Family Pictures 2013

I think this year was the most unprepared for pictures I've ever been.  It's such a pain trying to coordinate everybody's clothes, and the more kids we have, the more coordination it takes!  So I was scrambling at the end to find everybody's outfits and had I been more prepared, I probably would have made some different choices.  I especially wish I'd found a different shirt for Hayden, checked to make sure that Sean's jeans weren't flood, and that I'd had more time to fix Daphne's hair, but whatever.  Despite my poor coordination efforts, Erin still manages to make us look pretty decent.  :)  (Thanks Erin Schmutz!)

From the time we take the pictures to when we get them back, I'm like a little kid waiting for Christmas.  I just can't wait to see them!  So without further ado, here are a bunch of this year's family pictures.

The Gorgeous Gariety Girls:

The Good-lookin' Gariety Boys

Six Glorious, Good-natured, and Galactic Garietys

(alliteration is awesome.)

Dallin-12

Daphne-10

Sean-8

Hayden- 6 (in 1 week)

I couldn't narrow it down to just one for our two littlest.  You should be amazed I could narrow the older four down to just one!  narrowing is a very difficult and time consuming process for me.  :)

Sydney-3

Arthur said, "Is she really wearing that tutu for family pictures?"  Um,  OF COURSE!  It's Sydney!  And she's three.   And we are documenting her tutu-ness while we can!  Oh, and a funny story about getting Sydney ready for pictures--We could not find any two of her shoes that matched.  When I told her to get her shoes on, she came out with one pink tennis shoe, and one glass slipper.  Well, that might work sometimes, but not for family pictures.  After looking and looking, and not finding any matches (how is that even possible?!?) we gave up and had to make a stop at Payless Shoes on the way to get our pictures taken.

love these glowing curls

Bennett-9 months

 

So glad we got a few smiles out of this kid.  

You should have seen the ridiculous things we were doing to break his stone-face.  

If you look closely, you can see his two little top teeth in this picture.

(ready for more g-words?)  

Good, Gleeful, & Goofy  Gariety kids

I'm so, so thankful for these little, medium and big people in my life.  They are my favorites ever, and I can't imagine my existence without them.

October Quotes

Sydney:  Mom, can I make a mess, please?

Sydney:  (Bennett had gotten a DVD and was eating it.)

Aw, Man!  Babies NOT allowed to touch movies!!!

Daphne: My teacher said that a good math magician does it this way.

Sydney has a good way of asking me to do things for her and making me feel like it's a special treat that I get to do it.  When she says it, her voice inflection says, "I  know!  I have a brilliant idea for you!"

"You can sing me a song."  

"You can make me a peanut butter sandwich."

"You can scratch my back if you want."  

Sydney:  (during general conference). Again!?  We are watch the people talking again??

Me: Let's get outta here, Sydney.  I don't like shopping!  
Sydney:  No, I don't want to go home.  I like shopping!

Sydney: let's run some errands, mom.
(who's child is this?  I hate running errands!)

Sean: How do you have a perfect memory and I have a stunk memory?

Hayden: Mom you are gonna love this!  I shared the gothpel with Tyler today.  I told him that Mormonth are people who don't drink coffee or beer.

Deciding where to pick up some dinner on the way home from somewhere.  McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A.  Of course Chick-Fil-A is better but McDonald's is cheaper.

Kids: (chanting in the car) Chick-Fil-A! Chic-Fil-A!  
Dallin:  Guys, guys, if you yell they won't go there.  We have to use persuasion!  (to me and Arthur): So, guys, there's a Chick-Fil-A around the corner and it sells chicken also.  
Daphne: And it's better than McDonald's because its mascot is a cow instead if an M.

I was telling the family that when I went to vote that day, pushing a stroller with Bennett and holding Sydney's hand, I was approached by a lady asking me to sign a petition protecting a woman's right to choose.  I told my kids that I was a protector of children.  Not a women's right to choose.  Dallin's response:
"Well, she didn't use her context clues, did she?"

Dallin: Sean can you plug this into the sound?  
Sean:  I don't know where the sound is.  I'm not a cord master!

Sydney: I'm scared of balloons. (Hot air balloons)

Me: why?

Sydney: Because the dragons blow them up with fire.

Sydney knocking on a bedroom door 
Daphne: Who is it?

Sydney: it's Sydney Gariety Hazel

At church one day, when the kids, (particularly the two middle children,) were being AWFUL:

Hayden:  Why are you crying, Mom?  

Sean: Hayden sometimes people cry cause they are happy.  Wait, why are you crying, Mom?

Me:  NOT because I'm happy.

(They lost screen time for the entire month of October that Sunday.)

Daphne:  I wish we weren't muggles
(Me too, Daph.  Me too.)

Daphne: I call shotgun! 
Sean: I call Bob (Bob is the middle seat in the back of the van that has the most leg room.) 
Sydney: I call carseat shotgun!

Hayden: Know why I don't like night time? 

Me: Why? 

Hayden: Becauthe I love you tho much and don't want to be away from you becauthe I like to look at you.  

Sydney: Booyah!
(don't know where she even heard that, but she has been repeating things that she hears and saying them at funny and sometimes not entirely appropriate times.)

Ward Boundary Change Quotes:

We recently had a lot of changes in our stake including the formation of a new ward.  As part of those changes, a little piece of La Cueva Ward was moved to the Cherry Hills Ward.  We were in that piece.  And Arthur was called to be in the Bishopric of our new ward.  I keep thinking I will write an entire post about that, and maybe I still will.  It's been an emotionally tough month for me, and I'm not sure if I want to put it all out there on a blog.  But I at least want to remember these quotes from my kids:

Sean:  Our new church has stairs in it?!?  
I LOVE our new building!

(I love his reaction, because the building we are going to was built in the 50's and is one of the oldest buildings in Albuquerque.  It is far away from us.  It has lots of . . . character.  And lots of issues.  Sean has a good attitude.  And I am still working on a good attitude.  I'll get there.)

Daphne:  We are going to the Cherry Hills Ward?  (excited gasp) That means that Zeda won't be the only girl in her class anymore!  

(What a sweetheart, right? I was so proud of her that her first reaction was for someone else.  We since learned that Zeda's family actually got moved to another ward, so now Daphne is the only girl in her class.)

After our first Sunday in our new/old ward (we were in that ward 5 years ago) I asked Daphne how her primary class went.  She pretended to shoot herself in the head with her hand and muttered something about "obnoxious boys."  It made me laugh.  In La Cueva Ward she was one of 8 girls her age and 2 boys.  Now she is the only girl with two boys who are both a little bit crazy.  ;)  I said that maybe the Lord gave her all these brothers to prepare her for her new primary class. Her teachers told her they hope she can help balance the class.  She asked me, "Mom, how do I do that?"

Sydney:  I don't want you to cry today, Mom.

(I cried a lot of days in October.)