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!