barrand.net

New Years 2011

2011-01-01T20:15:00.002-07:00

Diego and Melissa, from our Portuguese ward, were awesome enough to invite us over to hang out with Melissa's family. It was a wild night of Bunco! (a crazy dice game that the whole extended family played)

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T20:14:00.002-07:00

Christmas eve we hung out with some of our Brazilian friends making a ruckus. Christmas day, we had the Runyans and Austin over to play games and enjoy Christmas.

Barrand Christmas Pictures 2010

2010-12-20T21:55:00.002-07:00

Coolest family picture ever!! Well, thats what we say every year :) This theme was 80's. Bryce's mom did a fantastic job with the outfits as usual.

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas

2010-11-26T20:14:00.004-07:00

On Thanksgiving we had a traditional "go out to eat at a Las Vegas casino" dinner. It was fun and delicious. We also walked around the strip. We went to the Secret Garden to see the dolphins and the albino lion.

Don and Leslie's wedding

2010-11-23T20:12:00.006-07:00

I'm so proud of my little brother Don!!!!! We headed down to AZ to see the sealing. It was the first time that all of us (Barrand parents and kids) were all in the temple together.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T18:44:00.004-06:00

For halloween, Andy Branch and I decided to go with the classic SNL skit Laser Cats. Lucas and Sam loved it enough to copy us. http://www.hulu.com/watch/209651/saturday-night-live-laser-cats-1 I think we turned out pretty awesome.

2010 Family Pictures

2010-10-14T18:24:00.002-06:00

Here are the family pictures that our friend Bianca took.

Bryce's 30th Birthday

2010-10-12T18:30:00.002-06:00

For Bryce's 30th birthday we had some friends over for a Zupas style dinner. We had two kinds of soup, chocolate dipped strawberries, salad and bread.
Luciana did a good job decorating the cake!

Sam's friends at school

2010-10-11T18:34:00.002-06:00

Sam's first grade buddies including Conner.

Labor Day in Colorado

2010-09-11T06:36:00.006-06:00

For Labor Day we went to Colorado. Tracy took some of us horseback riding while others went mountain biking.

We had a blast playing wallyball...
while the little ones had fun at the park.
Tracy made an amazing dinner and the table was really well decorated.

John Mayer's Concert

2010-08-31T16:32:00.001-06:00

At last minute we decided to go to John Mayer's concert. Owl City opened the show and because of traffic we ended up only catching Fireflies. This was a our second time seeing John Mayer live and it was a lot of fun!

Sam's 6th birthday

2010-08-24T20:11:00.008-06:00

Two days before Sam's birthday, Bryce and the boys started making a pinata for Sam's birthday party.
Here we can see a little bit of the completed pinata that was soon destroyed.

The kids also played soccer and flew a big kite.

And Sam got a lot of presents! Thanks everyone who helped his day be so special and fun! Sam really had a wonderful birthday!

Sam and Lucas Pictures with Celeste

2010-08-20T21:49:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures that Celeste took of the boys. She did such a good job! Thanks!

New York

2010-07-25T20:10:00.005-06:00

Right when we got back from Brazil, Rain needed to send Bryce on a business trip out to NY. Since we had some friends staying in our home, we decided it would be a great time to leave the kids with our friends and enjoy the big apple with just the two of us. At Times Square:

We got some tickets to see Mary Poppins. It was a very fun show!
We got to enjoy the Met as well.
We took the "Seinfeld tour" With Kenny Kramer, who was the inspiration for the Kramer character in the show.
We stayed a a beautiful hotel near ground zero, and ate dinner on the roof while watching a powerful lightning storm roll in over the city. It was an incredible feast for the senses.

We hopped aboard the Statten Island ferry to get a peek at Lady Liberty.

Here we are overlooking ground zero from our hotel balcony.
Checking out grand central station.

Disneyland

2010-07-10T20:09:00.002-06:00

Bryce's good friend from high school Tim works for Disney out in California. He graciously got us into Disneyland for a fun-filled day. Tim's beautiful daughter Sarah got along really well with Lucas.

We love the 3-d Toy Story shooter ride!

Brazil 2010 trip

2010-06-22T20:06:00.009-06:00

One of the highlights of 2010 was our big trip to Brazil. Marcia's family had never met Lucas, and we were itching to watch some world cup games with the rest of the Brazilian soccer fanatics.

When we were flying out of the LA airport, Lucas tried running out the doors while Bryce was holding his hand. The force cause a "pop" and Lucas started screaming. The paramedics came shortly thereafter and recommended that we not get on our flight to Brazil, and instead take him to the ER. We figured that we should take our chances, and just try to get medical attention after getting to Brazil. Miraculously Lucas was ok after fashioning a splint out of a magazine and an ACE bandage. Once we got to Sao Paulo, we took him to a Doctor who twisted his dislocated wrist back into place.

It was great to be able to see a lot of Marcia's family. Here is her cousin Elena who made a killer fillet mignon dinner for us.

We also took some family pictures with Marcia's mom and dad. This was taken right before we went into the photo studio. We got to stay with them for 2 weeks while eating a lot of food and watch a lot of soccer.
Marcia's dad liked taking us around to see different sites. On this particular day we went to see his investment property in Taubate. This picture was right before we saw a pack of wild street dogs gang up on one of their own in a violent canine tussle.
We then traveled down to Porto Alegre in Southern Brazil where Marcia's sister Regina lives.
While in Porto Alegre we headed up to a very cool European town. They had little chocolate factories, a fun lake and lots of cool things to see.
Regina and her husband Sergio own a sushi shop, which was great for us to munch on delicious sushi :)

Here was one of the restaurants where we watched Brazil win one of its games. This was such a fun environment, with everyone cheering/screaming Brazil on, and delicious food.
We hung out in Ubatuba, which has some incredible beaches. The weather was nice enough to enjoy the sand and surf.

Sam's Tahitian Noni Photo Shoot

2010-06-01T20:19:00.003-06:00

We were all pretty excited for Sam's first real modeling gig. He just needed to jump, kick and run around. He had absolutely no problems doing this and the photographers loved him and his ninja-style.

Tahitian Noni loved the pictures too, and have him prominently in their lobby on this bigger than life poster, as well as a couple of stickers on the windows.

Sam's Kindergarten Graduation

2010-05-20T10:58:00.002-06:00

I can't believe Sam is going to be in 1st grade next year! Time goes by so fast! Here is Sam with his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Mikulecky. Sam really loved her and he was so lucky to have her as his kindergarten teacher.

Kindergarten graduation presentation. They sang and read stories. It was really cute!

Lucas turns 2

2010-02-04T23:02:00.001-07:00

For Lucas' birthday we went to Pirates Island, which is one of our favorite places to have a blast. The birthday boy was excited about everything...except leaving the restaurant.

2010 New Years

2009-12-31T22:53:00.001-07:00

For new years, we kept it low-key and hung out with the Portuguese ward. 09 was a fantastic year for just and we can't wait for 2010 to fulfill our wildest dreams.

Barrand Christmas Pictures

2009-12-20T22:47:00.001-07:00

Celeste and Tracy teamed up for the latest installment of the Barrand's yearly family pics. Celeste did the photoshop work (Preston didn't actually breath fire, and we only adopted Don. But Dave actually is that ripped. No photoshop there) Tracy did the amazing costumes as usual. Great work everyone! The wild animal kids are adorable!

Park City

2009-12-15T22:49:00.002-07:00

After working an insane amount of hours on a large project for Rain, Bryce was rewarded with some needed time off, and a sweet getaway to Park City. We left the kids with a sitter and enjoyed a romantic weekend at a beautiful hotel. We ate out, slept in and lived like rich people for a few days :)

Thanksgiving 09

2009-11-26T22:40:00.004-07:00

We got to spend Thanksgiving with Bryce's family in Colorado. It was so nice to see almost all the siblings, and all the cousins. The highlight of the trip was going to the Denver Children's museum. So many fun activities!

2009 Family Pictures

2009-11-22T22:05:00.013-07:00

Our good friend Alli took some pictures of our family in Lehi, and we loved how they turned out!
We wandered around and found some good looking grunge to go with the style of family pictures these days. Bryce just kept wanting to do kissing pictures for some reason...

Fall 09

2009-11-22T18:32:00.031-07:00

Rock Climbing up Rock Canyon in Provo with John and Elza

2009 Brazilian Festival at the Gateway Mall.
Mountain Biking up American Fork Canyon right when the leaves were turning
Sam's first field trip. They went to Hee Haws Pumpkin Farm in Pleasant Grove. Sam had fun seeing the farm animals, riding the hayride, picking his pumpkin and having lunch with his classmates.

Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving point. The kids had a blast with all the games, jump-a-roos, and treats. Thanks for the picture Spencer and Charlene!

A little get together with our old neighboors
Last day of Mountain Biking at Sundance. We had a blast letting the ski lifts do the hard part and haul us up the mountain, and then we just let gravity and adreneline guide us down. Too bad that winter is upon us. (Sniff...)
Bryce's 29th Birthday
We've got season tickets to BYU, which has been bittersweet this season.
Carving Pumpkins
Marcia's, Sam's, Fernanda's and Lucas' and Bryce's. We all felt that Sam's design was the best.
Halloween Parade at Sam's school. Sam was very proud of his "Warrior" outfit.
Posing for a picture before going trick or treating with some neighborhood friends. Lucas is Mater from Cars.
Our ward loves to do big activities, and this particular one was incredible. They had songs, dances, and slideshows for each area in Brasil, as well as tipical food from each region. It was fun to see how patriotic our Brazilian friends are.
November Girls Night Out: Olive Garden and New Moon.

Basement Project

2009-10-18T09:40:00.010-06:00

Less than a month after we bought our house we started working on the basement that was completely unfinished. After 2 months of hard work we went from a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom house to a 5 bedroom and 3 bathroom house. We did that so we could help out our friends Alisa and Fernanda. So, not only the bedroom and bathroom numbers got bigger but also the number of people who live here. It is really nice to have the girls here helping out with cooking, cleaning and babysitting.
This is the step by step photos of the bedrooms: Framing
Insulation
Drywall
Mudding
Baseboards
Painting
Carpet
Here is the final project:
Here is how the bathroom was:
Since I didn't like how the light wood looked with the green granite, I stained it dark. I also added handles to the drawer and a knob to the door.
This is the final bathroom project:
(Bryce writing now) Marcia did such a good job with choosing the colors, and materials. This bathroom turned out excellent. It is a joy to visit this lavatory. It feels like something out of a pottery barn magazine. I was especially impressed with her idea to stain the vanity. Marcia was really the project coordinator, and kept everyone on track and made sure they had materials and tools. She also lived like a single mom frequently during the 2 months taking care of the kids and everything else so I could work on the basement until midnight or 1 am. She also did a ton of work with me, and always did an excellent job, making sure everything she did was perfect.

I'm so proud of my handy husband! Bryce with the help of friends and "how to" online videos did some of the drywall and mudding. He did the wall and ceiling texture, install all the doors, the baseboards, trim, toilet, light fixtures, tub surround, tile, vanity, backsplash, etc... He also did the electricity and luckily no fires have started yet.
We would like to thank all of our friends who helped us with this project:
Jake, Don, Austin, Andrew, Preston, Eri, Fernanda, Sandro, Alisa, John Hobbs, Elza, Doug, Jesus, Chase, Tiago, Aaron, John Wilson, James, and especially Bruno, who came here everyday and worked about 70 hours before he went on his mission. Here is Bruno at his farewell:

Sam starts kindergarden

2009-09-18T09:15:00.014-06:00

Sam on his first day at school. He loves school so much that he even wants to go on the weekends too.
Sam was chosen to be the star of the week. We had to make a poster about his favorite things. Riding his bike is one of them.
We also included on his poster that he does gymnastics,
and when asked what he wanted to be when he grows up, he responded "I want to be a missionary".
Sam presented his poster to his class. He showed them some of his gymnastics tricks and even taught them some words in Portuguese.

BYU football season started

2009-09-18T09:11:00.003-06:00

This was the BYU vs OU game to start the season, right after BYU's game winning touchdown. The boys were dancing around and going pretty crazy.
Sam got to hang out with Josh, Dekker, and Kate and stay out of the way of the boys doing the victory dance.

Family Fun

2009-09-17T12:15:00.007-06:00

Bryce had his work Party at a local water park called Cowabunga Bay. So much fun! Our kids love the water! The best part was the $500 dollar vacuum that we won in the raffle. Thanks Rain! (Bryce's work) It only took us 4 company parties to win the vacuum.
We had a little Family Reunion at our house. It was great to see all Bryce's cousins.

Trip to Colorado and Sam's birthday

2009-09-15T16:15:00.021-06:00

We went to Colorado for Bryce's High School Reunion and a Girls Night Out that Tracy organized. We had a really fun trip!

The highlight of the trip was the BBQ with Pravin. He is moving out to Chicago to work as a Peace corp recruiter, and we were lucky enough to catch up with him before he left.
For our girls night out, Tracy took us to go horse back riding and at night she got us a hotel room where we made table runners and necklaces. The boys took care of the kids and did a little mountain biking in the morning.
Tracy also planned a really fun Spider man birthday party for Sam who turned 5.
Tracy is always so creative! She has the cutest ideas. The kids had to find fake worms that she hid in the playground "to fish" prizes.
The biggest "fish" the Sam got was more like a Transformers' bike. Thank you Tracy!
Brooklynn, Lucas, Sam and baby Hunter.
All 6 kids together for the first time in 4 years.
All the 6 grandkids together for the first time ever. There was only a little bit of biting and screaming!

Don's visit

2009-08-30T22:53:00.007-06:00

Don, who just got back from Iraq stayed with us for a week and it was so fun to see him again.

We went mountain biking, had a few a few BBQs, and worked a lot in our basement. Thanks for the visit Don! Good luck in Afghanistan in a few months!

Summer

2009-08-02T22:00:00.005-06:00

This post is a big mash-up of all the summer fun we have been having. In fact, we have been so busy making the most of it, that we haven't had time to do a proper blog post :)

There have been two major themes for Marcia and Bryce this summer: Soccer and Mountain Biking. Any given day of the week, it would be a safe bet that there is a mountain bike on the back of one car and soccer gear in the other. And on some special days, we may have it all crammed in together.

Danica and her kids came to visit and we went with them and Marybeth's kids to Dairy Days at Thanksgiving Point. We made butter and ice cream, rode horse carriages, had free ice cream and chocolate milk and Sam rode a pony. Then, Jaime and her kids join us too. The kids loved it!

For Jaime's birthday, Jake got a place in Park City and we had a girls night out. Hot tub, games, chick flicks, pedicure and the next day shopping at the Outlet mall. It was a lot of fun!
Ethan, Sam, Lucas, Abby and Jade. Since we just moved, we are really going to miss our neighbors. Sam couldn't stand to be inside if Abby and Ethan were outside. We are sad to not live next to the Kimballs anymore :(
Here at our new house, we don't have any grass, just stiff weeds, so when we play outside it has to be on the cement or at somebody else's house. Here is Sam, Lucas, Josh and Dekker playing with the water in our driveway.
This is the Hogan family reunion at Heber girls' camp. We had dinner, roasted marshmallows, spent the night at the cabin and had a delicious breakfast the next morning. It is great to do these get-togethers with Bryce's side of the family. Sam especially likes to play with Eli.
Here is Great-Grandpa Hogan, playing with Lucas.

On our way to the pool on Pioneer day we saw the firemen spraying foam into a field. It looked fun so we joined in. It was a celebration for Foam day, whatever that is.
Ero and Sebastiao, our ward friends celebrated their 35th anniversary and we had a really fun Brazilian Barbeque at our house.
Mountain Biking up American Fork canyon. What a beautiful place!
July Girls Night Out with the Brazilian girls. We went to a Japanese restaurant. The food was delicious and we had a lot of fun!
Marcia: My friend Denae invited me to join an indoor soccer team and now I'm is addicted to it. Our team was the champion of the season, so we all got a "Champion T-shirt". Sometimes I play 3 games a week!

Here is Bryce and Andy in the middle of a grueling, difficult 3.5 hour bike ride all over the Wasatch Mountains.
We had a ward picnic and I got to play tennis, volleyball while Bryce and Austin played monkey in the middle with the men.

Bryce playing indoor soccer again. Hopefully no more accidents and surgeries.
Since our church doesn't start until 1pm we go to the park every Sunday with the kids. We have an awesome park by our house with tennis courts, sand volleyball courts and baseball fields.

Whew! Its been hard to keep up with us this summer, but now you can get a glimpse into the fun we are having!

Speaking at InsideRIA conference in San Jose

2009-07-22T16:50:00.003-06:00

I've been accepted to speak at the insideRIA conference put on by O'Reilly. You can get more info here:

http://training.oreilly.com/insideria/?CMP=BAC-orm_riaconf_insideria#sessions
and
http://www.insideriacon.com/

If you are a geek or if you really like me, you should come.

Trip to California

2009-06-26T10:14:00.010-06:00

For our Christmas present, Mark and Tracy flew us out to California. We stayed at a beautiful condo. We played ping pong, tennis, cards, hung on the beach, and went to Sea World and Legoland. Thank you for the really fun Christmas present!

Memorial Day fun

2009-06-01T10:39:00.002-06:00

Here are some pics of our busy memorial day. We didn't do anything like yard work, we only played around.

First of all, we took out the canoe on the little pond by our house
Then we played tennis with Dustin and Sue
Sam found this piece of styrofoam and had a blast playing "magic carpet" with it. I love this picture :)
Then Jake and Jamie took us out on their boat.

Afterwords we went back to Jake's house and had a bbq. It was a great day.

My Birthday and "Before and After" Pictures

2009-05-29T22:44:00.002-06:00

This year for my birthday, Bryce got me a kitchen island and a mountain bike.
Since the kitchen island came without the countertop it was a good excuse to get granite countertops for the whole kitchen. And since we were getting new countertops it was a good excuse to paint the cabinets and put handles on them. And one thing led to the other and we got a new 8 inch deep sink and a new faucet.Also we stained our table.
I love "before" and "after" pictures. I love to see the difference between how it was and how it is after you do something to it.
Kitchen Before:

After:

Table Before:

After:

So since I'm showing pictures of the kitchen here are some pictures of Sam's room where we also changed a few things:
Sam's room before:

Sam's bed and dresser before painting:

After:

Fail Picture

2009-05-28T11:34:00.004-06:00

If you haven't seen the fail blog, go look at http://failblog.org/. A buddy took this of my car today.

6th anniversary

2009-04-20T12:22:00.006-06:00

For our 6th anniversary, Bryce took me to a bed and breakfast in Salt Lake.

We went to a Middle Eastern restaurant and it was really good. That was our first time trying Lebanese food and we enjoyed it a lot. After dinner, we had ice cream at Maggie Moose and went to the movies.

Snowboarding trip

2009-03-25T18:10:00.001-06:00

My friend Zil invited us to go to their time share up in the mountains. While we were there we played some games and went snowboarding. "Surprisingly" (or should I say not suprisingly?) Bryce fell and broke his wrist. Other than that we had a really fun trip.

It snowed like crazy and we had to dig our car out of about 3 feet of snow in order to get home.

Valentines day

2009-03-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

For Valentines Day, Bryce surprised me by taking me to a 5 course dinner at the UVU culinary arts program dining room. It was a really fun experience and the food was very good.
Tasting Course: House Smoked Salmon with homemade Creme Fresh & Caviar
First Course: Handmade Butternut Tortelloni in an Herbed Wild Mushroom Broth
Salad: Parma Wrapped Arugula Salad with Grilled Pears & Fresh Cranberry
Entree: Pan Roasted Filet Mignon Bordelaise Candied Yam Gratin& Roast Winter Vegetables

Dessert: Chocolate Molten Rosemary Cake, Basil Panna Cotta with Passion Fruit Sauce, and Wild Berry Thyme Sorbet

We loved it! It was a blast!

Painting the living room

2009-03-24T18:19:00.000-06:00

Before:

During:

After:

Tiana's Wedding

2009-03-24T18:14:00.000-06:00

My little sister Tiana got married! Here are some pics from the wedding. By the way, we love her husband Preston. They are both very lucky people.

Speaking at Flex 360 Conference

2009-03-23T23:23:00.004-06:00

I just got accepted to speak at the Flex 360 Conference in Indy! I'm very excited to speak there, I've gone before and it is a well put together event, widely recognized in my field. Here is their site (with a mention of my name even!)

Here is my session info:

Session Title: The art of project management in large-scale Flex projects

Session Description: There are many tools and tricks to help project managers develop enterprise level applications. Topics covered will include: Gathering project info, creating the WBS (work breakdown structure), developer accountability for hours worked, centralizing code, project management software, and healthy client communication.

Session Level: Anyone, but will be most beneficial for project managers, team leads, or agency owners.

About me: I'm a project manager at Rain Interactive (mediarain.com) where I am also a senior Flex developer. I've managed many enterprise level, large-scale projects (1000+ man hours) for recognizable companies such as HP, Myfamily.com, and Alfred publishing. I have an MBA from Neumont University. I enjoy taking an active part in the Flex community by contributing to open source projects, and have attended numerous conferences such as MAX and 360.

Lucas 1st birthday

2009-02-12T12:38:00.008-07:00

Lucas had his first birthday on February 4th. I took him to Kiddie Kandids to get his free birthday picture.
Then, we went out to eat to celebrate.

The Villanuevas sent Lucas a bunch of cars, a truck and pajamas. Lucas loves them. Thank you!

Family Pictures

2009-01-25T18:41:00.006-07:00

These pictures were taken by our friend Mike.

Basketball and the Villanuevas

2009-01-13T22:08:00.007-07:00

Now that BYU football is over with, we have to find something to occupy our time before the season starts again in 8 months, so we get mildly into BYU basketball. Here is the Wake forrest game, where BYU lost their incredible home winning streak after 54 straight victories. :(

Francis, Aiyana, and Amaris Villanueva, who I met on my mission came and hung out with us for 2 nights. It was a blast. Most of the time we played "wacky sixes", aka "nerts". Francis was unstopable. She put her bank-teller-quick-hands to use.
Here is Sam in his super hero uniform.

New Years

2009-01-13T22:02:00.006-07:00

For New Years eve, we went to the Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake. It was pretty fun. They had some creative exhibits like a bug exhibit, with a wide variety of live insects.
And some dinosaur excavation exhibits.
That night we went to a big New Years party at Tucanos in Salt Lake with a bunch of our Brazilian friends.

Here we are drinking sparkling cider.
And the girls

Christmas 08

2009-01-13T17:05:00.007-07:00

For Christmas we went down to Las Vegas, hoping to escape the snow and cold weather. Of course it snowed on the way down and on the way back :P

The highlight of the trip was going to the Cirque du Soleil, Beatles Love show. It was a blast. We got excellent seats, and enjoyed ourselves while a baby sitter took care of the kids. It was probably my favorite of the Cirque du Soleil show I've seen.

There was also a tiny "zoo" in Las vegas that we went and saw. Most of the exibits were closed, with a faded "In loving memory of (insert animal name here)" sign in font. I'm surprised the zoo was still open... At the end we fed the goats, and that was fun.
Christmas day, we spend with our good friends the Runyans. It was fun to see Sam and Josh show off their presents to one another. It was also fun to see that both dads and kids got the same presents from Santa. Sam and Josh both got bikes, Kung fu Panda and the same learning cards. And, Bryce and Jake got Blu-ray players (even the same model).
Then we went sledding in the fresh fallen snow.

Afterwords Jamie made an excellent dinner. All in all, it was a great Christmas.

Thanksgiving 08

2009-01-13T14:50:00.004-07:00

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun, we had a huge reunion at my Aunt's house, then we had a smaller dinner at our house.

My latest favorite christmas song

2008-12-30T22:18:00.003-07:00

In response to Jamie's post:

Family Pic 2008

2008-12-17T13:25:00.001-07:00

Here is our Pic, thanks to Mike for the photography.

New Kids, Friends, Halloween, and RSL

2008-11-17T12:38:00.017-07:00

Since we haven't posted for a while I added some pictures for you to see what's been happening with us other than Bryce's many surgeries.
You can make fun of me but last Saturday I went to the New Kids on the Block concert with a friend and I had so much fun. I used to love them when I was a teenager. I felt like I was 14 again! They are a lot older now but they've still got the right stuff.
My mission friend Monika Kaizenbauer from Austria came to visit and we had a little Temple Square reunion. It was a really fun night.

Ninja Turtle Sam at our ward Halloween Party

Sam trick or treating with the neighborhood kids.

Bryce and I weren't paying attention and Lucas found Sam's Halloween candy. As you can see from his face he had fun with it.

At Cornbelly's

For John's (a buddy of Bryce's from work) birthday we watched Real Salt Lake play at the new Rio Tinto stadium. It was a very important game for them, since it was the last home game of the season, and only the second game in the new stadium, and RSL needed to win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. In the end they won 3-1 and it was an amazing night!

More Surgeries!

2008-11-10T10:03:00.003-07:00

Doing my neck surgery wasn't enough pain and suffering this year, so I decided to operate again! This time it was a Subtalar Spacer implant in both feet. I'm still hobbling around in boots, but I'm on the mend. Here is more info on the surgery: http://www.orthoprollc.com/sts.html

Hopefully this surgery will fix the problems that have been plaguing me for most of my adult life. I'm very optimistic. It is still premature, but right now it looks like the surgery has really drastically improved my right foot, and noticeably corrected my left foot. :) We'll see!

2008 Temple Square Mission Reunion

2008-10-05T12:05:00.006-06:00

Last Thursday I got to go to my mission reunion. It was fun to see so many old friends.
This year President and Sister Winwood came too. I'm so glad I got to see them.

Cervical Discectomy

2008-09-28T21:38:00.004-06:00

Its been one week since my surgery and things are going very well. I can't do much still, lifting my head for more than a few minutes is taxing. But I'm not in too much pain anymore.

For those who don't know I was playing soccer, when I was tripped and landed hard, not even on my head. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and kept playing. The guy didn't get called for a foul and we lost the game.

After the game I noticed some pain which got worse until the next morning I couldn't move and I sheepishly told Marcia that I wanted a neck brace and a stretcher to go into the ER. So we called 911, and really felt like it was all overkill, but better safe than sorry.

The doc said it was a ruptured disc and I would need surgery immediately and if it had been much worse I'd be a quadriplegic.

The surgery went well and I spent 4 mostly miserable days and nights in the hospital.

We had lots of visitors (thank you guys a lot!) The Brazilians really know how to help a dude in the hospital.

Now I'm just at home and have to stay here for basically another week. I've been watching lots of movies and dvds of tv shows while feeling pretty useless, wishing I could help Marcia a little more, and get back to work.

Anyways, my neck is hurting from keeping it upright this long, and I've got to go lay down. Thanks again to all of you for your prayers and visits!

still in the hospital

2008-09-23T18:15:00.001-06:00

i havent been released yet. the surgery went well, but im hurting a lot right now. thanks for the visits and the prayers.

BYU Football season starts

2008-08-31T21:49:00.004-06:00

BYU started this season with a big win over Northern Iowa. I got some tickets from my boss, and we got to sit on the 5th row. It was amazing.Lucas really likes BYU football. You can tell from his face.

Brazilian Festival

2008-08-31T21:44:00.003-06:00

A lady from our ward threw a large Brazilian party last Saturday. Marcia and the boys were some of the Indians in the parade.
I like how Sam wore his BYU shirt in the parade. Just goes to show you that he is more cougar than he is Brazilian.
Sam got a "shark"(read dolphin) painted on his cheek, while Marcia and I asked for a "Y" to show our BYU spirit at the game later that day.

Las Vegas

2008-08-31T19:27:00.004-06:00

We also took Sergio and his family to Las Vegas for a quick tour. It was so nice to see my brother and his family. It was really sad to say goodbye.

Hogan Family Reunion & Sam's B-day

2008-08-31T19:12:00.008-06:00

Bryce's mom planned a fabulous pirate birthday party for Sam, including a treasure hunt, swords, earrings, patches and everything. Thank you Tracy!!

Here is Sam fearlessly leading the ship-mates in search of the buried treasure:

Then getting the treasure:
We also had a wet and wild water fight:

My brother Sergio and his family visit

2008-08-31T18:47:00.008-06:00

My (Marcia) brother Sergio whom I hadn't seen in 9 years came in from Japan with his family for a great visit. Since it was their first time to the United States we crammed a ton of activities into one very short week.
We saw a bunch of the sites on temple square. It was the first time we have seen the Joseph Smith movie. We were very impressed.

Here are the kids dressed up as Nephi's family, with the great and spacious building behind them.

Hide the Hamster

2008-08-27T16:52:00.003-06:00

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/clips/dwights-olympics/519762/

By the way, I'm actually quite good at "Hide the Hamster."

Discovery Science Center

2008-08-10T09:55:00.004-06:00

Disneyland

2008-08-10T09:46:00.009-06:00

We took Sam to Disneyland. Sam is at a really fun age that he can understand and enjoy a lot of things.

We were a little worried that Sam would get scared when he saw Mickey since Mickey is a lot a bigger than what Sam is used to see, but he loved seeing him. He gave Mickey a big hug and was so excited to see him.

This is the new Toy Story ride at California Adventure. It was a really fun ride!

San Diego

2008-08-10T09:18:00.020-06:00

The first stop of our trip was San Diego. We stayed at my mission friend Zil. Zil and Steve took us to some fun places while we were there

Sam loved the beach.

Zil watched the kids and we got to go to the San Diego temple. Thanks Zil!

I also got to see another mission friend, Mahelona.

Happiness is...

2008-07-21T09:25:00.001-06:00

My buddy Tim

2008-06-30T09:11:00.002-06:00

I got a surprise recently when my good friend Tim Fitzrandolph told me that he was looking at a job out here in SLC. We were best friends for a while in highschool.

It looks like a really exciting position for him, and hopefully he goes for it!

He came out here to check things out, and we got the chance to go out to dinner. It was a fun night, two white guys and a bunch of cute Asians.

Trip to Park City

2008-06-15T21:52:00.005-06:00

We just got back from a great trip to Park city. It was on of those deals where you have to listen to a condo presentation and they give you 2 free nights in the resort as well as 100$ to spend. The best part was that at the end, when we had to listen to the presentation, they had all their sales reps tied up, and told us we could just go without hearing the presentation! And to top it off they gave us an additional $25 for our "troubles". It put a really nice cap on an already wonderful vacation.

Here are some pics from our stay:

Here is Sam in our room.
Here some of the buildings that make up the Marriot Summit Watch. It was a very big place.
We went to the pool a lot, and Sam loved it. It was his favorite part.
They had a fun activity center with lots of things going on throughout each day. One such activity was finger painting.
My favorite part of the trip was a beautiful lunch outside at a nice restaurant, Cafe Terigo in downtown Park City.
Mmmmm. We had a Crème brûlée for dessert and it was amazing.
Here is a nice shot of the beautiful scenery.
Sam and I have been wanting to see speed racer for a while now, and we finally got the chance, We had to drive to a little town called Kamas near Park City. Here was the modest theater. We loved the movie by the way. It was better than I was expecting.

Before watching the movie, I asked the guy selling tickets "We only have 20 min before the movie starts, where the nearest fast food joint so we can get some dinner before the show?" and he said they don't have any in their town! Then his eyes lit up, and he said, "Oh I know, you can go get some food from Chevron!" So we did. It wasn't the best dinner I've ever had... but at least it was a fun memory.

And here is a picture of Lucas looking very cute.

Barrand update

2008-06-08T10:13:00.000-06:00

This is a soccer time of year. We won our 3rd game in a row last night in my indoor league. And I think that puts us into first place in our division. Last week we went to the Real game. We had great seats, and Real won.
Sam had his little pre-school graduation. He is still having some troubles overcoming his fear of standing/sitting/performing in front of an audience.

Sam had his first trip to the dentist, and he did great. No cavities and he didn't pass out like I did earlier this year.

Warm weather means boating with the Runyans! Here is Jake as the sun was setting on our last trip to the lake.

Marcia and the kids.

Flash/Flex developer job position at mediaRAIN

2008-06-03T11:39:00.002-06:00

Most of the people who read my blog are not Flash/Flex developers, but you might know somebody who is, so if you know anyone with experience in that area, send them my way! We might even be willing to pay for relocation costs if they were out of the area.

Company: mediaRAIN
Job Title: Flash/Flex Developer
Description: mediaRAIN is looking to add strong developers to our team here in Utah Valley. Our passion is to build the Internet's leading user experiences in RIA. A Senior Flash Developer can lead project development establishing architecture and standards and implementing successful user experiences.

Compensation:
Salary dependent on experience: $60,000 - $90,000

Responsibilities:
* Interact with clients, exploring and advising technological possibilities,
discovering solutions that fit their goals
* Architect and develop large-scale Flash & Flex applications implementing
design patterns appropriately
* Write clean, structured object-oriented code with change and reuse in mind
* Lead and teach team members throughout a projects life cycle

Qualifications:
* Self-learning and motivated perspective - seeks excellence
* Ability to work in an agile development environment
* Well established as an experienced object-oriented programmer
* Comfortable developing in Flex's Eclipse-based environment
* Organized and efficient, hard working with high attention to detail
* Midichlorian count must be "through the roof"
* Preference will be given to applicants who have soccer skills, foosball skills and/or are familiar with the proper usage of the "W", "A", "S", and "D" keys

please reply to Bryce Barrand at bryceb at mediarain dot com

Victory

2008-05-25T17:53:00.002-06:00

The indoor soccer team I play on finally got a victory last night! The game was super late, 11:25 pm, and the other team didn't have any substitutes, while they did have one big guy who didn't have physique of a soccer player, and he didn't like to run.

The final score was 6-3, and the 5 of the 6 goals were scored by our superstar brazilian striker Gui.

Our record is now 1-2, so lets hope we keep it up :)

An inspiring story

2008-05-16T11:39:00.002-06:00

I've been following Oscar Pistorius for a while, and when I heard about the latest ruling allowing him to compete for a spot on the Olympic team, I got excited. You can read and watch his story here.

Sam's First Primary Talk

2008-05-11T11:33:00.002-06:00

Sam "gave" his first primary talk last week. We practiced for days before, and recorded a few of his practice sessions which went awesome! He really did well at home, when he was just in front of Marcia, Lucas and I.
But then came the day to actually give the talk, and things didn't go very well. Sam froze, and Marcia had to give the whole thing. We were pretty sad, because as you can see from the video, he really had it down.

For those of you who don't understand Portuguese, here is what Sam said:
Hi kids. The families from the scripture, my family helps me be strong. Nephi, had a bow and arrow, which broke. Everyone got hungry. Nephi prayed. Nephi made another new bow and arrow. Then he gave a lot of food to everyone. Everyone was happy. I Sammy will be good. I will pray to heavenly Father just like Nephi. I'm also going to listen to my Mom and Dad speak, and I will be obedient. I will listen to Jesus also. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Trip to CO

2008-04-26T19:42:00.009-06:00

We had a great trip to Colorado. It started with a drive out to CO on our 5th anniversary! Due to the occasion, I wanted to take Marcia to a nice restaurant. We found this cool little Italian place in Grand Junction, and were very happy to do something special.

It was $40 for the food, and we split the meal, and the proportions were insanely small. By the way, the meat is hidden under the parsley. It was good food though.

Lucas had an insanely incredible blowout. Here is the onesie that we just chucked because it was not salvageable. This was gross city. Thank goodness that both Marcia and I were there, so we could team clean this one.

Once in Colorado, Sam wasted no time getting into trouble with Jensen. They snuck away and filled up the tub and threw in a bunch of junk, like statues, apples, cups, starfish etc.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing my little brother Don, who just got back from Iraq. We got to play Frisbee in the park for a while, and I was in heaven.

Here is us at the Denver zoo.

These little monkeys were teeny tiny. The bigger monkey is about the size of my fist.
About 65% of the time Sam and Jensen got along really well. And Sam wanted to hold his hand.
We had a great experience doing Lucas' blessing at my parents home. It was a very spiritual experience. Dad gave a great testimony, mom played the piano well, and it just turned out very nice.

It was great to spend some time with Tiana as well, after she got home from her mission. She was real excited to play with all the nieces and nephews.

On the way home, I missed the turn, and we drove an extra 110 miles. Aaargh. We didn't get in until after midnight. It was a miserable close to an amazing weekend.

Decisoes dificeis

2008-03-31T23:13:00.004-06:00

--update: this post was an april fools joke---

(Eu estou escrevendo em Portugues porque eu nao posso falar essas coisas em Ingles, porque tem pessoas no trabalho que leem meu blog)

Lembram como eu falei que nos iamos procurar trabalho no Arizona? Comecei fazendo so de brincadeira, mas, eu acabei achando um otimo trabalho. Eu faria coisas parecidas como eu faco agora, mas com menos programacao, e mais gerenciando. Parece que eu vou ter um groupo de 8-10 pessoas abaixo de mim, e eles vao ser programadores tambem.

E uma decisao muito dificil porque nos gostamos muito da nossa casa e de nossos amigos em Utah mas parece que a decisao certa e aceitar este trabalho. Vamos ver, nos temos um tempinho para aceitar.

Peeps results!

2008-03-31T11:27:00.001-06:00

Danica and Dad ended up taking 3rd place! and I got an honorable mention, so our displays did very well. Thanks for voting everyone!

In case you missed it, here is the final post.
http://www.heiselt.org/liz/blog/2008/03/results.html

Big Birthday!

2008-03-30T21:15:00.006-06:00

Marcia's birthday was yesterday, and it was very excellent. I surprised her by taking the family to a nearby horse farm first thing in the morning. I had gone around earlier in the week and knocked on the doors of our neighbors who had horses running around in their yard, and asked if I could bring my wife by and let her ride. The people I talked to were nice, and the lady you see in the picture was super excited that we would even ask to ride her horse.

Marcia had no idea what the surprise was :) The first picture is her in a "perplexed and curious" mode, when she was worried what in the world I was getting her into.

When we arrived and Marcia realized that we were going to ride horses, she calmed down a bit. She rode a horse called LD, and then we got to feed the horses some treats. Sam loved it, and Marcia enjoyed it as well. Sam was making horse sounds the rest of the day.

After riding horses, we spent a few hours at the mall, looking for birthday clothes for Marcia. Sam rode the carousel, and wanted to be like mom, and ride a horse.

After the mall we went to my soccer game, and we won! It was 7-0, and very fun. It was a good close to our season.

After the soccer game, we went to dinner at Shoots with the Runyans. Mmmmm, lettuce wraps.

Finally when we rolled into our driveway late that night, we put Sam down and played DDR for a while.

It was a great day. Oh yeah, and Lucas smiled for the first time as a nice bday present for Marcia.

Peeps! and a great Easter weekend

2008-03-23T22:57:00.006-06:00

Danica, Dave, Jesen, Tiger Lilly, and Dad all came into town for the easter weekend. It was a great time to get together. We did a big heroscape game, a couple of egg hunts, malt-o-meal, soccer game, and more than anything else, we make peep dioramas!

My buddy Micah is hosting the competition, and so we thought we'd give it a go. You can see my display as well as Danica's on their blog here.

Danica, Dave and Dad's is the "Lincoln's last peep show". And mine is "Don't fear the peeper (more cowbell)"

You might not get it... so if mine doesn't make sense, you are probably out of touch. To get in touch, just watch this video: , (in case you miss it, the name of the song is "Don't fear the reaper") and then you can see how this video has be come a cultural phenomena here. and here.

ps. you may recognize that pergo used for the floor, as scraps leftover from my last home project :)

A big week

2008-03-23T22:38:00.005-06:00

This was an incredible week for us. My favorite family, The Villanuevas (Bobby, Francis, Ayana, and Amaris), from my mission, made the trip to SLC to get endowed and sealed. They were baptized just weeks before I went home, and I was very close to them. It was an amazing experience!

My favorite part was the actual sealing. It was different from all the others I've seen because there was only one person in the room who was "just watching". Everyone else was part of the ceremony. In other words, it was a very intimate setting. The sealer was great, and we all cried like babies.

We got to go out to eat with them a few times, play in the pool at the hotel, watch a scary movie, look at mission pics, and generally have a great time. Bobby became Sam's best friend immediately by showering him with Cars presents. Sam, and the rest of us were very sad to say goodbye.

Here are some pictures from their visit.

Its a weird feeling...

2008-03-18T21:38:00.003-06:00

I just turned in my final final. The read deal. So unofficially, I am now done with, managerial economics, my MBA, and school. Period. Wow, its pretty hard to explain how that feels.

Hopefully I won't get in trouble for doing this, but here is a question off my final, from one of the topics that I enjoyed most in this class, game theory:

Suppose you are given the following information on a two-firm oligopoly (duopoly).

Firm A will earn $6,000 in profit if it charges a price of $10 and Firm B charges a price of $10, Firm B will earn $6,000 in profit.
Firm A will earn $1,000 in profit if it charges a price of $10 and Firm B charges a price of $7, Firm B will earn $8,000 in profit.
Firm A will earn $8,000 in profit if it charges a price of $7 and Firm B charges a price of $10, Firm B will earn $1,000 in profit.
Firm A will earn $2,000 in profit if it charges a price of $7 and Firm B charges a price of $7, Firm B will earn $2,000 in profit.

A. (10 points) Construct a game tree showing the decisions facing firms A and B with firm A in the lead position.

B. (5 points) Given the game tree above, what is Firm A’s dominant strategy?

C. (5 points) Given the game tree above, what is Firm B’s dominant strategy?

D. (5 points) What is the Nash equilibrium?

There was even a little calculus that I had to do for this class. That was challenging for me at first, since I hadn't done any math since I was a junior in high school. And I've never taken calculus.

Anyways, there it is! I'll let you know when it becomes official, and I get my diploma and everything.

New Floor

2008-03-16T21:40:00.005-06:00

Thanks to a very nice Christmas bonus from mediaRAIN, We bought some laminate flooring for our living room. I've been excited about this for a while. In fact, ever since an unpleasant discovery just after we bought the house. We removed a sofa left by the old owners, strategically positions to cover a huge "stiff spot" in the carpet. (No wonder that sofa was positioned in an awkward place...)

We had lots of help, and we basically finished in one day. I love the way it looks, and hopefully it raises the value of our home a little as well...

The next big home investment: Granite counter tops. Come on uncle Sam, give us a beefy tax return!

Thanks everyone for your help!

Before:

During:

After:

If you are interested in doing pergo or similar laminate flooring, I recommend it. It was very easy to put in, and only cost $2 a sq foot. All in all the project was around $900. One big bonus is that you can slide really well with just socks on. When you come over you can try it.

March

2008-03-04T19:10:00.008-07:00

Here are some pictures to show what is going on in our life right now.

March Madness starts! BYU is doing well and we are excited for the cougars to win some games in the NCAA tournament this year. We saw BYU beat Utah in a nail biter in the Marriot Center.

Sam got some weird allergic reaction and it was keeping him up at night with insane itchiness.

Sam got a black eye by running into the stair.

Marcia is fighting with some postpardum depression, but she is trying to put on a happy face. It helps that Lucas is very healthy and all in all a great baby.

Sam really loves laying next to, holding, touching and playing with Lucas.

And Heroscape! We(I mostly, Marcia not so much) love playing Heroscape. I made a bunch of cool customs and it's a lot of fun.

We are moving to Arizona

2008-02-24T15:55:00.003-07:00

I'm serious. I'm going to look for a job there right away. No, actually I'm not serious. Its just that I'm soooo tired of sicknesses that kids get during the cold winter's here in Utah.

We just got out of the hospital after a two day stay with Lucas. He started having a fever Friday morning and we took him in to the ER, then they admitted him, and did some tests that would take 48 hours, and we had to keep him there until then.

Needless to say, I was not excited about staying in the hospital for another two days. We just got out of the hospital... And I haven't even seen the bill yet for this one, which is probably not going to make me feel any better:)

To make matters worse, Friday morning, right when Lucas was feeling really warm, Sam woke up with serious eye-buggers and bright pink eyes. Great. (In case you didn't know, the easy recipe for pink eye is to take a 3 year old with a runny nose, and have him clean his face by wiping the snot into his eyes) We had so much going on with Lucas that day, that we didn't have time to try and get Sam into his pediatrician. Which meant that we would have to take him to the Urgent Care on Saturday. So I was planning on spending Saturday bouncing between the Urgent Care and the hospital.

Thank goodness that one of the Nurses at the Hospital was kind enough to write the pink eye prescription without Sam having to go to Urgent Care. (By the way, shouldn't pink eye medicine be over the counter?!?!?!)

We took advantage of the system and let the nurses take care of Lucas on Friday night so we could come back home, just the 3 regular-sleepers in our family, to get a "good" night sleep. But... Sam work up at 4:30 in the morning freaking out that he couldn't open his eyes because they were sealed shut with "pink-eye goodness". It was at this point that I decided that we should move somewhere warmer.

So if you know of any great project management jobs in a more temperate climate let me know.

More on the name Lucas

2008-02-11T09:00:00.001-07:00

Here are some more details in the words of my dad. Thanks dad!

Let me share a little bit about the name Lucas. They were early settlers in Massachusetts in the late 1600’s. Just like in “The Last of the Mohicans” Indians raided their settlement and stole several of the children to sell to the settlers in Canada as slaves. John T Lucas' ancestors were among those captured.

When John T Lucas was 17 he was so passionate about the Union side of the Civil War he slipped south across the border and joined the Union army in Ohio. He was in the military until he had too many health problems and was discharged. He wandered for a few years and then in the late 1860’s was a buffalo hunter in Kansas where he met and married Emma Elizabeth Olds.

They married on New Year’s Day in 1871 and then moved to California. They had 8 kids and John Lucas rose to the high standing political office of county water commissioner. The family moved to Washington State and he received a land grant from President Teddy Roosevelt. While in Washington he invented a special plow called the “Lucas” plow to handle the soil in southern Washington State

The family was well loved and my grandfather Robert Levi Lucas was one of those happy farm boys. Descendants of John T still lived in that part of the country and still farm but they use more modern plows that the one John invented.

This is a family picture of John Thomas Lucas, wife Emma and 8 kids. Robert Levi Lucas is standing back center. They are in-period costume just like we do every year.

This is a still of Robert Levi Lucas who is my grandfather.

This is Robert Levi Lucas on his wedding day with his new wife Dora Isabelle Stebbins. Dora was raised in Vermont and came out to visit her Uncle Ash in Washington State and met Robert on a farm. They fell in love and she never went back to Vermont.

Lucas Koseki Barrand

2008-02-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

The News
The boys now outnumber the girls three to one in the Barrand house! Thanks to our little Lucas, who arrived at 6:33 this morning weighing in at 6 pounds 4 ounces, and measuring 18.5 inches in length.

The Name
We had a pretty hard time coming up with the name, but as I was writing this post we finalized the decision and went with Lucas. It was my grandmother's (dad's side) maiden name. She passed away when I was 14, and I have very fond memories of her. Also we like the good bible names that work in English and Portuguese. (Lucas is Portuguese for Luke) Koseki is Marcia's maiden name, and has great history as well, including samurai lineage.

The Story
We had an appointment to come into the hospital early today to get induced. Since it has been snowing consistently and we live in the sticks, we pulled a slumber party with the Runyans who live much closer to the hospital, and that way we wouldn't have to wake Sam and drive on ice to come to hospital. After a fun night of Heroscape, we went to bed, only to wake up at 1:30 when Marcia thought she had broken her water.
We got to the hospital around 2am, and Marcia had pretty consistent contractions. Things were progressing well, until the baby's heart rate jumped suddenly and all the nurses on staff came in and we had a little bit of a scare as they worked in controlled panic mode trying to help the baby's heart rate slow back down.
By the time the doctor arrived the baby's heart rate calmed down and we felt a lot better, until he told us that the baby's head was cocked and that they should start the preparations for a c section. First he asked Marcia to try pushing to see if that would straighten him out. Thankfully nature did what it does best and little Lucas righted himself and "headed out" after 20 minutes of pushing.
The cord was wrapped around his neck, and he was bright "baby boy" blue when he came out, which only lasted for a few seconds after he got untangled, when he became bright pink.
All in all, after the few minor scares listed here, (and a few more too graphic for this family oriented sector of the internet) today went fabulously. We are very grateful for competent medical professionals and a loving father in heaven.

The Pics
There will be many more to come after this post, because after anyone with a blog has a baby, you can count on consistent posts on how the baby burped and farted for the first time, and how cute it is that they spit up on themselves. Here are just a few to whet your appetite. (by the way, he has much lighter hair than Sam did, I'm sure that you'll be able to see it in pictures to come)

Babies and Balls

2008-02-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

After an anxious week full of contractions, our hopes were elevated many times. Sadly, as many times as we thought that "this is it!" the contractions stopped. Though this week seemed to last an eternity, the light at the end of the tunnel is nearing. We have an appointment to get induced sometime tomorrow. Hopefully the next post will have some brand new baby pics! Yipee!

In other news, yesterday was the first game of our indoor soccer season. I play on a co-ed team with the guys from work and their wives. It was an absolute blast. I was so out of shape that after only 3 minutes of playing time, I was ready to throw up. We lost our first game 9-6, but we showed a lot of promise. (and we played against the Mexican co-ed National team, so they were pretty good) I'm sure you guys will get further updates about our soccer team as the season progresses, and our domination commences.
In case you are wondering, "Bryce, I've known you for 27 years, and I didn't know you ever played soccer..." Well you are correct. I don't, er didn't. But never a better time to start eh?

Its almost time!

2008-01-27T11:10:00.001-07:00

Two days in a row of contractions. I think it is going to be really soon!

Christmas and New Years

2008-01-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

What a great holiday! We really had a blast. Here are the images to prove it!

Just before christmas, we made a bunch of personalized cookies for our neighbors for our FHE activity. (including some "BYU" themed cookies for our misguided Ute neighbors)

One of the highlights was the time we spent up in Brekenridge Colorado. We got to stay in this amazing condo in exchange for listening to a condo presentation. The "presentation" ended up only being 5 minutes long. We told the presenter that we really weren't interested because my parents own lots of timeshares, so we don't need to buy because they give us time, so we got sent on our way! What a good deal!

Up in Breckenridge we went to a Childrens museum that was a blast! Lots of fun creative things to play with. Here is a picture of the little medical center in one corner of the museum.

We also did a little sledding.

On Christmas morning Sam finally got to open his "Mack" from the movie cars. He has been looking forward to this for months!

Marcia pulled a fast one and totally surprised me with Guitar Hero for the Wii. She told me it was for my dad when she bought it and I totally believed her. I also got DDR.

Sam and Grandma working on the Gingerbread house.

Marcia, along with the nurses from Thailand and Lebanon gathered to make a Christmas-ornament factory powered by foreign labor. It was fun to meet these girls and they just loved pampering Marcia when she was not feeling well.

Heroscape was a definite theme on the trip. We played it at least once a day. This is how we ushered in the new year, with a wild game of Heroscape. Way to take them out Sudema. Thanos ain't got nothing.

Right before we drove back to Utah, we went the Aquarium in denver. Dad works there as a volunteer diver. He was a crackup. He did back flips to show off, waved to all the kids and scared Sam and Jensen.

More family pictures!

2007-12-12T23:36:00.001-07:00

Our friend Brea, who is a photography major took these pictures of us at a park.

December comes with lots of snow

2007-12-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

Kiddie Kandids

2007-11-29T13:22:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year! Family Pictures!

FHE- Setting up the Christmas tree

2007-11-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

It is Christmas time! Here are the pics from our FHE setting up the tree. Sam loved it, and thank goodness he is old enough this year to not destroy the ornaments. (last year we had to hide the tree behind a blockade so he couldn't get to it)

Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

We had a great Thanksgiving, and here are the pics to prove it.

We spent most of the day with my Grandparents up in Ogden with some of the cousins. It was fun to just sit around and talk.

Here is a generational photo. Mother, daughter, son, son.

With the sun setting over the view of the valley, I stole a romantic kiss from my wife.

One of the highlights was the baby blessing for Tiger Lilly, Danica and Dave's second child. It was a great blessing, and fun to be a part of.

more BYU football

2007-11-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

This fall has been a fun one, as we have followed BYU football through its games. I keep wearing my BYU tie every week because we keep winning. Our real test comes next Saturday against Utah. My family will be here, and it is going to be crazy. I really hope that I'm wearing the same tie next week.

A week ago Thursday we went to the TCU game at night down in Provo. It was a beautiful night and a fun game. Marcia was real upset that you couldn't buy churros with a credit card, but the rest of the night was excellent including the important win over a good team.

Thanks Jake for the tickets!

BYU vs CSU

2007-11-04T10:43:00.001-07:00

We went down to the game with Jake and Jamie, and it turned out that the ticket that was supposed to be left for me at will call, and Jake's vouchers didn't work. So we were at the stadium without tickets, and the game was sold out. We pulled some strings and bought a $30 ticket for $10, and then found a girl who was just giving away a $14 ticket. So just Jake and I and the boys went in, and the Girls went home.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. It was at least 60 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. BYU played very well and we won easily 35-16. It was one of the highlights of Fall for me.

Here is a picture of one of our touchdowns. Max is handing off the ball to Tonga, who ran in for a touchdown.

Halloween

2007-11-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

Sam loved Halloween. His favorite part was giving candy to the kids who came to the door. He was so excited, he waited at the window for them to come, and when we ran out of candy, he wanted to give what he had gotten from trick or treating.

Cornbelly fun

2007-10-28T09:56:00.000-06:00

Last night we went to Cornbelly's Halloween extravaganza at thanksgiving point. It was a blast. Here are some pics from our evening.

First the Barrand trio (not counting the forthcoming baby) went to Emmits food shack. This place is expensive but a lot of fun. If anyone reading this has "Emmit" in their name, then we need to hook up, becuase this little food shack gives away free meals to people who can prove their name is Emmit.

Then we met up with the Runyans at Thanksgiving point for some more fun. Sam and Josh's favorite thing was these pumps that would send water down pvc pipes with little rubber ducks. They had a blast, and before long they had taken all ducks from the other, bigger kids.

Marcia and Jamie got in on the fun too.

Here is the Monster that they have there. We went into the mouth, and heard the loud heart beating, and I decided that we better get Sam out before he starts developing a fear for monsters. The thing was pretty scary.

Here were some fun balloon trampolines. Sam and Josh loved these too.

Then, those who could fit in the child-sized cars (ie Marcia, Sam and Josh) rode on the cow train.

We played a game of tetherball Barrands vs the Runyans, where we could only hit the ball with our sons. It was fun, till we got excited and were swinging the boys around a little too hard :)

We also watched some robotic chickens sing, did a corn maze, watched people shoot corn and pumpkin cannons, and really enjoyed ourselves.

October's getting colder

2007-10-21T09:44:00.000-06:00

Yesterday things really turned cold here in Utah. It was sad because I had my little plane all ready to fly and it was very windy. I guess I'll try again next week. We went over to Jake's to watch the game. (good job byu, by the way) and it was snowing very hard by the end of the cougars romp on E. Washington. It was a great day to sit on a nice couch instead of a frozen bench at the stadium :)

Afterwards we went to the 5th Brazilian ward activity in 4 consecutive Saturdays. This was a Halloween Dance and here is a picture of our outfits. Sam's is the same Frankenstein costume from last year (sometimes having a kid that doesn't grow much is a good thing), and Marcia and I reused the caveman apparel that mom sewed for our last family picture.

27

2007-10-14T10:50:00.000-06:00

I had a great b-day this past week. Marcia got me a cool rc airplane and some gift certificates to a Japanese book store online so I can buy some Japanese movies. Mom and dad got me a remote for the wii, and wii play, Jake and Jamie got me season 3 of the office, Marcia made me a cake, breakfast, took me out for a Brazilian lunch.
Jake and Jamie brought over pizza and then we played a little wii, then watched a Japanese movie. It was a great day. After I get a chance to fly my plane, I'll try and post a video, or at least tell you all about it.

It's another boy!!

2007-09-29T10:58:00.001-06:00

According to Brazilian "voodoo" I was supposed to have a girl this time. Since this pregnancy has been a little different from the first one, I thought so too. The funny thing is that I had a dream that I was going to have a boy. The dream seemed so real but because I'm not the type of person who has "prophetic dreams" I decided to just ignore it. Also, whenever Bryce thought about the baby he could only imagine a boy. He decided to ignore that too. Bryce and I were quite sure we were going to have a cute little girl and this time we even had a name picked out. But when I had my ultrasound this week, we found out we are having another BOY. I asked the ultrasound technician "Are you sure? Sometimes people make mistakes." The lady laughed and said " I'm so sure that it is a boy that if I'm wrong I'll buy you a whole girl wardrobe then come to your house and repaint the room pink". Though Bryce was kind of disappointed, he was happy about not having to spend a lot of money on girl's outfits and bedding set. The hardest part now is to think of a boy name...