Sick Gilmore Girls Marathon

The family has been under the weather lately. Sucks cause the kids just got better just over a week ago. Anyways, you know how sometimes when you want to buy something and your wife or your siblings also feel like they should get something too? haha well, i totally "NEEDED" an external hard drive so i can have space on my computer to get back into my creative mode with music and art...Anyways, So Mandy made a request as well :). Gilmore Girls Season 2. She got season 1 for easter, 2 from me, and had 3 from a while ago. Lots more to catch up on but the under the weather mode shot her into marathon mode. Dont tell any of the guys but i watch it all the time with her too hahahaha. Dude, "Rory's hot!" ;) hahahahahaha.

Looking for new music? | Meet Benton Paul

Yes i know, his first name sounds like his last name and the other way around but don't let that throw ya cause this kids album is awesome. Local Utah musician Benton just release his debut album and there are gems on it. Here's a link to his website to get you started: www.bentonpaul.com Check out iTunes and get a copy of the album if you dig it.

I met Benton randomly in a facebook email. He messaged me saying he was a scout from Deseret Industries and he wanted to know if i thought my music would be considered Christian. Long story short on that i do feel that although not all the tracks could go on an EFY track i do feel as though all my songs are Christian based. I say this cause every topic of my songs has to do with my moral, my perspective (eternal), be it love, thankfulness, or who i am, it all goes back to what i have learnt as a Christian. Anyways, so Benton and i started talking and then one day i get another email from him asking me to come out to an awesome studio to sing some back up vocals for his album. This was a good couple months ago. You know I'm always down to hit the studio so i went. What was real cool was there where about 8 other awesome musicians that showed up and all of them had albums, one some music contest here in Utah or something cool musically so of course i had to network a little ;).

It was tight working with Benton for an evening and the album in my opinion is GREAT and i highly recommend any reader of this to give him a listen. Enjoy.

MUSIC ON MY MIND

Whats on your itunes? I'm currently still finding song in my library i haven't listened to. I had a friend take my Mac to pimp (upgrade) it out and it came back with everything i needed and then some PLUS 30gigs of music. I found some of my favorite new artists in the new additions. Anyways. Music is ALWAYS on my mind. Writing something new or listening to it you'll catch me itching for it if you go a day with out it. I'll sleep with my headphones on if you let me. Heck ask Mandy, I've fallen asleep with the guitar still in my hands. Obsession you ask? DUH! haha. Music is more then a hobby to me, its a passion, a motivating tool that drives me to want to make more. Music is my escape and my part of my emotional chords. Music gets me in in all kinds of moods *wink wink* haha! Get your mind out of the gutter! Music excites me, makes me dance, head bang, and can even slow me down when my mind moves to fast. To me most of the time "Life IS Music"

I've been working on a lot of songs lately. its gotten to the point where I'm itching bad to get back on Sellaband and raise another 50K for another album. This time around my goal is to blow myself away with this album and FYI, I'm recording it in Utah using friends. I have so many talented friends there's no reason i should waist money and time away from my family to go to the big City to record. Also if i do it local i can take the time i need to make an album I'm 100% proud of.

The creative juices are still flowing my friends. I actually feel like I'm going to explode if i don't do something about it soon :) haha. This Saturday i have a free session to do some acoustic tracks down in Provo. I'm stoked! Hope to get some good things down. Stay tuned and I'll send you some tracks.

Thanks for listening :)

Fun Easter Pictures

The fun stuff. Making eggs, hiding them, eating them, laughing and smiling :) Good times.

Make sure and click on the photos to see view them a little larger.

Nice Easter Pictures

Here are some shots i took over Easter Weekend of the kids and cousins in their nice cloths. Right before we went crazy with candy and games that is! :)

Be sure and click on the top picture to flip through the rest of them. Goodwidget.com is awesome. You can do a couple different layouts for free and if you pay a little you can get them without the add on it. Check it out if you like it.

Natural High | Mandys First Blog Entry

Hey there folks. So this is my first attempt at a blog here:) Ive been trying to get on and figure out what to say. I think right now my life is a big whirlwind of love, emotions that are new and old, kisses from kids, and a whole lot of the word "Mom"..hahah:) I feel like I haven't really had a minuet to get my thoughts together.

The pregnancy went well with Bella. I got sick and stopped exercising in the beginning and gained lots and lots:D So now I have lots of work to do:D I CAN DO IT!!! anyways so we found out she was a girl at about 7 months in. We were all surprised and Jakey eventually started talking to us again:) He was just so upset that we were having "that" kind of baby. He loves her so much now and cant keep his eyes off of her. She is so lucky to have such an awesome pair of big brothers. So I was so ready to give birth in January but turns out I finally got induced on the 20th of Feb. OUCH!!

Jakey and Bella. He's always says "can i look at her eyes?"
I went in at about nine and they got things rolling at around 11. Ive never experienced such pain in my life. I thought I would go natural because I almost made it all natural with Jakey and it wasn't horrible. This was horrible! Holy crap what was I thinking!? I was all scared about the pain of the epidural or other things but when I finally got to the end nothing could phase me. I don't want to get too graphic here. Okay so here is an example. In the beginning you know how getting an IV is kinda painful not in a HUGE way but it hurts. Well I got the iv in the beginning and was so glad that was over. at the end of the day they were poking my arm all over trying to get a vain cause my iv had fallen out and it didn't hurt one bit. I could hardly tell they were touching me cause that baby was sooooooooooo causing me real pain. When we first started the lady was trying to explain what a "ten" was in pain. She said its like someone is sawing your leg off. That would be a ten. We were all like Whoa!! anyways I am not exaggerating I would rather of had my limb cut off than do that again. I really didn't think I could get through it. I was so innocent when it all started. I thought I would love to try natural and heal faster and be able to get up and walk around during labor. Oh I cringe when I see myself talking about it on the video. I think you poor poor girl. Anyways so I wasn't moving along as fast as the doctor had thought I would and I made it to an 8 and had been in hard labor for about three hours and still they thought it was gonna be a while so when I was screaming for drugs or begging what ever I cant remember that much really they said yeah lets go ahead and get the doc down here. Well turns out he was stuck with another girl and couldn't come!!! WHAT!!! anyways so I had no energy and I was loosing focus and it hurt so sososo bad...did I say that already haha.

So Bellas heart rate kept going down so every time I pushed they would push her back in and rub her head. I was pushing the docs hands away pissed that she was bugging me when I had two seconds to rest. haha...anyways I kept saying I couldn't do it and to just get her out and to just cut her out and if there was a knife I really would have tried to cut her out. anyways eventually they brought in the doctor cuz they thought I might have to have a c-section. I was all (in my head) how the heck are they gonna give me a c-section with no anesthesiologist? I was like no way a I waiting that long. It was shift change right about then so there were about 8 nurses in there with the midwives and Jake and my mom. Everyone it seemed was cheering for me and there was one voice that came in through the fog. I had just prayed for help from Heavenly Father and then these nurses started coaching me and I could just hear this one voice . I cant remember exactly what she was saying just remember thinking okay I can do this and then from nowhere came all this strength and I pulled my had from the lady who kept poking it and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and finally I felt that burn and I could feel her moving and then there was a snip and then there is just nothing to describe the feeling. I saw her little face and then her shoulders and i was just in heaven. I was finally done and the baby was fine and I was fine and I could not believe I had really done that!!!

I had never felt so good and so wonderful in my whole life. I don't think there is any drug that could make me feel so amazing as I felt right after I gave birth! I could fly, I could sing a thousand praises..lol...I was finally there.

Baby came out the wrong way and I guess that is why it was so hard. Dang girl:) anyways more later:) bella calls:)

Random Fan Video

So Joel sent me a link to this the other day. A new listener found "The Way I Feel" a song i got to collaborate on with a Dutch band called Nemesea. This listener took the track and edited his own little video with animated characters. Pretty cool stuff. He did a pretty good job editing it up. Got me listening to that song again too. Check it out yall. The ending is the best. Vocally that is ;)
Enjoy.

Side note | You can download this track FREE just click HERE

Adele | Hometown Glory

I love this song. Hometown Glory by Adele. Enjoy.

Coming Soon | Stories about this little guy

BABY ZION | A.K.A CURIOUS GEORGE

Jakey Boy. Such a sweet kid. He is 5 and my little buddy. Sometimes im pretty hard on him but MOST of the time i treat him like my best friend ever. I like treating him like an adult (like a grownup equal) He likes to ask questions. Over and over again type of questions LOL. I dont get tired of it really. I love that his mind is always wondering about things. He has been stuck on Dinosaurs forever! Always acting like one or drawing a million pictures and naming them all. I love asking him to tell me what it is he is drawing.

Jakeys drawings blow my mind. He really thinks about what he draws. He kind of skipped the whole stick figure thing and went right into drawing people, dinosaurs, and shapes. I totally remember the first time i caught him watching me draw. Well the first time i noticed anyways. We where laying on the ground and he wanted me to draw a picture for him. Something was playing on TV (some cartoon) and i started drawing one of the characters in the cartoon for him. He would look at the TV then at me drawing back and forth till i was done. After that i would find Jakey sitting in front of the TV with his magnadoodle trying to draw things he was watching. He was 4 when he was doing this so for me it would blow my mind when he would show me detailed drawings of what he was watching. Just the other day he did an unmistakable drawing of Nemo, all his friends, the "Butt"(Boat) and the scuba diver coming to scoop Nemo up. Soon he's going to be teaching me how to draw. Here's a little drawing he did on some note paper of Sponge Bob and his neighborhood. He even drew the ocean top with the island and clouds above. "oooooooo who live in a pinneapple under the sea!?" So cute.
Jake is such a great helper. He cleans up real good, likes cooking with mommy, puts his dirty cloths in the laundry baskets, is always looking out for his brother Zion. Actually he is pretty over protective of his little brother. I think its all good but Mandy thinks he is a little extreme. Jake wont let Zion get very close to the road without mommy or daddy around which i think is great. I'll post about Zion later but he is a hand full. I think he looks and acts like Curious George and is always wanting to get into stuff he knows hes not suppose to. Jakey knows it too and stresses out trying to help Zion learn these things too. Funny i would expect most kids to get to get in trouble together but Jakey is always trying to keep Zion in line. Thats my big boy.

Jakey has been kind of slow at learning his numbers and letters but im not to worried about it just yet. I love that he is so original. He makes up his own songs all the time and is not afraid to share his songs and his art. The other day he started rhyming. I cant wait to see if any of my kids start writing and playing music. So far i have enough kids to start a band soon :). Jake has a little guitar he likes to crack out and freestyle with all the time. Zion likes standing on it haha.

Saddens me to think he is going to start school this year. He is not my little baby anymore. He is so smart and i love watching him grow. He is teaching me so much about being a dad and enjoying life. There's so much i can say about my little buddy but one things for sure is that i love my Jakey Boy :).

Happy Easter | Road Trip

So after i get off work today (yup im blogging at work) the WHOLE family is heading to Lovell Wyoming. Pretty much the middle of now where. Its actually pretty refreshing to get up there out in the open country road and take in the sites, some four wheeling, and hanging out watching the grass grow BUT this time we are traveling with Bella. 8 hour car ride with a back seat full of kids. This might actually turn into a 24 hour drive haha.

Babys been pretty needed (as most babies are). She doesn't sleep very long at all and when she does it seems to be right during the time everyone is wide awake LOL. Girls! haha.

So long road a head and a good time awaits us. Happy Easter.

The Story | The Short Version

Mandy and I met in 99 at EFY. I seen her around before that but we never talked till the dance at EFY. From one talk to the next i fell more and more in love with her innocents, purity, and beauty (okay cue the lame sissy music for me please hahaha). We started dating and shortly after that she moved from Honolulu to Laie, a sign? i think so. Did someone just say "Fate"? or maybe "Destiny"? I must be hearing things LOL. I left on a mission at the end of 99. She was my rock on the mission. Very supportive and motivating. After my mission i was lucky enough to find Mandy was not married yet so i jumped right on it. I wasn't trying to set any kind of record or anything but we got married 6 weeks after i got home. I just couldn't see life working out any other way looking back on it. Since 2001 we now have 2 totally fun boys Jake (5 years old), Zion (2 years old), and now the my little girl has arrived! Baby Isabella (1 month old). Through ups and downs life with mandy and my little kids has been so wonderful. I am chasing my dreams and i couldn't ask for a more understanding supportive wife. Life is good. Ofa 'i api (Love at home)