Soul Carving

       I fall more in love with my husband each time I witness his loving interactions with our children. Seeing his obvious interest in and affection for them deepens my trust in his love and devotion towards me. It's truly a miraculous and beautiful thing to behold. While it may appear tragically rare in today's world, fatherly love is an inspiring source of strength, comfort and wisdom. My husband's selfless motives, his energetic patience with, and tender consideration for his children, really blow me away. I can't get over it. And I thank my Heavenly Father for it, as it serves as a heartening example of what Divine fatherly love looks like.        Every year for Father's day, the kids and I find a creative way to express our appreciation for this fabulous guy, through our traditional father's day photo-shoot. Remember my first attempt? Then there was the Superhero collage and the Sports-Star themed session . As I pondered what theme to us...

       Each year Richard gets an updated photo of the kids for his office. As Father's day approaches, I have fun thinkng up clever themes for a photo shoot. (You can see my first attempt  here .)        This time, we went with a sports theme. I envisioned a shot from behind, the kids lined up, with jersey numbers on their backs. Originally, I thought it would be easy enough for my two older boys to use their soccer uniforms, and then pick up some used jersey's from the thrift store for the remaining five. However, finding the right sizes and styles was a bit tricky, and even at thrift-store prices, a bit too expensive to justify a one-time use.         Then inspiration struck - no need for new clothes (or to convince the children to wear an outfit I had picked out). I would simply make a jersey number from masking tape and place it on the back of whichever shirt they wanted to wear! Bingo!      ...

       When I drove past this creative mural on the way to the library, I knew it had to serve as the backdrop for this year's Father's day photo-shoot. My three-year-old happened to be wearing his homemade cape that day, so he was excited to get out and take a few pictures to test it out.        While we ran into a few challenges coordinating the wardrobe, and soliciting smiles from each kid (or, in the case of the baby, trying to snap the photo before she sat back down -- or fell over!) I was enormously pleased with how everything turned out.        Adding to the awesomeness factor was the comic book filter and themes available on the online photo editor I used. We ended up with this epic collage: I hope all you fathers out there had a SUPER day! (I know I felt pretty incredible after saving the world  a couple bucks with my  DIY photograph...