Happy to Be Home

Today we bundled up and went out to play in the newly fallen snow. Sam loved tromping around the yard and throwing snow up in the air.

What a cute kiddo!

Sam playing with his train from Christmas - probably his favorite present!

Are you Ready for This?

Ok, so these aren't in order, but who cares? Hope you enjoy a brief glimpse of our ten day vacation with Robert's family in beautifully, wonderfully warm Arizona this Christmas!A three generation picture of Robert's mom, his sister Lisa and her new baby Luke

Our first Sunday in Hyder, Robert's younger brother Kurtis was ordained an elder

These two are family pictures taken by Kayla, Robert's older sister who has really gotten into photography this last year. The blue sky and dried fields made a gorgeous background, I think!

The groups of families

These are all the stockings Robert's mom has crosstitched for all of us. Each of the kids and their spouse has a full stocking and the grandkids have just a topper. It was alot of stockings and even more work hanging up on that wall!

Riding home from church. I don't remember how we got them laughing, but this picture of Robert and Kayla's daughter, Gracie was just too cute!!

Sammy hanging out with "Pa Pa"

Lisa's husband Eric with his very unhappy little boy. It was so fun to get to meet little Luke so soon after his arrival on Dec. 3rd.

One of our last nights at the Skousens'. The girls decided to make some (ok, alot!) yummy homemade candy including chocolate dipped pretzels, peanut butter cups, mounds and almond joys, chocolate dipped fudge and caramels. So so good! (Yes, I was pretending to take a bite for the picture; I wasn' caught sneaking a bite)

Sammy loungin' in his new Cars chair

One day we went out to the desert where a lady had made designs in the dirt using colored glass and rocks and we hiked around. Here is another three generations picture with the boys.

Uncle Eric letting Sam throw rocks into a concrete holding tank. (Isn't that sky just gorgeous!)

For Christmas, Robert's mom bought everyone paintball guns. You can imagine how much fun there was to be had with four paintball guns, 8,000 paintballs, a 50 lb tank of CO2 and six guys!

Sammy playing with the train he got from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.

So the really big part of Christmas this year was the surprise we came up with for my mother-in-law. She has been working really hard on building a new house (see pictures below) and was a little disappointed that her house wasn't done for Christmas. But the guys worked really hard and put all the hardwood flooring in the days leading up to Christmas. So on Christmas Eve, after she had gone to bed, we took all the presents, the couches and chairs, and the stockins and set up Christmas down at the new house with the new Christmas tree she bought for the house. I really think it meant alot to her to have all of us there together in her new house and it was fun to give her such an unexpected surprise!

Robert nailing the floorboards in

Kayla's husband Adam working his magic with cutting the floorboards.

Too cute, huh? Sam had so much fun on this trip with his cousins and aunts and uncles that many times we would have to put on a movie to help him settle down for bed at night. This DVD player that we got for free was a life saver for our 15 hour drive each way! (I think he watched Cars about 8 times!)

So that's it! We had a great Christmas and were so glad to be able to visit the Skousens. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well! Stay tuned for Robert's new years birthday coming up!

I Lied

Ok, so I have some time to post. I guess it's kinda like the calm before the storm, but whatever it is, I have some pictures to post, so I'm taking advantage of it.

Sam loves to climb under our desk while I'm working at the computer and hang like a monkey from the bar that runs between the two legs.

Such a silly, but adorable kid!

Up and Coming Week

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! This week is going to be crazy with the Relief Society Christmas Dinner and us leaving for Arizona the next day, so I won't be posting, but hopefully we will get some fun pictures to share with you next week when I get a chance to sit down! Hope yours is a fun and much quieter week!

Can't Wait for Christmas

So now I can't wait for Christmas to get here! Last night we found out that we are going to Arizona for sure, although not for as long as we had hoped, but at least we are going. In addition, we got Sam the perfect gift, as you can see above.
Here's the story: we had signed up to go to the temple for an endowment session, but yesterday as I was preparing our bags and such, I realized our recommends had expired at the end of November (dang!). But we decided to go out anyway, since we had already arranged for our friends to watch Sam. We went to Texas Roadhouse (sooo yummy, BTW) and used the giftcard Robert's work gave us (yay for free dinner!). After dinner we made a quick stop at Target to get a gift for Sam to give to his cousin and looked at their chairs, but didn't see anything we liked. We wanted to look at Toys R Us, but needed to get back to pick Sam up, so we decided to just take a real quick look at just the furniture.
Lo and behold, here is this beauty just waiting for us to take it home. Can you imagine Sam's squeal of delight when he sees this Christmas morning? I just can't wait! We had found another McQueen chair that had a sleeping bag inside but when we got it, it just wouldn't work because Sam could barely sit in it and you had to have it leaning up against something to stay upright, so we returned it and boy are we glad we did!!

Too Cute to Not Post

I'm really pushing to get Sam his own little chair to sit in to watch movies and read books and we did buy one, but it turned out it wasn't as great as we thought. He won't stay on the couches for long because they are so far away from the t.v., but neither one of us likes him standing two inches way, either. So for now, Robert figured this random blue chair we have from when our apartment furniture was blue could work. As you can see, Sam has taken to it quite nicely.

And here is a picture of my wonderful treadmill that is my Christmas gift. I am so excited to get to use it every day! Although I know it may not happen, my plan is to get up at 6:30 every morning to make Robert lunch and breakfast and when he leaves at 7, I will walk on it until Sam gets up. Today it worked out that I was able to walk nearly 2 miles and get dressed for the day before the kiddo got up!

Update on Us

Yesterday between crafts, shopping, and our ward Christmas party, we got a cord of wood and stacked it along one side of our garage to hopefully keep us stocked on wood for the winter. So if you are curious as to how much a cord of wood is, see above picture. Around here a cord of wood goes for around $130 if you pay for it. We are hoping that next year we can just make a few trips to the mountains and get all our wood for free.

Well, it's been kind of a crazy week with Christmas and church callings, so sorry we haven't been updating as much!

Sam loves the head lamps we got on Black Friday. It was a great deal including six LED flashlights and two head lamps with batteries for ten bucks!

Robert struttin' his stuff with his new Christmas gift - a chainsaw. (No, he didn't cut all that wood, but it makes a sweet background)

And again, I have to show off our proud little tree now full of gifts, although most of them are for our friends and Sam. Robert and I got gifts that were too big to wrap this year. He gave me a treadmill and I gave him the above pictured chainsaw and some tools and one other thing, but since he reads this, I can't tell you until after Christmas. I know, the suspense! Hope you all have a great week!

First Nephew is Here!

I don't have pictures yet, but Robert's little sister, Lisa had her baby boy today! They are naming him Luke Wilton Lines. He was born at 1:42pm and weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long. I don't know much more than what I heard at 7:45 this morning that she started having hard contractions at 4 am and was just getting her epidural, but just wanted to share our fun news with everyone!

It's Beginning to Feel Alot Like Christmas

The new tablecloth I made for our table to help get the festive feel and our 99 cent poinsettia(spelling?)

We decided against getting a real tree this year since we would only be able to enjoy it for two weeks, but my awesome friend offered her artificial tree to us since they got a real tree this year. I have to admit, I was really sad to think we wouldn't have a tree and it just didn't seem like Christmas at our house, despite the stockings and outside lights. Now our holiday feel is complete with this two footer with ornaments and candy canes! (thanks so much again, Julie!)

Our entertainment center serving as our stocking hanging area. I need to get some Christmas kisses for the bowl and we will be set!

Thanksgiving Post

Yay! Look at all our beautiful pies! (sorry the picture is a little hazy, we left the camera out in the car) I have nevermade a pie in my life and we made 10 this year for Thanksgiving!!! They all turned out pretty well, though! We went down to my parent's house in Utah to celebrate the holiday and to get away for a few days and the pies were our contribution to the feast. We made: two strawberry cheesecake, two pumpkin, pecan, apple, peach, blueberry, lemon sour cream, and a fat free banana chocolate pudding. So yummy!

I didn't get any pictures, but on turkey day the guys and I went shooting, which was so much fun because we haven't gone in so long. I'm happy to say that I still am a dang good shot, I even tried two clay pidgeons at a time for the first time ever and was hitting both most times.

Friday we couldn't decide which to do, bowling or rock climbing, so we did both! Here my dad and little bro Daniel are taking their turns.

Sam hangin' out on the gate by where we went rock climbing. I didn't go, however due to my extreme exhaustion from our 5 am shopping (yes, we braved the crowds and came away victorious with movies, tools and a treadmill for me!) and my intense fear of heights. My little sister April and her husband, John are pro's, though and Robert gave it a try as well!

Sammy and Daddy playing peek-a-boo! They had so much fun playing while we were waiting for the rope system to get set up.

Robert climbing the rock face. My dad is at the top working the ropes. We also watched the BYU vs. U of U game and as a speaker in church put it "The Lord's university won" :) It was a great game, if any of you saw it. It was a great trip and we are so glad we got to go and get away for a bit, thanks fam for the great time!

A Little After Church Entertainment

Sam was so wound up after church, he kept running away from us while we were trying to change him from his Sunday clothes to play clothes. Look at those cute legs!

Sorry we haven't posted much lately, life has just been.....well, life. Robert got his chance go elk hunting a little yesterday, but didn't shoot anything. We went to the high school state football game in Pocatello to watch the Shelley Russets take the title despite a horrible first half. Thursday we went to the library for story time and finally got a library card and rented some Thomas movies that Sam was absolutely crazy about (he wouldn't let go of it to let the lady check it out) and I have just been busy planning Thanksgiving, Christmas, the ward RS Christmas dinner and getting our ward's Mommy and Me playgroup going. Hope yours is a restful Sabbath, I know ours will be because it is snowing like crazy and we are all tired from a late, rough night and an early morning.

Bad Night, Memorable Morning

Last night was a rough one, and it's been a while since we've had a rough night, which made it even harder. For some reason, Sammy just kept waking us up crying, even though he wasn't really awake, he was really crying. He didn't want to be rocked or soothed, just his back rubbed and the blanket put back on him and he would be back asleep. After three times of getting up, I told Robert it was his turn, but I might as well have gotten up because it took me three times of telling him before he got up :) Oh the life of a Mommy!

So when Sam started crying 20 mins after Robert got up with him, I just brought him in bed with us. But as any parent knows, kids kick and wiggle and before you know it, both of you are on the edge of the bed with the kid lying sideways in the middle. So I put him back in his bed and he was ok until 7. By that time, Robert had gone to work and I just wasn't ready to be up yet and it didn't look like Sam was, either, so I brought him back into bed with me. When I finally did drag myself out of bed at 8, this is how Sam was sleeping. Truly! He's not stretching or anything, he's just sleeping that way!

Just seeing my little guy so at peace and so adorable made the memories of our rough night disappear and were replaced with feelings of love only a mother can have for her baby. I am so glad to have my Sam, even if he does keep me from getting my beauty sleep at times!

Me & Firewood

So we found out this weekend that firewood and I only get along if I am the one stacking it, not splitting it. Robert wanted to see if I could help him split the wood and asked to me to try (who knows, maybe he was just hard up for some good entertainment) The end result was me looking like an idiot and hitting the log just right so it came flying back at me and hit me in the shin, giving me a pretty good shiner about the size of a softball. Of course the part where I stomped off mad that my husband had forced me to participate in an activity we both knew I wouldn't be good at and ended up hurting myself and making me look like an idiot was probably just as funny. Now I can look back on the experience and laugh and from now on, me and the firewood have a stacking/unstacking relationship only. Hope you guys have a great week! (And no, I don't have any pictures because the few I could get didn't do it justice, so use your imaginations)

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Ever since going to Storytime at the Library the week of Halloween, Sam's new favorite song has been "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" but he can't quite say spider yet. It more sounds like "er", which is so adorable because he will come up to me saying "err, err" with his fingers pinched together and it still takes me a while to figure out what he wants. As you can see in the video, he really likes the "washed the spider out" part :)

The second part to the happy feet won't upload, so I guess it's too big, sorry! It is really cute, though because he keeps running from one end of the kitchen to the other, and then he tells you what's out in our backyard, "'mine!" (combine)

Happy Feet Dance Part 1

I have been sick today, but Sam has just been so cute, I decided to get a video of him. Unfortunately, the batteries died after only 7 seconds, but I thought it was cute enough to post the first segment along with the second. I caught him doing his "Happy Feet" dance without noticing I was there, so cute!

Card Time Again

Sorry we've been MIA all week, Sammy has been a sick little guy and gave it to Robert for a bit, too so there hasn't been much to write about. But yesterday I was able to get out and have some "girl time" with my good friend Andrea and we went to Porter's huge holiday opening sale and got some great stuff, I'm so excited! There are a few new things over at my card website and new ones are coming soon with all my new goodies, so be sure to check it out to see if you'd like some cards to send out with your yearly Christmas letter or anything! Love ya guys!

I Thought Halloween Was Over.....

Apparantly Sam didn't get the memo! :) It is so cute to watch him running around the house wearing my witch hat that is way too big for him!

And here he is showing off his three favorite movies at the moment: Nemo, Cars, and Kung Fu Panda (thanks to Robert)

One of his latest things is when he goes to throw a fit, he has learned to scream really high pitched and he throws himself on the floor on his stomach and just lies there like a beached whale, seeing if I will pick him up or not. It's pretty entertaining to see the things your kids will do for attention!

Halloween Frog

I have to say Sammy is the cutest frog I have ever seen. But I may be just a tinsy bit biased.

I couldn't believe I was able to get him to wear it three days in row, though! Although I finally figured out that he would leave the headpiece on if I didn't tie it right under his chin. Once he figured out the idea of trunk or treat, though, he was way excited!

Here's us getting ready for our ward Halloween party last night. Sam had a great time because he was able to catch a fishy and add it to our tank, so now we have two fishies!