Mothers Day

Mothers Day has become very bitter sweet around our place. Lariann passed away around this time of year two years ago. It still pains me that Lariann is not able to rais her daughter and that Lucy will not really ever know her mother. We went to the cemetery to put flowers on her grave. Araine, Lucy and I each put one flower in the vase at her grave for Mothers Day.

I am very grateful for the time we had together and I still love her so much.

Also this year my Grandmother passed away a few days before Mothers Day. Grandma Nelson was a great lady. We both shared a love for Pepsi. I have so many great memories of spending time with her up in Oakley Idaho and more recently when she came down here to live in Kaysville at an assisted living center for about the last three years. I lived really close so I would try to get over to see hear as often as I could but maybe not as often as I should. Lucy got the chance to get to know Grandma Great, as we called her. I had the wonderful chance to say good bye to her in the hospital the night before she passed away. Before I left the hospital I asked her, “Will you tell Lariann how much I love her and that I miss her?” Grandma looked me and said, “I will”. She was such a great lady and she will be missed.

With this bitter we still have a lot of sweet to be happy for. I have several wonderfull mothers in my life.

My mother in law Carrie, Arianes Mom, is a great lady who loves Lucy like she is one of her own grand children. We didn’t get a chance to see her this mothers day as she is with her son John and his wife Emily who graduated this weekend from college at the University of Northern Colorado.

Her other grandkids call her “Nanny”, but Lucy calls her “Manny” and Carrie thinks it’s hilarious.

My mother in law Lorain who we have great relationship with and still a lot of, Lorain still treats me like I am her son and Ariane is her daughter in law.

It’s really great how wonderful she is with everything, she just as excited as mine and Arianes mothers about our new baby.

My own mother who I know is really hurting these after losing her own Mom but puts on such a brave face for all of us. She is most wonderful Mother I could ask for.

She has given us so much help, support and love. I love her so much and am so grateful for her.


Finally my wife Ariane who I love with all my heart, she is such a great woman. She loves Lucy like she is her own daughter and if you ask her she will tell you that Lucy is her daughter.

I’m so happy to have Ariane in my life. She has made our house a home again and we are so happy to have her.

Easter 2001

I know it was a week ago but I am just now getting around to putting up the Easter pictures

Lucy was a little confused about what the Easter Bunny does exactly. When she got up Sunday morning she came into our room and told us what he was going to bring her, which was mostly a lot of toys. She seems to think that he operates much like Santa. After I explained that the Easter Bunny doesn’t bring a lot, if any toys mostly just candy she had a break down. Once she calmed down and went and found her Easter basket she seemed to forget all her previous concerns.

She did get a small toy and a movie in her basket in addition to all the candy, special thanks to my brother-in-law Devin who got us a bunch of candy for free from his work, you rock man.
There was also a new outfit for her.

Lucy and Ariane went up to put some new flowers on Larianns tomb stone, along with Grandma and Grandpa Evans.

After church we went up to Ariane’s parents where the Easter Bunny had hidden many eggs for Lucy and her two cousins to find. Another special thanks for my sister-in-law Chelsea who put candy in all the plastic eggs for the kids to find. Here are some pictures of Lucy and River hunting for eggs, not pictured is her other cousin Liam who was off somewhere away from the girls.

We had a really fun Easter and I will try to explain to Lucy about the Independence Day celebration before she expects Uncle Sam to come through our door passing gifts.

Star Wars Parenting

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away……
Or rather several months ago in this galaxy…

My cousin Sarah sent me a link to this video. I think it has a very important mesasge, so please watch it before you read the rest of the post.



I have taken this video to heart and have immersed my Lucy into the “Star Wars” universe.

I have shown her all six of the “Star Wars” movies. She watches and enjoys them, but there are parts of the movies where there just isn’t enough happening to keep a small child’s attention. So I got Lucy her own “Star Wars” movie. It’s an animated CGI movie called “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”. It’s a little faster paced with more action just what a little girl needs to keep her attention.


“Star Wars” is also in fashion at our house, Lucy has several “Star Wars” shirts and Ariane has even gotten in on it as well.

For last Halloween you may recall that Lucy requested we be “Star Wars”, so we went as Jedi Knight and Padawan.

Lucy asked to have a “Star Wars” party this year, so I went all out with table cloths, cups, and plates even a Darth Vader to hang on the door. Lucy’s aunt Liz was nice enough to make an R2-D2 cake for her. I'd also like to thank my friends Marc and Hali for going and buying "Star Wars" shirst for their whole family just for this occasion.

Speaking of Aunt Liz, her and Uncle John gave Lucy some “Star Wars” pancake shapers for this last Christmas. Lucy loves having pancakes shaped like the Millennium Falcon and an X-Wing fighter. How ever she refuses to eat the Tie Fighter saying she doesn’t want to eat the bad guy’s ship. Maybe it doesn’t taste as good, who knows?

While in Disneyland Lucy got to meet some “Star Wars” characters, she thought the Storm Troopers were the best, she said they were funny and were nice to her.

She did not say the same things about Darth Maul, she said he was mean and scary.


Lucy and I enjoy playing “Star Wars together as well. We have light saber fights and she as some of her own action figures, because mine are too nice to let a small child play with.

Lucy thinks it’s great when we play “Star Wars" on the Nintendo. We have the “Lego Star Wars” game for our Wii. Mostly it’s me playing the game while she holds the paddle and jumps around thinking she is playing as well. Hey what ever makes her happy?

Her favorite character is R2-D2. She's really cute when she prettends to be R2 and runs around the house making beeping, whining and whirring noises to try and imitate R2-D2

Her least favorite character is Darth Vader, though Darth Maul seems to be a close second. She refuses to play with the Darth Vader toy, which is then who I usually end up playing with, and has so far tried to throw him away and give him away to other kids. I hang on to him just incase she changes her mind.

I’m doing everything I can to make sure Jar Jar Binks is NOT her favorite character and trying to get her like Darth Vader more then Jar Jar Binks





Judging by the evidence here and I say I'm doing a prett good job of teaching Lucy all about "Star Wars".

Oh Boy!

Ariane had a visit with the obstetrician last week and we found out that we are having a boy. Arinae was surprised she thought the baby would be a girl and Lucy was angry when we told her the baby would be a little brother. She really wanted a sister and she has been trying all kinds of ways to change it into a sister. We still have about 20 more weeks to get her used to the idea that the baby will be a boy.

As for me, I’m just excited to be having another baby. There was a time that I was certain that Lucy would be my only child. I had no feelings either way, I’m just happy to be expanding my family again.

Now we can hand down all the baseball and other sports shirts that I bought for Lucy to our new son. If you’re in need of ideas for gifts remember my favorite teams are the St. Louis Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Utah Jazz, Weber State Wildcats & Utah Utes. Also anything firefighter themed would also be awesome.

So now we can open it up to any and all name suggestions for boys. I look forward to turning your ideas down.

If we don’t pick your name remember: Your ideas are very important to us. However we have decided to go in a different direction. We look forward to working with you again in the future.

Final Four

It’s one of my favorite times of the year again, the NCAA mens basketball tournament. I’ve taken four days off so I can devote myself to watching college hoops all day with being interrupted by things like work and sleep.

Here are my picks for this years Final Four

Kansas Jayhawks

Florida Gators

Ohio State Buckeyes

Duke Blue Devils

I have the Buckeyes and Jayhawks in the championship game with Kansas winning it all.

Here are some other "Four" teams from the tournament

Four teams I'd like to see do well

Clemson Tigers

I was there on my mission

Utah State Aggies

Like to pull for the local teams

San Diego State Aztecs

From the old Mountain West Conference

Arizona Wildcats

From the new PAC 12 Confrence

Four teams I'd like to see loose ASAP

byu cougars

Always hated them

Kentucky wildcats

Utes never beat them

Michigan Wolverines

Never have liked them much

Richmond Spiders

I can't stand spiders

Four weirdest mascots

Indiana State Sycamores

A tree, really?

UC Santa Barbra Gauchos

A Mexican Cowboy

Akron Zips

No idea what that is

Saint Peter’s Peacocks

Possible the least feared mascot in the tournament

Four teams that use the Wildcat as their mascot

The most common mascot in this year’s tournament

Villanova

Arizona

Kentucky

Kansas State

Four teams I wish had made it into the tournament this year

Weber State Wildcats

My alma mater

Utah Utes

I’ve always been a fan of them

Eastern Kentucky Colonels

Doing some on-line grad school there

South Carolina Gamecocks

Was there on my mission

What are your picks, who are your likes and dislikes?

Let all of us know what you think.