Count your many blessings!

On a sad note - My friend Christine's little girl passed away yesterday. I am so sad for their family, but I admire them so much for their strength. We have so much to be grateful for. Treasure every moment you have with your loved ones. You never know when they will leave this life. I am so grateful for my little family and for my extended family. I have wonderful friends and I am grateful for all of our moves and the people we have met along the way. I pray that Christine and her family will have extra blessings at this time and know how much they are loved!

Have they been good or bad?

Mikaela has been pretty good, Koby decided to tell Mikaela what she was getting for Christmas, Kai likes to bite....lets see we should just get them all coal - just to be fair. :)

Finding the perfect Christmas Tree

There are a lot of trees up here!!! We took a drive and drove up a moutain in search for our perfect Christmas tree this year. The kids had all their snow gear on just incase there was snow. We didn't find snow, only rain. Their boots still came in handy.




Koby found the Clark Griswold Tree. (A little too high.)




Kai loved walking around. He only fell twice.






Matt cut the tree down with Mikaela's help and Koby observing.

























This would have been a great Christmas picture for us to send out this year. Maybe I should have send it anyway... who needs mom in the picture.

Birthday Cake

I didn't plan anything big for Kai's b-day so when it came time to sing to him I had a great idea to put his two most favorite toys on each cup cake. One was lightning McQueen and the other was Thomas the train. It only took one look and he was in tears. The thought of these precious toys sitting in sticky stuff was too much for him. So much for no tears during cake time and my great idea. :)

Kai with Kaela, Koby and Brian Sampson

Our Big Two Year Old.

Makai turned two. He almost immediately started with the biting, hitting and saying no with a crusty face. But we still love him no matter how many times he does this to us. :) I have started to put him on time out. It is so hard because he actually sits against the wall so cute and just jabbers. Once I was trying to talk with him explaining that he can't hit or bite. I was really close to his face. He then started to point to my nose and eyes with a great big tilted head smile. He is just too cute - even on time out.

So here are some pictures with his little b-day party and playing with his new toy. I was so proud because he wore his party hat and he didn't cry when we sang to him.