12/26/09 The Day after Christmas

We knew we had a lot to do to prepare for our new goat Butterscotch to come home. We spent Saturday building a goat hut. It is 8' X 4'. Going inside, it definitely is much cozier than being out in the elements. The girls helped to put primer on the outside in the late afternoon. We had heard that you are not supposed to paint when it is below 50 degrees. We decided to risk it and to get a coat on anyway just to help protect the wood from the winter elements.

12/25/09 Christmas Day

We seemed to have had a good Christmas. We hope you did too. The most popular toy was Paiton's. You put pieces together to create a maze for marbles to race thru. The whole family has enjoyed creating structures, and then see the marbles run through it...even parents.

12/24/09 Christmas Eve

We had dinner around 4pm. After dinner, we played some Christmas music on Chimes (see picture). This was Paiton's first year of playing chimes. She sure was having fun...she hit the chimes with much gusto and fanfare. After chimes, we watched a Trans Siberian Orchestra DVD, then we watched Mr. Kruegers Christmas. We also tried to watch "The Nativity" but the DVD was bad. We then read the Christmas Story from the scriptures, and then sang Christmas songs. It was a good Christmas Eve. The kids hung their stockings, and went to bed around 8pm.

Shannon and I stayed up and watched the movie "August Rush". This is our second time watching this movie. I really enjoy it. It is one of my all time favorites.

12/24/09 Day at work

My work was allowing parents to bring their kids on the day of Christmas Eve. Madison, Kayden and Ashton wanted to come, and were excited about it. Our day started early, after family scripture reading, we left at 6:15 to arrive a work at 7:00. I was sure they were going to be bored all day. We started off getting hot-chocolate out of the machine, set up a laptop, and turned on the TV. They also had coloring books. About 8:30 the CSR department invited the kids over for activities. They had about 10-12 kids come. They had games, coloring contest, TV, pop and christmas goodies. They seemed to enjoy this better than being in my office. Around 11:00 I picked them up to go see the goat. We got there in time to see them trim the hoofs. Little did I know that goat hoofs need to be trimmed atleast 4 times a year, if not more frequently. After that, we went to get corndogs for lunch. By the time we got back from lunch, the kids were all gone...so back to my office they came. At about 2:30 we left for home. As we were packing up to go home, Ashton stated that "it was not a very long day". They seemed to have fun, and thanked me for taking them to my work. I was tired when I got home.

12/23/09 Surprise gift from co-workers

The Billing and Accounting Departments surprised me this morning with this gift. Her name is Butterscotch, and she is a year and a half old. She seems to be good around people. What a shock. I still can't believe it. Can't wait to get her home

12/21/09 - Madison's Christmas Concert

Madison decided to try and play the clarinet this year. After about a month or so, she said that she did not want to do it next year. The next week when she learned that she earned first chair, she changed her mind. Here is their performance at the band Christmas concert. This is just 6th graders, and it is their first year playing. I think they did pretty good for first year. In my opinion they were better than the 7th-8th graders.

12/9/09 Reagan's 2nd Birthday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1DQfQSSBzo

Reagan had her 2nd birthday. We are not sure she realized it yet. We had a hard time convincing her to blow out her candles...now that should have been on video. Her sisters did most of the present opening, as seen on the video. She did enjoy her cake though.

11/26/09 Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was very quiet around our house. It was just our family. Shannon did great on the meal....she kept to the basics: Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, jello, apple pie. In my opinion all the other traditional/filler foods at Thanksgiving are overated.

The weather was nice enough that Jordan, Madison and I played "Horse" outside. Madison kept going for layups...it drove me nuts, because those were the only times that I got letters. They are both learning to shoot pretty well. I am proud of them.

11/17 The cows have arrived

Back on August 6th, Madison and I went up to Billings to pick up a couple of heifer calves at the auction. We went in on the purchase with a neighbor. The black cow was 565 pounds and the brown cow was 735. Since then, they have been on the neighbors pasture. On 11/16, we tried to bring them down to our place. If someone had a video camera, it would have been on America's funniest videos. We were unsuccessful. We decided to put panels around their water tank. That next day, they were easily trapped and put into the trailer. Once ready, we are hoping to sell one, and keep the other for meat. Hopefully we know what we are doing.

The first day that we had them at our place Ashton asked Shannon "Are you going to cook the cows while I am at school?" I just envisioned Shannon having a cow in a pan on our stove. It was a funny picture. Our girls have not gotten used to the fact, that we eat our chickens and will eat our cow.

11/1/09 Ashton's 6th birthday

Ashton turned 6 years old today. She was very excited. She was the first one out of bed this morning. She kept on asking when her birthday could get started. I stayed home from church today to care for the two youngest; Reagan and Paiton have not been feeling good. Just like everyone, we have been hit with the flu the past couple of weeks. After church, Asthon had her birthday dinner of hotdogs and tatortots. A little while later, Paiton came crying to Shannon that she was bleeding. Shannon brushed it off...it was frosting from the cake. She was fine after that.

10/31 Halloween

We had our "Trunk or Treat" at the Church. A smaller turnout than last year. Reagan was a spider, Paiton was an indian, Ashton was a princess, Kayden was a vampire, and Jordan was pajama girl. Madison decided to not dress up. We were home by 6:30, and we had no trick or treaters come to our house...just like last year.

10/25/09 - Guitar playing with Madison

Jordan and Madison have been taking guitar lessons from Linda Borders, a lady in our ward. I have just started taking lessons from Ron McClure. He is a former University of Wyoming instructor. I have been learning a lot. This number was one of my assignments. He wanted me to create a chord progression and then based on the key, create a melody in that key. This is in the key of G. This is new territory for me, and I am happy with the results. I taught Madison the chord progression...and here we are playing it. It was fun.

This weeks assignment was to create a blues chord progression with creating a melody with a blues scale. It has been more difficult.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV1fON5ah4c

10/21/09 Bens' Visit

My brother Ben came to visit on 10/20 and left on 10/22. He came to do a seminar for my accounting employees on CPR's and Work Orders. The seminar was beneficial, and he gave us some good direction. While here, my employees gave me a Boss's day lunch...see picture. They made soup, bread, brownies, cakes, jello and salad. It was great. Ben was jealous that his employees do not do that for him. What can I say?

At home, just like last time, my girls gave Ben a lot of attention. I am sure he gets worn out when he comes to visit. We enjoyed him here.

10/14-16 - Trip to New Hampshire

I had a "short" - but very long trip to Newcastle, New Hampshire. This was my first time to the New England area. I was looking forward to it, expecially since this is the time of the year of the leaves changing colors. On Wednesday, I left my house at 3am to catch a 6am flight out of Billings, with stopovers in Denver and DC and arrived in Boston. From Boston, I rented a car and drove for about 1 1/2 hours. I arrived about 7:30 at night. Did not see much of the scenery...it was dark. On Thursday, the conference began, it was the Telergee - CFO and Controllers conference. After the meetings, I walked around a bit outside. It was cold, so I did not venture far. At night, they put on a "Lobster Bake" I have had lobster before, but never been to a lobster bake. They had clams, and whole lobsters. It was messy, but good. That night, I awoke with a terrible stomach ache. If I got 2 hours of sleep, I would be surprised. On Friday morning, I went to the meetings. It ended at 11am. I drove to Boston to catch my flight. Taking the shuttle from the rental car agency to the airport, I figured out I left my wallet in the rental car. So I took the shuttle back to the rental car agency. Luckily and thankfully, the wallet was still there. I was to fly home from Boston, to JFK to Denver to Billings. I was worried about the connecting flight at JFK because I would have had to change from American Eagle to United, in a small amount of time. Luckily, the gate agents called me up and said that the flight was running late, and that they booked me at a 5pm United flight from Boston to Denver and then Denver to Billings...getting home at the same time. Even though I was still not feeling well, and that I had to stay at the airport for a total of 5 hours, I was grateful for the change. I arrived home at just after midnight. The conference was ok. I wish I had seen some more of the sights and the weather was better. The area was nice, even though the fall colors had not hit the coast area as much as other areas. The homes and landscaping are very well taken care of. It really did remind me of "Murder She Wrote". I stayed at the "Wentworth by the Sea" hotel, of which you can see a picture of. One picture is from my hotel room, and the others are within walking distance of the hotel.

My gut still hurts...but I am home.

9/19 - After the Trip

All the girls received New York shirts. Here is a picture of them working outside in their new shirts.

9/17 Trip to NYC

I did not have any meetings on Thursday. In the morning we took a boat tour down the Hudson River, and went around the Statue of Liberty. That day we also walked the Brooklyn bridge, walked China Town and Little Italy. We also walked in Grand Central Station.

All in all it was a good trip. We had fun and would go back again. We missed our kids and it was time to come home.

9/16 - Trip to NYC

On Wednesday, Shannon went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or "MET". At night we went to "Wicked". Apparently I have been in the dark with how big of a hit this is. What a great show. We really enjoyed the performance and the story line. All in all, we probably enjoyed Stomp a little more....but both are highly recommended.

9/15 - Trip to NYC

Shannon went to the M&M Store in Times Square. She was so excited about all the different colors, and the ability of going to the different tubes and filling her own bag. I teased her and told her she got ripped off. She did not care, and was happy about her mixed bag of m&m's anyway. That night we went to Stomp. They did not say a word, but they had us laughing. What a great show. We had dinner and walked around East Village before the show....it definetely was not the tourist part of Manhattan.

9/14 - Trip to NYC

ON Monday, Shannon went to the museum of Natural history...the same museum as the in the film "Night at the Museum" Here is a picture of the famous "dumb dumb" in the movie. Steve had meetings in the morning, and in the afternoon went to a group activity to learn to cook. We cooked the best chicken pot pies, homemade brownies and ice cream and salads. At night, the management group and spouses went to dinner at a nice Steak Place.

9/13 - Trip to NYC

The Day after Kayden's baptism, Shannon was able to go to New York with me on business. On Sunday, we went to the Manhattan 1st ward. They meet in the same building as the Manhattan Temple. After Church we went to Ground Zero, walked Battery Park, walked in St Patricks Cathedral, happened to walk by as Taylor Swift was performing in the street for the MTV video music awards, and walked Time Square

Family picture at Kaydens baptism 9/11/09

Kayden was born on 9/1/01. She was a 911 baby before 911 became associated with the twin towers. Looking back, I find it interesting that she was baptized on 9/11/09 - the 8 year anniversary of that day. Her Grandma and Grandpa Van Buren were able to come out from Twin Falls to take part and witness this great day.

Kayden was very excited and happy. Madison gave a talk on baptism, I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and Grandpa Van Buren sang a solo "Walk Tall, You are a Daughter of God". I was priveleged to baptize her and confirm her a member of the Church. She had to be dunked twice due to my own mistake...but Kayden did not mind. What a great day!

Kayden on the day of her baptism 9/11/09

Start of something new

I've joined Facebook today, and I've started this blog....both were unplanned and undesired before the day started. You never know what life is going to bring you. Hope to include family photos, family updates and random thoughts of what I have learned from time to time.