The Beast

Just when I got done updating the blog I was informed by Varitek, our dog, that I hadn't said anything about him. He and I haven't been on speaking terms too much lately. I love a nice backyard with green grass and nice looking stuff but he likes to chew up sprinklers, tear up bushes, and basically be a big pain in the butt. I hope he grows out of this puppy thing because while he is a cute dog, he ain't got nothing on Nellie so cleaning up after him just ain't no fun. Having said that he did do something the other day that was quite impressive and will hopefully instill fear into anyone who ever thought about crossing my property line that was uninvited and unwanted.

Just for the record that is a full size basketball he is "jawing". The only way this could be scarier is if his drool was somehow toxic. Anyways, I might have to start posting warning signs around the perimiter of my yard, never know when I might get sued by a burglar because my dog clamped onto his head while he was trying to steal my stuff.

The Beauty

Jen and I have discovered when you have a new youngster in the family that picutes of anything other than the youngster is like junk mail, discarded quickly by most everyone in attempt to get to the good stuff. So, we've tried to get some good Nellie pics on here but may have snuck in a few others as well.

The crew went down to Snowbird at the end of July for a bit of a Schaelling (my moms side of the family) reunion. We do it every year but this is the first year I got to stay at the "presidential" suite. I was the last of the boys to get married which meant I was banished to the floor of the living room in the time share for years, but now that I am married to Jen, and having little Nellie, I was finally upgraded to top notch quarters that included a king size bed. While we were there Nellie got to go swimming for the first time which is good because she had three swim suits. So without further adieu, some pics...

Nellie at the pool

Me and my 4 favorite girls

Dad & Nellie snoozing, lucky Jen that Nellie and I both snore!

Nellie also had a big day when she got blessed. She was a perfect angel through all of church and didn't cry once, even during the blessing. She definitely got her wiggles and emotions out after the blessing, and during the luncheon, so it's a good thing there were plenty of willing hands that wanted to hold her. Jen and her mom made some top notch BBQ turkey so while my hands were willing they were full of plenty of food. The cool thing about Nellie's blessing dress is it is the same one Jen was blessed in. Grandma Fortie added some beads to the dress and it looked awesome!

Nellie on her blessing day

Nellie had her two month checkup since our last blog and she has almost doubled in weight. She weighed in at 13 pounds 2 ounces and was as healthy as any parent could hope for. At 9 weeks she slept through the night for the first time! She is officially 13 weeks old today and has continued to sleep through the night with only a couple of rough nights. Jen is an awesome mom and read a lot of books and magazines that seems to have really paid off (thank you Babywise book!). Nellie has discovered a new favorite thing in addition to eating and pooping...sucking her hand/fingers. She also drools so much that most of the time Jen just keeps a bib on her so we don't have to keep putting her in new clothes throughout the day. Here are a few more recent pics of out little princess...

On the cop front life is going pretty good. I am back on day shift so the hours usually feel longer as the adrenaline calls are few and far between. I did have a cool experience just before I got off graves where I got to kick my first door in. A woman called and said she had been sleeping at her friend's place when the friend's husband came home in a drunken mess. The drunk husband didn't know the friend was there and straddled his wife and started punching her in the face as hard as he could. The friend yelled to him to stop at which time he promptly kicked the friend out of the house and then she called us. A couple of us got there at the same time and I knocked on the door. The husband came to answer the door and saw it was the cops and turned around to go back upstairs instead of letting us in. So then I managed to lift my size 13 Danners high enough and harnessed my inner karate kid. The other cop took him to the ground and cuffed him, and we got to stop a drunk dude from beating his wife. The wife ended up having a brain bleed because of the assault and as happens all too often, the wife bonded the husband out of jail a few days later and they're living together once again. Nevertheless one of the officers got a good pic of the door afterwards...

Well that is all for now. We hope everyone is doing awesome and I am still super thankful that the coolest, hottest, bestest wife/mom said yes to me!

We got a youngun'!!!

Jen and I are pleased to announce the birth of our little girl Nellie Rae Jarvie. I know it's already been announced on every other social networking site, through text messages, and of course lots of pictures for the grandma's, but Jen and I are going to up our average of two blogs a year and see if we can't push our average up closer to the 5 or 6 a year range. Here goes.

I have to say the birth was a combination of the coolest thing ever mixed with the scariest thing ever. When Nellie was born I kept waiting for the instruction manual to come out with the placenta but was certainly disappointed when that didn't happen. All I know is that Makita and DeWalt always have instruction manuals so maybe the production force upstairs could take a few lessons from the Home Depot product line. Jen was an absolute champ through the whole delivery. I was focused on keeping my knees bent to make sure I didn't pass out and every time I looked at her I expected to see her filing her nails or reading a cooking magazine because she made the process look effortless. She had an epidural so she wasn't even sure when she was having a contraction and had to wait for her nurse to tell her when to push. She officially started wearing her old jeans yesterday so it appears as if she got the lucky female genes and her butt is definitely as cute as ever.

Intermission for pictures:









Having a kid is definitely the coolest thing in the world and Jen and I are very lucky and thankful that everything has gone as smooth as it has. I'm sure there will be plenty of rough patches (i.e. when she starts dating...) ahead so we'll take any smooth spots when we can. Jen is doing a little better each day but I still have to remind her to "mucho take it easy" as Nacho Libre would say. She hopes to be ready to do a little work the second to last week of July so we will see how things go. I started back yesterday and have to say that hanging with Jen and Nellie for the past week and a half is way better than hanging out with whiny "innocent I've never done anything wrong" people. There was an 18-year old kid yesterday who told another cop and I that we needed to get a life because the officer was writing him a shoplifting ticket. I reminded him that I had searched his room before and found marijuana, lots of marijuana pipes, lots of alcohol and a gun and that maybe he should keep his mouth shut until he was doing a little more for society than killing brain cells. I'm afraid we might be too late with that one. Anyways, thanks everyone for the well wishes, gifts and visits. Jen is working on thank you notes but it seems every time she gets started the youngster is ready for another feeding or a diaper change. I'm worthless when it comes to feeding Nellie but definitely think I could qualify for the 8 second rodeo challenge on her diaper change depending on the size of the blow "out". Well I think that's all for now so we will bid adieu and as they say in Wyoming..."pour me another"

A Camping Adventure

So Clay and I had a few days off together last week, which doesn't happen very often, so we decided to make the most of it and go on a little camping trip. We live about an hour away from Flaming Gorge and it had been forever since I'd been there. We drove around and found a pretty cool campground. I am definately a "campground camper". I like having flush toilets, and established campsites with a picnic table and firepit. It took a few laps around the campground before we finally decided on a good spot. It was shady, had the perfect spot for a tent, our own private little driveway, and it was a very very short walk to the bathrooms. Although the camp host was a little overly friendly, it did come with a major bonus- hot showers!!! Now that's what I'm talkin' about! I can't even tell you how nice it was after spending all day in the sun, water, and dirt to wash off and feel clean again for the night. It was perfect. We only stayed one night, but had a fun day of touring Flaming Gorge Dam and hanging out on the Green River. We also took a trip down to Brown's Park and went to Clay's great great grandpa's ranch, which is now a Historical Site. It was very cool! What a great trip with my babe!!

feelin good....

Yesterday was our 2 month anniversary- wow I can't believe we've already been married for 2 months! We started off our day at Clay's favorite place, The Home Depot. We were looking for some cool plants/bushes and flowers for our yard. Most of what we saw looked dead, but it turned out they were just "resting" during the colder weather. We ended up getting some really cute little bushes that will eventually bloom bright red and a few packets of wildflower and daisy seeds. Clay had already purchased his annual sunflower seeds. I saw the ones he grew last summer and they were awesome! He definately has a greener thumb than I do. I hope the ones that I planted actually sprout something :) The weather was perfect. We left the front door open all day and let the cool breeze in. I mentioned to Clay that I am in a much better mood when it's warm outside and he totally agreed. I am really looking forward to summer, sitting out on the deck and watching the sun go down. Those are some of my favorite times.

Fun in the Sun

So we just got back from our honeymoon about two weeks ago so I thought I'd share some pics. Clay surprised me with a trip to California on our wedding day! I was so excited when I found out we were going somewhere warm! We were there for 4 days and had the time of our lives. It was so much fun! It had been a few years since I'd been there and even more than that for Clay so it was the perfect destination for our honeymoon. Clay's uncle was nice enough to let us use his points for our hotel room. We got an awesome suite! It was really nice, and even better, it was free! We spent our days at Disneyland, California Adventure, and Universal Studios. Everything was fabulous - except for the night we got a flat tire on our rental car. So besides that little setback, it was smooth sailing in sunny California :)

Jen & Clay Jarvie

So one of my best friends, Nicole has finally convinced me that I should start a blog. I can't make any guarantees about how often it will get updated, but I will do my best. Now those of you in Logan who have been missing me can see what's been happening in the wild world of Rock Springs, WY. I recently got married to the perfect guy for me. Clay has made my life so much better and he has been an amazing husband for the almost 2 months that we've been married. I moved from Logan to Rock Springs because Clay already lived here and had a much higher paying job than I did in Utah lol. We are planning on staying here for a couple years and then we will see where our lives take us after that. It can only get better from here :)