Snowy Hearts Sunbeam Music House Crawl

SNOW! It was a fun January. Now we are pretty much done enjoying the snow. The kids don't really want to sled or sculpt with it anymore. And that is the epitome of February.

Valentines Day was filled with a lot of love. More so than usual. Jonah with out any indication of embarrassment revealed that he is in love with a girl in his class. As he told Joel, he is not a secret admirer as he isn't shy. So apparently EVERYONE knew about this but his dear ole Ma and Pa. Now that we do know we have philosophical discussions over snacks on the topic. Like today when Jonah told his brothers "some people [at school] think that having a crush is gross, but actually it feels good." So Jonah. So lovable.

Koen is a very happy Sunbeam. He has a fantastic teacher, and lots of friends in his class. The one dark cloud in is universe is that his birthday is taking way too long to get here. EVERY day he asks me if its his birthday, tells me that he isn't going to invite Si (because he "treats him poorly") and his heart is broken when I tell him that May 20th is still after Easter. Finally today he asked "can we make a cake and pretend that its my birthday?" So this weekend (I promise!) we will be making a cake with candles. I hope it works.

Silas started piano. He loves playing this instrument. And although Joel and I never planned on owning anything that heavy, it looks like after we move we will be acquiring one. He also spends all the free time he can playing Roller coaster Tycoon. When his computer privileges are tapped, he will play it on paper by drawing it.

Joel and I have been doing house stuff. Our plans came out of engineering abyss, and then went back in, but hopefully briefly this time. The hole may get dug in the next week or two. And Joel and I are scrambling to get colors and stuff picked out.

Hale is crawling and chewing on things in an adorable way. Here is a thousand words on Hale:

January in Iowa

Overheard in Iowa:

On the car ride home from seeing the movie National Treasure in the theatre:
Zak: Is there really a golden city?
Parent: Not that anyone has found?
Zak: We should go look for it. But we should probably leave Owen with a babysitter. He is too little.

We survived January 2008. The schedule became very busy and the weather almost unbearable at times (at -20 during the day for a few days), but we made it through. We enjoyed a couple games at our local bowling alley where Owen (using rails and a ramp) beat Jared (several high speed gutter balls) in our second game. We also went to our first in a long time movie in a theatre with the boys. Zak loved it. Owen sat on my lap for the first third of the movie. The next third he walked around in the end of our row and out to the aisle. The last third he enjoyed watching Chicken Run on his ipod in his own chair. Jared and Hillary made a day trip with some friends to the Winter Quarters Temple. It was fun to spend some time with our friends and see our new little Temple. The boys had fun playing with their friends and a med school couple who needed a dose of birth control by watching 6 kids for a day. Hillary received her yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do and now she matches Zak in belt rank as the two prepare together to test for their orange belts next month. Zak lost his first two teeth on the last Sunday night of January. They have been loose for several months. His parents have been trying to get him to wiggle them out, because with the new adult teeth growing in behind he was starting to look like a shark. Surprisingly, Zak had no real interest in wiggling or losing the teeth despite all of our teasing to tie the teeth to the bumper of the car. Sunday night as he brushed his teeth the loose ones started to bleed a bit so Hillary-remembering how her uncles had flicked her teeth out fairly painlessly onto the diary barn floor- easily yanked Zak’s teeth out. He exclaimed, “That didn’t hurt hardly at all!” He was really excited. He was even more excited the next morning to find two gold dollar coins under his pillow. Now we are working on the next two teeth.

Hillary took the boys ice skating one afternoon. The rink has construction cones that the little kids can hold on to to help them skate. A great idea! Zak got himself a cone and started racing around the rink with his friend. Owen wanted nothing to do with the cones. Mom was a more sure thing. He loved skating while holding mom's hands and Mom skating while holding him. Hillary literally had to drag him kicking and screaming from the ice. I think we may have a hockey player on our hands. Zak announced while turning in his skates that he is ready (skill-wise) for a hockey team.

Have a fabulous day!

Jared, Hillary, Zachary & Owen

Steve & Jodi

Talking to Zak on his Dad’s cell phone about everything he is learning in school is always a special treat. He was excited to tell me about it while he was riding with his family to the theater to see American Treasure on a Saturday afternoon. He also called later in the month to report with appropriate great pride that he lost two teeth.

Building Pinewood Derby race cars with the Barber boys is a grand father’s dream come true. Thanks to Jenica and Joel, we all got the cars as Christmas gifts. Jenica even bought a book with secrets about making extra fast racers. When the cars are finished we’ll send everyone photos.

Meri’s Pilates coaching continues to be a blessing. A stronger core makes everything better. It was neat to listen as she described her Pilates’ business plans for 2008-09 and her “A” grade success in a very difficult kinesiology class last semester.

David and I enjoyed the drive to Springville to pick up his “sweet” Ford F-150 truck. David searched the classifieds until he found a great deal. Its “sweet” because it’s a 2000 in excellent shape with only 59,000 miles and Doug, the mechanic who you all remember in Orem, proclaimed it “sweet.” I’ll let David tell you the rest of the details.

It was great to listen to Karalee’s account of her successful presentation to a local citizen’s group about the “sustainable” Charleston version of Taco Boy. I’ve been telling people about its 100 ft. high wind turbine. Later in the month, I was moved by Karalee’s sharing the awe, gratitude and patriotism she felt at Tim’s father’s honor guard service at Arlington Cemetery. I remember the feeling I had when I read the sign at the entrance which rightly proclaimed it to be “hallowed ground.”

Many thanks to Joel and Jenica who helped me unravel my email service. It was all likely my fault. I managed to get tangled up while trying to installing the Qwest bundled high-speed internet service. At one point Joel and I had three other technicians on a conference call.

Also, thanks to Hillary for her Essig family history work. As a result I experienced the special sense of connection as I did the temple work for my grand father, Albert Carl Essig. He truly was, is, a wonderful person. His successes in business are still an inspiration to me and I think of him often in my own pursuits. My father said of him, “Everyone likes Al, I’ve never heard him say anything bad about anyone.”

Jared helped me provide much needed advice to one of my clients. The client couldn’t afford to continue his injections for treatment of Age-related Macular Degeneration. The patient had already lost sight in one eye. Jared helped me locate a foundation that is providing financial support for patients in this situation.

Jodi’s father, Joe T. Covington, has been visiting with us off and on for the past few weeks. His many successful ventures as a cattle breeder rewarded him with interesting experiences as well as industry acclaim. We’ve enjoyed retracing events that have taken him to many parts of the world.

I had the special opportunity to attend Sacrament meeting in the Manti Tabernacle. It was dedicated in the 1870’s. I was moved as I observed the building’s evidence of the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many courageous and noble persons. While singing the opening hymn I was impressed by the tremendous amount of service that has been rendered to people all around the world by the saints who have worshiped in that building over the years since it was dedicated.

I’ll close by saying that My Medical Home project continues to be exciting, even though the rate of progress is glacial. As you all know I have been studying about innovation for the past year. In the last two months I’ve read three particularly good books that some of you may find interesting. Innovation – The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want by Carlson & Wilmot; Made To Stick – Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Heath & Heath and The Art of Woo – Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas by Shell & Moussa. They were all available from the library even though they’re relatively recent publications.

Please pardon the length of this edition. There’s just so many good things to share.
Steve & Jodi

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