Utah June 2010

A summer trip to Utah for Sam and me.
Below are Sam and some of his cousins, who can cause a lot of craziness and laughter.
Tristan

Liam

Luke

Our first stop was a much needed one as I had never met my niece Mia. We stopped in Springville at my sister's house and I got my satisfaction from holding this cutie.

Sam was more than anxious to see his cousins and get right into the playing. Wolverine!

It never fails, Sam always seems to play matchy-match with one of his cousins and he thinks it's pretty cool to look like Luke!

My brother Joel and Tom and I went with my mom and our kids to the Million Dollar Park.

Sam and Tristan had a lot of outdoor fun! It was really cute because they would stand within inches of each other so they could get the bullets on each other's vests and they thought they were doing the game just right!

Buddies! Never know what these two little critters are up to!!

Sam and Luke have an almost brotherly like relationship. Sam looks up to Luke at whatever he does. Luke tries to help out Sam. They love to play with each other but they also have their brother-like fights too. It's pretty special.

Oh how he LOVES them! Sam's face shows it all. Sam's relationship with his cousins is pretty special. His little personality shines when he's with these guys.

Sam and this little sweetie have a special bond with each other as well because they share a similar name. Samantha is just a few weeks older than Samuel and they have a great time together.

My little Sis. Ash, had a great idea of inviting all her cute nephews and niece to the Provo Pool for some much needed water fun and they LOVED it! They each had fun in their own way whether it was going down the water slide or just sticking right where they were bouncing in the water.

This is how Sam will always remember his Grandma Bean: M&Ms! When the grand kids come to grandma's house they know they will always find m&ms in this cup in her room.

Sam gets lots of loving when we go to Utah. Grandma and Grandpa Stromberg do a great job of loving and spoiling this kid. When we arrived for our visit to Grandma & Grandpa Stromberg's house, grandma had some fun new toys to spoil little Sam with. Laser and water guns and lots of yummy food!

One of Sam's favorite toys to play with there is Dan's old school Sesame Street Little People.

We had lots of fun playing at their house, and we even visited the new fire station up the street, fed ducks at Sugar House Park, had a water fight with grandpa and rode on a carousel.

Sam actually had two visits to a fire station. The second time was with his cousins. My brother-in-law Billy has a relative that is a fire fighter for Orem. He invited us to come and have our own special tour of his station. Lots of fun for the kids. They toured the house, the ambulance, and the fire fighters even hooked up a hose outside and turned it on for them to have the ULTIMATE water fun!

Christian was the lucky one to try on THE desired outfit.

Sam and I were able to be in Utah for Liam's 5th "Transformer" birthday and boy did Sam think that was cool. He is really into the whole super hero thing, be it Transformers, Superman, Batman, Spiderman or as many of the pictures show, fire fighters!

The birthday game of Transformer, Transformer send ? right over!

We had a great time filled with lots of playing, fighting, crying, eating, pretending, laughing, loving and visiting!

Newport Coast Resort

Grandma and Grandpa Stromberg came for their spring visit to California to see their kids. Every year they try to make plans to stay at their condo in Newport and then everyone comes and hangs out there rather than our houses. It is pretty entertaining to my amazement.
I wasn't quite sure that it would be entertaining enough for a 3 year old, but my Sister-in-law Jen kept saying Sam would love it. Sam thought the life size checkerboard was pretty cool. The swimming pool behind Sam is twice as big as the picture shows and they played a movie at night time for you to watch from the pool. He also loved the playground, sandbox, basketball court, putting green, arcade room and kids play room with a popcorn machine. Sam loved to visit grandma and grandpa at their fun place.

Another bit of entertainment for Sam, feeding the Koi.

A few days after grandma and grandpa left, our Niece Caroline performed in her school play as the lead Ariel. Sam loved seeing his favorite babysitter pretending to be a mermaid and singing and I would have to say she was AMAZING!!

Ready, Set, Race...

Shortly after moving into the Las Flores Ward I was given two callings, Activity Day Girls and Cub Master. Being called as Cub Master shook me up a little, because I have never served in the Cub Scout program and so all I knew was from watching my Dad serve while all my brothers went through the program.
As my calling pregressed I was given some amazing leaders to work with and I quickly gained some confidence.
My first two pack meetings went well and then there was the Pinewood Derby. I was a little nervous with how it would all run, but once again with everyone's help it really went well.

I was also fortunate to live close to my amazing sister-in-law Jenny. I knew I needed to call upon her help, with her skills of party throwing. So together we really made this event look super special for the Cub Scouts.

"Pit Road" for car repairs

"Weigh in Point"'

"Raceway"

"Pit Stop Alley"

The Scouts did a great job on their cars and had some very clever designs.

The scouts were aching to devour the refreshments and refuel their bodies!

A House Full of Visitors and Summer Hasn't Even Begun

I was told by a friend from church that now that we live here we will never have to leave to visit family and friends because they will all come here to see us. Wouldn't you know they were right and we love it!
I have had a house full of visitors and Sam is beside himself. He's so funny, every time a visitor leaves, he gets mad and stomps his feet and says, "You can't go, you have to stay here."
My brother Andy and his wife Kirsten were here for a night on their way to see her family in the LA area.
My sister Ashley and her husband Jordan were next to visit us during their spring break.
They took advantage of their time and we did a whirlwind of activities. We visited Laguna Beach, took Sam to Disneyland for the first time with them and we were on a taping of The Price is Right. So we arrived at 5 a.m. I believe, and our airing was not until 4 p.m. We were just a little tired by the end of the show. No, we're just not crazy enough to be called down as the next contestant, I guess the requirement was 20 ft finger nails (the contestant that won the show case showdown.) Just a little disappointed. We even had these awesome t-shirts that Jordan had designed, how could they pass that up. Oh well, it was fun to see our tired, goofy faces on TV when it did air ( go to tv.com Price is Right 5/7/10.)
Making sand castles with Aunt Ashley, Sam's favorite part of going to the beach.

Sam's favorite ride, Buzz Lightyear.

All tired out after only a half day at Disneyland.

Finally, my brother Tom and his little boy Luke came for a get away.

Luke and Sam at Del Mar Beach.

Luke and Sam super heroes.

My brother Tom and I took the boys to Disneyland, Luke's first time. They loved it! We stayed until the park closed. It was amazing, the first ride for the day was Buzz Lightyear. Of course, they loved it and since we were there at such an amazingly non-slow day, we quickly hopped on the ride again.

Autopia!

Buzz Lightyear

My Little Red loving every minute of being at the happiest place on earth and all with his cousin Luke. Life doesn't get much better.

The Many Faces of Sam

Sam has certainly hit that three year old imagination stage. Every time we turn around he is some sort of super hero or a character of some sort he has created in his little mind.
So Sam when you are older, this is for you to see what a creative and silly boy you were.

Easter Simple and Fun!

Easter day was simple and fun!
Danno had to work the swing, so he was home in the morning to enjoy Sam's egg hunt and a good Easter breakfast. The rest of the day Sam and I watched conference.

You Snooze You Lose

Okay, I realize that the second picture is a bad shot, but focus on all the eggs in the back ground. This was an Easter Egg Hunt in Laguna Hills, put on by a local church. A friend from church invited me and some other mommies to come to this fun filled event. Bounce house, Easter Bunny, Easter Egg Hunt, face painting and carnival food. Sam was very excited for the egg hunt and the Easter Bunny.
When it came time for the hunt to begin, it was just a little bit intimidating for my little guy to say the least. Not only did the little tikes his age run out there, but the parents too. Sam was not about to go out there and fend for himself. So he had one egg out of all that you see out there on the grass. All those eggs snatched up in seconds. My guy was SAD! Luckily his little friends, that were a little more aggressive than him decided to share their eggs.
Next part of the story, no Easter Bunny came. Wow, the day was just not going Sam's way. So I figured I would take him to the mall, the Easter Bunny had to be there. He was, but so was everyone else. So we waited for an hour and a half. When we were so close to the end of the line, Sam saw the Easter Bunny and began to FREAK OUT! I guess he envisioned a small fluffy bunny, ever so cute. Not this massive bunny. How could I push Sam into this about to be nightmare for him, so we left.
Luckily the rest of his Easter would be better.

Potato Heads and Potty Training

Who would have ever known that all it would take was Potato Heads to potty train this little guy. I read up on so many ways to potty train your toddlers and I was so nervous to attempt it with Sam, because he is a pretty hard headed kid. He knows what he wants and tries to stick with his plan. So after all my organizing, I was ready to try the 3 Day Potty Training method. It was okay, but just not the best for my Sam.
I had a lot of friends tell me that their kids worked well with candy. Well Sam would do anything for CHOCOLATE, but I couldn't do that method for him or the next thing we would be doing is Weight Watchers. A brilliant idea came to mind as I was watching his obsession with his Potato Heads. Why not buy him a bunch of Potato Heads and give it to him in pieces as he earns them each time he does his duty.
Their you have it. A happy boy with his Potato Heads and a happy mommy with a potty trained toddler!