Christmas Pictures!!!

Oh boy what a fun Christmas this was! Samantha completly grasped the concept and was beyond excited. Hunter just loved all of the decorations and his face was priceless Christmas Morning!!! Here are some pictures of the events. Sam was quite excited that she got the "Pink Princess Bike" she asked Santa for. Although she was not surprised Christmas Morning cause she said she just knew Santa would bring it to her. As you can see Hunter was NOT a fan of Santa!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow....

This is my Grandma and Grandpa Barnes the first time they ever met Sam. I love my Grandparents smiles. They are truly contagious.
This is my Grandpa Jenson with Samantha the first time he met her. I love this picture. He was such a fun Grandpa!

These last two months have made me realize how fragile life is. I lost my Grandpa Jenson as well as my Grandma Barnes. It has been a couple months of emotion and traveling and just kind of rediscovering where I came from. I love my family so much and losing 2 people in such a short amount of time has been really hard. It has made me realize what is truly important to me in my life. My family and the Gospel. I am so thankful for both and could not have made it through these hard times with out them. My Grandparents have left such a legacy and it has truly inspired me to be a better person. One thing I can say is that with each passing I was blessed with the opportunity to see family that I have not seen in a long time and it was wonderful. The following are some pictures of choice moments from the past couple of months.
Even on our 8th flight I still adore my kids. LOL Not that I wasn't ready for a break!!!
Hunter loves his Dad soooo much! And Stephan is the biggest sucker for his boy! What a great Dad!
This girl was having the time of her life at Disneyland Can you tell :)?!?!?!
This is the family at Deer Lake. One of the most important places on earth to me. I am so happy I could be there with my husband and kids.
This is me and all of my cousins who mean soooo much to me. I truly felt at home when I was finally able to be with them.
Samantha and Hunter and my niece's Kaylie and Layla. Some of the cutest wonderful little kids I know.
This picture leaves me at a loss of words. This is my Grandpa at my Grandma's burial.
Our visit with Granny Gail was cut short due to my Grandmother's passing but the time we had with her was great!
This is my good friend Becca and I after running/walking my first 5K! Becca was such a great support and it was a real accomplishment for me.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! ( by Stephan)

Happy turkey day eve to all! About a year ago I turned this blog over to Amanda, and she has ran with it! Just what I expected so I am pleased. Thus, I think I may have been a little neglectful in posting on this blog and I know Amanda may be getting tired of always posting so here it goes!

Just a quick note to say how much I am thankful for. Of course my family but maybe even more I am thankful for the relationship I have with my Heavenly Father. Now, I am not one to usually "post my religion" but I feel like it is appropriate for me now. I think back to life changing events in my life and reminisce about them. I can think back to the time period that really solidified my testimony into what it is today, my mission in southern California. Now, my 18 year old brother is preparing for his mission. I am hopeful and prayerful that his mission will do as much in making him a man of faith as it did to me.

Hope all is well and that everyone thinks about what they are Thankful for!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Spooktacutlar Birthday!!!!

This past Friday we threw Samantha a Halloween Costume Birthday Party. Oh boy was she excited!!!! She said she wanted it to be super scary and she was especially excited to scare her friends with her Pink Dragon Costume. Here are some pictures highlighting this most exciting event.
One of my favorite parts of the party was reading and looking at the cards that the kids had made for Sam. They were so cute! Sam of course loved opening her presants. The night before as she was going to sleep she said "So Mom?!?! Tomorrow is when I get a whole bunch of preasants right?"

This is all the kids playing Monster Mash Freeze Dance. It was super cute and they all took it so seriously. Thanks to my friend Sarah who helped me keep things rolling. She had some super SWEET moves :)

We also did a Haunted Mansion Art project with foam stickers. I played spooky music in the background. Sam's friend Winston came up to me and said "Where are all those cats I keep hearing." He was quite thrown off by the music in the background.

The "Cheesiest" of parties

This past September Stephan turned 31 and to celebrate it we through a small cheese party. I am really bummed because I did not take pictures of the huge spread of cheese and meat we had. But check out this awesome cake my friend Carolyn made for the occasion. It was super yummy and so cute. We had such a great time. There were so many different kinds cheese. Anyways I would highly recommend a cheese party to anyone that enjoys cheese. It was a great way to try alot of different cheese's and share in the cost! Thanks for being born Stephan so we could have such an awesome party :)

Thanks Alot!?!?! WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!

Ok I would just like to point out that even though I won.... and even though Sam is having her first Halloween Birthday Party... Stephan still refuses to dress up!!!!!!!!

Thanks a lot!! (by Stephan)

I would just like to say Booo to those you of you who voted against me on the Halloween poll!

Visit with the Winston's!!!!

We had a fun visit with my cousin Bryan and his family a couple of weekends ago and are looking forward to visiting them in Washington DC this weekend! It was great to see him and meet his wife Rachel and Little Boy Brayden. It made me feel old. You know like having a family and the cousin I grew up with having one as well. Just weird!!! It was great cause we all got along really well. This is a picture we took of ourselves with the timer on our camera. Not to shabby.
This is the only shot I had of Brayden and Hunter both kind of looking at the camera. Brayden made Hunter look like a Beast! Both were such cuties it was fun to watch them crawling around together. We tried to take a picture of them on the couch but Hunter was not cool with that and pushed Brayden off. Sorry Brayden!!!
Sam our little Mother was super excited to have Brayden there. It was like her own real baby doll. She just adored him and followed Rachel around wanting to help with him.
So...... This is quite the picture but I thought What the Heck!!! LOL Rachel and I had fun giving ourselves facials and pedicures. Goodtimes!!! I Luv Luv Luv stuff like that!
And here are the 3 little ones with Samantha in the middle to keep Brayden safe from our Little Monster Hunter. They sure were cute together! And to top it all off Brayden is the perfect size for all of Hunters handme downs which made me sooooooo happy! Thanks for visiting you guys!!! It was a blast!

More from Miss Samantha

Sam and Hunter have so much fun together! How funny is there squinty eye smile!
Quote from Sam "Hunter should be pretty glad I'm such a nice big sister."
This is Sam nursing her baby in the playhouse that we made out of a Washing Machine Box. She had a blast with it but gets so embarrased when we catch her nursing. Another quote out of the mouth of Sam "Mom am I gonna have big boobs like you someday? Will Hunter want to suck on mine to?" Um what do you say to that LOL
This is what Sam calls her "Scary Face" it has become a recurring face for all pictures. Can't decide if it's cute or a little creepy :)
Dance and Drama two words that describe Sam completly!

Hunters 1st Birthday!

This was Hunters Favorite Birthday present a stuffed dog from Mimi. He sleeps with it every night!
I normally avoid putting pictures of myself! lol but I was pretty proud of the cake I made. Well my Visiting Teacher and I made.
Hunter Loves Dogs! I'm talking like he tried to jump out of the wagon just to see one the other day.
The cake was a hit!

Handsome little 1 year old! We Love this boy soooo much! Hunter had a blast at his party. We had all of Stephan's family over and he was spoiled. There are so many things I want to remember about Hunter at this time in his life....

1. He loves to give big bear hugs.
2. He gets most excited about dog's and will scream Doggy Doggy if it's within a mile radius.
3. He will scream for two straight hours if he does not want to take a nap even if he is exhausted.
4. He loves to drive his cars and trucks all over the floor.
5. He will eat anything! Which is a nice change from Miss Samantha.
6. He is an honoree little bugger and has put me through so much stress yet I love him more for it.
7. Big thick strapping boy but has such a tender little heart.
8. After having Hunter we have definitely rethought the whole 5 kids thing! I think 3 will suit us just fine. :)

Watch out for Hunter! He is 1!!!!

Ok I have been having the hardest time sitting down and writing. I just can't concentrate. Life has thrown us a few bumps in the road and I have just been plane stressed. So I thought I would post some pictures that really say it all about Hunters personality and my life in a nutshell! The first is Hunter "helping" me with the dishes. Second is Hunter Getting into Samanthas desk. He loves to harrass her. You will notice a mark on the side of his mouth. That is from the marker that he ate. Third picture is him putting his PB&J in his hair. Happens quite often. And the last is Hunter with the head of a Rubber Ducky in his mouth while Samantha pushes him around the house in her Doll Stroller. They both thought it was like the coolest thing ever! Stay tuned for more post's. I just need to sleep!!! Oh yeah and I will post about his Birthday once I upload the photos!

Hunter the Crab (by Stephan)

Hope you enjoy this little video I shot with the camera. Sorry for the poor quality. This past weekend we ended up camping in the beautiful North Carolina Outer Banks with some friends of ours. It was quite eventful with the mosquitos! However, the kids had a good time and the beach was great, I mean just look at the pic above! I'm sure Amanda will have much more to say in a future blog so I will leave the rest to her!

Faces of innocence?

OK a few things out of the mouth of Samantha today.

Sam: Where did we get Hunter from? The doctors? I mean like they took him out of your tummy but where did he come from?
Me: He used to live with Heavenly Father and then Mom and Dad made a baby and we had Hunter. ( I know kind of vague)

So this is where I wish I could say she was all sweet etc.. Nope instead she said... Mom since you already have me as your kid... Why did Heavenly Father give us another one? I think maybe we should just give Hunter to someone that doesn't have any kids. I mean why do we need 2 kids? Does that sound good?

She has also been spending allot of time playing with her dolls. Well today I heard her say "You Idiot" my jaw dropped and i was like where did she hear that! I was double checking myself thinking did I say that? So I scolded her and said WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT? and her innocent answer "from the dog movie" aka 101 Dalmatians. And then I remembered that yep Corella Devil says it like twice. HELLO!!! A Disney Movie. UGG!

So Obviously Samantha's little mind has been working overtime. I am wondering what questions will be soon to come.

As for Hunter he has been growing by leaps and bounds! He is talking more pointing at things and saying something that sounds like "What's that." He also loves to pretend that he is talking on the telephone. Well we went to say Family Prayer this morning and he folded his arms and bowed his head. Not for the whole prayer of course but for a couple seconds and then tonight he did it again. I was the proudest Mom at that moment. It is truly an awesome feeling when you see your children learning from your example!

So yep that's my kids in a nut shell right now.

Samantha Camping

Sam has been begging to go camping and the opportunity finally arose so Sam and Stephan headed out to go camping. She came home a tired muddy mess but had a blast. I was eager to have a little break and a little respite from Samantha's constant talking. Hunter and I had a great early evening. As I thought when they got home Stephan said his ears were ringing from her constant banter. Three year old's sure can talk!
Stephan is the best Dad! He was just telling me the other day how important it is for him to build good memories with his kids and give them a good foundation and he is doing an awesome job. I sure am thankful for the good foundation the gospel has given us and the knowledge that we have of eternal families.