Horsey and Grandpa!

Here are the photos of the Thanksgiving Day Hit!
Grandpa and Gypsy!!!


Sami was able to ride without reins and thinks she's a pro now!

Ah... the easy Life!

Okay... so my darling little 16 year old is a "yellow" personality which basically is opposite of me. She is very easy going and nothing bugs her. Especially, not doing her laundry and leaving it in a pile in the living room for days and days. She could care less as long as it's clean.

So she does just that... leaves her laundry there for the whole world to see and to annoy me beyond words! Well.. Izzy just adores Natalie and she can't stand being without her all day so she usually likes to find something that smells like Natalie (if her door is closed making it impossible for Iz to sleep on the bed). She finds her spot and parks it there until Nat comes home.

This is what I found today:


So how would it be to be a dog?

Where's the Snow? Seriously...

It's December and it's sad that I am now posting these because I swear they are from September!
The first snow storm of the year... The kids love bundling up and playing in the back with the lights on! Izzy enjoyed herself too!

My Baby Turned 6!

So this is late too! But, Sami turned 6 on November 14th!
I don't know if I had a momentary lapse of complete judgement or if I just am plain crazy. But we had 16 little kids over for a High School Musical party!

Luckily I enlisted Natalie and her friend Maddie to come help me. They painted the faces and took pictures! I think the kids all had a fun time. We did a pinata and played some fun little High School Musical games!

Sami is obsessed with HSM she loves all of the characters. Natalie and I took her the day the 3rd one came out and she was glued to the screen. It's funny how much she loves it. We also bought her the soundtrack and she listenes to it every night.

6 Things I Adore about Samantha:

1. Her opininionated nature ( yes I love it... it's who she is)
2. The way she says "loves to you mom" or "I love you with my whole heart" about a billion times each day.
3. Her smile... her whole face lights up!
4. I love that she is my baby and loves to do things with me (constantly)!
5. I love her intellect. She is so smart it blows my mind!
6. I love the little things she says that remind me she is still little like: "I want to off-lock the door, or "on-erase" this!"

She's my little sweet angel and I love her dearly! Happy Birthday Samser-Sue!

Zach's Safety Kids Performance

So this is late... but what can I say I forget about pics that I have taken. And if it weren't for my blog I would probably be the worst mother all together... as far as documenting my little ones mile-stones in life!

The 2nd graders always do a little safety kid program and Zach had the big part of saying" Ya Man... I agree!" (something along those lines anyway.) He worked on his delivery skills for days and was so proud that he had it down and that he knew all the words to the songs! Fun Times... Go Elementary School!

HaPpY ThAnKsGiViN'

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope it was all well.
We went to my Dad's for Thanksgiving. His house up in Huntsville is now finished (and beautiful). He has lived away from me pretty much my whole life! He's been in Texas and is now in Denver until he retires or cashes out. But, I was thinking that it's probably been close to 20 years since I have had a Thanksgiving dinner with him. I remember one in Milford and I must have been around 12 or 13 is all. So it was way over due to have some time with him!

It was great. We all brought food and hung around the kitchen and talked and laughed. The kids all had a blast riding his horse. Sami could have rode her for the whole day and been content. She is now thinking that she is an expert! We were watching a Bond movie ( my fave) and there was a horse in it and she very matter-o-fact says " I know how to do that now it's easy! Cause I rode Grandpas!" Ah... so funny!

Other than Sami getting sick and throwing up and not eating and our older kids not being there, it was really fun to see everyone! We just missed our kids. It was the first Thanksgiving that I don't think that we saw them. I don't think we will do that again. It was hard for Craig I think!
Well, next year... Jeff will be home!

On Friday, we went to Hurricane to see Craig's parents and that was fun. Brad came and the kids were so funny. They were "sneaking" into each others rooms and beating each other up! It's funny cause I would hear foot steps and then a door and then footsteps and then another door and then all this commotion and someone yelling SHHHHH and DON'T and OWWWW and then Izzy would bark hysterically! Trust me there was no sneaking about it! They were so funny. I am glad they had fun the kids love it when Brad is around and it's good for Natalie to have someone her age to do stuff with!

All and all a great weekend... Can't wait for Christmas and my trip to Korea!

Bitter Sweet Goodbye

Well it was official today... I knew for months now that this day was coming. It took so much longer than we all thought it would, but they finally booted us out of YW's! I had been serving in the presidency as the 1st counselor for 2 years and I have loved every single girl... every single leader... and every single moment of those 2 years!

My heart has always been and will always be in YW's. There is no other calling that I have loved as much as serving the girls. I loved to plan with them and lead them and most importantly learn from them. Each one of them has touched me so deeply.

I grew close to so many that I truly feel like they are my daughters. I have watched Hannah and Hayley and Stephanie, Kylie and Taylor grow from little beehives to the laurels that they are... I have been in with my beloved Natalie and have cherished that more than words can express. I am sad that I didn't get to know some of the girls that just came into my class like I would have liked, but I will miss my little class... Megan, Korie, Allie, Ali... they have been a great presidency! Melissa, Ashlyn, Maddie, Paula Chelsie, Camille HOW I WILL MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH! I absolutely loved teaching you and learning from you and playing with you I will miss our weekly texting and all our talkes! You made me laugh and cry and just feel so great about the future of this world and this Gospel!

I am crying as I type this, because I feel a hole is in my heart !!! I know that the future will be bright and that the leaders you will have now will love you like I do... you will laugh and cry with them and have great memories! Cherish them!

I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me now... I know that He loves me and is mindful of my sadness and will be with me in my new adventure!

I can CAN... Who Knew

Okay so this is delayed, but since all my photos were deleted... I have been waiting for one of my sisters to post the pics of our special adventure so I could copy them!!!

So Laurie came into town a few weeks ago to attend Nicole's wedding. She was so nice to change her plans and come early to be here for it... so she had some time to kill! I decided it would be fun to can and I know that she is awesome at it so I enlisted her to help!

My grandma had all these "old" jars that she was giving us. Granted they had spiders and stuff in them, but they were free and jars are no where to be found not to mention not cheap!!! So we took them by the box full and sanitized and sanitized them! We were all so excited to have all these jars!

We canned Brigham PEACHES that Laurie was so nice to buy for us! Thanks Lar! And then we thought we were so neat that we would do SALSA! Laurie got the recipe from her in-laws and that was an experience... but the end result was delicious! I love the salsa. We had a lot of peaches so we decided to make PEACH RASPBERRY JAM Oh my gosh... I love the Jam. It's so good. There is nothing better than homemade jam especially on some yummy homemade bread!

We had a few mishaps with some jars breaking... but other than that... I think we are all PRO!

I had so much fun canning with my cute little sisters. They are both such good moms and wives and great examples to me. I am amazed at Laurie and how well she did with all her kids for a whole week without her husband and her home and her schedule! She was so upbeat and fun and helpful it was so fun to hang out with her and have her teach me her "mad skills"!

Katie and I were talking about how we like to be in the kitchen because we always feel some sense of accomplishment and the Spirit is always so strong that we feel close to our Savior... like he is proud of us for taking care of our families! It felt nice to be listening to the prophet and taking care of my family and spending some great time with my sisters whom I adore!!!

The fruits of our labors:

Scary... Scary Kids!

We had a fun Halloween. Sami thought that they night before the school parade that she would no longer be Sharpay... we had this costume all bought and ready to go for a couple of weeks... but she decided she wanted to be a witch! My kids hate the face paint so it was a challenge to try to get her to look like one... I tried!

So she was a witch for the school parade. It's so fun to watch all the kids parade by the parents in their costumes. I love to see how creative everyone is!

Both kids had parties in their classrooms. I helped out in Sami's and it was a ton of fun. Then Sami had her little friends come over after and play... by then she had showered and washed off all her green paint and no longer wanted to be a witch... so back to the costume box.

We found one of Natalie's old pirate costumes so that was what she was to trick or treat in! I have to say... I think we got all the costumes covered! I am thinking that we got tricked into buying Sharpay's costume for dress up not Halloween... Oh did I mention that we had actually bought Gabriella but we took it back and exchanged it for Sharpay because Gabriella doesn't have blond hair and I wouldn't let Sami dye hers brown. She insisits on dying it when shes a mom she tells me! Funny girl!

So we had a good night.. dinner of Spagetti and eyeballs and witches broom stick breadsticks. The kids trick or treated and then Ryan and Chelsea stopped by...

Natalie went trick or treating with her friends. She took the car and we said she had to be home by 11:30 ... the garage door went up at 11:29! Way to be on time Nat!!!

The Wedding Day

Okay so I finally got the wedding Pictures and here are some of the highlights... Enjoy!
It was a beautiful day... Nicole and Steve looked great and it was a happy day!

HaLloWeEn!

Sami thought it would be funny to put on Craig's wig then she thought it would be funny to put on Zach's clothes here's the result:



The kids had fun decorating the annual pumpkins and cookies. Sami was sick so I ended up doing her pumpkin but she felt well before to at least do her cookies.

Zach and I had fun carving the pumpkins and saving the seeds while Sami slept on the couch and Natalie was at dance and Craig was at a meeting so we had some alone time for a change. He's such a cute little guy so creative and full of questions! It's fun to just do
things one on one so we can talk and hang out!




So Craig and I went to a Halloween party and we couldn't think of anything scarier than a BYU fan! Ha Ha.... we decided to Ham it up a bit and be Nerdy BYU fans! Last time you will see Craig wearing blue!!

Someone is 16 and another 50

Well we had 3 big birthdays in September. Zach already had is turn... so with Natalie turning 16 on the same days as Craig's 50th... I thought it would only be fitting to have a huge surprise!

Ryan and Chelsea were so great to help with food and tables and chairs and helping me come up with the list of guests not to mention the great idea for the bounce house!

Nat's friends Maddie and Chandler were so great to help me with Nat's guest list and keeping it all on the down low from her... I don't think I have lied so much in my life!!! But, it was really fun and I can't thank those girls enough for all the cute decorations!!!

I think we definitely pulled off surprising Craig but, I am not so sure about Natalie. It was so fun to see the amount of people that care for my people enough to join the party! Thanks to all those that made the special drive/flight to be there for us! Kathleen and Phil... Dad & Jeannie... NiC and Will and of course it was fun to see people from ChartLogic!!!! Thanks everyone! The food the company i was all so fun and more than I could have envisioned!

We also had a family party for them before the big bash and Nicole was really cute to bring some signs for us all to wear! I took pictures but alas.... Craig's was the funniest...
"BE NICE TO YOUR CHILDREN THEY PICK OUT THE NURSING HOME!"
She had some other cute ones that they kids had on at dinner.

All and all I think they passed the big milestones in style!!

OOPS!

Okay so I had about 60 pictures on my camera and I let Zach see it at the wedding. I had a video of him pitching that he wanted to show his cousins... well... I should have paid more attention because all the pictures are gone!

So I am left to blog without... I guess you will have to imagine!!!!

The Wedding!

Well... we had a wedding! Nicole and Steve were married on October 9th. I can't believe that I am now blogging about it! I don't have many pictures yet, but I do have the ones from the bouquet toss and the garter toss... When I get the rest I will post them.

But, it was a beautiful night. I don't think it could have gone better. Nicole looked absolutely stunning and it was really neat to see her be so emotional as she exchanged vows with Steve. They are a darling couple and I know that they will have a wonderful life!

The dresses and the food and the company were all just perfect and the location couldn't have been better.

Jeff was the only obvious thing missing!

Thanks Mom for the hours you spent on Sami's darling dress! I love it and so does she. You blow me away with the talent that you have in everthing. I am blessed to have you as my mother.
I love you!!

Thanks Craig for all the time and money and money and money that you spent to make it a beautiful day. One of the reasons that I married you was because you are a tremendous dad and you showed that even more through this process. I love you!

Thanks Holly for all the pictures you do beautiful work and you are truly talented!

Laurie... what can I say... I love you. Thanks for making a change in your plans at the last minute to be there I was truly touched.

Dad... you too... Thanks for driving and for coming and on no sleep too! It meant the world to me to have my dad there as my daughter made a big step in her life! Thanks... I love you!

And thanks to my friends especially Miss who were so helpful and supportive during all of the planning! I am lucky to have such great friends!

Nicole and Steve... thanks for allowing me to be a part of you special day!I wish you a Happy life together. We love you and are so happy for you... hope the day was all you dreamt it would be!

ZaCh TuRnS 8

I thought I would finally get around to posting Zach's pictures! I included some of him from birth up! I made a little DVD of all his pictures and showed it at the baptism. It was fun to do and fun to see how much he has grown!

I am so proud of what a sweet sensitive caring young boy he is!

Does life move too fast?

Do you ever wonder if life moves to fast? We just witnessed Zach's baptism... which I will post later about if I can get out of my lazy rut and post his pictures!

But... seriously... how is he 8? And Natalie is turning 16 in about 5 days? How does that happen? I have my baby in kindergarten and I just feel like that so much time in their childhoods has gone by.

I feel like there is still so much I want to do with them so much I need to teach them! I don't want to send them out into this crazy world until I have shared with them all that I can! But, the days go by so fast and we are busy with school... baseball... dance... YW's... scouts... ice skating... homework...eating and more eating where can I fit it in? Will my example be enough? Because I feel like that is all I have to give!!! And am I showing a good example? Sometimes I know I just plain am horrible at life. Like Natalie always says (jokingly) You suck at life! Sometimes I know I do! So... would my example be enough?

I love them all so much and I couldn't image my life any differently, but sometimes I wonder... when do we get to stop and smell the roses???

Not outdorsy... Hah!

So Craig and I have never claimed to be master campers, but we are slowly getting the hang of it! We love our property up near Starvation and Strawberry! We have a quaint "little" cabin and 10 acres to just roam... Steve our new son has made us an awesome area to hang out. He and his "assistant" Brad have made a cool brick oven that is just awesome! I actually cooked eggs on it! They were good.

Other than me dumping all the corn into the fire! I think we are camping masters now! We love spending time with our kids and having no cares in the world and just enjoying our time in life! We are truly blessed!

We went to Starvation to play in the water and the kids had a great time... despite the cold!