Happy 3rd Birthday

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Happy Birthday Seth!!

Three things I love about Seth

• He is helpful. He helps me fold clothes, do dishes and sweep
• He tries new foods like sushi, spicey things and artichokes
• He loves playing games. His favorites are Hiss, Elefun and Candyland. That's MY boy!
  

For his birthday Seth chose to go bowling. Seth wore his new clothes from Grandma Galloway. Thanks Grandma.


The kids bowled 157 with a little help from Daddy and this ramp.

The bowling team

Obama & First Snow

First off, I must admit that I'm oddly curious about Barack Obama. I was drawn in last night as I watched him speak. It will be interesting to see what the next 4 years will bring. I sort of felt a breath of fresh air as we watched the celebration of President Elect Omaba. I love the beautiful family that the Obama's have. I definitely do NOT agree with his stand on moral issues of adortion and such. The best news of the night was that Prop 8 passed in California banning gay marriage. THANK YOU California!

Now on to the first BIg snow.....

I tried Jodi's picture challenge to take pictures of my kids when they are not looking at the camera. It was fun. Not nearly as professional as Jodi's pictures turn out!

Halloween Week

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By the time Halloween day comes the kids have already worn their costumes several times. It's all coming back to me, getting three children in and out of their costumes, it's exhausting. As you can see in the picture below my boys don't even have their costumes on. But Ashlin (Minnie Mouse) Ella (flower) Samantha (pirate) Madison (good witch) Everett (train engineer) do and they are soooo adorable!

The gang at Gardner Village

Samantha performing with her preschool class. They all sang some spooky Halloween songs.

Don't we look like a rowdy bunch. Tom and I dressed up as lumber jacks, in case you couldn't tell. The last time we dressed up was before we had kids and we were batman and cat woman.

Samantha was mesmerized by Glinda the good witch. Glinda showed up to our ward Halloween party. She granted some wishes then gave Samantha her magic wand. WOW!

Pirate pose. Watch out, she's gonna get you

For Seth I resorted to Superman PJs for his costume and sewed a cape for him.

Trey is our adorable skeleton

Our Family en Vogue

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Our family photo shoot. My wonderful and extremely talented friend Jodi (http://www.ayummylifephotography.com/) took these pictures. It was so much fun to have family pictures taken. I love Jodi's style and she's got a great eye for a fantastic end result. Tom said this was the best family picture taking experience he's ever had.

An Ode to Our Apartment

Two years ago this month Tom and I made a big decision one that we have been grateful for several times over. We chose to move into a dingy, 70's style apartment. As we have weathered the storms of starting a new business, the financial struggles that come along with that, we are so happy we chose to live simple for the past two years. We have cursed this apartment at one time or another, but it's provided our family shelter. It was kind of embarrassing moving into such a ghetto place but by making that decision we have been surrounded by wonderful friends and ward members that have taken us in and loved us. People who have loved and taught our children, friends that Tom and I have enjoyed. So thank you apartment #6. We don't know how long we will live here but while it lasts we are delighted. Here are a few pictures of our life over the past two years while we have lived in our apartment.

Our apartment #6
These are our babies when we first move in. Samantha was 2 and Seth was 11 mos. Now she is 4 and he's almost 3. OH HOW THEY GROW.

Seth's first birthday! We all have had 2 birthdays while living here except Trey

The parking lot makes a great sledding area and the view awesome

Trey was born while living here. 4/20/07

The wonderful field next to us was great for kite flying, we had a beautiful view of the mountains until.....

They started this lovely construction. It's been going on since March of this year. It's loud and blocks our view.

This apartment came with this lovely push button, avocado colored built-in stove. Unfortunately we have no dish washer or A/C but the apartment does have spiders and a permanent ring around the toilet bowl. I sure love the chef in this pic whipping up some omelets with the kids.

We have spent 2 Christmases in this cozy apartment

Our family

The Boys and I

While Samantha is at preschool I get some fun time to hang out with our boys and play whatever games they want to play. Seth is a die hard Candyland player and a pro at Elefun. Seth relishes the time to dominate the games while Samantha is gone. Here are some pictures of our game playing extravaganza.

Who is going to get to the Candy Castle first?
The boys love their race track

Is this how I use this net?

The boys catching the butterflys

Isn't It Ironic

Friday (10th) I reached the 8 week mark with this pregnancy and miscarried. Boo hoo! This is ironic because with my three other pregnancies we were so good at waiting until 12 weeks even 15 to tell anyone I was pregnant, then the first time I break that rule, I miscarry.

Last Tuesday I started spotting. Then it continued for three days. Friday morning I called the doc. I talked to a nurse and explained what was going on. She gave me the option of coming in on Friday for a blood draw (to check human growth hormones) or wait until Monday for an ultrasound. I choose to wait until Monday. Later that day I miscarried.

Throughout this pregnancy I've felt good, too good. Other than some moodiness, fatigue and peeing alot at the beginning I felt really good. So this was a concern for me. I didn't feel prego. Another true fact that the sicker you are the better off your pregnancy is.

I wish the other pregnant ladies in my life the best as they continue on. My Sis, Sariah, my Sis-in-law Melissa and friend Holly. We were all going to be due within a couple of months of each other. Stay healthy girls and may you all have the gender you requested.

I'm fine with how things have turned out. We plan on trying again in a couple of months. The Lord is in charge. Thank you everyone for your love and support!!!

Now everyone get out and VOTE in November!

Our Quirks

This is a first. I've been TAGGED and so I'll give this a try. I'm suppose to list 3 of my quirks and 3 of Tom's quirk. So here they are.

3 of my quirks:
-I'm crazy with bleach. Since I don't think about soaking our clothes a head of time and because I'm too impatient, I pour straight bleach on stains (whites, of course then I mix with colors a no-no) and have made a mess of our laundry a time or two.
-I do not eat the white cream on Oreos. I scrape it off and toss it.
-I rack up library fines faster then most. Like today I went to the library and had $9.90 in fines. I've also had a $14 fine at one time and a whoppin' $24 fine another time, all this in the past year. I wish I could claim that I read alot but most of the fines are from DVDs for the kids. So to avoid fines I've started putting DVD due dates on the calendar. The new playground by the Riverton library, I'm pretty sure I funded that.

3 of Tom's quirks:
-When it rains he always sets his auto windshield wipers to a slow setting so it seems to me that the windshield is impossible to see through before the wipers kick in. Basically there is zero visibility and then the wipes swish across the windshield. He's definitely not from Seattle.
-Tom likes to eat the white cream I scrape off my Oreos. But for his health I try to toss it before he gets to it.
-He likes to put anything mathematical into a spread sheet. He pulls up Excel to figure anything.

Smiles!

Samantha's Preschool

We have one in school! Pre-school that is. On Thursday we had orientation for Samantha's preschool. I'm so very excited, I wish I could go to preschool. I love the classroom, teachers, cirriculum, activities, I think this is going to be good for Samantha. Monday (6th) is her actual first day, where I drop her off. Knowing Samantha she will put up some resistance so I'm praying. Here are some pictures of her getting familiar with school.

Samantha listening intently
She loved this little set of stairs they had in one section of the room

The Plah-doh table. My little girl.....growing up. Just take your time Samantha.
Daddy & Mommy love you.