New Member’s of the family coming

Scroll down I went on a blog spree today so there are more blogs

Well the news is not as exciting as most of you would probably like it to be. We are happy with our two kids and aren’t looking for more. Thats why we ruled the thought of a dog. But we are getting pets. Some people may say that fish aren’t pets, but I do. Well over the week we have gotten our fish tank setup. First with the marvelous help of (Brother) Brian, building a stand, to buying the tank, to picking what gravel we wanted and then aquascaping our tank (that is seriously the word used online). We have all been involved in the process of getting the tank setup and ready to go. I have learned so much researching our new activity.

Step One – Find the tank and an appropriate place in your home for the tank to sit. The tank cannot be in drafty areas or in direct sunlight. Sunlight promotes algae growth and makes it hard for fish to live there. The larger the tank the better chance your fish have to survive. This is because there is more surface area for air to enter the water. A narrow tank that is tall, is going to have a harder time than a longer tank that is shorter.

Step Two – Aquascape your tank. Fish need room to swim. Some breeds need more room than others. Fish need places to hide or they get stressed out. Thats why they need caves, plants or decorations to hide behind in.

It is also important two provide surface disruption of the water. If the water does not break than air has a hard time entering the water. When a bubble pops, or there are ripples in the surface, the nitrogen is released from the water and oxygen enters the water. Generally a filter that flows into the tank like a waterfall can cause enough surface disruption to keep healthy fish, but better safe than sorry, and it won’t hurt the fish to have more

(Lesson learned: it is a major pain to bury airlines under gravel after the tank is filled with water)

Step Three – Patience. Fish cannot live in water out of the sink. Special conditioner has to be added to the water that deactivates chlorine, flouride and other man made chemicals. Generally a tank should run for 48 hours with the water conditioner inside it to ensure the water is healthy to add new pets. Also depending on the type of fish you want, you have to make sure the water is at the correct temperature (We are getting freshwater tropical fish. We chose to get community fish that are not aggressive to other fish, their water needs to be 72 to 82 degrees warm)

Step Four – Add fish. This is the stage we are at! We each have our favorite fish that we want in our aquarium. I am going to try and get three kinds of fish, top swimmers, middle swimmers and bottom swimmers. This way when you look at the aquarium there are fish all over. Also I want color, I love the vibrant colors of fish. Brian has fallen in love with Marble Molly’s. I like swordtails. Natalie and Kallie like the rainbow colored fish. I want to get a couple of each so that they can swim in schools and have buddies. Hopefully it will turn out wonderful.

So here are some pictures and videos so you can see what I am talking about.

(Below: Here is a pic of the house we put in the center of our tank. We knew the wheel would turn when we plugged air into it, but were pleasantly suprised when the chimney started bubbling as well)

(Below: Originally our plan was going to be having a large volcano instead of the house, like Mt. Juanahuckaloogee on Finding Nemo, but we elected to get the house and have a small volcano instead. I love the Volcano we got.)

And last but not least, here are a couple videos of the tank in action. I posted one on facebook, but these are higher quality vids.

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

And here is another video a bit zoomed out

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

So tomorrow is the big day, we may not be getting a dog, but we should be adding about 20 members to our family. Hopefully all goes well.

Soccer 4-27-11

 

I worked…… again, so I was only able to make it too two quarters of Brian’s game.  And it really freaks people out when a cop shows up with a camera.  It certainly draws attention.  I wasn’t able to shoot a lot of pictures, but I was able to get some good shots, all four of them that I am going to share are from one sequence.  I set the camera to 4 pictures a second and this what I came up with.

   

Did I mention, I love sports photography!!!!

1st Grade Program

Yesterday, April 27th, was Kallie’s 1st grade program. It was the exact same program that Brian performed when he was in first grade. I am proud of Kallie for how much she got into the program.

(Below: Here is a pic of Kallie singing with the other kids. Top row in the middle for those looking)

(Below: Sorry for the shaky video, it was zoomed out all the way and I was hand holding the camera. Here is one of the songs.)

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

(Below: And here is a video of Kallie's Part)

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

Easter

 

Another Holiday has passed.  Kallie is such a holiday junkie.  She loves and celebrates anything special.  She went all our for Saint Patricks Day, so Easter was no different.  Carrots were left out for the Easter Bunny and all.  The movie HOP, that I reviewed a while ago also had a lot to do with everything.  It sure did make the kids imaginations run wild.  We also had some special talks about the true meaning of Easter also.  They answered all the questions right and understood the meaning of easter.  But just like when I was a boy, I really didn’t care about the true meaning and more about the candy.  So here are the kids enjoying their easter baskets.  I won’t be posting this picture anywhere for professional critic, but at least the moment was captured. 

(Below: Brian is very excited about his “HOP” book, Kallie got a beautiful Zebra print with Yellow accent dress.  The hat goes with the outfit. Unfortunately I had to work on easter so I wasn’t able to get pictures of the dress yet)

Miracle Worker

 

Over the past few months the kids go onto a “we need a pet” kick.  The kids have begged and begged to have a dog.  They have wandered the block we live on selling anything they thought would raise any money for a dog.  Natalie and I were very specific about the dog we were going to get.  But the dog was a very expensive dog.  Well the dull roar of the kids turned into a deafening thunder and I started to feel very bad about getting a dog.  It was making me so sick that I finally had to tell the kids that I didn’t feel like it was right to get a dog.  The mere thought of grooming, vet bills, shots and food made it even worse.

I talked to Natalie and let her know my thoughts and let her know that if the kids wanted fish then I would be ok with that.  I have always wanted a fish tank.  I have always found fish tanks to be extremely relaxing and beautiful.  We talked to the kids and they were all for getting a fish tank.  Well the deafening thunder was still overwhelming and so Natalie and I started looking into getting a tank.

We talked to a friend of mine that has a fish tank, and found a great deal on the tank.  We got a 55 gallon tank.  Well you can’t put a fish tank on the floor, and all of the places we looked were charging anywhere from $150 to $800 for a fish tank stand.  So I called (Brother) Brian, and explained the predicament.  I let him know that the kids were chomping at the bit. 

Brian was awesome, he dropped everything he had and made a miracle happen.  Two days later he was at the house and building a tank stand for us.

Brian had some walnut wood that he was able to use and he built us the perfect stand for our tank.  It is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks so much Brian for dropping everything and helping us out.  It turned out great.

(Below: Here is the stand that Brian built)

Kallie’s Birthday Celebration: Part 1

 

This Sunday, April 24th, Kallie got her birthday celebration with the Fuhriman Family.  This is usually when we have cake and ice cream because the actual birthday they get to pick where they want to eat.  Because of our hectic schedule, and all the time Natalie has been working so many manager shifts, we decided to give in to Kallie and let her get a bakery made cake.  She picked out a Tangled cake.  It turned out really good, and she really thought she was hot stuff picking her cake.  Kallie remembers events so well this will be a special memory for her.

(Below: Here is Kallie and her cake)

(Below: And here is a look at just the cake.  The yellow is Rapunzel’s hair)

Tomorrow is the big day.  Because of our schedules we are going to take Kallie out to a local fast food joint.  Friday we will take her for her real meal.  She wants to go to Wingers.

Soccer; April 20, 2011

 

Brian played soccer and I was finally able to attend a game with my hectic work schedule.  It was such a good day for picture taking.  I came home with close to 30 shots that were print worthy, and I was ecstatic about it.  I wanted to put a video together but haven’t been able to yet.  So here are a few shots from that game.

(Below:  I was amazed to see the follow through he puts into his kicks.  I always watch the ball and never his leg)

(Below: My favorite picture of the day for comedy reasons.  Check out all the other kids faces.  It is obvious they know how hard Brian can kick the ball)

(Below:  I just like the stop action on this picture)

I was really happy with how the pictures ended up from this game!  Hope you enjoyed also.

School Play

Brian has been working very hard since the start of the year to be in the school play.  Originally Kallie was going to try out with him, but she chickened out at audition time.  Brian wished he hadn’t tried out at the start of the year, but started to like the play the more he practiced.  There were hundreds of kids in the play, and very few speaking parts.  This meant there were 10 flowers, and 8 trees, 20 birds (you get the idea).  But there was only one owl, and Brian got this part.  He did get 2 seconds of the spotlight as he ran across the stage yelling “hoo hoo”.  That is more time than most the other cast got.  The play was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  Brian did get to sing a lot.  Boy did he make a good owl.  Here are a few pics of Brian the Owl.

(Below: Brian singing with the rest of the multitude)

(Below: Brian doing his best owl impression outside for us after the play, he must be molting because he looks like he is about to lose some feathers)

Soccer has started!!!

 

Soccer season has started again, we have already had two games that have been postponed for weather.  But there was a game I was able to attend.  I figured I would share a few pictures from the day.  Kallie is now in Gymnastics instead of soccer.  She seems to be enjoying it.

Enjoy the pics.

General Conference Crafts

We took the kids to see Hop on Saturday.  They really liked it! I would not recommend it.  Unless you are under the age of 12, I don’t think you would like it.  But like I said, the kids loved it.

So the next day, the kids decided that they were going to be creative and make some Easter Bunny outfits.  So while we were watching the morning session of General Conference the kids went to work.  This is what they came up with.

(Below: Pay special attention to the tail, she was very proud of it)

(Below: And here is her mask)

(Below: Brian decided to go with a fluffier tail)

(Below: And here is Brian’s Mask)