Christmas

This was Elle's first christmas and Beck's first christmas that he "gets it". We had a lot of fun this christmas. Cody's sister Norma was down from Alaska so we spent Christmas Eve at his Dad's house and celebrated a little early with them. We played in the snow and built a snowman, had a fantastic dinner and opened a few presents. Santa even made a surprise visit, which Beck did not appreciate. Even Cambelle was a little worried when the big guy himself showed up on Grandpa Sampsons doorstep. We had a fun filled, exhausting day.

Christmas day was no different. Fun filled and exhausting. The hour and a half drive home christmas eve gave all the kids a great nap at 9:00 on christmas eve so no one was tired at bed time. I think we finally got to bed around 1:00. Elle was the first one up (she doesn't even know about Santa yet, why was she so excited?) at 5:30. The other two kids got up around 7. Cambelle could hardly contain herself when she realized that it was Christmas morning. By the time we got around to opening presents ( we had to wait for Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Ray) Elle was fast asleep again and Cambelle had rifled through every present under the tree to see which boxes belonged to her. The rest of my family showed up aroun noon for the traditional christmas dinner at my parents house and we played games and the kiddies opened even more presents. Then it was off to Grandma Lola's for even more presents. I think our kids are totally spoiled by their grandparents and aunts and uncles. It was a typical Christmas for us and thats just how I like it.

Temple Square

We finally made it up to temple square in Salt Lake this year. I think I have been trying to get our family up there for years. My best friend growing up lives up in Salt Lake so we used her as an excuse to get up there. Emily is so much fun with the kids. We planned our trip before we knew the weather report though and it turned out to be freezing. Actually colder than freezing, it was about 20 degrees. Plus it had snowed earlier in the day. It was beautiful! Seeing all the christmas lights somehow really gets me into the christmas mood. It makes me feel like a kid again.


I am so glad Cody is in a christmasy mood this year and lets me drag him around to these things. Cody has been so good this year. Usually he barely tolerates the whole christmas thing, but this year I think I'm finally gettin' to him. He listens to christmas music in the car with us, he has been to two different "light shows", and he was actually willing to help me get out the christmas decorations. Lucky for him this years decorations consist of stockings and garland and thats it. My parents took care of all the other decorating. I just love this time of year. Merry Christmas All!

For Halloween this year we went with the Star Wars theme. My sisters kids dressed up with us and I think we had just about everyone covered. It was a lot of fun making these costumes.


Beck as an Ewok


Elle as Yoda

Jacob-The Sith Lord, Jared-Obi Wan, Kaley-R2D2, Karey-Padame, Cambelle-Princess Leah, McKenna-C3PO, Beck-Ewok, and Elle-Yoda.

Fall Hike

It's been our family tradition since Cody and I were first married to take a fall hike. The hike gets shorter and shorter every year, as the kids legs are shorter and shorter every year. They just don't make it quite as far. It seems like fall came really fast this year and we didn't get out on the trails until the first week of October and all the leaves had already fallen off. It was still a great time to get out.

Cambelle was helping Beck across this little bridge after this picture was taken and he started to lose his balance. She tried to save him and fell in herself. Cody ended up catching Beck before she took him down with her. What a great big sister.

Camping Adventures

Whoever it was that decided camping was a vacation was obviously not the one in charge of planning and carrying out the "vacation". It is so much work to go camping. Enough of my whining here is a picture journal of our camping trip...

Do you see anything missing? Like maybe a gas pedal? Beck somehow broke off the gas pedal while we were down at the reservoir. Cody ended up driving the scout back to the campsite with a pair of pliers attached to the throttle. We had to send Grandpa into town (2 hrs away) to het the pieces welded back together. All I can say is thank heavens Lance brought his tool set...

Cambelle did NOT want to go on the boat, but as soon as we were out on the water she was just fine.

All in all it was a good time, but it is always so nice to come home. And to shower. Thanks to Grandpa for the good times and our good friends Lance and Ryan for coming along and making our trip so much fun.

Lost Tooth

Cambelle lost her first tooth tonight. She was so excited. Well actually she was mad! Cody was wiggling her tooth and it popped out. At first she didn't notice, but then she realized there was a hole in her mouth and she was not happy. When it finally sank in that she had actually lost her tooth finally she was all smiles. Toothless smiles.

Evil Humidifiers

Thursday morning as I was getting Cambelle ready for school, Beck came out of his bedroom screaming and crying. I wasn't too concerned, that's how he usually comes out in the mornings. But he kept rubbing his hands on his legs. I asked him if he had "Owwies" because the day before he had gotten his immunizations. He just kept on crying for about 40 minutes. A bottle finally calmed him down and that was that. Well, later in the day as I was getting Beck ready I noticed that the humidifier in his room was unplugged. I don't remember unplugging that I thought to myself. So I looked at Beck and asked him if he had touched it. He looked at me very innocently and said "no, no" while shaking his finger at the humidifier. I told him "We don't touch!" and he replied "Owwies". Thats right good boy. Well around lunch time my Mom picks Beck up and notices his hand. It looks something like this...

Now everything starts fitting together in my head. The crying, rubbing of the hands, the unplugged humidifier. Apparently Beck put his hand against the steam coming out of the humidifer and got a good second degree burn on his finger. The blister popped later that day, on my sisters pants, but now his finger is raw and sore. Poor guy. I swear his curiosity is going to get him in some serious trouble one day. Oh, wait it already did.

Elle's Blessing

Cody blessed Elle on Sunday September 3, 2009. It was a beautiful blessing. Thanks to all of our friends and family that supported us. We had a lunch afterwards at my parents house and overall it was a great day. She looked absolutely beautiful in her little white dress. Here are a couple of shots of Elle on her big day.

Bike Riding

So this summer Cambelle has had a great time learning how to rider her bike with out training wheels. (I know she's 6. She should probably know how by now, but we've been busy with babies and such lately.) She basically taught herself, only a little bit of help from mom and dad, by riding down a slanted walkway. It was so funny to watch because she just couldn't get started. When she would fall she would always yell out "I'm OK" and then hop up, and if she was hurt she would still yell it out hop up and then limp over crying for some sympathy. Overall she did a terrific job. Now she wants to start riding her bike to school with her cousins. I'm hoping the weather gets cold so I can keep driving her. I'm an overprotective mom, I know.

Where has the summer gone?

Seriously, where has the summer gone? School starts next week and I'm not sure I'm ready. As most of you know, we are not morning people at our house. Well, Cody is a morning person, but the rest of us are not. Cambelle starts first grade in a week and i'm going to have to get up and help her get ready, after being up all night with the babies. It's going to be insane! I'm going to have to actually get our family in a routine. Real bedtimes. Real wake-up times. Maybe even scheduled nap times for all of us. Hopefully we all adjust quickly. I'll let you know.

The kids are growing so fast. Elle is two months old. She has the greatest smile. She actually has two smiles. Her first smile is just a cute little smile, but my favorite smile is what we call "happy eyes". When she gives you this smile, it makes her eyes scrunch up and her whole face smiles. I love it. This is when babies start getting fun. They aren't all that exciting up to this point.

Beck is 15 months old and constantly sick. I think it's just his lot in life. It seems that we are in the doctors office at least every two to three weeks. His latest was a virus that caused a 103.4 degree temperature and a really ornery little boy. After he was over that we found out he was also cutting 4 teeth (two are molars). When he is healthy and not cutting teeth he is an absolute riot. He know the sounds a lion, puppy, and snake make. And he has the most hilarious "please" face you have ever seen. I think it's the snaggle teeth that make it so funny. I think the highlight for me lately is that he finally says "mama". He has been saying dada since he was 9 months old, so this is pretty exciting for me.

Cambelle got her hair permed this summer, hopefully it will help us get ready faster in the mornings for school. She took gymnastics and loved it. She is doing cartwheels and flips and sommersalts through the house all the time. Luckily no serious injuries yet. She has kicked Beck in the head a time or two with a flubbed up hand stand but nothing worse than that.

Cody and I celebrated our 8th anniversary in the end of July. Unfortunately, with a new baby and a cranky one year old we didn't get to do anything other than go to the movies. That was fun though. It's crazy to think that we've been married for 8 years. A lot has happened in those eight years, both good and bad and everywhere inbetween and we love each other even more than when we got married.

Life has been crazy the past little while, but it's life and I love it.

She's Here!

Our newest addition arrived on Wednesday June 17, 2009 at 9:48 a.m. Elle Sampson weighed in at 7lb 9 oz. and 21" long. She beautiful, but I'm partial. We are so glad for her to be here and to join our family.

It's been a crazy week since we got home from the hospital. Beck came down with tonsilitis. We took him to the doctor who started him on antibiotics, but his throat was so sore that he reufsed to eat or drink anything. He became so dehydrated that he didn't even have tears anymore, so Monday night we spent at the hospital with Beck who had to get an IV. Very traumatic! Not just for Beck, but for a crazy, hormonal, emotional Mom. The nurses said he would calm down after the IV was in place, but he screamed and cried for 2 more hours. Usually they would leave and IV line in for 12 more hours in case he needed more fluids, but the doctor was so concerned that Beck wouldn't sleep if they left it in so they took is out early. Today he is starting to act more like himself. He even slept last night! Awesome! We might actually get back to our normal routine soon.

Through all this craziness Cambelle has been wonderful. She is such a great help with two babies at home. She is so patient with Beck and with me. And she absolutely adores her baby sister!

Poor Cody is probably completely exhausted. He was the lucky one who stayed up with Beck this last week, while I was up with the baby. Then every morning, he's off to work. No rest for the weary I suppose.

Elle is an excellent baby. She sleeps and eats really well. What a blessing!

Thanks to everyone for their love and support!

First Haircut

Beck got his first haircut back in April. I found these pictures while looking for birthday pictures to upload. I completely forgot to post these back in April. It's so funny to see how shaggy his hair is in this first picture. Cody got out the hair cutters and we gave Beck a dum-dum sucker, a trick we learned from a friend. If you want them to hold still, give them a sucker. The sucker worked like a charm. He sat mostly still. OK, he sat as still as an 11 month old can. He looks so cute with this new 'do. It's been almost a month since he got his hair cut and it's almost time for another one. He has fun hair. It naturally wants to do the cool "faux-hawk" look, or you can comb it like a cute little missionary haircut. Lucky guy.

Beck's 1st Birthday!

Our little man turned one on May 8th! So crazy. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. How cliche', I know but really it feels like it has gone by so fast. Beckster, as we call him, is growing up so fast and learning so much. I think it is a blessing in disguise. If he wasn't growing up so fast, how would I be able to handle another baby in a couple of weeks.

For Beck's birthday we had the traditional # pancake. This one was easy compared to Cambelle's 6. Beck really loves pancakes so it was a perfect breakfast for him. Cody was even lucky enough to have the day off of work to spend with us. We didn'y do much on his actual birthday, but we did have a party for him on Saturday. He got a little tractor to ride on and he loves it. Thanks to everyone for coming and sharing this fun time with us.

After the birthday party we had a movie night. The kiddo's stayed in the house and watched "Bolt". Cambelle, Karey and Kaley all wore their matching PJ's from Park City, cute girls. All the adults went outside and did a drive-in type movie and watched "Taken". Very Scary! It was a fun night.