Halloween

These are cute kids on Halloween! Brock was a vampire, Briggs a dragaon and Sammi was a spooky witch. They loved putting the makeup on and getting dressed up!

Circus

We got to see the animals outside before the circus. Then we went inside and got close up with a few different acts! The kids loved it. Sammi was a little nervous with being so close to the really tall guys and clowns. The elephants were amazing and even did a painting all on his own! All in all so glad we had the chance to go as a family. It was really fun!

Sammi's Birthday

About a month into school Sammi turned 5. She is so close to the deadline, but misses it. She is so tall, she is going to tower over those kindergartners next year. So this year for Sammi it was just our family party and we decided to take everyone to the circus. We had so much fun seeing all the animals and many neat tricks! They all loved the motorcycles in the round cage, that was my favorite as a kid too! On the night of her actual birthday we had her favorite dinner of eggs and bacon made by Dad and some cake and ice cream. She got to go out with Grandma and Grandpa Wootton and eat dinner and go shopping. Then a few weeks later she had a fun sleepover at Grandma Loves! She was spoiled with toys, clothes and lots of love!
We love you Sammi!
some of my favorite things about her are
-she loves her Dad so much!
-she loves to help me cook
-she wants to wear lipstick every day
-even though we but heads at times, we are a lot a like and it is fun to have a little me!
-she loves to dance and play house
-loves babies and prays a lot that we can have a girl baby sometime :)
- she learned to ride her bike without training wheels
- not afraid of the water and is a great swimmer.
- learning to read and is doing great!
- loves pink!
lots and lots of wonderful things about her!

First Day or School!

Here they are, better late than never! This is the 1st day of school for Brock and Sammi. Brock is in 2nd and has Miss Bennett, which he loves. Something interesting we discovered is this is his third B teacher, preschool- Mrs. Buxton K- was Mrs. Ball, 1st- was Miss Brown. Kind of funny. Sammi is at learning dynamics also with Mrs. Buxton for pre-school! They fortunately love school! Briggs has a hard time sometimes when they are both gone but we enjoy time alone too!

New Posts coming!!

School, Sammis bday, Halloween, etc! I am so behind but will update soon!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken at the end of the summer and here are a few of them. We are so happy with them they turned out great! I laugh so hard when I look at Briggs in them, he is so crazy and wouldn't sit still, he was jumping off that bucket and running around like crazy!! It was a cute little run down house, barn thing in PG! Loved our photographer too, she did great!

Sisters trip

My sisters and I were able to go on a trip just us, no kids or hubby's, and it was so fun. We were minus 1 sister and we missed her but the 3 of us had a blast. I now truly appreciate having all sisters and no brothers it is nice to raise our kids, help, listen,and do fun things together. We went to Orange County, CA. We spent some time at yummy restaurants, trying to get around with a GPS, talking in the hotel, working out, and most of all on the beach! I love the beach and the relaxation you feel hearing the waves crash and laying on the beach. We also did some kayaking out in the ocean! We laughed harder than we had in a long time! I love my sisters and am so glad we were able to spend this much deserved and needed time together!

Utah Valley Half Marthon

I did my 2nd half marathon June 12! My first half was 3 years ago when Sammi was 18mo. I wanted to try a different course and heard good things about the Utah Valley one, because it is mostly down hill :)! The training went pretty good, the weather never really cooperated during the race but I ran through it. I was mentally more prepared and had fun. I have lots of freinds who run, but ended up doing this one on my own. I am good with that I like my music and it is very therapuetic. I was very happy with my time, I just wanted to beat my first time and did by like 20min. I had about 2:37! My wonderful hubby and kids were there to see me run in and were very supportive during the training. Barrett even got up at 3:30 with me to take to to the start line. The weather wasn't great for June but you learn to run in anything in Utah! It was beautiful to run down provo canyon, past bridal veil falls, and into Provo.

Swim lessons

We did the first round of swim lessons this past week, the 2nd week of June, and Brock and Sammi did great. We go to a great house in PG with a pool and wonderful teachers. We have now for 3 years and they do a great job. Barrett was able to come and watch a day and the kids were so excited to show him what they can do. I am so proud of them both, they each moved to the next level! Brock moved to level 4 which has 10, 11, even 13 yrs old. He will learn breast stroke, side stroke and practice the other 3 strokes he knows, going down and back the whole length of the pool on his own. He can also tread water great, 2 min at a time no problem. He is such a good little swimmer and we are very proud! Sammi did great in level 2 and will start to swim across the pool on her own, the short distance, learning freestyle and back stroke. She is very comfortable on her own which is so nice. Here are some pictures of them both!

Soccer

I am so behind, so I am trying to catch up on everything that has been going on! This spring Brock and Sammi were able to play soccer with the city. They both did great and loved playing. Sammi didn't have quite the drive yet, being her first year, but she did score a few goals and was taller than most of the other kids. We will see if she wants to play again. I hope so!
Brock did great and loved having a little more structure as he gets older. They were able to have goalies and some defenders. He really liked playing goalie, but really did well as foward attacking the ball. He is definently one of the tougher kids, he's not afraid of anyone! We were so proud! Barrett help coach Brocks team which made it a little trick to watch both games when Brock and Sammi games overlapped each other. I love seeing them play sports and figure out what they are good at and love!

Brock

Brock had his birthday on May 9 and we celebrated together as a family. We decided to do a friend party every other year and I really like the idea. The kids aren't too sure, but we enjoyed a day at Boondocks with just the five of us. Then on Sunday, also mother's day Brock and I enjoyed breakfast in bed. Daddy did such a good job spoiling us both. Then Grandmas and Grandpa came over for some cake and ice cream. I can't believe he is 7 and next year will be getting baptized. He is such a big helper. I love having him around more this summer. He is also very very smart. Loves math and loved 1st grade. He got a bee bee gun which he wanted for a while and a couple of wii games. We love Brock so much and hope he had a great day.

Briggs

April...
So April had a nice start with a job and midway through we had another birthday. Briggs turned 2, holy cow my baby is 2. He is so fun, loving, tender, crazy, busy, and we love every bit of him. We woke him up to presents and surprises, I think his favorite is the little mini spider man four wheeler. He drives that thing like he owns the place. Some things I love about Briggs at 2'
>He is still a momma's boy, Brock barely lasted till 1.
>He says yeah for everything, mid cry you ask, "are you ok?" and he responds, "Yeah"
>He has the highest pitch scream to ever come out of a boy maybe even any 2 year old.
>He is not afraid of anything.
>He will climb up or jump off just about anything.
>He is totally turing into a toe head, no more strawbery :(
>He will always cuddle with me.
>He would rather sleep on the floor than in his crib/toddler bed. So he now sleeps on a sleeping bag?/ Whatever works right?
>He stills climbs in our bed at least once a night.
>He has a mean bite, you make him mad, or take something he will bite, ask Sammi :(
>He loves fruit snacks, he could eat 5 a day if I let him.
>He still struggles when he is left with a sitter. Crying and wants me.
>maybe that why He wont go to nursery either.
>He loves shoes, wants them on first thing after he is dressed and usually wont take them off.
>He loves Brock and doing anything he is doing
>He loves his binky
>He does not like sleeping especially alone
>He loves going places in the car
>Falls asleep in random places, the floor being the most frequent

He had such a great day with his family. Grandma Love and Grandma and Grandpa Wootton came over for a bbq and some cake and ice cream. He got some trucks, blocks, diggers and clothes!
I could go on and on, but we will stop there. Happy Birthday Briggs! WE Love you!!

Where do we begin....

I want to give a brief update of our March events. So Barrett turned the big 30 on March 10th and I tried to do something special, but all I came up with was laser tagging and dinner with some great friends. We have truly made some amazing friends from Saratoga Springs and we now have an annual dinner at Tucanos! The guys love the meat and the girls love to chat and enjoy the company. Laser Tag was a blast and made us feel young again. We were probably the oldest there for sure! We put girls against guys and they killed us, but we still had fun trying to find them and tripping up stairs! Then March 11th I turned 29, yeah I will be in my 20's one more year. WE went to see Avatar and got a quick bite to eat. I was very spoiled with some nice running shoes and running clothes. It is pretty fun to have our birthdays right next to eachother. It does seem like an anniversary or valentines, but Barrett does always make it special for me.
Also in March was the first of 4 interviews with Wadman construction. They started with a phone interview then went on to 2 interview with managers to 1 interview with the president and v.p. of Wadman. It was a long process and we were very stressed and anxious, but they did hire Barrett as a temporary employee, then after 90 days as a superintendent. It was a huge blessing and we are so grateful to have the work. It was a wierd way of hiring and not loving the trial period, but they really seem to like Barrett and have big plans as soon as his hours are up with the temp agency. We will not ask questions and just be grateful for the work. We have learned so much through this time and are truly grateful to go through this. We have had so many prayers, fasts, and kind gestures for or to us.Thank you to you all! What a humbling experience and now we hope to be able to pay it forward. He started April 1, 2010 and they have kept him pretty busy, not always doing what he loves to do, but it all pays the same!:)
I am so proud of him and truly look up to him and his hard work ethic and good attitude. They wanted you for a reason and I am grateful for that!!

Basketball

Brock was able to play rec league basketball for the first time. He loved it too! This is the first time Barrett didn't coach him, but it went well! Brock has loved his coach. WE are learning he is very hard on himself and wants to be the best, so that is something we are trying to work with him on. He can dribble great and shoots really good too. His best game he made 8 baskets, he was so excited!! WE love coming to the games and watching him discover his talents!

Soccer

This is such a bad picture so don't look too close! It was right after a game.

So I have started playing indoor soccer, I guess now 2 seasons. I play with some people in our ward on a coed team and it has been pretty fun! It took me a minute to remember the game but thank goodness I had experience from high school. It is really fast paced and a great work out. I have really had fun!

Here is a brief catchup of the holidays

Christmas was wonderful we were so blessed and had such a nice Christmas! The kids
were very happy too. We definently cut back but I don't know that the kids even noticed. We(Santa) made Sammi a dollhouse, which turned out so cute. It was fun to work on together and keeping the kids out of the garage was a challenge! But it turned out perfect! She loved it and plays with it more and more everyday. Brock got Madden on Wii and loves it! Briggs got some wonderful slightly used toys and has no clue and loves them all! We had Barrett's Mom over Christmas Eve and helped wrapped up presents. Barrett and I were very grateful to be able to give our kids a wondeful Christmas, that was our only desire for this Christmas! We had many wonderfull generous and loving family and friends help us out during this time! Many drop offs we still to this day don't know from who, but also some we know very well and can't tell them how much we appreciate there willingness to sacrafice on our behalf and share with us during this Christmas season!

The New Year was fun, we spent the night with friends playing games and enjoying eachothers company. Hoping we can end this past year and start a new and better year in many ways. HOpefully a job, being #1!But many more goals and a great start to a new year.

Pictures will come soon!