Sarah won an art contest at the Primary Children's Outpatient Center in the new Riverton hospital. We are so happy for her. She LOVES to draw. It now hangs on the wall in the hospital.

Here's our beautiful Aimee. It's kind of a spring-y outfit, but I couldn't resist!

Here's Aimee's blessing day! Jonathan gets a special tie for each of the kids' blessing's. When they are older he will give them (or their husbands...) the tie. I think he is going to have a hard time letting them go. He said it might be when he dies.... ;o) He loves his ties. I made Aimee's blessing dress. It won a first place blue ribbon at the Utah State Fair. I was pretty excited!


This is Sarah's 6th Birthday. She wanted a Candyland birthday cake. It had so much candy on it, I made a separate cake for the adults to eat. She loved helping decorate it!

This is Aimee in her reindeer coat. Sarah wore this when she was a baby. I was so happy to have another winter baby so I could use this coat again. I love it!

This is Sarah with her AWESOME dance teacher. Tonight at her mini-recital, she lost her tooth! You can see her gaping hole in her mouth. She is pretty happy about it. Now the tooth next to her hole is loose!

Random Updates... MORE to come!

Blogs are supposed to be update twice annually, right? Okay then, I'm right on schedule. ;o) These pictures are sort of out of order. But this is what we have been doing for the last few months!
This is a picture of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert Jonathan and I went to. It was pretty incredible. We were in the 9th row on the floor. During part of the concert they actually had snow falling from some mysterious place above us. It was magical!


Here's my little Singing Bird, Olivia. This was the name given her at her preschool's Thanksgiving feast. It is very appropriate. She is always singing.


Here is "Singing Bird" asleep on the floor. I guess she was tired. ;o) This girl can sleep anywhere, anyhow! I love how she is all sprawled out on the floor!


Here's Halloween! I had two pirates and a cowgirl! I got to stay home and take care of little Aimee. She was only two weeks old..

And here's a picture of our little Aimee Rebekah. She is a sweet little angel. The kids smother her with love! She loves to smile at them as they sit and talk with her.

Super Busy!

Samuel turned two in June. Like the lop-sided cupcake?

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house

Tree swing at the Leavitt Family Reunion

Frozen Yogurt pops, first and only time! ;o)


All the days are melting together, literally. This heat is killing me. The month of July has been a wild one! I really look forward to the holiday this weekend. More fireworks! We had family staying here fourth of July weekend, then during the following week, the day after they left we had a little mission reunion at our home then had a friend stay with us, then more family staying here until this Friday! Basically we've had two or three days this month with no one here. The kids have had a blast. They are definitely used to having SOMETHING going on, and when there's not, they just whine. So it's been nice to have so much family and friends to visit with this month.

Sarah and Olivia start school at the end of August. It's starting to feel like we are beginning a new phase of our life--kids in school--and all the beauties and trials it brings. I'm terrified of dealing with Sarah in the REAL WORLD. As much as kindergarten can be considered the "real world!" Here we come. I am so grateful for Jonathan and the spiritual strength he is in our family. He is always ready to teach lovingly to our beautiful children the principles of the gospel that will give them strength and courage to face the trials that they will be experiencing throughout the rest of their life. I constantly feel the pressure of being a good mom and teaching the kids the things they need to know and being eternally patient. I know that if I just smile more, I find more to be grateful more and find myself being more patient and loving with my kiddos. My heart melts when they learn to play so well together and teach each other. I love to see Samuel copy everything the girls say or do. Can't wait for our newest addition to the family to join us. I only wish I knew her name. :o)

On Saturday, I was playing ward softball and was running to first base, tripped and fell (gracefully, I'm sure) and sprained my knee. It's been pretty frustrating. I had to have the girls tuck themselves into bed last night because I could not get down the stairs. It's worse than having surgery on my ankle. At least then I could crawl around. And to make matters worse, I can't take anything but Tylenol. Ugh. I hope I heal quickly!

Facebook is the Devil.....

It's the real reason behind not keeping up with my blog. A decent amount of things have happened since the last blog. Nothing life changing of course. Except finding out the sex of our baby, and my mom getting married! Yippee we are having another girl. We wanted a little bro for our Samuel, but I'm excited about dressing up another little girl. We are really struggling with choosing out the perfect name. Jonathan thinks Clarke sounds too boyish. He does like it however. At least that's what he says. So anyway. Our other thoughts involve Lily, Rachel, Ella, Claire, and Ann. Any form/combination of these we've been tossing around. This is the hardest we've ever struggled for a name. Please shower us with opinions/suggestions.

Sarah is so happy to have her friends out of school for the summer! And equally anxious to join them in the fall. Olivia is going to preschool in the fall as well. I'm pretty excited about having quiet afternoons! Bibbs has now lost her ability to pout her bottom lip and give us big puppy dog eyes when she wants her way. We now know it is all a game! Samuel is ALL Boy and we love it. His eyes light up at anything he can hit or pound with.

Here is a picture of the Salt Lake Bees game we went to last night. Tons of fun. Really warm and overcast. It was awesome. Even when it started pouring rain in the bottom of the third inning. We stayed under shelter until the 7th inning and decided to call it a night. The kids had a blast playing in the rain. It was Air Force night and we got to see four people parachute from a plane and a big flyover with jets and such really close over our heads. It was a blast.


Here is a picture of our baby girl. We thought it was a pretty good profile shot. Olivia joined us for the appointment. She thought it was pretty cool. Sarah wanted to play at her friends house instead. :o) Oh well.


Here's some big news! My Mom got MARRIED!!! We are so happy and excited for her. She actually married my Uncle Gene (her brother in law). They are now the butt of everyone's joke. We have come up with some pretty wild nicknames for Uncle Gene, now that he is my "Dad" and my kids' Grandpa! (Duncle and Grapuncle) They were married for time only in the Rexburg Temple on May 9th. It was awesome.

Our trip to Seattle!

A quick update on our family. Jonathan finally got the call from Seattle to pick up his security card to start working from home. I went to Seattle a long time ago and fell in love with it. I insisted on going with him. We had my brother and sister-in-law watch our little Samuel for a few days while the rest of us made the quick/long trip to Seattle. I loved driving up there. I love seeing places I've never been, duh. But it was awesome to drive past all the apple orchards and vineyards. Even though they were still "dead" from winter, I can just imagine how much more beautiful it probably is in the summer! I loved Le Grande, OR. And I saw the ORE IDA potatoe building. I put two and two together and figured this is where my frozen french fries come from! It's on the border of Oregon and Idaho. Go figure! While Jonathan was at work, the girls and I took the Monorail to downtown Seattle and walked around Pikes Place, then down to the docks to the Aquarium. I've always wanted to go see one of the BIG aquariums. It was awesome. I love the ocean!


This is at Snoqualmie Falls. It's amazing to me that you can be at the ocean one minute and be out of the city and in the heart of the mountains 25 minutes later.

Snoqualmie Falls

This is on the dock at the Aquarium.

This is the Monorail we rode to downtown Seattle. We walked everywhere. Jonathan had to have the car for the day. The girls were such good sports in their casts!


This is in front of the tiny World Spice Merchant shop. I saw this store on Food Network and never thought I would actually walk right past it. The sign on the sidewalk is the only indication of what store is in the building. I was surprised to see that it had no signs on the building itself. It's a really cool place to buy whole or ground spices. I order from their website and it's cheap!! In many ways, from what I can tell, cheaper than grocery store prices--and better, fresher spices!

Livia would NOT touch the star fish, but Sarah thought it was fun. I thought it would be the other way around. Liv is usually the more daring one.


Here we are in front of the Aquarium.


It was night time, she insisted on wearing the sunglasses.


This is a different time eating Cheetos. She fell asleep eating them, it was pretty funny.

Baby Tag...

Baby Tag... All about the kiddies!

1.Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant?
Las Vegas with Sarah, and home with the other two.

2.Who was with you? Jonathan, he wouldn't let me do it without him.
3. How did you find out you were pregnant? a pregnancy test
4. What was your first reaction to being pregnant? Happy, each one of these kiddos was very planned out!
5. Who was the first person you told? Jonathan, then he tells the whole world!
6. Did you plan to get pregnant? every time
7. Did you tell everyone else right away? With Sarah, we waited, because I had a miscarriage before, then with the other two, Jonathan couldn't contain himself!
8. Was everyone happy for you? Of course
9. Did you go out and celebrate? Never really thought of that..... :o)
10. Did you wanna find out the sex? Of course!
11. What was the sex? Girl, girl, boy
12. Did anyone throw you a shower? I had one with Sarah.
13. Did you get any outfits that you knew you wouldn't ever put on your baby? None that I remember, but their were a couple that I FORGOT to use. Sounds dumb, but true.
14. How much weight did you gain? 25 with Sarah, 20 with Liv and Samuel.
15. Did you lose all the weight that you gained? Yeah, not a chance!
16. Did you get any stretch marks? Acutally, no. I'm a freak about lotion, maybe it's genetics. Who knows why!
17. What did you crave the most? Can't remember anything specific.
19. Who or what got on your nerves? I'm just MORE grouchy about everything.
20. Did you have any complication with your pregnancy? Um, nope.
21. When and where did you go into labor? At the hospital all three times. I was induced all three times.
22. Did your water break? Nope.
23. Who drove to the hospital? Jonathan
24. Who was in the room when you gave birth? Jonathan, Dr. and a nurse.
25. Did you go early or late? 2 days late with Sarah, and a week early with Liv and Samuel.
26. How long were you in labor for? About 9am-6pm with all three
27. Did you have drugs for the pain? duh.
28. Natural or C-section? Natural
29. What was your first reaction when they were first born? Happiness and relief.
30. How big was she/he? 7lbs 1oz (Sarah) 7lbs 8 oz (Liv) 8lbs 6oz (Samuel)
31. Did your husband cry? Yeah, Jonathan does that.
32. What did you name your baby? Sarah Elisabeth, Olivia Kate, Samuel McBride
33. Any significant Meaning? Here goes: Sarah: (named after friend and means princess) Elisabeth (the bible-thus the spelling, again, after a friend, and means Concecrated to God) Olivia: Means Olive Tree, and... I love it. Kate: After me, and two grandmas. Samuel: Samuel the Boy Prophet in the Bible, the lamanite, and it means Name of God. McBride: after my family/Dad
34. Any visitors? Yep
35. Did baby have any complication? none.
36. How old is your baby today? Sarah is 5 yrs. Liv is3 1/2 yrs. Samuel is 20 mos.
37. When is the next one coming? About the middle of October..... ;o)
38. If you could would you do it all over again? Sure, I love all my little babies.
39.TAG: Pretty much anyone who reads my blog and would like to share in this fun post!

idiopathic toewalkers....

Yes, many of you know, our kids, especially Sarah, walk on their toes. Well, today we went to our long awaited appointment at Primary Children's Hospital. Sarah and Olivia are now in their stretching casts, hoping that we won't have to move on to surgery to lengthen their achilles tendon. Olivia was excited to get her special little "boots" and happily chose pink and green for her new footwear. Sarah, wasn't excited about it at all, but knew if she didn't do this, she would have to have surgery. So she gave in and chose purple and red for her new footwear! They will have to wear them for two weeks, then go back and get new ones to wear for two more weeks. It's going to be an interesting month!




This pic, I just had to post. We heard Olivia crying downstairs in their bedroom. Jonathan yelled to Sarah for an explanation, and Sarah yells back, "Olivia's stuck in the curtains!" I run down their to find her like this. She was getting ready for bed, decided to run around in her underwear making "twirls" in the curtains. Her hair raised up and got caught in the twist, and she couldn't get out. I started laughing so hard. I yelled to Jonathan to get the camera. It's even funnier as a full length pic decked out in her pink undies and stretch casts. I just didn't think it would be appropriate....

an explanation....

So Olivia's nickname is Bibbs, Bibia, Bibsy, etc. Let me explain... When our little Olivia was born, Jonathan and I always referred to her as Baby Olivia. Well, Sarah, being only 19 months old at the time, blended the words together and came up with something simpler. Bibia. And the rest is history. As much as I love her name, any form of "Bibia" has become the norm. Olivia refers to herself as Bibbs, and that's what all her friends and cousins refer to her as well. So there you go! A little family history for you.

Draper Temple Open House

Yippee! This was AWESOME! Sarah has always wanted to go inside the temple, and when I told her we were going, she could hardly believe it. She was pretty excited. Sarah's favorite part was the baptismal font. Mine, the brides dressing room. Made me want to get married all over again! ;o) What an exciting experience. I am so happy that my children were able to see inside the temple. Samuel wouldn't stop "talking" the whole time. He pointed at everything. They imported stuff from China, Africa, all over! It has African Cherry wood doors and frames. It was incredible. Beautiful! Jonathan had never been to an open house either. What an awesome experience for our family!

Raisin Filled Cookies...

Okay, they may sound pretty gross. But I LOVE them. Another tribute to My Dad. I wanted to make cookies the other day and was going through some recipes. Some I wouldn't make because they took too long, you know how that goes.... Well, when I came across these, I couldn't resist. They are a labor of love. The recipe made a whopping 24 cookies. ;o) My Dad loved these cookies. After I decided to make them, I realized that I haven't had one for about THREE YEARS! Dad seemed to make them a lot there at the end. Everytime I went up for a visit, there they were. I loved it. They really don't taste as bad as they sound. :o)

Who Knew?

We have a great little "kiddie" hill in our back yard. Check it out! I love it. The kids have a blast back there. Good Times

JURY DUTY

I have to be honest with you. I have actually always wanted to be on a jury. In December, I received my letter informing I have been chosen for jury selection. I was SO excited. So, this week I go to the court house for my selection. I see upwards of about 45 people there. They were only going to choose 9 jurors. At this point, I was disappointed because I thought I would never get chosen out of a pool of 45. They gave us a questionnaire that led me to believe the nature of the case. That's okay, I can DO this. After the lengthy process of introducing EVERYONE in the courtroom and telling who you are and what you do, children, place of residence, etc., we all sat down and waited while the counsel and judge went through the questionnaires and pulled people aside in the judges chambers for further questioning. I was one of those. That freaked me out. It wasn't so bad, when I got in there though. It took about 5-6 hours before they finally announce the jury. I was chosen. I had to hide my excitement. I was actually thrilled to be a juror. This is intense. This is a big responsibility. After having been a juror this week, I would gladly do it again. I'll admit, it was boring at times, and I definitely got tired of sitting. But overall, this was a terrific experience! No, I have no idea how much I'll get paid for this. Surprisingly, none of us asked.

Happy New Year!

So far, it's been great. The Year, that is! ;o) Jonathan was able to party with us for our New Years Eve party. It was crazy! All the kids (from four families) were up until midnight to count down to the new year! We had lots of yummy food and fun times.

Today, first Sunday of the year, was awesome. Of course, Fast Sundays, are always wonderful. Sarah came to me last month after Fast Sunday and said she wanted to bear her testimony in Sacrament. It came to me as a surprise, she's kind of shy in front of people. I told her that this is something she needed to do on her own. I couldn't stand up there and help her. So we talked about it throughout the month of December, about what a testimony is and such. Then I forgot about it. Well today, with no Jonathan because of his work schedule, she comes to me and says she wants to bear her testimony. I told her to just do it in Primary. She said that she wanted to have me watch her. Well, I thought Primary testimonies were during Sharing Time, so I thought I wouldn't have been able to see her because I am in Senior Primary. So I asked her what she wanted to say and it goes like this:

Sarah: I'd like to bear my Testimony, I know this church is true, "mumble, mumble" something about friends.....
Mom: Sarah, Testimonies are about what you believe or know to be true. What to do you believe to be true....about the church?
Sarah: Welllll..... I know the lights always come on.

This is where I started laughing so hard, tears came rolling down.
She, of course, got mad at me. I apologized and went on. Sarah practiced again, then RAN up to the stand to bear her beautiful testimony:

"I'd like to bear my testimony. I know this church is true. Jesus is real. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

It was awesome. I was heart broken that Jonathan couldn't be there to see her. However, Jonathan WAS able to get off work early enough to actually attend Sacrament today. So it was a good day today. :o)