I have been trying to get a good picture of the kids together for a Chrismas card picture, but I'm about ready to give up. How can a family with 5 or 6 kids ever make this work? The thing is, I still like the pictures even with Ryan fussing or Nikki looking the wrong way or Hannah moving out of the right spot. They're all cute to this mama.
And, it may be a little late for a Thanksgiving post, but we enjoyed the holiday. On our way down to Jay & Alli's we each took a turn telling what we were thankful for. We kept it going for just about half of the ride there (which is a little over an hour). I thought the girls came up with some good blessings. Our list included: the world, baby Ryan, trees, scriptures, the Savior, family, turkey, toothpaste, a warm home, Dad's job, glasses, that our cars run well, ability to read, disposable diapers, school, the prophet, temples, and many more that I can't remember after more than a week has gone by. The point was that we have been blessed with so many things. I think even Hannah and Nikki caught that. What a wonderful holiday to be able to celebrate gratitude.
I think Thanksgiving leads very well into Christmas, which is celebrating the greatest gift we have been given. I feel a lot of gratitude for the gift of the Savior, and I really hope we can convey that feeling to our children this year. I'm not going to ask them any more about what they want for Christmas. The rest of the season is going to be about what they want to give to others around them. The Friend this month has a page with a scripture to read every day about the Savior's life up until Christmas. We're reading those each morning before they leave for school, and I hope it will help them understand Christmas a little better this year.
And finally, I really loved the quote President Monson shared in this month's Ensign from President David O. McKay: "“True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior’s doctrine of losing one’s life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service. It is the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, obedience to which will bring ‘peace on earth,’ because it means—good will toward all men.”
5 comments:
That was a great post! I didn't see the page in the Friend with a scripture for each day...we only read one a day and we are still at the very beginning. Joe's mom gave us a packet with a song and a Christmas story to read each day. It'll be fun to add a scripture about Christ for Christmas each day too!
The only way families of 5+ get great photos of all their kids is photoshop! Trust me. This one is great of Hannah and Nikki so if you have one of Ryan not crying, email them to me and I'll fix it for you!
I hear ya!!! I think its a cute picture, too. Last year I took about 50 pictures and ended up with one that I could use. And that was with 3 kids. This year, with four kids, I ended up ordering the cards on snapfish when they were offering 20 photocards for 20 cents (1 cent each!!!!) and chose a card with four photos. I just put an individual photo of each child on the card rather than a group shot. Maybe it was cheating and maybe not as cute as that snuggly shot of all the kids together. But what it saved me in trying to get everyone dressed, hair fixed, smiling, happy, posed and all that stuff was more than worth it. :) You have such a great family!!! And they really are adorable.
Here's how you do the group picture. Get your camera poised and ready and have someone behind you acting like a total idiot. The kids will all laugh and BINGO! Happy group shot. We've employed that tactic many times.
Post a Comment