A Weekend Getaway

Last weekend Morgan, Noel, Sam and I went up to the Watkins Family Cabin in Provo Canyon. Morgan had just finished the Winter Semester at BYU and started up with the Spring Term this last Tuesday. 

We got up to the cabin last fridayevening and stayed through Saturday evening. My sister Leslie and her husband Jason and their kids were in town for the Salt Lake City Marathon that Jason ran in. They met us up at the cabin on Saturday afternoon and soon after they arrived my brother Chris and his wife Kareena and their baby Ty came up with some pizzas. We popped those pizzas right in the oven ate pizza, chips and salsa and salad. Most everyone went fishing after dinner and then we cleaned up the cabin and left. I don't have any pictures of all of us at the cabin. I wasn't thinking!!! I just have the ones from earlier on in the day. Sorry mom and dad!

On Friday night we roasted mallows, made s'mores, read books, visited and put the kids down. Morgan and I stayed up and watched a Redbox movie and ate chocolate and chips and salsa. Noel was so excited to be up at the cabin.

Saturday morning. Our lil' cutie.

I took some pictures around the cabin for those in the family who don't get to visit the cabin much. It had been a couple years since I had been up there. There were a lot of new decorations and such.

Around noon on Saturday we took a walk. It was perfect weather.

This is Ol' Man Stewarts cabin. As kids we were told so many stories about this little cabin and I don't know if any are true;) We used to walk to it every time we were visiting the Watkins Family Cabin but now there is a No Trespassing sign and a chain up around it.

Blue Jay.

My wonderful hubby and our lil' chubalub, Samuel.

This is the only picture I have with anyone that visited. This is a picture of Sunday morning at our place. The kids were watching Prince of Egypt while Les and Jas were packing up their things and the rest of us getting ready for church.

The other day Morgan took Noel outside to make some big bubbles.

I forgot to mention, Sam is teething! He got both of his bottom teeth in recently. We noticed him first teething on March 31st. Since then he has both of his bottom front teeth in and now he has big gaping holes in his upper gums. We are expecting his upper two front teeth any day. Sam will be 11 months old on May 7th! I can't believe he'll be 1 soon. His corrected age is almost 8 months old. He's rolling all over the place but not quite sitting but he is definitely progressing and getting stronger. He is now eating baby cereal once a day with added squash. He is doing so well.

Our big/little miracle baby.

An Amazing Devotional

Every week at BYU (the university that Morgan is attending) they have what they call a "Devotional" which is a meeting in which the students attend and listen to a selected speaker. The meetings are always uplifting and teach many different principles from our church. About a month ago I was invited by my sister-in-law, Kareena, to watch a devotional given at BYU which I thought was very inspiring and powerful. The speaker talked about his family's experience with their child that was born with only pieces of a brain, no eye and many other problems. The lessons they learned and that he shares in this devotional are amazing and moving. The link is below if you would like to watch it. It's about 28 minutes long and well worth the time. I hope you enjoy.

Here is the link:

http://byutv.org//watch/8127d2ea-99bb-4096-99c9-a44ca326c3e5

The last few weeks...

A couple of weeks ago I took some pictures of the kids just for fun. I absolutely love my kids. They light of my life and I thank Heavenly Father every day for them.




Morgan is so wonderful. He is such a great husband and father. Here he is playing with Sam and Noel.
Noel plays with her "kitchen stuff" often. She makes "cookies"," muffins", "salsa", and "salad" with it.
Sam trying to escape his bumbo chair.

It snowed last week. Noel played outside with Uncle Chris for a little bit and after putting Sam down I came and took some pictures of her. She was eating the snow.
The sun tried to peak through a few times throughout the day so I tried to take some fun pictures of the beautiful blooming trees. It can't decide whether it wants to be winter or spring here.

Noel and Uncle Chris made a snowman.
She had some bbq sauce on her face leftover from lunch.




So for Easter I found an idea off of Pinterest to make a stuffed bunny. It turned out more like a pillow bunny. I couldn't help but laugh when stuffing it because it looked nothing like what I was trying to make it look like. Oh well. Noel loves it and snuggles with it a lot. That makes all the difference.
This is what the Easter Bunny brought for the kids.
Noel loved looking for the candy and the eggs in our little living room.
Then she saw.....
...her new pet fish that the Easter Bunny brought for her.
Sam chillin' on the ground.Playing with his basket.
Meet Nemo... and now say your goodbyes to Nemo. Poor Nemo actually died Monday night. He didn't live very long at all. I think it was because the person at the store that the Easter Bunny went to put water from a different aquarium than the one Nemo was in, in the bag. We are going to go get another fish for Noel (at an actual pet store this time).
Later on, on Easter Sunday, I heard Noel giggling and saying "That tickles" and I look over see this mess. It was sooooo cute!

Samuel's 9 month Update

Samuel is now 9 months old. His corrected age is about 6 months old. He now weighs 15 lbs 9 oz and is 25 1/4 inches in length. He's doubled his length since his birth. He is progressing well. He is a little bit behind developmentally but not by much. He is rolling all over the place, laughs, smiles and makes fun noises. He always has his hands in his mouth and is so fun to play with. He sleeps through the night now as of about a week ago or so. It's so wonderful! He'll sleep anywhwere from 6-12 hours at a time. His naps during the day are pitiful but I'll take it if it means that he sleeps through the night. He was given the go ahead to start on solids anytime and the go ahead to go out into public places in about a month or so. We are excited to be able to go to church as a family and take Sam to the grocery store and do all of the normal daily activities with him. We are so blessed to have him here with us on this earth and thank Heavenly Father everyday for blessing our lives with the children we have. We couldn't have asked for more.

80's Double Date

Last weekend my sister-in-law, Kareena and I had a double date planned for our hubbies. The theme was "The 80's". Morgan was in heaven! He loves the 80's! We all dressed up and made pizza, did an 80's trivia game (Morgan won), and watched the old version of "Footloose" with Kevin Bacon. We had a blast!


The guys and the babies. You gotta love Noel's face.The group shot.
The Watkins Family. Chris (my brother), Ty and Kareena.The girls.
The couple shots.


A little smooch action.
Making pizza.
Me with my cute lil' Sam.

So Noel lately has been a pouty lil' thing. The terrible 2's are definitely present. She slams the door, cries, whines and is quite sensitive. We are trying to keep her more busy which is easier to do because the weather has been so beautiful. We have found that that helps a lot. Well, sometimes when she pouts, she'll go in another room and fall asleep in random places. In this picture Noel happened to fall asleep in our closet sitting up, using one of my shirts as a pillow and putting her head on our laundry basket. A few nights earlier after pouting in the bathroom I found her asleep on the ground on the bathroom rug. She is so silly.