Last Monday Lily came down with a nasty cold that kept Ash and I up with her while she battled a 102 degree temperature.  Tuesday night, Noah came down with the same and Ash and I got it Wednesday and man, was it nasty.  Ash was all better Thursday, but then it came back again for her on Friday, but I was down for the count until Sunday.

I am not afraid to admit that I am a big sissy when it comes to being sick.  I don’t take not feeling well good at all, and my wife will be the first one to admit it.  My poor wife, she puts up with so much.  Noah is just like me in that he is very whiny when he is sick.  Poor little guy. Two nights ago I had him at the table to eat and he had a temperature.  He wouldn’t eat and just sat there making little whimpering noises.  He wouldn’t answer when spoken to and only responded when I tried to take his hot dog bites that he wouldn’t eat.  He didn’t like that.

Lily, she is just like Ashley.  You almost wouldn’t even know she was sick.  She hardly complains about it and still can pretty much take care of herself.

Noah and I can’t do anything for ourselves.

Oscar somehow has managed to avoid getting sick, even after brushing his teeth with my toothbrush.  I didn’t realize he had been doing this until last night, otherwise I wouldn’t have been letting him do that.

Yea, I know.  It has been confirmed, I am a slacker.  Not only did I not post pictures, neither did I make the video I told myself I would make.  oh well, another day another dolla, foo.

Well, tonight, we put up the Christmas tree (I know, it is late) and put the kids to bed late, and now we are staying up, watching movies and eating all the candy that was probably supposed to be for the kids that came from Grandma Koertge.  If you read this, thanks, Grandma, for the box of gifts.  Let me just say, your story that you wrote was awesome.  It was inspirational to say the least. 

Anyway, back to KitKats and movies.

Our trip to Utah was awesome.  When we had left, I had the intention of making a “vlog” of the entire adventure and got off to a pretty good start, but I grew comfortable with not having to work much with technology while I was away.  Daily, I spend at least 8 hours on a computer, but usually it is more like 12 hours or more.  I’m note sure what everyone else is doing (except spending a lot of time doing it), but I have still yet to find a quick way to manage video.  When doing heavy editing, I can’t seem to beat 4 hours for every 1 minute of finished video, and with light editing it is about 1 hour for every 1 minute of finished video.  sheesh!

back on topic.  Salt Lake City was awesome.  I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing so much historical stuff.  It truly was something to behold to be in buildings that were over 150 years old and still structurally sound.  It was cool to see so much cultural heritage.  To look at the Salt Lake temple and think about how they could have possibly built it 150 years ago is amazing.

We’re in Salt Lake City, UT. Ashley and I, that is. Well, correction again. Ashley her mom and I. We left Panama City early this morning, flew through Atlanta and then a 3.75 hour flight to the great Salt Lake Valley. Sharon’s going on a mission with church to Poland and we traveled here with her to show her off, she’ll be back in 18 months.

The flight from Atlanta was long and short at the same time. Just when you accept it’s a long flight and settle into a good book, this flight attendant’s announcing that we’re beginning our descent. Then there’s the TV. TV on a plane? I guess I haven’t flown on a big plane in a while. When did they get those? The passengers had around 10 Dish Network channels free for their viewing pleasure. I had no idea you could see real naked people on A&E. What has our society come to?

We ate at Buca di Beppo, and awesome Italian restaurant. I have to say, I can’t remember a time when I had better Italian. You see, I don’t really like Italian. Whenever I go, I never get something that makes me say “wow, now that’s good.” Tonight I ate way more than I thought I would, and definitely more than I should have. The chicken was perfectly tender, the pasta was the perfect consistency and the blend of flavors was just right. And the salad, wow. I definitely don’t like rabbit food, but man was it good.

And we walked, and walked, and walked. The thing that’s cool about SLC is that everything is a huge grid. Perfect blocks. No funny turns, no bendy roads, nothing. Not in the city anyway. When you want to go somewhere, you walk. That’s cool, tiring, but cool. I have to say, I expected it to be more Mormony. I’m told I’ll get that experience tomorrow in Temple Square. Can’t wait.

This is the first trip that Ash and I have taken together without the kids. Cool but scary. We miss them already, but at the same time welcome the break. It’s only day one, I’m sure it will get harder as we go. Video and pictures to come.

Lily has this thing for animals. I say “thing”, but what I mean is obsession. The first word that she said that was well pronounced was puppy. All animals were puppies. Cats, dogs, cows, horses, fuzzy stuffed animals, you name it.

She’s learned the word “kitty” now. She knows to call the neighbors cat “kitty”, and she is always excited to keep it company.

The other day, Noah was calling me some names, nothing bad, but we try to teach our kids that name calling is not good. We’re not perfect, but we’re working on it. Anyway, Noah started calling me “kid”, “kid”, like it was demeaning or something. Immediately after, Lily looks at me and gets her face right in mine and says “kitty”, “kitty”, copying her brother in her own way.

I just bought a new computer and what with my million applications and gigabytes of files, I stayed up until 3 am getting everything fully operational. Ashley’s got a cold and went to bed early, Oscar was with his dad, and Lily doesn’t usually give us too hard a time when it is time to go to bed. So, it was Noah and I. I could tell he didn’t want to go to bed, so I let him stay up while I worked; and wouldn’t you know it, he didn’t fall asleep until midnight! Like Father like Son. When I was done, I carefully scooped him up off the bean-bag chair he had me carry into the living room to “keep him cool”, and carried him to his bed.

Memories came to mind of when he was a baby. In our new days of marriage, we would let him fall asleep in his rocker. It was that or let him cry for hours in his bed. If we slid him out of his rocker just the slightest wrong way, he would wake, cry, and we would have to start the whole process over again.

As I was carrying him to his room, he stirred a little, but I slowed my pace, and he didn’t wake. He has been known to be quite grouchy if woken in the middle of the night. He’s a boy that doesn’t like to be woken.

A few weeks ago we let him fall asleep in our bed. I carried him to his bed in the middle of the night, and the first thing he said when he woke up was “Daaaaadd, why dyou put me in my bed?”

Today, my big boy Oscar was baptized. It was awesome! I am so proud of my biggest little man. He sets an excellent example for his brother and sister, and I am so thankful that. His charisma and eccentricities are always present, he is absolutely one of a kind. I gave a talk on baptism and asked him about steps he needed to take to make it back to Heaven. ,”Ya need to die”. Although it is a true statement, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I also asked him about being an American and he said,”Well, what if ya have a green card”. I said, “Well I guess that counts.” He is a crazy cat that boy of mine. All of that aside, it was such a fulfilling moment to me to watch my husband baptize my son. I felt so much joy at that moment.

This week was Oscar’s birthday. This is a huge deal. We’re LDS, and the eighth birthday is a huge one because this is when he reaches the “age of accountability” and can make the decision to be baptized.

Ok, on with the party. Pump it Up is awesome. You know those huge blow up bouncy things that come in all shapes and sizes? Picture a warehouse full of them, grown-ups aloud. There were slides, huge bouncy spaces, obstacle courses, and wide open spaces. The employees hosted games that utilized the toys and everyone had a blast.

Oscar was so fast I hardly saw him the whole night. I mostly followed Lily around, she was really the only one between all our kids that was too fast for me. Oscar said it was the best birthday party ever. I think I’m gonna have my party there next year.

Oscar’s been getting into skateboarding. I think he’s pretty good. I’m not sure how he measures up to other kids his age, but he seems to balance pretty well and has an interest in it. He wanted a skateboard so BeBe pitched in and I bought him a skateboard. A real Birdhouse skateboard. Birdhouse is Tony Hawk’s company. Hawk was idolized when I was a kid and he’s still looked up to today. Amazing. He starts scouts and I think we may try to hit the skate park afterward.