{ 2011 Family Picture }

 

Here is the family picture we took this year for our Christmas cards. If you didn’t get one, don’t let your feelings be hurt because… no one got one. We thought were so on top of it this year-we set aside a day to take pictures, updated our Christmas card list, and then it pretty much stopped after that. Our Christmas season found itself busier than we expected with our Christ centered Christmas activities (a later post), and  unfortunately the Christmas cards were the first to go. Hence, the title of this post is just 2011 Family picture because to me that is what is most important-that we documented this year in our life and what our family was like with a picture. I love having at least one family picture a year to remember what our life was like at that time.

After Christmas passed I was feeling the Christmas-card guilt after having received so many nice cards from family and friends that I thought I may still send a New Year’s card with all our “New” things we had experienced in the 2011. But truth be told, even with all the new things-I am still the same old me-and my ideas didn’t become much of a reality-so no card.

Some of the things I hope I remember about this year when I look at this picture 10 years from now:

• That we were all there-healthy, happy, and smiling (for the most part)
• That we were in our new house (on the back steps by the patio)
• That we were wearing a lot of purple because our outfits were from a funeral of some good friends who lost their 3 year old daughter to brain cancer just the week before. Her favorite color was purple, so they had asked each one to wear purple to celebrate her life.
• That Brianna was wearing makeup for the first year of pictures. (She had to wait until she was 13 to start wearing makeup)
• That Austin was wearing his converse even though he confessed they were too small, and spiked his hair up just for me even though he prefers to wear in down and longer in front.
• That Austin was wearing one of his new Under Armor shirts that he LOVES. It is one of my favorite too.
• That Brooke let me curl her hair, and it stayed curly for a least 30 minutes. (her hair is so soft that it doesn’t hold curl very well-a constant problem)
• That Erika loves it when I curl her hair with a curling iron, even though her hair is curly on it’s own.
• That Brooke and Erika have leggings that were totally in for 2011.
• That Abby was in her funny smile phase. Getting a true smile out of that girl is a struggle-but I like REAL life too, and real life for her is quirky smiles when you’re 5.
• That Scott was super cooperative to take pictures and looked at the camera almost every take.
• That Scott was wearing a shirt that used to be Austin’s.
• That Scott was wearing his “soccer shoes”. They are the only pair of tennis shoes he will wear. His shoe of choice is flip flops (he is definitely MY child).
• That Ryan still had his curls.(He got a hair cut not too long afterwards) We are still having a hard time dealing with it. I miss his curls terribly.
• That Ryan was just 13 months and SO hard to photograph. He loves to look at the camera and see himself on the LCD after a picture has been taken.
• That Aaron knew I loved that shirt on him and put it on because he knew I would like it.
• That we were getting ready to go to our ward Christmas party right after this.
• That I had my long hair still. I hope I never want to cut it. I love it long (and love that Aaron loves it long)
• How happy we are. I love our life. I love our family. I love where we have come and what we have been through.

Here are the kids individual pictures for this year. I don’t have one of Ryan because he had just woke up from a nap and wasn’t cooperating at all. I realized when I was editing these that I didn’t have one for him. It makes me sad because now his hair is cut too. Note to self-add his picture in later.

Brianna 13 years old

Austin 11 Years Old

Brooke 8 Years Old

Erika 7 Years Old

Abby 5 Years Old

Scott 3 Years Old