Christmas Day 2012

I love these precious memories of Christmas.  Nathan and I love giving presents to our boys. All the wrapping of the presents.  Well Nathan doesn't love the wrapping.  I like it.  

What a crew we have.  Look at all those boys.  I still look at them in wonder.  They are all so different and special.  

I would list the presents and if they liked them but that isn't really important.  They were all happy. They had a great morning and we had a wonderful Christmas.  

Burton did like his Elf tshirt.  He has since worn this plenty. 

Emmett Just loves all things little boys usually love.  Swords, hero guys.  We have gone through so many hero guys.  Thank heaven for thrift stores.  

It wasn't a mortal wound thank heaven.  

Merry Christmas to all of our family.  

Christmas Eve

Every year we get together with the Livingstones for New Years.  We are so lucky to be linked to this wonderful crew.  

Aunt Amanda had a bunch of games for the kids to play.

Grandpa was way into the trek fever by this time.  They were assigned by their ward to be the leaders for the youth trek happening in March.  He went to all the meetings leading up to the trek in full regalia.  Definitely looked like a pioneer. 

Lindsey makes pj pants for everyone in the family.  You never know what you are going to get.  We all put them on as soon as we get them.  Pretty funny to see everyone in matching pjs at the party. Yes I realize that Amanda and Doug don't match.  There were 2 fabrics this year.  You either got the patterned or the orange.  

Little baby Jujo.  What a little dolly.  

I wonder what Zeke saw.  This is just hilarious to me.  It is pretty chaotic.  But the great thing about the nativity with the Livingstones is the singing.  We sing about 8 songs complete with spontaneous SATB.  All of the adults and lots of the kids can really sing.  It is so fun.  I love singing with great singers.  I don't always get to sing tho because I am taking video or pictures the whole time.  I have to.  What if I would have missed this face.   

Or this face.  What a darling boy.  Love this Wyatt. 

Luckily we have enough kids for the full cast of characters and then some.  Sam is usually our angel.  Being tall with long golden hair, type casting.  

Some of the actors can really get into it.  Wes presenting the gifts to the baby Jesus.

Love our family, Love the holidays

Burton's 8th Birthday

Video Game party.  Does that ever get old.  No way.  

We borrow video consoles, Tvs and games from friends.  Then we set up video game Mecca in the living room.  

Batman and Bane birthday cake.  

Ya, he's pretty rugged.  Love this picture with his new bike.  He's pretty funny.  I am glad that Burton is still young at heart.  He still spends time with Wyatt and Emmett.  He will play with them out all the time.  They have good times together.  

Burton loves his friends.  Every every day he is asking me to contact his friends so they can play.  Nate and I made all these kids so they would always have a friend.  But it just isn't enough is it.?  Ha. 

Happy Birthday to our 8 year old boy.

Low Key Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2012 was low key but yummy.  I didn't take alot of pictures.  So this is what we have.  Some cute ones of our sweet Emmett.  I was trying to get him to pose a little.  Hence the hand on his face.  Cute cute. 

We invited our neighbors the Ethingtons to join us.  So fun to be with them on this special day. We had a wonderful relaxed day.  

Of course I am writing alot of these next posts far removed from the actual event.  i am going to catch up and try to keep up.  Ugg.  I like this picture below.  Thanksgiving day all wrapped up and ready for Christmas.  Look at that tree.  I love the lights of Christmas.  

Latest Temple Pictures

These were taken October 11th.  Since they are working hard on the inside there isn't much change on the out side.  But now there is landscaping.  And the parking lot is shaping up.  The first picture is of the East Side of the Temple.

North Side of the Temple.   

I don't have a very long lens so I shot this low iso in Raw.  Pretty good detail.  Pretty glass.  Love it.  Can't wait to go inside. 

This is the South side.  The trailer is just to my right out of the picture.  The temple is just so beautiful.  

This last picture was taken in July.  Wesley and I headed out of the neighborhood and noticed the haboob coming.  So we high tailed it to my favorite spot to shoot.  Pretty amazing.  Love clouds and the dust cloud was so dramatic.  It was so beautiful with the temple standing strong.  

Baby #7

Nathan and I decided with some convincing that we needed to have one more baby.  We thought we were done but we weren't. So here we are....  I thought for sure the baby would be a boy and bandied it about freely so that everyone could get used to the idea.  7 Sons would be amazing.  So fun.  Loved the idea.  No really.  I figured I wasn't meant to have a girl.  And was at peace with that.  I actually had trouble even thinking I could have a girl. So we decided to do something fun to find out the sex.  So watch the video and see what happens.

That is very real shock.  I am actually still not completely convinced.  I will have another ultrasound soon.  I can't fully appreciate or embrace this idea yet.  IF it really is a girl.  Holy cow.  I am so excited for Nathan.  He has wanted a girl really bad for a while.  

I just can't believe that we did it.  

So I will post again and we will see if the baby is still a girl.  A friend of mine who had her girl after having 5 boys said that she didn't believe it til she was born.  Oh geez I don't know how I will get through these next 5 months.  Due May 1st 2013

Family Portrait

Thank you Allie Johnson for taking these pictures for us. They turned out beautiful. Our cute boys right before Oscar and Tyler decided to grow up fast. And right before we got blessed with our beautiful baby girl Daphne. What a fun exciting time to look back on

Oscar's First Year in Tackle Football

Oscars first year of tackle football. It was the fall season. He had a great time and learned a lot that first year. He got to play with Luke Patterson and several other friends. Is uncle Doug was also one of the coaches and helpers. Hoping that Oscar will have a long career in football and have a great time

Oscar's 12th Birthday

Our Oscar is always up for a party especially when it involves his favorite people.  Oscar is such a good friend.  He is the kind of kid that has a just a few friends but is really attached to those friends.  He keeps them for years and years.  

They had a great time.  Sorry for the bad pic. But it's good for memories.  

He likes lemon cake.  I wish I could express in writing better how I feel about my kids.  For me I like to speak through my photography.  I wish I could write like my sis Allison.  She always has the funnest stories and scenarios.  I will keep trying. 

Look at that smile. He is a playful kid.  Still a kid at 12 right? Oscar loves to read and has read several series.  All the Percy Jacksons, Eragon series and several others.  He read that one year, and it contributed to him winning an award in school for reading.  1 million words.  I have to admit, I was pretty proud.  I have a fierce love of books and I love seeing my kids learn to love to read. 

Happy Birthday to a very special boy

Halloween 2012

For Halloween we got to go to the Stratford to visit Gigi. She loves having the grandkids over and just laughs and laughs at all of the costumes. We love her so much and are so glad that we can go and visit her often. There is a throwback picture of Oscar and I in costume. Zebra. There is also a picture of mitt Romney and his lovely wife with Gigi. Then there is Nathan out with the little boys going trick-or-treating.