Happy Birthday, Katie!!!

Today is Aaron's sister's birthday. She and I became fast friends when we met before Aaron's mission (she was 14 and I was 23). Our birthdays are exactly a week apart, and we had our last babies about a month and a half apart from each other. We seem to have more and more in common as the years go by. Below are a few photos of her at different stages of life:









We hope you have a wonderful birthday, Katie! Know that we love you!!!

My shiny new camera

Hello - Aaron again.
I got a great early B-day/Anniverary present from Kerry - a new DSLR camera.
I love it! - it takes spectacular photos (its defintely not the guy shooting the pictures).

Anyway - now that I am part of the DSLR club (joining the Dillon's and Kidd's and Collings) - I'd love any constructive criticism on the pictures.

Also note - we have linked an online photo album (upper right nav) where we will upload many of our pictures.

It is amazing the quality of photo a good camera can make...I can't believe we waited this long. Enjoy the new pics! (the soccer slide show below was done on the new camera).

BTW - its an Olympus Evolt 510. (sorry all you cannon and nikon lovers :)).

SOCCER!!!

Here are a few shots of the kids at their soccer games on a Saturday that was actually SUNNY:

Felíz cumpleaños, Papá! You're freaking 70 years old!!!

Such a cute little boy!



Such a cute older boy!



Most people have known you as this stern guy who was always wearing a suit.....



....but I know how funny you really are AND that you're the only person I know who wore pantyhose on your head when you went to bed at night in order to keep your hair flat the next day. By the way, thanks for killing that mouse (you're holding in the picture) that scared the freak out of me at the cabin that one time. :)



I'm so grateful for the appreciation you've given me of the mountains, as well as the joy I feel when I spot a deer or elk.



You've always been so supportive of me, and I can't remember one time you were critical of me.





I'm glad you're always willing to share your love for me and that you remind me that I'm you're "treasure".



TE QUIERO!!!

The pencil doesn't lie.....

At a girls' night out a while ago a few of us used the pencil method http://home.earthlink.net/~sproutanderson/id6.html to see how many children we would have (or have had) and the gender of each. It was just for fun....don't worry, we didn't start playing "light as a feather" or anything like that. Anyway, my little "test" went in this order: boy, girl, boy, boy....then maybe another girl. The first three were correct because that's what I have so far (boy, girl, boy), but I wasn't even pregnant yet with the fourth one. Anyway, during the 12th week of pregnancy with this fourth child the ultrasound guy told us he was really confident we would be having a girl, which reminded me of the pencil predictor thing and just made me laugh (I was supposed to have another boy). Then at the 20-week ultrasound, the same doctor informed us that the baby had "grown a p----", and he snapped the picture below capturing the "proof". Anyway, I have no idea if this gender predictor method has any validity, but in my case the pencil didn't lie. :)



The picture below is of the baby's face. It was our first 3-D ultrasound. The little guy wouldn't hold still so the picture is a little freaky: