Our walk to remember

easter shoot

We went to the park today with the kids to do a little photo shoot of them in their Easter clothes.  Sam was the photographer today.  The shoot was, well, it was.......... interesting!

We got a few of Carlee and Preston together.  This 1st photo was the very 1st picture Sam took.  I asked Sam to do this 1st because the kids are the most cooperative in the first picture (always, without fail) and I very specifically wanted to have Carlee holding Preston's hands like this to get the picture of them together in this position.  It lasted for a brief second & this was the only time they would do it.  So, I'm very excited to have gotten this picture!

A few pictures of Carlee, loved her pigtails with ribbons.

Preston was certainly not himself through the shoot, he wasn't himself all day, the last temperature I took was before he went to bed and it was 100.9.  So, he's been a little sad, we didn't realize that he was getting a temperature until after the photo shoot.  But my allergies kicked in full gear at the shoot, so Preston and I sat on the side lines for the most part at the park, we decided not to stay and play, poor Carlee!

He really is doing well standing on his own, he even does a few controlled steps.  I've only seen him do it once, but he loves to do it for Sam...... when I'm not there.

easter day

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday!  Sam played his Cello in Sacrament meeting with the ward choir.  He did an excellent job.  It was his first time performing in front of an audience with the Cello (he did play as background music once though).  Anyway, I'm so proud of him, he inspires me to want to play my flute more!

Our good friends, Shirley & Andy invited us over to their house for Easter dinner and to have an egg hunt.  Shirley's brother and his wife and their children were there too, we're all in the same ward.  Anyway, we had such a great time.

These pictures are of all the children after the egg hunt.  The little boy at the top of the stairs, him and Carlee have a "thing" going on.  They really are funny.  He'll say something to Carlee like give me a hug or kiss on the cheek.  And once she has he'll go around telling everyone, she kissed him.

Carlee and Preston find eggs.

After the egg hunt we did another one were we each could only find one egg.  Then once everyone had one we would open the eggs in numerical order and find that Shirley had put together the story, using the scriptures, of the true meaning of Easter,  thanks for that Shirley!

We had such a great time and we were so grateful to be able to spend time with friends on this holiday.

You got a little sneak peek of Carlee and Preston in their Easter outfits but there are more pictures to come I'm hoping to do a photo shoot today or tomorrow.

easter tree

I made this Easter tree!  It's my version of Martha Stewart's tree.  I  used everything that I already had, found this vase but didn't have grass to put in there like she did, so I took some leaves from a plant I have in my backyard.  They worked perfect since they are thick and tall to be able to completely block what the inside awkwardness of the vase looks like from the branches.  I don't have pussy willow branches like she used so I went to my back yard again and cut off branches from our gigantic bush.  I considered painting the branches white but Sam said he likes it like this.  For the eggs I used these that were given to me from Sam's mom the first year Sam and I were married (I used different eggs, the kind used for Easter egg hunts, to put inside of the silver bucket that these were meant for).  Then I just put some water at the bottom, to hopefully keep the leaves from turning brown, seems to be working so far my tree has been up for over a week.  I've just been trying to do one craft per holiday to add up a little collection of decorations over the years, even though I can't keep these for next year, I at least have the idea of something I can do.

a happy day

I was in such a good mood waking up yesterday, prepared to get back into exercising daily, so excited for mine and Sam's date & a few thing I had planed for Carlee.  After I had the kids breakfast done I started to scramble some eggs for myself.  I put some salsa in the eggs and turned to put the salsa back into the fridge & bumped it against something and dropped it.  The large PLASTIC container that I had just opened yesterday broke a large hole in the bottom and went everywhere.  When I was cleaning that huge mess I realized my breakfast was burning.  After all was finished with that I was no longer hungry so I had toast and called Sam to say poor me, I was mad because I'm so clumsy and it always happens right when I'm in the best mood (Satan knows how to get me).  On the phone with Sam, he just could laugh at me, he knows how clumsy  I am and doesn't know how I manage to do these things, me either.  But lucky for me I got over very quickly and had a great day!

Carlee and I made cookies!  At first she was scared to hold the hand mixer because it shakes, she's funny.

Sam and I went on a date!  I was so excited, I had a babysitter like 3 weeks ago.  We have very few young women in our ward so I did really have to plan early for such an evening.  Our plan was to see a movie and dinner at Olive Garden since we had gift certificates to both all we'd have to pay for was the babysitter.  We planed it too so that we wouldn't be getting home too late since it is a school night.  We went and saw "The Spiderwick Chronicles" at 4:15, it was very cute, we both really liked it.  Then we went to Olive Garden after, we got there at 6:00 and we were very prepared to have a long wait but when we got there and the wait was 2 hours, I was bummed.  Since we weren't willing to wait that long plus that would get us home too late for the babysitter, so we decided to come home.  When we got home I took our babysitter home and got the kids bathed and ready for bed and while we were doing that we order take out from Olive Garden, that was still an hour long wait.  We got the kids to bed and a half-an-hour later Sam picked up our dinner, he said he saw someone just getting in to be seated that was there we were first got there, we were happy because we didn't have to wait & we were still able to finish our date without kids.  It wasn't exactly how I pictured it but it was still fantastic, Sam held my hand all night and there were no kids to worry about for a few hours so we were happy.

I had made the cookies with  Carlee earlier and left the decorating for the babysitter to do with her, I figured Carlee would be good for her with something like that to do.  When we came home we all got to enjoy the cookies together.

I'm always really bad about getting a picture of food before we start digging into it!  It's a LARGE heart shaped cookie.

These are the only pictures I took all day and as you can see Preston isn't in any of them, poor neglected boy!  No, but I am making a little video clip of him to put on here soon so that should make up for it.

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day.... we did!

craft time

I found a fun Valentine Craft to do on Martha Stewart, to see the details click here.

 

Carlee & I just did it real quick tonight.  I did the cutting,

while she used the crayons

to color some of the hearts,

to make her very own Valentine It turned out pretty cute,

I used a vase that Carlee got last year for Valentine & put the Dum Dum sticks in a straw so they would stand a little taller & put it on the table as the center piece.  I thought this would be a really cute Valentine for kids to give out at school to their friends.  Super easy and fast, but cute!  And while I finished putting them together Sam & Carlee started watching Meet the Robinson's.

chrismas

Christmas this year was really fun, crazy but fun.  Sam found out the Friday before Christmas that we would be able to leave over the weekend to spend Christmas with his family.  We didn't think we would be able to leave until Monday night but we were blessed and were able to go.  This meant I had to get packed up and finish my shopping quickly, and I managed to do it in 5 hours.

Saturday we hung out most of the day (Teresa colored my hair, with the help of my sister over the phone it turned out really good) and later his parents said "Go on a date, we'll watch the kids", so we jumped at the chance.  We went and saw The Golden Compass, got ice cream at cold stone then went back and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets, we liked both.

Sunday we went to church, Carlee got over her fever and Preston started his, our poor little kids (which, I found out at the doctor today that Preston has an ear infection).

Monday we did a few errands & went to John and Libby's for Christmas Eve dinner.  Santa came and brought the 3 little girls gift.

Mason with Preston, he is so good with both of our children.

Carlee was not too pleased with Santa this year, but Preston was fine!

Here is a group photo of everyone.

Tuesday: CHRISTMAS!!

First thing after waking up.

Carlee with her new doll and puppy.

Preston with his new turtle, he didn't have the best morning until his Tylenol kicked in!

One of the gifts Sam received from his parents was a remote control dragon fly, it is seriously so cool and fun, it amazes me.

Sam's Dad and Carlee watching Sam play with the dragon fly.

Grammer playing with the kids.

Carlee snook away into the master bath and hopped in the shower and turned it on all by herself, she had a grand ol' time.

fun decorations

I was excited about decorating for Christmas this year, we have had them up for almost 2 weeks and I love having the tree lit up at night time while the kids are in bed and Sam is home & we're hanging out in the family room watching tv or talking.  I love the warmth of summer time but I love the layers of clothes and bundling up in a blanket during winter time.  I hope this season is a wonderful time for you, no stress just lots of time bundled in blankets while sipping on hot chocolate.

This was the craft that I made for Christmas, I think it would look perfect putting a little shelf there and just setting the letters on top.  It's simple, just how I like things!

And these are all my nativity scenes!

This last set is one that I got from my roommate before Sam and I got married, it's a play set, perfect for kids to play with.  So I leave it low enough for Carlee to play with (it makes for little pieces around the house everyday, it's worth it).  The first time she saw it she grabbed baby Jesus and said "baby".  It was such a moment for me, so I taught her that it's baby Jesus, now she'll show him to you if you ask.

thanksgiving

Thought I'd add a quick note about Thanksgiving.  It was great, we spent it with my in-laws!  It was way easy for me too because all I had to make was the orange rolls.  But the food was great, family is always great to see, we loved it.

There were a lot of picture that I'd like to add but I'm just going to limit myself.

These last pictures Sam and his dad were trying to get the kids hands or feet printed into the cement but unfortunatly it didn't end up working out because the prints weren't coming out nicely into cement. But it was still pretty funny to watch!

halloween

Inspired by this person!

Sad without Sam at our ward trick-or-trunk.

This is "B" (for the little Carlee).  Bethany helps me so much when I'm all alone.  Carlee was a fairy who didn't like to carry her wand and Preston's onesie says "babies first halloween".  Then on halloween night our candy was gone in 45 minutes (we have never had so many kids come, so we weren't quite prepared, but even still we started with a lot).  After it was gone we went and visited Sam at work and guess what, I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera, so no pictures, but his boss took some maybe she'll make doubles for us from her disposable camera.

labor day weekend

For the Labor Day weekend Sam was able to get off work.  So Friday night after he got off work from the restaurant, at about 11:30 pm, we headed out the door to Sam's parents house.  We had such a nice weekend doing some fun things, having Sam be there the entire time, very nice!

On Saturday we went to the small zoo in town, very fun little zoo, not very big, which was nice because it was a very hot day!   

We ate lunch and headed back home & went swimming later that afternoon.  This is Sam & his younger brother Mason playing with each other. 

On Saturday Sam brought Preston in the pool & as soon as his toes touched the water he was screaming.  He did not like that cold water at all.  On Monday Sam tried again & he put him in the water as soon as the pool cover came off, when the water was still warm, and he did much better.

After he was out of the water, he got splashed by some cold water and started screaming again, he was not too happy.  And one of my Sammy just because I think he is so hot!

I brought Preston's hanging toy thing.  And Carlee always wants to join in.

On Monday we went to the fair but didn't stay long at all, so never got any pictures.  There wasn't much for the little wee one to do so that was enough for us.  We headed back home on that evening all safe and sound.  We had a great weekend thanks for letting us come to have a relaxing weekend.

Check out the senior portraits Sam did by clicking here.