New Years in the sun?

Nwq Years eve was a very warm day. So, we spent it sweating and hiking around.

Sam made sure the trail was clean of rocks. He probably picked up 100 and showed us each one before he tossed it aside.

pictures

My pretty awesome friend, Jackie, turned my parents basement into a studio over Christmas break and took some great pictures of the Balling family.




We finally got Sam to sit on the char and smile by clapping and saying, "Yay!"

this picture just makes me laugh.
a

Sleigh bells ring...

We spent Christmas vacation in Utah. Our time filled up wuick with family and friend parties.
The Canfield Christmas party:

Breakfast with cousins:

MAUD party/ baby shower:

We had so much fun visiting with my sister and her adorable new twins (this is Olivia)

Sam LOVED playing with Nate & Paul.

Gingerbread houses:

I got to see my college roommate, Nicole!

Christmas was a blast! Well, at least for Sam & Paul who were the only ones not throwing up :(

The days after we made up for lost time though.

We went to the dinosaur & Bean museums

Then visited more family - Grandy & Grandpa Jack.

It's the most Wonderful time...

We started this December with a good ole trip to Mission Inn to look at some Christmas lights, eat good treats at the Gingerbread shoppe, and do some carriage riding.





Then our awesome friend the McIntosh's did some family pictures for us!

mmmmmm Turkey!

I'm thankful for my FAMILY



This Thanksgiving was a week packed full of food, birthday parties, food, baby blessing, food, game playing, food, & just some good ole hanging out with family family family!
Thanks for the good times, we love you ALL!

SNOW

Baby Powder + 2 year old = winter wonderland



It's normal to find ALL Sam's toys & books out when we first go in his room in the morning, but today he decided to frost it all.



My dad called and said it snowed in Utah last night. I said,"Hey it snowed here too!"

SCARY daddy

Taylor = Zombie Sam = Pirate Aubree = Banshee


Halloween was so much fun this year! We started off with a party at the cousins with hay rides, smore making, and around the house trick-or-treating.







Then, Sam had a blast trick-or-treating with the cousins!

a Hitchin'

We got to go to a beautiful wedding at the Newport temple! Taylor's brother, Matt, married a beautiful Marie, and it was a perfect day!

2

Even though we had soo much fun celebrating Sams 2nd Birthday, I am still sad because I don't have a little baby boy anymore. He's a toddler!

This sweet, silly, crazy, handsome boy has seriously brought so much joy into my life, I just hope he has enjoyed the past two years as much as I have!


Happy Birthday!

Sam

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." - ee cummings

Since school started and Taylor is soo busy teaching, I have been hanging out with this little hooligan a lot. He really livens things up with all the things he does to crack me up.

We went to an outdoor movie and every time I tried to get a picture Sam would either turn his head or pull a face! haha I wonder where he got that from?

also, the movie was despicable me, and when he shrank the moon, Sam yelled out for everyone to hear, "UhOh! Fall! Moon!"

I don't know what he was doing in this one, but everytime I see it I can't stop laughing.

One day Sam did this acrobatic stunt over and over purely for my entertainment. He would climb up and do that pike thing on the couch arm then give me a smile before he jumped for an enthusiastic landing.

Kern

We got to ride some white water on the Kern river, and it was a Blast! We even got to bring Sam with us.... no, not down the river, he just got to hang out at the campground, and I'm pretty sure he loved swimming in the river too.

It's Summer!

It had been pretty much soo hot outside so I was reluctant to take Sam for a walk yesterday, but soon after we left we ran into sprinklers! Sam started yelling 1-2-3 go go go! and how how could I resist. So we were soaked by the end cause we went through so many sprinklers, and it felt great! Thank goodness for the need to water grass!

Sam is growing up way too fast! He started talking a ton more, he grew so tall, and he is even trying to swim without his floaties!
Sam loves having daddy around for the summer
and playing with cousins... Ashlyn took Sam & Jaxon for a walk.
They were a little freaked out by her method of pushing though. We found them upside down on the grass cause Ashlyn said they were taking a break.
Then, we went to the beach!
yeah we bought that chair for 89 cents
A cool cave

So Sam thinks he is old enough to dress himself now... yes, that is a shirt around his waist.