Our Life in Vernal

Still alive and surprisingly enough, no kids harmed (other than emotionally). We finally had the internet installed so we are back in the digital age again and our life is finally slowing down a bit.

Most smart people try to do major stressors one at a time, like move, have a baby, and start a new job. Not us, we thought that the “band-aid ripping” effect would be more fun, so we did them at the same time. Now that we are all moved in and settled we can relax a bit and enjoy life.

So far we are liking Vernal very much. It has been somewhat of an adjustment since it is about 20 degrees cooler here than in AZ, but no one has frozen yet.
Our house is beautiful and huge. I get a lot of exercise going up and down the stairs and from one side to the other of the house chasing the kids.


We went to our cousin’s, Felicia wedding last month. Max and Sophia contributed to our preparations to leave by flooding the upstairs bathroom and smearing poop all over the toy room carpet all in the 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave. The house survived but the kids and their parents have some deep emotional scars. Afterwards Sophia stated that she and Max were not in trouble for their misdeeds, she said “ NO DAD we are not in trouble: we’re kids and we’re funny!” We couldn’t argue with that but the duration of those funny kids lives might be significantly shortened if they continue to be that funny.

I am sitting at the computer and holding my baby boy in my arms. It is a very warm thing to do. This is about the only time when he gives any snuggling at all. When he is awake he is straight as a board and has a will of his own. Cuddling Jacob is like cuddling a 2x4. He started to smile recently (mostly associated with various gastrointestinal phenomena) but we love every second of it. Max and Sophia love their baby brother. Max is very soft and gentle with him and tries to be helpful to his mom. Sophia tries to be helpful too mostly by smothering Jake in her very tight grip and intermittently testing his eyes for durability. For those of you who did not receive our baby announcement or those who did not believe their eyes, our Jake’s middle name is Danger and we have the birth certificate to prove it.

I had to post this picture, cause I think it's so cool! Aaron is really good!

Jacob, 1 month old

This is a playground where Aaron played when he was Max and Sophia's age.

That's one poutty Max!

Sophia is dressed to the nines.

Max, Sophia and Jacob Danger fresh from the hospital

IT'S A BOY!

All right folks, our wait is over! After having babies with enormous heads and laboring with them for 24+ hours, I finally got a break and after only 3 really hard pushes monster # 3 decided to present himself to the world and an ecstatic mom and dad. Aaron was on the receiving end and got to catch him. Our beautiful baby boy weighed in at 9 lbs 3oz and 21 3/4 inches long and was born at 11:13 pm with good healthy lungs 10 toes and 11 fingers and three legs.

Mom is feeling good and is getting ready to tackle our next task of unpacking our new house. Dad feels bad because he forgot to bring a copy of Star Wars to the hospital so it could be the baby’s first movie.

We still have one small dilemma. We need a name. Something tough, strong and dangerous. Like Francis maybe? If you have any suggestions please send us a note, The winner of this contest gets a bronzed dirty diaper!!

Thanks for all your support and help.
Love Aaron, Galima, Max, Sophia and ??

And the baby’s name is…

We started driving to Utah on Tuesday at about 4pm. Everything was going great, we made it to Vegas, had a nice dinner and kept on driving. At about Saint George I started having contractions. Oh boy, did it hurt! It was hard to get comfortable sitting in the packed to the brim car and the contractions were only getting stronger. We decided to stop for gas and to empty our bladders. After I got back to the car the contractions subsided and… a miracle we could keep on driving. Everything was going well more or less until we got to Spanish Fork where I started to scream with pain. Max and Sophia were such good sports and kept on consoling me, I think I scared them a bit. Anyway, turned out that instead of rushing to a nearest hospital all I needed was to empty my bladder again. Aaron was really looking forward to doing some major speeding and when he got pulled over use the excuse “my wife is in labor!”. Sorry hun not this time. We are safely in Lehi hanging out at “Grandma’s” house and are going to see our new obstetrician today. We'll keep you posted on any new events.

What comes first our move or the baby?

Aaron came home a week ago and said “Let’s move now, before the baby comes. What do you think?” Of course I did not think much about that idea. I am miserably pregnant! I don’t want to do anything but lie comfortably on the couch with occasional meal being thrown at me. Yet we are moving now. I mean now! Thank goodness we’ve recruited some help, so it should go pretty fast. And Aaron is right, it should be easier to move without a baby on our hands. So we are moving to Vernal, Utah!
The baby, if all goes well, will be delivered in Salt Lake and not somewhere on the side of the road. We’ll have to pack some medical supplies just in case. Keep us in your prayers.

These pictures were taken in Utah while we were looking for a house. Kids were really good sports.


Max is a good packing partner.

the house. it is just a rental for now, but a beautiful one. Aaron is spoiling us, brand new house #3. Come visit us anytime.

Trip to Utah

Sometime in January we visited Utah. We came to do some house hunting, but couldn’t resist stopping at Grandma Susie’s house where we saw our little cousins Briggadie-Brig and Calvin-the-amazing. Aaron also squeezed a snowboarding trip in and we hang out at Grandpa Joe’s for a little while. And of course on the way out of town we stopped at Alia’s and made them late for church. The trip was very productive even though we didn’t buy any houses.

still x-mas

Grandma Susie was brave enough to come and see us in Pinetop and we had a great time. She drove to Kingman with us and did the "Grandma duty" of making cookies with the kids. Thanks Grandma, we sure love you.