These beauties are slippers that Mandi gave me a few years ago. I'm not going to lie, when I opened that gift and saw two giant St. Bernards staring back at me, I might have just said, "Oh..." But now I appreciate them fully, or I guess I should say Chris does. He saw these bad boys in some stuff I was going through from my parents house and exclaimed, "Why have you been hiding these from me!?" He was so excited and has since adopted them. I would like to point out that the feet go into the St. Bernard's mouth...he is literally (said like the guy on Parks and Recreation) eating your feet. I threw in the baby St. Bernard for fun in this pic.
Chris sexy-modeling the Nards.
A cute little Jack cry...BABY MANDRAKE! (as in the death screaming plants from Harry Potter)
Jack on his blessing day. In this adorable little outfit my Grandma Walker crocheted. I think he looks like a tiny Scotsman.
At a BYU Hockey game. So, last year when we were at a BYU hockey game, a rogue puck went flying over those glass partitions and smacked this girl straight in the mouth. There was blood everywhere and she lost some teeth. It was gnarly. So at this game Chris and I practiced yelling, "PUCK!" and covering Jack as fast as we could. It felt like a bomb drill in the 1950's (at least how they portrayed those in that one episode of Boy Meets World where they go back in time and Tapanga has extra big hair).
Little man and his dad.
And later that night. Aren't they adorable? I think all baby hoods should have little bear ears.
At the fort Dallan and Chris built. I was snapping pictures and the next thing I knew, Dallan had crawled on the roof and Chris was passing Jack up to him. I was so confused, I just kept snapping pictures and asking questions. "What are you doing? (snap) Why do you have Jack by the ladder? (snap) Are you really taking him up there? (snap) Is this safe? (snap) Well since you're already up there...(snap, snap, zoom, snap). Apparently Chris and Dallan had this whole thing all planned. No wonder it all happened so fast and stealth like.
Jack "helping" build the fort.
Little baby, big hammer.
An adorable picture of Blaik from when Chris, Jack and I visited the Lotzes in Page.
TWIN PHOTO! Notice how we have both mastered the angle that compliments our faces the best?
And all together! I like how both Blair and Jack are staring at Ben.
More cute photo's from when Chris's papa took our family pics.
Decorating the Christmas tree. We bought a real one. The first of my life. I never knew real trees could be that voluptuous and wonderful. P.S. No make-up alert. Good thing I'm working "the angle".
Our completed tree. All these little ornaments are the ones Chris made when he was a wee lad. We looked like we had a 7-year-old, when in fact it was just the man of the house's rockin' crafty ornaments.
Jack "putting up an ornament". We like to pretend Jack can hold things. After going to the Festival of Tree's, I decided the theme for out tree would be, blue and silver childhood.

My ornament wreath that Chris and I made. Or I should say it was my ornament wreath. We lacked a door hook and so we used those peel and stick hook things. Well one day I hit the wreath with my big head when I was trying to get out the door while carrying a hundred pound car seat. When I came home, the wreath was smashed on the ground and ornaments where everywhere. Under people's cars and in the bushes. I persevered though, and Chris helped me hot glue those ornaments back on and this time I decided to get a decent hook, but none was to be found. Finally I settled for a 4 inch hook. Which any self-respecting wreather knows is way too short. So I decided to lengthen it with a ribbon. Good plan, until I realized the hook was too small to fit over the top of the door. I put it on anyway and shut the front door. Whereupon the door bent the hook so that it was no longer a hook but an L shape. Genius that I am, I opened the front door and CRASH!, the wreath fell again. So we had no wreath this year. We looked like the Grinches of the block. And that is the longest story you've ever heard concerning a door ornament.

It was quite beautiful though.