Exciting News!

By the title of this post you probably think I’m going to say I’m pregnant… Well, sorry to dissappoint, but that’s not the exciting news!:) Mark wrote a short story back in 2002, before we were married, for a class of his. It’s a great story! A while back he thought he should make it into a screenplay so he did. He and his friend Nels, who filmed “In Convenience”, have been talking about making the story into a short film, which is called “Vanillan Oddity”, this year. Well, they have a connection with a guy who used to work in the film industry. He read the screenplay and loved it! (Just like everyone else does who reads it.) He is going to help them get a budget so they can do a really great job. They’re going to hire actors and everything. It’s so exciting! He’s talked about it for so long and now it’s going to happen. Now they just have to sit down and figure out what everything will cost and get money for it all.

Mark will have to take a week off of work, but of course that is figured into the budget. It’ll be fun for him to direct his own film. I’m going to do photography on the set while they’re filming and I think it’ll be fun to be  around it all while it’s happening!

In Convenience

Some of you know that Mark has been helping a good friend of his, Nels Chick, with a movie that Nels made in Rexburg 2 years ago. Some of you have also seen the trailer and/or the movie itself. Well, it is now available on DVD for you to enjoy!:) It’s been a long road for Nels and his family and everyone else involved, but it was a great experience and great portfolio piece. Mark did all of the artwork. He has a credit in the movie as “artwork director”. How exciting is that?:)

http://inconveniencethemovie.com/store/

If you haven’t seen the movie yet it will be showing in several cities around the area- Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, Rigby, and Rexburg. The showing is free and the first 100 people there get a free DVD of the movie.

http://www.inconveniencethemovie.com/showings.php

You can view the trailer and other information on the website as well.

http://www.inconveniencethemovie.com/

“Enjoy!”

The little things

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Brynnan found an old pill bottle and had to run around with it yesterday morning. He even wanted me to put some cheerios in it for him and tried eating them that way:)

Using the spoon wasn't working.

Every Monday morning Jonas has Speech therapy at 10:00. He gets a ride from a transportation company so we can save a little money on gas. Brynnan and I stay at home and yesterday he wanted to go outside so we went on a nice little walk around our complex. He can be such a good and sweet boy when he’s all alone!

Jonas and his purple crayon:)

Jonas loves “Harold and the purple crayon”! Mark found a TV show of it that Jonas loves to watch. Saturday while I was doing the laundry he took one of the handles to the basket and said it was his “purple crayon”. I thought it was so cute! He knows the handle is blue, but he said he wanted to pretend it was his purple crayon!

Yesterday he wanted his “purple crayon” so I got it for him. I think it’s so fun how much he’s been using his imagination lately! He pretends a lot more now. Their little table is a space ship and he goes to the moon all the time:) I’m excited for him to start school again. He loves it so much and I know it helps him a lot.

I wanted to share

Mark sent me this link. I thought I’d share it with whoever would like to look at it. I think it’s amazing. It’s a story about a son who takes care of his 97 year old Dad. The photography is great! I love it! The story is sweet and sad and beautiful.

http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

A Wall·E of a birthday

I just wanted to post some pictures of Brynnan’s birthday. We wanted to do a “Wall·E” theme because both Jonas and Brynnan love the movie. It was hard to find anything! No one sold any Wall-E stuff, but luckily I talked to a friend on Thursday and she told me to see if Michael’s had anything. They did so I bought a candle and some little Wall-E figurines.

The kids helped me make the cake. I let them lick the beater sticks afterward. Is that bad?

Here's the finished cake. Jonas and Brynnan told me where to put the Wall-E candle and figurine. You can kind of see where they picked at the side of the cake on the right:)

Brynnan wanted to lick the frosting off of wall-e:)

Brynnan's birthday present from Mommy and Daddy was a "Wall-E" toy that can pop in and out. It's really cool. Brynnan was way excited, if you can't tell:)

Jonas loved Wall-E as much as Brynnan, if not more! When I told Jonas to give Brynnan a turn with his toy Jonas said, "It's not Brynny's Wall-E, it's Jonas' Wall-E." What a funny kid!

Jonas loved Wall-E so much that he had to sleep on the floor next to Jonas' bed Friday night and Saturday morning he watched cartoons with Jonas and ate breakfast with him:)

I can’t believe Brynnan’s 2 years old now! Time goes by so fast. I wonder what he’ll be like a year from now:)

Birthday Trip to the Zoo

Jonas really wanted to go to the zoo on Wednesday because we were at the park nearby, but I told him we couldn’t go. I decided it would be fun to go as a birthday trip for Brynnan:) I called up my friend Megann to see if she wanted to come with her kids. So we went to the zoo this morning, even though it looked like it would rain on us. It was a really nice and cool morning to be there! We were able to watch the penguins get fed, which Jonas loved and didn’t want to leave! He watched them swim after eating and talked about going swimming with them in the water. It was so funny!

The boys were really good about staying close by. Of course there were times I had to run after Brynnan and a few times Jonas, but they were a lot better than they’ve ever been before! It was a lot of fun. Megann was a big help keeping them in line and helping me keep track of them:) Thanks for a fun morning!

Brynnan loved to climb on the fences to look at the animals. Don't you just love the face he's making?:)

Cute Lainey posing for a picture. I love her new hair cut! I wish my hair always looked that cute.

Jonas loved these Lemurs! He watched them for probably about 10 minutes! There's a little baby on the back on the mom that I think he liked watching.

I love this image! They're staring each other down.

Sneak Peek for Megann

I did a session for my friend Megann of her girls on Wednesday. They were soooo cute! I’m excited to get them all done, but there’s a lot of them and it’ll probably take me a week so I thought I’d give her a sneak peek at one of them:)

So adorable! Even though Lainey isn't looking at the camera I think it is such a cute image! Libby has such a cute smile!

Dora Backpack

I took Jonas out shopping this morning to help me pick out some toys for Brynnan’s birthday tomorrow. While we were at Wal-mart I thought I’d let him pick out a new backpack for school. I had seen the ones they have there and I knew he would pick the Dora one. I don’t mind him loving Dora. The only think I mind is that they market her towards girls only! So of course the backpack is bright pink and purple with sparkles and flowers all over. There’s maybe a little bit of blue, but for the most part it is a girly backpack. I tried to show him the Iron Man and Spiderman, but he didn’t like those as much, so we went without this trip. I thought I’d try a few other places first. What do you think about a girly backpack for a boy? I don’t want him to be made fun of, but I just wonder if kids his age do that sort of thing?

Fun at the Park…again!

I can’t get over taking pictures of the kids at the park. It’s so fun to capture them having fun, or in Jonas’ case, working hard. His physical therapist, Trudy, wanted to do a session at the new Tautphus Park Zoo Playground yesterday. It’s an AWESOME playground! It’s huge and it’s geared toward handicap kids, which is great! Jonas (and Brynnan too) have such a hard time crossing bridges at parks because they’re so wobbly. This park has one wobbly bridge, but the rest is all connected together with the same plastic (or whatever material playgrounds are made with) the rest of the walking areas are made of. Jonas did so well with everything they worked on! I am so proud of him! Trudy decided it would be a good idea to switch on and off going between the park and the office. I’m excited about that because I don’t have to worry about entertaining Brynnan for a whole hour away from home! We can all play:)

Anyway, here are some pictures.

This cool climbing thing is an orange fish. Thus is the reason for the wierd colors:) Jonas loves to climb the rock wall at Trudy’s office so they worked a lot on climbing while at the park. It’s easier to climb ladders at the park.

Brynnan had to climb up with help from Trudy, just like Jonas:)

I thought this picture was so cute, even though Brynnan is blown out.

What a cute boy! I love his smile!

Jonas working on his balance with Trudy. He also walked around in the sand pit for a while and did really well. He only fell once!:)

I love this picture because I was just so proud of how hard he was working to get up this ladder! He pulled himself up! Trudy was just making sure he didn’t fall. He was working so hard on pulling up and putting his feet in the right place. I just can’t say it enough; I’m so proud of him!:)

I wanted to add a little side note to something I’ve been thinking about since Sunday. Our Relief Society lesson was “Hope and Death”. This year, for those of you who don’t know, we’re studying the prophet Joseph Smith’s teachings. He went through a lot of deaths, family and friends. It was a really good lesson. At one point we were talking about things that we believe in our religion that others don’t. Things like eternal life, living with family again, etc. It also came up that people who have handicaps won’t have them anymore. When that was said my eyes started to well up thinking about Jonas walking and running perfectly. Not that I’m saying he doesn’t do a good job now, but there will be a difference. It makes me happy to know that this time on earth is only a little while and the next life will be so much better. And Jonas will be perfect:)

Friends

I just want to say that I love my friends! You guys can always make me feel better, whether you’re close by or long distance! The friends that are close by make life bearable with 2 wild kids. I can call you up and say “Help me!” and hanging out makes life so much easier:) Thanks for all the support and love you all give me. It’s always nice to know I have such good friends (close by and long distance)!