Swim Meet

Jamie had another swim meet at the end of November.
She continues to do very well and
LOVES the water and the competition.
Here she is with 3 of her besties and swimming buddies:
Lizzie, Anna W and Anna P.

Here she is ready to dive in the water!

The One That Got Away

This gorgeous Buck graced our back yard right after Thanksgiving, he was a Beauty! According to Brent, by Minnesota standards he is an 8-point. According to our neighbor, he would have been worth about 130 points. I have no idea what that means, but it sounded good and he was impressed.

Too bad he got away!

Giving Thanks

Grandma and Papa Jim were here to share the Thanksgiving Holiday with us. We have a fun morning with the DeLay family with a big breakfast, games and laughter. Later that afternoon, we shared this Thanksgiving feast together and reflected on our bounty, blessings and loved ones. We are truly grateful for them all!

Young Women in Excellence

For Young Women in Excellence, Jamie was highlighted along with the other Young Women in a night of "See what we are Cooking UP!" Jamie shared some of the Value Experiences she has started on under the them of Knowledge. She is cooking fudge here, which was her Value Experience of learning to do something new. For her 10 hour project, she plans to meal plan, shop and cook 10 meals for our family.

Puppy Porter

For her GT class, Sidney was assigned to participate in the school district Inventor's Fair. She searched and searched over many weeks for the perfect project. She decided upon creating a Puppy Porter! Her is her design and creative process in her own words:

Problem: We got a new puppy and we couldn’t walk him very well so we needed something to carry him. So I thought and I wanted to invent something to go on a scoter. That’s how
I got my idea to make the puppy porter.

Purpose: I thought that if I made something to go on the front of the scooter we could take our puppy on walks. Also people who have a small dog that can’t walk they can use it too. It would make walking your dog easier.

Research: My parents and I thought we should make it out of a kind of plastic so we went online to see if there was anything like it. There wasn’t anything like it so that’s what I decided to make. To look to see if my invention had already been invented we looked at Google Patent and looked in an American Girl Doll Catalog and on regular Google. We also looked at Amazon.com , Petsmart.com and Razor.com.We realized that my idea was different enough that we would be able to make it without copying an idea.

Originality: When I looked online I found many things for dogs to ride on bikes. So we thought we could not invent something for a bike, but I thought we could invent something to so that my dog could fit on my scooter. My invention is unique because kids can take it off and put it on the scooter when needed. It is small and light enough to fit on a scooter. The puppy porter has a window for the dog to breathe and look out of.

My Invention: The puppy porter is an easy to use carrier for a small puppy that attaches to a scooter. The porter attaches to the scooter by two screws and two Velcro straps. One the porter is attached to the scooter, the puppy is placed inside through the clear top. The puppy is visible at all times and has a window that can be covered with a netting shade or left open.

Materials: vinyl boards, screws, wing nuts, saw, drill, nails, hinges, flat and corner brackets, latch, netting, Velcro, clear acrylic panel, pipe connector

Estimate cost of the project: $60

Observations:

• My dad assisted me with cutting the boards and drilling the holes

• I liked using the drill to screw in the screws
  

• I had to use my puppy as a measuring standard for the size of the puppy porter

Adjustments:

• I originally planned to make the puppy porter a square, and realized a rectangle was better

• I planned to glue the sides but we found that nailing the sides using brackets would work better

• I was not sure how to attach the puppy porter to the scooter and I experimented with several things before deciding to use a pipe connector and Velcro straps
  

In January, Sidney will take her invention to the District Inventor's Fair, she is excited to display and get judged on her fun invention!!

Family's Best Friend

Toby has warmed our hearts and definitely become the very favorite in our house! We love him, his crazy Einstein hair and love to watch him play with his toys, especially his favorite froggy!

Jamie's 50 M Freestyle Victory

In her swim meet tonight Jamie blew away the competition in her favorite race the 50M Freestyle. There were 110 girls that raced in 13 different heats. Not only did Jamie win her heat but she came away with an overall 2nd place WIN! Her time was 34.58 seconds and the one girl that beat her was a 14 year old from another swim team. Jamie also had a great race in the 100M Breaststroke and the 100M Individual Medley. She placed 5th in the Breaststroke out of 22 swimmers and 2nd in the IM out of 27 swimmers. We are proud of her accomplishments and hard work, she LOVES to swim and we love to WATCH her swim!

Jamie 50 freestyle swim from Donny Martin Cinematography on Vimeo.

Thanks Donny for this awesome footage!

Baby Miller - Welcome to the Family

Congratulations to Nate, Lindsay and Hyrum on this beautiful addition to their family.

Miller Barry Preator was born on November 1, 2011.
We can't wait to meet our adorable new nephew/cousin!