A Contest, a Rock Band, and an Analogy for our Life

To start off, I posted this Contest on Facebook the other day, but feel free to cast your votes here as well:
PLACE YOUR BETS! When will my lovely wife Amanda give birth? Winner receives a custom illustration, created by ME especially for YOU!

Here are the statistics to help you make your decision:
Due Date according to menstrual cycle: Dec. 26
Due date according to 20-week Ultrasound: Jan. 8
Due date according to December 15th Ultrasound: Jan. 4th

Previous children’s births:
Maddy: Induced 1 week after due date.
Joel: Induced 3 days after due date.
Abe: Induced 6 days after due date.

Reply to this thread with the Date and Time you think Elliott will be born. (EX.: 12/25/2009 at 7:05am—but we hope that’s not the answer!) The closest to the actual time is the WINNER!

Here are the guesses so far:
Molly (Amanda’s sister): 12/30/2009 at 9:30pm
Christine Jerrell Fimbres: 12/31/2009 at 10:15pm
Stephanie Ross: 1/10/2010 at 10:10am
Reed Peterson: March 27, 2036
Debbie Lambson: 1/5/2010 at 7:42am
Amanda Peterson: 12/29/2009 at 11:30am
Haley (Amanda’s other sister): 12/24/2009 at midnight
Matt (Amanda’s brother): 12/21/2012 at 12am
Kevin: 12/25/2009
Andy: 1/4/2010 at 6:35pm


Today, the kids entertained themselves by forming their own rockband, called “Jam!” (as in, jamming on guitar, but also incorporating the first letters of their names: Joel, Abe, Madison. Clever, huh? They thought of that themselves!) The band featured Joel on vocals, Maddy on keyboard, and Abe on drums (boxes of puzzles were used as a drum substitute). They made a poster (click to EMBIGGEN):



Here’s their hit song, written by Joel:
Take a look at your past
And look how it is
Maybe you will find
Just who you are
So believe in yourself
Yeah, believe
You gotta believe

A couple of days ago, a lady from the ward called and asked if we needed anything for Christmas. Amanda explained that we were ok and that we would rather have other families get help, but the lady said, “Well, you’re on the list, so we’re getting you some presents and a Christmas dinner.” Today they showed up with several bags of presents and a box of food (including a turkey). We were so grateful, and have been overwhelmed by the help we’ve gotten the past several months from family and church members.

We want everyone who reads this blog to know how much we appreciate your help, whether it’s been in the form of money, food, words of encouragement, or even a desire to help (even though you’re in similar circumstances). We can see the hand of the Lord in our lives more and more each day, and while there are still times when we feel temporarily overcome by despair, hopelessness, and a fear for the future, we are just as quickly shown that God is real and that he has plans in store for us.

You guys will probably remember how our trip home from Disneyland last December was a miserable, stressful experience. Due to snow, ice, and closed roads, our 10-hour drive home turned into a 40-hour trek full of closed roads, crowded hotels, detours, and dark desert roads filled with flooded, muddy runoff. But it’s what we had to do to get home. Even the following day, roads were still closed to go the “fast way.” We realized that sometimes, the shortest distance between two points is a 40-hour detour.
I feel like that could be the theme for our life this past few months. I don’t know why we couldn’t go the easy, direct route in life, or how long it will be before we’re back on track. I suppose that that was the risk we took by taking the trip to Disneyland. There was nothing WRONG with choosing to go then, it was just the natural consequence of going when we did.

But we made it through that ordeal—we were united as a family (and the kids were so understanding and well-behaved, even with all the extra driving). Conditions aren’t ideal, but are still better than they could be. A hotel room with a broken heater was better than spending the night in the car. Similarly, while we aren’t as financially stable and comfortable as we were last year, we still have a roof over our heads, food in the cupboards, and are all healthy and safe.

I don’t know what the next year will bring, but as Elder Uchtdorf mentioned during Conference, eventually, things do get better. If we endure and work hard, we will eventually get through that 40-hour detour and back onto the road home (and heck, once we got to Vegas, we had In-N-Out Burger!)

Merry Christmas to All of You, and best wishes for 2010!

"Christmas is Coming, the Goose is Getting Fat!"

Joel is so excited for Christmas, we have had to restrain him:



We CANNOT believe how fast this month is going. Next week is Christmas! With my busy animating, the kids doing a lot at school, and Amanda in the final weeks of giving birth, there’s not much time to wonder where the time is going! Let’s do the usual person-by-person run-down (we’ll go youngest to oldest this time):

ABRAHAM:

Sometimes I wonder where children learn their behaviors. Some things are obvious—My kids sound like me or Amanda when they yell at each other or tell jokes. Their opinions on movies and shows are heavily influenced by OUR opinions.
Abe, as with many younger brothers, copies his older brother CONSTANTLY. Joel takes off his shirt: Abe takes off his shirt. Joel puts on socks: Abe puts on socks. Joel takes off ONE sock: Abe takes off one sock. Joel screams nonsense words: Abe…well, you get the idea…
Here are the two of them in their improvised superhero/Super villain outfits:






But on Sunday at church, Abe did something I’ve never seen any of the other family members ever do. They were just starting the Sacrament, and as we were sitting there waiting for the bread, Abe stuck his hand down the back of his pants, pulled his hand out, and SMELLED HIS FINGERS. While restraining our laughter and shock, we made sure that when the bread came, he used his OTHER HAND, and took the FIRST PIECE HE TOUCHED. Obviously we later had a discussion on cleanliness (and a hand-washing in the bathroom).



JOEL:
On December 5th, Joel was baptized and confirmed. It was a very nice meeting. Another ward was in charge of the program, though, and decided on a whim to ask all the kids in the chapel to come up and sing the baptism song. Well, one of them started with verse 2, which got ALL the kids singing verse 2, followed by verse 1, then verse 2 AGAIN.
Later, while Joel and I were changing out of our baptismal clothes, the Primary President did something really nice: she had all the family members write Joel letters (or draw pictures), congratulating him. Then she bound them in a book for him to keep. Very cool, and a nice memento.
Here are some pictures of us at the baptism:





In completely unrelated Joel news, here’s a song he wrote one day (I’ve corrected spelling and punctuation):
You’ve gotta find the way
To believe in your one heart.
It’s the only heart you got
So use it good.
If you don’t use it good,
You’ll end up being sad
So use it good, yeah,
Use it good.

He loves to make up songs, many of which are surprisingly awesome.

MADISON:
The 5th Graders at Maddy’s school do a “wax museum” every year, where each student learns about (and dresses up as) a famous person in American History. Then they all stand by their desks while students and parents walk past. Each student has a “button” on their desk, and if you press it, the student recites a spiel about who they are dressed as. Maddy chose to be Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female medical doctor (I’m sure her mother didn’t influence her at ALL in that decision…) Here she is in costume:



She did a great job, and even though she’s notoriously shy, she performed her speech clearly and confidently—even her teacher was surprised.

AMANDA:
Yes, the “goose” that’s “getting fat” in the blog title is Amanda. But she’s got an excuse. The question of “When is she due?” continues. More and more evidence points to a December 28th due date rather than the Jan. 8th date the Ultrasound Tech gave. She’s already dilated to a 3, and at this morning’s checkup, her uterus was measuring “44 weeks.” It also appears the baby is still breech. They’ve scheduled yet another ultrasound for Tuesday morning to determine what’s happening in there, and to make sure there’s not too much amniotic fluid. Also, if the baby’s breech, they’ll try to turn him next week. There could be a C-section in Amanda’s future.

ANDY:
I’m still animating bikes. I’m really getting a feel for how to animate “TV Style.” You might think the low budget TV animation you see is simple, easy-to-do crap designed to tell the story with the least amount of work possible. Well…it is, but it’s also an art. Each shot I start animating, I need to plan out, determining which layers will be animated, what movements will be re-used, and figuring out if the animation can be re-used in another shot. It’s like creating little animation libraries of re-usable pieces. But every so often, I get a nice, juicy “emotion” scene to animate and can let out some of the Disney animator in my soul.
Decorating for Christmas

In Family News, we decorated for Christmas. Looks pretty much like the previous Christmas. Here are the kids and the tree:



Have a great Christmas everyone!!!

An Anecdotal Autumnal Update

Note, I added a new list on the right, listing some of recent Netflix rentals over the past several months.

The other day, Abe was eating apple slices, and he came to me, complaining that his tongue was itchy. I said that was a little weird, and he went on his merry way. A couple minutes later he came back over to me and showed me his cure for the “itchy tongue” : He was scratching his tongue with an apple slice. Well, whatever works, I guess…

In October, Amanda got a hankering for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. We ended up making at least 2-3 batches of them the following week, due mostly to the fact that they tasted like Christmas. You might not understand what that’s supposed to mean, but if you tried one, you’d agree.

We also tried making cake donuts, which didn’t turn out quite as well. They were really heavy and greasy, and although the kids were supposed to choose EITHER cinnamon OR frosting for the topping, many of them got frosted AND dipped in cinnamon sugar. Wasn’t a good combination.

On a thoroughly unrelated note, Amanda had a terrible stomach problem a few weeks back that sent her to the hospital. As usual with stomach problems in my family, the diagnosis was “Well, it seems like it was something, but we don’t know what.” Glad we have Medicaid and don’t have to pay for that “useful” diagnosis. But I guess they did make sure the baby was doing OK and that it was nothing serious. But Amanda sure was doubled-over in pain for a couple days (except when they gave her some painkillers via an IV).

Joel’s 8th birthday was this past week, and he already knew everything he was getting (that’s what you get for letting your 4-year old help wrap the presents). So, Abe told Joel that he got a video game, a movie, and Legos. Joel was able to guess that the game was “Scribblenauts,” but didn’t know WHICH movie (“Sky High”) or that it was a Star Wars Lego playset. He also got some money from Libby and Ethan that he bought some Trio blocks with, and a gift card from Judy that he used to buy a Legend of Zelda comic book with (it took him a while to get used to reading it in the back-to-front-right-to-left Japanese style the book was printed in).

I lost on the Marvel Contest, and the job I was hoping for with the guys I worked with on Watchmen fell though (Warner Brothers went with a studio in Canada, apparently.) BUT I did get a freelance project, creating a 22-minute children’s cartoon for a guy in Virginia. He’s got a company that I think gets a lot of foreign investors, and they’re creating movies for both US and International distribution. He’s hoping the short can be entered into film festivals, as well as being used to pitch to investors for either a feature film or a TV series. We’ll see. At any rate, it’s nice to know I’ve got some money coming in for the next couple months.

Meanwhile, the past few months have convinced us (along with a lot of discussions and prayer) that NOW is the time for Amanda to go back to school. There’s no reason to wait, and there’s every reason to go. We were thinking about the fact that if Amanda had started her Graduate program a couple years ago as planned, she’d have graduated this past Spring/Summer and we’d have been on more sure financial footing. Obviously, there were reasons we didn’t have her go then, and Amanda was always hesitant to start school, knowing we still had one more child on our agenda (though that was at times debated). As Amanda has said, we’re willing to lose everything, if need be, to help her get her degree (Judy, I hope you’re ready for some temporary houseguests, if it comes to that!) It’s just so sad that I spent all these years getting a degree and work experience for a very finicky industry; meanwhile, Amanda’s career goals are ones that would keep us and our family secure and fulfilled in any city/state.

I’ve gone to see a couple movies recently:

“Where the Wild Things Are”: I really enjoyed this movie. Some have said it’s too dark and scary for kids. I’d be more worried that they’d be a little bored by it, or that the emotions the movie brings out might affect them too deeply. The effects were great, and I am SO GLAD they presented it as more of a kid’s emotional drama instead of some sort of hip/modern/wacky, “Cat in the Hat”/”Shrek”/”Grinch” type of film.

“A Christmas Carol in 3-D”: Obviously, I’m a geek for 3-D movies. This movie had a lot of fun 3-D effects, from falling snow to flythrough shots of London, to shadows coming off the wall into 3-D space. But it was TOO CREEPY to take my kids to. The director (Robert Zemeckis) seems to like having things suddenly pop out of the screen at you, in the tradition of old-school 3-D movies. But I think he forgot that this is a family film, and you can’t have Ignorance and Want presented as kids possessed by demons. The thing I was most worried about—Jim Carrey hamming it up—didn’t happen. He actually gave a good, in-character performance (though his version of the Ghost of Christmas Past was pretty annoying).

I’m looking forward to seeing “2012” next week. I know it’s just a cheesy special effects epic, but sometimes I enjoy a good “no-brainer” as my dad called them.
Sometimes I think it’s funny that people aren’t as fascinated about the Signs of the Times/Second Coming as I am. I mean, I’m not some wacko that thinks the world will end in 2012, or that we shouldn’t buy anything that has a UPC symbol because the barcode is the 666 mark of the beast, but I am fascinated by all the events and signs that happen leading to the Second Coming. I want to see all that happen—from a safe distance, of course!

Today, LeeAnn and George gave us their old baby crib. (Thanks a TON guys!) Amanda has been VERY antsy about getting it assembled, and it’s now sitting in the corner of the bedroom, ready for a baby to sleep in (OK, it still needs sheets on it). Amanda reminds me CONSTANTLY that the baby is coming soon, and I keep reminding HER that her December 26th Due Date is about 2 weeks SOONER than the Jan 8th due date the Ultrasound Technician changed her date to. Really, we just need it out before Amanda starts her Anatomy Class on Jan. 6th!

Well, that catches you up on our lives for now. I’m sorry I’ve got no fun pictures or videos to share this time around.

Halloween 2009

Here are some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes. They had a lot of fun trick-or-treating (especially Abe, the sweet-tooth!) Click on the images to ENLARGE.

A Harvest of Blog Items

Sorry to everyone who has spent the past 6 weeks checking my blog for updates, only to be met with the same old boring blog post from August. You’d think with me being unemployed, I’d have plenty of free time for blogging, but as it turns out, I’ve been pretty busy. Here are person-by-person updates of what we’ve been up to the past month or so:
ANDY
As you all know, I’ve been working on an entry for the Marvel/Aniboom Motion Comics contest:


Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

I don’t want to jinx myself by saying I’m a shoe-in to be one of the finalists, but my entry is getting a lot of good reviews and is ranked pretty high. Hopefully, the Marvel folks like my entry and feel confident in my abilities to animate a Motion Comic series for them. While waiting to find out if I’m a finalist, I’ve been working on the additional scenes that need to be added to the final entry. Voting/viewing continues through the rest of the week--if you haven't viewed/voted yet, do it NOW, and send the link along to anyone and everyone who might want to watch it and help me win!

I’ve also been working on pre-production for a logo animation for Seakings Studios (those are the guys I did the “Chico” video for.) It’s going to be fun, traditional 2-D animation, kind-of a “Fantasia”/Classic Disney “Silly Symphonies” cartoons feel...

I’ve also been applying to any animation/motion graphics jobs that I’m able to find on the many job sites I frequent. Jobs I’ve applied to (but didn't get) include a number of motion graphics companies similar to 8fish, some freelance gigs doing things like video billboard ads, web animations advertising cell phone “home search” features, a job doing animated shorts for an science website, run by former astronauts, and a job in Tucson creating online Flash content and games for Charter Schools. A couple of the employers have been interested in me (along with several other applicants), but never contacted me again after the initial email. All I can think is that something better must be coming.

I’ve also applied to some of the “crap jobs”: Macey’s , Albertson’s, Best Buy and FYE, to name a few. Again, I’ve heard nothing back from any of those, either, making me wonder what job I CAN get that doesn’t involve telemarketing.
I’ve also applied to Utah Valley University (woo-hoo, I got in! Can you BELIEVE THAT?!?!) and will probably be taking some classes in 3-D animation and Flash/web development in January. That should hopefully make me employable in a wider variety of jobs.

AMANDA

Amanda turned 30 last Saturday. She doesn’t feel any older. And frankly, she doesn’t care, although she does wish she’d finished her Master’s Degree by now. I agree, but what can ya do?!
All she wanted for her birthday was a set of glass drinking glasses (we’d been using a bunch of plastic ones from the Disney Store, but they got all nasty). So we bought a set of those, and she’s much happier.
Speaking of the Disney Store, she’s gotten the OK from the midwife to return to work, so she’s been working 4-hour shifts a couple days a week, and it’s really worn her out.
Obviously she’s still pregnant, and even though she’s only 28 weeks or so, she feels like she’s 40 weeks. Her hips hurt, her right leg keeps going numb, and her belly is always in the way! Her recent ultrasound confirmed that she’s still on track to be due the beginning of January instead of the end of December, but that’s a sore spot for Amanda, so I keep quiet about it…

MADISON



Besides pretending to be a narwhal, Maddy has been doing a lot of drawing, writing, etc. Here’s a self-portrait:


Maddy is not a big a fan of school lunch. Most days, she wants to bring a lunch, which leads to one of my biggest struggles in life: making a sandwich at 7am. I don’t know WHY this is so difficult for me, but it takes EVERY ounce of strength I have to get out the bread, peanut butter and jelly, prepare the sandwich, and place it in a plastic bag. Thankfully, most of the time, Amanda makes the sandwich the night before, but on the days she forgets—UGH!

JOEL


Joel, as always, is obsessed with video games, but he’s also got a new love: Comic Books. We’ve been able to check some out from the library, and he reads through them like crazy. He wants to go buy some comics when he saves up enough money.
He also has a good friend, Kenneth, who comes over to play a couple times a week (or sometimes, Joel plays at his house). Abe also thinks Kenneth is HIS best friend.
We’ve started discussing his upcoming baptism (the first Saturday in December). I’m so proud of how much he already knows and understands about the gospel. He always amazes me with his understanding and his thoughtful questions…sometimes I can’t believe he’s also the same kid that runs through the house smacking his own butt and singing Weird Al songs…

ABRAHAM
Abe also had a birthday, and now needs us to remind him that he’s 4. He only wanted superhero stuff for his birthday, particularly his hero, Spider-man. Here’s a picture he drew of Spidey:


One of his favorite presents was his Black Spiderman Suit, which is also going to be his Halloween Costume:


Before he got that, he had to put a ski hat over his face to pretend he was Spiderman:


He also LOVES doing puzzles.

And he’ll do the same puzzle over and over. Most of the time he doesn’t even look at the picture on the box. He’s learned his alphabet and his numbers, and we’re starting to work on words (though he can already read “Spiderman.”)

ELLIOTT
Elliott just keeps making trouble for us. As I already mentioned, he’s wreaking havoc on Amanda; he’s also SO WILD--The wildest of all the fetuses that ever rented a room in Amanda’s womb. From the looks of the ultrasound, he has really long legs and a VERY prominent “maleness.” Or maybe that’s another leg…
Another recent complication: due to the flu season, hospitals have set new rules, including NO Children under 14 allowed in the hospital. Also, hospital patients are only allowed 2 visitors—not 2 visitors at a time, 2 visitors. So Amanda can have one person--besides me--visit her during her time at the hospital, and the kids are not allowed to come at all—even if we have proof of their flu shots.
We understand why they’re making these restrictions, and we can hope that the rules are relaxed by the end of December, but it’s still a little sad that Amanda will not be able to see the kids for a couple days, and that the kids will not be able to see Amanda or the baby.

Well, that about sums things up for us until Halloween. We really enjoyed General Conference last week, and were uplifted and encouraged by the many talks about hope, recognizing the Spirit, and having confidence in the Lord. It always seems that there are a few talks that are directed specifically at us—I’m sure they are directed to many people (all people?) but the Spirit helps us to really connect with those things that we most need to hear.

I’m really going to try to do more frequent mini-updates—maybe every Sunday night, or as things happen. These big, long blog posts take an hour or more to write—no wonder I put off writing them! And I’m sure most people don’t have a lot of time to read these huge essays on the goings-on of the Petersons. Have a great October!

EDIT: Hmm, sometimes the "comment" link doesn't show up--just click the blog title, and you should be able to comment on it that way. Weird interweb...

Back to School and the Name Game

The kids went back to school this week, and although we love all our children with all our hearts, it’s been SO NICE having Maddy and Joel gone for a few hours in the day. The house is so much quieter, with less TV shows and video games, no fighting/yelling, and two less kids asking for snacks, drinks, time on the computer, etc.
Here are Maddy and Joel as they looked on the first day of school:



OK, so that second picture was a re-enactment of the face Maddy gave for the photo the teacher took at school (a picture for her student portfolio). Yes, she’s developing a very distinct persona.
The kids really seem to like their teachers/classes, and Maddy is annoyed that we’re currently in a weekend and thus has to wait 2 days to return to school. Nerd alert!
Abe and Amanda have been keeping busy at home with board games, movies, Legos, and keeping the house clean.
I’ve been keeping busy hurriedly trying to get my animated entry for the Fox Holiday Animation Contest. The deadline for THIS contest is Aug. 31st. I’m just finishing up the last few shots this weekend, and after some audio revisions, I’ll be uploading later this week. I’ll send out a link when it’s online. It’s pretty hilarious. It’s called “Chuck Nutcracker,” and is a comedic version of the story of the Nutcracker, but with the Nutcracker as a Chuck Norris/Clint Eastwood tough guy, and the Rat King as a drag queen. As you can tell, it’s a little wackier and edgier than my usual fare, but it’s for Fox, so what do you expect? The kids have fallen in love with the movie, and they watch my in-progress version all the time, quoting lines and acting out scenes from it. Their favorite lines (recited in tough-guy voice):
“Looks like it’s time to crack a few NUTS!”
“Sleep in Heavenly PEACE!”
“CHUCK…NUTCRACKER!!!”
My other contest (the History Channel one about slavery) ends the Submission Phase on Sept. 2, and I’ll know by mid-September if I’m a finalist. There have been quite a few entries added to the contest—some good, most awful—but mine is still one of the highest-rated and most viewed.
Meanwhile, our newest family member keeps on making trouble for us. Amanda had an ultrasound on the 13th and the baby revealed himself as a male. Definitely a male. The image of his maleness was clearer and more prominent than I’ve ever seen in an ultrasound. So of course we were all a little disappointed…except Abe and Joel , who were ecstatic. Abe, in particular felt very smug, justified in his continued insistence that it was a boy.
But that’s not all—it turns out the baby is also measuring about 12 days SMALLER than normal for Amanda’s expected due date. However, Amanda is very sure of her “dates” (whatever that means—she won’t tell me). But they went ahead and changed her due date from Dec 26th to January 9th. Amanda’s NOT happy about thinking she’s 20 weeks, then being told she’s only 18 weeks along…
Another wrinkle, adding insult to injury, is that Amanda has Placenta Previa, meaning the placenta is in the wrong place, right near the cervix. I guess 90% of the time, the issue resolves itself, especially if noticed early, but for the next six weeks, Amanda’s on “pelvic rest.” No heavy lifting or anything else that would cause stress, strain, or trauma to the placenta. Feel free to do your own research on the subject for Extra Credit. Sept. 23rd we’ll have another ultrasound, at which they’ll probably be like, “Oh, the baby’s measuring big now, let’s change the date back…”
So, once we found out it was a boy, we had to purge our minds, hearts, and souls of all the girl names we’d considered (Bridget was the current favorite, prior to the ultrasound), and we then had to rack our brains trying to come up with a boy’s name we didn’t hate. Boys names are REALLY tough. Most of the good, stable, useful ones are so common that they had to be eliminated just because a family member already had the name. Sorry, no Michael, Daniel, Adam, Joseph, Jacob or any other “normal” names.
Other names got eliminated because one or the other of us hated it. I happen to think Ebenezer is an awesome name, but I can see Amanda’s point that you just can’t name a kid that. The same goes for Amanda’s suggestion of Seamus. Amanda liked Jonah, which to me sounds like a mentally handicapped child. Jonas, Amos, and other names that ended with nus or mos got vetoed because they sounded nasty. Harry Peterson also got eliminated to prevent vulgar teasing nicknames.
Job was a top contender, but did we really want a child to be “hated, cursed, and afflicted”? Also, to make a complete palindrome of the kids, we considered Haley Madison (also boys’ names) so we could have:
Madison Haley Joel Abraham Abraham Joel Haley Madison
But in reality, that’s lame…even if it’s chiasmus-y coolness.
We really wanted a name that felt like it was in the same realm as “Joel Abraham.” On a whim, we looked up the meanings of Elliot and Ephraim, two names we’d considered and we immediately realized these names were right. Look at the similarities between the names and meanings:
Joel: “The Lord is God.”
Elliot: “God is Lord.”
Abraham: “Father of Many”
Ephraim: “Fruitful”
So his name is going to be Elliot Ephraim Peterson (or, perhaps, Ephraim Elliot, but probably not). And for short, we can call him “Eep.”
Some final funny anecdotes:
The other day, I was up at 8fish doing some freelance work and Amanda was taking a nap. Joel came in and asked Amanda if he could have some grapes. Thinking we had just bought grapes the day before, she said sure, and he got himself some grapes…he came to her a little later and mentioned that the grapes tasted really gross. Turns out we hadn’t bought grapes, and the ones he ate were a couple weeks old. Joel even mentioned that some of the grapes had white fuzzy parts on them…At least he only ate like NINE or TEN of them!!! Why did he keep eating them when they were gross? We have no idea. We had a discussion with him about “when food goes bad…”
Finally, as most of you know, Amanda has spitting problems during her pregnancies—as in, she has trouble swallowing her spit. Well, she’s to the point where she’s usually able to swallow her spit, but the other night she had a dream that she was spitting into the sink. Unfortunately, she was waking up from her dream at the same time and ended up spitting all over her pillow in REAL LIFE. Thankfully, she was not turned toward MY side of the bed when this happened. In her defense, PART of Amanda’s semi-conscious brain was saying “Don’t spit! Don’t Spit!” as she was doing it.
Well, that’s all for now. I’ve only got one shot left to animate for “chuck Nutcracker” and probably could have finished it in the time it took to type this blog entry…It’s also my birthday this Wednesday—34 years old, and apparently getting a bald spot…

Most of the Petersons Go Camping

Alright, so you devoted blog-readers benefit from our Family Night activity: writing about the Peterson Family (Minus Andy) Camping Trip With the McTeers. Last Thursday, Amanda and the kids went camping at the Alpine Loop (somewhere after Sundance, up in the mountains somewhere) with Amanda’s mom, her sister Molly (and her husband Doug and daughter Emyli—no, that’s not a typo), and sister Haley and her kids. They stayed there until Saturday morning, when they came home tired, dirty, and smelling like campfire smoke.
For Family Night, I’ve gathered Amanda and the kids into our room to let them give their input on the camping trip. Here we go:

What did you like best about the campout?
ANDY: I liked that for 2 days, I didn’t have to watch/hear ANY Disney Channel, TLC or Nickelodeon shows. Believe it or not, the TV was off most of the time.
AMANDA: Being with the kids and family; otherwise, she really didn’t enjoy the camping…would you enjoy it if YOU were camping in July, 4 ½ months pregnant?
MADDY: “switch-off storytelling” where people took turns making up parts of the story. Taking pictures.
JOEL: Hiking up the mountain.
ABE: The Food. Rolling down the hill. Leaving food for the squirrels/chipmunks.

What did you do during the campout?
ANDY: I spend most of Thursday and Friday working at 8fish, then came home and worked on my animations for the contests. I also watched “The Happening” (see comment below under “funniest thing that happened”).
AMANDA: Went on walks.
MADDY: Played games: Phase 10 (Amanda won), Uno, Scrabble Slam, Hungry Hungry Hippo. Maddy was disappointed that the “castle” was being renovated so they couldn’t play there. Saw 2 deer.
JOEL: Collected sticks for the fire.
ABE: Ate a Fiber One bar and pooped 5 times in one day. (Is that abnormal?)

What foods did you eat?
Andy: Spaghetti, fiber-loaded Pop-Tarts, an Arby’s Roastburger, and a turkey sandwich.
AMANDA: Hamburgers and hot dogs. Mountain Man breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns.
MADDY: The Ultimate S’more: included an extra bar of chocolate. Costco muffins.
JOEL: Pulling the roasted marshmallow “skin” off the marshmallow, then re-toasting the middle. More burgers than anyone else. Drank Tang.
ABE: Roasting marshmallows, because they were yummy. Sitting on chairs having hot cocoa. (As you can tell, Abe’s favorite things all involve food).

What was the funniest thing that happened?
ANDY: I watched the movie “The Happening” which was terrible to the point of being laughably funny. Like the scene when the zookeeper lets the lions rip his arms off…poor M. Night…how far the mighty fall…
AMANDA: Amanda’s mom poured water on her head.
MADDY: The pot-guts (squirrels) ate Maddy’s shoelaces one night when they left the shoes outside.
JOEL: Joel heard a story about a snake eating a rabbit.
ABE: Abe put dirt on his head. Every time someone called “Doug,” Abe said, “It’s DOUG-LAS!”

What was the scariest thing that happened?
Andy: while walking down the hallway at midnight, I saw a huge, nasty spider run across my path, into the boys’ room. I squished it with Abe’s snow boot (which he had wanted to wear at the campout).
AMANDA: Amanda got no sleep because she was making sure the kids were safe; also, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
MADDY: Hiking up the mountain.
JOEL: Hiking up the mountain. Being chased by a bee.
ABE: Hiking up the mountain.

What was the grossest thing that happened?
ANDY: The squished spider guts were pretty nasty…
AMANDA: Joel peed on the toilet seat in the dark, after which Amanda sat down on the seat and got a”surprise.” The Swiss cheese was also disgusting.
MADDY: Touching tree sap.
JOEL: saw a snake pooping. I think he’s lying…
ABE: Touched some tree sap.

What did you miss most about home?
ANDY: I was home, but I really missed my wife and kids. No one at home to hug or talk to. Now I know how terrible it would feel to be single/divorced. It was lame…but I got a lot of work done!
AMANDA: My bed. Close toilets with a light in them. Missed Andy. (Notice the order in which she mentioned these…)
MADDY: Showers and warm bathrooms. TV.
JOEL: Didn’t miss anything…maybe real bathrooms…
ABE: Bathrooms that weren’t dark.

Final Thoughts
Maddy was bored except for when they were eating or going on walks. Joel got annoyed by Haley yelling at her daughter in the night (though Amanda and kids were all laughing into their pillows to hide their laughter).
At one point, they were all in the tent and Abe said “It smells like boobs in here.” Then Amanda asked, “What do boobs smell like?” and Joel said, “You’re a woman, you should know!”
Joel and Abe both cried when it was time to come home.
When Maddy saw the deer, she at first thought it was Haley. Better leave it at that…
Maddy was the official camping photographer for the trip. We’ll end with a few of her photos:

CLICK THE PHOTO THUMBNAIL BELOW TO VISIT THE PHOTOBUCKET SLIDESHOW:

Summer is a Bummer!

Really, summer is boring. It’s too hot to go outside, and indoors it’s just the same old thing—TV, Video Games, etc. I mean, since I’m not a kid, I tend to be busy working, taking care of the house, etc., but the kids seem to have lazy, repetitive days.
Here are some of the highlights of the past month:

Maddy’s Birthday
I cannot believe I have a 10-year old. Seriously. It’s crazy to me. So, Maddy’s plan for her birthday was a Movie awards-themed birthday. We went to Zurchers and bought movie-themed decorations, plates and cups, etc. Everyone was going to dress up like movie stars and do movie-themed games. Instead of a big party with family, she wanted to invite some friends from school. In the end, she invited 3 girls, but only ONE could come. So we quickly overhauled the plans, and I took Maddy, Joel, Abe, and Dylan (Maddy’s friend) to Trafalga. Maddy had a coupon that she got from school for a “Family Fun Pass,” which gave all 5 of us the following for only $10 per person (and Abe was FREE):
-A pizza and soda
-a round of golf
-a ride in the 3-D motion simulator ride
-30 arcade tokens EACH
We also each could’ve gotten a bowl of Dippin’ Dots for dessert, but we ran out of time.
So not bad, all things considered, although a Saturday afternoon in June is NOT the best time to take kids to Trafalga. We waited 20 minutes just to get our tokens.
Maddy got to decorate her own birthday cake, which she really enjoyed. She used her Littlest Pet Shop toys to do it:



She got some Hannah Montana stuff, some Littlest Pet Shop toys, and some practical joke stuff, including a hand buzzer and some goofy glasses:



Andy and Amanda’s 11 Anniversary
After the big 10th Anniversary Celebration last year, we knew this year would pale in comparison. Boy did it. With Amanda sick and me busy working on freelance projects, we didn’t do ANYTHING. I was going to take Amanda to see “Up,” but she didn’t feel well enough to do that. We’d already bought presents for each other/ourselves for combo Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/Anniversary, so there weren’t even gifts exchanged.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for sympathy. Just reporting the events in the blog for posterity.

4th of July
For the Fourth of July, Amanda and the kids went to a barbeque/swim party at the McTeers. I hung out at home, doing who knows what, probably working on Chico or playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook.
Later that day, Amanda and the kids made tie-dye shirts:



At night, we went outside and from our condos, we could see 3 different fireworks shows (mostly the Pleasant Grove one, but also some in Lindon and American Fork). Meanwhile, mosquitos devoured Amanda. Oops.


Sleepovers
One recurring event this summer is the “Sleepover at Maddy’s.” The boys get blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, stuffed animals, and books and set up beds on Maddy’s floor. Then they basically spend all day and night in there watching shows, reading books, sleeping, and yelling at Abe to stay in his own area.



Chico
I finally finished the Chico Music Video animation. Here’s the final version (It’s got the same intro as the previous one, but it’s got all-new animation!):

The Adventures of CHICO Episode ONE from Toby and Cody McClure on Vimeo.

I’m really pretty proud of it. In general, I’m not a fan of my drawing/painting abilities. But I feel like I’ve made some strides on this project and have developed my talents further than they’d been. I’m more confident in my design sense and ability to get the “look” I’m going for, rather than settling on my usual mediocre quality.

Harry Potter
Of course we saw the new Harry Potter movie. We all loved it, except for Abe who just complained about being hungry/thirsty/bored/tired/having to pee/etc. Maddy and Joel were much less annoying at movies over the years. Not sure why Abe’s such a pain. But the movie was really funny, and Maddy admitted that she cried at the end. This was the first time Maddy had READ one of the books before seeing the movie, so the whole time, she was noticing all the scenes that were left out or changed from the book.
In the days prior to seeing it, we watched the first couple HP movies, and tried making “butterbeer” (a drink in the HP universe). It’s basically hot cream soda with butterscotch syrup and sweetened condensed milk. WAY too rich. The next day we made “butterbeer floats” which were like root beer floats, but with cream soda and a hint of butterscotch syrup. Much better.

8Fish
The last half of July, I’ve been (and still am) doing some freelance/contract work with 8fish. The project isn’t anything as creatively rewarding as the Chico video has been, but it pays well and it’s steady work for the next few weeks.

Contests
I’m currently attempting to enter two animation contests, both of which have deadlines at the end of August. They’re both featured on ANIBOOM.
The first one is for Fox, which is looking for a funny, edgy, Fox-type cartoon (2-4 minutes long) that’s a “holiday special.” Mine is based on the Nutcracker, but with some very funny (and edgy) twists. I’ve got to have the whole thing animated by the end of August.
The other contest is for the History Channel. They’ve provided a selection of historic speeches read by celebrities, and you’re supposed to pick a 30-second snippet from one of them and animate it. I chose a section from Frederick Douglass’s “What, to the American Slave, is Your 4th of July?” read by Morgan Freeman. It’s gonna be awesome. That one, I only have to have the animatic (that’s a simple, animated version of the storyboards, set to the audio) done by Sept 1. If mine is picked as a finalist, I have a month or so to get it all animated.
It’s gonna be tight, but I think I can do it. It’s totally worth it. Here are the prizes for each:
Fox Holiday Special:
5 finalists receive $5,000
Grand Prize winner gets $10,000 and a development deal with Fox (valued at up to $25,000).

History Channel Contest:
5 finalists receive $5,000
Grand Prize Winner receives $10,000 and a development deal with History channel (valued at $15,000)
Voting in these contests is primarily by official judges, though I think one of the finalists in each is determined by “audience vote.” So, I’ll let you know if/when you can vote!

Joel’s Teeth
Finally, Joel has lost his two front teeth (though I’m sure for Christmas he’ll be asking for video games rather than “his two front teeth”):

Father’s Day 2009: That’s Entertainment!

Today is Father’s Day—hope all the fathers out there had a great day, including MY father, who’s probably having the best day ever, seeing as he’s dead!
I made some coffee cake for us all, and I made hamburgers and fries for dinner (and the kids were TOTALLY excited to have root beer with dinner—we almost NEVER buy soda—one of the best decisions we ever made for our family…that and getting matching tattoos that say “One 4 All and All 4 Fun!”
I’d already gotten my Father’s Day/Anniversary gifts ahead of time, and already opened and used them (just like Amanda got her sewing machine and table as a combined Mother’s Day/Anniversary gift). I got the Boom Blox Wii game mentioned in the previous post, as well as the Benjamin Button Blu-ray and the soundtracks to “Up” and “Star Trek.”
Mini-review: I REALLY love the “Up” soundtrack. Touching, exciting, fun—just like the movie. The best review I can give a soundtrack is that it makes you feel like you’re watching the movie again—which this soundtrack definitely does, as well as conjuring up the same emotions you feel while watching the film.

SUMMER MOVIES, CONTINUED
Speaking of reviews, here are some really short reviews of the movies we’ve been watching so far during our nightly summer movie nights:
Finding Nemo: Still my Favorite PIXAR movie (and a great one for Father’s Day, actually!) Also very emotional and very funny, with great characters.
Iron Man: Judy came over to watch it with the boys. Fun movie, but seriously Judy, no family needs THAT much candy during a movie. That stuff lasted for like 2 weeks!
WIPEOUT: Wednesdays are Wipeout days on ABC. Funny game show—kids like seeing people get hurt. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the kids talking about “the big balls” all the time, though…
Galaxy Quest (Netflix): Always a fun one—did you know Dwight from “The Office” is in this? Maddy couldn’t get over seeing “Snape” (Alan Rickman) as a good guy and thought it was very unlike him to cheer happily at the end.
Tom Sawyer: The musical, with Johnny Whittaker and little Jodie Foster. Fun, but as a Mark Twain snob, I’m annoyed by all the changes from the book…
The Blob (Netflix): The 1950’s version. Maddy has the Blob theme song on a 50’s CD (“It creeps and leaps; it slides and glides…”) and was curious to see the movie. Manda got mad at me because she remembers having nightmares for a MONTH as a kid due to that movie. The kids took it in stride, but then, these kids grew up with Jurrasic Park and the Mummy and aren’t scared of Jell-o--well, not more than anyone else is…
Spirited Away: Manda hates this movie, so it was good she was bed-ridden while we watched this. I love how consistently inventive the movie is.
Sleeping Beauty: A classic, with beautiful animation and background art. But really, what’s with the “Skumps” song? Why?
Ghostbusters: We bought the newly-released Blu-Ray and the kids became instant converts. I think they’ve watched this EVERY DAY since last Tuesday. I woke up one morning and Joel was sitting in the front room watching it by himself! (They hide when the library ghost goes all freaky, though). They’ve spent the weekend making Ghostbusters equipment out of paper and tin foil and toilet paper tubes. Maddy traced Ghostbusters logos (as badges) for each of them from the video case, and they go on missions through the house. The boys, of course, have a new idea for what to be for Halloween.
We also rented the Ghostbusters video game, which Joel beat (on rookie level) in just 2 days. It’s so funny, because I was right around Maddy and Joel’s age when the movie came out and was obsessed with it, too.
Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (Netflix): The kids always love this. Season 2 has a little more innuendo in it than season one. I never noticed that stuff as a kid, of course. Like when Miss Yvonne gives Ricardo (the athletic neighbor) a book (To “her favorite tight end”) to keep by his bedside “To keep track of every time he scores…(pause)…in his soccer games!”

SPECIAL ASSESSMENT
So, our H.O.A. sent us a bill last month with a note saying that each of the condo residents needed to pay an extra $495 to help cover deficits incurred over the past 2 years (due to repairs to the clubhouse, tenants that foreclosed, etc.) and it made a HUGE stink among the homeowners. Turns out we have to pay it, but there’s going to be much closer scrutiny on what to do next to make sure this doesn’t happen (and they’re looking into possible illegal activity by the builder/others involved).

CHICO
I'm basically all done with the "Chico" animated video I've been working on--I'll post the video here when it's online in the next week or two. In the meantime, check out some character designs and screenshots from it at my Portfolio website: http://pose2poseanimation.blogspot.com
(scroll down a little past on the site to get to the Chico images).

GUESSING SONGS GAME
I think I’ve mentioned before that we have a fun song-guessing game. I start playing a song in iTunes and the kids have to guess what movie it’s from. They love this game SO much. And they totally rock at it. Even if they don’t guess the right movie at first, they mention other movies that had the same composer (man, all of Randy Newman’s scores sound EXACTLY the same!) One of these days I’m going to put up an audio quiz to see if YOU can guess the movie soundtracks as quickly as they’re able to. I bet you’ll lose.

WEEKLY CHART
I also might have mentioned our weekly chart. Every Sunday night, we have a family meeting where we review the chart and fill out a new one. It includes points for morning prayer (which we almost always forget now that school is out!), scripture study, eating healthy, etc. The goal is to get 100% every week (if we got a perfect score every week, it would be like 117% or so, but that’s NEVER happened—usually my fault). After a year, if the average is 100% or more, we will go on a vacation, wherever we have a budget to go—whether it be a big trip to Disneyland or a little trip to the Zoo and to have ice cream at Cold Stone.
We recently added a spot for a nightly 5-minute cleanup in the kids’ rooms, and it’s made life so much easier. Maddy’s room used to be HORRENDOUSLY MESSY every Saturday, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to clean it. I’d come in and help her, and it would still take an hour or more. Now that we started this 5-minute nightly clean, her room is almost always clean. If it weren’t for our messy 3-year old, the boys’ room would be perfect, too.

SCRABBLE SLAM
We bought the new Scrabble Slam card game, and the kids and I are really loving it. I still win all the time, obviously (since I’m playing against a 7 year old and a 9 year old) but Maddy and Joel actually do a pretty good job with the game. Basically, the cards all have 2 letters on them (one on each side). You pick a 4-letter word (no not one of THOSE 4-letter words—something basic, like “wind” or “love”). Then you divide the rest of the cards among players, and everyone tries to get rid of their cards by putting down one card at a time to change the main word (for instance, use a “b” to change “wind” to “bind,” then use an “a” to change it to “band.”) Really fun and fast-paced.
We’ll end with some video. With summer vacation upon us, Amanda feeling sick, and me working on animation projects and trying to hold down the fort, the kids have to entertain themselves. And since TV and video games can get boring after a while, they sometimes actually use their imaginations. Before they turned into Ghostbusters this week, they were circus performers. Luckily, I caught their big show on video. Maddy performs amazing acrobatics, Joel performs his juggling act, and Abe tames the ferocious bear (by walking circles around it, apparently). Here you go—enjoy 2 minutes of the Greatest Show in the Peterson’s Front Room!

Movies, Morning Sickness, and More!

Let’s do a quick run-through of all the things going on in our lives lately, even though you probably already know most of this:

HOJO Anaheim Contest
We won the contest! Here’s their “Announcement Video” :


We showed the video to the kids to get their reaction, and as usual, they were excited, but not screaming wild excited kids (which is probably a good thing, right?) So even though I filmed their reaction, it’s not really worth showing you all. However, for the rest of the night, it was funny to see Joel walking around the house going, “I can’t believe we won the contest! I can’t believe we won!”
So the plan is to go in October (8th through 10th) so that we can see the Halloween Decorations they put up in the parks, go to the Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party, and celebrate Amanda and Abe’s Birthday there. If you didn’t already know, this year they’re doing a promotion where you get in FREE on your birthday—and who can pass up TWO free passes to Disneyland?!!
Of course, going in October is dependent upon me having a steady enough job to let us pay for the other expenses of the trip (gas, food, etc).

Chico
Speaking of a job, I’m still working on the “Chico” video. It’s coming along really well, and is finally starting to take shape and look cool. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video of the production so far:

CHICO - Behind the Scenes -Animation EP1 from Toby and Cody McClure on Vimeo.

Pregnancy
Amanda’s pregnancy is going about as well as can be expected, which means she’s nauseated all day and night, is throwing up several times a day, and cannot swallow her spit. We’ll probably be taking her in to get “rehydrated” in the next day or so, since she currently throws up everything she eats/drinks (mostly drinks). We’re really hoping this phase doesn’t last much longer. Yesterday, Abe said “In 2 weeks, mom will be feeling better.” So we’ll go with that.
Of course everyone’s favorite part of this is that Amanda can’t swallow her spit, which means she lets it collect in her mouth for a while before spitting into a tissue-filled garbage can. That means if she needs to say something, it’s a closed-mouthed “Mrmmmfmrmrrrrmr.” We wisely decided to give her the kids’ Magnadoodle to write us messages on instead of subjecting us to the mumbling…
…Just 30 more weeks to go…

End of school
The kids are out of school now, and couldn’t be happier about it. I have to say, for me it’s a toss-up. Although it’s nice not to have to get the kids up and ready for school every morning, they’re already driving me nuts with the “I’m bored. I don’t have anything to do” stuff.
Movie Nights
We’ve started having movie nights, with the intention of going through all our DVD’s/Blu-Rays this summer (well, the ones the kids would like, at least). For instance, we watched “Napoleon Dynamite” a few nights ago, and they all loved it. Abe STILL goes around saying, “Hey Napoleon Dynamite, give me some of your tots!!” (OK, so he doesn’t quote it quite right, but his version sounds funnier!) In addition, I’ve added a bunch of family movies to our Netflix queue. So far, it’s been hit-or-miss. The kids have been loving “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” and Maddy’s started watching the old “Addams Family” TV show on Netflix Instant, but we ALL found “Pete’s Dragon” to be REALLY, REALLY BORING.

Summer movies
Of course we’ve also been waiting for the Summer Movie Season, and are glad it’s finally arrived.
Joel and I went to see “Star Trek” (I’d seen it a few days before taking Joel to see it to make sure it was OK for him). We really liked it, and frankly, I’m ready to see it again, although I’ve never been a “Star Trek” fan.
I saw “Angels and Demons” which was really lame. I enjoyed “Da Vinci Code,” but this was really bland. They kept trying to make me think I should be excited (using action-packed music and editing) but I just wasn’t. Then when Ewan MacGregor (as a Catholic priest guy of some sort) parachuted out of the helicopter down to the Vatican, I lost all respect for the film.
I took the kids to see “Night at the Museum 2,” which was also not as good as the original, though the kids enjoyed it. Amy Adams did a great job in the movie, however, giving the movie enough energy to keep it from boring me to tears.
This past weekend we saw “Up” in 3-D. It was really good, and I’ll have to go see it again, though this time I’ll probably see it in 2-D. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the 3-D, especially in some of the action sequences, but my impression was that the 3-D didn’t really ADD to the film very much. I also want to see it without Abe whining about wanting to go home for the whole movie, and without Joel whining about wanting to get candy at the movie…But seriously, the movie was funny, exciting, and emotional (yes, I got choked up a couple times during the film).
I’m still planning on seeing “Terminator: Salvation,” despite the bad reviews. And I may go see “Land of the Lost next weekend. Then of course Joel and I have got “Transformers 2” coming the end of this month and we’re ALL counting down the days until “Harry Potter 6” comes out (July 15th)!

Boom Blox Bash Party
One other way we’ve been bonding as a family is by playing our newest Wii game: “Boom Blox Bash Party.” This is a sequel to the original “Boom Blox” game, which we also love. It’s a great game for the whole family, and satisfies our intense need to throw stuff and knock things down (but without the mess!). Here’s a commercial for it, featuring Steven Spielberg (who helped create the game, and also wears a funny hat):



Well, that about sums up our lives right now. Have a great summer!

Photos and Videos and Such Nonsense

What? Another new blog post ALREADY?!?! It hasn’t been a month yet, what’s the deali-o?
I dunno. I just had stuff to write about so I decided to do a blog. Isn’t that what this blogging thing is all about? But I’m going to keep the text to a minimum (with the exception of my video annotations at the end) and focus on the pictures and video.

First of all, Amanda's still pregnant. The all-day morning sickness will be kicking in any day now, and she's been getting a little queasy already.

Here’s a photo update of our food storage:



We’ve been buying a little extra every week, and have planned out meals that use almost exclusively storable items. We’ve also been writing the expiration/freshness date in permanent marker on each of the items so we can easily see when they need to be used by and can rotate through them easier.
When Amanda was at work the other day, they found out one of the towels had a misprint on it. Before they got shipped off to some discount store, Amanda and I decided to buy one of them. I present to you, the BOZZ Lightyear towel:




Next, as I mentioned before, I’ve been working with a client on some items for some music videos. Here’s the first of the videos. I did the opening animation for it: Think Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets in a Wizard of Oz environment with a little bit of Guitar Hero thrown in for good measure:

The Adventures of CHICO Episode ONE from Toby and Cody McClure on Vimeo.

Finally, here’s our family’s entry intro the Howard Johnson Anaheim “What Do you Love About the Anaheim Resort?” Contest. Now, most of you have already seen this via Facebook or me sending you the link on Messenger, but here, I’ve also added some annotations and factoids (read them below the video) to give some fun trivia regarding the video.



0:00: The opening “Andy Face” and red, bumpy background texture were originally created for videos I was going to make as part of the Disney CMO Contest. They are inspired by the opening title cards of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons.
0:00: The music that opens the video is the music from the Roger Rabbit/Baby Herman cartoons.
0:09: This family photo is from our March 2007 trip to Disneyland. Joel is wearing his Spider-man pajama shirt underneath his t-shirt. This was either to keep warm or because he secretly IS Spider-man…
0:15 and 0:32: These maps were scanned out of the Rand McNally Atlas we bought at Wal-Mart in Riverside, CA when we were stuck there due to snow. It was very useful during our long detour over to Needles, Kingman, Hoover Dam, and up to Vegas.
0:30: In case you’re not familiar with it, the big white and red thermometer is the “World’s Largest Thermometer,” found in Baker, CA.
0:40: The video footage is from our April 2008 Trip; music is by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
0:53: While seeing the Tower of Terror building is an exciting highlight for us when we finally arrive at the Anaheim Resort, we haven’t ridden it during our last 2 trips. In April 2008, I was going to ride it but had an upset stomach from the greasy Monte Cristo sandwich at the Blue Bayou. In December, we got Fastpasses for it, but chickened out…
1:01: We’re each holding a Disney park map from either a different year or from California Adventure instead of Disneyland. Notice that Abe watches me to see when to look at his map.
1:05: This is from our April 2008 trip, right before Maddy got glasses. It’s weird to see her without them.
1:11: I tied clear thread to each of the hats, then stood off to the left holding all the strings. I told them to scream, then pulled the strings. I guess I had the string lengths wrong, because they came off back to front—oh well.
1:13: Note Abe looking back to see me.
1:20: Just ignore the Christmas Story Leg Lamp clock—that’s not found inside the Star Tours vehicles…and did I mention it’s difficult to get 3 kids to all move in the same directions at the same time?
1:30: Obviously, I used a split-screen “Parent Trap” effect for this. We set up the camera on the table, started rolling, had Abe do his Jack Sparrow part, kept the camera rolling (making sure no one touched/bumped it or the table) quickly changed Abe’s clothes to Buzz, then filmed that part. Then in After Effects, I combined the 2 videos and added the animation elements. Notice that both Jack and Buzz are making shooting noises with their mouths.
1:36: This picture is from way back in 2004.
1:39: My wife is such a good sport. Don’t ask why her hair isn’t falling in the upside-down California Screamin’ shot…maybe she used a lot of hairspray. Those are Abe’s sunglasses in the CA Screamin’ shot.
1:45: The leather jacket is a “Kick Start” TV show jacket, given to me by the folks at Maverik. The hat is an Indiana Jones hat that I got in 1989.
1:45: This shot was filmed by Joel—nice camerawork, son!
1:52: OK, a lot of things to spot here. First of all, the Churros were bought fresh on Friday from Costco. We put them in a Ziploc bag in the fridge. This video was filmed Sunday night. Although we warmed up the churros, they were rubbery and tasted terrible.
*The reason Maddy and Joel are laughing is because they’re recovering from the previous take, in which we all took a bite of our churros and all got grossed out.
*You’ll notice that Joel only PRETENDS to take a bite. Madison still has the previous bite in her mouth, and also only pretends to eat this one. Abe loved the leftover churros and had no problems eating it.
*Abe tries to lipsync my dialogue (I think that’s what he’s doing). He also LOVES wearing sunglasses.
*The music playing is the beginning portion of the Disneyland Closing Announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen, Disneyland has now ended its normal operating day.”

Easter and Spring Break and Related Items

Ah, Spring. A time of birth, renewal, sunshine and warmth…if you don’t count the snow we had during Spring Break…
Easter was really nice. For the several days preceding Easter, Abe was constantly talking about getting his Easter basket, hunting for eggs, and eating candy. We let him play with the Easter Baskets, and he’d walk around with them the whole day. Needless to say, when the day came, he was going nuts.
We had our “Easter Basket” Easter on Saturday instead of Sunday. We hid their baskets the night before, as well as a whole bunch of candy-filled plastic eggs (22 for each child, I think). When the kids woke up they quickly found all the eggs, and Abe was so excited he was shaking and acting hyper.


We overdid it on the candy and I gained like 3 pounds over the next few days. Oh well, it was delicious!
The week after Easter was Spring Break. Amanda had to work a lot the first half of the week, but on Thursday we went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids had a lot of fun, and we went ahead and bought the Family Annual Pass, so we will definitely be going back a couple more times. After the museum, we went to Chuck-a-Rama for lunch, which was the perfect choice. They’re so much cleaner and fresher there than Golden Corral. Then Amanda went to JoAnn Fabric to get some supplies and I went to F.Y.E. to take advantage of their sale on used DVD’s and Blu-Rays.
Friday we were going to go to the zoo (and probably could have) but we were worried about the weather being too cold and rainy. Instead, we had a picnic in the front room and watched “The Princess Bride” (one of the DVD’s I’d bought at FYE). Friday night, we started to watch “The Mummy” (yet another purchase) but the kids got too scared…probably shoulda watched “Mummy” at lunch and “Princess Bride” at night. Oh well, live and learn.
So, you might be wondering what supplies Amanda had to get at the fabric store…well, stuff to make her own Muppet, of course!



We’d seen the Muppet Whatnot Workshop website online and thought spending $90 on a custom Muppet was a little much, so now Amanda’s making Muppets for each of us. Yeah, she’s awesome.

Hmm, what else…

Work’s going well. The initial animation project I did has gotten a lot of positive response. I’m currently working on the music video portion, which has required me to look at more pictures of El Camino cars than I ever expected to see in my life.

Oh, and in other news, Amanda—as far as we can tell—is pregnant, due the end of December.

Have a great Spring! Now, because I could be a part-time model, here’s a funny song from “Flight of the Conchords”:

Family Fun Day and General Conference Weekend

Last week we had a Family Fun Day. We pulled our own April Fool’s prank on the kids’ elementary school and let them ditch class for the day (or “sluff school” in Utah language). It was a lot of fun. We woke up to a pretty big snowstorm, which of course I enjoyed, but it made Amanda and Maddy REALLY mad. They’re tired of winter and want warm, sunny weather. Amanda kept saying “It’s April! Why is there snow!?!?!?!” I tried to explain to her that the weather doesn’t instantly change, just because the calendar says it’s a different season. I mean, this earth life isn’t a cartoon!
Is it?
Anyway, we went to breakfast at the local Kneader’s Bakery, which we heard had $4.99 all-you-can-eat pancakes and French toast. Turns out that’s true, but the initial portion is so large, none of us were hungry enough for a 2nd helping. In fact, the kids hardly made a dent in their pancakes. The French toast came with caramel syrup, as well as a cup of whipped cream and strawberries.
We came home and the snow let up quite a bit, which was good, because it was soon time to drive up to Sandy to go see “Monsters vs. Aliens” up at the Jordan Commons movie theater.
“Why drive all the way up there?” You ask in a strangely upper-class, British voice. “Surely there are closer theatres…”
Well, we wanted to go see it in IMAX 3-D, which was awesome. In fact, it made up for the fact that the movie itself was fairly mediocre. The kids loved it though. Abe even kept the 3-D glasses on for the whole movie (usually they’re off after about 10-15 minutes). Maddy’s favorite character was BOB, the blue blob-like character. Joel liked when the President of the United States played funky music on the keyboard and danced.
After the movie, we were hungry and decided to go to Chili’s (though for a moment we considered going back to Sam-Pan, a great Chinese restaurant in Sandy). Amanda and I got the Chicken Crispers—our favorite dish there (although Amanda got the Honey Chipotle Crispers, which weren’t as tender as the regular ones). Abe got Macaroni—gotta love paying $4 for a bowl of Easy Mac... Maddy and Joel both got hamburgers, which brings up a pet peeve of mine. Whenever we go to a sit-down restaurant, the kids hamburger has NOTHING on it. It’s a bun with meat. No lettuce, no mayo or mustard, no ketchup, no pickles—just a bun and meat. Now, I understand that not all kids want all toppings—that’s fine with me—but seriously, shouldn’t the waiter ask if the kids want something ON the burger? I mean, when we saw the burger they brought, we asked for mayo, which they brought out in a little bowl for us, and we had ketchup at the table, but Maddy was really annoyed that her burger wasn’t a real hamburger. Fast food places give you toppings—“restaurants”? Nope, sorry…
We ended the night with a trip to Cold Stone for some ice cream…so, yeah…not surprised I gained several pounds this week…While we were there, there was a little girl dressed as Snow White—Abe couldn’t take his eyes off her—I think he thought she was the REAL Snow White.
Of course this weekend was also General Conference weekend. We enjoy conference more and more as the years go by. Saturday, we hurried and got groceries first thing in the morning to avoid the between-sessions crowds. After the afternoon session, we ran some errands—while Amanda, Abe and Maddy were at the fabric store, Joel and I went to F.Y.E. to look at movies and video games. I was surprised to see that the Disney “Dance Dance Revolution” had come out for the Wii. We’d been wanting to get it, but I thought it wasn’t out til later in the year. We decided to get it, and we’ve really been enjoying it. You can get a pretty decent workout, and it’s challenging without being impossible. I can’t say I’m thrilled with the pop renditions of the classic Disney songs, but I guess to make them work to a dance beat, they had to do SOMETHING.
Here’s the ad for the game:

But back to Conference:
It seemed to me that this Conference was a lot more “practical” than other years’ conferences. Obviously, there was a lot of talk about the current economic situation, but with it, a lot of optimism and things we can do in our lives to counteract the fear, despair, and struggle many of us are going through. Conference this time got me more excited and motivated to improve myself spiritually than ever before. Kinda like the episode of “The Office” when Michael eats a sweet pretzel with ALL the toppings and gets a sugar rush which turns him into hyperactive mode.
OK, maybe not QUITE that excited, but we did make some important changes in our family’s spiritual development, focusing more heavily on daily scripture study, singing hymns and having morning AND evening prayer, as well as getting the kids started on nightly personal prayers. I hope you all were inspired and uplifted by Conference as well.
Sunday morning , instead of the traditional coffee cake—I mean CONFERENCE CAKE—we made homemade Cinnabons, eggs, bacon, and hash browns. Delicious, of course, but I miss my coffee cake—maybe for Father’s Day…
In other news, Amanda’s been working TONS of hours at the Disney Store lately, and last week was the worst since the Store Manager was on vacation at Disneyland (while there, the manager sliced her foot on a stroller and had to get stitches—serves her right for over-working Amanda!) Amanda thought this week would turn out better, and was only scheduled 20 hours—HOWEVER, because the District Manager comes on Thursday, Amanda now has to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Tues. and Wed. WERE her days off…) She will get Thursday off, thankfully.
Here’s what the D.M. said to Amanda last time she came for a visit, “We don’t all have to be Tiggers… We can have an Eeyore, but Eeyore needs to change…”
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been working on some animation for a music video project. It’s going pretty well. I just finished a logo/end tag animation for the videos.
I’m also applying to Disney Animation’s Talent Development Program. It’s an 8-10 week paid internship with a Disney Mentor at their Burbank Studio. It’s for people who’ve graduated college within the past 3 years, so I’m JUST BARELY within the cutoff. This is also the first time in those 3 years that they’re looking for traditional animators rather than just 3-D animators. I’ve been overhauling my demo reel and will be sending it off next week, before the April 20th deadline.
Well, that about wraps it up. One final anecdote:
Last night, when we were picking a hymn, Abe suggested the hymn, “Jesus is a God.” Never heard of that one, but at least it’s doctrinally sound…