rees genre

Davin turned 3 this week, and over the past few weeks we've started to notice that he is recognizing symbols and patterns very well. One of the first I noticed was his ability to recognize all of my sports shirts - the BYU shirt, the Bevo (UT) shirt, and lately the Lakers shirt. He enjoys that one especially because the Lakers are killing the Spurs in the playoffs (he likes to rub it in with Uncle Karl - or at least I do). I mention this because of an incident that stood out for us as we were driving up to visit our friends in NYC this week (we have a lot of catch-up to do on the blog, but hopefully we'll catch up when we get home later this week). Anyway, as we were driving on the freeway Davin was noticing all of the trucks and tractors that he has really loved over the past few months. Dump trucks, tractors, backhoe loaders, excavators, yellow trucks, RVs, and so on. It's fun to spot trucks with him. He managed to catch us off guard though with the Wal-mart truck. It was...

It was 2 am in Merrill Hall (famous dorm in Heritage Halls on BYU's campus) when the idea was hatched. 2 am can have a strange affect on eighteen year-old boy's brains and this night was no different. Chris and his roommate Sean, among other Merrill Hall guys, were discussing the virtues of Marshmallow Mateys (a generic Malt-O-Meal cereal similar to Lucky Charms consisting of puffed oat cereal and marshmallows). The high-minded boys were also discussing the virtues of the Light the Way campaign, BYU's fundraising organization. Somehow, in the misty hours of the night, the idea was born. How many bowls of Marshmallow Mateys can one hall of BYU freshman eat in 24 hours, which boy could eat the most, and what would Malt-O-Meal pay for it? After a series of clever phone calls, the question reached the ear of the right Malt-O-Meal executive who agreed to donate the money and also shoot a commercial from the event. The boys set the date for the event and recruited their hallmates...

We spent the evening at a local minor league baseball stadium. Chris's school hosted a farewell event by renting out the ballpark, providing food, drinks, and a bouncer for the kids. Rowan fell asleep not long after we arrived and Davin spent the majority of the evening in the bouncer. In short, we had a lovely time. It was a nice finale for the many events that we have attended with Chris's classmates; we have had an entertaining experience with the opportunity to make wonderful friends and I know that we will look back on this time with great fondness. It has all happened to quickly and now we stand on the threshold of a phase in our lives when we should probably start acting more like grown-ups. I'm excited for our new house and new life, but I will admit that I'm sad to leave academia. It has been fun to be involved with school and not have to do the homework. I would say that Chris is ready to be done as well, but I think he will miss classes and not having to sit ...

It is an unfortunate thing to be the oldest. Everything that Davin does is new and thus it is unfamiliar territory. I find myself constantly wondering if he is okay, if he is normal, if this pinching phase will continue, if I'm handling his tantrums okay, if I'm fun enough, if I'm too hard on him, if I'm disciplining him enough, etc. There is a fine line between allowing too much and not enough and I'm not sure where it is at. The saving element is being around other wonderful parents who are also blazing the way through the maze of parenting. I think that I should start a young child support group. We would all sit in a circle on folding chairs and someone would start with: "My name is... and I am a parent of a young child." We would share stories about our experiences in this role and a group moderator would ask us about our feelings. Actually, this really does happen, even if it isn't in an official capacity. A few weekends ago, we were late to chur...

In order to include Rowan in our family meal time, I usually hold him in my lap. For a little while now, he would stare at the food on my plate, watching it being shoveled onto the fork and into my mouth. He started reaching for my plate and attempted several times to pull it towards him. Sucking on his lips, he would look up at me and watch me eat. We concluded that perhaps it was time to introduce him to solids. Admittedly, when Davin was his age, I eagerly looked forward to the time in which we would introduce solids to him. I was so excited to see his little face light up when we gave him new flavors to try. Instead, I discovered that solids are a lot of work (though it was fun to watch the little guy try new things); I wasn't in a big hurry to add a new thing on my to do list and thought I would put off introducing solids to Rowan. However, encouraged by his obvious interest, we decided to give it a try. I didn't make much cereal for him because I anticipated that he would...

For those of you who requested more pictures, check out this slideshow: We went back to Charlotte yesterday to do the home inspection, which went well. There are a few minor things that need to be taken care of, but otherwise the house is in good shape.

The business of real estate is a lot of hurry up and wait. We hurried to get our house ready for the market and then we waited, and waited, and waited. We would get a phone call informing us that we had an hour to get the house ready for a showing. Trying to ignore my crying kids, I would blow around the house, making it sparkle. Then we would wait to hear the news that the buyers weren't interested. Tired of waiting, I decided to post an advertisement on craigslist and create a blog to help market the place. I had someone interested in the ad; he came by the condo and I showed it to him. He gave good vibes about being interested, but then we waited again to hear back from him. Last Wednesday, we heard the good news: the buyer made an offer, one that we ultimately accepted. To occupy our minds (and a great deal too much of our time), we spent the interim time looking for the perfect house. We took trips to Charlotte, analyzing location, school, proximity to Chris's office, and ...