April 7th, 2010
We are finally homeowners and we are really excited. We just recently purchased 17 acres that is outside of town about 28miles. On the acreage we have a 3 bedroom 2 bath house, a horse barn, a hay barn, and it is completely fenced. The property also backs up to the Water Management area which is like a National Forest and we have deeded horse access to the trails plus no one that has land around us can divide their lots so we have a pretty unrestricted view of the water management. In other words it is a perfect fit for our family and horses. We have started the move process and will post pictures of the place once we are settled (here are some pics for those who can’t wait http://www.heavenlymeadows.org/Property4Sale.html). We are looking forward to the peace and quiet of the country and the ability to ride our horses from the house. Plus we have a porch swing to enjoy the stars and sunsets 
.
We also were just able to take a quick trip to Orlando for a quick vacation/temple trip/work trip. Derek was at a conference all week and Nichole and Heidi came along to relax and enjoy the pool. We have put up some pictures in the gallery from the trip and Heidi really enjoyed the pool and Nichole enjoyed the down time before we really start moving.
Derek, Nichole, and Heidi
Tags: orlando, tucker
Posted in Family | 2 Comments »
April 7th, 2010
I just got done presenting a paper on my current Non-Gaussian detection work based on the K-distribution and have posted my slides and paper below.
SPIE10 Abstract
SPIE10 Paper
SPIE10 Presentation
Derek
Tags: orlando, spie
Posted in Writing | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Well I just got home from ICASSP 10 in Dallas Texas (A Electrical Engineering Conference). It was a great trip and I was able to renew a lot of friendships both personal and work related. Since I served my mission in Fort Worth over 6 years ago I knew quite a few people in the area and a few that are close to my heart. I was able to take a few lunches with former companions, converts, and members from the area. It was great to see how much has changed and how much the church has grown in the area, especially seeing the Fort Worth Stake being split and how much the church has grown in the Weatherford area. I spent 12months in Weatherford and 6 Months in Fort Worth so I really love the people of the two stakes. Below is a picture of James Gates whom I baptized while on my mission.
While I was gone Nichole and Heidi held down the fort with the horses and did really well especially since I will be doing the trip thing all over again soon. But I came home to a wonderful surprise of Heidi starting to scoot around. She is not quite crawling, but almost there and Nichole was able to catch it on video this morning which I have posted below for everyone’s enjoyment.
http://www.tetonedge.net/videos/Heidi Scooting.flv
Hope everyone is well and enjoying the signs of spring, we are finally getting back to normal temperatures here, but the Gulf is still cold.
Derek, Nichole, and Heidi
Tags: heidi, texas, tucker
Posted in Family, Videos | 1 Comment »
March 6th, 2010
We have added new pictures of Heidi to the blog and I have posted a couple below, also we are moving forward on the house with most of the inspections done and coming back good, so hopefully we will be able to close in the next couple of weeks. Also it has finally warmed up into the 60′s here which is great so we will be riding the horses more. The rest of the pictures are in the gallery.
Derek, Nichole, and Heidi
Tags: heidi, house
Posted in Family | No Comments »
March 1st, 2010
Well it has a been a cold month down here in Florida, or what they call “cold” down here. However, the weather has killed most of the tropical plants around the house and the barn. Nichole, Heidi, and I have had a pretty normal month just going through life with work and playing with Heidi and the horses. We finally have dried out as well from all the rain, but it looks like we are going to get 2 more inches tonight, so I guess that was short lived. We also have been dealing with trying to get a house, we found a perfect little property north of town for horses, but have ran into hurdles with banks wanting to finance the property and a low appraisal. We should however, know today if we are going to get it and we are hopeful.
Heidi is getting bigger everyday and becoming more and more talkative. She has started to sit up on her own for longer periods of time and starting the beginning stages of crawling as she tries to get up on her hands and knees. She has also started to enjoy the jumper that her grandparents got her for Christmas and Nichole was able to catch her have fun on video which we have posted below. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the winter.
http://www.tetonedge.net/videos/Heidi Jumper.flv
Derek, Nichole, and Heidi
Tags: heidi, Videos
Posted in Family, Videos | No Comments »
February 7th, 2010
Hi Everyone!
Just thought I would do a little Heidi update as Derek downloaded some cute videos that I took of Heidi this week. She is doing great and weighs around 15 pounds. A perfect little pudge. The first video is of her being tickled by Nichole’s foot, that is the big blue thing. She just looked so cute and was making the best noises. Little kids giggles are the best! It was nice to hear her laugh too since she has been a little crabby, we think she is going through a growth spurt since there are no teeth yet. The second video is of her clicking her tongue. That was something that Grandma Patty was trying to get her to do over Christmas and she is finally able to do it really well. The bad part is when she starts doing it during church. Oh well at least she is not crying but she does scream sometimes too. I can’t believe how fast she is growing and I cannot believe that she is 7 and a half months already.
http://www.tetonedge.net/videos/Heidi Giggles.flv
http://www.tetonedge.net/videos/Heidi Clicking.flv
Derek and I are doing well. Derek is keeping busy with work and just finished up a review so he was able to meet with his advisor while he was here for a few days which was nice. We have also gotten a lot of rain recently so we have lots of lakes around the property.
The other exciting thing is that we put a contract on a house last week. We found one that we really liked and we are just waiting for appraisal and inspection to come through. It is north of Panama City in a little township called Greenhead. It has a Chipley address though. It is a 3 bedroom 2 bath home and has 17 acers for the horses. So we hope things go well with it. Other than Heidi growing up, us needing Noah’s Ark, and putting a contract on a house not much is going on!
We’ll update you all again soon!
Love Derek, Nichole and Heidi
P.S. Go COLTS!!
Tags: giggles, heidi
Posted in Family, Videos | No Comments »
January 23rd, 2010
Well we have been drying out after getting 5″ of rain in a little under 15hrs. Our property has been the land of lakes and I swore we needed a canoe on Thursday night to go out and feed the horses. Other than that things are going well down here in Florida with us settling into a routine after the holidays. Heidi is doing great and getting bigger everyday, we have included new photos in the gallery and a few videos of her talking and playing with Nevada below. This should satisfy the grandparents for a little while
Derek will be starting to travel for work over the next few months for conferences, reviews and meetings so he will be busy. Also we have started to look for a house as we feel that this is the place that we need to be and we are really enjoying the area and the job. We are in a good position with where we are renting so we don’t have to be in any big hurry to buy. However, we have seen a pretty good prospect this week.
http://www.tetonedge.net/videos/Heidi Talking.flv
http://www.tetonedge.net/videos/Nevada and Heidi.flv
Hope everyone is well.
Derek, Nichole, and Heidi
Tags: heidi, Videos
Posted in Videos | No Comments »
January 9th, 2010
Hi everyone!
Just thought I would update on everyone on how Heidi is doing. She went to the Doctor this week and is doing really well. She is 12 lbs 2 oz and is 24 inches long. She has been doing really well rolling over and working on sitting up. It has been pretty cold here so we have been bundling up. All of the animals are doing well and are growing some pretty thick coats that would do Colorado proud. I took some new photos of Heidi and we hope you enjoy them.
Love,
Derek, Nichole and Heidi
Tags: heidi
Posted in Family | No Comments »
January 8th, 2010
Just got this from Dad, this was a picture Heidi with her Grandpa in front of the new firetruck, thought I would share this with everyone
Derek
Tags: grandpa, heidi
Posted in Family | No Comments »
December 26th, 2009
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I thought I would write a quick post about our holiday adventures. We are just finishing up the last day of our week long trip up to see Derek’s parents in Jackson Hole, WY. We were able to spend Christmas up there and enjoy time with the family and catching up with friends. Most of them came for a visit just to see Heidi. We were also able to make it over to Burley, ID to see Derek’s grandparents so Heidi could meet her great grandparents. It was a great visit and even though it was short we were excited to see the family as it has been a couple of years and it was great to see the grandparents in good health. Heidi handled the trip great and really was a great traveler on her first plane ride across the country. We have put new pictures up in the gallery for everyone to enjoy of our Christmas trip. Some of the landscape and artistic shots were done by Matt, Derek’s brother-in-law and he is developing into a really great photographer. You can see some of his work at http://mellorphotography.daportfolio.com/. Here are some of the favorites, enjoy the rest.
Love
Derek, Nichole, and Heidi
Tags: burley, Christmas, jackson
Posted in Family | 1 Comment »
