Chris and I celebrated 20 years of marriage!
Seth, amazingly, endured over 9000 miles of road trips with his family.
No easy task for a teenager!
All five continued on their quest for legal and sometimes almost illegal ways to taunt their mother...
while still almost always bringing a smile to at least their faces!
Geoff is a joy to all, just ask him.
He is all about football, girls, and making people laugh.
Does Dieter really need anymore blogtime?
This was our first year having one out of the nest.
While everyone did miss him, they weren't back from dropping him off more than 20 minutes before they started ransacking his room and staking their claims!
Chandler showed tremendous tenacity this year, by appointing himself "Cheer Manager" at Bingham High School.
He wrote up a proposal for the coach, explaining what a help he would be to her and the cheerleaders.
She bought it,and put him to work.
Just Chan and his 43 girls!
Christopher has finished of this year Army Proud and Army Strong...Hooah!
He is studying Farsi at The Defense Linguistics Institute in Monterey, Ca.
Loving life on the Coast and his studies of the Persian culture.
No one misses him more than Geoff, well, maybe Dieter.
Some would say this picture exemplifies the pecking order at our house, hmm?
Annie is an incredible delight! Thank Heavens for Girls! She brings so much joy and glamor to the table for this family! She is loving all things middle school, even her "stalker".
Finally we have a Beckstrand that can turn in homework!
This year has brought us miles between us, but closer than ever.
There is no greater joy than seeing your child grow up and do well at something.
This year I was able to fulfill a lot of lifelong dreams of mine.
Driving across the country with my kids,
having grits in Mississippi,
funnel cakes in Tennessee,
Cheerwine in Carolina,
breakfast with farmers in Nebraska,
lazy days around a lake with my really big dog,
traveling all by myself, to somewhere I have never been (Minnesota),
Finally coming out in the open about my relationship with Keith and being in the same room together,
a few ways I actually got to feel like I made a difference in someone's life,
and meeting one of my imaginary friends from blogland in person!
I am looking forward to 2010 and hope all of you are too!
10 comments:
what beautiful photos! And not hard since you are such a beautiful family! NO JOKE! Ya'll are GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Btw, who's Keith? I must've missed that.
No way!!! I love everything about this! I love the colors you chose and the whole style of it. Your family is perfect! I'm sure girls are constantly crushin' on those Beckstrand boys, and then Annie is gorgeous and I'm sure all her future boyfriends will have to be extra super duper cool to hang with all those brothers! I love everything about your family! Thanks for the Christmas card!!! Happy New Year!
be still my cholesterol-filled HEART!!!!!!!
you are all so gorgeous and i just don't believe you anymore about those rascally boys of yours... they are way too clean and well-kempt to keep you thisclose to insane. and here, i thought you really understood my plight.
they are just precious. aren't you lucky, you lucky girl.
and i am with rhonda! who's keith?? did we both miss one of the most important posts on your blog? see? i really am totally self-absorbed. forgive me!
i know you are probably so disappointed to see that it is only me again leaving a comment, but i wanted to say how awesome your photos are! i would copy you, but the only problem is, it would require cooperation from my teens. mine would just be scowling the whole time going, "this is so stupid" and "when do we get to leave?"
You guys are the coolest, but I am a little hurt that I didn't get a christmas card....
Love the pictures BTW.
I'm going to be unoriginal and say "what beautiful photos"! What a great entry. (And I'm so proud of myself for understanding the Keith story :) )
Beautiful shots! Beautiful kids, fun backgrounds, great expressions, great family! This must be a red letter post for you, besides the Keith one(s) ;)
Beatiful pictures, Harlene. And beautiful words. You really summed it up. We love your family. Jay and I just laughed as we read this. But you have been through so much this year and have come out of it happy and positive.
I've been so out of blogging for a while, I almost missed this wonderful post. I LOVE your pictures, and love every member of the family in them. We consider ourselves so lucky/blessed to be family with you. We sure missed you at Christmas, and are glad everyone is feeling better now! Good luck with getting fit...can I do it with you?
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