Deep Thoughts

Just wanted to pass along a little motivation for you this beautiful day!

Funny Pictures

Derek is working on a presentation for work-related stuff and thought it would be funny to integrate Grace into his presentation. I thought the pictures were hilarious, so I thought I would pass them on.
Derek would have to tell you more about how he integrated him into his presentation, but here are the pictures!

There were more that were great, too. But these are the ones I think he ended up using. We took them at the end of Family Home Evening, Grace did such a good job! She is very expressive, how fun!

Fun Friday Post

Enough said!

GO BYU!!!

Fun Pictures from Thanksgiving

I get to blog about Thanksgiving, I guess!


For Thanksgiving we went to my (Derek) parents house. It was a nice relaxing, fun Thanksgiving. Grace had a great time with some of her cousins. We played some games and had great food, too!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Here is Grace with Grandpa...she loves reading books!

This is Grace with her cousins Isaac and Riley next to the "Thankful Tree". Some of the things she put on leaves to hang on the tree of things she is thankful for included "family", "our house", "her little brother Ryan (that is the name we decided on by the way)".

Melinda chillin' (she was either finishing waving or creating a fist, I am going to with the first option!)

Grace with Isaac

Here are the Hill's (is Dan sleeping?), Isaac is the blur on the left, then you have Riley, Shauna, and Dan!



My dad getting in the festive Christmas mood!



His reaction to "Hey, that picture would look good on our blog!"

Grace imitating Grandpa



Grace trying the same thing with her toy cars

Grace and Grandma


Happy Holiday season everyone! Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it is legal for all of you to start listening to Christmas music! Enjoy!

Grace's Dance Recital

Last night, Tuesday November 20th was Grace's Dance Recital. She did such a fantastic job and we were so proud of her. She has been working hard and having fun at all of her rehearsals and it turned out great. Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Kathy came up to watch her.

This is her waiting anxiously in her seats in the auditorium with Grandma and Grandpa:

Here is part of her performance, the lighting was pretty bad for pictures, but we had to include some of her great performance!

Grace got a nice card from her teacher and this award. Apparently she got the "Spirit Award", kind of hard to imagine she would win that award with her reaction here.

"Dad, enough pictures already!"

This is Grace with her dance teacher, Miss Kara! She loved her!

This is Grace after all of the excitement thanking Grandma and Grandpa for coming to her recital. You will notice the treat she got, too, in her right hand.

Great job, Grace! We are so proud of you!

Reminiscing -- Am I Getting Old? -- Post by Derek

I was asked to do a blog post by my dear wife, since I just turned 28 on Saturday, about some of the memories I have in my old age. I don't think 28 is that old, I have a good friend I worked with at Westaff who I always used to give him a hard time about his age. I think he is 33 or 34 now. But, I always used to give him a hard time about his age when he was in his early 30's. The Bishop I serve with is also 33, which is quite young to be a Bishop, but I like to give him a hard time about his age too. Anyway, it is good to surround yourself with people older than you.

For my birthday I was very happy to watch BYU take it to Wyoming. It seems that BYU football games have always been tied to my birthday. I guess this is fitting since I was born on November 17, 1979 at about halftime of the BYU-Utah game. BYU won 27-0 that day!!! My parents almost named me Cosmo, but thought better of it. My dad was able to make it back to Cougar stadium for the 2nd half of the game the day I was born. I get my BYU roots from my parent's, who often go to road football games as well.

The last time that BYU played Utah on my actual birthday was 2001, which was also the last time BYU beat Utah in Provo. That will change this Saturday as BYU will beat Utah for the 2nd straight year, and this time at home. I remember we were down 21-10 with only about 5 and a half minutes left and I was frustrated with the Utah fans all around me and thought about leaving; I didn't want this to ruin my birthday and Melinda told me we were still going to win and Luke Staley and Brandon Doman worked their magic and we came back to win! It was awesome! Brandon was in our ward at the time along with many other players on the team and I have had the chance to keep in touch with him.

We got him to come out and throw out a first pitch this last season here at the Bees. There is an additional picture of us at the stadium together on an earlier post on our blog, but here is one with him actually on the mound. I am excited to see what Max Hall can do against this Utah team, with Brandon as the QB coach, I am sure he can bring some of that magic back to beating the Utes.


I am obviously a huge fan of sports, in many ways it has been a structure of my life. I played
them all my life growing up and have my teams that I cheer for. Those that know me know that I am a huge fan of the Atlanta Braves, I love following their team and am a diehard fan. I also cheer for BYU and follow the basketball and football teams very closely. I also cheer for the Utah Jazz. If I had to choose an NFL team right now it would be the Philadelphia Eagles because of Andy Reid (who was on the BYU team the day I was born as an offensive lineman) and Reno Mahe, also Chad Lewis (go OHS!) who played for them before.

Now a little bit of the reminiscing. This next month I will have been home from my mission for 7 years. So much of my mission to New Jersey shaped the rest of my life. This picture is from my last preparation day on my mission when the returning missionaries get a chance to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I spent quite a bit of my mission in this area, which is Jersey City. The twin towers were my mountains, kept me directionally sound. I loved the energy and the people of New Jersey and miss so many things about that place. I had many great experiences and find it hard to believe that I will be home for as long as I now am. I still try to keep in touch with former missionaries and people I met out there.

I met Melinda shortly after returning home and we immediately became friends. I have always been impressed with how cheerful and optimistic she is. She was always serving people and was heavily involved in the Institute program at UVSC. She volunteered for so many different things at the school and also in the Institute. I remember when I returned to New Jersey to visit some people I worked with on my mission only a few months after returning from my mission and missed Melinda so much. I was only back in New Jersey for a week, but talked to her on the phone. This sounds cheesy, I know, but I brought this picture of Melinda in a frame and set it up in the room I stayed in of the member's house I stayed at during that week.

It wasn't too much after this week in New Jersey that I popped the question and we were engaged. We got married in the Mt Timpanogos Temple on August 4th, 2001 and it was a perfect day.

I am currently working for the Salt Lake Bees and enjoy it, although the hours during the season make me long to be with my family more. I spend a lot of time, also at our church building down the street as part of my calling. I am an organized guy that probably borders on the edge of insanity when it comes to stat keeping and other nerdy things when it comes to following my sports teams.

I guess my life in many ways is just beginning and I have a lot to look forward to, but I tend to wonder how much of Grace's upbringing I am missing. I think we all probably feel that way as parents. I can't believe she will start Kindergarten in 2008 and before you know it she, too, will be having to deal with boys and I will have to buy some ammunition. I am very blessed to have such a sweet and understanding wife and an amazing child. I would like to thank everyone who is such a close and dear part of my life and thank those that passed on birthday greetings. I tried to get everyone to sing, but only a few obliged.

I like having my birthday so close to Thanksgiving, I have a real dose of gratitude and reflection in November each year. I am so thankful for my family and friends!

I hope I have not bored any of you with my post, but I guess birthdays cause you to be reflective on where you are in life and what is truly important! We love you all!

Recent Pictures of Grace

It has been a bit since we have added to the blog, here are some cute pictures of Grace that we have taken lately!

This was taken after a recent BYU Basketball game we went to. Grace loved the game and really seemed to like wearing this popcorn tub as a hat. She also said she would love to play basketball someday as long as she gets to have the cheerleader pom-poms and cheerleader outfit. We think she is really wanting to be a cheerleader instead of a basketball player, what do you think!

These pictures were taken the day of Grace's Primary Program that she was in recently. She did a great job and enjoyed herself!

We have been busy lately, but have had a chance to do some fun things, too. We have gone to some BYU games as of late and Grace really seems to enjoy that.

Our Little Ballerina

Halloween 2007! Grace loves to dance and wanted to be a ballerina for Halloween. She is currently in a dance class, too and has a recital coming up. Anyway, here are a few cute pictures!

Here is our cute little ballerina!

Trick or Treat!

I know this last picture is kind of random, as she is washing her hands, but I thought it was a cute picture anyway.

Derek has never been a big fan of Halloween, but I have tried to convince him that we get to snitch some of Grace's candy that she gets from trunk or treating and trick or treating-- Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Boat Ride

Last Friday, October 19th, we went on a Halloween Boat Ride. It was fun! We went with the Norman's. It was a fun night, we took some pictures and wanted to share them. They had a lot of really fun, decorated Halloween stuff on the banks of the river and in the waiting area. A pirate tried to take over our boat and kept swinging over the banks of the river. Fun for all! I think Grace enjoyed herself!

Grace and Tanner Norman waiting for the boat ride!

Family Picture while on the boat

Grace thought this witch pumpkin was pretty cool

Another cute picture of Tanner and Grace

In Honor of Grandma June

My grandma June Cullimore passed away recently and we had the funeral. It was an amazing service. Grandma June is my (Derek's) dad's mom. I am happy that she is back home with grandpa and that she is also free of pain. We love her and miss her and honor her life! I always remember going to the farm and seeing the animals and playing marble games in their house. I remember the caramel popcorn that she made and the homemade ice cream. She always supported me in all of my various activities, we look forward to being with her again someday!
Here are some other pictures from the funeral and the week of activities that surrounded the funeral with family coming in to town from all over the country:

You will notice in a lot of these pictures how excited Grace is to be a big sister. Anytime Melinda was holding a niece or nephew, Grace was there wanting to help! This is Melinda with Grace and our niece Hanna Jensen at the luncheon.Here is my brother Brady, his wife Elizabeth and their daughter Sophie with Melinda and GraceFamily Picture from the luncheon

Derek and Melinda hanging out

My dad with two of his granddaughters, Grace and Hanna