Lots of Holiday Fun!!!

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Daddy always gets the privilege of carving the pumpkin with the kids.  He does a great job.  The kids all love to help but I think Zachy enjoyed digging out the seeds the most

For Halloween this year (L to R) Aria was a beautiful lady bug, Samuel was the best Spider Man I've seen and Zachy was the cutest dinosaur ever.

We always go to Great Grandma Spackman's on Halloween.  We love this tradition as we get to spend time with her and she has the funnest bags of candy for the grand kids.

Travis's birthday was on November 3rd.  I fixed meat loaf (obviously he's not hard to please) with a chocolate cream pie.  His parents were able to join us and that's always a treat.  Zachary must have had a big day as he fell asleep during dinner.    It's nice to take a day out and remember Travis.  He has brought so much joy (with just a little bit of stress :) ) into my life.  I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with him.

I got to go to Oregon  (where I grew up) and visit for a few days.  It was so much fun seeing my old high school and seeing and visiting with dear friends. ( L to R)  Me, Wendy and Kathleen

The Moore Family is like my second family.  Kathleen (far right) and I have known each other since 7th grade.  Amer (middle) is Kath's little sister and we have become great friends as she came to Utah for a bit and lived with me.  I will always cherish the memories I have with them both.  I know we have many more memories to create and I can't wait.

My brother Jay lives in Oregon so I got to see him and his family while I was there.  I was lucky to get one picture with him and thank him for taking the time to visit with me.  He is doing well and guess what?? He's a grandpa and he loves it.

(L to R) Elsa, Me and Gabby.  It was so fun to see my nieces.  Elsa  is the proud mommy of Porter (pictured later with grandma) and Gabby is a Junior this year and is on the dance team.  I got to watch her dance and I'm not bios or anything but she is the cutest one out there.

(L to R)  Felix (my nephew), me and Samuel.  I hardly saw Samuel while at my brothers house as he was off playing with Felix the whole time.  Thank you Felix for entertaining my son.

(L to R) Great Aunt Tami, Porter and Grandma (Tammy)  This little guy is spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa with lots of love. 

Gracie is Kathleen's daughter.  She is the sweetest thing ever.  The thing is that she is only 11 years old and only has 1 or 2 inches more and she'll be taller than me.  I told her that I'm going to have to wear higher heels next time.

The funnest part about my trip to Oregon is that Samuel got to go with me.  It was so much fun to have him there with me.

 (L to R)  Samuel, Brady and Brooks (Kathleen's boys)  Sam had so much fun playing with the boys.  He played hard all day long and thanks again Brady and Brooks for playing with Samuel.

Samuel had an extra special experience.  The captain of the plane invited Sam to come sit in the cock pit before the plane took off.  He got to press some buttons and levers.  The captain even gave him a special hello over the intercom. Thank you to that captain.  It made Samuel's trip.

We had Thanksgiving in Arco, ID at my parents church.  We had tons of yummy food and lots of fun.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the table decorations.  My sister Amy did such a good job.  My mom put some games together for the grand-kids to play.  (L to R)  Ty, Briton, Samuel and Jackson.  This game they had to run to a chair and sit down on the balloon and pop it. There where many more games likes this and the grand kids had so much fun.  Thank you grandpa and grandma for hosting this years Thanksgiving.

This is Samuel trying to pop the balloon.  I didn't get any pictures of Aria and Zachary as they were sleeping most of the time.  We were going to say with my sister Maria all week end but end up coming home Friday morning as they had ear infections and strep throat (as we found out after we took them to the doctor when we got home).  I felt so bad for them and they are doing much better now.

This is Grandma Lori (my younger sister) with my great nephew Raydon.  I sure hope I look as good as my sister when I'm a grandma.

First Day of School and More....

Sam and his good friend Landon love to play together. They are such good friends

I just took a picture of the kid before church one day. What a good lookin' group.

Aria before bed one night.

Zachy before bed one night.

Sam's first day of Kindergarten. I totally thought I wasn't going to cry but when I went to say good bye I cried. Sam said.... mom are you crying. I said... I'm just so proud of you. I really am so proud of him. We've already had our first parent teacher conference and his teacher said he is doing well and I was most proud of him because she said he was a good friend to his classmates.

Aria is such a poser. What a cutie pie.

Zachy likes to pose too, but he makes goofy faces and I'll have to admit.... he's still cute.

More Summer Fun and Samuel turns 5!!!

Samuel no longer takes naps but once in a blue moon he'll fall asleep on his own. Travis and I were talking on the couch and I guess we weren't paying attention to him so he got bored and fell asleep. I think he ended up taking a 2 hour nap that day.

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday so on the morning of the 4th of July I like to decorate the table for breakfast in red white and blue.

This is the 2nd year we've gone to the city of Lewiston for their activities for the 4th of July. The kids wanted to go down this slide. This little girl who ended up going down with Sam was scared so Sam held her hand on the way down. What a good boy.

Mom got the privilege of taking the twins down the slide. I ended up ripping the seam in my skirt. Lesson learned.... don't were a skirt on rides. :)

We bought a small pool for the kids to play in and they have loved it. Samuel has a good friend Landon and he came over one day and him and Sam took turns running and diving down the slide. They did some pretty darning stuff and Zachy loved to sit and watch them.

Aria likes to go down the slide but with no one else around. She isn't as daring as the boys are.

Zachary has trouble keeping his swim shorts up. I don't mind so much as his tushy is so cute and he doesn't mind at all. :)

Me and the kids got to go visit my sister Maria and her family in Lewisville, ID. Sam had the time of his life. She has 4 boys older than Sam and they played so well with him. They wrestled most of the time and wore Sam right out. He slept well at night. This is a picture of Mavrick and Sam wrestling. Tate (the youngest boy (9 yrs old)) played with Sam the whole time and I greatly appreciated him. I barely saw Sam except every once in a while he'd come find me to give me a hug.

We took all our kids to a lake there and they had a great time. This is Aria, Samuel, Mae and Tate. The girl in the far right was just some one who wanted to join in the fun.

Tate had made a swimming pool for himself and then decided to let the little kids play in it. What a nice cousin and brother. This is Zach, Tate and Marley.

Travis and I took the kids to 1st dam to feed the ducks. They thought that was pretty cool until one of the geese came right up to Aria and took the bread out of her hand. Thank goodness it didn't bite her but she was a little bit more cautious after that.

One morning Sam wanted to fix me breakfast. This is what I got...peppercini's, cheese, fresh peas, pickles and toast. What a nice boy but I think I'm going to have to teach him better on food combination's. I managed to eat a good portion of it and was very thankful he wants to do those types of things for me.

My little boy is growing up too fast. He turned 5 on Aug. 5th. He was so excited for his birthday. He had been talking about it a whole month before and is now talking about his next birthday. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he wanted to go to Grandpa and Grandpa Rasmussen's to camp and fish. So that is what we did. Actually he slept out in the trailer with G & G while Travis and I slept in the house with the twins. Perfect arrangement for Travis and I.

We went to a fish hatchery so the kids could fish. Aria caught the first fish but wasn't sure about touching it. But had a good time.

Grandpa was very patient with Samuel and I just loved this picture.

Zachy was more interested in the worms. I got a great picture of him holding one.

I took all the kids on a 4 wheeler ride. They loved it. Aria talked the whole time.

On our way back from my parents we stopped at Travis's parents and Samuel once again got to celebrate his birthday. He is one lucky boy to have such great grandparents. He is loved dearly.

Travis took part of a day off of work so we could take the kids to Bear Lake. His parents, Camille (his sister) and Max (Camille's son) came along with us. We had a great time and had perfect weather. The above picture is Travis, Becky (his mom) and Camille.

I was so thankful Max came along. Him and Sam had a blast and I didn't have to make all those sand castle with him. ;)

I'm also glad grandpa came along as he played with the twins too. It was quite a relaxing day for me.
I can't believe August is 1/2 over and school is getting ready to start. How did the summer get by me so fast. Well hopefully we will have plenty of good weather left for some more summer fun even though school is in session. Samuel starts kindergarten this year. Now that will be a whole other story as I can't believe I have a kid going to school. Now WHERE did the time go!

Pre-School Gradutation and Father's Day

Last week end my sister and her family where up to a wedding so they got to spend some time with us. In the picture above Tate was trying to teach Samuel how to ride his bike. It was so cute to watch. Tate was much more patient than I would have been. Sam still has some more practicing to do but we are hoping before the end of the summer he'll have it conquered.

We took the kids to the park and it worked out great for me. My sister has 4 older boys who are very helpful. So they each took a younger kid (their 2 younger sisters and my twins) and played with them. I got to sit and be lazy. It was so nice. They are great kids. Of course Aria and Zach loved the attention and the toys at the park. This face that Zachy is making above is one you will find on his face often.

Aria got to swing a lot. Every time she came to a stop one of her cousins was there to push her. She was pretty spoiled. She's not going to like going to the park with just her mom now. :)

Well I didn't get to take a picture of Travis and the kids on Father's Day this year. But I did find this picture that clearing depicts how much the kids love him. He is a wonderful dad and the kids love to play with him. The minute he sits or lays down on the floor the kids think it is play time. When I married Travis I thought he would be a good father or of course I wouldn't have married him, but I have be pleasantly surprised at how great of a father he is. The kids are blessed to have him as their father and I'm lucky to have found him. I love him dearly.

Aria has always loved shoes. But now she can put most of her shoes on by herself. This is the first time I noticed that she did and they were on the wrong feet. She was pretty proud of herself and I was proud of her too.

The kids love to be outside. But is seems no matter how big of yard you have for them they want to be on the other side of the fence. The grass is always greener on the other side, so they think. Anyway, they reach through the fence and grab rocks from the driveway and filter them through out the back yard. They have a great time but daddy isn't too happy about it.

This is Samuel's pre-school teacher Miss Jaci. He loved pre-school and learned lots. Miss Jaci was a great teacher and soooo full of energy. I don't know how she did it with 15 lively kids. Samuel keeps me hopping on his own. I will be sending the twins there in a couple of years and I know they will love it too.

Jaci put on a cute graduation for the parents. In this picture they are doing the "Brush your teeth" song. The little girl to Sam's left.... well lets just say they are good friend and couldn't keep their hands off of each other.

Grandpa and Grandma Porter got to come to Sam's graduation. He was very excited and proud to have them there. We are thankful for their love and support.

This is Sam and Aria on the train ride at Health Days. Aria doesn't look excited in this picture but she was and had a great time. Zach wasn't sure of the situation so he stayed with dad to be on the safer side.