Charlie's Illness

Charlie was sick for a couple of weeks. Here's what that was like:

He did a lot of this.

But he's feeling much better now.

Alek is 11

Alek turned 11 on July 10. He was in Arizona for his birthday and celebrated there by attending his cousin, Isaac's baptism, eating and swimming and Papa's and Granana's house, driving to Pinetop to see his aunt and uncle, and getting lots of presents.

Here in California, we had to wait a whole 20 days after his birthday to celebrate with him. We got Panda Express and Chick-Fil-A for dinner. I gave Alek the slice of cheesecake my boss brought me from the Cheesecake Factory and Alek got to stay up and watch the first disc of Return of the King.

Something about Alek turning 11 has really jarred me. Maybe because that is the age when I started middle school, I don't know, but I've just realized he's not a little boy anymore. In another year he'll be getting the priesthood and joining the Young Men's program. Before I know it, girls will like him and he'll like girls and I'll have that whole headache to deal with. Alek's grandparents bought him some new clothes (which his dad picked out) and I made him do a fashion show for me. (Which he didn't really like.) The clothes are a bit trendy and he looked even more grown up in them. It made me a little sad.

 Yes, those are skinny jeans. But Alek is so skinny that even skinny jeans are too big for him.

Alek showing off his super cool belt. Apparently, this was a compromise purchase. 

Alek wanted one that had metal studs on it.

Alek telling me he loves me. If he only knew how much I loved him!

We missed Alek a lot and are glad he's home. Even though he's already throwing tantrums this morning about not getting to play video games or watch movies and having to do chores. :)

Katie the Artist

Katie has recently become more interested in drawing and coloring. She's spent a lot of time this summer like this:

Here are some pictures she drew of Josh.

That thing on his chin is the little soul patch he's got right now.

Summer in Fair Oaks

Kids playing in the sprinklers

And the mud

Boys hanging out in just their diapers

A surprise birthday party

Baby chicks in our front yard

Food from the grill

 And roses from our garden

Kids hanging out in front of the fan 

 And a whole month without Alek

This Nation Shall Endure

I believe I've posted this amazing talk by Ezra Taft Benson before, but if you read it last time, it's worth reading again.

Here's a quote to wet your whistle:

I am grateful for the Founding Fathers of this land and for the freedom they have vouchsafed to us. I am grateful that they recognized, as great leaders of this nation have always recognized, that the freedom which we enjoy did not originate with the Founding Fathers, that this glorious principle, this great boon of freedom and respect for the dignity of man, came as a gift from the Creator. The Founding Fathers, it is true, with superb genius welded together the safeguards of these freedoms. It was necessary, however, for them to turn to the scriptures, to religion, in order to have their great experiment make sense to them. And so our freedom is God-given. It antedates the Founding Fathers.

Disappointed

Josh got his copy of Kaci Hansen Presents #1 in the mail today, and, unfortunately, he is really disappointed in it. The colorist is not up to the standard Josh would like and, worst of all, he colored over Josh's inks and made his work look bad.

Here is what one of his favorite pages looked like when it was just inked:

Here is what it looks like colored:

That third panel is especially awful. This guy has no concept of how to work with light.

Anyway, Josh is pretty mad. This is supposed to be something he can show to other publishers so they can see what he can do, but you can't see what he can do because of the way the guy colored it. He also did really stupid stuff, like put pants on a character who was drawn wearing shorts.

Oh well.

He's also been working on a couple of sample pages in a bid for a new job. Here are the sample pages, which I think turned out really nice:

This book is just being done in black and white, so he would be the only artist working on it. He's supposed to hear next week if he got the job. Cross your fingers!