Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Favorite Memories of 2007 - Happy New Year!

I have had the opportunity to serve as the Twin Falls temple photographer. From the groundbreaking ceremony in April 2006 until the dedication, I am responsible for keeping a photographic history of the temple construction. My photographs are used in the "Temple Times" publication, and will be used in the history book that will be placed in the cornerstone of the temple. I have also had a few appear in the Church News. A compilation of my photos can be seen on the Twin Falls Temple website.
I am so blessed to be a part of this historic event. I have the privilege of working closely with so many wonderful people on the temple committee. We are preparing for the open house and dedicatory services that will take place some time this summer. For any updates or information about the Twin Falls temple visit the website at
tftemple.com.
Jacob playing on the shore of Redfish Lake.




Will and Andrew Halloween Costumes.


Will and Andrew with Brent at the Staley Family Reunion.



Jacob's Halloween Costume.



One of my favorite pictures of Jacob. He has such big blue eyes!




Will's first day of school!



Brent and Annie after helicopter ride over Twin Falls.

As the Twin Falls temple photographer I have had the opportunity to fly over the temple several times to take aerial photographs. Brent was able to come with me on this trip. We look forward to next time when we can take Will.


Will enjoying the beach at Redfish Lake.

It is difficult to get a genuine smile from Will when taking his picture,

but if and when you catch it, it sure is cute.

Andrew enjoying the bubble gun he got from Grandma Nielson for Easter.


Mom and Jacob at the pool. I took my boys to Las Vegas

this summer to visit Jaime, Eric and Teya.


So far my favorite picture of all my boys together.

Andrew, Will, and Jacob



Brent is such a wonderful husband and father.


One of our biggest accomplishments this year was getting Andrew potty trained.

If anyone is having trouble getting their little boy potty trained here is the solution.

After months and months of trying, it finally made sense to him when he could do it in the trees. (This is not a joke)
Just so everyone is not worried, we only let him do it while we were camping.

(Except in this photo...this was public city property...I just couldn't resist getting this shot)

The whole family got bikes this year for Annie's birthday.

We spent a lot of time this summer riding bikes together.





You can find these 2 Superheros at our house just about any day of the week.

If your ever in trouble give us a call we will send Superman and Batman your way.

I guess that's life when you have all boys!

Jacob's baby blessing on Easter Sunday.



This was our best Valentine's gift ever.

Jacob Gail Nielson was born

Feb. 14th 2007

1:05 am

6lb. 13 oz.

21 inches

Will reading to Andrew.

They are such good buddies. They do everything together.

So far, they get along very well.


Christmas Memories

Will got his first "Shiner". He was bending over to kiss his brother and hit his eye on the corner of the desk. At least that's the version mom and dad will tell you. If you ask Will he will tell you about the fight he got in and how rough and tough it was. His favorite thing to tell people when they asked what happened was, "you should see the other guy".


One of Brent's many talents is that he is a wonderful writer. One of his family Christmas traditions growing up was that he would write a Christmas play and the kids would act it out for mom and dad on Christmas Eve. This year Brent wrote a play for the grand kids to act out.

This photo doesn't do it justice, but you can see how cute the kids were in their superhero costumes. The plot of the story was that Batman (Will), Robin (Lucy), and Superman (Andrew) hear of trouble in Bethlehem and try to help find a place for Mary to have the baby Jesus. In the end of the story all of the superheros realize that the real superhero is the baby Jesus.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent most of our break with Brent's family. It was good to have everyone together. We spent a day together at Starley's cabin and although our trip was short we had a lot of fun. Don't let this picture fool you, although there was a lot of snow and potential for some serious snow play, we spent most of the time relaxing in the cabin. We got all bundled up for the 3 minutes it took to snap this photo. We will blame that one on the kids. I think all 6 babies were crying by the time we finished our photo shoot.

Overall our Christmas was wonderful. It was wonderful to be together with family. We enjoyed talking to both of our Brothers who are serving missions (Eric-Russia and Aaron-Spain). That experience certainly brought perspective to our holidays. We are so grateful for the blessings we enjoy. We are thankful for our knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that it is because of a living and loving Father that we are so blessed. We look forward to the coming year and all of the blessings it will bring.