"Mom, who's that stranger pinching my cheeks?!"

Family is great! We have had a great time catching up with everyone.

River has this look on her face whenever we go meet family. She thinks it's weird that everyone (aunts, uncles ,cousins etc.) knows her name and she has no clue who they are.

I love these two pictures. We forgot to get a pic of the girls with G&G Giles though. Next time!
(notice the dog licking Sariah. goo.)

We even got to see our best buds, the Elison's. Haven and River are only a week apart in age, and I'd like to say that they got along swimmingly...but let's just say there are no pics of Heather and me because we were too busy, shall we say, mediating, the girls. Look at River's face. Silly girl. Two year olds aren't great a sharing.



On the farm. Everyone should have a farm.


Sariah Riah Puddin Pie

Thanks for watching!

Little "Chubby Cheeks"

Moving Adventures and Random Sampler

WE MADE IT! We are officially living in Utah now. None of us had even visited Utah for a year, so it was surreal to get off the airplane and realize we wouldn't be leaving. River acted like she had never seen a mountain before (she was only 18 months when we were in Utah last...) and kept pointing at them. "Mom! There's a mountain over there! There's another one! I see mountains!" Sariah miraculously slept during both plane rides, but finally decided she'd had it when we reached Duchesne. Only a half hour of crying for a whole day of traveling...not bad. Cameron and Adam drove across the country in three days, and probably drank enough Mt. Dew to drown a horse.

Friday before we left we had one last BBQ with friends. (Thanks Britta and Jason, it was wonderful!) Saturday we finished packing, toured Niagara Falls and went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant one last time. We gave talks in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and then left Buffalo for good early Monday morning.

At the pageant, these adorable kids (2 of over 800 volunteers) gave River some tootsie rolls, so she loved them instantly. Plus, she thought their costumes were cool.

Cam, Adam and Riv in front of the Joseph Smith home.





RANDOM SAMPLER: A small sample of the inner workings of River's mind. Cameron and I really don't know where she comes up with half of this stuff. My guess is nursery!

*When my mom came to visit us, I said to her, not wanting River to know what we were talking about, "Do you think we should go to the Z-O-O today?" River put her finger in the air and said, "Z-O-O. Hmm. I think that means we should go to the zoo!" We just laughed and took her to the zoo, but we were both surprised.


*One morning River climbed in bed with us and patting her bottom said, "Mom. I have a bum!" I said, "Yep, you do." River said "Jesus has a bum too!" I said, "Yes he does."


*our conversation in the car one day...
River: Mom! Mom, I can't find my armpit!!! (she's got her arm lifted in the air twisting her neck trying to find her armpit) It's gone, I can't see it!

Me: It's right there River, you just can't see it.

River: (Really worried now and squirming around trying to see her armpit) No! I can't see it! Where is it? Oh no! Where did it go? Where's my armpit? No! I can't find it!

Me: Calm down, it's right there. Wait until we get home and I'll show it to you in the mirror. Okay?

River: Okay. .... Hey! Mom! There's hair on my legs! How did that get there? That's funny! Silly hair!


* "This is my baby. His name is Joseph Smifth." (the next couple of weeks all of her dolls' names were Joseph Smith)


* We were on our way home from a long day in the car and both kids where crying. In exasperation I said to Cameron, "I'm sick of this!" River immediately stopped whining and said "You go to the doctor. I'm sick of this too!"


* Pointing at a picture of the Savior...."That's Jesus. He saves us. He's sad!" I asked, "Why is he sad?" she said, "He wants us to come live with Him."

That's all I can think of right now. I'll probably remember more random samples to post that no one is interested in except me, but I'll be sure to post them anyways!

Oh Blessed Hour

We blessed Sariah this past Sunday and it was beautiful. Cameron looked so proud when he held Sariah up so everyone could see her. It was really sweet and tender. I am so blessed to have him as my husband. We are so grateful that Sariah was sent to our family, she brings us so much happiness. We are grateful that Gene and Carolyn were able to be at the blessing, the girls adore them. River cried and cried when they left. She stood at the screen door and waved to them as the drove away, tears pouring down her face.

Summer Days, Drifting Away

Grandma and Grandpa White came to visit us for the Fourth of July this year. River couldn't get enough snuggle time with Grandma and loved all the teasing and attention Grandpa gave her. It was wonderful to have them visit, they didn't even mind that our house was full of boxes and we ate dinner on our card table! We went and visited Niagara Falls, had a BBQ with friends and watched fireworks at UB Campus. Happy Birthday America! River and Sariah are the cutest sisters. River has started to be able to get Sariah to smile more with toys and talking to her in a high pitch voice.

"Oh! You're a cutie pie. Yes a cutie pie!"

"Hi Sariah. I'm over here. I'm over here Sariah. Turn your head!...MOM, SHE'S NOT LOOKING AT ME!"

"It's okay Sariah. Don't cry. Don't cry!"

Really very sweet stuff. They have even taken their naps together a couple of times.
Sariah is too cute not to take pictures of. She's definitely got her Daddy's blue eyes just like River. I swear they all have the same smile too.

River is finally more rambunctious and runs, jumps, claps, hops, yells and screams like any other two year old. Thank goodness it is summer and she can get all her energy out chasing seagulls (a specialty of hers), squirrels and bunnies. She also loves to swim and play in any dirt she can find. She's taken an interest in bugs, too, and we regularly go on bug searches so she can watch them scurry around on the ground.


River's swimsuit is awesome (thanks Kim!) because I don't have to worry that her shoulders and back will get sun burnt. I'm telling you, her skin is white. Her suit came with little shorts, but they were way too big and kept falling off! River has her dad's chicken legs and literally NO bum. It's so funny. Half the pants she owns don't fit because there is nothing to hold them up!

The day we went to the splash pad was cold, windy and a little rainy, but you would've thought it was 90 degrees outside the way River played in the water. I think she ran around longer than any of the other kids. By the time we made her stop playing, her lips where blue with cold.


Sariah loves being outside. If she is crying, all we have to do is take her out on the porch to sit and she stops. She loves looking around, feeling the fresh air, and hearing new noises. If a loud truck drives by she gets scared and almost jumps out of her skin, it's so cute!

Oh Sariah, Your Breaking My Heart!

2 months old!

23 inches long (75%)

11 lbs 12 oz (50%)

Fit as a fiddle.

I cannot beleive how fast time is going by, Sariah is barely two months old and we already can't imagine life without her. She is such a sweet happy baby, she has started rolling on to her side, sucking her fingers, smiling, cooing, blowing bubbles and sleeping through the night! Happy two month birthday dearie!

Buffalo Wings and Other Things

I think it is now safe to say that Cameron was gone for two weeks for Army AT (annual training). My mom came and visited the first week and my brothers and Melanie the next week. It was really great. River absolutely loved her uncles, but I think 'Mewanie' was her favorite. ;) They were all tons of help with the girls, for which I am ever grateful. Ty and Blake are going to be the best dads someday, it was really sweet to watch them take care of Sariah and River.

So, on to the adventures.

Here we are stuffing our faces at the Anchor Bar in downtown Buffalo. The Anchor Bar is where Buffalo wings were first invented. They also serve excellent New York style pizza complete with puddles of grease inside each pepperoni. I doesn't get any better than that!

We were going to go to a Buffalo Bison's baseball game, but it got rained out, so we went to the Science Museum instead. It was fun.

And of course the Buffalo Zoo. We even got to watch two polar bears fighting. It was kinda scary!

Niagara Falls was a blast. Blake and I went on a tour of The Cave of the Winds where you can walk down right next to the falls and even stand under the pounding water. It was crazy awesome. I want to do it again.

Hill Cumorah, Palmyra and the Sacred Grove. I came down with a nasty two-day virus and slept in the van for most of the day, but I hope they had fun anyways. Sorry guys.

We also played lots of Settlers of Catan and couldn't resist a Harry Potter marathon in anticipation for the sixth movie. It was so great to have visitors, we miss you guys!

For more pictures of our exciting week please visit Ty and Mel's blog http://fennfun.blogspot.com/.

Cross Your Fingers

Hey everyone, I'm entering a contest to win a free family photo shoot with RedBean Photography. All I have to do is put this link... http://redbeanphotography.blogspot.com/... on my blog and hope to win the drawing! RedBean is the gal who took Heather's gorgeous family pictures, but is now living in Utah. It will work out perfectly now that I'll be in Utah soon too! Wish me luck!!!