One Year Later

Well, believe it or not, Dan and I have been married for a whole year!!! :) Life can change a lot in such a small amount of time. James is probably our biggest change, and we couldn't be happier about having him in our family. :) Dan and I were able to celebrate our anniversary with help from my bother Mike and his wife Elise who babysat and my parents who stored the top of our wedding cake for a whole year. I must admit, I was impressed, the cake actually tasted like a normal, fresh cake. It was actually good! I think whomever ended up wrapping it up for us did an amazing job, there wasn't any freezer burn. That was also the first chance we got to try our wedding cake. The piece we cut at our reception was mostly frosting. Here is a picture of the cake, as well as the flowers that Dan surprised me with. He got the same lilies that were in my bouquet. :)

Loving the Madness

As you probably know, both Lisa and I are big college basketball fans. Thus, March is a very fun time with the NCAA tournament going on. Every year, everyone in my family fills out a bracket, and we see who does the best. It's a lot of fun since, with all the unexpected upsets, it seems that those who don't follow sports at all seem to beat those who do. It's fun just watching lots of basketball and enjoying all the craziness that is March Madness.

This year, we helped James fill out his very first bracket. We decided that we would lay him on his stomach, and then base his picks off of which leg he kicked. When I did the first region, it ended up with Ohio St. in the Final Four. I thought maybe his picks would turn out to be pretty good. Well, then the next region had him with Bucknell in the Final Four. Somehow I didn't see that happening. He ended up with Georgetown and Butler as his other 2 teams, with Butler beating Bucknell in the title game. As I was filling out his picks, I was very disappointed to find that he picked BYU to lose in the 1st round. Lisa and I have determined that we need to increase our BYU brainwashing a little more.

Well, then Thursday came around, and it was time for the tournament and all the fun to begin. While Lisa and I both started missing picks right away, James was getting them all correct. In fact, James picked the first 8 games of the tournament correctly, including the big upset of Morehead St. over Louisville. He hasn't done too well since then, but he's still young and will get better each year. Next year he'll get the first 16 games right, and eventually he'll work his way up to a perfect bracket.

Even though my bracket has lots of red all over it, it has still been a very good week of basketball, especially yesterday. There were lots of close games, and BYU crushed Gonzaga by 22 points, meaning we get to watch them again this next week. It is all very exciting. We had James wear a BYU shirt for both games this week, and BYU is now 3-0 when he wears a BYU shirt. So, guess what he'll be wearing the next four games?



O Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out
Along the trail to fame and glory.
Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out,
As you unfold your vict'ry story.
On you go to vanquish the foe
For Alma Mater's sons and daughters.
As we join in song, in praise of you, our faith is strong.
We'll raise our colors high in the blue,
And cheer the Cougars of BYU.

Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah
Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah
Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah
Gooooooooooo COUGARS!!!!!!

Sweet Baby James and other adventures

There is a song by James Taylor called "Sweet Baby James." I like the chorus because it's a good little lullaby for our sweet baby James...though the lyrics may need to be slightly altered....

Goodnight you moonlight ladies
Rockabye sweet baby James
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose
Won't you let me go down in my dreams
And rockabye sweet baby James

Stephanie, you need to figure out how to play this chorus on the uke and then you need to come over, tune my uke, and teach me how to play it. :)

On another note....I am getting more scatterbrained by the day. Last Thursday James and I were going to take Dan lunch at work. I made some sandwiches, put them in a bag along with a granola bar, put James in his car seat, grabbed my phone and put it in the diaper bag that has become my new purse, and then remembered that while I had made the lunch, it was still sitting on the kitchen table. So I set the bag down next to my keys and then grabbed Dan's lunch, the diaper bag, the baby, and I left, locking the door behind me. As soon as I shut the door I realized that I had forgotten to grab my keys. Because my house keys are on the same key chain as my car keys, I had also managed to lock James and myself out of the house. NOT GOOD. I called Dan and informed him that I was having a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." I then explained what had happened and I asked my handsome husband to come rescue us. Luckily he works close to home and was able to be there in a few minutes. On the upside....at least I didn't forget the baby!