Luke Turns 5!

This is way over due. Luke turned 5 in may! My baby starts school in August. We didn't have a party for him because 2 of his friends had birthday party's right around his birthday. We took him to his favorite restaurant, Red Robin and then we had cake and ice cream at our house with just the 4 of us. He had very specific requirements for his cake that him and his little girlfriend from preschool came up with. It had to be pink and orange with basketballs, I didn't get the basketballs, but I got the colors right. It was another store bought cake. Hopefully I can get my act together by next year and we'll have big homemade cakes for Sammy's 3rd and Luke's 6th birthdays.

He had his yearly check up yesterday. He weighs 42.6 pounds and is in the 50% for weight. He is a little over 4ft tall and off the charts for the percent. He had to get the last of his shots and was very scared, but ended up doing very well. Here are some pictures of him and some friends at a party and then some of him opening presents at home.

Going back home

On Wednesday April 20, I received a call after Young Women's from my mom telling me that after being in and out of the hospital for the past couple of years my Grandpa Ray, my moms dad, was reaching the end of his life and if I wanted to say good bye I needed to come now. My mom and sisters were driving there and would arrive on Friday, so after much debate Alan bought a plane ticket for me to fly to Washington Friday morning. My Aunt Stephanie, my dads sister, Uncle Cal and cousin Ashley were kind enough to let us all stay with them. It was hard being away from my kids and the reason for the whole trip was sad, but I enjoyed getting to see all my family and being back in the northwest.

It was the first time I've been back to Washington since Alan and I went back shortly after we were married for an U2 concert. I love being a Northwestern girl and love telling people I'm from Washington state. If I could move back I would. Since this was Rachel's kids spring break she did want them to have a little bit of fun while they were there so we took all the kids to the Seattle science center for a Star Wars exhibit. It was kind of fun to watch my sisters chase after their kids while I got to just walk around by my self and look at ever thing. We also went to church in my old ward that I grew up in. It was fun to see every one and here about what all every one was up to.

We visited my grandpa a couple of times in the hospital while we were there and even though he was doing really bad he did recognize us, we even got a wave. I have a hard time with death it brings up all the old pain of losing loved once from before and I hate goodbyes. I flew back home Monday night and received a call the next day that my grandpa had passed away in his sleep Tuesday morning. I know my grandpa is in a better place with no more pain. I love my grandpa, he was a wonderful grandpa.

 

This picture was taken at Luke's baby blessing 5 years ago.

 

My Nieces and Nephews. Hannah, Kaleb, Keagan and Kale are Rachels and Cara in the green shirt is Meri's.

 

Meri, the third, Leah the oldest, me and Rachel the second.

 

 

The Seattle Space Needle





Easter!

I wasn't home for Easter this year which I was sad about, but that's an other post. Alan did a great job taking care of the kids and he even did an Easter egg hunt for them Sunday morning. There would of been more pics, but I accidentally erased some from our camera.

A break from life

This year has been hard for our family and in the beginning of April we took an unplanned much needed break to visit Alan's family in Colorado. We woke up on a saturday morning and said lets go. We quickly packed, through our things in the car and went. It takes 14 hours to get there and we drove straight through with a couple of stops. The kids did great.

We are usually in Colorado for Christmas and don't get to do alot of the touristy things, so this trip we got to do a couple of things. We went to an old western town and then we went to some cliff dwelings. The cliff dwellings were are favorite. One day mom Chase and I went out shopping to this really cute town while the boys watched Luke and Samantha. We had a great time.

Typo

For those of you who read my last post before I edited it, big correction. My 2 year old, skinny, minne daughter does not weigh 35.5 pounds. She weighs only 25.5 pounds. My kids are tall and skinny. I'm Jealous of them.

Samantha turns 2!!!!!

This is way over due. Samantha Turned 2 on Jan. 23! I can't believe she is already 2, I know we all say that, but really, it seems like she was just a baby and now she is officially a toddler. When she was born I fell in love with her right away. We had a small birthday party for her at our friends the Wilson's house. I usually make pretty amazing birthday cakes, well I have for Luke at least, but I didn't feel up to it this year, so Sammy got stuck with a store bought cake, which looked pretty great. I did make homemade rainbow layered cupcakes, I didn't get a picture of them.
She had her 2 year check up today. She is almost 3 ft tall and in the 98% for height. She weighs 25.5 pounds and is in the 25%. She had to have shots today, 3 in each thigh, 6 total. She took them like a champ. She didn't cry till the third one and she stopped crying as soon as I picked her up and felt even better when she got a sucker.

Samantha the day she was born.

Sammy at age one.

Sammy's 2 year old birthday party.

A year in Pictures

It's been a while since I updated this blog, so I'm going to start from today and work my way back. I got this Idea from my cousin and I think its a great way to look back on the year 2010.

January

Samantha turned 1!

February

I turned 26!

March

Spent lots of time at the park.

Samantha swung on a swing for the first time.


April
Samantha had her first Easter basket.


We went to sea world for the first time



Alan's brother Joe, his wife Kristi and their son Davey came to visit.



May
Luke turned 4!



June
Samantha had a mullet.

July
We went to Cape Cod.


Luke got his first big boy bike!

August

Samantha played model.

September

Luke started preschool!

October

Alan's family came to visit and we went to the beach, yes the beach. I got strep throat for the first time and gave it to Alan and his brothers.

Luke, Mike, Dan, Alan and Mark


November

Samantha got her first hair cut!

Alan got a new car!

December
We went to Colorado Springs for Christmas to visit Alan's family.


My mom came for new year's.

This picture isn't actually from that visit. I accidentally deleted a few pictures from our camera card before I coped them to our computer, sorry mom.