For some time we have wanted to do a music video but the problem with those is that you have to have music. Normal music is copyrighted and so we can't legally use it. However, a month or so ago, I was looking through some fairly low cost Royalty Free music and came across a song that was very similar to one that I remembered from the 80's. The song was "Push It" from Salt N' Pepa which I remember as being a fairly "suggestive" song. Well, we re-wrote the lyrics, took out all of the suggestive stuff, recorded the vocal tracks in our closet, and then made a video to go along with it. In the end, it was a bit more work than I would like but was actually a lot of fun because it gave Rachelle and I a chance to be in the video which we don't normally get to do.
Here it is:
Monday, October 3, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Independance Day
I have been feeling a little patriotic lately. Part of the reason is that I feel like I keep seeing people attacking the fundamentals of our country which makes me really nervous. Just this last week I read an article in Time Magazine questioning whether the constitution is still relevant. A week before that, I read something on CNN that suggested our constitution is out of date and we ought to follow Iceland's lead and have everybody help write a new constitution using Twitter and Facebook posts....yes, he was serious. Anyway, I don't think our Constitution is out of date and I really don't think having a bunch of random people posting on twitter would make it any better. I made a video today with my kids as a tribute to America and God's part in it's founding. A few weeks ago, NBC made a patriotic opener video to the US Open. In it, they said the pledge of Allegiance but left out the phrase "under God". This was silly of them and it felt like they were thumbing their nose at our country instead of honoring it. This is the video that I made:
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
How do you solve a problem like the Kyndall?
For the last few weeks, I have noticed a disturbing trend: no matter how hard we try, Kyndall can always find a way to get into trouble. Over just the last two weeks, I have seen some amazing things. About 14 days ago, she found some scissors and also some bags of skittles and cut them open eating at least one bag. We then put all of the scissors we could find on top of the fridge. The next day, she opened the drawer on the changing table and took out the Vasaline and rubbed it all over the wall. I think she also got Rustin and Ryder involved in that one. The only reason I was made aware of it was because she slipped on the stool she was using to get in to the drawer and ran by me crying but then wouldn't tell me why she was hurt.
On Easter Sunday Rachelle gave me a little Easter basket with some orange cream cadburry eggs. I put the basket in our closet thinking it was safe. I went in on Monday and found the basket nearly empty and some foil on the floor. I brought Kyndall in for questioning and at first she denied it but then went behind the place where Rachelle's pants hang and brought out a half-eaten orange creme egg. She looked surprised to find it there.
On Saturday, Kyndall took Rachelle's pink ipod nano. I searched for it all day but couldn't find it. I knew Kyndall had taken it and it was only late at night that she said, "Hmm...maybe it is in my bike." Sure enough, it was hidden in the seat of her tricycle.
Some time in the middle of the week last week, Kyndall got Rachelle's wedding ring. Rachelle looked all over for it and when she asked Kyndall, Kyndall said, "It isn't in my pocket". That was, of course, exactly where it was.
When Rachelle's mom came here last week, Kyndall got into her room, found some scissors and proceeded to cut up a bunch of bags of snacks she found in my mother-in-law's purse. This forced us to go get better locks for all of the doors since the child proof locks no longer work.
Last night at about 10:00 (the quints bedtime is at 7:30) I heard a glass breaking upstairs. I went up and found kyndall sitting on the bathroom counter with a shattered glass underneath her. She had been sneaking around upstairs and found this glass and somehow dropped it on the bathroom floor.
About an hour ago, I went up and found Kyndall sleeping on Kaiya's bed. I thought this was strange so I picked her up and when I went to put her on her own bed, I found that it was all wet. I checked her pants and found that it wasn't from her but then saw the spray bottle Rachelle uses to do everybody's hair. Kyndall had unscrewed the top and dumped it all on her bed.
She is pretty curious and she just can't seem to resist any temptation to get into trouble. I am just hoping we find a way to help her channel her "creativity" before she decides to find some more scissors and give everybody a hair cut.
On Easter Sunday Rachelle gave me a little Easter basket with some orange cream cadburry eggs. I put the basket in our closet thinking it was safe. I went in on Monday and found the basket nearly empty and some foil on the floor. I brought Kyndall in for questioning and at first she denied it but then went behind the place where Rachelle's pants hang and brought out a half-eaten orange creme egg. She looked surprised to find it there.
On Saturday, Kyndall took Rachelle's pink ipod nano. I searched for it all day but couldn't find it. I knew Kyndall had taken it and it was only late at night that she said, "Hmm...maybe it is in my bike." Sure enough, it was hidden in the seat of her tricycle.
Some time in the middle of the week last week, Kyndall got Rachelle's wedding ring. Rachelle looked all over for it and when she asked Kyndall, Kyndall said, "It isn't in my pocket". That was, of course, exactly where it was.
When Rachelle's mom came here last week, Kyndall got into her room, found some scissors and proceeded to cut up a bunch of bags of snacks she found in my mother-in-law's purse. This forced us to go get better locks for all of the doors since the child proof locks no longer work.
Last night at about 10:00 (the quints bedtime is at 7:30) I heard a glass breaking upstairs. I went up and found kyndall sitting on the bathroom counter with a shattered glass underneath her. She had been sneaking around upstairs and found this glass and somehow dropped it on the bathroom floor.
About an hour ago, I went up and found Kyndall sleeping on Kaiya's bed. I thought this was strange so I picked her up and when I went to put her on her own bed, I found that it was all wet. I checked her pants and found that it wasn't from her but then saw the spray bottle Rachelle uses to do everybody's hair. Kyndall had unscrewed the top and dumped it all on her bed.
She is pretty curious and she just can't seem to resist any temptation to get into trouble. I am just hoping we find a way to help her channel her "creativity" before she decides to find some more scissors and give everybody a hair cut.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Snowboarding in Colorado with Riley
For Christmas, I got Riley a used snowboard from Craigslist and he and I went snowboarding in Colorado. I had heard that giving experiences was better than giving stuff. We left our house at 4:00 AM and there was a few inches of snow here which is really scary since there isn't any snow removal equipment here. It took us a long time to get to the airport but we made it. When we got to Colorado, they had record low temperatures and tons of snow. Fortunately, we were prepared and had brought a whole lot of warm clothes to wear.
We went with some of our friends from our church (Darrell and his son Jared) and despite the freezing and occasionally blizzard-like conditions we had a pretty good time. Unfortunately, large amounts of powder isn't great for a beginning snowboarder but Riley was (mostly) brave.
In the end, I think it is true that an experience is better than stuff. We had fun and I hope that Riley will remember that time for the rest of his life.
We went with some of our friends from our church (Darrell and his son Jared) and despite the freezing and occasionally blizzard-like conditions we had a pretty good time. Unfortunately, large amounts of powder isn't great for a beginning snowboarder but Riley was (mostly) brave.
In the end, I think it is true that an experience is better than stuff. We had fun and I hope that Riley will remember that time for the rest of his life.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The end of snow?
My friend Randy sent me this article from 2000:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
I thought it was fun with the recent blizzards and other major snow storms all over the place. My favorite part of the article was this part:
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
I thought it was fun with the recent blizzards and other major snow storms all over the place. My favorite part of the article was this part:
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".
"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.
Hopefully the guy who wrote this article and the scientists he quoted are all much happier now that it appears to be snowing just fine.
Friday, December 31, 2010
An idea on being a better person
OK, so I had to teach a lesson in church last week and it was about pride. I was basing the lesson off a great talk about pride which you can find here:
http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/pride-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
It is probably obvious that the goal of the lesson was to not be prideful and I realized that not being prideful is a pretty good idea because it actually makes you happier. Doing that, however, is pretty challenging and I thought I would illustrate why with this little diagram:
The problem is that balancing ourselves on that point of humility is almost impossible. On one side of the hill, we have the envy. This is where short people like me live. On the other side we have the "I'm better than you" type of pride. That is where the tall people live. It is really difficult because there are constantly things pushing us from one side to the other. That is unless we are really pitiful or really awesome and then we just camp out on one side.
Now, don't fear because I thought of a solution to the problem. Well, OK, the person who gave the talk actually thought of the solution but I thought of an analogy that helped me understand the solution. Think of balancing a stick on your finger. Have you ever tried that? If you have, you might know that if you look down and concentrate on where your finger is, you can't balance the stick. However, if you simply focus on the top of the stick, you'll find that you are much better able to balance the stick. I compare this to concentrating too much on ourselves. If we TRY to be humble by focusing on ourselves, then we can almost never do it. However, if we focus outside ourselves (specifically, if we focus on helping other people) then actual humility is within our grasp. This is like looking at the top of the stick (the furthest point away from ourselves) instead of our finger. Anyway, that is it. Now, if I can just start doing better at doing good stuff for other people...
http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/pride-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
It is probably obvious that the goal of the lesson was to not be prideful and I realized that not being prideful is a pretty good idea because it actually makes you happier. Doing that, however, is pretty challenging and I thought I would illustrate why with this little diagram:
The problem is that balancing ourselves on that point of humility is almost impossible. On one side of the hill, we have the envy. This is where short people like me live. On the other side we have the "I'm better than you" type of pride. That is where the tall people live. It is really difficult because there are constantly things pushing us from one side to the other. That is unless we are really pitiful or really awesome and then we just camp out on one side.
Now, don't fear because I thought of a solution to the problem. Well, OK, the person who gave the talk actually thought of the solution but I thought of an analogy that helped me understand the solution. Think of balancing a stick on your finger. Have you ever tried that? If you have, you might know that if you look down and concentrate on where your finger is, you can't balance the stick. However, if you simply focus on the top of the stick, you'll find that you are much better able to balance the stick. I compare this to concentrating too much on ourselves. If we TRY to be humble by focusing on ourselves, then we can almost never do it. However, if we focus outside ourselves (specifically, if we focus on helping other people) then actual humility is within our grasp. This is like looking at the top of the stick (the furthest point away from ourselves) instead of our finger. Anyway, that is it. Now, if I can just start doing better at doing good stuff for other people...
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Kynda and Kaydence singing Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
The other day, Rachelle noticed that Kyndall could sing almost all of the words of "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas". It was actually pretty impressive because she actually knows the lyrics better than either of us do. Then it turned out that Kaydence knew the words too so we got the video camera out and recorded them. Kyndall was kind of being a stinker. She just didn't want to hold still.
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