HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY!!!

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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.