Proud

Guess which two boys rocked their second quarter report cards?

If you guessed that it was these two hams, you'd be right:

These two goofy boys were all business at school this past quarter. Two boys - two near perfect report cards. Justin and I are so proud of our two silly scholars. They each got a new Skylander as a reward for their academic excellence this quarter. Great job Clayton and Noah! Keep up the great work! We love you!

Oh Snap...

is that CAKE!?!

**This post is dedicated to my sister Anisha, who I'm hoping just peed herself a little.**

17 Months!

Okay, technically she won't be 17 months for another 6 days but I can't handle the cute squishiness that is my Sammie. Just about anyone who's ever met her will agree, she's the kind of baby you just want to squeeze and kiss all day.
Monster Sammich. (The kids were playing with this costume and as soon as there was a break in the action she brought me the costume so she could wear it. She had so much fun with it that the next morning she dug it out and tried to put it on herself. Funny.)

Gratuitous shot of a chubby baby in a high chair eating. It's her talent. She's good at eating.

First time with a sucker. Perhaps you may think (almost) 17 months is a little young for a sucker but she's the fourth kid so she might be a little young for a lot of the stuff I have her do.

She loved it. No surprise there! (She wasn't even very sticky when she was done. Impressive.)

Now that she's a fluent walker (oh yeah, she's getting so steady and fast, it makes my heart proud) she's taken to climbing. Her current favorite is to climb on the little toy box we have. She get so proud of herself for getting up there the fact that she gets stuck and can't get down seems irrelevant to her.

Doesn't she look proud?

Finally, this is my new favorite picture ever. Sammie loves to give kisses. She gives kisses to her babies, any random toy she gets her hands on, and just about anyone who asks for one. One of my most favorite things right now is when she randomly walks up to you with her kissy face waiting for a kiss. Seriously. Favorite thing. I was overjoyed to discover that I'd gotten it on camera. Because I know that, one day, Sammie will stop doing this. This picture, however, is going to be printed and framed and will live on forever. (Makes you sad that you're not here right now to kiss her, huh?)

My Sammie is getting so big. I still call her a baby (and probably will for a while) but she's fast transitioning into toddler-hood. She's speaking more, throwing minor tantrums (that hopefully won't ever get any worse), and is becoming very active and interactive. We all adore her just the way she is right now and Justin and I curse the fact that she's going to grow out of this stage at some point. Because right now, this stage, is perfect - tantrums and all. She makes us smile and laugh every single day. If I had a pause button, I'd be pushing it today.

Okay okay, one more picture. But only because she's so cute and squishy that I can't stand it.

Love you Sammie. Now stop growing please. I'm having way too much fun with you just as you are.

Winter Fun!

So, I've mentioned before how awesome my parents are. They come out to visit us several times a year and try to come for special events in their grandkid's lives. Last weekend that meant Landon's baptism. Since my sister-in-law had family in town also for the big event, my parents got to stay with us. Total score!

As usual, I took hardly any pictures (shame Ariane, shame). But we had a blast! See, when my parents come, it's grand adventure city! The kids know this, they expect it, and Grammy and Grandpa do not disappoint! Here are my limited pictures of an action packed weekend:
First up was the kindergarten "Community Helpers" parade at Noah's school. Each kid had to dress up in occupational garb and parade around the school. It seemed more like a "Halloween-parade-but-not-really-because-we're-not-supposed-to-technically-do-that" parade, but it was cute nonetheless.

Of course Noah dressed up like Dr. Smith.

For crying out loud. How cute is he?

That night, we went tobogganing. Here's how it went: 1700 feet of slick, bumpy, ice, steep track. People crammed on to a toboggan wearing no seatbelts, safety harnesses, or head gear going as fast as they can down said track. (Did I mention no age or height limit? Yeah, true story.) I admit, I was a little nervous looking at the track at first, but the kids LOVED it! Not just a little either. The only kid who hated it was Josie. She went down once and decided she'd had enough. The rest of the kids were adrenaline junkies. They couldn't get enough. Fortunately Grammy and Grandpa were pretty dare-devily themselves. They kept taking the kids over and over. Good times, fun memories!
Grandpa and Sammie. This little girl became very attached to her Grandpa and Grammy in a very short amount of time.

I attempted to get pictures of people going down the toboggan track, but I couldn't tell who was who and the pictures didn't always come out great, so this is (I think) Grandpa, Noah, and Tori:

And I believe this is Grammy, Landon, Clayton, and Ella (or not, but really, how would you know?):

Average speed reached was 29 mph. It was fast. Fortunately we were having temps in the mid to high 50's so the water that was leaking from our eyes when the ride was over wasn't freezing to our cheeks!
After her first ride, Jo decided to hang out with whoever was taking their turn on the sidelines with Sam. She's good with the silly faces.

When it was time to turn the toboggans back in we thought it'd be fun to get a picture of all the kids on one toboggan. You can see how much they all loved it...except Josie. She was worried that if she even sat on the toboggan that she'd have to ride it down the track again. We may have traumatized her, until Grandpa saved the day and took Josie on a special toboggan ride of her very own (he dragged her on the toboggan on his way to turn it back in).

Saturday was a big day. The big day. Landon was baptized. It was so wonderful to be able to watch him get baptized and I'm so grateful that we live close enough to be part of that. Kerstin has all the details and some wonderful pictures of it on her blog, so you can click over there to read all about it.

After the baptism, we decided to go ice skating. We tried ice skating once a few weeks ago and it was very successful. When we got to the arena though we were a little sad to learn that it wasn't, in fact, open skate like we'd thought. Enter my mom. She found out it was alumni night and convinced them to let us skate because my brother (who wasn't actually with us - but she was very forthright about that) has a Master's degree from Notre Dame and is, therefore, and alumni. Go Cath. So we skated. My boys were beasts! Clayton was pretty good the first time, but he improved this time. Noah, who was decent (but had a hard time skating without a walker) the first time, stayed on the ice the whole time and only used a walker for about half of that! I was so impressed and proud of my little skaters!

We ended the weekend with church in my brother's ward for Landon's confirmation and a big family dinner at my house. As always, there was much weeping and wailing when it was time for Grammy and Grandpa to leave. Nobody likes that part, but it makes us feel a little better to know that they'll be back soon (Grammy's coming back for Clayton's theatrical debut next month so yay!). It was a great weekend full of fun and memories. Thanks Grammy and Grandpa! We love you (and promise that we'll take more pictures next time - but you should probably help us remember)!

**Stay tuned for some awesome projects that my dad helped me with (read - he did most of the work). Great stuff!**

A Sunbeam!

Josie started Sunbeams today. She's getting so big. Unlike the boys, she was ready to go with this change. She didn't resist going to Primary instead of Nursery at all. According to all reports, she did great!

Already practicing being reverent!

I love this little Sunbeam!