You are a mere 48 hours old here and already have the sucking power of a champion, little Dallin! Your mother is so proud of you... maybe even a little afraid too. :)

Is this cute thing the same thing that costs you sleep for years, drains the checking account, makes you smell bad (or worse than you are currently), helps your chronic tardiness, steals your wife, bangs up the family car, makes you wait up, requires you to subsidize college tuition, and is generally an all-around joy for the next 18 years of your life? Hehe, yeah, that and it's a bit better too is my guess.

This baby knows how to use his lips. There is some major sucking power in those jaws. Figuring out how to get the pacifer in between his face and the blanket was a great discovery!

This is what I envision our requirements meetings at work going like:

It's just a great example of what our communication of otherwise technical topics might sounds like. It looks like a lot of fun. I'd like to see Roger with a spear and horned hat too. What do you want to be Ted can hit a high E?

Besides that, this is just a post of what kind of awesome things you can witness while holed up in a hospital on cable television. It is quite pathetic, actually.

April and I have welcomed our first child into the world 17 March. His name is Dallin Craig! (Dallin and Craig are both family names and all awesome names at that!) He was delivered about a week earlier than his due date in a c-section delivery. At birth, he weighed 9 lb 3 oz and was 21 1/4 in long. I should have put that in metric units for your conversion pleasure. There were no complications in the procedures and April and Dallin are both doing very well. We expect to stay in the hospital until Friday. Come and say hi if you want to and if your proximity to the hospital is sufficiently close (that is, unless you're a grandma).

Thank you to all who have supported us during April's pregnancy and who will doubtless continue to do so through the next 7 children. :) Er, something.

For your coo'ing pleasure, I have put some long-awaited (that's you, grandma) picts online.

Check out the most awesome middle name I've seen today:

Makanaakeakuaokeolaokalani
 1 2 34  5  6     7  8 9
  1    2  3   4     5
             1  2  3
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Who thinks we should use this for the little one? And then teach him to eat fire and wear flowery skirts?

And why we go to the temple...

It was sad to see that Krister Stendahl had died since the film of Between Heaven and Earth, from which this short video took excerpts. He obviously has a great spirit about him.

I can not relate how I feel about our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love it! I love who it stands for. I love who it's run by. I love the principles for which it stands. I love what it declares itself to be. The church has been a great influence in my life. I owe so much to Jesus Christ and His kingdom here on Earth.

With the backdrop of my feelings, it is not hard to understand why I am concerned when the church is the focus of negative sentiment and more especially distorted portrayals. A prime case of really an appalling media look at the church will come next week in HBO's series "Big Love". They are purported by TV Guide to be planning on showing an episode featuring the temple ceremony. As a member of the church, I am surprised and disappointed in this decision.

The church has published what I think is simply an inspiring reply to HBO's decision. I invite all to read it. In part, it says:

"Church members are about to face that question again. Before the first season of the HBO series Big Love aired more than two years ago, the show’s creators and HBO executives assured the Church that the series wouldn’t be about Mormons. However, Internet references to Big Love indicate that more and more Mormon themes are now being woven into the show and that the characters are often unsympathetic figures who come across as narrow and self-righteous. And according to TV Guide, it now seems the show’s writers are to depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies.

"Now comes another series of Big Love, and despite earlier assurances from HBO it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show’s fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints.

"If the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world."

Please speak up and be a firm, respectful voice, championing the cause of truth and right in this world that continues to mock our truth and values on every hand.

HBO has a feedback form where you can voice your opinion directly to the company. This is a ridiculous overstep into the sacred religious lives and practices of a peace-loving religion. As said in the article by the church, if you want to learn more about the church, let it speak for itself, as it shall in no doubt continue to do as it rolls forth to fill the Earth.

We found a great video this afternoon called "On the Lord's Errand". It's a church-produced biography of President Thomas Monson. It's about an hour long and very worth the time. There are many inspiring stories the illustrate how carefully the Lord has groomed His living prophet and what a good man that he is. The video only works in IE or Firefox, due to the movie player plugin required.

I know the President Monson is a latter-day prophet, that he speaks for the Lord on Earth, and that we should therefore follow his counsel.