Merry Christmas 2016

Holy Moley, can you believe 2016 is almost over? What a year it’s been. The committee that writes this annual newsletter has heaps of news to share, so we hope you’re bored enough at this very moment to read a rambling, narcissistic, possibly made up brag session all about us. We’re pretty sure we won’t even mention you once. I mean, would you look through a photo album even if you weren’t in any of the pictures? You might, but you’d probably be bored. Here we go.

There are more of us! On March 1st, our little Nora joined the squad. She was born fat. That’s not being mean, the doctor really said to us when she was born, “Nice fat kid.” She was actually only 9 pounds 10 ounces, which in our absurdly sized families is considered mildly bulimic, but we didn’t feel like correcting a doctor while Dayna’s guts were still hanging open from pulling a human being from her insides.

Nora has changed so much since then. She is happy, giggly, crawling everywhere, grabbing everything, and loves everything her big brother does. She has lots of long, beautiful hair (on top of her head,) and fresh blonde hair coming in everywhere else. It looks weird, but we still love her.

Our wonder boy Max continues to be worth keeping around. Just in the last few weeks, his vocabulary and communication skills have blown up. He’s speaking in 3-5 word sentences all the time, ranging from trolling his parents (calling his mother ‘Dayna’ instead of mommy,) to proving what a good kid he is (“Wow, Star Wars! Yay!”) to flattering his father (when hearing his dad listening to Metallica, “Wow, Daddy’s guitar!”) As of this writing, Max has just turned two years old. We had talked about having another baby when Max turned two, but had never thought that baby would be nine months old at the time.

Max gets very excited about vehicles. Everything from our car-- the “black car”-- to trains, airplanes (pronounced airpoos,) to his favorite thing in the world: fire trucks. If Max hears any siren, he runs to the window in the front room at approximately 55 miles per hour shouting “BIRE TRUCK BIRE TRUCK! EEEOOOOEEEOOO!” The sirens never stop at our house, which is disappointing for him, but okay with the rest of us.

Dayna continues to live a life of luxury with two babies at home. As Socrates once said, “The upbringing of young children is the easy life. You get to take naps all the time, wear comfy pants, and you always have a strong Wi-Fi connection.” The man knew his stuff. Yet Dayna thrives as both she and children continue to be cute and well behaved.

Speaking of cute children, Dayna often gets to interact with many children-- their cuteness varies week to week-- in her calling as the very best primary choristers in the whole ward. She often walks into the church with enough props to decorate a float in the Macy’s Day parade, and leaves 11 year old girls raving with comments like, “I guess it wasn’t that bad.” She is a treasure.

Jack has a nice new scar on his face. He had been working on growing a nice Enrique Iglesias style mole on his cheek, and in a moment of pure vanity, told the doctor he was really worried about it being cancer. He wasn’t, but didn’t want to pay for cosmetic surgery so he said that he was. They sliced it off his face cleanly in 20 seconds and sent him on his way, essentially scar free. Then he got a call a few days later telling him he was right to be worried because it was cancer. Ha!

(For the worry warts out there: it was Basal Cell Carcinoma. No one is dying. For those of you who weren’t that concerned, I hope you didn’t read this part. It really kills the suspense.)

We scheduled the first appointment available so they could come scrape out all of the bad crap from Jack’s face. Unfortunately, this time slot was two days before our previously scheduled family pictures, and three days before Jack’s business trip to VISA headquarters in California. Well the surgery went fine, as long as you love slasher films where they gouge people’s faces while they’re still awake, except this was worse because it wasn’t a movie.

Well the camera didn’t shatter from taking pictures of Jack’s scary mug, and VISA didn’t throw the SecurityMetrics group out of the building, although an executive did address Jack’s ten-stitched face as “dressed up like a pirate.” Yarrr, this story be a true one!

Speaking of true stories, this is our 12th Christmas together, and the 12th Christmas during which Dayna has been sure the tree will fall off the roof of our car on the drive home. And the 12th Christmas that she was almost right the entire way.

Now a lot of this probably sounds boring, and it should be noted that indeed, it is. We are living a very parental life, and often quote The Wiggles, The Pout-Pout Fish, or But Not the Hippopotamus to each other the same way adults quote... I don’t know, what’s new on TV now? Home Improvement? Lost? We’re just saying that in defense of our lame sounding life, we are actually very cool and have lots going on #trustus.  

Editor’s Note: Jack had an 800 word paragraph about Star Wars here that is gone now. You’re welcome.  

The overall news to report is that things are going great for our family. Jack hasn’t gotten fired, Dayna hasn’t burned the house down, Max hasn’t killed Nora, Nora hasn’t killed the dog, and the dog is still afraid of both kids. We’re happy in our house, job and like spending time with each other. We love you all-- depending on the week-- and want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Love,

Jack, Dayna, Maximus, Nora and Anne the dog

Mothers Day

Last year I spent Mothers Day on bed rest. I had just been released from the hospital for a blood clot. I technically wasn't a Mother quite yet (I was 12 weeks pregnant) so this year was my official first Mothers Day as a Mom. It was pretty close to perfect. Here's what my mothers day looked like through pictures. 

Jack got me a mirror for our back hallway with hooks for our keys and tags, flowers and chocolate. Max got me a pair of leggings.

Jack made banana cream waffles FROM SCRATCH! With bananas and homemade vanilla syrup.

We went to church together.

Max looked too adorable.

My flower from church. All I wanted this year was to go to church and feel like i belonged that day.

After church I watched some hulu plus ALONE. =)

After a while Jack brought Max back and we snuggled while he took a nap.

We made homemade Chicken Tikki Masala for dinner.

We finished off the night with homemade deep fried cookie dough and ice cream. 

It was a pretty perfect day. 

Cedar City Trip

This past weekend we went down to Cedar City for Mike's (my brother in law) graduation from SUU. We had been looking to go on a little get away so when my parents mentioned that they had an extra bed we decided to tag along with them. We left late Thursday night after Jack saw a pre-screening of the Avengers movie. We listened to the Serial podcast then entire way... which was so good. It almost made me wish we had further to go. 

We woke up early on Friday to make it down to SUU in time for graduation. Graduations are long... and even longer with a baby. Luckily Max was really good for the first meeting. We spent the second meeting trying to fall asleep in the hall. Dad treated us to lunch at The Pizza Cart, which I can't say enough good things about. It was SO good. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and the girls left to do a little shopping. Unfortunately Max fell off the bed while we were gone. Which was maybe a blessing in disguise. I think if I would have been there for the actual event I would have been a wreck. Jack called me while he was screaming and that was bad enough. By the time we got back to the hotel he had calmed down and was drinking a bottle. We watched him carefully that night and I had my nurse sister check him out. In the end he was totally fine. I feel like we earned our "baby fell off the bed" badge. I'm sure everyone get's one of those eventually. 

Friday night we went to the Cedar City Rec Center with Mom, Dad, Halle, Kim, Mike and Landry. They had a fun water slide, lazy river, swimming pools, hot tub and kids section. Max wasn't super into the slides or any of the fun kids stuff but he sure loved the lazy river. He kicked and kicked the entire way around a couple times. It completely wore him out, but he absolutely loved it.

 We ate dinner at a little hole in the wall burger joint and headed back to the hotel for bed.  It was such a fun day that Max fell asleep almost immediately and didn't move once. I had to keep waking up to make sure he was breathing. haha. Saturday we headed home after breakfast and listened to more of our Serial podcast. It was a quick trip but exactly what we needed. I love hanging out with my family and I love when Max and Landry get to hang out. I can't wait till they are older and they can enjoy it as much as us! 

Jack Maximus Ady.... blessing day!

Since I found out I was pregnant I've kept a personal journal with letters written specifically to Max. I keep track of what he's doing every few weeks and I write him letters on special occasions. I'm working hard to keep up on his photo scrapbook as well, but I realized I wanted to keep track of some of the smaller day to day things that we do, as well as post more pictures of the big events. I'm not going to go back to the beginning, just start now and hopefully I can get back in the habit of blogging! 

A few weeks ago we had Max blessed at our church. It was such an amazing day. All of my immediate family was able to be there, which was amazing! Most of Jack's family was able to be there as well and a few grandparents and aunts and uncles were able to make it. There was a snow storm that came in the same weekend as the blessing so we felt so lucky and blessed that so many were able to be there. 

My mom made Max's blessing suit out of my wedding dress. His pants, tie and the buttons on his vest were all from my dress. It was something I had always wanted done with my dress and I was just so happy that it worked out. It is something I will cherish for the rest of my life! 

Being Max's mom is by far my favorite thing! He is such a fun baby and he fits into our family perfectly. He really is the missing piece we waited all these years for! 

2014 Christmas Letter

2014 was an exciting year for us, and I think you all know the real reason why. After years of waiting, we were finally able to get new wood floors! #crazyblessed. What a time to be alive.

Dayna was able to retire from working at the school this year #ballermoney due to your basic run of the mill pregnancy routine. Step 1: don’t get pregnant for 8.5 years. Step 2: get a blood clot. Step 3: enjoy gestational diabetes. 4: Sometimes cry about hilarious things, like not owning a diaper bag, or that the kids at school hate you even though they don’t. Step 5: labor for 16 hours and then get chopped in half so they can pull a human out of your belly. Step 6: look good the whole time #kateuptonisugly.

Jack and Dayna rode down to Oceanside, California with Dayna’s sister and her husband in January (is this weird 3rd person thing weirding out the reader as much as it is the author? I mean, you know it’s either Jack or Dayna writing this, right? Well, either Jack or Dayna strongly agrees with you. It’s hard, but we stick with it #thesecolorsdontrunorevenjog.)

Oceanside is gorgeous. They were graciously invited by and stayed with Dayna’s grandparents, but in turn had to walk several dozen feet from their room to get to the ocean. They saw dolphins and whales and weird people and almost Steve Nash. Jack found out later that Nash lives right by where we stayed, which makes sense for rich people to make those kind of decisions.

Jack enjoyed Southern California so much that he took the whole family except for Dayna back down to Santa Monica in June. There he attended a private tour of Riot studios and sat front row for the League championship Series. He even had his picture taken with Will “Meteos” Hartman, and yes, he’s aware that most of you have no idea what any of this means, but this was really cool for him #nerdlifeforever.

It was our ninth anniversary this year, and we decided that since it was going to be our last one without children, we would do something fancy. Jack planned to take Dayna to an expensive restaurant in beautiful Sundance, Utah. The day of our anniversary, it turned out that Jack was too sick to watch Star Wars in bed, so the anniversary celebration was pushed back one week #isthedarksidestronger. Seven days later, Dayna completely ruined Jack’s romantic plans by thoughtlessly getting sick. At this point, can we even say we've been married 9 years? I guess legally we have to, but without spending too much money on a single meal, we both know-- in our hearts-- it’s a lie. Another lie was that whole ‘staying in third person’ thing. It just got really tedious, and this paper isn’t getting graded, so we dropped it

Our lovely dog Anne was also fortunate in 2014, as her parents' previously planned trip to Cancun was canceled by the arrival of her new little brother, Maximus.

It was a long day before he arrived. We got to the hospital at 6 AM on November 17th, and he was born at 10:57 PM. He let out a little cry when he emerged and promptly peed on his own face. Max is a special little guy, years in the making. We'd like to tell jokes about him in the future, but it’s honestly kind of difficult right now. We’re just really glad he showed up, even if he took his sweet time getting here.

Max grows leaps and bounds, seemingly every day. He has no siblings, so he’s started pulling his own hair. Still, he’s a patient boy, so he never hits back over the hair pulling. Jack is often jealous of Max-- eating all day, hanging out with Dayna, taking naps, no job and never paying bills-- it’s a sweet gig, no doubt, and one Jack aspires to.

As of the time of this writing, Max is developing his voice. He is not a baby that cries very often, but he's a pretty good grunter. Grunting means that he is communication one of three things: A) I need to burp, B) I need to break wind, or C) I have the ability to grunt.

Jumping back to first person, we're very happy with our growing little family. If you're reading this message, that really speaks to your character. It means that you've either avoided getting unfriended on Facebook all these years, or that you're too old for Facebook and probably live a weird, boring, Facebookless life. Either way, we're glad that you play a part in our lives, and hope you have a great Christmas and a happy new year #happyholidays #pleasenoonegetoffended #starwars7in1yearhype

Christmas Letter 2012

We are really having to rush this year’s letter to press, what with the end of the world coming on the 21^st. We really thought we had dodged a bullet when the world didn’t end twice already this year and thought maybe we could get away without a letter at all. It turns out that crazy old people are often crazy.

This year just really hasn’t been nearly as eventful as 2011 was for us. We didn’t buy a new house this year, or a new car, and despite Dayna letting the dang dog run away a couple times, she always brought that dang dog back, so no new dog either. That’s good though, because Anne is adorable. We call our “Dogter.” That’s how cool we are. Let that sink in.

Dayna was able to buddy up to the primary presidency in our ward and get them to release her. Once word of her craftiness, they decided to put her in a law of consecration calling where she makes free cute stuff for the relief society. Jack got released from the Cub Scouts through a series of menacing looks at short bishops and a serious case of being afraid of bears, which has crippled his ability to camp.

Bear related fear did not, however, cripple Jack’s ability to write things he doesn’t get paid for. Three times in the past year, Jack has had articles selected and published by KSL.com, Utah’s biggest website in the world. This has led to Jack being a huge celebrity around the house, sometimes polling as high as 50% among registered Anne-dogs.

Speaking of celebrity fame, Dayna, famed reader of both Twilight and The Hunger Games, had another extremely successful round of craft sellery at the annual Holly Fair. Bored women herded in droves to waste their husbands’ money invest in high quality goods hand crafted by Dayna. Hopefully we can use that money to finish our basement so we don’t have to be so close together and be forced to listen to each other’s lame jokes as often.

A bit more about the basement. If you haven’t seen it, it is 4000 square feet, has a theater room already in place, and a segmented glass area where the tile is ready for the pool. It’s also in Florida, and we both have nicely tanned six packs. Dayna teaches baby aerobics and Jack plays for the Heat. It is fun in our basement.

Back in reality, our basement is coming along nicely. We have the framing and electric work completely done, and the sheetrock is almost completely started as well. Once it’s done, we really do want to get a theater room setup with a projector. Next, we’ll save up for a psychiatrist who can help treat our ADD so we can both sit through an entire movie. These are the problems you have to deal with when growing up in America.

We both like our jobs very much. So much in fact that neither of us decided to even get raises or promoted, that’s how dedicated we are. We celebrated our 7^th anniversary this year, which means if you’re one of our grandparents reading this, you’ve been mathematically eliminated from being in your thirties.

To experience the true romance in our lives after seven years, we traveled to Tooele, Utah, where we toured—as a symbol of our relationship-- an actual shut-down asylum. The asylum, confirmed as actually haunted by the very respectable and trustworthy (read: sarcasm at full) folks over at “Ghost Hunters,” was a great time. I guess we also ate a fancy meal and stayed at a nice hotel, but we really just wanted to keep the description limited to the romantic notion of being trapped in a building with insane people. That resonates with these authors for some reason.

Each year we write down a few little anecdotes, but it doesn’t really matter if we have cool things to brag about or if we just distract you from our glaring flaws. We’re glad to have each other, and also to glad to have those of you reading this in our lives. And were also really glad that most of you are reading it electronically because, let’s be honest, you’re probably not worth the production cost of a printed letter, picture, envelope and a stamp, are you? We’d probably forget to send you one anyway, and that would just be awkward later on.

Merry Christmas you nobodies!

Love,

Jack and Dayna Ady

Anne's Infertility

It has now become official. Anne will never bare children. We talked quite a bit about whether or not we wanted to eventually breed Anne. We loved the idea of little puppies and especially the money we could get for them. But when it came right down to it we felt like the best thing for us and for Anne would be for her to be fixed. I was hoping we could get an appointment over Christmas break so I could be home with her all day while she recovered. The soonest they could get us in was the first week of January but they did have a Friday available so we could still be there for the weekend. 

I took her in before work on Friday morning. The waiting room was full of other dogs being dropped off and Anne freaked out. She clung to me the entire time. Anne usually loves other people. When we drop her off at the groomers she literally jumps into their arms. She can't wait to be showered with attention. So for her to be so clingy made it really hard. I'm sure she could sense my stress and the stress of every dog/human in that room. When the tech came to take her back I had to physically unhook her claws from my body. Poor thing. 

I had to wait until I got off of work to pick her up, so it was a long day. When I picked her up at 3:30 she was pretty somber. I picked her up and she just looked at me. I'm sure all the dog people out there will say she was just groggy from the drugs, but I know she was secretly hating me behind that stare. 

For the first night she was pretty sore and sad. We packed her around and spent the evening watching TV on the bed with her. Everyone warned us that she would be sore for quite a while and we'd need to keep a close eye on her. By day 2 she was over being sore and returned to the energetic puppy who wants to jump on everything and wrestle with us. We tried to keep her from jumping on stuff and kept her in her playpen most of the day but she recovered fabulously. She is back to being our crazy psycho pup-- and we love her.