Found on Google....AGAIN!!!

So what's up with random words and us on Google? I started seeing a lot of people coming to our site from doing Google searches about Bilibeds. I talked about Carter having to be on one for a while after he was born, but I didn't think there would be people from all over the world looking at the blog. It seems that we come up as the 5th main link from Google for anyone searching "Bilibed". Weird. The last people we had look at our site from a bilibed search were from Cusco, Peru. I'd like to apologize to them right now for the lack of knowledge and abundance of rambling they came across on this site.

Other popular searches that come up with our blog are "Rob and Big in the carwash" (google search result #14) from our Rob & Big blog. Also, "Need of having snow sneakers" (result #1) from our Sneakers, Spiders and Snow, Oh My!!! blog

We're found on Google!

If you Google "Herriman Utah Preschool" guess who comes up as the third highest search result? 'The Price's Right?' blog! Ya, go figure.

Personal

So I've started realizing that my favorite blogs by people are the ones where they just talk about what they want. They talk about the things that interest them the most and things they have passion for. I on the other hand am usually trying to think "what would the family and friends like to see pictures of or hear about?". Not that it's a bad thing, but I sometimes end up finding the blog a chore rather than the release I originally wanted it to be. So from now on I'm going to write about the things that I enjoy. The things I think and dream about. The things that I find interesting and bring meaning, smiles, laughter, happiness, joy, purpose and reason to my life. I guess this way my readers will be able to get to know me a little better.

To start out I may as well point out a couple things I may not have written about, but I'm obsessed with.

Chocolate: This isn't some little 'Mmmm, chocolate is good' thing. It's more of a 'Give me the chocolate and nobody gets hurt' sort of thing. Yes, my name is Seth and I'm a Chocoholic. I need it every day. I crave it every day. If I don't get it, sometimes I get grumpy. I'll take whatever I can get. Of course I mostly enjoy the chocolate brownie, cake, cookie, doughnut varieties, but I can't have those all the time or I'd be twice the size I am now. Favorite chocolate: Big Mountain chocolate cake at Black Angus, Mama’s Chocolate Kuau Pie at Mama's Fish House (Maui), Chocolate Mousse at The Roof Restaurant, Dunford chocolate doughnuts, my mom's chocolate sheet cake and chocolate fountains. It's also helpful to have a lot of cold milk on hand.

Fantasy sports: Yes, this is another addiction. I've been able to get some help (prodding from Jess) and have cut back on the number of teams I have over the last two years and I have to say I enjoy it even more. Most people think it's pretty silly, but I see it as a way to keep in touch with all of my close friends that I don't get to see much. Our fantasy basketball league is comprised of some friends that I've had for over 10 years. They live in places like Las Vegas, Oregon, Washington D.C., Utah and even Africa. Yep, Africa (my sis and her husband). I love the competition side of it and getting to talk trash to one another. I love crunching numbers and trying to figure what players will help my team do better. I LOVE the live drafts where you are under pressure to choose players while everyone else from the league is there drafting also. I used to be more addicted. A few years ago over the span of 12 months I had 16 fantasy teams!! 8 basketball, 3 football, 3 baseball, and I'm ashamed to say, but I even did fantasy golf and Nascar. Now I'm down to 2 basketball and 2 football. It may fluctuate a little, but should never get higher than 6 in a year again.

You may see more of these topics in the future. I'm excited for this to be an outlet for me again rather than looked at as a 'chore' at times.

Carter

Just some pics of Carter taken over the past few weeks. He's been sick off and on and we're happy to say he's doing better and smiling, laughing and cooing again.

Hopefully Jess doesn't get mad for me putting this pic up of her. She usually doesn't like her pics. I just wanted to show how Carter was clinging onto her pj's. He wasn't feeling good and it reminded me of a baby monkey holding onto it's mom.

Carter is getting a lot better at laying on his stomach and holding his head up.

Carter got this new seat that allows him to sit up by himself and strengthen his neck muscles. He loves it.

Sleepover!

So Jess' brother Mike got taken away by his wife for the weekend on his birthday and we watched our niece, Hallie, for the weekend. It was a lot of fun and the kids always have a great time with her. She's so easy to watch and super cute. Thanks for sleeping over Hallie!!

Catch up

Yep, I've fallen behind again. Waaaay behind. Jess works at the salon on Fridays and her sister usually watches the kids, but called in with the flu. So it's SUPER DAD to the rescue! Well, not that super since right now the kids are still in their jammies, watching cartoons at 11:30am and I'm catching up on the blog. Oh well, we'll have fun this afternoon.

First I wanted to catch up on the snowstorms we've been having. Holy whiteouts Batman! It's been crazy. It seems like one storm finishes and a few days later you feel the wind picking up again bringing in another. Sometimes there's a ton of snow, others it's just really wet and icy and others it's just a light dusting, but it's still snow. I'm done with it. The last few days have been sunny and I feel like running around outside without my shirt on, but I don't want to scare the neighbors or have them call the loony bin on me. So for now I'll save my neighbors eyes and resist the temptation.

I just wanted to share a few pics from the last big storm we got.

Got snow?

I literally had to plow my way into the garage coming home from work. The tires were spinning and it came up onto the hood because there was a drift in the middle of the driveway 2 and a half feet high!

Mid-thigh and I wasn't even all the way down to the ground.

This was a few days later. The pile behind the kids was actually 5 foot tall the day of the storm. They loved having a huge hill of snow and Austin kept calling it his 'castle'.

V-Day!!

I LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! Yep, it's my next favorite holiday behind Christmas. It always has been. Not sure why, but it is. I'm a pretty sentimental guy and I love giving gifts of love (otherwise Thanksgiving would be my second favorite with all the food and football). I love the surprises. I love seeing everyone else doing something special for their significant others. I love that it's exactly 6 months from when Jess and I were married so that we get to celebrate together every 6 months. It's kind of like an extra anniversary. I look back to a year ago from right now and a lot has happened. It's crazy how much your life can change in the course of a year. I just wanted to send out my love to all my family and friends and thank them for a great year. Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Anniversary! (c;

Hmmmm.....

I'm super confused right now with why some people can see my posts and some can't. I'm wondering if it has to do with what operating system each person is using because I don't know why else it's happening. I can see it just fine whenever I go there. Some people say they haven't been able to see them for a pretty long time. Some people said it's been since I changed my template from Christmas. I may have deleted something I wasn't supposed to in the code while switching templates. I'm doing some tests so if my page continues to change, please be patient. I hate that it's not showing the posts like it's supposed to. ANNOYING!!!!

Fixed?

So some people could see the posts and some couldn't. I switched the background to see if it helps at all. I just grabbed something real quick from pyzam, but it works. I've had Hawaii on my mind a lot lately and this is Hanama Bay on Oahu where we went snorkeling for hours last April. It was a great day full of getting our tans on, swimming with a sea turtle and chasing a huge parrot fish. Good times were had by all. So my blogging buddies, please let me know if this has fixed the posting problem. I hope so. I'm sure it was annoying having to go around and clicking on links in the archive just to read my latest post. Thanks!

Missing blogs?

Okay, so I had a friend tell me that she couldn't see my blog posts. I think she had to click on the title of the post to actually read the post itself. Is anyone else having this same problem? The reason I ask is because on my computer everything looks fine and dandy, but we were at my in-laws tonight and on their laptop, all the blogs are missing! What in the world? It would be so boring to visit my blog if that's how everyone else sees it! What a pain in the rear too if you have to click on the title of the blog each time just to read it instead of having it right there and ready for you when you got to the blog. It kind of irks me and I'm hoping there is a way to fix it. I was trying to figure out if maybe it was only certain PC's that couldn't see the posts. Anyway, please let me know if you have to go clicking around the page just to see any new posts or if you can actually see the posts and pics when you get to the page. Thanks!!!

P.S. - YAY GIANTS!!

Happy again

Carter has been a bit under the weather for a little over a week. The whole family, well, except Austin, got this horrible cold and we kept passing it on to each other. Carter would get a lot of phlegm, start coughing, then choke and throw up. I know, not a pretty picture. It was so sad. The few weeks before he had been gaining about a pound a week and had passed the 16 lb. mark at just over 2 months, but then he lost 1.5 lbs. from being sick. He's still not back to 16 lbs. but he's at least gaining again.

Anyway, it's great to see him happy and smiling again rather than be a zombie. He's also trying to talk up a storm. I want to catch it on video and put it on here so we'll see if that happens soon. I just can't help but wonder what he's trying to say. He gets pretty animated and excited, but only if you talk back to him. Here are a couple pics of him being his happy self again.

Resolution update

Seeing as an entire month of 2008 has flown by, I thought I'd give a quick update on some of my resolutions/goal for the year. Mainly too keep myself in check, but also because some people who read them are wondering how they are going and also don't think I can do it. I won't go through the whole list because it was pretty long. I'll just hit a few of them.

• I'm almost done with my first book, The Little Book of Value Investing. I didn't finish in Jan. but it's close enough.

• Been reading some of the Book of Mormon almost every day.

• Got better from being sick and started playing basketball 2-3 times/wk again. Run extra hard to get ready for the 5K. Running outside isn't going to happen right now. Me breathing really hard and cold air don't mix well. Good news is that Jess has decided to do it with me so we'll motivate each other.

• Haven't worked too much on the push-ups and need to start. I hurt my shoulder, but it's better now so no excuses.

• Don't have a pull-up bar yet, but will get one soon.

• I've definitely been more assertive so far. Haven't waited around or procrastinated too much. Makes for a much busier life though.

• I feel like I've been a better husband. Been more helpful, surprise treats, etc.

• Also feel like I've been a better father. Usually I don't like taking the kids to the store, but I'll offer to take one each time I go and they love it!

• I've lost a little body fat so far, but more surprisingly is I've lost 6 pounds!

• The website is coming along, slowly but surely.

That's it for now. We'll see what this month brings.