Category: Our Family

Somehow I completely missed blogging about our family photos that we had done back in October. We have kind of lost confidence in professional pictures as time has passed. I remember when we used to go to Sears portrait studio regularly, and then we had a couple of negative experiences in a row and decided it was time to go somewhere else. We tried Wal Mart’s portrait studio once and the pictures didn’t turn out very good. We have been going to JC Penny’s portrait studio for some years now, but they are changing again. The ‘photographers’ aren’t professionals. They are usually just young girls that get hired, and the the portrait studio seems to have a history of firing them and hiring new girls so that nobody works there for long. We used to just order all of our photos on a cd for $100 (about 30 photos max). Last time we were there, they had upped the price to $150 for the cd but only allowed 20 pictures. 🙁 Not to mention that after getting them on my computer we found that the resolution is less than our own personal camera produces. I have not been happy with school pictures either. I remember when I was a kid, waiting in line to have my school picture taken, as I got close to the front of the line seeing a big box of combs. There was always someone standing there to comb down stray hairs, and make sure you looked good before the photographer actually snapped the picture. They don’t do that anymore. I will send my kids out the door looking good, but then get the pictures and find their collar or hair messed up. So as time for school photos approached this year, I was feeling less than enthusiastic about buying them, and didn’t really want to just go to the mall for photos like we have in the past. So we decided to let one of our neighbors take pictures for us. She does photography for a hobby and I’ve seen some of the pictures that she has taken for other people in the ward and they look nice. The only thing is she doesn’t have a studio so she only does outdoor photography, that is something completely new for us.

She also took some individual pictures of the kids to take the place of school photos this year.

           

As always there is a shot of Jeremy just being goofy:

Every year, Santa comes around the city of Eagle Mountain on a fire truck, and throws candy out to the children in the neighborhoods. And every year most of our kids miss it because there always seems to be a primary Christmas activity scheduled for the same time. This year, though, there was no primary activity and we had the date of Santa’s tour of the city on the calendar so we were waiting to hear the sirens. When we heard them and they sounded like they were close we got all the kids into shoes and coats, and after instructing them to not go past the side walk (and definitely not into the street) we let them outside.

Thursday was Jeremy’s birthday, and I was expecting the guy to come move the gas line, so I planned ahead and made Jeremy’s birthday cake on Wednesday instead. However when the door bell rang in the ten o’clock hour, I was not expecting to find electricians. I was still wearing pajamas, as I planned on getting dressed as soon as my pants were clean. I only have two pairs of pants that fit my postpartum rear and both of them were in the wash. I had a load of laundry in the washer and in the drier, and the electricians were here to move the main power line through the house. The builder ran the main power line under the joists and the electricians needed to move it to run up through the joists.

In the picture, the blue pipe is a water line to our water softener, the gray line is the main power line, the pink wire is also power (I think) and the black pipe is the gas line, and as you can see, they are all UNDER the joists!

So the electricians went downstairs to take a look at what they are dealing with, and then one of them came upstairs and went outside to shut off the power. (Which means that my laundry got switched off, mid cycle. 🙁 ) He went back downstairs and got to work.

A little bit later the other guy came to move the gas line. My big kids came home from school and my silly boys hear the drill in the basement and Ethan shouts “I didn’t do it!” and Jeremy looked at him and said “It wasn’t ME!” And then they were saying “EEEW!” whenever they heard the drill downstairs vibrating the floor.

That yellow hose is the new gas line up running through the joists.

The guy that did the gas lines also ran a line to the drier, (so the house will be compatible with either a gas or electric drier) and he ran a line to the backyard so we can hook up a gas grill. Notice how the yellow pipe on the left says “BBQ”? 🙂

Friday the electricians were back running more power lines, for outlets and switches, and light fixtures, and smoke detectors. They also started running wires for home theater type stuff (speakers, projector…). I thought that most of the electrical was supposed to be done after the framing was finished. But I guess since we have most of the framing done it won’t be too much of a big deal.

Only one of the electricians was here today. He said his companion was needed some where else today, and so he got to work on our basement alone. He finished with whatever he was doing and cleaned up and left about lunchtime. The odd thing though is that he left without saying anything, so I’m not sure if he is done or not. Upon going downstairs and looking at the electrical, I see things that aren’t finished, so I’m not sure what is going on now. But I am so excited that it is coming along finally.