Makenna has come home

Sleeping in her new crib.

Our little girl has come home from the hospital today. Mom and family is doing well. Dad is a little frazzled trying to keep everyone happy, but Mom has a calm grip on sanity and keeps everyone content.

A newborn

Makenna Lynn Kempton was born Monday, December 8th, 2008 @ 1:28 pm at Los Robles Hospital. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 7 ounces. She is 19 1/2 inches tall. Within minutes she was feeding and doing great. She is absolutely beautiful, (like her Mom) and we are excited for the new addition to our Kempton family.

Family Pictures

We got some pictures of our family taken last Saturday. They are ok. I had three free pictures, so these are what we chose.

Jacob's 2nd Birthday party

Jacob's second birthday was a rocket theme. He is facinated with rockets and planes. Matt built a rocket launcher. The kids had a blast trying to catch the rockets.

Still a girl

We had an ultrasound today and the first thing the doctor said was that the baby is still a girl. I was glad to hear that. Since her room is already painted. I did not want to start over.

Time flies

I can't believe Jacob is turning two. We just had pictures taken of him for his second birthday. He won't actually be two until Monday the 6th. He has a really cheesy smile when you ask him to say chees or even just tell him to smile. And for some reason the photographer kept asking him to say cheese. I did ask her to stop. So we got a few normal looking pictures.

Malibu Triathlon

Before













































After

I competed in a relay team in the Malibu Triathlon @ Zuma Beach this weekend. Our team, "The Trinamic Trio" comprised of 3 friends from work. We did great and had a fantastic experience. I met a couple of celebreties and found out they are normal people. I got to meet Matthew McConaughey and his new family. Keline got her hair cut on the beach for a donation to the Children's Hospital. It was a great weekend.

Working in the garage

Matt decided to clean out the garage on Labor Day. I know we are party animals. Jacob is always right there to help.

Makenna's new room

I finally finished painting Makenna's room. It was a long and tedious project. Thank goodness I had two of my sisters helping me. I don't have the bedding yet, but this is the one I hope to get.

Jacob's new friend

Jacob found a new friend in our back yard. Our neighbor's cat comes over to play and eat tuna fish. They are close pals now.

Air Rockets

For the last week Jacob and I have been building and rebuilding an Air Rocket Launcher Prototype. The body of this launcher is made from 4 inch schedule 80 PVC. I couldn’t find any 4 inch fittings at the local hardware stores, so I used ABS instead. The "professional plumbing dude" @ Home Depot said that Christie's Red Hot Blue Glue would seal them quite nicely. I asked if he was sure, because this launcher was to hold well in excess of 100 psig around little 2 year olds. If it failed, that would be a bloody mess and we would be left with all that cake. He assured me and I was on my way. I assembled the parts, and after a day of curing; I pressure tested the unit. Right around 90 pounds, the fittings failed and the unit turned into a rocket of its own. I did this test in the backyard with no one around. I was pissed. Somehow I knew it wouldn't work. $20 in really nice PVC fittings and I rebuilt the unit. Once again, after curing for a day, Keline and I did a pressure decay integrity test. We pumped the unit up to 100 psig and let it sit for an hour. It didn’t leak at all, when we returned, the gauge read 99 psi. Jacob and I then built an assortment of paper rockets to test. We conned mom into building one also. Some fly really well, others… not so much. (With a Mexican accent…. Not so much…). We have lost 2 rockets into Freddie’s monstrous tree. I picked up some foam board for the fins, we are tearing through Keline’s expensive scrapbooking paper for the rocket body tubes (they are pretty rockets), and we use tape as the nose cone.
Last night we finalized the “perfect rocket”. It is easy to build, very robust, and a good flyer. We launched the first model version over 25 times, some @ 20 psi, others launches @ 105 psi. I can gage the wind and have the rocket launched and recovered within about 10 feet of the launching pad. We used a stop watch to time the flight from launch to landing and some are as long as 7 seconds. I got out my old physics equations and calculated that the rockets are reaching around 150 ft. We then went for distance. I put the launcher in the street and launched it down our road. Pacing off the recover distance, it was 100 paces, or a football field in length. NOT BAD for $26 in parts….. Next is water rocketry, then solid state fuel rockets. But Jake is only turning 2, so we will have to wait a little bit.

There's a heartbeat

(Keline) I had a doctors appointment today. I gained a few more pounds than the doctor likes. I told him that food looks and smells good now. He measured the baby and listened to her heartbeat. Everything looks and sounds good. Next month i get to drink the yummy drink to test for diabetes. And then three weeks later we will have another ultrasound. The countdown has begun. Hopefully signs still say a girl since her room is now pink and brown.

Always learning

I(Keline) just figured out how to put music to this blog. Matt got me started. So hope you enjoy.

100 Mile bike ride

Matt signed up for the 100 mile bike ride. He hasn't been on a bike in who knows how long so he did the short 60 mile ride. He did finish but is in some pain now. Next month he is doing a relay triathlon. He's doing the bike riding part. I think he'll start training now.