Casanova

Meghan got this sweet outfit for me for $1.25 at Wal-mart. It was more of a gag gift, but who knows I might pull it out next time we have company.

What do you think?

Suprise Baby Shower

Yesterday some ladies from work threw me a suprise baby shower with food and gifts. This diaper cake is one of our favorites. We feel so blessed to have good friends out here in Colorado!

One Dollar Christmas Tree

As some of you know we went to California this past year for Christmas so we didn't get to decorate our house. This year we decided to make up for lost time by decorating the plastic tree we bought at a garage sale this past summer. It was pretty droopy and sad looking so we spiced it up with four strands of lights left over from our wedding.



Before

After

Pajama Mishap

Meghan ran to Wal-mart yesterday to pick up a few random things. Can you tell she was in a rush?

Hello Mommy!!

The count down has officially begun. Only 50 days to go!

Swine flu update

Unfortunately I fell victim to a certain contagious disease this past week. Don't worry, I think the worst is over for now.

Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

Last night we went over to our friends' the Whites to carve pumpkins. We were exausted by that time of the day but we had a great time anyway. I don't know if you can tell but my pumpkin came out with little patches of green on his teeth. Sweet!

She's talented and hot!

It's beginning to look a lot like...Halloween?

This past week the weather has been crazy! It snowed continuously from Tuesday night until Thursday night. We heard on the news that Littleton got about 20 inches, but looking at the pictures that might be a wee high. Who would have thought that we'd have this kind of storm in October? As you can imagine the roads have been pretty bad the past couple of days so it's taken me a little under an hour to get to work. It was kind of a pain but at least it gave us a good excuse to try out some new soup recipes--and I'm still salivating!

Baby Stuff Galore

Only ten weeks to go and Joe is getting pretty exited. We were running late for church this morning, but that didn't stop Joe from pulling out the stroller and taking it for a spin.

My family pitched in and got us this sweet set up. Joe put together a little demo because he likes it so much.

As you can see we've been collecting quite the stash of baby stuff. Now all we need is some extra space to store it in!

28 Weeks and Counting!

I've received several requests for pictures of Meghan in the last little bit. So here you go! This one was taken a couple of weeks ago but hopefully you get the idea...she's definately prego!

Earth Tone Overload

We recently found out that our apartment complex had been bought out by a new company and would be undergoing some pretty serious renovations. Little did we know that our building would be painted using six different colors. I think this is our management's attempt at making our apartments new age and trendy. Yuck!

New Utrasound Pics

We had another ultrasound this week because the last time we went in our little boy was being a stubborn. If you look close at the pics you can make out his chubby cheeks and big lips. Meghan's over the six month mark now so we are really getting exited for our baby to arrive!

Labor Day in California

Meghan and I flew out to California last weekend for Labor Day and stayed with the Meghan's sister's family. Here's a few pics from our trip.

We spent a lot of time playing Rockband. Who knew that Jake had such a beautiful voice? It sounded like an angel!





We had tons of fun hanging out at the Bear River. It was beautiful weather and we had a great time skipping rocks and keeping pepples out of the baby's mouth.

This picture is one of our favorites. Jake got a little crazy as you can tell.

All that jumping got Skylar really tired. I don't know if you noticed but it looks like someone's got a few new sprouts coming in! Hooray for adolescence!

There he goes, showing it off again. Freshmen year just started and it looks like Skylar's already learned how to work it!

This one's me. I had to get myself psyched up before I could make the jump.

Here are some cute pics of baby Calleigh. I'll be honest, after chasing her around for a couple of days we're a little nervous about having a baby of our own. I'm sure things will all work out for the best though!

Just chillin' in Uncle Joe's suitcase.

I love this picture of Meghan. There are two things you should notice. 1) Meghan got her hair chopped off by her sister while we were out in Cali. 2) My wife was craving Cinnabon. We couldn't find one in Denver on the way out so we had to get one at the Sacramento airport on the way back to Colorado. I swear, she gets cuter and cuter the longer we're married! Can you believe we will be having our one year anniversary in a couple of weeks?

Can Your Teacher Do This?

We are now officially into the third week of classes here at UC Denver so I thought I'd post something related to school. This is my Health Systems and law teacher that I've had for two semesters straight now. She's a really odd person, but really entertaining at the same time (as you can see). If you think this is crazy you should see her in class!

Random Thoughts on Pregnancy

1. It's crazy to feel our little baby move inside Meghan's tummy. I'm sure many of you can relate but sometimes I think my wife would have been a good candidate for the movie Aliens.

2. Meghan loves cold cereal. Yes, that's right, she's graduated from pickle juice. Whenever I give her a hard time about eating a well balanced diet she justifies her breakfast food binging by saying "at least I'm getting my milk for the day!" She cracks me up!

3. Hooray! We have finally found a midwife that we like! We had to switch hospitals, but I think it'll be a good move, especially because they have jetted tubs in most of the rooms. I'm sure I'll need a little relaxation time after witnessing the birthing process.

4. Meghan's belly is really getting out there. She doesn't like it because she's convinced that she shouldn't be this big so early in her pregnancy (she is almost 6 months along). I, on the other hand, don't have a problem with it. As a matter of fact I think she's cuter than ever!

5. Compromising on name choices is proving a lot more difficult than I originally planned. As a result we've decided to combine our favorites into something unique. Try and follow our logic: Tyler+Dallin=Tallin can be substituted for Talon=Hawk. Napoleon+Pedro=Liger substitute the L for a T=Tiger=sports pro=Shaquille, as in Shaquille O'Neal.

6. My wife has started to swell so much that she prefers not to wear her wedding ring to work. It's either that or working at a Cardiology office has turned her on to old men.

7. Meghan told me tonight that she is really starting to like our new grandma car. Further evidence that comfortable spaces are getting harder to come by these days!

8. Finally, I'm not the only one that can't control bodily functions!

Overhauling Health-care System Tops agenda at Annual Meeting of Canada's Doctors

Just a little news from North of the border. Interesting...

By Jennifer Graham (CP) – 3 days ago

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.
Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.
"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"We know that there must be change," she said. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."
The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there's a critical need to make Canada's health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.
His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it's possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."
In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.
He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.
Doig says she doesn't know what a proposed "blueprint" toward patient-centred care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She'd like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change over the next few years. She also wants to see short-term, medium-term and long-term goals laid out.
"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians' offices," she said. "That's one I think ought to be a priority and ought to be achievable."
A long-term goal would be getting health systems "talking to each other," so information can be quickly shared to help patients.
Doig, who has had a full-time family practice in Saskatoon for 30 years, acknowledges that when physicians have talked about changing the health-care system in the past, they've been accused of wanting an American-style structure. She insists that's not the case.
"It's not about choosing between an American system or a Canadian system," said Doig. "The whole thing is about looking at what other people do."
"That's called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying 'Well, OK, that's good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Canadian people want?' "
Doig says there are some "very good things" about Canada's health-care system, but she points out that many people have stories about times when things didn't go well for them or their family.
"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.
"They have to look at the evidence that's being presented and will be presented at (the meeting) and realize what Canada's doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you're getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it."

It's a boy!

I can't believe I forgot to post this but for those of you who don't know we had our first ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. It was a crazy experience to see our little man all curled up in there. We are super exited to be parents and can't wait until he arrives. As we told Robin, we are considering the names Dunbar or Dudley. What do you think?;) Let us know if you have any alternatives.

Goooo Rockies!

Last Tuesday Meghan and I decided we'd go to the Rockies game since I had never been to a Major League game before. We had a great time overall and even happened to sit by another LDS couple that were visiting from St. George.



Our ticket only cost $1 each. Can you tell?

We thought this was kind of cool. The even got the kids involved (notice the little "S" off to the left).

Alas, the Rockies ended up losing the game 3 to 7. Kind of a bummer, but we were glad we went.

Week 20 Update

It's official, we've hit the five month mark and everything's a-ok thus far. Meghan is taking this thing like a champ and has recently noticed a significant increase in involuntary movement from the midsection. Doesn't she look great? I'm a lucky man!


Oh yeah, we have our ultrasound in two days and are really exited to find out whether our fetus is a boy or a girl. We're both thinking it's going to be a girl, but we'll just have to wait an see.

Jackpot!

As many of you know I have been working a second job selling Comcast door-to-door. Well, I went out this Saturday and went up to a house and noticed they had a crib just sitting there in their garage. When I brought up their subject they told me that they were done having kids and that I could have theirs. To make a long story short, I asked our EQ president to help me pick it up later that day. Wow, blessings come when you least expect them!