Long time, no See

It's been a pretty long time since we posted anything in part to how busy we have been lately. I continue to keep an insanely pace at work and Cynthia has also noticed an increase in patients at the hospital as well. I suppose that when there is an increase in the amount of stress in the community, it naturally trickles down into our respective jobs.

We also have not taken as many picures as we have done in the past as well, although there have been updates. We are also awaiting the ultrasound of the baby next week to determine once and for all the sex of the baby even though we both feel confident in it being a girl.

Today we attended the funeral for Cynthia's grandpa and I guess you could say that's the motivation behind the posting. His death has been anticipated for for about the last month and we took the opportunity to spend time with him before he left. The rest of the pictures are a hodge podge of different ones we have take over the last month.

These are of a program Kalea did at school. Her school does a lot of these sort of activites and we have watch all 3 of them do at least one program.

Kalea's piano recital. I was surprised to see another student who was well into his 50's that was participating. He almost made me want to try it again with 'almost' being the key word.

Our new Addition

For Christmas we promised the kids a kitten. In fact, a neighbor had 2 of them she wanted to give away on Christmas Eve. However, for some reason it fell through so we told the kids we would get one from the animal shelter. Well a month later we finally got around to doing it. We actually got 2 of them because they were in the cage together and we didn't want to split them up. Less than a week after bringing them home the other apparently decided that he was happier on his own and took off. He was sort of skitish anyway and we didn't mind it too much when he left. The kids named the kitten after a former neighbor.

While at the animal shelter I found this bull mastif that I fell in love with. It's probably as tall as me on his hind legs and weighs almost as much. I was surprised when Cynthia expressed interest in getting it. I need to get a house and place situated for it in the back yard before we can bring it home.

Meet our new...Fetus

Cynthia is pregnant and no it's not a joke this time. I swear. Her due date is August 18th and yes we realize how close it is to the family reunion in July. Although we do not know the sex of the baby we are extremely confident that we are having a little girl. Normally we battle back and forth on names for the entire 9 months but we think we have found one in Meli and Cynthia's middle name of Daniela. Initially Cynthia liked Malia but soured on it when she heard that Obama has a daughter by that name. We are also breaking the string of K's that have dominated the family for the last 11 years. I was asked the other day what if we end up having twins, but was assured from the most recent ultrasound there is only 1 in there. Not only are we excited to be having another one, but even more excited that this is the last one. I swear.

Holiday

Today was a holiday and so I decided to take the kids sledding. This first picture is affectionately known as 'granny hill' in Nephi. It's very steep and has several little jumps with a large one at the bottom. If you get enough momentum you can make it all the way to the bottom, up the bank and across the road. It is by far and away the best hill I have ever been down that I didn't have to pay for.

There was another place to go sledding that had several shorter but steeper hills and was only accessible by four wheel drive.

This is the kind of hill that deserves nicknames like 'widow maker' or 'butt buster' or my favorite 'I-think-I just-crapped-my-pants'. I was only able to talk Taylor in in going down it (the others were a bunch of scarety cats). She did it the first time and fell off, so I told her it didn't count. She tried it a second time and made it all the way down without falling off. However as soon as she stopped I could hear her crying. She said her back hurt and her knuckles were bleeding from all of the ice she hit on the way down. If she had worn gloves, it wouldn't of happened I told her. I couldn't believe she did it! I wish I had taken some video of it because she was going so fast! I stood in front of her at the bottom but literally ran out of the way because she was going so fast. All I could think of as she was traveling down the hill was, "Oh man if she gets seriously hurt, Cynthia is going to freak out on me". I was one proud papa today!

Enough!

I finally broke down and bought a snow blower. Actually, I have been teetering on the edge ever since last year. But with the several new storms we have had lately I couldn't (wouldn't) do it any more. I started shoveling Saturday morning and quit half way through because I was sick of it. I used to enjoy shoveling snow because it was a 'good workout' and it doesn't snow enough to justify the cost of buying one. However, we now have enough property and snow plus the workout and cold are grossly overrated.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve 2008 was held at the Cope estate and hosted by Rich and Angela. It was a black tie event that began promptly at 6:30. Hors d'oeuvres and champaign were served while guests mingled among one another. It was followed by a 7 course meal in the dining room and ended with dancing in the West Ballroom. The evening ended sometime after midnight...
Dude. Dave. I'm pretty sure you missed her mouth and it doesn't look like she wants you anyway. Better luck next year.

I hadn't been feeling well all days and eventually fell asleep around 11. What scared me the most about the evening is that 20 or so kids between the ages of 0-11 were able to stay awake past midnight without the use of any legalized stimulants. Not only that but when midnight came around the became even crazier than they had up to that point.

For most of the evening we played Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I learned that I suck at the singing part but not too shabby with the drums.

Now where did those keys go...

As I was getting ready for work I found some of Keanu's handywork. I told Cynthia she had to pull it out because there was no way in hell I was touching it. He ended up doing it one other time and how he didn't get hurt either time is beyond me.