Family Pictures - Our Favorite Thing

A couple of weeks ago my friend was kind enough to take some pictures of our family. ( My cousin was making a book for my grandparents and needed a recent family photo.) She says she's not a professional but I think she did a great job. Taking pictures is definately NOT our favorite thing to do but with my friends help we ended up with some cute choices. Thanks Leah!

I know the lighting isn't great but I love Nathan looking at his dad in this one.

I think she captured my kids personalities in these.

Our attempt at trying to be funny.

And the winner is...!

Happy 9th to Andrew

Tomorrow is Andrew's 9th birthday. He has been counting down the days since Emma's birthday. Andrew is an amazing child. The thing I love most about Andrew is his laugh. He is always telling me jokes and when you get him started on a story he might never stop. He is animated when he talks about the things he loves. Today he told me he is going to be something with biology when he grows up, maybe a marine biologist. I know he could do this because he is great at science and math. He is also good at his WII games. But most importantly he is a great brother. We are so glad he is our boy, we love you Andrew!

We let him open his presents tonight. Guess who likes Star Wars?

One of Andrew's favorite things to do is four wheeling with his dad.

Two cute boys.

Andrew's Uncle Micah taking him on the Matterhorn for the first time. He was two!

Micah also took this picture. He always got great smiles from Andrew.

Emma and Andrew. She has always been so good to her little brother.

Superman!

Just a few minutes old. He was 6lbs. 7 ou. And a beautiful baby.

The Fourth of a Fourth

O.K., I hope I'm doing this right. The fourth picture in my fourth folder. (As per Leslie's request) This is Gary and Nathan (almost one year). They are watering the garden. And even to this day Nathan loves to do anything his dad is doing, especially if there are tools involved.

Halloween!

Here are my cute trick or treaters! Andrew was Darth Vader's apprentice. Katie was a witch (my mom made the costume when I was a kid). And of course, Nathan the cowboy.

We started out with our snake sandwich for dinner. Andrew helped me make it this year.

And lastly, Emma had her party Halloween night. It was super fun. They had pizza and decorated cupcakes. They played Halloween bingo and had a candy bar walk. They also passed out candy to trick or treaters while Gary and I took our kids around the neighborhood. I hope they had fun, I know Emma did.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday. I am amazed at how fast she has grown up. I remember bringing her home from the hospital and thinking, O.K. what do I do now? She was tiny (5lbs) and adorable. And because she was in the hospital for 10 days the nurses had mostly taken care of her. But I shouldn't have worried, she was a great baby. She has definately grown into a beautiful young woman. Since she was born Emma has been an amazing child. She is humble and honest. She tries to do the right thing always. She is smart but also wants to see all around her succeed. She is responsible and organized. I never worry about her getting things done, she usually does them before I ask. We are so glad she is a part of our family. We love Emma!

The kids after Nathan was born.


My favorite picture of Emma and Katie.

Preschool graduation.

Five generation picture.

Having fun in the rain.

We always knew she'd play the piano.

Our first family picture. (Emma was two months old)

Andrew's Wolf, Nathan's Cowboy and Emma's Last Day

Andrew received his wolf badge last Wednesday. He worked really hard to earn it (so did his parents). I had no idea the cub scout program was so crazy.

Here he is with his badge and the rocket he made. They launched them in the parking lot after the pack meeting.

These are his leaders, Bro. Darrington and Bro. Hales. Andrew loves them both.

Nathan decided he would be a cowboy for Halloween. Actually his parents talked him into it and doesn't he make the cutest sheriff. Gary showed him a scene with Doc Holliday in it to help him get into character.

This is a regular picture of a cowboy.

This is a cowboy getting ready for a fight. I love that he can't help smiling even though he was acting upset.

It was Emma's last Sunday in Primary. I was doing fine until we sang to her and then I stared feeling emotional. I can't believe she won't be with me next week. I also can't believe I'm married to a man old enough to have a daughter her age. She is growing up too fast, but she'll make a beautiful beehive.

She's dressed up like a Japanese girl for the song "Children All Over the World". It was part of my sharing time and Leah did a great job with the costumes.

Our Favorite Place

Most people would say their favorite place to go is Disneyland. And while we absolutely love it too, I would have to say our favorite place to go is Pine Valley. Gary's parents have a cabin there and they are so kind to let us use it when we need to escape. Which happened to be last Friday. We left as soon as the kids got home from school. We stopped in St. George to eat a sandwich and arrived in Pine Valley about 6:00pm. It was chilly but we didn't even make a fire. Of course the kids had to have hot chocolate immediately. We watched a movie and then went to bed. Saturday morning after breakfast the kids started screaming "It's snowing!" At first I didn't believe them but we ran to the window and there were snowflakes falling. It continued off and on all day.

We left about 2:00pm and headed to Cedar City. We stopped to visit Stacie, Dale and their girls for a while and then went to Jayce Owens baptism. (our old neighbor) It was so much fun to catch up with friends that are more like family. We got back to Pine Valley about 8:00pm.

Sunday we went to church. Gary, Emma, Andrew and Katie stayed for the whole three hours. Nathan and I went back to the cabin after sacrament because they don't have a nursery. The kids had fun going to Primary in the attic. I think Gary just enjoyed being able to sit through class. After church Gary's Aunt Joyce came over and ate dinner with us and she brought us some homemade caramel - she's the best. It was hard to pack up and come home. Hopefully we can make another trip before the year is over.

Here are some pictures of the kids having fun. I would have taken more but my hands started shaking in the 27 degree weather.

Pretending they are cold. I think they really were.