Silly Sam

The videos accumulate so fast on my phone. So this post is all the videos that I have promised to upload, because I'm a man of my word.

This one is just to show how silly Sam is. She is so full of energy, smiles, and fun!

This one had me laughing so hard. She has been into giving high fives, and decided to high five my face. It made a really loud clap, and for some reason we both laughed long and hard about that one. :)

This next one, she'd look at that phone and see herself, and in this one she saw her belly and got a pretty good kick out of it. Decided to drum on her tummy.

This next one is from back when she was learning to walk. She'd get off balance and then run to catch up with herself, sometimes looking like a drunk old man. It's quite funny.

We've got a smart one on our hands. Already talking on the phone. :)

This is one of the most frustrating toys for her, but she can't help herself, she is always walking around with it. Thanks Nanny! She is getting the hang of it and enjoys the music that plays when she pulls it around. :) One day she won't trip over it every 5 minutes. ;)

 Love, Aubrey

The Hinckleys

I adore the Hinckleys! President and Sister Hinckley are a lovely couple, who lived lives of happiness because of their love for God and for each other. I have been reading a few books by Marjorie Hinckley, which I highly recommend... "Glimpses into the life and heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley" and "Letters"...which were both actually not written by her, but contains many of the words and thing she's said. So it's amazing.

I've also listened to a few talks from President Hinckley lately. The one that stands out to me is a BYU devotional he gave in Nov 1998, "The Quest for Excellence"...it is worth listening to. Or reading. But I like hearing his voice, so I listen to it on youtube.

I was looking for a picture on Josh's phone for some reason, and I found this quote he screenshot from facebook, and I love it!

Love, Aubrey

Bath Time

I haven't taken any bath-pictures of Sam, at least none that I can remember...so for a whole year we haven't captured any pictures that will one day embarrass her. ;) Now she's able to play in the tub without me having to constantly stabilize her from tipping over. She practically swims in the tub now, creating waves and sliding around on her tummy. Her recent thing is trying to stand up in the tub, which I have tried to put a quick stop to...she's pretty defiant sometimes though. Anyways, she was being so silly I just had to capture it forever.

She also had a snot nose that relentlessly streamed out of her nostrils.

Love, Aubrey

Cats

In college I had a roommate (Tee) who absolutely LOVED cats. (Well, LOVE...cause she still LOVES them!) So I had to play devil's advocate and pretend that I didn't like cats. I don't like them as much as she does (I don't think anyone can, really), but I don't completely hate them. And now that we have a backyard with frequent visitors, it's really hard not to like them. We finally got the Siamese one to like us, and it'll now come up to Sam and rub against her legs. Sam enjoys chasing them....and eating their food. She will click her tongue at them, like we do when try to get them to come to us. It's really funny.

Back to the roommate explanation...me and another roommate decided it would be funny to send Tee a package while she was on her mission. So we bought a big bag of animal crackers and bit off the heads of all the cats and then mailed them to her. As I'm typing this, it sounds kind of cruel....haha...but really, we really wouldn't intentionally harm a cat. It's just fun to pretend to hate them. But the photos below will show my true animal-lover side. (But I'm still adamant about NO INSIDE ANIMALS). That will never change. 

Love, Aubrey

So Blessed

I was doing so good at making sure a few days didn't pass without a post of some sort. My bad. I'll try to be better about posting more often! This one is just gonna be a catch up, brief and full of pictures. :) It's been a most wonderful month so far. Big news is that Sam turned A YEAR OLD. I have a one year old....how did this happen?! It was just another day to her, except I kept telling her, "Happy birthday Sam!" And then she'd throw her food on the ground, woddle away, or stick something in her mouth, like she always does. :)

Skyler came up for the weekend, Kathy and Rulan made a special trip down to spend the day with Sam, and we had Tasha and her kids over for dinner and cake. It was a marvelous weekend.We got lots of snapchats from family and friends wishing Sam a happy birthday, and phones calls (which Sam loves!). Sam is very much loved and cared for.

This was on her actual birthday. Not the best quality picture, but here she is, all grown up and a whole year old!

We went to JoAnn and she thought she was big stuff, standing in the cart. She'd squeal with delight as I pushed the buggy, and the ladies would just smile at her.

I had to get a picture because she usually doesn't just lay in the ground and relax...too much to do and see. But she just laid down and snuggled with her doggy....which I figured out later was because she wasn't feeling good...she threw up :/

Since then she has not wanted to drink milk...we gave her whole milk for the first time and then she got a tummy ache...

But later that day she felt fine, which was good, seeing as how we had a party for her!

She didn't get the whole present-opening thing....haha

She sure is loved. :)

Thanks for all the gifts and love! My mom got her the CUTEST outfits, some really fun toys (which I have hilarious videos of, that I'll post somewhere in this blog soon), and a book! :) Kathy got her a ball tent and balloons.

Here are some other random things from the month.

At the library discovery time we learned about shapes. So the name tags were different shapes. I took this picture of her and later that day was looking through them and kept trying to hit "play" on this picture, thinking it was a video...but it's just the triangle name tag...haha

It has snowed in the mountains, but not down here. I'm sure it won't be long.

I attended the funeral of a very special and dear friend. Dixie Carruth passed away this month and I was one of many who came to celebrate the life she lived. It was a snowy, cold and cloudy day, until we got to the graveside. I almost had to take my jacket off because the sun was so warm. I smiled, knowing that Dixie put in a special request for that break in the clouds to let the sun shine through, as a special way of letting us know she is happy and well. I miss her greatly and I'm thankful for the friendship that we have. She was 81 years old and had a zest for life that is unmatched. I always told her that I hope I age as well as she did and that I can still find so many reasons to smile, despite the setbacks that naturally come with age. Thanks Dixie, you are amazing.

Josh snapped this picture and though it's blurry, I just love it! Sam is all about this walking business.

Ariel and Lisa and their kids came over and we chatted as the kids all entertained each other. :)

She wasn't quite all the way awake from her nap...

Love, Aubrey

Trick or Treat

Sam got to go trick or treating this year, with the Johnsons! We had a good time. Josh stayed home and handed out candy to all the trick or treaters that came to our door. Before we left he gave Sam a pep-talk about all the good candy to get...like the big candy bars, any and all butterfingers, and skittles. I'd say we were pretty successful. We went to the sub-division where you have to be 55 or older to live there, so they loved having all these costumed kids knock on their door. Many of them  had some really good candy, including the large super size candy bars! (jackpot!!!) We brought home all the goods for Josh.

After putting Sam down to bed, I came downstairs and there was a knock at the door. So I got the box of candy that Josh had been handing out to trick or treaters, and answered the door. A few middle school aged boys rummaged through the box to find a piece of candy. I told them to take a few since I didn't think we'd have many more, and I see them take the big snickers bars, all the butterfingers, and every other piece of candy Sam had brought home for Josh. Then they leave. I shut the door, realizing that Josh had dumped his candy in with the give-away candy, and that it was now all gone! Josh was sitting on the couch, and had a really sad face on, knowing what had just happened. He said, in his saddest voice, "They took it all, huh? I turned the porch light off, we weren't supposed to have any more trick or treaters...awwwwww, now all my good candy is gone..." I felt so bad, and still do. Those rotten middle schoolers took THE SUPER SIZE SNICKERS BARS AND ALL THE BUTTERFINGERS. We laughed about it, but it was kind of disappointing...all of Sam's trick or treating, for naught.

On a happier, more Halloweeny note...this is what Josh did all day on Saturday...he'd walk around saying "BRRAIINNNNNSSS" and then come up to either me or Sam and pretend to take a bite of our brain.

Here's some videos of Sam being a cat. Notice all the good candy....it doesn't last long.

Love, Aubrey

Halloween Hike

Halloween was a fun day. Josh went fishing up in Malad and caught a few, coming home a chipper man. He would have come home happy even if he didn't catch anything, cause that's just his nature...to be happy. But it was a bonus that he caught some fish.

After lunch we decided to explore the Bonneville Shoreline Trail some more, starting from a different access point. We decided to take the trail that led to Jump Off Canyon. It sure gave us a halloween fright....I was just walking along...lalala...and then this big gray creature jumps out on the trail and runs toward me. So I run back to Josh, screaming, and he catches up, then we approach the gnarly spider who thinks he's a troll, guarding the trail. I'm not kidding, the spider was as big as the palm of my hand. I am shuttering just thinking about it. You're going to see the picture and think I'm a wimp, but this picture does it ZERO justice. It was HUGE and mean and defensive. It kept running at us. I'm pretty sure it could jump too! Josh wanted to get a picture, so he got pretty close to it. It scuttered (I just made that word up...) toward him a bit and he leapt backwards, dropping my phone in the process! Ha! I laughed at him (after I screamed) because he was making fun of me for being so scared of it. So after getting a picture and staring in awe that spiders that large even exist, we exited the trail a few feet, then got back on the trail once we were long ahead of him. We look back to see if he was still there, and he was, already turned around and making sure we weren't coming back!

He had two of his legs in the air, staring at us with his mean black eyes. The other 6 legs were on the ground, ready to attack.

After that, every branch and tall grass that grazed my skin was instantly a spider, and I'd jump or scream. We saw another spider along the trail, but this one was just meandering along, not giving a care in the world that we were on his trail hiking. And it wasn't as big. I guess they have a right to be out on the trails today, given that it's Halloween and all.

Aside from the spider mania, we had a good hike. It was a beautifully warm and clear day, perfect for a hike. We won't have many more opportunities like this for the year of 2015, as it's supposed to snow this week!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween! I'll post some more tomorrow about it!

Love, Aubrey