Pop goes the Weasel

It was fun watching Levi laugh at the Jack-in-the-box.

Matthew has a blog

I helped Matthew set up a blog.  I’m willing to get it will be more actively updated than mine!  He has already posted a scanned in copy of one of his pictures.  See it at The Stuff That Matthew Likes.

Merry Christmas

Kids win at Lego competition

The boys and the neighbor kids won the Regional robot design and performance award.  The robot was designed to be short enough to fit under one of the obstacles.  Making it short was quite a challenge for them.  Another feature of the design is the wall scrubbers that let the robot line up with the wall.  

David and Ruth Tie the Knot

It’s about time I mentioned how much we enjoyed the wedding and posted some wedding pictures. Here are a few pictures to help remember it by.

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2009 Rage in the Sage Duathlon

They posted results and I came in 22. The bike course was tougher this year due to the loose gravel. I felt I did much better in the bike, but my run suffered slightly. All in all I'm pleased. Results are here. http://www.3rrr.org/?f=2003&eventId=1027

St. Patricks Day Run

We all participated in the St. Patricks day run yesterday. The weather was a little warmer but it was also a little windier than it has been. The kids did well in the 1 mile. Jodi had fun racing some other people with Levi in the stroller. I was shocked to actually win the 5k! I'm very thankful that the Lord has allowed me to run and I'm getting over those injuries I was battling.

Before I forget, I thought I'd write down a little of how the race went for me. Warning: this is a little long and detailed so feel free to skip it.
My original goal was to just see if I could beat 20 minutes and also not injure myself and maybe I could place in my age group depending on who is doing the 5k and who is doing the 10k. When we took off the wind was behind us and it's slightly downhill, so I decided to go a little faster at the start than I had planned, knowing that the way back would be tougher and harder to make up ground. I was able to stay just at the tail end of the main group and when the 5k runners split off I was surprised to see that there were only 3 runners ahead of me and not that far ahead either. Oh no, here goes my plan to take it easier on this run :-) At the 5k turn around I became number 3. I also noticed that my right shoe felt a little loose. It was untied. No way am I going to stop and tie it, just keep going, it seems ok anyway. Back we run against the crowd of people coming our way. There is a young kid in front of me and someone probably a little older than me. We finally make it past the crowd and the young kid passes the older guy. I pass him too and then a little after that pass the kid. Just about a mile left and I'm feeling good, well as good as can be expected given my heart rate has been averaging 172 for the last 12 minutes. I've decided it sure would be nice to actualy win this, so I'll just need to keep my pace. Well, I was able to, actually running about the same pace I took off at. Adrenaline is great, and having all of those people around help take your mind off of the wind. One look back with a quarter mile left and it appears I'm by myself. 19:20 or so was the final time. Results should be posted in he next week or so.

Levi Waves

OK, sure is fun watching a baby doing even the simplest of things. Everything is new, even waving.

Caleb's Choir performance

Caleb was able to be part of a group that sang during a recent church celebration. It was sure fun watching him. He and the other kids did a very good job.

Christopher turns 12

We had a fun birthday celebration. Christopher(and Jon and Matthew) received a WII fit for their birthdays. We all had fun, found out that Uncle Ken can still hula hoop, and just enjoyed being together. Below are a few highlights.

Think outside the box

Levi Jumper 2

Levi with the Jumping toy Uncle Russ gave him for Christmas.

Levi Jumper

Had to add a video of Levi with his jumper.

Happy New Year

Here is our Christmas letter picture from 2008. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and we wish you the best in 2009. May the Lord bless and keep you, and make His face shine upon you this year.

Cruising

Well not quite cruising yet, be Levi has started pulling himself up. First the fireplace, then the couch, next...

He is also preparing to wage battle with his brothers in Airsoft wars!

LEGO team wins robot design award

So for the first real post I thought I would put up a video of part of one heat of the kids LEGO competition where they captured all of the balls, a feat no other team was able to perform during the local competition. Although a little disappointed with their performance, they did a great job on the robot and won the design award for their robot. One of the best attatchments they made was a one way door that would capture the "carbon" balls so they could take them back to base.

Blogging

What to blog, what to blog, what to blog...

As this is the first blog post, some pondering must take place. Mainly I wanted to blog to catch up technically with my niece Holly :-). We also wanted to share some pictures and videos with family and friends, at least that is the intent, we will see what happens after vacation is over...