I got a call from Tiff around 10:30am letting me know that she was going into labor.  I raced home and then down to Bakersfield, and the baby arrived at 12:44–about 30min after we got to the hospital (fortunately there were no cops along the way–a ticket for going 110 in a 65 zone would’ve hurt).  Tiff and the baby are both fine.  7lb 7oz, 21.5 in long.  And yes, we are calling him Peter Yuri Goff.

Anyhow, gotta run.  Posting this from a wifi hotspot while grabbing some food.

…And it looks like the flavor de jour is another Blueberry.

It reminds one of how fragile life is, and how little we know how much time we have left. Amanda never got to experience many of those things in this life that make life so meaningful.  But Amanda was an angel in this life, and  I have no doubt where she is now.

One of the greatest promises of the gospel is that all will be made right in the end.  That no matter how short life may be, no matter how difficult or painful, no blessing will be witheld in the eternities for those who lived worthy of them here.  The other great promise is that we can be together again some day with those family members and friends who have gone on ahead. It’s those promises that give me hope, and I hope and pray they can sustain my Aunt Joane and the rest of her household in this time of sadness.

There are no real farewells.  Only ‘tll we meet again’s.

We’ve decided to let you all participate in a poll to decide the name of our next child. Please choose one first and middle name from each category. All entries must be submitted before mid-April, 2009. More complete instructions may be provided in December.

Girl
First names:
Gwynevere
Morgan
Miriam
Liberty

Middle names:
Lillian/Lily
Eleanor
Elizabeth
Anne
Rae

Boy
First names:
Ian
Gideon
Jackson
Ryan

Middle names:
Shawn/Sean
Daniel
Joseph
Michael
Andrew

We look forward to your responses. We really do.

I’m looking forward to driving up to Utah next weekend to get to see these crazy kids.

This first one is James and George (Pierce Nichols’ little boy) at a birthday party for Jonny and James last December. Tiff got that big plastic tub, and filled it full of pinto beans for the kids to play with. I’m sure the Banks family is still finding beans hiding in their garage!

Jonny really likes the camera, and every time we try to take a picture of him doing something cute, he tries to get us to give him the camera. He’s definitely a technophile.

This is Jonny, demonstrating that his Tool-Fu is strong.

James on the other hand takes after his mom–he’s probably going to be a musician.

I’ve always been impressed though with Tiff’s ability to improvise. Here’s the “sled” she came up with for the boys so they could play in the snow.

Of course in this picture, with all the layers Tiff put on him, James looks like “Ralphie” from that movie “A Christmas Story”.

Here’s Jonny and James being GQ.

This was from Sunday. I’m glad Jonny and James get along so well. They’re both a bunch of laughy-heads.

Especially James.

As it is, I started hearing rumors a few weeks ago that Jenny was dating some “Returned Missionary”. Apparently even though he lived on the opposite side of town (and of course neither of them had a car) he was walking her home and staying up talking on her front porch till 1am on a regular basis. Having been there and done that myself, I knew what the signs meant, and figured there was a decent chance I was going to be hearing about an engagement at some point in the near future. After all, Tiff and I had only been dating in such a manner for three weeks when we got engaged.

So I get a call from my sister Monday, squeakily announcing that they were getting married, and that I ought to see if I could get some time off in the next three weeks to come up and meet him. I asked if they had picked a date, and they said no. Then I hear later on in the day that they actually meant that the wedding itself was going to be within the next three weeks, but the Salt Lake Temple was booked solid through the end of the month. So I figured, ok that’ll give me some time to arrange for a Friday off, and get caught-up on work after being gone most of last week. No problem.

Then I get a call later in the day telling me that they had picked a date–this Friday. By the way, yes, having a 4 day engagement does strike me as clinically insane too. My parents had a short engagement (first date week before Thanksgiving, engaged at Thanksgiving, married between Christmas and New Years), but less than a week is impressively fast. Of course this meant that I wasn’t able to make it. I haven’t even seen a picture of the guy, talked with him, or even chatted with him on the intertubes. He’s a nice guy from what I hear. Name is Allan or Allen or something like that [Edit: It turns out it's Alan...Hey, at least I was close!]. Apparently he did the same thing I did (started college at BYU at 16), but he switch majors enough that he didn’t graduate before his mission. When he got home, some of his old best friends convinced him to transfer down to George Wythe College (the little ~100 student liberal arts school my siblings have all gone to so far) just in time to meet Jen.

Anyhow, in spite of slight annoyances at being kept completely out of the loop like this, I am happy for them. Hopefully I’ll actually get to meet the guy sometime in the next month or two or three. Maybe someone can eventually send me a picture as well.

Kids these days.

This last one is an oldie, but one of my favorites. It was a picture from when Tiff and I had just gotten engaged (which was four years ago Friday). It was sitting in my scriptures for most of the past four years, and I realized that I probably ought to scan it in, as I don’t think I have any other copies of the picture.

And yes, before I got married, I was actually skinny. Thanks for asking.