LA Marathon

On Memorial Day Sam and Nicole ran the LA Marathon while we were out in California. They did great! I can't even imagine running over 26 miles. Sam finished in 5 hours 6 minutes, and Nicole was right behind him at 5 hours and 22 minutes. Considering they didn't finish their training, that was awesome! Sam's original goal was to finish in 4 hours, but his trainging got cut a little short due to injuries and the business of selling our house and he only made it up to 16 miles. I believe the farthest Nicole had run before this was a half marathon - 13.2 miles. They were sore for a couple of days, but we went to Disneyland on Wednesday and they were able to walk all day there without a problem. It was a huge accomplish, we were all proud of both of them!

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day! The kids made cute gifts at school that they were excited to give me that morning, and Sam had gotten a gift and card from everyone also. Sam made a great dinner, and I even got to take a nap! The kids were especially helpful, and that made for a wonderful day!

Sydnee in Spring

Sydnee has hit that stage where she gets into everything and crawls around the house destroying things! Case in point: Here she is ripping up the pad for my ironing board. I came around the corner and she smiled and ripped a few more!

Poor thing was so tired. After she ate dinner, and smeared half on herself, she had a bottle and fell asleep right in the chair!

Happy Easter

The kids got packages from famiy members. Thanks Emmy for these pretty wrapped gifts!


The kids got baskets full of goodies and toys from the Easter Bunny and new scooters from mom and dad. They have been wanting these for a while, and really enjoy riding them.




Here's the kids all dressed for church on Easter Sunday!

Hoping To Move

We officially put our house on the market For Sale by Owner. It was a lot of work this weekend to get it ready.... a lot! We cleared out everything that we could do without for a month or two and cleaned every nook and cranny. Our poor kids don't have any toys to play with, and aren't allowed to hardly walk through the house. :) It was just time for more space. We have found a beautiful house with 4 bedrooms and a playroom. Its in a community with a swimming pool and a park, and its only a mile up the street. We have loved this house we are in now. It was the first one we bought, and it will always be special, but we hope it sells quickly. In this market, that may not be easy, but we thought we'd give it a try. Wish us luck... I don't think I can keep up with this level of cleaning for too long!!

Are We Old?

We picked up hamburgers from Braum's last night for dinner since we have been so busy working on the house. Sam was telling the kids how he use to get hamburgers from Sonic all the time when he was a kid, and Shaye said "they had Sonic back then!?" :-)

Where's the Toothfairy!

The day has finally arrived! Shaye has been hoping to lose a tooth since kindergarten, so she was thrilled when she finally had one come loose a few months ago. Every day she was ready to pull it, and I had to tell her it wasn't loose enough yet! Well, I was gone on Tuesday evening and Sam tied floss around it and gave it a pull. I know... ouch! But Shaye was okay with it. It was almost out, so Sam grabbed his pliers and finished the job! Shaye slept with her tooth under her pillow, and awoke to a dollar bill.

Spring Break

We spent Spring Break this year with Sam's family. His dad and some other family members came up from Texas. He rented an RV and we spent the week at Osage Hills Campground. Its only about 20 miles from our house, but we had not been out there much until now. It was great! There was hiking, cliffs, caves, and playgrounds the kids enjoyed. Sam's dad cooked wonderful barbque, and as always, we ate too much! The weather was perfect and we had a great time!!

These are all the cousins' kids, (the second cousins) they are all of Pappy's great grandkids. They haven't all been together in a long time, and there have been new additions since then.

This is Sam and most of his first cousins. Steven, Jessica, Jason, Jennifer, and Sam

The kids had a great time playing and hiking. I was so glad they didn't spend Spring Break watching TV!

Sydnee enjoying the great outdoors!

Funny Face

We call this Sydnee's funny face! She rolls her lips out and breathes hard through her nose to make a little nose. Its so cute, we ask her to do it all the time! "Show us your funny face!" The times we can actually get her to do it, we all laugh and do it along with her! I can't believe we actually caught it on camera! She is so full of personality!!

9 months

Sydnee was nine months on February 22nd. She is 20 pounds and 28 1/2 inches long. She laughs whenever you laugh, she waves hi and bye, and she is even starting to use some of her sign language signs. She healthy and strong, fun, happy, and a little bit lazy! :-) She scoots around with her arms, but she's not sure she wants to crawl yet. But she has plenty of helpers to meet her every need. Shaye wants to be with her, hold her, and help her whenever she can, and Jaxson loves to hug and love on her! She has all of us wrapped around her finger. We love this little girl!




I love this little pouty face. You can almost always get her to do it just by pretending to cry yourself.