We're Trying...

to get a family picture. Just one family picture of us all looking at the camera, no one crying, no one punching someone else. Straight ahead, blank expressions would be fine, but we can't even manage that. We asked Grandma Karen to take our family picture last week. These are a few of what we got.

The sun, oh, the pain, don't make me look at it! I love Lanny's face in this one, I think someone was pinching him.

Shin kicking contest anyone? Rules: soft shoes only, no shin guards, just straw taped to your legs....kick away!

Okay, so here's the girls "saucy" pose. Yeah, Kessie hasn't quite mastered it yet! I giggle every time I look at her face!

Kel absolutely would not look at the camera for any reason. We were walking back to the car, obviously, our light was gone, when she turned around and smiled at me. Yeah, it was all worth it for this pic. Love it. Natural and joyful, that's my girl!

As you can see, our Christmas cards will be interesting this year...there's even a couple where it looks like I'm growling. Go me!

Eternity!

So, it's not just official, now it's eternal. My sweet nephew was sealed to my sister and her hubby in September and we were blessed to be able to go. I even got to torture him and "try" to hold him during the sealing. We are sooooo excited to have him in the family! He is a sweetie. Being his Auntie, I have a lot to teach him, like how to eat a cheeseburger followed by a cheesecake. If you notice, he's a bit on the skinny side, but I told his Mommy not to feed him squash anymore, although he loves it, it's cookies and cake from now on! Love you Mr. Ronan!

 

As you can tell, he loves his Auntie...I'm his favorite! Although after the sealing he was a bit wary of me, but we galloped around and I acted like an idiot and pretty soon he realized I wasn't going to be torturing him anymore!



Hands down, my favorite picture of the day. This is just outside the temple after the ceremony. Although he actually didn't make a sound, you can just tell he is thrilled to be with his Mom and Dad forever! "Yipppeeeee! We're a family!"

The little Mr. is so handsome in his sealing suit. He is a bit shy, but always has a sweet soft smile waiting for you.




This is my family. All these great people came to celebrate with Ronan. In all the rest of the pics we smiled like normal people, but I like this one, because it is our true selves.

Here is our family picture from the day! Yeah, this is our life! My blog isn't titled Every Day Chaos for nothing!

Arrows, Arrows Everywhere

Lanny has a thing for archery. This last summer, he tied some floss around a loose tooth, then tied the other end to an arrow and shot the arrow with his bow. His tooth flew out and plink, plink, plinked across the concrete. Yeah, he's nuts. The video is hysterical! Anyways, what I actually wanted to share was that he got his Arrow of Light in scouting. Due to our move in May, neither ward had a place for him in scouting and so he had to finish quite a bit on his own, and he did it. I was really proud of him. So here's a pic of him getting his award! Good job, Buddy!

Here was the highlight of the night. Right after Lanny got his award, as Aaron and I were walking back to sit with the girls, a very cranky Kel decided she didn't want her pants on. So she started pulling them off and then dramatically walked across in front of the audience. I was in hysterics!

Ketchup and Mustard!

So I'm playing ketchup now. I've tried to go to the library a few more times, but Kel will have none of it. She can't possibly sit still for more than a minute three seconds. I'm currently on Aaron's work computer, and he is sweating. If I give his computer a virus, he's tossing me out. So let's get right to it....Lanny turned 11 on the 15th of September. I'm still in shock, but as long as I take my anti-shock pills every morning I manage to function! He is a great young man and we are so blessed to have him in our family. He loves to read, experiment (including taking all electrical entities apart), and make people laugh. He is quite the ham, but also very charming. Just an example...I was talking to a bunch of students and telling them how to write a certain type of poem. You know the one where you take a word like BRI and then find words that start with each letter to describe the word. So I said, "B as in Beautiful, R as in Radiant..." then I paused and with out missing a beat Lanny chimed in, "I as in Ignorant." Yeah, he's a little too clever for his own good, it made everyone laugh. He's a great kid, yes, he has his moments, but he is still a super duper sweetheart and a great big brother!

Okay, so this is just a random shot that popped up. Daddy patiently painting Kel's fingernails, it was sooooo sweet!

Here's the birthday pics. We just had cake and ice cream at home with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. Simple and fun!

Lanny tried soooo hard to blow out all 11 candles, but nope, he couldn't do it. The last one hung in there...

Get closer, Lanny, nope, it still wouldn't go out. It took several other people to help get it out...so funny, he was kind of embarrassed. But when you're as old as he is, it takes a few tries!