Where do I start this week? It was one of those weeks that was so full of activity and emotion that it seemed to linger on forever. It is hard to believe that just a few days ago we were sitting at home in Cleveland planning our spring break vacation...

I suppose I'll start at the beginning. That would be on Monday when my spring break started. We have been wanting to visit Washington DC since the day we moved here, and finally here was an opportunity that seemed to lend itself nicely to the occasion. Monday was full of planning and preparations. Tuesday came quickly and we left that morning. Evelyn was a great traveler and the miles rolled by smoothly until suddenly we were turning off the exit for Washington DC. And then the phone rung and time stopped moving.

It was Wendy, Rachel's mom. She told me that her husband- Rachel's dad, Kelly, had been hit by a car and that we should make preparations to come to Utah as quickly as possible. He had severe brain damage.

We tried to get tickets out of Washington for that night but all of the airlines were sold out. Instead we spent the night at a fantasic little campground that was just 10 miles away from the capitol (Greenbelt Park- consider this place seriously if you ever need to do DC on a budget) and left the next morning.

When we got to the hospital we found that Rachel's father was being kept alive by a number of highly sophisticated machines. He had severe damage to his brain and brain-stem and would never be able to have a quality life away from these machines. He was not responding to any of the neurological testing that was used to indicate that a recovery might be possible, and the location of the damage was in an inoperable location.

After much prayer the family decided to withdraw life support on Thursday morning. It was a blessing to all that he was able to hang in there until his family could be gathered at his bedside. The hospital staff provided a conference room for us to use as long as needed, which we soon filled and spilled out into the hallways. All immediate family was there, as well as a good number of the extended family and friends. Even the hospital staff (which was phenomenal) was impressed at the amount of support that was given at this time. Needless to say, Kelly was very loved and touched many lives during his brief stay here on earth.

Besides being a very emotional day, I think that everyone involved would agree that it was an overwhelmingly spiritual day as well. As we contemplated the blessings of the gospel it all became very real to us at this time. The spirit was amazing and we felt Kelly's personal presence and love at the time of his passing. We received some powerful priesthood blessings as well that helped us to understand the eternal scheme of things and to bring us a measure of comfort that was desperately needed.

There are many other details that I am leaving out. Some of these will come out in the following posts. Some won't. We will be here in Utah for at least another week as funeral preparations are made and things start to settle in. We are so thankful for the knowledge that we have of God's plan for us. Kelly's passing- or Graduation, as one uncle put it - has had a profound effect on our lives in many different ways. He was an absolutely amazing man who I (Logan) am glad to say was able to be a part of my life.

Here Comes the Sun

Logan has been doing research for as long as I have known him. He already has a lot of publications (I asked him how many and he didn't even know). He presented his work from BYU at a well known international bio-chemistry conference in San Fransisco, and he will present his work from CASE at a conference in April in Miami. Why am I telling you all this? Well, this week he did an oral presentation as part of Professional's Day at CASE. He did a wonderful job and he and his partner won a five hundred dollar award! Congratulations Love!

On Friday our ward had its first annual dinner/dance party. I love our ward! I was so impressed when everyone was out on the dance floor. There was a great mix of music and a lot of fun people. The theme was St. Patrick's day and our green homemade rolls were a hit! We had a great DJ that dedicated songs to couple's and kept the crowd entertained (the wives didn't know, but there was a list passed around in Priesthood for the men to write down 'the song' that reminds them of their wife). I am excited for next year's party.

On Wednesday I had another doctor visit for the babies. I am now 11 weeks and Dr. Reider said I was measuring 16 weeks. In three weeks he said I should be measuring 20! I knew I would grow bigger than normal, but hearing the actual numbers is kind of scary. Noodle and Twitch are growing very well and Dr. Reider was very impressed. He said it was very rare that I would be feeling as good as I am (I only had morning sickness for three weeks and am feeling great now).

On Saturday we went to another baby sale. We found some fun things for Eva and some cute clothes for her to grow into. We also bought a baby bouncer for the babies. Our favorite purchase was a good backpack that will hold Evelyn so we can go hiking and backpacking all summer! Bring on the beautiful weather!

Today was our first bike ride of the summer. The weather was beautiful and the company was great! Evelyn serenaded us with her beautiful songs and we chatted about our Summer plans.


Evelyn is a great helper when it comes to baking. This is getting ready for the ward party. I think she liked the rolls- even before they were cooked!


Today we went on a family bike ride- It was great to get outside after a seemingly long winter. I think we were all getting a little cabin fever. Bring on the Summer!

The new play room is great! Evelyn loves it!

The Saga Continues...

That's right...The Saga. You might not have heard, but this is what the story of our car's tires has become. If you want to hear all about it, go ahead and read the next four paragraphs- if not, you can skip to the 5th; I just need room to vent- I hear that it's therapeudic.

See, about a month ago while we were walking out of the mall I happened to brush up against one of the back tires of our car while putting Evelyn into her car seat. Much to my surprise, the tire poked me! Me, knowing that tires were not supposed to "poke" people, I decided to investigate a bit further. My fears were confirmed when I saw that it had worn down so far that the steel belting was showing through. A quick look revealed that it was not just particular tire, but on all of the tires. Time for new tires. I guess that we should monitor that a bit closer. Thankfullly we caught the problem before trouble hit.

Anyway, the next day we got four new tires on our car. That sould be the end of the story, but sadly it is not. Not a week had gone by when we entered our garage from a wrong angle and managed to shred the side wall of our front tire. The tire was ruined. I put the spare on and made plans to buy another new tire the next day. I was a little put out by this, but oh well- those things happen sometimes.

The next day before I got home from school I got a phone call from Rachel who informed me that our spare had gone flat and that she was forced to abandon the car in some random parking lot on the way home from a dentist appointment. Great. Thanks to our great friends the Bonds (who seem to always be helping us out in some way) I was able to get a ride to the tire store and buy a new tire, and then get a ride back to our car where I put it on and drove home. That was a little more trouble that I had wanted to deal with, but oh well.

End of story?...I think not. Yesterday we were driving down the highway and we suddenly ran over something that gave us another flat tire. We pulled over to the side of the road as quickly as we could, but the damage was done. The tire was shredded. To make matters worse, we hadn't gotten around to replacing the spare tire yet so we couldn't just do a quick road-side tire change and be on our way. Nope. Instead, we had to call a tow truck to bring us to the tire store where we bought yet another new tire. That makes 7 new tires in one month! (6 full sized and one spare) Hopefully, this is where the story ends, but only time will tell.

That said, there was actually some good that came from the whole tire fiasco yesterday. We were planning on being apart for most of the day doing seperate things, but the tire thing gave us an excuse to change some of those plans and spend the whole day together. We went to a garage sale, and a big used-baby-items sale that was a church fundraiser. We got some great deals on toys and cloths for our Bugaboo, our Noodle, and our Twitch. When we got home we reorganized our house so that our sunroom is now the "play room" instead of an office. The change is nice and makes our home feel bigger.

Another highlight of the week was our Friday date-night. The young women were doing a fund-raiser for camp and offering to babysit all of the children in the ward. We took advantage of the time to go to Wendy's...Restaurant Style. For our first course we just ordered drinks and apetisers. Then we talked for a while, and when we were ready we went back up and ordered the "entre" and sides. Finally, we finished the night off by driving down the street to Mcdonalds for desert (hot fudge sundays). This "fancy" fast-food was all Rachel's idea- leave it to her to make a special night out of Wendy's and Mcdonalds. The food was good and the company was great. I sure married a cool person!

Here's Eva with Daddy's boots- she thought that was pretty neat.

My two beautiful girls at the tire store.

It was warm enough to eat lunch outside! And Eva LOVED the Chicken Nuggets.

Here we are at the West Side Market. As you can see, Saturdays are really busy there.

It's getting Warmer in Cleveland!

It has been a great week for us! We started out thinking that the week would be a stressful one since I had some big tests scheduled, but as it turns out it wasn't that bad at all. We had a lot of time together to talk, go on mall walks (it's a great way to get out of the house when it's cold outside), and shop...and to just "do stuff" together.

Evelyn, on the other hand could have had a better week. The poor girl got a vaccination shot last Saturday that made her grumpy and feverish all week. The Dr. said this might happen, so there's nothing to worry about, but it was just sad. Sometimes she would just sit down in a heap and let her head hang down in her lap and sob as if her whole world was ending. So sad. But she's getting better now. On a brighter side, our little bug has finally mastered the sippy-cup. No more bottles for this one!

Last weekend we watched an episode of Veggie Tales on a video that we had picked up from a library movie sale. It was hilarious. For those who might not be familiar with Veggie Tales, they are cartoons where all the characters are vegetables and they teach moral stories, often paralleling bible stories. It sounds sort of dumb, but the wit and humor is great- even (especially) for adults. So, why do I tell you this? Well, as we were watching it we thought about how cool it would be to have a collection of Veggie Tales films...1 hour later we had purchased 16 brand new videos off of Ebay for $1.25 each. The shipping was even free and they arrived in 2 days! We have been watching them throughout the week and decided that it was one of the best impulse buys that we have ever made. It is sort of funny how we are excited for Eva to fall asleep so that we can watch cartoons.

On Friday Eva finally had her birthday party. The party was actually more of a playgroup/lunch date for Rachel, her friends, and all of the children. Evelyn had a great time trying to keep up with the kids that came over. For dessert we had Chocolate Elcair Cake (thanks for the recipe Nancy). Here are some pictures of the party...