November 24th, 2011

Today was a very special day in the Horrocks household. Today was Xander's third birthday, Thanksgiving, and the day Jerrica turned 18 months old. We started out the day with Xander waking up to balloons hanging from his bedroom door. I did that last month for Covey's birthday and so Xander has been looking forward to it being his turn to get balloons.

After we were all awake Xander got to open his gifts from Mommy and Daddy. He got the book "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?" and a nerf gun. Xander seems to have little interest in the toy gun, but has had us read him the book at least a dozen times today. (I'm happy my little boy likes books!) After opening gifts it was time for breakfast. We ate pumpkin bread, and Xander got his breakfast on the special plate today. I cut his bread up to make a smiley face ... yet another tradition.

This afternoon we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Horrocks house for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun to see so much family and to enjoy a yummy meal together!

Marie and Ansley

Ansley sound asleep in Grandpa's arms

Kids playing with marbles

Tyson and Chad washing dishes

Kids out on the swing

Jerrica crying at the door because she wanted to come outside too.

For his birthday this year we let Xander choose what type of pie he wanted to eat instead of cake. He chose a strawberry rhubarb pie, so as it got dark outside we gathered together and sang happy birthday to him and had him blow out his candle. Oddly enough he decided that he didn't want to eat that pie at all, and ate pecan pie instead (Smile).

The family all singing Happy Birthday

After a lot of fun with family we came home and everyone got ready for bed. We said family prayer together, and helped the kids say their personal prayers. After that I tucked Xander in with lots of kisses and he went to bed hugging his new book.

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November, 2011

My hip went out of place in the middle of November, and I was hurting so much that I could not get down and play with the kids very easily. After a few days of this, they were getting stir crazy. One night while Brandt was gone to boy scouts I pulled out some Christmas lights and let them play. It was a lot of fun.

A couple days later the kids decided that they wanted to play with the lights again. I couldn't resist taking some more pictures.

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October 31, 2011

For Halloween this year the boys decided that they both wanted to be monkeys. A few months ago I threw all three of the kids in the bathtub to get cleaned up and said that I had my three monkeys in the tub... Ever since Covey and Xander have been calling themselves monkeys.

The night before the Halloween Trunk or Treat Xander and Covey decided they did not like the little hats that I had made with the ears on them for their costumes. Xander wouldn't even put his on. So last minute I had to make up the monkey headbands. I think it turned out even cuter. Covey wore his costume off and on for about 3 days straight.

Jerrica was my gothic princess for Halloween. I made her a black and white tutu which she wore with black tights, and a black onsie. The night before the Trunk or Treat I painted her toe nails and finger nails black. It was the first time I have ever painted her finger nails, and I have to admit, I was shocked! I put finger nail polish on one of her finger nails and she started to giggle. After that she handed me one finger after another until they were all painted, ad she even helped blow on them to dry them up.

I almost didn't get Jerrica a bucket for Halloween this year since she is only 17 months old and the boys weren't interested in holding a bucket at that age. However Covey saw a pink pumpkin bucket and declared that she had to have a bucket too. I was surprised yet again because when it came time to do the Trunk or Treat she walked to every car carrying her bucket. Even when the bucket got a little heavy for her she would not let Brandt take it. In the end she cried and cried when we took it away to put it in the car once we were done. It was so cute!

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October 2011

We love to go walking as a family - and I love to take pictures. This fall we decided to go out walking one day as a family on the walking trail in Athens. Here are some of the pictures

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September 16th, 2011

I realize that I am way behind on updates on our website. I am going to try to be better, although I am really busy with school right now. I guess what I am trying to say is I am going to try but please be patient with me because school does come first right now. :)

I am going to start by backing up and putting up some pictures of this summer. In August Brandt's new job (Venturi) had a family even where they rented a box at a local baseball game and provided dinner for employees and their families. It was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed sitting in the air-conditioned box eating chicken fingers and cookies.

I haven't been to a baseball game since I was pretty young. I have to admit, I forgot how much drinking there is at baseball games. I count it a blessing that with how many cans and cups Xander tried to pick up to drink out of, he always walked right past ones that were alcoholic - almost like he didn't see them. I was so grateful for that! Anyway... After a little while of staying inside we decided to go out to the bleachers to watch the game. The kids really enjoyed being closer, hearing the music, and just plain playing on the bleachers.

All in all it was a very fun trip out with the family. We ended up leaving after the 7th inning because the kids were exhausted, but it was a day we all enjoyed and will remember.

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July 20th, 2011

This summer is super hot with heat indexes over 110 degrees some days. Even though it is so incredibly hot outside the kids still want to play out there, and lets face it they need to be able to run off some energy as well. The last few days I have been working outside each morning to try and expand my front garden. While I am outside working the kids have been riding bikes etc. I decided it would be nice to get a sprinkler for them to play in so that they won't get quite as over heated. Here is some of the fun they had today:

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July 20th, 2011

We went to Bridgestreet (an outdoor mall) one night a couple weeks ago and let the kids play in the water. They had a ton of fun. Here is some video footage (You can change the resolution ad watch it in HD):

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July 15th, 2011

This summer I have decided to start working with the boys at home. Now each day (or I should say most days) we have "school" together and work on the alphabet. Also I have started to bring the kids to the library each week for storytime and to pick out books that will go along with the letters we will be learning about. Here are some pictures from the day that we learned about the letter "B". We got up and ate Breakfast, then went to their Bedroom and got dressed in Blue. After that we got out the Blocks and had fun playing for a while.

Covey was very proud of what he built! He said it was a church:

After we cleaned up the toys we sat on the couch to read some Books. The kids absolutely loved the next activity. I downloaded the song "Beep Beep" from The Playmates off of Amazon. My sisters and I used to listen to that song on my Dad's record and chase each other around the living room. I of course had to teach my kids to do the same. :) We started out slow and the boys would pretend to beep their car horns. Then we would walk faster and faster until we were running around the living room full speed. It was a lot of fun.

Next we got out the crayons and colored Blues Clues pictures.

After naptime we played a Blues Clues game. I found a coloring page online with the paw prints and printed it off. I then covered it with contact paper and put masking tape on the back. The kids loved playing Blues Clues and ask to do it almost every day now. To finish the day off we Baked muffins, and they got to take a Bubble Bath before going to Bed.

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July 15th, 2011

The kids are always throwing blankets over the dinningroom table to make a fort. I saw a pattern at the store the other day and decided to sew together a fort that they can play in. The other night while Brandt was at Young Mens I put the laptop and a bunch of couch cushions in the fort an let the boys watch a movie. I left the room for a minute and when I came back all three kids and the dog were in there hanging out. It was so cute!

Of course the boys grabbed a bucked of crackers to snack on - and they were nice to share with Jerrica.

The movie they picked out was "Dispicable Me". I think we may end up getting this movie for a birthday or Christmas gift because we are only borrowing it from a friend, but they LOVE it!!! They refer to it as "The Silly Movie".

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July 11th, 2011

It amazes me how each kid will react to the same situation differently. Tonight I knocked a pan off of the stove and got food all over the kitchen floor. I yelled as it fell, so all the kids (including Jerrica) came to see what was up. Each kid stopped at the side of the kitchen for a minute to evaluate the situation. Covey was the first to react. He said "That's a BIG mess!" Jerrica was next, she crawled over to try and eat it off the floor. Xander stood there an extra few seconds thinking and then yelled "JUMP" and ran through the kitchen leaping over the mess. Got to love them.

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July 4th, 2011

Yesterday was the fourth of July, and it was a lot of fun. We didn't have our normal party/BBQ at our house this year. Brandt has unemployed so long, and we just never got around to planning it this year. However Tyson and Sharon were in town, and so the Horrocks side of the family got together for the holiday. We started out the celebrations by going over to Tyson and Sharon's house around 1pm for a barbeque/get together. We enjoyed sitting around telling stories and talking. Then we ate a yummy cake which Sharon decorated with fruit like an American flag. There was crafts for the kids to do etc.

We all split up around 5pm, and went our separate ways for a couple hours before meeting up again over at our house for stick hockey and fireworks.

I absolutely love watching the fireworks at our house. Our two next door neighbors always set off a ton of really good fireworks each year, and almost seem to compete with each other. It was a great time! Covey did pretty good with the fireworks this year. He sat by himself and watched them while covering up his ears. Xander was fine with the small stuff like bottle rockets, however when the neighbors started to set off the mortars, he freaked out. I could not calm him down no matter what I did. I even tried to put ear plugs in and see if that helped (which it didn't...) I ended up inside with him for a little while until I got him calmed down enough to watch Toy Story III on the computer in the office while I watched fireworks on the back patio. Laney was also scared of the loud noises. However she was perfectly happy to play inside once I turned on some Primary music to listen to.

At bedtime I was kneeling next to Xander's bed while he said his personal prayers. It was so sweet. He started out thanking Heavenly Father for fireworks, his family, seeing Grandma and Grandpa etc. Then he asked Heavenly Father to help him sleep good. After that there was a long pause like he forgot how to end his prayer. I started to prompt him "In the name...." He looked up at me and said "No mommy. Fireworks." I understood - there were still fireworks going on outside that he could hear. I said "Please help me to not be scared of fireworks" He repeated that and ended his prayer. It was so cute! He got done and climbed up in his bed all happy. I looked at him and said "Heavenly Father will help you to not be scared now." He had such a happy look on his face as he said "Yes mommy, I love you too!" He went right to sleep without acting scared anymore. I am happy to see such faith in such a small little boy. He is truly a blessing in my life!

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June 18th, 2011

Covey has been asking me everyday to see videos of when he was little. I have decided that I probably should sit down and start working on the 2-3 years of video clips that I have never even taken off of the camera... So as I start editing the different videos I am going to go ahead and post them here on our website so that you can see them. Starting with Christmas 2007 - Jenny's Mom "Nanny" was down in Alabama visiting us that year for Christmas. We spent the morning at our apartment opening gifts, and then went over to Brandt's sister Marie's house for the Horrocks family celebration. Here is the movie:

I am also going to be putting different videos of the kids up on their pages as well, so don't forget to check them out.

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May 1st, 2011

I wanted to let you all know that we are safe, and our house is ok. There were 3 different tornadoes in our area, and one was less than half a mile from our house. The sound it made was very loud and frightening. The storm itself was so weird the way that it hit us in wave after wave. By the end even the sirens didn't work because of power outages etc. Covey did not want to come out of the closet. I am incredibly thankful that we are safe, and that our house is ok. I thank the Lord that so many of our friends were safe and free of injuries even though they lost so many things. My heart aches so much for our area, and our friends, and even people that I do not know who have lost love ones, friends, and homes. I wish there was so much more I could do for them, but they are constantly in my prayers. During the worst part of the storm Brandt had the video camera on a tripod by the window as we took shelter in our closet. We also have some pictures and footage of some of the damage from the tornado close by our house. The video can never do justice to what it was truely like to be there. I can't even begin to describe the feelings I had as I went out to check on friends in some areas to see if they needed help and see all the damage around our home.

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April 9th, 2011

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Brandt was working insane hours this week (Trying to fit 40 hours into 2.5 days) and the kits were going stir crazy because my back has been out and I havent been able to do much with them. Yesterday after Brandt got home from work we went out to the park to let the kids all run and play. We also brought our new camera to make a new family video. I love what Brandt did! I think he has a real talent for this type of thing. Enjoy the movie. (It is only a minute and a half):

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February 14th, 2011

Happy Valentined Day!!! I know that I am behind on posting pictures. I have actually taken them I just don't have them posted yet, I should get them up soon. Today's Challange was "Rings". Brandt was actually the one who set up and took this picture. I was working on homework. Here is a picture of Brandt's wedding ring. We spun his ring on the coffee table and took a picture. I love how you can see the reflection in the glass. I don't care so much for how you can see the dust... :)

Here is my Picture for Day 14: Rings




Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 2500

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February 11th, 2011

Today's Challange was "Dreams". Here is Covey... I think his biggest dream right now would be to play a dozen games of Candy Land EVERY DAY with mommy.... I don't like Candy Land that much. :)

Here is my Picture for Day 11: Dreams

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February 10th, 2011

Today's Challange was the "Space – where they are comfortable". We seem to just going through rounds of illness this year at our house. I feel like are never healthy for more than a week or two at a time. (sigh) At the moment, Covey is complaining that his ear hurts and he wants mommy to fix it. He was holding his ear and crying eariler this morning. If this keeps up I may have to bring him in and see if he has an ear infection. :( On top of that Xander and Jerrica both have colds... As for the place that is most comfortable I had to choose this as a picture. This is Covey curled up on the couch today with a pillow and blanket fast asleep. (With his hands under the ear that hurts) My kids (and I) all love to curl up on the couch with blankets!!!

Here is my Picture for Day 10: Space – where they are comfortable

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February 9th, 2011

Today's Challange was things you "Passions an Hobbies". I decided to use an old picture for this one. Here is Brandt working on his green screen which he uses in making videos.

Here is my Picture for Day 9: Passions an Hobbies

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February 8th, 2011

Today's Challange was things you "Gift from the Heart". Anyone who knows me well will not be surprised by what I chose to photograph for this... My sewing machine. Brandt bought me a sewing machine on my birthday the year that we got married. I remember that I got mad at him because we had only been married 3 months and were still poor, but we made it work. Looking back I think that the sewing machine is the best gift he has ever given me. Although I do get stressed sometimes with my projects, it is one of my greatest stress relievers. About 4 years after we got the machine Brandt topped it off by giving me the sewing table to keep it in.

Here is my Picture for Day 8: Gift from the heart

• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens
• ISO 100
• Shutter Speed: 0.4 second
• Aperture: f/5.6

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February 7th, 2011

Today's Challange was things you "Generations". I had origionally planned on trying to get some cute pictures with Grandpa Horrocks in it, since the boys love to go there every Sunday. Infact as soon as we leave church Xander is always in the back seat going "Papa's house". (So cute!) My grand ideas for the picture were ruined however since all three of my kids seem to have gotten nasty colds... So instead of trying to catch a fun "in the moment" picture of them with Grandpa I took a picture of Xander and compaired it to a picture of my dad. The older Xander gets, the more and more he reminds me more of my dad, then Brand't side of the family. The picture doesn't really do it justice but here it is anyway....

Here is my Picture for Day 7: Generations

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February 6th, 2011

Today's Challange was things you "Who They Love". I didn't get around to taking the picture eariler in the day, so I had to try to get my camera to work in the low light of the house.... That was INCREDIBLY FRAUSTRATING!!! All in all I think I took about 50 pictures, and had one I could use - and I edited this picture a TON in photoshop. (Sigh) Anyway here is Daisy with the toy that she loves the most. Brandt and I joke around that it is a "Racoon Ferrett".

Here is my Picture for Day 6: Who they love



Here are the stats for the photo settings:

• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens
• ISO 3200
• Shutter Speed: 1/200 second
• Aperture: f/4.5

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February 5th, 2011

Today's Challange was things you "Love to Hate". I have to admit, Brandt helped me come up with and plan this picture... However, for this picture I decided to shoot Brandt on the computer. Up until we bought this camera he was driving me insane because he was always on the computer checking the Canon Rumors website - Hoping for an announcement of the 5D Mark III... He still wants to get that by the way... Now that he has the camera he is on it looking up new lenses.

Here is my Picture for Day 5: What you Love to Hate



Here are the stats for the photo settings (There was very little color altering to this photo):

• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens
• ISO 800
• Shutter Speed: 1 second
• Aperture: f/5.0

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February 4th, 2011

I couldn't decide which picture to use for today, so here are the two I liked the most.

Here are the Pictures for Day 4: What They Wear

Brandt's many ties - his red one is my favorite!



Jerrica's cute shoes. I love having a little girl to dress up!

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February 3rd, 2011

Brandt and I have a new camera now, and I love it. Unfortunatley I don't know how to use all of the features and I do not know what all the settings mean yet in order to get good pictures. A friend of mine introduced me to a website that is having a daily photo challange throughout the month of February called the "Month of Love". I started a couple days late, but I will now be posting my pictures.If you are interested in doing this too, you can go to their webpage .

Here is the Picture for Day 3: Then & Now

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January 19, 2011

Brandt and I made up a super cute video staring Brandt and Covey to enter a video contest for a company called Collision Guard. We are in the finalists for voting now and we really need as many votes as we can get. I would really appreciate it if you could go and vote for our video and also spread the word onto as many people as you can so that we can hopefully win. (This is a totally legitimate contest).

Here's how to vote:

• Voting is done on Facebook so you will need to log into facebook.
• Go to the Collision Guard page on facebook.
• Here is a link: Collision Guard Page
• On their "wall" there is a post toward the top for our video. Our video is named "Lenny and Larry - S.M.I.L.E Collision Guard Contest"
• All you need to do to vote is click the "like" button under the video.

Here is the video we made for the contest:

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December 25th, 2010

What happens when you have a little maltipoo in snow? Here is a video:

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December 25th, 2010

Our Christmas Day in Alabama. Here is a video:

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December 24th, 2010

Join in our Christmas Eve celebrations. Here is a video:

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October 29, 2010

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we celebrated it on Friday at our church's "Trunk or Treat". Xander was a vampire this year. We put black hair spray in his hair, and spiked it up. Then he wore his sunday suit and a cape. I think he looked super cute!

Covey was a vampire last year for halloween. He loved that costume untill it came time to wash his hair at the end of the day... When he saw the water going town the drain in the shower turn black from his hair, you would think he was watching his own blood going down the drain. This year he did not want to wear a costume at all. Infact he got freaked out walking down the costume isle at Walmart... We were trying to decide what to do when I remembered an outfit that I had in the closet that Brandt's parents had gotten for him when they went to Germany while Brandt was a little boy. I went and pulled the outfit out and Covey loved it!!! Here is Covey:

Jerrica wore a cute onsie for Halloween that said "Daddy's little Monster" on it, along with a matching tutu. I didn't get any good pictures of her, but you can see her sitting on a friends lap in this picture.

The boys had a great Halloween. Both of them went around saying "Trick or Treat" to get candy. Xander was pretty cute because his sounded more like "Tutu Tweet". After walking around to all the cars and getting candy Covey told me that he wasn't done trick or treating yet because his bucket wasn't completely full yet. Got to love it... Hope everyone had a great Halloween this year!!!

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September 1st, 2010

Covey loves to take pictures and play with cameras... Unfortunately he has never asked for permission before. Infact after Jerrica was born, while my mom was here, my camera was found in the bathroom dripping wet because Covey had been playing with it. LUCKILY my camera stil works. Tonight Covey asked me if he could take some pictures, so I decided I would let him, since I was there to supervise. I showed him how to hold the camera, and to not cover the flash with his fingers. Unfortunately he decided to make me the the subject of most of his photos. Here are a few of the pictures he took:

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August 17th, 2010

I have come to the conclusion that Brandt and I have the worst luck when it comes to our tires. When we were newly weds, and didn't know much about fixing tires, we would fix his parents dinner often as a show of gratitude when Dad would fix our tire... On our Suzuki we have had at least 2-3 screws in our tires. The most interesting thing we had in our tire was a headphone jack - that must have been sitting just right to go in our tire. Yesterday we got a nice hole in the back tire on our van. We got home from the store to hear the tire hissing air out. Within 15 minutes the tire was completely flat and down on the rim. Guess what we had in it? A ROCK!

It took a lot of time for us to figure out how to get to the spare tire on our van. It is one that is held up underneath and you have to lower it down on a cable etc.... At least we know how to do this in the future. We went through all the trouble of getting the spare out, just to put it away in the end. Brandt spent a good about of time trying to get that rock out of the tire. It was wedged in there pretty good. After that he tried to repair the tire.

After putting in one repair strip, we poured soapy water onto the tire to watch for air leaks. As you can see one just wasn't going to do the job...

Brandt put another repair strip into the tire, and now it seems to be holding air. We will have to keep an eye on it. Watch, with my luck it will go flat while I am out with the kids... Anyway all in all it took about two and a half hours to fix the tire, and put the car back together. I had to put this on our website because Brandt kept commenting on how I was taking pictures of trivial things... :) I just felt like documenting our ongoing luck with tires.

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August 4th, 2010

Today is Grandma Barb's Birthday and the boys wanted to make a little video for her. Here it is:

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July 30th, 2010

A sweet couple in our ward had some fruit trees in their yard, and they couldn't use all of the fruit themselves, so they let us go and pick apples and pears. Yesterday I have a very busy day canning the pears into pear butter. (It tastes really yummy) I started out having to wash all of the pears and cut them up.

Here is the first batch of pears in the sink

Here are some more pears in the bucket waiting to be cleaned.

After washing and cutting the pears I had to have sit in boiling water to soften up.

After boiling the pears to soften them up I then put them through a Victorio strainer to take the peels and seeds out. A nice friend of mine is letting me borrow hers. I am so glad about that, because I was not looking forward to peeling all of this fruit! I don't have any pictures using the strainer, because it wouldn't be easy taking a picture of myself using it... After straining the pears, I then added Sugar and cinnamon and put it in a pan on the stove to simmer and thicken up. (Meanwhile getting the next batch of pears boiling on the stove)

When it had thickened up some I would then take it off of the stove and fill the jars with the pear butter. Then I would get to put those jars in yet another pan of boiling water and have them sit in boiling water for 10 minutes, to get the jars to seal. At the end of the day, after doing 3 batches of pears I finished 4 quarts, and 10 pints of pear butter. I was so tired. Today I get to start applesauce. Covey is so excited.

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July 28th, 2010

Yesterday morning the boys decided that they wanted to make a video for Daddy while he was at work. I'm not the greatest at editing videos, Brandt is way better then I am doing that. However I am slowly learning more and more. This video was sweet anyway, so I thought I'd put it up incase you wanted to watch it. Also I opened up a new YouTube account, that we are now going to be uploading our everyday family videos to. That way Brandt can use his account more for his other projects. The channel name on YouTube for our family videos is TheHorrocksFamily. Hope you are all having a great day!

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July 27th, 2010

Yesterday was Family Home Evening night. I often find it extremely difficult to have family home evening. I didn't grow up having family home evening very often, so it was never a habit of mine. It is also difficult because our kids are so young. It is hard to keep their attention, there are a lot of activities that they cant do etc... All in all a lot of times you get done and wonder if they got anything out of it.

Last night was a lot of fun. Covey was actually excited to participate! He requested singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and I am a Child of God for the opening songs. Then we had a lesson on our bodies, and how we were created in Heavenly Fathers image. We told the story of the first vision, and they looked at pictures. After that we had a lot of fun singing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, as fast as we could... (Both Boys really enjoyed that) There was a coloring activity... which as Covey was getting done coloring he informed us that "We need treat now.... we need ice cream... big bowl of ice cream". Got to love kids. (We did have small dishes of ice cream for treat)

To top the night off Jerrica started to smile at me while I was holding her. It is the first time she has really smile when looking at me, instead of just smiling whenever... My kids smiles all just melt my heart.

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July 21th, 2010

On Wednesday last week Jenny left the kids at home with Brandt while she went to the gym and the store for 2 hours... Boy did the kids give Brandt a run for his money. To start out with, while Brandt and Covey were out in the Living Room Xander grabbed a picture of Crystal light off of the Kitchen table and spilled it all over the floor. It seems he then proceded to fall in it soaking some up in his diaper, and then taking off through the house before Brandt caught him. Then while Brandt was trying to clean up the mess he accidently flooded our bathroom because our sink isn't draining right.... Here is a video of the crystal light mess:

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July 20th, 2010

Yea!!! The software I needed to update our website has now been loaded onto our main computer. This means I no longer have to sit at Brandts laptop - which is very... very slow - to update our website. Also all of my pictures get loaded onto this computer, and get edited here. So needless to say, it will be tons easier for me to update our website from now on. Check back for more updates, and don't forget to look at the sides to see if I have posted anything new on the kids pages.

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July 20th, 2010

This year for since Brandt is Young Mens President, he got to be a part of helping out with Youth Conference. On Thursday Brandt went and chaperoned at a water park.... He came back burned to a crisp. Then Thursday night there was a Variety Show, where all the wards showed off their talent.

Our ward decided to make a video. Brandt went in and had some of the youth to the video taping, and then he edited it into a movie that was shown that Thursday night.

Here is the finished product. Enjoy!!

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July 14th, 2010

Lowes sponsored a $15,000 prize toward a man cave for father's day. The entry had to be 30 seconds long and was judged based on creativity, originality, and whether or not it followed the theme.

The top 10 entries were to be voted on. We were sure we'd be in the top ten, but we weren't. We were robbed!

Some of the chosen entries didn't seem as creative:

http://lowes.promo.eprize.com/mancave/

Here is the video we submitted:

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June 25th, 2010

Today we decided to try making Chicken Tikka Masala at home. It turned out wonderful!!!!! Here is the sauce cooking on the stove

Brandt also decided to try and make our own Nan bread to go along with the meal. It wasn't perfect but it turned out pretty good.

The chicken had been cut up into bitesize pieces and marinading most of the day. Then we put the meet on skewers and grilled it. Doesn't it look yummy?

After the chicken was done cooking, we took it off of the skewers and added it to the sauce, and let it simmer as it thickened up. This was one delicious meal, and one we will make again!!

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May - June 20th, 2010

Grandma Christenson (Nanny) came down to Alabama to help us our after Jerric was born. It was great having her here to visit. The boys warmed love Nanny and were really sad when she left to go back home to Minnesota. Since she went home Covey has asked to call her several times just to talk to her on the phone. He even thought Nanny would come back here to visit just to see his new pajama pants... Here are some more pictures of her visit. I really didn't have my camera out too much while she was here :(

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June 5th, 2010

We brought Daisy in to get shaved and groomed for the summer. She still had some stained fur from when we got her, and she was also getting some knots in her fur. (We didn't know that much about grooming maltese dogs before.... we have a much better idea of what we have to do now) Anyway when we went to pick her up we were surprised at what she looked like. They ended up having to shave her really short because of the knots on her stomach. Also she had some knots around her ears so they shaved them as well. We have never seen her look like this before. Covey keeps saying "Daisy looks silly". We are all very amused by her looks.

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May 24th, 2010

This is how we announced to family and friends that Jerrica was born. Brandt filmed the first scenes in the hospital twice and put them together to make it look like we had twins. It amazed us how many people actually believed that we did have twins after watching this video. Jerrica is 21 inches long and weighed 9 lbs. The delivery went easy, and labor was only 4 hours long. I was very ready to be done being pregnant. The day before we went to the hospital to be induced I had the stomach flu and could not even keep a popcicle down. I was miserable... but I felt a ton better once she was born. :)

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April 29, 2010

I am now 36 weeks along, not too much longer before baby Jerrica is going to make her grand appearance! My friend Karen Bagley was kind enough to take some maternity pictures of me. I think they turned out wonderful!!! Enjoy!

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April 10, 2010

Brandt is now 28 years old!!! For his birthday Jenny planned a game night for him on Friday. A few of his friends came over, ate pizza and junk food, and played video games. On Saturday Covey helped mommy make a German Chocolate Cake for Daddy... Of course a little later that day Covye decided he was hungry and tried to help himself - we had several holes on the top of the cake. Then that night Grandma and Grandpa Horrocks watched the boys while we went to dinner and a movie. (We saw How to Train your Dragon) The movie was really good! To top off his Birthday weekend, on Sunday Jenny made lasagna for dinner and frosted his cake - attempting to hide all the holes. Then we had a couple friends and some family over to eat cake, and play Apples to Apples. All in all he had a wonderful birthday!

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April 4th, 2010

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Easter Holiday! I know that I have sure enjoyed mine this year. First General Conference was this weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to talks that were given. It left me feeling spiritually uplifted, and with some renewed resolve to work on some areas of myself.

Also now that Covey is three years old he is starting to enjoy holidays more. Saturday night we went over to Brandt's parents house and dyed Easter Eggs. Covey really seemed to enjoy that! Brandt is always surprised that I never dyed Easter eggs until I married him. (My parents always bought the shrink wrappers that go over the eggs) This year we got a camo dye kit, and also a glitter egg dying kit. Covey had a lot of fun watching the eggs change colors, and putting stickers on the camo eggs.

Today (Easter Sunday) Covey got up nice and earily, and was super excited to look for his Easter Basket. He walked around the house looking in all the places he likes to hide, trying to find where the Easter Bunny had hid his basket. His face was so classic when he opened up a kitchen cupboard saw it. He threw his hands up into the air and yelled "I found it!!!". (Which he said so good, it surprised both me and Brandt) After eating breakfast we went over to Brandt's parents house again and watched the last 2 sessions of this General Conference. Brandt's Brother-in-Law Adam was in town, so we got to visit with him too. Inbetween the two sessions of conference we had a nice family dinner together with ham, potatoes, jello salad, and fresh green beans. Yummmm!

Again we hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!!

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March 31st 2010

My friend Karen Bagley took some pictures of my boys this week. They turned out GREAT!! To see some updated picture of them, look at their individual pages. (The links are on the left side of the page)

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March 23rd 2010

I went to bring the boys to the library today, just to find out that the library is closed on Wednesdays. (Strange to me that they are open on Sunday but closed on Wednesday) So instead of going to the library, we went to the small park next door. Covey was very proud of himself for being able to climb everywhere by himself. Xander really enjoyed the swings.

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February 27th 2010

Before Christmas we had 3 large 60 foot trees cut odown in our back yard. They were all sick and dying... In the Begining of December we had a storm come though with some stong winds, and it knocked a large brance off one tree that spear headed into the ground about 10 feet out from our bedroom window. After that we decided it was time for them to come down. We paid some professionals to come in and drop the trees. They were close to our house and the neighbors, and right over the neighbors shed, so we didn't want to risk dropping them ourselves. Then this week we had some friends come over with chainsaws and help us chop up the trees and clean up all the wood.

Once all the branches were cut, it was down to the THICK trunks. Luckily one friend brought over a trailer, that they were able to load up a lot of the huge heavy logs, and drive it down to the back of the yard, where they rolled them off of the trailer.

While the men were working on the trees, I was down at the firepit, starting to burn a bunch of the small stuff and the rotten wood. Covey wanted to eat his lunch outside, and so he sat down by the fire with me. He really enjoyed himself, and is looking forward to having more fires in the firepit soon! We didn't get all the wood cleaned up, but only a few of the large trunk pieces remain. We had people here helping out for close to 6 hours. Needless to say we are extremely thankful to everyone that helped us!

Here is a picture of the back of our yard after a good amount of the logs was stacked up. As you can see we practically have a back fence now! :) Thanks again to everone that helped us!!!

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February 20th 2010

This week I decided to finally paint Covey's room. The entire house all has tan colored walls (You can see that in the update "house pictures") and it was time for a change. I have had paint samples taped to Coveys wall for probably 6 months now, and so on Tuesday I went to Home Depot and bought the paint. Of course after I got home from the store I couldn't find my paint roller... Luckily my Visiting Teacher let me borrow hers, and I was able to get to work on the room the next day.

After painting Coveys room, I decided that it was time to move Xander into Coveys room. Xander has had his crib in the guest bedroom, but we have always planned on having the boys share a room. Now that Xander is sleeping better through the night, I decided to take the plunge and move them into the same room. I have to admit I have my worries about it... For example, will Covey getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night wake up Xander... Or will they wake eachother up in the night and not go back to sleep, etc. Last night was the first night they slept in the same room, and I have to admit it went really well. Nap time was another story - but I'll work on that.

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February 8th 2010

I was very surprised to wake up this morning to it snowing like crazy. We had giant snow flakes falling down. Covey loved it! I enjoyed it too, except that I had to bring Xander into the doctor today to get some shots. It took me an hour to drive what would normally only take me 25 minutes - because I had to drive 30-35 miles an hour the whole way. On the way home from the doctors office, they had closed off all the freeway entrances, so I had to take alternate routes home too. That was a bit fraustrating. It warmed up this afternoon, and by night it looks like it has just been raining today.

Here is a little video showing what our yard looked like, and also Covey out in the snow. It is not a super spectacular movie... Infact I am also trying to figure out why all of my videos are looking grainy, and dark when I upload them, but you will get the general idea of what it was like today.

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February 7th 2010

This morning we got a phonecall bright and earily, asking Brandt and I to be at the church earily today so that we could meet with the bishop. We got there, and met with the bishop... and... Brandt now has a new calling at church. Brandt is now the Young Mens President! I had a grin on my face the entire morning. You see we have known for a few weeks that the last young mens president was moving. Brandt has been worried that he might get called.... maybe it was Heavenly Father giving him a little heads up. :) Anyway he will now have even more to keep him busy.

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February 3rd 2010

Daisy is now all cleaned and groomed. (It was actually done a little over a week ago, but I am just posting things now) She looks quite a bit different now. The people that groomed her could tell that this was her first time having a trim because she was quite nervous. Also they had to cut her hair a little bit shorter than normal because of the matting on her stomach and legs. It is nice to have her all cleaned up.

Covey and Xander are really begining to love Daisy. Covey was scared of her the first day or so... It was incredibly funny to watch Covey run screaming though the house with a tiny dog that doesn't even come up to his knees, chasing afer him. Now Covey will try to get Daisy to chase after him, and is also not afraid to try and tell Daisy what to do. Xander also loves Daisy. We bought a small stuffed animal toy for her to play with, and Xander enjoys to throw that around and play with the dog. Also Brandt isn't super allergic to Daisy. His hands do itch after wrestling with her, and he sneezes a bit more than normal; however, the dog does not affect his breathing or lungs. All in all it looks like we are going to be able to keep her.

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January 19th 2010

We did something that surprises even me sometimes... we got a dog. We have been trying to think of a pet that we could get, that Covey could help take care of. We had begun to give up on having a pet since Brandt is allergic to dogs, and most of the family around here is allergic to cats. We didn't want hampsters, rats, etc... and a bird just isn't cuddly for kids. One day I got onto Craigslist and actually saw a hypoallergenic dog listed as needing a home. We talked it over, and decided to get the dog. (We had a back up home for her incase Brandt was too allergic to her) This is our dog Daisy:

Daisy was a rescued dog. Her previous owner, I am told, kept her locked in a water heater closet. Daisy is a year old Malti-poo, and weighs a whopping 5 lbs. Right now she is pretty dirty, and her fur needs to be trimmed because it is very matted in places. Also she has Saint Bernard dander on her, so we won't really be able to tell how allergic Brandt is going to be until we get her cleaned up

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January 9th 2010

I had my 5 month ultasound today! The above picture shows that we are going to be having...... A GIRL!!! I am very excited to have a little girl. Below are the other pictures that I have copies of.

Since I had the ultrasound on Jan. 9th Brandt and I have talked a lot about what we should name the girl. We have decided that we are going to name her Jerrica Lynn. Jerrica Lynn is due May 24th.

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January 7th 2010

For the last two days the weather man has been saying that we were going to be getting snow. The school systems in the area all closed down in anticipation. I have to admit... I did not believe them. Obviously I was wrong. It is nothing like the snow up in Minnesota, but it is a good amount for here. Due to the weather, Brandt even got to leave and work from home for half the day.

Covey loved playing out in the snow. Unfortunatley he could play too long because he didn't have any gloves, so his hands were freezing. The neighbor boy came over and taught Covey how to make and throw snow balls. He loved it untill one snow ball exploded on his sholder and sent cold snow into his jacket. After that he was ready to come back inside. :)

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December 31 2009

We had a nice quiet New Years Eve at home this year. Brandt worked during the day, but that night we had a party with the boys. We played Covey's new game "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", and then we made a fort in our livingroom. Brandt pulled our sectional couch apart, and we drapped blankets over them... Covey thought it was the coolest thing! Xander was in bed for most of the excitement. He was still getting over a nasty cold that had him running a fever all through Christmas. He woke at the very end before Covey had to go to bed.

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November 2009

We have a new video that we made with the boys. It is a great movie trailer!!! Check it out, it is only about two and a half minutes long.

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August 2009

Check out Xander's page to see some of his 9 month pictures!

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October 2009

This month Jenny and her sister-in-law pitched in together to get a booth at the City Street Festival. Jenny was selling her quilts and baby blankets, and her sister was selling bandana dresses and hair clips. The night before the street festival Brandt hurried and made a nice wooden frame to display the quilts on. The festival was enjoyable, we didn't sell as much as we had hoped (Jenny sold 1 baby blanket, and her sister sold about 4 bandana dresses) but we have many ideas to make next year a lot better!

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August 2009

This was Brandts second attempt at using the green screen that he made. Of course he had to have lightsabers.... Enjoy the video....

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August 2009

This month we hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner. It was a lot of fun, the theme was "A Chicago Caper", and it took place in the 1920's. Jenny was a female news reporter named Scoop, and Brandt was a golfer names Socks. We had a lot of fun dressing up for the parts. Some of the other charaters was a saloon lady named Silky, a Baseball player, a Saloon Singer, etc. Our friend David was awesome in his costume by making a fake cigar that he could blow baby powder out of to look like smoke.

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December 2008

What is it this year that has us all in a continual sick loop? We have all had colds this year. Most of us 2 colds through the winter and now. Covey has also had his familiar bouts of fevering. Covey typically has high fevers. We found this out throughout last year when he was given a Chicken Pox shot. Then he was 106.5. This time he was creeping up to 103 and we finally gave him medicine after that.

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March 2009

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December 2008 - March 2009

The kids have really been up to a lot in the beginning of the year. We have loaded their pages with some great pics! Below are links for the specifics:

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February 2009

After picking up our car in Atlanta, we decided it would be a fun idea to visit Chattanooga,TN since Jenny and Covey hadn't been there. We were about a half hour too late for seeing the Tennessee Aquarium (which is the 2nd largest aquarium in the world). We did still get to go and see the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Covey enjoyed climbing up in the engine car. Covey also enjoyed the shuttle ride and seeing real "horsies". We are planning another trip with friends to the aquarium.

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February 2009

Gone are the days where Jenny is stuck at home. We decided to buckle down and get a van. Jenny was terrified of driving a minivan because it wasn't very cool and it was cliche for a stay at home LDS mom but the features on this baby changed her mind :) It is a 2008 Chrysler Town and Country. Click on the pictures below to see bigger pics!

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December 2008

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December 2008

This year for Christmas we all got up and opened gifts before the sun had even come up - Although we hadn't planned it that way. What happened was Covey got up in the middle of the night and tried to turn on his stereo. (He has a lullaby CD in there that he likes to listen to) He did succeed in turning on the stereo, however he acidently pushed the button for the radio, and he had already turned the nob for the volume all the way up. Brandt and I woke up in our bedroom at the other side of the house wondering how our surround sound had been turned on in the livingroom.... When Brandt walked into Coveys room he was laying on his bed burrying his head in his pillow crying because it was so loud. We decided at that point to go ahead and open all the gifts.

This year Santa brought Jenny a really nice sewing table, that she loves and uses all the time. He brought Covey a new toy, and Brandt some shirts for work. Covey also got a nice suit to wear to church on sunday (Which he loves because now he looks like daddy) and some magnets to play with on the fridge. I think he was the most excited about the magnets. He ran right out to the kitchen and started putting them all on and making designs with them.

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December 2008

We have been making many changes to our website lately. Some of the biggest changes are:

1- Alexander now has a page of his own. You can see his page by clicking the link on the left.

2- Jenny's Quilt page has been changed completely, and is now being updated more often showing her current projects.

3- Covington's page is changed and now is getting updates close to monthly.

Check out our website as we are trying to keep it more up to date, to help you keep in touch with our family. We hope you all had a great Christmas, and a happy new year.

Brandt & Jenny

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December 2008

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October 20 2008

Covington just learned a new word..... "No". I think most kids learn this word eariler, but I suppose that it only makes sense that he figures it out once he turnes 2 years old. (Smile) He used it for the first time on Sunday. You see, we get out of church at noon which is Covey's nap time. We have to try hard to keep him awake in the car on the way home, otherwise he won't take a nap and will be cranky the rest of the day. This sunday it was Brandt's turn to keep Covey awake because I was driving. Covey fussed and screamed at Brandt until we were about three minutes from home, then he said loudly "Daddy NO!!!". Brandt stopped wiggling Covey's foot and tickling him and said he would stop since Covey used his words. (Covey isn't talking much still, so we are working with him to talk more) Since Sunday Covey loves to say "no". It is almost cute the way he says it sometimes, he always makes it a long drawn out "nooooooooooooo". Covey is learning quickly though that saying no doesn't mean that he gets to do whatever he wants, and that saying no to mommy and daddy isn't always the best thing to do.

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October 2008

Covington turned 2 years old this week!!! To see pictures, and read about his birthday celebrations, visit his page: Covington's Page

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Aug 2008

The 3D Cube program has been updated to have a more colorful look to it. It also allows for cube elongation and edge shearing to experiment with other shapes. Below is a revised set of instructions! Give the tips section a try.

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25 Sep 2008

Below are some pictures of our house after we got our "new" sofa, enjoy! Hopefully later, we will have an interactive tour of the house.

Click on each picture to see a larger view.

Living Room
Covington's Room
Guest Bathroom
Dining Room and Entryway
Study/Computer Room
Master Bedroom
Guest Bedroom
House/Yard Pictures

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Sep 2008

In addition to parallel viewing, Brandt has been experimenting with cross-eye viewing. He created software using the OpenGL 3d software libraries to create 2 cube drawings. The cube on the right is the same cube seen from a slightly shifted perspective. This means that when you cross your eyes in a way that the two pictures become one, your brain gets true 3d information. This method surpasses 3d movie technology because their is no color or image information lost.

Crossing your eyes and trying to focus on an image can be difficult if you are unpracticed. This in no way can harm your eyes. Click here to read common eye myths stomped out by doctors. It can actually be good for your eyes, teaching them to focus more quickly. The link to the 3DCube Program is here and below with instructions. Below are also some sites that will teach you and give many examples! Remember not to diverge your eyes (like the magic eye text below), but to cross them.

Links for 3D image viewing and photography:

• How to see 3d Images
• 3d Image photography
• How to take 3d photos - I have had success with this. Its great!
• Google Earth 3d Images

Tips to running my program:
Click here to download my program. Opening the program, you should see two cubes. This is really a single cube with two slightly different views. Try to use the cross eye method listed above to see it in 3d. You can use the mouse to rotate the cube by using left clicking and dragging actions. There is also buttons to provide sustained movement:

• [ u, i, o ] - apply positive rotation along X, Y, and Z axis respectively. Press multiple times for higher speeds.
• [ j, k, l ] - apply negative rotation along X, Y, and Z axis respectively. Press multiple times for higher speeds.
• [ d, f ] - increase surface area of red and green faces
• [ c, v ] - decrease surface area of red and green faces
• [ > (.) ] - increase cube length
• [ < (,) ] - decrease cube length
• [ r ] - reset drawing and stop rotations
• [ s ] - stop rotations

Have Fun!

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Aug 2008

Brandt has taken it upon himself to explore stereoscopic viewing. One of the biggest 3d fads of the 90s was Magic Eye (a book with hidden 3d images on each page.) To see the image, you had to relax your eyes and focus on a distance further away than the book actually is. This is called parallel viewing because instead of converging (focusing) on a single point like normal, both eyes are viewing the same point in two different places. You may have done this by accident while lazily staring at a repeating pattern of wallpaper. Its the same with this. If you see blocks in the image, your eyes are diverging too much; try getting closer to the screen or relaxing your eyes less. You should see a word.

Try One Created by Brandt!

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June 2008

The trip started off with a giant 3 day garage sale. Leya, Mom, and Shanna had gone through everything the 2 weeks before I got there, and I got there in time to help with the actual sale. We were able to sell a lot of my dads old belongings and tools. At the end of the garage sale we took 3 truck/car loads of stuff to the local thrift store to get rid of it.

During the garage sale, most of the kids wanted to be outside. However with 13 kids staying in the same house, we couldn't have all of them roaming around the garage sale. Some of them sat over in the yard making villages out of sticks. The village seemed to get better every day.

After the garage sale was over, we all decided to go to the Como Zoo. It was rather warm that day, and I was surprised at the number of feild trips that were going on at the time. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Although while we were in the aquarium section of the zoo, Craig kept his nose plugged the whole time. He said that smelled bad. Shanna's kids seemed very eager to help push Covy around the zoo. Covy didn't seem to care much about being there, except that he was facinated by the giraff's and the zebras. He couldn't hardly take his eyes off of them. Needless to say by the end of the trip to the zoo Covy was worn out and slept soundy in his stroller.

The rest of the trip to Minnesota was lots of fun. There was 18 people total in the house, so it did seem a little crazy at times, but we all got along pretty good. All the kids enjoyed watching movies, reading, and playing games together. Covy was nervous around all the people the first day I was there, but then he got so that he was comfortable. He enjoyed playing with Craig (Shanna's youngest boy) and followed him around a lot. Craig also introduced Covy to the Backyardigans. Covy now has a beanie baby of Tasha that Grandma Christenson bought for him. Covy also fell in love with my sister Shanna. He would sit and smile at her everyday. She was one of the only other adults there, that he was comfortable with. Brandt wasn't sure what I meant by how much Covy liked Shanna, until I got home and was showing him pictures of our trip. When I got to a picture of Shanna and Covy I pointed to the screen and asked Covy "Who is that?" Covy got the cutest little grin, and started to make flirty faces at the tv.

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May 8, 2008

It never ceases to amaze me the different messes that Covey can make. Covey is still learning to eat with a fork and spoon, and today was one of the days I decided to let him try all by himself. After he was done eating I cleaned macaroni out of every crease in his shirt, and corner of the high chair. Then once I got him all cleaned up I put him down on the floor, and lots of macaroni started to fall out of his sleeves. I guess you can say that you never know what he has up his sleeve? (Smile)

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May 2008

April 2008

I decided to take the pregnancy test on a saturday when Brandt's nephew was over playing video games with him. Brandt was going to make us all pancakes while I took a shower to get ready for a wedding that I was going to that afternoon. I took the test, saw that I was pregnant, and then went and stuck it on a paper plate on the kitchen counter next to the stove (Leaving it for Brandt to find when he started cooking) and went to get into the shower. I was very surprised. I expected Brandt to come into the bathroom and give me a kiss when he saw it, but instead he cam running into the bathroom and hopped into the shower with all of his clothes on and gave me a giant hug while saying "Your Pregnant!!!!". I Looked at him and said "You're getting all wet". His response: "I don't care.... you're pregnant".

When I went to the doctor we found out that we are 8 weeks along. The baby is due December 5th.

To announce the pregnancy to everyone, Brandt wrote up a fake CDC alert page that leads you on to think there is a spreading disease (without announcing that this is really pregnancy. Check it out with the link above!

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February 2008

We moved into our house on February 27th. We are very happy with the house, and having more space. The house has 4 bedrooms, and a seperate office. It is located on a nice and quiet street, that has a lot of young families, and kids on it. Also we have a .5 acre lot for Covey to play on.

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October 2007

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New Family Pictures

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Jenny's Trip to Minnesota

Left to Right: Robin, Mom Christenson, Craig

Left to Right: Covey with Grandpa Christenson, Covey with Grandma Christenson, Covey and Grandpa Christenson

While up in Minnesota Jenny went up to Cloquet with her mom and dad to visit some old friends. Here is Mom and Dad with one of dad's best friends: Freeon Whittle.

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So much has happened lately... We had our baby Covington Matthew on October 2nd. He was 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long. He has a nice head of hair that likes to stand straight up like a Mohawk on the top of his head. He is now getting to the age where he will smile back and try to talk to you. We can already tell that he has quite a personality. Covington (Covy for short) doesn't look more like one or the other of us, he is definitely a good mixture.

As for me I am trying hard to finish this semester at school. It has been difficult since I had the baby in the middle, however I seem to have pulled it off good. I will be receiving my associate’s degree in Pre-Law as soon as this semester is over. I left work at Perfect Optical Eyecare on maternity leave at the end of September before I had the baby. Right now I will be staying at home at the least though Christmas, and then we will see what needs to be done. I am also working hard on my sewing. Next October Brandt's sisters and I are going to get a booth at the Madison Street Festival, and I will be selling hand made quilts and baby blankets.

Brandt has had a busy schedule this semester. DirecTV did not lower his hours this semester to 35 hours a week, so he has had to work until 2 am through the whole semester. He has also been going to school full time, and taking on responsibilities as a new dad. Needless to say neither one of us has gotten much sleep this semester. (Smile) He is definitely excited about his newest purchase - the Nintendo Wii. He loves getting everyone in the family to play Wii sports with him, and at home he has been enjoying playing the new Zelda game as well. He is also happy because I will play games with him more often on the Wii.

We hope you are all doing well,

Brandt & Jenny

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This has been a very busy year. Brandt and Jenny are both still going to school and working at their same jobs. On top of that, Jenny spent the first half of the year going to doctors and physical therapy after the car accident. Luckily now everything is better with her as long as she is careful about what she does, so she doesn't throw out her back/hip again. The wonderful news this year is that we are expecting a baby. The baby is due October 9th, and it's going to be a boy. Needless to say we are super excited. Also this year we have gone on a couple of trips. (Flying of course:) We went home to Minnesota for Christmas 2005 to visit Jenny's parents. Then this summer we went up to Minnesota again for 2 weeks to attend a family reunion with Jenny's family. It was truly a lot of fun seeing everyone again, and we've got lots of funny stories from it too. We hope all is going great with you and hope to hear from you soon. Love ya all,

Brandt & Jenny

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We have now been married a little over a year and a lot of things have happened. Brandt is attending school full-time at UAH and is working fulltime as a customer service represenative for Direct T.V. Jenny Started out doing data entry for an Optometrist and over time has worked her way up to being manager over both of his offices. She is going to school full time in the evenings at a local college. Right now she is planning on majoring in Buisness. We have had a lot of fun during our first year of marriage. Most of it was just trying to find enough time to accomplish everything we needed to while in school and working. However this summer we were able to take a trip out to Sumpter South Carolina to visit Adam and Cristy's house. While we were there we also took a day and went to Murtle Beach to play around in the ocean and have a lot of fun. We hope that you are all doing well and we love you all,
Brandt & Jenny

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For those of you who don't know...

Aren't we pretty?

Married happily on...

WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY... June 16th 2004

In Nauvoo,IL
Just thought you might wanna know..

This isn't our family so far! We got engaged on the 5th of March. Jenny Christenson was Rachel's roomate last year. Rachel jokingly made Jenny promise never "to date her brother". Jenny had no trouble complying because I was on my mission anyways... little did Jenny know what animal magnitism I had (just kidding). Two months after we met, I proposed to her by sending her on a clue chase all over the BYUI campus. She was finally brought to Idaho Falls near the falling waters of the dam near the temple and I proposed to her. We are excited. Thank you, all of you that have been an influence in our lives and have kept me in the right way. God Bless you all.

Love,
Brandt and Jenny

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