Play Time

These are some of our new favorite things. The swings at the park are so much fun. Marin likes them too. But she likes them best when I (Daddy) am pushing her because I am so much more reckless than Katie is. Katie keeps her safe and I teach her how to potentially injure herself. I’m such a role model. The other day Marin slipped in the pool and went under for a split second. Katie was on her before the splash peaked and when Marin was safe in Katie’s arms, instead of terror, I was proud. Proud that she could go under and not come up screaming from terror. She did so well. She coughed a little, but not a tear was shed. That’s my girl. We’ll have you swimming on your own in another two weeks. Woo Hoo… Here is another fun video clip for your enjoyment.

Getting excited for Halloween

Anyone that saw Holl-Balls last year will recognize this costume.






Here is a better one.

Dancin' Muchine

So there is one thing that we love to try and get Marin to do because we think that it is so funny. From day #1 she has always seemed to be very picky about music. When we would play something she would either get really happy or really angry (we think that this depended on whether or not she liked that particular style of music. In the beginning she seemed to like the more classical style. Nothing too pop. And by classical, I mean classical composers. She also seemed to be choosy about who was singing it. She hated church hymns. They would make her so angry. Well now a-days, she is not so finicky. It does not even have to have a beat and she will instantly get a big grin and start to shake what her mamma gave her. She even likes it when I (Daniel) sing to her. If you have ever heard me sing you know that it’s bad. (Heather, do you remember that time after church when you waited with me when I was going to meet with the bishop for my mission interview. I’m still scarred by the look on your face when you heard me try and match a note. I still remember, “Maybe your tone deaf? Hi Ya’ll!”) Anyway, Marin loves any kind of music now. It does not matter how distant the source may be from her if she hears a tune, she will stop everything and listen. Then she will do her dance. This is what we find absolutely hilarious. Some of our ward friends once spotted her standing on the church pew dancing to the prelude music in a cute little dress and are still laughing about it two weeks later. We keep trying to catch her on video, but she gets really distracted by the camera. Here is a cute example of her being stubborn.






This is all the dance that we’ve got so far.

Counting my many blessings

I am apparently more of an “all or nothing” kinda guy than I ever knew. You all wanted to hear more about my work, so now I can’t stop thinking about what I can post about work. I’ll share one more work story for now. Then I need to get back to cute pictures of Marin. I’ll try to diversify my postings from now on. Mix it up a bit.
So as you may assume from my previous post that there is not much about my job that really gets to me. For the most part, I have the worst behind me and now I’m moving forward. (At least I feel better believing this.) Truth be told, there is one thing about my job that I really despise.
It is the untimely death of an infant or child. Nothing tares me up inside more than this. Some days it’s all I can do not to bust into tears myself when I sit in a room with some, almost was, parents and try to help them in any way possible. Knowing that there is not a thing on earth that I can do but watch them suffer. I cannot help but imagine myself in their shoes and it will instantly break my hart. Today I helped a Dad say good bye to what would have been his first child. His first son. Mom was still in the hospital bed recovering while Dad was doing his best to take care of business. Turns out that Nate had only two more weeks to go till full term. For all intents and purposes, he appeared to be in perfect health and development. “Just a fluke thing” said the Grandma. Not “just a” anything says me. The amount of raw emotion and feelings could not possibly be summated into a “just a” phrase. I look into the eyes of this parent or any parent that loses a child and I learn one thing, THIS IS PAIN. I am so sorry.

Its days like this that I am so happy to know what I do. That families can be together forever. On top of that I’m comforted to know that innocent children are just that… innocent.

So do with this what you will. You may file it away into the deepest nether regions of your mind and only think of it when forced to for some reason, but I think that the truth of the matter is that we should all at least think of things like this from time to time. It reminds us all to feel. And not just for ourselves. I’m sorry to have been the blogger buzz kill.