Fun Times... . . . . . ... .

Warning, sound is not so good (actually it sucks, you probably just want to mute)but the most important part is there. Someday I will figure out why that is and how to fix it.



We had a ward activity and they had this set up. Jess and Cora rode, but I think we only have this video of Jess.




Here is Maren taking a wee dive at another function. This was a brunch party at a family who lives in Denton proper and as of today is no longer in our ward :(. They just reorganized our stake and created a new ward, so I guess technically we are no longer in their ward since we are now part of the new Aubrey Ward. (You gotta know that got the rumor mill starting over the last few weeks.)




Here is Cora diving at the same brunch. Jess dove to but somehow I missed the video of it. Maren even tried it without a life jacket on and me catching her. She sinks like a stone!



And here is our little crawler. He has also figured out how to pull himself up on things. Oh how the time flies. (That last little burst of speed isn't to get to Mommy it is to escape Maren, poor kid, she just wants to love him a little to much.)



He is so big. It is crazy. Also all the images were captured with my phone which doesn't make for the highest quality but is to convenient in all aspects for me to switch. Enjoy.
Josh

Kiss n' tell

As you can see, the girls are sporting some sweet makeup in these pics. On the rare occasion that I actually do my makeup, the girls like to watch and go through my makeup bag and ask if they can have some of this and that on too. Well on one such occasion, I had some leftover sample eyeshadow from a facial. I would have never used it, so the girls were all about having some on. But they didn't want to stop there. So I indulged them and they got the works: blush, mascara, lipstick and gloss.



And here is a little nude shot of Emmett. That picture was taken the middle of May when he just started to get up on his hands and knees. Now I am sad to say that he is now crawling. Yesterday he even pulled himself up while holding on to a laundry basket. He is 7 months old today and before I know it, he'll be walking/running and talking.
Not much else to report here....I did however find out today that Jessica has been kissing a neighbor boy when they play house, because she's the mom and he's the dad. And she's going marry him when she gets older. I didn't think that the time to get out the shotgun would come so fast. ;)

I feel no love

Jess and some of her class mates. I don't know the girls in the back, but the others go to church with us. They are: Ethan, McKenna, Jess, and Megan. Carol thinks that Ethan looks so cute in the pink shirt, and wants to put one on Emmett. I am dead set against it. Any body else want to weigh in on that one?

Jess and her Teacher Mrs. Wallace. (Cora had her last year as well.)

Cora receiving the sunshine reward.

Cora holding her diploma surrounded by her class.

Cora waiting in line for her Diploma.

Well, last night I took the camera and handed it to Carol while she was on the computer. Now you can blog says I. Obviously that didn't happen. I even told her I was trying to make sure she didn't lie. Oh well. I told her it was her turn so maybe she thinks Hold On counted. In line with that we have been having a conversation lately. I said the Monty Hall posts were 2 at least and possibly 3 posts. She thinks they are all just one post. What do you guys think?
On to other things. The girls are officially out of school, YEAH for sleeping in. Cora had Kindergarten Graduation on Tuesday. They sang a couple of songs and then class by class received their diplomas. I was more than a little reminded of "The Incredibles" but it was cute. Then they announced that in each class two students would receive a "Sunshine award" for bringing sunshine to the teacher and fellow students each day. Not to be to proud of a parent, but of course Cora won (Sorry I just don't know how to brag about my kids without sounding arrogant or pretentious).
After the ceremony Cora's class had a banana split party. Jess' class had a party on Thursday. Then they came home early and that was the end of the school year.
Now the title of this post. After school on Thursday the girls had been playing with street chalk and the driveway was pretty much covered. Cora decided to take it upon herself to wash it off with the hose. I was talking to some of our neighbors and she pulled out the hose, hooked it up and proceeded to drench the driveway, herself, Jess, Maren, and Jacob (the little boy that lives a couple of houses down). When I discovered what was going on I reprimanded her. Mostly for not asking. Cora is very sensitive, so she immediately went inside. When Carol and I were getting ready for bed we found a note on our mirror in dry erase marker. It read "I feel no love, from Cora." Anyway, that is how our week has been. And on Monday I go back to school. Fun stuff.

Hold on

I know it has been a while since the last post. And I don't even have the excuse of not having the computer around seeing that Josh doesn't have to go back to school until Monday. But I really have been busy. So when school ends tomorrow for Jess and Cora and I download pics, I'll be sure to post soon. Sorry, this post really isn't much of a post at all is it?

Monty Hall answer and final clarification

And the answer is..... switch doors. When you chose your door you had a 30 percent probability of choosing the car. After the other door is open and reveals a goat in essence your chosen door has stayed at 30 percent however the other door has picked up the probability from the opened door. As for the random vs. Monty Hall playing the game and knowing what was behind the door, for a single trial it doesn't matter so long as the door that is opened reveals a goat. On multiple trials it is a little different, since you would expect that the door with the car would be revealed a third of the time if it was truly random. The following link explains the problem a little better and also has an applet that will let you run the problem on a single trial, 10 trials, 100 trials and 1000 trials.
www.statisticalmisconceptions.com/MiscAndInvite05c.html
I was playing with it the other day and ran a dozen single trials and got a fifty fifty turn out. The problem really reveals itself over multiple trials (like 50 or more). It also runs on the assumption that the door opened never reveals the true prize. Which brings up another dilemma. Humans are horrible at creating randomness. We just can't do it. So in research, we use computers to generate random numbers. The problem is how can you program a computer to create random numbers, when the computer runs off of a mathematical algorithm that given enough data you could solve for, so is it truly random?

Monty Hall continued...

I will defer to Serge's comment that the host always opens a door with the goat. That was the original version I encountered. The most recent version I encountered Monty randomly opened a door revealing a goat. In terms of the problem (and I may be wrong) it doesn't matter whether Monty knows or not so long as it's a goat. Serge can correct me on that if I am way off, I guess I need to assess whether we are dealing with family wise or individual case error. (For those in the know I am intentionally using vague phrasing to avoid giving away to much).
-Josh

It's Been a while and Monty Hall

So the craziness that is finals just got over. Thus the delay in posts. Carol probably would have posted, but I have been monopolizing the computer. For some reason my professors want me to turn in work (I feel like I have been writing for weeks), and my students want grades. Go fig. Anyway, I am now officially finished with this semester. Three weeks off and then back to it. I am taking two classes over the summer, working on research, and teaching Stats again. And speaking of stats, I just recently restumbled upon this little gem. It is known as the Monty Hall problem. Now, I specifically know that some have already heard this and will no the answer already. For those of you who haven't heard it here is how it goes.
You or your friend (doesn't really matter just a different version) are playing a game show in some third world country, that really likes goats and cars. The host's name is Monty Hall. You are in the final round and the host reveals three doors. Behind one of those doors is a new car. Behind the other two are goats (actually this is really similar to the game show Deal or No Deal). You pick a door. We will say door A. Monty Hall then randomly opens one of the unpicked doors, we will say door C, revealing a goat. Monty Hall then turns to you and asks, "Would you like to switch doors to door B?" So that is the Monty Hall problem, do you switch doors from A to B or stay with A? I will give the answer in a day or two. In the mean time I look forward to hearing your guesses, and tell me why.
-Josh

Family Photos and Blue Bonnets

I wanted to put this picture first in honor of Emmett turning 5 months today!!! He is so sweet!
A neighborhood friend wanted to take some pictures of the girls to put on their new photography website (hitormissphoto.com), so I asked if we could take some family pics as well. I am so happy with the results....especially since they were free!!! So here is a little taste of what we got. Enjoy!!

Maren is one stubborn little girl. She did not want to smile with the camera in her face. (It probably didn't help that she had just woken up a little before we left to take the pics.)
I am sure you are thinking that she has dinner left on her face......nope, you would be wrong. That would be road-rash.......again.

Isn't this picture hot?!?! I love it! It's not very often that Josh and I get pictures of just us. In fact, I don't think that we have gotten pictures of just us together since we got married almost 8 years ago. I think that our friend did a great job!! Hope you enjoyed the preview. I'll post the rest on facebook in the next few days.

Potty training

Well last week I decided that I was done buying diapers for Maren. So I went to the store and bought a new potty. Maren was pretty excited about a new frog potty. I didn't know if she was ready, but I pushed her into it anyway.
The first day-and-a half was brain damage for me. I second-guessed myself and the timing. But then all of the sudden she started going on her own and without having accidents. It has been several days now that she has gone without having any accidents with the exception of dropping a few bombs in her underware. Which is oh so fun.

I got out the camera the other day to get some pics of Emmett. He is growing so fast it makes me sad. There is an upside to him growing though. He gets more and more durable. So I don't get as stressed when Maren is around him.


This last pic is of Emmett and his cute cousin Julia at six days old. Huge difference 4 moths can make.

1,2,3,4 every body get sick....it worked.

I have a cold, again. We cannot seem to stay healthy since we moved to Texas. I blame the crazy weather. Though I do think things have improved since we moved out of the apartment (at least now there are periods of time where we are relatively healthy as opposed to months on end moving from bug to bug without any break so you can't tell if you are sick with the same germ, or if it is just moving from your sinus to your eyes, then ears, then throat). This particular cold came home with Jess. She was sick and spiked a fever of 104. Once we got it down she was healthy again in about 24 hours, or so we thought. She maintained a low grade fever and slept a lot for the next 3 days (one of which was spent and Zeb and Leah's, Sorry guys). Then it hit Cora and Maren at the same time. They both ran low grade fevers and at times felt nausea's. Cora threw up once, as did Maren, but we were never able to tell if it was due to the coughing (which was crazy) or the actual bug. Then Emmett came down with it. He's a trooper, but last night he didn't sleep well, so neither did Carol. I went to a BBQ for the Elders quorum and then to a GASP (Graduate Association of Students in Psychology) party. So when I got home the girls were in bed and Carol had already been up once with poor little Emmett. He is a trooper, even being sick he just hangs in there and smiles and acts happy. Me on the other hand, just kidding, I haven't been grumpy, though I did lose my voice which made teaching yesterday an ordeal. I didn't lecture which helped, but even just correcting students and answering questions, by the end of class my voice was cracking like a 12 year old little boy talking to his first crush (I happen to like the imagery of that statement, ah my first crush). So that has been our week. The pictures are not layed out in this display the way they will be once it is posted so I will just explain. The napping picture is the one that gave me the cold. Maren and Cora, both not feeling well, asked me to lay down with them while they took a nap last Sunday. Maren kept picking her nose, and eating it, and then rubbing my face, and for some reason my lips. Pretty sure that was what got me sick. Number 2 is of Jess and me. This was at Zeb and Leah's (same day as the fam pic below) and you can see in her eyes she still isn't quite up to par. The final one is actually a couple of weeks old. Maren was walking around in the high heels (so loud and annoying on tile) and a onsie. So Carol wanted to take some pics. I thought we would make them fun and have her pose. She is so unnatural it is hilarious. She would just stand stiff where ever I put her. We all laughed a lot. Oh, I am also experimenting with a goat again. Carol won't let me grow my hair any longer than about 2 inches, and well I've been looking at the same face and hair for about 12 years. I think I would like a change so we will see how it goes i.e. how long I can stand to have a furry rug attached to my chin before I go crazy (going on two weeks now). And none of this is in APA format. yEah.
_Josh

P.S. The APA thing is a nerd joke, I hate them but they keep tumbling out of my mouth.