five for friday

some random bits of life on this friday that feels like a saturday.

one. happy new year!

we welcomed the new year with good friends, yummy food, card games and of course, rock band!

at 12:15am, ethan walked up to me with a droopy face and his arms up, my signal for me to hold him. once i scooped him up he started snoring on my shoulder within three seconds. poor guy. new year's eve isn't really condusive with a toddler's sleep schedule.

two. i took a self portait with taylor the other day, only to find that he has to scrunch down quite a bit to get both of our faces in the shot.

i swear he grows in the middle of the night and i can't get over how lately he just seems like a giant - especially compared to me.

three. speaking of the teenagers, my boys have been begging me to have an xbox "all nighter" party with a couple of friends. we don't do sleep overs so i wrestled with this request for a while, but i finally caved and said yes. i knew they would end up with some fun christmas break memories and i loved stuff like this when i was a kid. rich got them all set up (multiple xboxes and tv screens) before we went to bed, and when i got up around 3:30 they were still playing strong.

(crappy photo taken in the pitch dark - james is also missing, he had to leave early)

they're determined to play all night, we'll see in the morning how long they actually lasted.

to be fair, allie headed to phil and lauri's for a harry potter movie-marathon with lauren.

update: at 9:30 this morning, they were STILL playing. crazy cats.

four. rich set up skype on my computer so we could chat with my grandpa in alaska on christmas. it was fun to see him, but i didn't think i would use it much outside of special occasions. last night while i was working on some photos, my screen started ringing, it was my mom calling to chat for no real reason. we skyped for almost an hour, it was so much fun.

it's especially entertaining when the video freezes in the middle of a word or great facial expression.

i love technology!

five. said good bye to the soldier brother in the middle of the night tonight, his flight leaves super early.

to be honest, i wish we'd had a bigger chunk of his time while he was here, he's a popular guy you know. still, it was reassuring to see him well and healthy and with his spirit still intact, and to spend christmas day with him. we will look forward to the beginning of summer when he's home again for a few weeks.

oh, and one more thing - a couple of days before christmas i went in to my hair dresser for some fresh color on my sad roots, and decided on a whim to chop all my hair off!

(photos taken at the salon which explains why my neck is all hairy)

i am liking the new style, but am missing lazy pony tail days and brrr, i can't go anywhere without a scarf!

have a great weekend!

he keeps us young

it's a good thing we have a four year old around the house on a day like halloween.

the teenagers all went in different directions to go to parties of their own, mom had to hand out candy, so someone has to stick around to take dad trick-or-treating!

otherwise, he might get bored.

how about the cutest buzz ever? that should keep him busy.

to infinity, and beyond!

thankful

i know it's easter, not thanksgiving, but today i just feel so thankful.

thankful to be the sunbeam teacher and that it was my week to teach the lesson. it was wonderful to teach these sweet little guys about the resurrection in such simple terms and to feel the spirit that was there.

thankful for the sun that came out long enough to give us one beautiful day.

thankful for a little boy in bright spring colors, oh that little tie just melts my heart

thankful for older boys who wear a sweater vest once a year just to make me happy.

thankful for a daughter happy to wear last year's easter dress.

thankful for a family willing to take photos with (almost) no complaining.

thankful for millions of cousins on both sides and for family get togethers.

thankful for really good food including cute bunny cupcakes made by my mom and yummy marshmallow eggs homemade by lauren (april's sister who we love).

thankful for the look of excitement on all the little kids faces as the egg hunt began.

thankful to find a dress this year for ME - first time in a long time - and feel kind of cute.

thankful to finally get out of my too-high heels, my feet may never be the same.

but most of all, i'm thankful for my Savior who did this, so that i could have this. HAPPY HAPPY EASTER!

labor day weekend

I wish I had something totally exciting to write about, like we were a cool family that actually travels during the busiest travelling weekend of the year, but we're not, so I don't. On Saturday morning we attended sweet Natalie's baptism which was very nice but we loved socializing with the extended families of Phil and Lauri. As we were getting ready to go Phil's mom was surprised because she thought we were family, I told her "we are family", and I really do feel this way. Of course I've blogged about this several times so no need to get into it again, but it was fun to spend the day with them for sure. Do you know that I had the camera in my car the whole time? Which explains why there's no photograph to accompany this paragraph.

Matt & Ann shared Bee's tickets with us, so my mom and dad and our family went to watch them play Saturday evening. It was a good game, we watched from the grass which was good for Ethan because he could run around, and he did. The Bee's won 11-7 and there was even a pitcher/umpire in-your-face you made a terrible call kind of argument that got the pitcher tossed! That was fun to watch, that guy was ticked! I should've taken better pictures, that's the story of my life.

Sunday my mom invited us to dinner with a catch, bring your camera she says. My Grandpa, her dad, isn't doing very well and she is leaving early Tuesday morning to go visit him in Alaska. She was hoping I would photograph the individual families and kids and such so she would have some current pics to take to Grandpa. I actually had a lot of fun, I bring my camera a lot but I don't do "portait" type pictures of the families very often and I learned, again, that I belong to a totally goofy family.

My handsome brother Brandon, he's single ladies... Jake and April and their kiddies... Jason & Leah and their kiddies... don't I have the cutest parents? :) These are the most recent additions to the family, Charlie, Ethan and Ashton...

Something totally momentus happened Sunday, something that's never happened before...You saw it here first ladies and gentlemen, a picture of my family. I'm totally embarassed to admit it, especially because it's what I do for a living, but this is the FIRST picture that contains all members of my family since Ethan was born 22 months ago! Maybe you think I mean portait, nope, I don't even have a plain old snap shot of the six of us. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure why we haven't done it before, I've tried a couple of times and failed, but here it finally is, a picture of all six of us. It's that same old complaint that I have had forever, that because I'm the photographer in the family, there are very few great pictures of me and that includes one with me and my family, so I know that we were just kind of thrown together and it's nothing fancy, but I'll take it. Thanks Dad for being the photographer for a minute.

Today, Monday, we went to the park with the Phil & Lauri's family with lunch and a big picnic blanket. We have a great park not too far from our house with lots of shade, it was so nice sitting and watching the kids play while the grown ups chatted and felt lazy under the shade of the huge oak trees there. Allie took charge of the camera so of course the only pictures available for viewing are of Ethan, her favorite subject. We ate my totally yummy quick lasagna recipe with spinach and tomato sauce for dinner and then Rich and I stayed up too late watching Premonition which was way better than I thought it would be. It was a good weekend, but I'm having a hard time gearing up for the week ahead, it's a busy one for sure.