Samantha is 3!

She is my baby and she is three.  I can't believe it!  I love this spunky girl.  We tried to take her to get her portraits done and she refused.  Refusal is a light way of saying she flat out threw a fit.  She didn't have any problem posing for me at home though.
I love this picture of her.  It truly is a reflection of Samantha's personality.  She loves to be funny and she will not be ignored.  She loves to have fun, and looks for the fun on a daily basis.  She never just sits around and she is in control of her life just about every minute of the day.  If I ask her to wait a minute, she says, "I can't do it!"
If anyone ever wonders why we nicknamed her Sassy just look at this picture.  This picture tells it all.  When she is being sassy, she likes to stick her tongue out, blow raspberries at you, or tell you "NO" with a smile on her face.

I really enjoyed watching her this birthday.  She really understood what having a birthday meant this year and it was fun to see her enjoy every minute of it.  She loved opening her presents.  I think her favorite present was a Disco Wow Wow Wubbzy.

She loves animals!  She has 2 pigs she carries with her almost everywhere.  She also has a little skunk that she has named Flower.  She is beautiful and we are so grateful that we are her parents.  She is Queen of our home.  She has her parents, brothers, and sisters wrapped around her finger and she knows it.  Happy Birthday Samantha!  We love you!

Glen River Dam 10/6

As a family we journeyed back up to Utah during Conference Weekend.  Matt's Aunt Jackie had passed away and we went up for the family funeral.  It rained most of the time we were there, and the children suffered from camper fever.  As we were heading home the sun came out.  We decided to stop off at the Glen Canyon Dam and take the "Dam Tour".    The kids really enjoyed themselves and loved learning about the Dam.
We were able to go onto the dam, and take the elevator all the way down to the bottom.  We saw the power generating station, and learned about how the dam is used to generate electricity.  It was very interesting and fun.  We also went to eat at Dennys.  A favorite family treat.  The kids were able to have rocket sippy cups that they have used ever since.

Matt's Trip With Hayley, Seth, and Jared 9/27

Matt took the older three kids up to Utah to see his Aunt Jackie one more time before she passed away.  He was able to do a little sightseeing and decided to take the kids to Timpanogos Cave.  This picture was taken at the start.  Notice unsuspecting grins.  Little do they know, the hike is 1.5 miles straight up switchbacks.  Happily they made it to the top and really enjoyed the tour of the inside of the cave.
Still going strong!  But they have far to go yet.  
This was a great view from the top.  This was taken on their journey down from the mountain.

Arizona Science Center 9/12

My kids needed a break from school, and so we headed off to the Science Center.  My kids love the Science Center.  We were in luck because they still had the Narnia Exhibit.  It was awesome.  I could not take any pictures, but I will try to describe it as much as I can.  We entered the front gates into the wardrobe of coats and came out into snowy Narnia.  We saw the lamp post and many of the set pieces and costumes from the movie.  My kids loved sitting on the ice throne of the Evil Queen of Narnia and touching the ice waterfall.   They were also able to see a catapult in action, and feel the weight of real armor and swords.  The exhibit ended by showing us a preview of the upcoming movie and another they are working on.  It was so cool, we spent an hour just in the exhibit.
This was Jared's favorite part.  Emilee and Hayley loved helping him dam up the water table and watch the effect it had downstream. This was the first time we all got to go into the planetarium.  We watched a presentation on Black Holes.  All of the kids really enjoyed it.
Seth was helping Samantha and Emilee create smoke signals.  They were able to send them very high up into the sky.  My kids also really like the new interactive exhibit about weather.  We got to feel the winds of a hurricane, and the heat from a volcano, and feel an earthquake.  It was a fantastic exhibit.
All of my kids loved racing in the wheel chairs.  They had a mini competition.  It was very fun to watch.  Tank and Sammie really had to work very hard to get the wheel chairs to move. Needless to say, they all went to sleep on the way home.