Camping with Nate – The Pond

At the end of May, Nate and I went camping in Logan Canyon.  We had a lot of fun cooking Hebrew National hotdogs.  They are so good and Nate ate 1.5 of them!  He never eats that much!!!!!  We cooked a bunch of marshmallows and made s’mores (Nate didn’t really like either of them).  I later learned that there is quite a precedence in the family for haters of roasted marshmallows and s’mores. (More camping pictures Here).

We plan on making a father – son campout an annual event.  It was such a good opportunity to bond and get to know my son.  I love him so much.

The next day the girls came up the canyon to play.  We ran around the campground for a while and then made our way into Logan.  We played in the river near the mouth of the canyon and had a grand time.  Afterwards we got some ice cream at The Bluebird.  Yummy!  It was such a cool place to have a snack before heading home!

A Few Days Before…

…the ANXIETY;

…the JOY;

…the FEAR;

…the PEACE;

…the PAIN;

…the RELIEF;

…the CRAZINESS;

…the OVERWHELMING LOVE.

 

I (Julie) asked my friend, Kelli, if I could practice taking portraits using her and her belly as my subjects. I take a lot of fine art photographs but I haven’t had much practice with portraits. The technical aspects (aperture, shutter speed, exposure, etc.) are not my strong points and make me nervous. But Kelli was willing and Rob tutored me beforehand, so I jumped right in hoping for the best.

I think Kelli looks gorgeous! I am so jealous that I’m not that cute when pregnant, especially almost 9 months pregnant. This was only a handful of days before her little girl made her appearance. She looks so calm and lovely.

Thanks again, Kelli, for letting me take your picture. I can’t wait to come visit you, your son, and your new daughter.

Top 20 Songs

Every now and again, I provide you all with a list of my favorite songs of the day.  Most of these are coming from my latest music purchases.  The new Dave Matthews Band and 311 albums.  Here we go!

1. You & Me – Dave Matthews Band
2. Shake Me Like a Monkey – Dave Matthews Band
3. Funny the Way It Is – Dave Matthews Band
4. Spaceman – Dave Matthews Band
5. Seven – Dave Matthews Band
6. Two Drops in the Ocean – 311
7. My Heart Sings – 311
8. Mix It Up – 311
9. It’s Alright – 311
10. Daisy Cutter – 311
11. Hey You - 311
12. Falling Out of Trees – Barcelona
13. The Longer I Run – Peter Bradley Adams
14. Closer to Love – Matt Kearny
15. Strawberry Swing (Live) – Coldplay
16. Song for Luna – As Tall As Lions
17. Love, Love, Love – As Tall As Lions
18. Naive – The Kooks
19. Lisztomania – Phoenix
20. A Melody, The Memory – Mae (Only available at www.whatismae.com)

Nate, Trucks, and Grandpa Snow

Oh, so much is going on with Nate.  He is learning so much and getting so smart!  Nate and I (rob) went camping last weekend and had such a blast together (more on this to come).  Nate also graduated up to a booster and now his sister is facing forward in his old car seat.  For some reason I’m amazed at this and somewhat taken aback. 

Back in March, Nate and I were goofing around with his trucks and Grandpa Snow happened to call.  Well, Nate really enjoys talking on the phone and I just happened to have the camera gear out.  So there you go!  Doesn’t he look like a teenager?  Creepy.

Fun with trucks. 

Book Year in Review

I (Julie) always thought I’d be able to read a lot when I became a stay-at-home mom and then finished school. Sadly, that’s not the case. I usually get interrupted roughly every 45 seconds. But I have managed to read a few books this past year. Here’s a little review for those book-lovers out there.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly  By Anthondy Bourdain

I got less than 2 chapters into it before I returned it to the Library. Nasty in language and context. A must-NOT read.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible  By A.J. Jacobs

This book was fantastically creative and funny. The author is Jewish but never really lived his, or any other, religion. He decided to read the bible and follow the hundreds of laws contained therein. He captures your attention from the first paragraph and never lets it go. Hilarious. I laughed out loud on almost every page.

The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World  By A.J. Jacobs

I thought the first book I read was so great that I immediately read his other book. This time, his quest is to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a year. When I was in elementary school, I was often found reading our encyclopedias for fun at home. So this topic really appealed to me. He again made me laugh through the entire thing. He’s very engaging. If you want a couple of really fun books, here they are.

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History  By John M. Barry

I first saw this book in the airport a few years ago and was intrigued, seeing that I’d never even heard of the deadliest pandemic in history. I’m not sure how that one slipped by. This book is very involved and covers not just the story of the influenza, but the back-story and all that was going on in the U.S. and world at the time. It’s not really a quick read, as it gets into a lot of scientific detail, but I did learn a lot.

F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century  By Mark Levine

Pretty interesting, but it wasn’t really my style of reading. The author continually jumped between individual accounts to create a whole account of one night’s outbreak of 148 tornados across the central United States. I will say this, I’ll never hear about another town being hit by a tornado without thinking more about the terror that those poor people lived through.

The Ghost Mountain Boys: Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea—The Forgotten War of the South Pacific  By James Campbell

I picked up this book for Rob, but I ended up reading it instead. I’ve always enjoyed learning about World War II but don’t know near as much as I probably should. This book was interesting in that I learned how much suffering these soldiers endured for no credit. I wouldn’t highly recommend it, I didn’t think the author did a fabulous job wrapping things up. I kept thinking there was going to be something else, but it just ended without any closure. Maybe that was the point. I’m not sure. 

Geography: A Textbook

I’m still reading an old Geography textbook I bought at a used book sale. I love reading about people and places, even though it’s not a very fast read. I got a little impatient and started reading other books, but I will keep going back to this until it’s finished.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder  By Richard Louv

This is the book I’m currently working on. I find it very fascinating. The author talks about all the benefits (physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and mentally) of children having free-play out in nature. I’ve always believed that being outside was good for the soul; I can feel it whenever I sit in the sun or feel the breeze or play in the dirt with the kids. We can all feel our mood improve and we feel closer to our Heavenly Father when we’re among his creations. This book is a little detailed and somewhat repetitive, but a great book for anyone, especially parents.

Wow! I’ve read a lot more than I had realized! I currently have 7 other books on my list, but as you may have noticed, every book I read is non-fiction. I have a hard time (okay, REALLY hard time) reading something that is made up. Rob and I have discussed this at great length since he loves fiction, but I just don’t get it. Why read something that’s unreal when you can read interesting and amazing TRUE stories? I’m sure I’m missing out on something, but I’m not sure what. Rob says creativity, character development and involvement, and fun.

Here’s the question for all you serious literary minds out there, some of which have never commented here before (We both know who you are!). The last fictional book I read was a decade ago. It was The Grapes of Wrath and I hated it. I’m willing to give it another try, though. 

SO…what fiction book should I read???

A few caveats: It MUST be well-written, intelligent, thought-provoking, and interesting. Something that will make me second-guess my current view of novels.

For all of you who do enjoy reading novels, please don’t take this post to be a knock against you. It’s all about personal taste and I really do feel like I may be missing out on something, that’s why I’m asking for suggestions and/or comments.

Thanks!!

 

Friday Night

This is just a photo I took last month. Is the exposure too dark? I can’t decide.

It’s Friday night and the boys are camping. Gotta say, I’ve been looking forward to this night for a few weeks now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t revel in the constant crazy 3-year-old boy noise, NoIsE, NOISE (said like the Grinch), but a little stillness is nice sometimes. Madeleine and I are joining them tomorrow for an afternoon in the canyon.

We heard a funny story the other day from a primary teacher (not Nate’s). He and his wife were sitting in sharing time listening to the lesson and his wife felt something weird. She looked down and Nate was on the ground licking her shoe!!!!! EEEWWWW!!!!  HAHAHA!!! I guess he entertains them all the time in church. 

Madeleine and I enjoyed a long night out shopping. It’s so much easier when you can strap them in. We had plenty of things to buy on our list but didn’t find a thing. I even had money to spend! Hate when that happens. She tried on tons of shoes, which she likes to do, but we didn’t find anything that fit. We never do. She has super narrow feet and unless I want to spend more on her shoes than on my own, she just has to go barefoot. Good thing it’s summer.

I can’t think of anything that’s new with me or Rob. We’re just as happy as can be and glad to have each other.

Happy weekend!

Boise With Breanna and Fam

The first weekend in April we ventured up to Boise for Rob’s sister’s senior piano recital at Boise State University. She’s worked incredibly hard and we wanted to go support her and congratulate her on this huge accomplishment. She had over an hour of memorized pieces to play including Rachmaninoff’s Concerto #2! One of my favorites ever! Her performance gave me chills.

Before the recital, Rob and I had some time to explore downtown Boise on our own little photowalk. We had a great time wandering around and ate at a great Greek restaurant. Then we picked up the kids and headed just out of town to the Idaho State Penitentiary. When I was planning the trip, I suggested it to Rob and he full-heartedly said YES to this little venture. He was so excited to get some creepy pictures. Weirdo.

We had a great time there. The kids were able to run around at their leisure without me worrying about where they were; afterall, they were in a prison yard…hehehe. How convenient.

Rob and I have been to Alcatraz and we both agree that this little place is JUST as impressive and cool, yet tons less expensive. There were many buildings we were able to wander in and out of including the armory, which has a substantial exhibit we wish we had more time to check out.

Here are the pictures.

We had such a fun time with the family, too. Nate and Madeleine love their cousin Joseph and had so much fun playing together. We really wish we could get together more often. Maybe this summer we’ll take the drive up again.

We love the Russell family!

What the Crap? You’re saying that Foto Friday MOVED!

In a word, Yes.  We moved the foto friday and photography stuff to blog.rjsnowphotography.com. We are trying to generate traffic on our photography site and also don’t want all that traffic to come to our family blog.  Perhaps you see the problem.  However, I think this will all work out nicely for everyone. 

So what do you do?  If you typically visit the blog using a web browser, just add one more site to your daily routine blog.rjsnowphotography.com.  If you use an rss reader, here is the link to the feed to add to your reader (such as feeddemon or google reader). If you use our email subscription service then you will receive a confirmation email asking if you would like to receive updates for the new blog.  Confirm the email if you would like to receive our photography emails  or ignore if you would rather not.  Please leave any questions in the comments.

If you are looking for the most recent foto friday post, you’ll find it on the new blog here. 

For some unknown reason, a recent post about Julie’s Nephew Greg was not sent out in the rss or email.  Please find it here.

Have a Great Weekend!

Pics & Stories

 

Here are a bunch of fun pictures we’ve taken of the kids over the last month or so.

The first set is of the kids playing outside.

The second set is of the kids in their Easter outfits.

The third set is a couple of funny shots of Rob. Make sure to expand the description on the second picture so you can read it all.

Some stories:

• The other day Nate was being very quiet in his room. After asking a couple of times what he was doing and him replying “Nofin,” I checked on him. He was laying in bed and I asked him if he was okay. He said, “Yeah, I’m just waiting for dad to come home.”
• After having to have his blood drawn again for more tests because his white blood cell count was low, the doctor concluded that Nate just had/has a viral infection that’s running its course. Okay….wonder how much that little bit of info is gonna cost us. And I’m bugged because the doctor wouldn’t even talk to us the three times he needed to after Nate’s original appointment. He just had an assistant talk to us even though we requested to talk to him twice. Yeah, we’re getting a new pediatrician.
• Yesterday, on his own accord, Nate used his foam letters to spell out words he saw on his toy. He spelled turkey and goose. How great is that?!
• Madeleine is a little spit-fire sometimes. If we tell her no, she’ll act all defiant and grab or step on something angrily. It’s pretty funny and we can’t help but laugh.
• She’s finally starting to like the bath again. Madeleine went through a phase where she’d scream and try to climb out every time we stuck her in the bath, even if just her feet got wet.
• Some of the words Madeleine now says are boo, ball, baby, and bear. Notice a trend?
• Her favorite games are Boo, Chase, and Sliding.

Working in the Garage

Last Saturday afternoon Nate and I undertook a project in the garage. We don’t have a ton of storage space in our home and for some time we have wanted some shelving in the garage. We had some old white laminate wood just sitting around in the garage that was perfect for the job. Nate and I went to the hardware store to pick up some metal brackets (the typical kind with 3 holes for attaching to the wall and three for attaching the shelving), normal 1.5” wood screws to attach the metal brackets to the wall, and some 0.5” wood screws to attach the shelving to the brackets. We had a good supply of drywall anchors on hand so we didn’t pick up any of those. We were ready to go.

We spent the first little while moving stuff around and planning where the shelves would go. Finally we got out the safety glasses and the power tools. I placed my tool box a few feet away for Nate to sit on while I operated the circular saw. He got his sunglasses out of the car so he could have safety glasses too. :) The circular saw produced a large amount of sawdust (Nate initially thought this was sand) and a fair amount of manliness.

To attach the brackets to the wall with the maximum number of screws in the stud I slightly offset the bracket so one of the top screws and the bottom screw both anchored to the stud behind the drywall. The other screw at the top of the bracket received an alligator-type wall anchor. We used a level to keep all the brackets in line. Nate was in charge of the screws and kept a fresh supply coming (most of the time at least). After a quick primer on ladder safety, Nate was very proactive about reminding me to be careful. What a great time we had together on our quick little Saturday project. This shelving should really help de-clutter our storage closet upstairs. Sweet!

The picture above is not from our project but it does show how much fun we have together.  I look forward to many projects that Nate and I will work on together.  :)