Articles of Faith of Mormon Culture

I thought this was funny. I especially like #9.

1. We believe in SUVs and minivans, as the form of transportation, and in knee length shorts, which are always nice, and in the multilevel marketing.

2. We believe that church ball players should be punished for their own fouls, and not for unsportsmanlike aggression.

3. We believe that through bread crumbs, cheese, creamy soups, and rice all casseroles can be saved through obedience to ward cookbooks and creativity in the mixing bowl.

4. We believe that the first layers and ingredients of the Dip are: first, beans; second, cheese; third, chopped tomatoes; fourth, the gift of sour cream; fifth, olives; sixth, salsa; seventh, guacamole, that is, if you have it.

5. We believe that a Mormon should have a distinguished or a cute name, that it is appropriate to name a child after a church leader or a historical figure including an ancestor, that alternative spellings and French prefixes only add to a name, and that when referring to the names of General Authorities, middle initials should be a part thereof.

6. We believe in the same wall decor that exists in many Mormon homes, namely, framed family proclamations, vinyl lettering, inspirational word signs, family photos, pictures of temples and Jesus, and so forth.

7. We believe in the gift of the re-gift, church books, crafts, family photos, baked goods, emergency supply kits, and so forth.

8. We believe in sparkling grape juice so long as it is nonalcoholic; we also believe in bringing root beer and sprite to ward parties.

9. We believe in all that we have scrapbooked, all that we will now scrapbook, and we believe that we will yet scrapbook many great and important things pertaining to our family, friends, pets, and vacations.

10. We believe in the literal mixing of ketchup and mayo and in the generous application of ranch dressing; that CBAs (church-based acronyms) will be used to describe YM/YW, PEC, the Y, NCMO, and CTR; that Mitt Romney will get Mormons to vote for him any time he runs; and, that the Mormons will enjoy reading Twilight and The Work and the Glory.

11. We claim the privilege of trying to identify common acquaintances with any visitor at church, and allow all other people at church the same privilege, and let them name drop the names of Famous and general authorities how, where, or what they may.

12. We believe in being subject to scoutmasters, pampered chef hostesses, and the writers of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings for professional schools, and in obeying, honoring, and sustaining Glenn Beck.

13. We believe in being above average, good at crafts, optimistic, and being fifteen minutes late everywhere we go. Indeed, we may say that we follow BYU football. We believe rumors about famous people joining the church, we hope to meet the three Nephites, we have endured many pyramid schemes, and hope to be able to endure all pyramid schemes. If there is anything cheap, free, sold in bulk, or given away when somebody is moving, we seek after these things.

Car for sale!

We are selling our 2006 Hyundai Sonata so that we can get a new minivan. Our Dodge caravan is on its last leg and now that we have 3 kids in carseats, we can't all fit in the Sonata. The car seats are too darn wide! So I am sad that we have to sell it, really sad. I almost cried on Saturday when I went to Sam's Club to fill it with gas, that this would be one of the last times that I drive it. We decided that we need something more reliable for the family vehicle and if the caravan were to just up and die on us we wouldn't even be able to get to church. And we can't have that! ;) And we would be stuck in the house all day long. Not that I go anywhere...I am still adjusting to 3. I did have the energy to exercise once last week. I decided I needed to after Robbie and I hiked the "Y" for our 7th anniversary on the 15th. (Neither of us had hiked it before and I have been in Provo since 1997 minus the mission.) I was sore for like 2 days. I waddled around for 2 days like a pregnant lady.

So, if you or any of your friends or family are interested in a great car, give us a call. You can see our ad on ksl.com classifieds. Just search for a 2006 Hyundai Sonata.

Laughter is the best medicine...

They say laughter is the best medicine. I think it's true, especially when it comes from a cute little baby. Enjoy!



Nathan just started laughing at Jared at dinner tonight. This went on for over 5 minutes. Nathan is such a happy baby and so much fun.

A Blessing From Heaven

Robbie blessed Nathan on Sunday and gave him a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful for my husband and for the wonderful father he is to our boys. I am grateful that he is a worthy priesthood holder who is able to bless our family. We had a family get together that evening for family members that couldn't attend the blessing to meet our little Nathan. Nathan was fabulous all day. He slept right through his blessing, and let everyone and anyone hold him. Enjoy the pictures!

Our first picture as a family now that Nathan has joined our family. We couldn't get one in the hospital because Nathan was in the NICU and the boys weren't allowed in there.

Aunt Aimee and Nathan

Meri's Aunt Kathleen and Nathan
Thanks for bringing such a yummy salad!

Great Grandma Summers and Nathan

Meri's siblings Brett and Rebecca with Nathan. My sister Melanie came to the blessing too, but got stuck feeding people at BYU's Canon Center and missed the party. We missed you Mel!

Grandpa and Grandma Haertel

Great Grandpa and Grandma Haertel

Meri's brother Brett, Alex, Robbie, Jared, Meri's sister Rebecca, and Vance's friend Mark

Robbie's siblings Josh, Aimee, brother-in-law Vance, niece Mylah, and Jennie

The Pattison's (Robbie's cousins and Aunt and Uncle)
Thanks Jolene for the yummy salad you brought!

We would also like to thank Robbie's parents' for hosting the party and for preparing most of the food. I really appreciate it since I am averaging 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and there is no way I would have been able to throw something like this together. So thank you, thank you, thank you! We enjoyed seeing everyone and celebrating Nathan's arrival!

He's Home!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are all at home and doing well now. Nathan still has two very tiny pnuemothoraxes, but the doctor saw no reason for him to stay at the hospital since he was doing so well. I will post more pictures soon. Jared and Alex have been so cute with him and love their new brother so much.

Nathan Andrew Haertel

I started having contractions Sunday afternoon, but they were far apart and not painful. I went to the doctor Monday morning, the day after my due date, and he said I could be induced the next morning and to get to the hospital at 5am. My mom was very excited to find out she would be getting a grandson for her birthday. I had contractions throughout the day, but nothing painful. So after a lousy night's sleep, I probably only slept 2.5 hours because I was having contractions, we went to the hospital early. We got checked in. I was only dilated to a 1. They induced me at 7:20am and I got my epidural at 8am and the doctor broke my water at 8:20. At 11:50 I was a 9, and unfortunately I could feel everything on the left side of my body, which was pretty weird. So they gave me another dose of the epidural which numbed me up. I pushed 3 times through a contraction and they told me to relax. I thought I was going to have to push again, but I looked down and I saw his head. I had no idea that my pushing had done anything since this time I could seriously feel nothing (with Alex I could feel pressure, but no pain). And then all of a sudden his whole body slid out. I was like, "wow, that was easy". They took the baby to clean him off and measure him. So he was born at 12:11 pm and weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. and is 21 in. long. Unfortunately, I only got to hold him for like 15 seconds before they whisked him away to the nursery in respiratory distress.

He was in distress for 20 - 30 minutes.

They took an x-ray of his chest and found he had air in his chest cavity on both sides of the body and around the heart. Surprisingly though his vitals were so good. The doctors keep telling us how miraculous it is that he is doing so well after looking at his x-rays. His oxygen levels and heart rate are all excellent.


So, while he was in the nursery I was shivering to death in my room. I reacted badly to the extra dose of epidural. Usually I shiver for 15 mintues after delivery, but this was uncontrollable and lasted for like 3 hours. They brought Nathan to me around 2 and they laid him next to me as I shivered and tried to nurse him. It didn't go so well. I felt really sick and started throwing up. So they took him back to the nursery. They needed to monitor him because he might need to go to Utah Valley to the NICU. I was praying so hard that he wouldn't have to go. I didn't want to be separated from him and I was in no condition to be checked out of the hospital. They gave me a shot of Zofran and by 4pm I was able to sit up and eat an orange. (Despite the bad reaction I wouldn't trade the pain of childbirth for shivers and throwing up 3 times.) At 5:30 pm I finally got to hold Nathan for a little while. I tried to nurse him, but he didn't eat very well. They took him back to the nursery at 6:30pm to monitor him. I had a fever, I think it was just from my cold, but they put me and Nathan on antibiotics to be sure. The doctors think he might have pneumonia too, but it is really hard to tell at this age and from the x-rays I guess, so we'll just have to wait and see. He hasn't been allowed out of the nursery since then since he is attached to more monitors now and an IV, before he just had a portable monitor.

He was born on a beautiful day and this is the view from my hospital room.

My brother, Brett, my sister, Melanie, and her boyfriend Nick came to see Nathan that night. Only Robbie and I are allowed to hold him, and we can take only one person in at a time to see him.



We went to see Nathan at 10pm and feed him. He is just so cute and I really hope he doesn't have to go. Just before the doctor left he held his breath a few times and his stats went low. If it happens more throughout the night then they will have to transport him.


4.8.09 They woke me up at 5am to go feed him and he had been doing well so far that night, which made me so happy. At 10am after feeding him, the doctor gave me an update and he gets to stay here! They will run the tests tomorrow morning and see where is he at.

Robbie's parents brought the kids down to see the baby for the first time. Jared got to see him quickly before he went to preschool. Alex and I are watching shark tale while we wait for Jared to get back.


Jared was very excited about the baby. Alex was a little shy about seeing his brother at first, but every time he saw him he got more and more excited. I wish they could touch him and hold him.

Jared realized Robbie was taking pictures.

El abuelito with his 6th grandchild.

Abuelita Ann with baby Nathan.

Finally, we got a picture of Robbie with Nathan. He has spent the most time with Nathan as he accompanied the doctors as they worked on him.

My cute boys!

4.9.09 Nathan is doing great, but he will have to stay here an extra day. I got discharged at noon, but we are going to board in another day and hopefully he will be able to come home tomorrow. The air is gone on one side, but still there on his left. He tested negative for an infection, but they need to take him off the IV and see if he still continues to test negative to rule out the pneumonia. We feel so blessed that he is doing so well and living up to his name. We chose Nathan which means, "gift", "given from God" and Andrew means "strong". He has been so brave through all of this!

So yeah, the 3rd time has been quite eventful, but we are so pleased that things have gone so well considering Nathan's condition.

1 Day to Go

I'm due tomorrow but nothing is happening, which is normal for me. However, I came down with a cold Thursday night and it has been horrible today and yesterday. I have a fever, chills, cough, runny nose, sneezing. Luckily it hasn't gone above 100, but I hope I get over this fast, because with stitches having a cough and sneezing will not go well together. This has also squelched any nesting that I still wanted to do. The house was all clean Thursday night, and now it is a disaster, and I just feel too awful to do anything about it. Over the last two months I have been madly trying to get Alex's first year scrapbook done, but I have failed to finish that as well. Oh well, I will get it done though, it might just take me a whole lot longer with 3 kids instead of just 2. Well, the next time I post, I am sure I will be in a happier state as it will be a post of our beautiful baby boy!

Back together at last!

I know I have been known to not post for a few months, but this time it wasn't my fault, I swear! My computer started getting blue screens the week before Thanksgiving and basically stopped working. It took two months, many phone calls to HP's customer service, 2 sets of system recovery CDs which revealed the problem wasn't a software problem, which Robbie and I already knew, and finally sending in the computer over Christmas break, I have finally been reunited with my lovely laptop. They replaced almost everything, except for the screen, webcam, and hard drives, so we have been getting to know each other again this last week. I couldn't post because I couldn't get to my pictures, and what is a post without pictures? Now that we are back together I have been able to upload all of the pictures we took over the holidays and get my photoshop album all organized and photos tagged, and thanks to free shipping at Snapfish I was able to get most of the pics printed so I can get the kids photo albums up to date. I have just a little over 2 months to get that done and Alex's first year scrapbook, another reason it was such a huge inconvenience to be without my computer. I am so happy to have it back. "They" always say not to buy the extended warranty, but Robbie and I have decided to extend the warranty since practically everything was replaced and would have cost us more than buying a new computer.

Rah! Rah! Rah! Go Cougars!

This year we decided to splurge and we bought All Sport Passes so that we could enjoy many of the sporting events BYU has to offer. We thought it would be a great way to spend time as a family and the boys loved it! The first few games we died of heat, but luckily none of the games were in the bitter cold. We got seats by my brother Brett, and occasionally my sister Melanie would come and visit us in our section.

Our seats were in the North end zone and we enjoyed seeing a lot of touch downs scored there.


Jared, Alex, and Aunt Melanie


Jared belting out the fight song.


Robbie and Alex


Alex loves his brother Jared so much!


We always had to sneak in lots of treats to keep Alex happy for the 3 - 4 hour games. If he wasn't eating he was flirting with whatever cute girls were sitting near us that week.


The whole fam enjoying the game!


Since a lot of the games were in the afternoon Alex would miss his nap. He would fall asleep in the last few minutes of the game sometimes and this time he fell asleep while sitting on Robbie's shoulders as we walked to our car.


Alex and Robbie


Jared and Uncle Brett


Jared singing the fight song the first home game of the season.


Alex finally caught on by the last home game and really started getting into it. He even joins in when the crowd cheers "First Down".

Jared loves, I mean LOVES, singing the Cougar Fight Song! He will break out in song daily. Over Thanksgiving he would run around Robbie's parents' house with his hand in the air, as if he were carrying a flag shouting the song. The good aunt Aimee is, she made Jared a fabulous flag for him to run around with.

However, after he saw a BYU quilt that Grandma and Grandpa have he noticed that the B-Y-U letters she had made with duct tape were not exactly the same font as the ones on the blanket and we had a meltdown. She did her best, but it was still not good enough for him. There was no consoling until Uncle Josh made him one on the computer.