THE DAYTON FAMILY

With readership reaching its highest point in years, I (David) figured now would be a perfect time to make my first post on our blog. Question: Why do people follow blindly what their parents, or society has set as the standard? (No offense, Mom) Yesterday, I decided to go to work without a jacket. To get to work I have to walk about 15 minutes to the Metro, ride the Metro for about 20 minutes, and then walk another 20 minutes to the office. On this walk I see a significant number of people (the Metro I take is headed into the city center, and my first walk takes me past a large market, and my second walk is in the heart of the city). Of the millions of people in the city, and the thousands (this could be a slight exaggeration) of people that I saw, I was the only one without a jacket (and by jacket I am not talking about a light windbreaker, but most people were wearing something more akin to a coat). You might think that I was going to work in a snowstorm, or that rain was coming dow...

So Tay definitely has NOT adjusted to the time here yet. He was up crying for most of the night and didn't sleep a wink from 1:30-4:30. It was awful!!! Especially because the walls here are paper thin and we live with 8 other people and there is nowhere else to go. Pretty sure they all got woken up from him crying. David felt really badly for them. I just felt exhausted and frustrated and really badly for Taylor. *** Yesterday evening was fun. There are 2 other little boys that live here and Taylor bonded with one of them, Tima, yesterday. I got a cute picture where they both totally smiled for the camera and then an adorable little video of Taylor tickling Tima. Today I went out with the bishop's wife, Natasha, she speaks perfect English and she showed me the market and several stores and went through and explained all of the brands and what to buy/not to buy etc... It is especially helpful with buying baby food/products. The Ukrainian church members are all such wonderful peo...

Tay says goodbye to Uncle Daniel - they sure will miss playing with each other this summer! *** Well, David told people to check our blog for updates on how we are doing in Ukraine, so I figured that I better get started. I have much more time to blog here - no house to clean, no kitchen to make food in, no dictations to type, not many English speakers, etc... so maybe I'll actually get up a few good posts for once! We lucked out on our flight to NY and nobody sat in the seat next to us...so Tay got to use it for a bit :) *** Well, our trip here was a long one, but it went really well considering we have a 10 month old baby. We flew to NY on Friday evening and then left on a direct flight for Ukraine on Saturday. Tay did awesome on the first flight (4.5 hours), and then on the Ukraine flight (almost 10 hours) he actually slept 2 different 2 hour chunks and then only actually cried for about 15 minutes one time. Needless to say, we were still exhausted when we arrived here because ...

Taylor and I flew out to San Angelo for a week long visit in mid-February. It was so fun to see Ian and Bonnie as cute newlyweds and to see their first home together. Here are some highlights and pictures from the trip: Our 3 hour Layover: We had a lovely picnic on the beach and Ian took some cool pictures of the birds flying into the gnarled trees while the sun was setting: We were there on Ian's Birthday! We made him a lovely pizza dinner with a pineapple fruit salad and carrot cake. Taylor enjoyed watching Uncle Ian open his presents: We visited 'Fort Concho' and it was really cool. Our favorite part was the real Wells Fargo Wagon! And yes...we sang the song for the rest of that day! :) We went to a real Texas Rodeo. It was inside a building called the "Colliseum" and the cowboys were definitely pretty serious! We went to a cool & random art place called the Chicken Farm - but there was not chicken on it. I didn't get it. The art was fun to look at th...

Two days after Christmas on December 27, 2008, my little sister Bonnie married Ian Gutzman!!! Ian and David went to high school together, were in the MTC together, both served in Russia (different missions), and graduated from BYU with Russian majors. David set Bonnie and Ian up 2 years ago and we are soooo excited that it finally worked out! The wedding was in the Jordan River Temple, the luncheon was at Magleby's in Provo, and the reception was that night in the Skyroom at BYU. They honeymooned on Catalina Island and drove to Texas where Ian has been living and training for the Intelligence position in the Air Force. They will be there until March and then are going to be stationed in Germany for 3 years. We are planning to visit them this summer!!!

Christmas was wonderful this year as always. It was so neat to have Taylor's first Christmas. He mainly enjoyed crinkling the wrapping paper! We spent Christmas Eve and morning with the Dayton Family and enjoyed a wonderful Feast that David organized and everyone helped prepare. We then spent Christmas afternoon & evening with the Peterson Family. *** Christmas Eve Dinner Taylor & April Christmas Morning Mistletoe! Our $1 Stockings (with totally cool iron-on names :)!) Tay & Mama Peterson Family Christmas: Taylor with his Daddy!