Carter: "Dad, buy some bananas"

Me: "No, you buy some bananas!"

Carter: "I can't buy bananas, I'm too little!"

There is never a dull moment with these kids! I love it!!!!

Happy Halloween!

It was another successful Halloween tonight. This year has been the best in many ways. Every other year Alexis has been terrified of all the Halloween decorations and Carter was too young to really understand what was going on. This year, Alexis enjoyed all the decorations and Carter enjoyed it almost as much. Its priceless to see their joy and excitement in such simple things. Just about everyday this week, Carter kept asking me if it was Halloween and if he could wear his costume. He was thrilled to be a transformer. Alexis asked me months ago if she could be Tinkerbell this year.

This first pic was a couple nights ago at a Halloween carnival that their daycare put on. Here are the kids playing a modified version of musical chairs. Carter actually won the first round and got a cupcake that he scarfed down. Each of the rooms had a different activity. There was a big turnout and it was a lot of fun.

Here is another of Carter at their Halloween carnival just sitting and eating candy

Carter, the Transformer

Alexis as Tinkerbell

Thanks Mike and Kaye for the Halloween package! The kids loved it! They can't get enough of that card. When Alexis first saw it with the music playing she laughed and said, "Silly skeleton!" It was classic.

Trip to Provo last weekend

Last weekend we made a quick trip up to Provo. We left Friday after I got off work and came home Sunday morning. ESPN's College Gameday came to Provo for the first time to highlight the game between BYU and TCU. Saturday morning, Mike Ratelle and I got up at 5:30am and went down to where they were set up to air the show. We waited in line for over an hour and then we were got in pretty close to everything. The show went from 8am-10am. It was a lot of fun.

As for the BYU game, it was very sad. It was fun going though. I sat next to one of the guys I work with and another that I used to work with just a few months ago. It was a fun trip and it was good to spend time with friends.

For all you Boise State fans :)

A fabulous Friday night

I took the kids to the park and for a little walk around town this evening. It couldn't have been more perfect. It was a wonderful 78 degrees outside and the kids had a blast. We were laughing and smiling all evening. I absolutely love these kids! Here are some pics...

With poses like this I think I need to start getting worried...

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

Carter was so happy!

I found a little spot where I could set the camera and have the self timer take a pic

As we got in the car to head home Alexis said, "Dad....this was a fun, fun day!" Just a couple minutes before we got home, Alexis's favorite song came on the radio (Alicia Keys- No One) and she got all excited and said, "I knew this song would come on!"

We got home and had some ice cream and then the kids headed off to bed. As I said goodnight to Alexis she said, "Dad, you are handsome and cute. I am cute and gorgeous and fun. You are fun too!"

A bunch of pics

Alexis, on a walk in August and Carter trying to lift something

I love this pic of Alexis!

Carter running around. I can see a football player in him!

Look at this kid!

Kids playing at a friend's house while we watched the BYU vs. Tulane football game

Alexis working on her first ever homework assignment

She is such a poser!

Last weekend I had to go into the office for a few minutes to do a couple things. Here are the kids at my desk drawing pictures. Carter loves wearing sunglasses!

A view inside my office

Alexis at the park today holding some leaves she collected

Carter today at the park

100th Blog Post- It's a great one!!!

#20 BYU beat #3 Oklahoma!!!

What else did you think I would write about? :)

After watching a couple of games on the opening night of the college football season on Thursday, I went to work on Friday and told the guys that I have hope for BYU to beat this outstanding team. I knew it wouldn't be easy and I hoped BYU wouldn't get blown out. Sure enough, BYU made a huge impression! They were close the whole game but BYU outplayed Oklahoma. A few key mistakes by BYU prevented themselves from putting up more points, and led to Oklahoma scoring a touchdown. But when it all came down to it, BYU came up with the win.

I was particularly impressed with the defense who was able to prevent Oklahoma from getting a first down on their first two possessions and made huge stops when it was most necessary...including stopping Oklahoma from getting a TD when they had a first down on the 2 yard line!

BYU's defensive backs, I would say, are the most improved from prior years. They always seemed to be the defense's weakness. They had excellent coverage and didn't allow any big passes down field.

As for the Mountain West Conference, things are looking better and better. The conference had a great season last year, including Utah's big win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. This year, it's off to a great start with BYU's win tonight over Oklahoma. #17 TCU and #19 Utah are also ranked in the top 25 and are sure to do big things this season to help the conference look even better.

GO BYU!!

Bailouts and "Cash for Clunkers"

Does this look like a clunker??!!!

One bailout after another... Why not bail out people who chose to buy a car that doesn't get great gas mileage and doesn't have a great resale value?! The government has its hand in everything else and has spent billions and billions over the last few months, so what's another billion or two? I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one that thinks I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing people who freely chose to buy a vehicle that isn't very fuel efficient. The last time I bought a car I made sure to get one that had good gas mileage. If I had chosen to buy one that didn't, why should anyone other than myself pay to get me another car?

A few years ago I bought a 1995 Honda Civic for $2,000. That thing got between 35-40 mpg. Why do these people with "clunkers" have the cars they do? Because they chose to! Many of the cars eligible for the "cash for clunkers" have a resale value higher than $2,000 and chances are, when they bought it they probably spent a whole lot more than its current resale value. The option was clearly there to get a better vehicle.

So once again, the government bails out people who made poor choices. If money is being given out, why not give it to the people who buy quality cars with good gas mileage and higher resale value? Give them a couple grand for making wise decisions and maybe it will influence others to do the same in the future. If you had the money to buy a new car, isn't it already that much more appealing to buy a hybrid when you know that you can get a tax credit?

The government always has its incentives backwards. For several years banks made mortgage loans to people who could not afford them. They packaged them up in very appealing ways with ARM's, Option ARM's, and interest only loans. Lending standards were loosened tremendously. After the 3 or 5 years of just paying interest on an ARM and all of a sudden the consumer has to pay a much larger mortgage payment, what happened? They couldn't afford it and they go into foreclosure. You do that a couple million times and you all of a sudden have an economic crisis because banks have lost billions of dollars, the consumers have no money and no credit, spending comes to a screeching halt. So what does the government do? Bailout the banks that caused the whole mess (I blame the consumer also for not doing their homework and knowing what they were getting into, or if they knew and just made a risky investment)! Instead of the market naturally forcing those banks that did this the most to suffer and go out of business, the government rewarded it and gave them more funds. There is obviously a lot more to it than this, but my point is that there were banks like U.S. Bank who was largely unaffected by the mortgage meltdown because they didn't make such ridiculous loans as other banks did. So why not give a bank like that, which is well managed and makes smart business decisions, a large bailout? Make a company like that even larger because they will know how to properly manage their assets and not create such turmoil!

One last example which ties in perfectly to the whole "cash for clunkers"... the auto bailout! Why spend billions of dollars to bailout the auto companies that have been for years producing vehicles that don't retain their value and have low gas mileage? Out of the hundreds of vehicles on the "clunkers" list you don't see too many Hondas or Toyotas. Why? Because their cars are some of the highest rated for retaining their resale value and for their fuel efficiency. Last time I checked, they also had some of the highest safety ratings among some of the least expensive vehicles. So again, where is the incentive? If you give billions of dollars to a company that makes poor business decisions and makes a "clunker", do they have incentive to make a better vehicle? Maybe. But if I was being told that I was "too big to let fail", I'm pretty sure I could pretty much do whatever I want and know that I would be ok. Instead, give billions of dollars to automakers like Honda and Toyota and have them ramp up their production scale and keep producing excellent cars like they have been. If that were the case, the other automakers might get the idea that they need to make a better, more fuel efficient, and reliable vehicle in order to compete.

I'm all about the free market and letting the decisions of society work itself out with as little government intervention as possible. If, however, the government is going to be involved (especially like it has been for the last year) then it needs to intervene by placing the incentives in the right place. Otherwise, it continues to promote mediocrity and more people gain a dependency on the government. As this happens, accountability is reduced from the individual and suddenly the government is responsible for everything and will be controlling our lives more than we want it to. This government snowball is rapidly picking up momentum as it is rolling down the mountain.....

Time is flying by...

It's been a while since I last posted anything on here. A TON has happened, but its mostly personal so I won't get into any details.

The kids have been great! Carter has started potty training! He willingly uses the toilet at least once a day without having to be told to. Its really exciting to see my little guy growing up and doing more and more on his own. Its also kinda sad. Alexis is a genius. I have intelligent conversations with her all the time. She jokes with me all the time and is always trying to trick me. And we have fun just randomly hiding from each other and popping out and scaring the other half to death. It's a blast!

On a side note, Danielle moved back to Coeur d' Alene just the other day. There are definitely pros and cons to this for everybody by her decision. I will not go into my own opinion on this but I think we would both agree that for her and me (excluding the kids) it will be better for both of us this way.

Otherwise, work is going great. I am constantly busy and always doing new things and growing tremendously. I thoroughly enjoy my job and all the opportunities that I have to learn and grow and be a significant contributor to the funcionality of the hospital. I don't care who you are, analyzing projects and managing millions of dollars is just plain fun!!

One other thing.....football season is just around the corner!!!!!! Only 41 more days until BYU has their season opener against Oklahoma in the new Dallas Cowboys' stadium. You will definitely be reading more from me about this as Sept. 5th comes closer!! I love college football!!!!!

Some pictures over the last few weeks

Hilarious!!

Check out this link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBko_3wT44Q