School Pictures

I got a new camera in December and so I spent most of the month experimenting and practicing.  My kids were all overdue for portraits, as I think school pictures are way overpriced and they never turn out nice...so I didn't buy them.  But my husband has been asking for family pictures to put up in his office for a long time now, so I decided that would be a great Christmas gift for him. 

So I set up the studio:  duct tape brown blanket to kitchen bar, move kitchen table out of the way, wash sliding glass window for lighting, find tripod....Wah Lah!

I was very pleased with the results, as they were better than any school pictures I've ever seen (if I do say so myself), and cheaper, too!  Here are some of my favorites:

 By the time it was Brynlee's turn, she wasn't in the mood.  This was my best shot, although it is blurry, so I couldn't use it.

She was happy to hold still so that I could take a picture of her beloved tear, though.

We don't have any pictures of just the two of us as a couple, so that weekend, I had my photographer brother, Braxton shoot some pictures of us in his studio.  He took a bunch of pictures, and they all turned out awesome, of course.  Here are some of my favorites:

Framing the Basement

Merry Christmas!  This is how we celebrated our Christmas Eve.  We are beginning to feel a bit cramped in our home, and feel like it is time to invest in finishing our basement.  My husband doesn't have any construction experience, but I feel it would be a wonderful opportunity to get some.  My hope is that we can do as much of the basement ourselves, even if it means my husband being the "helper" of a real worker, so that he can see how it is done, get some experience and confidence.  This way, if anything needs to be repaired, he will be capable, or if we ever need to do any constructing in the future, he'll have some experience.

My Brother-in-Law used to own his own framing company.  He volunteered to help us frame on Christmas Eve, so we took him up on it.  I was amazed at how quickly it went together.  We even had a few neighbors stop by and offer to help.

We started before the sun even came up.  Rayna was so excited and was such a good helper

 Our curious chickens kept an eye on things as well.

Ian finally rolled out of bed to help

Rick thinks this picture pretty much sums up the day.  Dan working, with Rick looking like he's helping.

This was the most exciting part for me - watching them tear down a portion of the bearing wall to open up the room.

Installing the new weight-bearing beam. 

February update:  We have the framing done, the heating and air ducts installed, and a plumber scheduled to come out on the 18th.  

March update:  The plumber came and did the rough in and also installed a water softener (which we are loving after 7 years without one).  We have started the electrical work.  My goal is to be completely finished and livable by the end of April, although, I'm having some doubts that we'll make it.

Water for Haiti

With the recent devastation in Japan, it has reminded me of the earthquake that hit Haiti just over a year ago.  I often wonder if these tragic events serve to remind us to get our own houses in order.  If we are prepared, we are then available to help those in need.

I wanted to share what our family did for Haiti and hopefully it will inspire someone to see what just an ordinary family was able to accomplish.  Who knows what kind of difference you might be able to make to the suffering people of Japan...

With the earthquake in Haiti brought heartache to our hearts every time we watched the news or heard updates. I watched with soberness a fund raiser on TV that shared personal stories of those who were experiencing the awful after effects of the large earthquake in the already poverty-stricken island. My sweet, tender hearted Rayna sat by my side and cried along with me at the stories of the innocent children who were suffering the loss of family members and their homes. Rayna said “I wish I could do something to help them.” This reflected my exact feelings. I had already donated what money we could , but didn't feel like it satisfied my longing to DO something.

This year our family is trying to focus on service, taking President Monson's General Conference talk “What Have I Done for Someone Today” as our guide. I thought what a better time and opportunity to teach my children the value of service? They were already longing to help. After a bit of research on the internet, I found a charity in Salt Lake that was collecting bottles of water to send to Haiti. I signed up to help and we pledged to donate 650 bottles of water. We didn't know how we'd do it, but we brainstormed at dinner that night. Rayna made up a flier, we prayed for help to reach our goal, and for Family Home Evening for the next 2 weeks we went door to door in our neighborhood taking fliers to each home and having Ian or Rayna explain our water drive and how they could donate. We came home and made a bar graph taped up in our living room to chart our progress towards our goal.

Rick and I were amazed at the dedication and ability of our young children and their efforts to help others half a world away. We were also amazed at the overwhelming response we had from our neighbors, family, and friends. Each time the door bell would ring, my children would run to the door and jump up and down with excitement while gushing their gratitude for the donation. We would faithfully count each bottle and fill in our graph. As the deadline approached I was moved to tears several times as I saw children in our ward spend their own allowance on a case of water for Haiti, as I had to make a new column for our graph because we received WAY more than expected, or listening to our children pray for Haiti and success with our water drive.

In the end, we collected 1,901 bottles of water to donate to Haiti – almost 3 times our goal. Our children learned that the Lord can help us with things that seem impossible. They also learned that they can make a difference in the world, even without a lot of money or a lot of experience. I'm sure our little project was only a little drop in the bucket compared to the needs in Haiti, but we know that through our efforts we were able to make a difference to 1,901 people.