Halloween, Halloween!
October 31, 2008 by Ryan
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Happy Halloween Everyone!
I can’t believe this is Kim’s third Halloween! She was just a ball of pink dressed as Piglet for her first & we didn’t go trick-or-treating on her second.
That’s what made this Halloween so fun! We went trick-or-treating, it was Jeremy’s first Halloween, and we got to do the first of many years of coordinating costumes! As you can see we did Mickey & Minnie. We took these picture and just died with how cute they came out!
Hope everyone had a safe & happy Halloween!
Friends & Family: Be sure to leave links to pictures of your kids in their costumes!
Update on a few more notes that I forgot to include last night:
Beth actually made Jeremy’s costume!
A black long-sleeve onsie + black tights (at least it’s not a full on dress like my mom put me in once!) + red sweats cut into shorts with felt circles sewn on and a shoelace tail + white socks for gloves & yellow socks for boots + the Mickey ears we got last weekend from Disneyland! I think it turned out adorable!
Tip for Trick-or-Treating with little ones
We went with cousins and they were smart enough to bring a little wagon! It made it so much better for the sometimes long walks between houses. The kids didn’t get quite as tired and we didn’t have to wait for little legs to catch up!
My Little Family
October 22, 2008 by Ryan
It’s after midnight.
I’m up because both Kimberly and Jeremy have colds.
I’m sitting in my bed with Kimberly sleeping next to me, so cute, so peaceful…other than her occasional cough.
Next to her is Beth, with Jeremy sleeping on her chest. I’m jealous. I love when they sleep on your chest. He just giggled in his sleep! That’s good, poor little guy caught Kimberly’s cold. He really loves his mama!
Beth is asleep…I think. I think I might be keeping her up with my typing. She’s so good with the kids.
It’s so sad but sometimes it’s so sweet taking care of the sick babies. Every now and then they snuggle into you, or do something off the charts cute and I exchange looks of “Ahhhhh” with little half-frowns with Beth.
You might think that I’d be thinking, “This sucks!” Instead, it makes me think of how much I love being Daddy!
Nightmare Before Christmas…Tree!
October 13, 2008 by Ryan
Our Nightmare Tree
You know, I think this Christmas thing
is not as tricky as it seems!
But why should they have all the fun?
It should belong to anyone!
Not anyone, in fact, but me!
Why, I could make a Christmas tree!
And there’s not a reason I can find,
I couldn’t have a Christmastime!
I bet I could improve it, too!
And that’s exactly what I’ll do!
-Jack Skellington
“The Nightmare Before Christmas”
Halloween Trees are all the rage these days. My wife sees them in tons of the countless Mama/Crafts/Design blogs that she subscries to. Trendy or not, I think it’s cool and we had fun making it which is what really counts! We found the branches outside my work, brought them home, spray painted them black and did this!
Halloween has always been a holiday. Nothing beats the excitement of those nights trick-or-treating! Running from door to door trying to get as much candy as you can stuff into your pillow case (Yes, experienced Trick-Or-Treaters know that you don’t use the wimpy Jack-O-Lantern buckets, you use the pillow case because it hold like 10x as much!) I remember how fun it was to run around with all my friends, the McCraes and the Sundbergs, way back and then Robbie & Andy when I was older but still old enough to get away with trick-or-treating.
Back in the day, my house had quite the reputation! My dad was working for M&M/Mars and come Halloween he laid out two huge tables filled with boxes of full-size Snickers, Twix, Milky Ways, etc. and we’d invite everyone to come in and grab a few. We would have kids that would switch masks and come back over and over. We’d have people that would drive just to come to our house! It was funny the year my dad switched companies and we were relegated to handing out the “normal” Halloween candies. I remember over hearing a few kids say, “They must have moved!?”
Somewhere between then and a few years back Halloween lost it’s excitement for me. Then I married a Halloween fanatic! Add to that kids coming into the ages that it becomes really fun and Halloween is back to being a really exciting time. We’ve been watching a ton of The Nightmare Before Christmas especially because of the new anniversay edition. We put the digital copy it comes with on our little Archos video player for Kim and bought her some headphones for car trips, but she loves it so much, she’ll watch it on her own some days. If you ever get to talk to her about it she calls it Halloween, Halloween.
The Hairesy of 2008
October 4, 2008 by Ryan
Here’s some cute pics we told of Jeremy & Kimberly. You’ll notice their hair has been “done up” because we took them in conjunction with what I am referring to as The Hairesy of 2008!
Beth wanted to get her hair cut, and it had been a while because like any good husband I’ve resisted, for her own good. What? I’m a fan of long hair!
So finally I relented and gave her the green light. She posted to get suggestions on how she would get her hair cut. The consensus came back for the Feb ‘08 haircut and the deed was done about two weeks ago. She’s finally getting around to posting the results but I thought I’d link up and post the kids pics along with her update.
For the record…I think you look beautiful baby!
AFV Candidate?
October 4, 2008 by Ryan
Like I previously posted, we haven’t been the best at getting the pictures & videos we take of the kiddos up so everyone can see. That said, we’re going to try to post something every weekend.
I’ve wanted to get these last two videos up for like a week, so you get two this weekend!
We went to Walmart late one night because we needed milk & bread…apparently we went a little too late! Kim was so cute as she struggled to stay awake. I shot this from my phone, so forgive the pixelation. This is one of those essential America’s Funniest Videos. It’s no “Shake Hands” (Miller home video that most unfortunately got erased, Sorry Mom) 
but I’m glad I caught it!
No Remedy Like Laughter
October 4, 2008 by Ryan
If you are down about the mess with the economy, frustrated with the election, and depressed about the Cubs & Angels losing, let me offer this to cheer you up!
One night we were just playing as a family and Jeremy started crackin’ up when we’d toss this little beanbag. We’re not always good about getting it on video, and even worse about getting from the camera on to YouTube or our blogs, but we’re gonna try to be better!
How I Got My Heart of Stone
September 24, 2008 by Ryan
No one quite knows the reason.
It could be perhaps that his shoes were too tight.
It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
- Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
I have been indoctrinated.
I admit it. From the time that I was born, I have been raised with a specific worldview. Primarily, I believe what I believe because I was raised that way and I vote the way I vote because I was raised to vote that way.
Have my ideals been challenged? Definitely. Have I defended my views? Absolutely. But being challenged and defending a worldview when it has been so thoroughly ingrained doesn’t necessarily indicate that you have evaluated and internalized those values. After all, “talking points” are called “talking points” for a reason.
Why do I believe what I believe? Maybe it is because my shoes are too tight! Or worse! Maybe, because I have been raised in such a callous, greed-driven, privileged environment, I am actually heartless? Let’s look at the factors that contributed to my values. Which elements give credence to the criticism that I have been brainwashed, or at least, have a very limited perspective on the world?
5 Keys to Understanding Your Political Opposition
September 17, 2008 by Ryan
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
- Albert Einstein
What a crazy few months! It has been a while since I have been this involved and seen so much participation in politics!
Politically, I’ve always considered myself informed and able to articulate why I support a certain viewpoint. I give much of that credit to my very politically active father. As it always is, this election year it is important to understand these issues, the candidates and take part in the democratic process. However, as my sister-in-law pointed out:
There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin
– Linus in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Particularly with family! Politics can be a sensitive subject! Most of the time, our views extend into a very emotional space. While we should attempt to approach the issues logically, it is not realistic to say rational discussion is going to happen in every dialogue when parties both feel that the other represents the exact opposite of everything they believe.
I do not intend to set forth my views and argue why the other side is wrong (at least in this post). Instead, I want to discuss the decision-making process.
I have thought about this a lot this year, because I want to know for myself why I will be voting the way I am voting. This is not exhaustive, but here are some of the rationales I see people using to make their decision:
Serenity…In Life’s Challenges
July 29, 2008 by Ryan
Our experience with Jeremy’s spina bifida has been a trying time in our lives: learning the worst-case scenarios, not know the extent of the paralysis or problems, moving only two days before Jeremy was born, the harrowing race to the hospital, watching him go through surgeries to close his back and place his shunt. People that have been under similar kind of stress know what that pressure is like. Luckily, we had tremendous support from family, friends, doctors, nurses, and work. I really needed to talk about it. Sorry to those that had to listen, but it helped to relieve the burden I felt.
One of the many lessons I’ve learned from all this is that everyone has challenges that they are going through! My eyes were sort of opened to the situations around me. One situation that was very close in timing with our experience is that of Phil Burns’ daughter Serenity. I read one of Phil’s posts about Serenity’s chemo and it tore me up because my Kimberly is the same age! Phil has dedicated himself to fighting cancer however he can. One way is a blood drive. It’s tomorrow and I know most of you wouldn’t be able to make it, but it brings to my mind the importance of giving blood. I hate it, and my wife is much worse with needles, but it’s more important than that. It really is a shame how few people donate.
If you can make it, wonderful! But if you can’t, make it a goal to donate in your area. I’ve chatted with Phil a few times about the frustrations, fear and anger a father feels when he can’t protect his child. Hopefully, I’ve been able to share his burden those few times we’ve talked. Do the same. Take the time to notice suffering around you and offer a helping hand, or even just an understanding ear.
Little Angel
July 20, 2008 by Ryan
We recently went to an Orem Owlz game, and we went all decked out in Angels unis (The Owlz are the Angels’ Single A team). We were taking pictures and in these pictures it looks like Jeremy might have some red in his hair! It’s actually not too surprising because Papa Ottley had red hair.
Kim had a blast running all around the outfield grass seating and on the huge playground. She had a pink Angels jersey and wore here Daddy out.
Go Angels!
