Some pictures and stuff...

This kid LOVES dirt! 

She LOVES being outside! and she LOVES picking up sticks!

 Can you tell she likes being outside...

 She picked up this log... it was 3 or 4 lbs. Strong girl!

 

No really she loves dirt...

Just walked over sat down and started playing.

This is good, That is hard, and That is REALLY hard!

So reading others blogs I decided it was about time to update mine :) I actually wrote this post once but accidentally deleted it after having most of it done :/ so here I go again :)

So as for This is good. Samantha is growing like crazy and learning more and more things daily! She can now say peach, bye, hi, nice, woah, none as well as others I can't think of at the moment. She can almost say bird... comes out more like bir at the moment. I can get her to say bir and I can get her to say duh but we haven't gotten to bird yet. Bear  and pear sounds more like beaw and peaw.

It's a monkey Trap :)

She actually will sit for 10 minutes of a movie! Toy Story 3

This is how I found her :)

Got a little stuck... so I went to get a camera.

St. Patty's day dress

Rodeo Girl, she was so excited :)

Daddy and his little girl

Playing outside... with a BIG stick.

I asked if she wanted to go outside and she ran into her bed room and got her hat and then went back to the door.

The neighbor had a four wheeler, she LOVED it!

A Lot :)

We have had a problem with her taking off her clothes and diapers during bed and nap times... as you can see. Her little bum was a little ice cubes and she was shaking pretty good. We are seeing how zipper pjs and a safety pin will work.

So as for it's hard... trying to eat healthy and exercise. I get so frustrated with it sometimes. It's hard to balance eating enough but not to much. It's hard but I am down to 137.8. It is amazing to think that I weigh 58lbs less than in High School. WOW almost 60lbs lighter! Crazy.

 Picture on the left is from January and the Picture on the right is from March, about 12 lbs lighter!

As for REALLY hard I have been trying to cut out sugar for a month... not doing to well but I'm working on it. I in the almost 2 weeks I have been doing it have eaten (sweet junk food)  1/2 a small cookie, 1/4 of a sugar cookie, and we had muffins for dinner one day. I did a few nights ago said no to a very tasty looking chocolate chip cookie and a cup cake today.

As a second note I got my Idaho drivers license! I was nervous about getting it but it didn't turn out to be so bad :)

Yep that's my girl...

Thought I would add some pictures since I haven't in a little while. Big cheese, both the crackers and that grin :)

Mommy's big helper :)

And then she gets everything out! Had to put a nail on the inside so I could loop a rubber band around the knob so we didn't have a repeat :)

My beautiful Silly little girl!

I thought she kind of looked like and Umpa Lumpa

Texting, in her toy box lol

Mom a little privacy please.

Eating a snack after meeting the stairs...

Yeah the stairs won...

Tickles :)

I think I'm getting some wrinkles... lol

 This is what she thinks of her "spill proof" snack cup...

Cute girl in her pretty dress from her Aunt Jean

Oh so cute (The skirt is from Aunt Jean too)

Sweet girl is learning more and more every day! She surprises us with new words often! She says lots of words some of which include hot, hat, turtle, why, away, hi, and sometimes bye. She says PaPa, bear, bird (sounds more like bir though), boys, mom, dad, and a few more I can't think of I'm sure. In sign language she says finished, thank you, please, and more. She can also point to most things in her picture books when asked where something is. She is a smart girl and I hope she keeps learning and growing, its fun to see :)

The countryside of life...

I am sitting here with my sweet daughter sitting next to me ( 16 months already!) looking at magazines and I am thinking about the normal progression of life. The normal ups and downs, the countryside, the rolling hills of life. I just said good bye to a very good friend, and I hope she sees me the same. Her and her sweet twin boys (one of which was having a hard day today, 4 molars all at once) and her very kind husband were leaving on one of their ups in life. He got accepted into a radiology program in Oregon. I am happy things are happening for them but I was thinking how much I will miss all the fun conversations I had with her and how much Samantha loved playing with her boys. Samantha would always look across the parking lot "Boys? Boys? Boys?"
 
It has been hard living here in Idaho sometimes, we live in "married student ward" which means for all of you who aren't Mormon ( AKA members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) that the people we go to church with are students. Our "ward" or congregation is in a certain geographical area. Our ward becomes like a large extended family and with it being a student ward people move on. I love getting to know new people but I am inclined to hang on to the old ones as well... I often like things to stay the same, it's comfortable. But as my best friend said in a letter change is exciting. I hope I can learn to embrace that very soon.

On the other end of the spectrum on my upside of things. I got one last letter from my best friend who will be coming home from her mission in Japan THIS MONTH! I won't get to see her for awhile longer but she will be closer! Another up... we got new neighbors kitty corner in our four-plex. And for the first time in the 2 years Dan and I have lived here we have a neighbor that shoveled both sides of the walk and next to everyone elses cars! How nice :) ! Another up is that in May I will get to see my family(my parents, an Aunt, a cousin and her fiance, and my parents ward family, and my school family too.) I haven't been home since I got married in the end of '09. Another up is with our Tax returns we will be able to pay off some of our student debt! Very exciting being able to get rid of debt. And the closer we get to paying off our student loans the closer we are at being able to think about buying a house or for Dan getting a motorcycle. We have also had the kindness showed us of being invited to 2 different peoples houses for dinner in a month. I always enjoy our time with other couples and families. I was also able to talk to one of my very best friends last night and she is doing well! I hate living far away from so many people that is another of my downs but it is nice to have skype and cell phones and emails to talk to people even when they are far away.

I guess looking at this there is a momentary sting from a parting but there are many blessings to remember as well... I hope the Lord helps me to see the ups and helps me magnify them and lengthen them out and that the sorrows can be shortened in my reminiscent upon the good.  
http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#in-the-spirit-of-thanksgiving