December 19, 2009

Family Pictures





so on thursday we had some family pictures taken in hopes of sending out christmas cards. here are a few of them. We're totally hyped about them. Our friend Scott took them. If you like what you see, which im sure you do... check him out!
www.ssbphoto.com

December 12, 2009

Ten days 'til...

... I get to see these cutie pies! I'm super excited to see my family. oh yes, meet Abi, Keaton, and little Jayden. They are my brothers kids and super cute dont you agree? Hopefully I can have kids this cute!

stay tuned for future pictures from our holiday adventures!

December 06, 2009

my new obsession

So last week at church we had a combined 3rd block. In that class they talked of the new Family History search website. And for most of you my age youre probably thinking the same thing right now as I did when I heard it......"Family history..(eye roll)... I'm sure my families is done. And if its not, I wont have access to any information past 4 generation. Theres nothing I can do with it..(eye roll).." or something along those lines. It's like pioneer stories.. you appreciate the pioneers and what they did, you just dont want to hear about it every other second. Well.... LISTEN UP!!!

Family History work is AMAZING!!! And I'm gunna tell you why!

So in the class they kind of gave an over view of what can be done. I was like the above mentioned and figured mine was done. I seriously thought we'd only have info like 4 maybe 5 generations back. But the website looked easy so I atleast wanted to go look. And oh my lanta!! TONS AND TONS!!! I have some records that date back to the 1700s! Drew's goes back even further!

After I looked through and realized there was so much I could do I just turned into a green arrow junkie (green arrows mean work needs to be done). I became so excited when I submitted the information to be done. I'm not kidding. I was skipping around the house!!! I would get so into it.. I'd be up past midnight going through the information still. Drew would tell me to come to bed, and I would say.."I cant yet. they are waiting for me. They've been waiting so long for this"

It truly is amazing. I went to the temple early this week to do some work for some of the names I had submitted and what an experience! I helped seal 7 kids to their parents, 6 couples together, 2 inititories, 1 baptism, and 1 confirmation! I didnt have any super out of the ordinary experiences like some do when they take through family names, but it did just seem to mean more to me even though I had never even heard of the people I did work for. Just knowing they were my family made all the difference.

So, I challenge those of you who have not done so already... check out the new family history site. Even if its just to make sure your 4 generation chart is up to date. But we're the "clean up generation" and we need to make sure our family work has been done. It's blessed my life so much and I've only been doing it for a week! Try it out.

Below is kind of a sample starter. There is tons you can do on the site. If you have any questions let me know. you can email me at nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com

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Let me tell ya how to get started. Well first off the website is new.familysearch.org
The website will have to register. For this you well need you member number (temple recommend holders.. you can find that number on your recommend) and also you confirmation number. They will have you set a user name and password to use each time you log on. Then it should take you to your information. The way I started my family predigree chart was to enter my parents names (if it doesnt come up already with your name)

On the welcome page go to add information. On the next page youre giving different choices.. for now select add family or individual that is connected to my family tree. The bottom portion of the screen will have the person you have selected and all their info. If your marriage was performed in the temple, your spouse should come up. Add parents names and birthdates. My whole ancestor line came up after entering my parents info. But for drews family I did have to add up to 3 generations. But it should all come up.. unless you are the only person in your family that is LDS then you might need to do a little more work.

But from there you should be able to see all of your relatives. There are a few symbols that lets you know the status of their temple work. If the relatives are still living there will be no box in the up right hand corner of their name. If a relative has died and all work as been completed there will be a temple picture with a check mark. If there is a temple with a yellow icon, temple work needs to be done, but someone has the information reserved. If there is a flashing green arrow, the work is available to do.

So select that green arrow and it might have you look over some possible dulpicates. Just look of the info and follow the prompts. Once that is complete (if the work does still need to be done) It will take you to the temple ordiances page. On that page any work you submit will automatically be assigned to you. You can chage it to the temple in the far right colum. Then you print off the page and take it to the temple for the to print the cards.
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