Happy Day! Dave was born!

24 years ago today, our son V IV was born. (That's Vernon the 4th to the uninitiated.) After having two daughters, V III was thrilled to have a son. With two older sisters to help take care of him, he was always being held and loved.
Dave was named after Rick's dear friend David C. who was a missionary friend and a early college friend to both of us. Little David was born with a heart murmur and we immediately had to take him to Primary Children's hospital to have his heart tested. After some tests, we were told that our little son would be fine and that his heart defect would heal with time. That has certainly been the case.

Dave was a DARLING baby and we loved having him in our home. He did cry A LOT when he was young and suffered from colic and ear aches. He finally got tubes put in his ears and he was a lot happier after that. Once he stopped crying and was out of pain (what ever was causing it) he turned into the best little baby there ever was.

Dave loved to play and play and play. He could make the coolest little boy noises and that ability was purely innate, since he didn't have older brothers to teach him how to make bomb noises, machine guns, and other assorted boy sounds. He was a pro at making sounds of every variety.

Dave loved to play with stuffed animals, but his favorite toy was his rocking horse. He rode that thing around the world a couple of times, wearing his cowboy hat and cowboy boots.

Dave had some crazy hair. His cowlicks were second to none. His hair was very blond and was hard to comb because it would just stick straight up. Little did we know that it would turn VERY curly as he grew older and turn a nice dark brown color. Dave also had the cutest smile as shown in the photo and the most adorable blue eyes. He was such a sweet little boy and never gave us any trouble.

It was fun to have a little boy in the house. We bought him all the regular little boy things and he immediately took to sports of every variety. He had instant playmates in his older sisters and they all enjoyed playing Legos by the hour.

Dave had a ton of little playmates in the neighborhood. It seems like our home was a magnet for little boys. We'd have herds of them over for hours and hours of playing. With a big park nearby, they enjoyed many hours playing in the sand, swinging and swimming in the pool.

Dave attended OHS pre-school with Mrs. Pella as the teacher. He started Kindergarten at the same school that his sisters attended. He immediately showed that he would be a great student and he learned to read and do math especially well. He played soccer, tee-ball, basketball and rode his bike, roller blades and enjoyed all sorts of games with his friends in the park.

Dave has turned out to be a wonderful man. It's been a pleasure to watch him grow up through the years and make good choices throughout his life. We love him dearly and in some ways, he is a carbon copy of his father, V III. Here are a few more highlights of V IV:

• He attended OES (he especially loved his 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Peterson) and then went to the Cherry Hill - ALL program for 5 & 6 grades
• He took piano lessons from Mrs. Butterfield and made decent progress. He's since taken a piano class at BYU and said he wished he would have kept with it as a kid
• Power Rangers and Ghost Busters were some of his favorite toys, along with Legos
• He shared a room with Andy until we moved to our current house, and then he got his own room but had to share a bathroom with Claire.
• He started working at Timp Bookstore when he was 15 years old, wrapping Christmas gifts
• He received his Eagle Scout award when he was 14
• He played football through 9th grade and improved a lot each year
• He started running cross country when he went to high school and kept it up all three years and did very well. He received the academic all-state award his senior year in cross country.
• He went to Boys State and represented his school well
• He graduated from High School with a 4.0 and gave the valedictory address. He got a 33 on the ACT test.
• He received enough AP credit from the classes he took in HS, to start college as a sophomore. He will graduate from BYU in seven semesters this December with a degree in Economics. He could have gone to any university he wanted to, but he chose BYU.
• He was the Sterling Scholar in the Social Sciences at his HS and went all the way to state with his formidable portfolio of academic accomplishments
• He received an academic scholarship to BYU and also received the Robert C. Byrd scholarship for four years
• He graduated from seminary
• He's been on the Wyoming pioneer trek twice, once as a kid, once as a leader after his mission
• He served his mission in the Portugal, Lisbon mission and had a marvelous experience. He was an AP in his final months. He also got to serve on the Azores islands for about six months.
• He met some wonderful young men his freshman year in college and they became fast friends all through college. They were roommates for about three years.
• He worked at the Museum of Art as a security guard while he was a college student and also on the grounds crew mowing lawns. He is now a TA for Econ 110.
  
• He is an avid BYU fan and turns into a different, loud and aggressive person on game day
• He met his current wife Courtney in their student ward. They dated for a year and got married last May in the SLC LDS temple. We love having Courtney in our family. She is a perfect partner for Dave.
• Dave has always been an honorable priesthood holder and fulfilled his responsibilities and callings, being a HT comp to Rick for many years.
• Dave is a kind and gentle man who has a big heart and who is dependable without fail.

We love our little boy Dave and look forward to the future, for we know he will be successful in whatever he puts his mind to accomplish. Happy 24th birthday dear son.