First Triathlon

On Saturday, September 10, there was a Kid's triathlon at the golf course in Shelley. John has really enjoyed long distance running, and he did well on the swim test at Scout camp this summer, so Amber talked to him and asked if he wanted to be in it. He was pretty excited, so we signed him up the next morning.

He didn't get to train for it at all since he had about 12 hours advance notice, but he did a really good job.

The triathlon consisted of: 100 meter swim, 3 mile bike ride, and 1.5 mile run.



His chain came off twice on his bike right at the beginning which put him back a ways, but he persevered and stuck with the race, doing a very good job.



He was in the same bracket with one of his best friends, Emily Rickabaugh...they both finished about the same time.

It was a very positive experience...we're really glad that he decided to do the race.

Four Wheeler

While I was at scout camp this week with John I have asked Amber to
check out a four wheeler off of craigslist. On Monday, Amber and her dad
visited the people that were selling the four wheeler. They took it for
a spin and liked it enough to buy it.

When I got back from scout camp, Amber and I took the cargo trailer over
and picked up the four wheeler. It is just over 10 years old but is in
pretty good condition for its age. It does have a few quirks, but it
seems to run pretty well.

It came with an electric winch as well as a good snow blade.

When we were picking up the four wheeler I told the guy that I had
purchased a snow thrower last winter and found out that my property was
just too big for it. If he was interested he could stop by our house and
check it out. Last night, he swung by our house and looked at it. He
liked it and bought it from us. It turned to be a pretty nice arrangement!

Where there's Smoke, there's Fire

Today, I had to get the oil changed on the pickup so I took my laptop to Big-O and did my work while they serviced the truck. While I was gone, Amber was home with all of the kids except for Aylee who is at Girl's Camp.

While Amber was taking a shower, she thought she smelled smoke, but kept on taking her shower. She could tell that the smoke was outside and a ways away, so she didn't think anything of it. When she got out of the shower and downstairs to check on the kids, she found John, Aliece, and Alayna all out sitting in the driveway out by the road with their 72 hour kit backpacks. They smelled the smoke and had grabbed their emergency gear and waited outside all prepared. Aliece even had her blanket and favorite stuffed animal with her just so nothing happened to them.

We both had a good laugh about it and were proud of their efforts. The only downside: while they had their precious belongings and were safe, they had let Avary and Jace stay in the house -- Avary in her bed and Jace playing with his toys. At least the stuffed animals will be safe :-)

Cowboy Jace

Ever since we moved to Idaho, Jace has had this thing about Cowboys. He often insists that we call him "Cowboy Jace" instead of just Jace. Amber was telling a friend today that Jace doesn't no how to run normally, he trots all of the time on his imaginary horse any time he wants to get somewhere fast.

Well, I just got home from Scouts tonight and was trying to find Amber. Jace has been having a hard time falling asleep lately with the sun being up so late in the evening, so I guessed that she might be in his room helping him fall asleep. Sure enough, as I peeked through the crack in the doorway, I saw Amber sitting next to Jace on his bed in the dark bedroom. Amber had Jace's head on her lap and she was lightly brushing his face and tracing the features of his face with nothing other than his silver toy six-shooter pistol.

Woah Tex...this kid has it bad!

Indiana Jones

Amber heard the Indiana Jones theme song coming from our closet. She walked in there to find Jace humming the song, flipping his rope whip, all while dangling down in our laundry chute.

He loves to play Indiana Jones!

Dad Singing Eggbert the Easter Egg

We had a great time this past Saturday with the family at our house for the Easter party.  It was especially fun to see Joe.  The kids loved having Lucy there as well.

I managed to catch a recording of Dad singing "Eggbert the Easter Egg" for all of the gang.  You can listen to it here:

http://www.callfamilyhistory.com/manual-uploads/joann/DadSingingEggbertTheEasterEgg.mp3

Potty training tool

As many of you know our son Jace has been having a hard time learning how to go poop in the toilet. He's getting old enough that All of his cousins that are his age are potty trained. He is lagging behind. I have tried lately to get him to sit on the toilet for an extended period of time by setting up a table with my iPad on it showing a movie of one of his favorite cartoons. We'll have to see if this works!

Arbor

The last couple of weeks I have been working on an Arbor for a wisteria vine on the side of my house. I thought I would send a couple of pictures so you could see the progress.

I planted that wisteria vine last year becuase I had visions of an arbor at the spot so the vine is well established by now and should start climbing the arbor posts.

Stool Sample

Tonight, Amber found some plans on how to make a long bench. She decided that the bench, if shortened would make a good stool. When I got done working at 5pm, I found her chopping up some spare wood scraps. By 7:30, she had her first prototype finished. It is sturdy and looks pretty good. We're going to paint it and then mass produce them to go throughout the house!

True Colors

Last night, one of tonight's appointments fell through so I decided to go on a date with Amber instead. As we were going out the door, Alayna grabbed onto me and pleaded that I would stay home with her instead. I was touched by her sincere desire to have some quality time with her dad. However, I was immovable on the matter. When she realized that I was indeed leaving, her true intentions came out with her question...

"Well, Dad, can you just leave your iPhone here then?"

So much for wanting Dad to stay home for some quality 1:1 time :)

Jace's new eating habit

Jace was having a hard time eating his lunch today. He then offered amber a solution that would help him eat. Surprisingly it did the trick!

2010-2011 Weight Competition Results

I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone that participated in the 2010-2011 Holiday Version of Leading Losers. It looks like over half of us were able to shed our holiday pounds...so congratulations. Everyone else was close to being back at their pre-holiday weight!

Those that lost weight or broke even:
John, Jen, Amber, & Jake

It was a fun go around, and I appreciate everyone's well wishes for me taking the entire pot of $168.00 (that's a few visits to chuck-a-rama!). As you can see by my picture, I still have more to lose, so we'll have to circle our wagons and plan our next weight challenge sometime!!

Aliece hits the news....

I was reading the Shelly Pioneer (a weekly newspaper for the Shelley area) and found that Aliece was mentioned in the paper. She recently won a story telling competition for her classroom. She then competed in the school and did very well.

I have scanned in the newspaper article about the occasion.

We were really proud of Aliece for going out of her comfort zone and doing such an amazing performance.

Splits

I don't know where Jace got the idea, but today at lunch he thought it would be fun to do the splits on top of the kitchen table. He did a pretty good job!

Flooring has arrived

We just got our hardwood flooring in yesterday. I had to take the trailer to the lumber store to pick it up. It weighed about 1.5 tons. It really maxed out my trailer's towing capacity. I was kind of worried, but we took it slow and made it home without any incident. When we got home, we had some neighbor kids come over and Haul the wood into the house. It is now sitting in boxes in the kitchen area so that it can adjust to the climate in our house. Within about a week or two the floor will be installed. It will be so nice to have a real floor again! The kids keep tripping into the subfloor and getting close snagged on pieces of wood. Before the floor gets in, we will need to replace our exterior doors. After the floor is complete, we just do some repair work on the cabinets and build an island. It will be nice when this project is done!

A sticky situation

This week we were at the high school switching buses like always when I walked passed John's stop and saw him on a pole. I told him to get away thinking that he would get his tongue stuck, but it was too late. He had already frozen his tongue there. Fortunately, one of his good friends was there and got a guard. While they ran to get water, I kept pushing his head forward so that he wouldn't cause any more damage. Luckily, he only hurt the bottom of his tongue! Well, Alayna is begging me to get off, so see you! Love A's

Remodel Project

Here are some pictures of the remodel of my breezeway. It is still a work in process but I finished putting the primer on the ceiling today. Next week I hope to put the paint on the ceiling.

Before:After:

Mommy Did It

This morning, mom turned the on monitor on the computer for Avary. For the Next while, Avary sat there watching small Sesame Street clips. When I walked in a little later, I noticed she was pressing the monitor button. I told her that wouldn't work, then she said: "Mommy did it." Who knows what she will pick up next!

Love you! A's

My kind of shoes

There was a picture I saw on Google Reader that showed the coolest high heels ever. They were black and totally covered with star wars stuff. Now those are shoes I wouldn't mind wearing!

Love you all!
A's

P.S. To those who didn't know, I am getting braces this month.

Suggested Resolutions

While sitting around the dinner table tonight, our conversation moved toward new year's resolutions. Everyone started suggesting resolutions for each other. Suggestions for Avary and Jace were to be potty trained. Alayna & Aliece, were suggested that they should learn to tie their shoes. John Jr was told that he should work on keeping his room clean. Aylee was challenged to show confidence when she talks to other people.

The kids caught on to this along the way and were firing these suggestions off right and left. Then they directed their attention to their parents. Alayna told Amber that her resolution should be to prepare dinner at the right time (tonight's dinner ended up taking place after 7pm).

Then John looked at me and said, "I know Dad's resolution!" The table went quiet momentarily as I cringed waiting to hear the verdict. Here it came, "Dad, you should just keep up the good work."

I looked at Amber a little haughtily and smiled proud.

John will be getting a $20.00 bill under his pillow tonight. :-)