I Haz Recon!!

Sad to say this is one of the greatest days of my life!

Cutest Skeleton You Ever Did See

Ryler was a glow in the dark skeleton for Halloween. Not super original but I can guarantee there were not cuter skeletons out there!

New Halloween Tradition

I've decided that it will be a family tradition every year to watch Beetlejuice on Halloween!

Roughin' It

We set up the tent in our front room (obviously) and watched Disney's Haunted Mansion! We also made the most amazing caramel apples before we started the movie. Then me and Madi had a sleepover. What a fun night!

My Little Guitar Hero

Ryler is a little rockstar learing on his fancy new electric guitar while Dad whales on Guitar Hero Metallica!

$3 Steak Dinner

I repeat, a delicious $3 steak dinner courtesy of our friendly neighborhood Macey's! The steak is out of this world and you get a giant baked potato and a drink to go with it! You have to wait in line for about an hour but it's SO worth it! Me and Madi had some steak while Ryler downed two hot dogs for only 50 cents! What a deal. I love our grocery store, as silly as that sounds. There were all kinds of games and play areas set up with more free candy and donuts than you can imagine. Madi got her face custom painted with a pair of adorable lady bugs! The whole neighborhood turns out so it's a great time with friends and fantastic food! The only thing that would've made it a million times better is if Mindy could've been there. Like always, she was working :(

Halloween Fun

We had so much fun when Madi was here. Mindy came up with some of the greatest Halloween activities. One of them was decorating our very own gingerbread haunted house! Scary, and yummy :)

Sick Little Boy

Poor little Ryler got sick as a dog. He was hatin' life. We were both grateful for this short moment of peace.

Strange Things Are Afoot

The crazy stuff that I see at work on any given day.

Back To School

Ryler loves strapping on the little backpack and running around the house. He always heads for the garage door and tries to open it. Not so fast little buddy!

Gettin' A Feel For It

It's been predetermined that Ryler is going to be a football star. Right now he's just kinda feelin' it out.

175 And Lovin' It!

After reaching my original goal of 195lbs and then achieving a new milestone with 185lbs, I'm proud to say I've far surpassed my ultimate goal and am resting comfortablly now at just under 175lbs! What a ride it's been. Started off hoping to just get under 200lbs and with the success I was having I just didn't want to stop. I'm all done now though and just want to find ways to stay right where I am.

Fantastic Family Vacation

So there's far too much to say about one amazing family vacation, so I'll leave that up to my wife who's putting together an extensive post on our family blog. We went to San Diego to celebrate Madison's 7th Birthday! (Can you believe it? 7!) There were some ups and downs with poor Ryler who was always tired and probably overheated most of the time. But all in all it was a great time. The highlight for me was going to Madi's school on our last day. Watching her in her element with her friends was everything a dad could ever ask for! Happy Birthday Madi and we love you so much. Can't wait to see you again in a couple weeks.

Saying Hello To An Old Friend

While we were in California I came across an old friend at the Gamestop on the Universal City Walk. Say hello to Master Chief!

Best Buds

Ryler is absolutely loving having his cousin Turin back in town. They are becoming best friends in the world. It is so fun to watch them chase each other around and copy what each other does. I can just sit back and watch them for hours.

Special Treat

I got to babysit Turin for like an hour! It was SO much fun. I love this kid so much. He's such a stud and I'm pretty sure he's starting to love his Uncle Branden :)

ODST Baby.... ODST!!!

The wait is finally OVER! Went to the midnight release of the new Halo game and needless to say the cast of characters was interesting and not too diverse. Thankfully Justin went with me and we had a total blast. We rushed home and played for a few hours. The game is insane and I'm lovin every second of it!

Ryler=Chaos

Ah Ryler. Gotta love him. This is probably less than 4 minutes after I had just cleaned the room up and put away all of his toys.

Chillin' With My Boy

Me and my buddy just hangin' together after a nice long nap.

Some Sunday Fun

We went up to Bridal Veil Falls for a Sunday afternoon walk and took our camera for some fun pictures. We had such a good time.

I Love My Wife!

All the times I've posted about things I love and the good things in life, I just have to take a minute and say how much I love my precious wife!! What an absolutely amazing woman. She works so hard for our family. Not just the 60 hour work weeks she puts in but the running of the house, keeping things in order, keeping me in line, raising our family in righteousness and being about the best mom, wife, step-mom, daughter, daughter-in-law, and friend anyone could ever ask for! I don't know how I ever functioned in life without her and now that I have her I know I never would be able to. She is such an incredible example of hard work, generosity, kindness, responsibility, charity, and representing everything that is good. Standing firm for what you believe in, overcoming adversity at all costs, and setting and accomplishing lofty goals. I can't express in words what you mean to me precious so it's silly to try. Thank you so much for everything you do. I would be nothing without you. I love you!!

BBQin' With My Buddy

This is almost a nightly tradition for me and little Ry-guy. Daddy bbq's up some marinated chicken with veggies and Ryler makes faces at me through the door. Delicious food and a lot of fun.

Another Day, Another Park

The weather was too cold to go to the pool so we found a fun park instead! We had a blast and Ryler loved going down all of the slides and playing with his big sister. He loves her so much. He's just constantly following her around and trying to be by her. It's pretty cute.

Playin' At The Park

Some fun time at the park together before it starts to rain! And now that Dad's not as fat he can climb all over the playground like a little monkey! Like a 185lb monkey! ;)

I Love My Phone!

I was just thinking about that, as I do many times a day, and realized with all the posts I've done using this phone I've never done one about my phone! I just love it! Everything about it. With all of the bad experiences and let-downs I've had with other phones, finding one you love is a real treat! I've had this one for a year now and have yet to find something I don't absolutely love about it. The email, internet, texting, pictures, multimedia, and now BlackBerry Apps make this thing impossible to put down! I'm on it far more than I should be and I'm sure it's annoying to my poor wife but I can't help it. I'm addicted! I understand now why the call them "CrackBerry". Anyway just thought I'd show some love for this beautiful bad boy!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Family Picture Taking

Tonight we took family pictures and it was SO much fun! At first it didn't look like it was going to happen because the weather was terrible! But it stopped raining and the wind stopped blowing just enough to get some great picture taking in. Some of Mindy's friends took the pictures and even made a video! They took us to 3 great locations, all perfect for taking pictures. Mindy picked out all our outfits and made sure we were looking our best. Madison and Ryler were so dang cute! Madi is such a poser and Ryler is next to impossible, but I love his energy. I think it will be a lot of fun to go through all of the pictures and pick our favorite ones.

Yeah!! Madi's Here!

Princess Madison is in town again and we're SO excited! Today she went to Gramoo's and there was this way fun message in sidewalk chalk for her. She had tons of fun and tomorrow we get to take family pictures together! I can't wait for the next week with my princess :)

Lookin' Good

I was talking on the phone with Madi and she said she was lookin' crazy. I told her to send me a picture. I see now what she meant. Hahaha, she's lookin' good though. Such a precious princess.

I Can Do It Myself... Kinda

Ryler's new thing is that he doesn't like to be fed anything! He will take whatever it is out of your hand and do it himself. Especially if a utensil is involved. As you can see he sometimes has a hard time finding his mouth.

Center of Attention

I took Ryler to one of Mindy's glitter toe parties and he was the hit of the party! He loved the attention too. He just gets all hyper and smiley, starts talking like crazy. He was lovin' this cooler too. Just kept opening and closing the lid. He threw up a couple times and once was a real good one right on Grandpa, but that didn't slow him down. Nothing did! Towards the end of the night all the people and all the attention got him pretty riled up. He was an animal. Haha, I love it!