Family Pictures 2023

Family pictures 2023 are here! Rochelle sent me the link tonight - sending a huge thank you to her for doing amazing work. She and her husband's company is Pointe Digital Photography, I highly recommend. She's done our family photos since we moved here - 2012, 2014. 2017, 2018, 2020 - We love how these turned out, especially this one below with our gorgeous mountain in the background!

The kids were all excited as they looked at these, all chiming in "We are so good looking!" ha. They do make a pretty handsome bunch. I was just looking back at some of those photos from years past, and our family looks so small! Small numbers and small people - now we make a group of 15 and they're all getting so big! Half of us are adults!! (wait... CTJMEH&W are adults... so 7 out of 15, so almost half.) Corey and I - the original adults!

Feeling pretty good for our mid 40s. I think it's pretty amazing that we've made all these humans! We're getting older, but I'm glad we are young enough to still be parents of toddlers. Yes, the little ones are still well represented. Little queen Katharine was the center of attention this year, and she was somewhat agreeable for her individual photo - not bad, little baby! 

She did not, however, cooperate for most of the other pictures, as demonstrated below.

It's ok, we've been here before (sad Lily in 2014). Katharine wanted her daddy, who she calls "mama" (she calls me mama too, but at this moment she didn't want me). The kids have been flying the nest, but we're glad when we have them all here, even if it is just for a few hours. 

I thought these pictures on the long bench were fun. All of our little ducks with us and lined up in a row. We did some pictures today at the Temple Quarry, where we did them 7 years ago. 

And then a few at Granite Park, which was where we had the gorgeous mountain views. Ok, so here are some of the individual shots! We'll go in order (cause that is how I've memorized their names). The leader of the pack - Joseph - 

Melodie - 

Ethan - 

Hyrum - 

Wesley - 

Abigail - 

Lilian - 

Sophia - 

Natalie - 

Owen - 

Daniel - 

Sweet Peter!

Another family group pic - 

Love these kids - 

We also got pictures taken with all of Corey's family. Wayne gave it as a present to JeNeal on mother's day, and even though she took a turn for the worse and we weren't able to get them taken while she was here, we were all remembering her today. We are confident that she was happy that we were together and took pictures today. 

At Granite Park - let's hear it for the girls!

And for these handsome young men!

The kids all said "We have to do one laying on the grass!!! It's a tradition!!" We've only done it like twice, so I'm not sure it is a tradition, but many of us have the pic from 2020 (last pic) as their lockscreen and stuff. I think we did one in 2012 but I don't have that on the blog.

Ok, done! Another session of family pictures is in the books. I think it was a success. Go team.

Hibberts at Waterford

Tonight we planned a Hibbert get together. We thought we'd gather for some outside games - and as  happens with life, only my little brother Neil was able to make it, but we'll take what we can get! We met up at Waterford and had fun playing a good game of soccer. It was fun. Mikey wins for MVP I think - he is really good. Owen also did AWESOME. He was half the size of everyone playing, but he was fearless! He was playing defense, and he'd head straight toward the offense (which was usually Hyrum) and would take them on and he usually stopped their attack. Go Owen! Then we played ultimate frisbee. Joseph and Corey are INSANE at that. Corey'd throw it freaking far, and Joseph  was able to jump so high and catch all of his throws! It was fun. I'm not as good at Ultimate, but our team strategy was short throws, and we did good passing to every team player a few times, ha, and scored a few points too. Then it was getting dark, so we paused for silhouette pictures! Neil took a pic of our family - this was the first time Corey and I joined in the pic! 

Let's see if I can guess who is who... looks like we have, from left to right, by initials: DCOTw/KALNSWPHJM. Did yo get that? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how the line up was. Joseph and Mel came up on frontrunner, so everyone was is here except Ethan. That's a good representation! Then we did a few action shots - 

And then I took pictures of Neil's family. After I looked at our pictures and I laughed at Wesley in the picture above - like how did he do that?!? "You just jump and stiffen up." I took a video of him, and one by one his siblings came next to him -

Everyone else wanted a try too. 

It was so funny! Ok, EVERYONE!!! One - two, three... jump! Look they are standing in the air - 

Very fun. My nephews tried a few Super Mario brothers shots. We like taking silhouette pics at Waterford. It's a family tradition! It was good to be with family. I hope we're able to get together again before it snows!

Abi is 16!

Happy birthday to Abigail! My mom brought over 16 rich cupcakes from Sam's club for Abi's celebration. Let's light them up!

Turn off the lights for some ambiance - 

There is our 16 year old. We will soon have another driver! She is already a good driver, Corey had trained her, but she won't be official until she finishes driver's ed, which she was miraculously able to enroll in this semester at school, yay. Corey lets her drive almost every time they are going somewhere together. He is very kind and patient with the learning-to-drive process. My nerves can't take it. I agree she already is a good driver, even though I very rarely let her drive with me - it's nothing personal... I'm just a car control freak. But I think it was a good day for her, a happy birthday. She is going to Lagoon tomorrow with friends, and our paying for that counts as the present from us, even though that made us go over budget. The older kids didn't have school on Friday for a teacher work day, and tomorrow they all have it off for Labor Day. I'm grateful for every day off of school. I always want more days off. Hopefully we'll have some fun and also get something done around here. 

Corey went to mass in American Fork today, to translate for Father David. Corey is nice to him, even though Father D called Corey a moron for his beliefs. Not very nice, but we can take it. It's allowed for a lot of great conversations with the kids as Corey shares what is said in their emails back and forth.

update a few days later - Corey took Abi out for breakfast. He's such a good father.

Family Picture Time

Well, we did it. We took family pictures. It was a bit of work getting it all together, which I expected, and which I shall now detail a little bit. Afterwards Corey treated all the kids to Handle's Ice Cream on 114th south.

Katharine not pictured above cause she was with cousin Rhyan. The kids did great, and I hope the pics turn out good. Ice cream after was just an excuse for us to spend more time with each other. We listened to Ethan share some of his heart's feelings for Bella. 

Inside - Corey treating everyone to a $5 waffle cone. Midnight madness is Abi's favorite. Mel and Wayne both got the black Cherry or something like that and shared a few bites with us. It was good. Wes getting his triple cone (actually that's just a regular cone I think).

Everyone's happy

So the pictures were with Corey's side of the family too - it was a mother's day gift to JeNeal that we wish we had gotten while she was still here, but we feel that she is glad that we still did it. Today was our best opportunity to get this done. I scheduled it a few weeks ago - knowing that Joseph was going to be gone in Guatemala when Hyrum got home, but would be arriving back on Aug 30, which he did (but you don't know with the Frontier fly for free pass...). Corey and Wes picked Joseph up - Joseph's BeReal - 

Joseph and Hyrum were able to give each other "how you been doin' the past two years?" hugs and we had a sleep over Wednesday night, and then Joseph loaded his belongings (which took a 2 week pit stop in our basement) and he headed down to Provo to move into his apartment on Thursday afternoon. Mel moved back down to Provo on Wednesday. Ethan's been down there all summer. Hyrum is here until he leaves for BYU Idaho next Friday. SO - since we're all in Utah for one weekend, today was the day to get family pictures done. It was quite a process. I've been working on outfit options all week, and of course today kids came in and suddenly had strong opinions about everything and I felt like we were starting over. Ethan was down in Provo thrifting and sending me pics asking my opinion. Abi was doing hair consultations and makeovers all day - 

JME came up together from Provo around 5 and pictures were scheduled for 6. Mel took a BeReal - we're all here!!

We went to the temple quarry for some individual shots and group shots - Kids talking as they wait their turn - 

Up the trail where the pics were being taken in the shade (There was a little too much sun...)

Kids climbing rocks - 

and sitting on rocks. 

And taking selfies on my phone. 

I don't know why we were all taking selfies, when we have a professional photographer taking pictures for us, but maybe they were all just feeling so pretty...

The the brother comes and photo bombs the pic - 

Silly faces all around - 

Ok, give me back my phone please... My turn. 

Katharine was being quite the stinker. She's probably crying in most of the pictures, like Lily did in 2014 pictures. And Corey was trying to get her to laugh by him barking like a dog, which made Katharine pant and stick out her tongue... lovely.

so yeah, we'll see how those pics turn out! Maybe Rochelle is able to work magic, cause K did allright in her individual pics, we'll see what she can do! Everyone taking selfies - 

Then we thought the sun was going down and we hurried over to Granite Park for some pics in the sunflowers, but just did a few group pics there. And a "Kids in a circle laying on the grass" photo, which the kids told me is "tradition"... Mel trying to get Katharine to cooperate with a few more selfies. 

And then it was too dark, and we stayed a visited for a bit more, and Abi took this one of Corey and I, with our favorite canyon behind us. We love biking the LCC. 

So then we went for ice cream with Wayne and Nancy's crew. After yummy ice cream, I took little kids home, Corey lingered a bit longer, and then JME headed back to Provo. I got home and took 4 chrysalides over to our friends' house before a one year mark tomorrow. Then it was time for scriptures. Hyrum shared that he felt a little nostalgic-y and sad as he listened to Ethan, when he realized that the longest years of time that they had together are in the past. They are each moving on with their lives. And as bittersweet as it is to move on, it would be even more sad to not move on and change. It would be more sad to stay the same. It would be more sad for Katharine to always stay a baby. We all need and want to progress and move forward. It's good. And thankfully, we believe in that we will have eternity together. So it's nice to believe that this life isn't all there is - there is forever ahead of us. It is all good and right. I might as well finish today off with a selfie of my own - way to go me, for making family pictures happen! 

It's been consuming my thoughts and dreams most of the week, so I trust I shall be able to get a good nights sleep tonight now that it's over. Pictures to come soon!