Our Christmas Card

I love doing Christmas cards and watching how the kids grow each year. I'm always scrambling for pictures the day that I need to be designing and ordering cards, which is always interesting. This year, I was designing late into the night, which made for some interesting design issues. Our Christmas card ended up very...orange. Oh well...sort of bright and cheery. Anyway, I'll have to find previous years' and post them too as timeline.

2009

2008...I just realized Jeremy's wearing the same shirt. That's funny!

Next year, Lucy will be even older than Asher is in this card. Crazy.

Happy Birthday Kimberly!

Kimbie. Twigs. Love you, Prima Ballerina. How can it be that you are 24? You are so talented and beautiful! I am proud to be your sister.

Usually not a fan of funky processing, but I thought this was fun with you and Lucy watching us out the window.

Resolutions.

For Family Home Evening tonight we talked about talents and goals for the year. At the end, the kids made their own posters to remind them of their resolutions.

Jeremy...My goals this year:

20+ points in each basketball game

2+ goals in each soccer game

Get my stuff done every day (scripture reading, homework, and piano)

Be nicer

Fast without complaining (last Sunday was SUPER fun, let me tell ya)

Play with the family more (notice the happy and sad faces playing Battleship in yellow highlighter)

Sadie...My goals this year:

Be nicer (you are mostly nice, dear Sadie, except for those few times you go ballistic)

Help others (you may think the "HELP" is some sort of subliminal message in ransom handwriting, but I think it's just supposed to be cool-Kindergarten-girl-curly-letters)

(PS...Danny and I aren't ever quite sure what to think about those...shoulders?)

Mollie...oomwiih hii oio

Mollie's resolutions must have something to do with Ariel and Ursula. Perhaps dress more modestly? Surround yourself with kind, positive people and avoid evil?

(Apparently, at barely 5, I could have given her a little more assistance this year.)

Danny would like to work out 4 times a week and get to the temple weekly.

I would like to get back in shape, have a more organized life and home for the family, and be better at prayer. Also, being on time...you know Dr. Laura says being late is like giving the bird, "My time is more valuable than yours." Very thought provoking. I'm sure that no one just thinks that...but it's probably mostly true. Also, I want to remember and send something for all of my out-of-state nephews' and nieces' birthdays on Danny's side. We hardly ever see them, so we need to do better remembering their special days.

Okay troops...they're written...time to work!

Trying.

Lucy is trying so hard to crawl. New Year's Eve was the first time I watched her do this. She would lie there, push up, and then almost jump to her knees. It made her tired. :) Today, just 3 days later, she seems to be scooting all over the place. I have to admit that I have loved the darling but nearly immobile stage she has been in...just sitting happily and smiling. Speaking of which...things can be so busy around here that sometimes I forget some mothering basics, I guess. A month or two ago, it occurred to me that Lucy was getting old enough to work on learning to sit. So I sat her up, and what did she do? Stayed. Just sat there like a pro. It made me feel a bit negligent. Sweet girlie.

I wanoo fight with my sode.

Asher gets the most brutal face when he wants to fight (or "KILL MOLLIE!!!" Ugh, the pains of Littles learning from Bigs.). Jeremy loves to egg him on. I asked Danny what the heck kind of weapon he was bringing home for our 2 year old? A battle axe?! Just what we need.

Hi-YA!

The 5-finger man hold.

Break for pink sippy cup.

Asher's best Lord of the Rings attack face.

Humble triumph. Watch your back baby.

Even though I told her they looked just like her beautiful pearl necklace, Mollie wanted her nails repainted dark pink like Sadie's, rather than the light pink I painted just yesterday. I guess she heard too many "Not right now"s and "In a little bit"s and went straight to Daddy.

Asher loves his train table. It was a huge dilemma with Danny...he stresses over things like every piece not being screwed down (love ya babe). It was the same with the table that Jeremy got for Christmas when he was two. But I thought it would be good to have the option of being able to rearrange the track pieces as Asher got older. So we had some plexiglass cut to size and hot glued the major pieces down. It's stable enough for leaning, but if we ever want to change it up, we can just pull the pieces off the plexiglass, scrape off the glue, and the table top will still be in perfect condition.

And a random "Go Sparta!" jumping yell. Very random. Very funny.

Cool fish hat compliments of Dani Lassiter. She can do anything.

2010.

Let's see how we do.

Today, I spent most of the day on Lucy's room. Something I should have done exactly one year ago, before she was born. In the chaos of a home with a husband, four other children, photography, and gift shows, I never really prepared her room for her. In fact, the last few months, it became a second craft room dumping ground. So sad. So all day, I've been hauling out all that doesn't belong, and trying to organize bins and bins of darling baby girl clothes. Sadie and Mollie had an excessive amount of beautiful, frivolously expensive baby clothes. I admit that I groaned audibly several times as I came across favorites that didn't get pulled out and have now been outgrown by Lucy. But, clothes don't really matter, right? I've certainly found that to be true as I cannot keep up with the expense or the emotional fight that I have gotten concerning who is willing to wear what, starting at a mere 3 or 4 years old. Clothes may not really matter, but they still cause nostalgic stirrings that make me long for all my babies. Well anyway, Lucy won't run out of clean laundry, ever, probably. At least not for the next two years. As I found a diaper cover or a lone top from an outfit, I knew that there were a few things in storage that I must not have brought up, so I headed downstairs. And found FOUR MORE bins stuffed to the brim of baby girl clothes. Oh my. Looks like I'll be up late.

While Mollie and Asher napped following a 1:00 am New Year's Eve and Jeremy and Sadie sledded in the back, Lucy was chillin' with me as I organized. I'd put random things on her as I found them...size 2 shoes, this 6-18 month fleece hat (imaging that! It fits perfectly!), the Minnesota beanie that The Burns gave us for Mollie when we left Minnesota. She would laugh, squeal, and screech every time I looked or smiled at her. Such fun!

Asher loves Lucy...

Last night's New Year's fun at The Grittons'...

Bum-bu-du-bum. Happy New Year!