Cute Puppies

Harry and the Giffords

Busy Week

Man! It has been a busy week!

First, Mom and the girls came up for "Girls' Weekend" and the craft fair on Saturday. We had a lot of fun, played some silly karaoke game, and ate some good food. The craft fair itself I thought was a bit lacking and generally disappointing, but it was fun to spend time with family.

Next, Tinkerbell had her puppies! She had 7 puppies on Saturday (during the craft fair), but then some complications and there was a still birth on Monday. We took her to the vet and he had to take her uterus. Sad day. She's been on medicine ever since and we're having to feed the puppies once a day to supplement until she's feeling better and producing more milk.

Then, on Tuesday, Jamie had surgery on her nose and had her gallbladder taken out. She's of course been very miserable... It's day 3, her worse day so far, but it's often the worst day for nose surgeries. Hopefully she'll be feeling better tomorrow.

We had what the experts are calling the worst storm in 20 years from Friday thru Tuesday, and we got a total of about a foot of snow here in Rexburg. Temperatures dropped after that (with a high of 5 on Wednesday) and it's been cold ever since. Way too early for this kind of winter weather. If it were January or February I wouldn't murmur so much, but it's November!

On Thursday of course was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving without a mother to prepare the food. Carrie didn't want to touch the nasty turkey and deal with the innards, so we struck up a deal. I (Josh) did the turkey and she did the rest. Of course, I did do a couple of pies. And by "did" I mean buy. But everything turned out great, and nobody complained about the food, so I think it was a success. Even if they didn't eat as much as when Jamie cooks it all. It was so cold though (-7 when we woke up) so we had to break tradition and didn't get to go shooting in the morning. Oh well. There's always next year.

And finally, Carrie just got her mission call! Oh happy day! I'm not at liberty to tell you where she's going, but make sure and give her a call for the details...

PS - I just realized I have been so busy that I haven't taken any pictures of these events! Stay tuned - I'll take some and then do a new post in a couple of days.

Hunter's B-Day

Birthdays on a budget mean that you have to find ... creative things to do. This year we had some wood left over and our neighbors just finished building a deck, so they had some wood left over. Result? Hunter gets a bonfire for his birthday!

More Temple HDR

Fun with the camera

I've been speaking and learning from a guy in my ward who is absolutely amazing with a camera. In fact, he's told me that any time he wants a new toy, he just goes and takes some pictures to pay for it. He taught me about a technique called "light painting". I'm looking for a really cool old barn or something that I can go a do a light painting on, but for now, here's a couple of my experiments.

More HDR

Dance Festival

Hosting a couple of the dancers from the Mexico team during the dance festival was great fun! Here are just a couple of the pictures:

The boys learning how to dance with Fernando-

The Candle Dance -

Some Other Folk Dance -

The great news is that we had a lot of fun and made some great new friends. The bad news, it took way too much money to host for the week, so we won't be making it camping for Labor Day camping. Stay tuned! We'll be posting some more pictures soon.

Soccer Season

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Thought it would be fun (in honor of soccer season) to have Dad play soccer with the boys! Enjoy!

Sunset at the Temple

Every Tuesday, Josh tries to take one of the boys out for ice-cream and essentially a PPI like they suggested last conference. On the way back, the sun was setting and the view was gorgeous - so he took some pictures and did another HDR. Tell us what you think!

Graduation

Josh did it! He finally graduated! Last weekend, on the 23rd, Josh graduated from college with a BS in Computer Information Technology! (When he's not at work, he'll hop on and post some pictures now that he has some time to do something other than school.)

Baseball Season

Baseball season is upon us - which means it's a great excuse to try some stuff with our new camera! Here I created what's known as an HDR image (High Dynamic Range) where you merge several photos taken at different exposures which allows you to adjust brightness and contrast and shadows and things without loosing any clarity. Of course, I've got some great shots of the kiddies too, but I don't have those handy at the moment, so they'll have to wait.

It Snows in Rexburg?

Well, I thought we were past it, but I guess not. That's right - this morning we woke up to about an inch and a half of snow. I think if there was ever a time that I could be convinced to leave Rexburg, it would be right now.

101 Dalmations

Well, not quite. Only 7. And they're not dalmations, they're boxers.

That's right! Tinkerbell finally had her puppies! 7 total - but the last one came out just before I left for class, so there might be more, but I kinda doubt it.

We'll be posting back soon - so if you like little puppies, stay tuned and we'll have some pictures!

Family Photos

We went and had some family pictures taken and they finally came in! Thought you all might enjoy a peek.

Oh, and Josh is up to 25 lbs. lost!

Diet Time

Well, Josh is getting ready to graduate this summer. If all goes well, we'll be done in July. With that comes job hunting - and first impressions. So, Josh and Jamie are on a diet. So far, Josh has lost 20 pounds and Jamie has lost 5! Just thought you all might like an update.

(Sorry, no pictures)

March Madness

Decided to post a couple of the pictures I took today in honor of March Madness.

Here's hoping Kentucky goes all the way!