Happy 4th Birthday!!

Holidays......

This Halloween we went trick or treating at the twins birth grandparents.  It was a lot of fun and the kids got so spoiled. :) We are so grateful for the relationship we have with them.

Travis and the kids do such a great job at carving the pumpkins. 

Aria - My Spider Princess, Samuel- My alligator and Zachary- My Skeleton They had such a good time trick or treating.  We are still eating Halloween candy.

 

 

Samuel hanging his ornament on the Christmas tree.

Aria hanging her ornament on the Christmas tree.

On our way to church in their Christmas outfits.  What a good looking bunch.

Every Christmas Eve they get to unwrap one gift of my choice and of course it is their Christmas PJ's.  My parents did this and it's one of my favorite Christmas traditions they have passed down.

Zachary hanging his ornament on the Christmas tree.

Both Travis and my birthdays are in November.  For my birthday Travis took me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It was so much fun and I loved every minute of it.  Thanks Babe.

We have been licensed for the Foster to Adopt program.  We got our first placement on November 21st with a sweet little baby boy.  He brought so much joy into our home and we love him very much.  He is no longer with us as he has moved to a kinship foster care.  We got to spend a short 6 weeks with him and we are so grateful for the time we did get with him.  The kids would not leave him alone.  They loved him very much.  As we miss him dearly we know that he is where he belongs.  We have spent time with his new family and we feel of their love for this precious little boy and we are very grateful for that.  They have kept us updated with messages and pictures and he is doing wonderful. I know the Lord had a hand in this whole situation.  He is mindful of all those involved needs and has given us the comfort and strength needed. I wish we could show pictures but with the foster rules this is prohibited.

Family Pictures

We got family pictures done a couple of weeks ago and the kids pictures turned out so cute.  Thank you to our friend Christie Schow.

Fall already!

Zachy went to work with me one day.  I had put these chairs together (touching) for Zach to take his nap on.  About a half hour later I went in to check on him and this is what I found.  I couldn't believe that he had been sleeping with that much space between the chairs.  I did take him down to sleep on the floor before he fell through.

 

This was Sam's first day of school for the 1st grade.  He was so excited and so was Zach and Aria.  The twins get so excited for Sam to come home from school as he goes a full day now.  Sam is doing great and his favorite thing about school is when he gets to eat school lunch.  It doesn't take much to excite him. :)

We went to the Wellsville Labor Day celebrations.  This was at the parade.  The kids got soooo much candy and had a great time with cousins and grandpa and grandma Rasmussen.

Sam was so excited to participate in the Tri School Trot. Every day he'd ask for money to make a pledge.  I was a little bit surprised how much he ran during the 45 minute time frame.  Maybe he'll be able to run some races with me soon.  I'm pretty excited about that.  

Aria and Zachary were as excited as Sam was to run in the Tri School Trot.  Both of them ran a lot too and I think they will also be able to run some races with me in a few years,  My kids are going to keep me young. ha ha

Last week we went to my sister's in Idaho and to the Idaho Falls zoo.  It was a very cute zoo and the twins had a great time with their cousins Marley and Mae.  We also met grandpa and grandma Rasmussen after for a picnic at the park but we forgot to take pictures.

The summer is going fast....

My friend and I decided to take our kids from our home town to Aggie Ice Cream at the University by the transit system.  It probably took us a total of 4 hours but we did it and the kids had a great time.  The bus drivers and people on the buses were very helpful too.

Just Aria and Zach being silly.

Not very often do we wake up and not at least have one kid in our bed.  This was so cute I had to take a picture of Zachary and daddy sleeping.

On Zach's last day of speech class for the summer they go to dress up as cowboys.  He has really improved on his speech and he really likes his teach.

This was at the Porter Family reunion this year.  There was a bunch of candy and toys in a saw dust pile and the kids dug through it to find the treasures.  They had so much fun and found a gold mine of candy and toys.  Thank you grandpa and grandma Porter.

Samuel turned 6 this year.  He got to invited a few friends this year and they all went to a movie with Travis and then came home for cake and ice cream.  Sam had the time of his life.  He wanted his birthday to last forever.

Then on his actually birthday day we had a small family party for Sam.  We got him Star War Lego's and he loved it.  Him and dad just finished putting together the Star Ship. 

My sister's kids always show at the Cache County Fair.  We like to go support them.  The kids really enjoyed playing on the tractors as we waited for the cousins to show their horses.

This is Aria with two champion horse showers (I don't even know if that is how you say that) Maggie (R) and Ronnie (L).  Maggie is one month older than Aria and Ronnie is 2 years old. 

After they showed their horses the kids got to take a ride on one of the horses.  Zachy wouldn't leave Aunt Amy alone until she let him ride.  Thanks Aunt Amy and Uncle Jared.

Aria really wanted to ride the horse but wasn't sure once she got up there.  She was a pretty tall horse.  But she did it and had a good time.

Of course Sam has had the chance to ride a horse before but was way excited to try it again.

Yesterday we took the kids on a hike to Willow Springs.  It is about a mile round trip trail.  They had a great time and loved being up in the mountains and playing in the water.  It was a fun easy hike and it was a fun family outing.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Aria fresh out of the tub. Squeaky clean and adorable.

This was Sam's last day of school. Man that school year flew by.  I don't know what the twins are going to do with out him next year as he will go a full day.  They got so excited when Sam got home from school.

It has been such a hot summer.  The kids love playing in the water whether they have their swim suits on or not.

Samuel and his friend Landon took swim lesson together.  Sam loved it.

Sam has been playing T-ball this year.  He is having a great time and learning lots. Of course, I think he is pretty cute in his uniform. 

He is a pretty good hitter and runs fast.

But as you can see he can't stand still in the out field.  He'd rather chat it up with his fellow team mates than watch for the ball.  He has learned lots and I appreciate the coaches taking the time to teach him.  It has been a good experience for him.

This is Zachy at Sam's T-ball games.  He likes to watch the game when Sam bats but other than that he likes to play with other little kids or run around.

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday.  I'm so thankful for all those past, present and future who fight for our freedoms.  I'm proud to be an American and I'm so grateful for my freedoms.  Of course, I'm thankful for my children and and husband and that I get to celebrate this very special day with them.

Health Days!

Aria and Zachary had a great time outside on this day.  They had so much mud in their hair.  It's fun to watch them play together and get along so well, because that's not always the case. ha ha 

We love Health Day here in N. Utah.  This is at the parade in the morning.  The twins loved the tractors, fire engines and of course the candy.  That night we went to the baseball game and watched the fireworks.  They had a very fun filled day.

Sam got to be in the parade to help represent his school.  I was a little worried about letting him be in the parade as I wouldn't be able to keep and eye on him, but as you can see he was well taken care of.

After the parade we went down to Forrest Acres to the booths and rides.  They love the train ride.

This is Sam getting ready to go down the slide.  I didn't get a picture of Zachy as he was way to fast for me and I didn't have my camera ready and I had to go up the slide and give Aria a little push down so I didn't get a picture of her either.

Samuel got to got to a birthday party were they had a slippy slide.  So I set up the sprinkler for the twins as they felt left out.  It wasn't quite the same. :(

Where I work we got to take our consumers to Hogle Zoo.  I brought the twins along with me.  (Sam didn't get to go as he was having a dress rehearsal for his school celebration program) They loved the train ride and got to go on it a couple of times.

Here is Zachary and Aria with the gorilla. 

This is Samuel at his school's 100 year school celebration program.  It was fun to watch and he along with all the other kids did a great job sitting still as it was a long program.

Grandma Porter and Great Grandma Spackman came to the school program.  G. Spackman went to school here for her 5th and 6th grade year (I believe those were the years).  She got to see a lot of people she hasn't seen for awhile.  It was fun to have them both with us.  So Great Grandma and Great Grandson both went to the same school.  Sam is growing up in the same house as Grandma Spackman did.  So Cool!