Handsome Carson is Here!

Here are a couple of pictures of Carson Crockett, born December 24, 2007 at 1:03 AM. Quick glance he definitely is a Crockett, but he does have Mel's nose, upper lip, and big eyes. He's quite the handsome guy if you ask me:-)

Once upon a time....

A Pregnant Raccoon feel in love with Davy Crockett because he was a really great guy AND liked playing football with her cousin. He liked football so much he told her to swallow one for the little raccoon she was incubating. She didn't like that idea so much and decided to just cheer for Dave and her cousin John on their intramural team instead. The End

29 weeks 3 days pregnant... tiny

At a Halloween party

At an evening football game. It was always hard to take action pictures in the dark so these are of the pre-game events.

Dave warming up before the big intramural football game (which was actually during the day; hooray!). I had some pictures of the game and they turned out alright, but when all was said and done, this was the best one.This was my favorite picture of the game. I finally got a good one!! John pulled this guys flag which made me SO happy because this guy was rude. (But I think John pulled the flag because that is how you are supposed to play the game). I actually took this picture with my eyes closed because they were so close to me!
By the way; I think John's leg is very sexy with his shorts all short like that :)

Football Frenzy

So Dave and John are on an intramural football team together this year and it has been SOOO fun to go to the games. I know just enough about football to get REALLY nervous when they play, but not enough to realize when I don't have to be nervous anymore. I don't have very good pictures of the action because all the pictures I have taken of them except these two have been too dark. My camera also died, and remembering to charge it has been a challenge for me...so this is the best you might get. I will keep trying though.

John is doing really well and the team NEEDS him. He has done really well on both offense and defense. He has intercepted a pass and run it in for a touchdown, as well as scored multiple offensive touchdowns. I know there was a big Garner to Gabrielsen thing in high school, but so far this season John has had more touchdown passes from Dave; its a blast to watch and cheer! I also never realized how quick John is... he is such an athlete!

This picture is of Zach Garner (#12) as well as Dave(#19). They split quarter-backing time which I think is really neat. Neither one of them plays defense because I guess that's kind of rule of thumb. They have both done really well leading the team. If all three games they have played were added up Dave said the score would be 14 touchdowns to 3. Dave has such a great arm and good size that I turn into this giddy/large/cheerleader/wife creature when he gets out on the field... I am just so stinkin' proud of him!
They are currently 3-0 and will play their 4th game tonight at 7:00. Jenn has been to a game or two and Katie plans on coming tonight; it's always nice to have family there.

GO PATRIOTS!

(This is their team name since all but two of the players are former CHS football players)

Halloween Memories

Stake Conference Trauma-Drama (warning: long post - might get bored)

I know Trauma-Drama isn't a real word, but I feel like its the only way to describe an experience I had this past Stake Conference weekend. I also know that Stake Conference and either one of those words really shouldn't be in the same sentence, but hopefully after I explain, you won't blame me too much.And so it begins....A couple of weeks ago Dave and I attended a stake choir practice for the upcoming Stake Conference. When it was all over, I spent a few minutes taking to the stake music person, Maria. In the ensuing conversation she asked me if I would be willing to accompany a sister in the stake who Maria was trying to contact for a musical number to take place during the Adult Session Saturday night. She told me in the event that she got a hold of this sister, I would be receiving a phone call about what music I was to be playing. I readily agreed to help and thanked her for the opportunity to serve. Or so I thought...Nearly two weeks later I rememered the conversation we had, and realized nothing would be coming of it. That is, until I received a phone call that evening (Thursday night) around 8:00. It was a pleasant girl named Annie on the other line. She informed me she was the viola player I was to accompany that weekend. She brought the music over about a half an hour later and I promptly put it onto the piano to see what I had got myself into. The song of choice was Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I LOVE this piece, but had never played it. On my first dry run I realized it was DIFFICULT. This arrangement was hard! At this point, I didn't know if I was going to learn the piece adequately by Saturday. I only had about ten minutes that evening before Dave and I had to go to his intramural volleyball game at 9:00, and then come back to quiet hours. Friday we were going to be gone all evening, and while Saturday was open, I had so many things I had to get gone I didn't know how to manage it all.I spent the next 48 hours finding sporadic pockets to pray and practice. After a near nervous breakdown or two, I finally felt like I could pull this off. At 4:00 on Saturday, Annie came over to practice. We went through it a number of times and it was a bit rough... we needed more practice together. When we were done I made a comment about going to the church to practice together sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 when the meeting was supposed to start. This is when Annie told me, "Oh, we don't play on Saturday, we play on Sunday!". I questioned it just a little because I thought I had heard Saturday, but she was confident Maria had told her it was for the Sunday session; this wasn't MY musical number after all, it was Annie's. We made plans to meet early and go through it a couple of times before the real deal on Sunday. She then told me that she was going to call Maria to make sure we had the right schedule figured out, and that I should plan on Sunday unless I heard from her in the next hour.When 6:40 rolled around, I was relieved to not be playing that evening, and left for the chapel. I asked Dave on the way out the door if I should grab my music to which he responded, "yeah, just in case".The meeting started and I was enjoying myself. Musical number, speaker, speaker, musical number, speaker, rest hymn. etc....President Clawson got up to announce the second half of the meeting; I heard some of what he had to say, but not all... "First, we will hear from so and so; President of the Sunday School, then we have a special musical number by Annie (something or other), and Melanie Crocker mprhg prgrhm, qrtsmmns, ghsbmuph, klscbth..." the rest was all mumbles. My head snapped up, my face started burning, I started sweating hot and cold, and my heart started pounding in my chest. "No!" I thought, "I'm not ready, I haven't practiced on this piano. I HAVE to practice on this paino!! The keyboard is lower, they keys are stickier, and I have to adjust to the sound!! We haven't practiced together here, and I don't even know is Annie is in attendance today!! I need to go through my solo's and the runs just a few more times. I need just a few minutes and then I can do it." Needless to say I was panicked! I hadn't even picked up on the fact that he called me Melanie Crocker as opposed to Melanie Crockett, one of my friends pointed that out later.I quickly stood up from my spot in the middle of the bench which was not-so-conveniently toward the front of the chapel and wiggled my way past the others sitting in my row with all the grace of a obese giraffe with music clutched in hand. I had spotted Maria when she came in earlier, so I went to her bench and rapidly explained the situation to her. She and her husband got up, left the chapel to try and race home, get Annie's number, call her, and get her to the chapel with her viola before the speaker said "Amen". The race was on. I spent the next ten minutes pacing the halls muttering incoherent things to myself, and praying they would move the number to the next day.My prayers were in vain; the next few minutes were kind of a blur, but somehow, right before the speaker sat down Annie, and her husband, and Maria and hers showed up and we gathered outside the door at the front of the chapel all leaning in to hear the end of this talk. Never before had I wanted a speaker to take more time; drag out his words, and inconvenience everyone. I wanted that now though; I wanted it really bad. Alas, the end came quickly, and we were only gathered for about a minute before we had to march in. Somehow I made it to the piano and managed to put the music up. Since Annie hadn't tuned her viola to that particular piano we spent a minute doing so which, I was grateful for. It gave me a minute to get my nervous bladder under control.We started... normally after about the first page my nerves would subside, and I could continue on with confidence. This was not the case; I was rattled to the point of shaky throughout the entire peice. Never before have I battled myself so fiercly; every note was hard fought for and every new line a seemingly insurmountable feat. My beautifully practiced piece did NOT turn out as I had so badly wanted and prepared for. In fact, I know I did much worse than anyone else probably realized, but nonetheless, we pulled it off. From what I hear we didn't do TOO bad, but I knew it wasn't too good either.It was over; I was a bag of nerves for the rest of the meeting, and gave up trying to listen to the last speaker.The next day I was so grateful to be singing in the stake choir amid multiple FABULOUS musicians and singers. In fact, I stood between two women with voices far superior to mine. What a relief!I do have to laugh when I think about the poor little family in our ward (whose name I won't mention) who accidently sent a fuzzy, neon/elmo red colored scripture case (with scriptures inside) flying off the balcony onto the congregation below. They were sitting toward the front where the speaker was, and 20-30 feet to fall is pretty far, so EVERYBODY saw it happen. Fortunately, next year, no one will remember who played or sang what at stake conference, but they will still be able to laugh at the fluffy red flying saucer. Thank you family; you probably didn't enjoy what happened (although the husband spent the next few minutes trying to supress his giggles), but I consider it a tender mercy!

Karaoke

"Duuuust in the wind" A-mer-i-can Wo-maaan, stay a-way from me -ee"

Ben got the garb for an x-box karaoke game and we have had more fun singing, laughing and competing. Both David and I were laughing so hard we cried watching Vance sing "Start Me Up"

Fager Conference Weekend

This weekend, Ben and I went to Provo to see "the girls" (Jenn, Mel, and Katie), husband and boyfriend. We had a great time! First we went to see Melanie at her office. She's worked for Craig Ainge, a CPA, for the past year and couple months. Ben endured shopping for a baby quilt. Melanie is so cute with her "tummy." Being 6-foot can no longer hide her protruding stomach. Dave affectionately refers to her as fatso.

Next we went to Katie's botany class and literally chased her 70-year old professor around BYU campus as he identified 15 new plants, and quizzed his students on another couple of dozen plants and trees they had previously learned. Her final will consist of knowing the common name, genus, species, and family of 240 plants. She is examining the Dawn Redwood, meta sequioa glypto stoboides genus and species of the taxonaceae family.

We spent Saturday and Sunday watching conference and playing lots in between. Jenn likes to watch conference like I do. It is much easier to clean the house, cook, or do my semi-annual ironing session to stay better focused. Katie likes to take notes on her computer. Saturday afternoon we crowded onto Melanie's couch to watch the 2nd session.

Between the morning and afternoon session on Saturday, Jenn and I went to Spanish Fork Canyon to visit with Richard's parents. It was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful fall colors. They live on a 5-acre lot in a small gated community. These pictures were taken just up the road from Richard's house.