Space

Okay. It's warm enough, the kids are in bed, and it's the perfect time where Saturn is on it's way into the horizon and Jupiter is just on its way up. It's 10:30, Lisa's scrapbooking and I keep interrupting with "ooooo...hey Bean! Come look!" or "okay...last time...come check out Jupiter". Tonight was the first time in a few weeks I've been coherent after 10pm, and it was a great view tonight through the telescope. It wasn't collimated (the mirrors aligned perfectly), but it really got me excited to pull out the laser tomorrow for sharper images. 4 of Jupiters moons were visible and Jupiter itself was extremely gorgeous. This was the first time I've seen Saturn through a telescope, as it was only above the horizon during midday back in October and before there was snow :) Once I'm sure the telescope aka "water heater" (about the same size, thankfully lighter) is collimated, I'll bring the laptop and camera out to record Saturn and Jupiter and take some pics.

It'll also be fun when the moon is visible again during the 9 to midnight timeframe (dark enough yet coherent enough) to take some pics of it too. We're so blessed to have such a beautiful celestial object so close to us.

Wii Fat?

Ok. I'm sure we'll get Wii Fit someday, but you've got to enjoy the winning combination of wit, sarcasm, and attempting to defeat the whole purpose of the thing.

Check this out

Friday at the Farm

Last Friday we thought it would be fun to go to the zoo after Josh was done working for the day. Then my mom called with a better offer -- barbeque at the farm! My old home ward was having an activity at Wheeler Farm where we are frequent visitors. Our kids love it there and Mom and Dad love showing off the grandkids. My uncle Calvin has these cool paper rockets shooters which gave the kids plenty of exercise. After we ate Sydney begged me to make a paper rocket with hers.

It turned out pretty good and would go really far. She would shoot it and run way across the field to get it and run all the way back and immediately shoot it again. And she did this non-stop for about 40 minutes. She slept very well that night.

Tanner provided great entertainment for us with four ducks that were wandering around. We brought some old hamburger buns and fed them. He was so excited and had such a huge smile on his face the whole time. And he kept saying "Duck, duck, duck!" So I guess he knows that word now. He was also not scared at all to get right in there with them and chase them around. I was a little surprised by his bravery but I guess they're not much different than our cats to him. It was very cute.

And here's a cute picture of Natalie and I.

Cookie Time

A few days ago I needed to make cookies for a neighborhood party. McCoy was over that day since Sydney and McCoy play together almost every day. They had a lot of fun helping me bake. They took turns dumping the ingredients in the bowl after I measured them. They kept very good track of whose turn it was. And Sydney is wearing her cute new apron that Grandma Moore made for her.

Storytime with Sydney

Sydney's not really much of a talker around lots of people. So many of you probably don't know that she is actually quite a good story teller. She's always making up stories about every bug she finds and making up her own variations of the fairy tales she knows. One afternoon I got several clips of her telling me stories.

Lost Item - please help find

The Birthday Princess

She's officially 4 now! When Sydney woke up on her birthday yesterday we asked her how old she was. She insisted she was still 3 and not 4 yet. My theory is she expected she would feel different and be all grown up if she were 4. Since she felt exactly the same as yesterday she must still be 3. But by the time we had her party and she blew out candles and stuff she resigned to the fact that she really was 4 years old. Guess she just didn't have that magical transformation she was hoping for.

The highlight of her gifts that day was definitely her new bike. She had very much outgrown her tricycle.

At noon we had all her princess friends over for a party. This is the first friends birthday party that we have done for her. She was very insistent that this was a princess-only-no-boys-allowed party. Which made it somewhat awkward for the little boy next door who she plays with almost every day. We are going to have a special McDonald's mini-party for the two of them soon. Anyways, the party turned out really fun. We let them color princess pictures.

For lunch we had PB&J sandwiches cut into heart shapes, grapes, chips, and strawberry lemonade in these cute little pink goblets.

Then we did a craft where we beaded bracelets for the girls. This craft turned out to be a little tricky because I cut the strings a little too short and they were hard to tie and they'd come untied and beads would go everywhere!

Then we played "Pin the Heart on the Princess Tiara" which half of them cheated at. Sydney was like 2 feet off and then she tilted her head back and all a sudden she gets her heart right on target.

Next, we opened presents which I think was the favorite part for all of them. It was so cute to see all these girly princesses all gathered around.

Then we sang "Happy Birthday" and had the cake and ice cream. I don't know why my kids get so somber when they have birthday cake. If you look back to Tanner and Natalie birthday post you'll see this same stone-faced looked. Maybe she's just focusing really hard on her wish before she blows out the candles.

Later that evening we went to the parkway to practice riding the new bike. One of the pedals kept falling off so we need to think of something to do about that. But it was a fun evening.

Sydney was really excited when she saw this mile marker with a number 4 on it.

President Hinckley

I love hearing President Hinckley's voice again. There was nothing more comforting than hearing and feeling love from someone you trust, as well as someone human enough to share how he's feeling through humorous stories. Enjoy!

Movies 2008

Okay. It seems I'm always the last to see movies as we rent them when they come out instead of taking out a heloc (home equity line of credit) to go see it in theaters. Here's my list for this year (click the name to watch the trailer). Let me know if I'm missing any good ones.

The Dark Knight

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Twilight (for Lisa)

X-Files: I Want to Believe

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

SkyMaps

I've really appreciate this free service. Each month a new Skymap is created to describe what celestial objects are visible during the month with the naked eye, binoculars, or by telescope. The weather is perfect right now and it's not too late to take the kids out when it gets dark, lay out the blanket and pillows, and look up at the stars, galaxies, planets, and constellations.

Robot lie detector

Tommy was a chronic lier. You could always count on him to lie when in trouble. So his dad showed up one afternoon with a robot. "What is that?" his wife asked. "That's the newest thing. It's a Truth Robot. It can detect the slightest indication that a person is lying."

When Tommy showed up two-hours late for dinner that afternoon, his dad asked, "Where have you been? "Oh, a-a-a. . ," said Tommy, "several of us went over to the library to work on a project for extra credit."

Suddenly the lights on the Robot started blinking and it walked around the table and bopped Tommy on the head. His father explained that this Robot can detect even the slightest untruth.

"Now," said his dad, "where have you been?"

"We went to Bobby's house and watched a movie."

"What did you watch?" asked his mother.

"A-a-a . .The Ten Commandments." answered Tommy.

The Robot lighted up and bopped him on the head, again. Tommy could see he couldn't keep this up so he readily admitted, "We really watched a movie called, 'The Nympho Queen.'"

"I'm ashamed of you," said his dad. "When I was your age, I never lied to my parents."

Suddenly, the Robot lighted up, moved over to where the dad was and bopped him on the head.

The mother commented, "Well, you can't blame him then. After all, he is your son!" To which the Robot lighted up, walked over to the mother and bopped her on the head.

Party party

Well I realize I have been a bad blogger lately. If you've noticed then thank you for reading my blog in the first place. Anywho, we've been having quite a lot of fun these days. It's just one party after another lately. First, my little brother Nate has finally reached the ripe old age of 19 and it's time to say "See ya in 2 years!" Nate will be heading off to Arcadia, California next month to teach those people a thing or two about why we are here, what we are doing, and where we are going. He's going to be a great missionary! Nate's taking his own little stash of Books of Mormon with him to Arcadia. These books have 531 pages of great content and include the little bonus of David Archuleta's testimony and autograph in each one. I thought that was a clever idea of his and nice of David to do for him. I also got my own autographed photo of David. Woohoo!

By the way, does anyone else find it hard to believe that Nate and I share the same genes?

Saturday, we had Rachel's baby shower. It was so fun and I don't know why I can't seem to remember to take my camera anywhere anymore. I think maybe I'm just trying not to forget the bottles, the binkies, the snackfoods, kids, ect. But for this party I only brought Sydney along. Thank you Kim for blogging so I could steal your pictures! Hee hee. The twins were missed but couldn't come because the minivan is out of commission due to a recent fender bender that I'd rather not talk about. The shower was quite fun and Rachel made out like a bandit. That little boy is going to sleep extra well due to the adorable baby bedding my mom and Rachel have been making for him.

And look at this adorable diaper cake Tracy made! Everyone agrees that she really should quit her day job and make diaper cakes for a living.

Sunday, was of course, Father's Day. We would have liked to let Josh sleep in that morning but had a sacrament meeting to attend in Bountiful at 9 am. My cousin Darren just got home from his mission in Chicago.

It's amazing to me out we can be on time to a church meeting at 9 am a half hour drive away, but scramble to make in on time to our own sacrament meeting, just around the block, at 1 pm almost every other Sunday. We had a really fun time hanging out at the new Muir house afterwards though. Their new house is incredible.

Sydney had a blast with all the girls there.

Tanner is looking so cute but just a little too grown up in this picture.

Well, you may think this is enough partying to last us the summer. But stay tuned because in a couple days we'll be rolling out the red carpet for Sydney's upcoming princess party.

Old posts

First. Let me apologize for the 100 posts of the past. I was helping my dad learn how to use blogger and google reader, when I realized his google reader had cached data from my old blog (glamiac.blogspot.com) that I deleted and have spent two months emailing back and forth with Google about trying to get back. Incidentally the blog was initially attached to a previous email address, which I've deleted, and they won't reinstate it. So, here's the sadness. At least I got 100 posts back (it was fun copying and pasting...let me tell you). I appreciate having these back, but wish I would have been smart enough not to delete my blogs (still missing my LDS Quotes blog), or that google would just save me time and LOTS of frustration (from my own stupidity).

You might notice I have 30+ entries on 5/23/07. It's just that I don't know the days those were posted as it's when my dad first used google reader (so all my previous entries shows downloaded on that day).

Divorce sucks

A few weeks ago I found out a couple we used to hang out with quite a bit are getting divorced. It always stinks to find out stuff like this, but even worse when it's from cheating, etc. With two kids (3 and almost 1), at least the kids aren't comprehending the implications. Lisa and I have been extra kind to each other the past few weeks, being grateful for each other and making sure we are more careful with our marriage. For anyone who reads this, please treat your spouse extra nice today and deal with any issues you have so this doesn't turn out to be you.

Light Switches

So the most wonderful thing happened about a week or two ago, and I forgot to blog about it. When we moved into this house, there were several pairs of light switches that turn on/off the same light. The thing that threw off the emperor's groove was that the lights would be off if one was up and one was down. Okay...yes...it bothered me...a lot. Evidently not enough to turn off the power and spend the five minutes necessary to turn the switches upside-down. But now...yes...what you've all been waiting for...the light switches are all down and the lights are all off!!!

Oh come on. How many of you walk in the dark down the hallway just to have both light switches down to have the light off instead of having them both up?

Sealing rooms

Lisa and I made a trip to the temple yesterday (thanks mom and dad for watching the kids). How apropos, that I was listening to a talk today from President Hinckley given at BYU about the temple (back in 1965). How we assume others understand terms we use in the church. President Hinckley said after an open house for a soon-to-be-opened temple, several members of the press, etc. asked questions like "how long do you leave them in the sealing rooms?" and "how long do you wait after they die to baptize the dead?".

If that didn't make you laugh, he shared this story at the beginning of his talk:

"You've heard this story before, I think I told it here some years ago or some time ago - the young man who registered for a class and loafed along all quarter. And then came examination day. He came into the classroom and the teacher wrote the questions on the board and he picked up his pencil and looked at his paper and wrote at the top of the paper 'Lord of Hosts be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget.'

And then he scratched his head and tried to recall in vain the answers. And time was finally called and he scribbled at the bottom 'Lord of Hosts forsake us not. We have forgot, we have forgot'."

Life in my office

Well...there's soon to be another life in my office. No. Not another Moore Engineering employee. My first office plant - a Calathea. I was thinking I'd first start with something I can keep alive. Just to transplant to a nice pot and I'm ready to sit and watch for hours. More blogs to come...in a few hours... (it's so beautiful...I can't help it....zzzzzt!)

The zoo

We finally got out to the zoo and got our family zoo pass for the year. We did the zoo pass a couple years ago and went a lot so we thought we would do it again this year. We went on Saturday which I generally avoid like the plague because it was CROWDED. There were times I was reminded of the high school halls in between classes. But it was still extra fun because we went with the Brent and Jenn Carroll and their cute boys. They are some of our bestest friends from the land of Bountiful. They used to live above us in our apartment and we don't see them as often now that we have 30 miles between us instead of 15 stair steps.

They are very much like us. We got 2 cats, they got 2 cats. We had a kid, they had a kid. We had twins...hey, wait a minute. So they're one behind us on the kid thing. Better work on that guys.

Sydney always loves hanging out with Jace.

We got to see the new baby giraffe. I don't know his name and he's not very small anymore. I learned from one of Sydney's board books that giraffes grow an inch a day for the first few weeks of life.

Here are 5 wild and ferocious tigers.

Tanner and Natalie spent quite a bit of time in the stroller. They were pretty well behaved considering how tired they were. We kept the cherrios, goldfish, and juice coming and traded off holding them so they could see an occasional animal.