Our ward Christmas party

Here are some of Samuel's friends--an angel and three donkeys.
We had to keep Sam's cap on--that was the only way he would keep the donkey ears on. He was in "observation mode." There was so much going on with all the kids getting dressed up that he was content to sit in Audra's arms and watch all the action.
Here is a view of his costume from the back. I loved the little tail!
I know this is a terrible picture, but I had to post one of Sam's stage debut! He was the best donkey up there too, of course.
Sam didn't cry when I put him in Santa's lap...
But he also would not take his eyes off him.

We had such a fun time this year at our ward Christmas party! The primary put together a rough, chaotic but very cute nativity program for us all before we had dinner and then Santa cmae by after dessert. We love our ward so much. We have so many very close friends there so our ward activities are always much like a big family get-together.

bath time!

Samuel LOVES bath time, but I almost HATE giving him one. He makes such a mess and he cries when it's time to get out. PLUS since I only have the kitchen sink to bathe him in, that means the dishes have to be done before he can have a bath! Living in a trailer is so hard sometimes...

I'm always playing catch-up!

It seems like as soon as Thanksgiving is over there is a mad rush to get ready for Christmas. That was the case with me this year. BUT, I am ready now. The tree is up, the lights are hung, cards are sent out and gifts have been bought. SO NOW I can post the pictures I took at Thanksgiving...I know, I'm terrible.

We spent Thanksgiving in Indio, CA--at Jon and Tara's house. We had such a great time too. We got to see a lot of family because 4 out of the 8 brothers were there and Sam had plenty of cousins to play with.
The day after Thanksgiving we all went to a great little park by Allie's school and played around there. There was this great place for the kids to play and then this grassy area were all the adults got in a bunch of games of Kuub--that is what you see us all doing in the pictures.

As you can see, I am not very good at Kuub, but we all love that Scott and Ashlyn introduced us to the game.


And this was all Sam could do after our fun-filled-family-filled Thanksgiving. Thank you so much, Jon and Tara for beeing such good hosts. We loved spending the time in your home.

Halloween '09

We had such a fun Halloween this year! Halloween is so much more fun with kids! I had a dress up day with my parent participation class, our ward "Trunk-or-Treat, a free picture day down town San Luis, plus a party with our neighbors on Halloween night.
At our ward party, someone brought these fun picture opportunities! What a fun family picture for our family! I kinda looks like Sam is looking down at the keys...right?
Here is a picture of my crazy CTR 8 class. I teach 4 very fun girls every Sunday and they were nice enough is stand still for me long enough to get a group picture! This was taken at the trunk-or-treat.
Here is Sam trick or treat-ing. He wouldn't hold the bag so we had to make him wear it as a purse. He would walk up to the people giving out candy and then at the last minute turn away. He was such a tease.
Doesn't he just make the CUTEST Tigger?!?

Here is a slide show of our ward's trunk-or-treat. We had such a fun time!

Avila Valley Barn

I went on a field trip to Avila Valley Barn with my parent participation class back in October. We got to pick out a couple of pumpkins and go on a hay ride and there was a little kids hay bail maze. Sam seemed to have such a fun time. The group photo is of everyone in the class who came that day with our teacher Sally.

Sammy's tricks

Here is an old (a couple weeks old) video of Sam that shows off pretty much all of his tricks to date. He is so tickle-ish that it's pretty easy to get him to laugh. The clapping is new again. We wouldn't do it for awhile, but now he'll do it on demand. Then he'll climb on anything he can--uh-oh! Enjoy this happy video!

A demonstration of one of Sam's b-day presents

My mom sent Sammy some of those squeaky shoes for his birthday! I tried them right on. They fit perfectly and I LOVE the squeak! Thank you so much mom. The onesie he's wearing was made by my friend Amy. It has a 1 in the middle of the bat (which is glow in the dark) and on the back it says "you've had a birthday shout hurray." I love it!

Sammy turns 1!

I made the cupcakes, Mom Bigler provided the cute candles, and Kellie made the little snakes out of marzipan.



On Sunday while we were in Ojai for conference we had an early birthday party for Sam. I made cupcakes and I got some pictures of Sammy enjoying his. These turned out just like I wanted! We all sang happy birthday to him and I think he got that we were singing to him. At first Sammy didn't like the cupcake, because the frosting was sticking to his fingers, but then he got a taste and ate up all crumbs that he could pick up with his little fingers. Then after he enjoyed his cupcake, he went begging for cheesecake. I think he had a fun time.

Labor Day

We had such a fun Labor Day weekend! Scott and Ashlyn invited us to hang out with Ashlyn's family in Avila. But first, here is a picture of the brothers and their babies before church. Check out Sam's shoes, Mom. Do those look familiar?
On Labor Day we all played in the pool, walked around Avila, took a bike ride, (Just me and Ashlyn did that. We rode all the way from Jared's work to Avila Beach--a good 12 mile ride!) went out to dinner and just spent time with each other.
This is the pool at Ashlyn's parent's time-share. It had an awesome view of the water and the two piers in Avila.
Ashlyn took this fun picture of our family! Thanks so much, Ashlyn, for including us in your family time. We all had such a great time!
Here Jared is entertaining the two babies. He's so good at getting a laugh out of them. Are you wondering what he's doing here? So are Aubree and Sam, I'm sure.

Jared calls it "skiing"

Before Sammy could walk he taught himself how to ski. As you can see from the video, he'll just push something around on the floor. He uses anything he can get his hands on and that will slide around easily. Then he gets really frustrated when he gets caught up on a bump. Sometimes he'll even push something with both hands--whatever is available. And he entertains us and himself for a long time with it. It is so fun to watch!

Sammy's walking

I can't believe it, but Sammy is walking now! He gets more and more comfortable with it each day. He usually likes to be holding something in his hand, but he CAN do it without. Because Sam is so small and young people don't believe it when we tell them. The other day Jared and I took Sam to an Audubon meeting. This old lady, who first thought Sam was only 3 months, made me prove to her that he could walk. ANYWAY, Sam still prefers crawling because it gets him around faster, but I think he enjoys the smiles he gets when he walks.

5 YEARS!

On August 14th Jared and I had our 5 year wedding anniversary! And Jared had a pretty big surprise in store for me. He took me to Cambria to a place we went to on our honeymoon. To throw me off we drove north on the 101 and then came down to the 1 from the 46. There is a beautiful scenic stop on the way and we stopped to take some pictures. We found this already painted on the rock. It was a fun surprise for both of us to start the weekend off.
We brought Sammy along with us. He was such a good boy and we got lots of attention everywhere we went.
So we drove to Cambria and Jared took me to the same B & B we stayed at on our honeymoon. I was completely surprised! I love surprises and it was so great of Jared to make this so fun for me! The B & B was just how we remembered. We even had the same room. We went out to dinner in town at a very small place and that's where Sammy got all the attention. It was such a small place that it felt like we were having dinner with the whole room, so every time Samuel made a sound everyone seemed to look over and smile back at him. He's always such a crowd pleaser too!
The next day we spent in Cambria. We visited Camp Ocean Pines, where Jared used to work and then drove around some neighborhoods looking at all the cool "Cambria style" houses. Then we went and walked on Moonstone Beach and found some cool rocks to bring home with us. (Sorry Attie, no abalone this time.)
On our drive home Sammy was nice enough to let us take the scenic/long way home. We took a beautiful creek road home. Luckily there was a Linn's bakery that way so we stopped for some Ollaleyberry pie!
It was such a fun weekend. Jared planned such a special trip for me. I feel so luck to have been married to him these 5 years. As well as such a well planned, thoughtful weekend away, he got me another anniversary gift. I don't want to brag, so I'll just say it is so beautiful and sparkley! I can't wait to see what my 10 year anniversary gift will be! (just kidding, honey)

Bear Lake-August '09

I think Samuel was mostly scared of the boat--he always had to be holding on to something. In this picture it's the part of the ski rope that kept flapping in his face while to boat was going.
The water was pretty cold--here is grandma warming him up after he got in for the first time.
group picture--look at that glassy water behind us! We had some great weather while we were there.
This was a fun family picture. The Jared Bigler family doing something they love! Complete with matching wet suits--AAWWHH.
Sam did enjoy splashing, but only from the deck of the boat--he squealed when Jared put him all the way in.
Whoa! NICE cut Dad. Fifty-something and still looking strong!
Jared did good too. He almost jumped across the whole wake this time. You never would have known he'd been away from the sport for two years.
I thought this was a beautiful picture of out Bear Lake. Dad and Jared were going to get the boat out.
Sammy did his part too. When he wasn't sleeping in the boat he was our flag holder.

While we were in Utah at the beginning of August for Baylee's baptism, we also squeezed in a short trip to the lake! WOW--we had such a great time. Raul and Nicky and Olivia came up one day, but other than that it was just my family and my parents up there. So, we got the boat all to ourselves. Thanks Mom and Dad for showing us--especially Sammy--such a good time!