a year in review

it has been such a wonderful year, full of moments we will cherish for the rest of our lives. many of those moments we have captured here, on our blog, in stories and photographs. however, many moments lacked the stories that would warrant their own entries, but we wished to share the pictures of those moments anyways. at this time of remembrance and thankfulness, we share some of our most treasured memories of the year that has come to an end. we hope you enjoy them a fraction as much as we enjoyed living them. :)

claire at a car wash for the first time - you can tell she's terrified, but she tries to play it cool and laugh it off. :)

claire hopping on a trampoline with her cousin and aunt. trampolines scare me, but obviously not her so much.

everett has learned to spit. oh no.

 

and claire doing what she loves to do - dance.

Christmas

Christmas this year was so fun. We love visiting with family and this time of year allows us lots of opportunities to be with ours. The Saturday evening before the holiday was spent with the Bryson side. We got together with Scott's brothers and sister and their families for a treat exchange. Grandma Bryson sent all the little girl cousins these cute Christmas tutus. Claire loved hers and wanted to wear it all weekend.

Christmas Eve was pretty quiet but special. We read the story of Jesus' birth with Grandma and Grandpa McClellan, watched the animated Nativity video for Claire and then finished with some hot chocolate.  :)

Everett got us up pretty early the next morning, but we were probably too excited to sleep in anyway. :)

When Claire finally woke up we opened our stockings. I think Claire loved her candy cane of skittles the most and Everett liked the little rattle he got in his.

We went upstairs to have breakfast with my sister Kristy and her family, who had also come to visit, and then after eating we opened the rest of our presents. One of my projects this year was a quilt for Claire's bed. I finished it just in time for a Christmas present. It's a rag quilt and I made sure to put a lot of yellow in it because her favorite color is yellow. I just wish I had made it a little longer, because it's a tad too short for her bed, but besides that I'm pretty happy with it, and she likes it. :)

After opening presents and playing with them just a little, we headed down to Spanish Fork to see the Bryson family. We celebrated cousin Tasha's birthday and we were lucky enough to schedule appointments and get our nails done by her that day too. :) Claire still looks at her now chipped nail polish on her nails and says "Tasha...nails...pretty!"

We had dinner with them and enjoyed relaxing and playing with our new toys and then it was home to bed. It was such a fun Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is Coming

The Monday after Thanksgiving we set up our Christmas tree along with all our other Christmas decorations (and when I say WE I really mean Scott did most of it while I took care of kids).  Since our tree has been up I've been having fun taking as many different tree pictures as I could. :)

One of our traditions has been to put up a new picture ornament for each year since we've been married. I've made ornaments in the past, but this year I was busy working on other projects so we just bought a little frame ornament and I put a little photo shoot together in hopes of getting a good picture to go inside (we used the one on the right with both kids).

Christmas tree lights are a perfect background for pictures and so I've been playing with my camera more and Claire's been a perfect little model for me. Doesn't she just have the cutest infectious smile? :)

It snowed about a week ago and we thought we'd take Claire outside to play just a little. She was kind of hesitant at first, but Scott showed her how to make a cute mini snowman and I think she enjoyed it. Scott and I hate being cold at all and we're dreading the day that our kids will beg us to take them sledding and stuff. But then again, if they give us such cute smiles during and after, I don't think it'll be that bad... :)

memory made

"mommy, heavy. daddy, strong."

now i hope no one thought our little claire bear spoke these words as she watched her poor daddy attempt to pick up mommy. she was actually just telling mommy that something was too heavy for her, and that daddy needed to help. the former idea definitely makes us laugh pretty good though. :)

Thankful for Weddings

 Well I only have one picture taken on Thanksgiving and here it is...

My younger brother Daniel got married the Saturday after Thanksgiving and since we had a ton of family visiting for that, we got to enjoy their company for the holiday as well. At first we tried to keep Claire downstairs because some of her cousins had the chicken pox the week before. However, keeping her away was pretty much impossible and we do like to see her having fun with her cousins, so we're just hoping the vaccine she got works and we won't have to deal with chicken pox in another week... :) Thanksgiving day was enjoyable. That morning Scott went and played some football while I played charades with my family. Then I took pictures for my sister Lindy's family after dinner and before dessert.

We spent Friday afternoon with Scott's family down in Spanish Fork and enjoyed some leftover dessert. And then Saturday was the big day for my little brother. We luckily had some family members willing to watch Everett and his other baby cousin at the temple so that they could be watched a little closer to their mommies. :) It was wonderful going to the sealing and seeing almost my whole family there. We did miss my older brother and little sister halfway around the world and a few in-laws that had to stay with kids, but 9 out of 11 siblings were able to make it which made it a very memorable moment.

Most of you know my interest in photography so you have to realize I was pretty excited to take pictures of this event. I had never taken wedding pictures before though so I had made it clear I just wanted to be the "second" photographer so I could enjoy myself, learn a little, have fun, you know, no pressure. :) I'm sure I probably irritated the main photographer though because I felt myself wanting to step in so many times and take charge. If I could've stepped back and watched myself I'm sure I would've laughed because if you know me at all I'm usually pretty quiet and kind of a shy person... but then you put a camera in my hands and I tend to go a little crazy.  :)

I did try to stay behind the scenes and take pictures of the happy couple at random moments... but I also enjoyed the practicing with my sister Heather (who is also interested in photography). I actually had a lot of fun playing with our cameras and trying out poses first on each other and then on the happy couple. :)

They were married in the Mt. Timpanogas temple and it was beautiful. They are both so happy and I'm very happy for them. We came home for some lunch and then that evening was the reception. It was lovely. Scott and I danced and Claire had a ball just kicking balloons. :)

Thanksgiving is a time to tell everyone all the things we are thankful for and I am so thankful for family. I love my family. They make me so happy. I'm so thankful for temples and that I know I can be with my family forever. And I'm thankful for weddings that bring my whole family together. :)