A family man

It’s been a little while since I last wrote. I guess the main reason is I don’t know what to write about. But most people I tell that to think its pretty obvious, write about Annaliese.
So I will…

I went to a friend’s bachelor party this weekend and had a blast, no strippers I promise. And yes, you can have a bachelor party without strippers and still have fun. A lot of fun as a matter of fact, but I digress this is about Annaliese.

I used to be useless to Annaliese. For about the first 3 months I didn’t have much to offer to her and she not to me. But after the third month, that forever changed. And the weight of this did not pass me by.

As I celebrated my friends decision to marry the love of his life and honor her for the rest of his life, his role as a husband and eventual father will begin in just a few weeks.

Thinking about his new role and current role has helped me to understand the desperate need of men to show other men what it is to be a husband, a great one, not a tv watching, video game playing, husband that just nods and uh-huhs as his wife jabbers on about her day. One that participates. So this challenge I issue to myself seeing only a glimpse of the importance of my role, knowing that my understanding of being a father and husband is only beginning.

But back to the bachelor party. What struck me was with all the fun and friends I missed my wife, I missed Annaliese.Doesn’t seem like that big a deal to miss your family, but isn’t it?

The two people I love the most in my life were hanging out at my parent’s house, along with the rest of my family. And here lies the one thing that I am beginning to understand about being a great husband and father…

I am absolutely head over heels crazy in love with both of them.

The Project is finally done

It only took a month of weekends to do, but I am finally finished with the storage room. It took 5 weekends of squeezing time in, and  I only needed to buy 3 more 2x4s to get the project done right.

What’s funny about the project is I got to know both of my neighbors better during the project, and they are both contractors! I think I’ll go to them for advice next time I get stuck.

So in those 5 weeks a few things helped delay my progress. Kari and I watched Annaliese reach 2+ months old, we lost a leader at work to some problems at home, one student graduated, and our house got burglarized, so I apologize for the delay on this post.

Hopefully my next post will come sooner and will have only good news.

Great project, just have one problem I need to figure out what to do with all the extra plywood and short 2x4s. Any ideas?

It ain't perfect...

But its functional!

 

Creating

My first side table

So I have taken on three projects in the last several weeks. Building a cabinet in our garage, building a storage unit on the side of our house, and making a little side table for Kari.

I sure don’t know that much about wood working, but with the help of my little bro Bryce we figured out how to make the cabinet work in the house, and that was great.

The storage unit is a big project for me and my dad helped me kick it off, I’ll be sending posts with progress on the storage unit.

Today I built the side table and stained it, just need to glue some pieces together and I’m all done.

This has been so much fun! Creating is an amazing thing. I remember playing with legos and k’nex when I was growing up. Now that I am older, I’m taking the plunge with bigger (more expensive) building blocks. I may be a rookie at all of this, but there is something special about creating, and watching something take shape.

This makes me think about God and His creation. The beauty of nature and the animals of nature as well. He truly is the Master Creator, and the pinnacle of His work is you and I.

As I type, I hear my beautiful daughter cooing just a few inches from me. Looking into her eyes day after day, and watching her slowly take shape, gives me a glimpse into how proud Jesus is of us as we develop and he shapes us.

As each of us continue to develop and become more aware of the greatness of creation and our role in it, we develop this desire to create, to be a part of something more important, part of a larger whole.

And so we are…

Part of a bigger picture, something more important, beyond ourselves, and this is beautiful.

What’s your role?

What are your Christmas traditions?

Kari and I were talking the other day about Christmas traditions, and holiday traditions in general and realized its now our turn to have our own family traditions.

With my family our traditions were pretty simple. One of my favorites was when we would go to “Steve’s Christmas Trees” every year and literally cut down our own tree. We would wander around and look at tons of options, and then pick the perfect tree.

With presents we did things a little different, our main present opening time came Christmas Eve night. Then Santa would come Christmas morning with the big present. I loved that, one more present, and it was usually the best.

This one may sound strange, and my dad probably won’t view it the same, but one thing I always associate with Christmas is the sound of the “wind-machines” to prevent the oranges from getting too cold. It just reminds me of home, and growing up.

These are some of my traditions growing up, what are your traditions?

Annaliese is here, and what I didn’t expect!

There are several things that I did expect, lack of sleep, crying baby, diaper changes, and the joy of a new child. What I didn’t expect came from the awesome people in my life.

A wonderful part of having Annaliese is being part of something bigger than myself, I have a family now.With Kari and Annaliese my life has a brand new chapter to it. What a huge blessing and great new chapter Kari and I are writing. With Annaliese our marriage has gotten a big boost of growth and love.

The boost came in the form of an unexpected  increase in closeness toward Kari. I already love her with all my heart, but her as a mother is just amazing. To see her love Annaliese the way she does has been such an encouragement and leaves me awestruck at times. Without Annaliese I would never see this beautiful side of Kari. I am thankful for Annaliese and her great mom.

The other surprising part of this has been our families being here and their help. Although, it is to be expected with my parents and Kari’s to be so supportive and helpful, the surprise is with how supportive and helpful they have been. My parents helping with food while we were in the hospital, passing the news around, and just being there was hugely important to us. Without Kari’s mom here, our transition would have been so much more challenging, if not for Tara getting up at 3am to let us sleep, bottle feeding Annaliese at night and during the day to give us a break, making meals for us and most importantly, one more set of loving arms to hold Annaliese.

Maybe its my pride or my naive self, but I thought that this transition would be fairly easy. It was not, but has slowly moved that way. The last surprise that stands out is with our friends, their encouragement and support, what a wonderful thing. Helping us with meals, buying cute outfits for Annaliese, and spending time with us these first several days. Annaliese has a lot of aunts and uncles to take care of her. With family not that close by, having friends that want to help us here has been great.

Here are several pictures of Annaliese’s first few days of life:

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Dad To Be

The Grandparent Puzzle

I haven’t said much about the fact that I am going to be a dad  in less than 10 days, but it is true. I don’t have much fear or trepidation for this next step in my marriage with Kari. It seems that with all the support of my friends here in SLO and our relatives, this will be a really exciting experience.

What I love is how excited both sets of grandparents are, and how much effort they are putting into getting here to see the baby and help out. We are both so appreciative of this support.

In somewhere around 10 days our lives will be changed forever, and I know everyone says this and we don’t really have a clue how true this is, so I want some feedback from you.

What were some of the things that changed in your lives that were not what you expected?

How did this change your outlook on life?

What is the best advice you can give us for the first year of raising a baby?

Please send me your comments and thoughts, I would love your advice and insights.

Not Much to Say

I don’t really have anything in mind today. I guess my main reflection is just that of how wonderful so many of us have it in life. Our friends and family. We know people who love us, we know people who are by our side in times of struggle and in times of success. Thank you to each of you that does this for me, I only hope and pray I can do the same for you…