Thanks again for all the support. You can actually vote as many times as you want. If you disable the cookies on your computer you can vote non-stop. I don't expect anyone to do this, but by doing it you can vote many times. Thanks again.

I now have a new phone number...Please discard all previous emails and use this one....its the only one that works for me anymore.

435 890 8394

Love you....here are some pics from lake powell...I will post more later...

Chris Hillman and Jeff Ginn


Bobby Ginn jumping the wake



Tristan Webb and the water falls in Powell (we went through a hail storm and got to see lots of waterfalls).

Hi All,
I voted early this morning. It was easy to click on the link and get to the site but finding Spencer's art proved a bit of a challenge. I still don't know how exactly I got to his doodle!
When I did it was easy to click on the vote button. I read the rules but I could not find any reference to the number voting questions I have- such as: Can you vote more than once a day? Are you limited to one vote for the week? Can you vote once every day? etc..
I do know now that you can only vote once a day. I will try again tomorrow.
No matter the problems this is a lot of fun for us all and we are very impressed with Spencer

Hi All!! Here is the story that goes along with the pictures up above. This is an article about Spencer that appeared last week in their local newspaper, the Courier Post.

LUMBERTON – Doodling along the margins’ of his school books has paid off for Spencer Norton. The Ashbrook Elementary School third-grader is among 40 nationwide finalists in the Doodle 4 Google contest, in which students dressed up the search engine’s logo.

“I’m very, very excited,” said the 8-year old. “Last night, I couldn’t go to bed because I was so excited. I was up until 10 pm.”

Spencer’s rock music-inspired design – with an electric guitar replace the L and the tow speakers of a boombox replacing the Os in the word Google – was picked from thousands of entries nationwide.

“It’s very polished,” said Allison Heller, Spencer’s homeroom teacher. “Most third-graders’ artwork doesn’t look like this.”

Contest entries had to be similar to the designs that adorn Google’s homepage on special occasions and holidays. The contest’s theme was “What if…”

Each of 18 children in Megan Mancini’s gifted and talented class made up a design. The themes the students chose to illustrate included “What if it was summer all year round” and “What if there was no such thing as asthma.” Mancini said. All 18 designs were then put on display so Ashbrook students could vote for their favorite. The six designs with the most votes were sent to Google, but only Spencer’s was picked as a regional winner.

“I thought people were going to be jealous, but that didn’t happen,” Spencer said. “All my friends, they think that I’m going to win.”

Spencer explained why he picked his theme, “What if the world rocked,” to Google in a statement he sent along with the drawing.

“I told them that I can express myself with music,” Spencer said. “If everyone could do that, everyone would be happy and the world would rock.”

Spencer’s design, along with the other 39 winners, will be displayed in a gallery on Google’s Web site. From Monday, May 12 through Sunday, May 18, the public will get a chance to vote for the doodles they believe best capture the contest’s theme.

On May 21, the students whose designs got the most votes will be revealed during a ceremony at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA.

Google’s Webmaster Dennis Hwang will then pick the overall winner, who will receive a $10,000 college scholarship, a laptop and a T-shirt printed with their design.

The winner’s school will receive $25, 000 to improve or establish a computer lab.

“One of the dreams that the district has is to be able to put wireless laptops in the classrooms, so the kids don’t have to go to the lab all the time,” School district spokeswoman Betsy Kaulskey said.

Of all the prizes, the one that excites Spencer the most is having his design on Google’s homepage for 24 hours.

“Millions of people will see my design,” Spencer said. “That’s crazy.”

We love you and we're all voting and rooting for you Spencer!!

Love, Aunt Cassy

Hi All! I'm sorry about the latest blog I put up. It's a story about Spencer in their local newspaper, and I was hoping it would be bigger in size so you could read it. I'll post it a different way later so you can see and read it better!
Love you All,
Cassy

Thanks for the support everyone. The voting starts today so if everyone could get on and vote it would be great. Cassy has the link listed below, but this is where you go if you can not connect through her link (www.google.com/doodle4google) . We really are not sure if you can vote once a day or just once between now and Sunday. Please help us out by voting now and checking back to see if you can vote again. And if you would pass the voting information off to friends and other relatives so that they can vote also it would be great. Thanks again to everyone for the support.

Lots of love to you all!

Spencer and the Nortons - We can't wait to see Spencer's artwork tomorrow and we'll pass on the link to others we know so we can flood Google with votes for his entry. It's so exciting that he's made it this far and has won the trip, etc. So much fun!!
Jocelyn

John Denver has hit Luxembourg! I asked Mom for the CD and she got me the 'definitive collection' for Christmas. Since then it has been the regular in our CD player. I catch the kids singing the songs all the time. Our current favorites are 'Leaving on a jet plane' 'Take me home, country roads' and... well, most of the others too. I like that it's music the children can listen to with pretty good 'natural' themes. And it's very American! The kids are learning the names of the states at the same time... let's see, there's Colorado, Montana, West Virginia, and others!

more of the same...

These videos are from about a month ago. Alienor went ice skating with school one afternoon so the rest of the kids wanted to go too. I took them by myself the following afternoon. It was pretty comical with Margot and Perceval but it was fun to try, just for the experience. By the end Margot could stand up by herself and she actually made it once around the rink, albeit very slowly. Alienor decided that she loved ice skating and she couldn't stop staring at the girl and her trainer doing figure skating. Maybe next season we'll make an effort to go more often. I'll definitely pass on Perceval next time though. He can sit in the bleachers.

I actually didn't take any still shots so these are all I had to post from that day.

happy mother´s day to all you wonderful mothers in the family! You are all wonderful examples to me. I hope your husbands and children treat you right...at least today...and that you´re all happy.
lots of hugs,
cindi

A couple of weeks ago Marie took her cub scouts on a hike in the Anza Borrego dessert where the Mormon battalion went when as they made their way to San Diego on a two thousand mile military march during the Mexican American war. Anyway, a member of the Stake Presidency, Bill Bunker, organized the hike and about 4 or five packs made the journey. It takes about three hours to travel there and a couple of hours to make the hike and then there was the return trip so it was an all day outing. An ancestor of Marie's, Charles Young Webb, was a member of the battalion. It was 90 plus degrees with a breeze in sandy soil with just a slight uphill grade so it was a bit of a challenge for some of the boys and their 65 year old leader BUT THEY ALL MADE IT!
Can you find her?
I'm very proud of her and her love of the boys and her dedication to scouting!

Hi Spencer,
Glad to hear we have a world class doodler in the family. Congratulations!
We will do all we can to support you with our votes. Can't wait until Monday when the
voting link is available. If you get to it before we can in the west please post us another link
like Auntie Cassy did in her post.
Love Uncle Ed

HI ALL!! Well, I'm there for Spencer and I hope you all are too. I have it on my Outlook Calendar to make sure I vote everyday, as often as the rules say I can. I have to say though, I use Mozilla Firefox and I wasn't able to find the site, but when I used Internet Explorer, I found it just fine. Here is the website so you won't have any excuse for not checking it out and making sure you VOTE!!

http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html

I can't wait to see Spencer's 'DOODLE' up on the Google home page!! So, I can proudly say, 'My Nephew did that!! - Whoo Hooo'

MAKE A DATE TO BE THERE OR BE SQUARE - VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!

Love, Aunt Cassy

EXCITEMENT AT THE NORTON HOUSE!!!

Spencer has been chosen as one of forty national finalists for the doodle 4 google contest. Spencer's doodle for this contest was chosen from thousands of national entries. He is going to be flown with his dad to the google complex in Mountain View, California in several weeks for the announcement of the national winner. Starting this Monday, May 12 on google's homepage the voting will open to the public. Voting will last until Sunday, May 18. The top four doodles with the most votes will each win a laptop computer. Google's webmaster and other google employees will choose a national winner from the top four. The national winner will recieve a laptop computer, a $10,000 college scholarship, and a $25,000 computer grant for their school. Its all about the votes everyone. We are trying to get as many votes for Spencer as we can so that he has a chance of being named the national winner. He is already honored to have been chosen one of the forty regional winners, but wouldn't it be exciting to have him chosen as the national winner. Please help us out by voting and telling everyone you know to vote for Spencer Norton (his doodle is "What if the whole world Rocked!").

Thanks everyone. We love you all.

Well, since I will be away from a computer the next few days...mom, happy mothers day :)

Don't send a lame Mother's Day eCard.
Try JibJab Sendables!

Utah Youth Soccer Coach of the Month
May 2008

In an effort to help advertise me and the new club... the Utah Youth Soccer Technical Director posted me as UYSA's coach of the month...check it out:

http://www.uysa.org/com.html

I have not updated all of you with the web site for the new club, check it out:

www.infinitysc.com


Busy...but get to go to Lake Powell with Chris Hillman, Bobby and Tristan tomorrow....good to be back in Utah!

Love you all!

A couple of weeks ago there was a momentous occasion at the Normand house in VA. By the pictures you can see Shawnna got her hair cut. I've really thought back and I'm pretty sure this was her first MAJOR hair cut since her birth. Maybe there were some small trims along the way, but this was definitely a MAJOR WHACK JOB to her long locks. Having been a mother of small children (albeit a LONG TIME AGO!), I can just imagine how much easier and cooler this upcoming summer will be for both MOM and DAUGHTER!! I was never as patient as Ninha has been with the long hair-thing, Jocelyn had short hair until she was probably in middle school, where she could take care of it herself!! You know me, I love the SHORT HAIR DO'S - WAY TO GO SHAWNNA - YOU'RE A CUTIE!!

Love, Grandma TaTa

Saturday evening the 3rd of May David and his new finance Robin spent the evening and stayed overnight before returning to Utah. Robin wanted to attend the play Wicked now playing in LA. So David was kind enough to drive her down or maybe excited enough or maybe anticipation drove him because on the way down they stopped ing Las Vegas and David proposed to her in Paris. (the casino/hotel) very romantic from the conversation we heard. To learn more ask lots of questions at an upcoming event. Until then.
Dad

So here is the final product of our logos for our soccer club.The colors are the colors of our jerseys. I told you about this in an earlier post and thought you would like to see the outcome.



Hope you are doing well mom. You are in our prayers!

Spent the evening watching Real Salt Lake win 4-0 in a blizzard...so much white snow they actually pulled out the orange ball. It was fun to be with bobby and take a breather. The day was a pretty brutal one until i met up with bobby, skip and chris. We had a real fun time just hanging out and trying to stay warm.

Much love!