Nanee & Pop-pop Visit, Superbowl Thoughts

Cami playing with Nanee.

Cami sporting a hoodie with Dada. Cami in a cute new outfit Chris's aunt & uncle gave us.

Now for a little bit on what we've been doing - We just finished a wonderful visit with Chris's parents, Warren & Shelly, who live in Pennsylvania. They are wonderful cooks and wanted to sample the local cuisine, so we enjoyed Oklahoma Joe's and Gates BBQ last week, in addition to getting some great home-cooked meals (our home, their cooking :)). Cami also went on her first visit to the Bass Pro Shop, and didn't seemed at all alarmed by the 10-ft stuffed bear and other wildland creatures. We also got a chance to go to Penzey's Spices, so Chris has been sprinkling away, creating delicious new dishes for us to try, and accenting our food with spices such as the "Sandwich Sprinkle".

Cami really enjoyed all the attention from Nanee & Pop-pop, and especially enjoyed laughing back and forth with Warren. He would laugh, and then she would laugh, and then the whole room would laugh at her laughing, and so the cycle continued - it was very cute. To keep in touch better & see one another across the country, we also installed a web cam, so if anyone else wants to see the little one in action, let us know and we'll set you up on Skype. We've only done it a few times so far, but it's really neat to see people as you talk to them.

Now Chris wants to share his thoughts:

I think it has finally been long enough that I can write somewhat coherantly about the Super Bowl. For those of you who don't already know I have always been a fan of the New York Giants. More importantly I'm a fan of sports. Nearly everyday of my life I wake up, grab something to quick to eat for breakfast, and start my day watching highlights on sportscenter. I've been doing this for so long that I've forgotten why I do it. I've spent literally years of my life watching highlights and listening to middle aged sportswriters and ex-athletes argue about sports. All of this time hoping to see something like I saw on that Sunday.

It's pretty amazing when you have a true underdog come back to win a championship in dramatic fashion. When that underdog happens to be the team whose jacket you wore in elementary school, it makes it even more special. Watching the Patriots crash and burn under any circumstances would have been a welcome end to the season, but watching the Giants defense play like it did when LT was there, and watching Eli Manning pull together the greatest 4th quarter in the history of the franchise, it made it something more than satisfying.

It know it's sports and that it means nothing. I know the players and coaches don't care about me and only tolerate the fans because they have to. However, I also know that the 4th quarter of the Superbowl will never be deleted from my DVR, and I can't think about the Giants, the Patriots, or the numbers 18 and 1 without cracking a smile. I know that everytime I watch the play, David Tyree will always make the Helmet Catch, but I still get a little nervous when I watch it and I'm excited all over again when it happens. I know this is why I watch sports, and that this one championship is worth more to Giants Nation then ten 19-0 seasons would be worth to New England.

That's all for now, time to enjoy another 6 months without football. Good thing I've got a game recorded to watch whenever I need it.

Cami Update & Cupcake Pics

These are some of my favorite pics of Cami so far, and really give you a good idea of how she looks these days (I realize it's been a while since we posted). She's now about 3 mos and a week old, and loving every minute of it (okay, so sometimes she cries). She loves to smile and laugh, especially when we're all laughing with her - she seems very social. On Monday of this week, she rolled over for the first time, and even seemed to surprise herself. She's rolled over about 5 times so far, but not at all in the last couple of days, so I'm not sure if she remembers how all the time. She also moves her arms and legs in a crawling motion and leans towards the toys in front of her, but can't move much further than a couple of inches, which seems to frustrate her sometimes. It is kind of cute though, because I can tell her entire goal is to get the toys into her mouth, which I'm sure is what she'll do as soon as she can grab them. She also has some grumpy times, and I'm beginning to think she has a bit of a temper, but will hopefully learn how to calm down more when she can better communicate her needs. She's sleeping through the night great most of the time, and still takes quite a few naps, drifting off to the sounds of her French frog, "Baby Coa" (For those of you who know what "Baby Tad" is, they've been discontinued & now cost at least $60 online - we opted for the French version, which they were clearing out on the LeapFrog web site - only $20 or so with shipping, and hey, the nightime music doesn't have words anyway.) She's a very alert little baby, and we're having a blast being parents, and feel very blessed.

What we've been up to and more Cami pics

Well, Chris said it was okay to post just pictures of Cami without writing anything, but I think I'll try to anyway. We are having fun watching Cami get older, smile, coo and really pump her little arms and legs! At two months now, she is starting to push up on her chest and blow little spit bubbles as well. She really is the joy of our lives, even though she loves to cry during church!

Chris and I both have callings now - I am the Primary secretary and he is the Cub scoutmaster. We are excited to get to know new people in our ward and look forward to getting out more if it will stop snowing all the time - a big change from the mild winters in Houston! We're mostly just still getting the house organized, most recently doing the basement (oh the glamor of it all :)).

We've also been enjoying the new seasons of reality TV shows, and Chris has been more motivated to get in shape from watching The Biggest Loser. If you've never seen it, check it out - it's surprisingly interesting (though I'm sure most of you are too busy to watch TV). More than that though, we are getting very excited about the presidential election, especially Chris. I have always been a big political junky, but I've caught Chris watching Fox News, getting on Politico.com and talking politics with just about everyone lately.

And here is Chris now, with some thoughts on the Giants/Packers game:

Okay, Two road playoff wins out of Eli Manning was more than I expected. Probably more than anyone expected. I was also completely wrong about the Giants resting their starters in the last regular season game. Before the Pats game I was pretty sure that playing the starters and going into the playoffs hurt was the worst thing the Giants could have done. Turns out that it transformed the season and now the defense is playing like I used to in Tecmo Bowl when I would peek at my brothers controller to see which play he was going to call.

What does this teach us? I have absolutely no clue how to pick this Giants team this year. Still, I have the urge to go with them this week. Patriot vs. Packers is too perfect a Superbowl matchup. Something has to spoil that and Norv Turner on the road against The Hoodie isn't going to get it done. That leaves my Giants to ruin the fun and I think they will. Prediction: Father time catches up with Favre, and Ryan Grant realizes once again why the Giants cut him: Packers: 17 Giants : 23

Now, for the Cami photos, I think we will feature smiles today (every day is a good day for smiles) -

First off, we have Cami in her pretty white and purple dress, with a sleepy-just-woke-up smile. Next, a couple of content-with-life smiles. And finally, a couple of super-cheesers.

Playing around with Dad, and Cami'sBlessing Dress

More Cami with Gym...

So often, I feel like the pictures I take of Cami don't really look like her, but these ones I think do. Plus, I actually caught a couple of smiles, which she's doing a lot more lately (along with a lot more crying :)). In other news, I am finally making some headway on her room, and hope to finish it within the week. Chris is currently enjoying lots of college football and hopes you are too!

Our First Christmas

Strange as it sounds our first Christmas with Cami has already come and gone. With our recent move to KC we were able to wake up for Christmas morning in our own home for the first time. It was fun to be able to have our Christmas time and then spend the rest of the day with family. Cami made out well as you can see from the pictures above. She loves her new clothes, her new books, her new toys, and expecially her new friend the inchworm ( To be commented on later).

I'm fairly certain she has no idea what went on, but at least we have the pictures to share with her when she gets older.

Cami's Toys

As Cameron gets a litte older, she is finding great joy from her baby toys. Her newfound love is a little light-up bear on her baby gym that plays music. She also still really enjoys the teddy bear mobile on her baby swing. She is actually starting to make little laughs - it's so much fun!

Chris will now talk about the BYU-UCLA game -

Or as I have come to call it , "The hand of God". What a fantastic finish! Since we were snowed in last night and Carrie grew tired of the subject after an hour our two I spent a good portion of last night on the BYU message boards to get fan reaction from the game and share in the general joy. It was time well wasted, but I came away with knowing one thing for certain, BYU fans have grown spoiled.

When I attended BYU from 02-04 we had the following win totals, 3, 4, then 5. That was it, it was awful football and I witnessed every painful minute of it. We couldn't beat Utah to save our life, we never went to a bowl, firecrowton.com was my favorite Web site, and I wondered if it was even worth it follow the team considering how poorly I felt each Saturday.

Well, those days are gone. Back to back 11 win seasons, conference championships, bowl games, and most importantly back to back wins over the apostate school from the north! All of this in a year were the offense was completely overhauled, our quarterback took his first live snap in 4 years, and our defensive back 4 featured 4 walk ons. You would think fans would respect what a miracle this season was the great finished we had. Nope, all the talk was about how we should have won by more and how playing UCLA was beneath us. I couldn't believe it.

Let's all be realisitc, this year was a huge success. We're not BCS ready this year but we may be in the future if the schedule stays doable and we continue to have breaks go our way. Let's not ruin the memory of this year by thinking we should have been more. Let's be grateful for what we have and enjoy the success and remember what it was like to be wishing we only could play a 5th place PAC 10 team at the end of the season.

That's my soapbox. Now enjoy the Cami photos.

P.S. - PSU -35, A&M 14 and it won't even be close. Tough luck Aggies.