Christmas with the Griswolds

I anticipate this will be one of a few posts about Christmas until Christmas day comes. In a time when so many people dread the Christmas season, I'm one of the few that gets excited. There's no possible way I could ever truly express how much I loathe cold weather, but there's still a small part of me that gets excited when the weather begins to turn chilly. Only because that usually means Christmas is right around the corner.

One of the things I love about Christmas is, well, the movies. You can name some classic Christmas movies like:

It's a wonderful Life
A Christmas Story
Miracle on 34th Street
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Elf
The old Rudolph and Frosty the snowman cartoons
The Grinch cartoon


A Christmas Story is probably my favorite. I've probably seen it no less then a dozen times thanks to TNT and TBS showing it for 24 straight hours on Christmas Eve every year. I also love Christmas Vacation, which I watched again tonight. The awkward Griswold movies are usually about things that go wrong with their vacations, or in this case, when family comes over for Christmas. Yet, by the end of the movie the moral of the story is still clear.

Personally, I like the slight raunchiness of Christmas Vacation. Clark W. Griswold is a bit of a nutball and, well...I think it's funny. I also love the rancor he has for his snobby neighbors. Take a look...if you like.




Ahh yes, if I could always be that curt.

Irony

Wow that paint job really pops out doesn't it!?! I love irony.

The King and I

Can you find Elvis in this picture?

This picture was taken atop The Stratosphere a few years back when we lived in Las Vegas. My handsome brother Brent and I were doing some sightseeing when we spotted The King. When most people look at this picture, normally their eyes are instantly drawn to Elvis. Not me. I can't stop staring at my extra chubby face. Oh well, it was still fun meeting Elvis at approximately 1,100 feet in the air.

Eric is 7!!

Today is Eric's birthday. I can't believe he's 7 years old already. The time has gone by so quickly. Before I know it, in another 7 years he'll be 14 and almost ready for high school. Weird.

As Eric gets older every year, it becomes more and more apparent to Becka and I how special he is. Eric has that special something about him. Eric is very in-tune with other people's feelings. When he gets older I'm sure he'll have the ability to "discern the thoughts of others", which is a rare quality he'll share with his dad and Uncle Brent. Eric is also very outgoing. He's not afraid to tell someone he just met about his latest adventures. Eric is so loving too. Our new Bishop came over to our the other night. When the Bishop was getting ready to leave, he stuck out his hand to shake Eric's hand. Despite this only being the second time Eric had seen our new Bishop, Eric ignored his hand and went right in for a hug. This of course lead to Timo and Noah hugging the Bishop too.
Eric is the perfect fit for being a big brother. He does a great job. He's learning to contribute around the house as well.

I decided to chronicle some pictures of Eric starting from one year old to seven. Here it goes:




Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Eric younger then one year old on my computer. In fact, I have hardly any of him being one. He's 1 right here but since you can't see him that well...



...here's a picture of Eric when he was 18 months old. This was his first time at a Krispy Kreme. This was in Issaquah, Washington. Thanks for the Krispy Kreme Uncle Brent!




Here's Eric on his second birthday. He was so excited when he was getting his picture taken.





Eric at 3. I remember a few months prior to taking this picture I realized how photogenic Eric was becoming.




At 4 years old, Boise State Football was already one of Eric's favorite things in the whole wide world. You should see him now, he colors every picture blue and orange. And I mean EVERY picture.



Eric at 5. Look at the cute face! What you can't see in this picture is Eric is playing with a pet turtle we had. When we asked Eric what we should name the turtle, he came up with the name Ian. Of course, named after Ian Johnson from Boise State.




Eric at 6. This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Eric. We were walking around in Las Vegas, then he ran up by that tree and told me to take a picture. He delivered one of his finest pictures yet.






And of course, Eric at 7. Eric lost his tooth just a couple days ago. He was so excited when it fell out because he knew he would be getting a dollar from the tooth ferry (talk about inflation). As far as his new Transformer toys go, he's playing with them right now, right next to me on the very desk I'm using as I'm typing.


Happy Birthday Eric!!!

New pictures, with updates!

OK, I fixed our camera...sort of. It's good enough to take some pictures at least. It just requires a little more patience...I'm working on that part.
Here's a some new pictures.



Here's little Timo. He's always full of personality as you can see in his smile. Timo is well rounded when it comes to his likes. At one moment he's helping Mommy make dinner, then the next moment he's playing football with his brothers.




Chunky little Noah. He's our little bowling ball. Always full of love and he already loves making people laugh.



Here's Eric, the oldest brother. Despite being a star athlete, he still has time to take pictures. Oh, and practice his penmanship.




The best Mommy and 7 month old Mikey. With Noah being 2 and Mikey at 7 months old, a future without dirty diapers is slowly becoming a reality.




To the untrained eye, that may look like a kids toy I'm holding over my head. If you look a little closer, you'll clearly see it's a halo.

Fight Club

Earlier today my six year old son Eric (he turns 7 this month) posed an interesting question to me. He asked, "Daddy, who would win in a fight between a shark and a rhinocerous?" I told him I didn't know, but that fight would never happen due to their different habitats. I also told him it would be an awesome fight to watch though.

Then I thought about how that's the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) started. Everyone wondered how a boxer might fair against a wrestler. A stand up fighter vs. a ground fighter. The Gracie family from Brazil wanted to bring their fighting style which consists of grappling, to the U.S. This discipline is known as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The Gracie's wanted to show people that a smaller man could beat a larger stand up fighter. So, with no weight classes, UFC 1 took place with Royce Gracie representing the Gracie family. The Gracie's proved exactly what they wanted, a smaller man could beat a much larger stand-up fighter with jiu jitsu.


Royce Gracie in some of the early UFC tournaments

Mixed Martial Arts was born. 15 years later, there's about six different disciplines used in MMA, providing fans all over the world with dream match-ups with different styled fighters. Over the years the UFC has changed dramatically and is much better for it. UFC 91 takes place next Saturday.


Between little Eric's question and me relating it to the UFC I began to think of some unlikely dream fights. Here's what I came up with:


1) Great White Shark vs. Rhino (Eric's idea)
2) Great White Shark vs. Hippo
3) Gorilla vs. Lion
4) Rocky Marciano vs. Rocky Balboa
5) Mike Tyson vs. Apollo Creed (Tyson in his prime, not the face tatooed rapist we know today)
6) Floyd Mayweather vs. BJ Penn
7) Brock Lesnar vs. The Incredible Hulk
8) Napoleon Dynamite vs. Urkel from Family Matters (see pic below)
9) Elton John vs. Eddie Izzard
10) Jeron Johnson vs. Ronnie Lott
11) Ike Turner vs. Bobby Brown
12) Forrest Gump vs. Arnie Grape (Leonardo DiCaprio's retarded character in What's eating Gilbert Grape)
13) Christopher Reeves vs. Brandon Routh
14) The PC Guy vs. The Mac Guy
15) Barack Obama vs. John McCain

There's the battles I've come up with so far. Although unlikely, the Floyd Mayweather vs. BJ Penn fight is the only match-up on my list that could actually happen. I would sell a kidney to watch that fight.

Feel free to add to the list.

Poop happens...when it does happen, don't look up with your mouth wide open

I've had the unfortunate luck of being pooped on by a bird three times in my life. The first time was on my bare shoulder. The poop was surprisingly cold. The other two times I was pooped on my head, one of those times I was wearing a hat. I threw the hat in the garbage right away.
I've been in a different city each time it has happened. I guess I'm a just a big target.

Despite my bad luck with bird poo, I've never had it as bad as this big dummy:

I'm back

In the month of September I posted 10 times on my blog. I was so proud of myself for showing such commitment by posting into the double digits. Of course this would be normal from now on. Of course I would post an average of 10-12 times per month.

In October I had 2.

I spent most of October in an apathetic (finally a chance to use that word) state of mind. I struggled just to post those two blogs, I practically forced myself.
A small part of my lack of interest in blogging for the last month has been my obsession of watching DVR'd episodes of "Entourage." Most of my blogging is done in the evening. Coincidentally I have to watch Entourage after the boys go to bed due to the shows "adult content." Call it a conflict of interest.




The majority of the reason I haven't blogged is me not feeling well.


Now I'm happy to report that my own personal storm cloud is beginning to lift thanks to some much needed help. I'm making a personal goal to post in the double digits in the month of November. Hopefully the substance doesn't suffer...I can't really promise that part. No more posts about how flies annoy me or how I was fantasizing about bottles of Prozac. Now I can strive to have my posts be a little more optimistic.




I made a list of positive things I can blog about:

1) How much I love my boys.

2) How blessed I am to be married to Becka.

3) My beloved Boise State Broncos are on their way to another undefeated season.

4) I haven't been pulled over in over 7 years (keeping fingers crossed).

5) I found out the other day I can consistently throw a football 70 yards (the football was barely larger then a baseball...whatever, it still counts)

6) My goatee finally grows in evenly on both sides.

7) In late October/early November and the temperature is still hitting 70 degrees (thanks to not being in Western Washington anymore).

8) My progressive hair loss over the past few years seems to have gone into remission (I'm actually assuming this since I can't see the top of my head...I don't need anyone checking for me though).

9) Before today I haven't drank a pop in about a week (this wasn't really a choice, I just couldn't afford it. Picture a meth addict the first day after quitting cold turkey...that was me all week).

10) After over a year of being MIA, I finally found the battery cover to our DVD player remote (few things make me cuss more then batteries missing from a remote...one of those being when the whole remote is missing).


OK, not all those are good blog topics but I've smiled and laughed several times in the last few minutes and that has been missing lately.

The message of this post is simple. In the words of Michael Jordan when announcing his second return from retirement through a fax:

"I'm back."