Happy 4th Birthday Samuel

Happy Birthday to my Boy!

Chuck and I prayed for many years that we would be able to have a child. Those years when our heart yearned for a baby were difficult times. But as with any trial, we were strengthed and learned many lessons. Eventually the windows of heaven were opened and we were blessed with a miracle - out little Samuel. I had someone tell me after Samuel was born that with a birth of a child we learn 3 great truths. 1. How much our Heavenly Father must love us 2. How much our parents love us 3. How much our capacity to love is expanded.

It's hard for me to believe that Sameul is 4 already! It amazes me how fast the time flies as we enjoy this precious time when all of our kids are so young. Samuel is a precious and smart little boy. He is so curious about everything a asks a million questions every day. He constantly amazes me! I thank my Heavenly Father daily for sending me this little guy. He is such a blessing in our lives.

Samuel's Hospital Picture - he was such a beautiful baby - no cone, bruised and battered head like our other kids. He turned breach when I was 38 weeks along so I had to have a c-section. The nurses told us they can tell c-section babies because they look so good right after they are born.

My first glimpse of my baby. I just got one quick look before they took him away while they finished sewing me up. I could hardly believe that I was finally a mom - I had prayed for and dreamed about this day for so long! The c-section and other complications I suffered with for weeks after his birth were very hard on me, but that little guy was worth every price I had to pay.

Chuck was in the nursery with Samuel and took this picture of my family waiting outside to see our little miracle baby. Just look at those excited faces! Thanks for loving my little boy so much!

Samuel's Birthday Parites

We've been celebrating Samuel's 4th birthday for several days now.
Samuel wanted to have a Joint Strike Fighter birthday party. Fighter planes all look alike to me so Chuck found me this picture on the internet and then I superimposed Samuel into the picture. Samuel loved it!

Making of The Cake

I was trying to think what type of a cake I could do for a Joint Strike Fighter party (not a real easy theme) and Chuck came up with the idea of an aircraft carrier. That sounded even harder than what I had been thinking, but we brainstormed some ideas and came up with a way to make it happen. Chuck built the base out of cardboard and because of his engineering brain it actually had to be to scale. I kept trying to talk him out of making it so big, but he insisted if it wasn't to scale it would look stupid. I then baked a sheet cake, pieced it together and decorated the top. I thought this was just going to be a disaster, but it actually turned out amazingly well.

Decorating the cake. It took forever, and my hand was killing me when I finally finished.

Samuel kept asking me if the plane above the cake was the "best bomber". He is currently fascinated with fighter planes and bombing things.

The finished product - and yes we actually cut it and ate it. (It was so much work I seriously considered not actually cutting it and my mom kept saying she wouldn't cut it - but then I thought if we don't eat it what's the point of making it!)

JOY SCHOOL PARTY

It was my turn to do Joy School this week and so we had a little birthday celebration with our regular lesson. I made cupcakes for the kids and attached one of Samuel's fighter planes to the cupcake stand.

When I showed it to him he said, "Mom that's not the Joint Strike Fighter, it's the F22."

Me: Well we don't have a Joint Strike Fither plane.

Samuel: So you want me to have an F22 party now.

What I wanted to say: None of your friends are going to know the difference, just go with it!

Joy School friends singing Happy Birthday and opening presents.

Friend Birthday Party

We had a small boys party for Samuel on Friday. He was really sad his friend Stockton couldn't make it. We played a few games to go along with our birthday theme. The kids put together and decorated their own planes to begin with.

This was our cloud game. Burried in the clouds were as Samuel said, "United States of America Planes" and missles. The boys were going crazy throwing newspaper and digging all over to retrieve all the goodies. It was complete madness!

Once the boys retrieved their planes and missles they tried to fly their planes into the swimming pool and then they used their missles to bomb the plastic cowboys. Again this was complete madness, but the boys were loving it!

I love this picture of Samuel blowing out the candle on his cake.

Samuel's Actual Birthday

We asked Samuel what he wanted our family to do on his birthday and he wanted to go to Jumping Jacks. The kids love this place!

Chuck started this tradition when Samuel was born. He has made each kid a measuring board and every year on their birthday he measures them and records how tall they are on their board. It's a fun way to see how much they've grown over the past year.

To end our week of celebration Samuel wanted to go to McDonalds for dinner. The kids love going to McDonalds because of playland. I just have to not think about how nasty it is in the tubes. I once had to crawl a little way in to rescue Bella and it was not pleasant.

Vegas

We made a quick trip to Vegas this weekend to get the luggage rack installed on our Pilot. We were stuck at the car dealership for almost 2.5 hours. They had a pretty nice kids room and we had our DVD player so the kids were actually really good. Afterward I was commenting on how good the kids had been and Chuck said it wasn't them he was worried about! Yes, I can get a little impatient with this type of situation, but I had Chuck's laptop and was working on one of my many projects so the time actually passed pretty quickly. After we took the kids to a fun park area to play and then to the Bellagio to watch the watershow and of course I had to make a stop at Babies R Us to buy Bella a few outfits. I also found the most beautiful pair of high heels I have ever seen. They were calling my name until I saw the price tag. I seriously considered spending way, way, way too much money on a pair of shoes. Thankfully they didn't have the shoe in a small enough size!

Everytime we drive into Vegas I get a little heartache. I sure did love living there and often miss it.

When we lived in Vegas I would often laugh about the things that you would see only in Vegas. Well, at the little play area I had one of those experiences again. They had these two guys with foreign accents there singing and providing entertainment for the kids. Now look at the guy who's singing - shirt unbuttoned, chest hair showing, gold chain, superstar glasses - it's kids your singing for! Samuel was really getting in on the action, but the songs were again making me laugh. He started out with the Hokey Pokey, but then came the Macarena (see Samuel below working on shaking his hips) and Mombo number 5 that talks about going to the liquor store. It was just cracking me up.

They had a beautiful flower and butterfly display at the Bellagio. When we were looking at the butterflies flying around in the little display area Samuel said, "Why did they trap the butterflies in here". I always love coming up with answers to these type of questions!

Samuel is fascinated with the watershow at the Bellagio. If you ask Samuel where he was born he will tell you, "Vegas, at the watershow". This is the first time that he has been able to watch without plugging his ears and getting scared. But Bella watched one show and told us she was going. So we had one kid crying because they wanted to stay, one kid crying because they wanted to go and the baby crying because he was tired.

And what post would be complete without a little update on Bella. Today she managed to squeeze a good portion of a brand new tube of Desitin all over the family room carpet. She was rubbing it all over her face, up and down her legs and then tracking it all over the concrete before we realized what was going on. Then I took her to the tub and when I got back to her she was washing her own hair, but had used most of the bottle of shampoo. You've got to love the terrible two's! And my poor carpet that I have worked so hard to keep clean may never be the same! Desitin is so greasy and does not clean up well, but Chuck looked it up on the internet and there was a suggestion to sprinkle Baking Soda on the carpet and let it sit to soak up the grease. I'm praying it works!

This morning as we were getting ready for Church the kids took a break to feed Isaac some Cheerios. They just love to give this guy food and since he seems to have a hollow leg he is always more than willing to eat whatever they give him.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Kids make the holidays so much fun. Take for instance St. Patrick's Day, which was never really that exciting for me, but with kids I use any excuse to make crafts, cookies and have a good time. In preparing for St. Patrick's Day we made leprechauns. When I would try and help Bella glue a part in somewhat the right place Samuel would tell me it was their choice where to put things. So, as with all of our crafts they sure did turn out interesting!
The making of these cookies was quite an ordeal. I actually made the original batch the week before St. Patrick's Day because I needed to take a treat for scouts and was going to get two things accomplished at once. I was watching the twins that afternoon, but decided what's an extra couple of hands helping so I had all the kids gathered around the table for this "great" cookie making activity. But then the problems began - the dough kept sticking to the table, one cookie cutter was to small and the stems kept falling off, and one twin kept trying to eat all the dough and ended up in tears. Somehow I managed to get the cookies baked and a couple decorated for scouts. Then I went to scouts, but I had to come home a little early because Chuck and I had a banquet to attend and I forgot to leave the cookies. Chuck had to run the cookies back to the church while I quickly fed Isaac before we left. Several days later I went to retrieve the left over cookies so that I could decorate them with the kids and low and behold they were all gone! Someone had eaten them all - Chuck! Then Chuck felt bad he had eaten all the cookies so he made another batch late the other night.

I always wonder how Bella ends up with so much food on her face. Yum Yum.

When Samuel woke up (as you can see from the picture, the kids get up way before the sun even begins to shine a little bit of light) he told me he wanted toast for breakfast then he spoted the table. It was so funny because he got so excited and said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute - Oh the Leprechaun brought us Lucky Charms!" This is the first time I've bought Lucky Charms for the kids. The reason - they ate the whole box in two settings. But we will be making this our yearly tradition.

When I was buying the Lucky Charms I had a few funny memories come flooding back. I remember when we were younger Trina would eat all the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms box and then Brady and I would have to finish the cereal with no marshmallows. And wouldn't you know it Bella was trying to do the same thing. I also remember that Mandi and I would buy Marshmallow Mateys (the big cheap knock off bag of Lucky Charms) all the time while at USU. We would eat them by the handfulls while sitting on our beds studying.
After eating the Lucky Charms we went on a treasure hunt. The Leprechaun had left a trail of shamrock clues that led to pots of chocolate gold.

The "Leprechaun" thought she was being tricky and took the chocolate gold coins from the big pot that was on display in our entrance and put them in the kids little pots outside the front door along with a bouncy ball for Samuel and a few necklaces for Bella.

Samuel being the observant kid he is said, "So the Leprechaun took our gold coins and put them outside. Why did he do that?"

More Guests

This is the time of year when all the relatives come for a visit. (No one likes to come in the summer!). Chuck's mom and dad were in town attending the Water Users Conference as well as his sister Julie and husband Greg who just came to do some hiking. It's fun to have family come and stay with us.

The kids loved reading Grandma's books she brought.

And Samuel really enjoyed playing cards with Grandpa Paul.

We also did a little hike. Packing Big Buddy up to the top of this rock really wore Grandpa Paul out. Isaac was a little nervous about Grandpa packing him. The poor guy was whining most of the time.

We also made smores in the fire pit. Samuel was really upset when Grandpa caught his marshmallow on fire and then wanted him to eat it. There was no way Samuel was going to eat that burnt marshmallow. (I don't blame him, I hate burnt marshmallows!).

Yummy smores!

The Kids

The weather's warming up and I just bought Isaac some new shorts. I just think he looks so cute - he's got the same short legs as his mom and the rest of the kids.

Did this sweet face really throw the toys in the toliet? Both Bella and Isaac were in the kids bathroom and when I asked Bella how the toys got in the toliet she said, "Isaac did it". So who knows who really did it since poor Isaac can't defend himself yet.

Isaac just makes me laugh when he does this funny little pose. He likes to crunch up and lift his legs while balancing on his little bum.

Isaac loves the sippy cups. What makes me laugh is that he tips back so far trying to get the contents out that he sometimes tips over backwards.

This kid has a hollow leg! He is always eating and can out eat the other kids hands down. I'm always amazed at how much food he can put away.

Chuck has been making some progress on the playhouse. He's got the deck built and the slide attached. The kids love the slide.

Samuel did however have a mishap in the playhouse this week. He was climbing the ladder and fell hurting his finger, wrist and foot. We always ask him when he gets hurt if it's bleeding and if it's not then there's no need to throw a big fit. Well, that didn't work this time because he was bleeding and so the sight of the blood really made him upset.

Heart Stopping Panic

I experienced one of those heart stopping moments this week. Janice and I have been trying for weeks to get out and practice with our new camera lenses. We were finally able to make it happen a couple of days ago and boy was it a fiasco! I’ve decided there’s just something about having a lot of little kids that is a recipe for disaster every time you try and do something.

Things started to fall apart before we even left the house. I got Bella all dressed all cute and her hair done and of course she was a wreck within minutes. She changed her shirt 3 different times before we finally got out of the house. And Janice’s little guy fell down and cut his lip while they were getting ready. But we were finally off.

Janice had the brilliant idea of bringing a video for the kids to watch in her car DVD player. That way we could bring the kids out one at a time, take their picture and then send them for treats and the movie. Only problem – less than 10 minutes after we got to our location the battery in her vehicle died. Great no DVD for the kids. Oh well we thought we’d deal with the dead battery later. We were going to get pictures if it killed us.

Isaac was first and he was not a happy camper. Then Janice’s little girl – she thought it was too bright outside even though we were in the shade and would not open her eyes no matter how hard we tried. This entire time Isaac was dragging himself along on the cement, ruining his clothes and whining. Bella was climbing on a bar (what a surprise!), fell off and whacked her head on the cement. Then Janice’s little guy was wondering around without his shoes and stepped on a sticker bush. So we had unhappy crying kids everywhere!

We finally decided we’d had as much fun as we could handle and now it was time to deal with the dead battery. Luckily Janice had jumper cables in her vehicle, but of course neither of us knew exactly how to do it. She called her husband and he gave her all the details. During this time I had loaded Isaac, who was now screaming at the top of his lungs, and Bella into my vehicle. Samuel climbed in Janice’s vehicle along with her two kids. We got the jumper cables hooked up, had a discussion about where we should hook the black cable that is supposed to be the ground, settled on a part of the frame and then got her vehicle started. Now here’s where it got exciting.

I got out of my vehicle and walked over to Janice’s vehicle. We still needed to unhook the cables. Suddenly I hear a loud bang and Samuel starts screaming at the top of his lungs at the same time I see white smoke like powder coming out of Janice’s vehicle. Panic, heart stopping moment as all I can think is Janice must have a gun in her vehicle and the kids have shot it! Janice on the other hand is sure that she grounded the cable wrong and it’s shocked Samuel. So while I yank Samuel from the vehicle she shuts off her engine. I’m frantically asking Samuel, who’s hysterical, what’s wrong and he says, “She shot me with that!” So now I’m frantically looking all over for the gunshot wound, but can’t see blood anywhere. At this point I run around to the back of Janice’s Pilot because the trunk is up and her daughter is in the back and see it – A FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Yes, her 5 year old daughter had pulled the pin out of the fire extinguisher and shot Samuel in the back of the head with it! Now this sounds funny now, but it was anything but at the moment.

There’s dry white chemical junk all over Janice’s vehicle, kids crying, vehicle dead again, Janice’s husband saying we have to call poison control, my nerves so on edge I feel like I’m going to explode. We get the vehicle started again and drive back to my house. The poison control people say to get the clothes off and wash him off. Then Janice had to totally wipe down the whole inside of her vehicle. What a morning! After my nerves settled down we had a good laugh because what are the chances. And can you believe it; we didn’t even get a picture of the whole incident!

Grandma & Grandpa Came for a Visit!

My parents came for a visit this weekend and the kids were so excited. They brought the kids their Valentines gifts. My mom called me after she bought Samuel and Bella the giant frog and caterpillar and was laughing. She knows I can't stand any more stuffed animals!

We took the kids to the reservoir and they feed the ducks a whole package of animal crackers.

Grandpa building "robots" out of blocks for Samuel to knock down as part of his Jedi training.

Samuel and Grandma were having a pretty serious sword fight.