Merry Christmas

Joel and I did gingerbread houses this past weekend and I thought I would share them with you. We figured out pretty fast that we both couldn't be working on them at the same time with little Blythe. So Joel went first and this is what he came up with.



Then I got my turn. I found that I didn't have too much to work with or much time to work. So here is my five minute 'leftovers' house. It's pretty pathetic, but at least Joel got his castle. And hey, at my house the presents are as big as the house. Which one would you choose?



While we were making our houses Blythe was doing one thing she loves, looking out the window.



We hope everyone has a great Christmas. Blythe can't wait for it!

Christmas Greetings

Our friend Betsy posted this on her blog, so I thought I would share it with you. Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

(The dancers are of our friends Brett and Betsy, then us)

one month old

We didnt know if we could do it but we have made it one month and everyone is still alive!

This is Blythe and me trying to ham it up for the camera 

This shirt sums up the last month and probably much of the near future (don't wake me I'll wake you) crazy little girl.

baby Burkhart arrives

Here are a few of the first pictures taken of the new addition to the Joel and Jackie family. I just thought of something, we are going to have to change our blog name! joel and jackie +1 how about that? anyway enjoy the cone head pictures. oh, also for those who care, she (possibly Blythe Ann Burkhart) was born yesterday the 6th of November (right on her due date!) at 6:30 A.M. As you can see on the first picture her weight is 6 lbs 10 oz. and she is a whopping 19.5 inches long.







p.s for more pictures click then click on the feet (website) then click on client and type in blythe1106 for the password

Question

Do you know what this is? This is what I dressed up as for work on Halloween. It was an easy costume since I already kind of look like one. When I got to work I was surprised to find that only a few of my co-workers knew what I was. (even after I told them). I guess not everyone has read Dr. Seuss.

baby things

To answer the question about the last picture, Jackie is due November 6th, and that picture was taken on the 6th of September. this next picture was taken just a few days ago, so about one month away from the due date!



Jackie keeps saying she is soooo huge and has gained soooo much weight but as you can see, and like everyone else says she is still so tiny! personally i think she looks pretty good. I guess it doesn't matter much what I think....but I will say that the doctor says that Jackie is small but the baby just keeps on growing right on target so thats good. on a similar note, we have been getting a lot of great things from baby showers and in the mail from great family and friends. lately, we have been trying to figure out how to work some of the gadgets. Like today we spend a good hour and a half trying to figure out how to set up a playpen/crib/changing table/bassinet, sounds complicated, and it sure is. the instruction manuel was bigger than my mechanical and electrical systems text book! the next project...car seat! i don't even dare find out how thick that manuel is. anyway thanks for all the support from family and friends, we really appreciate the help.

third try

This is my third attempt to post a new blog, but it hasn't worked out because my pictures won't load (probably because of my impatience) anyway, since the last post a lot has happened. First Jackie and I had our 6th anniversary on the 5th of September. or was it the 5th on the 6th? the next day we went to the red bull flugtag where they send flying objects off a huge ramp into lake michigan. it was fun but the flying objects were more like falling objects and we didn't see much because there were so many people we were sent into the third overflow where we got a distant view of a big screen.



well it looks like my third attempt is not so successful at loading my pictures so we will just get one picture and more words. Anyway, after that weekend, we had Joeh and Amy Recksiek come to our house and they brought there little girl Emily, we had a great time and saw some cool things. the only problem was that we got rained on the whole time because of a residual affect from the hurricane down south. it finally cleared up on their last day here so they finally were able to see the top of the sears tower without being covered in clouds.

the weekend after that we had James and Stacey come stay with us for a couple days and we had a good time hanging out with them. They were only here a couple of days so we wanted to get as much in as we could and it seemed like we were rushing around the whole town to see everything.
there are pictures to all our adventures but they are not loading so again thats too bad.

other than our adventures with visitors i have been in school and just had a preliminary review for my studio project and it seemed to be helpful and gave me some direction for the rest of the semester.

School starts tomorrow

So, School is already starting tomorrow, like the title says, and I figure I better post a few of the projects i did last semester because we set up the blog after I got out of school.


This was my first day of school last year

This project was a "bale" where i was studying intersecting lines and change of direction. I used 8.5 X 11 inch sheets of recycled paper from the computer lab. The next project was a "box" and had to be made out of wood and had to relate to the "bale" so this is what i came up with


Each of the pieces of wood were shaped so that when put together they would relate to the dimension of a piece of paper. for instance the inside circumference is 8.5" and the outside circumference is 11" the height of each individual piece is 11" and the height of where both pieces are touching is 8.5" and so on.

One of my visual training classes we studied spheres all semester long. I used my time as a materials study as well so i made spheres out of plaster, yarn, concrete and different mixtures of light weight concrete. I used balloons as guides for a little bit but then I used a bowling ball as an object that I made casts from. anyway here are a few of the many spheres i made.





In one of my studio classes we studied wood structures and some of the common and not so common practices of building wood buildings. one of the structures I studied was the forestry station modular structures located in Switzerland. this is what part of the building looks like.

Our class later in the semester went to Switzerland and Jackie and I went during spring break before the class arrived. We drove up to the forestry station to see if I built it right and I think I did a good job.

Later in the semester we had a final show in Crown Hall and here is one of my projects along with a few of the other structures that were studied by my classmates.


Also in that semester we made some dynamic structural models of some existing buildings that used natural shapes that help the structural stability of the building. the model Tom (a classmate) and I made was a representation on the dules airport in D.C. at least i think its in D.C. either way here is a picture.

Our model is made of wood, plastic and wire to show the different forces and movement that the building has. the actual dules airport is made of concrete that is post tensioned into this parabolic shape which is able to span a much greater distance than just a flat roof.
The last project of the semester was a full scale structural design. My team decided to design a bridge that used some of the structural ideas that came from studying the dules airport. the idea was to span a long distance with a very thin structure. here are some pictures.

It ended up being a success as you can see. Tom and I are standing on what looks like a 4" deck spanning a good distance. the distance between the wall and the lockers is 40 feet. the way that the bridge works is that there are three support posts that are not touching the ground, they are actually held in place by some tension cables that are putting all the force back into the deck in a horizontal direction. it is a little hard for me to explain without being there and pointing and touching but in essence the posts are being held up because of the compression in the deck and the deck is able to span because of the posts breaking up the span distance. I am probably making no sense but anyone reading this just needs to know that it was a successful first year and I am looking forward to a next year starting tomorrow.

Last Nights Storm

Im glad I found that time lapse option on my camera because I knew that last mid to late summer we had a lot of great lightning storms and I wanted to record one coming in. I was watching the news and there was a tornado watch in effect in some of the counties to the west of us. I set up the camera and we got a storm that was a lot bigger than we were bargaining for. Take a look at the video.




At the beginning we could see a lot of lightning to the north west of us, as we kept watching we turned on the news again because it was starting to look scary. the tornado advisory was heading straight for us then the cable lost signal and we heard the tornado warning alarms going off outside! we grabbed our 72 hour kits from the front closet and were ready to book it down the stairs. Our power was still on so we decided to stay where we were until either the power went off or our windows blew out. luckily none of those things happened so we just stayed in our apartment. If you look closely at the video right before the brunt of the storm hits you can see the red crane violently swing around in the direction of the wind then later it shifts in another direction. The news said that the storm moved across the city at 40 MPH with gusts of wind that were in multiple directions which they thought might turn into a tornado. I thought the gusts were going to blow our windows out! It was a little scary but we are alive.

Joel doing nothing

So, I don't have a job. I have been looking all summer for an internship with any sort of architectural firm. Before the summer even started I gave my resume to a few firms at a job fair, then when the summer started I looked up a few places that looked like cool places to work, after no luck at any of those firms I just started giving my resume to just about any place that looked like it might resemble architecture, including a firm that draws new designs for bus seats. I had a couple of interviews and a few phone calls but nothing has worked out. I have less than a month before school starts and in that time we are going to move and I have to get a few things ready for school. Lately I have been packing books into boxes, playing rock band on line with Brett and I have been monitoring the progress on some new building they are constructing outside my view. I found this cool time lapse feature on my camera so I recorded a little bit of the day in the life of a construction worker. It is amusing to me when the food truck pulls up and there are herds of workers that line up behind the truck and then vanish for lunch.

You asked for it....

I'm finally getting around to posting my belly. I've actually been putting it off because I feel silly posting pictures of myself. I've gotten a lot of lectures for not doing it so I hope you are all happy. This first picture is taken a couple of weeks after we came out for Jeff and Anna's wedding. So the beginning of May, I guess. It's the only good 'before' picture I have even though it wasn't before. I was a little over 3 months along.
Here are two others that are more recent. The red skirt one was taken just Sunday and the other was taken a couple of days before that.

I haven't minded this part of the pregnancy. I seem to have enough energy and I'm not totally nauseated anymore, so I'm loving that. I've only had one person touch my belly that I wasn't too comfortable with. I hear it will happen more and I'm really hoping that complete strangers won't do it, like in the grocery store check out line. (right, Michelle)? Awkward. And, I can now cry on command or just have an uncontrollable laughing spell. It's kinda weird and sometimes really scares Joel. For one, I'm the one crying during movies and not Joel. That usually doesn't happen. So, there you all have it! That's as big as the belly has gotten and I'm sure it'll get worse and those will be some great pictures to see... maybe I'll share them.

Walking in the Rain

I've been trying to walk to work lately. I got lazy and started driving to work for a while. So to save money and to get some exercise I've been making myself walk. The other day I was about ready to leave work and noticed it looked like some rain was going to start. I didn't bring my umbrella with me, but I knew there were a bunch of them in the closet. So I went and picked out the smallest one, at least that's what I thought. I started my trek home and opened up my borrowed umbrella. I was surprised to see that it was as big as a five man tent. I debated whether or not to shut it and just get wet or continue my walk home as is. I opted to use the umbrella because of what happened earlier in the week. On my way to work a couple days before this I was caught in a rain burst out of nowhere and ended up going back home to change my drenched clothes. I got a lot of stares with such a huge tent, but at least this time I was dry. At one point I was taking up the whole sidewalk and had to hold the umbrella up so people could walk under. So in a way, I wasn't just keeping myself dry I was helping others out. I only ran it into one building, took out one car antenna and almost blew away three times. It was a sight to see. I had learned my lesson earlier in the week. I'll definitely take a tent and stares over nothing any day. Having an umbrella here is a must!
These pictures really don't show how massive this thing was, but you can kind of imagine it.

4th of July in Chicago

We had a fun week last week. We started it out at the White Sox game Tuesday night. Joel's friend from school and his fiance invited us to go with them. We sat on the 5th row, right behind the 3rd plate. It was awesome. I could see everything, even the sweat. We stayed for most of the game, but when they are down by one in the bottom of the 10th with two outs, you kinda figure the game is over. Just as we are leaving the stadium we hear a burst of cheering and fireworks go off. They had scored a home run!! We couldn't believe it. We decided to keep going and listen to the rest of the game in the car. The Sox ended up scoring another point and won the game. We watched the fireworks from the car. Joel was so heartbroken that we had missed the most exciting part of the game! He'll remember that longer then if was in the stadium, right?

Joel's disappointment was forgotten two days later when we went over to the same friend's house to watch the big downtown firework show. Tom and Lauren live right next to the park the fireworks were being set off. We were able to go onto the rooftop deck to watch. We were 56 floors up!! When the show started we were surprised to see that we were eye level with it all. It was loud and fun. Our baby was loving it, she was kicking through the whole thing.



This is the view before the show started. Joel was worried to take the picture because he was afraid he was going to lose the camera over the edge.. even though he was ten feet away from it.




This is a part of the show! Good times.

The next day, which was actually the 4th we were at home ready to enjoy a movie night. We didn't get too far into the movie when it was interrupted by millions of fireworks. When we looked out the window all we could see were huge fireworks everywhere, all the way north and west. So we got a good show again! They started at about 9 and didn't end until Midnight. I guess there aren't as many restrictions here as there are in Utah. We couldn't get a good picture of it all. Sorry to disappoint. We ended the weekend off at the Taste of Chicago. This is a huge deal here. It's a big fair, but mostly it's about the food, hence the name. All kinds of restaurants come out for taste testing. You purchase tickets and go around buying food with these tickets. I felt like I was in elementary school again. The food was good and the crowd was huge. It was quite the experience. All in all, it was a good week. We missed being with family and doing tank battles, but it was fun to enjoy the things Chicago had to offer.

Baby Pictures

These ultrasound pictures were taken June 18th 2008. Jackie and I were pretty excited about going because we decided we could not wait to find out if the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. Jackie was guessing it was a boy and i thought it would be a girl. The only names that we could agree on were boy names so of course it was going to be a girl!!!! I was right!!! this is something that I have to be proud of because as a married man I am most all the time wrong.



Here is the money shot of her face!! the doctor didn't seem too interested in the face or any other features pictures....most all she cared about was getting a good look at her heart. From what we could see of the heart it looked like a tiny two cylinder engine...well not exactly, but it did pump real good.



As you can tell by the bottom of the picture these are the feet. she must take after her moms feet. you can tell by the big toe and how it is situated next to the 2nd toe and so on. Im just kidding my toes are the same way.



I like this picture. It was amazing how much detail we were able to see of all the babies features and different organs and bones and the like. Well thats all for now I have to go and sign a new lease for a bigger apartment. we hear that babies don't take up too much space but all their stuff does! thanks for the heads up Noah.

First Post

So, Jackie and I are setting up this blog to keep our families and friends up to date on baby progress, school, work and how wicked awesome we are! I am setting this blog up on the wrong computer so I don't have any of the pictures of Jackie and the baby (Jackie's belly) soon enough....soon enough. in the mean time here is a cool picture from our old computer