As you might gather from the picture, we spent New Year’s Eve at the hospital. Lucy fell down the stairs and after taking a nap, it was clear all was not well. A trip to the doctor, then to the hospital for x-rays, and finally to the ER confirmed that she broke both her radius and ulna (forearm bones) by her elbow. Thankfully, her growth plate was not affected, and the bones were not moved. She’s doing much better now thanks to some Tylenol with codeine and extra lovin’.

Aside from a bit of a rough start, I am excited for this new year and look back fondly at the last. Thank you to friends, family, and clients who made it such a wonderful year. I look forward to this next year with much anticipation!

I’ve returned from a perfect trip home to Corvallis Oregon where I was able to spend some quality time with each of my siblings (minus Missionary Luke) and my parents. Superhero Geoff stayed home with the kids, where the fine dining extended from sugar cereals to fish sticks and Chuck E Cheese. He’s definitely their favorite, I have no hope.

Since my sister Laura was married in Utah, they had a Open House to celebrate their marriage for all the Oregon folk. My mom and family who were there to help with the prep work outdid themselves with homemade crepes and just about any topping for them that you could think of. It was divine!

I only wish I was as funny as whomever they are talking to here.

Brother Seth and baby Tom Tom. (just back from living in Ghana)

Let me just preface these pictures by telling you that I despise guns. Truly. Apparently after I left the house and my dad had the younger boys at home, they got into shooting clay pigeons. Here’s most of the shooting clan on our backyard acting as “Sweet Home” (town in Oregon) as they could for the picture. I might also add that my sister-in-law Caroline is referred to as Annie Oakley now, she was scary accurate.

And here is my brother Seth forcing me to shoot the gun. Thanks be praised that no one was taking a video because it was, dare I say, one of the more embarrassing moments of my life. And believe me, that’s saying something.

What a perfect day it was! The snow was softly falling, the kids slept till 8:30, really, what more could I ask for? Here are a couple photos from the morning at our house where we opened Santa presents and our stockings, then went over to join the extended family at Geoff’s parent’s house for the rest of the day.

Note: I recently committed myself to put down my technical/perfection hat and just CAPTURE THE MOMENTS!! I had become so worried about lighting etc. since doing photography professionally, that I started missing the everyday moments, which are what I will really care about in years to come. So, while these pictures may not be the very best, they’re of my family, and for that reason, to me they are absolutely perfect and priceless. Here’s to New Year’s Resolutions!

Santa got Isaac this race car track. Santa forgot to note the measurements of the track, because when he set it up, it took up our front room and into the next. Santa has now returned that track for a smaller one. Santa will “ok” gifts with Mrs. Claus in the future.

This picture was Lucy to a “T” on Christmas day. Every single present she opened she would say “WOOOOOWWWW!” It was just about the cutest thing ever. She also consumed more candy that day than I care to think about.

We spent Christmas Eve at Geoff’s eldest sister, Elise’s house. They have a beautiful home that’s large enough to accomidate everyone when we’re all in town. We had the traditional “Favorites Smorgasborg”, where we cook everyone’s most favorite item. I made eggrolls, because really, they’re everyone’s favorite.

Love this picture for a couple reasons. #1, I’m actually in it, #2, Geoff’s mom looks like just about the sweetest grandma ever with those puckered lips, #3 Lucy’s face after eating a pickle.

And really, it wouldn’t be a family picture unless Elise is blinking.

Isaac, the Shepard, waiting his turn to come out in the nativity play.

Geoff playing Away in a Manger and Rudolf for the family talent show. Please note that Geoff doesn’t have a musical bone in his body and he learned how to play these songs for me as my Christmas present. How sweet is that!

Isaac and Lucy in their Christmas Eve pjs. I asked Santa to make my youngest smile for the camera for Christmas. Apparently I needed to specify because although she now does a wonderful job smiling on cue, she looks like Sloth.

Isaac, writing his letter to Santa to go with the peanut-butter and honey sandwich we left him and carrots for the reindeer.

We’ve had and are still having some serious snow today. Geoff and Isaac went out to build a snow fort and this is what I came out to:

More pictures of the fort to come after it has been Geoff-approved.

And here’s our snowbaby who, I realized today, has no snow gear.

for the week. He has several on rotation.

Santa made an appearance at our Ward Christmas Party tonight. Lucy was less than thrilled about it, but don’t worry I let her sit there and scream while I got a picture. It was payback for standing in my toilet.

so we built a massive fort and read books.

Two months ago, this little family welcomed these two babies into their home after years of trying for them. They are just perfect! Thank you for making my trip possible, and for letting me get caught up on the Office!

Oooh, the dimples on this spunky kid are so scrumptious!

We had all sorts of plans for these two to sleepily canoodle together. They had other plans. When one would fall asleep, the other would wake up, and then came the punching and kicking.