Head Shot for Work

del Norte Turkey Trot 2010

This year was unusual, since Torel had to work. He usually goes to the Turkey Trot, but since he couldn't make it, I got nominated. It was fun though. The kids love it. Next year we will all have to run.

Hallie at the end of her race.

It was a little chilly that day, so Harrli needed her hat.

Hannha and Isabel

Hannah at the end. Sooo tired.

Thanksgiving Cookies

It has been a long time since I have blogged and already am having a hard time. So after the 3rd try I think I finally got it. Wednesday before Thanksgiving Aunt Trina came over and helped us make cut-out Turkey cookies. We were supposed to send them to Uncle Terel on his mission, but they were so good, we ate them all. Sorry Uncle Terel. We will send him some later.

Aunt Trina is soo much fun.

Hayydn got his hands dirty. Hannah is the best big sister, they all love her.

Hallie and Haddli loved making cookies.

Harrli was the biggest helper of all!! (Notice the flour all over her face!)

HALLOWEEN! YAAAAAY

Halloween time again. This year was fairly simple. Obviously Halloween was on Sunday so we had a tri-ward trunk or treat on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of participation, which I have to say is pretty common for our ward. I love it. Sunday our kids handed out candy. I can't decide which one they liked better, dressing up and going trick or treating or handing out candy? It was pretty funny to listen in, "hurry get ready, here comes another customer . . ." Seriously, they would block off the sidewalk, nobody was getting by without getting some candy! I eventually had to go down and regulate to make sure they weren't giving away all the candy. They all wanted to hand out candy and so they ended up each giving a candy to each kid. What a mess. :-) BUT, they had lots of fun. Anyway, here are some pics. Enjoy.

Haddli (butterfly Fairy), Hannah (Pirate), Hallie (Witch), Hayydn (hand me down Lumpy).

Now including Harrli (hand me down Eeyore), and Mama (nurse). An interesting note, everyone of our kids was in that Eeyore costume and some point. Honestly, the only way we can tell who is who is by looking at the date. :-)
Harrli.
Haddli.
Hallie.
Harrli and Mama.
Lookin' at something cool. Nice bump-it by the way.
Pandemonium.
Hayydn in his gay costume. (But he still pulled it off). :-)
PUMPKINS. Most of the girls need some coaxing to dig into the pumpkins but Hayydn was all over it - thus all the photos of him.



Hannah, being the big sister and helping out.



Hallie. eeeeeewwww (is what she is saying). But she wanted to collect all the seeds for pumpkins next year. Mama just cooked them instead. They were pretty good actually. Good job Mama.
Hannah getting into the action.
Me helping out. Sorry about exposing my sexy body. What can I say? I like to be naked . . . .
. . . . and greasy. :-)
All the Pumpkins. left to right, Haddli, Hallie, Hannah, Hayydn and Dad.
This is Haddli's pumpkin. She carved it all by herself.
Most impressive pumpkin was by Hallie, again all by herself. Impressive.
Hannah went simple - but effective.
Finally the pumpkin belonging to myself and Hayydn.




Well, that is about it. Until next year, that is about all I have to say about Halloween this year.

The Super Computer

So, our desktop computer was about ten years old and not running to hot. That is OK because Lisa and I have both gotten a laptop over the years. I purchased mine right before law school about 5 years ago. Wow, that was a long time ago - life sure goes by fast. Anyway, needless to say my laptop is now ill equipped to run the new CS5 software. I had to completely re-image my laptop just to get through the last season of soccer photos. So, I combined the income from by business ventures throughout the year and decided to build a new computer. I decided to build rather than buy because I was sick and tired of getting commercial fluff and garbage. I want a lean mean operating machine!

So, my specs are as follows: (for those of you who actually care)

Case:

Cooler Master HAF X

MOBO:

Asus P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6gb/s USB 3.0 ATX INTEL MOBO

Memory:

Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2gb) 240pin DDR3 (x2) = 12GB total

Graphics:

EVGA GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) Superclocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x 16 DDCP Ready SLI

PSU:

Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold Series 800W ATX 12V SLI Readt CrossFire Ready

HD:

2 samsung Spinpouint F3 Desktop Class 1TB 7200rpm 300mbs

OS:
Windows 7 (64 bit)

I have to say that the most suprising thing about the new build is the ATX full tower. WOW, that thing is huge. Check out the Photo of Hallie standing next to it. I finished building it yesterday and fired it up. Perfection. In fact, I am updating this blog right now using my new super computer. :-)

Well, while I didn't fully document the build I took a few pictures along the way. Here are a few.

This is a pic of the MOBO in the HAF X Case.
A cool thing about this case is that you have a back wall to hide all your cords. That way it is cool and pretty. :-)
Hallie standing next to the case during the build, just to let you know how massive this thing is.
This is another pic of the MOBO with the CPU and CPU/cooler, Memory, video card, and fans installed.
And so on.
A pic of the back plugs.
EVGA GTX 470 = Sweet. Someday I will have two. :-)

Anyway, the build went almost perfectly. I honestly don't know why everybody doesn't just build their own computers?? (besides all the warnings about being a trained professional to proceed - which I of course disregarded :-)) ). No, but seriously, I look forward to many years of upgrading my computer as necessary rather than having to buy a new computer every few years.

Pond Numero Dos

Ok, it takes a lot of time and effort to blog with any level of consistency. At least a lot of time and effort that I would rather place elsewhere. Well, technically I shouldn't put it like a choice because lately there hasn't been one. Between work, soccer, soccer photos, my networking event, being sick, and the million "honey-do's" on my list I haven't had time for much lately.

Anyway, here we are. While I have a long list of things that need to be blogged, i.e. Harrli's first birthday, you are getting the pond numero dos.

Last year, when I was broke, I convinced my mom to pay me to build my dad a pond. Well long story short - I finally got a significant amount of it done. Here are some photos to document the process.


The hole was actually dug a few months ago on a different trip but I didn't have time to come back up and finish until last weekend.
Me and Hayydn sitting in the pond. Hannah is about to attempt to give me rabbits ears. Notice my Dad's Dalia flowers in the back. I am jealous - I wish I had some of those surrounding my pond. :-(


Another point of view, cuz I know you were begging for it. :-)
Ok, we are laying out the liner. Maybe this is a good place to say that I tried to convince my dad to go bigger but he didn't want to, so, oh well. It is what it is. I would say it is still about 250-300 gallons.
Had to go get some rocks to hold the liner down. But Hayydn and Haddli are representing.
The first stone. Hayydn is holding it in place. I am not sure where the fat baby went in this one?
Oh, there she is - the fat baby. She probably shouldn't be naked cuz it was a little chilly, but what the hay, you are only a fat baby once, right? I am turning the water on by the way.
Ok, so you have to fill it up slow and smooth out the wrinkles.

Well, Grandpa put the camera down so we are flash forwarding to all of the rocks installed - at least around the pond. That was a lot of work, we collected all of the sandstone from the wilderness with our bare hands. By we, I mean my dad and me. I later decided that I am way to old for that kind of work!
I was quite impressed with myself and how level I got the water in the pond. WHATS UUUUPPP!!!! That is experience right there. :-)



You can see the big spill stone in this one. That is where the waterfall will eventually flow into the pond. That rock single-handedly killed both mine and my fathers backs! BUT, we gott'r done!
The ghetto bench that we will some day replace with a custom bench built by Torel. :-)





Dad sitting in the ghetto bench.


So Cute.
My dad decided that while I was here we might as well go out and get another entire truck load of rock?? I think he was high or something. (trust me Dad it is ok, nobody really thinks you were high and they understand it is just a joke). These are some experimentation for the waterfall section.





Well, I hope you enjoyed it. I am going to heal for a month or two and go back and finish it.