Clone Wars

While I am writing the last post, I noticed that the multi-sheet copy feed on the priter is kaddy-wampus.

"Who broke the printer?" I asked.

"You mean the cloner?" Dane replied.

Yeah, we don't get too in to Star Wars Here.

Utah in 6 Weeks

We've been in the house about six weeks now. (When we have all the boxes unpacked, we'll post a few pics, Diana).

Here are a few fun highlights of our time thus far in our new home.

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We hit the Utah State Fair this fall. It was really cool. We saw lots of great animals: Horses, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, white tigers and fish (some of which the boys caught themselves!)






The boys wanted to ride a roller coaster, so we put them on it. I tried to get a picture of their faces as it raced by, sadly my camera speed and the coaster speed were not compatible. Suffice it to say that Tate was thrilled, and Dane literally kissed the ground when he got off the ride. Wish I'd had the camera ready for that one.


Dane got his first trip to LaVell Edwards Stadium this fall. Here's a picture of us at the home opener versus Northern Iowa. It was a fantastic time, and we have enjoyed watching our beloved Cougars defeat (NIU) Panthers, Bears (UCLA Bruins) and (Wyoming) Cowboys as he'll tell us frequently. Dane has witnessed two consecutive shutouts and some potent offense. I'll catch him whistling or singing the Cougar Fight Song while walking around the house. He was "Star of the Week" at school last week and each of his classmates made a poster of "Dane is special because..." We have picked out some good friends for him since some of his classmates listed "He likes BYU" as a reason. Good kids!

Dane has graduated from his SpongeBob SquarePants hat to a Cougar hat in recent weeks... He's all CougarFan...

with a strong affinity for the Cougar Marching Band (he got to play the drums after the game in week 1):


But if you ask him what's the best part of the game, I am not sure he wouldn't say cotton candy (which he has to pay for, making it all the sweeter), but if Cotton Candy's his answer, the close second will definitely be Cosmo!

He loves (and I mean LOVES) the video sequences of Cosmo's Quest (the dastardly minions of the BCS have stolen the Spirit of the Y and want to use it for evil purposes! Ahhh!)

Tate has a ticket as well, but regularly exercised his first right of refusal, so we've enjoyed games with Uncle Brody, Grandpa Brent, and our great friend Lanny.

Summer Things

We didn't post for most of the Summer, so here's a couple of highlights...

This spring, Cyndie's flowers showed their stuff. Blooming like champions, they were beautiful and fun to look at--kind of like Cyndie!

Dane enrolled in a music, movement, and drama class. They did lots of songs and dances... even put on a play of "Where the Wild Things Are" with the chief wild thing played by our wild thing.

He learned the Charleston, and the booty shake.

That may be a light saber, not sure exactly. But we are into Star Wars, so I'll bet Dane thought it was a Yoda, Quigon-Jinn, and Anakin (Episode II) model.

Spinning green light... power stance!

We learned that Dane will one day be a rock star. He's got it going on (look at that stance!)

(incidentally, we also learned that Bono is a "Fully Invested" Cougar fan, thanks SnarrWars for the image, you are a hero to my boys).

On the Tate front, we had our own one-man play entitled "Chin Chuckler". He spent a fair amount of the summer protesting the move, but has been doing well this fall and is integrating well into school.

You know that Visa commercial where the family goes on vacation in search of the lost smile from their teenage daughter? We have our own quest: Tate wearing his glasses... here's a shot we're not entirely sure hasn't been Photoshopped.

When the grass grows in O-Town (Omaha, not Oakland), it really grows. Sumner loved to run around in the fresh cut. It smelled so wonderful, and there were bugs jumping around... ahh, nirvana! The stained feed only lasted a couple of days (then it was time to cut the grass again!)

Our love of Star Wars carried over to the kitchen, and way beyond the obvious Princess Leia Cinnamon Buns and included such recipes as Bosq Brownies, Pit Droid Pizza, and these Galactic breadsticks:

Here's a shot of Cyndie's Guys shortly before leaving Omaha:

Back In Business: Who Wears the Pants???

Well, these OmaHecks have been in the analog world for quite some time now. The hate mail and death threats have increased to a level that makes me think that a few token posts would be appropriate and a sort of insurance policy.

here's a sample of today's Sacrament Meeting conversations:

Tate: Mom, was Joseph Smith the first person to wear pants?
Cyndie (chuckling): No.
Tate: Was Joseph Smith, Sr. the first person to wear pants?
Cyndie: No, honey. Think about George Washington. He wore pants. And the Pilgrims, they wore pants...
Tate (interrupting): Except their wives. (Big brown-eyed blinks)

Yeah, that's how it goes... a fair amount of randomness supplemented with Vulcan Logic.

For those of you who have spent time with Tate or any other Autistic children, you know the can fixate on a topic for extended periods of time.(its called perseveration). With Tate, its all about Star Wars right now. He has so many facts in his little bean, and he wants to affirm them with us ("Dad, who was the second person to die by a lightsaber in episode three?" OK, because I know that, RIGHT!!! I don't even know whether he's talking about Return of the Jedi (third movie released) or Revenge of the Sith (third episode chronologically). We have been forced to declare the Chapel "StarWars free zone". No Star Wars questions allowed. It has been difficult, especially when the Stake Presidency makes references to Jedi Mind Tricks...