My Day Off

I have such a super husband who insisted on giving me a whole Saturday off. It was fabulous! My mom and sister had been planning a craft day down in Orem for a while, and I got to join them completely kid-free. I love my kids with all my heart, but I think I really needed this day. And when I came home the house was even cleaner than I left it! We'll get him some tights and a cape and call him Super Dad! I think we've discovered a good little trading system to give us each a little more free time. He got a day earlier in the week and I got mine a few days later. We obviously can't do this every week, but every once in a while it's a good idea.

Utah Jazz

The new season is upon us. What better to bring a smile to the face is my favorite Utah Jazz moment: "John Stockton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA finals!". It begs the question: where were you when it happened?

7 Moore

Wow...has our family grown. Despite your early disposition to say "they're looking to have seven more kids!?!", let me put your faint heart to rest and say, only one more. "7 Moore" is our current status, being 2 parents, 3 kids, 2 cats. My hope is this evening to get a 'latest' picture of each member and put the images as a collage in the title bar, obviously showing my curiosities are taking over useful things I could be doing. I'd claim lack of sleep, but the twins are doing much better recently (minus Natalie's cold). Normally I get so obsessed by whatever I'm doing, I finish quickly and spend time looking for other things to do. I think this has finally caught up to me, as I have a lot of time on the telescope yet needed before it gets really cold out. I haven't used my solar filter yet, and have had a hard time stepping away from work and the kids to view early morning or late afternoon. I'm in the middle of Zelda on the Wii, "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer (started reading during Lisa's ACL surgery and then never finished), etc.

Baby smiles

Natalie and Tanner have the cutest smiles. They are both such happy babies and it's very easy to get them to smile. It's easy to get Sydney to smile now, but not so much when she was 4 months old. Daddy can get these two to laugh like no one else can. He says they have a ticklish spot, but I guess I can't find it.

Sydney's computer games

While I was recovering from my surgery I decided to teach Sydney how to use a mouse so she could entertain herself on the computer for a little while. She caught on pretty fast! You can see she concentrates very hard on her games. We are big fans of pbskids.org. She also likes to use Paint and makes me some very abstract artwork. I love the mess-free part of that kind of painting. The only downside to this new source of entertainment is that now I have to share my computer and take turns. But I'm a grown-up and I suppose I can handle a little sharing.

130 SLT

130 SLT
from Josh Moore by Josh
For my birthday, and after several years of calling it 'too expensive of a hobby' ($500 = telescope, solar filter, eye pieces, ac adapter)...I finally bought a telescope for my birthday. It's a NexStar 130 SLT. When it arrived, and the next day extra eye pieces, then the AC adapter - 2 extra long days of waiting for power - it was time to view. Obviously around lamp posts I'm normally grateful for around the house, and so many other lights around, many DSO's (deep space objects) aren't as bright, but I had fun anyway. I'm learning leaps and bounds about each eyepiece, how the GOTO works (automatically moves the scope to the selected target), and many other things. But after a few days of really cloudy weather, a nice birthday gift was a clear sky. The moon was just gorgeous tonight, as was Jupiter and the 3 visible moons (for my telescope anyway). So many more stars were visible by the naked eye, and the texture on the moon was just amazing.

I think my next purchases will be an attachment ($12) to allow your digital SLR take pictures. My telescope isn't meant for longer than 30 second exposure pictures (telescope is constantly moving to keep the object in focus), but I'm sure in the next few years, after I buy another small telescope that doesn't require power to move the gears (or have GOTO), and a small camera/attachments, I'll eventually get a bigger telescope. It's sad I just bought one and I'm talking about another, but the small one should be <>

They say going to a location of no (at least much less) light pollution, you can see many more DSO's, brighter, and more clear. I didn't want to buy an external power tank or waste batteries, but I think I'll get two sets of rechargables. Our family lives on AA batteries anyway, and it'd be fun to take the scope to the big park, or every once in a long time, to a place where there are large locations of low light pollution. No picture can describe what you see through a telescope.

Tanner's bananas

My Tanner boy is not a fat baby, though he does look huge compared to his twin sister. But he has quite an appetite! I guess that's the way it is with boys. It's hard enough providing enough milk for two babies, especially when one is a little pig! I've been having a hard time keeping up with his demands lately so we gave in the other night and offered him some smashed up bananas. We were only 2 days before the 4-month mark so I figured it was alright. I didn't expect him to eat much his first time but he LOVED them! He would try to lunge at the spoon every time it got close and he'd scream if we were too slow getting his next bite. He ate almost a half a banana. Very impressive.