Life Story #9

What are the names of your brothers and sisters? Describe things that stand out in your mind about each of your siblings.

I have 8 siblings, but from 2 different families.  I have 4 siblings by my mom and step-dad, and 4 siblings from my step-mom's first marriage.  I also have 3 brothers-in-law from my husband.

I first became a sister less than 3 months from my 9th birthday.  My brother Brent was born and I was so happy to have a little baby to play with and to be a big sissy.  When I was 10 my sister Amanda was born.  When I was 12 my sister Erika joined us.  When I was 14 my little brother Kristopher was born and I got to witness his miraculous birth.

When my dad and step-mom got married, I had already been married for a year and a half myself.  My 4 new siblings were teenagers.  Lana was almost 18, Clint was 16, and the twins Adam & Wyatt were 14.

Leonard is the youngest of 4 boys.  When he was born Ken was 4, Kevin was 2, and Steve was 1.

Here are some pictures of each of their families now.

Brent, Whitney, Isaac, Cadence, & Jackson.

Amanda, Coleman, & Bennett.

Erika & Jared.

Kristopher, Devin, & Charlotte.

Lana, Tyler, Jacob, & Levi.

(I need a picture of her with her man Andy!)

Clint, Lacey, Conner, & Chloe.

Adam & Jennelle.

(I also need a picture of Jennelle's 3 cuties- Heath, Max, & Annabelle!)

Wyatt, Karlee, Keegan, & Kolton.

Ken, Janalyn, Brooke, Brett, & Jake.

Kevin, Delyna, Madison, Payton, Alex, & Ashton.

Steve, Suzette, Sydney, Max, Isabelle, Caroline, & Tommy.

And our crazy crew too!

Leonard, Jennifer, Kaleb, Noé, Gavin, Teague, Hiram, & Ali.

 

Add our 6 parents and these peeps are my most favorite in the world!!

Quarter Horse

For December's parent-child date Len took Ali to the mall.  She got to ride the "quarter horse", except it was the Batmobile and it cost $1, tee hee. 

They also got some chocolates from Purdy's.  Lucky girl!

Ornaments

I feel just like a kid again when my family decorates our Christmas trees!  We have a routine:  I pass out the ornaments to the kids and Len supervises them and offers suggestions or lifts the kids up high to hang them.  It takes over an hour of just putting the ornaments on, and it is such a sweetly spent time.

This year Teague and I gave our trees nicknames.  This one is "Big Red".

Every year we get a new Hallmark ornament symbolic for that year.  This year was just a regular ol' year spent in Canada, so we got this cute little polar bear representative of the great white north.  I've always liked the friendship between these polar opposites- polar bear & penguin too.

In 2006, I was pregnant with Gavin expecting him to be born in 2007.  That year we bought a cute gingerbread house ornament with a gingerbread man inside symbolic of Gavin being my little gingerbread man.  Gavin was born 3 weeks early making his birth year 2006.  His grandparents raced off to Hallmark (as we were in Taiwan) to buy a Baby's First Christmas ornament to replace the gingerbread house.  The next year we didn't want to give the gingerbread house away, and when we learned it was the first of a new series we decided to buy the series pieces each year.  They are such cute ornaments, and even though you can't tell here they light up and glow.  This year is the 10th and final year of the series.  I'm so sad to see it end, but I'm so glad we decided to collect them all.

Our kids' tree in the basement, "Candyland".

Mommy & Daddy's tree in our bedroom (the only one I actually decorate) is called "Winter Wonderland".  Look out our window though and see what a green Christmas we're having this year.  I'm not complaining though!

I had to snap a pic of Ali in her pretty red dress in front of Big Red.

This is my favorite picture though!  This is from the very first night we decorated our tree.  Hiram loved it so much he kept going in our front room to admire it and ended up falling asleep in front of it.  Sweet boy!

 

We love Christmas and all of the pretty and sentimental ornaments!

Another Dwarf

Ali has been wearing Hiram's old boots every day, even over her footy pajamas before she gets dressed each day.  When I realized what pajamas she was wearing this day, I had to take some pictures.

Look familiar?  Here is Hiram sporting this look in early 2013.

I have loved all 6 of my little dwarfs.  Lucky Snow White had 7.

American Thanksgiving

Even though we miss our extended families terribly, celebrating American Thanksgiving with my little family is one of my most favorite days of the year!  Len stays home from work, we keep the kids home from school, and all 8 of us just get to hang out at home together.  Len and I cook up the feast, while Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is playing in the background.

This year for dessert I made a coconut cream pie and tried at making my own recipe for a pumpkin cheesecake.  It tasted delicious!  But it never set properly, so it was kind of like melted pumpkin ice cream on crust ;).  We also watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and Miracle on 34th Street.  My favorite tradition is going around the table and saying two things we are thankful for- one serious and one silly.  Here are this year's things of gratitude.

Having Hiram home during the day to play with.

Going to my gymnastics class.

Taking bubble baths.

My trains.

Going to school.

Dinner rolls.

(The only thing he ate from our feast, sigh.)

My family and friends.

My toys, TV, Wii, and computer.

Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Making sugar cookies.

My crush.

(She snuck in a third thing, but I guess I could have combined her last 2 answers into 1 by saying: Making sugar cookies for my crush, ha ha!)

Our comforts of life.

Celebrating holidays.

Living in a peaceful, stable country.

Sweet potato casserole.

People I love, my family and friends.

Blogging.

 

My favorite quote this year:

A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles!

18 already?

Ali turned 18 months on Thanksgiving, so we took her in the Saturday before to have her pictures taken.  The photographer was a half an hour late, then she couldn't get the power in the studio to come on, so she had to call the maintenance man to fix it.  We had been there over an hour before she actually began taking pictures of Ali.  By that point Ali was ready to leave.  She was tired, hungry, and not wanting to make friends with this new lady.  I was so annoyed!  I wish I could just use the studio space, camera, lights, and props to take the pictures myself.  If I ever receive a large pile of money I'll buy those things for our home (yes, I'll keep dreaming!).

 

This is the best shot we got of Ali by herself.

We also brought in her teddy bears dressed up and she's smiling a bit more here, but her poor teddies look like they're about to fall asleep.

When we got back home I had to take a few more myself, because her smile is the cutest thing in the world and I wanted to record it!

What a sweetheart!

I also had to take some pics with her teddies.

Cute girl!

I love you so much!!

Temple Rededication

This is a photo of the original Montreal Temple.  Unfortunately, it had some weather damage from all the snow we get and had to be taken apart and completely rebuilt.

This is the new temple.  It is similar to the old one, but very different too.

On November 22nd, President Eyring rededicated the temple.

Some of the lucky souls who were able to be in the actual temple for the dedication.

It's fun seeing familiar faces in Deseret News (shout out to Brenda and Valerie!).

 

Leonard and I were able to take Kaleb, Noé, and Gavin to our Stake Center to watch the dedication broadcast there.  You had to be a baptized member and receive a special temple dedication recommend to participate in this event.  I participated in the Las Vegas Temple dedication when I was 14 and Leonard participated in the Cardston Temple rededication when he was 15.  It was thrilling to be a part of the Hosanna shout and to sing The Spirit of God.  I am so grateful for temples!