2011_05_30

Recognize anyone on this page?

http://shelburnemuseum.org/learn/families-and-kids/

2011_05_07

2011_05_10

Happy Easter!

So it's been a long time since the last update, I know. I've been busy working on finishing the basement almost every night after the kids go to bed and just haven't taken the time otherwise to download the pictures from the camera and put some up. I don't have many pictures to prove it, but it's coming along well. Framing, electric, lighting, and half the sheetrock is done.
The pictures go from most recent to oldest... you could probably figure that out by the snow in the last few pictures and the Easter eggs in the first few :-)

2011_04_24

2011_03_26

2011_03_21

Just a few more pictures and videos from Katie's camera now that she's home:

2011_02_25

Katie and the kids are in Pennsylvania visiting Beth and Jacob. They work at Whitetail resort, and are teaching the kids to ski!

Skiing at Whitetail, PA

Skiing Day 2

2011_02_20

A lot of people have asked me if I am "working on" the IBM 'Watson' super-computer which is going to be competing in Jeopardy on Feb 14-16. The short answer is "kind of". To build 'Watson', they connected 360 IBM Power7 microprocessors (2,880 total cores), along with 15 terabytes of RAM, and some incredibly smart software. The processor itself is what I work on, and it's primary application is in an IBM server, not to play Jeopardy!(in case you were thinking it was a waste of money). But that is one of the chips that I have been involved in developing, so I do have a little skin in it I suppose. Hopefully it doesn't crash. If it does, I take it back... I had nothing to do with it.

If you're interested, or have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this video:

 

 

enough snow already!!!

2011_01_31

2011_01_20

Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas! I hope you all did too!

2011_01_04

2010_12_22

2010_12_08

Random question...

Something came up at lunch today and I wanted to ask around before I forget... did we lend any of you the DVD "Alone in the Wilderness"? It's the self-made documentary made by the guy who moved to Alaska in the 60's and filmed himself setting up shop and living off the land. It's been missing from our collection for a while, but I know we lent it around to a bunch of you. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't laugh, it's really interesting).

If you have it, please let me know. The guys at lunch were talking about it and it made me want to watch it again :-)

Thanks.... I'll post some more pictures of the kids after it's returned! hahaha...just kidding... I'll put some more up soon. We've been busy in the snow!

-Chris

Well it's definitely the Christmas season now...we've had parties, presents, snow, sledding, cookies, and Santa.
Here's pictures to prove it:

2010_11_30

There's a slight change in format...pictures used to go oldest to most recent if you went through them sequentially, now they go from newest to oldest, so the most recent are first. It's not my choice, Picasa changed the way they organize them, and thus the order that I go through them.


Here's a few videos of the kids placing their orders with Santa... Turn up the volume if you want any chance at understanding them. Tyler is describing a bike that he saw two days prior (this was news to us!) and Anna is asking for a princess bike, and "Dora and Princess coloring books" ...and Dora and Princess other stuff.

2010_11_29

Well we've been pretty busy with the move and getting settled, and I don't have pictures of the new house yet, but here are a few from the past few weeks. There's a cute video of Tyler at his school "Thanksgiving Feast" that they did for parents. The kids sing songs and helped make sauces and breads, and the teachers cooked an entire turkey(s) with all the fixings and stuff. It was quite impressive I'll say, and fun as always to see your kid standing up there singing and acting crazy.

The house closings went well... No hitches, with the exception of the buyers asking us to take the sandbox with us (we weren't planning on moving 400 lbs of sand across town). In the end, we had to agree to remove it, and we went back that night and shoveled it into trash cans....but it was wet, so the 400lbs turned into 900 lbs, and then we couldn't move the trash cans to save our lives (even though they were on wheels).... eventually we split it out into more containers and with the help of some neighbors (thanks Kyle, Sam), we were able to get the buckets and cans all into the moving truck (we were back there to get the swing-set anyhow after we emptied the first load of the truck). We're finally starting to feel settled a bit, with the furniture and big stuff all in place, and most of the important day-to-day stuff is unpacked and located. Now it's just a matter of decorating and painting.
The previous owner came back and showed me how to swap out the 'main' pump in the Koi pond for the winter-mode one...so the waterfalls are not running anymore for the season, but I was relieved to find out that it's actually not too complicated... and the fish just hang out in there all winter. We will definitely be putting a small fence around it in the spring. It's not anything that we ever wanted per say, but it's pretty cool with the little waterfalls going and humongous fish!

The kids are happy, they're excited to get all their toys back after they've been packed up for a couple weeks now. They didn't miss a beat getting right back into their routines and everything. They adjusted very quickly it seems.

Another great thing that we didn't really know about is the land around the neighborhood is mostly wooded, and there are trails throughout that you can walk, mountain bike, snowshoe, cross-country ski, and it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere. There's even a brooke that runs out there that's pretty cool, and a TON of rocks on the banks for Tyler to throw all day long (they're big into that... what kid isn't?). Don't worry, he won't be out there by himself for years... it's a few minutes walk away and they would never go out there alone. (I already know my mom and others are worried with the pond, I haven't told her about the whitewater in the woods yet!) :-P I might buy Tyler a kayak for Christmas so he can go play in the river when he's not swimming in the koi pond by himself...hehe.

I'll try to get some pictures out as we get settled more and I remember to take some. (When I'm home, there's just so much else to be doing right now, I don't think of it)

Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have fun. We'll see you soon.

-Chris, Katie, Tyler, Anna

2010_11_22

2010_10_31

Happy Halloween!
We've been pretty busy lately...packing, pumpkin-ing, playing...all that good stuff. We close on the new house November 15th. It's going to be a busy month.
Things are good.

2010_10_30

2010_10_13

2010_09_15

2010_09_09

2010_08_29

2010_08_24

From 2010_08_03

2010_07_21

2010_07_07

2010_06_22

2010_06_20

2010_06_11

It's been a busy couple of weeks around our house. We have been doing a lot of work around the yard (like making a new one), planting shrubs, going to parades, birthday parties, fire-stations, lakes, ponds, mini-golf, etc... There's a bunch of pictures here. Tyler is riding his bike now with no training wheels, all by himself (as he'll proudly tell you). He's a starting, riding, cornering, stopping, machine... We're very proud of him. The problem is, our "walks" are now "jogs" because we can't keep up with him. Anna is not far behind him (okay, she's kind of slow going) on her tricycle.
Hope everyone is having a nice spring!

2010_06_07

2010_05_22

2010_05_11

2010_04_29

2010_04_24

2010_04_21

2010_04_15

2010_04_08

2010_03_26

Dancing machine!

This is no "one trick pony"... if you were impressed with Tyler's singing (and I know you were), just wait until you see his rad moves on the dance floor:

2010_03_10

Tyler, The Lyrical Master

Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a 4 year old? Well that makes 2 of us. And after this video, you'll wonder even more (and probably have a headache). What we have here is a video of Tyler "freestyling" with his keyboard and microphone. I'm warning you, it is not a showcase of musical talent by any means. I am not responsible for anything that comes out of his mouth (Actually, in an indirect way, I'm probably responsible for at least 50% of it), but there is no coaching or anything going on here...just Tyler...wanting to make a "video" for Daddy while I was at work one day.

It's long... don't feel pressured to watch it in it's entirety...in fact, I would bet my lunch money that you can't sit through the whole thing, but do make sure your volume is turned up so you can attempt to understand, oh, say, 10% of what he's saying.

2010_02_22

2010_02_09

2010_02_03