Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Just Us

We took advantage of being at the studio and had some pictures of our family done on our own too. Rarely do we have one with just David and myself. I really like this one.

And our family...
Big Brother and Little Sister...soooo sweet!



Monday, January 7, 2008

The Whole Crew

As I mentioned in some of the previous posts, this was a special Christmas. It was the first time all of us kids were under the same roof at the same time in several years! Eight years ago we had a family picture made at this wonderful studio. Since then, two of us have gotten married, there are three grandchildren and another on the way (from my sister, Tara, NOT ME!!!...don't get all excited!)



One of the neat pictures that we had done was a four generation picture. This is my grandma, my mom, me and my daughter, Isabelle. It is a picture I will treasure for a long time.



We have lots of shots of the 12 of us, but trying to get that many people to look in the same direction is not an easy task! So, here we are. I think this is the best one!
Here is my mom with her grandbabies...Ian, Isabelle and Hunter.
And here are the five of us kids with Mom.




Pikes Peak

Nothing compares to this view!


Ian...Transformed

Anyone who has spent any time with Ian over the last year knows that he is absolutely obsessed with Transformers!

I couldn't help but snap these pics when we were at Garden of the Gods. Somehow he felt impowered when he reached the top and took on a Transformer-like personality. I was laughing so hard as I took these pictures of him striking all these poses! What a mess!

You can almost tell a story with these pictures:

I am OPTIMUS PRIME, leader of the Autobots! I fight for good and freedom! Anyone who comes against me shall be defeated!
AHHHH! The Decepticons are coming! Autobots, Roll out!
They can't take us!
The power of good shall always prevail!
Another victory! It is good to be a Transformer!

(Notice Isabelle is completely clueless that this battle just took place right next to her! Actually, I think she is wondering who her brother was yelling at!)

Balanced Rock

One of the things that I always love to do when we are in Colorado Springs is to visit Garden of the Gods. It is so beautiful to drive and hike through. The kids love it too! It has a completely different look during the winter than it did when we were there during the summer. Either time of year is beautiful though.

One of the kids' favorite spots to stop and climb around is at Balanced rock. This time they decided to be brave and sit up on the ledge for me to take their picture. After the picture they were very eager to climb around on the rocks.

Being brave!
Ta-da!

Rock climbing My little mountain climbers

Snow Angel

Isabelle tried her hardest to cover the backyard in snow angels. She insisted on laying in each spot until she had rubbed all the snow away. By the time she got inside her coat and pants were muddy! She had such a good time though! I think she was born to live in Colorado!


Dinner is served!


It was so fun to be gathered around one table together for Christmas dinner!
Hunter enjoyed the cranberry sauce! He made this funny face every time he took a bite!



Christmas Morning

12 people
+gifts galore
+ one small living room
=Lot's of crazy fun!
Isabelle didn't waste any time trying on her new hat and tutu!
Ian couldn't wait to try a new game!
Haaley was stoked about her new DS!
Even Granny B got in on the fun!

White Christmas

Okay...well, it is going to take me a little while to get caught up on here. We had a wonderful trip to Colorado for Christmas! Santa surprised us a couple nights before Christmas and let us know that we would be able to join the rest of the family out there for the holidays! We LOVE Santa!

The kids were so thrilled to see snow! There wasn't a lot on the ground when we got to town on Christmas Eve, but it didn't matter to them. They didn't go into Nana's house for quite a while because they were throwing snow at each other. The weather man brought good news, though. It would be a white Christmas. It still wasn't a lot of snow, but it was nice to be in a place that actually had snow on Christmas! The kids LOVED it!


My little snow bunny! Isabelle would have stayed outside all day if we let her. She didn't seem to be bothered at all by the cold!


Uncle Ben and Ian started the snow angels and pretty soon the whole backyard was covered by them!

We didn't have a real sled, so we found anything that might work on the small hill in the backyard! Plastic lids did the trick!

Nana even joined in the fun! She was trying to push Isabelle down the hill, but Isabelle kept sliding off her "sled."

We can't wait to see snow again! It was so much fun!