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This is Lily's 1st yearbook for preschool.  This year they put the books on Shutterfly and let us order our own.  They wanted $25 for this and Lily was only in the book a handful of time.  The nice thing about Shutterfly is that I can take her book and change it how I want.  So I deleted all the pages of activities Lily didn't attend and them substituted her pictures for the other kids.  A little egocentric, but honestly I didn't know 2/3 of the kids in pictures.  Now I am paying $18 and most of the pictures are of Lily.

Merry Christmas 2010

Dear Family & Friends,
I apologize for the lateness/non-existence of my Christmas cards this year.  It has been another wet, overcast, and windy Christmas in Seattle. I just want to curl up in a corner with a fluffy blanket and read books all winter.  But give me a few days of sun and I recharge. I am spending New Year’s Day in Arizona with the little kids so I can make it through until spring. The summers are glorious here though. (If you want to visit that would be time to do it. And you are all welcome to visit anytime.)

My family is doing well here. Lily (2) is nothing like Hunter was. She is talkative, likes to include me in every activity she does and reminds me constantly of things I forget. She also likes to explore everything and ask questions constantly. If it weren’t for those gorgeous big brown eyes, she’d be toast sometimes. Last week we took the kids up to Pike Place Market and wanted to show them the gum wall. (There is a huge wall covered artistically with pieces of abc gum.) We admired the wall, added our own to the effect and turned to leave, when Lily grabbed a fresh piece from the wall and popped it into her mouth before I could stop her. People all up and down the street were grossing out for her. Ugh. I hope she doesn’t catch anything nasty. She just gave me a look like, “What, this is perfectly good gum.” That is the essence of Lily and we love her.

Hunter (7) is the quieter child sometimes. He loves to sing, play the piano, read and figure things out. His most favorite thing to do is getting the family together to play board games. He likes playing soccer and baseball. He also just confessed to me that he was interested in taking Ballroom dance lessons as well. (Megan is thrilled about that.) He’s also quite a nurturer. He is father to 4 dozen stuffed animals whom he cares for. He loves to snuggle them and even shares with Lily (Her crib is now so full of stuffed animals, there is barely room for her to sleep.)

Dylan. One word that describes him is “explosive.” He has an obsession with all things related to fire. He put salt peter and canon fuse down on his Amazon wish list for Christmas. I told him that the ATF might be knocking on his door if he ordered those things together. Dylan also has a sparkly enthusiasm for life and he is my right hand man. He loves watching the younger children and he is such a help to me. His goal this year is to get good grades and he is doing a great job accomplishing it.

Megan is our busy 16-year old. When she was 15 I was terrified for her to get her driver’s license. Now I can’t wait. I spend at least half of my life driving her to and from things. She continues to perform with the top ballroom dance team with the Pacific Ballroom Dance Company. She is president of Girl’s Camp for next summer, has an active social life, attends early morning seminary each morning, and is taking 2 AP classes and applying for numerous scholarships. She is also in the midst of 40 hours of driving instruction mandated by the state of Washington. She will be finished the middle of January and can’t wait to get her license (neither can I).

Alex was released from Elder’s Quorum president and asked to be the Scout Master (his dream calling.) He is excited to camp with the boys every month. Although his first campout was at an RV resort near Mt. St. Helens with a big screen TV, pool table, heater and steak and shrimp dinner. They got caught in a wind storm that flattened his tent, but that did not deter them from hiking the lava tubes around the mountain the next morning. Let me just say that we need to buy stock in REI now. Alex is still with Amgen and has been traveling quite a bit to Boston and North Carolina this year.

I have a new calling as Nursery leader. I guess if you hang out in nursery long enough, they will put you in officially. I am having fun playing with the two year olds and trying to get them to sit still for 60-second lessons. I played cello in the Messiah this year and continue to teach my 1 cello student.

We went on our first big trip as a family this summer. Although we live 20 minutes from the ocean here, we flew 3000 miles to North Carolina for two weeks. We stayed with the Rays and had a good time.  We were also excited to see Ken & Alisyn and their beautiful girls and Conner. We spent 1 glorious week in a house right on the beach with my brother Michael and his family. It was absolutely paradise. We walked hand in hand on the beach and watched the sunrise on the ocean on our 18th anniversary. Then we got in the car, drove 3 hours to the airport and flew 10 hours in two plane with a 5 hour layover and a delay in Chicago. It was worth every minute.

Love,

Jennifer Boren Wright

P.S.  Here are some pictures that my sister-in-law, Diana Boren, took of our family on our trip to North Carolina.  She is a professional.  You can see more of her work at http://www.rightontheshot.com/.  If you are in the Cleveland area, give her a call if you need a photographer.

I made a Picaboo book of our family vacation.  To see the book, click here

 For more beautiful shots of Emerald Isle, click here. 

I'm Back.

Due to some encouragement from from friends (you know who you are), I am actually posting.  I have some cute pictures of the kids.  Enjoy.

Can you tell

Who is Who?

Give up?  I'll tell you at the end of this blog.

So long story short.  I kept this cute dress from Megan and she took such a darling picture in it.  It's like a little Alice in Wonderland outfit.  Last week I decided to get Lily's picture taken in it before she out grew it.  (She is really growing lately.  I can't keep her in clothes.)  So the photo on the right was Lily's first attempt.  (There, I just told you who was who, but they look quite similar, but have definitely different personalities.  Lily did not want to take her picture.  He didn't want to walk on the white backdrop. She clung to me sobbing, her pacifier clutched tightly in her sweaty hands.  Tears and drool graced her face, the photographer snapped this shot.  This is in fact, the only shot we took with her that day.  We rescheduled for the following week.  Same thing, gave her a bath, worked on the hair, rushed her into the car to go to the mall.  We have a portable DVD player and I let her watch Dora the Explorer when she is in the car.  We ended up bringing the thing into the studio.  The photographer suggested we leave the player on the floor in from of her.  The brought her a cool yellow chair in her size to sit on.  She wouldn't leave the chair and she spent most of the time, watching Dora, but we got some really neat shots in between scenes.

The secret behind the successful photo shoot--Dora and Diego.  She's just adjusting the volume.

The bear needed a variety of hair bows as well.  Lily was used to me styling her hair.  She kept feeling the pony tails and trying to rip them out. 

As you can see, Lily certainly has a personality.  She walks around the house in the high air voice:  "I love Hunter."  She sings the backpack song from Dora and can name all her colors.  She also counts to 12 in spanish and english.  She loves to do puzzles and is very smart.  She can bypass any of my baby safety mechanism in no time flat.  She can even us the latched with the magnets that are a pain to open.  Enjoy the pictures and I'll more up soon.  Coming Next:  Pictures of all the cousin at the Boren Family reunion in Mesa, AZ in December.

P.S. Which one is Megan?  The first one taken on a red background---13 1/2  years ago.

Portraits

Here is Lily's 18 month picture (a couple of months late).  She hasn't had a picture taken since 11 months.  She is quite photogenic, although the photographer had quite a time trying to keep her from pushing the chair around.  Hunter missed his school pictures, so I brought him as well.  They love to take pictures together.  They are good friends and adore each other.

Lily's current vocabulary:  "go away" (taught by brothers) "thank you,"  "bye" "hi" "mom" "dad" "shoes"  She can sign "hat," "thank you," "please," "more," "eat," "drink," "out," "bed,"  and "blanket"

To see more pictures of these two, click on this link and enter Jennifer Wright under the name.

Harry Potter and Hedwig

Some portraits of my cuties.  Hunter picked the theme this year.  He is, of course, Harry Potter and Lily is Hedwig.  I made both the costumes.  The owl was actually harder than I thought, but I enjoyed it.  I think making costumes is therapeutic for me.  Lily isn't too thrilled with it, especially the hat, but this may be the last year I have to decide what she wears before she insists on being a princess.  She is so cute walking around in the owl costume.  It is stuffed and she waddles around in it.

First Haircut

Lily's first haircut at almost 20 months.  She really didn't have much hair to cut, but she was getting the comb-over effect, with some really long strands on top and nothing under.  I fondly call her my little duckling because she still has that downy fuzzy hair.  My girls were very late to grow hair (and once Megan started growing hair, she discovered the scissors and kept chopping it off.)  The boys on the other hand had full heads of beautiful hair early on.  Hunter had his first haircut at 6 months.  My friend Alethea agreed to cut Lily's hair for me.  She is also Lily's nursery teacher.

Father-Son Bonding Trip

Alex has started a tradition that when his sons turn 12, he will take them to their first priesthood session in Salt Lake City.  Since Dylan turned 12 in August, he got to experience his first father-son priesthood bonding session.  Here they are in front of the grain silos at Welfare Square.

The men in black at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.


Doing manly, dirty and slightly dangerous things together.

Future missionary ready to serve.

Is it snow?  No, just the Y above Provo.  They climbed there with buddies Harrison and Mark from North Carolina.

Breathtaking view of the city.

Such studs--Dylan and Harrison.

They visited grandma on the way home.