Isaac's 6th Birthday Party

So I'm kind of lazy when it comes to blogging these days. It's easier to just post the pictures up on Google or Facebook. Here's a link to a bunch of pics we took at Isaac's 6th birthday last week. We had a good time as did everyone else that was there.

Enjoy.

Isaac's 6th Birthday

Home Depot Craft - September

Saturday was the 1st Saturday of the month and you know what that means . . . Kids Workshop at Home Depot. This month HD used the college sports theme and let the kids make bean bag toss games. They got their second pin for their aprons too.

Future master craftsmen (and woman)

We happened to stop at Home Depot on Saturday to pick up some stuff and I guess they do a kids craft in the morning from 9-12. They do it on the first Saturday of the month. We were pretty impressed with what they got for free. They received an orange apron and a craft to do. Once they finish the craft, they get a pin to put on their apron. Each month is a different craft and a different pin. I think we'll have to make Home Depot a normal activity on the first Saturday from now on. This time around they made these cool activity boards with a white erase board on the left and a cork board on the right with hangers to hang things on. Good job Home Depot. You got my vote! (even though you already had it).

FYI, I took these pictures with my new iPhone 3GS that has a built in 3MP camera. Not bad for a camera phone. They're a heck of a lot better than the 1.3 MP camera on my old Blackberry Pearl. The video clip is also from my iPhone.

The first fruits

OK, I know they're not really fruits, but I'm pretty excited about our first harvest of swiss chard. I remember eating this stuff all the time as a kid and now I get to do the same with my own family. Let's hope the tomatoes, peppers, squash, carrots, cucumbers and broccoli have the same success.

Memorial Day Fun

We had a pretty good Memorial Day yesterday. We wanted to get out, so we ended up going to the "This is the Place" park up in Salt Lake City where they had all sorts of things going on. Here's the kids next to a pioneer statue.

Jack loved riding the ponies there.

It was baby animal day and they had some very cute lambs there.

Even Jack liked petting the little baby goats.

The kids thought the Navajo sweat house in the Indian village was pretty neat. Just their size. Jack is already assuming the Indian pose.

Jack and Isaac learned how to wash laundry the old fashioned way. They actually liked doing it. Hmm.

It was then off to get the dust out of the rugs. Beating the heck out of a rug with a piece of metal . . . very fun.

You can't forget Jack either.

After leaving the park, we headed down the hill to the Salt Lake Cemetary where the kids were able to visit their cousin, Hope's grave. They put little patriotic pinwheels in one of the flower pots.

It so happens that President Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife Marjorie are buried just down the way from Hope's grave. President Hinckley was a great prophet and the kids thought it was very cool to stand next to the huge grave stone. All in all it was a very suiting Memorial Day.

Garden Time

Tami has been bugging me for several weeks to get our garden going. Tami and I really don't have green thumbs, but we did some research and decided to try square foot gardening this year. My Dad and a few of my friends have been very successful at it, so why not us? I built a little smaller boxes (6'x4') and got some great compost dirt from the Springville sewer treatment facility. I'm not going to even question what's in the soil as long as it helps our garden grow.

I found that the extra slats from the blinds we installed in our house make great square foot garden dividers. I like the contrast they give too.

Here's the finished product. We're trying all sorts of things this year. Large tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, carrots, beans, Swiss chard, Anaheim peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers (peppers for salsa), zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber and then all the marigolds to supposedly keep the bugs away. I have the garden beds plumbed for drip lines, but just need to install the drip tubing. In the meantime I'll just water by hand, which is kind of therapeutic in a way. I still need to buy the cages for the tomatoes, but I'll get those soon. I don't need them right now.

This year we also finally put down wood chips in our playground area so that the kids don't have to battle the weeds. It also turned out very nice. Our backyard is slowly but surely coming along.

Technology and the Church

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the Lord really did create the Internet for his purposes. We had Stake Conference today and due to the large size of our Stake, we usually have to broadcast the meeting to a second building. In the past they have used a microwave technology, which requires a line-of-site connection between the two buildings. Hard to set up and not terribly reliable.

The Church now sells a little box (which is basically a mini computer about the size of an in dash car stereo system) that Stake Centers can put in their "rack" of equipment along with their satellite box. Vvideo feeds from a video camera and audio from the PA system in the Stake center are piped into the box, compressed and streamed up to Salt Lake over the Internet where it is processed and then available via an internet URL in a .ASF (Windows Media Player) video streaming format. It's about a 2-3 minute delay of what is happening live. I was in charge of the second building side. All I needed was my laptop, a projector and a cable to hook my laptop sound to the PA system in the building and voila . . . live internet broadcast of our Stake Conference. The video quality was practically satellite video quality. You would never have known it was an Internet video stream.

I kidded my wife and told her she could just stay home and watch it on the computer if she wanted to, but she was a trooper and brought the kids. I don't think the day will come when we'll watch Stake Conference in our homes too, but the fact that you could if you wanted to is pretty cool. Heck, maybe we'll just be able to stay home and go to Sacrament Meeting online. Oh wait . . . I guess that wouldn't work.

I can't wait to see what other divinely inspired technology comes out down the road.

Long time, no blog

OK, so I know I'm a bad blogger. Hopefully these pictures will give you an idea of how things have been going for us. Isaac, our goofball child and Jack are the best of friends and enjoy playing with each other.

With Brooklyn and Isaac going to school each week, Jack loves to imitate his older siblings. He wants to go to school very badly too. Keep that attitude, buddy.

Tami and I flew out to San Diego for Valentine's Day to attend my friend Blair's wedding and reception. We left the kids home and enjoyed the few days we had in sunny California. Here we are at the fountain in Balboa Park.

Standing outside the San Diego Temple. Turned out to be a beautiful day. I love this temple.

The kids at their Grandpa Tom's funeral.

Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz shooting a free throw. I did not zoom the camera for this shot. This is how close we actually were thanks to Tami's cousin. It was a good game and a fun evening.

Jack turned 2 in March. He's growing fast. We went to Tucanos in Provo (a Brazilian Grill).

Here's a funny clip of Jack blowing out his birthday candle. He was very anxious to blow it out as shown in the clip. The kids thought it was pretty funny as did Jack.

Easter is always a fun time of year. Especially when it gives Tami a chance to buy new Sunday outfits for the kids.

Other than that we're all doing well. Life is full of surprises and exciting changes. We're thankful for good friends and supportive family.

OK all you Star Wars fans . . .

OK, so maybe I'm just behind the times or something, but I saw this video clip for the first time tonight and got a pretty big kick out of it. Pretty talented group of guys.

Snowmen everywhere

Yes, it has been awhile since I have posted. Needless to say we had a great Christmas and New Years. We're thoroughly enjoying our new Wii Fit and Guitar Hero World Tour band kit that we got for Christmas. We enjoy the occasional MarioKart Race as well. But of course, it's not all about the Wii. We received a pretty good snowstorm yesterday which dumped a ton of very wet snow, perfect for a snowman. We were able to use our snowman kit we got several years back too!

Super Hero party

Isaac turns 5 years old this month and had a "super hero" themed birthday party. We have a pretty special connection with a pretty well known super hero named Spiderman. Maybe you have heard of him? He's pretty popular in New York City. We had all the kids come over and first of all decorate their own super hero capes as well as their super hero masks. I did some magic tricks and then Spiderman showed up. He made his grand entrance and then did super hero training where he taught the kids how to roll. Then the kick and then the yell, "Don't mess with the Spidey!". Armed with balloon swords, the bad guys arrived and the kids wreaked havoc on them (thanks Brian, Mike and Brian's friend). The weather couldn't have been better. Be sure to see the video clip at the bottom of the page. Isaac walked away from the party with a pretty nice stash of presents. It was like a Christmas prequel. The joys of having a birthday party so close to the end of the year.

Disney on Ice

A while ago, before our Disney Cruise we got a pretty good deal on Disney on Ice tickets. Being the huge Disney fans that we are and with Brooklyn taking ice skating lessons, we decided to get a few tickets. Tami let Brooklyn and I go on a little daddy-daughter date. It was a blast. Disney sure knows how to put on a show. The best part of the night is that it was a complete surprise until we pulled up to the Energy Solutions Arena. Tami dressed her up in her Snow White Halloween costume, but Brooklyn had no idea why. Needless to say she was super, duper excited and loved every minute of the show. Definitely the highlight of the night was when it was over and Brooklyn threw her arms around me, gave me a big hug and said, "Thanks, Daddy. This was the best night ever."

Black Friday 2008

As many of you know, I live for Black Friday, both for the deals and the insane-ness that is the holiday shopper looking for that incredible deal. For previous year's experiences, check out Black Friday 2007.

Black Friday seems to start earlier and earlier each year. With me inbetween jobs right now, BF was not nearly as fun, so I asked my mother-in-law if I could do some of her shopping as well.

BF always starts about a month before the actually day when my favorite BF site, www.bfads.net begins to post early leaks of the BF ads that someone must have acquired through the mafia or something similar. By the time the paper comes Thanksgiving day, I have already seen all of the ads. The game plan doesn't usually begin until about 10:00 the night before. I was thrown off this year by the "black friday online movement". Why stand in line for 45 minutes in the cold rain (which it did this year) when you can get the same deal sitting in your PJs sipping hot chocolate. But what fun is that? So, not to bore you with details, here's the play by play:

4:15 am - alarm goes off
4:30 - get in line at ShopKo (Spanish Fork) and it is raining, but warm (30 degrees is much better than 16)
5:15 - leave ShopKo with success
5:20 - I see an ambulance parked outside of Wal-Mart as I drive down the freeway. I can only imagine.
5:30 - get in line at Target (Orem)
5:50 - line "compression" begins (aka the anticipation of doors opening gets people very excited)
6:00 - doors open. Yelling begins as people rush out of their warm parked cars trying to cheat the system. Interestingly enough, Target has real cops keeping order. Never seen that before.
6:12 - leave Target with success
6:20 - arrive at Home Depot (Lindon) - very uncrowded - nice experience
6:35 - leave Home Depot
6:45 - arrive at Recreational Outlet in American Fork for some "outdoors" items
7:15 - leave Rec. Outlet
7:27 - arrive at Wal-mart in Pleasant Grove
7:55 - leave Wal-mart with success and no injuries!
8:05 - arrive at a different ShopKo (Orem)
8:16 - leave ShopKo
8:23 - arrive at Best Buy, another BF favorite. Picked up a good deal on LCD tv for in-laws.
9:07 - leave Best Buy
9:20 - arrive at Staples in Provo to get the item I hid in the store on Wednesday. It was still there.
9:30 - leave Staples
9:35 - arrive at Home Depot again (Provo)
9:52 - leave Home Depot and head home.

And that about covers it. Doesn't that just make you want to go out and try it yourself? I really am not much of a shopper, but Black Friday is such a great kickoff to the Christmas season, I find it hard to resist. Until next year!

Rivalry Week

I figured it was appropriate to post this picture. This Saturday is the big BYU vs. University of Utah game. I can taste the tension in the air. Thanks to one of Jack's great uncles, we have this ugly red hat that fits Jack just right. Too bad he's outnumbered!

Fall and Football

There's nothing better than the leaves as they change colors in the fall and BYU football. I took Isaac to the game this last Saturday against San Diego State. It was the last home game of the season. Last year BYU played SDSU in December due to the game being canceled with all the major fires burning in Southern California last fall. We even stayed after the game to watch the seniors receive their senior blankets. As we were walking back to the car, Isaac couldn't resist playing in the huge piles of leaves that littered the grass along the sidewalk. Luckily I had my camera with me and got some fun action shots of him throwing leaves up in the air. He's a good kid and it was fun to spend one-on-one time with him.