From the ... town of bedrock!

We were the Flintstones!

Do you see the resemblance to Fred, Wilma and Pebbles?!

Yes, those are golf balls around my neck. They made for an

excellent rock necklace!

Our CUTE Pebbles!

False Alarm...

So, we should get back on the blog and let everyone know who doesn't already, that I miscarried or according to the nurse, may have not even been pregnant because I miscarried so early. So Olivia is sad to say that she will not be getting a new baby brother or sister as soon as we thought, but God knows what is best and will bless us in time!

Shoe Fettish!

Olivia's new FAVORITE thing is shoes! She loves them. All shapes and sizes. I had to take this picture of her after I realized she had put on 4 different shoes. Mommy helped her put the pink one on, but the other 3 were all done by her. She LOVES to have shoes on her hands and crawl around with them. Shoes...Shoes...Shoes! They can be her shoes, mommy's shoes, or even daddy's! Olivia LOVES shoes! This could get expensive for us in her later years.

Livi's new glasses!

So a new challenge has begun in our household. We thought that this new challenge would be keeping the glasses on the 14 month Olivia's face. Oh were we wrong...


Don't get us wrong, sometimes she does not care for the glasses and we find them on the floor rather than on her face...and we have had to put them back on her face sometimes near 50 times a day...but the new challenge is getting her to look through them!





She has already learned that if she tips her head down, she can look over the glasses. Now the new challenge is trying to teach her to keep her chin up! Grandpa Kelly and Grandma Lorie think Olivia looks like a spitting image of Great-Grandma Dani when she looks over her glasses!
So what do you think?!

Olivia needs glasses.

We took Olivia to the eye doctor yesterday and we were informed that she needs to wear glasses to correct her vision and lazy eye before it gets worse. Our beautiful angel will get her new glasses in a week and a half. If anyone has any pointers on how to keep them on her face, we are open to suggestions. We are preparing ourselves for glasses flying across the room. When I was a child I had to wear patches, have eye surgery and wear glasses. When I got angry I would toss my glasses across the room. I guess this is karma getting me back. I chose a pair of glasses that she can rip off her face, bend in half and not break! I was thinking on that one. It's been a little overwhelming and will probably only get worse before better, but we are glad that we can work with her and glasses before surgery is considered. Wish us luck!

1st Boat Ride...

We went to Flaming Gorge a few days last week for part of our Labor Day weekend. It was Olivia's first boat ride. She enjoyed it! You can see how much she enjoyed it in the first video. She probably would have enjoyed it more if she wasn't soo tired and hadn't fallen asleep on the boat! Here are a couple videos of her on the boat! Can you tell we are a little excited and overboard on videos these days?! We just learned how to put videos online and we figured everyone would enjoy a video or two of our sweet little girl!

Olivia is EXCITED!!

Olivia is excited to announce that she is going to be a

BIG SISTER!!!

We found out this week that we are expecting. It is pretty

early in the pregnancy so we are not sure when our new

little one will join us, but we are EXCITED!!!

I was sitting inside at the table and Olivia was playing out on the deck. I turned around and she had made her way down the stairs, pulled herself up on the swing and was rockin' away. She is getting very independent these days and very CUTE!

Olivia playing pat-a-cake!!

and some words to follow the pictures

Well I have a little bit to get caught up with. Trish has been doing a wonderful job in getting the most recent photos we have uploaded.
I've uploaded a slideshow of the happenings of the past 10 or so days. It includes the zoo (Trish took Livi and went with her grandma, aunt, uncle and cousins), a bruising encounter with the stairs for Olivia, the Atkinson family reunion, and a trip to Snowbird.
I also received news that I made the second round of the Jazz blog writer competition, though I needed a little help with my entry for the second round. I left for the reunion on Friday the 8th. After I left an email was sent to me advising me that I had made the second round and I needed to have my next entry submitted by midnight Sunday. Well I didn't have a chance to sit down check my email and write until Monday morning when I got to work. I sat down pounded out 250 words for my submission and pleaded my case. I was told it would be accepted without a problem. Now I am just waiting to hear any word for the next round. Here is what I wrote:

Defense? We don't need no stinking defense . . . wait, that's what the Jazz have, a stinking defense. When Utah plays team defense they are tops in the league, the problem is buying "Defense wins championships."
Team philosophy is staying in front of your man, contesting shots, keeping your man from going baseline while forcing him to the middle, to what though? An open space? Utah has lacked a shot-blocking big since the days of Mark Eaton. While Ostertag could have filled the role, he never wanted to. The best shot-blocking big on the roster plays in Croatia, Ante Tomic. Kirilenko is a help defender when it comes to shot blocking. Memo can be solid, but extending to block a shot isn't happening. Collins' best contribution to defense is bodying-up his man while playing mind games. Millsap's athleticism helps but his body type is a tweener, too big and thick for a small-forward but too small for a legit power-forward/center. Let's not talk about Boozer's want for a defensive skill set. Koufas and Fes are projects.
The Jazz' best option for defense starts on the outside. D-Will, Brewer, Price, and Brevin Knight's addition gives Utah four quick, handy guards that must keep their man outside. Harpring is slowing down after his 300th knee surgery, but he's still "crafty." "Kutcher" Korver tries, and we'll leave it at that. Questions remain for Miles and Almond, both are above average offensively, but if either could guard a dead horse they'd be starting.

So that is what I have right now.

Tomorrow is the final of the reunions for this year. I found out earlier this week that my dad's side of the family is actually going to have a reunion next year, so I am looking froward to that.
Also happening tomorrow is the Salt Lake City version of Ferragosto, an Italian festival. I'll be checking that out before the reunion.

I just finished watching the Raiders second preseason game, eventhough it's preseason I still have to watch. Eventhough, third and fourth stringers are playing down the stretch I like seeing the longshots, as long as they don't lose the game. Well, that didn't happen tonight. However, it was nice to see Quinton Ganther, from the U., put up some big numbers.
Now I am watching the Olympics and some quick thoughts are Michael Phelps is amazing, lucky tonight, but still amazing. And Usain Bolt from Jamaica, the world-record holder in the 100m in track, just made the 100 seem like a walk in the park, nobody should be able to run that fast that easily. I'm jealous.

Picture update

OUCH!!!

Before we headed out to our 3rd family reunion up Provo canyon, Trish was packing things out to the curb. Olivia had followed her out the door and down the stairs doing just fine. After going in and out a few times, Olivia decided that she could go down the cement stairs forward. That did not
work out for her too well and she skidded to a
stop on her forehead. Here are the pictures taken later that day after the fall. OUCH!!! Trish felt awful as she picked Livi up and watched her head turn into a large red, black and blue goose-egg.

More Zoo!

Here we are sitting on the tigers! Aren't we CUTE!!

Riding the new carousel at the Zoo!

Olivia rode the train standing the entire time so she could get a good look!

Peek a Boo! Livi didn't want to get out of the egg!

Trip to the ZOO!

This is Olivia, Lyndzee, Keegan and Hanna in front of the white alligator at the Zoo!

We'll see what happens

So I submitted my entry into the Jazzbot blog writer competition today. The deadline is actually tomorrow so this might be the first time that I have actually done something without waiting until the last minute. If you would like to read, here is my entry.

Red and blue divide my family. Whether it is Utah-BYU or Republican-Democrat we have our heated discussions. But there has always been one thing that has brought us together, Utah Jazz purple. Well, that changed a couple of years ago. Seeing staunch Ute fans wearing blue was a happy day for some and a sad day for others.
No matter the color now, the love for the Jazz spreads through generations. From my grandparents, to my in-laws, and now to my daughter, who has not missed watching a game with her daddy, the pick and roll brings us all together with one ardent passion.
Despite the passion for our team we get critical of the players and coaches we adore. Bad shots. Poor effort. Oh, but there are times when it all seems to come together. Pick and pop. Money. Harpring coming off of a curl. These are the times that lead us all to say, “You gotta love it, baby!”

A post for my wife

So over the past week Trish has discovered the Twilight series of books by Stephanie Meyer. Don't know if I will read them, though the little bit I have read over her shoulder and teased her about has been a bit interesting. Anyway, these links are for her.

'Twilight' Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

'Twilight' Trailer No. 2 @ Yahoo! Video

Pictures for your viewing pleasure

I'm actually starting to get the hang of this. Here are some pictures of our trip back east in April.

One down, three to go

The family reunion season has begun. We just returned from the first of four consecutive weeks of family reunions. Not much to report on this one. It was hot, it rained, it was hot and muggy, it rained some more, we left. That about wraps up the reunion.
Seriously though, it was fun. Olivia had fun, well people had fun with Olivia.
We are going back to Tabiona this weekend for another of Trisha's family reunion and then next we are going up Provo Canyon for the only reunion I have. You would think with all the branches on my family tree I would have more. Oh well, I don't think there would be enough time to go to all of them. I enjoy going up Provo Canyon. We run the river and then we sit on the edge of the property and watch everybody else go down the river. I think my cousin-in-law and I are taking over dinner responsibilities from my Grandpa this year, that should definitely be interesting. I haven't heard for sure but it was hinted at last year.

Another week has gone by and I am still without a calling. My bishop told me the ward had plans for me when I got released, it has been two weeks and no phone calls, well except for the one to speak in church, we did that today. Not too shabby. My wife is awesome. She brought the spirit with her talk and I did enough not to offend it so it was there for the duration of the meeting. I am in no rush for a calling, it's just weird not having one after being in the Young Men's program for the past two and a half years as secretary and then president. I don't think Trish has had the luxury of resting. She has received other callings while still serving in a different calling. I don't know what she would do with herself if she were not to have a calling.

In other news and thinkings, not too many happenings right now, I am looking forward to end of next month. High school starts again and with it a chance to return to the sidelines and write about high school football. While I am slowly trying to find ways onto a newspaper staff full-time I have enjoyed my falls moonlighting and doing stringer work for The Salt Lake Tribune. I am also considering entering a contest to be a blog writer for the Jazz. I entered last year and was one of the final 50 considered but I didn't make the final cut for whatever reason. The deadline on that one is approaching fast, so we'll see if I get around to actually doing anything with that.

We are looking forward to getting scores back for Trisha's final she took two weeks ago. She has already passed the final but they gave her an option to take it again and try to get high honors, she only had to retake half of it because she already qualified for high honors on the other half. She has been going through a home schooling course to be a medical transcriptionist. We would like for her to stay home with Olivia, and any future children we may have, but she would like to do more than just stay home. I am grateful for her and her desire to help.

The first of many

And so it begins that we might finally catch up and actually keep and maintain a blog.

We'll see what happens.

As for the details? The brief summary is this, after high school Gary went to the University of Kansas for a couple years, messed up his wrist in a forklift accident (smooth one), finished his Associate degree at SLCC, served a mission in Italy. Trisha went to school at SLCC and then Utah St. before deciding to go on a mission. She served in the Maryland Baltimore mission. After we both got back from the missions it took some time to figure out what we really wanted but long story short, we were married June 3, 2006. We struggled through a miscarriage in the late summer of '06 but were blessed with the birth of our first baby, a little girl we named Olivia in July 2007. We celebrated our honeymoon in November '06 in Italy and Switzerland and look forward to going back there again, Gary hopes within the next 5 years. This past April we took a family trip back east to Maryland (to see where Trisha served during her mission), Washington D.C., Palmyra, and Niagara Falls. Definitely worth seeing.
There have been other events along the way that we will detail later as well as posting some pictures for your viewing pleasure.