Just some random fun!

Sammy LOVES Eleanor!!

Sometimes a little TOO much.

Her face and head are pretty much always wet, because of the "kisses" Sammy gives her.

Look at all those bubbles!

This is what you get when your boys pour in the bubble bath.

Speaking of bubbles...

We've got ourselves a bubble blower!

This purple dress was just so dang precious on her!

We catch Sammy walking around with his hands behind his back all of the time. Nothing too amazing about it right??  Wrong?  This is how his Gramma walks all of the time as well!

Two peas in a pod!

The boys made Daddy very proud one day...

They wanted to watch Daddy's Car Show!

(Top Gear!)

What are you doing Sammy?

Uncle Harvey was NOT very happy about this...Sammy got into his cereal.

Oops...who was suppose to be watching this kid anyways?

This was a GREAT morning!

Monique, Shellie and I along with 10 kids all went for a walk.

It was a beautiful morning and it was great to be out and about!

It started me out on really wanting to walk more.

We will see how that goes now that summer is here!

Oh My!

Thank you Monique for snapping this photo!

I sure do love my sleeping burrito and I know it won't be much longer before she no longer needs to be a little snuggle bug!

Tummy TIme is HARD work!

Eleanor totally fell asleep during tummy time.

I let her sleep until she woke up and that was an hour.

Someone likes her tummy, I suppose!

This has got to be one of my favorite dresses of Eleanor's!

She just looks so precious in it.

Pretty sure this was the Sunday that we had a complete BLOW OUT at church.

And I of course didn't have a change of clothes!

Luckily, my friend did and luckily there is such a thing as Hydrogen Peroxide and Baking Soda...cleaned that dress right up!

I kinda think it is the sweetest thing in the world to see Andrew hold Eleanor!

This is how we hang out quite a lot!

I lay down and Eleanor sits up.

She loves it and so do I!

Why hello Eleanor!

Look who doesn't need to be swaddled anymore?

Sad day!

Uh!  I kinda LOVE this picture!

Love my Sammy!

Jackson came up to me and said he couldn't find his candy cane...a few minutes later he came back and said..MOM I FOUND IT!

Can you find it??  

It was stick to his shirt!

Awesome!

Gosh this kid makes me smile!

How in the World?

 Boys were keeping Eleanor occupied....

I was about to take her out of the her seat when I noticed this......

 A REALLY nice blow out!  

And boy was it a nice one!

It got ALL inside of the car seat, I had to take everything apart and clean it all out!

Not sure if you can see it, but there is also a puddle of poo on the table...it had gone straight through the car seat!! AWESOME!

Sleepy Girl

We were cleaning up the boys' room and we put Eleanor down on Sammy's bed. At one point we looked over and she was ASLEEP!  Not sure how she fell asleep in all of the noise we were making, but she did!  When Jackson saw that she was asleep he brought her his blanket.

Sweet boy! and such a sweet sleeping baby!

Sammy and his Cars

 Sammy absolutely, postively LOVES cars!

Any cars...hot wheels, Lightning, Trucks, cars...anything with four wheels!

And he always has to have TWO cars with him at all times.

Pretty much all day I see him going around the house with two cars driving them everywhere!

On the floor...on the walls...on cabinets...on the couch...on Eleanor! 

Seriously EVERYWHERE!

I love it!

Mowing the Yard with Dad

 Whenever Andrew is out mowing the yard, Jackson always wants to join him!

I love how much these boys wanna do what their Daddy does!

Dance Class

For the past school year we have been very lucky!

We have been going to Dance Class every Wednesday at Ms. Emily's house!

The boys absolutely LOVE it and so do I.

She does such a great job with the kids.

It was so fun to watch Jackson and Sammy learn and enjoy all the dances they were taught.

When we first started going, Sammy wasn't even a YEAR old yet, but he always wanted to join in the fun and dance right along.

Jackson has always been a dancer since the very beginning. It was great to see him shine!

May 24th was their Dance Recital.

They had such a great time dancing on the stage.

Thank you  Emily for doing such a great job with these two VERY active boys!!!

They always looked forward to Wednesday Dance class.

 

Just paying Attention!

Look at what a great listener Eleanor is already!
She wanted to get every bit of information out of the Sunday School lesson.

This girl just WARMS my heart!

We got Invited to a Party!

 

 April 26th

We had such an AWESOME evening at the Cole's house!

We loved going to this Party!

They even sent REAL invites in the MAIL!

I felt so special!

Isn't so fun to get MAIL!

 It was a great night!

They had confetti eggs that the kids and adults could throw at a Target.

My boys are PROS!

 There was a chip and dip contest. 

We got to vote for our favorite chip/dip combo!

I was torn between tortilla and queso or tortilla and apple/toffee dip!

I made my famous BARF dip. It is so yummy.  But not this night.

I made the mistake of buying the least expensive sausage....not a good idea and I will never do it again.

I feel bad for all those that we were there that had to eat the lame barf dip that was provided. I feel as if I need to redeem myself soon and make the REAL DEAL! I will and they will see the goodness that Barf Dip has to offer.

Here is the recipe for those who want to try it...

8oz cream cheese

8 oz sausage

1 can RoTell

It really is yummy stuff.

 They even had a fun table full of candy and little pinatas for the kids to fill.

Jackson is totally a PARTY goer!  

He was talking about this party for weeks afterwards!

He thought it was the coolest thing ever.

He just loved it.

He is definitely OUR son.

He loves to have people around and he loves to be with his friends....

He actually thinks anyone and everyone is his friend.

I love that about him and hope he stays like that for forever.

He always want to be where the action is!

And believe me, this party had a TON of action.

Thanks for inviting us Cole family!

We loved coming!

Gramma and Dja-Dja Visit May 1-3

Gramma FINALLY meets Eleanor!

For the last two months, my mom has been up in South Dakota working on the Estate Sale of my grandparent's home.  She has been very anxious to meet her sweet Eleanor.

On their way back to San Antonio, mom and dad stopped at our house for a couple of days and they got to spend some MUCH needed quality time with Eleanor and the boys! 

 

I loved having my parents come visit...even if it was just for a few days.  Mom was able to help me get ready for Eleanor's blessing day and the boys loved having Dja-Dja here to play with!  Can't wait for their next visit!

Saying Good-bye to the Garner Family

We all knew this day would come, we just didn't WANT it to EVER come.

The Garners moved to Utah on May 28th!

The last week they were here we had some good time fun!

Monday they came down to look at a storage unit here in Lewisville and then stopped off at our house on the way back to Denton.  Kate said they wouldn't be able to stay very long and that made Jackson sad.  He had been asking about them all day.  I offered to let Jamie and LouLou stay the night, so that they could get some much needed work done at the apartment.  

So, we had a sleepover and it was too much fun!

The kids LOVED it and I did too!

They all watched a movie on the mattress we pulled out for Jamie's bed.

Sleepovers with cousins are the BEST!

 Branson and Kate came down that afternoon and then hung out at our house that night so that I could go to Activity Days and teach them how to make bows. 

Oh man, teaching 8-11 year olds to make hair bows...that was a FUN experience!

I was so thankful the Garners watching my kids..there is NO way I would have been able to do that and have my kids there too.  (Andrew does Scouts on Tuesday night and he wasn't able to bring them with him either...so it totally worked out!)

Wednesday they came down for LouLou's Birthday!

I quickly cut out a sign with my vinyl cutter for the fireplace.

I was pretty proud of myself for thinking to do that!

It looked so festive and fun when they got here.

As soon as they came, Eleanor and I left to go to her 2 month check-up!

She is perfect in everyway! I love my little Eleanor!

She did have to get shots...ah man! I hate that part.

It is really a WHOLE different cry than you have ever heard.

She did pretty good and when we got home she took a nice long nap!

For LouLou's birthday we ate lunch and opened presents.

She picked out the cutest little cake from the grocery store and it was JUST perfect.  The kids had the right amount and so did the adults who are all trying to eat healthier!

I made Lou Lou a sticker book out of a composition book.

I have SOOO many stickers from teaching and from scrapbooking, it was quite easy to find lots to give her.

She really liked it and I am sure it will keep her busy on the plane ride to Utah.

She also got some little Disney Princess Baby Dolls that Sammy claimed for himself!

HA! It took some persuading for him to give them back to her.

And she also got a LEGO Ariel set!

Such a great birthday!

Glad they were able to spend it at our house!

Kate and the kids came down and stayed with us for the weekend!

Branson was in Oklahoma for Army which left them without a car and all of their stuff had been packed into the storage unit...so of course it was way funner for them to be at our house than their boring apartment!

I am so glad they stayed with us.

It was so fun to spend lots of time with them before they moved. 

It has been great having them here in Texas.

Only 30 minutes away!

When we moved here, Jackson and LouLou were only a year old! 

They have been able to spend the last two years together and really have become the best of friends.

Jamie and Jackson love to play together...building things!

And Sammy fits right in and plays with everyone.

It will be so sad to have them leave.

They have left in the past for a couple weeks at a time, but they always come back.

This time...as for right now...they are gone for good!

Sad! Really Sad!

While they were here we were able to get come GAME PLAYING in!

The kids just played and played and played!

We all went to the Boys Dance Recital!

We cooked YUMMY food.

And just had a ton of fun!

Monday morning Andrew and I went shopping while Kate watched all of the kids. What a trooper!  She is awesome!

Branson got back from Oklahoma Monday afternoon and the Garners went to their apartment and did some finishing touches and then had a family night while we stayed home and fed the Elders.  Jackson LOVES to have the missionairies over for dinner!  I was glad we were able to as well...It was Elder Lilo's last night and it was great having him in our home one last time.

Tuesday morning Branson and Kate left REALLY early to go up to their apartment to CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!  I stayed home and watched the kids.  We got the LEGOS out and they played with them for forever!  As you can see it was quite the event!

 

 That night we had to say our goodbyes because they would be leaving at 4:30 AM to head to the airport.  Jackson had actually fallen asleep and we decided we needed to wake him up to say good-bye.

I know he didn't really understand what was happening, but I am glad we woke him up.

He is going to miss LouLou and Jamie so much.

In fact, he says everyday that they are going to come when he wakes up!

It is sad to say that they are not.

We are glad we will see them in New York in August.

 

We will miss you Garner family!

We are so happy you were able to spend 2 years here in Texas!

Have a great summer in Utah and good luck with your next adventure in life!