Bridal Portraits

Howie's sister is getting married the first week of August. She's gone through the ringer trying to get her wedding dress altered just right. She got the first alterations back the same day as her scheduled bridal portraits. However, between bad alterations and some sloppy photography, she wasn't happy at all with how they came out.

So - Howie offered to do a new set of bridal portraits for her. Howie loves photography! He was a yearbook photographer in high school. About a year ago we bought him an Digital SLR camera so he'd have a really good camera to work with again. And he takes it with him everywhere.

We met at the state capital. Howie's sister has a 5-year-old daughter who Howie calls "spoiled baby". She came dressed up for portraits, too. Also with the entourage the maid-of-honor, also a photographer taking pictures, and Howie's mom. We took our time and had fun and Howie took a TON of pictures! (Enough to fill a 1G memory card, and half of a second).

That combined two of Howie's favorite types of photography... bridals and children.

Howie did an amazing job! I followed him around adjusting the dress and hair.

When we came home, we played around a bit with the pictures in Photoshop to see what we could do. That's one of my favorite parts of Howie's hobby. I am pretty versed in Photoshop so we put his photo printing experience and my software and design know-how together we can turn out a pretty good picture. Here are a few of my favorites.

Primary Activity

I am the second counselor in our ward's Primary Presidency. One of my biggest responsibilities in this calling is that I am in charge of all parties.

We had our summer primary party on Saturday. We met at the church and played games that Pioneer children would have played. Teachers and other primary workers helped plan and run the games. Then, we had fresh-baked (by a store, but still fresh) bread and homemade (yes, for real) jam. It was a hoot! Here is some of the fun.

Tug o' war - Teachers vs. kidsThree-legged racesHopscotch (For many kids, this was their first time)Most of the time I was behind the camera, but there is evidence that I was there.

One of the best things about serving in the primary is that, although I may not yet have children in my home, I have 40 children to love and to play with and to take care of.

Introduction

Welcome to our blog. We are Chicken (Emily) and Howie (Brian). We've been best friends for over a decade and have been married for about 4 and a half years.

There is one more member of our family . . . a spoiled little bird named Max. I'm sure you'll read more about him in this blog.

Right now, we are trying to adopt. We have wanted to add children to our family for years. We've put a lot of prayer into the best way to do that and we feel very strongly that this is the plan that Heavenly Father has for our lives.

As soon as we made the decision to adopt, I (Emily) wanted to start communicating with the birthmom that would make that possible. So - we're creating this blog as a way to talk to you. We want to share a bit of our lives with you so that you know what kind of a family we are. We know you're facing a very difficult choice right now. We can't even imagine what it must be like. But we hope that the more you know about us, the easier that choice will be.

Please feel free to browse this blog and our website at chickenandhowie.com. You can use the links on this page to learn more about us and to contact us, if you want to know more.