Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley entry by Andrew.

Katie-tine

Total Awesomeness.

Cabo

We spent the weekend in Cabo, no kids!  What a blast.  Almost missed the flight out due to a forgotten passport, so I was ready for mucho cervezas when we got there.  The place was beautiful, and the weather was perfect.  It all went so fast and now its back to the grind.  Many thanks to the Grandma and Grandpa for the babysitting and everything else.

Getting Ready for Valentines

With Valentine's Day approaching quickly, the kids are tasked with making boxes that will hold the Valentines they receive from their classmates.  For most people this is kind-of a hassle because you have to go find a bunch of supplies.  But most people don't have Grandma Kari...   She showed up with a massive amount of cool things that the kids were able to use for their project!  Thanks Kari for the supplies and for the help ;)

Sledding and Superbowls

Before settling down with the rest of you to watch the big game, we decided to do some sledding at the hill across the street.  This video has me, Katie, Andrew, and our neighbor-girl all in ONE sled.  We were cruising pretty fast toward a tree and I had to plant a foot to slow us down and change course, which is what causes all the snow to drench us (and the camera).

(And yes, that ridiculous groaning is me)

More Snow

Dumped on today.  Andy was an enthusiastic shoveler.

Lots of snow and Secondteen

We got ourselves a good-ol-fashioned blizzard today.  I'd say its about a 4 on a scale of 1-10 but it still qualifies.  School is closed.  Kids are home.  Unfortunately I still have to work.

Andy woke me up this morning with this:

*Andy crawls into bed with me*

Andy:  Dad, are you awake?

Me:  Ughhh, what time is it?

Andy:  Mmmmm, abouuuut...  6:29

Me:  Awesome, what's up?

Andy:  I just named a new number!

Me:  Really, what's it called?

Andy:  Secondteen!

Me:  Cool, where does it go, what is it's value?

Andy:  It comes in place of twelve.  And I want to rename eleven to Firstteen too.

Me: Excellent, can I go back to sleep now?

Andy:  OK

While I was unable to really appreciate the value (no pun intended) of these new number names at the time, I think they make a lot of sense now.  I mean, who was the donkey that invented eleven and twelve...? They make no sense when compared to all the other 1s and 2s in the rest of the number system.

Guess what

I'm kinda desperate for blog topics this week.  Maybe I've just been working too hard.  So I took this picture, wondering if anyone can guess what it is...?

B.I.P.

This week Andrew was BIP (Berry Important Person) in his class.  Essentially, he gets to have a bunch of special  privileges throughout the week, like always being first in line, picked first, and stuff like that.  On the last day of the week (today) he gets to have a parent come to class and read a book.  I did the best "Sneeches" reading I could muster.  The kids were great and asked a ton of questions.  After the reading, mommy showed up with some McDonalds!  We pulled Katie from her class and had a family lunch in the cafeteria.   Good stuff.

Slideshow

Here are the pics from 2011...

(Tip:  you can view the slideshow in LARGE fullscreen by pressing:  in the bottom right corner of the YouTube window.)

Jab... Hook... Cross... HI-YAH!

More from MMA.  I'm hoping he becomes the next Chuck Norris.

Cookies

Today was a big day in America.  All across the country, homes were tuning-in to watch the Patriots battle the Ravens, and the Niners take-on the Giants.  The outcome would decide who would go to the Superbowl.  At the same time, millions of Girl Scouts were taking to the streets, knocking on the doors of these homes, and trying to sell the worlds most famous cookies.

Day one of Girl Scout cookies sales.

I gotta say, it ranks right up there with Black Friday, and the time I stood in line back in '80 for Empire Strikes Back.  Having only been on the buying end of Girl Scout cookies in the past, I was totally unprepared for how Hard-Core the Girl Scouts are about their cookie sales.  It starts with signing your life away for 50-or-so boxes of cookies.  After that, you basically sprint to the streets of your local neighborhood, trying to beat all the other girls who might be trying to move on your turf.  The true victims (or casualties) of this war are your poor unsuspecting neighbors who have to try to say 'no' these puppy-eyed saleswomen as they pile overpriced boxes of sugar on their doorsteps.  On top of it all, it was windy and in the 30s today here in Denver, so lets just say it wasn't the best weather for door-to-door sales.

That being said, Katie was awesome at it.  She was brave and confident as she knocked on doors until her hands were frozen.  Many thanks to our generous neighbors and family who said 'yes'.  Please eat-up and call us if you need any more... we still have a few boxes to sell.

LIFE!!!

Last night we played LIFE. We haven't played a board game together as a family in a while and it's funny to see how the kids personalities come out. We had a pretty good time making up names for all the kids we were having. I ended up with SIX boys! So many, that I had to start jamming them in between each other in the car...

26 Push-ups

Today in his Mixed Martial Arts class, Andrew's Master asked for a volunteer. Andy raised his hand, and the teacher asked him to come up and do Push-ups in front of the class...

After, the teacher told a story about how when he was once training under a Shaolin Monk. The Monk asked for a volunteer in a similar manner. The eager teacher (a student then) volunteered. The monk told him that he had volunteered to clean the bathroom. The lesson being: never volunteer until you know what you are getting into...

I have to admit, i was pretty impressed with Andy's ability to do 26 push-ups.

Dontcha just love APPS?

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

As I wade back into the depths of blogging, I have also been looking at applications on my phone that can help. As you all know, there sure are a LOT of apps out there. I have found a few really cool ones though.

JibJab (per the Star Wars vid above) is just so much fun. You can make all kinds of silly stuff really easily. If you like photos and if you like to create, you gotta check it out. Its not really an app, its a website, but it acts like an app.

Sincerely Inc is a company that makes apps focused on mobile photos (and printing them). The photobooth app (popbooth) in this post is from them. They have a cool postcard maker, card maker, and some other fun apps. I have some fun travel coming-up and I hope to make some good use of the postcard-maker.

Instagram is another very cool photo sharing platform. More akin to Twitter and Facebook, Instagram lets to share photos via mobile devices in a very mobile-relevant way. (The MMA photo and Text-A-Saurus were both edited/created through Instagram -- see below.)

Finally, the Blogger app is a must for anyone who uses Blogger. It is a huge time-saver.

Katie has been going NUTS with apps lately on her itouch. It seems like she has found every single free app in the universe. Since I have the download function pass-coded, that means a lot of "Daddy? Can I get this app?", and a lot of me entering in the password.