Derek

Well its yet another Birthday -I will be done posting birthday after the end of this year... But we have one to celebrate- I am a little late but it was my brother in law's birthday and he turned the big 3-0 it was an awesome celebration. He is so much fun and such a great day! He loves people- anyone! Seriously he can talk with anyone for hours. He just enjoys life and tries to just be happy and make things simple- We love Derek happy birthday!

Blank

It was Blakes birthday and it was a great day! I love my brother Blake, we have always been pretty close friends- sometimes it bugs him when we were younger that I wanted to hang around him all the time- but we had a great teenage life hangin out together- He is so smart and can read people so well. He always tries to make things better when they go bad- Blake is funny and just plain fun! Happy birthday Blake!

I love to see the Temple (looong post)

So from the very moment I started taking pictures my most favorite thing was to take pictures of the Temple- I have captured a few shots that are pretty and some that mean a lot to me- A long time ago I was driving around and I saw this picture of the temple and I loved it so much because it reminded me of my brother who is in the air force- well i had taken another cool picture at the same time earlier that day so I was excited about that one so when I got home I was editing the other picture I took first and kinda forgot about this other shot- it was a little while after that I came across it and to be honest my relationship with my brother was not so great- I mean it wasn't bad but we never talk and I had not seen him in forever because he lives out of the state/country and I felt a little bitter that I didnt have anything in common any more with my big brother so I was kinda avoiding this picture but I kept coming across it so I finally edited it and I sent it to him and told him that I took this picture for him and it reminded me a lot of him. I dont think he will even remember this cause at the time he said it looked cool and thats about it- and then nothing else was really said about it. Well here we are 2 years later and I came across this picture again and I decided to re-edit it a little bit and make it personal. This past year I have been really working on my relationship with my brother and we are talking more on the phone and getting to know each other all over again. So again I sent this picture to my brother a few months ago and he had a little bit more to say- we talked about my photography for a while and he finally said to me " you should name that one - For God and Our Country" I teared up a little bit and I knew that thats exactly what it should be called. I respect my brother so much, he has been in the air force for 10 years now and he is very devoted to his country. He has been to Iraq and other places that I cant spell many times and his family has supported him every-time, being left home without him for 6+ moths at a time and knowing that he is doing what he is called to do. He is also strong in the Gospel and his family is so blessed because of their testimonies and activeness in the church. I have been to the temple one time with my brother and sister and law since I have been married and it was a special day- it was the day I told him I was pregnant in the celestial room and he was the first to know. They were going back home soon so they would not be here when we broke the news to everyone. So everytime I am in the temple I hold on to that special day and I think a lot of my brother and his family and pray they are always safe. Therefore this is why this picture is so special to me and the name that Mike named it is so special to me- I love you Mike and thanks for finishing this picture off for me- 

Now- the reason I am posting this picture is because I was asked to donate pictures to Auction them off at a fundraiser for my friend (I mentioned it below) So here they are-  :)

This is the picture I took that distracted me from Mikes picture- This view is actually gone now- they have built a huge building right behind the temple from this view so this picture can never be duplicated :) hehehe its pretty sweet though!

This one is for you Mike ; ) 

This one of course had to have a name plate on it... From this picture you cant tell very good cause the flag is blending into the tree but the real print the flag stands out more cause it is red, white and blue- 

Kasey helped me make these awesome frames- he is amazing! and a big thanks to Color pro lab, home depot, and burton lumber for donating all the material to make these! And to my dad for getting the name plate for me up on base! :)

Matt

Happy Birthday Matt! ..... 

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...

Yeah, I got nothin! 

;) hehe no, Matt os awesome! He is very smart and very talented. He can fix anything and make a "second living" out of it! :) He is such a great dad and loves to be a kid at heart- and as you can see he is also trying out for the fire fighters gay awareness calendar! We love good ol Matt- Happy freakin birthday! ; ) 

Projects

So its a little late but I have been looking for our before pictures of the yard and I still didnt find them so I had to pull one off my blog form last year- So it is not very good and doesnt do the before look justice- but meh... We finally finished our front yard! Kasey surprised me when I came home from Colorado- I came home early to surprise him and boy was I surprised! :) It was awesome! He worked so hard and we had so much help from our families once again! We have the best families!!! Thanks everyone!!!

Before...

the grass before we finally started was totally dead- here it looks ok but it went to pot like seen below :P

During.....

After!!!!! : )

we are still working on the garage door! ;)

My little boy/big boy

So for the past little while after I get Auklin dressed he goes into the bathroom and gets Kaseys deodorant out of the drawer and has me help him put it on- he wants to be just like his daddy! He holds out his arms and says "arm" so I put it on his arm and then tell him to put it in his armpit so he lifts up his arm and has me put it in his armpit too :) (he also likes to have kasey spray him with his cologne if he sees kasey putting it on ;) hehe ) Well today his deodorant was not there so he looked at me and then looked at my deodorant and then looked at me and I said its ok you can use mommy's :) so he pulled it out took the lid off all by himself and put it on all by himself :) hehehe... oh he is so dang cute! 

I love his face!

                                                                        he is so big!  

Successful Labor Day

So we had a pretty eventful Labor Day- we first started out the day buying some "new couches" kaseys parents neighbors were selling their couches and we have been wanting to get rid of our couches for a while now but just dont have the funds for new ones so when this deal came around we had to jump on it! First of all we know the people selling them so thats a plus and second of all we got the good friend discount :) they sold all 3 pieces for $250. They are pretty cute and so much more comfortable than our other one! We also made some frames for some pictures I am donating for an auction. My friend is fighting Gastroparesis (spelling?) and they are having a fundraiser for her, A spaghetti dinner and auction so I am donating some of my Temple pictures for the Auction so you should all go to this and get a yummy meal and but some cool stuff- its for a wonderful cause- (rushingforrushton.blogspot.com/) so I will post pictures of the frames with my pictures in it soon ... once I get my prints back-  then we had someone call us about our wood burning stove we were selling and they came out to "look" at it and wanted it right away :) so they planned to just pay us the money and have us hold it cause they had just picked up another wood burning stove in clinton (so 2 stoves in one truck- cast iron!) and had TONS of other stuff in their truck but her husband wanted to try to fit it cause he measured it out and thought it would fit... well, I will just tell you one thing- they must have been livin right cause we fit it all in... this picture of their truck does not do it justice because there was still like 4 totes that were on our lawn that had not been put in yet, 2 rolls of fencing, the back plate of the stove with the blower on it, and the piping for the stove- how we fit it all in? WHO KNOWS but it was miraculous, truly! and guess what we got our money back that we spent on the couches- it was an awesome day! We were debating whether or not to get the couches cause we really didn't have the spare money and then we ended back even, it was awesome! I mean it would have been cooler to be $250 richer but hey I got cute couches!!! :D I was then able to also finish my little blanket/toy box and I must say it is pretty cute too- so we had like I said- an eventful day and it was just awesome! We were going to try to go 4 wheeling and shot gun shooting but I am glad we got all this done today, it feels good! Happy day!

Kasey was pushing the 4x4s forward so the stove would go into the truck- these guys were amazing, they moved this 600+ lb cast iron stove from our basement to the back of this truck... Amazing! 

these people were seriously so awesome! I love the feeling you get when you sell your stuff to great people and you just feel so great about them! 

Maela Galbraith

So my sister had her baby it been a couple weeks now and she is doing great~ she was born on the 21 of August- she is a little cutie and we are excited to have a new little one in the family-