Welcome to "Froggy"

Nana came to visit us this month. We had a great time with her going school shopping, celebrating Ronny's birthday, and visiting BYU. While at BYU we went bowling and had lunch at the Cougar Eat. After standing in line to get everyone their picks and visiting the bathroom, the fire alarms went off. We waited a few minutes to see if they would go off but we were all kicked out while the fire department figured things out. So we ended up eating outside. The kids were great sports and after we were let back in we headed to the bookstore.

We also visited Costco while Nana was here. (Really, what's a Nana trip without a trip to Costco?) We found great fruit, a few treats, and of course Webkins! Nana treated each child to a new friend. Charley and Joseph immediately showed Nana how to register their new pets online and how she could play with them when she is home. Ben really wasn't so interested in the online stuff but he sure loves his new friend. "Froggy" as he calls him now goes with us everywhere. When I say everywhere I really do mean that! He has to sit at the dinner table, scripture time, everywhere we go he comes along, and of course when Ben goes to sleep. Ben wakes up at night and if he doesn't see Froggy immediately he calls us in to find him. The first night he came home Ben told us he needed a lily pad to sleep on. We gave him a green washcloth and called it good. Nana however went home and made "Froggy" a lily pad. He now sleeps in this next to Ben everynight! He also says prayers with us at night. What a nut!

Sam Turns 6!

Sam turned 6 years old yesterday. I can't believe he is getting so big! He requested a Pokemon cake for his birthday. Mom had to order the pan off Ebay to take care of his request. Thankfully it came in time. With it being an even birthday we had a family party. We are happy to have lots of family around for events like this!

Unfortunately shortly after everyone left Sam came down with a stomach bug. The poor guy threw up every twenty minutes all night long. Not a fun way to spend your birthday! It did however earn him a day off of school to enjoy his new presents.

Sam's Unusual Pet

Sam's lass was given the assignment to build an unusual pet out of stuff around the house. I put Ronny in charge of this as I had just completed two other school projects with the other two. Here is what they came up with. Sam calls him "Toon" and he is a moose with 6 legs and soccer ball eyes. He is made out of things from our recycle bin.

His class invited all the parents in for an "unusual pet show" for the kids to show off there projects. A few of the parents asked if they could take a picture of the moose. I thought that was hilarious! The two of them had lots of fun and the end result was wonderful! I may put Ronny in charge of a few more of these projects in the future.

Greece

Ronny went to the ICAPS conference in Greece in September. He presented a paper on some of his research in Solitaire. His paper was awarded the best student paper award and he has since been asked to expand his research and submit it to the Artificial Intelligence Journal. (This is one of the big dogs in Computer Science). He has since expanded his research for his dissertation for his Phd so that work will be submitted to the journal. This is a really big thing in his field so we are very excited that his work has culminated into such success. He has since turned in his first draft of his dissertation which is another big hurdle, only a few more to go.

He has since started his job here in Utah and is enjoying it. They seem very happy with his work thus far as well. The company has just moved offices so his commute just got a little longer. However its still only about 20 minutes or less so things are good.