dam... hoover, that is

this is the bridge that they finished last year that now takes you over the Hoover Dam. it is a little sad because when you cross over it, the sides are so high that you are not able to really SEE the beautiful dam. but it DOES make it a lot easier to get from NV to AZ and you dont have to stop and get your car checked. quick quick quick. we drove over it and then we drove back on the actual dam so that jake could get out and get some pics. it is enormous and makes you gasp when you see how high it is from the water. i think if the water level was where it SHOULD be, the drop wouldnt be AS dramatic. but since the level has dropped so far, the distance from the bridge is WOW (yes, WOW is a measurement!). anywho.. this was one of the things that we were just dying to see finally finished while we were there. and of course we went to Boulder City to get some awesome A&W and to the Fisher Pen store. hehehe

some pics

ya ya.. i get it. you wanna see pics because my last post of the holidays had none and it was really boring to read. well, here you go. here are some pics of the boys from dec and jan. nothing too exciting, but yes, adorable.

this is james with his new road mat. we got it at sams club and its huge! it takes up ALL the open space on his floor. but he does like to push his cars around it and when sam gets older, there is PLENTY of room for them BOTH to play.

ah, this was when we were at the MnM World in LV. james got to see all the different color MnMs and then he got to look out this window and see the LV Strip - ya, he doesnt have a CLUE what it is. but it was just mommy, daddy, james time that was definitely needed.

sam doesnt seem too impressed with what i am doing to try and get him to smile, but its ok. he is SUCH a chubby baby. you can see his chubby lil chin and on his arms, there is that adorable big ol' roll at the elbow. he is just healthy, right? :-)

and talk about my FAVORITE pic of all times. this one of sam with daddy is priceless. jake looks gorgeous and sam is just chillin. BEAUTIFUL!

the boys like to be around each other, most of the time. james will climb up and sit with sam and sam will just smile at him thinking "yay brother!". but this is a great one to show that they really do like each other.

and this is perfect. this was a day that james was crabby and wouldnt fall asleep. he finally did, but then woke up freaking out. so when i DID finally get him to sleep SOME, it was on the couch. classic.


and these are my pics. hope you enjoy them.

christmas vacation

i blogged about our vacation in 3 parts. going, there, and coming. it is quick, confusing, speratic, and all you are going to get out of me for now. :-) its just a lot happened, its been a long vacation, and i dont feel like remembering every detail. sorry. hahaha

part 1, getting there

a decent morning getting out of ft rucker. nothing too crazy. the flight out seemed sooooooo long with the kids. jake got to see how it is to go thru security at the airport with the kids and a LOT of stuff. on the way to the airport, i was driving and a rock chipped the windshield. made me sad. :-( but we got to las vegas and got to be away for two weeks.

part 2, there!

decemeber in las vegas. RAIN! FLOODING! COLD! normally doesnt happen that way, but it did while we were there. however, we still got to do a lot of the stuff we wanted. we went to the distribution center to get our temple stuff, we got to eat PANDA and INnOUT!!!!!!, got to eat luv-its, see the bellagio, see the gold and silver pawn shop. and we got to see family. grandmas bed was harder than a rock, her shower was painful... so we stayed at moms house the last night. that was interesting because james was freaking out that night. whatever. drove up to utah in grammas car. THAT was scary. it felt like the tranny was slipping, so we had to take it into the dealer to get it fixed. didnt have our own car for the whole trip. but we did get to bless sam and get sealed in the temple, so i suppose that is ok!! did family pics, no one had a melt down, so that was nice. it was great to be with jakes family since they are awesome and helpful. umm.. utah didnt have snow when we got there, but when we left, they had a blizzard! grams car started to act up again. almost didnt make it back to vegas for our flight. ended up with a LOT of stuff to take home.

part 3, the way home

after being dropped off by my dad to the airport around 8am, we hurried to get our bags checked in. that was super fast. then we went into the airport and went thru security. we got to go thru the family lane since we had liquids and baby crap. its so stressful going thru there with two kids and a double stroller. james did NOT want his shoes OR his jacket taken off, so he was freaking out. but we got thru real quick and made it to the gate with an hour to spare. got on the flight. figured out seating (able to get almost 2 rows to ourselves). sam slept most the way. james slept as we started to LAND. but all in all, the flight went well. took an HOUR to get our FIVE bags that we checked in. while jake was getting the truck, i was in charge of getting the luggage and children together. ya, i had THREE men ask to either help OR to pay for me to have help take my baggage out. i kinda missed alabama manners. but anywho... the drive home was going well. it was raining and WARM. sam wanted to eat TWICE, so that took awhile. when we were almost home, there was a fatal accident in troy that set us back an hour. so... we finally got home about 9pm. unpacked everything, put everything away, made laundry piles. james went to bed about 1130p? sam went to bed about midnight? and we fell asleep shortly there after.

what a trip, right? goodness!

just a day!

my goodness... do you ever just have one of those days where everything happened that never does, it wasnt really "bad" but it wasnt the best day ever? just a lil off? ya.. it was like that yesterday.

lets start with each person in the family and how THEIR day went...

sam - he slept most of the day, ate a ton, but had a GREAT time hanging out at Megan's house.

james - didnt take a nap, apparently wrote on the wall with a crayon while supposedly "sleeping", played hard with his friends Parker, Dallin, and Emme, got to play outside in the water, ate a ton, fell asleep on the way home (ya, 6pm!), got into a LOT of trouble because he wrote on the wall, slept all night tho.

jake - didnt get to do his check ride, has a stick buddy who is just odd, left his phone at home (never does that), got nothing to eat all day, tore his gloves on the black hawk, fell asleep at like 9pm!, couldnt eat dinner til home teacher left (who showed up unannounced).

steph - took james to dr, didnt get to nap, was so bored so went to a friends house, hung out there, got called to pick up a friends kid from the bus stop, car wouldnt start, had to take friends car to get other kid, wasnt able to pick up kid from bus stop, had to get a new battery, wasnt able to be home to make dinner, spent entire at Megan's house, but did get to sleep before 10!

see? nothing bad, but the WIERDEST things. battery died, james didnt nap, wrote on the wall for the 1st time, wasnt able to help friend by getting kid from bus... just everything fell apart. but i have a new battery, was finally able to pick up kid from bus, and Megan and Kyle saved the day for me!!! thanks guys! i couldnt have made it thru yesterday without you!