Holiday Season

Spencer absolutely loves Christmas lights. Every time we turn the tree on he starts hyper-ventilating. And that's not the only thing he loves, he apparently loves getting in trouble for going Paul Bunyan on the tree. Whenever he gets an "UHH-UHH" for touching the tree he starts giggling. I wonder what he must think about us; during the summer we're destroying weeds in the yard, cutting the lawn, and burning wood while camping; come December, though, he takes a nap and all of a sudden there's a tree in the house and mom and dad are acting like green-peace.

Last week we went to our ward party and heard the West Jordan HS Madrigals perform, Spencer loved the music (he only yelled "LOSERS!" twice during the performance). He was waving his arms to the music and screeching at the end of each song. I have to admit, though, that this years version of the madrigals was not quite as impressive as years past. I was never in choir but I have always felt that WJHS's madrigals were some of the best in the state, but this year they need a little work.

Christmas is truly a wonderful time of year. Its been fun so far to watch Spencer's reaction to the magic. He isn't old enough to really enjoy the presents so the feelings of happiness, family togetherness, music, and lights have a greater effect on him. We hope everybody is having a Merry Christmas!

Get a grip!

As Kiana and I have watched Spencer growing up we have noticed we are starting to get a lot more sentimental and worried about missing out on his childhood. We happened to be watching the CMA awards last week and Kiana was telling me about all the songs that make her cry ("You're gonna miss this" by Trace Adkins really gets her). I agree the kid is growing up way to fast.
On Saturday we finally realized that we needed to get a grip. We were riding in the car and a song came on that Kiana mentioned made her almost tear up. I looked down at the console and noticed the artists name. That's when I asked her one question that shook her out of her sentimentality: "Do you realize you're crying about a song sung by a guy named Bucky?"

Getting Caught Up

Well I just got back from LA for a training so I didn't get any pictures posted of our Halloween adventure. Spencer came to work on Friday for trick-or-treating, it appears that animals were the hot costume this year. And so Spencer was a little confused by all of the skunks, horses, lizards, and bumble bees walking around. He was a monkey so he looked just as ridiculous. That night we took cookies to people in the neighborhood. When parents take a kid trick-or-treating that is too little to eat candy they're not fooling anybody. Everybody knows it and it can sometimes look a little pathetic. That is what led us to the reverse trick or treating, we figured Spencer could get the experience of dressing up and knocking on doors and we wouldn't get the embarrassment.

Preparing For Trick or Treating

Today I was thinking of last Halloween when Kiana and I just hung around the house and enjoyed not being out trick or treating. Fast-forward a year and Spencer is here. And though he is still too young to actually grasp the concept of putting on a costume and begging for razorblade-laced tootsie rolls, we feel responsible to take him out anyway. We'll be doing it much more condensed this year with more of a visit-our-friends approach to the evening's festivities.
Last night we carved pumpkins and found out that Spencer does NOT like slimy things. We'll see how he does with tomorrow night and we'll post some pictures of him in his costume.

Election Time

Well I am going tomorrow for early voting, and as of right now I am planning on voting for McCain. Of course between now and then Obama could do something to change my mind like act like he wants to be president to help the country and not because it would be awesome to have his own pool table. (He just seems like a guy in one of those bad movies where he gets drunk and accidentaly runs for president and before he knows it his campaign is taking off and at every speech he's not even sure what he's saying and then he comes off the stage laughing with his eyes big going "Can you believe they fell for it again?!?")

Reasons I'm voting for McCain:
1. Values. I think both he and Palin both have values that I relate to. I think the biggest dig against Palin is that she is inexperienced, but it seems to me that is exactly what we need leading the country. When you're president you aren't the one who knows everything; you are the one that is expected to use your judgement. It seems to me that both McCain and Palin are both willing to use their judgement on what they feel is best for the country and not what will give them the most political capital.
2. The Economy- My personal opinion is that we need to lower taxes, especially on corporations, in order to boost investment and growth. Big companies look at taxes as merely an expense and when they are costing their goods they will increase their prices in order to make up that return. (translation: if you raise Walmarts tax rate by 5% they will raise their prices 5%). So I think that raising corporate taxes will just hurt the average american.

Reasons I'm not voting for Obama:
1. Safety. With the way the world is going I can imagine the world is going to get worse before it gets better. I just don't think I would feel safer knowing Obama is in charge of things.
2. Values. I just don't see Obama as somebody who will take a stand. He seems too easily swayed.
3. Communism. A lot of Obama's policies are sounding a lot like he's been reading Marx. He has said before that he thinks the constitution is flawed (my personal opinion is that it was inspired of God). And I think his plans for socialized medicine as well as those to grow other government agencies go against the fundamentals of our forefather's beliefs.

So that's my opinion. I don't care who you vote for just as long as you vote, that privledge is one of the things that makes America great.

One other political note: The one thing that's probably not very funny but for some reason it really entertained me was when Biden called McCain "out of touch".

The Elk Hunt

I just got back from the elk hunt. This was the first time all nine of our group had drawn out for an elk tag so we knew we were in for a lot of work. We left the Hutcheon's house at 4:00 a.m. and headed out to Redd Ranches. As you can see from the picture this is one of the prettiest places to spend a couple of days looking to put meat in the freezer.

We had a good hunt and were able to get 8 of the nine elk. My younger sister was the only one that didn't get one but we look at that as kind of a blessing because what are we really going to do with 800 pounds of meat that we can't do with 600. Here is a picture of the meat locker with all of our elk hanging up.

I got my elk Saturday morning, my younger brother and I were sitting above a little canyon filled with scrub oak and aspen. As the sun came up we started to hear a bull bugling above us. I started cow calling and slowly moving a little closer to the herd. After a couple of minutes of this, an elk came walking through the trees to see what we were. One shot later I had my tag filled.

I guess the highlight of the trip was when we got to the butcher shop and Kiana and Spencer were there to meet us.

Overall we had a good time. I enjoy just being in the mountains and relaxing. The Hutcheons are a fantastic family to hang out with and I love the elk hunting tradition we have with them.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

No, this is not an entry about Patrick's mood swings. This is actually about Spencer's new love of growling, he loves to growl and growls for everything: When he's mad, happy, curious, hungry, or when he's trying to indicate he's ready to eat, play or do something (he should be a lot of fun on his honeymoon). So basically it has become his go-to reaction. Recently we hired some professional wildlife photographers to capture Spencer in his transformation from calm Spencer to growling Spencer.

I know, it's scary. You're thinking we better get a license for him or at least a chain around his neck. We sleep with our door locked and the rest of the world would be well advised to do the same.

A Life Changing Morning

About a month ago Spencer started moving around in an army-crawl. As much as we tried to teach him he refused to use all fours to crawl. His bottom half was apparently a follower of the "Why move when you can be dragged around everywhere!" motto. Well yesterday out of nowhere he just started using his knees to crawl and move around the house. (He was then rudely introduced to the concept of having to move himself, instead of being carried around.)

Right after we finished celebrating this little achievement he then crawled over to the chair and pulled himself up into a standing position. I guess once he figured out that he had legs he decided to take them out for a spin. It's hard to imagine that just a couple of months ago he was a little 4 pound premie.

Well we're still trying to decide what he's going to be for Halloween. So if any of you have any great ideas (we're trying to avoid the old "fat baby in a pumpkin suit" ideas) please send them along.

Go Utes!

This past Saturday we went on a family outing to the University of Utah football game vs. UNLV.

It was a little rough at first because they weren't playing well and Spencer would freak out every time the crowd yelled.
But then they started playing better and he could sense the excitement instead of the tension and he started enjoying himself. (In the picture he's probably wondering why we're sitting so high; the answer: 1. Your hospital bills! and 2. All those people below us that bought seats before we did, and then left early once Utah was ahead. (You know the ones I'm talking about.)) After the game they had a fireworks show that was fun to watch.
A few thoughts from the game:
1. It's hard not to be in that stadium and hope Spencer is one day athletic enough to play there. It's a fun venue and right now its a fun program to watch.
2. Could Andy Ludwig be the first OC to lose his job after a team goes undefeated? I don't know if they'll go undefeated, but the lack of creativity in the play calling still bothers me. I remember back in 2004 defenses looked like deer in the headlights because they had no idea what was coming next. This year, it appears we have as much if not more talent but we aren't keeping defenses back on their heels. We'll have a couple of good plays that will spread the D out but we then follow it up with a reverse for a loss, a Brian Johnson sneak for 2 yards, then on 3rd and 11 we complete a pass for 5 yards. All of these plays are good but its the timing of them that I call into question.
Another side note, in the picture of the field the guy holding the orange 1st down marker on the right is a partner at the firm I work at.

Entering the Home Stretch

Last week I started my last semester of the Masters of Accounting degree at the University of Utah. Here is a picture of all of the MAcc students wearing our free t-shirt. I always think its a good idea to try and get any degree that will give you a free t-shirt.

Since I was one of a few that started a semester earlier than the rest I was designated a mentor during the communications class. Which basically means I didn't have to do anything other than just observe my group. So now I'm thinking of switching my major and trying to find a Masters of Mentoring program (it was a sweet gig!).

Part of our program had us going to Glendale (Mom's old 'hood), and perform service for a couple of families. Two thoughts I had from this were: 1) When we leave this earth our career will mean less than what we actually did here to help others. 2) The world needs more people like Richard Kaufusi, he works at the U and set up the service project. He grew up in Glendale and later moved back into the neighborhood and just doing everything he can to help people in that area. I gained a lot of respect for him last week.

Introduction

Hello everybody! We decided it was time we got our family a blog. My name is Patrick, the pretty one is Kiana, and the little guy is Spencer, he's trying out his halloween costume (he's going as a temple president). Actually this was the picture taken on the day Spencer was sealed to us.