A few more ultrasound pics...

She weighs 1 lb. 9oz. Woo hoo!

It really is a GIRL!!

So this is our 3rd ultrasound and we had to have it because they couldn't see her heart very well in the last one. So I was like they say it's a girl, but I am not convinced, will you just check for me while you are there. So here is the answer!!! Now I am convinced and am not unhappy. Hayydn will be a very spoiled, femine little boy. :) But will have lots of chicks to date when he is older.

Well, I was hoping that Lisa would pick up the slack and keep our blog stocked with great photos and comments while I bow out for some self induced torture via the BarBri Bar Study class. I am sad to say that I feel a little let down. Now before you get upset, I am talking about quantity wise not quality. I would never comment on the quality of my wife's posts, even though half of the pictures she put up are of little kids peeing?? I don't get it? :D (Just kidding honey, they are GREAT!)

Anyway, this post will not be full of intense thought or reflection, (I know, you were so accustomed to that right?) BUT, I felt like I should at least put up a few pictures, in no particular order or importance?? Anyway, enjoy, or don't enjoy - I don't care cuz in about 25 minutes I will be turning my brain matter into mush once again and all that will matter is . . . I was going to say something cool and couldn't - that is the bar effect - sorry.

This one is a picture during a rain storm at night at Los Burros. I used about an 18 second exposure on the bulb setting. Don't remember anything else, processed it in LightRoom.A Cool Pic of Hayydn and Grandpa at Terel's Graduation.Holy Lot of BICEPS. That girl is backing some power. The Eager boys and my girls were stripping the Bark off of this tree, just for fun. I know - I don't get it? But I surely am not complaining! Anyway, Hannah was holding her own!Another Pic of Hannah going at the log.The Eager boys, Jack, Jasper, and Gavin with Hannah and Hallie - workin on the log.A shot of the Family (at least a small part of 'em) at Terel's Graduation. Man look at that guy on the left, woah - Now That is GRUMPY! (It is all for show, though) Ha, Love ya Grandpa!A Cool Oak Tree by the side of this little pond I found. I would like to go back and re-shoot it with better light, but I didn't have time. Anyway, It was quite beautiful in real life.Terel and Hayydn.Terel and the Girls.A pic out of our window while driving, yeah I know I am amazing. Anyway, there was lots of impressive fog all the way up, fun to drive through except on the rim. Lisa was peeing her pants, ok, ok, I could have slowed down but where is the fun in that?
Alright, one final picture, an oldy but a goody! The kid is wearing girly glasses and still looks good! Impressive, I am in awe! :O

This is a HDR (High Dynamic Range) pic of our latest camping trip to Los Burros camping area. It was created by combining two Photos about 4.03EV apart (i.e. one is really bright and the other one is really dark). Obviously I couldn't accomplish this with the people holding really still and there was some movement in the leaves of the tree, but overall everything is pretty crisp. My only complaint is that because it was late in the evening and quite dark I wasn't able to expose the people enough to make them crisp. But, se la vi! It turned out pretty good considering. And, you can't even tell it was dark. The moral of the story, HDR is cool!

Splash Park fun...or not.

Hayydn wasn't too sure about the water park. He loves swimming in the pool but it took awhile...a long while to get used to the splash park. Haddli on the other hand loved it, along with Carter. Hannah loves it so much, she ran off and I got no pictures of her!

Happy 5th Birthday Hallie!

Yesterday was Hallie's birthday and we went to Peter Piper Pizza and to Tempe Splash Park. It was a fun day.

It's a...

So we have had 2 other ultrasounds, the first one was at about 12 1/2 weeks and I thought it looked like a boy. Then we had one at about 14 weeks and the ultrasound tech said she was 95% sure it was a girl. I didn't believe her and even switched offices to see what another professional had to say...well of course, the first chick was right, and I think I knew it all along, just in denial!!! So we are expecting Harrli Tyrel Nichols the second week in October! We are very happy that she is healthy and perfectly fine. I think Torel might be a little sad that Hayydn won't have a brother to play with but he will be the best boyfriend because of all his sisters! :) I will post pictures later so you all can decide for yourself!

Crazy Hair

COOL!!!, need I say more?

PARK PICS

My kids are addicted to going to the park! They always want to go. Well, therefore, we are always on the look out for new ones. This one is over by Cesar Chavez. It is actually pretty good. It was really, . . . REALLY windy that day so we didn't stay for very long but we still had a good time. Anyway, here are a few pics. Oh, the last photo is one of the girls after a horrible loss to their Daddy in a water fight. We were in the back yard and started flirting with a little water and before we knew it even Mom was involved in a massive water fight (well actually it was just me with a hose, ha ha ha) - she also lost (she finally got her own hose) but was wearing a white shirt so I have been forbidden to post any pics :). As for me - well I was dry :D.This really was a cool slide, it was really long.Hannah absolutely has to do anything Daddy does.You can't tell that they lost?? They just like getting wet. :)

End of Semester Stress

I don't know why, but I just can't make myself finish anything until I am up against a deadline. It kills me, it really does. I have the know how, and it is definitely not a case of lack of time (although I always have something else I could be doing). I think it just comes down to extreme anxiety issues and how I deal with them. My wife thinks I am a pansy (although she uses some other more choice and perhaps less appropriate terms) you get the idea. But, either way I just can't do it, until it has to be done.

So, the point of this entry is that I am coming into my busy season. The law school semester is almost over. Actually, my last semester of law school is almost over. And, as always, I have waited till the last two weeks of the semester to do anything (anything really productive anyway). Today starts crunch time. I have two papers to write, (well I actually already wrote one, but it needs extensive revising). AND, I have one final. Not too bad, eh? Although, I haven't read anything all semester long for my final- I know- That was stupid! BUT, nothing I haven't done before. :) The way I look at it, I give up one week (entirely) for a lot of free time along the way.

One wrench in my system though, is a business conference/training that I have to attend this weekend. It is all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and half day Sunday. Usually, for finals prep, I am used to spending all day everyday preparing, so this time around will be interesting. Luckily I don't have that much to do and it is my last semester so my only "real" concern is getting a passing grade. :D

Oh, yeah and the Character and Fitness. Aauugghhh.

Changing the background!

Okay, so I guess I am not as smart as I thought! I did accomplish my goal of changing the background on my blog, not once, but twice, but I guess I erased all the side information on our blog, which, doesn't make my husband too happy since he is the one who has to "rewrite it!" Anyway, Torel wants a black background, but this is as black as it gets for me. I am sure he will change it when he has "time!" (Which just means that right now he doesn't but when it fancies him, he will.) :)

Mountain Bike Branding

In response to my wife's earlier post below, -sorry honey, but I know everything- :D. No, I am glad to see that Lisa is taking an initiative to contribute to and update the blog. It makes it a better blog and it lessens the amount of work I need to do to maintain it (regardless if I ever actually do that work or not!).

Anyway, a few weeks back, a friend of mine and I started mountain biking at night. I am totally addicted to this practice. It is almost a necessity here in the phoenix area. Especially since we are already reaching temps in the nineties. So, we have begun riding more and more during the cooler nighttime hours. Hopefully this will allow me to bike through the summer and not lose any physical gains that I have achieved over the last few months. Well, we (my friend and I) were doing a pretty extensive ride one night and towards the end and with about 1200 feet of elevation to descend, my buddy's light started going out. It was shorting (which I later, in a masterful manner I must add, repaired). I know, I know, I am a mechanical genius - please I don't need any adoration - it is bad for me. SO, I went awfully slow with lots of break use in an attempt to allow my friend to use my light to get down the mountain. Needless to say and unbeknown to me, my disc brakes heated up like a hot branding iron. Here is a pic. of the disc I am talking about. The disc work just like those in a car, it is squeezed between to brake pads via a hydraulic mechanism.Ok, so that little disc got burning hot (I know - you see where this is going - just bear with me). Well, at night (at least this particular night) it was still pretty cold. My legs were fairly icy after having been exposed to this cold for about 2 hours. Well, at the bottom of the hill I leaned my icy cold leg up against this burning hot disc. WaLa - A perfect mountain bike brand.I especially like the little holes. It stung pretty bad but I didn't realize I had branded myself until I got home and took a shower. I was so proud of my "stupid" injury I woke my wife up (it was about midnight) and made her look at it. She responded, "Nice, leave me alone!" She later came around. :)

I AM SO SMART!!!

I know it sounds dumb, but I just figured out how to change the background on our blog. I am very impressed with myself, especially since I had to login to Torel's part of the blog to do it! The best part is, he doesn't even know! Ha ha. So Happy Easter!!

I Love the bucket!

So on Saturday we were playing in the loft and Hayydn is now mobile, so my favorite place in the house to be, is in the loft, since it is mostly free of crumbs, dog hair, and tiny objects to put in his mouth, cause that is the phase we are in, anyway, he found that he likes to crawl into this bucket. Of course he couldn't sit up in it on his own, cause there just isn't enough room for him to turn all the way around, so mom helped and here is what we get...until he moves and the bucket rolls to one side and he falls over.

Fitness Credit Card

Ok, prepare yourselves! I am feeling a little chatty.

So, I was sitting in my private office this morning (if you don't get that one let me know and I will explain). I couldn't help but notice that I still get a pronounced three pack when I sit down. I would post a picture but someone might shut down my blog :D. This phenomenon is quite alarming to me. You see I have been putting in extensive exercise since the beginning of the year. I started riding my mountain bike in December. But, in January I added treadmill time. I basically put in about 5 hours of serious mountain biking at various locations each week. Everyday that I am not on the bike I spend a little over an hour on the treadmill. I exercise just about everyday except for Sundays. All in all I average a little more than a 1000 calories burned per day. Multiply that by six days and you are only a little shy of two pounds worth of exercise each week. Now I understand that 'muscle ways more than fat' and all that junk but what I don't understand is how I still have this awesome pudgy three pack??

Ok, ok, ok, (Ha ha I can't help but think of Leo on Lethal Weapon when I say 'oks' in my head). So, I have to admit that I feel great! I am arguably in excellent cardiovascular and aerobic shape (or perhaps it would be condition(ing)?). I have never been able to keep up with my buddy Jared Burr (sorry Jared for putting your name out there on the internet :)) Jared has information OCD. Anyway, now I can actually keep jared in sight. And that is no small feat. This guy plays basketball 3 or 4 times a week, plus biking, plus hitting the Gym-oftentimes doing two activities on one day. What he doesn't realize is that when my outsides catch up with my insides I will have long out grown him! (Better work harder Burr!) But you wouldn't know it by looking at me. So, I have come up with the Fitness credit card.

In today's world of instant gratification you don't have to wait for anything. You simply pull your credit card out and put yourself in more debt - right? Well whatever might be wrong with that idea economically speaking it is in every way RIGHT physically speaking! What is the number one reason people stop exercising? (ok I don't really know, but stay with me). People don't get the results they want and it is just way to stinkin' hard to work through pounds and pounds of fat! How cool would it be to simply pull out a credit card-of sorts-and bam you get your rock hard in super shape bod up front? Maintenance is much more easily obtained when you have lots of lean muscle mass and can actually perform the activities needed to maintain it. Don't get me wrong this isn't a freebie card! And it definitely cannot be included in your bankruptcy action. So, that being said you will eventually have to pay, and with interest probably more than you would have paid otherwise (and not in dollars, you gotta pay the same price - Blood, Sweat, and Tears. However, so often people work so hard to get their bodies into peak conditioning and never quite get there. At least with the fitness credit card they would get to enjoy the benefits a little before it eventually goes away. And we all know that as we get older certain areas are just destined for fattiness (that is if you actually have a life and cannot plan your whole day around your exercise). I think this kind of debt is like school or house debt. It is acceptable. One cannot put too high a price on his/her health. Right? I don't know, I am just really liking the idea of the Fitness Credit Card!

Oh, and just a disclaimer - - I understand that if you want to talk spiritually, at least as far as the word of wisdom is concerned, that yes there is a lot of growth to be obtained from the battle betwenn carniality and spirituality. But in my own farcical world, if you can just suspend your disbelief a tad, you have to admit that a fitness credit card is a pretty darn cool idea!My Fitness Credit Card Bod (Although, I wouldn't have to put too much on my card cuz I am almost there :))

Fun at the park

Torel forgot his lunch/wallet and so of course I, his loving and sacrificing wife, came to his rescue. I picked up lunch, picked him up, we took the kids to the park to play, and then took him back to school. It was a fun little 45 minutes. This is a picture of the kids on the bench before we took Torel back to school.

Hello Everyone

Torel insists that I contribute to his blog so he set up this access thing and forced me to add a post. I am not very technologically advanced but I will do my best to make this blog all it can be! Ha Ha Ha.

I made a huge error the other day and didn't check the settings on my camera. Huge no-no, especially when I have it set to 2.8 with an iso of 1600. Needless to say the pictures just came out pure white (super blown out). Anyway, I fiddled with them on Lightroom to see if there was anything salvageable. The results were actually pretty cool. I am thinking I might explore this whole blownout and then adjusted concept a little more. So, here was one that I really liked. It is a picture of Hallie and Hannah's friend Amalia.

Some pretty cool temple pics

I received an email from a friend with some photos that were taken by vpalmer39 of the Salt Lake Temple amidst some of SLC's extreme pollution problems. The photos are actually pretty cool. Anyway, I thought they were worth sharing.

Soccer

Well soccer season is over. I have to say that it was actually a lot of fun. Steve Faller and Jeff Hale did an excellent job of organizing and carrying out the youth soccer league. I would definitely do the league again. Anyway, they asked me to do the team photos and I decided to do individual photos as well. There were twelve teams and about 86 kids. It took about three hours and was quite a bit of work but I think overall the photos came out really well. So, here are the photos of my girls. Oh, and I need to add Hallie's team photos and I am not sure why they are weighted towards Hallie? But she is pretty darn cute -eh?