Christmas Nativity

My sister Dana recently took some pics of my beautiful kiddos for our family Christmas card.
I just had to have a repeat of the 2008 masterpiece that currently graces the left sidebar of my blog.
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It's not every Mommy that can have a real, live baby Jesus for the nativity scene, much less a Mary, Joseph, & shepherd.
It was Christmas perfection!
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Well, I haven't actually ordered any cards 'cuz I'm a slacker, so I'll just post the pictures instead.
I LOVE THEM!!!!! I'll have to find the 2008 editions so I can compare.
But I do know that I have one like this with Emma & Jack from that shoot.
Emma & James make a pretty cute pair too. This one is really sweet- the Mickey Mouse tattoo on the shepherd's forearm is a nice touch. The fun thing about kid photo shoots is that sometimes the "mess-ups" are just as great as the "winners."

Geez, Jack- are you having fun?In this one he was adamant that he would not move his legs.

He wanted everyone to see his shoes. What a goober he is!I'll just say it again- I love my kids!

No Fun At All

Being a baby is lots of fun.

But one thing that is NOT fun is being sick.

For example:

Sneezy, sniffly, & feverish.

(Caught him mid-sneeze)

Poor baby.

All in White

I realized last night that I forgot to post any up-close pics of my little man James in his blessing outfit. So here you go-

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He thought that taking pictures was great fun & started smiling & almost laughing. I'm glad I finally caught it on camera.

Nana made this cutie outfit. She even machine-embroidered the adorable animals on the front.

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The blanket was also made by Nana- 7 years ago when Emma was blessed. It has now swaddled each of my children on their blessing day. Each of them will be able to keep the outfits Nana made for them & I will get to keep the blanket. I'm going have Nana embroider their names & blessing dates on each corner. I can't wait!

James has a triangle-shaped rooster tail on the back of his head. No matter what I do, it will not lay down. It's adorable.

Little man James. What a blessed mommy I am.

Winter in AZ

This adorable scene which occured in shorts & flip-flops:

Happened just 2 days before this scene:

See? It does snow in Arizona. As a matter of fact, it has snowed here at our house every year since we moved in 7 years ago. Granted, it's usually more snow than this, but in our neck of the woods, snow is snow!

Dude, I dig the action shot!

But remember, this is AZ. And in AZ winter isn't exactly predictable. For instance, it's 77 degrees today. Love it!

James' Blessing

What a beautiful family!

(I'm not biased, right?)James was blessed on January 2, on our first Sunday of 8:00 am church. Yikes! It was quite the task getting everybody up, ready, & to the church that morning. Luckily we have family that is more on the ball than us. They were already at the church saving us seats when we got there, so we didn't have to sit in the gym. Yay! Andrew gave his youngest son a beautiful blessing. I am so blessed to have a husband that honors his priesthood so that he can perform ordinances like this for his family. He was a little sad that it was the last time he'll be blessing one of our babies. Now we're moving on to baptisms!
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After sacrament meeting we fed everybody some delish pulled pork sandwiches back at our place & visited with family.
THANK YOU to everyone that sacrificed sleep to be here for little James. You are a blessing to our family.

Getting to Know Mommy- Part 3

I had just as much fun in college as I did in high school. I managed to stay busy taking classes, Institute, & hanging out with friends. My 2nd year of school at EAC I also taught preschool & that was so much fun! It was the first time I ever felt like I could be a mom. I had never felt that way before and it was nice to think that I could have kiddos of my own someday, if only the right guy would come along!At one point I participated in the college's production of Grease. Not because I was into drama at all, but because I love to sing & Grease was my FAVORITE movie! (Not so much now, since I spent an entire semester singing all the songs over & over & over again.)While in an English class at EAC, I met that one special guy that I'd been looking for. He was so handsome, & I fell for him before he had ever spoken one word to me. We dated for over a year, which is like a record at EA. We had lots of friends that met, dated, got married & even had kids before Andrew proposed! But he did propose eventually. He took me all the way to Kirtland, Ohio to do it. He had served a mission there & wanted to ask me to marry him in a place that was special to him. Of course I said yes- he was so handsome that I couldn't possibly say no!So that's it- the end of Nana's pictures & the beginning of our family. This little trip down memory lane has been fun, but I need to get back to my life today.
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Pottytraining the 2 year old. Yay! Anybody got a time machine? I'd like to go back to being young, skinny, & carefree again for just a few hours...............

Getting to Know Mommy- Part 2

Aaahhh, the teenage years. Dating, dances, high school. Braces, acne, & the ever-present teenage drama. I know that a lot of people don't exactly love this period of their lives, but I for one believe that high school was one of the best times of my life.

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How could it not be? Look at how much fun we had! Don't ask me why, but I have about 20 pictures of various groups of friends posing as Charlie's Angels, YMCA, & other random configurations. Oh, to be young & weird again....The vast majority of my pictures covering this time span have something to do with sports. There were lots like this.......and even more of these semi-blurry hurdle shots. (That's me at the top- winning!)

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I have discovered by looking through these photos that track is NOT the most photography-friendly sport. There are literally hundreds of blurry, semi-dark & distance shots to choose from. Parents must've been so disappointed to get their pictures back from the developers in the days before digital cameras!This shot is from the Meet of Champions- all of the state champions from 1A-5A in the state of Arizona. I actually jumped against a girl that eventually went on to set several NCAA records & I think she went to the Olympics. I got to watch her on TV once!

She beat me, just in case you were wondering.Yay! Finally seniors! We graduated in 97. This is our final State Championship- our school held a national record for winning 12 girls track state championships in a row. Unfortunately, that streak was later ended at 13, but I believe the record (which included any high school sport) still stands.

L to R- Jamie Seale, Kendra Crockett, Cheryl Call, & Kris Larson.

How weird that these aren't our names anymore!

And look how tan we are! Baccalaureate at EAC. I won't even attempt to name everybody in this pic because there's a lot of us, but that is one good-lookin' group of kids! These are the people that enabled me to have a fantastic time growing up.

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I remember playing hide & seek in the hay at Cara's, a surprise birthday party at Kendra's cabin, delivering papers with Dave, parties at Cheryl's, & hanging out in Senior Hall every morning. Sometimes I really long for those days of carefree fun. (And that skinny body, too!)Concluding the Getting to Know Mommy Series:

College Years & Fallin' in Love with Daddy!