The Most Valuable Antiques

Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife. -Franz Schubert My poor, poor wife. When I met my wife it was during a very awkward time in my life because I was still a new member of The Church which was a total 180 degree spin from who I was, so I was in the process of rediscovering myself and it really showed in all the wrong ways. She wanted nothing to do with me until I gave a talk during Sacrament that saved her from leaving The Church. Really what got her really interested in me was the fact that I was a very good active listener who made sure she knew that she was the center of my attention by paraphrasing and asking follow up questions. I am sad to say that I’ve slacked in our marriage when it comes to make sure she knows that I am listening like I did when we dated and I bet that has helped us go down the rabbit hole of negative communication in our marriage.  Becky and I really have a hard time c...

I hope that my daughter grows up empowered and doesn't define  herself by the way she looks but by qualities that make her a intelligent, strong and responsible woman. -Isaiah Mustafa   Adilyn is my firstborn and my contestant worry because of her tenderheartedness and sensitivity. This little would be in the dictionary under the word empathy because it just oozes out of her so abundantly. She also can throw one really decent temper tantrum and can act super entitled which both go to remind me of my mom because she was the same way. I remember being scared to death of Adilyn for about the first year because I had never really held or took care of a newborn before her and never really thought I would be a parent after living the life I did. The day she was born she had that first poopy diaper all newborns have and it took me literally thirty plus minutes to change her because I was terrified of hurting her and was shaking too bad. Cooper and his wife was visiting at ...

When I come home, my daughter will run to the door and give me a big hug, and everything that's happened that day just melts away. -Hugh Jackman Gwen is almost always the first person to greet me when I get home no matter what and she always makes me feel welcomed and loved, she’s really good at that. Gwen is our little helper of all things and I mean all things because she wants so bad to be involved with everything. She thrives on being both sweet and helpful as well as being chaos incarnate with a talent to get under your skin like no one I’ve ever known. I theorize that my mom taught her how to push my buttons in the time between when she died and Gwen was born. If true that would mean that Gwen had about six months of be taught specifically how to drive me insane.  Honestly she was born the same day I started the Pathway Program that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does for its membership. It was around this time that I lost my mom, then the best...

I asked God for a healthy baby. An answer arrived in my daughter. -Faith Salie Quoraline is my little miracle baby and I say that with all seriousness because we could have easily lost her. Before her we had been pregnant before which turned out to be both an ectopic pregnancy and viable pregnancy that we had to terminate in order to save my wife’s life.  She’s so extremely smart, happy, and just such a light in all our lives which is why we call her the “queen bee”. She’s always smiling and has been since day one which is just amazing because both Becky and my stress levels were so high during the pregnancy we worried she might feel like we didn’t want her. I don’t know what I did to deserve such beautiful girls in my life but I do know that I don’t truly deserve them. So she will turn one here in December so she’s hitting the developmental stage where she’s starting to speak which is so exciting. She’s been saying “mama”, “dada”, “dad”, “baba” (bottle), “mon moe” ...