Liam Joseph O'Berry

Liam Joseph O'Berry was born today January 19, 2011 at 6:44pm at LDS Hospital. He was 6 pound 15 ounces and 20 inches long. He has ten little finger and ten little toes, two blue eyes and a little cute nose. Mommy and baby are doing just fine.

2010 in Review

Well, I have to say that 2010 was a MUCH better year than was 2009. Let's review some of the highlights shall we?

• After approximately 14.5 months of being out of work I got a job. More importantly, I still have said job.
• The LOST Series Finale lived up to all my expectations. You know, I even watched it while wearing my suit so I could be dressed like Jack was in the series pilot. Nerdy? yes.
• Patrick Rothfuss announced the publication date for The Wise Man's Fear.
• Alisa continued to become more beautiful.
• Alisa and I found out that we would be having another little boy.
• NBC premiered The Event.
• Chuck began its best season so far.
• I grew my first "Big Max" pumpkin.
• My dad gave me a 42" plasma TV. BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!
• We purchased a new furnace just in time to get all the 2010 rebates.
• On the last day of 2010 I made the switch to a Blu-ray Disc player.

So, that about sums it up. Happy 2011 to you all!

The So-So Voyage of The Dawn Treader

So, yesterday Alisa and I went to see the The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. In spite of the lackluster reviews this movie was getting from the critics I went in with high hopes. Dawn Treader is my favorite of the books so I really wanted it to be awesome. I'm sad to say that it was not all I hoped it would be. Well, it was pretty good but it wasn't great. They made some pretty major changes from the book which I didn't really care for and that seemed a bit unnecessary. Now, I didn't hate it or anything but it certainly wasn't as good as the first two movies. However, on the positive side I must acknowledge that the kid who played Eustace Scrubb just did it wonderfully. He is just the way I would have expected Eustace to be. There are also some comments that Aslan makes at the end of the book that give insight into his true identity but that I was worried might be left out because they are too blatantly Christian for most secular movie makers. To my surprise those comments were included. Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable movie. But, as I watched it there was just that nagging thought in the back of mind telling me that it could have been so much better.

The 2010 Pumpkins

Well, in spite of rumors to the contrary, I have not abandoned my blog. I've just been a little bit lazy in my updates as of late. However, it is now that important time of year were I present to the world the fruits of my pumpkin patch. As I indicated in previous posts, this year's patch has not yielded any big pumpkins. This saddened me greatly especially since this was the first year that I planted "Big Max." So, I had really been hoping for some mega pumpkins. However, 'twas not to be. At first I thought that the primary problem was the weather but now I think it was more of a problem with crop rotation. It seems that when you grow the same plant in the same spot three years in a row you don't get as good results. Who knew?! So, since I have a crop of diminutive pumpkins I decided this year to name them all after equally diminutive characters from some of my favorite (and not so favorite) books. A special Halloween treat to the person who can successfully identify the book that each and every one of these twelve pumpkins got their names from.* So, with no further ado, I proudly present to all one of you Ryan's Pumpkin Patch 2010!Back Row: Old Fatty Lumpkin (10.2 lbs), Frodo (4.4 lbs), General Woundwart (4.2 lbs), Reepicheep (4.4 lbs), Gorbert (7.8 lbs) - Front Row: Samwise (4.4 lbs), D.L.F. (6.0 lbs), Trufflehunter (4.6 lbs), Jenks (4.0 lbs), Griphook (4.0 lbs)

Roofintop Dobby (3.0 lbs) and Flitwick (4.0 lbs)

*Open to legal U.S. Residents. Void where prohibited; please see official rules (if there were any). My wife and my sister Shanna are not eligible because I've told them all or most of the answers at some point. No treat if you cheat by typing the names into a search engine.

First Pumpkin of 2010

So, yesterday I picked the first of this year's pumpkins. Collin was really excited about it so I put it in his room. It weighed in at 7.8 lbs and I named it Gorbert after a furry-faced little monster in one of Collin's current favorite books. Sadly, this rather small pumpkin is in all likelihood the biggest one my pumpkin patch is going to produce this year. Pumpkins, and vine fruits in general, have not done very well this year around here due mainly to an unusually cold and wet June. There is one other pumpkin out there that might possibly make ten pounds but I'm not holding my breath.

Superwife!

So, I would like to take a moment to brag a little about the incredible woman I married. She does so much more for our family than I could ever even begin to give her the proper credit for but I want to mention just two things that she has done recently that have reminded me of how awesomely awesome Alisa is. First, earlier this week we went down to a title company to sign the papers to refinance our mortgage. This was a really good deal we got and it will save us nearly $200 per month. I want you to know that I did essentially nothing to bring this about. Alisa made all the phone calls, set all the appointments. I just signed the stuff she needed me to sign and sent one e-mail that they needed to have from me. This involved an immense amount of work on her part and I am so grateful to her for taking care of it all for us. The second thing I wanted to mention was Alisa's great work on our son Collin's 2nd birthday. She organized the celebration, bought all the presents and made the incredible tractor cake you see below. Yeah, she made that from pretty much just a picture she found on the internet and some very general instructions. Pretty freakin' sweet, huh? She's good-looking and smart. And, I know something about being good-looking and smart. I have come to the conclusion that Alisa must not really be from Idaho. I think she must be from the planet Krypton because she is not just a wife; she is a Superwife!

The Pumpkins Are Coming! The Pumpkins Are Coming!

As you can see from these pictures my pumpkin patch has started to produce a lot of pumpkins. I took these pictures a few days ago and many of these are a lot bigger now and there are a few new pumpkins that have since started to grow.

The first picture and the one above are some of the "big max" pumpkins that I planted for the first time this year. They will not be the traditional dark orange color of the pumpkins most people use for Halloween but they can get to be over 50 pounds so I'm really hoping to have a few really big jack-o-lanterns on my front porch this year.

There are actually two pumpkins in this picture. Can you spot them? Wow, this post is kind of like an "I Spy" or a "Where's Waldo" book!