Dad (Brett)
All around rockstar geek. Brett enjoys his job as a Clinical Data Manager (helping research medical breakthroughs at Celgene); in his time off he enjoys reading books, watching movies, and learning new tricks on his camera and in Photoshop. He absolutely adores his wife and 2 daughters.
Mom (Erin)
Complete supermom. Erin loves her job as a Youth Field Researcher (aka 'mother'); in her plentiful spare time (ha!) she enjoys sleeping, re-reading Twilight or Harry Potter, and cuddling with Brett.
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Hybrid Angel/Devil. Aeriana loves her mommy and daddy, each of whom she loves to test at times and pretend innocence at others. A veritable sponge, Aeriana wants to do anything she sees an adult doing; she loves babies and especially adores her little sister, taking great care of her every need.
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Growing fast, Zoe wants to be just like her big sister. Very goal oriented, she'll find a way to get that toy she's been looking at. She loves her pacifier and can't help but snuggle up to her blanket. Zoe is as relaxed as they come, she just loves chillin' out and watching TV.
Aeriana is an adventurous girl and shows no fear, except when it comes to walking. But if her daddy is tossing her up, or even across the room to a friend, she's one happy girl.
For anyone who is interested in writing a parenting self-help book, please for the sake of your readers include the following:
"When your wife presents the baby to you, butt-first, and requests that you smell to see if the diaper is stinky... make sure you do a preliminary visual check for any diaper leakage lest you accidentally bump your face on a wet spot of nastiness. It may take an extra few moments of your time, but skipping this step is just not worth the risk."
On the other hand, if your wife feels bad enough that you got a face-full of stink, you may not have to help clean up the mess. It is up to you to decide whether you're better off helping clean up the mess, or listening to your wife laugh and say "You got poo on your face!"
And yes, that is two explosions in a row I've gotten a free pass from.
Aeriana loved all of our Christmas decorations, of course her favorite was the tree with its tiny lights and blue/silver ornaments. It was a constant battle keeping her away from the ornaments. At one point we thought "hey, let's put some boxes and chairs in the way so she can't get to the tree!" Next time we'll have to remember to not use empty boxes that she can just push out of the way...
Also, we've been working with Aeriana for several months now, trying to teach her some sign language. Her first signed word was "milk", which is still the word she signs most readily. She's also signed on occassion "more", "daddy", and "all done", and she's quite proficient in telling us when she's happy about something by clapping (generally her way of saying "yes! you figured out what I want!") and by raising her arms high in the air as if to say "hooray!" or "look at me, I did something cute!"
So I'm gonna jump to the point of the story straight off for those who don't want to read more... we're looking to buy a cheap, reliable car... our only requirement is 4 doors, though Erin is dreaming of a minivan. If you know of any good deals, let us know. Anyway, on to story time.
While living in Pennsylvania several years ago I got the greatest deal on a car I could imagine. It was a '98 Ford Escort with 50k miles, that thing lasted through several years of intense beatings with hardly any repairs. It was ugly, don't get me wrong. It was dark green on the outside, some weird green on the inside and it was an Escort... enough said. But ugly as it was, it was a champ. Unfortunately I learned that the car that couldn't be taken down by quick accelerations, fast stops, and 150,000 miles was in fact vulnerable to one thing... deer.
It was while driving down the highway in PA one night, cruising at around 75 mph (or 65 mph if you're a cop reading this), that a deer just jumped out of the trees on the side of the road and slammed into me. Poor deer right? Wrong! The dang thing got up and ran off while I was stuck sitting there dazed, surprised, and assessing the spiderweb-filled windshield, shattered passenger window, and dented hood/passenger door. (Side note... having liability only on a cheap car is great until your bumper flirts with a deer and drives away heartbroken.) In the end it wasn't worth repairing the whole car so I just got a quick fix to the windshield to keep the car drivable until I could get a new car.
Little did I realize that it would take about four months to get that new car, during which I would brave the cold snow of a New Jersey winter with only duct tape and saran wrap separating me from the frosty air. It took impending re-registration, which I surely would have failed spectacularly, and a great deal on a new leased VW Jetta to get me kicked into gear.
Normally I wouldn't have considered a leased car, I don't like being limited in my driving milage, but I was living a mile from work, five miles from church, and not taking too many trips. A leased car seemed perfect for me, and looking back I'm not sure I would have changed my plans even knowing what I do now. Knowing that after initiating the lease, but two days before I actually picked the car up, I would meet the most beautiful girl in the world and my entire life would change. How could I have known that I'd be spending every day of the next three months driving 30 minutes each way to see her, or that after we were married I'd be driving up to Massachusetts and New Hampshire frequently to see my new friends/family that I didn't have before. Needless to say, I won't be handing over the keys with just 39,000 miles on the car.
My Jetta has been a great car, it's been a lot of fun to drive. It's also seen me through a rapid change in my life... I leased the car as a bachelor with no intentions of dating seriously, and am now happily married and just celebrated my daughter's first birthday. The Jetta's practically a member of the family; except that it's expensive and I can't wait to get rid of it... on second thought, it sounds more like family when I put it that way. ;-) Erin still likes to tease me about the night we met when she saw my car being held together with duct tape and my insistence that I was getting a new car in two days. I was definitely nervous to impress, and apparently the Jetta made that good impression seeing as how we were engaged about a month later.
The Escort saw me through bachelorhood, and the Jetta saw me through the transition to father of a growing family... it's time to see which car is going to take me through the next phase of my life.
We just celebrated Aeriana's first birthday and realized that we've got a bunch of great video of her first year that we haven't shared. Over the next couple of weeks we're going to try to post several of them. To start is this great clip... Aeriana has always loved peek-a-boo (the first part), but as she's gotten older she's learned to love music more and more. All the time we'll find her playing music on her toys and swaying or dancing to the beat; the second part of this clip is one of the few times we were able to catch it on video. It's not the greatest, sometimes she'll be getting her boogy on way more than this, but it's a good example of her getting lost in the music... it's towards the end, but worth the wait.
Last night, about an hour before she went to bed, Aeriana exploded out of her diaper. It's a rare occurrence for this to happen, but still never pleasant and last night was GROSS... well, at least that's what Erin tells me. I was actually on the phone with my mom at the time and didn't know anything had happened until I walked in to find Aeriana playing in the tub and some wet, but clean clothes in the sink. If it had been anyone else on the phone, Erin would have hollered to me to get off the phone and come help (heck, if it was anyone else, I wouldn't have been on the phone for more than 30 seconds); but because it was my mom I was able to miss the entire debacle. So first off, thanks mom, I really really appreciate you calling when you did.
But I was thinking about this and decided that the world is ready for a new invention. Last week LG came out with a watch-phone, Dick Tracy style; I don't see much excitement in that, but I would be excited about a watch that at the push of a button will call your phone using your mom's ringtone. If you're sitting there and you sense a poopy disaster coming, just push a button and say "Oh hey hun, I'd love to help, but I need to talk to my mom." It's genius.
Any venture capitalists out there, give me a call, let's make something happen...
A couple of weeks before Christmas Matt and Renee came to visit and we went to the temple to do baptisms for my ancestors, including some of my grandparents. It was such a powerful experience. I have never cried before doing baptisms but this time I was so full of joy I couldn't help it. I was smiling ear to ear and couldn't stop crying with excitement knowing that I had found these names because of my great-grandfather Raymond and now was starting to do his work in the temple. It was amazing.
After such a wonderful experience we were happy to be able to go to the temple again in North Carolina over Christmas break. On the Friday after Christmas we went in and did initiatories for all of the names, and then on Saturday went in for endowments. While several of us were in doing a session, Riley and Brett's dad were doing more baptisms.
I am so very grateful for this gospel and for everything it has taught me and I especially love the temple!
So yet again I am very far behind and catching up with over a month's worth of stuff. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Hopefully January will be a bit slower.
Over Thanksgiving we went up to New Hampshire to see my family for the weekend, and went to my Aunt Barbie's house in Maine to celebrate Thanksgiving Day with the extended family. Aeriana spent all of Thanksgiving as close as possible to Gabe, Barbie's dog. They played all day together, it was really cute, but unfortunately it seems more and more that Aeriana is going to be an animal lover. Sorry Aeriana, no dogs or cats in our house.
The next day we decorated the tree and exchanged Christmas presents since we weren't going to be together near Christmas. Aeriana was very excited about her new toy.
Jason, Christine, and Aeriana learning their ABC's.
My parents being excited about Christmas presents.
On our way home from New Hampshire we stopped by Matt and Renee's place in Boston and had lots of fun there too!
For Christmas we went to North Carolina and spent it with Thayne, MaryAnne, Cache, Kariana, Riley and Brett's parents. Shantel came home a couple days before we had to leave.
Brett's parents recently went on a trip to Israel with Brett's Mom's family. They brought back this beautiful creche for us for Christmas (each sibling got a different one).
Aeriana and Cache loved playing with presents.
Brett's parents were excited to get the Wii Fit!
Riley drew Kariana's name for gift giving this year and he hid her presents all over the house, making her solve riddles to find them all. It was awesome!
Bath time for the babies!
So for a while if you say hooray and raise your arms to Aeriana she will squeal and raise her arms too as if she is saying hooray too. and it's still really adorable. Here is Shantel and Aeriana doing just that!
One of our favorite discoveries of the trip was the Reflections of Christ slide show. The combination of the music and photographs are amazing.
We had such a great time in NC that we didn't want to come home. Of course, we played so hard that we needed several days to recuperate after getting home. Boy do we love Christmas!
Aeriana and I went to the mall right before we left for our big trip to NC. She loved Santa and couldn't take her eyes off him. But this was try number two; the first time we went with daddy and they said it would be over an hour and a half wait, we snapped this picture and said no thanks we'll come back later. :)
Dad (Brett)
Mom (Erin)
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Dare-iana
The Temple
