A Girl's Getaway in Washington!

Sadie and I were able to fly to VanCover Washington this past weekend for a little Girl GetAway! Our GREAT friends the SMITHS live there and I have been dying to go out and see them. It was so much fun to catch up, spend lots of time together with Whitni and her Beautiful family, and of course to take in all the beautiful surroundings that Washington and Oregon have to offer. The blossoms were in full bloom and the flowers were all starting to bloom. I can truly say I had SPRING FEVER! Especially since the day we left Utah, we had 5 inches of new snow.

We had a fun filled weekend and were able to get plenty of activities packed in each day. A couple of our favorites were our hike into the most beautiful waterfall. Sadie even enjoyed the hike in and didn't complain about the walk. Sadie loved being with Kayla and Koby. Another highlight was going over into Beaverton, Oregon and seeing where the Roloff's Farm was located. Big World, Little People is a FAVORITE show of our families and since Beaverton is somewhat close, they took me over for a peek. It was dusk when we arrived but there farm is more beautiful in person than on the show and I was excited to get my picture by there sign in there driveway. ( Dork, I know but my boys were excited about the picture.)

Sadie's highlight was sleeping in Kai's fire engine bed. Kai and Koby were nice enough to let us spend the weekend in there bedroom. Sadie could not wait to go to sleep in the bed and has even told Mitchell and Kade they have to see this bed. Who knew she was so into fire trucks. She even let Mikaela put her to bed one night without me. HEAVEN SENT!

I also was able to get a great picture of Mnt. Hood on our drive back from the falls. Not to bad for out my window.










Our Host spoiled us over the weekend. It is hard to be back to reality!
Thanks a million.
WE LOVE YOU!
It was a great all around trip and SADIE, told me she LOVED being with JUST MOM!
Hopefully we can visit again soon.

7th HEAVEN!

YEAH, Kade turned SEVEN! I think he has been counting down since the day after his birthday last year! Kade is such a JOY to have in our family. He is growing up way to fast. Kade had a wonderful birthday. We were able to spend Sunday, the day before his birthday with his brother and sister and then all Kade wanted this year for his birthday is to go to a JAZZ game with his buddy Issac. It worked out that the JAZZ had a game right on his BIRTHDAY! A few days before his birthday I asked were he wanted to go to dinner before the game, I mentioned maybe Cafe Rio or JCW's for a quick bite. He said MOM, I really wanted to go to a nice Steak house. (he is his fathers kid for sure). We ended up at Texas roadhouse and he thought that was great. Scott also bought him a JAZZ jersey for the game and he was delighted when he was able to get an autograph from Thurl Bailey, ( former Jazz player). To top it off the JAZZ pulled a great win over the Nuggets.

Kade wanted a half pipe birthday cake! Scott actually took charge of the cake this year and he did an amazing job! I think he has earned a new duty in the house.

Kade is so fun and LOVES life and everything that has to do with SPORTS or HUNTING or getting dirty outdoors! I think if you looked up ALL AMERICAN BOY in the dictionary it would say MCKADE SAMPSON!

WE LOVE YOU BUDDY!

Outdoor play on a "COOL" day!

Sadie loves being outside but gets chilly pretty quick. We have been having some 40 degree warmer days so she wanted to head out and splash in the unthawed puddles. She had the time of her life and came in all SMILES and of course ALL WET!

Ringing in the NEW YEAR in SLC!

This year Scott decided we were going to ring in the new year with festivities. He got us a hotel room up in SLC. This was the 1st year of the big EVE event. It went for 3 days with many different attractions to enjoy. We headed up on New Years Eve and the kids were very excited and I was excited to be out of the house. We had a nice dinner at Tucono's. It is so yummy but we all got to full way to quick! Mitchell loves this place. Then we walked around the Gateway enjoying crafts for the kids and entertainment. We headed back to the Galivan Center for my kids Highlight of the whole trip! Watching professional snowboarding and skiing. They made a ramp right at the Galivan Center and there were competitions all night! Kade scored and even got a backpack they were throwing out for prizes!



The next hit was iceskating. Scott and the kids all put on skates and spent hours at the rink. I was a party pooper and watched from the side, someone had to hold down the fort and watch all the belongings. Sadie was not sure at first, so she sat on the edge of the rink for about 5 minutes. Then once she decided she couldn't get her iceskates on fast enough. Mitchell was very good, and kept at it for about 3 hours. Scott was a good sport and sported Sadie around the rink many times, Sadie loved it and didn't ever want to take a break even though Scott's back was killing from bending over. Kade liked it, but was really more interesting in the Snowboaring event going on.



We had a great time welcoming in the New Year, and even most of us made it to see the ball drop! Kade and Sadie were pooped and only woke up because the FIREWORKS were right out our window. It was a fabulous, relaxing time and a fun memory,

Out little dancer!

Sadie had her 1st dance recital. She loved it and she was really cute. She danced to Frosty the Snowman.
They had the recital at Pirate Pizza, it was a very dark, scary place for a little girls dance recital. I didn't' get any pictures that turned out of her dancing due to the darkness, but here are a few before the dance recital.






Her BIG brothers were so PROUD!

Christmas Eve & Christmas 2009

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year, not only to we get to reflect on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, we get to spend time together as a family, creating memories and enjoying the festivities of the season. This Christmas Eve we had a wonderful time with our little family. We started off by going to the movie " Alvin & the Chipmunks Squeakwal" the kids loved it. Then we came home and started our traditional Christmas Eve dinner: Chicken and Steak Fondue, fresh green beans with baby red potatoes, cheese fondue with bread and apples and we topped it off with Chocolate Fondue with strawberries, bananas, apples, brownies and marshmallows. It was wonderful and the kids had a great time. Then we played a few family games together: Bingo and Pictureka. We then read the real christmas story, reflecting on our Saviors birth and then the kids got to open there one gift on Christmas Eve. NEW JAMMIES! They watched Santa on the Santa tracker for awhile, then it was time to get cookies and milk and a letter to santa and they were off to bed with sugar plums dancing through there heads I am sure. Christmas morning they woke up around 6:00 am but they were not allowed to come up and wake us until 7:15. Well at 7:14 and 1/2 they bounded up the stairs and in our bedroom wanting to see if Santa had come.


Christmas time for a child is so magical and fun, only if mom and dad had that same wonderful experience, it truly would be magical.

Sugar Cookies!

Making and Baking sugar cookies always seems like a fun, festive activity until you start the process and wonder what kind of mess have I got myself into. As a mother, I wanted to make a memorable activity for the kids. Well I needed more patience that day than I had. First off it takes an hour just to make the dough, then you have to chill for 2 hours, then cutting all the fun shapes out letting the 3 year old help to make memories is about enough to throw the towel in right there. Then once you roll and cut out the shapes and reshape the ones the 3 year old helped you out with, you still have to bake and frost all those cookies. 2 hours laters you have so many cookies to frost you don't know how you are going to get them frosted! Once again trying to be a fun mom you make 4 different colors of icing and have trays of cookies for your kids to frost when they walk in from school. They are excited and right out the door they are all licking there fingers, sprinkles are flying everywhere and just when you tell the 3 year old not to lick the knife you turn your back to clean up some spilt frosting only to turn around and have her sucking on not one but two of the frosting knives! I always have in my head this beautiful picture of what I think my cookies are going to look like, my vision is always far off from our final results. And by the time you are done with the 8 hour ordeal you hope you never see another sugar cookie in your life.

Oh a mother making sugar cookies needs lots and lots of patience, a diet coke and maybe a bowl full of chocolate to make it all worth it. The priceless smiles as they lick and eat the cookies as they frost make it all worth it and make you forget so you can do it all over the next christmas season.

Trying to make the most out of WINTER!

I decided I better start trying to make the most out of winter since I live where winter is like 5 to 6 months of the year. Scott and Mitchell have taken up snowboarding together, and I decided to invest in some nice winter clothes and go out and enjoy all that the winter months have to offer. I took the kids sledding, Kade got to try out his snowboard on the sledding hill and we even got to build a snowman together. I must say it was a wonderful day and having nice warm winter clothes makes all the difference if you are going to be out in the weather. Scott and Mitchell have picked a new hobby and I decided when they go to the slopes Sadie, Kade and I will do some sort of winter activity. So far so good. I hope I can keep up the good spirits!

oH cHriStmaS TrEe!

The boys wanted to cut there own "REAL" Christmas tree down this year. I love my "FAKE" tree but they wanted one to call there own. Kade and Sadie really didn't care what tree we cut down, but Mitchell was a different story. He was a man on a mission. I was a wimp and kept telling Mitchell lets just cut a tree bud, but no he had to stand back and look at the tree from every angle. He was a trooper and finally after about an hour found the tree. It looks great, but I do have to admit the trees ALL look better in there natural environment.