Gift of good friends!

Xander, Elle, Hansy, Gabe and Mary playing dress up with our punkin

Elle not enjoying nuch her Hagrid costume:)

The Lord has truly blessed us with very special friends wherever we have been in our 10 crazy years of moving our family back and forth across the ocean to different cities. From our good friends in Cambrai, where Ryn was born and where we spent 3 years to our beloved friends of Cholet who were always taking such good care of us and loving us like family. To our stalwart, steady friends here in Utah.

Friends keep you honest, sane and humble. They share the great things in their life with you and help give great advice from parenting tips to pointers as a photographer. They inspire and motivate you and depending on the different stages in life can help you learn from their successes and failures.
The Lehnardts are these type of friends for us. And for our girls, as you can see from the photos loved being with them during our babysitting week.

Ryn twirling and dancing to the sweet music of Xander

Mary and Ryn after a tiring but fun trip to the children's museum Mary, Elle and Gabe after a game of catch the crawling baby

"Catch me if you can!"

I am blessed as a father and husband to have my best friends in my wife and children. I must admit since high school I don't hang out or go do things with my buddies. I even joke around sometimes that outside of family I don't have any friends. Kit and Ryan think this is hilarious. But when you love being with your beautiful wife and sweet adorable children why would you want to spend that time with them hanging with the guys? Everyone does need their own time, their own space and place to feel "free" but I get all that from my trips to the gym, playing ball and slipping out for some photography practice (although most of my practice includes my yummy little family:)

When all is said and done the result is------You have all been such a great blessing in my life that you don't seem like friends to me at all but family, so I guess I do have alot of friends after all:)

My Babies!

Kit's dream is to have a HUGE library room in our home with big wooden bookcases from floor to ceiling and every shelf littered with good books. Michelle and Erik's home is beautiful and full of books. they are literally spilling off of the shelves, it really is cool. They have also instilled a love of reading in their kids. Where most kids would be glued to a glowing box (T.V) all night long all their kids brush their teeth and hop into their beds and read themselves to sleep.

I, as you now know was given the gift/addiction of photography by Michelle. She loaned us her nice camera so that I could get a feel for what photography is really supposed to be about. While here I too have picked up a few books to read and one that I love is a "get to know how your camera works" type of book, with great little lessons and coaching tips.

Anyway I took these pictures of my babies before reading all these great tips, so please excuse my rookie moves but these were taken at the Rose Shop where my mom has designed these gorgeous greenhouses. Here they are-------------and feel free to double click on the pictures for a larger view. Most are of Elle as Ryn was not in the best of posing moods.

Parenting 101

We were asked by some very good friends to babysit their 6 adorable children while they scurried off to Mexico for some fun in the sun. Wonder how it is going?.....

Well let me just say---What a joy it is to babysit these kids---

They are so much fun and if you would like a crash course on parenting, these kids and the way this house functions is a great place to start. Michelle is always saying how hectic and crazy their life is and she has even mentioned that at times she hasn't quite felt up to the task and wondered if as parents they were doing a good job...

Our reply to those concerns would be ---You are doing marvelous! A great measuring stick for how well you have been running the house and raising your kids was to leave for a while and see if things went smoothly. The kids have been so adorable and obedient. They practice their instruments,play with my girls,help each other out and eat their meals ( except for our no holds barred, battle royal with Gabe and the half inch green bean:) they rub my feet and comb Kit's hair 70 times.....j/k

We have had so much fun so far. They laugh at my jokes and bear with my teasing although I am sure they are used to it with Erik. We just finished casting for our "Hairy" Potter movie. Hopefully we can get some good clean takes so we can whip it out as we only have a day and a half to get it done.

We decided to load up the whole clan( minus Ben and Stefan) and go cheer for Hans in his last Jr. Jazz basketball game of the year. They were playing a team that beat them before by one point. Revenge was in the air and Hans played awesome! He had some key steals,passes and rebounds that lead to his team taking the lead with a minute or so to go in the game. They ended up winning by two and Hans played great, it was a lot of fun!

We decided to celebrate by having breakfast for dinner-- OJ, waffles and Kit's famous cheese eggs. We topped that off with Kit's new----Nutella cookies and some milk. Mary said it best when she said, " I like these cookies they are like the one's in my dreams!" :)

Some other funny things the kids have said-----

Mary--"Do you know who George Washington is?" Kit," No, who is he?" Mary " He's the one who looks like a pirate, but he's not." and "It's hard to share a castle." When showing Kit that Xander and Gabe share a castle in their room.

Gabe--"I think Hermione's voice in the book is funny." I read Harry Potter to him at night and try and do the voices for the different characters and he thinks Hermione's is pretty funny. He also wanted to make sure I was comfortable while reading to him and shared his pillow with me. " Here you will need this behind your head." So sweet.

And my girls are in total heaven being here with all these brothers and sisters! When Ryn woke up this morning and saw Mary,Gabe, Xander and Hans she threw her hands up in the air and said, " Ohhhhhhh hi.......gook Marrry, and Gabe! You would've thought it was Christmas morning. Elle has a thing for Ben ,so Mary has competition now! Whenever Ben is in the room Elle will scurry over to him on all fours and then look up at him with outstretched arms, it is precious!

Just seeing how much pure joy having all these brothers and sisters brings to Ryn really makes me wonder why anyone that doesn't have fertility problems would want to limit themselves and their children to just none, one or a couple of siblings. What an amazing gift that we as parents can offer our children, to have each other. I know I wouldn't trade my relationships with my siblings for anything and it is unfortunate that both parents and children take this gift for granted.

If Adam fell that man might be and man is supposed to have joy and one of the 1st commandments was to multiply and replenish the earth ...... than I think having joy has a GREAT deal to do with having children! And being here in this home with all the different personalities of each spirit and seeing how each one makes up a HUGE part of this family, it's no wonder that it's hard to even imagine life without one or any of them. And it's that way for us too, with our girls. It's almost as if they have ALWAYS been with us and we are always catching ourselves saying," Oh wait 3 years ago it was only us!"

Families are amazing and so very cool! Stay tuned as I will be posting some fun news as we start filming tomorrow!

Home sweet home!

There is nothing like coming home after a long and tumultuos season. This year we even came home early and it feels sooo good.Let me fill you in with all the juicy details!



This change of plans all started back in September when we arrived in Chambretaud for the 07-08 season. The team president said that a few key sponsers had backed out at the last minute (meaning the day before we arrived!) and that in order for us to stay we would need to make some changes to the original contract. They were not good. In fact they were quite lame and I remember both Kit and I saying "let's go home now" but we also know how the Lord has worked in the past and so we knew that we needed to "search,ponder and pray". So we went about the whole process of analyzing the situation from every stinking angle until we thought we were going to throw up and then we made a decision and took it to the Lord.



Our decision was to stay and work through the changes and see what happened. The Lords response for us was to do exactly that. We felt good and called the President to tell him the good news. I also stated very clearly that after the miracle season we had last year and all the good that was accomplished by me coming , we did not want to put the club in financial difficulty or risk missing several key games if he thought my paperwork would cause any problems. His answer to this was " no problems, Kevin we need you and are glad you have decided to stay."



With that being said lets jump ahead to January... I was asked to meet with the President and General Manager of the team. They proceeded to tell me that the club was in financial ruins and that they saw no possible way they could continue paying my salary!



HUH?? I was floored. I then said," what would you like to do, then?" They told me they would be willing to pay me less if I would stay..:) I am sure they could see my look of ---are you kidding me---They then said, "if not then maybe it would be best if we parted ways."



One thing I forgot to mention was that during the month of November/December I missed three key games because we were waiting for my paperwork to go through. We lost all 3 and were in big trouble as we fell in the standings. So the two MAJOR concerns that I had when I said 'Yes we will stay' were now just that, two major concerns.



I went home and told Kit. We were so frustrated and torn because we knew that if I didn't stay then the team risked losing the rest of their games and also because I wanted to stay and finish. I knew I could make the difference and I hated leaving something unfinished. We also were hurting because we wanted so badly to continue serving in our Branch and to help strengthen in any way we could the members. We also new that we were needed there too. And lingering in our minds was the big question....



Why did we feel the Lord wanted us here, if everything was falling apart?



And now the answer--- in the form of a million little miracles, what we refer to as " The Lords tender mercies"



Basketball--I had been having one of my best seasons ever if not the best. I was averaging 31.9 pts per game. I also had played my best games against the best teams. I had two 45 plus games and three 33 plus games and even had a 54pt game in the French Cup game we played. We had always felt that this might be my last year unless a team came knocking down the door and accepted hands down our offer. The day that I announced to my teamates that I was going home was gameday, against a team from La Rochelle, a good team (2nd place) that I played really well against. After the game the team contacted me and said "we hear you are going home?" I said yes and they then said that they were interested in signing me! HUH?!? Again I was a little shocked at how bold they were in contacting me on my home floor, but I gave them my number and they said they would call. Monday they did and said, " we would like to demand a transfer from the federation so that you will be a member of our team, you cannot play for us this season but next season you will not count as a transfer player (only allowed 2 per year) and we are planning on winning it all next year and could really use your talents!" The transfer deadline.... Feb 28th! We told them what we wanted and although we are still working through some of the details, they said everything looks good. We will be making more money with this team than ever before and they have ambition to win it all! Perfect!



Church--Well it was very very hard to leave the good members of Cholet. But they are like family now so we know we will be keeping contact and that we will see them again. We were packing up our house and the night before we were to leave we came across some DVD's that we had ordered to give to non-members. We looked at each other and felt sick as we had been planning for weeks to share them and our testimonies with this cute little family just one street over that the missionaries had contacted but we had never met.With still a lot of cleaning left to do and a little packing as well we both felt that we could not possibly leave without doing this. So we bundled up the girls hopped in the car(it was raining) and knocked on the door. He opened the door looking very surprised, we introduced our little family and he invited us in. Pretty easy huh! We explained what each of the DVD's were and testified of the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and families. We then asked him if he had any questions for us. With a sort of blank stare he told us how a few days ago he had a rough day at work and on his way home he had the impression to read in the Book of Mormon and to call the missionaries. When he got home one thing and then another continued to pop up and he didn't do either.

The night we showed up on his door step he had had a similar rough day at work and was very frustrated, he said, " I really try to be a good person and try and focus on working hard and taking care of my family( wife, 2 little girls and one due any day now) but it seems like everytime I do this I get beat down by some other problem or feeling." He said that it was truly heaven sent that we came by and that they would watch the movies and contact the missionaries again. The spirit was strong and we felt so blessed to have been able to do that but at the same time felt so bad that we had cheated ourselves and this family out of the happiness and joy that is missionary work because of our inability to "forget ouselves and go to work" to use a great Hinckley quote! But better late than never and we hope that this family and our branch will be able to benifit from our last-minute efforts.



Paperwork/little stuff--The team in La Rochelle was in need of my carte de sejour( my work visa) in order to start the transfer process. We were still waiting and worried that if we went home we would not be able to get it in time as we needed to be there to sign for it in person. Our flight was leaving on wednesday and we still had not recieved them. I called the City building and they told me they had no idea how long it might take. We were stressed but Tuesday we stopped by the City hall bldg and they said, " oh, good you are here, your visas just arrived!" We couldn't believe it we snatched them up and ran to the store to make some copies. We went home finished our packing and went to bed at 1am. I was almost in dreamland when Kit said with a gasp and shot up in bed," We left our visas in the copy machine!" Thankfully our good friends that also got up at 4am to take us to the train station and help us load all 13 of our bags of abnormal size and weight, were able to go to the store and pick up our visas and mail them off to us. They are truly angels and took such amazing care of us!

When we got to the airport we had to ditch a few things to make the weight limit but we also had a nice man who helped speed us through the check in procedure. We then boarded a flight that was not full snagged the bulk aisle and settled in for the 9 + hour flight. Ryn was great and slept a good portion of the flight and Elle was a doll. We enjoyed some great films like "Dan in real life" and Martian child". We landed in Detroit rechecked all our bags and took off for St Paul MN. We had another connecting flight to SLC there and as timing would go we ended up missing the connection because we were 1 hour late after sitting on the runway forever.



Thankfully after our terminal dash to the gate they hooked us up with a nights stay in a Sheraton in a suite. Also 50$ for dinner. Needless to say even with the nice plush surroundings the girls didn't sleep well. Elle woke up every hour from midnight until 3 when I gave up and told Kit that I would stay up with the girls. Kit went to sleep and we played animals, crawling around on the floor and making the corresponding sounds in a whisper. We ate ice and enjoyed sportscenter and the disney channel from 1am until 4:30 when I gave them both baths. Kit woke up and we got our things together and headed for breakfast and the shuttle. The check in was not too bad although we were selected for security screening( of course, select the family with small children) and Ryn was not fond of some big security agent frisking me. Both my girls are very very protective of me, in fact Ryan loves to wrestle with me just to get them to cry. Elle as miniscule as she is even tried to crawl over to Ryan as he was laying on top of me and started crying like she was going to move the big ox. So adorable.

We made it to SLC and flew in over the gorgeous snow dusted mountains that I love so much and were welcomed by my Dad and Ryan. We needed both cars to get home and that included my brothers truck. To end this book of rambling the journey was actually not too bad and it is fun to have life be a little interesting whether it be psycho fast paced or a turtles crawl.



These past few months have made me think of a poem that my Dad carries with him all the time since the accident when Darren died. It is called "The Weaver" and it goes like this.


My Life is but a weaving,between my Lord and me;

I cannot choose the colors,He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow,And I, in foolish pride,

Forget He sees the upper,And I the under side.

Not til the loom is silent,And the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful,In the Weaver's skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver,In the pattern He has planned.

He knows, He loves, He cares,

Nothing this truth can dim.

He gives His very best to those,Who leave the choice with Him.

So, here we are in Utah and loving it so far! Being with family and being back home is nice. All is well! And everything is just fine!

Let the Birthday festivities begin!

This is by far one of my favorite months of the year. I think it might have to do with Valentines or maybe it's the fact that spring is around the corner or it could even be Presidents Day (an extra holiday break when I was in school) but most of all I think it is because my sweet Mommy brought me into this world on Febuary 24th!


Yes, you may be wondering why am I so excited now, when it is only Febuary 1st! Well a few years ago I decided that instead of celebrating my birthday just on the 24th , why not celebrate my birth by doing something fun,special or exciting on each day of the month! I know, what a great idea! I was and am so glad I thought of it :) It's almost like an advent calender but for 24 days. Kit LOVES it because instead of one big hoopla day it is now just 24 medium to big hoopla days.


So what's the plan for this month? Well, we have some things planned but we do a lot of spontaneous things too! But for the most part we will be filling suitcases ( more on that wednesday).


I have become as of late a huge photo freak! Michelle is to blame/thank for this (depends on who you ask:) I can't get enough and with my birthday around the corner I think I will be looking at some huge external hard drives to store all my masterpieces(My feelings:) or maybe a lensbaby (very cool http://www.lensbabies.com/ ) or even a good photo editing program! Don't by any means think this is a wish list entry, I am just thinking outloud. The bottom line is photography is such a joy and there is a challenge in every shot. Trying to capture the moment or tell a story or just for posterity purposes, it really is a great skill/hobby because everyone see's the same things differently. And it really helps you stay in tune to the beauty that is around us and that God has blessed us with (ie: our kids,families).

Today at church we had a missionary fireside and as DMB (Ward mission leader) we decided to try and help the members in their efforts to invite someone to their house for a family home evening. This is one of our ward goals and some families had expressed concerns about what to present as a lesson. So I thought that a good, neutral spiritual lesson would be Ephesians 6:11-17 about "The Whole Armor of God" and below is our Elders Quorum president in the full armor, he was loving it ---

It went really well. It is very dificult and frustrating to try and share the gospel here in France and I really do respect and love these good saints so much for their efforts and sacrifice. Nothing is easy about being a member in France but at the same time I feel the responsabilty is even greater to share it here. This is our good Branch President, Stephane Gandon. He truly is a man called of God and a good friend we love him and his family so much. His daughters are Ryn's best friends and as you can tell from the photo, Ryn loves him too!