Back to the Blog!

With much popular demand, and things kinda settled down here at the house, I've decided to get myself back in gear and back to the blog.

Sorry, I took a moment to look at when my last post was.  It was just after New Years.  WOW!  Thankfully I have been improving so much in things in the Corps, and with the family.

First off with the babies, which for most of the people that read this, is the only reason that they will even read this for.  "Son, we've known and loved you for 25 years, we don't care about you anymore.  Its all about the babies now!"  Abby and Anna are now 18 months old, and they are both running!  They didn't quite do much on the walking, lots on the crawling, but now practically run about the house!  Granted, their running could use some work on the form and the technique, because as of right now, it looks like a duck running as its being chased by a small child.  And of course, its very very cute to watch!  Their hair length has practically doubled in size since I last wrote.  Abby has a big fro with her cute curly hair, and Anna's, which is not as curly or as thick, is very long in the back and I refer to it as a mullet 

They are practically eating everything that we give them.  This summer, they are especially fond of Popsicles, watermelon, and KoolAid!  They are such wonderful little girls and are the joy of my heart.

Work is going hectic and crazy, so pretty much same old same old.  I am hearing that I will be getting deployed either in a few months, or early next year.  Some days at work, I wish I was already deployed.  But then I come home, and the babies make me feel all better and make me never want to leave them.  They are growing too big, too fast.  I am still in a never ending battle to be the best that I can be at work, especially trying to improve my pull-ups, run time, and overall Marine knowledge and proficiency.  I have now gotten 18 MCI's done, instead of the required 7, but still have yet to get 100% on a test.  I think they rig it that way.  I am working to get advanced to Corporal soon, so I can be able to provide better for the family, and have a nicer looking uniform.

I have also been trying to get things going with my education.  I hadn't even been halfway through my first college class when we found out that Brooke was pregnant.  I finished the class in 2009 and have not been back yet.  I kept on trying and putting off getting back to college, but it really hit me hard when I was at a going away party for a coworker of mine and in his very drunken manner, told me that the biggest thing that he regretted was not being able to do any college while he was in the Marine Corps.  I promised him that I will enroll and attend college and not put it off as he did.  Wither or not he will remember this promise because of his intoxication, I have no idea.  But I gave my word and I will stick with it.

Brooke and I are now that proud owners of a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan.  We love it.  There are tons and tons of buttons on it, it passes all inspections and tests, and there is room for the twins to throw their toys everywhere!  I call it the MMAV-Mormon Marine Assault Vehicle!  Not sure how I want to trick it out or decorate it yet.  The Lambo doors may have to wait.

Well, this post has now been 3 days in the writing, so I will post it ow before it gets delayed for another 6 months or so.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!!!

It was the night before Christmas, and two cute little baby girls just would not go to sleep.  I mean, who wouldn't?   Their Uncle Harold came out from Washington, DC to spend the holidays with them, they were in Sunny San Diego, miles and miles away from any snow, and it was their first Christmas!  And boy what a Christmas it was!  Uncle Harold came on Christmas eve eve (yes I said eve eve), and silly Daddy locked the keys in the car at the Airport !!  But Christmas eve was filled with some great moments, including filling the tree with presents, going to see the lights at the San Diego LDS Temple, Uncle Harold taking us to eat at Marie Callanders!  You think they make good pies?  Just wait till you try their meatloaf!!!!  Almost as good as mom's!  The evening finished with us watching "The Forgotten Carols", and opening up our Christmas Eve PJ's!  The babies loved their new pink princess footie jamies!

Christmas morning with the babies was wonderful!  We got to sleep in!  I am enjoying that while I can, knowing that in a few years, they will wake us up by jumping on the bed at 3AM!!!   The girls were more intrested in the tree, the lights, and shiny ordaments than the presents.  Next year they will be better at ripping throught the wrapping paper and getting right to the toys.  Santa gave the girls some pretty clothes and some new toys and Uncle Harold got them some new Wubbies (small blankets with lambs on them) and each had their name on it with "Jesus loves me". They absoultatly loved them! 

Brooke got some new clothes, a Taylor Swift CD, the latest Twilight saga movie, and a beautiful Matching Braclet and earring set from Uncle Harold.  The Babies gave mommy a special Sleeping Beauty carved figurine that they had been keeping a secret from her for months!  Daddy got some new boot socks, a James Bond Goldeneye video game, and lots of Dr Pepper stuff from Uncle Harold including 2 very nice pen sets, a hat, a cookbook with awsome Dr.Pepper recipies, and a first edition one of a kind book of the complete history of Dr.Pepper.  Uncle Harold also got our family a new PS3.  The girls have already watched many of their favorite Disney Movies on it!  Uncle Harold got some great things from us, including a service flag, some new Pj's, a warm shirt, a picture of the San Diego Temple, and best of all, some beautiful pictures of Abby and Anna!

Uncle Harold's trip was two-fold.  First, to spend Christmas with all of us.  Second, my brother Ben and his wife Amy were going to be blessing their new baby boy on the Sunday after New Years.  Harold had wanted to go, but we knew we couldn't afford it, so he gladly helped us out to get up there and back.  This was the best gift ever.  Not only were we all able to make it, but all of my siblings and their kids made it too.  We were able to get a big group picture with My mom, her husband Doug, their daughter Jacquie, My sister Heather and her husband Pat, My little brother Dexter, My brother Ben, his wife Amy, their children Emmaleigh and baby Ryker, My oldest brother Arthur and his wife Melissa and their son Tommy, My Dad and Mamma Clella and their daughter Eliza, Brooke and I with Anna and Abby, and right in the middle smiling with his big family, Uncle Harold. 

Monday morning, we took Uncle Harold back to the airport, but not before he bought a birthday present for Brooke of a New laptop (Her old one had gotten attacked by baby spittup!)  and a camecorder for us to be able to recorde  and preserve all the great moments with these babies!  Many many videos will be taken this year and posted on facebook and youtube for all to enjoy!  Thank you Uncle Harold for all that you have done for us and for our family.  The babies sure do love you!!!

Super Saturday!

Its an early Saturday morning for me and the girls.  I may or may not have posted this already, but I have let Brooke know that I will wake up with the girls and take care of them when they get up early in the morning.  I think I said this a little bit too soon since the girls get up even earlier than they usually do on  weekends!  Taking care of them is a labor, but it is a labor of love.  We got up this morning and put on the mickey mouse cartoons, that were the only good thing on.  I was very close to putting on one of the thousands of infomercials on that are always on in the morning, thinking that this would easily put them to sleep.  But, they started to get boring even to me. 

So we put on mickey and the girls were entertained by the mouse and the lights of or small christmas tree, as daddy tried to quick make bottles in the morning without hurting himself.  I survivie, this time with only a stubbed toe on the cabnets in the dark. I now have them both asleep on me ,  which is one of the best things in the world.  However this will not last long.

I like to volunteer and help out with things, especially at church, but I have a horrible memory about when and where.  I apparently offered to help clean the church  two weeks ago when I was teaching the lesson for Elder's Quorm.  I was rememided about this impulsive service act last night when my wife was beating me at Jeopardy.  Our Elder's Quorm president called me to remind me about this, probably knowing that I would not have remembered just by myself.  This resulted in a big suprise with the wife, as I will also be at the church for my cub scout meeting this morning.

Since I will be gone already for that, I will probably be sent off to run other errands, to get the last moment things for our christmas with our Uncle Harold.  Uncle Harold will be comming out from Washington DC , and will be out here to celebrat the babies first christmas.  Sadly, he has come down with a bad cough and bhroncidious (spelling?) and is really not doing too well.  We are hoping and praying for his quick recovery so that he will be able to enjoy this wonderful holiday with us.

 Just a few last minuite stocking stuffers and then hurry home to play with the babies, clean the house, and eat christmas cookies.   One of us will probably be taking the girls out for a walk, since they are extremly terrified of the purple vacume monster!  We found an amazing deal on this vacume online a few months ago.  We got it at a great price, the thing will never loose suction, but the kids are scared to death of it!

Well, off to put on my cape to try to get everything taken care of as this Super Saturday takes off.

Party at the Hanger (thankfully no hangover!)

Today was the MALS 11 (Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron) Christmas party!  We combined ourselves with the fighter FMFA213 squadron to have a bigger crowd, more fun, and a great place to hold it!  They were pretty cool, and they also don't order too many parts during my shift. 

As we were getting ready to go, Brooke was upstairs doing whatever it is girls do to get ready (I'm sure I will find this out sometime sooner or later , probably once there babies become teenagers) .  My job, was to get the babies ready, which I had been working on for a few days now.  I played it smart and prepacked the diaper bag the night before, have clothes all ready, and even fed them before I changed them into their party clothes.  However, I did catch one little snag when I put on their cute little pink santa hats on them.  THEY HATED THEM!  When I first got the hats for them, they loved them and kept them on for hours.  Now, they wanted to shread them apart just like the sunday paper.  (I am now also planning on hiring them out to a couple of businesses here in San Diego for cheap document disposal and shredding.  They are cheaper to hire, and have so much more fun ripping things up!) 

The hats went in the diaper bag anyway, in hopes that they would change their minds by the time we got to see santa, and we were packed in the car and on our way.  We got there about 15 minuites or so after the posted start time on the fliers, and when we got in the hanger, they were still in the big process of setting things up.  It ment that my stomach would have to wait to get 3 plates of pancakes, sausage, and eggs, but the Characature artists were already there and set up, and we only had a short wait to get our picture done.  I will try to see about scanning it in sometime and posting it up, but it will have to wait for the moment as our printer is being about as dumb as Hollywood making a sequel to Titaic. 

Once the party was compleate and all set up, there was fun galore for all ages.  The "Man Cave" consisted of a camping trailer filled with chairs and video games lining the inside.  Kids had tons of inflatable bounce houses, a petting zoo, facepainting, and crafts to keep them occupied, while mommies had a coffee and coco bar, massages, and chit-chat areas.  I frequented by the poker tables and played 3 seperate games of Texas Hold'Em.  My luck was not what it usually was when I would play back in Utah.  I had the babies there with me as i shooed away Brooke to go and get herself a much needed massage, and told everyone at the table that they were my two good luck charms.  I guess there is such thing as too much good luck as every time I got a really good hand, another person got a good hand just barely better than mine. 

Anna and Abby had their first taste of pancakes there at the party, although they were plain and had no toppings.  I'm not even sure they got any in their tummy, as when I finished and went to get them in line for Sanat, there was no pancake left whole and it was shredded all over on their lap.  (Again, thus describing how wonderful these girls are at making something so shredded up, that it cannot in any way be put back togather at all.)

Santa arrived in a fighter jet and had lots of toys to give to all of the children there.  For those who had children under a year like us, they had given us gift cards to Walmart, which will probably get spent on clothes for the girls, as they are growing at the same rate as our national debt.  After what seemed like an hour in line, we finally made it to santa, and a maricle occured, THEY PUT ON THEIR HATS AND KEPT THEM ON!  This was awsome to see, and was only made more wonderful when we set them on Santa's lap, and Anna started to fuss and cry!  It was sooo cute!!!!!!!!  I cannot wait to see the picture of them. 

We stayed all through the party and I stayed after a while to help take down chairs and tables and things, much to the suprise of everyone in the working party, who were all "Voluntold" to take down everything, and could not leave untill they finished the cleanup.  Brooke did not mind this time of me helping our, as the lady with the petting zoo was giving the girls a fun experience seeing a little monkey.  I hope it didn't teach them any more crazy tricks to play on me, their mother teaches them plenty enough. 

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing and resting at home.  Nothing else exciting to report on, except for more planning on our Christmas Vacation that we will be spending with my Uncle Harold.  Harold is my long, lost Uncle from my mission in Washington, DC.  He and i have been through Hell and back and now have a wonderful relationship that cannot even be bent by the Caped Wonder himself.  I am so greatful to have him in my life, as well as in the life of my wife and children.  He truly blesses them in many different ways.  Harold put so much faith and trust in me, he gave me his grandmother's diamond ring to give to ther person that I chose to spend forever with.  After meeting Brooke, he gave his approval and knew it had a good home.  Harold, like Brooke, suffers from Depression, and many times they have been able to help each other out in their lows and helped me to understand these times as well.  Harold has been there through every big thing with my little family, from our engagement, to our wedding, to the Baby blessing when I returned home from Boot Camp, to now their first christmas.  Harold is a wonderful, careing and loving man and a wonderful part of our family. 

Tonight for dinner, I enjoyed some leftover Chicken Alfredo, and tried to now feed the girls some baby food for dinner.  Lately they have just been having it for breakfast and lunch, and having bottles for the other meals.  I grabbed a random bottle from the cubbard and discovered it was baby food Mac and Cheese.  I nearly jumped out of my socks when I found out that they didn't like it!  The icky faces were flashing at me, and there was orange mush being spat all over the place.  Of course, i don't blame them.  I perfer nice and home made Mac and Cheese, with extra cheese.  Too much is never enough. 

Well I probably ought to close this now.  The girls will be waking up here in just a few hours and i should get some sleep so I don't feel too groggy when I get up with them when they dicide to wake up at .  Goodnight Blog fans and True believers, and watch our for this Santa stalker!

Back to the Presents!

I'm back, blog readers and true believers!!!!   After taking a short break, the dealings of Shakey and the twins will now continue every week if not more!  I plan on putting up more posts this weekend (hopefully) to be able to cover what I missed during the absence such as The Marine Corps Birthday ball, Thanksgiving, etc. 

Well now on to more fun!  Speaking of fun, I have now found two more video games to be looking forward to.  I have just recently seen the trailer for the Michael Jackson video game and I am very well impressed!  It looks like  mix between DDR dance, and singing games with a Michael Jackson spin to it.  I always figured the man to be really creepy personally, but yet I love his music and his dancing.  This puts the best of him all togather where he can play with little boys again beyond the grave.  LOL!  I fully support the theory that the tv show Robot Chicken portrayed of what happned to Michael Jackson.  I HIGHLY reccomend watching it.
http://i.adultswim.com/adultswim/video2/tools/swf/viralplayer.swf
The second one that looks great is a blast from the past with BACK TO THE FUTURE!  It looks like a new story from the trilogy and features Christopher Lloyd back as Dr.Brown's voice and a guy who sounds extremly like Michael J. Fox.  The game sadly is not coming to the Wii, but will be released on the PC so I cannot wait to play that!

However, the big thing that keeps me from this is that I like to finish what I get and I still have to beat Zelda:Twilight Princess for my Wii before I can even get to my christmas present of Goldeneye for the Wii, and I have yet to even buy StarCraft 2, despite my incredibly long wait for it.  So this may have to wait untill my birthday in July or my Anniversary with my wife in Augest. 

As everyone is probably wondering about, the babies are doing fantastic.  Both girls have their two bottom teeth, and now just recently Anna has been getting 3 teeth on top starting to come in and Abby is getting two on top starting to peek out.  Their hair is getting longer and its looking very, very cute.  Abby is growing more hair on top, and more towards the middle and its looking kinda like mohawlk!  Anna's on the other hand is growing longer and curlierin the back, and looks just like a mullett!  I think its very cute, but Brooke is in big denial.  Pictures to come soon

Tonight for dinner, I am finally trying out my Dr.Pepper marinade!  I got a nice pork roast to try this out with so it should be pretty good.  Its been in the oven for about an hour now and smells just fantastic!  I will make sure to post an update on this experiment.

 Later on i shall post more about the babies first Christmas.  We are looking forward to it very much, especially since my Uncle Harold is planning on coming out from Washington, DC to spend the holidays us!  This will truely be a Christmas to remember. 

Well, its Friday night, and that means that Smallville will be on tonight.  I shall post more with how that is, this last season has been very good!  We also are having my Unit's Christmas party tomorrow, where they will be having tons of food, fun and animals for the babies to see, massages for the wife, and a mysterious MAN CAVE! 

College Crazyness

My Father and StepMother are both Attorneys.  Growing up with them, I was immersed in Legal jargin, Courtroom procedures, politics, and all the red tape that comes with it.  Naturally, I begin to be intrested in the Legal system and wanting to be a Lawyer myself.  As a young boy, I had even made business cards with my Dad's name crossed out and mine written in with a crayon.  When our teacher gave us an assignment to write a paper about our one of our favorite places, I did not write a paper on the beach, or the park like others did.  I wrote a paper titled,  The Courtroom in St. George (Utah). 

My fate seemed to fall in to place as I grew older.  In 8th grade, my class was learning about the legal system, freedom of speach and the bill of rights and we were doing a mock trial to illistrate the points.  The case was about a person who was burning the flag and I was assigned to be the defense attorney.  My teacher was very impressed with my presentation, and the kid who was assigned to be the judge even ruled in my favor.  High School confirmed it even more.  I was involved in Speach and Debate clubs all 4 years of High School and loved it.  My last two years of High School, I was in the Mock Trial club and won Best Attorney both years. 

I was called to serve in the Washington, DC Mission.  What can I say more about that?  I also had 2 mission presidents during my two years as one had ended his mission in my last year of my mission.  Both of them, had encouraged me to go into law and become a lawyer. 

Since I returned home in September of 2007, all my plans have gone haywire.  I had been planning on attending the University of Utah, the same place that my father had attended Law School at.  I immeadieatly got myself a job at Wal*Mart, thinking I could transfer to a location close by the U as soon as my best friend Ian (who was already attending the U) and i could board togather in a dorm.  I planned on attending after the holiday season rush was done and beginning the Spring semester.  I was then offered a job at Qwest phone company, who offered 100% tuition payment for all undergrad programs.  I jumped at the chance to work there!  While working there I felt confident enought with that job that I then proposed to my wife, and we planned on getting married in August.  However, in May I was let go from there because even though I had excellent customer service, I was not very talented in selling , unlike my grandmother who was the best Avon Saleswoman in Idaho.   In June, I started working at a industrial grade electrical supply warehouse as a temp job to go full time.  I left at 6 from home to get there by 8 and did not get home untill 7 or 8 so I had no time for College and most of the money was going straight to paying for the wedding.  We got married, but then sadly in the end of September I was laid off from that job, along with hundreds of others all around the US with that company.  Finally, in the begenning of November, I started working for the Megaplex theatres with my wife. 
After a while, I figured that we were starting to get on top of things enough and I enrolled in Salt Lake Community College, so that I could save on getting my General Ed's done.  All that worked in my secdual with my job was one English class.  It was was at 8am and some days, I drove to class and my wife would sleep in the car since she needed to be to work at 11 immeadieatly afterwards.  Even with this secedual though, I had missed out on half the classes. 

Halfway through the course, I got the suprise of my life.  It was right on Father's day when I was working at the theatre that I got a text from my wife telling me Happy Father's Day.  I thanked her and told her im not a father.  She sent me a picture of the positive pregnancy test and two words, "Hi Daddy".  I knew that I needed to step it up since things we were just barely getting by as is and had to take care of other things as well.  I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and entered boot camp on December 7th, 2009, Pearl Harbor Day. 

Now, the latest update in October of 2010.......I am working the Mignight to 8 shift at the supply wharehouse and help my wife with our adorable twin baby girls, Abby and Anna.  They take up so much time and energy, I barely have time to go to the gym and PT and work on required training courses and my callings at church as a Cub scout bear leader and a hometeacher.  Today, the old familare feeling that I had when I first came home from my mission was evident with me as I was planning on going to this College Fair on base, and ended up sleeping right through it.  (Sigh)  Maby I will get in to College at the same time that my girls will

Yeahahaha!