Happy Birthday Eva!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Eva turned 2 last week and she wanted a Minnie Mouse Party.  She asked if her friends could come and I said of course.  If you can name any of your friends I will invite them.  After a long pause, all she could come up with is, "I want my friends to come!"  So with that I decorated and we had a family party.  She was so excited!  She had been helping me make everything for about 2 weeks.  She is a great helper.  I was going to do her party on her actual birthday but Sampson wanted to be there so we waited until after his test on Monday.  We ate Eva's favorite food, mini "corny" dogs and anything with sugar! 

2 Years Old

Eva loves taking pictures.  She is so good at following directions and expressing her opinion....it's almost too good :) She loved dressing up in her fluffy skirt.  She couldn't get over how fluffy it was!  I was trying to get a natural smile out of her so I would tell her to show me a mad face, a sad face, and then a scared face as I roared at her.  Right after the scared face she always got excited and smile so big because she thought I was so funny trying to be scary (Eva doesn't get scared of anything).  Of course at the end of taking pictures she wanted me to take pictures of her dancing and turning.  Eva is a beautiful dancer and loves doing "mommy's moves" which with her interpretation is quite amazing at her age.  She is always saying, "mommy watch this pirouette", "watch this leap", "watch this passe" "watch my floor work".  She LOVES to Dance! 

Phoenix & Eva

Eva is always so happy and she loves being with Phoenix.  They play so well together.  She also loves to bug Phoenix.  If Phoenix ever falls asleep during the day she is always a little grumpy when she wakes up and Eva takes full advantage of this.  Eva will go up to her pet her head and say, "Ohhhh, she's cute".  This makes Phoenix so mad which makes Eva do it even more!  I love Eva and I am so grateful to have her sweet spirit in our family!

Fall
My girls are so AWESOME!! Because no matter where I drag them (photo shoots, volleyball games, freezing cold football games, church activities, visiting teaching, continuous dance projects, long car rides, many airplane rides, and endless errands) they find a way to be happy and love life.  I am not saying that my kids don't whine, cry, and throw fits...but I take them everywhere I go and they make the most of it.  I love that about them!
This Fall has been crazy with running my own dance studio, planning a community Christmas even, taking pictures, and being a wife and mom!  Life is a lot of work, but it is all worth it.  I have been so blessed to get to teach over 60 amazing girls.  I have learned so much from them and I love their positive outlook on the world.  And there is nothing better than seeing improvement after weeks of hard work and practice.  It brings a smile to my face.

Bone Pajamas
These are my favorite pajamas on my girls!  The best part is seeing how excited Eva gets when it's all dark and her bones are glowing.  I took these pictures in between doing photo shoots up by Sampson's school.  The girls love doing everything and Eva is always wanting to do what her big sister is doing.

Halloween
For Halloween I was expecting the girls to ask to be ballerinas or princesses, but not my girls.  Phoenix wanted to be The Oncler from the movie The Lorax.  And of course, Eva was not to be left out and wanted to be the Lorax.  Well it just so happens that after hour of searching the internet and Halloween stores I discovered that they don't make either of those costumes.  So I had to make the costumes that don't have actual patterns.  I crocheted Eva's Lorax hat and after many hours of sewing (I always forget how frustrating sewing can be sometimes) I finally got Phoenix's coat done! It is not perfect, but I am proud I finished it.  We bought her a hat, cane, and blue sunglasses and I made her a Thneed.  If you have seen the movie, her costume was exactly like the Oncler.  When we got to the Fall Festival at Sampson's school, the adults all thought I had dresses Phoenix up as a pimp...come on people would I really dress my 3 year old girl up as a pimp! hahahaha it did make me laugh and then we had to explain to everyone who she was.  At the ward trunk-or-treat, the girls loved the idea of getting candy from everyone and just wanted to keep going around and around.  Eva was so cute!

Witches Tea Party
Last year I was fortunate enough to attend one of the funnest parties I have ever been to.  One of my friends in the ward holds and annual Witches Tea Party at her house.  She goes all out and transforms her entire house.  It's amazing.  Last year I went all out for a scary witch: green paint, nose, and wart.  Even though I won the award for scariest witch, I was a little embarrassed when I saw everyone dressed as cute witches. So this year I was dressing up cute!

TEXAS
I ended up having to fly to Texas early because I got sick and Sampson had a test, which means that I would get no help with taking care of the kids while I get better.  So I ended up being in Texas for two weeks!  Derek is the cutest little baby!! It was fun taking pictures of him....long but fun!  Houston made the bed, floor, and back drop.  She is amazing!

Galveston 
The girls love driving down to Galveston to see Humo and Nate Dogg.  I want to live close to the beach so bad!  Kenny took these amazing pictures...he is so talented, especially for putting up with all the family drama that comes with taking pictures :)

I love this dress on Phoenix.  She always says, "My dress is so fluffy!"

5 Years.....

 Years

The time goes by so fast.  Sometimes I feel like we haven't got to do much together because of school, kids, and work and the never ending responsibilities that go with that.  Then I have to just think about everything and realize we have accomplished so much in the short time that we have been together.  I am grateful for all that we have been through.  It has made us who we are today.  

I put this in the video I made for Sampson

The Smoky Mountains

Camping with a Black Bear!

After a week and half of medical school Sampson surprises me with a camping reservation.  I was completely shocked that Sampson actually wanted to be with us! Haha It was just what we needed though.  We headed out after his last class ended at noon.  We camped in the most beautiful area.  We found this creek for the girls to play in.  These girls definitely love the water and of course after I told them to try not to get wet, Eva just sits down in the water to pick up a rock.  We found these sweet neon orange mushrooms.  I had never seen anything like this before.  After we started hiking towards a waterfall that was about 2 miles from our camp.  Without kid carriers, hiking is slow moving, especially when Eva wants to walk the whole way.  After about a mile it started to sprinkle and we were hearing lots of thunder.  Sampson decided we should head back even though I wanted to go all the way (more for pride reasons :).  So we each took a kid and headed back.  After about 5 minutes I heard a twig snap and turned around to see a black bear walking across the trail about 10 ft away from me and Phoenix.  I was like, "Bear.....BEAR!" and quickly caught up with Sampson (who must always hike at least 20 feet ahead of me) who had a knife.  We had just been discussing before we came, how it wasn't very likely that we would see a bear and we decided to not bring the gun.  Luckily, it had just started to rain pretty hard and the bear just kept on walking past us.  Nevertheless, I was freaked out because I thought it was a baby and the the mom must be close by and I really didn't want to stay and say hi.  We got back to camp in about 10 minutes in the pouring rain.  Sampson said, "Wow Britt, you really hike fast when you are motivated".  I just didn't feel like fighting a bear to the death to protect the family :)  Once we got back to camp we were soaked.  We didn't get to dry off because it just kept raining, raining, and raining some more.  We managed to find a pavilion to cook the steak for fajitas, which were amazing by the way.  Then we drove over to Gatlinburg and went to the Aquarium that night to try and warm up a little bit.  The girls, of course, had the time of their life.  Phoenix ran to each exhibit....she loves that place.  That night it continued to rain and I kept thinking a bear was coming to get me....I didn't get much sleep :)  We had a great trip despite the rain and being way to close to a bear for my comfort.