a preview

i think most of you know this, but just in case there is someone reading this who doesn't here goes:
when jacob was not quite 1 we wanted a family picture to put in our christmas card. we took quite a few and the one we liked best was of the 3 of us laying on our bed. the next year it was just the 3 of us again and we decided to try and recreate the picture since it had turned out so cute . . . and thus began an unintentional stoll family tradition of the bed picture. as one of the peterson girls (beka, i think) said one year "they did it on the bed again." and they found it extra funny when they read our christmas letter, after the comment about the picture, and discovered (for the second year in a row) that we were (again) pregnant! as a side note, that was the christmas letter of 2001 and we announced that we were pregnant with the little person that would turn out to be lydia in that christmas letter. no one, not even ONE person (except me and kirb) knew of our pregnancy before getting our letter . . . not even our parents! and since rebekah was only about 8 months old it was a shocker to most everyone. us included (although our shock came a few weeks before everyone elses . . . and not in the form of a letter). so, 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the stoll family bed picture. 9 years and 4 more kids later, we're all still on the bed for the christmas picture. my mom (our photographer . . . THANKS MOM!) was worried the bed wouldn't hold all 7 of us, but since kirb has lost at least 1 kid's worth of weigh over the past 6 months or so (way to go, babe!) the bed held, and no one was injured. i think i counted 34 pictures that my mom took shooting for the big goal of 1 where all 7 of us are looking at the camera and appear half-way decent. here are some of the attempts:


in case you can't tell, joe has a piece of gum (which SHOULD be in his mouth!!!) between his fingers. you know how fun it is to play with gum? in the rest of the pictures he has returned it to his mouth! yeah!



and the winner is . . . .


honestly, did you think it would really post the winning picture here? you must not know me too well. no way! you'll have to wait for your christmas letter. and if you are a blog reader, the christmas letter will probably not be nearly as fun as usually since i have been posting the funny kid quotes on the sidebar for a while now. although there are probably a few that will make it that are not listed, so make sure to read them anyway! they're pretty much always good for a laugh or two!