Happy Birthday Bradley!!!

Twenty-eight years ago, Dad and I went to Los Altos Hospital in Long Beach California, where we anticipated the quick natural birth of our first baby. Little did we know what was instore for us over the nearly three decades to come. I was not in labor upon arrival, but they induced labor for nearly 24 hours and nothing happened! So after one long night of listening to the hispanic woman in the room next door screaming in spanish, they performed a c-section. We thought we were quite progressive as Dad dressed up in scrubs and actually got to be there in the operating room for the birth. I was given a spinal anethestitic and was cut open vertically, possibly because my doctor was eighty years old and still practiced midevil medicine!! It was around 1:00 on a saturday afternoon and Grandpa and Grandpa came to the hospital as soon as they could, but had to leave quickly because they had theater tickets to see Evita. We could not have been happier when we saw this round, bald, tan, blue-eyed little guy. Boy was he cute! We thought we were pretty capable, but looking back, we were two-young and inexperienced kids who were sent home from the hospital to raise this little (well, not that little 8lbs. 13 oz.) person. How could they have trusted us?? Well, things turned out pretty well, you can see the result...an extremly fine young man came out of the whole thing. Happy Birthday Bradley! It's been a pleasure to be your mom for the past 28 years. I love you.

Hi this is Katelyn calling from Mediconnect....

Last summer I got this job at a records retrival facility. It was not my favorite job but I got a nice paycheck. I wouls much prefer not having to talk on the phone the whole day. When it came to looking for a job for this summer I really did not want to do a lot of looking around. I called them again right when school got out and asked if I could come back and work with them again and they said that I could come back starting May 11th right after our California vacation. I was so happy not to be working there again but to know I had a job was such a big relief off of my shoulders. I have now been working there for a little over a month and nothing exciting has really happened there because I do the same thing every single day. I thought I would give you all a synopsis of what my day is like. I get up around 5:40 and 5:45am each morning because I work at 7. Since me and dad work at the same time he gives me a ride. I walk into the building about 10 before 7 so Ihave enough time to put my things in my locker and walk over to my cubicle. I clock into my computer and then I sit there for about 10 minutes because I do not want to start work. There is a system on the computer that I log into where all of my work is. Where I work I am in the call center and I make out going calls to hospitals and clinics to request medical records on behalf of insurance companies and law firms. When I log in I can see the number I need to call and the notes that have been made on previous calls to the facility. These notes help direct me on what I need to say when I call the facility. I make several different types of calls daily. A first call consists of asking if we can send over a request for medical records and we verify the fax number and the mailing address. Once that is done we can in our system send a fax or mail something out. When then set the call back for 1 business day so we can verify the request has been received. On the third call after we have verified the information we check the status and find out when the records wil be sent to us. This is what I do the entire day so it is very exciting. I am given 2 10 minute breaks and a half an hour lunch. I usually take a break around 10:30, lunch at 12 and then my last break at 2:30. When I get off that is the best part of my day. I go outside and just think how did I do that all day while I am waiting for dad to come pick me up. I hope you have all enjoyed a day in my life at MediConnect Global!

Here are some Cali pictures. I found this randomly and thought it was pretty funny. She looks so distraught!

Cute Roll...chillin at the beach.

Disneyland!

Matt....

This one is by far my favorite :) great job Mom!

This is at Kelli's graduation! GOOOOO Kelli!
Be sure to check out the post below!

Hey Dad!

When I say, "Hey Dad" you say, "Hey what"

"Hey Dad"

Mom and Riley recently came up with a secret handshake. I think Dad and I beat that... Dad and I yell the above quotes back and forth several time. Not only is it cooler than a handshake, it isn't a secret.

Anyway, I thought I'd get on and wish the father of this fam a Happy day. He was treated to a delicious breakfast in bed full of runny eggs, sausage and pancakes! Then his lovely children (that were home) showered him with presents. Dad is currently upstairs taking a nap and I have only seen him for a total of 20 minutes today. I don't know if that makes his fathers day better or worse. Kelli is upstairs making some Mexican food upon Dad's request. I am enjoying the silence in my new room! That has insullation in the ceiling to cushion the noise from upstairs. Maybe one day I'll post pictures of this lovely place.

I'm very grateful for Dad and all he sacrifices for us kids. He does so much for us and a lot of his time and effort goes unnoticed. Dad is incredible! We are very blessed to have a father that holds the priesthood and able to use it anytime. He is always loving, always a wonderful example of kindness and service. You rock!

Hey, Dad!

--Allison

The new job.

Hey everybody! I hope all of you are doing great. So, I thought it was about time that I add to the family blog. I don't have anything exciting going on in my life...but I did start a new job!
For those of you who don't call and or talk to me (Brad..Matt..just kidding) I started my new job on monday. I work as a camp counselor at an elementary school with 50 kids whose parents work during the summer. It is basically babysitting all day, trying to entertain the little stinkers. We do a lot of fun things such as swimming, mini golf, classic skating, dance, play games, (dodgeball is my new favorite) and other fun activities. You might ask yourself, "Hey Alli why don't you find a better job that pays more than minimum wage?" If I were there, I would answer "Hey punk. I'm desperate. There are a lot of jobs worse than this."
Nonetheless, I come home completely exhausted and tuckered out from reminding a kid with a mustache to stop talking. Yes, he is 12 and has a full mustache.
The other day we were at the swimming pool and a little boy came up to me and said "I think you should use the Ped egg" Thanks Micah.
One more thought. On the first day the kids gave me a nickname the second I walked in the room. One girl yells out, "Oh my goodness, you look like an Angel!" Needless to say, it stuck. It is so dumb. The coordinator refuses to call me Allison and I just cringe whenever someone attemps to call me Angel. Infact, I correct them everytime and try to explain that I don't answer to Angel and that if they want my attention they should just call me Allison. So far, no one has listened.

New Stake Presidents

Life changed for the Davidson family yesterday, Big Time! Uncle Jamie was called to serve as a Stake President. Elder Russell Nelson was the visiting authority for the weekend , so Jamie was interviewed during the day, then both he and Judy were called back and interviewed again separately then called into together where they were issued the call. He called 2 other current bishops to serve as counselors, so they will have to replace 3 bishops right away. I heard Elder Nelson also related his recent experience in Africa and shared the miraculous events that happened as the robbery unfolded. I haven't talked to them yet, but I would like to hear all about it. Anyway, we wish the Davidsons well, it's going to be a challenge, but they are very capable people and will do a great job with the help of Heavenly Father.
We also went back to the old Bingham Creek Stake yesterday to be in attendance as they sustained a new stake president. President Smith was released after serving 8 years. He did a wonderful job and Dad, especially has some very fond memories of serving with him. The new president is President Ron Watkins, counselors are Pres. Nipko and Pres. McCleave. Pres. Watkins was a counselor for 8 years and now has 10 more years to look forward to. That is a long time to serve in a calling, but he will do great too.

California Pictures

It's been over a month since the vacation ended, but in my mind I'm still there. Here are some pictures from California, the most wonderful place on the planet.

Jane is wearing her Mermaid glasses upside down while eating breakfast at Disneyland. Notice the Mickey Mouse waffles. We paid a good deal of money to eat a buffet breakfast and mingle with the terrifying Disney characters. I drank a lot of chocolate milk to get my money's worth.

Mandy with Pooh to her right and Annie's spit up down her front. Mandy took several of Annie's shots at breakfast that morning but didn't let it ruin her day. Something like that probably would have ruined my day.

Day 2 at Disneyland. Alli introduced Jane to the magical world of the high school musical. They sang and danced together and I imagine that pretty soon, Jane will want to start watching the musical shows or, even worse, this Hannah girl from Montana.

Standing in line to ride the caterpillar at the Bug's Life area. This ride lasted like 26 seconds but did have some nice smells along the way. And who doesn't enjoy a caterpillar with a German accent.


Not sure what was so wild about this ride, but everyone who rode it claimed it was much more engaging than it appeared to be to me, a bystander.


The two "A" people in the family sharing a moment in what once was the parking lot of Disneyland.


The happy family at the happiest place on earth.


This picture turned out pretty neat as we were leaving Disneyland. This was right after our VIP status took us to the front of the line to ride the cars.


Getting our disc on at the beach. I hope no frolf scouts were watching us, we were pretty pathetic that afternoon.


Jane is in love with the beach. She can't stop talking about it. And Kansas couldn't be any further from an ocean. That's no hyperbole, if you were to cut America in half according to distance from the two oceans, your line would run right through Lawrence. It might even cut our apartment in half.


I concede: I am the shortest of the brothers. It's not fair or just, but it's nature and you can't fight nature. We can officially stop doing the back to back measurements. I am, however, taller than all of the girls in the family.


Sweet Larry Welk (may he rest in peace) has built a wonderful resort in a beautiful location. I really enjoyed myself and didn't want to leave. His show on PBS is still unwatchable.

Riley finished his last day of school on Friday. He completed another successful year, as he is shown here being inducted to West Jordan's National Honor Society. We are really proud him!

For our inaugural post, we would first like to thank Stacy for setting up this fantastic blog. It only took Dad and I an hour to figure out how to download our pictures to the computer and then download them again to this site. We can only improve from here! These are a few of our favorite pictures from Bradley's graduation day a couple of weeks ago. What a great day and lovely trip! We are so proud of both Bradley and Mandy for this wonderful accomplishment. One thing we didn't get a picture of, was Matt laying on one bed and us on the other in our shared hotel room. At least he didn't attack me with the ped egg like he did in California! Jane and Grandpa finally got another chance to go swimming together and boy, was it fun. I know you will all look forward to our next post! PS...the pasta recipe looks yummy, where do you buy the ravioli? And Mandy, the felt food is too cute!

Stacy might be one of the best bloggers around

Since Bradley has made it quite clear that there will be no feelings shared on this blog, I will keep them concise. I would like to throw out a mad prop to Stacy for getting this blog started. We are starting to realize that we are moving away from our families and we will incur a case of Brad syndrome and we will need a few more pictures and thoughts from the family members. I also am glad that Stacy has included a clock for Arizona time, which is needed, because apparently half of the year it is in mountain standard time, the other half is in pacific standard time, and a few days of the year they don't even keep time. Its too hot to go outside to even look at the stick in the ground that tells them what time it is. The move is creeping up on us even quicker than we think. Today I tried to convince Kelli that she needs to buy a town home in the Orem-Provo area, keep that streak alive. I think that could be a wise investment. She could even rent the spare rooms out to Katelyn and Allison. This may have trouble written all over it.

So, I am looking for ways to be able to meet our new neighbors in Arizona and I am open to any suggestions. I am hoping to befriend some neighbors with a tepid pool. I think that I will just show up and start swimming and never leave. I guess I can buy a little kiddy pool and try to cool off that way. Either way, I need to come up with something. I really have already spotted all of the neighbors around us on google maps that have pools. There is one across the street and another one down the street. Ill start with them and continue to search until I can latch onto one.

Also, anytime you can get a jbc that is worth 1.07 to appraise for much less than it is worth, Ill take it.

Recipe

Hey, nice job with the blog so far. I like seeing other people post things. I'll put up the vacation pictures soon, Brad, but I want to put this on here first. This is a recipe I've wanted to share with someone for a while, so here it is... This is Cheese Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables from Olive Garden. Olive Garden has a really cool website with tons of recipes. The only thing with their recipes, though, is that almost all of them have 8 gallons of heavy cream and 6 kegs of olive oil. I went through and chose a few that were healthier--meaning no cream. This one is really good--we have it all the time. I don't follow the directions exactly, so I put my variations in blue.


Cheese Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables

Ingredients:

1 lb mini round cheese ravioli, cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use like 1 Tbsp. It's only to brown veggies, so I don't use much)
1 clove fresh garlic, chopped (I usually don't add this--we don't eat a lot of garlic.)
2 7-oz jars roasted red peppers, sliced in strips (I don't add this either.)
1 whole, medium fresh zucchini, sliced in half moons (This is the best part! We add lots of this.)1/2 cup black olives, sliced
1 cup chicken broth
Grated Parmesan to taste
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Procedures:

HEAT olive oil over medium heat in saucepan. Add roasted red pepper strips, zucchini moons, garlic and black olives. Cook while stirring for 2 minutes or until the zucchini reaches desired texture. Add chicken broth and let sauce simmer for 2 minutes. Season with salt and cracked black pepper to taste. (I have been adding about a teaspoon or so of corn starch to the sauce to make it thicker. Just the broth and oil is pretty runny, so I try to thicken it to help it stick to the ravioli.) DRAIN cooked ravioli well. Toss ravioli in a small amount of olive oil to prevent sticking. Add cooked ravioli to sauce. Blend well, allowing sauce to cover ravioli. PLACE sauced ravioli on serving plate. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Kelli's Birthday

Too bad you all missed this.

Jane's Felt Lunch

Here's the felt lunch I made for Jane.

Would you like to try one?

For all those who don't know about Alli's most recent temp job, I'm going to attempt to inform you. We all know one of the highlights about going to Costco or Sam's Club is tasting the samples and then going back again, and again and again. Perhaps it's the pizza, the roasted chicken, the macaroni salad, the protein bar, or even the newest gatorade drink. Maybe it's just the cheap and thrifty side of the Serafines, but we all like a good sample. Well, a few weeks ago I was able to pick up Alli from Sam's club after her long 2 day temp job. I arrived a little bit earlier to find this...


That's right. That's Alli's backside. I seriously couldn't resist snapping this picture from the other isle. The picture is not that great and you might not be able to see her hair net. But, trust me, it was there and it was pretty funny. Seeing her in a hairnet was perhaps the greatest thing I've ever seen. She was a good little worker and made frowning children smile, cut the cookies into perfect fourths and even had a smile on her face. I am still trying to figure out why they didn't hire her full time. I wonder if she would have taken that job?

Jane Tickling Matt in California

Jane loves this video. Honestly, so do I.

I'd like to see what pictures people took in California. I miss the Larry Welk Resort. Why doesn't everyone choose 5-10 of their favorites pictures and post them. I'll pick some of my favorites and do the same.

2 photos from graduation

We all know Mom would never pick her nose, not even in private, but this picture provides persuasive evidence that she is a picker. But who among us hasn't had occasion to clean house? When Moses was in the desert for 40 years, you bet he was picking, what with all that dry hot air. There is no shame in a pick. If we pick, do we not bleed? I am not an animal.
This was one of the few moments when Matt wasn't making my daughters cry. My favorite was when Matt had both girls crying simultaneously. The little delicate flowers need more teasing in their daily routines.

I LOVE IT!

Thanks Stacy! I am excited to hear what is going on with everyone. Lets share what we are watching, cooking, reading, and crafting too. Did everyone see Men v. Wild with Will Ferrell? Hilarious.
I just finished making a felt lunch sack which you can find here.

This is a very nice idea

I believe this blog will be a very nice outlet to share news, pictures, stories, videos, links to websites, or whatever else we want to use it for. Let's not have any of this "tagging" business. And no sharing of feelings, please.

Frankly, I'm glad to have another site to visit when the bar studies get too tiresome. One can never have too many distractions.

Right now I'm watching game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals on ESPN Classic. Karl is taking 12 seconds to dribble the ball and say something to himself before shooting free throws. Jordan is tearing up Bryan Russell and Shandon Anderson all while chewing gum and hanging his tongue out the side. The Big Dog is wearing his shaded glasses in the always-bright Delta Center. Dennis Rodman has green and black hair and is pulling down an inordinate amount of rebounds. Stockton's shorts are leaving little to the imagination. The key is painted a delightful teal color. The Mailman has a very nice baseline turn-around jumper. Howard Eisley didn't get enough appreciation for backing up Stockton. Just a few thoughts.

Man the Bulls were good. Pretty soon MJ will be shooting the game winner after Russell falls on his rear. All of SLC will claim a push but we all know there was no such thing. Jordan's crossover put Russell on the floor. He was a very good basketball player. He had 45 points in Game 6, and won his 6th (of 6) Finals MVP awards.

Hey I bought a junior bacon cheeseburger at Wendy's today for $1.06, but then it appraised for only $.92, so I had the manager reduce the price accordingly and I only paid $.92. And he paid for the wrapper.

Jane is in bed playing with a puzzle because she refuses to sleep and we don't want her out with us. She is asking for a wipe for some reason. Earlier she requested animal crackers, which we ignored. She also asked for juice. Now her pleas for a wipe are getting more desperate. Perhaps I should get her a wipe.

Welcome to our family blog...

Well, here it is in all it's glory. I know it isn't terribly cute, so if you have an idea to make it cuter, let me know. We've created this blog so everyone (even those of you that don't have your own blog) can put picutures, stories, recipies, etc. online for everyone else to see.

Instructions for posting on the blog...if you haven't blogged before...

Go to the link on the top right corner that says "New Post." If you see the link to the blog on the "dashboard" (the page will say "dashboard") just click on "New Post." This takes you to a page with a blank text box. Add whatever you want! If you want to add a picture, click on little blue square that looks like a tiny picture. If you want to add a video, click on the tiny film strip. If this is too confusing, let me know. I'll be more than happy to show you.