Happy 5th Birthday Alexander!!!

DUDE! You're 5!!
We've never really had a good nickname for you besides DUDE. But honestly, it fits you quite well!
Here are the top 5 things I love about you, Alex:

1. You are extremely determined! You never give up!
2. You are absolutely hilarious.
3. You are a momma's boy and I KNOW that I am your favorite person in the world!
4. You are sweet and kind to everyone.
5. You are very spiritual and say better prayers than most adults I know.

Overall Alex, you ROCK! I am so grateful that you came into our family. We feel like a complete family with you. Thank you for being such a sweet boy and being my best friend!!
Happy Birthday!
I love you!!

Family Portraits 2010

A great big THANK YOU to Richele for coming to our house to take our pictures!! You rock!!
www.room302creations.com

We Got Samantha on the Boat!!!!!

Samantha, a lot like her mommy, can feel the movement of every vehicle she is in. Boats are no exception and the movement of the boat scares her quite badly. She hasn't been on the boat for a couple of years now but with the help of Uncle Greg she decided to give it a go!! Then she regretted it and screamed for 10 minutes. I'm sure the whole of Utah Lake heard her. Once she calmed down and allowed herself to relax she started to enjoy the ride and even got some fun tube rides.
Like Nicole kept saying, "It's just a boat, Samantha!".

She even gave the "go faster" sign!

Nicole's face CRACKS ME UP in this picture!

A very full tube.

You just know that Greg is reaching to keep Alex from jumping/falling in.

Love Samantha's face......probably going a bit faster than she liked.

Uh-oh

One of Samantha's new best friends is a boy. His name is Malcolm. He lives near us and is in our ward. She eats lunch with him.
And so it begins!!!!

Alex's first day of 2nd year Preschool

This is Alex all ready for his first day of his last year of Preschool. The kid is a head taller than half of the kids in there!!! He looks SOOOO old compared to everyone else! He was also so well behaved and I'm hoping he'll be a good example to the other kids. Man, I wish this kid were in Kindergarten this year........sigh.

Love you Alex buddy!! You will do great this year!! I'm so proud of you.

Samantha's first day of 1st Grade!!!!

Leaving the house....looking adorable and a bit nervous.

Waiting outside the school for a bit.....looking even more nervous.

Outside her classroom door.....looking more confident and happy (her cute teacher is in the background. The woman looks in her 40's but she has 10 kids and 13 grandkids!!).

Alex is not too happy about the whole situation. He about broke down in tears.

So I let him go into the classroom to give her one last hug. They are such good friends!

Do you see how that boy is looking at her????? We are in SOOOOO much trouble!!

Have a great first day Mantha-Moo!!! We are proud of you and will miss you so much! (But we'll see you at 1.30! ;-))

Summer 2010

It's been a fairly uneventful summer for us this year. Our main priority (okay, MY main priority) has been the yard and the house. When we moved in the yard was SOOOOOO overgrown and I just couldn't handle it! The yard was definitely not my style, so I have been working very hard on ripping things out, chopping trees, and just trying to make it my own. It's been a lot of hard work but I am learning a lot. And loosing weight. Pulling out greenery with roots stretching to China is a ROUGH workout!! I wish I would have taken more before and after pictures, but I'm just not that smart sometimes. Here are a couple though from my ripping-down-the-ivy adventure.

Before
After

The month of July included the following:
Samantha's sleep study in which we paid a bunch of money to find out that her sleep is close to normal (I guess she doesn't get the right amount of REM sleep, but there is no explanation for it or anything to do about it.)
A Saturday afternoon trip to Bridal Veil Falls.

And of course, Samantha's 6th birthday.

August included more yard work and a quick weekend to Vernal to visit Dinosaurland.


They are working on updating The Quarry in the dinosaur park and so most all of it is closed - which is why entrance to the park was free. So, seeing real bones in the ground was kind of a bust, but we saw a few and then enjoyed some time at the new Dino museum. It was a great museum. We all had an enjoyable time. Except I got sick. Blast you KFC!!!!

This week marks the end of our summer and I am okay to see it go!!! The kids are ready and excited for school and I am ready and excited to see them off! Kristi-time is going to increase dramatically which makes me hope that family-time will be that much more enjoyable!!!

What?

We took Samantha and Alex to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins for Samantha's birthday.
It was their first time there.
The other night at dinner Samantha asked if we could go get ice cream at "Basketball Robin Hood".
It took us a minute to realize what she meant.
And then we laughed.
A lot.

The 7 Grandkids!

7 Grandkids all under the age of 6. Yes, when we get together it IS a zoo!!! But look at those handsome/beautiful faces!!! (that is, if you can find Caleb's face....)

For my mom

I told my mom about this picture and she wanted me to post it. Look at those cute kids!!!

Sometimes I get wondering what a baby of mine would look like. This little angel is about as close as I am going to get! Abby has a lot of Chad in her, but apparently my 4 month old picture looks A LOT like Abby at this age. I guess my ears weren't as cute and elf-like, but she does resemble me as a baby. She even has a dimple like me! Love you Abby Kate!

Happy 6th Birthday, Samantha!

Hey pretty girl! You are 6 today!!! I was laying in bed last night thinking about you and how lucky we are to have you and I wanted to write something special about you. I decided to write down my 6 favorite things about you. There are hundreds of things that I love and admire you for, but these are my top 6!

1. You are the most generous, giving person I have ever met!
2. You are very loving and caring.
3. You are so enthusiastic about life.
4. You are hilarious!
5. You are very spiritual and love to go to church
6. You are a good example to everyone around you.

I really could go on and on, but we had a big, fun day.......and I'm tired! We met all the cousins at the park, played, had lunch, ate cupcakes, came back to the house, played some more, rest time, dinner time, Trafalga for miniature golf and race cars, and finally to Baskin Robbins for ice cream! It was a terrific day spent with my birthday girl!

I love you so much Samantha and am so happy you are a part of our family!!!

I have no title for this post

Alex stole his daddy's glasses, phone, and watch. Looking very daddy-like.

We had friends stay with us last week and while we didn't get too much time with them, we did get a zoo trip in.

Those are some adorable kids.

Prim and Proper

Andy caught this picture of Samantha. All she was doing was watching a movie. I really don't know any other 6 year olds that sit like that during a movie. But I love it.

Ernest

Our friend, Ernest, is visiting for a couple of days from Jersey City. I taught the little whipper-snapper Seminary while we were living there. The kids have loved having him around.....as you can see from the picture, they think he is a great jungle gym!

Feeding the 3 kids breakfast.

Some favorite pictures from Bear Lake

You can click on these pictures to make them larger to really see the faces! HILARIOUS!

This pretty much sums up the ride for me and Andy.....me smiling and laughing and Andy concentrating on not tipping. He's not a fan of the tube.

Cameron is flying out of his seat.....and there are no words for Kami's face!!

Again, Cameron flying out of his seat......and no words for Richele's face!

I just love all of the smiles in this one! PURE JOY!

Alex isn't so sure about catching that much air. Neither is Kami.....but Cameron was in heaven!

Dinner

This is all I had for dinner the other night.
A nice heirloom tomato.
Covered in amazing, fresh mozz straight from Staten Island, NY.
Topped with fresh basil from my garden.
Can't forget the salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar as well.
It was heaven.

Samantha's Kindergarten Graduation

SUCH a Samantha pose.

Samantha was so happy her Daddy was there and able to see her school and teachers.

Memorial Day 2010

We had a BBQ at Kami's house for Memorial Day this year. It's like an amusement park in her backyard! Trampoline, Swing set, giant blow-up bouncer and slide, and new this year......a Zip-line!!

Mom, Abby, and the old man resting in his swinging chair.

Richele....so sad to be sitting alone!

Samantha getting ready to rock the zip-line!

Alex waiting for his turn.

Nicole is a wuss. There, I said it. So we NEVER thought she would go on the zip-line, but she braved up and did it a couple of times. I don't think she ever fully enjoyed it, but she had a fake smile plastered on her face anyways.