I had to get a picture of this cute little dress that my friend made for Carly for her birthday. Carly loves to wear her "Dora dress."

We took it easy on Memorial day and hung around our house and swam. It was nice to enjoy the nice weather and the pool. Our friends came over to enjoy it with us.

A flower we picked from our magnolia tree. The kids thought it was pretty fun to play with. Sam wanted to eat it.

The Birthday bash

I decorated her chair with balloons and paper but she tore them off right away.

She gave Dora a dimple in her cheek after she blew out the candle.

We had a quiet little Birthday party for Carly. Just the four of us. I made spaghetti (which is usually her favorite) Then we opened presents and had some birthday cake. I think all in all she had a good birthday. She kept asking all day if she could eat her birthday cake and open her presents so it was hard to get her mind focused on something else. I still can't believe she is 3 years old!

Happy Birthday to you....

2 years old

Carly 4 months old

My Carly turns 3 years old today! It's amazing to think that I have a one year old and a three year old! Am I that old?!? Seriously though, I think this birthday is a bitter sweet. Along with the Independence she has gained she has also gained a butt load of attitude that I'm not quite sure how to deal with. Where has my sweet little girl gone? I ask myself that question at least 10 times a day. Her new favorite phrases are as follows:
"NO!"
"Don't say that mommy!"
"Don't spank me mommy."
"No Sambo!"
(all of the above said with major attitude)

Her new favorite hobby is taking toys from Sam and then hitting him.

Enough with the bitter...now on with the sweet. She now will say "I love you mommy" at random moments. I love to hear it because it doesn't happen very often. She often compliments me on my hair or the clothes I am wearing. She loves to sing and sometimes she'll even dance. She loves playing with bubbles and play dough. She can count to 13 in English and 12 in Spanish. Every now and then she'll bust out a new Spanish word she learned from Dora and it surprises me every time. She likes to have you tell stories to her before bedtime and sometimes, very rarely you can get her to tell you a story.
Well...I think that is enough for now. I sure do love this little girl.
(pictures will soon follow)

Giveaway!!!!!!!!!

GIVEAWAY!! Go here and enter! They have such cute stuff, I love it!

Lots of Pictures

Thanks to Chad's laptop I'm able to finally post pictures of my trip. We had so much fun! We were very busy but I got to see a lot of old friends and family. It was nice to spend time with my brother and for my kids to spend time with their Uncle. I'm sad I didn't plan it better so I could see my little sister Graduate or my big sister's new baby, but we had fun and we already miss everyone!
Above: Just a silly picture of a silly little girl.
Below: Two excited nieces waiting to see their Uncle Dan get off the airplane!

I stole this (below) picture from my sister.

(below) A walk down memory lane. This is where it all began. This was where Chad and I first lived right after we were married. It's not the one right on the street but the one next to it. They look alike. We have some really great memories from this place. We had to hook up our clothes dryer on our back porch because there was no room inside. We couldn't run the washer while taking a shower or else we'd get dirty clothes water come up through the drain. We got our firsts pet fish and our first two pet kitties here. I miss this little 400 square foot cottage but I could never go back to it!

Below: This picture is out of order but for Mother's day we had a girls night (on Saturday) We had pedicures and went out to dinner. It was so much fun and so needed. It was fun to be with my mom and my sisters.

(below) Celebrating my Dad's birthday with my Bro-in-law's graduation cupcakes!

Below: My Grandpa Holt has always had a huge garden and green house as long as I remember. I have yummy memories of eating fresh peas, cucumbers and green peppers straight from the garden. Sometimes we would even pick out our own flower we could take home (to kill) I love going there whenever we have the chance. It always reminds me that someday I want to have a garden as big as his. I honestly don't know how he does it at 80+ years. Carly had fun running around in the greenhouse pretending it was a forest.

This was the cake I made for Sam. I had the hardest time deciding what to make but the monkey turned out cute and it fits his personality.

This was at Pirate Pizza (or something like that) It's a new place in St. George that is really fun! After some confusion with our order and then Carly dumping our whole pizza on the ground we decided we should do cake and ice cream somewhere else :)

Sambo man is One!

It's crazy to think a year has come and gone since our little man was born. It has flown by...a

little too quickly, my baby is soon becoming a toddler and I don't know how much I like that. He is so fun and quickly learning his independence. He loves to walk and is now trying to run. He loves to play outside and he loves to be with Carly. He dances whenever he hears music. He has started to cuddle with us but only for seconds at a time. He has four teeth. He will eat pretty much anything. His smile is contagious along with his cute little giggle. He hates getting his

diaper changed. He loves bath time and would probably stay in the bath for an hour if I let him. He wiggles and moves like crazy, even in his sleep. We sure love this little man!

Things done in the past two weeks...

*Flew to Utah
*Saw my little bro. return from his mission
*met some good friends of mine at a fun little park. (it had been YEARS since we've seen each other)
*Met some other friends at a different park to catch up on life.
*drove to SLC to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday
*celebrated Mothers day by getting pedicures with my mom and sisters.
*drove back to St. George.
*Celebrated Sam's first birthday at a cool Pirate Pizza Place and then birthday cake and presents and my sister's house.
*drove to Las Vegas and then flew back home to Texas (not by myself this time!)

Many pictures will come soon. Our computer is being silly so it is out of commission.

What a trip!

I am in Utah. I never thought I would make i. I flew out Tuesday. My flight was scheduled to leave at 2:35. Well, Chad dropped me off with the kiddos. I made it through security by myself with no major issues. I found the gate and found some seats next the he window. Well...it turned out that my flight was going to be pushed back about a half hour. "no big deal" I though. I had lots of stuff to keep the kids busy. Carly had fun watching the airplanes and striking up conversations with complete strangers. Well...about 40 min. after we were suppose to be in the air we finally were able to start boarding. I got on the airplane...found our seats...well, the lady we were sharing the row with decided she wanted to take the window seat which was suppose to be Carly's. I was a little worried because you have more wiggle room when your by the window. Well, it turned out this lady didn't speak any English. Well...we got settled on the airplane. Carly made friends with he lady that didn't speak English. Thanks to Dora the Explorer Carly is bilingual :) She ended up calling this lade "Abuela" (grandma) I found out she was from Guatemala. With a lot of hand gestures and he little Spanish that speak we were able to communicate a little. She ended up giving Carly some money from Guatemala. She called Carly "bonita" She was an Angel. This lady saved me from a lot of stress. Well....back to the crappy part of the trip. We sat on the airplane, it started backing up when the pilot announced they forgot to check the brakes...so we pulled forward..they checked the brakes...after about 20 minutes we were headed out again. We taxied to the runway, when the pilot announced we had to go back to the gate because there was still an issue with the brakes. So we went back to the gate and after about 20 minutes they announced that we had to get off the plane and get on another plane. I wanted o cry, and I almost did!! This was my worst nightmare. By this time we would've only had about 40 minutes left of flight if we had taken off on time. Well, we got off the plane, they couldn't get me my stroller so I had to lug two carry on bags, Sam and try to keep Carly near. We had to hike to another gate and wait...yes...wait for another plane to come in. So after about 25 minutes another plane arrived and we started boarding again. To sum things up..we made it o Vegas about 2 1/2 hours late! I am so glad that is over!

walking

Here is are Mr. Sam, walking around all over the place! I still can't believe it either but he loves it and he is actually much happier! He has been watching Carly too long and he finally wanted to get in on the walking action. He is getting better and faster every day. I don't know if I'm quite ready for it but I guess I'm going to have to be ready!

We spend the evening out at Chad's parents house last night. The kids had fun exploring as always and Chad and I enjoyed the hammock!

today....

Today was one of those days where the kids didn't get dressed, I really didn't get dressed up, we didn't go anywhere but it was still a pretty good day with some bumps along the way. I bought a little bubble blower the other day, I never knew how much of Carly's time it would occupy. I would've bought it months ago! She has played outside pretty much all day yesterday chasing bubbles and she did the same today! I used to just give her a bottle of bubbles and let her outside and she would walk around the yard blowing bubbles everywhere. Half the time she would come crying for a new bottle of bubbles because she accidentally spilled hers. It got really old, so I saw this and thought it couldn't hurt to try it out! Sam even loves it, he'll play outside and watch the bubbles.

Sam loves Carly's Dora couch. She doesn't love that he loves it but I love the way he sits on it!

This is Carly's art. She has been really getting into drawing "things" instead of just scribbling.

blackberries, mud and hair...oh my!

Chad recently found a patch of blackberries on one of his go-kart expeditions, so this afternoon we thought it would be fun to go as a family and pick some fresh blackberries. Carly had fun picking and eating them!

It rained pretty much all day on Saturday but cleared by early evening so I decided to let Carly go outside and have fun in the mud and she did! She was out there for quite a while just running from mud puddle to mud puddle.

Here is a before and after picture of my hair. It ended up a little shorter than what I would've liked but my hair grows fairly quick and it is so easy to do that I can't complain too much! (Not sure why my after picture turned out so white but you get the idea)

What a guy!

This little man too his first FOUR steps all by himself yesterday! Ever since then he has been practising really hard to do even more than that. It is so cute to see the excitement on his face when he walks from our coffee table to the couch. I love it! (this picture is kind of blurry but this is the way he likes to stand against something. I'll find him standing like this in his crib, it's hilarious, it just shows the "cool" side in him)

Easter 09

Before we get to the Easter festivities I'll do a quick little update on Mr. Sam. The above picture shows one of the new ways he figured out how to sit. He'll stop in mid-crawl to just sit like this and look around. It's pretty funny. He has also tried a couple times to take a few steps on his own. The other day he took one step all by himself. He is getting pretty good at standing on his own and he is constantly practising that technique. He is going to be running around any day, just like his sister.

W invited some family and friends over for an Easter dinner. It was a lot of fun and we had some yummy food!

We had a little Easter egg hunt for the kiddies. Carly loved to look for the eggs, she also enjoyed eating the candy inside of the eggs.

(Saturday) Carly had fun coloring and decorating some Easter eggs. Sam observed from his highchair.

Easter pictures

I thought I would take some new pictures of my kids in their cute Easter clothes (I'm proud to say not one item was over $8, that is an accomplishment!)
Carly thought it was hilarious to put grass on Sam's head. He didn't seem to mind either!

This little man loves to take pictures! He is the easy one, although he doesn't like to sit still!

All I can say is that it is extremely difficult to get a 2 (almost 3) year old to cooperate while taking pictures.

I stole THIS from a friends blog. It is pretty hilarious. I just had to share it! :)

where are the clouds going??

Carly found a new way to help out Dad with mowing the lawn. It might not be the safest way but she has fun and it usually doesn't last very long!

While laying on the ground Carly noticed that the clouds were moving so she asked me where they were going. I replied with the usual answer "I don't know." She then proceeded to tell me that they are going to Grandma's house.

Sam really wasn't bored outside, just tired I suppose.

I don't want to come up with a title....

Playing with balloons on Sunday afternoon. Sam went crazy! He chased the balloon everywhere but could never get a real good hold of it! It was pretty funny!
This is pretty much what we've been dealing with the past couple weeks! The below picture explains!

Here is a picture where you can somewhat see his two little teeth. They decided to come at the same time. They are his very first teeth. He was a later bloomer compared to carly who had her first tooth at 7 months! (Don't mind the boogers in his nose!)

Sleeping Children

I can't remember if I posted this picture or not but I thought it was funny and worth posting again (if I already did!)

Chad bought Carly these shoes from Wal-mart and for some reason she absolutely loves them! She wanted to wear them to bed but I got her to set hem on the table next to her bed. When I went to check on her before I went to bed this is what I found.

Sambo Man fast asleep

I'm posting this for my mom so she can see where I hung her works of art. She painted these pictures for my for my birthday! I never knew about this talent my mom had until recently! I love them, and I love the fact that I have a little piece of southern Utah hanging up in my house! Thanks mom!

Having some fun...

My parents decided to make the trek to Texas during Sharise's spring break. She brought her boyfriend Craig who had never been to Texas from what I understand. We had a lot of fun, although most of the places we visited were full of people (I guess everyone spent their spring break there!) We drove downtown San Antonio on Saturday to see the Alamo and eat some lunch. It was nice but really cold that day! Luckily it warmed up by Monday so we could enjoy the sun at Sea World.

We went to Sea World on Monday. We thought we'd beat the crowds by going on a Monday. We were wrong. It was so jam packed everywhere!! It was still fun to watch the shows and Carly liked seeing the animals. I even got to ride on a roller coaster.

More pictures from Sea World. It was a long but fun day!

They had a Sesame Street show while we were there. Carly loved it. She kept wanting to go up to the stage to "go see them"

This was at Landa Park in New Braunfels. They have a little train that rides around the park. Carly liked that. After a couple days in San Antonio my parents followed us back to Houston for a couple days to visit.

We also drove by the Houston Temple. Carly wouldn't stop singing "Mary had a little lamb"

Carly had so much fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa, freese, and Craig. She's going to ask about them for the next month I'm sure!!