Grant's "I'll Never Do" list

This list was compiled this morning by the author. Grant would like to share it. Spelling has not been edited.
1. I'll never take a tub.
2. I'll never have a dinosaur party.
3. I'll never say bad words.
4. I'll never remember mokingbirds.
5. I'll never go ice cateing.
6. I'll never pudt a snowball on my ie.
7. I'll never touch the fire.
8. I'll never boge. (budge.)
9. I'll never watch Wonder Pets.
10. I'll never spell enething with a j, not inclooding Jack.
11. I'll never look for bugs not inclooding spiders.
12. I'll never wash my hands with cold water.
13. I'll never mete an aligaitor.
14. I'll never travel too antartica.
15. I'll never eat chees.
16. I'll never hide in or by a spiderweb.
17. I'll never make dertey food.
18. I'll never mess up fernicher.

There you have it. At least he'll never budge!

TGIF, and S, and S

During the week, we tease that we "catch a glimpse" of Nate as he passes in and out of night float. Typically, he'll get home around 8:30 or 9:00 am and will leave again at 4:15 to make it into work by 5. Most of this time is taken up by the unfortunate human necessity of sleep, although he functions on an impressively small quantity. (If I were to get by on what he gets by on, I would not be a very nice person.)

However, on Fridays, the kids know that dad will crash until noon, and then we're rockin' and rollin.' We've been trying to take advantage of our summer weekends of living on the East Coast... so many beautiful places, big cities, and historical sites to explore! Good thing we've got four more years here; I don't know how we'd pack it all in otherwise.

One weekend, we went camping on the Delaware River with our great friends the Michauds, the camping experts. While I didn't bring the camera on the river itself, here are a few pics.

Nate and Grant clearly happy to be at our campsite, all set up

a surprisingly good night's sleep in the tent, except for me of course..terrified of bears all night!

Jack the budding fisherman, but alas, didn't catch any. At least he's got a good supply of chocolate chip cookies on his face to stave off hunger during those long, biteless hours

Dingman's Falls: a beautiful, cool waterfall in what Pennsylvanians think are mountains


This past weekend, we journeyed the 5 hours up to Palmyra to pay a visit to the Church history sites. Our stake's YM/YW was attending the Hill Cumorah Pageant as part of youth conference, so we joined them for that. It was beautiful, albeit hot and humid, and the boys had a great time.

The Palmyra Temple (Jack was experiencing a temporary meltdown and refused to look at the camera)

Grant with Laura Ebeling, a YW in our ward who happens to be one of his favorite babysitters. We think she makes a pretty good Princess Leia.

At the pageant: a very late night, especially for Grant, who thrives on going to bed promptly at 8:30. Way to be tough, bud.

I love my boys. They are such good friends!


Outside the Sacred Grove. An amazing place! Grant said it made him feel happy and sleepy.

Ummm...Not exactly

So, I am on call at the hospital...surprise, surprise...I check the blog during some downtime and "Whoa, that's not what I said" pops to my mind. Therefore, before I become a punching bag for all things having to do with men and pregnancy...let me correct the public record.

First: Our conversation needs to be put in context. We were finishing the annual Havertown 4th of July bike parade and I looked over at my adorable wife. I remembered 6 years ago when we were staying in a sweet New York City pad and Jenny was expecting Grant. I recalled that Jenny's first sojourn in maternity clothes during that pregnancy was for a little party that we threw for some of our friends. It was a really cute pink shirt with a white collar and some well ironed white capri's. She didn't really "need" to wear it, because she hadn't really "popped" (I think that's the correct term), but she was a little thicker and it was really pretty. I then compared that picture, to what I was currently looking at...My adorable wife in some hot neon green shirt she made at Young Women's Camp and black cut-off sweats. I was struck by the comparison, and decided to compliment Jenny on her beautiful self (something I now wish I hadn't done). I said, "You know, you are a lot skinnier during this pregnancy than you were with Grant 6 years ago," because she is. Her arms, neck, legs, face, etc are skinnier. Then I said, "you really are a lot skinnier and your belly is a littlemore round then it was. You look really good pregnant." Of course, I realized by the steam coming from her ears that she didn't catch the drift of my compliment and I further clarified, "No, what I'm trying to say is you are skinnier than you were so your belly is more obvious because it's not hidden by as much weight gain." (I don't think she heard this part, or if she did it probably sounded like the adults in Charlie Brown's world...Blah blah blah).

Second: Jenny is super self conscious about her supposed varicose veins. I get questions all the time about "is this bigger" or "is this a varicose vein", to which my answer is always, "no" and "I think that's a mosquito bite, babe." With regard to my attempt at humor regarding her "new" varicose vein that she thinks I was pointing out...well, I'll admit that it was probably poor timing. What I should have said was something like this, "You're awesome, I'm not. You're pretty, I'm ugly. You're smart, I'm dumb. You're nice, I'm Mean. You're right, I'm wrong..." you get the drift.

Third: Jenny does have some sweet new gray hairs. I think their cute, and I'm glad that Grant picked up on them without my prompting.

So there you have it. The truth, and my side of the story.

gray matter and a dose of humility

Today, I'm reading Magic Tree House with Grant, who I happen to notice is looking at my head quite intently. When I ask him what he's doing, he replies,

"Oh, I'm just counting gray hairs on your head."

I race to the mirror.

"Where?"

"Well , just all over. Although, I guess it could be brain matter seeping out. Our brains are gray, you know."

I guess I've just got to hope for the latter. Maybe I'm so intelligent that my brain just can't be contained in my head.

Oh, and then there's Nate. Granted, he's lost his tact filter due to prolonged sleep deprivation, but this does mean he can't sugarcoat anything. He says what he means, if you catch my drift.

Yesterday:

"Hey babe, you're looking a lot thinner than you have with other pregnancies. Your stomach's bigger, though."

"Thanks. (?)

"But you do have some varicose veins."

Whoa. Am I letting myself go here? Leave it to my family to keep me humble, in pants, and in search of a good colorist...

it's a...

didn't know it was possible... but we're sure excited!

Grant, ever the intuitive child, knew from the get-go that it was a girl, and grew increasing agitated as I tried to explain that there was a great possibility that it may be another brother. As we returned from the ultrasound, he was waiting on the front porch, eagerly hoping it was "the news I want it to be!" When we told him, a smile of pure joy spread across his face. Later that night, he was kissing my belly, saying "thank you! Thank you in there!" Jack, meanwhile, continues to insist that the baby in HIS tummy is "definitely a boy."

J A C K

energetic beautiful imaginative snuggly squishy-cheeked friendly thoughtful silly stubborn intelligent compassionate intense courageous creative inquisitive

JaCk PrEsToN RiChArDs

What would we do without our Jacky?

How we love our goodmorning smooch-giving,

our strawberrymilk-sugarycereal-chocolatechip poptart-loving,

star-wars soundtrack belting,

T-rex-impersonating,

book-obsessing,

vacuum-fearing,

animal-loving,

snuggle-giving,

racecar sprinting,

chef-aspiring,

joke-telling,

day-brightening,

hope-giving

3-year-old boy!

Happy Birthday, buddy. We love you!

8 is great... with Nate

It's hard to BeLiEvE it's been 8 Years! yes.. that picture IS moments after Nate proposed. We were dorky enough to re-enact the event for the self-timer on the camera....

Pardon my traversal down MEMORY LANE...

June 15, 2000:

After 6 years of dating and an 11-month engagement, we finally made it! Highlights of the day... a long time to quietly contemplate alone in the celestial room before the ceremony, a quick run to Crown Burger after pictures, a funny mix-up with Nate and Fast Eddie Edwards, and a luxurious night at Wolfcrest...

June 15, 2001:

An awesome night in the World Trade Marriott, NYC... right before the fated September 11. Great Italian dinner, lovin' the view-- a step up and a subway ride down from our Morningside Heights apartment...

June 15, 2002:

Livin' large in the Davidson's sprawling 23rd floor Upper West Side apartment. We couldn't NOT spend our anniversary in that place.. overlooking the Hudson, throwing chocolate chips off the balcony, dreaming about our little babe in the belly, and playing lots and lots and lots of Settlers...

June 15, 2003

Back to Wolfcrest! Thanks to mom, our first night without Grant, although he occupied a great deal of our conversations...

June 15, 2004

A visit to San Fran, John and Ang, and a long walk on the wharf...

June 15, 2005

Me uncomfortable and hugely pregnant, we dined elegantly on Cafe Rio one week before Jack's birth...

June 15, 2006

Two weeks into residency. A night in Philly, Nate lookin' hot in a tux as we celebrated at the Union League for a dinner honoring the outgoing chiefs...

June 15, 2007

Our first anniversary apart... me in Utah, Nate slaving away at work, of course. A lovely Park City getaway was partaken of a week early, thankfully...

And, here we are! This year is Father's Day... and we celebrate as a family, honoring the World's BEST Dad. Here's to 8 great years as your wife, babe! Thanks for every, single day!~