Asquared Family Blog

Entz Spelling Bee Winner

2009-12-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

McKenna represented her sixth grade classroom again in the school spelling Bee for 4th-6th graders. There were 18 children in the Bee.

Her words for each round:

Dollar
Simile
Strict
Zero
Menu
Easel
Bundle
Dune
Keen
Daily
Tamale
Toucan (4 kids left)
Polygon (McKenna and Dean left)
Panic
Idiom
Balcony, at this one McKenna looks at me and smiles broadly because she missed it last year so we had practiced it a bunch. The pronunciation last year kind of tripper her up, it sounded like "bellcony" so this year she was right on that.
Ravioli, Dean misses Macaroni on this round and McKenna has to get the next two correct to win
Bandit
Burrito

She didn't miss a single word and won Dean by correctly spelling the last two words. She goes to District sometime in the next little bit.

Harry Potter Six Party of the Decade

2009-07-16T22:57:00.001-07:00

McKenna has spent the last year planning a small HP 6 opening night party. She practically had a heart attack when they moved it back from opening in November to this summer. I think she takes after her dad who loves to plan trips and parties, ironically he's a project manager but doesn't love that kind of planning that much anymore. Anyhow, planning parties is awesome and McKenna blew my mind with all the detail she put into her party, she didn't miss a beat.

Welcome to Hogwarts Jones Campus

Gimme my sorting hat back you muggle

The chef for the night

Potions

The Sorting Hat Ceremony, complete with fake-o sorting hat voice by Dad

Potions Class

Honeydukes Candy Store

McKenna made all of the stickers, posters, and bags etc for this party, some Berti Botts Beans above

The Knight Bus

Making some pygmy puffs

Finally, in the theater, we got the bar row, all that waiting paid off and nobody fell asleep during the movie

Zane's incredibly stupid human trick

2009-06-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

Zane has the most flexible wrists and fingers of anyone I have ever met. Tonight I was doing a little parental authority implementation by wrestling and demonstrating my superior strength and wisdom. Unfortunately when I showed Zane the game of "Mercy" where you interlock fingers and try to bend the other person's hands backwards until they say "mercy" or "uncle" he was unbeatable because of his freakishly dexterous hands. Here's a little video sample for posterity:

Easton Jet Jones - Updated for 1 month b-day

2009-05-31T18:08:00.001-07:00

Easton was born on April 29, 2009 on his Grandad's birthday, hence the name "Jet" for the middle name since that was Grandads passion, we liked the name, and sadly we already used his middle name on Aidan "Keith". You probably wonder why we didn't use the name "Burnell", well, it just didn't work out, Jet did.

We are so grateful to have him with us and that he and Mommy are both healthy and happy.

Stats:

Born: 4:20 AM

Weight: 9 lbs 8 oz - YOWZA!

Length: 22 inches

Hair: Dark and lots of it

And Easton on his 1 month birthday, unfortunately we didn't take many pictures on this day but the one we got was less than optimal, gratefully he's innocent still:

Kidchievements

2009-02-13T06:28:00.000-08:00

Alicia and I are just not the kind of people to toot our own horns, that may sound like false modesty blah blah but we just don't do it that much. But hey since it's not really about us and it's about our amazingly advanced children LOL I decided it was time to do it. We've had some proud parent moments and I figure the kids deserve some limelight in the glow of the blogosphere.

Starting from Oldest to Youngest

Geography Queen

McKenna and her team in her "special" class at school engaged in a geography challenge at the beginning of the year over which they were to research various major American landmarks and writing information up about them. They received points for the quality and quantity of their geographic notes and her team won first place, so nanny nanny to the rest of the brainiacs (tongue sticking out now), "My brainiac can beat yours at geography"(bumper sticker)

Pinewood Derby Domination

There comes a time in every Boy Scout Dad's life that he must buckle down and engage in the nightmarish endeavor of the dreaded derby, Pinewood Derby that is. The only stated rules in this year's derby were to only use the components that came in the box (no aftermarket axles, wood blocks, or wheels). I asked Zane to start this process by drawing a car design using the rough dimensions of the wood block. .... Zane's first design had something like a helicopter rotor assembly in it to give it lift and boost, he was not happy when I kindly reminded him of the rules and the fact the design was impossible to build (imagine angry and upset Zane here). The next design had a gigantic fin on it, again a joyous opportunity for me to burst his bubble. My next strategy was to show him pictures of cars on the internet that were remotely feasible for us, that paid off, he picked a Pontiac Firebird design. We went to my Uncle Gary's wood shop nearby and he cut the block, Zane sanded it and we were on our way.

We found some cool stuff at Hobby Lobby in their "Pinewood Car" section which put me out another thirty bucks, a body "sticker" type thing for those too lazy to spend any time on painting it which worked out good for us (after my first attempt to put it on I got to spend another seven bucks on a new sticker which went on nicely). We glued cool looking weights on, a motor, exhaust pipes, and a tail fin.

Zane won 2nd place overall, his car performed amazingly well since I had no clue what I was doing when polishing the axles(that came in the box mind you) and sanding the wheels. I really hate nailing the axels in, one was messed up but hey, it worked and apparently pretty well. Congratulations Zane, one down, 11 to go (4 boys X 3 pinewood derby's).

Aidan's Counting Conquest and Radical Reading

Aidan succeeded in counting all the way to 100 getting him into the "100's club" in his Kindergarten class and within a week or so he was also in the sight words club which indicates he can read some words like "you, my, me, and antidisestablishmentarianism" by sight. He got a green turtle for the sight reading club and some other animal for the 100's, he was very excited.

Tate, hmmm, where to begin, maybe Tater's Terrible Twos?

Tate continues his really rockin fascination for Guitar Hero, he finds anything that works to replicate a musical instrument in structure or sound and gets down. His favorite guitar is the hairbrush.

Tate Complete with Air Guitar and Funky Hat

Tate's Lasceration

Split it wide open right next to his eyelid, luckily no stitches (or at least we figured he didn't need them so he didn't get them)

Tate's Crazy Train

2009-01-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

As with all good parenting, we try to instill in our children a respect for the arts and other fine hobbies. We received a wonderful gift for Christmas that has broadened our children's appreciation for fine music and of course provided an outlet to stimulate and improve their right AND left side of their brains. This joyous gift (which we really do love) came in the form of:

We're diggin it, I have to play late at night or Tate gets on and messes up my scores. Tate is so into rockin he puts is little leg up on the ottoman so he can copy his dad, even though it sticks straight out in a painfully contorted fashion.

One thing my Sister and Brother - in - Law did NOT know is that this excellent gift contained one of our all-time favorite songs in the world,"Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne - BONUS! I came to appreciate this song only a few years ago having avoided this type of music throughout my youth, however, I happened upon this song via a file share at work and came to love it. It is now our favorite house cleaning song.

Tate loves Crazy Train as well, here's a little clip of Tater gettin on the train:

You can sort of see Taters' "Wiggles" guitar in the video, he uses that for his Jam Sessions

If you don't know Crazy Train or are appalled to think of someone partaking of his lyrics, you'll find they are filled with peace loving thoughts, except for the fact that he can't handle it and is going off the rails anyway!

Crazy Train

by Ozzy Osbourne

Crazy, but thats how it goes

Millions of people living as foes

Maybe its not to late

To learn how to love

And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing

Lifes a bitter shame

Im going off the rails on a crazy train

Ive listened to preachers

Ive listened to fools

Ive watched all the dropouts

Who make their own rules

One person conditioned to rule and control

The media sells it and you have the role

Mental wounds still screaming

Driving me insane

Im going off the rails on a crazy train

I know that things are going wrong for me

You gotta listen to my words

Yeh-h

Heirs of a cold war

Thats what weve become

Inheriting troubles Im mentally numb

Crazy, I just cannot bear

Im living with something that just isnt fair

Mental wounds not healing

Who and whats to blame

Im going off the rails on a crazy train

Retarded Videos Edition

2009-01-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been messing around with video editing and trying to branch out into new and creative methods of generating entertaining videos. Until recently my main fare was simply slideshows of the rowdy and boisterous type filled with edgy (yet old) rock music like "Jump" by Van Halen, or "Crazy Train" by Ozzy, although I always mix in something on the other end of the spectrum for the feel good portion of a video, like "Lean on Me". I was able to incorporate a really old and cheesy song in a recent video called "Mule Skinner Blues", it's great.

As I started to say earlier I branched out to some live video instead of full stills, there's some additional entertainment benefit to seeing the kids running around and they like them even more than slideshows. Here's a smattering of my most recent masterpieces... well let's stick with "pieces" and you can judge for yourself what kind of piece you'd like to call it.

Attack of the ShirtTards
This is what the boys do when Dad's neglect them in order to focus on Guitar Hero. Videography by McKenna, ShirtTardedness by Zane and his cousins. Song is called "Dance of the Mad Bast@&ds" by PWEI -Pop Will Eat Itself.

"Wassup - Alien Edition"

Ok, my inspiration for this (if you can call it that) was the People Choice Awards website had a link to a new "Wassup" spinoff which is more of a political satire and statement on the state of our economy and the war in Iraq which I don't agree with but in general it was funny. If you don't know what "Wassup" is than rewind like 8 years to the Super Bowl Budweiser Commercial (This is definitely not an endorsement junk). The setting is various people saying "What's up", it's so cliche I don't blame you if you barf just being reminded of it. Long and very lame story short, I decided to replace the actors in the video with scenes for the Aliens movie(all edited of course and rated PG). Here's my feeble attempt. Unfortunately live acting doesn't dub over with voices overs as well as cartoons but hey, I wanted Aliens.

All available thanks to YouTube on my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AaronatA2

Enjoy, keep a bowl handy.

Windcave Hike on New Year's Eve

2009-01-02T12:41:00.001-08:00

McKenna, Zane, and I went on a hike with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in the ward on New Years' Eve. We had a great time. We normally just go to the cave(if you can call it that, more like a big overhang) but on this hike everyone except a few people pressed on to the top of Pass Mountain. It was a little tough going there for a few of the kids but they all did it without incident.

Zane's "wound" when he slid on the trail, not a tear was shed!

Top o' the Mountain

Juggling and eating at the same time

2008-12-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

While I was reviewing some pretty old family filmstrips I ran across this one of my cousin in 1977 at a family Christmas party, his brother is juggling veggies and fruit and he takes a bite out periodically and then his brother takes a bit out of it. Pretty funny, I added the cheesy music since the projector sound really didn't do it for me.

Grass Surfing at Freestone Park

2008-12-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

We had fun today on our Christmas Break at Freestone park, in Gilbert, AZ. It was our nephew's non-party birthday party.

Numero Cinco Omega Baby Update

2008-12-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Hear ye, Hear ye, the ultrasound lady has spoken and we now know with a great degree of confidence the gender of our next child. We were also pleased to verify that most importantly the baby is healthy and should be just fine. Our tradition is to go purchase something that will demonstrate the gender of the baby so that our other kids can guess by looking at it, ie. baseball themed clothes = boy, pink hearts clothes = girl etc. Today we went to the store right after the Ultrasound and as we were walking into the store we ran into this license plate which ironically enough demonstrated what we were in for:

You got it, we're blessed to have another boy making it a total of 1 Girl and 4 boys in the family. That will amount to:

4 Missions

4 Eagle Scout Projects

12 Pinewood derby cars

Countless super activivities

It's a good thing Aaron is into Scouting because he's going to be doing a lot of it.

McKenna is really excited to maintain her status as sole princess in the family so we're glad the pressure isn't on to "try" for a girl next time around ...... what the heck, did I just say next time around?

More pictures:

Dad Rundalls Final Flight

2008-12-07T22:37:00.000-08:00

This week we had the opportunity to see the inner sanctum of Honeywell's flight operations in Sky Harbor airport. We attended the take off of Alicia's Dad's (Burnell Rundall) final flight before he retires as chief pilot for Honeywell corporate aviation in Phoenix. The airport puts on quite a show by sending the fire trucks and airport security out and they give them a "two hose" salute of sorts by spraying copious amounts of water in a huge arc over the airplane as they taxi for their last take-off. Here are some pictures and a short video clip of the spectacle.

STAY TUNED! We will hopefully find out baby #5's gender on tuesday 12/9, no secrets or surprises for us.

Tate Jones is Two!!!

2008-11-11T08:20:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Tate! We celebrated his birthday a day early on Veteran's day because some of his cousins had earned a trip to Chuck your Cheese we tagged along and partied. I think I'm still feeling the effects of the worst pizza in the world, let's see, here's my rankings of pizza's:

Sourdough Pizza - East Mesa, yum
Barros on a good night
Nellos - pizza crusts appetizers rock also
Pizza Hut Taco Crust (ultra thin crust)
Rosati's Thin Crust
Some pizza I had at a cool place in Detroit - no clue of the name anymore
Freezer pizza's - Tony's, Totinos, Any cheap wad red baron knock off
.
.
.
.
Way down here you have crap e cheese and peter piper pissa...., I mean pizza.

We had fun with the cousins, here's a picture of the cake we built (tribute to pedro) for Tate:

Here's Tate rockin into his two's!!!!

Annoying sayings, I knew I had some of them right

2008-11-08T06:41:00.000-08:00

I love reading about new words, the history of words and phrases, and slang. I think I have a propensity for picking up phrases and vocabulary and have several non-standard dictionaries such as:

The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins

NTC's Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial Expressions

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms

The Little Hiptionary - pretty cool but doesn't have a lot of new info, some new words and office humor

Anyway, I found that a writer compiled a list of the top ten most overused phrases using the Oxford Corpus (a massive only word database of more than 2 billion words), compiled in a new book I will buy called "A Damp Squid" and here they are:

The top ten most irritating phrases(see news article here):

1 - At the end of the day -- I had a boss that used this whenever he couldn't articulate what he really meant to say, or maybe just whenever he thought things were final and needed no more debate. Either way it got supremely annoying and he had no idea that he used it so much.

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time -- I've been know to use this, yikes

5 - With all due respect -- I never use this, apparently I have no respect

6 - Absolutely -- Yikes, what's wrong with saying absolutely?

7 - It's a nightmare

8 - Shouldn't of --

9 - 24/7

10 - It's not rocket science

What words do you overuse?

Yeehaw! Life moves on, and what more could you ask for but a new Hobbit Movie coming out

2008-11-05T02:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, One of my greatest joys in life is to spend time with the kids watching movies like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings trilogy has been one of my favorite book series of all times(I've read it at least 6 times), actually is my favorite, although Harry Potter comes in close. Leeshe is quite tolerant of my LOTR addiction, the kids are a mixed bag, McKenna likes Harry Potter so never wants to watch LOTR, the oldest boy LOVES LOTR - go big Z, Gollum freaks our Aidan out, I haven't brainwashed our youngest yet since I do maintain some discretion when it comes to fantasy violence and young children. Now that elections are over and life continues I have another 2 movies to look forward to in about 3 years, yes you heard it right, the Hobbit and some made up sequel to it (prequel to the LOTR movies), 2011 and 2012, here's a link answering all of your burning questions:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/hobbitfaq/#1.1

That's some exciting stuff there, I'm sure that brightens your day after the past couple of election months. I'm excited for the Hobbit because hopefully it will be a much more fantasy based and light hearted movie, the book is far more "fun" and "fantastical" than the Lord of the Rings series. Where LOTR deals with the one ring, horrible wars, and evil, this touches on the ring (where Bilbo finds it) but focuses on a fun fairy tale like adventure all throughout the book. Hopefully it won't be too dark and be more reminiscent of the book.

The excitement doesn't stop there though, we've all got 3 more Harry Potter movies to look forward to.

Giddy up, election day is almost here and OVER! Everybody better be voting :-)

2008-11-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

Leeshe gave me some great advice last week which I think I followed pretty well, she challenged me to avoid looking at any blogs or news sites for a day, it resulted in a marked improvement in my attitude and outlook on life. Regardless of how things go, it's great to know that we live in the BEST country in the world, we have the Gospel in our lives, and awesome families. I read a great quote from our Late Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley which really helped pick me up:

I stand here today as an optimist...I realize, of course, that we are best with many tragic problems...I have seen a good deal of this earth. I have seen its rot and smelled its filth. I have been in areas where war rages and hate smolders in the hearts of people. I have see the appaling poverty that hovers over many lands. I have seen the oppression of those in bondage and the brutality of their overlords..I have watched with alarm the crumbling morals of our society.

And yet I am an optimist. I have a simple and solemn faith that right will triumph and that truth will prevail.

Have fun and get out and vote! Check out this dude's blog posting: http://www.arizonaconservatives.org/2008/11/arizona-proposition-102-get-out-and.html

Big days in Zane's life

2008-10-28T21:02:00.001-07:00

We had some fun times and momentous occasions this past week in our family and in the life of Zane our oldest dude. On Saturday 10/25/2008 Zane turned 8 and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We had good times that day, a baptism, confirmation, a huge family and friend party with great food and tons of fun, and a special dinner just with Zane and one friend at Black Angus cuz he wanted steak. I can't say much more than it was such a blessing to be reminded of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, the wonderful and very simple plan of our Father in Heaven to make it possible to live with him eternally and be with our families forever. We felt the presense of the Holy Ghost during the baptismal proceedings and were reminded how important it is to live so that we can have it's constant companionship. One funny thing happened, we had some sort of accident during the immersion and when Zane got out of the water he noticed his nose was bleeding, I guess I made dang sure that he got completely immersed and in so doing squashed his nose :-)

Here are some pictures:

A very cool cake, the black frosting contributed to the mess below

Scouting Here We Come!

All right, we've finally got a boy in Cub Scouts (after more than 6 years of being in scout callings without a scout to call my own). Zane put his whole heart into memorizing the Scout Promise, Law of the Pack, Motto, Meaning of "WeBeLoS", Sign, Salute, and Handshake. He really did an awesome job and passed off his Bobcat badge, it was fortunate that the pack meeting was delayed (only fortunate in this aspect, otherwise it was a giant HASSLE for other reasons) and he was able to attend and get his Bobcat just days after starting. The Cubmaster, Brother Walton, asked if I could do the presentation of the award since I had been the previous cubmaster so I put on my cheesiest faces and tried to act as hammy as ever(although it comes pretty naturally). I gave Zane a harder time than any other new bobcat and grilled him on all of the above items he had to learn, he rocked it all, didn't miss a heartbeat. I think we have the makings of a real boy scout here!

Rattling off the Cub Scout Promise

Brother Walton the Cubmaster with full beard, the ultimate Scout Stud!

Zane doing the color guard on his first night

Baby # 5 Update (Omegaman?)

2008-10-23T14:14:00.001-07:00

Ok, I only joke about Omegaman(meaning last man) because we expect the baby to be a boy (that way if it's a girl we're surprised and we're not let down if it ends up being a boy). Can you tell we have some odd preference for another girl? Enough of that. Here's some alien pictures we caught on the ultrasound on Tuesday, pretty exciting to know that it's healthy.

3D Image - Much cooler looking than the alien ones

Alien Face Above

Sucking on it's thumb? Or Waving?

Aaron's First Triathlon - Rocky Point Sandy Beach Sprint Triathlon

2008-10-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

NOTE - Don't forget to read the first post below this one, it's much more important

We all went down to Rocky Point, Mexico this past weekend on October 2 through the 4th to experience Aaron's first triathlon. Sadly Alicia could not participate in it with him like they had originally planned so instead we made a nice family vacation out of it. This was supposed to be the first Annual Asquared Triathlon BUT we'll wait for next year when Alicia's not toting a little kid around in her tummy.

How did we get to this tragic point?

Aaron saw a shadow under one of his "pecks", when that happens you realize that "the bro" or "manzier" is not the answer, rather a major man mastectomy OR better yet get fit and lose that flab. Alicia and Aaron decided to do a triathlon in order to set a goal that would be more challenging than just losing weight and something we could look forward to. Why the heck did we pick Mexico? Well, we figured it would be fun and we might actually enjoy the trip.

How'd it go?

The Triathlon was a "Sprint" triathlon, it was a 400 meter swim in the ocean, 12.8 Mile bike ride, and 2 mile run. In Aaron's case it was more like, 400 meter flounder, 12.8 Mile barf fest, and 2 mile walk / run. He loved every minute of it and learned a lot, not only that but he saw some cool stuff along the way:

At least 2 dudes that were bigger than himself participating(see red circles)
A chick blow a farmer john while riding her bike(depress one or the other nostril, not both, and blow firmly to dislodge mucus, try to miss your arm and shoulder
A dude barf twice on his bike without stopping, oh wait, that was Aaron - awesome. It was actually pretty funny, I couldn't believe I did that since I had been so careful with what I ate and drank. It was probably a mixture of the salt water I ingested while swimming and the fact I hadn't eaten for 3 hours. Next time I'll take the 30 seconds to suck down an energy gel pack during the ride AND bring 2 water bottles or a camelback.

As you can see, Aaron has a weak stomach, here's a synopsis of all the sports he's enjoyed tasting his last meal again on:

Deep sea fishing when he was 9, yeah mexican twinkies and sunny D- not really the breakfast of champions
4 out of 6 snow ski trips, it took a long time to be able to eat skittles again, that was some rainbow colored bial!
Aaron rode his bike to work twice in his life, both times
Papago park got to taste his last meal once on a bike ride
Once after a particularly fun spinning class - he should have eaten something before going

Lesson learned - drink more water, eat something not too early and not to close to excercising.

Would you do it again?
Heck yeah, it was really fun to spend time with the kids, they were yelling and rooting me on, Zane is actually excited enough that he and I are both doing a triathlon on Thanksgiving morning, this time I won't be sucking in saltwater since it's in a 50 meter heated pool. Having a goal like this was so much better than just dieting, I've still eaten good foods while focusing on being more active. I've lost over 10 pounds in 2 months and am still excercising between 3 and 4 hours a week.

If you decide to sign up for one I highly recommend Eric Harr's book "Triathlon Training in 4 hours a Week", it was a truly inspirational book with just the right kind of plan for someone like me who has never been an athlete. Whether your goal is increasing your rank or just finishing he's got the right plan for you, I've already calendared my next 8 weeks of training using his plans.

Pictures

The dark stains on the shirt are remnants of Aaron's reverse paristalsis

Yes, extra water, I'm eyeing Zane's water bottle and subsequently take it, but I gave him a hug in return

Aidan worked up a real sweat those last few hundred meters

The kids and Alicia were there at every transition and it was awesome to hear them rooting for me.

Asquared - Aaron & Alicia and Kids(4 current, ONE on the way)

2008-10-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

Aarrgh - we've tried to avoid the blogging frenzy but since most of our family members are blog nuts it appears to be a decent method of sharing our joyous and fun filled tidbits of family life with those we care about. That said, what's more incredibly fantastic to share than that we're going to have a BABY! Yep, that's baby numero CINCO, 5, or as Aaron like's to say "Omega"(see Wikipedia: Omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet) is often used to denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit of a set)

Alicia in front of 5 dozen roses

We told the kids and Alicia's Parents a couple of weeks ago on her Mom's Birthday, we gave her mom a charm for the April Birthday we expected the baby to have and she wasn't quite sure what we meant by it. The kids were dumbstruck, it was fun to have such a huge surprise although we don't recommend getting pregnant just to have something to surprise people with unless it's in the plans already and then by all means freak people out.

The baby should be born on April 28, 2009 (Alicia's brother Eric's birthday) or a day later on her dad's, we gave her mom a boy charm so having a 4th boy will certainly seal the deal on it being the last of the "set", if it's a Girl we'll quit while we're ahead.