Family Photos

A couple months ago my friend Jami flew to AZ from Utah to visit her sister and meet her new baby niece. A few ;) (wink) years ago Jami and I lived across the hall from each other in the dorms, freshman year at BYU. We had some fun adventures and I could tell some stories (but I won't :) We were also room mates the summer after our sophomore year for the months leading up to both of our weddings. I love this girl!

It has been fun to catch up with her, compare notes about our boys (she has 5) and even commiserate, oops, I mean discuss the joys of being a bishop's wife :)

I was so thrilled to have my amazingly talented friend take our family pics this year.

These are some of my fav's: (besides the new header for my blog)

Extreme Makeover

On Christmas night I went upstairs to put Luke to bed. He was so tired from the day's festivities that he fell asleep in my arms as I rocked him and sang the usual bedtime songs. I carefully laid him in his crib and returned to the rocking chair.


Then I sat and cried. Not just little tears but sobs that summoned Dave into the nursery to see what was the matter.

“I can’t do it,” I told him. “I’m not ready for this.”

Dave, being supportive, started offering suggestions on how we might put my “big-surprise-plan” on hold for a while, but also reminded me that Luke would not sleep in his crib forever.

The next morning Dave, Josh, and Zac awoke very early. Grandpa O. joined them. Equipped with snacks and lots of winter clothes the four guys headed north for a day on the slopes -- Josh’s activity of choice to celebrate this day, his thirteenth birthday.





As soon as the boys were out the door I sprang out of bed and into action.

I WAS going to do this, I told myself - I COULD do this. And besides, the surprise would be so much fun and the day of work ahead of me would be busy enough that there would be no time to look back or rethink this decision.

When the boys returned that night we blindfolded Josh and led him up the stairs to his special birthday surprise.

The nursery that I rocked Luke to sleep in the night before...

...Was now a teenage boys bedroom.
 

It was the perfect gift and this boy was THRILLED!

Luke was relocated to this room, to bunk with “Zac, the awesome.” :)

And...
... After I realized that I could make room for the rocking chair in this room
... that Luke would still let me rock him at night
... that we could snuggle and read stories together in bed too...

EVERYONE was happy.

Actually, it has been a nice change.

Happy Birthday Josh!

(this is the cake he wanted - strawberry cheesecake Gelato)

I love you birthday boy!

forever - mom

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas!
I love the excitement and anticipation of
Christmas morning.

My cuties always gather on my bed and wait for the rest of the gang to wake up and come in.
I insist on a few Christmas morning pictures and they are usually quite cooperative to speed through my rituals and get down stairs to see if Santa came. :)

Luke with his most favorite blue silky.

I love this shot of Ash coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.
She likes to do things her way and this picture exemplifies it.
She has such a sweet, fun, energetic, and spunky personality :)

Santa did come!
And these kiddos must have been very good!

Luke loved these orange tic tacs in his stocking as well as anything he received for Christmas :) Who knew?

Josh made many of his gifts again this year in wood shop.
This is the stool he made for Luke - cool huh? Oh, and the orange tic tacs :)

This was so much fun! We surprised the kids with a big stack of boxes that had little "clue"
presents in each one leading to the big surprise present...

I love Luke's face in this one!

Bon Voyage! 26 days and counting - Until we leave for our family Disney cruise!

A Very Merry Christmas - indeed!