Monday, June 24, 2013

So here's a little update on everyone in the family.
As mentioned before, Nathan has switched to an art major and he's emphasizing in sculpture. This is his first semester taking art classes and he loves them. It's been such a relief to find something that he likes doing. Before we felt so lost. Nathan was so miserable in his construction management classes and it was giving him bad anxiety just thinking about doing it for the rest of his life. Not only does he like sculpting but I think he has a talent for it. I was impressed with his first sculptures he ever did of realistic faces.


This here is actually one of my favorites he did. This is a piece that he casted and did a mold of after he sculpted it, and then painted it. It's kinda creepy but I think it looks so cool. Nathan and his brother Cody (who is studying illustration) actually post their work on a blog called Everyday Sketch to motivate them to continually practice and critique each others work. Isn't that awesome of them? here it is, http://everydaysketchblog.blogspot.com/

As for me, other than the usual, I completed a little home decor project. The apartment came with curtains for the sliding glass door but they were so boring. I wanted something more interesting than plain light brown curtains but I couldn't find anything that caught my eye so I decided to make some curtains. I bought some plain white curtains at Ikea and some fabric paint and painted them with a stencil I had used in an earlier project.



Ta Da!

Lesson learned: If you want certain curtains, just buy the fabric and sew them! It took awhile to do all the stencil and I ruined my favorite brand new shirt in the process and all the fabric paint ended up costing a lot more than I thought (you see, I was trying to save money)...but, i will never throw them away now, not after all that hassal, and I do like the way they turned out.

As for the family, we've been exploring! we've taken a couple of half day trips on the weekends and have discovered that Rexburg is close to some cool sites.

 We went to Harriman State Park and saw a MOOSE! Actually a mamma moose and her baby! It's been one of my dreams to see a moose. For the longest time I've looked at stuffed moose heads hung on walls and been so impressed with how huge their head and neck are that I've wanted to see these animals in real life. They're such cool huge animals. If I didn't have kids to take care of, I would have ran up as close as I could but as it was Nathan was hesitant to even let me and the kids out of the car. I guess moose moms are really protective or something.

 Me and the moose! The moose is the brown dot that looks like a tree stump in the back ground. I can't believe I'm actually in a photo with a moose! We went again to Harriman State Park when Julie and Corey came and we saw a mamma moose and her baby (we suspect they were the very same ones in this pic) at the same little lake! Mooses should be a sign of luck, like black cats are a sign of bad luck... but good instead of bad.

Ah, the splash park. the coolest free thing in Rexburg. Everybody whose anybody hangs out at the splash park...well if you have little kids. It really is a nice one, and here pale little Asher is enjoying the first rays of sun on his back.





 Solitary sun bathing on a slight hill. Looks so lonely yet noble at the same time.


 Naked cheeks, how could I resist posting those honey buns.



 Here we did some dutch oven with some friends of ours from the ward, Kassie and Jared. They're great and they're so good with the kids.

 Painting together

 Learning to crawl under and over the bars of the chair


 Here we are at the sand dunes. Julie and Corey came for a whole 5 days and we tried to show them a good time. We loved having them over for so long.

 Sand sticks to snot and drool


 These are some jumping shots. I call this one the "princess bride" roll minus the "As you wish" shout or just me biffing it.






 Julie and Corey wanted to bike to Jackson Hole from Rexburg and we were their ride back so we saw a little of Jackson. They made it up the insanely steep mountain but didn't finish the downhill part because it was crazy dangerous. What hard core bikers they are. way to go!


 We also showed Julie and Corey Mesa Falls




 Do they look good together or what

 Ephraim turned 3!! He's such a good looking guy. He is truly a unique and funny guy too. One of his funniest quirks is that when he gets really mad, he starts to strip his clothes off. So far it's just the shirt and pants but I guess we'll truly know the wrath of Ephraim when his diaper comes off too. We love everything about him.

 His request was a Spiderman cake. He says it "Spi- maaaaa!"

 Didn't burn his lips this year getting too close to the flame to blow it out.