The annual Christmas Letter

Now that Christmas is less than a week away, the letters have been mailed, the cookies are baking, the presents are getting wrapped, and I hope most of the shopping is FINISHED! (I still have groceries to buy for our dinner) But as we get closer and closer to Christmas, I wanted to be able to share our letter with everyone that I may not have a physical address for, and also to save a bit of postage and paper! So here is our Christmas letter for 2009! We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season! (Thanks to Teresa for the AWESOME photos!!)



After I posted this, I realize that you probably can't read the text, so here it is!

This year, I decided to let the “big kids” contribute to the annual Christmas letter in their own words! Please enjoy their cute little words of wisdom!

Yo homies it’s Andrew and I graduated. This year I was in a movie so if you are San Diego, go check out the Mormon Battalion Film at the visitor’s center. Still doing the acting on the side while I work for the Feds (the only safe job currently under the wonderful Obama regime). We’re going green, we’re all wearing green shirts to save the planet. The kids are growing older and Salina and I are getting younger as we went to Disneyland alone for our anniversary which we did after we got sealed in the Temple. That was a wonderful moment to have the kids with us and the girls all looking beautiful. Carissa even behaved for the first time at an event. Well enough about me, the boy (soon to be man) wants to spew some philosophy.

Let me pilot these Yuletide greetings into a more seasonal light. This is Donavan. I’m a Taurus. I enjoy music and quality time with friends. I am preparing to graduate high school and am excited to start college. I plan on earning my Associate Degree of Arts, with emphasis in Musical Performance. The only really cool thing that has happened to me this year, besides the temple sealing, was my car accident. I was turning left at a yellow light when I got hit by a Ford Mustang going about 75 mph. It seems as if I’m living on borrowed time here, so I try and help whoever I come in contact with. I believe Christmastime is the best time to serve others. Remember the true meaning of this season. After all, you never know who you can affect.

Hey dudes its Nikelle. I’m now in the 10th grade. I still love acting but now I love volleyball and every girl’s favorite, make up! I am a total girl and love to do my make up and hair and go shopping!! I love to go on photo shoots with my mom, and practice being a model, and we are both getting pretty good!! I especially love to hang out with my friends, and enjoy doing things like mountain biking in the thick mud in the fields by my house! Hope you have an amazingly awesome Holiday and a rocking New Year!

You can see that I live with some real clowns, and they keep my life interesting! Carissa is almost 5 (in January) and she keeps things really interesting and dramatic around here! (As if having teenagers doesn’t!) She has begun a gymnastics class, and she is doing FANTASTIC! She is working on perfecting her cartwheel, and handstands! Her forward roll, she has down-pat, so she is working on straddle-rolls and backwards rolls! She is also in preschool 2 days a week, and she is learning how to write, and enjoys writing letters on EVERY piece of paper she finds around the house!

As for me, it always seems that life pretty much remains the same, but this year has found a few new changes and new hobbies! I continue to do the digital scrapbooking, and love every minute of it! I’ve started to get a serious about photography, and have been trying to learn as much as possible! And the biggest change is that I am the new beehive advisor, working with the 12-14 year old girls at church. I’m looking forward to the new year, and the opportunity to have many more changes. (Please refer back to D’s paragraph regarding college…yikes!!)

We hope this letter finds you all well, and enjoying a wonderful holiday season! We think of you often and wish we could see you all more often! Love to you all!

A whole bunch of cuteness!

I had the opportunity to take this adorable families pictures. With 5 kiddos, I expected a lively bunch, but they were SO well behaved and absolutely knew how to work the camera! And it was a good thing too, since it was FREEZING when we shot these, so we finished in record time! Thanks guys!! Looking forward to doing it again! (Or I just may borrow your kids for some modeling!)

Hope you enjoy them! I have NO idea how you're going to pick a favorite, since I can't even do it!

The very "stylin" {H} Family

My husband works with the cute gal, and she told him that they needed a cute Christmas picture, but it was going to be challenging to work with their active little people! We had to schedule it around lunch time, which was better than trying to do it during nap time (you know the lesser of two evils!!) and even though they were busy, and maybe a bit hungry, we managed to have some fun and get some shots! Little Z was VERY opinionated about being held still for pictures. But to me, it tells the story of what their life is like right now.....absolute chaos....and at the mercy of a 2 year old! So I hope you enjoy the pics A!!





I tried getting them to "take my picture".... A got the idea!


But Z just wanted to take one of himself!!


Little A, is taking ballet, and learning all the poses. So she had to show me a few! She really loves to dance!


She had such adorable tights, and I wanted to get just a shot of them, but she didn't quite understand why I wasn't aiming the camera all the way on the ground! Isn't that stinkin' cute??


The leaves proved to be a great distraction!


Amazing what can happen if he stands still for 2 seconds!


Mom had the most amazing scarf, that a friend MADE for her! I MUST find out how she made it! And even though I don't sew that much anymore.....I might just bust out my sewing machine to put one of these together! This is just the flower at the neck. But it was absolutely beautiful!


One quick hug for mom....and then he was off again! (Boy have I forgotten how BUSY a 2 year old is!!)


Cute kids!



Just checking to see where mom was! (she was guarding the curb, to catch him before he ran in the street!)


This just makes me laugh.....it's just "LIFE"!




This one just makes me giggle! (Sorry Ang!!) I call this the "mommy time-out"! Just go to your happy place, and it will all be good in 10 seconds! (I know that's not what was really happening, but it's just how the moment was frozen!)


Thanks guys!! I had a TON of fun!

Kick-off the Holiday Season!!

For the past 2.5 months, I have been rehearsing for a fabulous Christmas concert that will be held November 28, 2009 at the Tabernacle on Temple Square. The concert has 2 shows; one at 5:30 and 7:30. The tickets are FREE, and can be obtained HERE. If you need more than 4 tickets (the max you can request on-line), just call the 800# and you can request more! Make sure you arrive 30 minutes prior, since there will be standby seating, to ensure you get a seat!

The choir is directed by Merrilee Webb (who is ULTRA FANTABULOUS!!!) and she personally arranged 5 songs, and worked closely with a composer for 3 other songs! We are a group of almost 375 ladies, who share a passion for music! Needless to say, the music is AMAZING! And who can complain about FREE!!!

Click here to be taken to the ordering page!

Hope to see you there!

Sneaky Peaky for J & J

Here is a little sneak peak at the yummy-ness for Jodi! I had so much fun photographing their sweet family. We were a bit bummed to find most of the trees baren, but we still had a great time! Their adorable little girl reminds me so much of my little one at that age! Thanks so much for asking me to take your family pics!

Here are a few of my favorite shots!



And this one just makes me heart feel super happy! Gotta love the little sneaky-kiss back there! Well played Jodi!



Hope you enjoyed you "little" peak! I have a TON more to show you!

The FUN {K} Family!

This adorable family lives in our neighborhood, and we are SO glad they moved in! It's been really nice to have another friend for both my daughters. They allowed me the opportunity to shoot my first group shoot! They were fantastic!




I can't even tell you the story behind what caused this belly laugh, but it's just hilarious! She didn't want to bust out the "real smile" even though she had just gotten her braces off just days before! And she just happens to be my oldest daughters BFFLAIH (Best friends for Life and In Heaven){Doesn't that make you smile?}


They think this one shows their personalities....one nice....the other sassy!


Yup, this is the sassy one!


Check out those gorgeous blue eyes and the DIMPLE to die for!!! He tries to hide it by not smiling....but I managed to find it peeking out!


This little cutie is my youngest daughter's BFF!


She absolutely adores horses! I brought this little guy as a bribe for her to behave for me, and I think it worked some serious magic!


Climbing a tree is always FUN!


These guys just make me LAUGH! I can think of two guys that I know that have giggles that make me giggle. One is Chef Duff (From Ace of Cakes) and the other is Pat! His giggle and smile are just contagious! And anything to make me laugh is a good thing..right?




Thanks guys for allowing me to practice with ya! I had a blast!

Senior Portraits {Part 2}

So I'm finally getting around to finishing up his senior photos. I've been busy with a few other photo shoots, so of course the family ones get pushed to the back burner!

He wanted some more with his guitar.




He really liked this one with his trumpet. I've decided that it's much more difficult to get a feeling of "playing" with the trumpet, and sometimes just holding it was just plain awkward


These next two are my favorites!