Find a cure

As most of you all know, my mom is currently in a fight against breast cancer. Unfortunately, the cancer has spread and the doctors have decided to pursue a more intensive course of chemotherapy in hopes that it will slow down the cancer's progression. My mom and my sister, Mauri, will be participating again this year in the Susan G. Komen For The Cure 3-day cancer walk to help earn money and raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer. Please help them meet their goal to raise $4,600. If everyone who reads this donates at least $10, it would really go a long way. To donate, click here, click on either name, and then click the "to donate" box. If you don't want to donate any money, you can also show your support like me! It's your choice, but donating money is a lot easier.

Missing my family

Holly took Josh and Maggie up to Utah for a couple weeks to spend some time with family. They'll be back on Sunday, but it's been a long two weeks for ol' Dad. While they were there, my mom took all of her grand kids to the photo studio. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Movies

We have been a little worried that Josh has been watching too many movies. He often talks about things from movies while he plays throughout the day. For example, he is convinced that the dragon from Shrek lives somewhere in our house and if Josh does certain things, like get his diaper changed, the dragon will come get us. However, if you ask him about the dragon, he will tell you that the dragon is nice and is Josh's buddy. Additionally, he occasionally will get really excited and start telling us that the Huns (from Mulan) are coming and that we need to "quick, run away." Although his ability to recall movies is quite humorous, we were a little worried that he might be watching movies too often. As I sat down to the computer to print out a calender on which Josh could put one sticker each day for the one movie he would be allowed to watch, Josh came over to me and suggested an even better idea. He said, "What are you doing Daddy?" I said, "I am printing off a calender for your movies." Josh then said, "Movie tickets?" and our new plan was born. If Josh helps out around the house he can earn one Movie ticket a day. When he wants to watch a movie, he gives us his ticket and he can watch the movie of his choice.

Yesterday, Josh made me realize that his ability to pull stuff out of movies might actually have a beneficial use. Our story starts off with the following tent Josh and I made in our family room.
On Sundays, Josh is only allowed to watch church movies and his favorite are a cartoon series that teach about the Ten Commandments. The films are about Moses and the Children of Israel and are set at the foot of Mount Sinai. After we built the tent, Josh said to me, "Daddy, it is a tent mountain." "It does look like a mountain, doesn't it?" I replied. Josh then declared boldly, "It is the mountain of God." In the movies, the characters are always talking about Moses going up into the mountain of God. I'm glad to know that he has absorbed a little bit of doctrine along with his entertainment.
In other news... Here is a fun picture we took yesterday of Maggie next to a picture of Josh when he was just a couple weeks younger than her. They're not identical, but there is definitely a family resemblance.

Maggie update

Just wanted to post a few more pictures of Maggie. She rolled over today for the first time from front to back. It's amazing that she's been with us for over a month now. Time keeps flying by.

1 Month Old

On Friday, Maggie completed her first month of life. She is doing great and Holly continues to recover much faster than she did with Josh. We got a great idea from our friends Rob and Mercedi to take a picture each month and post them on the side of the blog so everyone can see how Maggie is growing each month. So, here's month one.

St. John's Cousins

It was fun to have Jared, Jenna, Jacob, and Abbie come visit for a few hours this week on their way to the airport. Josh loves all of his cousins and gets really excited when he hears that they are coming to town.

In other news, I would like to give you a real-life reminder of why it is important to not leave home without your camera, as certain things need to be documented and shared with the entire world on one's blog. A man has got to be very confident to drive down to the DMV and order himself one of these babies!

BFFs

Maggie had one of her new best friends, Audrey, come over to play the other day. Maggie and Audrey were born two days apart (while their dad's were both studying for law school finals). Audrey's brother Eric has been one of Josh's best buddies since we moved to Phoenix over two years ago. Eric is two months to the day older than Josh so it has been a blast seeing the boys grow up together. Now we get to do it all over again. It will be fun to see how these two cute girls grow and change over the years. As you can see from this picture, they are already having a great time together.