Thank you Matt and Shamra!

So, get this...Before Christmas, our dear friends Matt and Shamra told us we needed family pictures.  Then they told us that they were volunteering to come over to our house and take them for us.  Can you imagine?  They did such a great job.  They brought an awesome backdrop and plenty for all of us to laugh and smile about.  But, the most impressive part is how much patience they brought!  We are so lucky.  

So, here are some of my very favorites.

I don't know how Matt captured this one, but I think it is priceless!  Alli's expression says it all!

And of course, no modern day photo shoot would be complete without a "Kung Fu Panda" pose!

Thank you Matt and Shamra for the great pictures!  

Christmas Morning

I don't know about you, but we are ridiculously slow on Christmas morning. (as Josh, Wesley and Landon will tell you in no mixed words.)  There is something so beautiful about waking up hearing tiptoes to the Christmas tree and then shouts of joy as all of our little spies realize that Santa indeed did come...(even after all of Mom's threats that "Santa saw that and he might be moving your name to the naughty list...")  

We love to drag out Christmas morning as long as possible.  You know; make a nice warm fire, have a big delicious breakfast, read about Christ in the scriptures, tidy up a little, and then finally open presents.  I took this picture when we finally announced to the boys that it was time to open presents.  

We got distracted and forgot to take many pictures, but we had a perfectly beautiful Christmas together.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABIES!!!

We can hardly believe it, but our sweet babies turned one last week!  What an incredible gift to have been blessed with these two angels.  We feel like the luckiest family on earth.  We thank Heavenly Father every day for Allison and Jackson.  Remember how little they were?  

We had a birthday party for them and we all had so much fun watching what they were most excited about.  We tied a bow on Jackson's head and he left it on almost the whole time!  He knew he looked adorable.  He is fascinated with Alli's hairbows that she always wears and he must wonder why we never put any bows on him!  

Allison was pretty surprised that we gave her a little piece of cake with whipping cream on it.  She couldn't decide if she was supposed to eat the cake or the plate...but she figured it out and had a great time!

Jackson loved the feeling of power you can only experience by holding and eating your very own piece of cake!  

The biggest hit of all for Jackson was probably the balloons!  He was mesmerized by them, as was Alli!  

Allison was such a girl!  She snuggled all of her new outfits that she got and held them up to her to see how they looked.  

Our precious babies have such wonder and excitement as they experience all these brand new things in life.  

Happy Birthday Allison and Jackson!  We love you forever and we thank you for every beautiful bit of joy you have brought to us.  Now, don't be in such a hurry to turn two...

An early Christmas present!!!

Jenna and Jeremy had a beautiful baby girl on Thursday, December 4th.  She is so adorable!  She is named Londyn and she weighed 5 lb. 12 oz.  Here is a picture of Jenna and Jeremy and their sweet Christmas present when Londyn was one day old.  Aren't they all so beautiful? 

Look at how sweet she is! 

Jenna is such an incredible mom.  She is having so much fun and we are all having so much fun watching how excited she gets about every little thing.  It is so fun watching my baby sister have her own little sweet baby.  Isn't life beautiful?

Congratulations Jenna and Jeremy!  Merry early Christmas!  We love, love, love you!

Oh Jackson...

The time has finally come for Jackson to have an all-out haircut.  He has had trims up to this point, but he is really quite a hairy little fellow.  So, Jeremy and I embarked on our daring adventure and started his haircut.  Here's his before shot...

He was so incredibly wiggly that I was certain this was going to be a disaster of a haircut.   But, then something incredible happened.  We got the clippers out to "buzz" the back and he didn't move a muscle the entire rest of his haircut.  Our other boys have all wiggled even more the moment they felt the buzzer for the first time.  But Jackson was so intrigued by his new "massage" that he stayed perfectly still.  Miracles do happen!  Here's the middle of the hair-cut we were sure was doomed for failure.  (At this point, you all would have thought so too!)

And here's the finished product.  Jackson all grown up!  What a little man!

So from now on, Jackson can take a number when it's haircut time.  He gets to get in line with all five of the Ostler men who patiently wait for their turn in Mom's hair salon. (AKA the laundry room)  :) 

We love you Jackson, you adorable little creature!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Jeremy really is weird...

Hi everyone.  This is Jeremy.  Ok, I will come clean and bare all.  There are only a few quirky things about me.  Jacquie already explained all the rules and tagged enough people for the both of us.  Here are the quirky jeremy-isms.

1.     Everyone that has been around me knows I chew my tongue when I am thinking, concentrating, working, bored, etc.  Sometimes I have to wait a few days so my tongue can grow back so I can start chewing again.

2.     I carry around a filing cabinet.  Each of my pockets in my pants have a specific item or items in them, never to be mixed up or out of order.  Hence I usually wear cargo pants with lots of pockets.

3.     I wear my shoes from the moment I wake up to the last moment before I go to sleep at night.  Jacquie is always barefoot. (I will not mention pregnant, that is not funny anymore.  We are done.)

4.     I am the only prepared one.  I carry a tool with me wherever I go.  My trusty leatherwoman. 

5.     When I sneeze, I sneeze a minimum of three times.  And I never say atchoo.  It is always a variation of such.  Ahhchow, ahhchunck, ahhchink, and many more close to the unmentionables.

6.     I can chew on a raspberry seed for hours and never swallow it.  I try to bite it in half before I claim the victory over the seed.  This is my favorite sport.  

I am Sparticus.  Or so Jacquie tells me.  Or was that Flick?