Alaska!

Last moth Camarron and I went to Alaska to see his family one more time before he goes to Korea for a year.  He isn't leaving to Korea until the end of November, but we wanted to go in June because I am going to have our little boy the end of October and Cam's brother Colt came home from his mission while we were there.  

 We all went out to the beach and it was the first time that Sammantha had seen the ocean.  She thought it was great!  She wanted to play in the water until she felt how cold it was.  Then she just turned to the rocks and sea shells.  She loves playing at the beach just as much as her mom. :.)

 She loved filling up the sea shells with rocks and then dumping them back out.

 Grandma Franklin found some fun dress up clothes at a garage sale.  Sammee wore the little tinkerbelle skirt around everywhere!

Colts triumphant return!

Sammee all bundled up warm on a cold and rainy day.

 Camarron surprised me BIG time with a special whale watching tour.  He was downtown hiking with his brothers when he got a phone call from his cousin (who is a captain of a whale watching boat) asking if he wanted to go on a whale watching tour.  He didn't think he'd make it back in time, so he called me and told me to go anyway.  Of course I jumped at the opportunity!  My hubby was super sneaky and got back to Auk Bay where the tour left from just in time.  However, he let me sit all by myself, wait for the boat all by myself, and he jumped on right at the last moment and surprised me.  It was so much fun and the very first thing we saw was a transient pod of KILLER WHALES!!!

It was AMAZING!!!

Four Kids And One On The Way

 The week of the 4th of July, Camarron and I had the opportunity to watch our 3 little nephews.  When my brother Joshua asked me to do this I had two feelings go through me.  The first was, "Are you CRAZY!?" and the second one was, "This could be kind of fun!"  Well let me tell you, going through the experience, there ended up being a really good mixture of both.  We had the boys for just about 7 full days so our 3 bedroom apartment was filled with Cam and I (who is 24 weeks pregnant), North (5 1/2 yrs), Railay (2 yrs), Sammantha (18 months), Rowan (14 months I think) and Bear our dog.  What an adventure! There were many things that we were able to experience that we never had before.  For example:

Morning of Day One:

We woke up to Railay having wet the bed, and Rowan having had a poopy explosion in the crib.  So our whole apartment had a very pungent smell and baths were very much in order.  This happened to be Sunday morning, so it gave us a jump start to all the baths that we had to do anyway.

Meals:  As many of you know, the regular diet that Cam, Sammee and I eat is quite different than most families.  So I was concerned about how these little boys would do eating the food I prepared.  However, Railay is allergic to many foods and is currently eating a very strict diet himself to see if he can start feeling better.  For the most part the boys were champs and ate what they were served (or at least tried what they were served).  However, there were several meals that were saved by the good old western family Mac n' Cheese.  We did have a few nights where there were little ones who sat at the table until bedtime because they didn't want to finish dinner, but interestingly enough they didn't whine or complain about it, they just sat there and quietly played by themselves until I told them it was bedtime. I won't lie though, it takes much more energy to prepare dinner, dish it up for four little kids, and help two, and sometimes three of them actually eat it.  By the time I got to eat and dinner was over I was ready to collapse and go to bed myself.  There were many nights (most of them actually) that Cam would come home from work and have to do all of the cleanup in the kitchen because all of my gas had run out.  

Diapers:  Let me tell you, when you have 3 children in diapers, that means there is a lot of poop to clean up.  A LOT!!! Cam would say every morning when we woke up, "Yup, it still smells like poop in here."  The other thing we learned really quick is that boys, unlike our very innocent little girl, have weapons, that you never know if they are loaded or not, when you change them.  If you aren't careful or quick enough, they will use those weapons of attack and spray all over the place.  Thankfully, we never had to deal with that, but we have a little boy of our own on his way and we are sure that that isn't going to be the case with him. 

Bedtime:  My favorite part of the day!!!!  After dinner I would clean all of the kids up and put the two little ones to bed.  Then the two older ones and I would play for another hour or so until they went to bed.  After they were all in bed, I prayed that everyone around us would be quiet so they would all stay asleep.  We live on the ground floor with a playground right outside our front door.  There are lots of little kids who stay out playing until it is dark, and they aren't quiet.  We also have very loud neighbors above us.  So I would hold my breath every time the noise escalated.  However, the only child who had a hard time sleeping was my daughter.  And for some reason I found that much less stressful than if the boys weren't sleeping.  

Movies:  As you can see in the pictures, there was plenty of time spent watching movies.  The very first day I told the boys that I would allow one movie a day and that was it.  That sure changed fast!  For the most part, all of the little kids were great at playing with toys, coloring, doing puzzles, and things like that.  But in the afternoon and around dinner time it got difficult because I couldn't take everyone plus Bear outside unless Cam was here and since he goes to work at 2:30 in the afternoon, there was a lot of inside time.  So that was when the movies turned on.  They usually always watched a Disney movie while I cooked dinner and sometimes that is what happened when I made lunch too.  I have to admit, I felt a little bad about how often they ended up watching Disney movies, but they sure were a lifesaver for me.  That kept everyone occupied long enough for me to go to the bathroom, shower, sit down and breath for a minute or two, you know, some of those things that you obviously take for granted when you only have one child.  

Playmates: Another thing that I really came to enjoy was the fact that when there is more than one child, they tend to occupy each other.  There were many times during the day that just out of habit I would go and check on what Sammantha was doing because I couldn't see or really hear. Normally when this happens she is quiet because she has gotten into something she knows she shouldn't have.  But every time I found her, she would be playing with the boys and having a wonderful time.  She loved having them here and got so excited every time we got up in the morning and the boys were still here to play with.  She did however, feel like all of her toys were only hers and we had to explain how to share...many many times.  In all reality though, I was quite impressed at how quickly she caught onto the concept and when I told her she had to go get something else to play with she did.  I wish I had a picture of the face she would give me though.  Almost every time I made her go find a different toy because Rowan or Railay were playing with what she thought was hers she would turn and look at me with this look of, "but MOM, that is MY toy!"  And sometimes the look was joined by a shout of, "MINE!" But she learned quick and I was quite proud of my little sharer by the end of the week.

My Sister-in-law Lindsey is one amazing woman!  She has some very well behaved children who are helpful, and for being little kids, are extremely obedient.  I was quite concerned that my apartment would be turned completely upside down by the time the week was over, but those boys, especially North, are great helpers.  They always picked up their toys and activities when asked and they helped me with little chores as well.  So when they went back home I didn't feel overwhelmed at all because my house wasn't a disaster.  Those boys have TONS of energy, and I am amazed at all of the things that Josh and Linds do with them.  They are so much fun and we had a great time with them here.  I do have to admit though, the day after they left, Cam, Sammee, Bear, and myself had major nap time and we all slept for 4 hours in the middle of the day.  It was heaven!

Thanks boys for coming and staying and giving us a taste of what we will get to have coming our way here in a few more months!

 All of them playing together with Sammee's toys.

 There were many times where North and Railay would find a toy they like and just lay on the floor or the couch and play with that one toy for hours it seemed like.  They would make their little explosion noises and make up characters and such while they just lied there and played by themselves.  I thought it was so funny!

 The little ones LOVED bath time.  They would scream if the older boys got baths and they didn't.

 Rowan is one very laid back little man.  I was grateful for that since my babe is a little high maintenance at times.

 Rowan and Sammee loved to play together.

 Movie time, and as long as they all had something to snack on, they sat and watched the entire movie.

 This one happened to be Hurcules

 Sometimes watching a movie was the only way I could get little Railay to fall asleep for a nap. :.)

 Railay had little hummus packs that he enjoyed eating.  We also found out that Sammee enjoyed them as well.  She thought the little container was so cool and she is getting to be VERY independent and headstrong like her mother, so she insisted that she eat them all by herself.  It kept her occupied for quite a while, then I just had a big mess to clean up afterwards. :.)

 Railay would do these puzzles over and over everyday.  Thank heavens for Grandma's puzzles!

North and Rowan playing ball together.  They did this for almost and hour.  Rowan would chase the ball and take it to North.  Then North would kick it or throw it, and the cycle continued.  They were super cute together!

There are two things in life that from the eternal perspective are worthless and do not matter. So why are they so important now?

For a very LONG time now, I have despised money.  I know that sounds silly, because who doesn't want to have a little more of that in their pocket right?  Well, I am right there with you, money would be nice to have, but MAN, does it sure drive me crazy!!!  Everything in this life is determined by money.  The only thing that we don't have to pay for is the air we breath (unless you want clean air, then you have to pay for it.)  We have to pay for our food, our water, our shelter, and everything that goes along with it. 

Ok, so you might say that love and affection is free.  Your family isn't run by money like the rest of the world.  At least it shouldn't be.  However, the biggest cause for divorce is financial issues and pornography is one of (if not the biggest) the biggest money making industries in the entire world!  Of course this isn't the case with everyone, but the very large majority of people deal with this problem in one form or another. 

The other thing that I am having an issue right now is time.  How to balance time between my husband, my daughter, my dog, my work, and time for myself.  Why can't we just do it all?  Eventually time isn't going to exist right, so why is it such a big deal now?  There are so many things that I would like to get done in a day and I never feel like it happens. 

Now I am not writing this, complaining about this, or sharing this because I have no money and no time for anything.  We are extremely blessed in our life and have the ability to pay all of our bills and are able to spend a good amount of time together as a family.  However, I sure feel like we are limited in so many ways because of our lack of money and the fact that time is continuous.  Camarron and I talk all the time about things that we would like to do to help others and how it would be so nice to just be able to do it, if we only had the time and money. 

So I have been thinking about this a lot lately, because time and money are the two biggest stressors in my life.  I am sure there is a reason that we have both of these things here on earth, but I just don't understand why.  I definitely believe that God knows what he is doing and that there are genuinely important lessons to be learned from these two necessary evils, but I just haven't figured them out yet. 

So my whole purpose in writing this post is to hopefully get feedback from someone older and wiser than myself that has discovered some wisdom in what brings me stress.

The Last Several Months...including Christmas and Sammee's FIRST Birthday!!!

This is a Story about Sammantha...

 Our precious little girl...

Here she is at 1 year old...

 And she looks like she is 10...ok maybe 5...

 She knows she is cute...

 She used to be so small and innocent...

And now she is terrorizing everything...

 "What Mom? I didn't make this mess!"

 She tries so hard to hide when she knows she is in trouble (notice the dominoes)...

 Or at least talk her way out of it.

 She has a new found love for jewelry...

Or at least anything she thinks should be used as jewelry.

Here she is at Christmas...

Where she got spoiled rotten.

Over...and over...

And over...

Oh yes, and over.

We did throw in a present for dad.  We decided he deserved one after all the hard work he does.

Sammee threw a fit after seeing this picture of her Grandpa.  Why you may ask?  Well, let's just say Grandpa has a thing against pink blankets and harasses not only Sammantha for always having one with her, but also Sammee's mom for having one as well.  Well we caught him red handed.  He is sleeping with a PINK BLANKET!!! And next to Bear of all people.  (We all know that deep down he really does love him as one of his own.)

Don't try and use excuses here Grandpa, we have our hard evidence!

Here Sammee is trying to be a fish...

But then she realized that she has rice noodle whiskers on her cheeks so she better be a lion instead.

A few weeks before Christmas Sammee decided we needed to go see her other Grandparent's up in Alaska.  So off we went.  We had to fight off all the eagles who thought she would make the perfect addition to their nests. 

Everyone was smitten with little Sammee...

Shilo

And Grandpa Franklin

 And Chantilli

And most of all Grandma Franklin.

And here again, even if she doesn't look that thrilled about it, she was spoiled rotten.

Again...

But then Dad decided Sammee was getting too much attention and he wanted a little of the spotlight.

So he gave Grandpa an AWESOME Christmas present of...

Henry Weinhard's rootbeer with personalized pictures of himself pasted on every bottle.

Now who could beat that?

He was pretty proud of himself as you can see.

And Grandpa loved it!!!

And then it was right back to spoiling Sammantha.  She was even hand fed.  Who would be willing to do such a thing for her...we don't really know, but it was probably a peasant.

And after all that spoiling she was so tuckered out that she never even knew that we put her to bed in the laundry pile. 

It was the perfect winter wonderland for Sammee's first real adventure up in Alaska.

And what an adventure her heinous had.

And on the return home Sammee dreamed of the wonderful time she had being spoiled by her Alaskan family...

Again...

And again...

And again...

 

And again...

And again...

Mom is starting to get exhausted from all of this spoiling...

But apparently Sam isn't.

Ok we get the point!!!

One adventure that we musn't forget to tell is the infamous bathtime!

Sammee discovered that she really loved bathtime...

And Grandma really loved giving her baths.

She would splash and throw her head back and laugh and then Grandma would laugh!

And then she got into position...

And made this face...

Gasp! What just happened!?

"I'm sorry Grandma, I think I pooped in your tub."  And this was the basic routine, nearly almost EVERY time it was bathtime.

But we all loved it anyway!

 

Sammee discovered she loved baths so much that we had to continue with them even after we got home.  However, mom didn't allow any pooping because the baths were taken in the kitchen sink.

And then the journey back to Utah began.  And little Sammee was cute enough to convince Dad to carry her the entire way while she slept in her throne.  What a good Daddy!

Because it was a long walk.

In his mind he kept thinking, "Why didn't we make Shilo carry Sammantha home.  Afterall, I basically built his house."

But in the end, Sammee gets what Sammee wants.  Usually she wanted the Christmas tree ornaments and lights, but on the trip home, all she wanted was her Dad.

 

 The End

Sammantha Franklin, brought to you by Aleesha and Camarron Franklin

 

My perfect family

I also need to throw in that my husband turned 25 this past November.  And for his birthday, I surprised him and took him to his first Jazz game.  Best surprise ever!  And thanks to Lauryn we were able to watch it from a Suite and eat amazing food the whole time.  It was great.  Thanks again Lauryn!!!

Cam and I have the most beautiful daughter and we couldn't be happier with her.

 She is always making us laugh.  Like here where she is sprawled out in her crib with her little feet hanging over the edge.

 And here when she all of the sudden discovered how to use a cell phone.  I am telling you, she is really going on 10, not 2.

But we sure love our little Sammee Girl!!!