Morning Hair

 Business in the front...

 Party in the back.

 Every morning, without fail.

Guess Who Turned Two?

 This Little Lady.

It's not fair!  She's getting big.  She chatters up a storm and makes her wishes known.  Sometimes I really wish I could freeze her at this age.  Sometimes I don't.  She's awfully cute though.

Some things I want to remember about Sammi at this age:

-First thing in the morning she knocks on her door and says, "MOM! MOM! Want break-ist!"
-She loves having her nails painted
-She's obsessed with footwear (I'm so proud!)
-She has two favorite outfits; her "love heart" (pictured) and her "fishy".
-She has really gotten into princesses lately, her favorite being Ariel, or "Ah-ah-ah" as she calls her. (Since that's how she sings on the movie.)
-She adores Emerson still, and has started calling him "Em-a-son" instead of just "E!"
-She tanks up at breakfast, and then doesn't really eat lunch or dinner well.
-Her favorite colors are pink and purple, which is why she requested her cake to be that way.
-She loves Daddy and misses him when he's at work, which has been a lot lately.
-She loves to read books to herself, but has started letting other people read them to her too.
-She loves nursery.
-She loves to comb her hair with her fork at dinner and sing just like Ariel.
-She can't go to sleep without her bear and Mimi (purple blanket).
-Her favorite shows rotate between My Little Pony, Babar, and Strawberry Shortcake.
-She's a sweetie pie who loves to give kisses and hugs but can turn on you quickly and then shout, "No! Go-way."
-She loves to copy E.  Whatever he is doing, she is usually doing.  She had a really hard time when he had swimming lessons and she couldn't get in the water too.

We got to have Grandma and Grandpa J and Aunt Nat and Aunt Steph come celebrate with us a couple days early since Daddy is on night float on her actual special day.

Girly with Grandma

Trying to show us "two"

E demanding a hug after she opened his present

 Opening presents

 Opening her princesses while wearing her cute Ariel dress from Aunt Steph and Aunt Nat

 So proud of her beautiful dress and shoes

 She wanted to sit on Grandpa's lap while she opened presents

 Admiring her pretty shoes

 The haul

  Trying to carry all of her princesses at once

 The "pink-purple" cake she requested

 So excited!

 Making a wish...

We love you so much, Samantha May!  We are so glad you are in our family.

Fun at the New House

 I should probably post pictures of our new house, but I've just been kind of lazy I guess.  We have really been enjoying the backyard.  The kids were shocked when we let them run through the sprinklers in their CLOTHES of all things.  Ok, they weren't shocked, but they thought they were pretty cool to get to live on the edge like that.

 Now that we live in a grown-up neighborhood, we finally have to mow our own lawn.  7 years of marriage, and never had a patch of grass to mow.  Well now we have a lot.  Luckily Sammi and E are around to help though.

Guess how many shrieks ensued as they were fighting over the toy lawnmower?

4th of July

The Murray Parade is one of my favorite memories as a child.  Combined with my birthday on the 3rd (yay! I'm 26!), my brother's birthday on the 4th, and all the regular festivities, it always makes for a fun couple of days.  We were so glad to be back in Utah for the 4th this year.  I couldn't wait for the kids to see a real parade with real candy instead of little league baseball teams throwing Dubble Bubble.  It did not disappoint.  Traditionally, one of the perks of going with Dad at 6:00 to get a parade spot was getting breakfast at McDonald's.  I don't know why, but that dang Egg McMuffin tastes especially good.

When the kids and I got there at a more reasonable hour, we passed the time until the parade started by waving our flags and throwing snaps.  They thought those were pretty cool.  Aunt Steph was just excited we didn't make her gather candy since she wasn't the youngest parade attendee anymore.  :)

 I can't believe how big this girl is!  She wore this shirt last year as a dress, and her pigtails were mere stubs.

 E's boots were perfect for snaps-stomping.

She throws like a girl.

 Proudly coming back from her candy errand.  She would not release the candy she gathered for anything.  She realized that once it went in the bag, it wouldn't come out.

After the parade, we would've traditionally watched Brad open his presents, but he's on his mission, so that was out.  We just got to think about him and hope he was having a happy birthday.  Instead, we got ready for the BBQ with the extended family and made festive Jell-O from Our Best Bites.  Then the Healys and the Mumfords came over and Ben and I got to do some party-hopping to the Christensen side.

Ben had to work early the next morning, so he opted out of fireworks and drove back to Provo and the kids and I headed back over to Murray to enjoy the awesome firework show.  Our friends the Humpherys just happened to be there from Logan, so it was way fun to see them!  The firework show did not disappoint, and the kids enjoyed being up late...again.  It seems like they've gotten to do that more and more with their dad working so late.

Anyway, our 4th of July was a success.

My favorite picture of the day?  This one:

Grandpa and his taffy-death-gripping girl.  I think he maybe adores her a little bit. :)

Best Buddies

We have mostly been enjoying Provo, but I get hit with homesickness for Ohio and our friends more often than I would like.  I was really embarrassed at church a couple weeks ago because I started tearing up right in the middle of Sunday school because I just hate being the new girl and I really just wished we were back at our old ward.  On a positive note, I'll bet the teacher thought his lesson was really spiritual.

So with all this missing our friends, we were thrilled when E's best friend was visiting his grandparents in Utah and we were able to get together at Mountview Park to play on the splashpad together.  I wish I had a video of their little reunion.  E spotted Tucker walking toward and park and took off running and they had the cutest little hug and screams of  "Tucker!"  "Emerson!"  It made me so glad that he has such a good little buddy.

It was so nice to catch up with Tucker's mom, too.  It was just so nice to talk to someone who gets me, knows me already, and misses Ohio too!  We will be glad to see them again when they come visit for Christmas. :)

Camping

 Our little fellas love to go camping.  Love, love it.  Luckily they have an adventurous and fun mother (ha!) and a dad who also loves to camp.  We decided to hurry and go before Ben's real schedule started.

E helped me pack all his stuff into his backpack.  And aren't the cowboy boots fitting?  He wears them with everything.

Sweet little Samantha May, always up for an adventure.

They both thought playing in the tent while we got the fire going was great fun until Emerson slipped out of the alternate exit...then Sammi was furious.  But I took a picture anyway.

 My favorite thing to do when she's acting like this is to ask her "Are you so mad!?"  And she shrieks back "NO!!!" I guess I should probably stop that.  I would be way annoyed if someone did that to me.

 I turned my back for one second, and this is what happened.  The best part of camping, in E's opinion.  He loves to "go wet on the grass or a tree" because he thinks it helps them grow.  Riiiight.  Do you want to know how many times he had to go to the bathroom?  Several hundred, if I remember correctly.

 So big in their mini camping chairs, roasting hot dogs.

Dark chocolate fudge-stripe cookies are fantastic for s'mores.  They also fit perfectly on little girls' fingers.

Surprisingly, everyone slept great.  There were no wild animals except for an annoying stray cat, and no murderers about.  (Campgrounds always seem much creepier after dark.)  I kept worrying that bears were going to smell our food and come eat us, but we tucked it away in the car so I guess they couldn't smell it after all.  Here's hoping we can camp again soon!  And maybe with friends?  If anyone wants to be our friends?  Anyone?

Too Cool for School

Sammi decided that her crib is sooooo last year.  She decided that with all the other changes going on in our lives, she needed to contribute her own little mix of crazy with the big girl bed.  She looks so small in it to me...probably because she is.  I'm a little mad that I was able to coerce Emerson into thinking his crib was da bomb until he was 2 1/2, and Sammi is just shy of 2.  Oh well, at least she's cute. 

Every night when we tuck her in, she chants, "Don't get out of bed!"  But don't be fooled.  She does it anyway.