My first paid wedding!

You may be asking yourself, "Who are these beautiful people? And why are their amazing wedding photos on Anne and Spencer's blog? Well, dear friends, the answer is this: I TOOK THEM!! Woot woot!  The beautiful bride is my friend Hillary's sister-in-law and she asked me to take photos for her wedding on Jan. 6th.  I was so nervous!  The last time I took wedding photos was 5 + years ago and I've never done a temple wedding.  It was so much fun though! I borrowed a friend's amazing camera and took mine as well.  That way I could take more photos and I could use different length lenses to get more variety in my shots.  The bride and groom were so happy and willing and fun to photograph.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Sammy 20 Months

Well this little man just continues to grow and grow and grow!  His personality and vocabulary are just so cute lately!

He has learned how to say bus and points out all the buses he sees while we are out and about.  It's neat to see how he is the same and different from Lucy at this age.  She used to love school buses and would yell out "yellow bus" whenever she saw one.  She was a bit older though.  I think Sammy is learning to talk a lot earlier because he has her example and because I talk so much more now that I have someone around who talks back. :)

He has also developed a love of "choo-choo"s.  He loves to point them out on his jammies and gets excited to put them on and show us.  In fact, in these very stylish photos, he's sporting his choo-choo jammie bottoms.

He has even started to say his first short sentences - "I want that" is a favorite.  He also says, "orange juice please" and "I'm hungry."  We finally took him in for his 18 month appointment and he's doing great.  I misplaced the paper with his stats on it but he's in the middle for weight (I think around 26 pounds) and in the 80% for height - but don't remember how tall! Oh, and his head is still gigantic! :)

Holiday Festivities!

We had such a fun, busy December!  Starting right from December 1st we really got into the holiday spirit with lots of fun activities.  Unfortunately, I didn't always have my camera (or I did but Sammy had lost the memory card!) but here are a few I did capture:

December 1st we checked out the Festival of Trees.  My grandparents sent me a bunch of tickets so we invited some friends and their kiddos from our neighborhood and had a great time.  Forgot my camera but I did think to snap a quick photo of Lucy "fishing" at the pond. We went with friends but we also ran into another family from the neighborhood, an old coworker, and my aunt and uncle and their family.  Kinda crazy!

December 3rd was our Ward Christmas party.  We had major camera issues that day - couldn't find the memory card to my camera or the battery to Spencer's.  Didn't think to take a pic with the phone.  Didn't seem to really matter though as Lucy refused to sit on Santa's lap anyway.  A neighbor took one of Sammy so if I ever get it, I'll add it later.  We did have a good time though!

I think this was a week or so later.  My aunt Ruth Ann gave us tickets to see the Forgotten Carols.  We went the first year we were married, so it's been a few years.  It was wonderful.

One day for FHE, we decorated a gingerbread house.  I have never actually done this (at least that I remember) and it was harder than I thought to get it all set up straight!  Lucy loved decorating it though.

Sammy was in "ball" heaven!  All he could concentrate on were the "balls! balls! balls!"  It was pretty cute.

Our little joy school put on a Christmas program with a nativity play and singing.  Lucy got to play Mary and she absolutely loved it!  Here she and Joseph are being turned away from the inn.

And now she's wrapping up baby Jesus.  We did the program for parents and grandparents and family.

The kids also colored pictures that we made into cards.  They passed them out when they were done.

We also performed it at two different nursing homes in the area.  The kids did so great and they were so stinkin' cute!

Spencer and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on the 16th!  We spent our first night away from the kids and it was wonderful!

We went to Olive Garden for dinner and then walked around Temple Square to see the lights and stopped to listen to the Christmas concerts.  It's so fun to have our anniversary during Christmas time because there is always something going on.

Lucy had her first dance recital the next evening.  I'd like to say it was super fun and that she did a wonderful job.  But alas, she was a little stinker.  She looked adorable but she got nervous and cried on the side of the stage instead of dancing.  At the time, I was super irritated.  Now, I'm over it.  Hopefully she'll dance at her next one.

The next day, we had the McConnell party.  Here's the McConnell crew.

Lucy and Sammy hanging with Haley and Corey, reading their new books.

Sammy reading a new book and Lucy hiding in her new princess tent.

Hi Lucy!  The kids got spoiled and we all ate yummy food and visited!

Our final party of the season was the Manwill party.  My aunt gave Sammy this cute fireman hat - he loved it!

Here's Lucy in her cute Christmas skirt my mom made.  She made Sammy a matching vest too.  Unfortunately, the only picture I have of him in it is blurry!  I'll have to have them both wear them again just so I can get a picture.  They were both a bit big too so they'll fit again next year.

I also put together some Christmas Minute-to-win-it games. Here are two cousins - Nick and Liz, trying to get their Rudolph noses to stick.

This picture makes me laugh! Aunt Barbara trying to get the cookie from her forehead to her mouth!

Cousin Danielle and her hubby Brandon trying to stack nuts with a candy cane.  Didn't work - needed bigger nuts.  Maybe should have tested first?

And, finally, Aunt Sandra and Uncle Gary making whipped cream trees.

As always, it was a fun evening with family.

Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was a lot of fun.  Both of the kids are at an age where they can really get in to it and boy did they!

It was the Christmas that just kept going and going!  We started with PJs on Christmas Eve.

Lucy got new slippers and passed her old ones on to Sammy.  Then she got cute reindeer jammies and Sammy got dinosaur jammies.  He growled all night long! :) Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of them that night, and with church early the next morning, I don't have any pics of them. :(

In fact, I don't really take a lot of good pictures on Christmas ever.  I'm too caught up it what's going on.  We have always recorded a lot of it on video though, so that's nice.

Anyway.  The next morning we opened stockings, ate breakfast, and went to church.  I love it when Christmas or Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday.  It's nice to reflect on Christ and I love all the Christmas music - not to mention that an hour of church instead of three is a nice treat!

After church we opened presents.  The kids got all kinds of things - dress ups, little people toys, bath toys, and a Jessie doll (from Toy Story) for Lucy.

A hammer, tool set, ball thingy, little people toys, and Woody doll (Toy Story) for Sammy.

A Spencer was super excited about this gift - a Jacob (from Twilight) pillowcase! I had won it at the movie last month with my friends and thought it'd be funny to give it to him for Christmas.  We gave each other nice gifts too, no worries. :)

Then Nana Manwill came over and spoiled the kids too with lots more gifts, including the car ramp toy in the background of this picture.  Sammy was so funny opening this gift.  It was like he knew it was for him before it was even handed to him.  He started unwrapping it before anyone else was in the room and then he was so excited, he was bouncing up and down while Spencer put it together as fast as he could.

That evening, the Van Hoose side of the family came over for dinner.  More presents for the kids came as well.  This is one of the only pictures we took - Sammy and three of his boy cousins ate at the little kids' table.  They were super cute.  It was a really fun Christmas.