Today was Isaac Mans’ 4th birthday.  He was very proud that he was turning four, and even woke us up around 1am to let us know that he had indeed turned four. 

Family had a small party at McDonalds (will be having a bounce house extravaganza later in the month) to celebrate this glorious occasion.  The boys had lots of fun climbing up and down the play house.

Christina made some delicious cupcakes and we sang Isaac happy birthday.

Isaac got some new slides for his view finder, and both boys really enjoyed the cupcakes.  It was interesting to see the different personalities in the boys in how they ate their cupcakes.  Zach pushed it down his throat, while Isaac slowly savored every bite.

How do you finish a perfect birthday?  You play some Vtech and lay back and think of all the trouble you can cause as a four year old.

Below is a link to an article written by Bill Frist.  The article goes over Bush’s foreign aid policy and the impact it  is having and will have in the future.  Thought it was pretty interesting and was even more surprised to find it on CNN.com.  What didn’t surprise me is the comments that were left by so many Americans who think George W. Bush was the antichrist.  As if they are some kind of experts on the matter.  Anyways, thanks for the past 8 years George and I guess history will have the final say.

BUSH SAVES 10 MILLION LIVES <<LINK

I signed up for the windows 7 beta last week with much excitement.  It took me about a week to get everything up and running which was an experience to say the least.  Setup new computer desk, got wire harnesses to get the rats nest of wires under control, reformatted computer to only find that my computer still magically had a virus, reformatted my computer, partitioned extra hard drive on desktop to put Windows 7 on, and finally on Tuesday night launched windows 7.  Not to mention I got the flu on Wednesday. 

I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it so far, and my favorite upgrades are the new task bar, and windows media center which is much more slick.  On top of the windows 7 beta, I’ve been playing around with new Windows Live software that is mostly in beta still.  The new photo gallery is really nice, and loving new improvements to windows mail/windows live writer.  All in all Microsoft seems to be pushing pretty hard to get caught up with the competition, and as I’ve felt all along they have the money to do what ever they want.

Here is the pamphlet I am using to read through the Bible in a year.  Feel free to save images and use it to become more righteous then you are now.  Just click on either image to enlarge it.  A couple good friends (Josh Smith, Nole Lilley) had asked to see how it was setup.

Downloaded a plug-in for live writer that is supposed to post a twitter comment when I create a blog post.  

EDIT*

Sweet, so those who follow me on Twitter now can see when I post a blog entry on the spot!  Microsoft FTW.  Maybe I should start twittering too? 

Apparently Montana is getting all kinds of snow, and I was thinking of moving to Montana too. . .

Here is a photo of Montana Mike/Tawny's House after yet another day of snow.  The photo is linked to Tawny's blog that talks a bit more about it.  For those of you (Nole?) that haven't found Tawny's blog yet, it is great!

I was looking through some of my old blog posts and came across a post about my Zune card.  I had posed the question which artist would hit 1,000 plays first.  None of my artists have hit that mark, but it made me think about making some goals for the new year so I can come back next year and see how I did. 

1.) Read Bible

People's Church, where we attend, handed out pamphlets that scheduled bible reading so as to finish in one year.  The first time I read the Bible through as a youth was this very same way.  I was pretty weak spiritually in 2008, so here is to 2009 being better.  The cool part about the outline is that you read a different part of the Bible every day.  Sunday- is for Psalms, Monday- Law, Tuesday- History, Wednesday- Poetry, Thursday- Prophesy, Friday- Gospels, Saturday- Epistles.  I am pretty excited to read this way, since usually I just read cover to cover. 

2.) Graduate from Fresno State

Really my goal is to graduate this next semester, but I still need to talk to counselor to make sure there is no hidden classes I haven't taken (counselors are super tricky!).

3.) Move out of Jackson Park Place

With the boys getting bigger we need a bigger place, but we are waiting on goal 2 before we try for this one.  Since, obviously it will entail getting new job (unless Best Buy wants to pay me some FAT cash).

4.) Run 500 miles

My dad gives me all kinds of grief about not being on Runningahead.com, but I do really want to get back into running.  And I still remember that lady telling me that an average runner hits 500 miles every year so I figure that I as a  below average runner can put up at least 500.

5.)  Gamer Score, and Zune plays at 25,000

This past week I hit the 20,000 gamer score mark, and 10,000 plays on my Zune.  Right before the end of the year, and within a week of each other.  This obviously is the least important goal, but I love getting achievements on my Xbox and am loving my Zune Pass that Christina got me (up to over 60 albums downloaded). 

My wife in her talks with Grandpa found out that there was an amazing little ice cream shop in Hanford that was worth the trip.   So, Christina had the great idea to take the boys to Hanford on the Amtrak train to score some sweet ice cream.

We loaded up at the Fresno Amtrak station, and the boys had a lot of fun looking at the passing scenery.  We were also lucky enough to have Grandpa come with us to help watch the minions.  You might be wondering, what is there to do in Hanford?

First Isaac got his shoes cleaned so he would look good for the people of Hanford.  We found this sweet WWI canon outside a veterans center.  The boys had a great time firing it, though Zach did try and kill Isaac by pushing him off.  Luckily I was standing close enough to grab him before he hit the ground.

Of Course there was the Ice Cream!  The real question of this shop was its dairy products really superior?  As you can see by the size of the sundae we ordered that it clearly was!  This was only a regular sundae, the S.O.S. (Super Oversized Sundae) had four more scoops of ice cream, and would probably take all of Hanford to finish it.  The ice cream was also delicious of course.

Next up was the Hanford thrift store, what better way to spend the day then with other peoples used stuff!  The best part by far was a crazy lady walking around the shop saying the most bizarre things.  Zach had a blast with the toys, and I saw electronics that I haven't seen since I was 5! 

Unfortunately for us the Carnegie Museum was closed but the library was open so the boys got to look through kids books, and Zach was trying to pick up on one of the local babes which was hilarious.  Our last stop before heading back to Fresno was a Grocery Outlet which had all kinds of sweet toys for cheap.  Heading back to Fresno went by really fast, but best part was these two ladies tried to punk Christina by not sharing seats but they got pwned.