THE SAMEK 5

2010 Hira Krishna

2010-03-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

It is Spring again!! Which means time for our yearly pilrimage to the Hira Krishna Temple to celebrate the festival of colors. This year, we heard there were going to be about 20,000 people there, so they split the festival in two different time to help with the crowd. We went to the 4pm part. We heard there was going to be shuttles at the fair grounds down the road about a mile, so we parked there and just decided to walk instead. The kids were troopers! We made our own colored powder this year and ended up selling some! Made about 30 bucks! Next year we will probably do more. Joe was out of town so Sarah came with us. We had a blast!! Here are some pics of our day!

cruise pictures

2010-03-07T08:23:00.001-08:00

Our room # :)

This the promenade where all the shopping is on the ship

Our waiters that we had every night :)

ARUBA!!!

MY WINNINGS!!!

CURACOA!!

DOMINICA!!
Iguanas!!! Click on the picture for a close up!

ST. THOMAS

Cruise

2010-03-04T16:45:00.000-08:00

So, here I am tan, peeling, and 6 pounds heavier and loving it. Not so much about the weight gain, but it was all worth it considering, I just got back from a 7 day cruise to the Carribean...

2 other military couples, and Joe and I just returned from our first cruise. We have been wanting to do a cruise for a while now and finally gave in when the price was right. We flew to San Juan Puerto Rico to get on our ship... The trip to San Juan was quite the adventure... We were planning on leaving from Salt Lake to New York on Friday night before the cruise, stay a night and San Juan and then get on the ship on Sunday, unfortunately with standby flying, it does not always work out as planned. We went to the airport friday night to leave, and were offered 5 seats but there were six in our group, so we turned it down and opted to leave the following morning and go through Long Beach, Ca and then to Fort Lauderdale, FL and then on to San Juan, PR. The layover in Long Beach was about 8 hrs so, we rented a car and drove around town, got our nails did, and visited one of the girls in our group family, who live in Long Beach. Got to our flt to Florida which was a redeye, so we slept most the way. Got to Florida Sunday morning and waited 2 hrs for our flt to San Juan. We finally arrived in San Juan at 2pm on Sunday, took the cab to our ship and were ready to go when we had a bit of a dissaster...

I do not have a passport so, I called to cruise line to see what I could bring instead, they said that my Birth certificate and my drivers license would work because we were leaving out of a US Territory.... well, they told me wrong.... apparently since my last name on my birth cert and the last name on my Drivers License did not match, they were not going to let me on! I had to have a copy of my marriage certificate! Ugh! So, after pannicking and crying like a 5 yr old, I called my amazing sister Sarah and she was able to go my house and thanks so Joe's organization skills, find our marriage cert and fax it to us! 3 hrs later... We were on the ship!!! Royal Carribean's Adventure of the Seas!!

The first thing we did on the ship was EAT!! After eating Doritos munchies mix for what seemed like a year, we were ready to get our grub on!! And we did! 2 Cheeseburgers, fries, cookies, fruit, cheese cake, and some spaghetti later... we were off to explore the ship. 3 pools, a shopping center, 6 hot tubs, ice skating rink, movie theater, 3 dining rooms, a buffet, rock climbing wall, water park, mini golf, show theater, must I go on? It was huge! So, we enjoyed the evening and got up the next day (which was a sail day), to get our sun time in. We got a little too much sun time... That night we had one of our formal nights, and you can see what I mean by too much sun :

Day 3 was a port day which was in Aruba. Aruba!! Sounds amazing, right? Well, not so much... We rented a van for the 6 of us to go explore the island. It was pretty. Pretty dirty!Did you know they decorate their trees with garbage in Aruba? We got to see a nice light house, old abandoned gold mine, natural land bridge(that collapsed 4yrs ago), and lots and lots of garbage. We were told later that we went to the wrong side of island. Thanks for the memo people! We did however stop and eat at a local restaraunt for lunch and it was soooo good. I ordered what I thought was a hamburger, but what turned out to be a meat lovers paradise! My "burger" had a hamburger patty, with a mound of pork and a chicken breast on it, with some sort of mistery sauce which brought it all together like peanut butter and jelly! Yum!! So, we got back to ship early and ate at the formal dining room for dinner, as we did every night. 5 course meal baby! Loving it! Then, there was a pool party on the top deck. We danced the night away and somehow ended the evening jumping in the pool with our clothes on, and after a short swim, got kicked out of the pool. Oh the memories. Oh!! So in my pocket when we jumped in the pool was a whad of "benjamin franklins"($100 bills) that I had won from the on ship casino earlier that night! $1250.00! Thats right! I put$20 in the quarter machine, hit it 5 times and all of a sudden the maching started going nuts, I thought I had broke something, so when the attendant finally came to what I thought was to fix my machine, he looked at me like I was crazy and said "you realize you just won, right?" What? Really? How much? He told me and then asked if I wanted it in quarters or cash? Ha, what a jokester! So, that night my money was soaked but all still there so I set it out on our room coffee table to dry over night.

Day 4 was on the Island of Curacao. Dutch owned and great for shopping! We spent most of the day shopping on the floating market(local produce) and in the stores. Clothes were so cheap, so we decided we better spend some of my previous days winnings. After some shopping, Joe could sense there was McDonalds in town, it is like he was being drawn to it, cause it seemed like we walked right to it like Joe had been there a dozen times. He enjoyed himself a good old big mac while I scarfed down an ice cream cone, and headed back to the ship.

Day 5 was another ship day. Joe slept in until 2 and I went and decided my sun burn needed a second layer :) This time, I actually put on spf 30 but the carribean sun is apparently a lot stronger than some stupid sun screan, so I was fried! I looked like a lobster, which appropriatly is what was on the dinner menu that night! I had 4 lobster tails for dinner and probably would have had more if all the "Men" in the room would not have been looking at me in disbelief! I didn't even have to cut it out of the tail, there was a guy for that! Also, a guy to put my napkin in my lap for me!

Day 6 was on the island of Dominica! It was geourgous!!! The island is a self governing island owned by the people. Originally owned by the French, who finally gave it up after the locals started a revolution and won. The island is very poor put very beautiful. Very tropical and what I pictured the carribean to look like. We got a cab to take us on an all day tour of the island. We drove around and saw the botanical garden, and many of the 265 rivers that are on the small island. Our day was topped off with a stop at a beautiful water fall that we hiked about a quarter mile to and got to swim in the beautiful natural pool at the bottom. It was also surrounded by hot springs that you could sit in to warm up after your dip in the cold waterfall. A major tourist area but I would still highly recommend it!

Day 7 was in US territory on the island of St. Thomas. First thing I noticed off the ship was the huge yachts! They were so nice! We ate lunch on the pier and headed to beach to do some snorkeling. What is a carribean cruise without some snorkeling!! We hopped on a truck with open seats in the back and headed to da beach brudda! On our way there, Joe suddenly screamed and made the cab driver pull over, he jumped out of the truck and ran across the road, all the while, the remaining passengers in the truck were wondering what was going on. About 3 minutes later, he returns to tell us he saw an iguana about 3 ft long cross the road and he wanted a picture. After Joe was done hiperventilating from excitement, the cab driver told us to look in the tree right next to the truck and we saw 2 giant iguanas just chillin! They were everywhere. As Joe would say, they have iguanas like we have squarells. We drove by one guys lawn and we counted 9 iguanas sun bathing on his grass. Pretty cool. We finallly arrived at the beach where we were suddenly fearing for our lives, about 15 locals surrounded our truck and we were certian we were getting jumped until one of them offered to take us to the beach and get us some beach chairs. We accepted the offer, mostly to get away from the attack, that was certainly about to happen, and he took us to a beach full of tourists with Royal Carribean towels. We were saved! :) We had our own personal waiter, he got us anything we wanted and even graciously offered us some "gonja"! What a sweetheart! J/K! He did offer, but we did not accept, don't worry. We looked out into the beautiful blue water and saw some patches of darker water which turned out to be fish! Joe and I got our snorkeling gear on and headed out into the great blue sea.

Those fish turned out to be fish alright, and lots of them, in fact, it was thousands of them!A wall of them to be exact! I was very excited to go snorkeling until one of the fish touched me and then it was chaos! I screamed through my snorkel at the same time as inhaling a galon of water! Joe was about 10 feet away and he could even hear my screams, so he braveling comes to my rescue only to discover that I was nearly eaten alive by a 6 inch fish! He rolled his eyes and continued on his way! Thanks alot! Well, I finally got used to the fish brushing up against me and after a few more panic attacks, I was good. There were beautiful fish everywhere! It was amazing. Joe even had a 4 ft baracuda swim past him. That got him out of the water pretty fast, and too quickly, we were back on the ship. I could have spent days at that beach!

We got on the ship and realized it was our last night in paradise so we decided staying up till the wee hours of the morning... bad idea!

Day 8 - Woke up with little sleep to get off the ship at 8:00am and start heading to the airport. Ended getting on all the flights we wanted to get home. On the flight from Fort Lauderdale to Long Beach, I was waiting at the ticket counter to see if we were getting on the flight when the gate agent paged customer "Justin Penn". Well, I thought nothing of it until this homeless looking man got to the ticket counter and I thought, wow, he looks just like Sean Penn, when I heard the gate agent whisper under his breath, "sean"?. The CU nodded! Ok, Sean Penn was going to be on our flight!!!

I had to end up sitting jumpseat with the flight attendants to get our whole party on the flight. So, Sean was in the very last row against the window with his two kids. He slept most of the 5 hour flt and finally woke up the last hour to go to the bathroom, so of course, the flight attendants and I took the opportunity to ask for a picture!! We ended up talking to him for about a half hour and found out that he was looking so grubbish because He and his kids had just gotten back from helping out in Haiti! What a nice guy. I did get a picture with him. I think he is a great actor, to help you out, He was in the movie 'I am Sam' and 'Milk' to mention a few! I did not have my camera so the flight attendant used her camera and said she would email it to me. I still have not gotten it but you can bet I will share it with you when I do!

Thanks to my Mom and all others who helped watch our kids while we were gone! You guys are amazing!
All in All a great trip! We were ready to get home to our kids and reality, but were very sad to leave our first of many many cruises! You will all have to join us next time!

Sorry for this being so long winded. It was mostly for my benefit as kind of a journal entry. Hope I didn't bore you too much :)

HAS IT REALLY BEEN 5 MONTHS!!!!!

2010-01-25T11:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, I am pathetic!! 5 months since my last blog. I guess you could say life has been a little crazy but that is always my excuse... so, this time I willl blame it on the fact that we have been having too much fun. So, to catch you all up, the boys are still in their charter school and loving it. Tanner is reading!! The only down fall to this is that he reads everything he possible can, out loud!! It can get a little old, but still cute!! He is getting report cards already and has gotten great grades!! Mostly A's with a B in PE!! What the #&%%?? That kid loves to excersize!
Jack is loving his teacher Mrs. Yorgeson. She is so fun and spunky and is a perfect match for our Jacky Bear. He is learning to read. Still has trouble with a few letters, but let me tell you, that kid is a wiz at math!! He almost at the same level as Tanner!
JoJo is loving being home with Mom while the kids are at school. I just started going to the gym again in the mornings and she loves going to the daycare. She loves the sticker she gets when she goes so they can identify her, she makes me keep it on her all day. And, when I go to pick her up, she comes running to me saying "Mommy" with the biggest grin on her face. Melts my heart!!
Joe decided to switch it up in the Military and will be changing his job from Funerals to packing parachutes full time... hopefully. Still trying to get official orders for that job. Till then, he has been helping his old boss doing construction and plowing snow. He is scheduled to go to Afghanistan early next year(2011) for a year. We have decided that when he gets back, we are going to go active duty and move every 3 years like I did growing up. I am really excited about it. I love moving around and experiencing different things, and I think my kids will too. Joe's ankel is pretty much healed and he is back to playing basketball and all.
As for me, I am still working for JetBlue. Still loving it and its benefits. We just flew to Orlando for 4 day trip with the kids and Joe and I are going on a cruise to the Caribbean at the end of Feb thanks to my major discount and free flight getting us to Puerto Rico, which is where we leave from. We did get a new addition to the family. His name is Clyde and is a mix between a yorkie and a mini dachsund, or so they say.... He looks more like a mini golden retriever, with a little homeless feel mixed in there :) We love having him. He is great with the kids and is a great addition to the family. Our bunny Daisy passed away a few months ago. She got rye neck, it is a parasite that attacks the brain. She was great bunny and we will miss her. Still finding little bunny droppings here and there to keep reminding us of her. :)
I plan on teaching Tanner to ski this year. He is old enough to balance now. I will let you know how that goes and the both boys are excited for warmer weather so they can start playing sports again. They are also looking forward to no school, and 7 peaks visits!!!
Oh, and Joe is going to Korea for a month in March, so I will be in need of some company!!!
Well, as you can see, life is great and busy, so I will try to keep up on my posts, but I can't promise anything...

The ankle today...

2009-08-31T21:34:00.001-07:00

I know, its sick!! But its one of those things, you don't want to look at but just have to!

Joe's almost broken ankle!

2009-08-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

Joe was playing basketball Saturday morning like he normally does and I was working. He usually gets home around 8 or 9 from playing and I work till 2pm, so when he gets home, he usually just hangs out in the living room for a while, so I didn't think anything of it when I didn't see him till 10am. But when I did see him, he was on the couch, with his left leg propped on 3 pillows! He had his ankle in one of those removable casts wrapped up. He was playing ball, rolled his ankle, heard it crunch, hobbled to his car and drove himself to the hospital. Somehow it was not broken, and just sprained really bad! You tell me after looking at the pictures how it is not broken!!

Boys first day at Charter School!!

2009-08-31T14:05:00.000-07:00

So, we have been on a waiting list all summer to get my kids into a charter school here in Provo. The waiting list was long and Tanner was the only one who I thought had a chance to get in cause he was #4 on the list and Jack was like #85 or something. So, the week before school started, I got a phone call that they both got in!! Yeah!! Well, we had to go out on the adventure of buying their uniforms (red, white, blue and khaki ). They can only wear dress pants or shorts, and only wear polo style shirts in those colors. It was a bit of a challenge to get what we needed in such a short time, but we succeeded. The boys LOVE their new school. They have cousins that go there and their teachers are really great. Here are some pictures of their first day and what they will look like for the rest of the year!! It makes for easy school shopping! Jojo and I don't know what to do with ourselves! The house is so quite!!

First Day!!

Day 2!!

Jack and his mulitiple personalities!

2009-06-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

Jack had just got done taking a bath and I was combing his hair and decided to get out my camera and capture his funky personality! He loves to make us laugh!

"Our pets heads are falling off!!"

2009-06-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

So, life is pretty much as crazy as it is always is. We just recently went to San Diego on a short trip. We got to go to Sea World and the beach and just relax at the pool. We had a great time! A week after that, we went to Wyoming for Flaming Gorge days and a bunch of friends and family played in a basketball tournament. It was JoJo's birthday on the 28th. She really didn't understand what the fuss was about but she really liked all the news toys she got. I can't believe she is already 2!! Crazy!
Well, the reason for the title is because we have been having some bad luck lately (nate and lindsey, I got the idea for the title from you and the story you told me the other day)... Here are just a few of the things that have happened to us...
Ok, don't look at the fat roles and stretch marks here! I fell in the shower while picking up JoJo and scraped my back on the faucet! Hurt like heck!!

Hit a freakin' bird on our way to the basketball tournament in Wyoming! The bird was huge and we had to drive like thirty minutes with the broken windshield. It scared the crap out of me. I thought we were being attacked and were hit by a bomb. Thank goodness that Becky and Lindsey had an uncle who just happened to fix windshields!

Here are a few pics of the things that we have been doing that have been without bad luck... knock on wood!
Shamu show!! The kids made us sit in the first few rows so they could get wet!
The dolphin show!
Fish, fish , and more fish...
Elmo!! JoJo loved Elmo!
Big bird and the boys! How cute!
This is just a random picture I took of JoJo washing the dishes. I just put a towel at her feet and let her go to town. She was there for an hour! She had a blast!

Worst MOM ever!!

2009-05-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I seriously was debating blogging about this but I thought if any of you are feeling like a bad mom, I will take the cake and you can all start feeling better now!
So, I was working yesterday and Tanner was at school and Jack and Joe were at McDonalds. JoJo was taking a nap... so I thought...
Well, I am sitting in my room helping someone book a reservation and as I am looking out my window waiting for the neighbor to drop off Tanner from school, I see her stroll down my driveway with Tanner and JOJO!! JoJo had some how escaped from the house without me knowing!! She had walked down to Tanners school and was playing in the play ground. (She had to cross a street to get there!!) As my nieghbor was driving home to drop off Tanner, Tanner looked out the window and was like "That is my sister!" So she stopped and two ladies were like, do you know this girl? So, my neighbor said "Oh yeah, her mom is working from home and must not have seen her leave!" Well, she brought her home, and she was in only a DIAPER! She had stripped down to her diaper to go visit Tanner at school. In the course of 1 day she learned how to open doors!! Oh my gosh!! I was mortified!! I feel like the worst Mom ever. I was pretty much in shock for a few hours and could not stop thinking about all the things that could have happened...
So, a few hours later, after I got over the shock and after telling my own Mom what happened, I decided that I could go to dinner with a friend (had to take JoJo with me, I was not letter her out of my sights!). Well, when I got home my tennis shoes were on the front steps. I asked Joe why my shoes were out there and he said that He had taken the boys to the school to get ice cream from the Ice Cream truck and what did they find in the middle of the road... My SHOES!! JoJo had worn my shoes to the school!!! That girl!!
Well, I know that some of you are probably ready to call the cops to turn me in, but please, before you do, just picture a 2 yr old in nothing but a diaper and adult tennis shoes walking down the street to play at the park... It is a little funny... Ok, maybe not but please don't turn me in... I am going to the store right now to buy those door knob covers so she can't open the doors anymore!
So, are you all feeling like Mom of the year yet?

Things we do to stay sane!

2009-05-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

PLAY WITH COUSINS!
Mc D's Picnic on the living room floor!

SLEEP!!!

Props to all you single Moms or Dads!

2009-05-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

So, I just had to post about being a single mother. All of you know that I am married, however, Joe is gone a lot!! He is in the military and has a ton of training classes he has to do. Which, in turn, leaves me to being a single parent most of the time. Well, let me just tell you, IT IS HARD!! I have to wake up early, get the kids ready, breakfast, clean, lunch, get them to school, play, discipline, dinner, bath, stories, snack, brush teeth, bed, clean, pay bills, do the house work, get them to games, change poopy diapers, feed them somewhat healthy meals, clean, clean, clean, give hugs and kisses, fix owies, discipline, discipline, discipline, go to school events, fix anything that is broken, find renters, manage our 2 rental properties, call repair places, find time for me to go have girl adult time with friends, and on top of it all, work 24 hrs a week for JetBlue. I am exhausted. It is so hard to find a balance between being the loving nurturing mother and disciplinary. I don't know single parents do it all the time. Joe is comes home occasionally to relieve the chaos. If I sound like I am whining, its because I am! I just needed a little vent session! Thanks!

JoJo's Make-over

2009-04-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well, apparently JoJo has been watching me put my make up on lately and decided to try it herself. She just recently found out that she can climb up to Tanner's bed which is the top bunk and she happened to find a black permanent marker. This was her attempt at putting on eye liner!

HAPPY SPRING!!

2009-03-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

So we went to the Hira Crishna (probably spelled it wrong) festival of colors. It is a a way that the religion brings in the Spring. We have gone before in the past years but this year was the craziest by far. In the past there was probably a couple thousand people there, this year there were well over ten thousand! Well, as part of the festival, they have bags of colored powder that everyone has and when they give to ok, everyone starts throwing it at each other. The colors are supposed to represent the colors of spring. There is a band in back ground playing music chanting the words "hira crishna" over and over again. It is pretty cool to see everyone covered in chalk and dancing. This year my kids really got into it. So, here are some pictures of the "party" as my kids called it!
Pre-throwing of the chalk (some people started early)

TANNER AND JACK BEFORE

HERE THEY GO!!!!!!!

THE KIDS, AFTER!!
ADALIE (niece) WAS NOT HAPPY AT FIRST, BUT LATER DECIDED IT WAS FUN!

THE WHOLE GANG! (minus Joe, Party Pooper!)
CLOSE UP!! SCARY!!

Oh, and I had to post these pics of JoJo, lately when I go to get her from her nap, she has like 5 shirts around her neck! She is crazy!!

I guess she was embarrassed by this pic!

Update on the Sameks!

2009-03-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I am a slacker and have not posted in a while so I thought I would just give you an update.
Tanner is doing great in Kindergarten and is sooo smart. He is starting to read even. Jack is in preschool. His class is called the Rockin Raccoons! He loves going to school. JoJo is spoiled as can be! She has so much attitude and is now into telling me what to do! Little stinker. Joe is staying busy as ever with his job doing Military funerals. He is currently in Logan Utah for three nights guarding the body of a Utah soldier who was killed in Iraq. I am staying pretty busy with the kids, and my job with Jet Blue. I recently took a trip to see my sister Sarah in Athens, Georgia. I was a blast, other than the fact that I got strep the night I got there and spent the evening in the er. That college town was certainly different than this college town. There were empty cases of beer on everyone's door step and bars every other building. We had fun shopping and getting hair did! I was only there for three days but it was fun. I would have staying longer but had to get back to my family to make sure they were still alive. The kids were alive and aside from a being a little dirty were in good shape. The condition of the house was a different story. It was a mess!!! There was food and toys everywhere. Joe claims that it was clean the night before and somehow it got that dirty in a matter of hours! Gotta love those men!! Well, here are some recent pictures of our lives. Enjoy!

More Hawaii pics!

2008-12-31T13:43:00.000-08:00

Another picture from our tour of Pearl Harbor
Some street entertainment at Waikiki
Two turtles just came onto the beach to sunbathe at the Northshore
Daddy-Daughter Surfers!
It took them about 15 min to get out!! Ha!

HAWAII !!!!! ALOHA!!!!

2008-12-31T13:31:00.000-08:00

The view from my parents balcony.
The whole gang, minus parents and the twin boys(they were asleep)
Us at the famous blowhole.
We got a private tour of Pearl Harbor
She is already a beach bum!
We got to go to Hawaii for Christmas. It was a little crazy because we had to travel standby to get there because of my job, but it was worth it. We had so much fun. We stayed with my parents and all of my siblings were there with their families. Here are some pictures for you to be jealous of! ;)

FORKS, WA anyone??

2008-12-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, I took this picture while driving to the beach in Oregon and all I could think about was the Twilight books and the movie. Enjoy ladies!!

anyone know how to rotate pictures?? :)

2008-12-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest adventure with JoJo. She likes to pick out her outfit for the day and make me dress her in it. If I don't, she gets really mad. Here is just a sample of the stuff she brings me to dress her in. Pretty funny!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

I know it is a little late but here are some pictures of our trip to Oregon. It was our first time flying standby with Jetblue. It was overall a good experience except for Jordyn, who did not want to sit still. We spent a day at the beach (brrr...) and mostly just hung out at the house.

Forgot

2008-11-11T08:53:00.001-08:00

I tag, Lindsay, Becky, Camille, Shantel, Rachel and Kendra

PICTURE TAG

2008-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

I got tagged by my friend Katie. The idea is to go to your pictures and go in the fourth folder and pick the fourth picture and post it. Then, go to the six folder and get the sixth picture and post it. It is fun to go back into those folders and dig up those old pictures.

4th folder, 4th Pic,
Jack as a lion for Halloween when he was 2. How freakin cute is he!

Ok, so my folders are a little backwards in time frame but here is the 6th folder, 6th picture.
This is a funny story. I was a young women's one night and came home to husband sleeping in the recliner, and kids playing with desatin. Desatin, is diaper rash cream. Tanner thought he would style Jack's hair with it! Desatin is water proof and soap proof!!! He had white hair for a week until if finally just started to come out on its own! ahh, memories..

HAIR CUT UPDATE

2008-11-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the mom was just here the pick up her daughter. I answered the door and said "Do you want to good or the bad news first?" She said "bad news", I said " Your daughter cut her hair". Her mouth dropped and she said WHAT?... She said"So what is the good news?" "The good news is she did not get hurt". She said- Is it bad? I said- Yeah So, then her daughter came out and she said "SHE HAS A MULLET!" I said "I know! I am so sorry, I totally understand if you never want our kids to hang out again or ever want me to babysit again. " So, she examined the hair and determined that she would just have to give her a short pixy cut to fix it. She was not mad, thank goodness. She was laughing by the end. I also gave her a souvenier to scrapbook, I saved the hair! She was a good sport about it and all is well... I hope, I guess we will see how my kids turn out next time they go to her house. As she was walking away she said "Thanks for babysitting and the free haircut!"

Growing Family

2008-11-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

Our new bunnies. SuperBoy is grey, Daisy is brown. We just sold the boy because we were worried about having baby bunnies everywhere. Daisy is great. The kids just love her!

Hide and Seek

2008-11-07T20:09:00.001-08:00

The other day I was looking for JoJo and I could not find her for like ten minutes. Finally, I heard something coming from under the kitchen sink...

Mothers with Daughters BEWARE

2008-11-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, So, I am babysitting for my neighbor who has a girl Jacks age, ( we are just getting to know the neighbors and becoming friends) and they were playing in their room. I went to check on them and guess what I found... THE GIRL HAD CUT HER HAIR!! Oh my gosh. There was hair everywhere!! She had shoulder length hair and now has a MULLET! What am I going to tell her mom? I have my scissors in the kitchen in a large bowl, the kids know they are not allowed to play with them. Well, the girl said the Jack got her the scissors and she did the cutting. I am freaking out right now!! So, if you have a daughter and ask me to babysit, just no that you have to sign a waiver stating that you will not kill me if your daughter gets a haircut while at my house. The mom will be here in twenty minutes. I will let you know what happens.

Been busy!

2008-10-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

5

Hey all, sorry it has been so long since my last past. Life has been really crazy. We are mostly moved in to our new house but it is still a mess so as soon as things are organized I will post some pictures. So, for now you will just have to look at more pictures of my adorable family.
Every year for Halloween, we go to Hee Haws pumpkin patch to play with farm animals and pick out our pumpkins. The kids love the rides and haunted house. This was the first year JoJo got to enjoy it so she real had a blast. Nate and Lindsey came too with Adalie and my Dad was in town so he got to go with us as well. We had a ton of fun.
Joe volunteered to be in the opening ceremonies for the Real Salt Lake soccer team in their new stadium. He got to hold the flag and in return we got to go to the game for free. It was such a nice stadium.
JACK- So I have another Jack story. About 3 days after swallowing the sticky hand, I was working and JoJo was asleep and Tanner was at school. Jack was in the living room watching a show ( I thought) and all of sudden I hear crying, so I put my call on hold and went to check on him. He had been outside with no shoes on and cute the heel of his foot. It looked like he had a piece of metal or a splinter in it his foot. It was about a half inch long and it was swollen. So, I got off work early and took him to the ER, thinking we would have to get something removed from his foot. Well, the dr. could not tell what it was so they decided to try and removed it. Well, it took 4 people to hold Jack down while they game him the numbing shots so they could remove it. He was screaming bloody murder and everyone was looking at us. Even after his foot was numb, they still had to have a couple people hold him down. It ended up just being a dirty cut and they sent him home with a couple stuffed animals and a bandaged foot. Ahh, another day in the ER! What will it be next time? Jack will never go outside without shoes again, I can promise you that.
TANNER- So now here is my Tanner story. We were at the grocery store and the kids asked for gum, I told them no and we went home. Well, about 2 hours later I found a pack of gum that I had not purchased and asked Tanner where he got it. He suddenly became very guilty and said "you said I could not have it so I just took it". Well, I explained to him what stealing was and he agreed to go back to the store and pay for it. Him and I took the gum and waited in line at Albertsons to return the gum. I told him that he had to tell the cashier what he did and tell her that he needed to pay for it. As soon as we got to the register he started crying. He tried through sobs to tell her what he did. She could not understand him, so I explained and he handed her his money. All the other moms were looking at me like I was a jerk, but I thought it was a good lesson. I told him how proud I was of him for being honest and paying for the gum. It was in that moment that I really felt like a mom.

Jack being Jack

2008-09-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

So, I almost forgot to post this story about Jack.
You know those toys you get out of the quarter machines at the grocery store? Well, Jack got one of those sticky hands that sticks to everything you throw it against. Well, he was chewing on it (gross) and I told him to get it out of his mouth because it was dirty. Well, I'm not kidding, thirty second later he comes running to me crying because he SWALLOWED it! I was freaking out a little cause I wasn't sure if it would hurt him but in my best mom voice I said " Jack, I told you to keep it out of your mouth, so I don't even feel bad for you." After calling the nurse and finding out that he will just pass it in a couple days, I couldn't stop laughing. So, I thought I would share that funny story with you and let you all have a good laugh. Believe me, I will not be checking to make sure he passes it. So, if we end up on the news because some kids had to be taken to the ER because his belly was hurting and they found in the x-ray a sticky hand, you know why!!

FINALLY!!!!

2008-09-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

I am relieved and happy to announce that we finally closed on our house. We will be moving in on the 26th and will be doing minor repairs for a couple weeks. We will be redoing the yard, (which, is currently dirt and weeds), we will be putting up a fence, and we will be doing some small things to the interior. As soon as it is done we would love to have anyone over to see it. I will take pictures too. So, this last few weeks has been pretty crazy. Joe and I went to Park City for a military retreat with the Honor Guard and thanks to some great friends, we were able to leave the kids in Provo and enjoy a weekend without the kids. We had so much fun. Then, the day we got back Joe was off again to PEC training for the Honor Guard in Arkansas, leaving me alone, again, to deal with buying the house. So, while Joe was gone, I managed to work, get the kids to and from school, pack up our apt., clean the apt, get renters in our condo, spend time with my Mom, and close on a house ( I was Joe's power of attorney for the closing and believe me, if you have closed on a house before, you have to sign a ton of papers, but to have to sign for two people makes it three times as hard). For his name, I had to sign - Joseph M Samek by Jenny L Samek his attorney in fact- and then sign my name again. I had major writers cramp by the end. It was all worth it though because now we have a great house with lots of room to grow and a nice big yard. The kids were very happy to have their Dad home. As am I, I missed him tons. It is always good to have a little time a part because it makes you really appreciate them when they are home. Well, that is it for now. Here is JOJO and how she looks after eating noodles and apple sauce. And the boys at th Womens expo with conductors hats on and them being silly acting like babies.

2008-09-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well life is still crazy but fun. Here are some pictures of Tanner on his first day of school and some of our bbq up the canyon that we took with some friends and family. JoJo could not stop eating the ashes and coal from other fire pits. I was starting to think that maybe she has some vitamin deficiency that is making her eat this crap....

2008-08-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

Here is a funny video of the boys dancing. They recently discovered that they can find funny song on you tube and love to watch sponge bob and other cartoons that have music put to them.

2008-08-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

OH, man! Buying a house is crazy! There is so much involved with closing that you have to make sure that you are patient or you will get very overwhelmed. I have not been patient and Joe is out of town so that sure doesn't help. Anyway, we are still working on buying that house and hope to be able to close ASAP!
Anyway, Jack started preschool this week. He is doing MWF from 9-1130 and I have loved only having 2 kids at home for a few hours. Jack is loving preschool and gets mad at me when I come pick him up because he just wants to stay and play all day. Tanner starts kindergarten on Tuesday and that will be M-F from 1230-330! Yeah! I will have pretty much the whole day with no more than two kids home. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids but Tanner is at that age where he has so much attitude and he thinks he is the boss of everyone. And he also thinks he is so funny so he will do something that is funny the first time and then keep doing it over and over and over again. You know what I mean! Annoying! It will be nice for him to be around other kids to get all that energy out. Jordyn and I are going to have so much fun together when they are both gone all day! Joe is still out of town in Montana. He will be home for a couple days and then leaves again at the first of September to go to Oklahoma for a week of training. He is having fun hanging out with the guys but I sure can't wait to have him home for good, for a while at least.
Well, here are some pictures from the last couple weeks, Jacks first day of school, Tanner on his new bike that he got for his birthday, JoJo asleep in her high chair and more. Enjoy!!!

2008-08-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Hi all! How is everyone? Well, we just finished our crazy couple months of summer where it was Jordyn's birthday on June 28th, my b-day on July 16th, Our temple anniversary on July 23rd, Tanner's b-day on July 31st, Jack's b-day on Aug. 2nd and Joe's b-day today Aug. 7th. It is a crazy couple months for us but fun for sure! For my birthday we went o Wendover and lost a ton of money and had a blast doing it, for our anniversary we went to salt lake and had a nice dinner and went to a movie, for Tanners b-day we went bowling and video taped it, for Jacks we went to Chuckee Cheeses, and for Joes we ate pumpkin pie(his favorite) and looked through the new mission scrapbook I made him for a gift (thanks for the idea Camille). Now, we are in the process of closing on our house in Provo and screening renters to live in our basement. Joe is going out of town for 3 weeks to Montana for the military so I will be super busy with all the house stuff by myself AGAIN! Seems like he always has to leave at the exact moment that I need his help the most. Oh well. Guess that makes me stronger in the end. So, I have been really trying to make a good dinner every night for the last couple weeks and I am running out of easy YUMMY recipes that my kids will like. So, if you have any that I might try, please post them, I need all the help I can get. OH MY GOSH!!! I know some of you are reading the new Twilight book Breaking Dawn and are you freaking out or what!!! I won't give anything away but if you are about half way through the book which is where I am, we can talk. I love these books and I wish they would never end. I am trying to read it slowly so that it will last but I just can't put the stupid thing down. Well, I guess that is enough for now. Here are couple pictures from Jack's birthday that I took with my new digital camera (thanks Joe!).

2008-07-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, It has been a while since I posted anything new, so I thought I would give you all an update. I just recently celebrated my 25th birthday and we spent it in Wendover Nevada gambling and throwing away too much money but it was a blast! We got rid of the kids for a night!(thank you Nate and Lindsey) We were supposed to go New York this past weekend but my mom was not able to make it out to watch the kids. Oh well, I guess we will just have to go another time. We are in the process of buying a house! We put an offer on a duplex in Provo about two weeks ago and it was accepted by the sellers so we are in the works with all the papers and misc. stuff that goes with buying a home. We are so excited and will let you all know when we close so that we can have a house warming party! It has 3 bedroom and 2 bathrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom downstairs. It has a huge yard which my boys are very excited about. They keep begging for a dog. I guess we will see what Santa brings. So if you know anyone who is looking for a place to live, we are renting the basement out for $800 a month and that includes all you utilities and cable tv. Well, I guess that is it for now. I will try to post again soon.

2008-06-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDYN!!!!
SHE IS TURNING ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!
We are so blessed to have such a beautiful healthy girl. We LOVE this girl!

2008-06-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDYN!!!!
SHE IS TURNING ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!!!
I can't believe my baby is already a year old. She is such a blessing to have. She makes us all smile and it is so great to have a little girl to even out the numbers a little. I like having a girl on my side. She is such a joy. She is always laughing and she puts up with her big brothers so well. She loves her daddy so much and gets so excited when he walks through the door after work. There is something so precious about having a little girl. It is really hard to describe but I know that she was a gift from Heaven and I am so happy she is in my life. We love you JoJo!

2008-06-19T10:10:00.001-07:00

I just thought I would put some more pictures on here so you can see more of my family in action.

The kids got a dirt bike fore Christmas last year, they are both too scared to ride it still.
That is Joe on the job, handsome little devil!

2008-06-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

2008-06-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

THE SAMEK 5

2008-06-19T09:14:00.001-07:00

OK, I am new at this blog thing, so bare with me.
The Samek 5 consists of my amazing husband Joe, Me, Tanner(4), Jack(3), and Jordyn (1). We live in Provo, Utah and have been married for 5 wonderful years. Joe is currently doing Veterans Affairs for the Utah National Guard and I just started my job with Jet Blue! I love it by the way, I get to stay at home in my PJ's and answer the phone. And what girl doesn't like to talk on the phone and get paid for it.? Myself and my family also get to fly for free with Jet Blue! Nice, huh? Yes, I am bragging a little! My son Tanner, is turning 5 at the end of July wand will be starting kindergarten this fall! I can't believe he is getting so big. Jack will be turning 4 at the beginning of August and he is so excited to start preschool and do all the fun things Tanner got to do last year. Jordyn, turns 1 on the 28th of June. She is walking and has the funniest personality. She loves to shake her booty when any music is playing, even in the middle of church with church hymns! We are in the process of looking for a house to buy, just waiting for the market to come down a little first. We have season passes to Seven Peaks and go at least 3 times a week. I have fish for children. We have some fun things planned for the rest of the year. Joe and I are planning a trip to New York in the middle of July. We have friends who live out there right now and we get to fly with Jet Blue, so it will be a free trip! It will also be like our first honeymoon. We never go to go on one after we were married! We are also going to try and take the kids to Sea World in San Diego sometime this summer, since we get to fly and Joe gets free tickets to the park from the military. We are trying to go to Hawaii for Christmas, my parents just go stationed there with the army. So we will be doing a lot of traveling. I can't wait! I also get 2 free buddy passes every three months for friends to fly with Jet Blue, so I will take bribes! Just Kidding!
So, that is about it for now, I will try and post some pictures if I can figure it out. Hope you all enjoy!
Jen