A Family Affair

Whoever said, "save the best for last" had never seen this photo. When the stars align it can truly blow your mind. Mason would not stop spinning, he was having a lot of fun with the white paper background(?) I watched Jasmine reach up and grab Daddy's face for a kiss. I took the photo because of that. It wasn't until we got home that we realized what Mason was doing. This is my favorite photo ever!

What follows are clips from our favorite family sitting to date. We needed them done for a bunch of reasons. The main one: For some reason NO ONE can take a clear, centered, good picture of all 4 of us. It's become a joke at this point. Really, NEVER. We have yet to figure out why that would be such a difficult thing, but without fail, every time, you can barely make out that its us. So we decided that Josh and I would take turns and we'd use the timer for the big family one...check it out. (And yes, Cindy, Grandma Bobo, Grandma Steele, just tell us which ones you want and they will be in the mail.)


So the shoot started out with Josh saying "look at me guys." Jasmine and Mason slid together and posed. Can't ask for much more than that.


Please take note at the lack of profile on my daughter. We can't help but kiss that perfectly flat nose. So damn cute.


We read TONS of books at our house.


My boys


I'm pretty sure this is how Josh feels when he gets home from work. Dakota wants the ball thrown, Mason and Jasmine want to wrestle...Jasmine wants all the attention...Jasmine will claw the eyes out of anyone who tries to come between her and Daddy...and Mason and Dakota aren't about to give up without a fight. Good luck.


Whatever it takes to make the baby laugh...(This ones up for Josh, he loves it.)


LOVE LOVE LOVE


In the words of my best friend, "Someday these photos are gonna be so painful. When this one appears in her wedding video, Daddy is still going to be able to feel those little hands on his face..."


If you can't beat 'em join 'em.


If you come to our house and leave your shoes at the door you need only give my little one 3.2 seconds before she's wearing them. At this point in the photo shoot I was laying on the floor letting the kids do whatever they wanted. When I saw Jasmine come into the frame wearing Daddy's sandals I realized I wasn't wasting my time!


Finally! A family photo. Yay. We have gone and had our pictures taken but its never really worked out. This was picture number 4 using the timer. Sometimes when you need something done it's a lot better to do it yourself :)


Afer watching Josh get his photos taken with the other two children, Dakota was feeling terribly left out. Suffice it to say, she was easier to shoot than both Jasmine or Mason. When it comes to photography even the dog knows how we roll...

Best Rock Band Ever!!

Amber and I went to the Creed concert last night at the E Center here in the Salt Lake Valley and it was amazing. We had seats in the 9th row right next to where the stage came out in the center. It was incredible!! They played for about two hours and had lots of pyrotechnics and just put on an amazing show. It was the first time we'd seen them since Amber was pregnant with Mason over six years ago. I have to say, and I know this may come as a shock to some of you, but the show was even better than the Rolling Stones show I saw a few years ago. It could be because the members of Creed can still walk without a walker, they can still operate and function normally without a joint, and they don't look like walking, talking, dancing giant human raisins or like some kind of scary horror film put on by Jim Hensens Muppets!! Altogether it was a really good time. So I'll be adding some of their music to our blog so the rest of you can enjoy them. Well almost all of you will be able to enjoy the music except for my sister living in the land of deliverance. She needs to get the hamsters that power her internet to run a little faster around that wheel to generate some more speed...or something.

The Truth

Just so you all know the truth here it is. I make a lot of fun of my family because we all enjoy it so very much, however, I am truly blessed. I look over this blog and everyone who's picture covers it and think to myself how lucky and blessed I really am. Yes it sucks sometimes that we all live so far apart but I really cherish every moment we share together and all of our wonderful memories. I love each and everyone of you. My beautiful wife and kids, my supportive parents and grandmothers, and even my lovely sister and her family and of course my little brother and his. Thanks for the laughs and love, may many more continue to flood this little blogging world of ours.

May It Rest In Peace

Well I felt I should say something about the recent tragedy that was the selling of an American classic. My parents recently sold a 79 Chevy Corvette that was pure American muscle. Not only did they not decide to pass it down to one of their charming and intelligent young boys, which maybe I can understand. One is too poor and the other would either wreck it, break it, get arrested for speeding or simply watch one of his local business types just drive it away in the middle of the night. They sold it and bought a Subaru Forester...that's right a Subaru!! Sounds like something only a green hippy type living in San Francisco would do or maybe someone who has lived in Missoula far to long. Either way...say goodbye to an American icon, a piece of history, another example of why this great country is suffering and why foreign countries continue to capitalize. Say goodbye. I think they voted for Obama.

New Post

Well we need to put up some new stuff on here. But I don't have anything to say really, and I don't have any photos to post because I'm at work. But I will tell you this...I've been on a real roll here lately of being a pain in the ass and insulting pretty much everyone. I had my lovely misses so mad yesterday she called me names I hadn't heard before...Happy Anniversary love!! I just recently insulted my brother on my parents blog. I always find someway to get under someones skin, I guess I'm just good at it. A natural talent apparently. Or so I'm told. I guess it's a gift passed down through the generations. You know like bald spots, being obnoxious, buying and selling way to many cars, cheering for hopeless sports franchises. I would have been happy with just inheriting a hell of a lot of money!

Cheers To Matthew And His Little Corn Farmer...

Matthew-
Yeah, I'm sure I don't have to explain what it is you're looking at. It was priceless. Today Mason found out it was time to pick the infamous corn that he had no plans of sharing with you. He pulled it off the stalk and jumped around. He was so excited he could hardly wait. I told him to take it to Daddy and have him help peel it. Josh was standing at the trash can when I came around the corner with a look on his face I'll never forget. Then, really slowly he held up this. This poor, poor pathetic piece of homegrown, long awaited, highly anticipated corn. i tried to focus on it as I laughed through tears. I was so afraid Mason was gonna be disappointed. But, in the typical fashion of kids, all he saw was a perfect piece of his own corn. He beamed. So here you have it. Corn from the littlest corn farmer. Try to contain your sorrow for not being here to partake.

Breakin' A Record

So my goal here today is to write the longest blog imaginable. It shouldn't be too hard since we haven't been on here for the entire summer. I have been dreading this because so much has happened and I haven't kept up on any of it. It has been great though. As most of you know we've had Josh's brother as our house guest this summer aka O.T.P. (Our Token Performer) For those of you who aren't aware, instead of going to law school and spending millions of dollars on a fabulous education, and the summer studying for the bar exam, Matthew should just be doing voice overs. He does the very best Arnold Schwartzeneger, Movie Preview Guy, and gay man alive. He also does a pretty killer Owen Wilson. I made him "perform" quite a bit, but you would too if you heard it! You never really know how having someone move in (even temporarily) is going to go. For the record, it was great. He may have a different story, but that's our side of things. He played constantly with our kids, watched every episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" with me, came to bbqs, church and family dinners. He even allowed himself to get throttled over and over in ping pong matches with Josh. All in all, a terrific summer. Here is a photo collection of almost everything we've been up to...

Mason was laughing so hard he kept swirving. He could hardly stay on the bike. But I'm not sure who was laughing harder, him or me.


I already wrote about the air show. But I love this photo and it was a great part of our summer.


Oh, I am in so much trouble! I just wanted to give the baby a bath.


We took a trip with our best friends. For the last two years we have visited Nate's family in California. This year was Josh and Rach's turns. We went to Rachel's hometown first. Yep, some time in good ol' Idaho. I heard Matthew spent 6 weeks there one day. Anyway, her family is great and we had a fabulous time. The kids make everything more fun. They are the best of friends.



After the trip to Idaho it was Josh's turn to brag about where he grew up. Nate, Rach, Reese and Damon came with us for a week. We had a great time. These are photos before a serious day of paintballing. It was awesome. My brother, Matthew, Dom (my brother in law), Nate, Rach, Jim and my husband...a good time for sure. The photo of Rach and I is her showing how she's planned to protect my neck since I was the only one without a scarf. If a paintball came flying, this would be her sacrafice. That's why she's my best friend.




Lots of love in the Big Sky country



Love from grandma Sellers


Babe, we are so totally in Montana now.



Are you kidding me? Love this.


Hiked the "M" with 4 kids and lived to tell about it.


Mason and his best friend Reese having a blast at grandpa and grandma Sellers house.


Mason with two of his 45 grandmas. My kids really are so lucky.


One of my favorite shots from the summer. The hose at grandma and grandpas house. Awesome


Great grandpa playing dolls. He's the best. Izzy will tell you.


Poor Great grandma had to read and read and read. It's Izzy's favorite thing. Matthew's done plenty of that this summer too.


Make sure you brush the teeth in the VERY back.


Get him Becky. He totally deserves it.


We bought her a potty because she is very interested in getting out of diapers. Mason was putting it together and when we left the room for a minute we came back to find her sitting on it with the seat on her head saying, "hat? hat? hat?" Maybe we aren't entirely ready.


No words


Us waiting for Matthew on a lazy sunday morning for church. I died when I saw this. DOES IT GET ANY BETTER? (The answer is "no" for anyone who's conflicted.)


This is us saying good bye to Matthew. It was horrible. The kids took it hard. Obviously he has his own family to get back to, and a job search to begin, but we miss him something terrible. We really wish Becky and Paul could have made it to visit too. Who knows, maybe we can pray the job situation will bring them a little closer to home than Florida...here's hoping...If not, we are definately going to have to be dedicated to visiting them. They are so great, and before this summer there hasn't been much of a chance to get to spend time together. Whatever they decide to do will be great. Clearly they've proven they can handle the "uh-oh's" life throws their direction. Whatever happens is gonna be wonderful. Love you guys.


Mason put on his dino costume and wanted Izzy to dress up too. They chased each other around the house for hours laughing at each other.



He has taken an interest in mowing the lawn...I can't imagine whose kid he is! He has to jump to get the mower off the ground to turn it. Check out that air.


So there it is. I feel so much better now that we're kind of caught up. Stay tuned for photos of my kids own bedrooms. They have been sharing a room until two days ago. It was hard for Josh and I. Our big boy has officially moved downstairs. More to come...