New Year, New Family Picture

Thanks be to my sweet Sister-in-law Helga. We have a family picture. I have put this off for so long, waiting until I was skinny again. Well, I'm not giving up, I'll just have her take our pictures again when I am thinner! This is my favorite so far of our whole family, I will be posting more though! Keep a look out.

This one was too cute, I think this was probably the last picture Helga took. Peyton was done. When Helga said all done Peyton perked right up and repeated, "All done?!"

Meet Maddie the monkey

About 3 years ago my mom took the boys to Build a Bear for Christmas and they got to pick out animals and clothes, the following year they got to get another outfit for their animals and this year Miss P was old enough to get one too. She picked out a monkey, after trying a bunny and a horse first. She pressed the pedal to fill her monkey after reluctantly handing him over.
She gave her a hug after he was all put together, I don't know why these pictures loaded out of order.

She picked out a heart for Maddie and gave it a kiss and then picked out another heart and the guy let her have a bonus heart, so now Maddie has 2 hearts!

She was very happy with her monkey and picked out a very cute outfit and shoes for her, she had a hard time deciding between a red skirt, a denim skirt or jeans. She ended up with a red skirt. I'll have to get a picture of her all dressed. Thanks Mom!

Morgan's Baptism!!!

My little sister was baptised Sunday night and the only thing that could make me any happier would be the rest of my family getting baptised. It was a wonderful service and there were lots of people. Another boy in our ward (Austin) was also baptised. It was a very special night.
My parents even came, I am grateful for their support and love.

It was very neat that Tyler was the one to baptise her.

I love my sister!

My how they've grown!

I toyed with the idea of titling this how I did or using, "We all still Believe!" We all do. I was sure that this would be the year we lost Micah to the non believers, but alas, I think we will all always believe. It makes me sad to think of all the kids who've been old Santa is not real by other kids, or at times even their parents. I will never tell my kids that Santa is not real, ever. Santa is real, he makes Christmas more fun and magical and those who do not believe do not receive!

2009

2008


2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

Jesus loves Me books

WOW! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. I guess all those thankful posts wore me out! I have been preparing like crazy for Christmas and trying to stay on top of everything else, so, to say the least...I have been busy.

A few, well, several years ago, back when I had only 2 kids, my sister in law, Becca made a book for each of my kids. There was a page for each family member with a picture saying "Daddy loves Micah" and so forth. The last pages in the books was a picture of Jesus and it said, "Jesus loves Micah" and in Jacob's it of course said, "Jesus loves Jacob!" Well, these books were well loved, especially by Benjamin. Yep, one of my kids that didn't have one. He looks through his brothers books all the time pointing out and naming all the family members. Well, many people have been added to our family since then, and Ben and Peyton didn't have one, so I decided to make them one using my digital scrapbooking stuff. I do believe it would be called a hybrid book! That is where you use digital stuff to make something tangible. Anyhow, I set out making Benji's book first and Micah saw it and he of course thought it was pretty cool and asked if I could redo his book (the books my sister in law made were a picture glued on construction paper and the words printed or typed on and then laminated, nothing fancy but very well loved!) I do believe they were made even before either of us were much into scrapbooking, and definately before things went digital. So I made the decision to make a book for each of my kids. There are about 40 pages for each book.

I have posted several so you get the idea. After I post this blog I am going to upload them all to Costco and order the prints!!! Becca, thanks for the idea, I love you!

Hope it inspires you! Also, I am going to try to do some catching up on my other blog, Out of the Mouths of Babes, so the posts here may be few and far between, so if you miss me, go read my other blog, leave a comment there too, no one ever comments, I often wonder if anyone ever even reads that one!

November is gone!

My how that month went by! Here is the picture of Jacob I promised. We let him open his gifts from Nana Byn and Papa Ron on Thanksgiving, the day before his birthday. What you see around him are family members participating in the tooting part of the birthday song, a Laing tradition. I am thankful for traditions, both old and new.
I am thankful for cousins! We only had one cousin with us on Thanksgiving, but we are very thankful for him and that he lives so close by.

I am also thankful for the beautiful Rainbow that appeared for Jacob's birthday! Peyton and I were the only ones in our house that were very happy to see such a perfect rainbow, a double rainbow! I am thankful to no longer be the only girl in the house too!

My pictures don't do it justice, it was so bright!

I am pretty sure I already siad this, but I am thankful that our Christmas decorations are up, even our outside lights. Daddy was on the ball this year. We all really enjoyed decorating the house this year, more than any other year I can think of. I let the boys put the fun tree up in their room and they decorated it all by themselves and did such a great job on it. Below is our main tree with our pretty and special ornaments, I love it!

I think I've said this one before too, I am thankful for the sister missionaries! We had them over for dinner last night, and my sister too, for Enchiladas, one of my favorites. They taught our lesson for family night, it was great, Sister Johnson did a lesson about the great Apostasy, cups and all. The kids were wild and crazy, they reminded me about Elder Bednar's talk from the last conferance. Fortunately the Sisters are very sweet, I even think Sister Tupoe thought they were pretty funny, but don't tell them that!

Peyton loves the Sisters, especially after she's warmed up to them for about an hour! Sister Tupoe just learned English a few months ago and she is amazing. I like to throw as much slang at her as I can and talk as quickly as I can, you know, so I can challenge her and help her improve her English. I can never stump her and she never misses a beat!

November is here! segment 24, 25, 26 and 27

As today is Jacob's birthday I thought I would start with him. I am very thankful for Jacob. He most definately has a pretty big stinker streak, but he more than makes up for it in other areas. I am thankful for him sweetness and his desire to make everyone happy. I am also thankful for his sense of humor. We had an amazing day today, Daddy picked up donuts for Jacob's birthday breakfast and we got the house picked up in preparation for Christmas decorations. After everyone but me ate donuts Jacob opened his gifts from us which he was very happy with. Grandma Kay (my Dad's mom) took us all to the lapidary store and got Jacob a rock polisher, or tumbler, which I am pretty excited about. Then she took us out to eat at Home Town Buffet, one of the kids favorite places to eat that they only get to go to when Grandma takes them. Note, I more than made up for the donut I skipped having this morning!

I am thankful for the season! We got almost all of our Christmas decorations put up this evening. We listened to Christmas music and decorated. I am thankful for Christmas music and lights and just about everything having to do with Christmas.

If you are Helga or Becca, please don't read any further, the rest contains spoilers for Christmas gifts...

I am thankful for all the sewing I have been doing and I am so excited to give everyone my gifts this year.
These are Barbie clothes for my nieces, they match the dresses I made for Peyton and my nieces.
Here is another barbie dress

This is the back of one of the doll dresses that also matches, only the little girls are getting these, I ran out of fabric, sniff, sniff.

This is the front.

Here are some of them all together. I have 3 nieces and Peyton. I wish we were all going to be together for Christmas so I could get pictures of them all in their dresses!

I am thankful for my nice, comfortable warm bed too, goodnight!