Shane's Penny Portrait

Yes, it's a portrait of Lincoln made of pennies! Shane had the idea back when he was in high school. He completed it a couple of years ago and I loved it then, and I love it now. With President's Day weekend coming up ... and today actually being Lincoln's birthday, it definitely deserves a blog post!

Here are some random facts about the picture from Shane:

• Made from 1,638 pennies (1,612 whole pennies and 52 half pennies).
• Each row has 31 and 1 half pennies.
• There are 52 rows.
• The pennies are staggered (so the second row is offset from the first row so each row “fits” into the neighboring row), resulting in the need to have a half penny on each row.
• There is at least one penny from each year from 1909 to 2009.
• There is one 1943 steel penny (lower right-hand corner).
• The US mint is making 2009 pennies with new designs on the reverse – there are 4 different designs: Birth and Early Childhood in Kentucky (aka “Log Cabin”), Formative Years in Indiana (aka “Rail Splitter”), Professional Life in Illinois, and Presidency in Washington, DC. I wanted to use at least one penny with each reverse design (although all the pennies in the picture only show the front); but only the first two were available when assembling the picture, so I’ll swap out two pennies for the other 2009 designs later.
• I tried to find enough dark pennies, but ended up coloring some pennies (using different methods) to have enough dark and mid-tones.
• The pennies are fastened to a piece of pressed wood (masonite).
• The pennies were fastened primarily using contact cement; although I did experiment with gorilla glue and liquid nails as well.
• The picture is fairly heavy, and so I will craft a special mechanism to hang it (once I get it framed).

Update: It has been hanging in Shane and Alicia's home for a while now ...

2011 Calendar Pages and Slideshow

 

Here's the Slideshow ... all these same pictures and a few more!

2011 Christmas Letter

The original 2011 PDF can be found in Dropbox. 

2011... At Grandma's House

Sometimes there is a single photo here and there, and not a ton of background info to make a complete blog post. Sometimes a compilation of pictures IS what tells the story, even if they were taking at different times. Here, there are a few photos featuring being a Grandma ...

Josh and Jenna in the toy cupboard ... because Grandma and Grandpa's house has a toy cupboard. It's full of some of the classics: pop beads, plastic blocks that stick together, dress-up, baby toys, and a plethora of balls for Grandpa to throw from the bottom of the stairs to the kids at the top of the stairs. And sometimes ... it holds grandkids too! Fun photo! See more memories of favorite play things in the Timeless Toys post. 

... and another group of grandkids over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a sleepover. There was a date for this activity; November 19, 2011. Alicia was in the hospital having a baby! Baby Calder. Perfect time for a grandgirls sleepover. Wanna bet they got into the toy cupboard? Maybe not literally like Jenna and Josh though *Ü*  There would be future sleepovers for the grandgirls too (2/18 in 2012, 2/18 and 3/11 in 2013).  

Here's Mom's email ... We are having Adria and Rella and Taylee, sleep over here tomorrow night. Alicia will pick up Taylee on the way here. We will take her home Sat. and drive Adria and Rella to the hospital to see their new baby brother. Shane and Alicia will go to the hospital Sat. morning for Alicia to deliver Calder, by c-section. He will be born on Grayson's birthday.

Originally, this post also had a picture of Grandma Zada at the care center (as visiting Grandma afterward became associated with sleepovers) but then that became its own post. 

Taylee's Baptism

Scott sent out an email to the family on Aug 29, 2011. " Taylee's baptism will be this Saturday, September 3rd, at 9:30 am. The address of the church is 13400 South 1300 East. The easiest way to get there is to take the Bangerter exit east from I-15, turn east again at 13800 South to 1300 East then north to 13400. It is a stake baptism but each ward holds its own service at 30 minute intervals. Taylee is the only one being baptized from our ward. We will have a short program in the Primary room and then reconvene in the Relief Society room for the confirmation. You are all invited to our home after for some fruit and cinnamon rolls." 

It was also Cooper Blackham's baptism day. His was in the afternoon, so family was able to attend both. You can read a little more about it on the Blackham Blog/Baptism Day. 

Grandma/Mom/Margie sent out an email later with a little recap ...

Taylee's baptism this morning and Cooper's baptism this afternoon were both very nice. We visited Grandma with Camden and Cayson in between, playing a game of Scrabble. Shane and Alicia picked up McKenna at BYU at 8:30 a.m. and brought her in for the baptism. Shane and Alicia and girls rode the tram at Snowbird between baptisms.

There are more pictures from Taylee's baptismal photoshoot in Dropbox. You'd find them in the year 2011 (there's a folder for Taylee's baptism, and they are also included in the Annual Photos by Family for the year) but there is also a BAPTISMS-GRANDKIDS folder, which is a nice reference, sorted by date, even though some folders don't have any photos in them ... if there are photos, add them! If you need access to Dropbox, ask Jen/Mom/Chris or Wendy for the group login/password. Easily to check via the Dropbox app or on the Dropbox website.

 

Cookies and Cousins ... and Jumping

JUMP!

As we were growing up, we always had a lot of interaction with Uncle Merrill and his family. As we all got older, it was harder to have family gatherings with all the spouses, kids, etc., because it was such a big group. But today, Mom/Margie hosted a "Cookies and Cousins" party, and we had a great turnout. It was so fun to visit my cousins that I hadn't seen in a while. There were plenty of cookies, and while it was drizzling a bit outside for a good portion of the evening, that didn't deter the kids. Jen brought jump ropes, hula hoops and catch games, Dad/Lamar set up the golf shoes, and everyone stayed quite busy. There aren't  many photos/video, but we caught some action in a little video ... 

At the end of the evening, a huge rainbow formed across the sky ...

Father's Day 2011

It was out to Scott and Amy's for the annual Westra Father's Day BBQ.  There was rain, which continued all through the day keeping us mostly indoors or under the canopy. That was perfect for paracord projects, and Gray had brought a handy portable paracord kit. The rain did stop enough for the kids to peek at the toads under the tramp. 

The paracord was a bit hit, and the cousins all ended up with new bracelets. 

Looks like we tired some of the guys out!

Then it was TOAD time ...

WHO let the toads out? 

According to this video, Callahan grabbed one of them ...

Some never before seen (before this blog post) footage of the family party!