Samuel's Baptism

Samuel turned eight on October 13th and was able to be baptized that day.  He was so excited to be baptized.  It was a very busy day filled with lots of family.  We were sitting in the church and I realized that Scott hadn't practiced with Sam like he had done with the others.  This was a bit of mistake since Sam is still a little afraid of the water and not a fish like his older siblings.  He was excited enough to not think about being afraid of the water, thank goodness.  He did kick his little feet right up out of the water and had to break his dad's perfect record and needed to be baptized again.  The second time his dad was sure to get him all the way under, barely.  He is such a sweet boy!  We love him and are so grateful that we got to have him in our family!  Here are some pictures of his special day.

Along with turning 8 Sam got to start Cub Scouts.  He was so excited to get a scout shirt and get to be in scouts like his brother.  He got his Bobcat at his first pack meeting and was the cutest scout ever!!

We are all so proud of Sam and wish him many great years in the scouting program!!

Catching up

Our lives have been so crazy busy! I would never have imagined we'd be doing all we do! I had another surgery on December 8th that was a lot harder to recover from than I expected. It made our December pretty busy, but we survived and still did a lot. Here's a quick run down on a few of the many things we did.

We started our Christmas with our traditional dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then home to open our Christmas pajamas. Here's the crew with their new jammies.




We got up Christmas morning and opened presents. Here's a picture of the kids' favorite present. Well, Jed did LOVE his cell phone. :) (Oh, the dog's name is LuLu.)



Then, we got things all put away at home, grabbed our suitcases and headed to the airport. Here we are on the plane heading to sunny Southern California.





While in California we went to Sea World,


Saw lots of people we love,


Enjoyed the wonderful weather and palm trees,



Played at the beach,


Saw more people we love,



Loved on cute babies,




Wore our sunglasses lots!



Got to know our cousins better,



Saw cute baby bellies, (I'm talking about Steph's, but Sydney's is pretty cute too!)



Made great memories,



Ran away from the freezing cold waves,



Body surfed in the ocean, and LOVED every minute of the trip!!! Thanks to the Nickerls and Jon Thomason family for hosting us and to the Mark Jensen and Jeff Jensen families for making the drive to see us and spend time with us. We so enjoyed seeing everyone and loved that you shared the beautiful weather and sunshine of Cali with us. It was very healing and therapeutic for me! We wish we weren't so far away!!!



Victoria was asked to the Winter Formal. It was so fun for all of us! Her little sisters teased her and were so excited for every part of it. We went shopping and found a dress that Victoria loved and we came home and I spent the week sewing it and getting it just right. Here she is with the cute flowers that Seth gave her to ask her and the tray of cookies she gave him to answer. Can you see the YES in the middle of the cookies?



Here are Victoria and Seth all ready for the dance. Don't they look wonderful!?! I think Victoria was the most beautiful girl there!



Here's a video that the Johnsons (Seth's parents) put together of the pictures. I hope it works. I don't know how to do much with blogging.




Now I think I'm all caught up with what's going on with us. Hope you can get a taste of how very busy our lives our, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Being the mom to these 5 kids is way better than I could have dreamed! I'm so grateful for each of these kids and their great dad that quietly, but dutifully goes about helping us out. We all love him too!!!