New photo- I'm showing myself again :)

I find it hard to post pictures of myself since I don't like my weight right now, but I did get a couple of nice photos I took of myself recently. I've never had a good sense of self-esteem, but every once in a while I get a surge of creativity and hopefullness that I will get a reasaonable photo of myself.

For months now I've let my comments and photos of flowers or other things be the introduction to me. Now I guess I'm feeling brave enough to post a pick of me on my blog and in my profile so that wherever I leave my comments, people can "see" who wrote them. As if blogging wasn't enough to expose yourself. Put a face to your comments and it takes on new meaning. I was just wondering how you felt about it. Is it easy for you to put your face on your profile, or do you have a hard time with it like I do?

This One's for Kim G.

My childhood friend Kim G. is a very talented photographer and a few months ago had a drawing for a copy of one of her photos of our choice. I was one of three people that won! I had a hard time choosing which one of her gorgeous photos I wanted to keep. She has dozens of neat macros and beautiful flowers.

After some serious consideration, I chose the picture that is shown above in this photo of my desk. It's of raw cotton in a field in Alabama. You might wonder why I chose this photo over any of her beautiful flower ones. It's because of the symbolism of the image and of Kim's new side career.

She and her family had moved to Alabama a couple of years ago. Word spread of her talent for photography in her new city and soon she was being asked to do family portraits and getting paid for it. Now she has her own photography website and offers other pictures for framing. It's been great seeing her talent grow. The cotton picture reminds me of where she was when her photography really took off.

The symbol of the raw cotton makes me think of our talents and how raw they start out, but with work, time and patience, they can become great and useful things. I think of how we use cotton in so many different products from plain cotton balls used in cleaning wounds, clothing and even canvas for beautiful works of art. I'm sure you can think of different things we use cotton for. For this gift of inspiration, I thank my friend Kim and wish her the best in all she does!

My Sweet Dallin

Sydney had a mini-photo shoot with Dallin while we were in-between school programs with Ty and Syd. She took all of these photos but I edited them with our software. These photos are so precious to me because of the way they capture Dallin's personality. Great job Sydney! Oh, and in case you are wondering, he does have light birthmark on the left side of his face by his nose. It looks like a dirt smudge!

Christmas in February?

I'm finally posting a couple of pictures from Christmas at my parents house. I didn't take that many except of the gift that us kids gave to Mom and Dad. I wished I had taken more family pics, but I must have been having too much fun. I won't spoil the surprise for those who don't know what we got them. It was a little "over the top" for the economic times that we all share, but I got a good deal. Check it out! P.S. They had just moved into their house three days earlier and we managed to throw up their christmas tree so the Randy and Katie's kids would have one to open their christmas presents under. They spent christmas night at Mom and Dad's.

In this first photo Mom and Dad are opening the first part of the present. It was premade bags of popcorn that had the oil/butter packet attached.

The next part of the present was unveiled from under a tarp that I threw over it. Dad's reaction was priceless.

A popcorn maker! I knew it would be really fun for them in their basement where they will have a big t.v. Also I know they love to entertain and so they could have fun with it.

They were very surprised and we used it to make yummy popcorn that night. It came with bags and a scoop so they were set to have fun. We must say it is a pain to clean up since the oil splatters on the side of the glass, but the popcorn is sooo good! Thanks to my siblings for putting up with this outrageous gift that I found a good deal on KSL.com classifieds. Next year you guys get to find the perfect gift for them.

Mr. Dallin

My youngest has an interesting nickname that has been part of him since he was a baby. He has been called "Mr. Dallin" from various people and sometimes when a person has never heard anyone else call him that. He just seems like an old soul sometimes. He has been changing and so I feel impressed to record some of the things he is doing/has done. Here he is enjoying our wheat grinder and finding out how to make it work.

Don't you just love his disheveled hair?! It adds characture. His eyes smile when he smiles!

This is how I found him the other day. He grabbed the stool out of the bathroom and proceeded to play with the microwave. I call him my "button boy" since he has to test any button he finds. I let him play with the microwave to get it out of his system but I was right nearby to make sure he didn't cook something or turn it on. He liked to hear the beeps as he pushed the numbers.

When my oldest son Tyler was two, he was playing with our microwave and ended up locking it so that it wouldn't cook anything. We had to find the manual and call the company to find out how to unlock it. This time, when Dallin did the same thing yesterday, I was smart enough to unplug it. That reset the controls and I didn't have to search for the manual. I guess I've raised two "button boys".

I just love his sweet face with a hint of masculinity. Dallin is showing great interest and ability in learning the letters of the alphabet. He has known the letter "O" for quite a while now. The second letter he learned has a funny story that goes with it. He and I were driving home at night when he started saying "M". I noticed that we were passing a brightly lit McDonalds and the big yellow letter M. I was so surprised and I told him that he was right! Then the next letter he learned was the letter "I" and he grasped that one by watching Word World and Super Why on PBS. They are his favorite shows since we don't have cable TV.

The next letter he learned also has an interesting story. He and I were in Ace Hardware when we walked by a sign just his height and he pointed to it and said "A"! It read Ace Hardware in big read letters, so I knew he really was talking about the letter A.

I recently had a birthday check of his cashed that he got from a relative and some Christmas money for him as well and I thought he would really enjoy some sort of learning toy. I remembered that my sis-in-law Katie has a cute letter Leap Frog toy that is magnetic and is always attatched to their front door. There are magnetic letters as well and when you put them in the recepticle, it says the letter name and sounds that it makes. It's set to a catchy tune so that the little ones remember it better. I got this for Dallin and he loves it. He has learned the letters X, and T and is probably learning more letters since that is the pattern so far. My other two kids weren't interested in learning the letters so early. It just comes naturally to him. I just love this little man and I can't cuddle and kiss him enough during the day. I'm so glad to have him. I love you Dallin!

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

*Check out the end of this post for two short videos of us going down the mountain!!*

Soldier Hollow hosted the 2002 Olympic Cross Country Skiing and the Biathlon events. Another interesting fact is that it has the longest tubing lanes in Utah and the entire west half of the US. The movie High School Musical opened with a scene from the lodge in the first movie (the New Years Eve Party and Karoke).

My Aunt and Uncle from Virginia came to Utah to visit their daughter Nicole and her husband Lance and their grandson Nicolas. We had a big dinner at my parents house with extended family that lived in Utah. While they were there, my Uncle suggested going tubing at Soldier Hollow before they went back to Virginia. I thought that would be really fun and on Tuesday, January 27th, my Uncle Duane, my Dad Richard, my Cousin Nicole, my Brother Randy and I headed out to Soldier Hollow. We met at Randy's place and headed east up the Provo Canyon. It was a great trip that only took about 40 minutes to get to from Orem.

The view looking down at the lodge and beyond. It was a beautiful day!

Our group L-R: Randy (my Brother), me (Julie), Nicole (my Cousin), Richard (Dad) and Duane(my Uncle).

The race is on- there are five lanes side by side and your group can race each other down.

Our group again

We're all smiles as we head back to the cable that tows you back up to the top of the runs. Talk about plush tubing! It was $20 for 2 hours. They also had music playing in the background. It was a great facility!

Randy trying to stop before heading into the fence.

Can his smile get any bigger?!!!

Nicole, looking beautiful even with the snowy, windblown look.

Uncle Duane was all smiles! He had a great time and we loved having him visit us in Utah.

My Dad as he was being towed up the mountain. What a great view and beautiful skies! The tubing was so safe! None of us fell off our tubes the entire time. Although some of us hit the fence at the end of the run. Luckily they are just flimsy plastic things that try to keep you from going further down the mountain into the parking lot. I went through the first fence into the second and tore out three stakes! All that I did differently was get a bigger tube and suddenly I was sliding all the way into the fence if I didn't try really hard to stop.

Look at these brothers go! My Dad is in his late fifties and Duane is older than that! They had a great time together with us "kids".

The view again as we get close to the top of the cable run.

I took this picture while in my tube going up the mountain. The runs were extreemly safe, even though you would fly down the hill at 30-40 mph. I even took our expensive camera and our cheap digital video camera down the slide. I will post the video of me going down the hill while the others were racing behind me.

Check out this video of me going down the run!

This video is of the others racing down the hill! What a great day. Thanks for inviting us Duane!

Together after 20 years! Angie and Julie

My childhood friend Angie Nelson and I decided to finally get together since we both live in Utah. I wrote about it on our joint blog One Tidbit at a Time. I decided to put our picture here as well since more of our childhood friends read this blog then our other one. You'll just have to skip on over to the other one to get the details! I will have to say that i'm not proud of this current picture of me especially since I'm so pale that you can hardly see where my chin is since it all is such a white blur!! Oh well, blame it on genetics!

I finally downloaded our newest pictures onto our computer and made sure our editing software is running. Be prepared to see a bunch of new posts soon complete with pictures! Take care everyone!