PresLeigh's 5th B-Day family party

This is her present from mommy and daddy. She has her own vanity for her hairbows, jewelry, and pretend make up. It was so awesome during the party Tyson (Sarah's three year old) was havinga blast just playing with it. I love it when they are still to little to know that they "shouldn't" be playing with girl stuff. While we were putting it together Nate was like should I be concerned that Gavin is playing with make up? I'm thinking come on it just because it's something new.

PresLeigh had her family party today and she won't get to have her friend party until October 11th I feel bad but with our schedules is was the only time. So we are letting her have two partyies for that reason we normally just combine them. She made out like a bandit we will be spending the next couple days writing thank you notes.

Our Backyard

This is a look from one end of the yard to the other.
This is from the garden looking towards the house.

This picture was taken from our back door.
This is behind our big shed this part of the yard is basically never used.
This is on the south side of the house.
This is our garden area obviously we didn't use if for gardening this year we didn't move in until July 11th but next year we have high hopes for our garden.
This is the other side of the garden we have our work cut out for us. Although I did use almost all of the grapes off of our vines I made juice and jam if I never see another grape til next year it won't be to soon.

Around the house

Musical prodigies I think not! But they are really cute together playing.
PresLeigh is always trying to make sure that Livie is okay she is a great big sister.
Daddy just chillin with the babes.
I never got a picture of PresLeigh for her first day of preschool year two. So this is just one day that I was taking her.
This is in the garage while the kids were waiting for me to get their clothes but I thought they looked so cute on the couch all wrapped up in their towels I had to get a picture. I love Livie and Gavin's totally cheesy grins.

PresLeigh in Dance

PresLeigh started dance the begining of September. She is in the 3-5 year old class and she will be five on October 1st so it was a hard decision to make to pick which class to put her in the 3-5 or the 5-7. I hope we made the right choice? Addy is one of the little girls I babysit she will be four in May and PresLeigh looks about this different with all the kids in her class YIKES!! Once again I really hope we made the right choice, it is so crazy to me how much of a grown up she look like next to kids similar in age. SCARY!!

I really am going to update this blog!!

So I have been really busy with PresLeigh back in preschool, babysitting Addy again, and now I have taken on another little girl to babysit. A typical day in the life of Samantha. Wake up get ready for Addy who could come anytime between 7:05 and 7:35. Get all four kids breakfast, changed, and do three little girls hair. Which for anyone who has girls knows it can be a real battle. Load all four of the kids in the car to go to preschool, all of which are in car seats. Drop PresLeigh off at school at 9:00 come home and unload the kids. Put Livie down for a nap, and try to keep Gavin and Addy out of trouble while doing any laundry I have or run any errands since this is the least amount of children I will have all day. Then I load the three up and pick PresLeigh and Sarah (the new little girl) up from preschool at 12:25. Unload the kids AGAIN, can I just tell you I am so sick of car seats!!! Get the five kids a healthy lunch I put that because I struggle with something that is fast yet also healthy. Any suggestions would be great. Then I let them play for a little, while I start putting them down for naps. First Livie, then Addy who HATES nap time but she sleeps for over two hours so I know she needs it, then Sarah who also HATES naps I don't always make her though she is six and working out of them. Gavin has down time where he gets tricked into taking a nap and PresLeigh usually takes this time to play the computer since she doesn't have a lot of opportunity to. This is my "Happy Time" I usually get dinner started and sit down for the first time of the day at like 2:30 and no one is crying or fighting or asking for a million things at once. Livie wakes up at 3:30 and I wake Sarah up cause her mom is there at 3:45. Addy and Gavin wake up shortly there after this is usually the time when I play referee because the kids have spent all day together and are totally over each other. This is why I make dinner well before dinner time, if I waited to make dinner during this time it would not be made. Also on Thursday's PresLeigh and Addy have dance from 4-4:45 which is more car seat time YEAHH!!! Addy's mom picks her up around 5:30 and I feed the kids and anxiously wait for Nate to come home. I really do enjoy being a stay at home and I couldn't babysit any other kids that would be more compatible with our family. There are times though that I wish I worked, or got to have a drive alone in the car without screaming kids. That is when heavenly father humbly reminds me that there are so many women who don't get to stay home, and my kids are only little once so love this time it will be gone before I know it.

Some Of The New House

This is the new house.
This is behind the front door there is a built in bookcase.
This is a view from the front door looking into the dining room.


This is our front room. It's not finished but we have a good start.

A better picture of our dining room.

Our kitchen, I cant decide what I'm doing with it so it will be pretty plain til I figure it out.

The view from the kitchen.
Down the stairs
This is our downstairs family room. We have done the most work down here. The walls were white, it had an old gold ceiling fan, there were white sconces and the fireplace and grate were gold. The garage is finished so we will make that our toy room after this weekend when we have our garage sale to get rid of the junk in there. But the ugly love seat is going out there in the mean time its in the family room.

The upstairs is our next project. We have to paint all the kids rooms so hopefully I'll have those pictures on in the next couple weeks. We are loving the new place and so are the kids. I just realized I didn't post the backyard, which is a main reason why we love this house.

Gavin and Daddy BFF's!!

Today everyone was super tired from the trip to Idaho. Nate being the amazing husband that he is let me sleep in. The downside to this is he was so exhausted Gavin and Nate fell asleep on the couch. It is amazing to me how much they can look alike.
After their naps we finally broke down and bought a lawnmower. We have two in our backyard that we can't get to work and we've been barrowing one from Nate's grandparents. Gavin is Nate's little shadow so he was helping daddy mow the lawn.
Gavin wasn't feeling close enough so he followed directly behind him.

Visiting Twin Falls, Idaho

Nate's grandma turned 82 and invited all the family to come up for her party. Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathy were so kind to let us stay with them. They have five boys only three live with them but everyone was back and they let us stay. Our kids loved their boys so much.

This is the kids on Roberts back he is number four of the brothers. It makes me laugh because they thought it was so much fun to have him be their horse then if you look at the picture below they are using him for a couch to watch spongebob.

This is Brandon he is the third oldest and the kids seemed to think he was just the best. PresLeigh has a crush on him and wants to invite him to her birthday he lives in Ogden so we are really going to invite him.
This started out just being a picture of PresLeigh on Robert but if you look Brandon is holding Gavin upside down as well.
It didn't take Gavin to long to defeat the mighty Brandon!

Olivia loved this monster truck that they had she was constantly fighting with Gavin over it.

PresLeigh loves riding horses this is Uncle Mike's horse Freckles. He is a really good horse.

Gavin really liked the idea of riding a horse but when it came down to it he was pretty scared. I don't blame him though that is really high to a little kid. PresLeigh let him ride with her so he wouldn't be so scared.

Livie loved the idea of riding a horse to bad she was to little and only got to sit on it long enough to get this picture.

This was one of the waterfalls that make up Twin Falls it was so pretty.

This is Grandma Paula, Nates dad (Steves') mom. The kids really like her she is so much fun and she is just a funny lady.

Livie has a hard time with just about everybody but i needed a picture with Grandma.

Livie wouldn't be Livie if she didn't get hurt at sometime while we were there. She ran into the back door and totally hurt her forehead you can see that it is all raised white and red.

Poor Gavin we had so much fun but towards the end he got so tired so this is Gavin falling asleep on Daddy.