Leap Day!

As many of you know I have an interesting birthday...

LEAP DAY

So through out my life I have had several people ask me questions about leap day and leap years, and I myself have had questions about the day before. I , for the most part, have always known why it is there, but that was the extent of my knowledge. A few years ago (probably my last "real" birthday) I did a little research about the day. I found out some real cool stuff, like how it works, when we have it, who introduced it, etc. Let me share it with you!

Basic:

*A Leap year consists of 366 days opposed to the common year, which has 365 days. (everyone knows that right?)

* Nearly every 4 years has a Leap Day (in our modern Gregorian Calendar) *Note: Notice how I said nearly. They do not happen every 4 years, but we will get to that later.

Why do we need Leap Years?

*Leap years keep the calendar in alignment with the Earths revolutions, because one day is not exactly 24 hours.

Its more like 23 hours, 56 minutes and some seconds. Which in turn means that it takes approximately 365.242199 days or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds for the Earth to circle once around the sun. However in our Gregorian calendar there are only 365 days. So about every 4 years they add an extra day to compensate for that. ( if we didn't add the extra day we would lose almost (keep in mind the almost) 6 hours every year. After only 100 years our we would be off by 100 days. And soon spring would actually be happening in October! EEK!)

so now time to explain the "almost" every 4 years...

How to calculate a Leap Year:

There are 3 criteria for doing this...

* The year must be evenly divisible by 4.... 2012..... 2016..... 2020

* If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year.... UNLESS...

* The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it IS a leap year.

You didn't know there was so much work into figuring this all out, did you?!

So using the 3 "rules" this means that the years 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years.

Cool side note: The year 2000 (I turned 12 or 4 however you want to look at it) was somewhat a special year because that is the first instance when the 3rd rule was used!!! (since the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar)

Who introduced leap years you may ask? It was Julius Caesar in the Roman empire. But the "Julian Calendar" only applied the 1st Rule to calculations, which soon lead to way too many leap years. It was not corrected until the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar (which we use) 1500 years later.

Well what did you think? Kinda cool huh?! Don't you feel so much smarter now!? Me Too :)

Also I wanted to point out....

* You hear people use the saying "Your 1 in a million!" Well..... There are only about 5 million people with that birthday in all the world (says my research) So next time you see me you can say "Your 1 in 5 million April!"

*There is actually an Honorary Society for Leap Day Babies (that I am not a part of......yet)

*If I am ever rich enough, I want to set up a scholarship for Leap Day Birthdays!

*One last cool thing.... my sister-in-law Kindra is scheduled to be induced TOMORROW at 7:30am :) 2 Leap Day babies! Now what are the odds of that.......

Valentines Day!

The day of LOVE,

Started off wonder-

ful. Made pink

pancakes for

the family

They

were very yummy :)

Got the girls dressed in there valentines colors!

(as you can see we had a small photo session)

That afternoon we frosted/decorated sugar cookies with the neighbors and Betty

Maycee ws fun to watch decorate her cookie.

Step 1.) A little frosting

2.) a lot of sprinkles

3.)A lot of frosting

4.)a few sprinkles.

5.) repeat those steps many times!

Her cookie was about 2in thick when she was done.

she was so sweet, she brought it to me and said, "Here mom, I made this for you!" I cringed and excepted. (but did not eat) (don't tell her that)

We ran some errands in town (Blake didn't have class)

That night we got ready for our "special dinner". Neighbor Megan is so good at geeting us together all the time. She suggested we get together for dinner with Betty. We decided we would do it in our living room so that she didn't have to use any stairs. She is very unsteady on her feet. So of coarse, I threw some decorations together real quick :) Blake did the lights. He is so handy to have, I love him :)

It looked cooler when the sun was down, the lights really twinkled. And I had several tea(sp?) candles that you can't see in the pic...

Noticed the heart-shaped napkins. I found a quick tutorial on U-tube for them.

I don't have very many V-day decor :( But what I did, I threw up quick :)

We all enjoyed a romantic dinner of Fettuccine Alfredo, ceasar salad, garlic knots (rolls), and cheese cake for dessert :)

We sure wish we could have been with everyone else that we loved yesterday!

Sure miss you all!

15 months left :)

Saturday Ridding!

So if you haven't heard about our neighbors, they are pretty fun! We are constantly at each others house, sharing dinner, watching a movie, etc. Brandon (the man of the house next door) is really into ridding motorcycles (along with his two other brothers that live just down the street). These 3 guys ride there bikes at least once a week and are CONSTANTLY telling Blake he needs to hurry and get a bike so that he can go ride with them.

This makes me a little nervous. 1.) Blake is not very experienced on motors with only 2 wheels and 2.) Motorcycles are not a cheap hobby. (im crossing my fingers that Blake doesn't get to excited about it all) ANYWAY.....

Last week Brandon and Megan, the neighbors, said Hey! We (as in both families) are going riding on Saturday, okay?! They didn't really give us choice (but in a good way). They really had everything planned out, so we couldn't say no.

They would bring 2 motorcycles and we of coarse would also bring the golf cart for the girls and the kids. We loaded everything up and packed us all a lunch. We looked pretty red neck...

The plan was to let the guys ride for about an hour, have lunch, and then let us all kind take turns for about another hour...

We were all excited to go!

One great thing about living here is that we only had to drive for 15 min. before we arrived at our ridding destination. The wind was a bit crazy (which we were expecting) so B & M brought there really cool "gazebo" that they just got at a garage sale for $5!!! It gave us plenty of protection. We put a blanket down inside and then chairs. It turned out way nice inside.

Here are some of the kids (the babies were sleeping) Maycee. Ellie. Jacob.

Brandon was kind enough to let Blake borrow all of the protective gear he needed :) I was happy about that.

So the guys took off on there ride and not 10 minutes later here they come crawling back! Long story short, Blake and blown out the back tire on the bike he was ridding. It was only half his fault. So we kind changed up the ridding plan a little bit. Even though we were down one bike we still had a great time!

Brandon, like I said, had a crazy passion for ridding and is getting there oldest child and only son completely into it. For Christmas Jacob (4 YEARS OLD) got a Honda 50. He has been working so hard on getting him to ride it. (Jacob can not even ride a bike yet!)

As you can see, the work has paid off and this KID CAN RIDE!!!

The afternoon was awesome! Best part for me, and i'm sure it was for Megan too, the golf cart we went on together. The terrain that we were on was very hilly and sandy. I had the thing floored the mostly the whole time and we were flying up an down and all around. We were laughing so hard! It was awesome!

Next peoples to come visit we will definetly be taking you on one of these rides!

Sea World and MORE!

So before the big trip and found Maycee one morning "playing the drums"... just thought she was so smart so I wanted to share.

Then there was this huge or should I say long change....

SO LONG.....

And now shorter....

Do you see what shes holding?? ^

Notice her grumpy face in this one...

(she was sick of the pictures, little did she know I had many more to take)

All styled!!!

I was sad to see the 4 and 1/2 inches go but she really needed it... it was getting string-ish. It will grow back :)

Went on a bike ride later that day to get the mail... it was fun :) The girls like that.

Its hard biking into the wind...

A week later we left to go to Mesa (to then head to San Diego for a extended Family Trip)

The girls cousin Emery drove with us and helped entertain girls.... She covered lydia with the stickers and then sent a picture to my brother (who had the chicken pox) and he got a great laugh.

Here is Blake and I in the front, we look spiffy, don't we?

We drove strait to the beach from Mesa...

The girls LOVED the beach...

Kimee Tink (cousin) liked it too.

Does she have cute red hair?!

Of coarse Lydia had to try out the sand.

Love this picture!

The Family :) We look so great!

The next day we got all dressed up in matching shirts to head to Sea World!

Here is Koby and Brody (cousins) We shared a room with them...

Do you love how Koby is posing for the picture?

That morning before we left we had our cousin gift exchange (christmas gifts)

Darby gave to Lydia...

She loved opening the gift

Avie gave to Maycee

The 2 cousins are so sweet! They are 4 months apart (minus a day) AND they share a middle name, Rae. So cute! I hope they are best friends forever :)

Aren't they just so cute!!!

Here is Kimee Tink again, doesn't she look comfy! I wish I slept this easy.

Maycee and Blake went on this ride very first, and they both enjoyed themselves.

I stayed behind and watched this one, I was happy too.

Then of coarse the Shamu show...

Maycee loved all the shows! Lydia enjoyed them too. Maycee really got into them. Everytime the trainer would get the animal to do something, Maycee would imitate. It was awesome! Her face would light up when they would jump out of the water or splash. The best part of the trip was watching her face light up.

Here are all the cousins...

And all the younger girls cousins

Notcie several of them have matching shoes... Gramma Kimmy got these all for the younger girls... THEY SQUEAK! People we walked by where either "Aww, so cute, where can I get those" or "Seriously?! Why would you put those on your kids! So Annoying!"

Next day we all walked the Board-walk in the morning and some so cool things.

There was a guy with a bunch of tropical birds and he let anyone that wanted a turn hold them.

Maycee didn't want to hold it but she watched and....

She liked it!... to bad I didn't get the whole picture...

Gramma Kimmy liked them :)

Next to the U.S.S. Midway (ship in the backround) Is this large statue....

WE HAD TO GET A PICK!

We fished the rest of Saturday at Sea World again...

Then on Sunday, we visited the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center. Very neat place. If you are ever in San Diego I would highly suggest visiting. The tour there ended with a free Family photo. Drove back to Mesa on Sunday. Then back to Kirtland on Monday. We took a detour on the way home and stopped to see Grandpa Shum in the hospital. He was in very good spirits. It was nice to see him and grandma Kathy, along with Aunt Ann and Aunt Bet. Sure love you guys...

Once we got home the "sand toys" that Lydia got from Darby where quickly put to use...

To bad we don't have sand...

This morning these little girls where happy as could be... Lydia is ready for Nursery! She will set and play with this puzzle for quite some time. To bad she is still 5 1/2 months away :(

They will stand at this window and "wacth the chickens"

Mom & Dad, Thanx for the awesome trip to San Diego. We had a blast! Can't wait for the next family get together :) LOVE YOU ALL!!!