'I'm dreeeeeaaaaming of a whiiiiiiiiite Christmaaaaaass; just like the ones I uuused to knoooow.' Yep, the white stuff fell here all day yesterday. It was cool. I was thinking though... since Las Vegas (more accurately 'the strip') is probably the closest in evil to hell, you may want to watch out for all those promises you've made ... 'when hell freezes over'!

Ely and Olie, Olie and Ely... la la la la-la.

Elijah Dale checking out his big boy Diego undies. He's doing really well with the potty training. "I dropped a stinky!!!"

SIN City

So this is the marque of a bar right next to the Dental School. Can you believe it? Sheesh! You can just see the small UNLV marque underneath it.

BTW... Elijah 'performed' yesterday! He's getting to be such a big boy; running around in his little undies and talking up a storm.

NUMBER 2

So Elijah is doing pretty well w/ the potty training except el numero dos (aka poo poo). We think he is scarred of doing the deed in the toilet and things are starting to get a little 'backed up'. Advise? I'm thinking of getting him some X-lax or something so he doesn't blow a gasket. We've tried setting the portable DVD player on the bowl and turning him around to watch it so he can just relax and let things happen naturally, but it just aint working out so well. Poor kid.

THATCHgiving '08

We drove over 1000, yes... ONE THOUSAND miles over this Thanksgiving weekend driving from Vegas to Mesa, then to Thatcher.... and back. No accidents, or breakdowns, or speeding tickets. SUCCESS! We all had a great time. Very laid back. Saw a ton of family in Thatcher and Mesa. Thanksgiving is officially my favorite holiday.

This is out back of my Mom's place. This is actually the sidewall of a copper mine dump truck tire. Grandpa Dave is a whiz at engineering and building.

Yep... Liz milking a cow. This is my cousin Matt and his cow Daisy. Liz was very much excited about this activity. I had to "talk" our city slicker son Noah into doing it, but I think he's better off w/ a little quality life experience.

Eli D. on my Grandpa Udall's new John Deere.

NTW riding Matt's horse.

I wish we had more pictures of the zip line. It was the hit of the weekend. Noah must have gone down it a hundred times. I think I might have been the biggest person to ride it. Note the cable sagging and straining under my fat butt. Yes, that's Elijah on my lap. He loved it, but didn't want to ride it again.

Veteran's Day parade and Halloween

We had a pretty great Veteran's Day parade outing. It was pretty emotional because we happened to park and stand right next to the grandstand where our mayor gave commendations to injured soldiers from Iraq. Wow... still emotional. There were several soldiers with prosthetic limbs, arm slings, eye patches, etc. They give so much.

Pac-man!!! He had no idea what it was. It was pretty funny. He couldn't really walk well or use his arms right becuase of the design. I think it looks pretty cool though... which is all that matters! Cardboard and spray paint. Easy peesy lemon sqeezy.

VP Sarah Palin?! Liz loves Halloween. I however... am kind of a scrooge, so no, I was not her Iditarod/snowmobile racing husband. Oliver was a skeleton (thanks to the Stoddards).

... back to pics of the kiddos

A recent photo of OSW. He's starting to smile a lot, and he's getting nice and plump.

Elijah being a boy.
I actually recall vividly (I know... it's a rarity) sitting in my original Grandparent's house, in Thatcher, in the back of their kitchen table, on the long wood bench... doing this exact same thing and having my Mom and my Grandma Udall tell me I was crazy for doing this until I made myself sick (not literally). And I wouldn't just do it halfway, I would really push the speed. Anyway, just a weird sidenote. Sorry.

Karl v. Tommy... YOU DECIDE

Although I have never shared my political views thus far here in blog-o-land... I thought I would stray from my usual pictures of the kids for a quick thought on this redistribution of wealth horse hockey that is being spouted from Barack Hussein Obama.

From Wikipedia - "Socialists (i.e. socialism) mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly."

And now for a little political commentary from one of our FOUNDING FATHERS...“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” — Thomas Jefferson

Furthermore... “The government of the United States is a definite (meaning having definite borders and limitations) government, confined to specified objects and is not meant to meddle in affairs of the state.” — James Madison

Like I tell my sister... if you like the philosophies of Barack Obama so much... GO LIVE IN SWEDEN or CANADA, becuase our nation was built on the ideals of capitalism!!!

p.s. I love my sister and I don't want her to move anywhere!

... and finally a quick joke to further explain the unfairness of Obama's economic proposals;
--> --> Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.

Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed as he had given away his political preference -- just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

UPDATE:
1) These views are mine alone and are not to be assumed the political opinions of my fantastic wife (because they are not).
2) Please don’t think of me as a money-hoarding, heartless Scrooge McDuck (go Ducktails/the early 90’s!). I feel the welfare system has its place in modern American society, but its current state of wastefulness and gross mismanagement is sickening to me. Our welfare system is in need of a major overhaul/ privatization to bring some sense of efficiency. Yes, privatization. Competition = efficiency. Econ. 101!
3) Don’t hate me ‘cuz I’m right (no pun intended, but it works!).

poor little guy

So some of you may already know about Elijah's little accident, but for those of you who don't... Elijah got some teeth knocked out the other day at the mall.

As usual he was wondering around and running away from us at each available moment... and the kid is fast. He had run down the aisle at Dillards and I called for him to come back. Well he started back toward us in a run and I turned to talk to Liz. A moment later, I heard a thud and cries. We didn't see it, but we imagine he started running toward us while looking in an entirely different direction and veered off enough to T-bone into this display table which was just at the right height of his lower teeth. He started whaling instantly and I knew it had to be bad so we ran over there to see a bloody mouth. I cleared the blood and I could only find one of the two teeth that were out of the socket. I couldn't find it anywhere, so we left quickly and went to my school where a pedodontist was able to evaluate him. Unfortunately there isn't anything to do when primary (baby) teeth are traumatically removed from their normal position like this, so our poor little guy will be without 2 lower incisors for 4 years until the permanents come in! I still feel sick about it. This happened around 3pm and he was running around by 7pm like nothing ever happened. The accident reminded Liz and I of how special this little guy is to us. Not that we needed to be reminded, but we give him extra hugs, kisses and attention now.

The next day he says to me... "Daddy, I bonked my teeff". Poor kid!

Sorry, I forgot that I can't rotate video like I can pictures... so just turn your head a little bit. Elijah loves to jump off stuff. You can see his new jack-o-lantern smile right at the end.

He didn't cut his lip, but his gum tissue is torn a little bit where the teeth broke out the front part of the bone.

WE LOVE OUR BOYS SO MUCH

Noah finally got to hold his newest baby brother! He's such a good big bro.

"I wanna hold baby Ol-ffer mom"

It's fun to have Elijah and Noah playing together a little bit. Elijah loves to call him his "big bru-der". "He's my Noah, my big bru-der". This is funny becuase Noah's helmet is not on Elijah right and is actually covering his eyes... but he stood still for the picture anyway.
Noah and his 'tough guy' look. He did really well riding the quads. He has a perfect attitude of safety and fun. Elijah loved riding the motorcycles and cried anytime he was left behind.


Oliver occasionally sucks his thumb when it will cooperate.

AZ trip

This is the first picture from our baby blessing/Noah weekend. Thanks to Brandon and Kris for taking us out for a very enjoyable ATV outing. We had a great weeekend and Ollie and Ely did super on the "to and fro" car ride.

Random pics

"Singin' in the rain"

Thanks Papa and Grandma for visiting and getting my toys out of the drum

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Mt. Charleston School BBQ two days before Oliver's birth.

I love my girls

So I have been blessed w/ a great group of friends here. We are all pretty much dental school wives. When the boys are gone studying late for tests then we get together for dinner and good company. We have weekly play groups for the kids which you know are really for us. We just find lots of fun things to do together. We have to otherwise things get lonely w/ school being so demanding. With Oliver being born my girls have really been taking care of me as far as picking up Eli for the day or bringing us dinner. Thanks for showin the love.

more Oli picks as requested...

It seems all the pictures I currently have are of him sleeping. He's a good little guy.


I rike to sreep arr the time.

I need to get some pictures off our camera, so more pics of Oliver will be posted soon. These are off my phone.

Oli in the hospital.

Rain in Vegas yesterday! Who knew. It's been so, so, so long since we've seen any moisture.

Elijah in the family waiting room at the hospital when he got a little loud in the room. He made this "choo choo train" all by himself.

OLIVER!!!!!!!!!!

Oliver Steven Wolfington; born this, the 31st day in the blistering month of August, 2008. Born 8lbs 19.5 inches, with the labor lasting a mere 2 hours from 11pm to 1am. Did I mention he has BLONDE hair? Yep, light skin, and blonde hair. He's a beautiful little baby boy; equaled only by his two older brothers Elijah and Noah (parental bias...sorry). Elizabeth is doing really well, and Oli is healthy. Life is good!

So today is Liz's original due date and... nothing. No baby yet. We are both ready, but I guess he's just a little too cozy in there.
I'm half way through my two week break after another semester down.
Picture #2 of in my continuing "future DMD" series of photos. This is Elijah wearing "daddy's gasses".

Our latest trip to In-n-out. We decorated Elijah's face with the stickers they pass out to kids. He just lets us mess with him. It's fun.

This was so funny. We have been going on bike rides more and more as the weather gets bearable in the evenings. So we were going over to swim at a house in our ward and I saw Elijah kind of slumped forward a bit, doing some wicked head bobbing (you know when you're really tired). It was so funny. I put a towel next to him and layed him on it and he was OUT. It's the first time he has fallen asleep in his bike trailer.

Mr. Fix it

Ok, so Steven never could fix the TV, however he does save us a lot of money around the house w/ his well rounded handyman skills. If he doesn't know how to fix it he looks it up on the computer. He remodeled our whole kitchen going off rented DIY library books. Impressive, eh? (Just don't ask how long it took).

Steve got up super early to fix the car and avoid the heat. This job, like most, was successful. And yes, he really did spray me.

Looking sexy in the toolbelt. He just fixed our plumbing problems this weekend.

I'm less than two weeks away from the due date! Just waddling around. Wish me luck.

I love this pic. The stroller is a hand me down from Eli's friend but he added his own touch.

Trying to keep cool here in the desert by swimming at the YMCA... a regular occurance. Steven, Elijah, and his buddy Luke.

Eli and Dex sniffin around at the dog park a few weeks ago.