Thursday, December 10, 2009

My Christmas Decorations






Despite the fact that we will soon be leaving for Phoenix to spend Christmas at Tim and Alex's (or T and A as they are sometimes known) I have decorated my house for Christmas. Maybe Adam will enjoy them. At any rate here's my tree with no presents underneath it. Just the way we like it here. In the family room the stockings got hung up on the wall because Avery could reach them when they were hanging from the fireplace. That's also why my little tree is on top of the bookcase this year. In the dining room I created an impromptu homage to Star Trek when I laid out my "snow" and stuck the Enterprise in the middle because its place on the bookshelf was now occupied by a small Christmas tree. This last picture is of Avery in a hat that is probably too small for her and makes a grumpy looking eye ridge on her face. It's pretty funny.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Birthday Overload!

This is me feeling very festive for my birthday. The big present was my vacuum cleaner, a Hoover Wind Tunnel. It was a dream come true. My other cheap vacuum was dying, and this one sucks the cord up into its little vacuum home with a push of a button. I love it. The smaller present was a netbook that is perfect because it is easy to hide from Avery since it is smaller than a regular laptop. The angel on top is a tree topper that my Mom crocheted for me, and is currently on top of one of my Christmas trees. It was a pretty good birthday. Thank you to all those who tendered their warmest birthday wishes they were happily received.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

How mustache growth could speed the economic recovery


From Halloween 2009
When I was shaving off my Halloween Goatee I was tempted for a moment to keep a mustache, but it's not for the style, it's for the money:

http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2009/10/08/how-mustache-growth-could-speed-the-economic-recovery/

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Avery, Year One

With Avery's First Birthday this week I put the final touches on Avery's Year One Video. Hope you enjoy! (And I hope YouTube doesn't block it for the music.)




Saturday, November 7, 2009

Halloween 2009

Here are the pumpkins that Rachel and I carved, Rachel made the taller one:


Avery went trick or treating and visited her Great Grandma:

Here is what I was going for:



Rachel is Dr. Acula

More Photos on Picasa:
Halloween 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Halloween

With Halloween just around the corner we decided to take Avery to Maris Farms in Buckley. I am sporting my Halloween goatee which I have grown for my costume this year.

I put together a video because I don't really work :)



Friday, October 9, 2009

Fun in Phoenix





This last weekend Avery and I went to my sister Alex's baby shower in Phoenix. It was mostly a surprise I think. At any rate we had a good time and got to see a lot of family. Aunt Dianne got to see Avery for the first time, and we saw Aunt Joanne too of course. Avery also got to see her "other grandma." (Aunt Liz who sounds just like my mom, and I think it confuses the crap out of Avery.) You will also see that we had a good time modeling the new baby sling that Alex got, and Avery had a good time with her Uncle Brad. We can't wait until Christmas when we get to see everyone again, and the new baby girl Geary.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Thanks UHEAA!

This week I got a letter from UHEAA or Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority saying that they forgave me the remaining $600 on one of my student loans as a way of thanking me "for taking care of your loan obligation in a diligent manner." I thought this was pretty cool because I didn't even know they did that. So thanks Utah you must not mind too much when I rag on you pretty much any chance I can.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Avery Walking!

Here is some footage of Avery and her newest trick! She's not quite an expert, but she is getting there. (I used youtube so you can use full screen mode.)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Congratulations Daryl!


Daryl got this sweet Associates in Arts degree in the mail on Saturday from everyone's favorite community college: Green River. Now Daryl can start getting some of that respect that comes with getting an AA.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm normal!

That's right I'm normal, and I know it because my Wii told me so. I(as in Rachel) got out my Wii balance board and when it calcualted my BMI it put me in the normal range for the first time ever since we bought it shortly after Avery was born. Yeah, so I'm in the normal range and I'm pretty happy about that.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Avery Montage - Your the best!

Ok so now I'm having even more fun with windows movie maker. With Avery's 1st birthday just a few months away we thought it would be a good idea to make a 80's montage of her first year. This is my first attempt, but It is not the final video. I have started work on the offical video, but it has a long way to go.

Enjoy!


Monday, September 7, 2009

Avery's First Oreo

As part of Aimee's birthday Avery got her very first Oreo cookie.

Here is the video, I had a little fun with windows movie maker and added my own sound track. Hope you enjoy!



(facebook users need to click on 'view original')

Monday, August 17, 2009

Avery climbing the stairs

Avery is very adept at climbing the stairs now-a-days. She's a pretty fast sucker, so I've taken a video to demonstrate her awesome baby powers. She's a little distracted by both Mom and Dad filming her though.


Thursday, August 13, 2009

Daryl's Birthday!



Yesterday our house was full of birthday fun. Not really. For his birthday Daryl got to take a five hour long test to assess his learning disabilities, so he can recieve accomdations at school. He did find this really nice bakery though on his lunch break, and bought himself a delicious chocolate cake for his birthday. When he got home we went to the T-Mobile store to get his dream cell phone, the HTC Touch Pro 2. If that wasn't enough birthday fun, I also gave him his very own exact replica copy of the U.S.S. Enterprise complete with working lights and sound.

Our Foster Cat


So there is the tabby cat that hangs out on our porch all the time, sometimes with Fox. To be honest a lot of random cats show up at our back porch. I don't know what the deal is, but they come. The tabby cat is here every day though. I've come to think of it as our foster cat. I think the cat actually belongs to the house right above us. We just must be way cooler than them.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Clapping

Here is a video of Avery clapping.



(if your viewing on facebook you need to click on 'view origional post')

Friday, August 7, 2009

Teeth!

Avery has two teeth on her bottom gums that came in last month. I shot this video to showcase the two new beautiful and painful chompers.

More Pictures From Phil and Heather's Visit






I think the heading is pretty self explanatory.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Pictures from Phil and Heather's Visit






Here's some miscellanous pictures from when Phil and Heather came to visit with Maddux and Aidan of course. The picture of Ashlyn on the boat is when she and I went whale watching together at Friday Harbor.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Yummy Fantastic Popsicle Fun!

We fed Avery a super yummy sugar free popsicle, and chronicled the popsicle antics for you. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Triumphant Baby Crawling!

This last week Avery started crawling and now she is perfecting her skill. Here's a little video of Avery showing off her latest baby skill.

Friday, June 12, 2009

A day at the Zoo

Avery went to the Zoo for the first time at Grandma's Company picnic.

Here are some pictures of her there. Grandma Just returned from a Disneyland trip. Avery's favorite thing she saw was a Asian Man. (She looked at him for a long time.) There is a video of her petting a goat.





Wednesday, June 10, 2009

We did go to Hawaii

It's been a week now since we came back from our six day vacation on Kuaui, and we had a great time. We both agree it was the best vacation we've ever been on. It's taken us a while to adjust back to real life, and was further hampered by Avery and me being sick for the past four or so days. Finally here is a post about the vacation, and some pictures.
Wednesday- We arrive that evening. Daryl and I rent our car and make our 45 minute trek up to Princeville where we are staying. Our very first meal on Kuaui is at the Kapaa Burger King. It was really special.




Thursday- Daryl and I come back down to Lihue(where the airport is) to take a helicopter tour of the island with Mom. Dad is too chicken to go with us. It was worth every penny. The tour was amazing. Kuaui is beautiful!



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Friday- We fly to Oahu with Mom and Dad, so we can go to the Polynesian Cultural Center for our tour, luau, and terrific show. It was great and the food was terrific. Daryl got to go onstage during one of the demonstrations, and had his Hawaii dream come true. He got to drink the coconut juice from a fresh coconut, and eat the meat right out of the shell.




Saturday- Still in Oahu. We went and saw the Arizona. Be warned though if you ever go to see it, they won't let you take anything with you. Not even purses or a diaper bag. In the evening we fly back to Kuaui.




Sunday- Daryl and I sleep in, watch some Golden Girls, and do laundry. We stayed in Paul's(Nellie's super awesome boyfriend) timeshare place in Princeville that was basically a small condo with laundry in it. Then we went and found a beach to swim in that would have been perfect for boogie boarding. Too bad we didn't have any, but we still had a lot of fun. The water was pretty warm. Nothing like the ocean here of course, but it wasn't quite as warm as the Carribbean. Still great.





Monday- Daryl and I wake up early to go swim at Hanalei Beach, recently voted America's number one beach. It's really great because the whole bay is about three feet deep and it is very peaceful. After that we packed up our things and headed back down to Lihue to stay at the Marriott where Mom and Dad our at for our last night. We headed down to Port Allen to go on a snorkeling tour of the Na Pali coast on the catamaran the Lucky Lady. The tour took us up and down the Na Pali coast on the west side of the island that is only accessible by boat, canoe, kayak, or hiking. We got an hour of snorkeling in and saw a monk seal right before we got in the water which was pretty cool, but scared most of the fish away. We did see some fish and we even saw a shark swimming below us. He was just a little guy though maybe four or five feet. He didn't pay us much attention, but it was really cool to see him. We also saw some turtles, and we really lucky and saw a dolphin pod. They were napping so they weren't doing too many acrobatics, but they swam right up to the catamaran. It was pretty cool.





Tuesday- The Marriott in Lihue has the biggest pool in the state of Hawaii, so we went swimming in it of course. Daryl and I had many swimming contests such as who can hold their breath the longest, who can swim the farthest underwater with their eyes closed, and who can kick off from the side of the pool the farthest. Daryl won them all. Before our 10:30Pm flight home we have some of the best sushi we've ever ate at a place called Sushi Bushido next to our hotel. It was really, really good. The flight home was uneventful. Daryl mostly slept through it, but I was up for all five and half hours of flying fun. Yea!



Wednesday- We arrived back at home at 7:20Am. Thanks DeAnna and Nellie for taking care of Avery while we were away.