Complicated

Two weeks ago I was setting up our Christmas tree. I was screwing the
bolts into for the base into the stump. Brigham asked if he could
help. I said, "No, it's kind of complicated."

He said, "That's all right. I'm good at making things complicated." A
truer statement was never made.

New Kitchen table

After an exhaustive 3 year search Holly finally found a table for us
on Craig's List. We picked it up yesterday.

That's Just the Way He Was Made

Yesterday Luc was over. Holly smelled something funny so she asked
Brigham and Luc if one of them had tooted. Brigham said, "Mom, I
already told you. Luc is just stinky. That's the way Heavenly Father
made him."

We never found the true culprit.

Jacob Will Rock You

This morning Jacob is singing "We Will Rock You" and playing "We Are
The Champions" on his little keyboard - both by Queen.

He is also a big fan of the MacBreak Weekly video podcast.

Don't You Know How Christmas Works?

Last night we were decorating our Christmas tree. Brigham asked if we
could go into the attic to get some Christmas decorations because we
hadn't done that for awhile. I told him that we had just gone up there
last night to get his little Christmas tree.

He said, "Dad, a Christmas tree isn't a decoration. You put
decorations on a Christmas tree. Don't you know how Christmas works?"

We tried to watch The Polar Express but Brigham is absolutely
terrified of the movie. Loves National Treasure but terrified of The
Polar Express. I don't get it.

Brigham's Feast

This morning Brigham said that maybe we could have Spaghetteos for out
Thanksgiving dinner. I told him that we don't have Spaghetteos for
Thanksgiving. We have turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes.

He responded, "Well, I choose that for my feast" (meaning the
Spaghetteos).

The Marathon

Traffic getting down to Richmond was horrible which meant we missed the whole expo the night before and weren't able to pickup our packets. The next morning we made in just in time to get our packets and head to the start line. It was quite a bit colder this year than last year but I actually preferred the cold.

It turned out to be a nice run. Both Trevor and I improved our times. I hit my wall at about mile 20. But that was much better than last year when I hit it at mile 13. Everything seemed to go by much more quickly this time and I felt much more mentally prepared than I had the year before. Last year there was always that worry in the back of my mind that I might not finish. This year I knew exactly what I had to do to get done and that I would be able to do it. It really was amazing how much easier that made things.

The traveling cheering section was great. Holly said that Brigham had a blast cheering for everyone on the course. She said that after they saw me on mile 17 Brigham wouldn't ride in the stroller anymore. He just wanted to run everywhere.

When I saw the finish line I was amazed at how fast I was able to run. Just a mile earlier I could hardly put one foot in front of the other but somehow seeing that finish line and wanting so badly to be able to stop running gave me the energy to practically sprint to the end.

Brigham was very excited to see me. He especially liked my medal. He told me that I had won the race. He asked if he could keep the medal. I told him that I would loan it to him until he got one for running his own marathon. Then he could give it back.

It was a good time. The National Marathon is coming up in DC at the end of March. We'll see if I can maybe do that one as well.

Here are some photos from the marathon and Halloween as well.

More Notes from The Kids Trip to LA

Here is a photo of the kids waiting to get picked up at Long Beach airport on our arrival in LA.

Sunday we went back to our ward in Valencia. It was fun to see everyone. Brigham had gone to Granny Dot's church in the morning so he was very angry that I was going to make him go to another three hours of church. He was yelling at me an being very grumpy until he saw his favorite babysitter - Katherine. Then his whole attitude changed. It was great to see everyone again.

The kids stayed in California all week while I was in some meetings in San Jose. The kids had a blast while they were in California. They went to Kids Space, Disneyland, a movie and Jacob got to spend some quality time with Granny Dot's computer. Sunday night I asked Brigham and Luc if they were missing their parents and they both said no, they hadn't been there a week yet so they were all right.

I flew back Thursday afternoon, picked the kids up and then my Mom and I caught a red-eye back to DC. That flight was very easy. The kids passed out almost right away. Once we got home a slept for a few hours and then headed out to Richmond for the marathon I was to run the next day. There was a major wreck on 95 south so what should have taken 2 hours ended up taking about 5 1/2. It was awful. When I wen to bed that night I realized that this very long trip had started out Thursday morning in San Jose and gone through Los Angles, DC and on to Richmond to finally end up Friday night.

Brigham is allergic to milk

A couple of months ago Jacob's school had some sort of party where
they were handing out ice cream bars. But they also had big
popsicles. Brigham went up to the lady and asked for a popsicle (he
has always been more of a popsicle guy). She told him that they were
only for the kids that were allergic to mild. So what did Brigham
say? "Well, I'm allergic to milk." And he got a popsicle. Ever
since then he has been telling people that he is allergic to milk. I
finally asked him if he knew what that meant. He said he didn't.
Once I explained to him what it meant to be allergic to milk he
decided that he really wasn't allergic.

Goin' to California

Friday Jacob, Brigham, Luc (Brigham's cousin) and I left for
California. I have meetings in San Jose next week so I decided to
take the boys to see their grandparents for the week. Holly picked
Jacob up at school and he was taking awhile to get out the door. She
said, "Jacob, you are going on the airplane today." He said, "To see
Granny Dot?" After receiving confirmation Holly said that his face
turned bright red and he broke into a huge smile. He went tearing
down the hallway yelling "I go see Granny Dot! I go see Granny Dot!"

The flight went pretty well. We flew Jet Blue which was great.
Everyone was very helpful and the boys were very cooperative. The
best part was that the lady at the ticket counter saw my situation and
gave me the entire bulkhead row to ourselves. That was very helpful
as we were also right next to the bathrooms.

Having those TVs were great. Luc was fixated from the time they went
on until just before we landed. Brigham would watch for awhile and
then switch seats and watch a little longer. Jacob of course was not
very interested in the TV and got a little frustrated that it was
taking so long to get to Granny Dot's house.

We made it though. We waited for everyone to get off the plane and
made our way to baggage claim. Brigham and Luc pushed the luggage
cart while I pushed Jacob in his wheel chair (I actually was pushing
Jacob with one hand and pulling the cart with the other). We had
arrived almost 30 minutes early so we had to wait a little while for
Tiffany to pick us up. Brigham was very frustrated that we had to
wait. He suggested that we take the bus.

Once she arrived I had to install all of the car seats. Let's just
say that a BMW 7 series is not setup for car seats. It took me at
least 20 minutes.

That night was very rough. I don't remember all of the details but it
went something like this. Brigham and Jacob were in the guest room
with me and Luc was in the "Cousins'" room. Brigham was snoring so
loud that I finally had to move him at 3 am into the Cousins' room.
Luc was upside down on the bed so I repositioned him. Jacob woke up
at 4 am (7 am est which is when he normally gets up) ready to play. I
told him that he had to go back to bed. It took him awhile but he
finally calmed down. I had just gotten to sleep when I heard Mickey
Mouse. I thought that Jacob had escaped but he was asleep next to
me. I went to check and Luc was up and ready to play. I told him it
was still night and he had to go back to sleep. He hopped back in bed
and I got to sleep a little longer until Brigham and Luc woke up at
around 6 am. They wouldn't believe me that it was night time anymore
since it was now light outside. Needless to say, I was a little foggy
the next day.

Brigham and Luc tore out every toy in the house and had the time of
their life. Tiffany and Jeff took them to a movie and Nathan come
over later to go swimming. They slept well that night. Jacob just
wants to get as much computer time as possible though we have forced
him to go on some outings, go swimming and attend church.

I asked Brigham and Luc if they missed their parents this morning.
They said "no, it hasn't been a week so we are all right."

"Papa Saved My Life"

Brigham was in the car today with one of his friends. Holly heard him
say:

"Chandler, when I was a baby and was in my mommy's tummy I almost came
out too early. But my Papa saved. Can you believe it? He saved my life.

"When my daddy was little he was his daddy. And when Uncle Ja was
little Papa was his dad too. And all my uncles and all my aunts - no,
just one aunt. Wow he had much kids. (sigh) He had MUCH kids."

Hide and Seek

Right now Luc, Sam, Elizabeth and Sarah are over. They are all playing
hide and seek with Brigham. The only problem- no one is seeking. They
haven't figured out that part of the game. It sure is quiet though so
we aren't going to clue them in.

Trick of Treating with Jacob

Last night we had our Ward Trunk or Treat party. And was it ever a
party. There was a cake walk, haunted house, bobbing for doughnuts and
a moon bounce among many other things. Brigham liked everything. Jacob
loved the moon bounce.

Trick or treating was especially interesting. Jacob was dressed up
like a Buckingham Palace guard. He would go around to the cars and I'm
his sweet voice say, "trick or treat". At almost every car they said,
"You are so sweet. Here, take two." So, needless to say Jacob loaded
up. The best part is he doesn't really like candy so Brigham is a very
happy boy.

Brigham woke up this morning and said, " Trick or Treating was sooo
much fun last night." he couldn't believe it when I told him that we
were going I do it again on Wednesday.

BTW - Brigham was General George Washington (his Captain Hook outfit
with Holly's boots and a colonial hat) and Caleb was a turtle. Holly
went as a hot mama of three boys and I went as myself.

Brigham's Parenting Skills

The other night Brigham was tossing things off of his bunk bed onto
Jacob. He had been doing the same thing earlier to his cousin Sam.
Holly had just about had it with him and slammed hiis sword down on
the bed rail and told him he needed to stop it. Brigham's finger was
right near where she had hit with the sword and he started screaming
that she had hit his finger. I walked into the room just as this was
happening and Brigham started crying that we were a "bad mommy and
daddy".

I told him that if he didn't start obeying his mom I was going to call
the kid police. This resulted in more tears and accusations of
incompetent parenting. He said that I shouldn't do those things
because they make him sad. Here is how the conversation went:

G: Well what should I do to punish you then?

B: I don't know.

G: What would you do if you had a little boy who didn't obey?

B: My little boy would obey me.

G: Then why don't you obey me?

B: Because you haven't taught me to. I would teach my boy to obey.

He then started telling me how much his finger hurt - he just couldn't
remember which one. He kept looking at all of his fingers and said,
"It hurts really bad - I just can't feel it".

Jacob's Powers

Last Sunday Luc was over. Brigham and him started fighting a bit.
Holly came down and Luc was crying. The conversation proceeded as
follows:

H: Brigham, what did you do to Luc?

B: I didn't do it. Jacob did.

H: Brigham, Jacob is at school. He couldn't have done it.

B: No Mom. Jacob sent his powers out and I saw them come in the house
and push Luc.

I told Brigham that we knew he was lieing and that wasn't good. He
stuck to his story all night. I finally told him that I knew he wasn't
telling the truth and that Santa Claus knew he wasn't telling the
truth. He fessed up the next day.

Who Needs a Security Firm?

The Rest of Our Italy Trip

My parents showed up Saturday night. We had a great dinner while
they were half-awake from jet lag.

The next day we went to Pratto to catch a few sessions of General
Conference. It brought back a lot of memories from Spain. The
chapel was very similar to what you would find in a small Spanish
town. I was able to attend Priesthood Session and we caught the
Saturday afternoon session Sunday afternoon. The rest of the
sessions we got on the internet. It was pretty amazing to be able to
catch all of Conference half-way around the world.

Monday the ISUOG conference started for me. Holly and Dot took off
for Pisa while Dad and I were in various meetings. That was pretty
much the pattern for the next couple of days - Holly and Dot went to
Pisa, Fiezole and shopping while Dad and I went our various ways at
the conference. We usually had dinner all together.

Tuesday night we attended the Conference Gala which was held in an
Italian palace. The highlight of the night was Holly and Pops
dancing. Conference attendees everywhere were snapping photos like
crazy.

The next day Holly and I headed home.

What were the highlights? The food was amazing. There was nothing
that was bad. It was just varying degrees of excellent. Our
favorites were the tomato and mozzarella at Gombi 13, pizza in Siena,
gellato at least two times a day and crescents filled with nutella
for breakfast. The Boboli gardens, Duomo, Siena, Academia (where
Michelangelo's David is) and Ponte Vechio were also spectacular. It
was great just walking through the city.

It was just the right amount of time too. We were ready to return
home but well rested. Holly's mom watched the kids and it seemed
like she had survived just fine. At least she put on the appearance
that she had.

If you want to see some of the photos from our trip go to:

<http://gallery.mac.com/gdevore

Siena

Last Saturday we took a day trip from Florence to Siena. It was
beautiful. It is a small town about 90 minutes from Florence with a
very neat plaza in the center. We visited the cathedral and had a
wonderful lunch on the plaza complete with entertainment. A man with
a red hat was in the plaza in front of us doing candid camera type
jokes on the people walking by. He had the entire restaurant rolling
with laughter as he had a little fun with the tourists who came by.

We are also able to go to the top of the cathedral museum for a
spectacular view of the city. If you ever get a chance to go to
Siena I would highly recommend it.

Italy's Answer to the Suburban

Olive Oil and Ash

I forgot to mention in my last post something funny that happened at dinner. The waiter brought us some bread. Looking around the table I saw a small porcelain bowl. So, I took it and poured some olive oil in to use for bread dipping. After we had finished off the bread we heard some Americans at the table next to us ask the waiter if the little bowl was used for the olive oil. He said no, it's an ash tray. Oops. Greg DeVore
Sent from my iPhone

Segways in Florence

Friday morning we went on our Segway tour of Florence. It was pretty
cool. After a little orientation time in front of the Weston hotel
we were off. The Segways were actually pretty easy to drive. It was
amazing how responsive they were. Navigating through the pedestrians
was a little tougher. As Holly said, everyone seemed to assume that
we knew what we were doing on those things.

Watching people's reactions was hilarious. We heard a lot of "Why
didn't we get those?", or "That is the way to see Florence."

We saw quite a bit of the city and it was nice to get a quick
overview. The Duomo Cathedral is pretty amazing.

Later that day we went to the Uffizi (museum with lots of art that
looks vaguely familiar from art history courses) and the Academia
(where Michelangelo's David is). We were pretty worn out by the
end. But we capped the day off with an amazing dinner and gelato.

We'll post more later. We are off to Siena today.

So Who's Smarter?

Last night I said, "Brigham, it seems that you remember everything."

B: "I do Dad. That's because I'm smarter than you."

Is a Fireside a Party?

Holly just got back from a Relief Society "fireside" at 10:30 pm.
Brigham asked her, "Is fireside another word for a party?"

Nationals Game

We took the kids to Mormon night at the Nationals game in DC. I think Caleb had the best time of all. He was clapping and laughing.

A Full Day in Virginia

Well, today was a busy, but fun, day. It started out with Holly going kayaking with the Relief Society. She had a blast. It is definitely something that we are going to have to do with the kids.

When she got back I went for a run while Brigham went with Trevor, Luc and Addy to Mt. Vernon. Brigham came back and reported that George Washington was the guy who “gave us freedom”.

When I returned the rest of us when to the reflecting pool right by the Lincoln Memorial. It was a beautiful day today, about 83 degrees, and we had a great walk down from the Lincoln Memorial to the World War II Memorial.
On the way there we saw a tree that had fallen on the other side of the highway. It was a very large tree and had smashed two cars. The entire side of the freeway was covered with the tree. It happened maybe 30 seconds before we got there. We decided to take a different route home.

Holly and I tag teamed the temple today since it was ward temple night and we didn’t have a babysitter. So, I got to take the boys out to the Arlington County Fair. I met Steve and Mary there as well as Mary’s sister Kate and her husband Chris.
Brigham had a blast. Jacob wasn’t so thrilled. He was kind of freaked out by all of the commotion. Caleb was just a mellow fellow all night.

Latest Update

We are still loving Virginia. This last week was a bit hot but it cooled down enough that we were able to enjoy the weekend.
Yesterday we went with Trevor, Luc and Addy to the Moore Colonial Farm, an 18th century farm right next to the CIA. It was very beautiful and Brigham and Luc had a great time seeing how farmers lived in the 18th century. Brigham was very concerned when a chicken walked in and “made a mess” on the floor of the farm house.

We also picked up some preserves from the gift shop that were quite amazing. I think that we will be returning as soon as we run out.

I also went running yesterday along the W & OD trail. It is basically a bike path that goes over where the old train tracks used to be for the Washington and Old Dominion rail line. I went about four miles towards DC and it was beautiful. We are going to have to get some bikes setup so that we can take the whole family along there.

Brigham and Jacob are having a great time in the house. Jacob has a computer setup and thus is in heaven. Brigham is finding new uses for the house all of the time. He loves to go play in the side yard. This week he started “zipping” (basically repelling) from the banisters in the basement. He was also very excited when we set the tent up in the basement on Friday night and he got to sleep in it. Caleb just keeps rolling all over the place and always seems to be happy.

We are getting closer to being out of boxes. We are still trying to figure out where everything goes. I am sure we will get there soon.

Some More Brigham Quotes

Yesterday I made Brigham take a shower. He was very angry. He said to me, “Dad, I’m taking you out of my will!”

Yesterday Brigham got to be a pioneer in primary. Holly was telling me that everyone thought he was the cutest little Sunbeam. Brigham said, “Why did they think that I was little?”

Holly: “Because the Sunbeams are the littlest kids in the Primary.”

Brigham: “Well, this Sunbeam is big.”

Last night I was saying prayers with Brigham. Sally and Josh’s hometeacher had brought over toys for all of the kids. In the prayer I said, “We thank thee that the nice man brought some toys for Brigham.”

Brigham interrupted my prayer and whispered, “He was a very good man.”

Our Stay in Salt Lake

We are finally here. “Here” means Virginia - not in our house.

We stayed in Salt Lake for about a week. We actually means Holly and the boys as I wasn’t there much. As soon as we arrived in Salt Lake I left to drive across the country with Trevor. Once we got to Virginia I flew back to Salt Lake, stayed for a couple of days, flew to Seattle for some business, flew back and left with the whole family for the long drive to Virginia.

We had a great time in Salt Lake though. The 4th of July was particularly fun. We stayed at Ja and Laura’s the night before (I don’t think that they will ever invite us to do that again). In the morning we did the Freedom run. We just did the 1 mile Fun Run since we wanted to do it with Brigham.

Brigham had been all excited about doing this run but when it was about to start something spooked him. All of the sudden he didn’t want to run. He really didn’t want to run. He was scared of something and I had to carry him for the first little bit. I tried to put him down and he started screaming and kicking. So I told him we were going to quit - we just had to run to Uncle Ja. Once we passed Ja I told him we had to run to the car. He started to figure out that I was just tricking him into running the race and started screaming again. So, I put him on my shoulders. After a bit of that he decided he wanted to run and really enjoyed it. He especially liked running down the street to the finish line. He was very excited for his medal and T-shirt. I have no idea what set him off initially but he was certainly irate.

Later that day we went to Craig and Jill’s. Everyone was there. We went on a hike up in the mountains and Holly and Laura did some shopping.

The most exciting part of the day was when Jacob ran away. You might ask how a boy who can’t walk can run away, but he can. I was on the hike and Holly had gone shopping. She left some of the teenage cousins in charge of Jacob. When she got back the people downstairs said he was upstairs and vice-versa, The only problem was that he wasn’t anywhere in the house.

I returned from hiking to see everyone out in the street looking for Jacob. Finally someone saw him out the back porch. Craig and Jill live on a golf course. Jacob had crawled all the way across the first hole, most of the way across the driving range and almost to the street. When we finally spotted him a golf pro was picking him up in a golf cart.

We still don’t know how he got out of the house. It certainly gave us a scare. Jacob looked pretty shocked too.

Jacob and Brigham had a great time at Grandma and Granddad Hales’. Brigham was especially excited that he got to use Granddad’s tools and that Grandma made a scrapbook for him. I hope that Grandma and Granddad have recovered by now.

The Move Has Begun

The long trek across the United States has begun. We had to be out of our house on June 23rd but can’t move into our new house until July 25th. So, as you can see we have some time to kill.

Loading up the truck was quite the adventure. We used ABF Upack. Basically, they dropped a huge trailer in front of our house and charged us for the number of feet that we use in the truck. The trailer was 28’ long. We thought that we would use about 20’ of it.

Saturday morning we had a good turnout of friends from church to help us load up. We started at 8 am and by about 11:30 we were all done. Everyone was really great and that thing was packed to the top. Final total - 22’. A little more than we had planned but not bad.

We were also moving things out of our office but the plan was for Trevor to put all of our office stuff in the back of the moving truck he was driving to Virginia (he was packing up and moving the same day). I called him at about 11:30 to see how he was doing. He was all done but there was one problem - there wasn’t any room left in his truck.

So, Trevor came up and we spent the rest of the day getting stuff out of our office, taking stuff out of Trevor’s truck, putting stuff in my trailer and repacking Trevor’s truck.

We didn’t finish until about 6pm. By the end both of our trucks were completely full.

We then had to get our refrigerator to Nathan’s house. There was no room left in the trucks so we just rolled it down the street. We got a lot of strange looks as we pushed it down the middle of the road.

On top of all of that we also had a going away party that night. We only showed up 40 minutes late.

We spent the first couple of days in La Canada with my parents and have spent the last week in Utah with Holly’s parents. Next week we will start the drive back east the hang out at Holly’s sister’s for a week until we can get into our place. We are anxious for this month to be over.

Brigham Has a Brain

This morning Brigham told me “I hate it when Granny Dot says that Heavenly Father gave me a brain.”

“When does she say that?”

“When I do something naughty at her house she says Heavenly Father gave me a brain to think. I hate it when she says that.”

Jacob Sings - Brigham Pontificates

The last Sunday before we left Valencia Jacob sang in Sacrament Meeting. He sang “I Like to Look for Rainbows.” That isn’t the right name but that is how the song starts.

We weren’t sure how it would go since sometimes when Jacob gets up in front of the microphone he starts to improv a bit. But he did great. He went up there with Holly and I played the piano. He started off a little soft and then said right into the microphone “Can I sing for Aunt Kiersten?”

Holly said yes and he began to belt it out. There wasn’t a dry eye in place after he was finished.

The high counselor got up several minutes later. He said, “I don’t know if this is something that Jacob does often but I am glad there were some other speakers so that I could compose myself before coming up here. That was truly angelic.’

“We look at Jacob and it is very easy to see all of his imperfections. But if we look through our spiritual eyes we see that we are the ones with imperfections. He is the perfect one among us.”

Brigham Pontificates

Brigham had to give his first talk in Primary. We talked the day before about what he wanted to talk about. He said he wanted to tell about when Joseph Smith got killed. We told him that that might be a little intense for the Junior Primary and maybe we should talk about something else.

So we went over the story of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized. We also had a backup plan that told about the pioneers and “defining moments”.

Well, Sunday afternoon Brigham was sitting in the front of the Primary ready to give his talk. The Primary President announced “We will now have a talk by Brigham DeVore.” I was supposed to help him give his talk but before I could get out of my seat Brigham stepped up, placed both hands on the pulpit and said, “My name is Brigham DeVore and I am going to tell you about how Joseph Smith got killed.”

I ran up there and said “Brigham, why don’t we talk about something else first.”

“Ok Dad.”

So I asked him a few questions:

“When Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were translating the Book of Mormon what did they read about?”

“Baptism.”

“What did they do?”

“They went to the Susquehanna river.”

“Who did they see there?”

“John the Baptist.”

“What did he give them?”

“The Aaronic Priesthood.”

“Then what did they do?”

“They were baptized in the Susquehanna river.”

I had him tie up with some words about how he wanted to get baptized and then asked him to sit down. He slammed his hand down on the pulpit and yelled, “But I haven’t told them about how Joseph Smith got killed.” So we gave a quick summary about how Joseph Smith was killed and sat down.