As luck would have it, the DVD drive in this new computer was too much for this DVD to handle, and as soon as it got up to speed, BLAM! There’s this loud noise and the kids immediately started denying any wrongdoing (I hadn’t even accused them of anything…I wonder if I should be?)

Well, I guess the DVD was the problem, not my media center drive. So I took out the drive from Brian’s computer, put my own in it so he would have a working drive when he took the computer home that evening, and set to work dismantling the drive to rescue it if I could.

Here is some footage of what I found.

Chances are that none of you are going to buy me anything on here (though I wouldn’t complain… wink wink). But a Christmas list gives you a little glimpse at what makes us tick – the things we enjoy and dream about, what our priorities are, that sort of thing.

Later on I will try and convince Johanna to post hers as well. It might be kind of interesting to see if there is any overlap. But for now…

Mike’s Christmas List (disclaimer: this list is subject to change without notice)

• 3 (min) white shirts for church
• new garments (several)
• flat screen hdtv
• money to fix the car
• new electric razor
• new computer mouse (Logitech MX620)
• a funny hat to wear at brown-topper night
• enough wood to build some new shelving around the house (eg. Home Depot gift card)
• 1 year supply of contact lenses
• baby Glen to be born
• new shed for the back yard
• new sprinkler system in back yard, and new grass to go with it
• new driveway
• supply of blank dvd’s (to clean off the media center from it’s 64 episodes of “Curious George”, 48 episodes of “Super Why”, the recordings of “The Incredibles”, “Inspector Gadget”, “Oceans 11″ and “Apollo 13″)
• $50 to spend on iTunes
• small picture frames to take pictures of the kids/family to work
• photo paper to print pictures of the family/kids
• webcam
• plane tickets to fly to Oklahoma (yes, Sarah, we want to come visit next year!)
• BYU winning against the U and getting to a BCS bowl
• coupon good for one date night to Chinese Gourmet
• steak to cook on the BBQ (yes, with a covered back porch, you CAN have a BBQ in December)

I can hear some of you saying “Why don’t you just use facebook or picasaweb and host your photos on their servers? Well, because doing so often times means they can use those photos for their own purposes…so they are no longer mine. If you don’t believe me, take the time to read some of their legal agreements when you sign up for their services, it’s in there!

So anyway, now that I can get the pictures from my computer to the website with minimal fuss, I got the camera and uploaded a whole bunch of photos, many of which I am sure parents/inlaws/siblings would love to see! Enjoy!

It started out with the post Johanna made about James’ pronouncement that Aiden needed to “fix his attitude.” That was really cute, I will admit it. A phrase like that is almost too big for him, but I say it so often to both of the kids it was sure to come up sooner or later. That one was alright.

Just a day later, I got a call at work, and was told that Aiden had built a computer! It consisted of a large overturned clothes bucket, a pillow for the monitor, a Lego keyboard, and a toy stethoscope as a power cable. He was very excited to show me the Mythbusters game that you could play on it, but wanted me to hurry home because it was broken, and it was up to me to fix the problem. I will upload a picture of the computer later tonight, but needless to say we had a bit of fun that evening, and he continues to move his computer from room to room so he can play with it whenever he gets tired of his little brother.

Another time I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning, because I could hear the kids in the hallway and figured I needed to get the day started. For the past couple of weeks, I have been on a mission to get James to stop sucking his fingers (it’s not exactly the nicest thing when he grabs your arm and his hand is dripping with drool!) That morning, the first thing I could actually make out was Aiden saying “James, no fingers! Never, ever put your fingers in your mouth again!” Johanna told me that telling a child “never” was never a good idea. I didn’t quite know what to make of this, it was borderline cute…but I don’t want Aiden starting to think he can be policeman.

The most recent, though, came when we were getting ready to go to Game Night at my uncle Vic’s house. We were in a rush to get out the door, and what do you know, Aiden couldn’t find his shoes. Or maybe it was James wanting one last drink of water. I honestly can’t remember, but I was a little put out about it and accused someone of something, only to be proven wrong seconds after I had said it. Immediately, Johanna told Aiden and James “Ignore Daddy right now, he needs to fix his attitude.”

I guess I have a long way to go before I get my bearings in this parenting thing.