After Annette and I got engaged, we had conversations about having children. In these discussions, our target number was to have six children. One Sunday during Sacrament Meeting, we wrote names that we would like to give our kids in one of my notebooks.
After Jamie was born, we took a picture of us holding Jamie in the hospital room before we came home.
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| November 30, 1992 (l to r) Annette, Jamie, and me |
After Tanner was born, we took a similar picture in the hospital. For Tanner's picture, we were joined by several of Annette's sisters and her mom.
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| July 27, 1994 (l to r) Kim, Margaret, Afton, Jamie, Tanner, me, Chrissy, Liesl |
Naturally, after taking pictures with our first two children as newborns at the hospital, we decided to take a picture with Allyn. This time, the older children were big enough to hold the new baby alone.
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| April 11, 1997 (l to r) Jamie, Allyn, Tanner |
Annette found a super cute set of matching picture frames. We cut the pictures to fit the frames and added the frames to our bookshelf. Jamie and Tanner loved looking at these pictures on the shelf. So we decided we would continue the tradition with Jason.
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| April 24, 1999 (l to r) Tanner, Jason, Jamie, Allyn |
We found a different frame for Jason's picture. With three preschoolers, Annette suggested that we reconsider our prenuptial and pre-children agreement to have six children. Having four children spaced about two years apart seemed like the perfect size for our little family.
Until the spring of 2002 when Annette started feeling like we should have another child, which led to three little boy additions to the family.
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| October 25, 2002 (l to r) Tanner, Truman, Jason, Allyn, Jamie |
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| July 2, 2004 (l to r) Allyn, Ashton, Jamie, Tanner, Truman, me, Jason |
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| July 22, 2006 (around the circle clockwise starting at noon) Tanner, Allyn, Jamie, Ashton, Tate, Truman, Jason |
Annette found another matching set of three frames. Our picture set spread across the fireplace mantle.
Allyn and Jamie felt outnumbered with three boy babies in a row. Allyn burst out crying when we called from the hospital to announce that Tate was a boy because she wanted a baby sister. When we announced to the children that we were pregnant with #8, Allyn started praying that we would have a girl.
Even though we had ultrasounds with each pregnancy, Annette and I had waited until each child was born to learn the sex of the new baby. We decided to break tradition with our eighth pregnancy and asked to learn the sex at our first ultrasound. Allyn was so happy when we announced that we were having a baby girl.
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| May 28, 2008 (l to r) Tate, Addison, Truman, Ashton |
Perhaps you noticed this last picture only has four children shown in the picture. Yep! Somehow after taking a picture in the hospital with seven previous new babies before we took them home, we forgot to take a picture with Addison. This picture of Tate holding little Addi is the closest picture we have from the hospital.
After Addison, Annette and I both felt that our family was complete.
Eight is Enough!
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