Air Supply

Manda and I went to see Air Supply last night! We made our shirts and bracelets and headed to Wendover! The concert was awesome, the guys were old, and we sang really loud and off-key. We got them to autograph our shirts after the concert, but we weren't allowed to take pictures with them. Bummer! The lead guitarist took our picture, though, because he really liked our shirts!

My 80's Sister Party

So, we dressed 80's and descended on the calm crowd at Olive Garden. People may look at us funny when we have our sister parties, buy by the end of the night, they always want to be part of our group! Can you tell that's a Peaches & Cream Barbie cake? She was my favorite Barbie growing up.


I know the picture quality is horrible, but I had to steal this from another blog. Lib, Ab, and Manda sported the crimped hair while I diffused mine to make it look like a big, bad perm. Manda vowed to wear her tye-die outfit clubbing. Abby made that purple sweatshirt all by herself. And, Lib will be rocking the pink jeans long after this next baby comes! I wish you could see my purple leggings and lacy white socks, but too bad. We were totally hot!

Happy Birthday Sam!

I've been trying to figure out how to get pictures of Sam over the last two years into a slide show with a sweet, sappy song all day. I can't do it. I guess you have to have a Mac for that!

So, instead I have a sweet picture of Sam that I took yesterday when I found him eating glue sticks in the kitchen. That's almost as sweet and sappy as the slide show, right?

I remember two years ago thinking I was going to have to drive myself to the hospital to have this baby! Cameron was packing my bag for me and we were trying to get Jared on the phone at a Health and Fitness Show he was participating in. I was a little nervous only because my labors are very quick. No way did I want to have a baby on the side of the freeway! The first contraction came a little after ten, we arrived at the hospital at 11:10 and Sam arrived at 11:50. With a less than 2 hour labor & delivery and being nine days early, Sam will always be one of my favorite babies.

• Over the last two years, he has proven to be quite a Momma's boy and a Daddy's boy, too, for that matter. At least we know he loves us. He adores his big brothers, "the guys".
  
• He's finally starting to talk a little bit and able to communicate with us better.
  
• He likes to dump things, spill things, spread things, etc., and he leaves a path of destruction in his wake!
  
• I love that he has started choosing which books he wants me to read to him which are usually "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub", "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", and "Hands are Not for Hitting".
• He loves balls, "vrooms" (cars), babies, and Batman.
  
• He loves to be sung to, also. His favorite songs are "5 Little Ducks", "Child of God", "Once There Was a Snowman", and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Sam's Birthday

Sam had an awesome 2nd birthday! We celebrated with a little family and some cake and ice cream. Sam scored a new truck, some doggy shirts and a few favorite foods like ranch, milk, and ketchup. Love you, Sammers!

Early Birthday Party

It has been a great "Day Before My Birthday"! My sisters and I go out on our actual birthdays, so Jared treated today as my birthday. I woke up to beautiful roses this morning and he helped straighten the house and get the kids ready for church. While I was in the shower, Jared and the boys blew up party balloons to decorate the house.
After church, I got to take a nap and work on the Sunday crossword puzzle while he made us a great dinner. He made Chicken with mushroom gravy, potatoes with garlic and onions, and green salad. For dessert, we had cream puffs with whipped cream - lots of whipped cream!

In fact, Sam had just whipped cream and about four servings at that!

Snow day!

Dad is so fun. He takes us sledding.
Mom is so practical. She stays home to make sure the heater keeps working.

Bats in Training

For Christmas, Jared got an Inversion Table to help stretch his back out. The boys have loved it. They don't seem to mind if all of their blood rushes to their faces!

I think it's hilarious how skinny they are and I made the mistake of saying so. They got their revenge, though, when it was my turn and my sweater slipped up a little revealing some stretch marks on my tummy.

They all cowered in horror! Shreiking and shielding their eyes!
What are those lines on your stomach??
Ew, Gross!

Um, yeah, I won't be getting on that stupid contraption again!

Love this boy!

The day before I took this picture, Jake had gone around to some of the neighbors asking if he could shovel their driveways. He came home with $20.
Cam saw Jake's good fortune and planned to do the same thing. He asked me if he could go around and shovel for money. I explained that by this point most people had already shoveled and I didn't want another Meiners' kid knocking on the same doors a second day in a row. Cam thought for a minute and then asked, " Can I just go and shovel for free to surprise people when they come outside then?"
I love that he didn't throw a fit or whine about money, he surprised me by still wanting to do a service. Of course I had to sneak a picture of him from our porch as he worked to surprise one of his favorite neighbors on our street.

Gingerbread Houses

Joshie and his mega Costco Milk box house.

Cam is such a cute boy.

Sam didn't build a house, he was our candy quality checker!

Abby cheated and brought a kit. Boo! Hiss!

Katie let us combine gingerbread houses with her birthday party.

Gracie, Cam, and Joshie working on their houses.

Charles taught my boys how to destroy the houses once they were done building them. I htought this was an excellent idea because I really don't know what to do with them the morning after!

Jingle Jam

I love that even though my big boys are 'too big' for a lot of things, they are still young enough to be excited to see us at school!

Jake is on the verge of becoming grown up as you can tell by the fact that we only got a smirk. But, still happy to see us so we'll count our blessings!

Cam doesn't even try to play it cool! He's always so excited to show us what he can do!

The Fox Hollow Jingle Jam was on December 18th.

Meiners' California Adventure