It's "B" Day!

Baptism and birth day, that is. Our precious oldest girl turned 8 today and got to be baptized on her birthday. She (ok, WE) had lots of people here to help her celebrate. She looked like a princess in her beautiful white baptism dress (a loaner--thank you, Bodily's). And she only had to get dunked once. Uh, if you're not a mormon, that won't mean much to you. Skip it. One highlight (in my opinion) was the Billy Bob teeth, pictured here a few times. Daughter #2 got the most enjoyment out of them and seemed to really know how to wear them. Figures she'd be a natural.

I feel I must comment on the pic of Holly, Polly, and Debbie. Is it just me, or does it appear that Debbie and Holly seem to be conjoined by some alien life form sprouting from their abdomens? If there's a way for ham-ster Polly to make it into the shot, she'll find it. And she did. Good work, Polly. Anyway, thanks to all who gave or sent gifts and well-wishes, and/or showed up for free cake today. We're so grateful for our wonderful friends and family.

And it would certainly be wrong to post today without mentioning our wonderful uncle Jerry (my baby brother, pictured here with Hallie). We love him and will miss him so much for the next two years. He leaves for his mission on Wednesday and we're so proud of him, but my children are going to have SERIOUS uncle Jerry withdrawals for a while. We're oh so glad we got to see him today before he leaves on a jet plane.

One more side note. Notice the pictures of Hallie opening her gifts. In every picture, her friend Jordan poses very purposefully as if he's the guest of honor. We didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise. We got a kick out of it, nonetheless. Thanks for the smiles, Jordan!

Christmas potpourri

Enough already! I give in to you nagging bloggers who keep bugging me about updating! Man, are you a pesky bunch. Some random pics from our joyous holiday. Mom, Jerry, and Alyssa came to visit (I have no pictures of mom or Jerry--oops). I have a good excuse--I was quite flat-on-my-back-under-the-weather over Christmas Eve/Christmas day, and so on, so I wasn't much in a picture-taking mood. Just took some of the kids so I could remember what Christmas day looked like after I came out of my fever-induced fog!!!

Anyway, here's what I remember about those couple of days: Nanna (mom) and uncle Jerry and Auntie Lyssa arrived (extremely late in the day on Christmas eve, mind you), and we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of baked, stuffed shrimp (oh so NOT good for you), french fries, and caesar salad. On Christmas Eve, the 3 bigger kids put on a very short play for us--headed up by the oldest, who made sure everyone got together every day the prior week for "dress" rehearsals. Very cute, but lots of yelling on her part. Don't know where she picked up such behavior.

Christmas morning, we awoke VERY early to see what Santa brought, rifled through the stockings, then had our big Christmas morning breakfast before opening the rest of the gifts. The rest of the day is pretty much a blur.

One highlight: On Christmas Eve, in true last-minute-husband form, Scott brings out a giant box wrapped in plain brown paper with my name written across it in very large, all-cap lettering. Classic guy wrapping job!!! See pic.

Now, I end this post in hopes that I've satisfied you crazies who have been harassing me to no end about updating my blog! Done! Now I don't want to hear it for another 2 weeks---at least!!

Purely Gratuitous Post

There's no reason for this post, really. I'm insanely busy right now with school "holiday" events o'plenty and church parties and choir performances and hosting playgroup and just plain getting ready for Christmas. But with all that's going on, nothing's really going on. Nothing YOU want to hear about anyway. Nevertheless, our token Baptist, aka Kristi S., seems to think it's time for me to update my blog. Some random photos with no particular meaning or purpose:



Look at the boy in the Santa hat!! He's cute. Nuff said.

The girls had a tumbling class...er...recital recently. They did a great job. Can't explain the big pink hat on my oldest, though.

Now if this isn't the dang cutest face and the dang bluest eyes you've ever seen...too bad he's a little DEVIL! Tiffany, this one's for you, babe. I told you I wouldn't put this pic up from playgroup if you went to the Christmas Cantata to hear me sing. Guess who didn't go to the Cantata! Now everyone visit Tiffany's blog and tell her how cute she looks on MY blog! (o:
Another pic from playgroup. l-r, Polly, me, Angie, Tiffany. Like the giant pitcher in the left foreground? Makes you wonder what we DO at a 10:30 a.m. playgroup, doesn't it? (smoothies, people---it's full of smoothie!!!) Interesting how, with approximately 8 kids at this session of playgroup, you don't really see any of them around. They play. We eat and tell them to go play. It's that simple.

Happy Birthday, Polly!!!!

It's a special day! It's my real friend, Polly's birthday! (Ok, well, technically, YESTERDAY was a special day--I'm slightly behind). Nevertheless, this quick little post is just my way of telling Polly I love 'er and hope she had a wonderful, relaxing, made-Matt-do-everything kind of birthday. If you don't know Polly, here's a snippet: She is a hoola-hooping champ (see photo--yes, she actually won the contest), master cake decorator, skinny little gym instructor, primary prez extraordinaire, absolutely fab photographer, scrapping princess, super mom, and the kind of friend everybody wants to have. She's rather sickening, actually. But it's her birthday--we won't go there--for at least a day or two. Love ya, President Lund!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT POLLY'S WOG BLOG AND SEE A SMALL SAMPLING OF HER PHOTOGRAPHING TALENTS (STARRING OUR FAMILY!)