Remainder of 2009

Here is our Aggie. She and is 5 months old and full of energy! She was so small when we got her. She has grown so much in the last few months, we hardly remember how small she really was...

In Kindergarten they make gingerbread houses at school every year. Tayla gave it about 5 minutes at home before she started pulling all the candy off to eat! She had it gone in like an hour!!!

Family pictures are such an ordeal. We took these one Sunday after church, everyone was already dressed up.

Then we included Aggie.Bob and Joy's family.

Lizzie, 10, loves creating and exploring new ideas.

Cris, 9, thoughtful and mischievous.

Tayla, 5, inquisitive and loving.

Amee, 20, very good artist, can do things in Adobe that impresses me!

Esther, 7, teaser and good reader. She makes me laugh, which usually gets her out of trouble!

Paige, 17, talented and confident.

Elijah, 14, calm and usually found on a game somewhere in the house, great friend.

Reston, 14, creative and endearing.

Malachi, 10, challenging in mood and determination. We cut his hair after these photo's were taken, you can see his eyes again! I almost cried because he almost cried, but we both got through it and his hair is well on it,s way to lengths again...

We were waiting for the rest of the fam. to come for photos and Joy snapped Tay and I sitting there.

Then Esther joined us...

We had to give the kids some silly shots in exchange for more serious, hold still and pay attention photos... As a side note Malachi just came up and saw these photos and said "My hair looked wiered there, I look better now"!!!! One battle won...

A photo of just us...

Aggie... I haven't had a dog since I was young at home with my family. It has been so great having a dog again. Joy and I finally got a dog for ourselves. We have both wanted one for years, and it was time. This is a good thing because of course a few days after she came home poop duty was not so fun anymore and being woken up several times a night to let her out to create more poop was not fun any more either. They have settled into it and she is a part of our lives now. She sleeps through the night generally and with all the snow and cold the poop duty is not as often. We did add a kitten to the menagerie for Christmas and she goes crazy around him. She loves to play and most of the time he is agreeable, I don't think she realizes how big she is. She really is just a 30 lb. baby!

Making scrapbook pages.

Eric and Michelle came up for the day on the 23rd of December. We went sledding at the golf course near our home. What fun, we took hot chocolate to warm ourselves with and just had so much fun with all the kids...

Esther just asked me if Dad fell off his sled, and you know what I don't remember... If he did it is not in the image, maybe he was making a snow angel?

Reston and Jean (his name is the french equivalent of John.) coming down the hill...

Cris coming down...

These kids have guts, no fear...

Tayla

There was a small ravine that you could go down in, right in between tress, it was so pretty, the only downfall was that at the end was a tree that you would run into every time. We tried to pile snow to move around it but never could get the track to change it's course. No one got hurt, except Scott had bruised his tail bone and hurt for a few weeks.

Levi

I love this picture of Lizzy, when she is really happy she light up just like this, pure joy...

Lizzy, Esther, and Geni

Again...

Joy and Reston

Eric

Scott and Elijah

Scott and Cris hitting one of the two jumps on the hill...

Eli going sown the ravine, with the tree at the end....

It was not easy catching the action. I had to stand in the path shoot fast and avoid getting hit...

Jean is quite the dare devil, impressively brave....

Cris loved using Malachi's snow board.

can't quite see it but Elijah is mid air on the jump....

Reston

Geni, the califoria blond growing up in Utah....

Michelle and Jean

They got to the end and all fell aff, they laughed and laughed.

Joy took some of Scott and I...

I love this picture of Esther, they were just wizzing by...


Well once in every life comes the big 40. Joy has hit that milestone now... Her birthday is the 25th, so it is really hard to make a birthday special when it happens on such a huge holiday. We tried this year by doing 40 suprises for her in the week leading up to her birthday, my frustraition was that everythime I started something she would come along and help, so I didn't think I could count it, but I did get most of the siblings to come at sometime during the holidays. And her best friend cousin growing upto call and catch up...

Michelle, Joy, and I. I have such amazing sisters!

Here is the new addition to the family and after a lot of voting his name is Jack.

Aggie is soo loving, and of course was trying to butter Joy up so that she could get a closer look at Jack.

Esther and Aggie feel asleep on my bed, I just had to laugh and hope that Aggie didn;t have any gass. She can let go some major stink bombs, and Esther had her head close to the acion.

Elijah celebrates his birthday on the 29th... 14!

We surprised him with an Aeropostle jacket (not shown, he hadn't opened it yet) He was so excited, all the guys at school were jelous!

We made an oreo cake, the frosting was not a good idea, the kids were not happy and I vowed to not do it again... The Oreo's were a hit.

Then on the 30th we celebrated Esther's 7 birthday. She hot the pajamas for christmas and had been wearing them since... She wanted a chocolate cake, and I promised the regular frosting, everyone was happy...