I was out of town on business last week, and while Tara was busy elsewhere and it was kind of quiet she went to check on the kids and found that they had my older work laptop down on a table we have in the garage (they are lucky that I wasn't home). Anyways, she reprimanded them and sent them to put it away. Yesterday we discovered what they were doing. On our digital camera, we found this video. It's a little long, but stick it out, there's some parts that had us cracking up all the way through.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
25 Random Things about Me
I posted this on Facebook after getting tagged. I hardly ever do these things, but I figured since I took the time to do it and post it on Facebook, I'll go ahead and post it here too, so if you don't know me through Facebook, but read the blog...
1. I was born in Columbia (South Carolina that is)
2. I have the best wife in the world. I know, I know, you probably think you have the best spouse in the world, but that's your opinion. Mine's fact :-)
3. I have 4 children, two daughters and two sons. They keep us busy, make us laugh, and sometimes cry too. I wouldn't have it any different. They teach me as much or more as I teach them.
4. I love my DVR! I hate it when I travel or watch TV somewhere where I have to endure commercials, or can't pause it when I get occupied.
5. Current items on my DVR to do list: The Office, My Name is Earl, 24, The Unit, Dirty Jobs, American Idol, Heroes, Jeopardy, Ace of Cakes.
6. I also enjoy a really good book. I read mostly fiction lately and I've taken to reading a ton in the last few years, probably averaging about a book every week or two. My favorite current authors: Robert Parker, Chris Stewart and James Patterson (but nothing he 'co-writes').
7. We have a TON of trees in our yard, which is beautiful, except for the abundance of leaves to take care of in the fall/winter. I still have a huge pile of leaves in the back year that I blew behind the trampoline one Saturday (there's no grass there) and it's rained pretty much everyday I planned on doing yard work for the last 2 months.
8. I don't know if I'm happy or sad about #7 above, but if we're on water restrictions this summer after the amount of moisture we've had this winter, somebody in the local government is going to hear from me.
9. I drink way too much Dr. Pepper. I need to cut back.
10. I could eat pizza every day of the week. Luckily I don't, or I'd be 200 pounds, which for me would be too much.
11. I love doing puzzles. I don't do them very often, but I love to put them together, especially when I get in a groove on a 1000 piece puzzle and can just look at a piece, pick it up and put it where it goes.
12. Likewise, I like solving puzzles in general. I like that kind of challenge, and maybe that's why I love software engineering. I love solving the challenges that I face in programming, it's very frustrating and satisfying at the same time.
13. When I was a kid, I hated taking showers, and it was all my parents could do to get me to take one once a week. Then at about 13 or so, I'd take one or two a day, or even three depending on what I'd done. That hasn't changed. I don't feel right until I've taken a shower, and if I work up a good sweat, I'll take another one.
14. I love just about all sports. I love playing golf, basketball, volleyball, tennis, racquetball, baseball and soccer. I've player other sports I enjoy as well, but these are the primary ones that I've played most of my life.
15. I'm not particularly great at any sport, although I might achieve the higher end of mediocrity at a few.
16. I'm clumsy. Just in the last four years, I've severely cut my left thumb, jammed countless fingers playing basketball, sprained my wrist very badly, tweaked a knee and recently rolled my ankle and I'm pretty sure I tore some ligaments in that, took me 2 months of no sports and 2 more months before I'm finally starting to feel right on it again. If was I a professional athlete, I'd be Penny Hardaway or Grant Hill (but not Mike Hampton, there's something SERIOUSLY wrong about him).
17. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. Really, really hate it. Thank goodness for the laws in most or all states now to not have it in public buildings.
18. I served a two-year LDS mission in Guatemala and fluently speak Spanish.
19. I regret not being as patriotic as I could have been in my past, but am trying to be more so now. I'm trying to be more informed on political issues and voicing my opinion, which sometimes is difficult for me.
20. I'm republican and am conservative on moral issues, but actually cross parties on some other issues and quite admire the reserved, educated and well-spoken manner of our new president.
21. I hate the no child left behind law. It is killing the education of our next generation of Americans. It's bad for the advanced students AND the students who are behind, and it makes our schools gear everything they do towards passing standardized tests, rather than actually being able to educate and causing us to loose great teachers.
22. I love to do handy work around the house. I'm not the best, but competent. I've tiled, replaced subfloor in a bathroom, completely gutted and refinished a bathroom, replaced kitchen counters, replaced sinks and faucets, hung fans and even done a little bit of plumbing. Most of these things are not hard if you just do a little reading and take your time.
23. I'm terrible mechanically. I have an uncle that could fix anything mechanical, but not me. I can check the oil and change a tire, but that's about it. I have changed a fuse in a car and a spark plug in small engines, but otherwise I'm pretty intimidated by engines.
24. I play the piano and sing (but not at the same time ;-). I sang bass in the BYU Men's Chorus my freshman year there and got the opportunity to sing in their first recorded CD and sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during their Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. Mack Wilberg was the director of the BYU Men's Chorus then, and is now the director of the MoTab. He's EXTREMELY talented.
25. I almost never respond to these things. Not usually my favorite thing, but have enjoyed trying to think about some of these things about myself. I've probably tagged a few people who have already done this, so sorry!
1. I was born in Columbia (South Carolina that is)
2. I have the best wife in the world. I know, I know, you probably think you have the best spouse in the world, but that's your opinion. Mine's fact :-)
3. I have 4 children, two daughters and two sons. They keep us busy, make us laugh, and sometimes cry too. I wouldn't have it any different. They teach me as much or more as I teach them.
4. I love my DVR! I hate it when I travel or watch TV somewhere where I have to endure commercials, or can't pause it when I get occupied.
5. Current items on my DVR to do list: The Office, My Name is Earl, 24, The Unit, Dirty Jobs, American Idol, Heroes, Jeopardy, Ace of Cakes.
6. I also enjoy a really good book. I read mostly fiction lately and I've taken to reading a ton in the last few years, probably averaging about a book every week or two. My favorite current authors: Robert Parker, Chris Stewart and James Patterson (but nothing he 'co-writes').
7. We have a TON of trees in our yard, which is beautiful, except for the abundance of leaves to take care of in the fall/winter. I still have a huge pile of leaves in the back year that I blew behind the trampoline one Saturday (there's no grass there) and it's rained pretty much everyday I planned on doing yard work for the last 2 months.
8. I don't know if I'm happy or sad about #7 above, but if we're on water restrictions this summer after the amount of moisture we've had this winter, somebody in the local government is going to hear from me.
9. I drink way too much Dr. Pepper. I need to cut back.
10. I could eat pizza every day of the week. Luckily I don't, or I'd be 200 pounds, which for me would be too much.
11. I love doing puzzles. I don't do them very often, but I love to put them together, especially when I get in a groove on a 1000 piece puzzle and can just look at a piece, pick it up and put it where it goes.
12. Likewise, I like solving puzzles in general. I like that kind of challenge, and maybe that's why I love software engineering. I love solving the challenges that I face in programming, it's very frustrating and satisfying at the same time.
13. When I was a kid, I hated taking showers, and it was all my parents could do to get me to take one once a week. Then at about 13 or so, I'd take one or two a day, or even three depending on what I'd done. That hasn't changed. I don't feel right until I've taken a shower, and if I work up a good sweat, I'll take another one.
14. I love just about all sports. I love playing golf, basketball, volleyball, tennis, racquetball, baseball and soccer. I've player other sports I enjoy as well, but these are the primary ones that I've played most of my life.
15. I'm not particularly great at any sport, although I might achieve the higher end of mediocrity at a few.
16. I'm clumsy. Just in the last four years, I've severely cut my left thumb, jammed countless fingers playing basketball, sprained my wrist very badly, tweaked a knee and recently rolled my ankle and I'm pretty sure I tore some ligaments in that, took me 2 months of no sports and 2 more months before I'm finally starting to feel right on it again. If was I a professional athlete, I'd be Penny Hardaway or Grant Hill (but not Mike Hampton, there's something SERIOUSLY wrong about him).
17. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. Really, really hate it. Thank goodness for the laws in most or all states now to not have it in public buildings.
18. I served a two-year LDS mission in Guatemala and fluently speak Spanish.
19. I regret not being as patriotic as I could have been in my past, but am trying to be more so now. I'm trying to be more informed on political issues and voicing my opinion, which sometimes is difficult for me.
20. I'm republican and am conservative on moral issues, but actually cross parties on some other issues and quite admire the reserved, educated and well-spoken manner of our new president.
21. I hate the no child left behind law. It is killing the education of our next generation of Americans. It's bad for the advanced students AND the students who are behind, and it makes our schools gear everything they do towards passing standardized tests, rather than actually being able to educate and causing us to loose great teachers.
22. I love to do handy work around the house. I'm not the best, but competent. I've tiled, replaced subfloor in a bathroom, completely gutted and refinished a bathroom, replaced kitchen counters, replaced sinks and faucets, hung fans and even done a little bit of plumbing. Most of these things are not hard if you just do a little reading and take your time.
23. I'm terrible mechanically. I have an uncle that could fix anything mechanical, but not me. I can check the oil and change a tire, but that's about it. I have changed a fuse in a car and a spark plug in small engines, but otherwise I'm pretty intimidated by engines.
24. I play the piano and sing (but not at the same time ;-). I sang bass in the BYU Men's Chorus my freshman year there and got the opportunity to sing in their first recorded CD and sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during their Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. Mack Wilberg was the director of the BYU Men's Chorus then, and is now the director of the MoTab. He's EXTREMELY talented.
25. I almost never respond to these things. Not usually my favorite thing, but have enjoyed trying to think about some of these things about myself. I've probably tagged a few people who have already done this, so sorry!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
She's crawling
I think Grace has officially decided to crawl. The real crawl; not the "drag your body" crawling that she has been doing for a few months. And of course Mark is out of town when she does it. So here she is.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Timmmbbbbberrrrrr!!!!
Back in September we had a tree at the side of our house taken down. It was very interesting to watch them because the tree was between our house and our neighbors house and they had to avoid hitting both houses and all the other trees. Here are some pictures of it coming down. Luckily they had pretty good aim and did not squash our house. They told us that the tree was between 80 and 100 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter. 
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Recipe of the Week #7
Hallie and Carter are at shcool, Jackson is at preschool and I laid Grace down for a nap. I have grand thoughts of all the things that I am going to get done; but what do I do? I bake. That is what you are suppose to do on a cold day. The east coast is under a winter weather advisory. Tonight is is suppose to be -5. That is unheard of in Georgia. So I better take advantage of it while I can. I put some Chicken and Cheese Enchilada Chowder in the crockpot and start thinking about what I can make with some zucchini that needs to be used. It has to be well hidden or the kids wont eat it. So I will make Zucchini-Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Later she started scooting all over and come in the kitchen to wait paitently for the muffins to be done.
After the muffins were done I made Three Great Tastes Blond Brownies and Cornbread. (I am not going to eat all of this stuff. I am taking it to a girl in my ward that just had a baby.)
So I did not great any of the things I needed to do checked off my list, but I did have fun baking. Maybe tomorrow I will get those things done. Or maybe I will find another recipe that is calling my name and begging to be made!
3/4 cup whole wheat pasty flour (or all-purpose)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 shredded apple
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup pecans or walnuts
Mix all dry ingredients together. In a bowl whisk egg, oil, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients. Fold in the zucchini, apple, chocolate chips, and nuts. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
Grace woke up while I was making these. So I put her in her high chair and let her have some multi grain Cheerios. They are her new favorite. When I gave them to her so grabbed fistfulls and put them in her mouth as best she could.
Later she started scooting all over and come in the kitchen to wait paitently for the muffins to be done.After the muffins were done I made Three Great Tastes Blond Brownies and Cornbread. (I am not going to eat all of this stuff. I am taking it to a girl in my ward that just had a baby.)
So I did not great any of the things I needed to do checked off my list, but I did have fun baking. Maybe tomorrow I will get those things done. Or maybe I will find another recipe that is calling my name and begging to be made!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Boys will be boys
Carter and Jackson sometimes amaze me. I think it is because as a girl I would never think to do the things that they do. A few examples of these are the kleenex and oatmeal episodes. I think they must have been missing the snow of Utah when they did these things because they said that they were "jumping" into snow and they were making snow "fall" after they made these messes. They decided to do both of these things within a week of each other.
This past week the boys decided do to get into things and make messes again. It started exactly one week ago tonight. Mark and the kids were upstairs in our room and I was downstairs in the kitchen. I heard Jackson cough and then cry out "I swallowed it". It was a steel ball that goes to Magnetix. The ball is about the size of a marble and there are little magnetic rods that they stick to and you can make cool things with them. We have told him not to put them in his mouth but he does anyway, because what do we know! Well I called the pediatrician and they said to take him down to the ER and have them take an xray to make sure it was not stuck in his throat; because his throat was hurting. Apparantly things like marbles and money can get stuck in your throat and you can still breath and everything. So I get ready to take him to the ER and Mark asks him "how many times have we told you not to put the balls in your mouth?" He replies "about 100". Exactly. About 100.
Here is a picture of his marble. 
It finally made its grand re-entrance tonight! Thank goodness because I am sick of checking poop for a marble. I will spare you the details. But one funny thing that he said when we were sitting in the ER until midnight was "I'm glad I swallowed this marble because now I get to stay up and watch cartoons." I am thinking about contacting the ER and telling them to get rid of the tv's because Jackson thinks if he goes to the ER that it is fun because they let him stay up and watch tv and eat popsicles while he is there.
Then next thing the boys did is destroy their room last nightwhile they are suppose to be going to sleep. That is nothing new but this is how Mark found them.
Now would a girl ever say to herself "Oh, I think I want to take all my books off the bookshelf and sleep in it!" No, they would not. At least I wouldnt. But to Carter and Jackson it must have seemed like an interesting thing to do.
Like I said
Boys will be boys!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year
Just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful 2009. We're planning on it. This year we'll have a child that is in double digits this year as Hallie turns 10, Carter 7, Jackson 5 and Grace 1. We'll also have 3 children in school in August. We're looking forward to that!
Also just wanted to post that we're recanting our post saying we're going private. We've decided to not make our blog private as of yet. So keeping following us anonymously or not for now. We just decided that it's kind of a pain to have to log in to view the bloggs of friends of ours who have gone private and we've enjoyed it in the format it is now. If we run into some problems with it being a public blog, then maybe we'll change it, but we're leaving as is for now.
Also just wanted to post that we're recanting our post saying we're going private. We've decided to not make our blog private as of yet. So keeping following us anonymously or not for now. We just decided that it's kind of a pain to have to log in to view the bloggs of friends of ours who have gone private and we've enjoyed it in the format it is now. If we run into some problems with it being a public blog, then maybe we'll change it, but we're leaving as is for now.
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