Family Pictures

John playing hand bells. He's the short kid directly in front of the tree.

We were way overdue. Steven's mom and sister were begging us through November for one for Kathy's Christmas newsletter.  Our most recent one was a year and a half old - from John's baptism, and that was just an informal one, standing in front of our garden. I wanted a good one. It didn't happen in time for the newsletter. Between sickness and busy-ness and everything else life threw at us, it just wasn't possible. Then the holidays were upon us and life got even busier.

Hannah and viola after her orchestra concert.

We had so many projects we were trying to finish - like painting the ceilings and walls in the living room and stripping and painting the kitchen cabinets, and doing the Christmas shopping and attending the kids' Christmas concerts and trying to finish the 2011 Calendar that I make every year. Family pictures were not the highest priority. About a week before Christmas, Steven was laid off from his job and suddenly he had time to spend at home. In spite of being sick, he found time and energy to paint and work on some of the other projects around the house.

Hannah's homemade Christmas slippers

Christmas day was spent at home. We opened presents, ate cinnamon rolls, and had April and her family over for Christmas dinner.

The Monday after Christmas we climbed in the car and drove to Utah for our first week long family vacation in I don't know how long.


I loved our stay in Utah. It was great to see my parents and siblings I hadn't seen in over a year. A couple of the kids and I were sick the first couple days, but we felt better as the week went on. It was nice to relax and play games, and not have to worry about schedules and chores. (Sorry Mom, I'm realizing I should have helped more with the meals and cleaning!)  While there, I learned that my sister Amber, who is a photographer, was coming over to take pictures of my other sister Heidi, and I asked if she would be willing to take pictures of our family too while she was there. To my joy, she agreed! The pictures turned out wonderful, and I'm thrilled to get them printed and posted on my wall. And if anyone else wants pictures of our family for whatever reason, I'm posting  my favorites here so you can see them too. Thank you Amber!!!

By the way, the 2011 Calendar that I make every year did not come together very well this year. I tried. My camera view screen broke. I took pictures without seeing what I was taking them of and then cropped them. My computer got a virus that made it freeze up or work incredibly s-l-o-w. I worked with it. I worked with a lot of patience. I finished the pictures. I started updating the calendar pages in Excel and discovered a bug. I got Steven to fix the bug for me. I started to print the calendars and the pictures came out so muddy and blurry that I realized I couldn't print them on my printer. Steven didn't have a printer at work he could print them on either. I took them to Utah with me and tried to print them there. They came out a lot better on my parents' printer, but because I was sick, or for whatever reason, I printed out an entire calendar with the pictures upside down! By then I was done. I was so tired of the entire calendar thing. I had been doing them for twelve years, but this year just wasn't happening. So yesterday I converted it to PDF files and posted it on my website here. If you want a copy, you may print it out yourself and bind it. May you have better luck with it than I have had.