Photo Album

When I lived at home I used to like to pull out old photo albums and flip through them, either by myself or with my little sister. In some ways it brings back lots of memories, but there are also lots of photos of me from times that I don't remember, or from when my memories are fuzzy. It's sort of interesting to look at these pictures because I know I'm looking at myself, but it's a self I'm no longer entirely familiar with.

A few years ago my mom started scanning our old family pictures and storing them on the computer. This was a pretty big project, but she did it. She also set up the screensaver to pull photos randomly and display them. Now, when my siblings and I are at home, we will often find ourselves gathered mesmerized around the computer instead of, say, the television, watching images of ourselves at various ages and locations popping up. She also made a DVD for each of the kids in the family, with pictures from our childhood set to music, and gave it to us for Christmas, along with a CD with all of the slide show pictures. I uploaded those pictures onto my new computer during the summer when I was learning to use iPhoto, and a few days ago after this came up in conversation I thought it might be fun to post a couple pictures from my childhood. I always love seeing childhood pictures of my friends and I like to think people would enjoy seeing childhood pictures of me, as well.

But this blog entry wound up with more photos than the 2 or 3 I originally intended. This is not because I actually believe everyone really wants to see how cute I was but rather because I was having way too much fun going through my pictures and got a little carried away. I’m also including some captions, and so this is going to be a long blog post, but it’s been kind of a fun project for me between talks and while the choir is singing during conference.

I also remembered just how cute my little brothers were when they were actually little. I mean, they're still cute now, but more in an "I should set you up with one of my girlfriends" kind of way than a "isn't he adorable?" way. My apologies to Kelsey, who only makes it into one of these pictures. Unfortunately, her cutest years were my most awkward, braces, untidy bangs, and dubious fashion sense years.


My baptism picture. I felt so grown-up when this happened that it's strange for me to look back and realize how little 8-year-olds actually are.

One of the first pictures I have with Kelsey. She clearly did not yet appreciate what a wonderful big sister I was going to be.

If you look carefully, you can see the brace that I wore when I was a baby. I had hip displacia (sp?), but no lasting physical infirmities (obviously) - just a whole lot of baby pictures wearing what looks like a big, beige, clunky plastic diaper.

At the park. Maybe in Chicago?

Like I said, cute brothers :). That's Eric on the left and Sean on the right. They don't dress in matching clothing anymore.

This is one of my mom's favorite pictures of me. I think it's pretty cute myself.

Like a lot of families, one of our family Christmas traditions was getting new pajamas. Even more than 20 years after this picture was taken, the tradition continues and I have to admit that I still look forward to finding pajamas on my pillow on Christmas Eve. It will be a sad day when my mom decides we are too old and discontinues the tradition. 

Eric and I. My first experience at being a sister.

My dad always kind of hoped one or two of his kids would follow in his footsteps and play basketball. I only played a year (not the year in the picture), but my brothers made it all the way to high school before abandoning the sport in favor of volleyball.

As I was going through these pictures, I noticed many, many pictures in which I had a big hole in my mouth. This one's pretty clean - others it looked like a gaping wound. Every child loses their two front teeth eventually, but mine were lost in a particularly violent way. One was the result of a bicycle mishap out in front of my house, and the other came when I was roughhousing with my dad on the couch and snagged my front tooth, ripping it prematurely from my gums. It was probably as painful as it sounds. I don't remember. You can see the offending couch above in the pajama picture.



One of my earliest memories is sitting in the sink in the bunny costume pictured above. To this day I have no idea what I was doing sitting in the sink. I may not actually even remember sitting in the sink as there is a picture of the incident somewhere in the family album and I suspect my memory is actually of the picture.

Easter. In Colorado, I think.

We lived in Littleton, Colorado right about the time that the Denver Temple was being built. It was finished by the time we moved to California, so we went through the open house. That means that the Denver Temple was the first temple I ever went inside.

This is a playground at Estes Park in the Rocky Mountains. My brothers and I called it the Yogi Bear Park because of the teeter-totter which you see here. You can't tell from the picture, but the teeter totter was loads of fun. Like Cedar Point for 3-year-olds.

My mother says that when I was this age I was very photogenic - I knew exactly how to pose for a picture when someone was holding me in their arms, and have lots of pictures with me leaning back, facing the camera, and smiling just like this. That's my Grandpa Jeppsen holding me.

I used to be ticklish. I promise I am not anymore.

Another picture with Eric and a very little Sean.

My very first graduation ever (preschool). I have spent the next 25 years trying to repeat the experience, but it just hasn't been the same...