I wish turkey only cost a nickel

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone already. This year we split the holiday between our two families. However, we failed to take many pictures...in fact, we only took one, which of course was of Grady, and his first stay in a hotel. There is a good reason for the lack of pictures. Usually picture taking is Adam's job, but here's the story why he failed to take more pictures: On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Adam said he didn't feel well. On Sunday morning while we were sitting in church, Adam had huge beads of sweat pouring down his face (He claimed he had a fever, but Camille told him to be a man and finish out church). On Monday his throat began to hurt and the fevers got worse and worse. On Tuesday he went to the doctor and found out he had strep. They gave him a shot in the butt (he claims it was extremely painful and was unable to sit for days). Thinking he was ok, he went home and slept for a while. Wednesday, he went to work, but suffered with fevers until noon, when we left for Camille's house. While driving Adam's fevers worsened to the point he kept asking Camille where they were and was disoriented. He spent the rest of the evening in bed. That night and into Thursday morning, Adam's throat from swollen glands and tonsils began to close off and he struggled to breath and swallow. Thursday morning off to the ER. He got more medicine and made it down to Utah to celebrate the joyous day...Note: He found a nice place to sleep for three hours or so...Thanks Natalie!! Camille gorged herself on wonderful food, while Adam ate a few mashed potatoes. Note II: Grady thoroughly enjoyed his first stay in a hotel room on thanksgiving night.Grady has been eating solids...and tried to pound down some peas. His face says it all.Adam has been enjoying so many sports lately...football, basketball, etc. While he watches the games he tends to throw a football around (and yell at the top of lungs). Grady just stares at him the entire time he does it. So, while at the last high school game the cheerleaders were throwing out plastic footballs. Adam knowing how to work cheerleaders held up Grady and...plop...a football fell into our laps. Grady loves playing with it...and even yells at the top of his lungs.Grady is working on his thug skills this week. Not only is he trying to grab everything he sees and shove it into his mouth, but he has gone all gangsta on us. He is sporting his leisure suit...but is missing baby bling because, well, he would chew on it. Note: He loved the felty feeling of the outfit that he just sat there rubbing his tummy.

This picture was included only because Grady wanted to say: "Step off my grill, playa!!"

And he is a cute boy.

Hooters!!

The weather has been getting colder and colder here in Wyoming. Camille has been a bit worried about Grady each morning because of the cold weather, and so she went out and got him an owl hat and mittens. Adam couldn't resist making a slew of hooters jokes...but Camille has decided those jokes were lame and inappropriate for the blogging world. Plus, why ruin such a cute pic.The other significant thing we have done lately was have family pictures. While were visiting Adam's sister in Ohio, we decided to get our pics done by Annie's good friend Kara. She did an excellent job.
At one point Kara asked us to be sexy...this was Adam's offering. Women of the world beware...

We loved this pic. Other than Grady shoving his hand into his face...still a good pic.

We had the pics taken in a very neat area of Cincinnati, Ohio. The temp was less than desirable...it was around 35 degrees with a stiff wind. So, under those conditions, we were happy to get the pics that we did. We had a ton of pics taken, but decided to spare everyone scrolling through a thousand photos. Thanks a million Kara!!

O-H, I-O

In the summer of 2004 Adam and his sister Annie were embarking on two great adventures. The two of them had lived very close to each other while at BYU. Annie got married and her husband was going to medical school at THE Ohio State. While Adam, still unmarried, was going off to law school at the University of Wyoming. Adam says he still remembers the day Annie pulled out of Provo. He went home and packed his apartment up and left for Laramie (probably crying, but he would never admit to that). Over the next six years Annie and her little family have continued to live in Columbus, while Adam finally got married and started to practice law. Well, for the first time ever, we finally got a chance to head out and visit them. Grady did very well on his first big trip. He slept most of the way. We were lucky enough on our longest flight to get an extra seat for the car seat...it was heaven. In this pic Adam looks half awake, while Grady is alert and ready to party. Our first stop in Columbus was at a cool German village thing. Not sure what it is called, but it was a cool place. The best thing about the place was the authentic German sausage we ate. It was a buffet, which made Adam happy. The food was out of this world.

Adam's mom came along for the trip and hung out with us. Annie's little girls were so much fun. Adam called them Odd Job and Jo Jo (their real names are Audrey and Julia), and played with them until he could barely move...we loved every minute of it. This pic was taken just inside the restaurant.
Camille and Annie are ready for some football and beer!!

The streets were all brick, which made it look very authentic and cool. This picture was taken soon after eating. All the girls paced themselves...Adam did not. He ate more sausage than he ever has in his entire life and waddled around like a pregnant woman the rest of the afternoon.

Columbus has one fine zoo!! We were a little surprised when Annie suggested we go to the zoo. The only zoo we had ever been to was Hoggle Zoo in SLC, which is not great. (Note: Adam's other sister Carli says the only thing you can see at Hoggle Zoo is a fat Hippo lying in a small cage with little water and a penny laying on its belly because someone was a good shot.) The Columbus Zoo was amazing, and it was a beautiful day. Note: Adam is indeed wearing an OSU sweatshirt. Many of you are probably shocked that it is not a BYU shirt...but, when in Rome...
They had a polar bear exhibit where you could see them swimming under water...BEST EXHIBIT EVER!!! It was so neat. We sat and watched it for almost an hour straight. Note: Yes, there really were fish swimming around. The Zoo Lady at the exhibit said the bears catch and eat them...Adam was sad not to see this happen.

Adam and Grady were twinners at the zoo. By the end of the day we were all worn out. Note: Adam says at least he was wearing a BYU hat...just so you know.

Our last day there we went to North Market. It was a big building with lots of little shops/eateries. We walked around it for a long time and settled on Italian food...it was spectacular. We also had Jeni's ice cream, which is very unique (and featured frequently on the Food Network). It is not in anyway traditional. We sampled everything from pear to salty caramel (it tasted like caramel with salt...crazy).

The entire trip was a lot of fun...but most of all, Adam was happy to see his little sister and nieces again (Camille liked seeing them too)...even if they didn't really like the nicknames he gave them . Thanks once again Annie and Grandma...we loved it!!!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. It came and went very quickly. We had a difficult time trying to figure out what our costumes would be. After some extensive internet searching (we were not going to pay a lot for any costume) we came across a shark. As for our costumes...well, we had two parties to attend. Adam's work party and a haunted back yard party for some of our friends. For the work party Camille was supposed to be Wayne from Wayne's World and Adam was supposed to be Garth. As it turns out, Adam looks like a giant grunge rocker and Camille looks like his white trash midget wife. Ah well...we had fun with it. For the friend party we actually went as shark attack victims, but forgot to get pics. Note: Shark attack victim costumes were not that great...but conceptually, they were brilliant. Cutest little shark ever!! He could easily smell milk in the water and has a ravenous appetite. He truly is a great white. Just look into those deep dark eyes...Note: Adam was so happy that Grady looked so good in his costume. Adam said all he had to do is walk around the town and people would practically throw candy at him. Adam's Halloween motives were questionable.
We even had time to carve some pumpkins. Although, once we cut into the pumpkins, Adam's smelled more like watermelon. We think it was a squash of some kind. It had relatively no seeds and cut super easily. Adam was happy that his pumpsquashkin required little to no effort. Camille's on the other hand was packed full of seeds and strings. Adam had time to carve his pumpsquashkin, wash up, watch a football game, and brush his teeth by the time Camille had finished hers. They both turned out great. Happy Halloween!!

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids

Grady had his four month check up this week. Aside from being a very LOUD, chatty boy, he did relatively well. His measurements were as follows:

Height: 25 1/4 inches = 75%

Weight: 11 lbs. = less than 5%

Head: 16 1/2 = 50%

Adam was in a jury trial and was unable to go to the visit, but the doctor had a little message for Adam. The doctor (who plays basketball with Adam) said Adam had better be careful because soon Grady will be blocking Adam's 3 point shots. Grady keeps growing taller and taller, but gains little to no weight.

Grady's latest fun trick is to always be playing with his feet. He can almost shove his toes in his mouth. Adam is amazed at Grady's flexibility and attempted the same move as Grady only to discover his calling in life is not as a Yoga instructor. Camille openly mocked Adam while trying to touch his toes to his mouth. Note: Adam limped off, whimpering.
Father-Son time...Adam and Grady got some cozies on the couch while they tried to cheer on their Cougars. Notice neither of them are too happy...ah well, maybe next week.
The final high school home football game was this week, and since Grady has come along, we haven't made it to a single game. We know quite a few kids on the team and generally like to cheer them on. This week, we felt brave and pulled out Grady's winter cap. Note: Many a woman and girl were wooed by Grady's suave glances.
The biggest news of the week is a result of the doctor's visit. The doctor said that since Grady is our equivalent of an Ethiopian, it is time to start feeding him some real food...RICE CEREAL. When Camille called Adam and said it was time for Grady to eat cereal, Adam was pumped and ready to run to the store for some Fruity Pebbles, Trix, POPS, or Honeycomb. Camille finally had to convince Adam that it was rice cereal. Adam then asked if we could get those cereals anyway.

We were very nervous that Grady would hate the cereal. From all the books we read they said it is common for an infant to not like the texture or taste, and therefore be prepared for them to spit it out and cause a large mess. We were prepared and stripped him down to a diaper with a towel underneath him.

But, from the first bite...he liked it....Grady liked it!! Now we are on day two, and hope that he starts to put on some weight real soon.

Grado Potato

Did you all really think we would be able to make a non-Grady post? Surely you jest!! We have been very busy lately with real life and have not been able to update the blog. Grady has been growing quite a bit. He laughs all the time and is really getting to a fun age. A week or so ago, Adam was brushing his teeth and getting ready for work. While doing so, Camille asked him to open the door for her so she could get Grady to the sitter and herself to work. Adam quickly complied and in the process of brushing his teeth and opening the door threw his back out. He whimpered in pain, and when Camille came out she found him in his suit, with his tie half tied, laying on the floor. For a full week Adam was stuck on the couch or floor. He wanted to help watch Grady, but Adam also wanted to watch the BYU game. So, he got the best of both worlds. Grady would sit on Adam's belly, and they would both watch the game. It worked out quite well. Note: Adam is doing his best to brain wash Grady to be a BYU fan, despite our ward members trying to persuade him to cheer for WYO.

We have been trying to work with Grady sitting in his little "Marshmallow" chair. Note: Adam cannot remember the name of these chairs, so he calls them Marshmallow Chairs. However, we have found that Grady is far too skinny to actually fit. He can sit up quite well, but because he has no fat, starts to fade to one side or another. We included this picture because we thought his expression was cute, and not because the toilet is coming out of his ear. In fact, try and cover the toilet up with you finger while looking at this post.

Ah the tub pictures...Grady has always loved the tub. Lately he has been splashing and loving the tub. The other night as we were bathing him, Camille parted his hair...and well, we couldn't resist taking pictures of this precious little face.

We even had to include a close up. Adam says he looks like a future missionary...well, a future nude missionary...but at least his hair is parted.

Conference Weekend

Since we live fairly far from our families, Conference weekend is a good time for us to visit and have time to hang and do some fun stuff. This year we went to Adam's parents house and made a visit to the Uintas. We packed a picnic lunch and went to Mirror Lake, which was absolutely beautiful. The food was very good too. If you look closely, you can see Uncle Chuck with his mouth stuffed full of sandwich, chips, and cookies. The other great thing about being around family is that we can get some pictures of us together. They're rare!!
Grady had a little hat on to keep the sun out of his eyes. He looks extremely serious here, but he actually LOVES being outside. Note: As Adam looked at Grady he would say he looks like the lady from Fiddler on the Roof, and couldn't help but sing, "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match..."
There was a really nice trail that went around Mirror Lake. Mt. Baldie overlooks the lake. It was a very nice day. The last time we went to Adam's parents house for Conference it snowed and was very cold. We welcomed nicer weather.

Adam was the lucky fellow who had Grady strapped to his chest. Camille said Adam would finally know how it felt to be pregnant. The second Grady was strapped on, Adam's ankles swelled, his back hurt, and he had an overwhelming desire to eat peanut butter, pickles, and ice cream...weird, huh? Anyway, in this particular picture, Adam couldn't help but fish a little...despite having the boy strapped to his chest. If you look closely at the picture, Grady is totally enthralled with what Adam is doing. Adam is claiming that the hero worshipping is just starting early.

Grady has always been a tall drink of water...no fat...just tall. These little "Lamby" jammies really show how tall and skinny he is. His newest tricks include: Rolling from both his belly to his back and back to belly, babbling none stop, ripping his binky out of his mouth and playing with it for a while before throwing it, rolling his tongue, and standing with dad's help.