Family Photos!

I can't believe I haven't posted these yet! I had them done in October when we did the contest for Samantha. She won 3rd place!!!! YAY Here are the ones we got....

Me and Chad haven't had a couples picture for I couldn't tell you how long.

I love how this shows how Samantha thinks that she is in Charge!

~ My Beautiful Family~

We had to do some of just Samantha since she is the one that Won the free sitting.

She wouldn't sit still unless I sat with her!

This is our FAVORITE! Hopefully we can get a print of it soon to hang on our wall.

Vote for Samantha

I entered Samantha in a contest to get a free sitting for pictures... I haven't had any Family pictures done since Dallas was 2 months old and now he is 6 and we now have our Beautiful Samantha! We haven't had the money to get any done either... So I am hoping with everyones help I can win this sitting and FINALLY get some family pictures done... All you have to do it go to the following link and on the right hand sidebar and click on Samantha! Easy Peasy!... I would really appreciate any votes you can give me! Thanks so much http://frecklesphotography.blogspot.com/2009/09/contest-entries.html

Harward Happenings

Well it has been a while since my last post and there has been a few things that has happened... I would first like to start with..... YAY school is back in SESSION! I love my kids to death but I am glad that school has begun. Here is a few pictures of their first day back. They are just as excited as I was!

Shelby with her new doo! It was a lot shorter than we wanted but we made it work!

Dakota CAN NOT smile without closing his eyes!

Savanah- I don't know why she had to have her hand like that

They tried really hard not to smile, except for Dakota, but his eyes are once again CLOSED!

Dallas and Samantha had to get in on the action... Dallas will be starting Kindergarten in 2 days and he is WAY EXCITED!!!!

The other thing I would like to Share is... My Friend/Neighbor came over a couple weeks ago and I don't remember exactly what happened but I remember me and my friend teasing Savanah about having to go live with my friend, also my friend LOVES Savanah, she is so well behaved for her, of course... Well, she wanted to and this is what we found her doing.....

Yep, she packed her bags and got a TON of shirts out of the closet, she was ready to move... I asked her why she wanted to live with my friend and she said "because sometimes you are mean to me" :( Why do we have to be such mean moms?

Last but not least, I have had to go back to work with todays economy and since my husbands job is one of the worst things to have in an economy like this I have started not 1 but 2 jobs... It is hard to be gone ALL the time but we really need me to do this right now. Hopefully, it won't be for forever!

Sunday Talk!

So Chad and I were asked to speak today! I really do not like it I get way too nervous, I felt like I was going to pee my pants LOL... Anyways I wanted to post it so others could "enjoy"! So here you go..... Oh the first part about my family wasn't exactly what I said. I changed it up a bit but you get the Jiffs of it :) Faith in Every Footstep First I would like to tell you a little about our family… Chad and I met during the typical ‘come to my rescue scenario' after I had got a flat tire in front of his house. Later my friend and I took him some donuts for payment for his help, he told me that he didn’t like donuts but I now know that he does. My friend then proceeded to ask him what he was doing that coming Friday and if he wanted to take me to a dance that was going on at our High School, he said yes and she told him “by the way you have to pay”. From then on out we saw each other everyday. I did however know the minute I saw him that I was going to marry him. We were married in March of 97 and now have 5 beautiful kids. Shelby is our oldest she is 11, Dakota is 8, Savanah 7, Dallas is almost 6 and Samantha, the baby, is almost 3. We moved here last September and absolutely love it. We have an Amazing ward and the best neighbors which make it even better. We believe that we were meant to be here with such amazing people around us because it was something that we needed at that time in our lives. The topic Brother Peine gave us was Faith in Every Footstep and with the holiday it makes me think of the Pioneers and how much Faith they must have had to walk many miles for months to follow the prophet and go where the Lord wanted them too. As they walked they had many trials to overcome including sickness, famine and even death. But because of their Great Faith in the Lord they continued their Journey. They knew what they were doing was the right thing even with all those trials they had. Elder M. Russell Ballard said: “We are the inheritors of a tremendous heritage. Now it is our privilege and responsibility to be part of the Restoration's continuing drama and there are great and heroic stories of faith to be written in our day. It will require every bit of our strength, wisdom and energy to overcome the obstacles that will confront us. But even that will not be enough. We will learn as did our pioneer ancestors that it is only in faith, real faith, whole souled, tested and tried that we will find safety and confidence as we walk our own perilous pathways through life.” To me this means we are going to have our own share of trials throughout our lifetime and some we have had already but unless we go through our trial with “real faith” then we will not be able to overcome them. We cannot learn without these trials we have in life, we may not like them but they are there to help us. We are here to be tested and without these trials we can not be here and learn so we can live with our Father in Heaven. Chad and I have had our own trials throughout the years and we continue to have trials today. We have been struggling with our jobs, we may not like it but unless we have Faith in Heavenly Father that he knows the reasoning behind it we will not overcome them. Our trial may actually help us in the end because it is giving Chad a reason to go back to school and to pursue a career that he has always wanted to do but hasn’t had a reason to do it. Faith means to hope for things which aren’t seen but are true and to have faith is to have confidence in something or someone. We need to have confidence in our Heavenly Father that our trial is going to be for the better and not for the worse which at times it may seem. We need to hope that when our trial is over it will benefit us for the better and make us stronger in our faith. I would now like to share an experience with you that my little sister had to go through. A couple years ago my sister got pregnant as an unmarried teenager. She was upset, depressed and very much afraid. She also was confused because she wasn’t sure if she should keep the baby or place her for adoption. In the beginning she really wanted to keep her because she was scared of all the emotions she would have to go through by placing her for adoption. So she decided to keep the baby. As the months went by she struggled with feelings on how she was going to provide for the baby and give her everything she would need when my sister was struggling financially already. One day she was home with just my dad and she was having a really hard time with everything. She was really confused she wanted the best for her baby but she didn’t know how she was going to do it. My dad sat her down and according to her had a very spiritual talk. I don’t know what they talked about but I know it was something she needed to hear at that time in her life. After her talk with my dad she went into her room and got on her knees and prayed to Heavenly Father to help her know what she was supposed to do. She said she knew immediately what she was supposed to do and decided that the best thing would to place her baby for adoption. She went to LDS Family Services and began the process of choosing a family. During that time she prayed about a family that she had found and knew it was the family she would place her baby with. As the months went by she went through many tears, prayers and had extreme Faith in our Heavenly Father that what she was doing was the right thing. Her placement was the most emotional and hardest thing she has ever gone through. She then saw the family with her child and saw how much joy and happiness that it brought into their lives and the wonderful life her baby was able to live. It was then that she finally understood that this is the family that her baby was supposed to be with and those feelings she was having eventually were replaced with feelings of joy, happiness, peace and comfort. President Faust said “If you take each challenge one step at a time, with faith in every footstep, your strength and understanding will increase. You cannot foresee all of the turns and twists ahead. My counsel to you is to follow the direction of the Savior of the world: “Be not afraid, only believe.” My sister was dealt with many challenges during her trial but she had Faith and continued her journey, soon afterwards was able to find someone she could marry in the temple and I have seen her life change in many ways for the better because of it. We may be scared and confused as my sister was but we need to have Faith in Heavenly Father and believe that things will be for the better then we can grow too. President Faust also said “as we live on earth we must walk in faith, nothing doubting. We have much reason to hope. Joy can be ours if we are willing to sacrifice all for the Lord. Then we can look forward to the priceless possibility of overcoming all the challenges of this life. Then we will be with the Savior forever.” I don’t know where I and Chad’s current trial will take us but if we have Faith and believe in our Heavenly Father we will learn and be able to overcome the challenges we are facing. I know it will be for the better eventually but we need to finish our trial to understand what it is Heavenly Father has in store for us. I want to leave you with one more quote by President Faust “If we believe and are faithful, we are promised all that the Father has. If we receive all that the Father has, there is nothing more for us to receive in this life or the life to come. We should remember that in our challenges and struggles against the powers of evil and darkness, “they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

1280 West 4th of July Party

For the 4th this year me and my neighbor decided we should have a HUGE party and block off the road... We went to the Police department, filled out the necessary paperwork, and had every single person on the road sign the "permission". It ended up being really FUN!

Here are some of the Pictures we took!

Baseball with Dakota and Dallas

Dakota LOVES baseball, I think it's his favotite sport! He has been playing these last few weeks and Dallas has also been playing a baseball Smart Start program where it teaches them the basics of baseball. He really wanted to play soccer but they didn't have a program for his age group, next year he will be able to, so baseball was his next pick. He really likes it and likes the fact that his friend is also there with him, they are goofs! It is fun to watch my kids play sports but I have got to tell you that these last few months have been CRAZY! We had soccer Tuesdays to Fridays and now we have baseball on those same days. It is really hard at times because some days there is WAY TOO MUCH going on. I think I will be GLAD when it all has ended and we can do things without it revolving around the kids sports! Don't get me wrong I LOVE watching them play but enough is enough :) Here are a few pics of Dakota! I will post some of Dallas at a later date so be sure to check back!

Swing Batter!

He made it to 1st YAY!

Running all the way HOME!

WHOO HOO!

So my "BFF" came over today and helped me FIX my blog! I have been really frustrated because I am an Idiot and couldn't figure it out... SO be prepared for all the new post I will be Posting :)

YEE HAW! (from Janelle)

IT"S JUST A GAME!

Ok so from a previous post, but the same day, I mentioned how Savanah and Shelby have been playing soccer. I really didn't want to put Savanah in soccer because she is a girly girl, but she wanted too so I let her so it would be "fair". Well yesterday she didn't want to play at all. I wasn't there but that is the report from Dad, all I could think of is "I knew it" but I think next year we will see about something more girly.

Shelby on the other hand, she loves ALL SPORTS, especially soccer. Well tonight we had a game and I am very frustrated with the other teams coach... I couldn't believe how he was acting in front of his team and everyone for that matter. He got mad at a call that yeah it may have been a bad call but get over it we aren't here to win money we are here to have fun. He just kept at it and at it, yelling at the Ref's who are in High School, swearing at everyone. Also, his team kept shoving our team and the Ref's would call it and he would ask why so they would explain to him but then he would say "they aren't doing anything wrong" Well when you purposely shove someone over IT IS WRONG, not only is it wrong but he was incouraging it. I was seriously worried that he was going to do something, I had my camera ready just in case, for proof of course. At one point he was behind me yelling at the Ref's and I had both Sammy and Dallas with me and he swore. I said "Watch it there are kids around". It is sad that some people take these recreational games SO seriously. He really should have just been a good example for his team. I am glad that we don't have to play against them again, we don't need the negativity. Well that is all I have to say about that... OH yeah but WE WON!!!

Easter 2009

This year for Easter we went to my sister Andrea's house. We had a lot of fun with pin the tail on the bunny, it was funny to watch us adults do it and it was really hard. I forgot how dizzy you get when you get spinned around. We, the adults, played a game where we had 2 balloons tied to each of our ankles and we ran around trying to pop everyone elses balloons the problem is that when you are running your balloon likes to go under your feet and so you pop your own balloon. We also had a yummy BBQ. The kids colored eggs and it was a MESS. The last thing we did was play pictionary, it is funny to try to figure out what the heck people are drawing. Here are some Easter Pics....

Sammy checking out all that Candy

Adult "Pop the Balloon" game

Talon is Very Talented!

Finding all that Candy

Teresa is an "alien" LOL

Candy Candy

Soccer

Shelby and Savanah started to play soccer this year and has had so much fun... Shelby is doing SO GOOD! She loves soccer or any sports for that matter. They have been playing for a couple of weeks now. It is really funny to watch Savanah play soccer, she is in the 1st grade, and it can be hilarious at times. I was taking pictures of her and she saw me and being Savanah she had to stop what she was doing and pose. She loves the camera and the camera loves her. Here are a few pictures of their first games. I don't have any of Shelby yet I will get them on as soon as I get some, but here are some of Nana she is silly!

Some more kids pictures!

I took some pictures of my cute kids a while back, maybe 3 weeks ago, after I just finished getting them ready to go to the Draper Temple Open House.

So in this Shelby our oldest, 11, she is total tomboy she LOVES to play sports.

Dakota, 8, loves to play video games whether it is on the computer or on the PS2

Savanah, 6, she is the "princess" or so she thinks. I bet she would hire a servant if she could so she wouldn't have to do anything. Also, if you can't tell by the pictures she LOVES to pose!

Dallas, 5, he is my little buddy, he is so polite and sweet! He could play by himself and be fine with it but then he could play with others and be so happy to be playing with them.

Samantha, 2, She IS my little princess LOL, she loves to sing all the time, which I love listening to her sing "we will rock you" and "twinkle little star".

These are my cute, cute kidlets.

I love this Picture... Sammy loves her brothers.

This is the "best" I could get :)

This is my FAVORITE picture! I hope they are always like this!

I have to explain why Shelby is "so sad" in all the pictures though, just keep in mind that these are the "best" of what I took, after I explain you will understand. LOL After doing Shelby's hair she started to cry, not only cry but sobb so I asked her if she was mad at me for the way I did her hair, she said no so I asked her what is going on that she is just a crying and she said "I don't know what is wrong, I am just crying" Well you know Shelby will be 12 in September and I believe we may be going through puberty at my house AHHH! I feel so old now, I am too young to have a 12 year old right?

I love my kids to death. They are my TREASURES!

Vegas Trip!

So it is mine and Chads 12th year Anniversary today. I can't believe it has been 12 years! So with our income tax return we decided that no matter what, we knew Chad would probably get laid off again soon, we were going to go on a small trip. We haven't been anywhere ourselves in 12 years, unless you count the overnighter for our "honeymoon" a trip, which I do not. Another thing I can't believe is my Shelby is going to be going into YW the end of the year that is totally crazy. I feel old just for that reason. So here are a few pictures from it...

The Fountains of Bellagio

Kiss Kiss

I love you honey!

Pictures

We recently had pictures done at Sears, I know they aren't the Best but Chad's mom wanted to do it there so I got some of my own....

My Beautiful Kids

Shelby

Dakota

Savanah

Dallas

Samantha

My Girls

My Buds

Samantha Wears Makeup

So yesterday I was doing some "major" cleaning, well with 5 kids it's always "major", and I was deep into it. You know how you get deep into things you kinda "forget" about things for a minute, but then you come to reality. Well I hadn't heard Samantha for about 10 minutes and I thought she was just still downstairs watching TV and possibly had fallen asleep. So I called out her name just to see if she would answer. I hear her saying "what" and it was coming from my bathroom, I was thinking "this can not be good" So I go into my bathroom and Samantha is sitting on the floor with all my makeup puting on eyeshadow. She looked at me and said "look eyes". For a second I thought about yelling at her but then I remembered how in a lesson at church a couple weeks back they talked about how to instead of getting mad, laugh about things your kids do. It was kinda funny anyways so I turned right around and got the camera so I could take a picture, so in the future when she comes to me saying how her child got into her makeup I can take out this picture. Blackmail. LOL So here are some picture of her with putting on the makeup thinking she is a "big girl". I learned a good lesson that Sunday. Cherish the memories with your kids, because soon they won't be kids no longer. Besides, you never know what could happen. One day they could be putting on your makeup or whatever and the next they could be gone. Hopefully we will never have to go through that, but for now I am going to Cherish everything with my kids because they mean the World to me!

Didn't she do a GREAT JOB?

Dakota's Baptism

Dakota was Baptized on Saturday, January 3rd of 2009! What a Special day for him, he has been so EXCITED since his birthday and he was really mad when we couldn't baptize him in December because Chad was supposed to be out of town. A few days before the day he would have been baptized, he ended up not having to go and it was too late to change it. Chads sister Bobbi gave a talk on Baptism, she did a really good job. Shelby gave a talk on Confirmation... She did really well! Chads blessing was amazing you could really feel the spirit in the room. I am so proud of his decisions!

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we had Chads family over, we finally have a place big enough for parties. We do soups and breadsticks on Christmas Eve and I made my Carrot Chowder. Yes, it sounds nasty but believe me the picky eater it is Very Good, and Chads mom made her homemade chicken noodle soup. We then let the kids open their Christmas Eve present and they were very excited... After everyone left we let the kids open their pajamas and we loaded them into the van to drive around town looking at Christmas Lights. Mainly, it was to waste some time! We then went home and got the kids to bed. Me and Chad did our Preparations for the morning, we forgot to leave Santa his pecan pie, but he found the cookies. When the kids got up and went downstairs to see if Santa had come they had lots of Fun seeing all that they got. Shelby got a Mp3 player, a bookcase, a lava lamp and a few more things. Dakota got a whole bunch of Star Wars stuff since that is what he is into as of now and a Scooter and a few other things. Savanah got a baby doll and a lot of Tinker Bell stuff. Dallas got a Hot Wheels City track and a Thomas the train track. Samantha got a food set a baby doll and a lot of Tinker Bell stuff along with Savanah. They had fun enjoying their toys for quite a while. Later in the afternoon we went to my parents to open gifts. It is so crazy there since we have so many people in one room trying to open presents. Standing room only basically. We then came home to a nice Turkey dinner. We had a great Christmas but I am so glad that it is over.

Happy New Year 2009

I can not believe another year has passed. This year for us went extremly fast! We had some ups and we had some downs as probably everyone had, It was just a CRAZY year this last year. Our major up was that we were able to buy our Beautiful Home!!! We are so excited and totally love being able to have people over because we have the room. I will put pictures up one of these days maybe LOL! Our major down was when Chad was laid off only 2 weeks from closing on our house. I am just glad that it wasn't sooner or there is no way that we would have been able to get it because on one of the documents you sign at closing ask basically that your financial status hasn't changed within the last month or something like that. What a blessing. He is back to work thankfully! I never really make New Year Resolutions because I think they are stupid and no one really follows through on them. But, this year I am doing a New Years Resolution and it is that I want is to be able to get a good savings going so that if something happens we will be MORE prepared. So that if we want something that is a little more than we would like to spend we have the means to get it. I hope everyone has a Fabulous New Year!