Miracle Child Almost 2

EL SPORTO

Sam came home from church last Sunday and said, "Do you realize how hot of a man I am." He was referring to his temperature after wearing church clothes in a hot chapel. But as you can see he is a "Hot Man"

Spiral Jetty

We went to see Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty on Saturday. Well worth the trip.

Latest Remodel

We finished remodeling apartment #1 last month.
Take a look.

ELF YO'SELF

Please click the links below:.

Sam, Stella, Tom, and Willa Click Here

Amanda and Clara Click Here

Isaac, Dave, and Tom Click Here

Dave and Kaer Click Here

Rainer, Davy, Wrestler and Eli Ellyson Click Here

Clara, Josh, Toby and Miles Click Here

Send me your elfs!

Halloween 2007

Romance

Laura and I talk on the phone about 15 times a day. The majority of our conversations consist of her saying, "Sammy is screaming and Stella just took her diaper off - click." At church, we get a solid 15 minutes of engaging discussion or insight and then its the usual screaming, crapping, eating, cant find something, etc.


A few months ago Laura and I were on a walk and she told me all about the art movement, Globalism and that has really been the most exiting thing since sleeping in an extra five minutes before Stella's diaper starts to leak and the day starts over. The conclusion that I am getting at with the above mentioned scenarios is that there is not a lot of what the world would define as Romance going on in our lives. But I think that the world needs a new definition.


This year was a landmark year for me. 9 years of marriage this month. Stella is beautiful and healthy. Sam is five years old and amazing. When I was five my parents' marriage was over. My mom took us to my grandparent's house and we moved on. As I was saying, Sam is now 5 and a few months ago we subscribed to the great grand American vacation and hit Disneyland for the first time. Despite the whole "Disney" stigma and perpetuation of romance ideals, etc, I have to say that the following simple equation made me so happy:

Me 5 years old = Divorce
Sam 5 years old = Disneyland

At the end of the night, Sam had the big ears and everything. There he was, candy stains all over his tired face, riding the parking shuttle at midnight with his eyes lazily open and a big smile on his face, it was so great.


So what is this romance business? And why do people fall in and out of commitment?
Now that we are about to celebrate our 9 year anniversary, the divorce stats are already starting to become a harsh reality all around us. I know that we are not experts on the subject. I do think one thing though: The grass is never greener." I think that it is safe to say this under the majority of circumstances.

When Laura and I were going through our fertility issues trying like hell to have another baby. No offense to any one but I am convinced that the whole family pretty much at one point or another thought we were totally nuts. And at some point I think that Laura and I did question our sanity. But we continued down the path and gratefully had Stella. We went through some of the most difficult stuff we will probably ever have to deal with and came out the other side, intact having more love for each other then we had before. I am not sure why the world wants relationships that are fragmented and only deal with a snapshot of a person in a short period of non-committed time. The real pay off is sticking with it and getting to know each other as whole people, warts and all.

Even Disneyland gets it. I always thought the "happily ever after" was perpetuating romance ideals. But if you look closer almost every story is about going through some difficulty however simplified and finding redemption and happiness on the other side. Maybe old Walt was trying to say that "happily ever after" consists of going through the challenge, redemption, and resolve cycle over and over. The myth is that happiness should come without effort.

So romance, what is it? I think that it is going through challenges and getting to the other side. The pay off is there and it takes whole people to go through them.

November 21 1998 - 2007 I love you more than ever.

Sam's Talk

Sam gave the following talk during the primary program in sacrament meeting 11/11/07:

"The Liahona is round with a little point thing and a dot. It can only work when people are being good and also being nice and not naughty. That’s why we all talk about being kind to others. Something bad happens when Laman and Lemuel tie Nephi up and everything is so sore and there is a storm. That’s why we love the Lord everyday. We don’t want to forget. We don’t want to get lost I know that Jesus is our best friend. He loved his family. He had some little brothers."

"The lions were friends to Daniel when he prayed. It was strange because he put Daniel in the lions den. It would be so scary if I was in the lions den because I would be worried that they would bite me. Daniel wasn't scared, not one bit because he was brave and he prayed. When we pray, it will make us brave too but maybe not as brave as Daniel, because he was super brave. Daniel couldn’t see anything because remember there was a rock and it was like dark but Daniel had Jesus with him."

"Heavenly father came to him. Why did Heavenly Father come to him? I don’t know do you? The rod was hooked up to the tree you know. The rod is just a plain old rope. The tree means its heaven. They needed to hold onto the rod to get to the tree."

"The scriptures teach us to be brave and have faith. It is good to follow the scriptures they teach us to follow Jesus and to be kind and good. Amen."

Sam's Voicemails

Over the last year and a half, Sam has left messages at my office phone. I have archived them over and over to save them in hopes that I would eventually get around to posting them on our blog. Just click the links on the right hand side to hear them.

We have a No Gun Policy.

But here he is at the park with a stick and it looks a bit suspicious.

Harbor Seal - Part 2

A few weeks ago, before the poop parasite epidemic hit the Salt Lake Valley with more gusto than the recent opening of Utah's first IKEA, we were a family of swimmers hitting all of the local watering holes.









Sam, after years of perfecting the Koala bear stroke (ie clinging to me with his claws while I dragged him around the pool), took swim lessons all summer and now swims like a fish. Stella on the other hand has always considered herself to be a swimmer. With her Allred confidence, she has always entered the water as an Olympian, diving gracefully out of our arms into the water no matter the depth.



Early comparisons of Stella with a harbor seal were once again confirmed a few weeks ago when I went to the 9 foot end of the pool, holding her in my arms and jumped in submerging the two us underwater. When we floated to the top, there was Stella giggling like crazy asking for another turn. This may seem shocking that a 14 month old baby could hold her breath and enjoy swimming underwater. But it gets better. Afterward I was about 4 feet from the edge of the pool and decided to push her gently toward the side. She swam underwater to the side and pulled herself up, it was AMAZING!!!

If only the poop thing hadn't happened, who knows what she could be doing now, diving for coins on the bottom, swimming laps against the other amazing toddler swimmers.

Instead, we recetly felt like we had the non-vomiting flu for about a week and a half and there is now a toddler ban at all the local pools these days. Maybe Stella should have been wearing a swim diaper . . . J/K

Fathers and Sons

Sam and I went to our ward's Father and Son camp out near Oakley Utah last weekend. Sam was so excited he called me at work several times on Friday to ask me when I was coming home.

At night, in our tent, I was joking around and talking a lot when Sam said, "dad, can you please be quiet so that I can go to sleep." What a role reversal! We had a great time together.



Sam is helping me write this blog these are his words:
"We, in the morning we ate breakfast before we went home. Mom was already mowing the lawn because it was Saturday. We also went we had there was thunder up in the sky and my friend said that there was like a square picture of thunder and he thought it was thunder and so lets just erase the end ok as we went, we went over to a lake that we throwed rocks in that was fun and we liked it the picture up ahead is of us at the stream. That it was so much fun that we found a fish laying up and its eyes were open and it was dead. That's all I want to say."

THINK, LET, and TRUST

"Unlike those sports where you have to grit your teeth and go for it, skydiving is just the opposite. In order to excel you have to concentrate on relaxing, being calm and smooth. It's so hard not to try. But once you get your wings (learn to fly without thinking -- just like walking) it's the greatest feeling in the world, a sense of real accomplishment." Discover Your Voice, Oren Brown.

Muscle Man w/ Craft Scissors

We try to go with Sam's interests. Some days he is an artist, a cook, a wrestler, a musician, an athelete, etc. What a great time of life it is to be 5 years old and totally unrestricted in his aspirations. He can do anything. One morning he ran around the house, shirt off, wearing moon boots, green underwear and a cape. Another day, his friends stopped by and a trypod turns into a microphone stand, the bed is a stage and the four kids played a rock show.
I wonder why we all think that we have to grow out of this phase and cookie cut ourselves to "fit in" to society.
In this picture the boy-man-child is flexing his muscles while holding some scissors he is using for a craft project.

Gift of Grace

“As nearly as I can trace, my paintings emerge from living with people (and my dog) and from affection for the processes I use to make pictures. Although my skills of observation and craft are good, there is a fundamental element outside my control that make a picture succeed. It is a gift of grace every time it occurs, and it eludes me every time I try to control it” (Brian Kershisnik).

Sammy the Luchador

Harbor Seal?

There are many comments that one could make when seeing a baby. I would like to mention a few that have actually been uttered within our family to describe babies.

Comment number one, “that baby is as cute as a cookie.” This reaction is full of all the happy goodness that you would come to expect when gazing upon a baby. One could never go wrong comparing a baby to warm, sweet, and delicious baked goods unless comments like these were used to describe the contents of a full and overflowing diaper. Diapers are warm but never sweet and delicious unless you are my brother's dog, Midnight, who likes to regularly consume used diapers.

Another example perhaps of what not to say is, “that child’s head is gigantic and look at those ears! He looks like a platter with two handles.” I can see the mother now, eyes wide, gritting her teeth, foaming at the mouth while trying to cover the child’s handle-like ears to protect him from such thoughtless and insensitive comments. Truth be told, the child’s head did actually resemble one of those chrome turkey platters with the big gangly handles on each side.

A few days ago, a family member who will not be named sent us an email with a few pictures attached comparing our baby Stella to a harbor seal. At first, I was a bit taken back. How could this be? Our child cannot be compared to a seal or a platter? Why not a marshmallow, a fluffy piece of cotton candy, a Hostess product, but please not a harbor seal.

However, upon closer examination I realized that she does indeed resemble the loveable, not club-able harbor seal. Take a look:

We would like to personally thank the unnamed family member who had the courage to speak out about our child. More people should be willing to say how they feel about a child. I have often wanted to point out that some newborns are not "baked goods" material and they look more like Keith Richards, a reptile, or Liza Minelli. I will no longer hold back. People should be know the truth.

Here are some pics of our little harbor seal swimming in the water:

The Last Remodel

We just finished remodeling the last of the apartments at our 4 plex. This one was a doooozzeeyy! Nasty carpet, hours of labor, fighting over cabinet knobs, home depot loves us, and my back hurts.




AFTER:

Wesley Willis

In the words the late great Wesley Willis:

I'm sorry that I got fat.
I'm sorry that I got fat.
I'm sorry that I got fat.
I will slim down.

Truly he loved like a milkshake.

Hurtado Family Summary in Pictures

Hurtado Family Summary in Pictures.