Our life

Colorado Springs--what a beauty!

2012-01-18T12:36:00.001-08:00

All the kids having a kiddy picnic--they got along so well!
Us kissing with 'kissing camels' in the back ground.

The perfect family picture spot. This one is frame-worthy, I think.
The whole gang in Pres. Charsley's home.
We just had the FUNNEST weekend in Colorado visiting the Ororio family. Cesar is one of Jared's old mission companions. They were companions for only 3 weeks in the MTC, yet Cesar is the only companion that Jared has kept in touch with. So, the Osorio family and the Bigler family have a lot in common--we were both married in the same year and our children were born within months of each other.
On this fun-filled, long weekend we went to the Colorado Springs Zoo. It has surpassed Santa Barbara as my favorite zoo. All the animals were so active and they had an amazing variety. Then we went to this fun little arcade in the old downtown are of Springs--it's what the natives call Colorado Springs. On Sunday, after church we went to Garden of the Gods. It's a beautiful state park with really neat rock formations all around. And it is HUGE--it seems everything in Springs is huge. We finished the visit off by visiting Jared and Cesar's old mission president and his family. He is from South Africa, but after the mission he moved back to Colorado Springs. So we looked him up and arranged a visit. And what a neat family! It was fun to sit around and hear all the reminiscing!
The drive out to Colorado was beautiful! But the drive home was dangerous!! We drove through a bad storm--we did a couple of 360's, on the freeway, no big deal. I am so glad we went, but I was even more glad that we were home safely!

San Luis Obispo county visit

2011-12-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

One of the days that we were in California visiting Jared's family, we took off to visit our old stomping grounds. We went by our old trailer, visited our former landlords, had lunch with some friends from our old ward at an old San Luis favorite (Firestone) and then drove out to Morro Bay--I needed some salt water taffy! Morro Bay is my 2nd favorite place on this earth! We went to The Rock and watched the tide go out along with some sea otters. We saw some hermit crabs, that Samuel was scared of. We even saw a sea gull catch an octopus!
Then in the evening we went to an Eagle Court of Honor. Two brothers who Jared had as scouts while he was Scoutmaster, were getting their Eagle and wanted Jared to be there. They asked Jared to be a part of the program and they even BOTH gave Jared their Mentor Pins. It was a very neat program and I'm so glad I got to see it. Jared got a little emotional when he was giving the Mentor Pins--I'm glad I got to see that too. It was obvious that he felt all those years of hard work and time spent on being a Scoutmaster had paid off in that one night. And he felt good about seeing the whole scouting experience through with these boys, from start to finish. While living in San Luis we became close with this family too, so, of course, it was so good to see them again. We really miss our friends from SLO and we miss the beauties there too.

Ojai hike

2011-12-15T08:58:00.001-08:00

One of the days that we were all in Ojai we decided to take a hike. It was an easy one so the kids could do it and it was so FUN!! It was nice to get outside and exercise as see the kids playing so well together and having a good time. We hiked along a creek and the kids--big and little--were crazy enough to get in. I waded in a little and the water was FREEZING! We hiked in, had lunch, and found a good swimming spot on the way out. Jared even found some fossils! Do you ever have those days that you would like to relive? Well, this was one of those days for me!

The Santa Barbara Zoo

2011-12-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Zoo is the best zoo I've been to! It's in a beautiful location and has an impressive facility with a wide variety of animals. We went there with some of Jared's family while we were visiting and a fun time was had by all!!! Sam's favorites were the elephants, penguins and the giraffe. Quinn seemed to really like the flamingos and the monkeys. I liked the bald eagle the best--I'm sure that was the favorite for Jared too, next to the California Condors. The kids and the dads took a train ride and we had lunch at this really neat park in the zoo. That green thing that Sam and his cousin are on was this big mound with astro-turf on it and the kids would slide down on cardboard pieces. Plus, no waiting in line, they would just pick a spot, sit down and slide. We all had such a fun day!!!

The beach in November!?!

2011-12-13T17:11:00.001-08:00

We went to California to visit Jared's family over Thanksgiving. We had such BEAUTIFUL weather! I had forgotten already, especially becasue when we left Vernal it was 20 degrees outside.
One of the days we were there we went to this great park on the beach. This slide was a huge hit with all the kids...
and the dads.
We didn't bring Quinny's swim trunks, but he really wanted to get in the water, so we improvised.

Sammy's new boots

2011-11-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

This made me laugh so hard! The funniest part was seeing him trying to get out of the boots.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

This year was our families fist experience with trick-or-treating. Sam's never been old enough before and we lived in a place where trick-or-treaters never come. SO, this year was sooooo fun! Jared took the boys around and I stayed home and handed out candy--I love that part of Halloween. Jared said that all Sam wanted to do was go inside peoples houses when they opened their door. A little awkward with people we didn't know, but they got through it.
Quinn the tiger. Sammy was Tigger when hs 1 year old, so Quinn is just following in his footsteps. Although Sam could also walk when he was Tigger.
And, here's Sammy, the dinosaur. He's grown so much in a year. He was this last year and it was huge on him. This year he barely fit into it!

This was such a fun Halloween for me! It's so cool that having kids let you be a kid again yourself!

Another day-off with Dad!

2011-11-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

The new visitor's center and Fossil Quarry just opened up in the Dinosaur National Monument State Park! It is a pretty great place to spend a day and the visitor's center was free to visit all during the month of October. SO, that's what we did last Saturday.

These pictures are from a short little driving tour we did of just a small portion of the Dinosaur National Monument State Park. It is beautiful country, hu? The river in some of the pictures is the Green River, and there's a boat ramp at this camp ground. Who wants to go river rafting on the Green River with us next summer?!?
These pictures are of the newly opened fossil quarry. This is an AMAZING new addition to the monument. It is incredible how many fossils are in this one huge slab of rock. Then they built this awesome viewing center around it so people can see the fossils up close.
Some of the bones they'll let you touch--it is very kid friendly.
Sam LOVED it and he was telling ANYONE who would listen that this was a dinosaur...
and what dinosaurs say. (if you zoom in he in "roar"-ing, complete with hand motions!)

Count down to Halloween

2011-11-01T14:25:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, Jared had a half day off of work so we went to this cute little Halloween park in Bleubell--a tiny town on the other side of Roosevelt.
There was a pumpkin patch...
a tractor...
a corn maze...(at night they do a haunted corn maze--it was scary enough in the day time)
a hayride...
here's Quinny's little pumpkin...
And some super fun picture opportunities! We had such a great time and since Jared had worked 16 of the last 18 days it was so nice to have an afternoon with him.
Jared careved the pumpkin while I baked the seeds. He did an awesome job...
As you can see.
The Halloween season is so much funner with kids!

random pictures of my boys

2011-10-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

They love smiling for the camera and they are such happy boys most of the time. And they play together well too--most of the time.
Quinn has a mouthful of teeth--6 with two more on the way. He is so close to walking. Right now it seems he just gets too tired to try and that crawling is so much easier. Yesterday he did his first sign--milk. He's getting so big, but sadly those chubby cheeks are fading away.
Sam is getting better and better everyday with obeying me. He'll help clean up his toys and he'll say sorry to Quinn when I tell him to. He's become very affectionate lately too. He say "love you" all the time and he's very generous with his hugs and kisses. Quinny gives kisses to if you ask him--they're nice big open-mouthers.
I sure love these guys!

11,750 ft

2011-10-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

Back in September me and my sister and our husbands climbed Mt Timpanogus. We started hiking at 2am so we could be on the top by sunrise. We made it with perfect timing too, as you can see in the pictures. I couldn't get the top two pictures to rotate but I had to include them because of the beautiful background!
Well, it was a very hard hike--a lot harder that I remember from the two other times I've done it. And it took us 12 hours to hike the 18 miles. BUT, the view from the top was so worth it. Then the next morning we looked out at the mountain we had climbed the day before and there was snow on it--talk about perfect timing there too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY!!!

2011-10-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it, my oldest is 3 YRS OLD!!! He turned 3 last week, but we had a party for him when my parents visited on the weekend.
We opened presents...
played with our new toys...(thank you so much everyone for the gifts!!)
then we needed a nap. Here is sammy with his new quilt from grandma sleeping in his new big boy bed from Mimi.
Then it was party time!! Me and my mom spent most of the morning making these cupcakes...
but they were a big hit. They tuened out so cute and it was fun making them too.

Here we are singing Happy Birthday to Sammy. When we all started singing he got this HUGE smile on his sweet little face. I think he knew this party was for him!
WOW, what a great day!

1 year old!!

2011-09-20T20:39:00.001-07:00

My baby is 1 year old today!!! He's not a baby anymore.

Over the weekend we had a birthday party for him at my parent's house. My sisters and their families were there, my Aunt Karen, as well as my uncle and aunt, some cousins and their families.

Here I am presenting Quinny with his birthday cupcake.
There were so many people there and we were all watching his every move, and he got really shy. He never got to dig into that yummy cupcake because he got stage fright--I had to rescue him from his highchair.
He did pretty good with opening his presents though.
PJs from Aunt Mandi...
shoes and cars from grandma and grandpa and Aunt Marci. He didn't mind all the help from his cousins.
I think he had a fun day. And he did get a little cake...see there is some left over on his chin.

Around town

2011-07-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some old shots from about 2 months ago. I just had to include this one of Quinny eating his sock.
We visited the temple grounds...

And the Dinosaur Museum in town. Sammy loved the museum and we loved hearing him go hoarse from "roar'-ing the whole time.
We we just love looking at this sweet face all day-every day!

Flaming Gorge

2011-07-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Here are my boys at Flaming Gorge.
It was sooooo BEAUTIFUL! I can easily say that it was breathtakingly beautiful!!!

We finally took a drive a few weeks ago out to Flaming Gorge. AND WOW....we had a great day. We were in awe at the beauty of this place. And we just scratched the surface of everything there was to see. We will be going back to see more of this amazing place--who wants to come with us?!?

Birthday present

2011-07-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

For my birthday I traded in my old sewing machine and got a NEW one. Well, it's used but it's new to me AND it works 10 times better than my old one. I love it and I have been using it a lot. If I had a little girl I would probably be sewing fluffy dresses and skirts, but I have been trying my hand at quilting. The table cloth was my first attempt and it is very flawed. But the messed up parts are against the wall so you can't seem them.
But, I LOVE how my pinwheel pillow turned out! My next project is going to be a quilt for our bed, YIKES! It's going to match this pillow and another pillow I am almost done with. I hope the quilt turns out as nice as my pillow.
The quilt in the middle picture is one my mom made for Jared for his birthday. She made it out of some of Jared's favorite T-shirts that I stole from him. I love how the quilt turned out and this is a way for Jared to keep using his precious T-shirts!

Grandma and Grandpa come to Vernal

2011-05-17T08:44:00.001-07:00

My parents visited last weekend and when they came they brought a whole truck-load of goodies for us.
With my mom, the master sewer, here I was able to finish the valance in Sam's room. I bought this material clear back in March. I still can't believe I sewed that piece of material into something decorative!
My parents gave us their old TV, including a remote that WORKS!
Their old bar stools look perfect in our kitchen!
And the best part...a new head board! It fits so well in our room and their are drawers and cupboards to put things in and even reading lights so I can read in bed without having to get up to turn the light off. And my mom designed the picture collage in the middle. I LOVE how it turned out.
THANK YOU so much, Mom and Dad, for coming to visit. We all loved having you hear! All day yesterday Sam was going around the house shouting, "grama, whereareyou?"

Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery

2011-04-19T07:53:00.001-07:00

On Saturday the whole family went on an adventure. We heard about a hike at the fish hatchery from someone in our ward but we weren't sure how to get there. We took a couple of wrong turns and ran into one big road hazard, but we made it. AND it was so worth it! WOW what beautiful scenery we saw--the pictures really don't do it justice.
So, here is the story:
We had just started our drive and we see THIS way down the road. "Are those cows?" I say. We waited for awhile and then we got aggressive. I caught the attention of one of the wranglers. She was a little old woman driving what looked like an all-terrain golf cart. I asked here if there was any way we could get through and she says, "Follow me. I'll getcha through, but ya gotta stay close."
So we followed her while she parted the sea of cows. She was AMAZING. She just got up behind the cows and they moved for her--if they didn't move, she had no problem bumping them a little.
There she is, in action. It was kinda scary, but we made it through the thick of it, then she waved us by and we were through the weirdest road hazard ever.
Here we are at the fish hatchery. Behind me and to my right are just some of the tanks that were there and all of them were FULL of hundreds of little trout. They would even jump up out of the water when we would come near. Sammy loved it!
Behind us is the Jones Hole Creek. The fish are released into the creek and then the creek flows into the Green River.
Here is Sammy--we caught him in the middle of his signature dance move. It must be a rain dance because later on the hike we got rained on.
Aren't there views incredible! Sammy learned the word "amazing" and he said in many times that day. We also heard lots of "WHOA's" and "rock."
This one is out of order and it's not that great of a picture, but it was the only one we had of the fish in the tanks.

Some of the hike, and this meadow in particular, reminded Jared of a scene in "Lord of the Rings." Once he mentioned that I could hear the music in my head. And here is our little elf guide.
Jared and Sammy taking a break on a nice rock "lounger."
Me and Quinny next to the Jones Hole Creek. We stopped to let Sammy play in the creek and I let Quinn sit in the grass and he loved it. He liked just pulling at it and surprisingly none of it made it into his mouth!
We saw this on the hike. It is the kind of cactus Jared has been surveying for at work all week!
We had such a great time--this hike was the perfect place to spend a Saturday. So, if anyone wants to come visit us, we would love to go back there and be your guide. We didn't make it because it started raining, but there is a waterfall that we would love to go back and see.

Cancun, Mexico March, 2011

2011-03-29T10:08:00.001-07:00

While Jared's mom was watching Sam and Quinn, me and Jared went to Cancun for 6 days with my parents, my sisters and their husbands. We had sooooooooo much fun. These pictures are just a few of my favorite shots. We stayed at this beautiful resort, ate excellent food, relaxed by the pool, and did some super fun activities. The last day we were there we spent at this AWESOME park: Xplor. We zip-lined through the trees and swam in underground rivers and drove through the jungle in our own ATV. That was the highlight of the trip for me.

Our last days in San Luis

2011-03-24T09:06:00.001-07:00

We went to Pismo Beach "one last time" to see the butterflies and to gaze at the ocean "one last time." I know we'll be back again to visit this beautiful part of the coast and to see our friends, but that day, it felt like we were leaving forever.

These shots were our sad attempt at getting a family photo on the beach--our kids weren't cooperating!

Our last days in San Luis

2011-03-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

Before we left, and while Jared had time off work while he was in between jobs we took advantage of the time and did this hike that we always wanted to do. Jared had taken this trail many times on his bike, and finally I got to experience it. It's trail trail just off of the North bound side of the 101, at the top of the grade. It was beautiful and a great work out!

It took me a lot of pictures to finally get this shot, Sam kept looking back at me. The one time I didn't want him to look, he looks...I thought it looked cute with my husband pushing the stroller with his little buddy right next to him!

Quinn's new space

2011-03-21T10:11:00.001-07:00

Peek-a-boo...
I see you
Good morning mommy!
I think Quinn likes his own room and a bigger bed to sleep in.

Out of the Old...

2011-03-21T09:58:00.001-07:00

We lived like this for about a week...walking around packed boxes. Once the boxes were packed we had no where to put them.
This was Sammy's room.
Here is Jared cleaning the windows. Our desk used to be in that corner.
Our kitchen was actually pretty big. And it looks even bigger being clean with the counters cleared off.
Here is where we spent our last night in our trailer on Hawk Hill Lane. We will miss it so much! We will miss our neighbors and our beautiful surroundings and our ward family. But we are off to bigger and (hopefully) better things!

in to the New

2011-03-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

The living room. So much space...I just don't know what to do with it all.
The kitchen, and I'm standing in the dinning area taking the picture. Even with boxes right in the middle of the floor, there is A LOT of room!!! That door in the upper left of this picture...a pantry!!! I think that might be my favorite part of the house.
Sam's new room. I love all of the natural light coming in.
Quinn's room. YES! He gets his own room now. He was sharing our room in our old place. You can't tell in this picture, but the walls in here are a pretty, orange/brown color.
The Master bedroom! It's so big, you can dance in it...even with our bed and desk in there. There is also a Master bathroom and a walk-in closet.
The guest bathroom. Complete with a...
BATHTUB!!!! I am going to have much cleaner boys now because they both LOVE taking a bath. And I love giving them a bath!

update, FINALLY!!!

2011-03-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

We moved!!! Our family of four got too big for the tiny trailer we were living in and Jared found a great job opportunity in Vernal, UT. Our many, many prayers were answered and we moved from beautiful San Luis Obispo to cold, COLD Vernal at the end of February. Jared had a week of unemployment so we could settle in to our new house and then he started his new job on March 7th. THEN me and Jared, along with my parent, my sisters and their husbands, went to Cancun, Mexico for a week! It was great!!!! (Jared's saintly mother watched Sam and Quinn for us.) And now we're finally getting back to a regular schedule. Life has slowed down enough for me to update the blog. So in the next few posts are some pictures of the last exciting, busy, whirl-wind month!

The Bumbo

2011-01-05T16:57:00.001-08:00

I have been waiting for Quinn to be holding his head well enough to sit in his Bumbo. And today was the day! It was a big hit with both boys.

Getting both boys to smile on cue took awhile, plus my camera is just really slow. But I finally got some that I just LOVE.
But now Sam thinks the Bumbo is HIS toy. He gets mad whenever I put Quinn in it now.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T15:22:00.001-08:00

We had such a FUN Christmas! We spent 6 FUN-filled days with Jared's family. Both going out or staying in--we had a GREAT time!!! It was especially nice to see Sammy play with his cousins--he has so many that are his age.
Some of us met one day at a park. Sammy, of course found a puddle (we've been having a lot of rain lately) and went swimming--really. He got wet from HEAD to TOE.
Jared took off his wet cloths and Sammy just kept on playing.
Thankfully, Aubree lent Sam her jacket.
This was a before-the-puddle shot on the walk to the park.
Christmas day. I am so proud of this shot. It's hard to get Sammy to smile for the camera. But all I did was say "SMILE!" and Sammy just started laughing.
Quinny got this toy in his stocking.
Aubree and Sammy very engaged in the show they were watching.
Here's chubby Quinn in his Christmas PJ's. I don't have one of Sammy because he got his dirty right away.

This was taken later on in the week. I loved seeing these guys playing together. They got along great--for the first few hours, but it was always a fun few hours.
Here's handsome Quinn. Thanks Baylee for giving him this outfit. The tie wouldn't fit because Quinn has too many chins to button the top button.
Here are my beautiful boys all ready for church. Quinn was being more cooperative for this shot than Sam. Sam had all the new toys to play with!
We had such a fun Christmas. It was nice to see everyone, but we missed those who couldn't make it.

So, Jared gets a bean bag for Christmas and I get...

2011-01-03T14:44:00.001-08:00

THIS!!!
Yep, Jared got me a car for Christmas!!! We've been talking about getting a new car for awhile because our current family car was going downhill fast. So, it was really a gift for us all, it was just really great timing to surprise me on Christmas morning. The real surprise was HOW NICE of a car Jared got!!! It's practically brand new and has so many fun features!
We had a great Christmas. Some more pictures of the kids a re coming soon!

A white Christmas?

2011-01-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

For Christmas my mom bought Jared some new filling for his "precious" bean bag. Jared loves his bean bag but I've been wanting to throw it away for the longest time because it just wasn't comfortable! So my mom got him a very nice gift. Before we could put in the new stuffing we had to take out some of the old "stuffing." So it looks like it SNOWED in our house. Sam LOVED playing in the "snow," he was actually swimming in it. So, it was a HUGE pain , but...
it's a comfortable seat again! But, we're still finding little snow pieces EVERYWHERE in our house. And I'm sure we'll still be finding them next Christmas.

Thanksgiving weekend

2010-12-08T11:23:00.000-08:00

We were in Utah for Thanksgiving this year, and we had SUCH a NICE TIME! There was a lot of snow for us to play in. I thought it looked beautiful, but Sam didn't like playing in it this time. Jared liked the workout he got while shoveling it though.

Here's my boys with Marci's kids. Everyone LOVED getting their picture taken with little Quinny!
Baylee MADE Quinn's hat. I love it and it looks like Quinn loves it too. Thanks Baylee!
There was a lot of movie watching at grandma and grandpa's house. Sam loved the company too.
Dad was the BEST one at getting Quinn to calm down or fall asleep. Awh...sooooo cute!
We blessed Quinn in my parent's ward on the 28th. It was so nice to have so much family come to be there! It was a SNOWY day so it meant even more that everyone braved the icy roads. It was such a nice day, and a fun party after church with good food and good company. Thank you everyone for coming! (I love how Sam is playing with my hair in this picture)
Here is the man of the day. He was so calm during his blessing. Jared was able to take his time and he really gave Quinn such a beautiful blessing.
A family picture. What handsome boys I have!!!

Trunk or Treat

2010-11-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

I had such a good time at our ward's Trunk or Treat this year! Sam did better too--he would actually walk up to people who were offering him candy. He didn't get it last year. (Sam and Jared are in this picture. Look for the bright green spot at the front of the room.)
After everyone was done outside, we all came in to the cultural hall and watched the "parade."
They were playing the song "Ghost Busters" and Sam loves to dance when there's music playing, so these pictures are of him dancing.
It shows that he was having such a good time! I was having a GREAT time watching my husband parade my dancing child around the room, while dancing to the music himself. I love that Jared didn't care who was watching--he was going to dance with his son! What a good dad!!!
These pictures are of my Primary class. Here's cute Little Red Ridding-Hood.
Here's a scary Zombie--YIKES!
Here's a beautiful Greek goddess.
And here's the pretty green M&M--love the boots!
Quinn was a hit in his bat costume! A lot of people were surprised I could find a real costume that small. Thanks, mom for sending it. He was so snug in this little fleece romper!
And here is my little dinosaur. Sam even had the sound effects down. He was growling at everybody! He is such a fun little guy!

My boys

2010-10-26T16:33:00.001-07:00

My friend, Amy, made these shirts for my boys--aren't they so cute?!? (the shirts and the kids) Finally Quinn fits into his. I never got to let Amy see them wearing these shirts, so hopefully she sees this post.
Looking at this last picture is interesting to me. I don't see any family resemblance between the two. Neither do I see any of me or Jared in them. Oh well.

Quinn @ 2 weeks old

2010-10-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Here you go Marci and Mandi
My sisters have been requesting MORE pictures of the new baby. He's 2 weeks in these pictures, but he's 5 weeks today--what a difference 3 weeks makes! I think he's a little over 8 lbs in these pictures, but now he is over 10lbs! AND he no longer just zonks out anywhere--I actually have to work to get him to sleep now!

Sammy's 2nd B-day

2010-10-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun day!!! Thank goodness my mom was visiting. Because of her we were able to throw Sammy a pretty great party. I really think that he knew it was all for him, and I think he had a happy birthday.

Hear he is--Quinn Albert Bigler

2010-10-25T12:47:00.001-07:00

Our first family picture!
Here is Sammy holding his little brother--his VERY little brother!
Such a proud daddy!
What a sweet, peaceful, perfect face!
All that hard work was worth it though.
They say the labor and delivery is hard for your first, easy for your second and unpredictable the third time. Well, not so for me. It was definitely harder with Quinn. I'll skip all the gory details, but he was 7 lbs, 6 oz--very small to me. Thankfully though, a month later he's now over 10 lbs! He doesn't contribute much to the family now, since he sleeps most of the time, but he sure is cute to look at. We love him and we know how lucky we are to have a healthy baby!

WAY behind

2010-10-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I haven't blogged for a month! Only a month has past?!? So much has happened in that month. First I had a baby, then my first baby turned two!! We've had so much family come to see us and we've traveled to see family--a lot of fun, and had work, has been crammed into one month. Stay tuned for the pictures.

Bear Lake 2010

2010-09-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged these pictures yet!! Jared, Sam and me went to Utah in August to visit my family. One of the weeks we were there we spent at Bear Lake--my favorite place on earth! Here are some pictures of our time there. My parents and my sisters and their family came and it was sooo fun spending time there with them.

Bear Lake is my favorite place on earth because I have so many precious memories from that place. My family has been going there since my oldest sister was a baby. We are so lucky to have that place and I am so happy that MY kids, now, get to experience it.

Beach day

2010-07-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went down to Ojai again. Jared's aunt and cousin from Ohio were visiting. We went to the beach on Saturday and had such a good time! We had a barbecue lunch and then moved down to the water. Sam thought it was too cold to get in, but he did have a good time playing in the sand with his cousins. Jared and Scott were the only ones to get in. The waves were HUGE and it was fun just to watch them play in them.

A few random shots

2010-07-26T16:04:00.001-07:00

Here is Sam on the site of one of Jared's projects in Santa Maria. We stopped by on one of our trips down to Ojai. Sam loved the hard hat but didn't like the vest so much.

And here is Jared teaching Sam to do the dishes. I think he really liked seeing what it is that we are doing when we stand in this one place for so long all the time. And Sam's not wearing any pants because they had just come in from watering the plants and the garden outside. Sam loves helping with that chore because he loves playing in the water. He usually gets wet from head to toe, but this day he had actually climbed into the water bucket.

SURPRISE!

2010-06-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

I have a wonderful husband who threw me a surprise birthday party on June 19th. He was going to play at the park with Sam while I ran some errands. So we got to the park and Jared suggested I come and play for awhile. Lucky for him I was agreeable to that suggestion. So we were walking to the play area and we saw a big group of people who yelled "SURPRISE!" And I was so surprised! So we barbecued burgers, ate cake, played games and I went around hugging all the people that came! I was so happy to find all those people came to make me happy. There were friends from my ward there, my family from San Jose and Jared's family from Ventura county--I was flattered that so many would drive so far to wish me a happy birthday. And a little bit shocked that my husband could pull it all off without me finding out! So here are some pictures from the party.
Thanks Amy for taking pictures and for decorating those incredible cakes. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family! And I know that there were others who wanted to be there but couldn't. Thank you all for thinking of me. I LOVE YOU!!!

Sammy's new look

2010-05-11T20:10:00.001-07:00

The before shot. (What a sweet face!)

The after shots.
It was time to cut Sammy's hair again. We know it's time when we start getting compliments on how cute our daughter is. So Sunday was the day. It was a team effort. Jared held Sammy on his lap while I cut. Sam was a little scared, I think--more scared this time that the first time. But, I'm glad we did it and that it's over. I NEED PRACTICE though! Now that several days have gone by I am seeing so many flaws in my work, but I'm afraid I'll just make it worse by trying to fix it. The uneven hair cut makes Sam look a little goofy, but really it just adds to his cuteness.

Sammy being Sammy

2010-05-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

We got out the camera because Sammy was looking at the magazine and talking his little Sam language (my neighbor calls it "Sam-iese"), but as soon as he was on camera he stopped doing that and started screaming at the magazine. We got a little of his "jibber-jabber" on film, at least.

Sam the deep sea diver

2010-05-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sam has a toy drum that he likes to empty out and put over his head. He thinks it's the funniest thing. AND when he has it on he'll give us kisses through the clear plastic and try to put things in his mouth. It is so funny and sweet. Me and Jared think he looks like one of those old divers or an astronaut.

Wildflowers of SLO County-the movies

2010-05-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun day!

The Wildflowers of SLO County '10

2010-05-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we all drove to eastern San Luis county to check out all the wildflowers. This winter was especially wet so we saw quite a show! These pictures really don't do it justice! The flowers were so beautiful! The last stop we made had a creek and Sam LOVED getting his feet wet and splashing around. So eventually he got all of himself wet! We got some cute video of him in the creek. I'll try to post them later.

Another beautiful hike!

2010-04-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of yet another beautiful hike that we took. This one is literally in our own backyard--our house is just down that hill behind us.
This is the same hilltop, different view. We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful area, but this has been a particularly lucky, beautiful year because we've gotten a lot of rain.
Samuel got the best view though from way up there!

The Santa Barbara Zoo

2010-04-13T15:02:00.001-07:00

Sam liked the gorilla, but the gorilla didn't like him. Sam was being too loud for the gorilla's liking--he was covering his face the whole time. Sam just liked the sound of his voice echoing in the empty glass room.
It was also nice to have the room to ourselves so both the kids could be as loud as they wanted--sorry gorillas.
The giraffes were entertaining too. The little one kept chasing the cranes around--it looked so graceful when it ran. They looked like very happy animals! I'd be happy too if I had that view of the ocean all the time too!
This was taken just after lunch. We had a couple of happy and well behaved kids with us--luckily.
It was a great day!
Me and Ashlyn took our kids to the zoo on Friday. I spent the weekend down there while our husbands were off kayaking on Santa Cruz Island. We were at the zoo right when it opened so we beat the crowd. We were even alone most of the time so we could let the kids walk around instead of being stuck in the stroller the whole time. The Santa Barbara Zoo is so beautiful! It is the best zoo I've been to--not too big, lots of animals and a variety, inexpensive, and beautiful grounds.
Thanks Ashlyn! We had such a fun time with you and Aubree--and thanks for the pictures!

fashion statement

2010-03-31T13:04:00.001-07:00

This is the way Sam prefers to wear his long sleeved shirts. I think it's gonna catch on.

Why is Sam so excited?

2010-03-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

Sam is dancing because he's so excited about being a big brother!!!
Yep, I'm pregnant! My due date is September 22 and I'm feeling pretty great, lately. The morning sickness portion of my pregnancy seems to be over and I'm even beginning to show a little. All three of us are very excited, although Samuel has no idea of what is going to happen--poor guy.

A lovely weekend with Grandma & Grandpa

2010-03-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

Lat weekend my parents came to visit! I was so grateful because it was so NICE to see them. It was so short, but we had such a great time. This is a picture of a little walk we went on. It's across the street from the lagoon in Pismo--right by one of MANY campgrounds in Pismo.

We also walked on the boardwalk in Pismo. Then we walked out on the beach and collected sea shells and rocks. AND it was a miracle that the weather was so nice. We went out to lunch at the Rock and Roll diner in Oceano (the one that's made out of two train cars) and it was then that it started raining. We had another nice day together on Sunday before I had to take them back to the airport. It was sad that their visit was so short, but we DID have a lot of fun with the time that we had. Thank you so much for coming to visit us, Mom and Dad. We love you so much!!! (Oh, and from the snail video, Sammy ended up squishing the snail and then wiping it all over his shirt. He is such a boy!)

Park Day!

2010-03-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Every Friday some ladies from church meet at the park. I've never been until now. I don't know why, because Sam LOVED it! Look at all the fun he had!

Johnson Ranch hike

2010-03-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

Lately Jared has had a different work schedule. He goes to work so early that it has allowed him to take a day off in the middle of the week. So, on a sunny day we took advantage of his day off and went on a hike that our neighbor suggested.
It's called Johnson Ranch and it was a good almost 3 mile hike.
We let Sam out of the ergo for a bit so he could stretch his legs. He is so funny! He doesn't like walking uphill very much. So if the slope gets too much he'll just turn around and go back down the hill. If we let him walk the whole time we would never get anywhere. But he's fine, most of the time, riding on his dad's back.
He still loves being outside and Jared likes to show him all the snakes and lizards that we find. It is always so nice to show Sammy our beautiful world!

Snow day!!

2010-02-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

On Saturday Jared, Sam and I went with the youth in our ward to the Sierras to play in the snow. (Sam looked so cute all bundled up) It was an....interesting day. But we did have a good time in the snow. First, it was a 4 hour drive, but the ride home was even longer because it snowed the whole day which made the roads more treacherous on the way down.
It was beautiful up there--all the pine trees that were both moss covered and snow covered! Sam loved all the room he had to walk around in. He got mad when he would fall down on the hill, so he spent most of the day walking around in the parking lot--leaving cute, little footprints everywhere he went.
Jared only went down the hill twice--once on his own and once with Sam. Sam didn't love it--it was just so cold with the cold wind in their face along with the snow--it wasn't all that fun. It was pretty funny watching the youth going down the hills though--going over jumps and then wiping out at the bottom. I don't think there were any injuries, but some of the wipe outs looked hilarious--I mean painful.
This is father and son at the bottom--it was really easy to get a still shot because they never got going very fast. The girl above Jared (Kate) pretty much had to push them the whole way.
Here is one last shot of Sam in his snow cloths.
So, the ride home was the interesting part. We had to put chains on the van we borrowed on the way up the mountain. We didn't need them on the way up, but thank goodness we had them for the drive down! There was one spot where we fish-tailed a little BUT then, going around one corner we did a complete 360! I was scared, but Jared kept his cool! He started slowing down going into the turn which cause the tires to slip. His first instinct was to push the brakes which is what sent us into the spin, but then he remembered what you actually SHOULD do in this situation which is push the gas. He did that and had control again--PHEW. Sam never knew what was going on because he was watching his movie, but the brother and sister that we were driving back home had opposite reactions. The boy (Greyson) goes "that was Awesome!" While his sister (Reagan) said "I think I'm going to throw up." She didn't and we made it home safely. We were lucky. So, that was our weekend!

Disneyland 2010

2010-01-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago me, Jared, Sam and Jared's mom went to Disneyland! Our season passes expire in February so we wanted to used them again while we could. We were able to go two days in a row and we had such a great time!!! We couldn't have done it without Jared's mom coming along because she was so willing to watch Sam while we went on all the big rides. Sammy only made it through a couple of lines--he hated having to stand in one place. So we spent a lot of time in the several playgrounds around the parks. Sam was wearing his squeeky shoes both days and we got so many comments and amazed looks from people walking by. So many people had never seen (or heard) anything like them. A couple of moms stopped us to ask us where we got them. It was fun to watch peoples faces as we walked by. Oh we had such a good time. I want to go back so bad, but Jared is burned out on Disneyland--sad.

lots of "1st-s" over the holiday

2010-01-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

Sammy has a few first-s while we were in Utah for Christmas. His first haircut--this is the before:
And this is the after. My mom cut it and she did such a good job! He looks like such a little boy now. I was a little sad to have his hair cut, but maybe now we'll stop getting comments like "your daughter is so cute."
Also, Sammy played in the snow for the fist time in his life!
Jared took all the kids who wanted to outside and they made a snow pyramid. Sammy has always loved being outside so he loved the snow too.

Here are some more pictures of the hair cut. I just held Sam and gave him juice while my mom cut so that Samuel wouldn't know what she was doing back there. It seemed to work great.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

Jared, Sam and I spent this Christmas in Utah with my family. We were all together and we had such a GREAT time. We were there for a good 10 days...BUT we had to drive. Luckily Jared's mom gave us an early Christmas present--a portable DVD player! So Sam did great on both drives. We had such fun and we got to see so much family--both mine and Jared's.

Our ward Christmas party

2009-12-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T13:30:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-29T15:17:00.001-07:00

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"

2009-09-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

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!

Samuel has become a bad sleeper!

2009-08-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

From about two months Samuel was sleeping through the night and napping normally, but now and for the last month or so he has become more and more interested in what I am doing. He doesn't want to miss a thing, so he doesn't nap well and hasn't slept through the night in A LONG time! I've tried a couple of things, but they only work for a few days. I shouldn't complain though, because at least he is a happy guy when he is awake. Here are a couple of old pictures of the funny ways we would find that he had fallen asleep.

A day at the beach

2009-07-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from a whilr back--from the end of May. But they are so cute I HAD to blog them. Ashlyn took them all when she showed Sam and me around Ventura. First we went to a small farmers market. Then she took us thrift store shopping. Here we are outside the store. Sam wasn't that interested.
Then we went to the beach and just watched the waves and the surfers for a while.
Sam was having such a good time! He loves the beach, evidently.
Ashlyn and I were getting a lot of attention with our babies. One cute baby is good, but two is better. People were stopping us to say hi to our cute little ones. Most people thought they were twins, even though there were two moms and we were each holding one baby and Aubree is so much smaller than Sam. Oh, well, it was fun to get the attention. The perfect stranger who took THIS picture somehow got the biggest smile out of Sam I have ever seen!
After all that excitement they were pooped so we had a nice quite lunch and drive back to Ojai! Thanks Ashlyn and Aubree for showing us such a good time.

4th of July/Jared's birthday!

2009-07-15T12:33:00.001-07:00

We had a really great 4th of July this year. We spent it in Ojai with Jared's family. We went to the Ojai parade, then went to Steven's baptism (Jared got to baptize Steven and I gave a talk) then we had a barbecue for Jared's birthday. Sam really liked the parade with so many interesting things to look at.
He's very patriotic! He loves his flag
We went to the parade with Kris, Austin and Steven.
WHAT A SWEET FACE!
After the barbecue Ashlyn had such a good idea! We just laid out black plastic and made a slip-n-slide! It was super fun to watch AND fun to play on.
There's Jared doing his swan slide--so graceful!
This was my favorite picture of the day! I got a couple of great video too, but I can't figure out how to get it to post.

Clark and Shannon's wedding

2009-06-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

One week later, Clark and Shannon got married in St. George. This was a fun trip for me because I was able to see my parents! Jared and I didn't think Sam would tolerate the drive to Utah, so we flew to Vegas, stayed a night in the Paris Hotel, and then drove to St. George. My parents hadn't seen Sam since February so it was so nice that they drove south to see us! We had such a great time shopping, swimming at the hotels, eating out and of course attending the temple and the wedding.

Memorial Day

2009-06-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Memorial Day this year! Jared, Sam and I were in Ojai for Kevin's wedding and so was the rest of the Bigler family. It all started with a brisk 5k walk. Jared's old stake has an annual 5k run every Memorial Day. I entered Sam and me in the stroller division. We were just there for the company though. So the girls all walked while the boys played basketball. Then a freind of the Bigler's invited the WHOLE crew over for a pool party. That was my favorite part of the day. We had so much fun playing in the water, jumping off the diving board, playing Marco Polo and then relaxing in the hot tub. Having all the Bigler boys in there made it overflow--it was great. Then we went and spent some time at Mondo's beach in Ventura. We watched the surfers, played frisbee and dipped our feet in the ocean--it was too cold to get in. WOW we had such a fun day!

Kevin & Becca

2009-06-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Kevin and Becca were married May 23 in Ojai. The ceremony was beautiful, the weather was perfect, the food was great, and the reception afterward was so fun! And the newlyweds looked so happy! BECCA looked lovely. You can't tell in this picture, but she had two little white flowers in her hair.

Here's Jared in his tux escorting his bridesmaid after the ceremony. There were 7 bridesmaids and 7 groomsmen--it's a good thing the gazebo was so big!
Here's Aunt Peggy holding Sam. She hardly let go of him all night! Sam loved playing with her necklace so much I think he was even dreaming about it!
The Bigler home in Ojai was full to the brim so me and Jared got to stay with Scott and Ashlyn in their apartment in Ventura. It was nice to be in a quite, less busy place and our kids get a long so well!
And Samuel was loving all the room to move around in!

he's pooped!

2009-05-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures just after we had come in from a walk, and he had been scootin' around all over and prcticing sitting up. Sam rarely just falls asleep like this. A nice thing about him being so active all day long is that he does nap better!

He's sitting up so GOOD!

2009-05-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

I love watching him just sit there. I'm so used to seeing him look up at me from his stomache. I'm sure he likes the new view too. By-the-way, the shirt he has on says "Daddy's li'l birdwatcher." My neighbor/friend, Amy made it for him.

crawling? not quite

2009-05-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Sam just tries all day long to crawl these days--he doesn't have the arm strength quite yet, but he does go in a forward motion. He gets up on all fours and rocks for a bit, then he face plants, and then starts all over. He spends a lot of time in the 'down dog' position too. He's my little yoga baby and is going to have awesome core strength after he's learned to crawl. It is so fun to watch him do new things!

Sammy @ 6 months

2009-05-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

My friend Kiwi took these pictures in her front room! Can you believe it?!? I LOVE how they turned out! There are a lot of pictures, that's why there are two slide shows—enjoy!

Sammy @ 6 months more

2009-05-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hair

2009-04-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sam sweats a lot when he sleeps. The other day Sam fell asleep in my arms so I got to play with his hair.
It got all sweaty so I played with it. See how it's sticking up? He's got enough now to style!
Look how long my hair has gotten! It's way too long. Sam it always grabbing it and my hair is everywhere in the bathroom, clogging the sink and I'm constantly picking it off of things. It was driving me crazy!!!
So I cut it all off! All 13 inches! I donated the braid to Locks of Love. It is super easy to do now and Jared even likes the style.
It was fun to shock everyone at church. Some of the primary kids even commented on it.

WHAT A HIKE!

2009-04-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

On the 17th Jared and I went on a hike with some friends of ours from church--the Spencers. It's fun spending time with this family because they have a son that is just three weeks younger than Sam. This hike was HARD! But the guys were man enough to carry the kids the whole time--so that was nice. I like to think of us as adventurous and not crazy for taking our 6 month old on this hike. BUT, as you can see, it sure was a beautiful trail.

Hanging out with Daddy

2009-04-23T10:05:00.001-07:00

Jared was trying to watch the TV and hold Sam at the same time. This was the only position that worked. Sam gets so squirmy and when you don't let me squirm around he gets mad. So he squirmed right up on to Daddy's shoulders and was content to play with Daddy's hair until the end of the show.

He loves his jumper!

2009-04-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

THANKS MOM AND DAD for this thing! He loves it so much. And he has even learned to swivel around to see all the toys.

More News!

2009-04-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last week was such an eventful week for Sam. He got a new jumper, a new room and... a new tooth! It is his bottom left front tooth. It cut through on Saturday afternoon--poor guy. He has nor been a happy guy for the last week, and I'm afraid it's not going to be over soon. The right tooth doesn't look far behind.
"Please, no pictures!" said Sam.

Sam's new room

2009-04-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

While Jared's mom was here for Easter she helped me put up Sam's crib and re-arrange his room.
Having the crib up lets me put things under it so it really cleared and opened up the room. I wasn't expecting that.
I wanted to take pictures to remember this moment in his life--his first night in his crib!
The the next morning--he slept through the night, so he must like it. He is such a good boy.

Happy Easter Sam!

2009-04-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

My parents gave this to Sam for Easter. It is actually a gift for me too because my arms were getting super tired from helping Sam jump in my lap. It is such a fun toy!
Sam loves it! And he knew just what to do when we first put him in it.
The rainbow behind him is his favorite toy (the seat swivels) but this part lights up and makes music and animal sounds.
He just goes crazy in it. We saw him just look back and forth between the toys. He was probably thinking "so many toys--where do I start?" THANKS MOM and DAD! We love you

two random cute pictures

2009-04-14T10:10:00.001-07:00

No reason, we just wanted to take some pictures of Sam. This is the closest we could get to a smile when the camera is out. He usually just gets this spacey look on his face--wondering what this thing is that we keep putting in his face. You've all seen that face.

Our little merman

2009-03-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning when I went in to get Sam up, I got him all un-swaddled and found this. Somehow, even though he was all wrapped up in blankets, he managed to put both of his legs in on of the legs of his PJ's. What a silly guy!

Peas--not his favorite

2009-03-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Here is Sam--all happy to be eating. He does like to eat, and the rice wasn't so bad. I told him he was gonna get something new.
He tries it....
This face explains his feelings perfectly!
Here, Mommy, you can have it back. (I tasted the peas too, and I don't blame him)

Sunday best

2009-03-10T10:29:00.001-07:00

Here is Sam in his Sunday best. My friend Alison, sent me this outfit. And it's such a crowd please-er. He always gets a ton on compliments--more than usual--on how cute he is! And the socks are still a big hit too.
Some new things that Sam is doing now, (now that he is 5 months!) are: he has mastered the roll. He's very comfortable rolling from back to front, but if he gets mad enough on his tummy, he'll roll back to his back. He's always pulling his socks off. Maybe he likes the taste of his toes better without the socks on. And he's a big talker too. He has had a cold this last week and his voice got a little horse, which made him sound even cuter when he would talk. Oh, yeah--Sam is eating solids now too. I have some pictures to post of his first time too. He's just had rice cereal, but I don't think he likes it that much. But he did great with that, so lucky for Sam, it's time to try some vegetables. I can't wait to see THAT reaction.

DISNEYLAND!!! (more pics)

2009-02-25T09:26:00.001-08:00

What a sweet face! Here he is in his first Mickey hat again. Jared held Sam a lot in the Snugglie and he did really well--he's such a good baby!
Here we are outside the Winnie the Pooh ride. Sam liked this one too. There was also a YUMMY bakery outside that ride where I got a chocolate and honey covered rice crispie treat!
Where's Attie!?! She really is in this picture. She's driving. This was in California Adventure in the Bug's Life park. It was so cute in that section of the park. This is a picture of the bumper cars. Most everyone just got stuck in the middle of the floor, not going anywhere because there were too many drivers for how small the space was. It was very entertaining to watch though.
He's bushed! Thanks everyone for watching Sam so Jared and I could go on some big kids rides! Dad was always so willing and when we would get off a ride I would find Sam in Dad's care, sleeping soundly.
Here's Sam in his Disneyland outfit that Mom gave him for Christmas. The first day, all the kids wore their Disneyland merchandise--we were a good-looking group!

DISNEYLAND!!!

2009-02-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

We all (the whole Williams family) had three fun-filled days at Disneyland! We had beautiful weather the whole time, all the kids we safe and I think we all had so much fun. Here are a few of my favorites. I'm not a big picture taker so I didn't have a lot. BUT, my sister, Marci, who is a much better blogger than me, DOES take a lot of pictures. She's on my list of freinds and family blogs, so if you'd like to see more, click on her name.
The Bigler's outside Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Sam really liked this one! He actually did reall good on all the rides that he could go on. His eyes were wide open, taking everything in. He's such a good baby and it was so fun taking him here. He won't remember his first trip, but he DID have a good time.
Here is Elle hold Sam at the hotel. She such a cutie! She kept coming up to me saying "Sam's silly." Thanks for sharing your gummy bears with me Elle.
Jared and Sam watching the High School Musical 3 program at California Adventure. They both look so entertained, don't they? You can't really tell, but Sam is wearing his "first Mickey hat." It was the smallest one in the store--he'll have to grow into it.
Us in front of the cool sun fountain at California Adventure. I wish I could do that week all over again, I had so much fun and I love spending time with my family. Thank you all for making this such a memorable and happy trip. I love you all!

Pictures of Sam all dressed up!

2009-02-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

My friend, Kiwi took these pictures of Sam--she is Sam's official photographer. I LOVE how they turned out. One of my favorites is where Sam has a big spit bubble on his lip! Here are a few of my favorites, and I had some printed out to give away. There are a lot of pictures in this slide show, so ENJOY!

Before and After

2009-01-29T07:57:00.000-08:00

BEFORE

AFTER
Sam is moving around so much. He doesn't roll over yet, but he scoots around, as you can see. I wanted to tell you all a funny story that happened this same morning. He had a blowout diaper so I got him all undressed and cleaned up, but I didn't have a change of close right there with me so I had so go back in i=his room for an outfit. He laying there in just his diaper and I come back and he's rolled onto his side with his legs up and his back is toward me. It is SOOO cold in our house in the morning so my hands were freezing. I touched Sam's bare back and he looks over his shoulder back at me and then at my cold hand and gave me such a dirty look! Like-"how dare you touch me with those cold hands!" It was so cute!

Classic Sam face

2009-01-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

This is a 'classic Sam' face. I get to see this everyday! Eyes wide, mouth open. I love it! He's just co curious--he HAS to open those eyes wide to take everything in. My friend, Julie took this picture while we were all watching one of Jared's church basketball games.

I QUIT

2009-01-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

No pictures for this one, but I have some exciting news to share. My last day of work is February 13th!!! I went back to work on January 5th, and I really have not liked being back. I went back because my works insurance plan is really great and I thought that we couldn't get on Jared's plan until their open enrollment time in May. BUT my great boss and even better friend, Melanie, told me that if I leave my job then that counts as a "qualifying event" that I could get on Jared's insurance before their open enrollment. Thank goodness for Melanie mentioning that. So Jared checked with his HR person and we found out that Melanie was right. When I told her that I was quitting she gave me hug. She could tell how unhappy I was and she remember when SHE had to go back to work after having her kids--she remembers hating it too. So, after the 13th I get to be Sam's FULL TIME MOM and I couldn't be happier. And Jared has also been great to support me in this. He knows more than anyone how I felt about going back to work--I LOVE you Jared.

To Jared

2009-01-10T11:29:00.001-08:00

Jared is such a good dad! And he loves being a dad too! As soon as he gets home from work he grabs Sam and puts kisses all over his cute face. I know that Sam misses his dad when he's gone because when Jared holsdsSam when he gets home from work Sam will just look up at his dad and smile so big! It is such a sweet thing to see.
The two pictures of Sam with his shirt on his head are of when Jared dresses Sam. Jared thinks it's the funniest thing to put his shirt on him like that and then snap a couple pictures. Jared thinks Sam looks like a puppy dog.
Thank you, Jared, for being such a good dad to our son. I love you so much and I know Sam loves you too!

we love to hike

2009-01-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays we went on some great hikes. The first one is a nice short hike in Morro Bay called Black Hill. It's really short, but the view from the top is great. It looks right over the estuary and the sandspit and Morro Rock. Jared and I love this one. The other hike was in Upper Ojai. We got to cross a creek a couple times, but we never made it to the top. Jared and I love being outside and we think Sam really likes it too. Although he DOES sleep a lot when we do go on hikes.

Sam's blessing--WHAT A DAY!

2009-01-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

December 28, 2008--what a day!
First I have to thank mine and Jared's family. So many people came to support us and it made the day more special because we got to share it with those who could come.
Second, Jared did such a good job with everything! He made arrangement for places for almost everyone to stay and for a big enough place to have lunch afterward. And then he gave Sam a beautiful blessing. The spirit was so strong in that chapel--it was such a special moment. Jared said Sam was looking up at him and coo-ing throughout the prayer.
Afterward we all (all 29 of us) went to the Huber's (a family in our ward who was out of town) for lunch and visiting. This day was so great. I will always remember the love I felt that day from Sam and Jared and my family and the Lord