AUGUST

We had some crazy weather in August. Look at all the rain making a roaring river right down our street. We usually love to sit out on the rocking chairs on the front porch to watch summer rain storms, but his storm was a little too scary. If you look closely you can see tumble weeds racing by. Our poor neighbors at the end of the street ended up with a whole yard full of them.

Sam likes to help me make breakfast in the morning. Apparently he thinks we need more mouths to feed, so he found a few of his friends to eat with us.

Happy birthday to Grandma Paula! We love Grandma so much and I don't know what we'd do without her. Thanks for all you do for our family.

Look at what a cutie Luke is. I love his crazy blonde curls.

We are the Champions! This is our glory picture after winning the coveted tournament champion T-shirt for the 2nd summer in a row. We are such tough soccer chicks.

Sam the Man

It has been a while since I have posted any words of wisdom from Sam. I wish I could record all the funny things he says, but I'll just have to try hard to remember some of the highlights.

• One night when I got home from work Dave and Sam were cuddling in our bed. Dave said that Sam had been extra nice and helpful all evening. Sam had a huge grin on his face and said, "Mom, I would do anything for you."

A little bit later I said, "come on Sam, it's time to go to bed."

Sam started to whine and complain.

I said, "I thought you said you would do anything for me."

Sam quickly replied, "I'm going to start that tomorrow."

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Our family was driving along in the truck listening to the radio, a Celine Deon song came on and Sam groaned, "turn off this song Dad. This is girl music."

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I was reading a book about baby animals to Sam and Luke that had lots of different textures to feel. The pig has a soft rubbery nose. Sam felt it and said, "This is scrumptious".

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Dave and I were both driving home separately, so of course Sam wanted it to be a race. he said, "Come on Dad, I know you can win because you are the Dodge-Master".

JULY

July is always a very fun-filled month. With 2 major holidays, plus my birthday (which I think should be a national holiday), I am always amazed at just how much partying we do.

We were lucky to have an Esplin Family Reunion with all of Grandpa Reed's brothers and sisters. I think 7 of the 8 were there, plus lots of kids and grandkids. They also invited one of their cousins to talk to us all about life on the old ranch with Great-Grandpa Jim. It was great to hear the stories of life on the Southern Utah range with the sheep. I love to talk to all the Aunts and Uncles, and I especially love to hear the Aunties laugh and laugh.

Of course the kids loved the piniata best - compliments of Grandma Paula.

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We were also lucky to be able to attend the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. We took Sam, along with Ashlyn, Liz and Grandma Paula. I think Sam loved finally getting to the temple after being told so many times that he is too little to go to the temple. He was very reverant and thought it was pretty special. It was really beautiful and I am glad we got to go as a family (well, except for Luke.)

Sam posed his Aunt Wiz for this one.

Sam and Ashlyn are such cute cousins.

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These are a few pictures of our favorite things about summer. The boys especially love the 4-wheeler. Luke is following Sam's footsteps and is always looking to go for a "RIDE". We will be really sad someday when our 4-wheeler track next door turns into houses.

The boys also love to play in the water any way they can. We have had lots of fun with the slip-n-slide at our house, or they also love to swim in the neighbors little pool at the end of their slide.

I think Luke looks like such a hunk with sunscreen in his hair and his swim shirt.

Sam's smile shows just how happy they are when they get wet and wild.
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Happy Birthday to me! Thank Jack and Mary for the ultimate chocolate birthday cake - delicious.

We have wonderful neighbors who planted raspberries along our property line. They are very generous with their berries, and our boys pretty much claimed them as their own. As you can see, Luke decided it was easier just to eat them right off the bushes. I think some days he ate his weight in raspberries. I don't know how he can eat so many and still want "more".

Luke doesn't limit himself to just raspberries. We brought some bread home from my special birthday dinner out, and Luke quickly helped himself. He's a real animal

Sam loves his new 4-wheeler helmet. Why mess around with a wimpy bike helmet when you can have real protection?

Look at my two manly-men. Sam loves to help Dave weld. He has his own helmet and gloves so he can get right in the action. I don't know which boy has more fun, and I am usually the lucky recipient of their projects.

4th of July weekend at the cabin

We went to the cabin for the 4th of July weekend, and we had a great time. We took the 4-wheelers and we found some beautiful trails. The wildflowers were just amazing!

So, John is officially engaged to Ashley. They had lots of fun finding all the mud on the ride we took with them.
We found some great look out spots that made us feel like we were on the top of the world.

Wow, we actually have pictures of Dave and Me together, thank to photographer John.

Grandma Nancy and Liz braved the trail with Dave one afternoon while I stayed at the cabin while Luke was napping.

Luke loved to poke his head through the Christmas trees on the deck, scaring his mother to death. Plus, he liked to chew on the wood a bit just to bother his mother a little bit more. (notice I am sitting right next to him holding on to his legs.)

Luke added to the dirty camping experience by playing in the dogs' pet porter. He loved having his own little hut, and it kept him busy all afternoon. We did put in a clean pillow to make it a little nicer for him.

More pictures of our little love birds frollicking in the flowers.

What a babe Liz

Liz was a tough driver to make it across some of this rough terrain.

I think Sam may love the 4-wheelers the very most. These blue flowers were so amazing in real life, and the meadows just went on forever.

What a cute family!!

slip 'n slide

We have had lot of fun playing on the slip-n-slide this summer. You may notice that Sam is surrounded by bathing beauties. All the girls in the neighborhood love to come over to play with Sam. We were extra lucky on this day to have Grandma Paula bring Ashlin and Ava over.



Ava is still terrified of water, but she still had fun watching the action with Grandma.

Sam really thought we was tough stuff.

Nice form!

June

I love long summer days. My very favorite part of the day is the evenings when it begins to cool off and we have time after dinner to just sit outside and breathe in the sweet summer air and watch the sunset. Sam loves to ride his bike (especially if the neighbor girls are out riding too), or find bugs. I like to putter with my flower beds or just relax in my rocking chair on the front porch. Dave likes to mow the lawn or even better find something to fix or build. Luke loves to run off of our beautiful lawn to eat dirt and bark in the flower beds or rocks in the road. I know, it is hard to believe that such a sweet little boy is really such a mess. I spend a lot of time chasing him, and he just laughs and runs away faster.

Here are a few pictures of Luke when he really was being the sweet-pea that he is most of the time. He loves being tickled, and he will even tickle back sometimes. He also loves to have a soft stuffed animal to drag around and cuddle.

If Luke does hold still for a bit, the front steps are his favorite seat.

What a cutie. I just love my little Luke!
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We had the big H. family Reunion this year at BYU. The best part of the event was that all of Mom's brothers and sisters were present. I think it has been 20 years or more since all 8 of them were together.

Here is Martha and most of her family (above). Wow, there are getting to be a lot of little grandkids too.

Here is our family (minus Dad, sorry you didn't hurry fast enough). Notice John's "friend" Ashley.

Uncle Sam's fun family. It was so much fun to catch up with all those fun girls.

Ta-Da! The original 8 brothers and sisters. Mom, Martha, Alice, Margaret, Frank, Sam, and Paul.

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Luke has turned into a monkey. He can climb anything. He absolutely loved climbing Grandma Nancy's ladder she had out for painting. He gets so excited he snorts, wiggles his tongue, and then squeals when he gets to the top. We have had to take the ladder off Sam's bunk-bed to keep him off the top bunk. The problem is that he doesn't believe he can fall. He gets up high, and then thinks he can just back down, no matter how high off the ground he is. Oh, this is such a dangerous age. I really pray that he makes it to 2.

Liz and I have been runners this summer. One morning Sam was pretty put out that we went running without him, so he talked Liz into running a few laps around the neighborhood. I think having him take a few laps may just be a perfect way to release some of that energy.

Sam's 4th Birthday

Sam got a nasty case of strep throat for an early birthday present this year. He started fevering up Friday night and Saturday morning we found a very nasty looking pair of tonsils. I knew he was really not feeling well when he just wanted to cuddle on the couch with his blanket. Sam doesn't usually stay still long. We tried to make the best of it. We watched a few movies, ate popsicles, and just chilled. His antibiotics started kicking in and he really started feeling better on his birthday on Sunday, but I still thought it wouldn't be the best idea to have his big birthday bash at our house that we were planning. We had to call all the family to tell them the the party was canceled. Grandpa Robert wasn't afraid of a little strep throat, so he ivited us over to his house for a little party. Sam had picked out this really cool Transformers cake at the bakery, and he even added another one of his own transformer to the top ( I promised I washed it very well first). He was so excited about it. He LOVES birthday cakes and candles. He never really actually eats any of it. He likes to have a few tastes of frosting and then he's good. It's all about the excitement of the cake and especially the candles. Sam did a really great job at blowing out all the candles this year, and he had a lot of candles - just because he wanted to.

What a proud 4 year old!!!



He got some very fun presents. Transformers was definately the theme of the birthday bash.

We all wore green in honor of Sam's favorite color.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM! We love you so much and our lives would be so dull without you. I love to hear all of your "plans" and marvel everyday at how fast you are growing up. You are such a good helper and a wonderful brother. You have learned so much this year: you can dress yourself (always fun to see what you put together), you can race your bike so fast, you can write your name, you know all your letters and numbers, you graduated from your first year of pre-school, you are a great big brother to Luke, you love to read chapters in you scriptures, and you know how to sneak out the basement door. You have also taught me countless life lessons. Thanks for sharing your insights, silliness, and kindness with us all.