Narnia....A disappointment at best.

Yeah, not a good image.....

Both Rachel and I were disappointed by Narnia. It should have been done in three movies and by Peter Jackson!

We were really disappointed by Aslan. He was pretty much a wuss until the end. He needed to be a lot tougher and carismatic.

Narnia

Haha - Hilarious caption, Jeaf! Would you pronounce that Jeef (like beef) or Jeff (like bread)? That's the age-old question.
Well, we saw The Chronicles of Narnia tonight. I really liked it, except for Aslan's (the lion) voice. I could tell that it was Liam Neeson's voice (especially after watching Batman Begins the night before) and all I could think about was how he was poisoning Gotham City's water supply!!!! I think they should have used (if it was going to be someone famous) James Earl Jones' voice. After all, he was Mufasa in Lion King - it would have been totally fitting! But I suppose I might have been thinking the whole time, "Luke, I am your father!" Oh well, I guess I'm glad I'm not the director. But, all things aside, everyone should see the movie. It was very good, followed the books quite well, and had a great storyline. "4 stars says Ebert!" Just kidding...
Have a good night, and a good Christmas all.

Wow, another empty box. Thanks Mom. Woohoo...

From Old School...to cool!

Well, I found this picture of Dad and his brothers and thought it was really cute. Then, I saw this picture of the next generation of Bingham Boys. Kinda fun, huh? I think Garrett really looks like Scott in this picture, especially in the forehead...

Old School Family Christmas

Well Fam,
I thought you all would like to see how we've all changed. Here's some old-timey pictures of us at Christmas time. Love you!
-Kimm

Oh boy!

Man, that is one sickly baby! I bet Dad feels the same way - he's been spending lots of time in bed with a bad cold. He says that this is the first time in 20 years he's had a cold... Mom's been using all her home remedies on him - telling him to wrap his throat (he made me show him how becuase he didn't know. Boy are the tables turned now!), take a sweat bath, etc. Poor, poor Daddy.

Shannon- Mom and Dad and I laughed so hard at the mishaps at your house, especially the part about Garrett lying. I don't know how you kept a straight face!!! How did Garrett respond to you? Also, you have no idea how much suspense that present that you gave me is causing me to be in!!!!! I've been looking at it every single day for 3+ weeks and I still have NO CLUE as to what it is. I think I'm going to open that one on Christmas Eve!!!

Well, I hope things are going well for you all. I'm home in OK for a little while (until the 3rd) and Mom's got me working. Yippee! Haha. I'm looking forward to Ginni and Lance coming on the 28th to add some more spark to the house. I can't do it all by myself. Soon I'm going to post some funny old pictures that I've found around the house so you all can laugh a little bit. I love you to whoever reads this!
-Kimm

Wow.

Shannon-
I'm sorry that poor skinny baby has the croup. Yikes! I hope no one else catches it!
I think that sounds like a good decision that you guys are making concerning Scott and his business. I think that it's really important to enjoy what you do, especially if you need to be doing it for the next 30-40 years. I was watching Scott over Thanksgiving (and I was thinking about this recently) and it was so cool to see how he interacted with the boys. For all the rest of the family, he brought Garrett out to the shop with him while he worked. Garrett had a grand old time playing with wood, screws, and all other sorts of scraps. He dusted all the wood in the shop as well as all the other surfaces he could reach. I'm sure those times in the future will be ones Garrett will remember for a long time. As for Preston, I love to see Scott sit down and read with him. Preston will crawl lickety split right up to Scott's (or anyone that can read!) leg and hold up a book, going, "uh, uh, uh". Scott will pick him up, go to the couch, and read with him. It's so cute! Scott is so good with those kids (as are you, Shannon) and I think it is a VERY good thing that he will be able to spend more time with them, and the family.
Jeff, thanks for providing that opportunity for Scott. I'm glad that we are able to pitch in as a family to help each other. I think that is what family is really about. Let me know if I can do anything to help (anyone). I love you all!

Testing...

Testing... 1...2...3... Mom, I uploaded this pic easy as pie. Make sure your pop-up blocker allows pop ups from this site.

I took this photo this morning at 8:35 (needing to be at the lab to develop my film at 9:00!!). I was driving out in the country and saw a Sportsman's Access sign for a river or something, and so I followed the road and saw this barn with tons of tools hanging up on it on the side of the road. It also spelled out "Yesterday" with horseshoes. I don't know if it was private property - I just kind of parked my car and went right up to the side of the barn and shot the picture...
Well, this is my first product of using Photoshop! I'm hooked! For my photography class, we are supposed to spend 3 weeks on the computer, scanning in our negatives and then fixing them in Photoshop and then print them on inkjet paper. I admit I like the look of the glossy photo paper better, but it is so cool to be able to fix all the blemishes that inevitably marr the appearance of the negatives. It's sweet!
What do you guys think?
-Kimmby

Battleship

Well, Battleship season started last night for me. In case you all don't know what Battleship is, (besides the board game), I'll tell you. It's in the swimming pool on campus and with 9 or 10 canoes. There are 4 people in a canoe, and everyone has buckets or bowls of some sort. Each team tries to get as much water in other canoes as they can, eventually sinking the canoe. You can't bail water out of your own canoe, so you want to attack other's as much as you can, all without tipping over, of course. It's so dang fun! I'm on a team with 2 of my roommates and 3 of my Family Home Evening Brothers. We enjoyed talking strategy (I'm not really sure there is one...) to try and win the game. Because a lot of them haven't played before, we didn't do all that well, but we'll do better next time. I'll try and post some pictures soon. Have a good week, family!
-Kimmby

Halloween costumes

Family,
What do you guys remember being for Halloween? What are your kids going to dress up as?
I remember being a cat for like, 5 years in a row. Then, because Mom needed to make me some new pajamas and didn't want to make a costume as well, I was a pink cat (footie pajamas with pink ears, I suppose). I remember being Lovely Lady Locks and wearing a multicolored wig. I've been a pirate, a pumpkin, an indian, a Q-tip, and a Rubix cube. That one by far was my favorite....

Anyone there????????????

What's the deal, family? Why won't anyone post anything except for me? I just want to hear from you - know about your kids, lives, funny stories, etc. Please? I don't want to sound desperate, but I would like to be a little more in the loop. It's so hard to get ahold of some of the fam by phone...

Speaking of phone, everyone should call Jeff and listen to his new answering machine message. It's hilarious. Jeff, where do you get the ideas for your great messages??

Oh, if you guys want a laugh, click on this link. It's a hilarious video. I can't get enough of it! http://www.StupidVideos.com/?VideoID=685

The temple and the statue of Joseph and Hyrum leaving for Carthage Jail. 

The Nauvoo Temple at night. Isn't it beautiful!!! 

My friend Roz and I at Liberty Jail.  

Nauvoo, Part 3

Ok, here's the continuation of my Nauvoo trip... That same day, we also went to Liberty Jail. After that, we headed off for Adam-ondi-ahman. On the way, we drove through an Amish village and saw all the horse and buggies (Ginni, remember when you insisted on calling the shopping cart a "buggy" for almost 2 weeks? You're crazy!!) which we waved to. We saw some kids jumping on a trampoline, some bearded Amish men climbing into a truck, and a house with a phone booth out front. It's kind of interesting - maybe some people just aren't as strict as others. Also, my teacher said their belief is that as long as they don't own modern things, they can use them. Funny, huh?
Adam-ondi-ahman is just a series of hills where Adam and Eve lived after they left the Garden of Eden. It is very beautiful and green. There is a great spirit there - very peaceful. After running through some of the grass below the hill (my friend and I pretended it was a tall grass savannah and ran through it, and then laid down and watched other people run through it) and getting a chigger bite (hooray!!!) we boarded the bus like cattle (except cattle don't board tour buses). We drove forever to get to Iowa, where we stayed in a trashy motel across the river from Nauvoo. This place was a square building all enclosed with a swimming pool inside and rooms all against the sides, around the pool. It was a junker, yet someone had a wedding there the night we stayed. They put a plastic gazebo right next to the pool, and the air had the sweet scent of chlorine. I wish I could be married there...
Nauvoo was on the docket the next day. We toured Carthage Jail, and then went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead. The font there is amazing! It's like 10 feet high off the main floor! There was also a lot of beautiful woodwork - wood floors, wood doors, molding, etc. all in dark beautiful wood. I didn't get to see the famed spiral staircase, but I suppose I'll have to go back someday! After the temple, we went to the various sites around Nauvoo - the schoolhouse, the bakery, the blacksmith's shop, the Red Brick store, the brickyard, etc. It was fun to be back there, especially with the temple there now. It's such an important part of Nauvoo's history, as well as for now days. After a fabulous buffet meal (it was like Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas, and home cookin' all rolled into one!!!) we went down to the Mississippi river and looked at the sunset.
The next day, we started our journey back to Idaho. We took the basic trail of the Saints as they left Nauvoo (except we didn't walk across the frozen Mississippi river) and headed for Winter Quarters, where we went to the visitor's center and walked around the temple grounds and the graveyard containing the graves of the saints that died there. It was a very cool experience. After that, we took the looooooong drive home, in which we got stopped by a cop for speeding, haha. Luckily, we only got a warning...
Sleeping on the bus was not fun because I was sleeping on the floor of the bus amongst all the dirt and people's feet. Oh well. Then we got back to Rexburg at 9:00 the next morning. It was such a great trip!!!! I'll post some pictures soon.

Nauvoo, Part 2

Can I just say I've had the most whirlwind weekend of my life? Nauvoo was most wonderful. First, I left on Thursday and we drove across country in a large tour bus. We arrived in Independence, MO Friday morning and went to the Reorganized Church's (Ahem, "Community of Christ") temple, which looked like a large upside down ice cream cone. It was pretty cool inside, looking up into that cone that went way way up. There were plenty of gaudy paintings depicting women and men administering in the priesthood as well. Then we went to the temple site in Independence and got yelled at for gathering on the lawn by a Church of Christ apostle, instead of going in their building and being taught by them. We booked it out of Independence and then went to Far West, and saw the temple site there, which was much more peaceful because it was owned by the church.
It's so amazing the difference between the sites owned by someone else and the sites owned by the church. The Spirit is definately present and can be strongly felt on Church owned sites. Members and missionaries teach and bear testimony with the Spirit, instead of trying to lecture and persuade, like the others seem to do.
I'll continue this post later; today the First Presidency, 4 apostles, and a host of other church officials are coming to campus for the Inaguration of our new BYUI President - I've got to go get a comfy seat so I can listen!!!

Nauvoo

Hey fam! I know it's been a while since I've posted anything... Does anyone know why it says on the main page that it's been updated lately but no new posts show up?
Well, here's an update on my life for all who want to know... I'm in Rexburg and enjoying it. I'm really busy with school and work. I'm working on campus as a computer lab assistant - not that I know all that much about computers, but I took a class so that qualifies me, Hooray! Anyway, I'm taking a black and white photography class that I'm really enjoying. When I learn how to scan pictures, I'll post some of them for you guys. I just barely learned to use the meter on my (ahem, Dad's) camera last week, so finally I'm taking some decent shots. I don't know why my teacher didn't tell us about that before so I didn't waste 3 rolls of film on crappy pictures, but oh well. The other day I was driving and saw a junkyard full of old chevy trucks and tractors (probably from the 40's and 50's) and so I got some good pictures of them. I'm going to Nauvoo this week on a school trip and hope to get some more good pictures.
Speaking of which, do any of you guys want anything from there? I don't know if there is much to want, but I thought I'd check. We are taking a charter bus from Rexburg on Thursday and driving, driving, driving. I get back next Monday, so it's a really short 5 day trip. I get to go to Missouri as well.
Jeff, do you have any extra pictures from Clint's baptism? If so, I'd like one.

By the way, my address here in Rexburg, just in case anyone ever needs it is:
60 W 2nd S
Rexburg, ID 83440
(cell phone is 208-403-5246)

Well fam, I love you all. Have a good week.

A reminder to Jeff (aka Post Hog)

Here's some more pics that are kind of funny of me in Europe (a year ago). I'll have to post a few from this year too later.

Jeff, since you've forgotten what I look like (by asking for pictures from everyone) here you go! These are from my trip to France and Italy. Also, I did make it so you would get an email when someone posted - however, I haven't figured out how to email more than one person with a post notification... I'll work on that... 

Emails

Kimmy,

Kimmy? Isn't that Shannon's sister's name? No wait, that's Kimi. Sorry.

I'm now getting emails when someone posts! Hope it's something you did instead of just a fluke.

Everyone make sure you update your profile with your email addresses. This will help you out when your hard drive crashes next week. Wednesday maybe. Around lunch time.

You can also add a picture to your profile. Won't that be nice?

Funny

So, Mom and Dad, is this why you told us to always brush our teeth????

Ahhh, the sounds of the shower...

I don't know anything about digital recording stuff, but I found some websites that might help. Check out http://www.purewhitenoise.com/whitenoisecd.html#shower for a cd (I think an hour long) that is a good shower noise. It'd probably be cheaper than your water bill by far. Also, if you want to do it yourself, go to http://www.findsounds.com/ and search for shower. You can download the sound and then maybe figure out a way to out the sound on a cd over and over again and then have them fade into each other. That's my suggestion!!!!
Thanks for all the funny pictures! It was great.
Well, Ginni, Lance and I are taking the Big Drive today, that is, we are driving to Oklahoma (dropping me off) and then G & L are heading off to Arkansas to take care of Lance's mom for the week. Let us know if you need us to bring anything back from there (not saying that we'll have the room or anything...)
Or, for all of you who didn't know, Grandpa Bingham is having surgery on Wednesday to have the cancer cut out of his lip. The doctor sounds optimistic and it will be an in and out procedure. I'm sure Grandpa would really appreciate your prayers.
Well, sayonara folks!!!!

Hey, would everyone update your profiles with at least an email address? I was searching for Scott's tonight but couldn't find it. I have a hard time getting him on the phone. Without his email and with his hectic schedule I hope to finally get in touch with him sometime in the next two weeks. Sometimes emails just get lost and need to be updated. Perhaps birthdays would be nice also..... Those don't usually get lost, just forgotten....

Sincerely,

Post Hog

Emails?

Is there a way to get an email notification when there is a new post? If not is there a different blog site that will?

Kinda blurry but it shows some of the great work our guys are doing in the middle east! 

Digital recording equipment

One of the only ways we can Derek to sleep really well is to put him in bathroom with the shower running (cold only). As you may guess, this is expensive and wasteful.

Someone please help us!!!!

Does anyone have access to a recorded shower sound or digital recording equipment? I need a loop of a shower running for at least an hour or more!

We've got to get some sleep around here!

Jeff

Two funny boys. Grandpa B and Preston B - at Scott's Graduation in UT. 

Did I say we were working today? Well, one of us is! Ha! Actuallly, we both are, but it's so beautiful out that I am going to go play!!! This picture is from the Play With Your Food books - tons of great photos of food characters. 

Here's the photo showing the size. 

Hi Family, Who asked me to take digital photos of our Hawaiian Monkeypod wood bowl? I have a grundle of them ready to send. Mom 

Haha, very funny!

Scott, thanks for all the great pictures you've posted. Funny how you've been to all the very same places that I have. I think you had a little too much fun with photoshop there. Post the real picture of the man whose body you stole and attached to your head to put in the pictures. You really had me going for a while... "Look, there's the word gullible written on the ceiling!"

Gramma Goatie feeds the goatie at a church yard in Germany. Garrett calls Rita Gramma Goatie because she feeds him nut & raisin balls that look like goat droppings.

Hey, let's not get too crazy on those diets! 

Here's another! 

Just though everyone might enjoy this! 

A swim in the Grand Canal anyone?

Scott-
Yeah, I do like your watch. Do you still have it? You look young in that picture!!! Not that you look terribly old or anything now, but just different. Didn't you just love Venice? True, there are tons of people, lots of pigeons, and quite a bit of trash, but I still liked it. There's just something really cool about walking through all the tiny alleyways and over all the bridges, along with smelling the smells (yeah, the fishy smell near our hostel wasn't so great), and seeing a way of life so different from what I'm used to. We saw all kinds of boats that would normally be cars in the US - a taxi boat, a trash boat, a postal boat, a clothing boat, a police boat, and 2 hearse boats (complete with flowers on the casket and everything).
Where else did you guys go in Italy? What other countries have you been to? The Neuschwanstein picture you took looks just like a postcard! Hopefully, it will be a bit warmer and not have so much snow. Tomorrow we are renting a car and driving there. We will see that castle along with another castle and a church out in the middle of a field, called Wieskirchen ("White Church"). My friend Rosalynn says that it is just a random church out in the middle of kind of nowhere, but it is very ornately decorated inside, in the Rococo style. Kind of fun! I'll take some pictures of it, don't you worry. Also, we are going to stop in Rothenburg, which is a walled city. I don't know too much about it, but will find out soon enough. Will post more soon. -Kimmy

Phew! Our feet are tired!!!!

Well fam, I tried to post pictures from our trip, but it's not working for me... Mom said that she might put them on her website and then post a link to it that you guys can check out. We have sure had a whirlwind few days! We got in safely on Tuesday (after flying all night), and toured the area of Germany that my friend Roz lives in. She lives in a cute German village, so we explored that a little and then went on the US Air Force Base to get some supplies and see what it was like.
Wednesday, we went to Venice and toured the city on foot and on boat. We took a gondola ride, went to San Marco's cathedral (where Mark's bones are buried), and enjoyed a nice evening on the square that was lit up and had "dueling orchestras". I felt like I walked my feet off that day - but it sure was fun! Mom took about a million pictures, of everything you could ever see!!! She would walk into a shop and take pictures of their merchandise - I'm surprised that she wasn't yelled at in Italian! Oh well, it's Mom!!!
Thursday, we missed our bus to the airport and had to take a taxi that cost us 75 euros - more than our gondola ride!
Friday, we took a train tour along the Rhine River, up to more northern germany and went to Koln, which has the tallest gothic cathedral in all of the world (I think). It also had a sweet (haha) chocolate factory which Roz and I toured and tasted. It was cool to see the whole process of how chocolate was made. Unfortunately, on our way back, we took the wrong train and read the schedule wrong, so we ended up in a station that didn't have any more trains going out that night. We had to call Roz's dad to come and get us, which was about an hour and a half away for him. He wasn't too happy, but what could we do?
Today (Saturday), we went to France - it was only about an hour away, to a town called Bitche (pronounced "beach") where we went to a fortress used in the 1800's, and then travelled a little way to an American cemetary where people who died in France in WWII were buried. It was neat.
Well, we've still got a lot planned, so keep reading next week! By the way, we are bringing lots of chocolate home! We'll have to have a family gathering in Utah when we all get in (after Scott's graduation) and have a tasting party. I love you all!

Fantasy stories

Rachel and I were talking about Becky's fantasy stories that she used to tell - does anyone remember what they were about? Whatever happened to those stories? She should publish them...
Well, Mom and I are off to Germany tomorrow for a rip-roaring trip through Deutchland. We are taking a little trip to Venice, but otherwise will spend our time going to lots of places in Germany. We are going to the "Sleeping Beauty Castle" called Neuschwanstein, where Mad King Ludwig lived, going to Dachau, the concentration camp, perhaps the Black Forest, Ramstein (no, not the musical group of the 80's) which is the army base that my friend Rosalynn (who we are staying with) lives near. We will keep you all posted on our trip, and try to upload some pictures if all works out. See you soon!
Scott, how does your graduation work? Do we all get tickets to come? I'm so glad you are finally grajuatin with your edumication! Haha! Love you guys!

Welcome to the fam

So, I don't know how many of you guys got the Yahoo groups thing that Lance sent out, but I wanted to try this one - I like the look of it better. C'mon fam, please do this??? I just want to be able to keep in touch better than we do now. So, you post something, just saying what you are doing and then the fam reads it and responds, etc. It'll be fun... Humor me.
Here's what is going on with me. I made it past my big state tests for education stuff, but I won't know if I passed until the summer sometime. Now I'm into finals week, and then on the 25th, mom and I go to Germany! We are staying with my friend in Frankfurt, and we are planning on taking a trip to Venice, as well as day trips all over Germany, including the Black Forest, and also to Neuschwanstein, which is the castle that Sleeping Beauty is patterned after, home to the mad King Ludwig (a while ago). We are also going to go see Dachau, a concentration camp near Munich. I love you all!