Rachel the Movie Star

This past weekend we travelled to Provo to watch the Cougars execute another defensive shutout against their opponent. This time it was against Wyoming, 44-0. While we were there, we made time to visit Jean's brother, Casey. Uncle Casey works in the basement of the BYU Bookstore and makes all kinds of audio/visual goodies for their advertising team.

While shopping in the clothing section of the BYU bookstore, Rachel was inspired to sing an ad hoc song about BYU socks. Problem was that it came out sounding like 'BYU sucks!' Uncle Casey's creative skills kicked in and this little video gem is the result of his ingenuity - now showing on the in-house TVs at the BYU Bookstore:

Nice job, Casey and Rachel.

GO COUGARS!

Kid's careers

Today the kids were talking about what they want to be when they grow up.

Danny: Zoo keeper
Rachel: Horse rider
Aaron: Monster truck driver.

"I'm not handsome, I'm cool"

According to Aaron, he is no longer handsome or cute, he's cool instead. He'll accept good-looking, but the other two will be rejected if you say them.

Rainbow In Las Vegas

The kids were so excited about this rainbow. We almost never get rain in Las Vegas, let alone a rainbow. We all had to run out to see it. And the kids look so cute here. Aaron learned his posing skills from Rachel, but he takes it to the extreme! And he lost his pants to a milk accident at dinner.

Slugger Danny - Feb 2005

Here's one from the archives:

*Poof* - Grass Be Gone!

In the first week of August I finished up a month-long project of converting our front yard to desert landscaping (xeriscape if you want to get technical). Of course I had to pick the hottest part of the year (the project started with a bang on the 4th of July). I would weigh myself in the morning, go out and work for 10-12 hours in the sun, consume lots of water to keep hydrated and check my weight at the conlcusion of the day to find that I had lost 8lbs.

Water is expensive in Vegas and for good reason - we live in a desert. The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) maintains that 41% of all water used in the Las Vegas Valley goes to residential landscaping and about a quarter of that amount is wasted due to poor/wasteful watering practices (watering at noon, broken sprinkler heads, etc.). So in order to curb consumption and lengthen our water supply SNWA provides a rebate of $1.50 for each square foot of grass that residents 'xeriscape'. The rebate will cover all of our costs (my time/labor and all materials and rentals) and we actually stand to make a pretty penny. This doesn't account for the fact that our water bill for August 2008 was $30 cheaper than August 2007. Nice. The other benefit - it only takes me 5 minutes to mow the backyard and I'm done. Rocks don't grow.

Here's a before and after. Click here to see some other photos

Rudolph

Rachel requests only one song to be sung to her every night. We try to offer other options, but she always turns them down. Either Bob or I have sung Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer to Rachel at bedtime since Christmas '06!

HP Bob

Last Friday I left Las Vegas to collect three more state high points. 52 hours and 2,100 miles later I arrived back in Vegas after having visited the high points in New Mexico (Wheeler Peak - 13,161'), Oklahoma (Black Mesa - 4,975') and Kansas (Mount Sunflower - 4,039'. Yes, Mount Sunflower - every state has to have a high point). Rather than bore you with all the details, I'll give you a link to the photos and the driving route we took.

These three high points brought me to a total of 20 (40% done). My thanks to Paul for accompanying me and helping with the driving on this trip.

Wheeler Peak, NM

Black Mesa, OK

Mount Sunflower, KS (circa 02:00)

Yes, that's the same shirt in all three photos. My shirt and body have been washed since. We all smell better now and Jean is happy.

It's a Boy!

We're having a boy. I don't think anyone was more excited than Aaron. He's been dancing around for days telling anyone he can that "It's a boy baby!" I was thinking it was going to be a girl. I was right on the other three, but not this time. Aaron was right. He's been telling me for weeks "I know it's a boy baby, it's not a girl baby". Aaron went with us to the ultrasound and he thought it was great. But he was a little confused about how they were going to see our baby. When we got out of the office, he said, "But they didn't open your tummy up". Rachel was disappointed at first, but then when she realized that there are good things about being the only girl, she was happy about it. She says that it's ok because boy babies are just as cute as girl babies.

First Day of School

Danny and Rachel had a great first day at school. Rachel is in Kindergarten and Danny started first grade. Rachel said she was a little nervous, but didn't act it. As soon as we got to school she put her backpack down and ran off to the playground. Aaron and I waited with Danny by his classroom. Danny was a little less sure about things. But after he got in to class he did great. They are both loving their teachers and all the fun things they get to do at school. Aaron has had a little harder time adjusting. I've had to be pretty creative to keep him entertained without his brother and sister to play with. He was sure he was old enough for school, so he's been having "home school". We do little lessons like I did with the other kids and he wore his backpack everywhere for about a week.

Rachel is 5!

Rachel turned five years old on August 14. She was so excited for her birthday. We celebrated on Thursday, her actual birthday, by going out to eat at Panda Express at Rachel's request. However, in her mind that was her "fake birthday". Her real birthday was on Saturday afternoon when she had seven little girls over for her party.

She had a horse party. We played "Pony, Pony, Unicorn" (the girl version of duck, duck, goose), and Simon Says and all of those types of fun games. We also had a pinata, which Danny broke open, cake and ice cream and presents. Rachel loved it. And we love our beautiful 5-year-old!

This picture is in response to Bob asking "Who loves to party?"