Mother's Day Poem

How much do I love you and do You Know Why?

How many prayers did you give to bring me here?
How many trials did you have to endure?
How many tears when you first held me near?
How much sacrifice I want to be clear?
How many times have you hugged me so tight?
How many times have you taught me the right?
How many times checking on me in the night?
How many times pulling the covers up tight?
How many stories have you told...
Or turned up the heat when I was cold?
How many bedtime songs have you sung...
Or turned brushing my teeth into fun?

Mother I love you the width of the sky,
How much do I love you and do you know why?

How many goodnight kisses on my cheek?
How many, add ‘em up, each and every week.
How many bad dreams have you made disappear?
How much do I love you, it soon will be clear.
How many ‘owies’ have you healed with your touch?
How in the world do you do so much?
How many times have you taken me potty?
Or been so kind and loving when I was naughty?
How many times have you wiped my baby bum?
How many times, I’m so sorry I run?
How many diapers, again how many wipes?
How many times have you earned golden stripes?

Mother I love you the width of the sky,
How much do I love you and do you know why?

How much laundry Momma, yes, how many loads?
Folding the towels and all of the clothes.
How many times filling the sink with dishes?
How do you do it, your hands turned into fishes?
How many meals, yes, how many dinners?
How do yo do it being skinny and getting thinner?
How many times have you picked up my toys?
How many times with two Lil girls and one Lil boys?
How many times have you gone without?
How many times with ne’er a complaint or even a pout?
How many times have you washed my face?
How many times have you cleaned up this place?

Mother I love you the width of the sky,
How much do I love you and do you know why?

How many times have you brushed my hair?
How many times have you told Dad, please don’t swear?
How many times have you come in the night?
How many times put me back in bed or turned off a light?
How many times with us did you stay?
While Dad had to work and be far away?
How many Sacraments alone on the bench?
How many times have you worked in what seemed like a trench?
How many lessons or Family Home Evenings?
How many examples of being Christ’s teachings?
How many times have I used what you’ve taught?
How many times your advice have I sought?

Mother I love you the width of the sky,
How much do I love you and do you know why?

How many times have you worn an old dress?
How much you have given me whilst you took less.
How many times nursed me when I was sick?
How many times when I had a sliver, scratch or a nick?
How many times have you comforted me in faithful loving arms?
How much my life with You, seems to be charmed?
How many times have we gone for walks?
How many times when I just needed a talk?
How many of my faults you look pass and erase,
how many faults with just your warm embrace?
How many times when I have been gone?
O’ How many times have I just needed my Mom?

Momma I love you the width of the sky,
That much do I love you and now you know why?

-Dan Dannehl
Mother’s Day 2008

Happy Birthday Katie!

Happy Birthday Katie - You are beautiful! I love You! - Dan

Hillarious commercial

This is one of the funniest commercials I have ever seen. Enjoy.
Dan

Daddy's Official Declaration

Monday morning I woke up and declared, "Today, my children, is Daddy-Family workday!" After the roar of the crowd died down a bit, we packed up our needed supplies and headed for Glenwood Springs. It is a wonderful little tourist spot located about 1hr and 15 min from our home in Grand junction. I quickly completed my needed work and then we headed off to ride the tram to the top of the mountain. While on top we rode the alpine slides, wow were they fast! We then went back down to warm ourselves in the Yampa vapor hot pools. Hmmmm, warm. Here are some pics of our day. Enjoy.

-Dan

Here we are riding the tram. Marlee was a lil nervous, Sam and Lizzie loved it!

Capoeira Sul da Bahia

What u see is called "Capoeira". It is a martial art from Brasil. The music is a little techno beat mixed with traditional Brasilian capoeira instruments. This video was all shot in the Bahia, that is whree I served my Mission. I used to watch guys do stuff like this all the time. Awesome!

Happy Birthday Lizzie

Happy Birthday Lizzie! I love you so much. You are such a sweet girl and you make me so happy. I can't believe you are one year old now. I remember your birth like it was yesterday. You came to us so perfect and pretty.
I love you Lizzie. -Daddy

Here is some video of Lizzie eating her Birthday cake. Yumm!

UFC in Denver

Here we are at UFC Fight Night in Denver. Katie and I drove out from Grand Junction to watch the fights. This is the first event here in Colorado since UFC#2 when Royce Gracie dominated. My mom, Gma Roni and my sister Mandy came to watch our kids while we were gone. Thanks again guys, we had the funnest time. We went shopping, went out to eat, went swimming, sat in the hot tub and of course spent most of Wednesday at the fights.

We saw lots of famous ppl, (famous in the jiu jitsu / mma world). We saw Dana White, Rampage jackson, Matt hughes, Al Roker, Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, the Tapout boys, Frank Mir, Diego Sanchez, Anthony johnson, Forrest Griffin and Jay Cutler, the Broncos QB. They were all there just watching except for Anthony. He faught Tommy Speer and knocked him out cold in the first round. I took my picture with him, below. That was cool. He is from Denver. I saw alot of those guys up close. I was using the urinal right next to Eddie Bravo. LOL. Katie said did you look over and say hi? My reply, "No, I did not want to get tapped out in a urinal with my pants down by Eddie Bravo!" LOL.

We saw Kenny Florian vs Joe Lauzon, Matt Hamil vs Tim Boetsch, Din Thomas vs Josh Neer, Clay Guida vs anon, Frank Edgar vs Gray Maynard, James Irvin vs Houston Alexander, Manny gambuirian vs. anon, Thiago alves vs Karo Parysian, Anthony Johnson vs Tommy Speer. My fave fight was Nate Diaz vs Kurt "batman" pelligrino. It was a jiujitsu war but Nate tapped him out with a triangle choke in the 2nd round. It was awesome!!!




This is video of the main event: Kenny "KenFlo" Florian vs Joe Lauzon. 155lb weight class. Kenny won by tapout in the 2nd round. It was a great fight.

Amazing Close-Up Of A Lightning Strike!!!

WOW, respect mother nature.
Dan

I do like some country music...

Well buckaroo, I had a hankerin for a new Cowboy hat. My Son, Sam (That's a good cowboy name) been wantin me to fetch a new hat since the cows had come home so I figured it was time. We strapt on our ole cowkickers and hats, fixed our buckles, (for real) and set off for the park with Momma and the girls. Momma grabbed that new fangled telefoto lens and put it in her napsack as we cleared the pasture. I must say, I'll have to load the scatter gun to keep the cowpokes (boys) away from my lil Marlee, she's quite the looker. Anywho, heres a few of the telefotos that we took at the park. While I am not ready to wear boots everyday, I do admit to loving a good western. John Wayne is a hero of mine. I grew up watching him: She wore a yellow ribbon, True Grit, The Searchers, The Cowboys, to name a few. My Son sure makes a handsome cowboy, and people tell him that where ever he goes too. Now my daughter Marlee, well, you already heard me talking 'bout the scatter gun. We had a fun afternoon.

Dan

Our Easter eggs

These are some pics of us coloring our Paschal eggs, (if you read my last post, you know what I mean). We all had a lot of fun and have enjoyed egg sandwiches for days now. Katie taught her Sunbeam lesson that Sunday and in her lesson, the kids got to hunt for eggs. Well, the eggs were empty and that signified the Risen Lord not being in the tomb. The kids just wondered where the candy was... I don't think they got it. Good try Honey, I liked the lesson. We had a good Easter.

Easter (from Wikipedia)

*Learn something new:
Easter, (according to Wikipedia) also called Pascha, is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred on the third day after his crucifixion around AD 33. Many non-religious cultural elements have become part of the holiday, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.
Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter.
Easter is termed a moveable feast because it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church (now the Coptic Church) that Easter is the first Sunday after the first fourteenth day of the moon (the Paschal Full Moon) that is on or after the ecclesiastical vernal equinox.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar. The Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion is generally thought of as a Passover meal, based on the chronology in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7). The Gospel of John, however, speaks of the Jewish elders not wanting to enter the hall of Pilate in order "that they might eat the Passover", implying that the Passover meal had not yet occurred (John 18:28; John 19:14). Thus, John places Christ's death at the time of the slaughter of the Passover lamb, which would put the Last Supper slightly before Passover, on 14 Nisan of the Bible's Hebrew calendar. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

Our Roadtrip silly list

The distance between Grand Junction Colorado and Disneyland is exactly 773 miles. Thats pretty far and we saw some cool and some silly things. This list is a compilation of a few of those things: (not in any particular order)

• Just after Green River UT, there is a crazy rock formation (big too) that looks so out of place. It looks like rolling lava that just froze, but its made of white rock?
• Cedar City UT claims to be the Shakespearean capital of the US?..Weird.
• We saw the tallest thermometer in the world, 100ft tall! (Baker, CA)
• Gateway to Death Valley- Which is 282 ft below sea level & can get into the *130's temp.
• We passed a group of about 25 "Hells Angels" motorcyclists, and noticed they were all Chinese!
• We ate at "In and Out", a very popular burger joint that only has 3 things on the menu.
• At the Sand Dunes in St. George with Eardley fam, Lizzie would rub her face right in the sand. She thought it was so soft.
• There is an abandoned water slide park in the middle of the desert in California. What was that person thinking?
• How bout the hotels in Vegas...A huge black pyramid? A bunch of sky scrapers that are connected? A huge castle? A bunch of stone looking columns?

-Dan

Disneyland!!!

We had been waiting for Disneyland for a very long time now. We finally arrived and were so excited. We met Grandma debi, Grandpa Greg and Aunt Millie here and were so excited to share it with them. It was wonderful to have them there. The weather was perfect, 78* and sunny. We had SO much fun, but got a little scared, oddly enuf, in the kids rides. Too dark for Sam and Marlee. Nonetheless, it was wonderful. We even did the night time parade. Marlee really loved all the princesses. It was somthing special to be able to have the twins 4 yr old Birthday party at Disneyland. What a cool thing! My fave ride- Soaring over Cali, Katie- Splash Mtn, Marlee- Teacups, Samuel- Splash mtn, Lizzie- Billy hill and the hillbillies. Lol. Here are some of our fave pics. I will post a slideshow in my next post. Goodbye Mickey, we love you.

St. George, first stop to Cali.

As the prior post alluded to, we spent the twins Birthdays in California! On the way there, we stopped off at Kyle and Sunee's house in St. George. My kids all love it there! So fun kids to play with and plenty of nice weather. While there, we went to some cool sand dunes and hiking areas in Snow Canyon. Here are some pics of our adventure.

Leap Year

Tomorrow is leap year day, or however you say that. What a weird quirky day if you really think about it. If my twins, Samuel and Marlee would have been born 5 days earlier then they were, then leap year would be their first Birthday. Lol, that is funny. Actually, if you really want to get crazy, then, think about this: Samuel, Marlee and lizzie are actually the same age, they just have different birthdays. With the focus on BIRTH. They were all "created" so to speak on the same day back in 2003. We have pictures to prove it too, although, we do not know which one is which at that point. LOL. Poor Lizzie was alive and doing well in her pietry dish and then BAm, they sucked all the H2o out of her and replaced it with Nitrogen and kept her frozen for three years. Lets just say, I'm glad I don't have to pay the clinic the $350 a year child support it took to keep her frozen in that icy tube. I am so grateful for each one of them. I love each one of them dearly and am so grateful for modern medicine and a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers prayers. My next post will be from Disneyland, celebrating the Twins Birthdays.
-Dan