Happy Birthday to Greg!

Greg is now 37 years young! We had a fun birthday weekend. After taking the children who were awake on a walk, he embarked on his yearly tradition of exploring the bookstore. After that we took the kids out for ice cream and went on a date that evening to see the movie "Tree of Life" (playing at the Galaxy in Cary) We really enjoyed it! It is definitely not your typical movie. There is hardly any dialogue in it but it leaves you with the desire to be better which is always good and inspiring. It also explores The Creation in an interesting way.







The kids and I had some messy fun making a painting for him for his birthday using the kids footprints and my handprints. They thought it was fun and gross to have their feet painted. They also really enjoyed getting permission to fib to dad about why their feet were stained blue. hehehe. Look closely in the center area for Liam's little feeties.











Greg's parents got him some concert tickets to see Death Cab for Cutie, who are awesome. We had a great time! Thank you! Check them out below:

Quote for the day

Saw this on a friend's facebook and though it was great:

"In my nintey-plus years, I have learned a secret. I have learned that when good men and good women face challenges with optimism, everything will work out. Truely, everything will work out no matter how difficult the challenge may seem at the time. Those who move forward with faith and a happy spirit will find things always work out."

President Hinckley

Lego Minifigs headed for deep space

Parker was super excited about the following article:
Link: http://m.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/lego-minifigs-soon-headed-for-deep-space/

This Friday, NASA will launch an Atlas V rocket that will be contain a very special payload. Not only will the rocket be carrying Juno, a space probe that is being sent to Jupiter to study the fifth planet from the Sun, but there will be a few unique stowaways. Thanks to a joint mission between NASA and Lego, there will be three very special Lego minifigs affixed to the spacecraft.
The figures, milled from aluminum, will accompany Juno on its five-year trip to Jupiter. When Juno arrives in 2016, the Lego likeness of the Roman god, Jupiter, his sister, Juno, and the Italian astronomer, Galileo, will be there to take in all the sights and bask in the immensity of the largest planet.

This (until now) secret installation was initiated by NASA scientists, who love Lego as much as anyone and wanted to do something memorable for this mission. They approached Lego and the company loved the idea. It saw the project as a way to promote children’s education and STEM programs.

The brick company even underwrote the project, at a cost of $5,000 for each of the minifigs, which will soon become the farthest flying toys ever. The manufacture of the figures was a deliberate process to ensure the figures would not interfere with NASA’s sensitive measurements.

Each figure has been customized to represent his or her special characteristics. Jupiter carries a lightning bolt, Juno has a magnifying glass to represent her search for truth, Galileo is carrying a telescope and a model of the planet Jupiter.

The minifigs attached to the space probe are the same size as the plastic figures in your box of Lego at home.

Upon arrival in July 2016, the space probe will collect data on Jupiter, its moons and atmosphere. After orbiting the planet for a year (about 33 orbits) and relaying its data, Juno will purposefully de-orbit and crash into the planet’s surface. You can track Juno’s progress with the high-flying minifigs at LegoSpace.com.

This unique project has put a smile on many NASA and Lego employees’ faces and stirred up interest from other state space agencies, as well. Will Lego minifigs take another trip in space soon? Time will tell. But until that day, keep an eye on the sky for the fastest moving toys in the universe.




Photos courtesy The Lego Group.

Screening for Joseph Smith Movie

The newly released movie, Joseph Smith: Plates of Gold was released in Palmyra this month. There will be a screening on Tues, Aug 23rd at 7pm at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary. Click on the link and you can see a trailer & pre-purchase tickets. The Actor who played Joseph (R. Dustin Harding) will be there as well!

Here's the link for North Carolina:
http://josephmovie.com/index.php?page=nc

Eight Months Sweet

7.5 months in the top 2 pics. Two teeth, sits, crawls fast, pulls to a stand and is very pleased with himself about it (yes we are in trouble). Loves to eat (if anyone is eating he must be eating too), loves the remote and the telephone and the door stoppers and of course going outside and taking baths. Favorite baby talk is "Gullah gullah gullah" usually from behind his Paci. Shakes and jumps and splashes on command. Sweet Sweet fun baby boy, we love you!

High Country

Parker had a week and 3 days off of school before starting second grade. We spent most of it away from home. First to Grandma and Grandpa Winters to be spoiled a bit and then up to the mountains. Ahhh, the mountains. We checked out the highland games and stayed a couple of nights with our friends/cousins and their kids in a cabin lent to us by some awesome friends of ours. It was lovely. Just what we needed. Thank you! I had never been to the Highland games before but it was pretty interesting and fun to experience. We watched the tree throwing and the sheep herding exhibition, a bit of scottish dancing and heard a couple of really great scottish bands. The kids especially liked the sand art in the kids area but after about an hour of exploring they were asking to go back to the cabin. Meadow met a lovely fairy who gave her fairy dust to pat on her cheeks. Meadow disappointed: "Dad, I thought that I was going to be able to fly." For some reason blogger won't let me post the pics from the games. We took them with a different camera and it keeps saying Error 400. Weird. Anyone have any experience with this? I'll keep trying and maybe post those later. We also went back to check out the trout farm, splashed in our fav. park stream and checked out the Valle Crucis General Store. The general store had a trap door with a rubber chicken in it that the kids loved. In the olden days they used to keep real chickens in trap doors like that for trading eggs and the chickens themselves. Poor chickens.

"Food Allergies Rock"

We took the family to an awesome free concert last Saturday morning. "Food Allergies Rock" by Canadian Musician Kyle Dine. Very empowering, positive, educational and fun for those who have food allergies or know someone who does. :) Kyle Dine also has anaphylactic allergies to peanuts and tree nuts and other allergies as well. He wears his epi-pens in a cool holder on his belt and his medi-alert bracelet. What a great role model! :)

I really liked what he had to say about why he entitled his CD "Food Allergies Rock:"

something like...." people might find it odd that I am calling this CD food Allergies rock, but having or dealing food allergies creates strengths and virtues within ourselves that otherwise we would not have realized..." Very positive indeed.

Click here to download a free MP3 of his song Food Allergies Rock. My kids love it.

Below are the kids dancing to the song "I wrote a song about my allergies" Parker is the dancing fool in the green. ;) Meadow was content to sit and listen but once we got home she was a dancing fool too. :)