Word To Our Fathers

 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

 To Our Wonderful Fathers 

 Lane & Barry!

Why are men reluctant to become fathers?  They aren't through being children. 

~Cindy Garner

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: he believed in me. ~Jim Valvano

Shout out to our fathers today! We have learned much from our dads throughout the years - some good habits, some not so great :) but we want to thank them for being the great dads that they are.  We know what a thankless job being a dad can be, especially when the mothers get most of the love, but we really do appreciate the important life lessons our fathers have taught us.

For Keri, it was about the importance of working hard. My Dad has worked hard throughout the years to support our family of 7 children and I know that wasn't easy. He made me get a job when I turned 16 and I have been working at various jobs ever since. And I have a strong work ethic to show for it.  Thanks Dad!

For Matt, it was the way my Dad taught me to look at everything with a gospel perspective. I always knew that the most important thing to my Dad was to live a Christ-like life. When I was a teenager, I didn't like getting up early, even earlier than my paper route and seminary class, for family prayer and scripture study.  But I knew that it was important and now I appreciate my Dad's efforts.

Two little girls, on their way home from Sunday school, were solemnly discussing the lesson.  "Do you believe there is a devil?" asked one.  "No," said the other promptly.  "It's like Santa Claus:  it's your father."  

~Ladies' Home Journal

Just to highlight a few more of the many great things that our fathers have done, we'd like to share some of our favorite memories of our dads:

• Matt:  Dad has always been interested in new technology and I'll never forget when he brought home the first family computer - a Gateway desktop with a 1 MB hard drive (if I remember correctly) and a 56k modem. You'd think he would be have caught on to text-messaging a little earlier :)
• Keri:  Dad taking me to "K-Mawt" to buy new toys or clothes. Yes I'd like to blame my early interest in shopping on him :)
• Matt:  Saturday morning cartoons and pancakes & waffles in special shapes (capital M, pancakes the size of the frying pan and funny shapes) and homemade maple syrup with my Dad  
• Keri:  Dad rolling up to family Thanksgiving Soccer games in his newly purchased neon-yellow running suit only to play for 10 minutes and then sit out with Grandma Goss.
• Matt:  Dad always being my Scout leader and Young Mens leader - teaching me the finer points of being a young man such as wilderness survival, backpacking, cooking, hunting, being an Eagle scout, being a righteous priesthood holder, sacrament duties, blessings and the importance of doing home teaching. 
• Keri:  Dad mentioning in every talk at church he gives that "he used to pray for more money and instead kept receiving more children so now he is going to start praying for more children and see if he receives more money". And Dad always being that guy in the ward who gets up before every Memorial Day, Veterans Day and 4th of July to remind us all how important our freedom is and to remember the troops. 
• Matt: Dad also regularly coaching my soccer and baseball teams. He taught me all about hard work, strategy and team work. 
• Keri: Watching 90210 and Fright Night Theater every week together with all these horrible shows about Killer Bees, Killer Spiders, Killer Frogs, etc...
• Matt: I have never heard my Dad say a bad word, unless you count him calling bad drivers "boneheads" and "knuckleheads".  

A father carries pictures where his money used to be.  ~Author Unknown

We love you both! 

-KerMatt

What happened to May!

Somehow we missed blogging in May so here is a quick recap.

Keri turned 29 (yikes!) and celebrated her day of birth by going bowling during lunch with her co-workers with her record-low score of 46 (double yikes!!). Then she had dinner with Nicole at Cheesecake Factory while Matt had class and took a test. But Matt did surprise her with a new and beautiful pearl necklace.

We volunteered at the Utah Heart Ball together as Matt was in high demand from Keri's boss after she noticed his amazing attention to detail in last year's event set-up. And he did not disappoint of course. We had fun getting dressed up and we even got to shake hands with Elder Russell M. Nelson, who was being honored for his work in cardiology, and his wife.

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Park City with Matt's family for a McGhee Family Reunion who came up from San Diego and some all the way from Iowa. We loved spending time with the fam, especially all six of the adorable nieces plus Cayden. Keri loved holding baby Alicia (Bekah and Skyler's new baby who has more hair than we've ever seen on a baby). Matt told me to spend as much time with the kids so that I could get my fill of kids and not get any crazy ideas yet.  We spent a lot of time at the pool, taking walks, playing games, including a McGhee family trivia game, and we even put together some "Minute To Win It" challenges. Good times had by all! Keri was amazed by how competitive Matt and his brothers are at anything... and I mean anything (sports, trivia, video games, etc...)!  

Keri also introduced the McGhees to the coveted "Fiesta Station" and infamous banana boats (but not without many jokes thanks to my wonderful friend Brad Moss who sold me out by telling of my past banana boat errors). 

We had a blast but were quite exhausted afterwards, especially Matt who spent most of the day under a pile of kids. Hopefully we'll get some pics posted soon. 

We are so grateful to everyone who made the trek for us all to spend time together and to Kathy and Bekah for organizing the whole weekend. 

 - KerMatt

p.s. Please comment to let us know you saw this!

p.p.s. McGhee family blog coming soon...

Word To Our Mothers...What!

 

"Mothers of teenagers know why animals eat their young." ~ Author Unknown 

(HAHA we loved this saying and if you knew either of us as teens, you know that we were not easy to raise. Keri - " I was pretty loud, stubborn and obnoxious...and wait, I still am, just a little more grounded hopefully. Thanks Mom!"Matt - "I liked to break the rules and basically tried to sleep through high school, if  Mom would have let me").

Since we are still waiting to hear about Matt's Masters Program acceptance what else can we talk about but our mothers. We are truly blessed to have the best mothers (and mothers-in-law)! And we just can not thank them enough for their love and endless support. We have both kind of gotten hooked on Talk Radio lately (namely Glenn Beck and Dr. Laura) and after each listen, we can not walk away without being so grateful for the family that we have and the values that our parents have instilled in us.

Top 10 List To Our Mothers - Linda & Kathy

• You have taught us both how to be good, hard-working people
• You feed us anything we want - even when we ask for Belgian waffles, bacon, eggs, Orange Julius, and cinnamon pull-aparts all in one meal 
• You have shared your musical talents with us and helped us find our inner rock stars...or barbershop stars  :)
• You have a unique and creative approach to all you do 
• You show us what it means to live unselfishly - you truly forget yourself and go to work
• You indulge our crazy hobbies like playing Rock Band with us or going hiking with feral cows
• Your make each family member feel like they are your #1
• You are our biggest cheerleaders (next to Matt & I, of course) and you've also been one of our best coaches...but also a pretty good referee
• You teach us what is right and you always know what we need...sometimes before we do
• You live each day with never ending love and patience 

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." ~ Tenneva Jordan

Just to highlight a few of the many wonderful things that our mothers have done, we'd like to share some of our favorite memories of our mothers:

Keri: Sending my brothers and Dad off to Father & Sons Outings and having Girls Night - shopping for    

matching outfits (mine pink of course, and Tori's yellow) and watching "Cutting Edge", "Pillow Talk" or "Pure Country" over and over. 

Matt: Mom trying to spank us with the wooden spoon and having it break on our butts. She would get so mad and we would just keep laughing.

Keri: Singing around the piano while Mom plays anything I want - or performing together at ward talent shows, care homes, etc...(Tori & I singing, Mom playing the piano)

Matt:  Mom makes my favorite food for me every year on my birthday...especially chocolate eclair cake and she made these awesome caterpillar cakes when we were little. Mom also used to have after school snacks for us when we got home every day. I wish I still had those now. 

Keri: Mom always being involved in whatever I was: being my room mom, my soccer mom, PTA president and talking me into being the only kid PTA secretary in history, selling candy to raise $ for my marching Band, bringing cupcakes or peanut butter ice cream rice crispy treats to my classes for my birthday, helping me make clam chowder for my 4th grade class to get an A on my report on clams...and campaign manager when I ran for president in 7th grade - even coming up with an awesome slogan like (Jon Adams, Jon Quincy Adams...Keri Adams - it just makes sense).

Matt: Mom helping me with school work when the assignments were hard or when I needed creativity...like dioramas and poster boards and what not. And also taking care of me when I was sick and teaching me the BRAT diet which consisted of Banana, Rice, Applesauce or Toast.

Keri: And let's not forget touring Europe together - Mom keeping the peace between Tori and I always as we battled between shopping and art museums (snooze), taking us to Les Miserable twice & Lion King, and Mom busting our her high school Italian to tell our Rome taxi driver whats up.

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.

- Jewish Proverb

We love you Mom and Mom and hope you both have a Happy Mother's Day! 

- KerMatt

Finals, Birthday, Graduation, Anniversary Party

Happy Birthday to Matt! and Happy Graduation too! Big week for KerMatt and most especially for Matt with finals, his birthday, his graduation and his parents visiting. The week started out stressful but calmed down once finals were done and Matt's parents were here.


We didn't get to do much celebrating on Matt's birthday since he stayed late at the testing center but I did pick him up a whole box of Texas Roadhouse rolls. 


Then we all sat through 2 different graduation ceremonies on Thursday and Friday, which were both great but also quite long. One was the University Commencement for all BYU grads and their families with Elder D. Todd Christofferson speaking. The other was the Convocation for BYU's Marriott School of Business grads, which may sound smaller but actually consisted of 1,200 grads (meaning we had to sit through 1,200 names being read).

It was worth it to watch Matt walk across that stage and get his diploma (or diploma holder I should say). And we got to hear from J. Willard Marriott Jr., president and CEO of Marriott International (the college is named after his father).

We celebrated graduation with a crazy, but very good, dinner at Cracker Barrel with Jerry and the kids. And then the next night at Costco. :) We had some shopping to do for the weekend.


We also celebrated the 1-year anniversary of KerMatt on Saturday with a BBQ for our local friends and family. Lane (Matt's dad) cooked up some mean burgers and we all got to play games outside in some beautiful weather. Our friend Charlotte even brought over a mermaid pinata, which the kids loved taking a whack at. Of course, none of them were able to bust it open and the parents were a little antsy so Matt had to finish it off for them - and he loved every minute. :)


We finished the weekend with a big birthday breakfast for Matt on Sunday morning complete with Belgian waffles, strawberries, Orange Julius, bacon and cinnamon pull-a-parts. We were sad to see Lane & Kathy leave as it was great having them here. Although I'm sure we wore them out. Matt even made his mother play RockBand a couple nights, even though she hated every minute. But what a good mom. :)


Enjoy the pics & feel free to leave a comment!


 - KerMatt

Matt doing his happy dance after graduation - so cute :)

 

Matt and the girls - so glad to be done 

   

The girls and I entertained ourselves through some of the ceremonies by taking pics of each other and texting them to Matt, who was sitting with all of the grads

Dinner at Cracker Barrel - the place without a wait turned out to be ridiculously slow still in the kitchen (here we are with little Johanita)

Kathy and little Jaime

Lane and little Jeraldine

Jerry and Jeraldine not quite happy with the slow service

"King of the Grill" Lane

What party is not complete without Funfetti and leftover wedding cd's :)

Aunt Beth and Uncle Gary at the BBQ

 

Matt trying to teach his mom how to drum... RockBand style 

(you can see she is not loving it)

We went to our friend Charlotte's birthday party and she had the stage kit (consisting of fog machine and strobe light) for RockBand, which Matt just could not get over. Here he is trying out the stage kit, in a slight cloud.

And this is Matt really getting into the stage kit as you can tell from all of the smoke.

Celebrate good times... come on!

Matt is graduating in just 4 days people! 4 days!

But first, he has got to kick this cold that has gotten him down all week and get through finals. Yes last week was rough for Matt - and really both of us, let's be honest. With a sore throat and fever, Matt slept more than 16 hours a day and left the house maybe twice the whole week. Once to go to the doctor to make sure he didn't have Strep (at the urging of yours truly) and then on Thursday to buy a Subway sandwich for lunch. Besides that he has been inside and miserable. At first he couldn't swallow without pain and then he couldn't breath very well. After that, it was congestion and coughing, then sneezing and headaches. Friday and Saturday he was feeling better, but all day Saturday and Sunday he's been having some sort of migraine/tension/stress headaches where he's sensitive to light and sound.

If any of you know Matt, you know that this type of thing has happened before around Finals Week. His body just shuts down right before Finals. Poor guy! The Doctor actually told him that he's too young to have his kind of health problems. "Just wait til your thirties!" she said... Luckily things are looking up and he just has to plow through 3 days, 2 papers, 3 final exams, and a project/presentation until freedom (well, kinda)!

And as a wise man once said, "The tassel's worth the hassle!"


We are also looking forward to Matt's Birthday on Wednesday, his parents coming out for his graduation and  we are throwing ourselves a One Year Wedding Anniversary Party this weekend for all our friends in Utah. We can't wait!

I have been LOVING this nice weather and have officially busted out my road bike for the year. I have ridden a few times in the past couple weeks with my co-worker, Rachel (see pic) and then on Saturday, I rode from our house down to Provo. This time I did it in about 2 hours instead of 2 and half. I am trying to get back in shape for "Little Red Riding Hood" that I signed up for in June with a couple of my co-workers. It is a women's only ride in Lewiston, Utah (right outside Logan) and I am doing the 57 miler. So I have to start putting in some serious time on the bike to get my bottom used to the ride, which is really the worst part of riding. Just after my 25-mile ride down to Provo yesterday, my tush (yeah, Matt and I debated the correct spelling of this word) was in serious peril :)

But I've done worse and I can do it again. My best motivation is to sign up for events, which then motivate me to get outside and train. I will say though, that I miss riding in San Diego as it just seemed like there were endless routes and here I feel a bit a limited. But I am still learning... and if anyone knows of any great routes, let me know.

Can't wait for summer and the awesomeness that it brings! And we only have to wait 27 more days to find out if Matt gets accepted into the BYU ISys Master Program! The end is in sight! We are actually going to add a countdown on our blog for this very day - May 15th!

Life is good :) Well all except for Matt's health but we still have much to be enthusiastic about!

- KerMatt



P.S. The American Heart Association will be launching a national relationship with Nintendo in May. For the launch, AHA and Nintendo will be looking for families across the country who have found creative ways to become or stay active while using the Nintendo Wii Fit.


 If you know of a family who has lowered their vitals, lost weight or just became more active by using these games, please let me  know.


They want to know:

How has using the Wii Fit impacted your family’s lifestyle?
Do you use it mostly for fun or to stay more physically active?
What games do you play with your children?
Does your family have any health concerns such as high blood pressure, weight issues or family history of heart disease?

Please note that a story consisting of 500 characters, a family photo and a signed legal waiver will be required.