THANK YOU KIM!!!! YOU TOTALLY ROCK!!!!

O.K. So my cousin Kim, took our family pictures yesterday! And I am to-die-for-in-love with them ALL!! These are just a few of my favorites!! She took tonz of them and I seriously love them all! The old barn and farm equipment we are posing in front of are just across the street from my house. The old trucks have been there as long as I can remember and I have always loved them. They are comforting. Old. Stable. Unchanged. And it just occurred to me that they would make really cool back drops for pictures . . . .and I think I was right! I must thank my mom for the girls darling outfits. Compliments of "The Children's Place" I adore that store and we don't have one here, so when my mom went to St. George she got these outfits for the girls. We always take family pictures at this time of year, because the girls all have their birthdays (2 in Aug. and 1 in Sept.) then we use the picture on our Christmas Card. It works well for us. I am somewhat fanatical about family pictures. We get a NEW one every year. This is the first time I have been pregnant at this time of year. At first I was thinking that I would try to hide the baby belly in all the pictures so that I wouldn't be caught at an unflattering angle . . . but spur of the moment while we were taking pictures I was like, "let's get some of the baby belly!" and I am so glad that we did, because they are my favorite. I am a little over 5 months along in these pictures.

KIM THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You are so VERY talented and I love how sweet you are to bend over backwards to accommodate our busy schedules and take SO much time editing and creating these beautiful and wonderful pictures for my family! I love you!! :) Thanks for being a great cousin and an even better friend.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Sam and Scotty


All dressed in White

Checking out the font

On Saturday October 10, 2009 Samantha got baptized! It was a very special day. Scott was able to baptise and confirm her. Sam was very prepared for this grown up decision. She has a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She feels spiritual things--it is real to her. She told us that she knows this is the first step back to her Father in Heaven and that she is on the straight and narrow path. Such conviction. The faith of a child is so inspiring. They don't doubt, they believe and love. Scott gave her a beautiful blessing of confirmation. And I was grateful for him and the priesthood that he holds ---it is real and powerful. I was deeply grateful for all our family support that were able to be there. My sister, Becca and her husband Nick, even came up from UT to be there with Sam. This meant a lot to me and her. We got to have a big family brunch at out house afterwards, and I just loved having everyone with us--filling our house with laughter and talking and good food. I found myself just looking around and smiling. I loved having everyone in our home. The rest of the day was spent with Becca and Nick at my mom's and I think that Nick definitely earned "The BEST Uncle of the Year Award" He played countless games with the girls and even squeezed under the stairs with them to play with their glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Crazy. I actually felt bad for him because they wouldn't leave him alone. But he is so kind and good-natured and happily played with them all afternoon. Bless his heart. It was a great day. :) Way to go Sam!! We love you and we are so proud of you!

IT'S A BOY !!!!!!!!

Baby bump!!! These pictures were taken of me TODAY. So this is what I am looking like right now. Some of you have been wondering about my baby belly.

From the front. At about 21 1/2 weeks along. 20 weeks is halfway, so I am a little over the halfway mark. I have gained about 10 pounds. Which is about right for this stage. It has gone by super fast.

Another side view. Sweet little baby. He is rolling and kicking now. He is measuring 9 inches long! That is longer than I thought, for this point. So fun! I feel so great. Not sick or tired at all. This has been my easiest pregnancy by far. I am just enjoying this time.

On Tuesday, of this week, we got to go into the Dr. for our ultra-sound. I was slightly nervous, hoping that the baby was healthy and growing right. We got a report of excellent health for the baby so far!! YEAH!! And then I got a great surprise . . . we are having a BOY!!! Crazy huh? After 3 girls, I can hardly believe it!! I still can not quite comprehend what that means. I am thrilled to get the opportunity to be the Mother of a Son and Daughters. The girls couldn't be happier!! In Wal-Mart yesterday, they kept bringing me all these little boy outfits and asking if we could get them for little brother. He is going to be so loved and spoiled with all these mommies to take care of him. Whit keeps saying, "Yeah, a brother boy!" Scott is very excited. He is looking forward to having a son to go to priesthood meeting with and father and son camp outs, things that he really can't do with a daughter. He is happy to have someone to carry on his name. I am looking forward to seeing him with his boy. He has been so wonderful with his girls. I just feel like this completes us. A boy. :)

Whitney and Dodger

So Whitney and Dodger are good friends. Whitney LOVES to lay on Dodger and lead him around the house. I am actually really glad that she has him. In the morning, both her sisters leave for school. Most of the time Whit is fine, but she misses them too. Dodger is there for her. She reads him books and they watch cartoons together. It is really sweet. These are pictures of them watching for Kenzie to get off the bus. When I open the door, they both stand there together waiting. One day I saw them, and Whit had her arm around Dodger. It was so tender.

Sam is 8!

Fruit pizza, not cake. One candle, not 8. We just have sooo many birthdays clustered together that we got sick of cake and ice-cream. So I let the girls pick what kind of dessert they want for their birthday. It is working out famously.
G-ma Diann got Sam a wallet and jewelry for her birthday. Sam also got a watch from Aunt Macie! I think that these are her favorite "Grown-up" gifts that she got. Sam is very into "Grown-up" things right now.

Samantha is 8!! I can't believe that we have a daughter, who is 8! : ) She has been VERY celebrated this birthday. She got to have a family party on her actual birthday and then later that week she got to have a friend party at "THE CRAZE" (it is a pizza and Lazar tag place in town) She and her friends were very well behaved and had agreat time together. We even let Kenz invite a friend to the party. Kenz and her friend were a little small to play Lazar tag, but they did anyway. The vest came down to their knees!! They still loved it. Scotty was such a great sport and carried Whit the whole time, all around playing tag!! She so so happy that she got to go play with all the big kids. We even had Scott's little brother Cameron come too. I think he and Scott had the best time shooting at the girls--who didn't really have a clue what was going on. I gave Sam a pretty white dress to wear to her baptism--along with her own set of scriptures (with her name on them) and her own real journal. This was something that I got when I was 8. I thought it was so special and grown-up, I wanted Sam to have the same thing. Sam is getting baptized on Saturday and we are so proud of her and excited for her to make this big decision in her life. We love you Sammy!!

What is your favorite color? Blue and Green

What is your favorite food? Lasagna and Spaghetti and TX toast

What is your favorite thing do to? play games on my dad's cell phone and play with my friends

What is favorite part about school? Reading

What is your favorite book? Spiderwick

What do you love the most about Dad? He is fun and exciting.

What do you love the most about Mom? She always takes care of me and she always has something fun to do.

What do you love the most about Kenz? She always plays with me and is very, very nice

What do you love the most about Whit? She is fun and exciting

What do you love the most about Dodger? He is cute and playful

Catching Frogs with Uncle Dan

Uncle Dan has taken the girls out twice to catch frogs down at the River. Aunt Macie went with them the 2nd time (So we let Whitney go too--I knew Macie would keep a good eye on her). The girls had a great time trying to catch frogs, and loving it when Uncle Dan caught them. I think they caught like 14 of them the first time. It was the most frogs I had ever seen in one place!! Uncle Dan has also made sure that if he ever catches-- a snake or turtle or the likes-- he always brings them over to show the girls. My girls are very girly-girls, but they are not afraid of things like that! They think they're cool! I attribute this to myself. When I realized that I was going to have a house full of girls, I said, "I can't have a house of screaming, scared girls" So anytime I saw a big bug or spider, snake . . . I said, "Look girls!! Look at this awesome - - - - - !" And they would totally think it was cool and not scary. Yeah me. Thanks Uncle Dan. The girls love spending time with you!! :)

Girls after my own heart!

The first week of school the girls got to do a cheer clinic up at the High School. They loved it!! Whitney was actually too young to participate, but they let her practice with the girls anyway. She did not get to dance at the football game, but she fell in love with the cheerleaders. Whenever we see any of them she tells me, "There's my cheerleaders Mama!" Sam and Kenz both got to learn a dance and a cheer. They were darling to watch. I hope I get at least one cheerleader out of all my girls. So far, none of them are gymnasts. But that's o.k. I know they will each have special talents of their own.

The Computer Era

O.k. so spunky little Whitney . . . she is literally always cracking me up!! She makes me laugh or smile everyday. I adore her. I just wanted to write a few funny things that she has recently said so I don't forget them. (Moms tend to do that . . .) A few weeks before school started we were helping my mom get her classroom set up and we had taken a lunch break. We took the girls to Applebee's, and while we were waiting for our food, the girls were coloring on their menus. Whitney wanted to write her name, so she is asking me to spell it for her. "W"---she "writes" what she thinks a "W" would be, "H"--- "I"--- after the "I" she looks up at me and asks, " Dot Com, Mommy? and then a dot com?"---It was soooo cute. I got the biggest kick out of it. She is 3. Inside I am thinking, "Seriously? This kid knows, dot com?" How many websites has she heard just in passing. Crazy Computer Era. And then tonight, It was just she and I left at the dinner table and we were talking together and she was quoting "Ice Age" to me (the first one). She loves to quote movies. Anyway there is a part with some Doe Doe Birds and they are guarding melons as their food storage---there are some mishaps and there is only one melon left. One of the them says, "The LAST melon." ---with a kind of wonderment in his voice, she loves that part--for some reason. Anyway, some of the Doe Doe's go off the cliff in a group and in that group is their last Female Doe Doe. One of the Birds says, "There goes our last female." So Whitney is quoting this part to me and she says, " There goes our last E-mail." I said, "You mean female?" and she clarifies it for me, " No Mom, our last EEE-Mail." So sure of herself. I just laughed and said, "O.K." Too funny.