First SNOW! Well, kind of.

One of the interesting things about living around the great Salt Lake is that the altitude where people live differs drastically, even in the same zip code. One of our very good friends here is Aunt Diana (affectionately known to Bethany as "Aunt Danana" and Samantha as "Dananana"). She lives up by "the bench" which is higher enough elevation from where we live that she got enough snow in her backyard to be able to build a snowman, when we did not even have a frost on our front lawn! Yep, same zip code. So, we packed up the girls in their snowsuits and took them out back to make Bethany's first snowman. It was kind of funny, because apparently the boots I have for her are way too big, so she fell in the snow a few times (joyfully), and Samantha just hung out and wondered why she was wearing a giant snowsuit (not pictured below). Also, we did not have carrots or other things for the face, so we used MnM's for the face. (Apparently the color runs in the snow. Who knew? :) It was a great time.

Below is Diana with the girls.

First Pumpkin Carving

Bethany experienced her first Pumpkin Carving today! Well, she didn't really carve today, but she got to do a lot! She even got to go with our local MOPS group to a farm and pick out her very own pumpkin from the patch.  At first she said she wanted the pumpkin to look like Balloons, but in the end decided a Kitty Cat face would be good, too.

First we scooped out the seeds

Then we drew on it what we wanted the kitty to look like

Bethany, proudly hold the "nose"

Samantha was a part of it too. She didn't think the top tasted very good, though :)

The finished product (you can see the face better when it is lit up of course)

Um, I'm not sure why, but Samantha is apparently very embarrassed of us here...

Fun day! We're going to the church's fall festival this afternoon to have a grand time with games and prizes! :) Happy fall everyone!

Samantha's Birthday, too

Hello family and friends. Our good friends, the Sullivans, hosted the birthday party for Samantha and they took some photos, which I got today. I thought you might want to see some more of the party :).

Our family all together

 Samantha is SO close to walking. She stands and stands and giggles and thinks about it, and then wobbles and decides to crawl instead. 

You all got to see how much she loved the cake in the last post, but not the succession of what happened after her awesome first cake!

All Done!

Taking off the clothes at the table...

Shaking off the extras on the chair...

And, impromptu bath in the laundry room sink!

It was great fun!
Love to all! :)

Samantha Joy McVeigh: One Year Old

Samantha was ONE yesterday!  Her party was Monday, and it was a lot of fun.  Here are a few glimpses of the festivities:

Really fun cupcakes made by Mama!

 Mmmm...what could be better than eating bugs?

 Bethany loves her friends Bethany and Leah

Opening presents...Bethany, of course, was happy to help.

 Time to sing a song!

Samantha wasn't really all that into blowing out the candle.

 But she WAS into eating the chocolate cake!

Quite into it, I'd say...

And of course, what would be a birthday without a birthday song:

Happy Birthday, Samantha! We love you!

More Summer Fun

This one will be all pictures! :) 

Cassy and Abbie DePlato on their visit out here holding our girls. Bethany and Samantha had a lot of fun with them!

At Pioneer Days (Utah holiday) parade with (from left to right): Jennifer, Bethany, Aunt Joelle, Madeline, Joshua, Uncle Jeff, Samantha and Emma.

Aunt Molly having a blast with Samantha

Benjer and Samantha enjoying the park

Cousins Caroline and Charlie with Bethany. She just adores them.

For Benjer's birthday we went bowling (the first time for Bethany). It was a ton of fun. Bethany actually beat her Mama, with bumpers and a ramp of course :).

then we went to Red Robin for dinner. Want to know how to make Samantha smile and laugh like this? 

You have to get really close to her face and laugh, like this: 

Bethany helped Daddy blow out his candles. Samantha was intrigued. Happy 30th Daddy!

Nana and Poppy took us on the train at Belleview Park in CO. Then to the petting zoo. SO much fun!

Summer Fun & 4th of July!

It's been a fun week for us!  Last week, Bethany got to go to her first ever baseball game in a stadium!  We went to the Ogden Raptors single-A game last Sunday afternoon.  Mykel, our friend who works at the church and also works at the stadium during the summer in the souvenir stand, got Bethany a Raptors baseball:

During the week, we cooled off in some hot weather by playing in the sprinkler:

And today, we celebrated Independence Day (since the 4th is on a Sunday) with a parade and a carnival!  Here's Bethany with one of her favorite people, Ms. Nicole, who heads up the nursery ministry at our church:

We got LOTS of candy during the parade.  Lots.

At the carnival we got to do lots of fun stuff, like ride a train:

And of course, we couldn't go to a carnival at the park without stopping at the swings on our way out:

We can't wait until next year when it's a little more fun for Samantha.  The sirens woke her up at the parade, and there wasn't really much for her to do at the carnival.  I wonder how they'll sleep with fireworks going on tonight...

Benjer at the Baseball Game

Well, I finally got to be on the field during a professional baseball game. But it wasn't quite what I once dreamed. Our church, Washington Heights, had service at the local minor league ballpark Sunday morning to celebrate our church's week-long in-town mission trip, and so it was Washington Heights night at the baseball game later that day. Chad (our church's student pastor for grades 6-8) and I had the prestigious honor of...playing the bat race game. Chad will say that it was a tie. Unfortunately, he is mistaken.



A better view of the race was posted on Facebook; it clearly shows that I was the winner and the deserved recipient of one free pest control session.