Phillip, Misty & Carson!

Guess who gets to speak today @ Church!

2011-04-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Let me give you a hint... It's the one who actually posts to the Blog.

Still don't know... Oh, fine. It's ME!!!

Who's Me? Well, let's just say I am the Head of the Household.

NO! NOT MISTY!!! Sheesh.... It's Phil. :)

Here's my talk. I feel pretty proud of it if I do say so myself!

(Begin Talk)

Brothers and Sisters, You are going to die.

Sorry, there's no sugarcoating it, and there’s no way around it. Those wheels were put into motion millennia before you and I got here. Each day you live, You are one more day closer to it.

I’ve known many people who have passed beyond the veil, my grandparents on both sides, Misty’s grandparents on her Father’s side, and her grandfather on her Mother’s side.

Each of these events was one of mourning, of remembrance, for we missed them all dearly. But for us of the Christian faith, we know it is not the end. For long ago, one person did the impossible. One person did that which only a God could do, for a surety, He surely was.

After treading the winepress alone, suffering torment beyond that which a mortal man could bear, except it were unto death, and finishing His work which His Father asked of Him, Jesus Christ passed from this world, just like you and I inevitably will succumb to the imperfections of our mortal tabernacle.

Where death brought captivity and damnation, for we truly were stopped in our progression, Christ visited those that as it states in D&C 138:14-19, 23-24.

Inexplicably Christ used his divine nature and power to join both spirit and body to a perfect state. First to his own body, and then to those who would be the first of the many that would be part of the first resurrection.

At this wonderful time Spring Morning, ( Can someone please tell the weather?) we commemorate the final step in our Savior and Redeemer’s Atonement. With the resurrection His work finally was Finished, and his gospel continued to be preached on both sides of the veil and he continued to minister to those worthy to see his glorified body face to face.

It has been said that Easter has stood against the world’s efforts to secularize it. With all of the Easter Bunnies, Colored Eggs, and plastic grass, and marshmallow goodness contained in those sugar laden Peeps, That across the world, people still recognize the true meaning of Easter more than other holidays like Christmas.

I am grateful for that. I’m grateful that the pinnacle of the Atonement has continued to touch the hearts and spirits of the children of men to perpetuate this commemoration of the empty tomb.

As my son woke up this morning, Easter basket in hand, picking up eggs that were laid before him down our hall to his pile of goodies, I reflected upon the journey that Mary Magdalene made that First Easter morning. As she arose before morning, and went unto the splechure, she saw that the stone had been taken away. As she went back to get Peter, then they entered into that sacred place and angelic ministers announced to them “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.”

As my son carefully and methodically opened each plastic egg, and said “Oooh! What’s in here? Oh! Egg jelly beans! I LIKE those!” I reflected upon the emptying of the tomb of Joseph of Aramethia. As we think about our upcoming or reflect upon our already completed Easter Egg Hunts, let us think about the hunt for the Savior. Both on that First Easter Morning, as well as in our individual lives.

As we think about the Easter eggs, let us think about their representation for new life and rebirth.

As we think about, (and possibly participate in) Easter Egg Rolls, let us reflect upon the rolling away of the tomb.

As we think about our new Easter clothing, let us think about the incorruption that we will put on after we forsake our corruptible mortal bodies.

As we think about our chocolate bunny ears dipped in wonderful peanut butter, let us think about that wonderful concoction of peanut butter and chocolate. : )

A thought occurred to me this morning. The stone didn’t need to be rolled away from the tomb. The resurrection surely could have taken place with the stone in place. The Lord that has power of life and death, surely could not be contained by a stone across a doorway.

Then why was it rolled away? It was rolled away for us.

It was rolled away so we could have record of Mary and others proclaiming their witness that he surely had risen. It was rolled away so our faith could be strengthened that our God is a God of truth.

'Twas the Night Before Easter!
by Peggie C. Bohanon
(Web address: peggiesplace.com/easter.htm)

Slight Modifications by Phillip Burnett

'Twas the night before Easter on Internet Lane;
From New York, to Russia, spring Holidaze reigned!
Computers were linking from Disney to space;
And folks were resolving the Easter Egg case!

The kids were entranced by a techno-theme,
While visions of dinos appeared on the screen!
And Mom dyed the eggs, while I searched the Net,
For flowers to send her--or in trouble I'd get!!

When swiftly, my Mac began such a clatter,
The mouse shrieked, "Explorer", what is the matter?!"
Away to my window, I jumped with great speed;
A break for sore eyes, I surely did need!

I saw flowers of spring beginning to bloom,
I welcomed the view from my office room!
When what to my wondering eyes, did I see,
But a Stranger stooped low, on bended knee.

With a quick glance I knew 'twas a back-flash of time,
I envisioned the form of my Savior Divine.
More rapid than eagles, my memory raced,
To another time and a-nother place.

Where Christ, Lord of all, called each one by name--
"Follow Me," was His Word, and they willingly came.
They watched Him perform His deeds of love;
They knew His power had come from above.

Yet we witnessed his suffering and he eventually died;
In the dark of a tomb, our Savior did lie.
But then in another flash of great power,
I saw Him arise--death conquered that hour!

He was robed all in white, with a radiant glow;
He stood in great splendor, this Savior I know.
His eyes with loving compassion shown,
I knew in that moment I need ne'er be alone.

His hands were outstretched as this One bid me come;
The work of redemption forever done.
I stood there in silence, in humble awe,
As the Reason of Easter I now clearly saw.

Then quickly as the scenes, had first appeared,
They faded--I felt not one moment of fear.
I bowed low in worship; earth's sight was now dim;
I had seen Easter's morning; I had been there with Him.

As I saw Him, with faith's eyes, lifted above,
The night before Easter was filled with pure love.
And I heard him exclaim as He ‘rose out of sight,
"A Blessed Easter to all! I have conquered your night!"

Brothers and Sisters, You are going to live. Sorry, there's no sugarcoating it, and there’s no way around it.Those wheels were put into motion millennia before you and I got here. Each day you live, You are one more day closer to it.

(End Talk)

Carson's Animal Names

2011-04-19T22:04:00.001-07:00

Carson has the best names for his stuffed animals. He named them all himself!

"Ruff" - Little brown pound puppy

"Ruffy" - A big puppy that I got for Valentine's day (last year) that he's confiscated.

"Creek" - A little frog that he's had since he was a baby.

"Bumpy" - A little musical giraffe that he's also had since he was a baby.

"Sumby" - Little plastic toy elephant

"Dor-A-thy" - (A as in Cat). A dinosaur he got from the D.I. that he is convinced is a dragon.

"Curious George" - A stuffed monkey that he got for Valentine's day this year.

Then when he was at a duck pond, he named one of the little ducks "Chicklee."

I think if we ever have a pet, he is going to get to name it. He's done great so far!

(Yes, Phil was the one who wrote this. You're welcome. ; ) )

Best one liner's from Scout Camp

2010-07-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

HOLY COW!! It's a Blog Post!

So, this past week, I had the chance to go to Scout Camp with the Young Men in our ward. Here are my favorite one-liners I heard while I was up there.

Taylor (13 year old Deacon) while holding a tortilla left over from our taco dinner, and walking around rummaging through the kitchen stuff, said...

"Do we have any cinnamon?!"

Yes, Taylor, we do have some... right next to the Grey Poupon, and Avian.

Overheard at a flag ceremony from a neighboring scout troop...

"It looks like a rash to me!"

And the best quote I heard? Came from Josh, (13 year old Deacon) when he had gotten his changed into his swimsuit, and was getting on his bike to ride to his merit badge classes, one of which being Rowing, (hence the swimsuit), we said, "Don't die Josh." He promptly responded...

"Brother Burnett, if I die, you can have my wife."

HOLY COW! Talk about generous! I was at a loss for words. Never have I been offered another person's future spouse. : )

CRAFT FAIR

2010-04-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hey friends and family! I just wanted to invite you all to the craft fair we are throwing in Provo, on April 17. It is going to be a wonderful event full of amazing handmade items. Eighteen women have been putting in countless hours to share their talents. We have a really wide variety of items to be sold. Some of them are aprons, hair accessories, full coverage bibs, baby blankets, princess dress-ups, decorated flip flops, vinyl lettering wall decor, homemade suckers, jewelery, and baby dresses. We also have a couple of women selling in-home sales items like Miche Bags, Scentsy and Usborne Books. Come and find some wonderful ideas for Mother's Day, baby showers and bridal showers!

The fair will be from 1:00-6:00 at the Provo City Library. The address is 550 North University Avenue room number 201.

The only way this craft fair will be successful is if people hear about it. I would really appreciate as much publicity as possible. Blogs are a great way to get the word out. Mentioning it on your blog reposting this post on as many blogs as possible would be a great help. Thanks!

It's done, but has just begun...

2010-03-21T19:51:00.001-07:00

For those of you who care, here's an update on all the craziness that has been going on.

I have been trying to balance school, work, church callings, family time, recreation, and every other imaginable ball in the amazing juggling act that I have been performing quite well for the past two semesters at BYU and while we are down here in Provo.

An interesting thing happened this past week, (Has it been a week yet? It's all a blur to me still.)

I had a meeting with a gentleman who was planning on splitting an office space with me, and we were talking about our backgrounds and what we were doing down here in Provo. He has been going to UVU in their Digital Media department for the past couple semesters, and was ranting and raving about it to me that day over lunch.

I told him that I loved my Sound Recording Technology Program that was at BYU, but there was only one problem with it. It was inside the School of Music. So therefore, all people in the degree were required to take all the theory, sight-singing, dictation, private lessons, practice their fannies off and sell their souls to the School of Music to just be in the program.

He proceeded to tell me that UVU had a degree in Digital Media, which had an Emphasis in Audio Production. He began to rave about the professors in the program and told me that I should talk to the advisor, and look into transferring. I wasn't sure about that, but decided it was worth looking into.

I told Misty about it, and she thought that it would be very nice if I could get my degree without all the (what we viewed) as unnecessary classes that wouldn't be applicable to the career that I was interested in. I also agreed, but we still didn't take any action.

After a stressful Monday (15th of March), of going to school, stressing out over work, and skipping out on private lessons to be able to spend the necessary time at get my work done up in Ogden, I got home VERY late and still having homework to do, and Misty asked (almost the way you would ask someone in passing,) "When is the last day to withdraw from classes at BYU?" I responded "I am pretty sure that it's tomorrow."

My cogs started turning. I thought about the weight that would lifted off of my shoulders and the free-time that I would be able to have to spend with my family. I woke up early on Tuesday morning, and looked up UVU's program. I concluded that UVU had a bit broader base in their Audio Production Emphasis than BYU had, without all the stress of the School of Music.

I also looked at the classes that I would be missing out on at BYU. I made an interesting discovery. There were 7 classes that were specific to the Sound Recording Technology Degree inside of the School of Music, and I had already taken 4 of them. I could take 2 of the others, without having be a Music Major! I really would only miss out on one class.

I went to UVU that morning, and met with the transfer department about GE's and classes that would transfer over, and ones that wouldn't. I found out that my Associates Degree from WSU would knock out all of my required GE classes, (Which they wouldn't at BYU) and of course UVU doesn't have any religion classes that are required to be taken on campus. (Did I mention that I am GRADUATING from INSTITUTE with 30 HOURS?! Yeah, I NEED a required class from BYU for a religion class.)

They said a number of my classes that I took for Sound Recording could also transfer over as well, but I would need to talk to the Digital Media department to get those over. Not a Problem. I can stand spending a few more hours in the studio. : )

Well, I made the leap, and I began dropping all my classes at BYU, except for my Sound Recording Classes. Goodbye: English, Sight Singing, Dictation, Theory, Private Lessons, and Symphonic Band. Hello Time!! : )

So now, I have 3 classes at BYU. Studio Recording II, Studio Design, and Principals of Audio II.

Those are the only classes I really wanted to take anyways!! All the other ones were for the degree, only because they were required by the School of Music.

I put in my application to UVU, already got accepted, and have been able to spend more time catching up at work, and focusing more on fulfilling my church callings. It's been great.

I don't know what the schedule or time committment will be at UVU, or if I will get scholarships or what, but I am excited to be able to have a great broad base of education, and be able to take those final two classes at BYU.

That's the latest from me!

-Phil

Money - Phil's Personal Essay Assignment

2010-02-23T22:01:00.001-08:00

“Money, it’s a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.” – Pink Floyd

My life has been filled with education and experiences that have consistently put me in positions to learn about money. I don’t think that it’s because I sought them out, but rather that they were put there by fate. I don’t necessarily think I have had more opportunities to learn about money than the next person, but I have been able to develop a firm grasp on where the “rubber meets the road,” or perhaps more appropriately stated “where the money meets the wallet.”

The first time I heard the phrase “Do something that you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life,” it was spoken by my father when I went to him for advice while searching for a desired path in school. I pondered on this thought quite extensively, for my father didn’t love what he did. He had been working for the same company for the past twenty-five years, and didn’t enjoy it. He did it because that’s what he knew how to do, and it brought money home to his wife and five kids.

My father in law wasn’t much different. He placed a high value on having degrees, and received his masters degree while he was in his late forties and urged me to do the same, so I could, “Get a good job.” I guess he thought that a “good job” was one where you were paid a little bit above average, and again, not something that you loved to do. He had been working on the military base near his home town for the past twenty-some-odd years now, and didn’t enjoy his work either.

I’m different. I don’t know whether I am different by nature, or by choice. One thing I refuse to do is to spend the next twenty years in a profession that I may know, but don’t love. If you aren’t doing what you love to do, then why are you doing it? Providing for your family I believe is a responsibility first and foremost as a husband and father, but wouldn’t your children have a better life and role-model if they could look up to someone who was truly living their dreams?

I have spent the past several years earning income and working towards living my dream. Not just to put food on the table, which gratefully I have been able to do, but to also develop myself as a man whom my children and wife could look up to and say “I’m proud of Phillip because he is actually doing it.” I want to show my children that they can live their dreams.

For the past several years, I have been employed in multiple professions dealing with finance. I have had months where I have made over ten thousand dollars, and other months where I have made nothing. I know that no job, especially right now, is a stable job, unless you are earning income for your employer, whether that employer is yourself, or someone else.

Through these employers I have been taught about goals, dreams, work ethic, and what it takes to make it. Surprisingly enough, I knew the answer all along, WORK. Those who do the jobs that no one else is willing to do, will get paid more than those who aren’t willing to do them. Multiple people out there know how to make money, and will help you do it as well, but only if you are willing to do what is asked of you. I have come to realize this truth. Applying it, well, that’s another lesson I am slowly improving on. Some months I do what is required, what others won’t, and I get rewarded accordingly. Other times I feel entitled that what I am doing is enough, an more often than not, those are the months that I don’t earn anything.

Over many years now, I have focused my vision on that which I believe can offer my family an income which will put food on the table, but also in a field that I have grown to love so that, according to the quote by my father, I won’t have to work a day in my life. That field is sound. It has become a passion of mine, and I will not rest until I have made that field my own. Whether I accomplish that in the next few years through the help of professors and colleagues, or the next few decades of tireless effort pushed forward by nothing but me and my determination, my sights are set, and nothing can break my gaze.

Not My Finest Mommy Moment

2010-02-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

It all started yesterday at nap time. Carson absolutely refused to go down for a nap. He cried for 2 hours straight. Phil and I finally gave in an let him get out of bed and succumbed to the certainty of a day full many many break downs. We ended up putting him down to bed about 40 minutes early. Phil had to register for school this morning at 12:00 so I stayed up with him. We finally fell into bed at 12:30. This morning Carson woke up at 6:00. Yeah, that means I only got 5 1/2 hours of sleep. Not nearly enough for me. I'm not a nice person or a good mommy when I am tired. Carson has been needing a lot of attention this last week. If he doesn't get the attention he thinks he needs, he does something naughty to get it. Needless to say, I was very ready for him to go down for his nap today so I could get a much needed break, and maybe even catch a few winks myself. I put him down at his normal time. He went right to sleep and I was so happy. I got a few things done then was about to lay down and he started crying. I left him in his bed and he cried for 1/2 hour. I went and got him out of his bed and he continued to cry for the next 1 1/2 hours. I definitely shed a few tears of my own during that 1 1/2 hours. Now to the not so great mommy moment. I gave him some Benedryl, put him in his bed and shut the door. He is still crying so I don't know that it was even worth it.

Carson is 18 Months!

2010-01-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

Carson is 18 months old today. We really can't believe how fast he has grown up. He gets bigger and smarter every day. He is continually doing things that surprise us. He has such a fun little personality. He loves people and loves attention. He is a little performer.

We never get tired of bragging about how smart he is, so here is a little more bragging. He can count to 13 without mistakes, 20 with a little help. He knows like 17-18 letters by sight and know all of the consonant sounds. He can sing the ABC's all the way through without help. He knows over 200 words and puts together 6-7 word sentences. I swear that he has to just hear a word once and he will remember it and the appropriate way to use it. He knows his first, middle and last name and can spell his first name. He knows all the colors and the common shapes. His new favorite thing is to call Phil and I by our first names. He thinks it's so funny when he does it.

Carson really loves to play with other children. I have been really impressed by how well he shares (usually) and cooperates (usually). He has a couple of fun neighbor friends and he asks to play with them every day. We are really looking forward to Nursery on Sunday. He is beyond ready to go. I don't think he will have any problems going in.

We just love out little boy! He has enriched our lives in ways we never thought imaginable.

If you want to see current pictures of him, check the previous post.

Carson 18 months!

2010-01-25T20:40:00.001-08:00

Thanks so much to Angie Berrio! http://berriophotography.blogspot.com/ She is an amazing photographer, and Carson loved working with her!

These are Carson's 18 month photos. I can't believe how big he is! Which one is your favorite?

Parents & Family, Which number would you like to have printed out for you?

#10

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First Semester Over!

2010-01-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

Phil completed his first semester at BYU!

He had a pretty normal workload as far as other students are concerned. 14.5 credit hours. However, he had a HUGELY LARGE workload as compared to other students when you consider:

1. He is Married

2. He has a (now) 17 month old

3. He is the only provider for our family (We would have it no other way!)

4. He is the 1st counselor in the Y.M. Presidency in our Ward

5. He is the assistant Scoutmaster in the ward

6. He is in a program that is in the School of Music, where some classes only count for .5 of a credit hour but take the work of a class that is 3.0 credit hours

7. He is a Branch Manager of a Mortgage Operation and has responsibility over 25+ people.

Despite all this, grades have just come out, and he got a 3.96!! YIPEE!! He got an 'A' in all his classes but one, and in that one he got an A -, which he was very grateful for!

He also figured out his schedule for the remainder of his time at BYU, and he thinks that he can be done with his program by April of 2011. That's only a year away from this Spring! We are all very excited.

Go Go GO!!

2010 Here we come!

2010-01-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 was filled with a bunch of changes! Moving from our house, changing focuses in multiple areas like School and work, watching Carson grow, it has been a crazy year.

We are looking forward to a great 2010, and this past weekend we spent it celebrating our Anniversary. With School starting on the 4th, (which is actually our anniversary), we celebrated a little earlier. We found this awesome bed and breakfast up in Providence, Utah. Check it out here:

http://www.providenceinn.com/

We also had an opportunity to go see Avatar, and we both were pleasantly surprised! To just imagine how much CGI was involved, just blew our minds away. I was also impressed that though it was CGI, there were some camera jerks here and there, that made it seem as if someone was actually holding a camera, and made it more realistic for myself. (Did that even make any sense?)

It also marked the first time that we left Carson overnight. (17 months old right now) Thanks to Michelle and Brian, (who already have 5 little ones of their own) for watching him! It was a great break for us, though we were really excited to go and pick him up the next day. He is just a cute little boy, and even at this minute is pushing the Off button on the T.V. then turning to us and saying "Where did it go?", "Where did it go?". Cute boy!

2010 comes upon us now, and here are just a few things that we are looking forward to:

1. We have a renewed vigor to have an organized FHE every Monday.

2. Phil is actually going to GO home teaching. : ) (Sorry families!!)

3. We have renewed our 2009 goal to go to the temple once a month. (Baby Sitter Volunteers are welcome!) Finding someone to watch Carson, and feeling like we aren't imposing on them has been our biggest obstacle.

4. Phil actually wants to write in a journal daily. He is debating on whether or not to do it on a blog, and just make it private, or do it by hand. Obviously typing is a lot faster than writing by hand.

We have a feeling that 2010 will be a great year for us over here!

Ha ha ha, Phil!

2009-11-15T11:29:00.000-08:00

Inside joke, the rest of you won't understand.

Are you KIDDING me?

2009-10-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

One of my closest friends is simply amazing when it comes to carving pumpkins. Here are his 2009 Creations. He, myself and a couple of other friends of mine are going to the They Might Be Giants concert this coming Friday. He did this in honor of that event.

Confused? Or just playing the Crowd?

2009-10-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

So, we were at Blockbuster on Monday night (Picked up Transformers II and "Earth") While trying to keep Carson occupied, I was doing the usual thing. Letting him walk around with me just following him and making sure that he didn't touch anything he wasn't supposed to. Well, he found this picture, or at least one very similar to it in a poster frame:

He walked right up to it, Pointed at it and said....."Jesus."

Um.... Not so much. : ) Perhaps seen as the "God of Guitar" though by some people.

Pony Ride!!

2009-10-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

Carson's favorite part of Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country, was the pony ride. Daddy got to help him out to make sure he was safe and had fun!

Farm Country!!

2009-10-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Back in September, we went to Thanksgiving Point with our Cousins. We decided to go to Farm Country there, and have Carson see some animals. We had TONS of fun, and it was really inexpensive!

They had a little town that was kid-sized. Complete with a Dance Hall, and Prison!

Shall we dance?

No one will dance with me? : (

Breakin' the Law! Breakin' the Law!

Partners in Crime!

Going on a Hay Ride!

Llama Llama Llama!

Carson's favorite part BY FAR was the Pony Ride. It was Mommy and Daddy's favorite too!

Misty LOVES this picture!

Stylin'!

And you thought we were kidding when we call Carson our "Giant Baby" Yeah. 100 lbs! And there isn't anyone else on the scale with him! (Okay, Okay... The scale is broken.)

Hi Ho! Cow! AWAY!!

Dancing Fool!

2009-10-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

Carson Counts!

2009-10-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

So, Misty knew that Carson could count up to 5, so she decided to get it on video. She was in for a little surprise!!

Carson's Lexicon

2009-10-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

The Pumpkin Patch (Well... Nursery. : ) )

2009-10-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

Though we were looking forward to a romp through an open field, picking out our pumpkins off of the vine, we weren't able to locate one in time for FHE. We did get an address of a local nursery, and we thought we accomplished our purposes.

Photo Booth

2009-10-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

We went to a wedding of one of Misty's good friends. They had a great idea! They had a photo booth where you go and take your photos, and then stick it into their guest/sign-in book with a glue stick. They print out two, so you can take it home.

Everyone was really creative! Here are ours:

BooYah! (Yes... that phrase still lives! )

2009-10-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

Yes... Yes... I know... It says "Associate Lending Manager" instead of "Principal" lending manager. However, If you read the post below, you would have realized that if there is an Acting PLM, then all other's with that same license status are just put on an ALM status until there is no longer an acting PLM.

There's your real estate law lesson for the day.

PLM.....What is that?

2009-09-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, for the past few years, I have been getting most of our family's income from helping multiple families with their Mortgage needs. (I have done well over 200 loans) Purchases, Refinances, Debt Consolidations, Rehabilitations, most everything that you can do with a home financing I have done.

I've been doing that for almost 5 years now, and during my most recent change from one broker to another (I've been at 5 different brokers now over the past 5 years, changing to each one for different reasons,) the owner of the brokerage (Dennis Porter, who owns Sun Valley Mortgage) said that those of us who qualify to get our PLM license (Principal Lending Manager) should go ahead and do that. So I decided that I probably would go about and do that. It would provide them with a great education about the industry, and also would provide opportunities to those with licenses to further progress inside of Sun Valley Mortgage. (Sun Valley Mortgage is heading in some exciting directions!)

For those of you who don't know, here is a brief lesson. : )

Obviously, to do mortgages, you need to be licensed. (Unless you are with a bank or credit union, then you don't (they have a federal exception)) On May 1st 2006, a law was passed by the State of Utah, that said that the mortgage industry needed to have more responsibility tied to it, and so they mandated that every company needed to have what they deemed a Principal Lending Manager. (PLM) The PLM could, (in a very real sense) be held personally liable for any action of any of their Loan Officers that they were managing. This requirement made the responsibility for acting ethically, and not comitting loan fraud lay directly on the shoulders of the Management of the Brokerage. So, of course the management of each brokerage clamped down hard to make sure that thier back-ends were covered.

Here's the clincher. You don't get any extra money for having your PLM license. You actually are more liable if you are the PLM. But, state mandate says that each company MUST have a PLM in order to operate.

Now, Sun Valley Mortgage, already has a PLM (Dennis Porter, who is the owner). If there are more than one PLM license inside of a Company, the inactive PLM, holds the title of ALM. (Associate Lending Manager) The ALM becomes the PLM if the acting PLM were to become separated from the company.

This doesn't mean that I am heir to Sun Valley Mortgage. : ) Sun Valley Mortgage actually has multiple ALM's that were present WAY before I came on board with them.

In order to become a PLM, you have to complete 40 hours of pre-licensing work, and pass a test. (To get your normal mortgage license, you have to have 20 hours and pass a test.) Now that 40 isn't 20 additional on top of your normal. It's 40 additional hours. (None of your Continuting Education that you take to renew your license counts towards it as well. (you need 14 every 2 years)) Oh, and you have to have been active 3 out of the last 5 years in the mortgage industry to be able to qualify to even take your pre-licensing coursework.

So, I have been studying for my PLM test and completing my 40 hours for the past many weeks.

I took the test this morning, and got the wonderful news! I passed. : ) I am mostly relieved that I don't have that still "sitting on my plate" whilst school, and me trying to make money for our family is also going on at the same time.

Yahoo! I have my PLM license, and I am now an ALM! : )

If nothing else comes out of me having my PLM license, it will look good on a resume' and mean that I know my stuff when it comes to Originating Loans for Residential Properties.

Self Reliance

2009-09-13T19:52:00.001-07:00

Today we had the opportunity to teach on Self Reliance. Misty was to speak on Self-Reliance and things we can do to be self-reliant, and what the Church has set up to help us accomplish that. I was supposed to cover Provident Living, and how we can provide for a family with not everything we would like, and still be happy.

Since we both did our talks on Microsoft Word, I thought it would be a cinch to post them here on our blog. : )

Yeah, We didn't collaborate, and I didn't know ANYTHING Misty was going to talk about. So when I started to see the similarities between our talks, I started to freak out a little. : ) But luckily she didn't cover the same stuff I did.

Misty's is first.

We are the Burnetts. My name is Misty and my husband is Phillip and our little munchkin is Carson. He is 13 months old. Phil and I met at the Weber State Institute of religion. We have been married for 3 ½ years. We moved here in March so that Phil could go to school at BYU. He is fulfilling one of his major dreams by going back to school and getting a degree in sound recording technology. He also works out of our house processing mortgage loans. I got a degree in Family Studies from Weber State. I stay at home with Carson.

I have been asked to speak on Self-reliance. The term self-reliance encompasses a few different aspects. One is spiritual self-reliance, another is temporal self-reliance. Both are essential to our eternal progression, but I will be focusing in temporal self-reliance.

The church handbook states that “The Savior has commanded the Church and its members to be self-reliant and independent. To become self-reliant, a person must work. Work is physical, mental or spiritual effort. It is a basic source of happiness, self-worth, and prosperity. Through work, people accomplish many good things in their lives. As people become self-reliant, they are better prepared to endure adversities and are better able to care for the needs of others.” In this quote we are told that we are commanded to learn to work and provide for ourselves, we must always be progressing and developing.

Through the research I have done for this talk, I have found 5 Steps that are essential to becoming self-reliant:

1. Seek answers to life problems through the spirit. Moroni 7:16 The spirit of Christ is given to every man” This promises that every man can get answers to life’s problems, including how to become self-reliant, by seeking answers through the spirit. As we more fully come to understand that every good thing in our lives comes from the Lord, we will begin to rely more on Him and he will bless us and help us to become more self-reliant

2. Honestly appraise our needs and the needs of others. We can do this by asking ourselves a number of questions: How well are we listening to the spirit? Do we live according to the guidelines laid out by the Church? Are we living within our means? If not, what can we do to live more within our means? Sometime sacrifices and adjustments will have to be made in order to live more appropriately. The Spirit can guide us when choosing what adjustments need to be made in our lives. We need to have open communication with our spouses and our families in order to do these appraisals. Family councils are a great place to have discussions regarding family finances and becoming self-reliant. They are also great places to teach children the importance of living within your means. If children participate in the family budget, they should be able to understand the reasoning behind your financial choices.

3. We must learn to discern between good and evil. Every man and woman has the right given to them through the Lord to choose what we believe and what we will do. In 2 Nephi 2:27 we read: “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh…they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediator of all man, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.” As we learn to listen to the spirit, we will be able to discern better between good and evil and between our worldly desires and our holy desires. We can seek the Lord’s council when we are contemplating big purchases and he will help us to understand if it is a righteous desire.

4. We must master the ability to think straight. Benjamin Franklin said: “The foundation of all happiness is thinking rightly.” Part of thinking straight is using common sense to solve some of life’s problems. Our lives will be much simpler if we master the ability to stop and think about our problems and decisions before acting.

5. Finally, after learning and implementing all of these things, we must go to work. The Lord has commanded us to work. Doctrine and Covenants 42:42 says: “Thou shalt not be idle. For he that is idle shalt not eat the bread, nor wear the garments of the laborer.” Work is what we do and self-reliance is the product of the work we do. We work towards achieving the skills necessary to provide for our needs, then we implement those skills to bless our lives and the lives of others.

Marion G Romney said: “Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained in no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter and we must work out our own salvation in temporal as well as in spiritual things.”

One of the most important ways to become self-reliant is to learn to manage our finances. The world that we live in is dominated by debt. It is much too easy in this world to finance the things we want. Far too many of us have a substantial amount of debt and not nearly enough savings. The Church has always counseled us to stay out of debt whenever possible. Of course, it may be necessary to acquire a mortgage to buy a house, or to get a loan to go to school, but in these situations, the Church has counseled us to these things modestly and make choices that are appropriate to our situation. The solution to staying out of debt is to budget our income appropriately, to live within our means and save both supplies and money for the future.

President Hinckley has said that “We have been counseled again and again concerning self-reliance, concerning debt, concerning thrift. So many of our people are heavily in debt for things that are not entirely necessary. When I was a young man, my father counseled me to build a modest home, sufficient for the needs of my family, and make it beautiful and attractive and pleasant and secure. He counseled me to pay off the mortgage as quickly as I could so that, come what may, there would be a roof over the heads of my wife and children. I was reared on that kind of doctrine, I urge you as members of this church to get free of debt where possible and to have a little laid aside against a rainy day.” For me, one of the most important words in that quote was a modest home. That means we don’t have to buy the biggest, nicest house on the block. Even modest homes can be made beautiful and inviting. The thing that makes any home the most attractive is to have the Spirit of the Lord resting there.

We are encouraged to be prepared for the future by storing a years worth supply of food. President Hinckley went on to say: As we have been continuously counseled for more than 60 years, let us have some food set aside that would sustain us for a time in case of need.” Many of us plan to work on our food storage some day. It’s very easy to say that we will get it when we have a house or when we have the room to store it. However, President Ezra Taft Benson has said that: “The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.”

The best store house that the Church has is the homes of the families who have prepared their years supply of food, clothing and other necessities, a reserve of money to meet emergencies, and adequate home, health and life insurance.

As we are achieving self-reliance, we are better able to serve those around us. Our church is a church based on the service of its members. Marion G. Romney said: “Without self-reliance one cannot exercise the innate desires to serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for the hungry cannot come from an empty purse. Support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned and most important of all; spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak.”

The church has implemented its welfare service to assist members in their goals to become self-reliant. The goal of the welfare program of the Church is to care for the needy while teaching principles that will allow them to become self-reliant and to build their self-respect.

Funding for the welfare program is provided by donations from the Church members. This is where our fast offerings go. Once a month we are asked to go without two meals

and donate the cost of those two meals to the fast offering fund.

Needy people are identified by the bishop with the help of the relief society president. Home and visiting teachers provide a vital role in helping to identify those individuals who are in need of assistance. Bishops evaluate the individual’s circumstances and needs. If they are in need of temporal assistance, such as food and household items, the bishop gives them vouchers to take to the bishop’s store house. They are given opportunities to work for the items they receive, to the extent of their abilities. The assistance given is temporal and partial. The goal of the welfare program is to build independence and self-reliance, not to build dependence. The assistance that is given is to help with basic life sustaining needs, not to maintain a certain standard of living so those who are in need of assistance will most likely need to alter their standard of living. The Church encourages individuals to do all they can to help themselves first, get help from their families, if possible second, then if they are still in need they may receive church assistance.

Employment resource centers are also available to provide job training and help people to build their skills to find and acquire a job.

In closing, President Ezra Taft Benson said: “The world would take the people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” This is why the welfare program is so successful. It changes people so they can change their own situations. It assisted where needed, but also encourage growth and change. The individuals who receive assistance are better people because of it.

Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are at the center of everything. The Church welfare program was created by them. They want us to succeed, to be happy and live productive lives. I know that if we follow their instructions, we can learn to become self-reliant and by doing so we will be happier in this life, and better prepared for the life to come.

I am so thankful for this church and the direction it gives me in my life. I know that it is the Lord’s true church and Joseph Smith restored it through the power and inspiration of our Heavenly Father. I am so thankful to live in a time when we have modern revelation and a prophet who receives it. I know that President Thomas S. Monsen is called of God. I am so thankful for the personal direction my family receives from our Father in Heaven. I know that when we pray to him and truly listen for an answer, He will direct our lives. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Mine came next:

Throughout my life, I have had the experience to see varying degrees of financial security. I served my mission in India, which allowed me to see the poverty of a third world country. Though there were places and cities that had McDonalds, (Sorry, they didn’t serve beef, so there were no “Big Macs” but you could get a Maharaja Mac made from chicken.) I even came across Ruby Tuesdays. However, a few miles away you could see the struggling conditions of sewer-less neighborhoods, Cement houses, dirt floor dwellings with no heat, no cooling, and no electricity.

Though there was a huge disparity in India between the “have” and “have-nots” we have seen examples in the scriptures and the gospel that “having”(in the worldly sense) is not always the pathway to happiness. I have seen often times, that the “have nots” have been happier, more willing to serve and enjoyed greater piece of mind than those that “have.”

Right now in our country, we are experiencing financial unrest that most likely many of us haven’t seen in our lifetimes. Whether this has affected us directly or indirectly, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have been shown the pathway that we may take to maintain peace and happiness in our lives, whether we feel that we are on the “have” or the “have not” side of things.

While researching and reading about things we can do, I realized something about the way the Brethren of the Church teach Self-Reliance and Provident Living that intrigued me. When I think about Self-Reliance, I think of Food Storage, Budgeting, Staying out of Debt etc. But the talks I found that had the phrases “Self-Reliance” and “Provident Providers” didn’t necessarily speak about those things as ways we could become more self-reliant or fiscally responsible. Each of the talks did teach the following principle which I believe is on the forefront of the Leaders of the Church’s minds when teaching Self-Reliance. This principle was stated very well by President Ezra Taft Benson:

“The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people. And then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard, gave a talk on March 11^th 2004 at the Marriott School’s Center for Economic Self-Reliance at BYU that outlines 5 steps we can take to become Self Reliant Physically and Spiritually, following the principle given by President Benson.

His first step is to Find Answers through the Spirit:

(QUOTE)“People need to realize that regardless of their circumstances, as desperate as those may be, they are entitled to the Light of Christ in their lives.” (END QUOTE)

As stated in Moroni 7:16. (READ)

Elder Ballard Continues (QUOTE)“The promise is that every son and daughter of God can find, through the Spirit, answers to the challenges in their lives, including how to become more self-reliant.” (END QUOTE) Thus, the beginning of self-reliance is Christ-Reliance. As we understand our relationship to God, that we are literally his sons and daughters, and that Christ is our elder Brother, we begin to realize that we will find the quickest and straightest path to self-reliance if we turn to the Spirit for direction.

Secondly, Appraise Our Lives and the Needs of Others.

The following questions may help us do that:

How well are we listening to the Spirit?

Are we living according to the eternal truths and doctrines of the restored Church of Jesus Christ?

For how do we expect to raise ourselves from the “slums” of our circumstances, if we are continually wallowing in the mud that is so attractive to the natural man?

Can we effectively appraise the needs of others by the prompting of the Spirit?

If we are having trouble seeing beyond our own circumstances, and “have not,” one thing I suggests is to lose ourselves in the service of others. I know that as I have seen the challenges and struggles of others, it has made me grateful for the challenges which I am facing. By the end of the service, I find myself saying… “You know what? You can keep your trials, and I’ll keep mine.” : ) By seeing things in the perspective that God knows you, and will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear, you will begin to properly appraise your situation, and begin to seek help from Him who can make your burden light, and direct you down the path that will begin to take the slum out of you.

Third, we need to Choose. Ultimately, the choice is between good and evil.

READ (2 Nephi 2:27)

Benjamin Franklin had this to say about choice:

(QUOTE)“We stand at the crossroads, each minute, each hour, each day, making choices. WE choose the thoughts we allow ourselves to think, the passions we allow ourselves to feel, and the actions we allow ourselves to perform. Each choice is made in the context of whatever value system we’ve selected to govern our lives. In selecting that value system, we are in a very real way, making the most important choice we will ever make.

Those who believe there is one God who made all things and who governs the world by his Providence will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who hold in reverence that being who gave them life and worship Him through adoration, prayer and thanksgiving will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who believe that mankind are all of a family and that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who believe in a future state in which all that is wrong here will be made right will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who subscribe to the morals of Jesus will make many choices different from those who do not.

Since the foundation of all happiness is thinking rightly, and since correct action is dependent on correct opinion, we cannot be too careful in choosing the value system we allow to govern our thoughts and actions. And to know that God governs in the affairs of men, that he hears and answers prayers, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, is indeed, a powerful regulator of human conduct. “ (END QUOTE)

By us choosing the value system that God has outlined in the scriptures, and in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, we afford ourselves the opportunity to be guided by Him through His value system aided continually by revelation, as we seek to become self-reliant.

Fourth: Master the ability to Think Straight. As Franklin said “The foundation of all happiness is thinking rightly.” Part of thinking straight is using common sense in solving life’s problems. Elder Ballard states: (QUOTE)“Often in my ministry have I heard the sad tale of those who are struggling to become self-reliant but in fact are becoming more dependent upon others because of their inability to think straight and apply common sense in the decisions they make. Much of life’s misery centers in the lack of using common sense…Helping people to think straight and use common sense will, in my judgment, always be a very important step in helping them to reach economic self-reliance. It is part of teaching our children and others to walk in the ways of truth and soberness and to love and serve on another. Part of thinking straight is listening-being able to listen to the promptings of the Spirit.” (END QUOTE)

I recently talked to a friend of mine that was going through some emotional difficulties. While speaking to her, I could tell that her thought processes were jumbled and she was at a stand-still and feeling helpless because of her distress. I believe I was impressed to suggest to her that she needed to focus in on what her next course of action was. She really had 2 options. One was to the right, and the other to the left. By thinking straight, and focusing on her next step, she would not being paralyzed by her situation, and be able to take control. Then she could begin to move forward to alleviate herself from her emotional indecision.

We may find ourselves at times paralyzed by our circumstances, no matter what they may be, but by thinking straight, we are able to progress and begin to change our circumstances for the better.

Fifth: Seek the Lord’s Guidance and trust in Him.

In D&C 76:5-10 we read (READ)

As I think about the difference that those 5 steps and principles would make in the lives of those whom I have seen in poverty and even those that I would consider to the be in the “have” category, struggling with becoming Self-reliant, I am able to see that the Lord does speak through his chosen prophets and Church Authorities in our days. I have seen miracles take place in relation to people becoming self-reliant, and harvesting the blessings of the Gospel.

I think about a Branch President Vincent, in Coimbatore, India a city in the southern region of the country. He worked as a Air Conditioning Repair Man for School Buildings in the surrounding area. Himself, his wife, and his 2 kids lived in a 1 bedroom, 1 kitchen dwelling combined probably would be smaller than most of our living rooms. Outside were the facilities for the bathroom. Though many of us would categorize him in the “have nots” he definitely wouldn’t. See, they had saved for more than 3 years, to take a trip to Hong Kong to get sealed in the temple as a family, and they were scheduled to make the trip later that year. He knew the value the gospel added to his life, and knew that the crowning blessings of the gospel he was entitled to, and that in his mind definitely put him in the category of the “have’s.” He had everything necessary for himself and his family. Food, Shelter, and most importantly, the Blessings of the Gospel.

Though they may not have had everything that the world had to offer, or even everything that they would have liked to, they were able to appropriately prioritize what they needed, recognize their blessings, and were some of the happiest people I ever met on my mission.

As we prioritize what we need, seek the guidance of the spirit, appraise our own lives, choose based upon a the values the Lord would have us choose, use common sense, and seek the Lord’s guidance, we will be able to see the path the Lord would have us choose to become self-reliant and obtain the lasting peace and happiness that only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can afford.

Chester Carson

2009-09-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was sharing some cheetoes with Carson. It was his first taste of REAL cheetoes, (not the puffy fake kind. : ) ) I had given him what I thought was good amount, and decided it was time for him to be done. I was sitting on the edge of ouf couch, and had crinkled up the bag and put the bag behind me.

I got up to go into the other room, and when I came back, this is what I found!!

He's just lounging on the couch munchin on his cheetoes! He climbed up on the couch, unrolled the bag and started fishing out his snack! Didn't even give me a second look.

I of course let him have some more. He DESERVED them!

Cute little orange fingers!

-Phil

Conversations at the Burnett's...

2009-08-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is a "for instance" of how a lot of conversations at our house go. : )

Misty: Honey, are you thirsty?

Phil: (knowing what she is getting at) No. Are YOU?

Misty: Yeah. My mouth is REALLY dry!

Phil: Would you like me to get you something?

Misty: You don't have to if you don't want to.

Phil: But would you LIKE me to get you something?

Misty: Only if you want to you don't have to. I can go get it myself.

Phil: (as I am getting up) No, that's okay I'll get it. What would you like?

Misty: I don't care.

Phil: (from the kitchen) We have Milk, Water, Lemon Lime, Hawaiian Punch or Kool Aid.

Misty: Not Milk.

Phil: (Pours himself some Hawaiian Punch, and gets Misty some Kool Aid. Walking back into the room where Misty is...)

Misty: (Expectantly says, with a smile on her face) Oh! Is the Hawaiian Punch for me?

Phil: Yup. Sure is! (Hands Misty the Hawaiian Punch and takes the Kool Aid for himself. And sits down next to his cute wife. : ) )

Misty: Thanks Honey!

Phil: Anytime Love.

1 Year Old

2009-08-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little baby, Carson, is now ONE! We really can't believe how fast he has grown up. His birthday was last Monday. He really is such a joy in our lives. We thank our Heavenly Father every night for entrusting us with this special little spirit. We don't know what we did to deserve such trust. It is very humbling. We just love him so much! He brings us such joy.

We had a big birthday party for him on his birthday. Unfortunately our camera is broken so we had to buy a disposable camera and we haven't gotten the pictures developed yet. We were so thankful that so many of our friends and family were able to come to celebrate with us. Carson receives so much support from all those around him. It's wonderful. He got lots of fun toys and is having a great time playing with them all.

Phil and I have always said that we would take Carson's binky away from him as soon as he turned one. We were both really dreading it, though. He has been pretty attached to that thing. We had a couple of family trips and things scheduled for the weeks around his birthday so we postponed taking it away for a little while. However, we finally got the guts to take it away yesterday. When I put him down for his morning nap, I was really worried that he would start screaming and it would last for hours. However, he played for a little while, then fell quietly asleep. I thought, "Wow! That was lucky! I bet his afternoon nap won't go as smoothly." So we went through our day, we even had a doctor's appointment and he got 4 shots. I put him down in the afternoon, same thing as the morning! Then that night, he went right to sleep without even playing for that long. And today has been the same story. It's like he never even used a binky. I'm truely baffled! He's such a good little boy.

He now weighs 25 pounds, which puts him in the 81% for his weight, and he is 31 3/4 inches tall (95%). His doctor says he is very healthy looking and he is really pleased with his growth and abilities.

At my family's reunion a couple of weeks ago, I had my sister take a few pictures of Carson for his first birthday. She does such a good job! I'm so thankful that she is willing to take such wonderful pictures for us. Look her up if you need pictures taken. Her name is Angie Berrio and her blog is berriophotography.blogspot.com.

Playing in the water. He absolutely loves water!

This is my cousin Brant. He would take Carson's hand and rub it on his goatee.

Carson thought is was really funny. I love that smile!

This is actually his whiney face. He makes it all the time.

He was sitting up on a wall and was a little nervous about it.

Here he is telling you how old he is.

Officially Toddiling!

2009-06-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

Carson is officially a toddler. Walking is now his preferred mode of transportation. : )

Pictures are still to come! (I PROMISE!)

Phil

10 Months

2009-06-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

(I am going to add pictures to this post. We save the pictures on the laptop and Phil has it.)

Where does the time go? Carson is already 10 months old. His actual birthday was the 27th of May. I'm just a little behind. He is such a little joy in our lives and we thank our Heavenly Father daily for blessing us with him.

He has the best little personality. He loves people, especially babies. If he gets within touching distance of other babies, he pulls them close and gives hugs and kisses.

He gets more and more mobile everyday. He crawls like a mad man with a very important mission, pulls himself up on everything and walks around holding on to things. He can stand independently for a few seconds and has taken a few steps. He has learned to go up onto his tippy toes when he can't reach things. We are always amazed by how high he can reach. It is his mission in life to make sure that nothing is on the couch, piano bench and end table. Whenever he sees a stack of anything, he absolutely has to unstack it (especially folded laundry.)

He loves to help with the housework by unloading the dryer and dishwasher, taking everything out of baskets, pulling the hand towel off of the oven handle, opening and unloading all the drawers and cupboards, and pretty much making as much of a mess as possible. I have had to majorly alter my cleaning procedures to accomodate his lifestyle. He is so cute when he is doing all of these things that I have a hard time getting after him or getting frusterated.

Some of his other favorite things to do are sing songs, read books, throw balls, repeat sounds, talk, take baths and showers, play in the sprinklers, play with big kids, go for walks, and swing.

He has just recently learned to point to things. So far he knows light, window, nose, shoes, Mama, Dada and Carson. He has almost learned where his eyes and mouth are. He learns things so quickly. Such a smart little boy!

He has three teeth, his two front bottom teeth and one of his incisors (those are the ones next to the two front teeth). His other top incisor is right under the surface and will probably break through soon.

This is such a fun age! Every day is a new adventure. I feel so lucky to be able to be experiencing this wonderful process with him on a daily basis! Thank you, Phil, for working so hard so I can be with Carson! I love you both more than I can say!

(Insert New Post Here)

2009-05-18T21:44:00.001-07:00

Yeah, yeah,...I know....it's been FOREVER since we posted anything new on our blog. Slowly but surely I am catching up on my work, and Misty is almost done with her "Twilight" series (again) : ) so, hopefully we can post something interesting soon!

Happy Valley Take 3

2009-04-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

So I have to apologize to those people that tune in to our blog to see the crazy antics of our ward that we are attending down here, because believe it or not....Testimony Sunday was surprisingly....Normal!

Not too much to report on it, Misty and I were asked to sub in the Marriage Class, (I don't know the exact name of it) and I thought that we did a pretty good job!

The biggest drama that happened last Sunday, was that Carson SCREAMED HIS HEAD OFF when I had to take the chalk package away from him to give back to the librarian. I guess he got attached to it during the time that I let him hold onto it on the way there.

Daddy's Little Boy

2009-04-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

So, I had this thought to post some of my favorite pictures of Carson. Whenever I think of Carson, I have this image in my head, and so I wanted to post the pictures that I believe represent my little boy the most.

I am so proud of my little boy, and the amazing things that he does! (Crawling all the way over to me when I get home, turning pages of the books that we read to him each night, helping turn off light-switches, and saying Da Da Da Da over and over and over again! (I Love it!)

I love my little boy so much!

Below, is Carson's face that he has been making ALL THE TIME! It's SO FUNNY! He sucks in his top lip, and just crawls around like that!

Happy Valley (Take 2)

2009-03-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

So last week, we had a member of the Sunday School Presidency (at the close of Sunday School) actually say "The Church is True, The Book is Blue, and I love you all!" (yes. that is verbatim.) WELCOME TO HAPPY VALLEY!! This resulted in multiple comments on my facebook status when I had posted it there. I failed to mention that I had left out that during sacrament meeting that same week, we had a speech (yeah, I'll call it that, rather than a talk,) given by a guy who was talking about how everyone in the BYU Newspaper Opinion section, was debating about the new "For the strength of youth" pamphlet. He was very preachy, and I felt was a little out of place.

Well, this week, in our sacrament meeting, we had a girl talking about how "God is in the little details" and how she felt that God had prompted her to put the little socks that were blue that she had just taken off of her baby, back into the "Booty Drawer" (Sock Drawer) but she decided just not to do it then. And then this morning, she couldn't find them, and so she had to put on socks on her son that didn't match! (Heaven forbid!) and if she would have just listened, he would have had clothes that matched today. But instead, she had to get his older brother's socks which were way to big, and didn't match. (See! God is in the little details! He even coordinates baby outfits to match! That was basically the point of her talk.)

I had a little bit of a desire to dry heave while she was talking, but I refrained.

(Sorry if I seem a little insensitive about God coordinating your outfits, I think that if He definitely wanted to He could, but I really think He has better things to do than match your baby's clothes and socks together.)

Talented

2009-03-25T20:55:00.001-07:00

Our wonderfully talented, extremely smart child has learned so much in the last two weeks. He has learned to sit himself up, plop down on his belly to drink the bath water, walk in an orderly direction in his walker, repeat "Ta Da", and CRAWL!! That's right, our little darling is crawling. He started on Friday by taking two crawling steps and has progressed so quickly that he can already crawl across the room. We are extremely proud.

Phil has been pretty busy this week with work. He didn't even get to see Carson on Monday because he was in Ogden. Carson has really missed him. Today he screamed every time Phil would leave the room. It was pretty heart breaking. Carson just loves his daddy so much. Phil will be busy for the next little while. He has moved his mortgage license to a new company and is working on getting everthing set up there. Along with the move, they have made him Branch Manager over the other loan officers that are moving their licenses along with him.

We're Here!

2009-03-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that haven't heard, Phil and I are officially residents of the great city of Provo! We moved Monday. Our original plan was to stay up in West Point at least until the end of March, but we sold our fridge. Our lease started down here on the 16th, so we decided to push our plan up.

So far, we are pretty happy with our apartment. As far as apartments go, it's pretty good sized. It's three bedrooms and one bathroom. The bedrooms are all pretty small. Carson's bedroom is the perfect size for him. Phil's and mine, on the other hand, is pretty tight with all of our furniture. Our kitchen is decent sized and has lots of cabinet space. We have met a few of the neighbors and they seem pretty nice. Most are young couple with one or two young kids. Just right for us! I look forward to making friends and joining play groups.

We are going to be renting our home out to a very nice couple and their children. They will be moving in in May, so if anyone needs a place to stay for a month, we have a house you can squat in.

We haven't decided when Phil will start school yet. Probably Fall semester, depending on money. He can start anytime. We have decided to have him continue to process mortgage loans. Doing that gives him flexibility when he starts school.

Carson did very well on moving day. He was happy most of the day, and didn't even freak out too bad when we were moving stuff and left him alone. He is adjusting pretty well to the new environment. The first two days after the move, he was pretty clingy. He wouldn't let me walk away from him or leave his side. Today he did much better.

We will take some pictures of our apartment and post them in the next couple of days.

And on a totally unrelated note, Carson took two crawling steps today! He has been trying so hard for the last couple of weeks and he is getting so close. We are extremely proud of him!

LDS statement on "Big Love" controversy

2009-03-10T07:16:00.001-07:00

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

7 Months Old

2009-02-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

Carson is 7 months old today. My how the time flies!! He is such a joy in our lives. Both Phil and I thank our Heavenly Father everyday for such a wonderful little baby. We both never imagined that we would be able to love someone so completely. He is growing and changing so quickly. He rolls all over the house and sits with no problems. He really really wants to crawl, but hasn't caught on yet. He loves to walk around, although he needs some assistance to do that. Everyone that meets him says that he is the happiest baby they have ever seen. He will smile, laugh and talk to anyone. He is such a little charmer. He loves animals, especially dogs. He loves to take baths. We have transitioned him from his infant bath to the big bath and he loves it. I made the mistake of teaching him how to splash. He soaks Phil and I every night, but it's hard to be annoyed because he is so cute and happy while he is doing it.

Here are a few new pictures of out little cheezer. He has finally gotten over his fear of the camera and smiles whenever we pull it out.

Rolling over

Blues eyes

Big boy!
Cheese!!

We forgot to take a bib to cousin Cassie's baby blessing so he had to borrow one.

Not every man can get away with this shade of purple.

Carson's hair was like this when he woke up from

his nap and it would not lay back down.

Our little Alphalpha

He usually has this toy in his mouth like

this through his whole bath.

This is what we see every morning and when he

wakes up from his naps. Aren't we lucky?

This is Carson's new trick. He can pull himself up to kneeling

with no problems. He has also pulled himself up to standing once.

There goes the neighborhood.....

2009-02-19T03:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a little update for ya'll.

We are currently in process of getting everything in line to go to BYU asap. Our biggest worry was to get rid of the house by selling it, renting it, leasing it out and then giving people an option to buy it at the end of the lease, just anything we could do to get the mortgage payment out from under us while we are down at BYU.

We have been working with a Realtor who sets up Leases w/ an option to buy at the end of the lease agreement. We think next to selling the home outright (which we don't think we could do in this market fast enough) it's the next best thing.

So while all this craziness was going on, we felt pretty confident about everything...Then, Phil's (my) car broke it's timing belt. For those of you who are not mechanically inclined, that's bad news, because when your timing belt breaks, you have a very high chance that it ruined some major things in your engine. Yup. My engine is now shot. Basically I have 2 options: replace the whole engine, or scrap the car for 500$ and go get a new one. Well, we aren't really in the position to want a car payment while going to school (who does?), when we are so close to having it paid off. (Seriously...10 days away!!) So, now we are in the process of looking for cars to buy for cheap. That's a lot of fun, let me tell ya.

I found an old '94 van that might have been a possibility (118k miles on it), but it looked like crap. (What else can you expect when they are selling it for 1500 right?) And after getting a second opinion on the van, isn't going to work for us. So time to jump on KSL/Craig's List and see who has a cheap car they want to get rid of. I do have some leads, but it's still a pain to try and get everything taken care of at the same time.

On top of that, we found someone who is interested in our leasing our house with an option to buy, but needs to be in it by March 1st. (Yeah as in 03/01/2009...AKA 2 weeks away). So we don't know if that is a blessing or a curse. So now on top of finding a cheap car, we have to find housing, (Probably asap) down in Utah County. Fun Fun Fun! We are really glad to get out from under having the mortgage payment, but that's really quick, and we haven't started anything in the way of getting prepared for that.

Who ever thought that doing what you always dreamed of doing, was going to be so complicated?

Car Woes = Phil's rambling and venting

2009-02-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

So, when it comes to car repairs, I am no newbie. My first car I had, was one that my Dad and I swapped out an automatic transmission for a manual one. My second car was a truck that I got from my brother that (again) my Dad and I swapped out the broken engine for a new one.

Car repairs is something that I have grown up doing with my dad and brother, but I don't think any of us really enjoyed that much. So when it came time to trade my truck for a more fuel friendly car, I was ecstatic that I wouldn't have to deal with car repairs for quite a while.

But of course, my fate had already been set. We are a family (or at least I'm feeling that way now) that always has to deal with car repairs. So, when my transmission on my car needed to be replaced after having it for only 20k miles, I was very upset, but not surprised.

But our car woes seemed rather subdued since that incident. Just tires and brakes needed to be replaced, and I don't mind taking care of those things, as well as oil changes.

But the latest advancement in our car woes just has me baffled.

I was dropping off one of the young men in our ward at his house, car was in drive, foot on the brake, car idling. Then it just died. It would crank over (Which told me it wasn't the battery or the starter) just wouldn't start. So I had him drive/steer the car down the street while I pushed it to our house.

So, what's next? Fuel. I checked those out, and the fuel pump is working, and I have 3/4 of a tank. So it's not that. What's next after that? Spark. Checked out my spark plugs, they all looked fine, but one problem. They weren't sparking. So for some reason, the electrical system wasn't telling my spark plugs to fire.

I looked online at possibilities, and how to check/test stuff out, and I came across a little thing called a Crankshaft Position Sensor. It basically tells your car where the crankshaft is at, and when to fire what spark plug so you can have ignition. I did a little test, and found out that it isn't telling my car when to fire the spark plugs. So I said to myself, "Let's replace it." I got the part from Auto-Zone, picked up a book to tell me where it is, and went back to my car to replace the sucker and hope that the problem would be fixed.

There is only one problem....I can't find the stupid sensor! I know it goes into the engine block, and has electrical running to it, but it's nowhere to be found! The book I picked up has this lovely picture of looking up from under the engine with this arrow pointing to the sensor, but apparently it's the wrong engine, or something, because when I look at that spot on my engine, there isn't anything there. No Sensor, and not even a spot to suggest that one is supposed to go there, and no wires showing where it would be.

I followed the rest of the electrical (wiring harness) and found as many other sensors as I could to see if they were the one I needed to replace. Nope. Now there is only one sensor I can't see plainly (it's between the engine mount and starter) that possibly could be it, but it's on the opposite side of the engine of where the picture is pointing to. So in order to even see if it is the right one, I have to take out the starter, and my view may even still be obstructed.

Stupid car repairs.

Maybe I need to call my Dad....

Carson and Wrapping Paper

2009-02-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know that these videos are old and not in chronological order, but I am just glad that I got them off of our camcorder and onto our blog finally! Here's one of Carson during Christmas time, and the fun that he was having with the wrapping paper.

How carson eats Cereal now... : )

2009-02-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Carson tries Rice Cereal for the first time!

2009-02-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

Carson Rolls Over

2009-02-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

Our Boy's Got Rhythm!

2009-02-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

So watch all the way to the end, and listen to the little tune that the Toy train plays.....

Carson watching his favorite thing on TV!

2009-02-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

Carson's Favorite Thing to Watch

2009-02-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

The Result...

2009-02-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Phillip,

The BYU School of Music is pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the School of Music as a music major in the following studio/area: Saxophone. Your outstanding accomplishments and audition truly helped set you apart and we look forward to working with you throughout your university career.

The Audition....

2009-02-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I am finally done with the audition for the School of Music at BYU. Overall, I thought it went pretty well! I couldn't expect it to have gone better. I think that I performed to the best my current abilities would allow me. So short of a miracle stepping in and making me sound like Charlie Parker or John Coltrane. I couldn't have asked for more.

I was most worried about having to play my scales in front of the judges, but they didn't even ask me to play one!! : ) There was a bullet dodged.

I had to take an Aural test that tested on how well I could identify rhythms, intervals and chord progressions. There were 64 questions, and they said that most people got about half right. When my results came back, I had gotten a 37, so that wasn't too bad.

We should hear back if I actually got admitted by the end of February at the latest, but most likely in the next couple weeks.

We feel pretty good about getting in, but time will tell!

BYU Application

2009-01-13T07:12:00.000-08:00

Well....That's one hurdle over. : )

Application?......CHECK!!!

2008-12-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

So I just completed my application to BYU. At least I am pretty sure I can count on that memeber of the Stake Presidency to send in the ecclesiastical endorsement like they promised. When I met them, they were really excited for me and kept saying "Good for you!" and said that they would mail it off this morning. So I think that is everything! I better make sure that I sent them my most up to date transcript from WSU, but other than that, I think that I am good to go!

Don't you think it's kind of weird that my audition for the School of Music is actually before I find out if I am accepted into BYU? Oh well, to each their own!

Next destination? Scales @ 96 bpm in stacatto sixteenth notes!

Keep on Scrollin!

2008-12-21T20:29:00.001-08:00

We just caught up on our Blog posts, so make sure to keep scrollin down till you get to one you have seen before! (Including this one, I think I did 6 today!)

Pursuing the Dream!!

2008-12-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

I think that everyone who knows me well, knows that I have wanted to go into Studio Recording since I had gotten home from my mission. The problem has been that the places that I found at the time that provided the education were all out of state, and mostly at either high-end Music Schools (Berklee College of Music, etc.) or at Technical Schools (SAE, Full Sail, etc.) and the tuition was out of reach (Try between 20-60k for their programs and most of them just gave you a certificate of completion). It wasn't till later, that I had found out that BYU had a Sound and Recording Technology Program. But by then, I had a job here, and other obligations, that prevented me from pursuing it at the time.

Every step I have tried to make though, has tried to be in the direction of having a Studio sooner or later, and hopefully turining that into my career.

I had pursued it a little last year, around August, started taking Saxophone lessons to be able to get into the school of music, and started my application for BYU, but a job opportunity that we thought we couldn't pass up, put that on hold for a little while.

Well, I am back on the horse again, some recent changes have given us an opening to start focusing on getting that education to do what my passion is! I am WAY stoked, a little nervous, but very excited to get things moving along. I have started Saxophone Lessons from a teacher that I know I will benefit a TON from (He fixes Ray Smith's Saxophones (www.davidhallmusic.com)), and Misty is pushing me to get up to speed, and being so supportive of me reaching my goals and dreams!

I have most of my BYU application completed so far, and just have the Stake Presidency part of the Ecclesiastical Endorsement to complete. (I have that appointment set up for next Sunday)
I need to double check my application into the Actual School of Music where the program is hosted, to see if all the online stuff for that is done, but I think that that is, and then all I have left to do is bust my chops on my Saxophone to get ready for the audition!

They have the auditions for the School of Music the last Saturday in January, and so I have VERY little time to get prepared the way that I would like to, but Misty and I don't want to have to wait for another year to get into the program.

There will be a lot of decisions to make regarding other areas of our life if I get accepted this January, but at least we will have till August to make things finalized. But for now, it's full steam ahead!

Wish us Luck!

Happy Anniversary.....Sort of..... : )

2008-12-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

Jan 4th is our 3rd wedding anniversary, and we are very excited for it....So excited that we bought our anniversary gift a little early! We wanted to make sure that we had a way to document Carson's first Christmas. So we swung by R U Silly's (R.C. Willey's) and picked it up. I did a bunch of shopping around, (Costco, Best Buy, Wal-mart, etc.) and was actually surprised that they had the best deal for what we wanted.

2nd Annual Gingerbread Making Party!

2008-12-21T19:37:00.001-08:00

Thanks to everyone who attended the 2nd annual gingerbread/graham cracker house making party at our house! We had loads of fun and the houses were.....well...... You judge. : )

Here's the players:

Toby, Adrienne, and Valin

Ryan & Amy

Jordan, Kiera & Andi

Phil

And Misty

(Ha Ha! She was taking all the pictures that evening, and so we don't have any of her from then, so I just uploaded an old one.)

The Houses:

Toby & Adrienne's House

(Their's is always eclectic : )

Apparently they staged a Gingerbread house that was attacked by a monster.)

Amy & Ryan's Gingerbread house!

(Theirs was definitely the prettiest! They had a little help from an old kit they had.)

Jordan & Kiera's

(They improvised as they went along. I think I heard something about it wanting to start out as the Rio Tinto Stadium? Pretty sure it ended up as a church-type building though.)

Misty's Quaint little cottage.

Here's the progression of mine.

Here is my inspiration:

Here's the Outcome:

And here's what Jordan and Ryan said mine turned out looking like:

Who would you say had the best house?

Hulet Family Christmas Party

2008-12-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at our Family Christmas Party that we hosted at our house for Misty's side of the family. The kids choose exchange names to buy presents for, and Carson got our niece. The kids all loved their presents, and Carson got the biggest one of all! We think that the "budget" for kids gifts was definitely broken when Misty's Step-sister's family bought the gift for him.

Carson's Present from Grandma & Grandpa (He likes helping with the wrapping paper)

Misty's Step-Sister had a person in her ward that does Pencil artwork, and she had her do this picture of Grandma & Grandpa Hulet! Amazing!

This year, we had Misty's Brother's Family to have a gift for, and Misty made this awesome magnet board for their family.

The Schneider's got blocks that spelled Wons! (And Christmas Dishes. : ) )

This was our present from the Schneiders! This great picture of Christ, with money attached to it! (Who could ask for more?)

Our little neice asked for a swimsuit for Christmas, and she got one! : )

Yeah, That's a picnic table! Cool huh! That's Carson's!

Carson helping unwrap his picnic table

Cute little boy!

Unwrapping our First Christmas Present!

2008-12-21T18:46:00.000-08:00

Carson just recently discovered wrapping paper, and I think that you can see how much he likes it.

He did this all by himself, with his ever-grabbing hands while Misty was getting things wrapped.

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

With all of Phil's job changes these past few months, our Christmas money is a little tight. So tight that I was thinking that we should probably not spend money on a Christmas tree. I didn't want to admit it, but I was pretty heartbroken. I can't remember a Christmas without a tree. We talked about it and decided that we both really did want one but we would just get a really inexpensive live one, even if inexpensive usually means not so nice. The day after we had decided this, I was making dinner, and heard a knock at the door. No one was there, but a big box. Upon examining the box, I realized that it was a new prelit Christmas tree. It's not the big fancy one Phil and I will eventually buy, but with the nice ornaments we bought last year and our expert tree fluffing skills, I think turned out beautiful. The best part is that no matter how tight things are at future Christmases, we will always have a tree.

To whomever it was that brought it to us, and I am pretty sure I know, thank you! I was having a hard time feeling the Christmas spirit this year with our financial situation and the lack of snow, but you truly brought that spirit right to my heart. Phil and I really appreciate your generosity and strive to be able to serve others in a similar manner.

Here is a picture of our beautiful Christmas tree.

I also included a picture of our mantle because I think it looks wonderfully Christmasey and makes me smile.

Four months old

2008-12-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Carson is now 4 months old. We are so unbelievably proud of him. We think that he is the cutest, smartest and greatest baby in the world. He brings more joy to our lives than we ever thought possible.

We had his 4 month well baby check this week. He is now 19 pounds and 26.75 inches tall. His weight is in the 97tth percentile and his height and head are both in the 94th. The doctor says he is very healthy and was impressed when he made Carson giggle by checking his abdomen.

Some of Carson's favorite things to do are smile, giggle, give kisses, talk (his favorite word right now is ma ma), play with his toes, shake his rattles, and kick things. He has decided that it's more fun to use his feet to play with his toys than his hands. He also likes to grab our arms with his feet while we are changing his diaper. He rolled over, from his front to his back, for the first time the other day, but hasn't been able to do it again. He is very good with his hands and grabs everything he can.

In our last post, we included some family pictures that my step-sister took of us. And as promised, here are more of those pictures. There were so many that we liked that the slide show is kind of long. Hope you don't get bored!

Pictures

2008-11-30T15:55:00.000-08:00

Phil, Carson and I have never had our pictures taken together. We have no pictures with all three of us together. I decided that that needed to change. My step-sister, Angie, has recently bought a new camera and is starting to get into photography as a hobby. I asked her to take some picture of us. We are waiting for her to send us a cd with all of the pictures on it, but in the mean time, I have pirated some of the pictures she posted on her blog. Hope you don't mind, Angie!

WE GOT ONE!!!

2008-11-26T07:56:00.001-08:00

FINALLY!

Carson is the biggest stinker! He is such a happy baby, but once the camera comes out, he becomes so serious. It has been so hard to get a picture of him smiling, but finally we caught him off guard and got a picture of him smiling! I have no idea how we lucked out, but hopefully this won't be the last of his smiles and we'll see if we can get some giggles on video too!

BEFORE HE SAW THE CAMERA

AFTER HE SAW THE CAMERA

Long Time Coming

2008-11-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

So now that it is time for Thanksgiving, I have decided to post Carson's Halloween pictures. Sorry they are so late. I didn't know how to get them off the camera. Phil just taught me. Hope you enjoy.

He was Captain Adorable. His super powers are overpowering villans with his cuteness, then he drowns them with his drool. Oh and watch out for his radioactive diaper blowouts. And if a foe is especially devious, he incapacitates them with spit up.

And yes, those are little girl's tights. Hope he is not traumatized for too long.

His cape

What's that in the sky? It's a bird, it's a plane. No! It's Captain Adorable.

3 Months Old!

2008-10-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? Today is Carson's 3 month birthday. In a way, it seems crazy that he is already 3 months old, but at the same time, it feels like he has always been in our family. He is growing so fast. He has brought Phil and I more joy than we ever felt was possible. He is growing so fast and learning new things everyday. Some of his favorite things to do are take baths, stand up, have tummy time, shake his rattle, chew on his hands, scream at the top of his lungs (not just sad crying screams, he screams when he is happy), smile at daddy, have mom sing him songs, eat (maybe eat should be at the top of the list). He has the cutest little personality. As long as he has everything that he wants, he is happy and smiley, but if he wants something he can be very demanding. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father allowed me to have this little miracle in my life! I couldn't have asked for a better baby. I'm sorry to all you other mothers out there. Your children may be cute, but I got the cutest baby!

I tried to take pictures of Carson for his 3 month birthday, but I am not a photographer, and our camera takes to long to take the picture so I missed a lot of good shots, but here are a couple of the best ones.

Just Chillin before the photo session started.

I tried to get a picture in the leaves in our yard, but Carson wanted nothing to do with them.

Good idea Mom!

Phil thought it would be funny to take a picture of Carson in this box. Carson was cool with it until he started pushing on the edge of the box with his feet and lodged himself in. He was pretty traumatized.

We are still not sure what color his eyes will end up being.

This is the closest to a smile out of all of the pictures.

Super Carson!

We tried the leaves again. Still not a good idea.

He didn't even want to stand in them.

Carson and Mommy

Carson and Daddy

The rest of these pictures are ones we have taken this month

Time to catch up on Videos!

2008-10-05T10:15:00.001-07:00

So, Since I have figured out how to shrink down my videos, It's time to post all the ones that I have been saving up.

These first ones are just Carson being cute! I have tried to place them from youngest to most recent, so you can see the progress he has made.

This last one is awesome! Misty thinks it is so funny when Carson gets startled. When she buzzes her lips, or roars a little in front of him, his eyes will go really wide, he shakes his head back and forth, and his arms will flail about. It may be cruel....but it is really funny. However, when the camera comes out, the results differ a little this time.

Enjoy!

Will these finally work?

2008-10-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

YEA!!! I finally figured out how to shrink the video file size to make it fit! Lots more to come! they have all been sitting in a file in my computer, but now we can post them on the blog! (Now only if our AA batteries would last.)

We currently are just taking video on our digital camera, and down loading it onto our laptop. We will soon be investing in a camcorder, so if you have suggestions on which ones are best and interface the easiest, that would be great!

Carson's Blessing

2008-09-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we are just a week late, but here are a couple of pictures from Carson's baby blessing. We blessed him on September 14th. We were totally overwhelmed and touched by the support we received from our family and friends. Phil counted the people at our house and there were 54. We had even more at the church that didn't come to the luncheon. It was a wonderful day. We were able to see family members that we haven't seen for a while. Thanks to all who came! As for the pictures that will come next, you would think there would be more of Carson since it was his blessing. However, there are only a couple of him. Phil and I are not very good picture takers. Phil was taking these so we will blame him.

Carson in his blessing outfit. He hated it! The second I started putting it on him he started screaming, but eventually calmed down.

It's good we have a big house! Everyone fit with relative comfort.

Our two moms doing what moms do best. Thanks for all your help!

Misty, Angie, Mom (Rosalie), Chelsea, Joyce

Enter husbands

Phil, Miguel, Scott, Kyle

This is Aiden. He is my step-sister Angie's son. This was the first time I saw him. He is 10 months and very inquisitive.

Bragging

2008-09-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

I just have to take few minutes to brag about my absolutely wonderful baby boy. About a week and a half ago, Carson was having a hard time going to sleep. We were in Midway at a hotel so we didn't have a rocking chair. (I usually rock Carson to sleep.) After about 45 minutes, I decided to just put him in his bed and see what happened. He babbled and grunted for about 5 minutes then fell right to sleep. I decided to try the same thing the next night, even though we were back home. After nursing him and rocking him for 5 minutes, I put him in his bed and left the room. Again, he babbled and grunted for a few minutes and fell asleep. Next night, same thing and so on. It is now a week and a half later, and we have put him down every night and let him fall asleep on his own. He has never even cried or fussed. He just babbles. And since he has been putting himself to sleep, he falls asleep earlier and stays asleep longer. Instead of only sleeping about 4 to 5 hours, he now sleeps 6 to 8 hours. I think this is a pretty amazing feat for a 7 week old baby to have accomplished. Oh and a sleeping baby means a sleeping mommy. I am loving the added rest I have gotten. We both just love him!

Pictures Galore!!

2008-09-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

So, Here are the many Faces O' Carson. Hopefully I can give a good enough description to each of them:

(Above) This is what we call Carson's "Scary Eyes"

(click on the picture for full size to get the full effect. : ) )

His little eyebrows are so cute when they bunch up!

Carson fighting going to sleep (and looking a little inebriated)

More eyebrows

Right on man!!

Mommy and Carson's Hands

Cute Smiles!! (too bad its a little dark)

What was that big flash of light?

Our favorite picture of Carson. This is the quintessential Carson.

We love the wrinkles in his forehead!

YAAAAAWWWWNNNNN.....

Um, Kermit? You look a little.....Um.... Drugged.

(Just kidding Anne, we love the frog!)

A cute picture of Carson and Drugged Kermit.

It appears to be a Giant Egg or Marshmellow!

Carson in his Blessing Suit

Another Amazing Picture of Carson!! (Misty took all of these!)

The following are Carson's Paparazzi Avoidance Pics:

We hope you enjoyed all these cute pictures of our favorite baby boy!

Crazy Paul's Racing

2008-09-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

So, Misty's Dad, thought that it would be a good Idea if he were to run a race. No big deal right? A quick 5K? a 10 mile run?

No, not for Misty's dad....
Maybe a Marathon? Now that would be something wouldn't it! But no, not even that!
Maybe 50 miles, that would be crazy now wouldn't it! Yeah. That would be, but you forget....This is MISTY'S DAD.

50 wasn't enough. He had to go for the gusto.....
100 MILES!!! ARE YOU CRAZY!!!???

And it's not just over nice paved roads. No, it's through the mountains. It's UP AND DOWN HILLS! AND IT TAKES AT LEAST 20 HOURS TO RUN!! (I think the winner did it in 20?)
The elevation went from a low point of around 4800, up to 10500, back down to around 5700.
He did do great though, and he finished in 34hrs and 2omin give or take a little. (with no sleep)

Here are some pictures from his amazing feat.

We are proud of you Dad!

Quick Updates

2008-09-09T21:23:00.001-07:00

Holy Cow! Having a cute little boy around the home takes a lot of work. Sorry for the lack of posts, its been hard to try and actually find the time to get online and write another post. I have tried to delgate to Misty, but now that she has Carson around to keep her company, I can totally understand why she finds him more entertaining than blogging! :P (and our only working computer is a laptop which I take to work for the time being)

Carson- He is doing great! We are going to bless him this coming Sunday at 9:00 a.m. if you would like to come, you are more than welcome! I have this Idea of putting together a mood chart of all of Carson's faces and compile them all, but haven't gotten enough pictures yet. We'll post lots of pictures soon enough, and hopefully some of his little videos. He has gotten more vocal now with "cooing" and "squeaks" and drives us absolutely nuts with his cuteness! We about have his schedule down, the hardest part is trying to keep him awake from about 9:30-11:00 p.m. We have found out that he needs this awake time, so he will sleep soundly during the night. Usually we can make this happen, and he is now staying asleep for about 6 hours a night!!! YEA! We think this is such an accomplishment for him for only being 6 weeks old. : )

Misty -She is now doing her dream job! Being a stay at home mom! She gets awesome benefits! Poopy Diapers, a Hungry Crying Baby and cuddling time with Carson. I am so glad I have such an awesome wife to raise my son while I am out trying to provide for our little growing family. She is also teaching Primary to the 6-7 year olds, and enjoys the interaction with the kids.

Phil - Wow. Long stories. After a brief stint of unemployment, I am now working at a start-up company called Estmar Strategy Ltd. Things are developing quickly there, and it seems like a great move! I just got called as the 2nd counselor in the young men's presidency, as well as the Assistant Scoutmaster. Its a challenging calling, but I am really enjoying associating with people that have the same mentality as me! : )

Carson showing off his amazing lungs, and Daddy too!

Carson and Mommy loved watching the olympics while Mom was recooperating. We practically watched every event that was on NBC!

Carson wants to be an Olympian some day too!

This is actually how he sleeps every night!

Proud Parents

2008-08-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, So I would always wonder why people who just had a baby would just post pictures of their new baby on their blog and nothing else...
"Isn't something else in their lives happening other than taking pictures of their baby?!" I would ask myself... but after having a child of my own, I now know the answer to that question.
NO!!! THERE IS NOTHING ELSE GOING ON!!!
(definitely nothing more important happening)

Belly Time!!

Carson has been fussing some times, and Carson calms down when he is on his belly.

These are some of Misty's Favorite Pictures of Carson.

These next ones are Carson in his new outfits that we got sent to him from my good friend Krysta. Thanks again Krysta!!

Stay tuned for more awesome pictures of our cute baby boy!!

Previews of Carson's Smiles

2008-08-02T18:55:00.001-07:00

Carson is doing the cutest little smirks! (Yes, yes....we know "it's probably gas" : ) )

Here is a little video of his little smiles!

Cutest Little Boy!!

2008-08-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Joys of Parenthood

2008-08-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

So, 2 nights ago, Carson was having a hard night.

He was awake....and awake....and awake....and eating...and eating....and eating.....Finally about 4:30 in the morning, Misty came into our bedroom and asked me to take Carson, and see if I could get him to sleep. She was really worried that he wasn't sleeping, and just wanting to eat and eat.

So, after taking him downstairs, and trying to console him and get him to sleep, I finally decided to go on a little ride with him in the car.

After I got back, about 6:00 in the morning, I crashed on Carson's floor. Misty came in and decided that it was a funny scene, and took some pictures.

YAYYYYYY!!! For Cassie!!!

2008-08-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

So, 2 days after Carson was born, we got a wonderful call!!

Ryan and Amy, (My brother and sister-in-law) Called us and told us that they got a call from a birth mom, and they were going to have a baby added to their family!

Here are pictures of Cassie Alexis Burnett!

We are so happy that we get to experience parent-hood together!

Happy Dad!

Look at all that hair!

Wow! I'm glad I didn't have twins!

Who's Bigger!? I can't believe that they were only born 3 days apart!

(by the way, the answer is Carson. : ) By exactly 1lb 9oz, and 2.5 inches long)

Introducing.....

2008-07-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

Carson Roger Burnett was born July 27th 2008, at 3:19 p.m.

Weight: 7lbs, 13 oz

Length: 20.5 Inches

Likes: Mommy, Daddy, Food, Cuddling, Blankets, Sleeping, a fine MLT (mutton lettuce and tomato) : ) and other baby things.

Dislikes: Having his diaper changed, being hungry, having a dirty diaper, and other baby things.

He is the love of our lives right now!

Misty and I are doing great! (other than a little grogginess) Misty is healing well, and Carson is a fine healthy boy!

Here are the pics we have of him so far:

Dad, am I going to have to put up with this kind of treatment my whole life???!!!

Late Nights

2008-07-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

(This is Misty again.)
Here I am. It's Thursday night, 12:47, and I am sitting at the computer instead of being tucked away in my bed, getting some much needed sleep. Up until the last few days, my pregnancy hasn't created too much sleep interference for me. (Except the occasional potty break.) But boy how times have changed.

On Sunday, I started to get a couple of small red bumps on my stretch marks. By Monday night, my entire belly was covered in the bumps and was extremely itchy, so itchy that I spent the entire day on Tuesday on the couch, using all the will power I had not to scratch them. Then on Wednesday, I noticed that the bumps had spread to my legs and feet. We asked the doctor about them today at our weekly check up. He said that they are caused by a form of Staff infection that is common during pregnancy. It's not dangerous for the baby or for me (except my mental health). It's just another thing that I have to deal with. The itching is almost constant all day long. I sincerely hope that it quickly goes away, especially after the baby comes.

Most Recent Family Photo

2008-07-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here is our most recent family photo on Misty's Dad's side. We were only missing one body! (litterally) : P

New Posts Below

2008-07-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I just wanted everyone to know that I am going to keep the "Ad for my Bro. and Sis-in-Law" at the top of our Blog, so if you see that post first, we may still have been adding stuff below.

Ad for my Bro and Sis-in-law

2008-07-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

So, my brother and sister-in-law, have been trying to have kids for 8 years now. After many tests, and even IVF, they are headed down the adoption path to start building their family.

If you know of ANYONE even considering putting up a baby for adoption, I am sure they would love to have the opportunity to add another person to their family.

Adoption agencies, (which they are starting to go through right now), can be full of waiting lists and headaches, and so if you know of any family, friends, in-state, out of state, in Europe, Antartica, that would love to have their baby watched after, loved and brought up in an awesome family and atmosphere, please get a hold of me, or my Brother and Sister-in-law.

Here is their adoption blog that they are putting together, (still under construction)
http://www.amyandryanadopt.blogspot.com/

P.S. (Now you have to help finish it Ry, since I am advertising for you. : ) )

Finally Pics of the Baby's Room

2008-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

We are very proud of the way our baby's room turned out. I don't think that we could have done it any better!

Here is the "Before" picture.
And now the "after"

Sorry if it looks like I am taking a picture of the floor, I wanted to get our cute furniture in there too. The top of the wall anyway is just beige.

We are excited to put a baby in there!

We love Baby Showers!

2008-07-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

These pics are from a Baby Shower Misty had thrown for her back in june

Chelsea (Our sis-in-law) and Ansku (our cousin)
Cute Clothes!

Faith, our Cousin's (in the background) cute girl!

Pics to Post

2008-07-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

So, we are one of those people that take our camera places, meaning to take pictures, then hardly ever do!

However, over the past few months, we have taken some..... we just haven't posted them!

Here you go!

These are from when we had a bunch of my high school friends over to our house to celebrate one of our friends being in town.

Tami & Her baby (sorry! I can't remember her name!)

Lori, Aaric, Tami & Sheldon

Misty being cute!

Isn't it amazing that we are old enough to have such cute kids?! Jord, Kiera, Matt, Aaric, Cami, and Rachy (or at least the back of her head)

Cassie and her Abby

Jordan and Kiera and Andi

Kristin, Kiera and Andi

Last day of work

2008-07-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all! This is Misty, and this is my very first post. All of the others have been done by my computer literate husband. He is much better with these contraptions than I am, but I thought that I might take a stab at this blogging thing.

Today is my last day at work!!!! I am very excited to not have to sit through boring trainings, on uncomfortable chairs anymore. I am also very happy that I will be able to relax and take it easy for the next couple of weeks til the baby comes. I have loved working at Head Start. It has been a very rewarding job. The children I taught really touched my life, and I really miss them. School got out at the end of May. It's hard to get so attached to a child and then say goodbye, knowing that you may never see them again. Since school got out, we have just been doing trainings. YUCK!! The trainings would have been very helpful if I was coming back, but I'm not.

I kind of worry about not having a job. I have been a full time employee for so long, that I am worried that, in quitting, I will be missing part of my identity. What will I do when I no longer get a the positive affirmation of a paycheck for the work I do?

Even though these things worry me, and I may miss working, I know that my baby needs me. I know that the place I need to be is home with my child. I am so excited to be a mommy! I am amazed by the love that I already feel for this baby, and only expect that love to grow and flourish when he gets here. He is the second greatest blessing I have ever been given (Phil being the first). I have never felt the love of my Heavenly Father stronger than when he blessed us with this child. I just pray that I will be able to live up to the responsibility and challenge of motherhood. I pray that I can raise him the way that I should. He is such a special child that he deserves the best parent.

Economic Stimulus Package

2008-06-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

So, What did you do with yours?

As for us, (Pictures coming soon) we decided we better gear-up for the arrival of our Baby!! It's going to come soon, and Misty is hoping he will be a week early or so, but definately not too early that he wouldn't be healthy.

So in preparation for our Little Guy, we decided to buy all the "must haves" for a baby. Stroller, Car Seat, Crib, Changing Table, Dresser....And we still need to buy a Pack-N-Play.

That's what we had always planned to use the economic stimulus package for, and then the rest will probably go to savings, or to pay off some debt.

Fun Fun Fun!! :P

New Poll!

2008-06-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

So after finally deliberating for quite some time, We narrowed our names to these top 3. Amy and Aubrey will be happy to note there is no Carter, or Jackson. : )

So we are interested in seeing what you like the most!

Vote away!

Facebook account

2008-05-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

So, we had a "posse party" last night. (Anne Vogel, Jacob Priest, Rachel Thompson, and Misty and I), I was initially inducted to the "posse" when I married Misty, but I think I solidified my being there when I accompanied the posse to Minnesota so they could present their paper, (Misty being one of "they").

They were all talking about "facebook" and they said that Misty and I should get a profile on there. S0, last night I set one up.

The internet is amazing!! I can't believe all the people I am now able to stay in touch with because of Blogger, and Facebook! What will they think of next? High School Reunions? (Wouldn't that be a trip!)

I am really happpy that I am able to stay in touch with the people that have made such a difference in my life! You guys are all awesome!! I'm excited to get in touch with all of you that have disappeared!

Kids are Silly!

2008-05-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

So, Misty and I just got put in the Primary at our Church, and we are in charge of teaching the 6-7 year olds. We had 6 kids in our first class today. One of them, is a very shy girl, but very sweet. The other ones are as follows:

The 2 popular girls
The class clown
The shy boy
The well behaved boy
then the shy girl that I made reference to.

We were teaching today about the different things that God can answer our prayers with: "Yes," "No," and "Maybe Later." Our lesson compared it to much like our parents who want the best for us, but sometimes say "yes," sometimes "no," and sometimes "maybe."

We did a little exercise where we gave the kids a situation, and had them pretend that they were the parents, and they got to respond to their kids Yes, No, or Not now.

The scenario went like this. Your child comes to you before dinner is ready (you're almost done making it,) and says "Mom/Dad! I'm hungry, I really want an Ice Cream Bar!" Then you (as the pretend parent) have to say Yes, No, or Not Now.

All the kids answered that they would tell their pretend children either "No," or "After Dinner" because that kind of treat would ruin your dinner.

The class clown proceeded to tell the class, "Sometimes I have ice cream BEFORE AND AFTER dinner! I get to have it whenever I want!" (Which obviously he was saying to get attention, (his parents wouldn't really allow that) and to get a laugh out of all of the kids, which most of them piped up and gave him that attention.)

I was sitting next to the Shy Girl, while Misty was up teaching at the front of the class. The shy girl next to me, said, almost under her voice so that I could only hear.... "Spoiled."

It was everything I could do to keep from laughing out loud!!

After Church was over, I told Misty, and she laughed almost to tears.

I think we are going to like our class.

Baby Decor!!

2008-05-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

So, we have been rather picky about what decor we wanted to do int he baby's room. We saw this online at target.com, and thought it would be perfect for our little guy!!

This is the Blanket, Wall art and baskets (to probably keep under the changing table)

These are the Crib bumper, the Sheets, and recieving blankets.

We're getting shipped to us the Valance, and the Hamper. : )

Ahh....The things you buy for a baby, that you would never get for yourself......well, at least not yet.

Take a tour of our home!!

2008-05-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well, Here it is finally, let's take a little walk around...

This Lovely Piano I noticed was listed in the Free Section of KSL.com. I jumped at the chance to have a free piano, and it works out pretty well for us!! Not in bad shape, (They just had painted it black), and not too awfully out of tune!

We are now turning the corner from the Entry Way/Room into the hallway.

First door on your left is the Full Bathroom

First door on your right is the Nursery....No we didn't decorate it like that, we are gonna take the "pooh" off the walls, and repaint, and put a chair rail in there. Should be really cute when we are done!

2nd door on your right down the hallway, is what we have called, Misty's Craft Room. Right now it is being used for storage. (yup, that's another piano, we are storing for our aunt & cousin, till our cousin gets off of his mission. We didn't realize we were going to get a free piano of our own, when we had comitted to store this one for them. At the time, we were really excited to have a piano on loan for 2 years as well!)

2nd door on the left, is the Master Bedroom. Misty wasn't too thrilled when she knew I took the pictures without really cleaning, or making the bed, so please disregard. :P

Goes into the master Bath.

You can see Phineaus in this photo. He has been with us since our first place. (The fish on the shower wall.) He was in our first apartment, covering up a patch hole in the shower, and yes, when we left, we had to take him. : )

Back out to where we went into the hallway, we are now passing the hallway we went into on the right, and this is the dining & kitchen.

The door on the right leads to the garage, (where we are headed next.) right across from that is the stairs to the basement, (we'll get to that in a second.)

This door leads to the garage/addition that was added to the house.

Into the addition we go!

This is the view out of that door to the right in the addition, you can see the back of the house, and the glass door that was in the dining/kitchen.

Looking left while in the addition.

A little wider shot looking left in the addition.

Standing in the garage door looking back into the addition.

Stepped just outside the garage door of the addition looking into the back yard.

We'll head down stairs now..
This is looking right, at the bottom of the stairs.

Into the family room, (Yeah we are still moving in.)

This is looking left in the family room, the computer area, and the door to the right is our cold storage, that is under the porch at the front of the house.

Back in the family room, looking past the desk down the hall

First door on the left is the 3/4 bath downstairs.

2nd door on your left is the "Green Room"

This is the room directly ahead, past the computer desk.

We are now looking into the hallway downstairs, (the stairs are immediately to the left)

First door on your left (might be big enough for a pool table?) : ) And tucked away at the end of the hallway on the right hand side, is our laundry room!

I hope you enjoyed our little meander through our house!!

For those of you who are a little bit more technical, here are the specs:

2600 Sq Feet

6 Bedroom

3 bath (2-3/4, 1-Full)

.28 (or so) acres

Was listed with a 2 car garage, but actually has 3

Forced Air Heating, Central Air cooling

Rambler

Built 1996

RV pad.

Automatic Sprinklers

Oldest/Ugliest house on the block!! : )

Definately the ugliest mailbox on the block for sure.

Should I really admit this?

2008-05-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I found one of my high-school friends Blogs, was reading up on how she and her family is doing, and she has this website posted....yes....I went to check it out..... and even more sadly.....I thought it was cool. (*hides in shame*)

I have always wanted to be a Daddy that did his little girl's hair though. Is that infeminate as well? Maybe so....Oh well!!

www.shedoeshair.blogspot.com

Blog Backgrounds?

2008-05-06T17:23:00.001-07:00

Okay, So I have never been thrilled with our background for our blog. It's just one of those "default" ones that Blogger has you choose between. What sites did all you get your backgrounds from?

Okay, I just realized something. I think that Matt and I are the only males that I can think of that blog frequently. Is there something wrong with that? Is this supposed to be a Girly thing? I am feeling rather infeminate right now. Hopefully this feeling passes.

HAVE YOU VOTED YET? --------------------------------->

2008-05-06T17:20:00.001-07:00

The name is Phillip......W.M. Phillip.

2008-05-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

(The WM stand for Web Master. )

I often wonder if the jokes I say make anyone else other than myself chuckle.

So, I got an e-mail from this guy that hosts a forum/website that I frequently comment, and frequent, asking if I wanted to watch it for the next 6 months to a year for him. I am a big fan of the site, so I said that I would!!

He basically has it all set up, and would continue to pay for any hosting fees and such, all I would have to do would be to monitor the forum, post questions and answers that people write in.

The site is www.askamormon.com, and was set up for people who are just curious about the beliefs/lifestyle of the church. (Read the small print at the bottom to get the full purpose of the site).

I'm kinda stoked about the responsibility, I think the reason he chose me was because I have a ton of responses on there already about other questions people have asked. He probably saw that I answered a ton, and frequented it quite often, and thought I would be a good candidate.

The reason he says that he is passing on the responsibility, is (this is kinda funny) that he really doesn't have the time (he said it would take like 10 min a day) to watch after it like he should, because of all his deadlines that he has at work, and that (here's the funny part) that his wife won't let him get on-line on Sundays. (I just think that's kinda humorous.)

The link to it is in this post, as well as over there to the right, under "sites we like". Go and check it out, post a response, and I promise that I will publish it for ya! : P

I think its a good avenue to get people's questions answered about the church, (even though it is best to hear it from the missionaries of course) and hopefully peak some interest in them to investigate more!

I am probably going to go through and clean out some of the controversial responses and the such, and make it more readable and friendly. Let me know what you guys suggest!

Also, if you have anyone who just would like to ask a question about anything, I think it's a great way to get info (They can even post it under an alias if they would like.)

$$$$$$$$

2008-05-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

So one of the benefits of moving into a home that has stuff left in it, is that the stuff that you find, you can sell!!! : )

(Not actual picture) : P

(This picture in no way represents actual consideration given for transmission shown above (Transmission not actual transmission shown above))

Yeah, They left a TRANSMISSION in our garage!! I was thinking that it probably still worked, and though rather than just trashing it, I would go and take it to a salvage yard, and have someone else benefit from it.

So when I got to the salvage yard, I told them that I had a transmission, didn't know if it worked or not, and they said that they could give me salvage cost for it, for...... Here comes the big numbers!!!........170.00$ A TON!!!

Yeah, needless to say, I was way below a ton in weight for salvage metal. Regardless of that though, I said, "what the heck", and had them pay me what it weighed (Couldn't have weighed more than 80 lbs.).

For a grand total of .....11.90!!

Yeah Baby! That's the way to work the system!

Oh, by the way, they also left rebar at our house. About 16 rods of it that probably measure at least 15 ft each. (Dunno what the standard length is for it). I have no Idea what they were planning on doing with it, and my dad suggested that I sell it (On KSL or something like that), because the price of steel is high right now.

But if any of you neeed it for anything *Cough* *Jungle gym* *Cough* *Rachael* *Cough* just let me know! Feel free to come and grab it!

All moved in!

2008-05-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you Thank you Thank you!! To those of you who came and helped us, or provided the means for us to get into our new home!

We are all moved in, as far as having all of our posessions within the boundries of our lot, but now the fun part begins. Unpacking. Ugh. Not something Misty and I are looking forward to.

I have assigned Misty the task of getting before and after pictures of our home, but she hasn't had the energy or drive to do it so far. So for those of you who are afar, I will try and do that this weekend. I'll try and give a tour as well and post the video online too. : ) That should be fun, especially regarding the fact that we won't have internet for 4 more days. I SWEAR I scheduled it to have it changed the day that we were moving, but when I called yesterday, they said they didn't have anything in their system showing that it was ordered, and the Earliest they can do it is on Wednesday. So here I am at work, not really able to give you pics and the such. I apologize for that. Maybe I'll stop over at my parents house and do it there. We'll See.

Thanks again to all those who helped!

And for those of you who didnt....... Well....... I'll be sending my chiropracter bill to you in the mail. : )

Newest Pictures of our Baby Boy!

2008-04-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest pictures of our Baby. Misty went in to do the "4D" (Still have no Idea why it is called "4d" instead of "3d" (And no one at the clinic knew either!)) ultrasound, and the baby was being so bashful. He didn't want to have his picture taken! His face was buried into the side of the placenta, with his arm up over his face! (Silly Boy!)

These are the best pictures we could get while she was there, and though it may look like his nose is all messed up, we either think that it is actually his hand grabbing his little nose, or his nose is smashed up against the side of the placenta, (Like when you press your nose on a piece of glass) or the image is just resonating weird.

Here's our Perfect Little Boy!

Moving Day

2008-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Phil has officially declared May 1st as "National Move a Pregnant Lady's Belongings Day." Those of us who are short of Pregnant Lady Belongings this time of year (Official Pregnant Lady Belongings Season is in February) will be pleased to know that Phillip and Misty will be offering Misty's Posessions (Misty being a seasoned Pregnant Lady for 6 months now) to be moved on the epic day.

Those of you who wish to participate, will be more than welcomed by contacting Phil via phone, or singing telegram, to get the location of the starting point for the move.

When asked why Phil declared May 1st as "National move a Pregnant Lady's Belonging's day" and not the expected May 26th... Phil commented, "Well, I have the day off all day, and it will be a good day to have all of the utilities moved over as well."

For further reporting, stay tuned into Philandmisty.blogspot.com for your up to date news.

We closed on our house today!

2008-04-15T16:41:00.001-07:00

So thanks again to all those that helped us in the Acquisition of our biggest debt!! (We'll be sending you a bill shortly.)

We won't actually get the keys till later, (the sellers have legally till Friday to be out) but we think that we should be getting in before then. We would like to be in by Thursday since that is Phil's day off.

Again, probably not moving for a couple weeks, and we'll let everyone know.