Out N' About

 We've been trying to get out and be a little more active as we have noticed that since having 2 young children hat getting out takes a lot more time and effort so we have been slacking.  however, the past few weeks we have been out several times and it really feels good to be out of the house with the kids.  Our first adventure was going on a little hike with the boys to go and see the leaves changing colors in the canyon.  Jude loved the "wed weaves." 

 Our next little adventure was in between conference sessions.  We decided to take a walk to "the Grotto"  a little waterfall in Payson Canyon.  Once again the boys had a blast.  Jude got dirty, and Des just stayed as happy as could be in backpack. 

 Our last adventure was going to the Red Barn Pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins for Halloween.  Both boys had a lot of fun.  Their favorite thing was the big slide.  WE had to find Jude a small pumpkin because he insisted on finding one he could carry, got to love that independence! 

 Jude was absolutely worn out after all the fun and said "Jude nap on tractor." and he laid down and began to "snore." 

Time for a post

It's been almost 2 years since we posted a blog so I decided it was about time since we now have 2 kids.  Poor little Desmond has never even been mentioned in the family blog. So here you go Des!  This is Desmond Bernt, not Brent, Bernt it's a Norwegian name and apparently means bear so we often call him Dessie bear. Like Jude Desmond is also named after a Beatles song.  His song is Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da.  The whole song is about a guy named Desmond and his girl Molly. Desmond is almost 1 and is crawling and into everything.  He loves to smile, and loves music.  He also enjoys pestering is older brother. Anyway here are some pictures of the little guy.

Not much to say at the moment but I am going to try to be more diligent in my blogging as it helps me to keep a good record of my family and what we are doing.

family pictures

so we had my really good friend take some family pics of us! they turned out so so cute, besides the fact that i realized that i need to loose weight.... i think we are a stinking good looking family! jude was woken up to take the pictures and looks high in some of these pics, but he's so so cute!

they are all so cute, here are some of our favorites!

look above at danny and my nose, they are identical!

these were maybe taken a few weeks ago. it's amazing how jude has progress so much from these pic!

his top things to do is...

-run around in his walker...knocking all of the picture frames over on the side tables.

-eating everything in site, including food

-saying mama and dada...although i dont' think he knows what they mean.

-crawling all over the place

-pulling himself up on anything that will hold his weight

-making me smile and laugh every day!

-sleeping all night!!

danny finishes school in january. one of the classes ends in the begining of oct and we cannot wait. danny is so so busy. i can't wait till he is done school for his sake. i'm really proud of him though! he amazes me everyday.

things we've done this summer!

-las vegas with the engebretsen family!

-camping in st george overnight with friends and family

-camping in moab with family

-church girls camp for me--so fun

-danny's done work on the house...getting ready to paint the bedrooms

-work part time at nights

seems like we've done more...but i can't remember. can't wait till rivertrip in jackson hole over labor day!!

Another Perspective on Homosexuality

With everything that has been going on with proposition 8 in California, there seems to be some strong opinions regarding the issue of homosexuality. In the last year I have taken an interest in the psychology surrounding this issue so I wanted to share some alternative views on this topic.

I am seeing a lot of biased absolutes coming from both sides of this argument. Many are saying that homosexuality is purely genetic while others are saying it is a plain and simple choice. What if it is neither. There are parts of who every person is that are inborn such as temperament and certain personality traits, however there is much more that is a result of our environment and our perception of various events in our lives. At birth all children regardless of gender are attached to their mothers. However, at the age of two or three males need to make a transfer to the same gender parent in order to develop normally. If no father is available another man can fill this role. If this shift is not made because a boy feels rejected (sensitive temperament) by the same sex parent or never finds a man to connect with, he can remain attached to his mother and may begin to identify with her feeling that he relates to women, expecially his mother, better than he does men. If this is not resolved then the young man will not make important bonds with same sex peers and feels rejected as if he does not belong to the world of men, however, there is an inborn knowledge that he is a man and wants those associations. This confusion becomes a fascination and intense study of the same sex as the boy tries to figure out "what's wrong with me?" During puberty when most boys become curious about the opposite sex these young men continue being fixated on the same gender and those feelings of inadequacy and longing to be accepted become sexualized. They are confused and conflicted by these feelings but because society tells them that they were born that way they finally decide that they have no choice at happiness unless they accept these feelings and live a homosexual lifestyle. Therefore this issues is neither choice nor purely genetic but a complicated series of unresolved trauma. If addressed this trauma can be resolved and the same gender attractions can be overcome. There is a huge population of people working to overcome this and many who have and live happy heterosexual lives.

There it is. I feel very strongly about this and I am beginning to feel that treatment of this issue, for those struggling with this but do not want to live a homosexual lifestyle, is the direction I would like to take my career in the future. I know that there are people who strongly disagree with this theory, however, I think it is important for people to be informed of other possibilities asside from what the liberal media presents. If you want to read a little more about this visit narth.com.

Family Outing

We decided to go on a Sunday afternoon drive today. The plan was to drive the Nebo loop, which starts in Payson and finishes in Nephi. It is a beautiful drive through the canyon. We started our drive and everything was going fine. We hit a little snow on the road but it was nothing that our trusty Subaru couldn't handle. We drove through the entire loop then to our utter disappointment, after 1.5 hours when we were only 2 miles from the end of the loop, we hit a locked forest service gate. Why it was closed I cannot tell you as there were people on the other side wanting to get through to our side. We had no choice but to turn back as we headed back we decided to take a side road back so we headed down Santaquin canyon. After a half our down that road we were once again forced to turn around as the road was blocked by an avalanche. Overall what should have taken us 2 hours ended up taking us 3.5 hours. Oh well. We were in no hurry and it was a really beautiful drive. Jude had such a good time he just sat on a rock and sang to the hills.

So Talented

Since I can, I now want to join those of you who blog about all the amazing things your babies do. I have to admit that I think Jude is rather talented and pretty amazing. Here are a few of his recent accomplishments:

Eating Bananas and looking pretty cute while doing it.

Pulling on things that hurt!

Standing

Camping! We were afraid he might be possessed. No worries though. We ahd him checked out and he's fine.

Helping dad in the yard. He didn't like it too much.

Giving people crusties. We told him it wasn't nice but he didn't care!

Looking like a general stud! Ignore the rainbow blanket, it detracts from the studliness of the picture.

I don;t know if this is an accomplishment or not but he is getting very good at acting like he doesn't know what you're talking about when he's getting into trouble.

Break dancing!

He is already typing 100 words per minute! His dad is feeling bad about his own typing skills.

He loves t make people feel good by saying "right on" and giving them knuckles.

Being a Very sad yet surprisingly convincing duck.

And he has incredible yoga skills.

So that's our kid. Pretty impressive huh? we will be sure to keep you all posted on upcoming accomplishments.