Cheesy Smile

Uncle Ben teaches Toby his "Cheesy Smile" -

Toby Can Read! Sort of :)

So Toby has been learning his letters and their sounds and these are a couple attempts at reading! He's only two and a half years old so we're pretty excited about him learning to read at such an early age. We're not pushing him, he just likes letters!

Cindy Going to the Temple!

Cindy came down here to Utah to go to the Temple for the first time. Dono and his family and Doug and Sarah came, along with Cindy's parents and me and Greg. Ben and Julie (and someone from the ward) watched all the kids!

Can you see Greg? He's there...

Some nice lady took our picture so we could all be in it.

Easter at the Platts

More Photo Fun!

So I discovered a few more functions on our camera. The photo above is enhanced with the "Starburst Effect". Can you see the twinkle in Toby's eyes?

"Happy Faces". Apparently it's supposed to enhance people's smiles. Or in this case, makes them creepy.

"Partial Color". Isn't it pretty?

"Fisheye Lens". Another creepy effect when you try it on a closeup face.

Another fisheye lens enhancement. Josslyn looks a bit strange!

Another fisheye lens...

No enhancement here, just having fun with Toby's flashcards.

Wii Step Board-

I had the idea to make a step platform for the Wii board (like the ones for step aerobics that sell for 50 dollars). I made it last night and tried it out today and I got a pretty decent workout with it!

I love making stuff and it was a fun and easy project, even though I messed it up the first try. It was all wobbly but I realized what I did wrong - I hammered the sides together before making sure it was steady and straight. :)

I just nailed 2x6's into a rectangle, nailed on a plywood top, then glued and stapled a rubber mat on top so the Wii board won't slip. It cost around 10 dollars and it works great! I spray painted it green just for fun and because it was the easiest spray paint can to get to.

I would recommend this project to anybody who wants to get a little more out of their Wii fitness, has a little woodworking experience, and wants to save money, rather than buying a 50 dollar step that might not be the right size. The dimensions for my step is around 6"x15"x21".

Saturday Run Heart Rates-

So Greg got me a heart rate monitor for Valentine's Day and today I tried it out on one of my typical Saturday runs and here are the stats from it:

*Resting Heart Rate- around 70

*Target Heart Rate Zone- 120-160 (according to Wikipedia, I'm supposed to exercise in this range)

*Estimated Maximum Heart Rate- 188 (according to Wikipedia, I'm supposed to stay away from this number, too high)

*Downhill with 12lb Weight Vest, 22 min- 150-165

*Uphill with 12lb Weight Vest, 26min- 175 (started to get slight side ache in ribs after 15 minutes)

*Sprint at the End with 12lb Weight Vest, 30sec- 185

*Distance Covered- 4.4 miles

*Running Time- 48 minutes

So it looks like I may be exercising too hard, getting past my target heart rate range. I felt fine during the run except for the slight side ache, but maybe I need to go slower or not use the weight vest so I don't work my heart too hard, keep the heart rate lower than 170 at least.

Are you happy?

I Was Bored One Day...

I was bored one day and decided to make a couple skirts to liven up my church outfits.

I had extra fabric from my bike jersey and thought it would make a neat skirt. I had to line the inside with fabric, but it worked out.

Next, I had this sparkly fabric that went from black to white and turned that into a skirt. I also had to line this one because the fabric had a tendency to stick to my stockings.

Looking back on these photos, I think I should have made the one above longer and the light blue one shorter. Oh well. I like to be spontaneous when I get in the mood to create something, and that doesn't leave much room for careful planning. I like the skirts anyways.

"Scalped" Game

For Greg's mom's Christmas present, he had the great idea to make her a game. Or rather, to remake a game for her. He chose the game "Bang".

Bang is a fun wild west card game with characters and weapons. Greg decided he wanted his game to have a Book of Mormon theme so we drew up our own cards:

In the original Bang game, there are 16 characters you can choose from to be. So Greg decided to have his family's faces be on his character cards:

We printed all the cards onto card stock and then used laminate paper (pretty much like contact paper) to protect them, then cut them out. We used a Christmas tin to store the game and Greg wrote a copy of the rules from the original Bang game, but changing a few things, like names.

We had a blast playing it at Christmas!