Guess Who's One

I can't believe it, but the covili family blog turned one year old today. It's seems like yesterday we jumped into cyberspace and opened our lives up to the world and now - the blog had a birthday. Over that year we've posted 195 times, although I won't mention the Jared/Tara posting ration.....Let's just say I'm winning. Here are a few highlights over the history of the blog.

Jared: 10 lbs heavier, more grey hairs, 3 camping trips,trip to San Diego, a raise at work, night job teaching for the Dept. of Education, and a passion for podcasts.

Tara: Quit her part time job, became the Region Women's Sports Director, appeared on TV 3 times, and learned how to make jam.

Kennedy: Survived the firsts - rolling over, talking, crawling, walking, demanding, and so on. Kennedy has gone from a baby to a little girl in the pages of the blog. She's celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, and the Fall Season Premiers. She's been on TV, podcasts, and the Internet - all before reaching the age of 1.

Alex: He's been on the blog since he was three weeks old. We didn't even know about little Alex when the blog started and now he's become a key member on our staff.

All in all it's been a good year. At times we've been funny, interesting, and heartwarming. Other times I'm just glad you've stuck with us through some of my insane ramblings. Still, the covili family blog is going strong and we can't wait for another year.

Livin in Utah

Every once in a while you come across something that you just have to laugh at. Living in Utah makes it very easy to poke fun at yourself. So rather than take offense it's easier just to have fun with our quirky culture. Take a look at the winners from KUER's Elevate 'R Music parody contest about life in Utah.

They Call Me....Mr. Plumber

Okay, so no one will ever call me Mr. Plumber, but I did tackle a fun little job last night. For the past month or so our kitchen faucet has had a drip. It wasn't anything too bad. If you simply turned the faucet in the right direction you could usually get it to stop dripping. Still it was a nuisance and I wanted to fix the problem. On Saturday I decided to open up the faucet to see if I could solve the drip. After playing around for over an hour I thought I had the problem solved, until we woke up Sunday and the drip had become a leak.

So now I had a choice, do I spend more time and less money to fix a 20 year old faucet, or do I simply buy a new one. Well, last night we took the whole family over to Home Depot and picked up a Price Pfister faucet (love that alliteration). The only thing I can say about installing a new faucet is that most plumbers must be a lot smaller than me. I don't really fit underneath the sink very well so I spend much of my time contorting my body into interesting positions to reach the different valves and fasteners. After an hour's work or so, presto we had water, with no leak.

Guess Who's Two

It's crazy to think that Liam turned two years old today. It seems like he was born yesterday and then Kennedy followed right behind. Now look at them. A couple of wild kids running around and having fun together. It's been neat to see the two of them interact with one another and learn how to get along. I think they're going to be close friends if they don't end up killing each other over a ball or chair. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Liam certainly has been a fireball in our family since he came along. He is always willing to run in and try something new. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's not so good. It's wonderful to hear his little infectious laugh and see that broad grin. Liam is a family favorite and it's a blast having him around. Happy Birthday Liam, we sure love you!

Minor Adjustments

We're now 6 days into life with two kids at home. So far the adjustments have been pretty minor. Alex mostly sleeps all day, unless Kennedy wants to tell him something. So far she thinks that Alex is a big boy and that he wants to play with all of her toys. A couple of days ago Kennedy decided she would share a few toys with her brother. It's nice to see that she wants to involve him in her life. We're not sure how long it's all going to last. I can already tell that's she suffering from the "What About Me?" syndrome.

Alex is getting used to bath time in the sink. It's been an adventure to figure out how long it will take him to pee in his bath. To this point, it usually takes about 30 seconds before we see the golden waterfall. That is certainly an adjustment from having a girl. No need to wear a poncho at change time.

So things are starting to get into a routine around our home. It will be interesting to see how life changes when I go back to work this week. If Sunday and church is any indication, we're going to be late a lot. Oh well, that's life with two kids.

Camping with Chappo

It seems like every August we go camping up to West Fork of Black's Fork up in the Uinta mountains. Some years it's been fantastic (04'), other years we've had rain (03') and baby puke (05'). This year we didn't know what to expect, since we wouldn't have Tara coming along. Naturally she stayed home to be with Alex. This would be my first Daddy/Daughter trip with Kennedy. On the whole things went pretty well.

Kennedy really liked picking up rocks and twigs and throwing them in the river. Even though I tried to keep her away from anything bad, I can't say I'm totally sure what she was throwing in this picture. Let's just say no harm done and we were quick to wash our hands.

A good portion of our trip involved the ultimate camping competition: horseshoes. I know it sounds quite red neck of me, but it's really fun to "pitch some shoes" when you're up in the mountains. Since this trip was in honor of Chappo coming out to Utah I gave him every opportunity to beat me in 4 separate contests. Unfortunately for him, the end result was always the same and I came away undefeated in Singles competition. Jason and Chappo did sneak away with a Doubles win, but that may have been due to my partner... just kidding Dad!

We spent quite a bit of time driving the XTerra up many of the 4 x 4 trails in the area. Naturally geocaching was on the agenda, but it was also fun to hit a bunch of old cabins and the cool drink (so far there's been no "revenge of the cool drink" to speak of).

Other memorable moments from the trip:

1. Kennedy's 2 am wakeup call for Mommy


2. Coleton warming his bum by the fire


3. Jason's Mango Cobbler in the dutch oven


4. Big Al and his 10 ft run to the hills


5. Mountain Man Hash - pretty tasty!


6. Fording the river in the XTerra!


7. Two new caches - To Grandmother's House We Go and Home Sweet Home

All in all it was a great trip. Too bad it was only a couple of days, but we made the most of our time in the mountains. Even Kennedy had fun, in spite of the fact that Mommy was at home.

Introducing Alex

Well, today we were able to bring Alexander home with us. There's still a long road ahead, but we are so happy to have him with us. You can only imagine how many different visitors we had today to welcome Alex and wish us well. So far Kennedy is intrigued with the idea of having a baby around. We'll have to wait and see what she has to say when she realizes that Alex isn't going anywhere. Since Alexander has slept most of the afternoon, it will be interesting to see if we get any sleep tonight. What's the line in Vegas: 4 hours - over or under?!

To view this movie, you'll need to download the Quicktime player.

Oh My Hail!

Utah is certainly an interesting place to live. This has been one of the hottest summers in recent memory, and yesterday we had the worst hail storm since the 80's. About 3 o'clock yesterday it started raining and before you knew it.....

What the ?????

If that picture wasn't enough to make you fall out of your seat I don't know what will. About two weeks ago Dick Engar came up to me and asked if Tara and I were ready to have another baby. How do you respond to that one? Anyway, it seems that the daughter of Dick's secretary had recently had a baby boy and the child was in protective custody due to issues with Mommy and drugs. We wondered if we were interested in becoming foster parents until the legal issues surrounding the birth mom were resolved and we could adopt the baby boy. Man, what an opportunity.

We prayed and decided that this was supposed to happen. So, we're moving forward to see what life brings us. Kennedy is still a bit uncertain if she wants a little brother or not, but she really warmed up to him during our visit earlier tonight. It's hard to wrap the whole story into a few paragraphs of a blog entry, but we're applying to become foster parents with the idea of adopting the little boy in the next several months. We don't even know what we're going to call him, but right now the leading candidate is Alexander Brayden. We'll have to wait and see if it sticks or not.

We're not totally sure what happens next. We should have him in our custody by early next week, but there's still a chance that the little boy can be returned to his birth mother or his birth father. So, we'll be involved in multiple court hearing to determine if either birth parent is capable of raising the child, or if he's going to become our son. After visiting with him tonight I know that he should be with us. What a cute little guy. It's hard not to fall in love with a precious baby boy. What a crazy couple of weeks!!

Diary of a Red Sox Fan

I just got finished watching the Red Sox lose their 4th straight game at the hands of the lowly Kansas City Royals. For the second time this week Jonathon Papelbon was the culprit, giving up a late inning lead. It's just amazing how things work out. I am busy for the first 7 innings of the game and when I turn on NESN the score is 4-3 for the Sox. But give me a few minutes where I can sit and watch the game and it ends up 5-4 Royals. Unbelievable!!

May I state for the record that the 2006 Boston Red Sox will not make the playoffs. Too many injuries, too many inconsistencies, and too many times where I sit and watch them give up leads will eventually spell an October rooting against the Yankees.

Picture Worth 1000 Words

Can it get any better than when a picture like this comes home from Nursery?

The Bachelor

Tara and Kennedy are away at Girls' Camp for the next couple of days, so while the cat's away the mice will.....geocache. How boring is that! I have the house to myself and so I go out to Taylorsville and cache with Jared Fawson. Still, it was a pretty fun night and we did end up with 15 caches.

I never get a kick out of having the house to myself. I am such a homebody that it doesn't really excite me to have freedom. It's not like I need some time alone to find myself, or that I can finally do the things I want to do since there's no one around. I get really bored when I'm alone for too long. I know that I could never be one of those guys who lives alone in a shack somewhere. I need someone to talk with and do stuff with - I'm lucky to be married. About the only thing I like about being home alone is having the whole bed to myself. Not having Tara put her cold feet next to mine is a true luxury, at least for one night.

Just in Case

This post is a precautionary message in case something happens on my drive home from Cedar City this afternoon. Most of you know that I am not the most willing driver in the world, in fact I look for just about any excuse I can come up with not to be behind the wheel. As luck would have it I was scheduled to train in Cedar City this week and I would be the only one going to the conference. I would have to drive 4 hours alone!!! I made it down here alright, but I fear that I'm going to be tempting fate for the return trip. So, if any one is reading this, call my cell phone between 4-8pm MST and make sure I'm not napping from the driver's seat!!!