Disneyland and Huntington Beach

This post is a little late. We took the family down to Disneyland in the begining of November. We had a great time. The weather was perfect and the girls had a lot of fun. We broke the drive up by staying in Vegas on the way down and back.

The first day we were there we walked to the park.The girls had no idea where we were going, they thought that we were just going to a "park", little did they know it was Disneyland Park.

The girls had fun talking with Tinker Bell they asked her a bunch of questions, it was so cute.



Gingers favorite part was driving the cars in Tommarowland. I t was the only ride that had a line and we waited in it twice for her.





They got soaking wet in the water, but it was warm enough that it was refreshing.


We had fun on the Buzz Light Year ride we went on more times then I can even count.

Stitch loved playing with Chloe. I t was cool to see one of the chatracters interact with us like that. There was a bunch of people trying to get an autograph or picture with Stitch but he ignored them and played with Chloe for about 5 minutes. It was the highlight of our trip. It made her so happy. We ended up buying alittle Stitch doll because of it.

They were so excited for the Parade.

We wasted a day away at Hunnington Beach. It was well worth it

I don't think Sarah got any closer then this to the water. She had a good time reading her book and soaking up the rays. And yes, she is wearing clothes. It wasn't one of those kind of beaches.

The sunset was beautiful. Sarah had fun taking pictures of the sunset.

Wisdom for Me to Live by...or at least try.

Today I was having a rough day with the kids. Well, let's be honest here... it's been rough on and off since Kaylee decided she had a mind of her own and Ginger followed suit. When I finally had a moment to myself to think about the day and how it had gone, I found myself pondering what I could do because the way I was doing things just wasn't cutting it. I yelled so much today, and I felt so behind in trying to keep up with the house and all that needs to be done. The list is exhausting and I always feel like I can't keep up.
These sorts of days just don't sit well with me - I always feel I could be doing better, that yelling and being angry isn't the person I want to be, and that I'm sure I'm hurting my kids by being this way. You know, the regular guilt trips us moms give ourselves. While I was thinking about all this, a friend's name popped into my mind and I knew I should give her a call. She answered right away and had the best advice. She's a mom of several kids and always seems so laid back. I admire that about her and that her kids really seem to respect her. So I asked her what her secret was.
She said she remembered the scripture in D&C 121: 41-43 which says we should persuade only by gentleness and meekness and love unfeigned. I've read these scriptures before and I know this is the way Christ taught and the way I need to teach. The next thing she said which made the biggest difference in how I look at this scripture was to decide what is critical that my kids do and what's not. Chances are there are very few critical things that my kids do, things that are life/death sorts of things, incl. spiritual life/death things. So if she's asking her kids to hurry and put their shoes on so they're not late, she'll help them out instead of get angry at them and frustrated. It's the long-suffering part, the love and service part of that scripture I need to do. These are my children, my job is to love and serve them. Because who else loves us like our mothers?
My friend also mentioned Moroni 7: 45 - charity (the pure love of Christ) suffereth long, and is kind...and seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked...beareth all things...endureth all things. I need to be less selfish and seek to put the needs of my children (and my husband) before my own selfish interests. Of course we're supposed to take care of ourselves too, so we don't deplete our well of love and service, but I need to remember these two scriptures.
The other thing I've learned through motherhood is the meaning of sacrifice. We sacrifice so much for our children: our bodies, our time, our showers, our sleep, our money, you name it, we give it at one time or another. But we do it because they are our greatest source of true joy and happiness. I love my girls - they have been my greatest trials but also my greatest blessings. I hope I can remember the advice I received from my friend tonight so that my relationship with each of them is better, that we're closer and we can feel the peace that comes from living in a Christ like manner.
By the way Sam, you are the best husband! I'm so grateful for your love and help in raising our children and for how hard you work for our family. Thank you, really, for all that you do everyday for our family and for me. Your love and service to me has not gone unnoticed - your girls are grateful for all that you provide for us. I'm so glad our girls have such a great relationship with you. It's so very important for them to have you around and to have the relationship they have with you. Thank you Sammy and I love you!

Addresses please....

If you're address isn't in our sidebar to the right, chances are we don't have it anymore... or we've misplaced that email. We don't have to add it to our links if you don't want us to, but we'd sure love to see what you're up to! Just email us with your blog address and tell us if posting it is an option or not. Thanks all!

Chloe Update

Chloe had her four month birthday this month which means we can start giving her real food. She loves her rice cereal. Kaylee loves to feed her, I think more cereal ends up on her face then in her mouth when she feeds her though.

Did you know that they made a Cabbage Patch Doll after Chloe. If she were smiling you would see her dimples and she would look like the doll even more!
Chloe has found her voice. Usually after we change her diaper she is happy and starts talking.
As you may know Chloe made an exciting entrance into this world and had a rough first few days of her life. She hasn't had any health problems from being born in the truck. Sarah and I were just talking about how much of a blessing she is in our family. No matter how crazy our home gets and frustrating Kaylee and Ginger make us Chloe bring a special spirit into our family. She can always make you smile. She always smiles at her sisters and her parents. We love her so much.

Do You Like It?

Okay, Sam is forcing me to blog right now about my hair. I was debating about what to do - it's been falling out for a few weeks like crazy and getting too unmanageable and Chloe loves to pull it and wrap it around her hands (which probably adds to the hair loss). So I found this photo of Alexis Bledel and took it into my stylist Debi Tea at Salon Revez. I think she did a great job and Sam said it's better than things I've done in the past to my hair so that's a good thing too. Of course my hair in this pic doesn't really look like Alexis' but it did when I came home from the salon! We'll see if I can get it that way again.

The First Snow

Kaylee and Ginger were so excited yesterday when it was snowing outside. I got their snow clothes out of the box in the garage and got them all bundled up. By that time it had stopped snowing and none of it stuck to the ground. they were bummed. Then this morning they were so happy to see the snow on the ground. We let them play a Little bit this morning before church. Everything has melted now. Seven Years in Utah and we still love the snow.

Catching up on September

September came and went before we knew it. We wanted to blog about all the things we did but wasn't able to, so here we are just doing one post for the whole month. September means Peaches in our family. We are blessed with two peach trees in our yard. One tree is more than enough peaches for us to eat and can. We were able to can 20 quarts of peaches and give away a bunch more. Yumm.....Kaylee and her friend Mikelle made their own peach soup one day after school.



Where's Chloe?
Roooooaaaarrrr!!!!!
Ginger Loves her Firefighter costume ad wears it everyday.

I'm ready for a bath Mom.
Kaylee was so excited to go to the theatre with Grams (Sarah's Mom). She talked about it all day long. They saw "Suessical the Musical" at the Scera Theatre in Orem.

Grams knew the actor who played the Cat in the Hat, who is the Narrator for the show, so after the the show they were able to get his autograph in Kaylee's Cat in the Hat book.

Happy Anniversary

Today is Sarah and my Seventh Wedding Anniversary. I just wanted to let her know that I love her very much. We have been through alot in the last seven years including: Moving away from home, remolding a home (which was started 7 years ago and hasn't stopped yet), College, working many different jobs, finding my job as a Firefighter, starting my own business, health problems and three daughters. I have grown to love Sarah more through all of the trials that we have gone through. When we first started dating g we used to say that we went together like " Peanut Butter and Jam" and seven years later we still do. I wish this could have been a bigger celebration for us this year, but I am working today and our lives have been pretty busy lately. I love You Sarah!

Last Camping Trip of 2008

Since I had some time off of work over a weekend we decided to take advantage of it and spend it camping. We wanted to go somewhere where we had never been before. We also wanted to be far enough away where there wouldn't be alot of people. So we found this campground which was two hours away. We had a great campsite. There were two large ponds right in the campground.

Kaylee and Ginger love Rolly Polly bugs at home and this one was a little bit scarier then them.

I am so blessed to have a beautiful wife who doesn't need makeup to look pretty.

This Little creek was right behind our campsite and it was fun to explore.

We didn't get a picture of us fishing but there were alot of fish that you could see from the shore. I caught an albino trout and the girls had fun fishing. Kaylee can cast her line out about 20 ft all by herself.
Our little ladies
We hiked around the ponds. the girls had fun picking flowers and find "camping sticks" that they could throw into the pond.

Chloe had a good time on her first camping trip. We celebrated her 3 month birthday by having some dutch oven cake.

If anyone wants to come with us next year we are planning to go in September again. We are definitely going to bring the canoes and maybe even four wheelers. There are alot of trails around to ride. Let us know if you want to go!

Gingers' First Day at Preschool!

Ginger had her first day of Preschool. She is going to the same preschool that Kaylee went to. Her teacher is really great. She is excited to be able to go to school like her big sister.

First Day of School

It's finally here, our first child is in school. Kaylee is so excited about going to school. Her teacher is a veteran Kindergarten teacher and is great with the kids. Kaylee really likes her too. Kaylee already made a new friend on the first day. I asked Kaylee what her favorite part of school was and her answer was the same as mine when I was her age "Recess!"

Cataract Canyon Rafting Trip

I had the oppurtunity to go on a four day rafting trip with the youngmen in my ward. We went down the Colorado River through Catact Canyon. We started in Moab, Ut and ended up in Lake Powell.

We got to do a few hikes everyday. These are some Anasazi ruins and petroglyphs. The other pics are of some side canyons we hiked up.

If you look hard enough you can see our heads in the water as we swim through the rapids. That was one of the funnest parts of the trip. It was exhausting too, because once you were about 2/3 the way through you had to start swimming to the side to get out of it. We thankfully didn't loose any body and no one got hurt the entire trip.


Your view going through the rapids. This is the boat that I was on most of the time
The river made a big 180 degree turn which took three mile so we hiked up and over the mountain to catch up with the boats on the other side. It was a cool view from the top.

We made camp on this beach the first night.

On the last night we were having a hard time finding a good place to camp. We found this little shelf on the riverside. I slept on top of a rock above this picture. The rock projected out above the river and had an awesome view of the river
I highly recommend Tour West River Adventures. They did a very good job. http://www.twriver.com/