Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We went to our church Christmas Party Saturday night. It was great fun, and the kids got to sit on Santa's Lap.

As usual I did a week or two's blogs in one day. So, read the others below.

Tra-LA-LAAAA!!!!

This happened awhile ago, but I keep forgetting to post it so ya'll can see it. If any of you have ever read Captain Underpants then you'll find this particularly funny. Otherwise, it may just amuse you. One day getting ready for bed Keagan was took off his clothes as usual, but then instead of putting his jammies on, he put his cape back on, and paraded around in his cape and underwear. Rachel asked Keagan, what are you doing? He said, I'm Captain Underpants!! Tra-La-LAAAA!!! Love this kid.

Silver Bells are Ringing

Ah, the sweet smell of Christmas is in the air, here at the Gonzales home. I finally got our Christmas lights up yesterday evening. The kids were so excited to see them glowing when they came home from the Grandparents. Zander exclaimed, and we have the best lights on the street too. In fact, they are the only external sign on our street that it's Christmas. Zander was excited about that too.

As is customary at our home we usually are awaken to either Keagan or Sadie vying for our loving embrace in the middle of night. Last night was the same on that note, however, I woke up around 3 or 4 to Keagan singing Jingle Bells in his sleep. I was laughing so hard I had to wake up Rachel so she could enjoy his song too. I only wish I had got up to get the video camera.

Zander's school held their Christmas Concert the other night. Those are always an adventure, and even more so with Sadie and Keagan. Check out the video and you'll see what I mean. There is a picture of Zander below too. He not trying to grab our attention is he?!

A Private Invitation - Annual Christmas Party

It's that time again, and I keep forgetting to send out invitations. So here is the most informal invitation for a formal party ever.

For those of you that follow our blog and know our family you are officially invited to come to our Annual Formal Christmas Party. Get dressed to the nines and celebrate the Christmas season Gonzales style. (NO, that doesn't mean piÑata or pink flamingos. Although a pink flamingo might look cool hooked up to a sleigh with bells and lights)

Saturday, December 19.
7:00pm till whenever

Please bring an appetizer or dessert to share.

Please send an RSVP to michaelgonzales99@yahoo.com.

STOP THE PRESSES!

Zander's latest craze is publishing his own Post. It started out in church last week and has continued every day since. Each day after school he sits down at the kitchen table pulls out the crayons and a blank paper and jots down his headline, "Theme for the day," and several other headliners. He draws pictures of the themes, and creates coupons. He started off simple, but the last few times, he's started actually writing down his captions rather than just making scribbly lines where the text should go.

Looks like he's taking after his grandparents and dad a little bit. My Dad, for those of you that don't know, has written and published several books on a wide range of topics related to his field of expertise. Rachel's Dad, for those you that don't know, is the editor and publisher of a free bicycling newspaper that distributes monthly. Cycling Utah. You can see it online at CyclingUtah.com.

I'm the layout guru. Zander is always watching me create things and continually asks which magazine my next ad is going to be published in.

I'm a model. Ya know what I mean...

I went and had pictures taken yesterday. I never knew what a chore that would be. As we were getting dressed I had the thought, hey let's go get our pictures taken. So, I put Sadie in something cute (course that's not hard for her), and asked Keagan if he'd like to get his picture taken. He said yes. Then I had to convince him that he couldn't wear his batman clothes for his pictures, but we made a deal and he packed them in his backpack. They can never be too far. :) It was almost harder for me to get him to comb his hair then it was to change his clothes. BOY that kid is opinionated.

After all this prep, we got in the Jeep and went to Walmart. They had sent a coupon in the mail. Except the Walmart that's closest to us doesn't have a Portrait Studio. So, we packed up and went to Target, where we've done a few other pictures. When we got there it was 930 and nobody was there. We waited for them to open at 10, but found out they were all booked up. I did make an appointment for another day—just in case. Keagan was so excited to get his picture taken though that he refused to give up. He wanted to go someplace else. "Okay." I sighed, and off we went to Sears. They have a great Portrait Studio. When we got there, there was no line, 2 empty studios, but they were waiting on a 1030 appointment to show up. It was 1020. Good thing was they had an open 11 slot. So, we wondered around for 30 minutes and went back. Another 30 minutes went by before we were called. I was super nervous, because Sadie was getting tired at this point. The photographer was great and 10 minutes later we were done. Thirty more minutes later we got to pay and leave.

Check out the results! I was so happy my kids were so happy through the extra long morning.

hodge podge

Hi ya'll. Here's a bunch of fun videos that I've meant to upload but haven't. I'll spare the long descriptions this time around.

Keagan wants to do whatever Zander can do.

Rachel too. Except Rachel is helping to show off Sadie's new skills.

Keagan just can't get enough of his baby sister. So much so, that he's resorted to sleeping in her crib at night. Even funnier still is that Sadie rarely will ever sleep in her own bed.

Why is it that I have two kids who refuse to sleep in their own beds? I paint their rooms all cute, give them night lights and they still refuse to sleep in their beds. :)

Carving pumpkins

Tonight we carved our Halloween pumpkins. We had such a good time! We turned the music up, covered the counter, got out the carving tools and went to town. Zander picked the design for his pumpkin and carved the whole thing by himself! We had to really convince him to stick his hand in the pumpkin to clean it out, though. Mostly by refusing to do it for him. He's such a clean freak! But he's getting so big. Keagan was a big help getting seeds out and giving encouragement to everyone. He's such a big helper. Sadie sucked on the spoon we were using to clean out the pumpkins. Yummy!

Zander has adopted Halloween as his favorite holiday, and following suit, so has Keagan, so we've had to add to our decorations this year. He told us what we had just wouldn't do. So we bought some tombstones and web and decorated the yard. We didn't get the camera out there until it was too dark, so maybe those pics will come after Halloween day and all of us in our costumes!

Hey, Hey I am Monkey!

Grease Monkey that is.

Okay, most of you won't get this blog title. There was a sitcom featuring a band called the Monkey's when I was growing up that I watched a lot. Consequently, the sitcom made the band that went on instead of the other way around. This is part of the chorus line in the opener song/jingle.

So, being unemployed I find plenty of ways to keep myself busy. Or rather people find plenty of ways to keep me busy. "Fix the van" was a chore I had been given by Karma, my mother-in-law. This was supposed to be a simple thing, since the only thing wrong with it was the starter motor needed to be replaced. I had done this with a couple other cars I had while I was a teenager, so I didn't think much of it. Turns out there was a major adventure ahead and I didn't even know it.


First, it turns out the starter was under the driver seat. That was trick to figure out. I googled the problem and found the solution. So with directions and a picture of the starter in hand - literally - I started on the project.

It took me a few hours to get it out, but only about 30 minutes or less to put it back in. After I got the starter replaced and realized the battery was dead. So, I tried to recharge the battery, but it was toasted too. I bought a new battery put it in and started it right up. Dust and crap from almost 2 years of sitting came flying out and filled my garage. Then some whistling started. I thought it might just be the belts trying to work back in. After a couple of seconds smoke started to fill the garage and the whistling stopped. I thought, this can't be good! I used the air hose to blow out all the smoke and then checked the engine. The serpentine belt burned off. CRAP!! something else. I went back to Checker for the 3rd time that day and got a new belt. Came home and tried to figure out how to put it on. That took some time. Once I finally got it on, I tensioned it back down and started the van up. No squealing this time, then snap! the belt broke again, after just a few seconds of being on. Puzzled, I looked over the belt route and noticed a burn mark on the alternator wheel. Turns out the Alternator had seized. Great.


The tale just keeps going on like this.

You make funny faces hun.

Earlier this week I was trying to make dinner and Sadie was dying of hunger - so what's new. And I had the thought, "Hey Zander, wanna try feeding Sadie?" He was all to excited to try it out. I took a second to show him how and he was good. Check out this video. He was so cute and Sadie loved being fed by him.

Bid this farewell

Get your own graph at skinnyr

I made my goal! And since you can't really read it on the side of my blog anyway (because it's so small), I'm getting rid of the graph I've had to help encourage me to loose my baby weight. I now officially weigh what I did when I got married. Thank you. =) And say goodbye to my lovely graph.

holding on to my ding-a-ling

Wow. So, Zander is feeling much better and ready to go back to school. He's feeling so much better, that he is sticking Keagan in the laundry basket and pushing him down the stairs. Keagan is doing the same to Zander. Too funny!!

Oh, the title you ask...go Google Chuck Berry's song, My Ding-a-ling and you'll get it. It's a song I learned as a teen that my Dad introduced my to, which incedently became my friend's and my favorite song.

Here's a great video Clip. Oh, and here's a link to Chuck Berry's video of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLBfwblps8

Livin' the dream man

I've been wanting to write a book for a long time. For those of you who know me this may not come as much of a surprise. I often live "off-the-cuff," and have several business venture ideas. It's only too bad that we don't have the means to try them all out. I'm pretty sure a couple of them would be real winners. Right now I have the time, well sort of, and figure it might be a good time to try and accomplish this goal.

Any way...I'm writing a book about business upwards management, or managing up. There are plenty of books that discuss management philosophies and the like, I've always thought it would be fun to write a book geared toward the entry level or intern worker. If any of you have any funny stories about bosses, or yourself/ "someone you know", and would like to consider having published please send them to me at michaelgonzales99@yahoo.com. Not everything submitted will be published, and if they are, I will change names to protect anyone involved. I'm looking for stories where;

1. You as the "underclass (wo)man" was right and the boss was wrong, or where your efforts proved triumphant.
2. You failed and learned a big lesson going forward.
3. The dawning of, "duh! that's how it works."
4. DOH! I shouldn't have sent that
5. I can do this no matter what
6. you were able to make the most of something bad

Please provide background to the story. This book is more of a comedy than a serious business practices book, though I'm sure some will take it as such. Because behind most funny stories are good morales.

I look forward to reading your stories.

Looking for new work

For those of you that haven't heard, I was laid off the beginning of September as part of a labor reduction initiative at DeltaValve. I'm currently seeking employment in Marketing Management preferably in Oil and Gas, but I'm adaptable to take on anything. If any of you have any leads that may help, I would appreciate the insight.

The funny thing about family and friends is... many times, we know what's going on in each other's lives on a personal level, rarely are we aware of what each other do on a professional level. Heck, I still have a hard time explaining what my Dad taught after all these years, because his curriculum always seemed to be changing. To help out with this, below is a link to my professional site on LinkedIn. Here you can read a brief outline of what I do, what a few of my accomplishments are, and even some recommendations a few people I've worked with have said about me.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-gonzales/14/2a6/257

OH @#%^&!

We spent the evening at Primary Children's Hospital with Zander. Michael was picking him up from the bus stop and Zander wanted to race. Michael accelerated quickly, felt a bump, looked in the rear view mirror and saw Zander on the ground. He immediately stopped, picked him up and brought him to me at work. The PA I work with, Gay, decided we would be better going somewhere else. We have an xray machine, but the M.A. wasn't sure how good of xrays she could take of his hip, which was hurting the most, and Gay doesn't feel too confident reading them and our doc is out of town. We bandaged up all the scrapes he had (all on the left side: elbow, hip, stomach, ankle) and brought him home. I called my Orthopedics Instructor for advice for an uninsured patient (hoping he would offer his free services) and he highly recommended we go to Primary Children's. While I was talking to him, Michael went to talk to Zander's friend Mackenzie who was at the bus stop.

She told him what happened was as Michael pulled away, Zander grabbed the door handle (on the passenger side) and he tripped and was then pulled down under the van and the back tire ran over his mid-section. After we heard that, and the recommendation from my teacher, Michael and the bishop gave Zander a priesthood blessing of healing and health, Bishop Jensen took the other kids and we left.

When we got there the waiting room was full and we fully expected to wait. I went to check in and as soon as I said he had been run over there wasn't a second to breath. The nurse, Fritz, put a collar on Zander's neck and told me I was about to be freaked out as they put him on a gurney and rushed him back where a team of doctors was waiting. They cut his shirt off (which upset Zander almost as much as the whole night) and started checking vitals and pain and everything else. He got an IV, they drew blood, EKG, chest xray, c-spine xray, brain CT and abdominal CT. Every step along the way I told each new person we didn't have insurance, but that didn't seem to change anything, which is a little frustrating. They did have us fill out financial assistance paperwork before we left, but some of those tests didn't need to be done.

Anyway, after a battery of tests and such, Zander has a buckle fracture of the pelvis and some major bruising in his hip and abdomen. A buckle fracture is just what is sounds like. The bone isn't separated or cracked, but has a buckle in it. It's on the L back side of his hip, straight back from the hip bone in front that we can see and feel.
There's no treatment for that. They said he could be weight bearing as tolerated, but that he wouldn't want to for a couple days. He's out of school for a week and out of PE for 6 weeks, doctors orders.

He's been a great sport about all this and is in good spirits. He only cried twice in our 4 hour visit to the ER. The first was when his shirt was cut off, the second was when he was getting the CT scans and then again (okay three times) when they didn't take the neck brace (collar) off as soon as would have liked. Michael was brave too and only cried twice, which is quite impressive as every new person wanted to know how it happened. They're both so brave. =)

---

All in all there were some funny things that happened along the way through the Hospital. Here are a bunch of pictures from the ordeal. Like Zander didn't stop talking the entire time. The comment the attending doc made was, "well the accident doesn't seem to have not affected the area of his speech." Zander's favorite comment to everyone at the hospital was, "NO TOUCHY!"

If I could Hie to Kolob

Last weekend was a great time. We took the kids went to Solitude renewed our ski passes and went for a hike. Looks like we will ALL go skiing this year, well minus Sadie. I
was able to get passes for Rachel, Zander, Keagan, and myself for all of $50! Rachel and I were very excited about this seeing as how I don't have any steady income. After we got the tickets, we noticed the sunrise lift was running so we walked up to it and decided to get on a go for a ride to the top of the ridge. On
ce we got to the top, I thought it would be fun to walk to Solitude Lake — it's more of a pond than a lake, but whatever. Away we went! Sadie in the backpack and Keagan, Zander skipping along. Rachel and I held hands as we walked down the trail and explained to the boys, "this is where we go skiing." As we walked down the hill toward Summit lift I recalled the great points off the trail that I would haul off and do some trick like a back scratcher or 180 to land on off the trail in the trees and take the short cut. Ahh...good memories!

Zander was paid particular attention — and made sure we did too — to the sounds of nature around us. He recognized woodpeckers and a doe. There was a large mole thing that we saw and took pictures of that we had no idea what it was, but it was sure fun to observe!

We had hopes to picnic at the Lake once we got there, but by the time we got there we only had like 25 minutes to get back and it took us 20 minutes to hike up there. We did take a few more minutes than we should have to look at the ultra clear pond and look at another part of the mountain where we all congregate after skiing down Black Forest and then race (shoosh) to the Summit Lift. The crazy thing on the way back was Keagan was too tired to hurray so I put him on my shoulders and with Sadie and Keagan on my back I ran a portion of the trail to make it back in time. We were all out of breath by the time we reach the lift down. What a work out!

At the bottom we enjoyed cold cooked hotdogs, apples, goldfish and water. What a great time! We plan to go up again this Saturday.

Keagan sings—next American Idol

Okay, maybe not, but it's just so dang cute. Keagan is the macho boy and doesn't sing much. In Sunday School he barely does the hand signs to the songs. But, being home every day can be so entertaining. I found out on my first day at home that Keagan loves Super Why. Check this out.

Batman is coming to town

Wait a minute I thought it was Santa is coming to town? Heck no! Not in this family.

Halloween is just around the corner and Batman is in full swing. Keagan is bugging me for a new batman costume. I guess he deserves it since he has completely worn his mask out. It's broken so bad that is barely fits on the face anymore. To go with this fetish I painted his room with a HUGE batman on the wall. Zander was jealous because he's not so much into batman anymore, and he wanted ninjas on the wall. So, like any good Dad I had him and Mom cut out stencils and I put a bunch of Ninjas on the wall too. They look like they are sneaking about buildings getting poised to strike on the dark knight.

The painting isn't the best, but it was sure fun.

There she goes again

So Sadie is on the move and she's not slowing down! Since September 3 I (Michael) have been unemployed. I lost my job due to a reduction in labor and now I'm playing Mr. Mom while searching for something—What I don't know but I'll know when I find it. Back the real topic...Since 9/3 I'm constantly chasing after Sadie and then consoling her when she falls, which she does fairly often. That's just the way growing up goes. We fall, then we get back up again. I wonder if I'll ever be done growing up.

We were sitting down for dinner one day and Sadie decided that her sitting in the chair wasn't going to cut it. She wanted whatever was on the table and nothing was going to stop her! Ever since then she continues to astound me; getting braver each day. A few days later she startled me as I was sitting at the computer searching for a job by starting to climb the stairs. WAIT!! Little people that are not even 8-months old yet are not supposed to be climbing stairs and standing up on their own.

So, here's some fun Sadie pictures.

Following her figuring out how to successfully climb up the stairs she has decided her favorite place to play is...YES—on the stairs. She chases the toys up the stairs then sits on a stair, usually the third one. After a minute she likes to scoot over to the railing, grabs hold and pulls herself up. She pretty well stands there until I come get her, or falls down. She's fallen twice, nothing serious. Since standing at the base of my chair screaming doesn't get my attention much anymore, she has resorted to climbing the five stairs the main level then crawls around the dinning table to in front of me. Grabs hold of the bars and smiles at me through the bars. This is really quite funny and convenient for me. This way I can watch her, she can watch me AND I can continue my online search through network contacts and postings.

Ahh...my adventurous baby girl.

From the mouths of babes

My kids say the cutest things. I wish I could just carry a tape recorder around with me all the time. Here's a few snippets from the last few weeks; at least the good ones I can remember.

Zander was emptying the dishwasher and to put the plates away he climbs up on the counter, then to put the cups away, he walks across the narrow part in front of the sink. Today as he crossed it he said to me, "You know what you have to have to do this?" or course I'm thinking balance or something like that. But Zander responds, "It's the same thing you need to do everything." I'm a little confused now. Then it comes, "Faith!"

Zander comes in the door from school out of breath. He tells me his friend was trying to beat him home, but he was too fast. "I'm getting faster and smarter! It must be all the work I'm doing at school!"

I was driving in the car with Keagan and Sadie when we had to stop to let a train go ahead of us.

Keagan: Mom, I like trains. Does Sadie like train?

Me: I don't think Sadie knows what a train is, buddy.

Keagan: (laughing) Choo-choo! That's what a train is!

Zander got an invitation to our neighbor's birthday party. It's a friend that he plays with, but she is a girl...When I asked him if he was excited to go he said, "Well, I'm going to be working on my books so I'm going to be having a busy schedule."

Where do kids come up with this stuff???

Our backyard

I've been promising pictures of our redone backyard for a long time, so here you have it.

[Drumroll, please....]

Here is Michael with a jack hammer tearing out our old, pitiful cement block.  He was really excited to do this project not only because he got to put in his dream patio, but because he got to use lots of big tools and machines.

Like this bobcat.  And Keagan being our little man's man was right there wherever his dad and all the tools were.  Here they are clearing away the rubble from the old patio and other places in the yard.  Notice the work gloves, work boots, and ear protection, just like his dad.

Then he framed out the new curved patio.  We can't have anything so plain as a rectangle one.  Where's the fun in that?

This is the cement truck with the "boom" that pumped the cement over the house and into the back yard.  Michael was fascinated with this one.  He said it made the job 100 times easier using that than having to wheelbarrow and shovel it back there!

Here is the work in progress.  One is smoothing the cement and the other is following behind doing the stamp work.  Michael was helping do the finishing work, but these guys were so efficient he ended up just being in the way.  So he made me proud and got lots of pictures!

Here is the finished product...almost!

And this is after Michael put the color wash and antiquing on it.  And of course he beautified it by adding huge pots and planting flowers.  No detail left undone.

Honey, you did a great job with our new patio!  And of course thanks to those who came and helped.  My brother Kimball was here as was our friend Matt.  Thanks guys!