particularly weddings for family. The only weird part was that Lisa Davis is now Lisa Clark. I suppose I knew that was coming but it is still weird to not have a Lisa Davis anymore.

On the bright side, Russ is dating a Lisa. My Dad has already dubbed her "LT" - short for Lisa Two. I figure that name is good for at least a little while. But if Russ ever marries a Lisa (I don't want to put any undue pressure on this particular Lisa) I figure her new name should be L2D2 - kind of like Lisa Davis the second, but cooler. Besides, who wants to be named after the NFL's most prominent rusher when they could be named after some deuterium lamp?

Anyway, it has been reported that Lisa and Tyrel have settled into married life quite nicely and it looks like things are going splendidly. As you can see below, Tyrel is a quick study at roles in marriage - we took this picture at McKay's birthday party just two days after the happy couple wed.



The wedding itself was fun. As was the trip up there. McKay got to wear his cool sweater vest, play with Grandpa, and sit in the good chairs.

He also got to repeat his impressive hanging out performance. McKay actually did this the first time we brought him to Grandma and Grandpa's new house in May. He was 7 months old then. So even though it's not quite as impressive to see a kid do this right before his 1st birthday, I think it's pretty cool.


Teri pulled off her first ever practical joke by telling Amy's friend Dane that the new mini watermelons came complete with edible rinds. Dane, apparently forgetting that only horses eat those things, took a big bite. But I wasn't able to get a picture so he graciously took another bite. Kudos.


In closing, Teri and I would just like to wish many happy returns to our sister Lisa and new brother Tyrel. Mazal Tov!

McKay's Post

Hi, my name is McKay and this is my first blog post.

Daddy said that he would let me post something for my birthday. But then Daddy got mad at me and took away my posting privilege because I had one too many temper tantrums that day. I looked kind of like this.

But I promised that I would be really good on the way home from Utah and I slept the entire plane ride leaving Mommy and Daddy free to listen to some music and read a book. So, as a reward, Daddy is letting me post. I'm really excited.

I like animals. All kinds really. I even like to get up close to them as long as they don't make any sudden movements or sounds.

I love slides. Going down is fun, but trying to climb up is better. I still haven't figured out how to walk up the slide, but I'm working on it.

I love swings too!

But I'll only go on the big swing if Grandpa takes me.

I don't really like TV. Mom tries to make me watch the Smurfs with her, but I'm just not sold yet. I'd rather listen to Josh Groban, Guster, or Hannah Montana. Of course, who wouldn't want to listen to Hannah Montana?

Well, I better go. Mommy's got some bananas for me and I love my bananas.

This and That Volume II

We still have more things that we we need to catch everyone up on so here they come.

Boys and their Noise(s)

McKay has recently become aware that all animals make noises and he has been very eager to share this discovery with us. McKay just has one problem. Every animal we see now, be they stuffed, real, big, small, feathered, finned, desert-dwelling, or Antarctic based, they all make the same sound. They all growl. And not just any growl. McKay has a very deep throat based growl that also leads to the expectation of expectoration. Rrrrraaaawwwwr. If I can ever capture him doing it on video it would be worth a post. But noises appear to be the one area where McKay is camera shy.

Davis Family - Bowling Champs 2008

For quite a few years now my family has faced off against the Lang family on December 31 in our annual New Year's Eve bowling championship. This started way back before any of the kids from either family were married. Eventually the Langs went out and bought a "travelling" trophy for the bowl off. Unfortunately, putting travelling in quotations marks is appropriate. In the history of the bowling championship only the Langs have won.

Much of the Davis family bowling problems can be attributed to a lack of personal training by some of our team members. Unfortunately, Lisa and Amy have had a history of bowling like this lady.



Notice that she actually threw the ball into one gutter and then the ball made it all the way to the other gutter without hitting any pins.

Now that members of both families are married, the new spouses have become critical in enhancing our bowling average. We tried to get Lisa to marry this guy, but she fell in love with Tyrel. And despite my prodding about Tyrel's bowling scores, Lisa kept those a secret before she married him. Here's hoping he can beat out Lisa's high - 47.

But it looks like 2008 could be the Davis' year! Teri and I were very pleased that we can up our training regimine because we know live super close to a bowling alley. That and we try to get in at least 2,000 frames a week on the Nintendo Wii bowling game. (For a well-produced and very funny look at a senior citizen Wii bowling tournament, click here.) So watch out Langs - you're trophy may be travelling soon.

Tad & Teri Get Callings

Tad just got out of the Elders Quorum presidency where he'd been for the last 3 years so he was very excited when he got an opportunity to grow in a new way - in the elders quorum presidency. Yup, I kind of feel like the Juan Pierre of elders quorums. (No, not in the sense that I only produce 25% of the time and only in non-clutch situations - although we are similar in the fact that we both need a 5th grader to relay a ball from the outfield into the infield.)

Actually, Juan Pierre has the longest streak of consecutive games played in the major leagues at 434, (see bottom of article for details). I mean, I'm sure there's a Cal Ripken of Elders Quorum presidencies - the guy who long ago spent the 35 years in the presidency in one capacity or another and now holds the record. But I feel like I'm on my way. Truth be told, I'm holding out to be called to the nursery - or the ward flyer maker.

Teri, on the other hand, is excited at the prospect of being in the Relief Society each Sunday. She was called to be on the Enrichment Committee over personal preparedness. Apparently, the Primary tries to snag every new person in the ward and does a pretty good job too. But Teri had made a couple of friends in the Relief Society Presidency and they called dibs. It took them a few weeks to figure out a calling, but Teri is excited about it.

Finally, McKay Loves Music

McKay loves singing and music in general. Regardless of his mood, if you will sing to him he starts to calm down. If you play Josh Groban for him, he's silent within seconds. But finding good McKay songs can be difficult. So, I'll leave you with my personal favorite song to sing to McKay. It's a blast from the past - a song that I loved as a kid - and features two of my favorite childhood heros, Ernie and Lefty the (Crooked) Letter Salesman.

Uni-Watch

I've been saving this post since sometime in late June, allowing the topic of college football to slowly simmer back up to the surface. And here it is, September and we are now already in the middle of the season. It's a perfect time to bring up one of my favorite time destroying activities...evaluating uniforms.

For those of you new to this type of keen evaluation, there are a boatload of resources to help ease you in. In fact, ESPN online actually pays a guy to write a column about uniforms that appears every once in a while. In addition, he has his own blog which is updated more frequently. Based on the time and effort he puts in to evaluating uniforms, I wonder if he does it full time.

Anyway, my post stems from a list released in June from Sports Illustrated giving their top 10 best and worst uniforms. They came up with the list after Oregon State announced their snazzy new duds.



All in all I thought the list was a little silly. For example, SI lists Michigan on their best dressed and Delaware on their worst dressed. Huh? Did they same guy/team of editors work on these projects? The other funny one was their inclusion of Yale.



I guess no one bothered to look at BYU?

The one thing I did think SI got right, which to me should be unanimous across the globe, is that the Oregon Ducks have the worst uniforms ever. One of my favorite photoshopped pictures has Oregon ties. Here is the latest in Oregon fashion. Notice the chubby fellow second from the left. He's no lineman. Actually, he's in his costume carefully photoshopped to show us all what the movie Tron would have looked like if it would have been shot in Oregon.


Anyway, evaluating uniforms is fun. Or at least can be if you have nothing else to do. With that being said, I'll leave you all with my all time favorite football photo with newspaper caption. Here's to you Marquis Weeks and your uncanny gift of description.

Mr. Weeks had just scored a touchdown on a 100 yard kickoff return and was pretty excited talking to the newspaper. His exact quote, in case you can't quite read it from the newspaper, "That was just instinct. Kind of like running from the cops." Awesome.

Have a great college football season and go Cougars!

McKay's First Cardinal (StL) Game

Teri and I took McKay to the baseball game on Friday night to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Arizona Diamondbacks. We were all pretty excited because who doesn't want to go see a baseball game between two teams competing for the playoffs? Plus, seeing Albert Pujols in person is just plain fun.



The one problem with our plan was that the baseball game starts at 6:40 PM and McKay goes to sleep at about 6:30 PM. The good news was that we talked to McKay about it and he seemed fine going to bed way past his bedtime. He was even more excited when we told him that Smashmouth was performing after the game. He's wanted to go to a rock concert for a while now.


In the end, the game was a lot of fun to attend. Despite the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals lost, Teri and I were happy just to be there. After all, going to see the St. Louis Cardinals play is the only non-weekly thing I have done every year since moving to Arizona in 2003. Thus, this game proved to be my fifth year anniversary of seeing the Cardinals play. Having McKay there just made things more fun. He made really good friends with the old couples in front and behind us. The guy in front was kind of funny, wearing a Smashmouth band jersey to the game. Then behind us we had one couple who would cheer so loud it spooked McKay and the other couple who spent 75% of their time at the game trying to get McKay to pay attention to them.


The lone downside to the game was that some maroon sat in front of Teri and me for a while wearing his cowboy hat and skinny jeans. (See the top photo in that article for a rough version of what we saw or if you are interested in skinny jeans you can read more here.) For two innings Teri could only see the batter and I could only see the pitcher. Without consulting each other, we both thought about asking him to remove his headgear. The problem was that everyone in our section kept talking to the guy saying "Hi Cowboy, " etc. Because we had gotten our tickets for free from our cousin we figured we didn't want to interrupt a bunch of season ticket holders greeting each other, especially if they all knew him as a cowboy and we were asking him to remove his cowboy hat. In the end, we elected to not say anything and eventually he left.

So after the game wraps up we hear the cheering lady ask the guy in the Smashmouth jersey in front of us, "So, you're a big fan of the band huh?" I thought this question was kind of funny seeing as though Smashmouth was only really popular in the late 90s and early 2000s and here you have one 60+ woman asking another 60+ year old man if he's a big fan of the band. But as it turns out, he's not just a big fan of the band, he's the drummer's dad. So you know what that means, the guy with the cowboy hat wasn't a season ticket holder, he's a rockstar. I guess we should have asked him to take off his hat, but then again we probably wouldn't have been able to get this cool picture.

Next time we head to Chase Field, we'll just tell them we're with the band...or at least the band's parents.

This & That Volume I

During the past few weeks while we have been absent from our blog a lot of things have been going on. Here is our attempt to quickly update you on our adventures.

A few weeks ago, Teri and I stopped by the burned section of our subdivision to see how the rebuild was going. It all looks really good, and the burned houses are going back up quite nicely. But the big surprise was that there were three foxes hanging around in the grassy park area. They were pretty cool and even let us get somewhat close to them to take pictures.

McKay can walk. Actually, that is pretty much all he does anymore. He gave up crawling because he can't get around fast enough to chase his cousins.


***************
A few weeks ago, McKay was really upset and it looked like he was teething. We had always heard that the eye teeth were the worst and those were the next ones for McKay. But no eye teeth showed up for a week. And then we discovered McKay has a molar coming in. He now has three molars and no eye teeth. One of our dental friends informed us that some people never get their eye teeth. We'll see how that one works out for K, but the internet has provided hope. This website says that you will get molars before your eye teeth. I should probably ask my brother the dental student to make sure, but then again when has the internet ever been wrong?
*************

Our new ward has been very welcoming. In fact, they invited me out to play basketball one Saturday. They must have figured they had nothing to lose, because after all, I am shorter than everyone else there. But they let me play anyway. I was pretty rusty. Although I made good decisions and cuts to the basket, I could not make a layup. I think I went 1 for 30. I kept getting steals or fast breaks but just couldn't convert. It was terrible. I finally started passing up an open layup to kick it out to a guy behind the three point line. Sounds like my deacon's basketball team all over again. But next time will be better. Thank you Lenny Wilkens!

*************

Teri's student teaching is going really well. She loves Moutain View and it seems like they really like her. Everything is a positive, except for the chair she gets to sit in. The funny thing is that Mountain View has amazing resources for their students. There is a math lab with computers for those students. They had lots of cool gadgets and programs to use at the board. But then they give their teachers these hard metal chairs to sit on. Well, Teri couldn't take it anymore and new baby was making her ache way too much, so we got her a new chair. It's the best deal you can find. Yet another reason we like Ikea.

*************

Because I feel bad that we haven't been active on the blog for so long I wanted to give you a freebie of sorts. So here is some legal advice. Take it for what you paid for it and realize that I wouldn't actually rely on this advice, but hopefully somewhere down the road it will come in handy.

#1) If you are ever charged with a crime hire a lawyer.

#2) If you decide not to hire a lawyer do not ask the judge to address you by your alias.

#3) When cross examining expert witnesses, do your homework. That may include thinking back to 9th grade biology before you ask something like "So sperm can't come from a female?"

#4) If you decide to put on a defense, don't just repeat the same eight questions six times a piece to ten different witnesses. It gets old and repetitive.

#5) Finally, don't ever admit that you don't care what the jury thinks about you and your case. Even if that's true and you're consigned to going to prison for the rest of your life, don't tell everyone. That just makes the trial MORE frustrating.

By the way, you can not follow my advice and get convicted on all 16 counts of criminal activity.

***********

Our last tidbit, Teri now works with me for CVLAP. She will be working something like 2 hours a week helping out with the grants. Yep, it looks like everyone in my family will begin working for CVLAP. We'll see how soon until McKay gets hired.

***********

Again, sorry for the absence. The house is finally coming along and so we should have a bit more time to dedicate to letting you all know what is going on. Pictures to come soon.

We really still are here.

Sorry for absence on the blog. We have not gone all isolationist. Actually, we moved into the new house a few weekends ago, but due to some wiring confusion the internet was not accessible on our desktop. That obviously has now been corrected.

Stay tuned for more fun updates.

Happy Pioneer Day Harry Potter

As some of you might know the 24th of July is a state holiday in Utah - Pioneer Day. The state uses that day to honor the Mormon Pioneers who settled the Great Salt Lake Valley. Interestingly those celebrations are not limited to Utah. Thatcher, Pima, and Safford in southeastern Arizona, as well as a few other Arizona communities farther north, also celebrate the 24th of July. Like in Utah, the Gila Valley 24th celebration often gets just as big or bigger than the 4th of July holiday and some residents are puzzled when they find out that the 24th isn't a national holiday.

Coming from Utah myself I was excited to go to the Thatcher 24th celebration because Teri had talked it up a lot. We had never been able to go in prior years because we had either 1) been in Utah, or 2) been taking the bar exam. 2007 looked like it was going to be the perfect opportunity to head down to Thatcher and enjoy in the small town festivities - that was until the monsoon hit.

Rain cancelled the parade which was too bad because I was looking forward to the scripture study float. While I have yet to see the float reliable sources tell me that there is a truck with people sitting in the back reading scriptures all along the parade route. Man, and I thought that the Murray 4th of July parade was awesome! There's nothing like the engine roar of a Pinto, which comprises 2/3 of the Murray parade.

After the rain started we figured all wasn't lost as McKay had never seen a rainstorm. As you can tell, McKay had a lot of fun. So did Mommy.


In the end, we were going to go see the firework show they put on, but McKay fell asleep and Teri gave in to the temptation of reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Actually, she had her Dad go out and buy another copy of the seventh book (because ours had been delivered to our address in Mesa while we were in Thatcher) so that she could read. The funny thing was that despite our three year wait to celebrate the 24th of July in the Gila Valley, we all just ended up celebrating Harry Potter. That weekend I read Books 1 and 2 and half of 6; Teri finished 6 and read 7; Teri's Dad read 7; and Teri's Mom read half of 7. Oh well, there's always next year...or three years from that.

One real highlight of the trip was that Grandma got to give McKay his first haircut. As you can see he kind of needed it. This was him a few days before we went up to Thatcher.


This is McKay taking his bath to keep him occupied while he gets his haircut.


We'll see if this means the end of McKay's prodigious Sampson-like strength.

Announcing......

A new baby BOY. Thanks to all those who voted in our poll. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell me who voted for what so I cannot personally congratulate those who picked BOY. Nevertheless, you should feel proud of yourselves because after all, you went out on a limb and stuck it out with the minority of voters, but were vindicated in the end.

We are still not sure about a name. One option would be to auction off the naming rights to the highest bidder on eBay. I think the last time someone did that they made at least a couple thousand dollars. How about Random House Davis?

Or Coke Davis?

Or even Chili Davis?

Lots to think about. Which give me an idea for a new poll. What should new baby's name be? Stay tuned for your chance.

Burning Updates

Some of you may be wondering what is going on with our house. Some of you may be studying for the bar, preparing to get married, preparing for a reception, moving into a home, or trying to figure out how Legos work, in which case the following update may not be for you -- at least right now.

The house is coming along quite well. It's be fun to watch the house go from framing all the way to completion. The picture above is the house about a week after we went and just saw the concrete pad it was built on. The picture below is our house two weeks ago.

We have been very excited about the progress of construction and it looks as if now everything is almost done. Below we have a bunch of photos from our last outing over there.

But now here's the hangup. As much as we would like to close on our house, and as much as our builder would like to close on the house and get paid, Karma seems to think otherwise. Originally, we were supposed to close on July 11th or thereabouts. But the county had yet to approve our drainage system for the subdivision and so everyone was put on hold.

Then the fires started. On July 5th, 3 houses just barely in the framing process were burned down. Then on July 10th, 10 more houses fell victim to arson. Fortunately, our house was not affected. It stands in the portion of the community that is currently done. All the fires occured in homes that were still being framed. Still it is a great cause for concern, especially considering that the next area of the subdivision to go into framing is the area that abuts our finished portion.

But it appears as though there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Our builder just called and said that we will be able to close on our house sometime before July 31. We haven't had a fire there for 8 days now. And best of all, Teri's already made most of the curtains.

So stay tuned for the latest news and enjoy the pics below.

Here Teri, her brother David, and her sister Julie inspect the kitchen, while Merilee inspects the carpet behind them. The fridge will go right behind Teri in the open space beneath the cabinet.

Ellie was checking out our master bedroom/bathroom. The bathroom doesn't have a door, but it does have a nice archway. Ellie really liked the cardboard strips they laid out to walk around in the house.

Merilee and McKay love the new stairs. McKay climbed up the stairs 3 or 4 times in the 20 minutes we had over at the house just looking around. We were holding him the rest of the time.

The real danger here is that McKay is great at going up, but still hasn't figured out how to get down. Like a poor boxer, McKay likes to lead with his chin.