Three years of Luke Blaine

What a fun ride we've had so far! We celebrated Luke's 3rd birthday last week. It's fun to get kids to this age because they are so much more aware of what their birthday is. I got him talking about his day coming up and how old he'd be and much cuteness occurred in his answers. :o)

Our Helena cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Lay came for the party. It's been nice weather (up until today!) so all the cousins ran straight for the back yard when they arrived. It's so nice to have a yard! Two years in this house and I'm still thankful.



Rebecca was putting on the cute that night so she made it into a couple of pictures!

Luke got a rug from G & G Lay that has a picture of Radiator Springs from the CARS movie on it. He and Logan have been having a ton of fun running their cars around it!

This present was a big case full of play tools and a hard hat. I love that you can't even see Luke in the picture! Just his little foot.

We took the kids to the Dollar Store to get little gifts for Luke. Logan gave him this 25 piece Mickey Mouse puzzle. Luke LOVES it! He has been playing with it constantly since his birthday. He loves to "scwamble" it up and do it over and over again! (And isn't this a great pic of the top of my head!)

I found this idea online for his "cake". The one online was a little more elaborate and had colored frosting, but I love how my version turned out. (Samantha thought that the chocolate frosting meant these were coal cars!) I used Sour Patch Kids for the "people" and was thrilled to find the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" toothpick candles for added decoration. It helped to already have a Thomas Train that was just the right size for the graham cracker cars.

Here's Rebecca stealing the shot with all her adorableness again.

My friend Kim posted pictures of her kids through the years which I thought was so adorable. So because I'm only creative enough sometimes to imitate others, here's my darling boy's life so far:

Newborn (My "little" 9 lbs 7 ozs baby!)

One year old

Two years old

Three years old with all his birthday loot!

Sunday in the sunshine

Aaaahhh...
The weather here in Helena has been so nice the past few weeks and my kids looked so adorable yesterday that I decided I needed to get out the camera and take some pictures to capture these precious moments. (I know. Cheese for ya. Right there.)
The previous owners of the house did a lot of landscaping in the backyard and while we don't really love some parts of it, it does make a nice backdrop for pictures. (Plus the kids love to hide in all the trees and bushes.)
So here's some of my favorite shots from our pleasant Sunday afternoon:


Our beautiful Rebecca

I've loved this dress since it was Samantha's. Rebecca seems to be dancing for the camera in this one!

Someday I'll get a more natural smile from this pretty girl. It comes out every once in a while, but I think with all the sun and her awareness of the camera yesterday this is as good as she could give me. Funny little face!

Samantha took this one.

Love the expression on Logan's face here. I'm also glad that Samantha's hair fell between her legs in just the right spot...

More kisses

Rebecca was a very tired girl by the time I took this one. I'm glad Luke was able to follow my direction to kiss her cheek though!

Luke Blaine in the sunshine

Logan loves to talk and I'm sure that he was talking to me when I took this. :o)

Sweet Logan

Photography by Logan

I begged Ross to tighten his tie up and come outside for a picture. He wasn't thrilled, but he did it and I'm glad. Happy wife, happy life, right? ;o)

Swimming in the Summertime!

Swimming lessons are a great part of childhood. The warm sun and cool pool, the fun teachers and classmates, and finding a love for the water make summertime the best.

I knew I wanted to get Logan and Samantha started in swimming lessons this year for a few reasons. One, it's a good skill for the kids to have just for safety reasons alone and it also makes the water more fun to play in. And two, I knew I needed to do some kind of structured activity with them this summer just to get us out of the house! I am admittedly a homebody, but don't want my kids memories of summertime to be watching movies all day with the fans blowing. Not so much fun for them...

We started lessons on July 6th and finally ended 6 long weeks later on August 14th. (I say long weeks, but truly, summer has flown by in so many other ways -- as usual!) The first session was the roughest for me because I could only get Samantha into one time slot and Logan into another. So we were there from 11:15 AM to 12:20 PM. Thankfully the next two sessions they had classes at the same time!

Rebecca and Luke came with us every day and I transported them around in the double stroller we've been borrowing from my sister-in-law Kathy. What a blessing that was! Luke and Rebecca didn't really like staying in it the entire time (especially the first session) so I let them out often enough. I had to make sure I had a fully stocked diaper bag and lots of snacks (despite the no outside food rule the pool has) to keep them entertained.

Of course, on more than one occasion, my rambunctious not-quite-three-year-old would make a break for it if I took him out of the stroller and looked away from him for more than two seconds. It's not always fun to look like the idiot mother scrambling after her child, but oh well. Rebecca escaped once or twice too. I do my best with them, I swear.

I also brought chaos upon myself a few days. One day during the first session we got out of the house without the diaper bag! I freaked out and then remembered that the Lord had blessed me enough to make sure that my bishop and his wife just happened to be there with their son for his lessons. I asked them to watch Logan while I dashed home and to make the transition from Samantha's lesson to Logan's. They did and I was beyond grateful!

Another day Logan left the house without his towel, so after I got the kids safely to their teachers, Luke, Rebecca, and I zipped to Kmart for a lovely new striped beach towel. It is so huge that little Logan is swallowed up by it. It will be great for the beach when we get back to California someday though, so I'll forgive him for forgetting. :o)

Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins came and visited us here in Montana during the kids' third session of lessons. Grandma came with us three times and Grandpa got to come once, too. It was fun to share this with them and I appreciated the help!!!

When next summer comes I'm sure I'll try to get them going in lessons again. Luke will be old enough next year and that will help! For now though, I'm glad we did it, but so glad it's over.

Samantha loving the water

The kids often played a game called "Mr. Shark! Mr. Shark! What time is it?" Mr. Shark says a number like "3 o'clock". Then everyone circles their arms forward into the water and steps forward 3 times. Pretty basic, but fun for the kids. Here's Samantha's turn.

My darling water boy

Logan was a fish and loved his lessons!

Luke at the pool on a day Ross got to come with me so I was actually able to take all these pictures!

Rebecca was a sweetheart at the pool most of the time. The time I wasn't paying attention she was trying to back into the pool like she'd go backwards down the stairs. Whoops!

Logan going down.....

down........

down the slide!

Whee! Let's do that again!





This little video isn't the best quality, but amusing to me. It's hard to tell, but the teacher was being "Mr. Shark" and Samantha and the little boy in her class kept wanting to run away from Mr. Shark instead of doing "shark arms" toward their teacher before she finally said, "Lunch time!" and they are supposed to run away. Oh well. When you're seven and you've got the giggles, sometimes you've gotta just go with it!

Celebrating Samantha!

It's hard to believe that it has been this long since I became a mommy, but on June 22nd Samantha turned seven! It was a great day and she had so much fun.

She and I went to a party store here in town and we found some fun Disney Little Mermaid decorations and games to set the party theme. Here she is posing after her turn in the"Stick the flower crown on Ariel's head" game.

Her cousin Esther just happened to be visiting from Utah and we were so excited she got to come to the party! Especially because her cousin Maryann, who lives here, was in Utah visiting her Grandma. (We missed you, Maryann!) Here are her party guests (left to right): Esther, cousin Caleb, Carlin from school, Samantha the birthday girl, cousin Jacob (making an AWESOME face), Tyler from school, and her brothers Logan and Luke.

We have really tried to help her look at the camera when we take her picture. I was very happy she did so well with that on her big day! (Also, notice her cutie cousin Stevie Denny in this picture!)

This is the shot I got of the decorations in our living room. Note the "seaweed" and ocean life. We were going for "Under the Sea" and I think it turned out well! I was especially proud of the sea horses I drew! ;o)

This is Samantha's fun cake. I am so unorganized that it was decorated just moments before the kids ate it! My mom whipped the blue color into the white frosting and we put the fabric applique of Ariel gently on top. Then we used brown sugar for "sand" (great idea I found online) and put the jewels, starfish, and seashells that I made out of clay I baked around the cake for decoration. I really love that it turned out so cute for how easy it was to throw together!

See how happy she is?

This is another idea I got from the internet, but it didn't turn out quite like I meant it to. I forgot to put the fish into the jell-o before it set up too much, so they just got put on top. Unfortunately when Samantha held the bowl up for pictures all the fish slid off. It didn't matter to the kids though! They loved it!

Ross had two softball games that night so we all went to Dairy Queen before he left and celebrated Samantha as a family. I love her funny face!

We drove out to Grandma and Grandpa Lay's house next to spend a little more time with our visiting family. We had a great Family Home Evening with them. (Thanks again, Celina! I keep using the "I LOVE TO OBEY!" phrase on my kids!) Samantha opened the rest of her presents because I forgot earlier in the day to give her the stuff from Mommy and Daddy. Some of the things she got were an Ariel doll for the bath and some princess paper dolls which I was so excited about because I really loved paper dolls when I was little.

Ross and I love this beautiful girl so much. It has been such an amazing journey with her. There have been lots of twists and turns and we continue to learn things about her that make us love her even more. She has had her share of struggles in her short life and we're always so thrilled to see her progress and strive to do new things that some people take for granted in their children. Her imagination is the best and I love to see her dream. I love that she loves the gospel already and how she gets excited when she feels that special spirit.
I'm also glad she feels love for her family. One of my favorite moments with her that has actually been repeated is when I sing her a song at bedtime called "Angel on my Shoulder" that my daddy used to sing to me. The very end of it says, "I'm gonna cross my fingers that I'll find a guy to love me true and I'm gonna love him too." Samantha stopped me one night after I said "find a guy to love me true" and she said, "Daddy?" It makes me smile every time she says that.
Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl Samantha!

Helena History

We've had some fun adventures here in our town of Helena, Montana. I grew up here and have an obvious love for it, but it is really fun to share it with my California Boy husband and my children.

We started in the month of May by going to the Vigilante Parade. It's a high school parade here in town that was started in 1924 to keep students from other "traditions" like a senior-junior fight and other pranks. It's mostly historical floats about area history. There's also classic cars, the high school bands, and riders on horses dressed up like cowboys and Native Americans (which some actually are, of course) among other things. It's fun to see what the students come up with every year and it's a fun tradition that me and my siblings, and parents, and many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins have all participated in.

We weren't going to go, but suddenly made a last minute decision to and we caught the tail end of the parade. It was still worth it. The kids enjoyed it and it was just the right amount of time to be there for our little family.

The boys in their coonskin caps and Samantha in her cowgirl hat and braids.

Watching the floats go by

A float about the Wickes Mine which is not too far from my parents' house now

Daddy and Luke with the Civic Center tower in the background. (The building used to be a Shrine temple and used to have two towers before a 1935 earthquake.)

Our four cute kiddoes

Mommy and Rebecca


On the 30th of May we went to a History Fair on the walking mall in historic downtown Helena. There were lots of booths set up with demonstrations like panning for gold and blacksmithing. Many people were dressed up in old fashioned clothing and there were tons of things to look at and feel and try out. The kids had fun and we got some cute pictures.

Sitting on the trolley

"Mr. and Mrs. Dunphy" They said they'd just come over from the local cemetery and were telling the crowd all about their lives before and during their time in Helena. The building behind them is named after Mr. Dunphy. That's about all I heard...

Logan and Samantha next to a Civil War cannon. The men in the background were dressed Civil War uniforms too.

I just had to snap a picture of one of my favorite places in the world. The Parrot Confectionery has been around since 1922 and in this location since the 30's. It was the 1950's local teen place to be. The look of it inside never seems to change. They have really fabulous hand-dipped chocolates and a homemade chili that is so yummy. It's a place I always planned to bring the man I was going to marry to. Thankfully Ross loves it too! My dream would be to do more research on this place and put it in a book or something.

(Side note: My mom and aunt worked as teenagers in Rogene's, a fancy dress shop next to the Parrot, and said the town madame "Big Dorothy" used to come in with her girls and a huge roll of cash. Interesting, but sad to think where that money came from!)


My sweet girl being the angel she always is.

The kids wanted to meet every dog they saw, but this dog, named Lad, was part of a booth and the lady was very nice to let my children pet him.

Not sure what to call this other than the "Prospector's Fountain". Its made out of metal and has been around for as long as I can remember (but that probably means only since the 70's). I used to play on it when we waited for my mom to pick us up from watching summer movies at the nearby theater. I wasn't that giving to my kids. I made them stay away from the little pool that the water flows into. Great fountain though.


On the 9th of June we went to Smith School and watched Samantha in her end-of-school talent show. We didn't feel like going back home when it was over so I called Ross to find out where he was. He and my brother Ryan were up on the hill behind Raleigh Street here in Helena working on a survey, so we decided to go and visit! It was lots of fun to climb up above the town even though I was in a pair of chunky-heeled sandals. I had my camera with me because of the talent show and Ry was so excited because he'd been enjoying the view and wishing for pictures. Lucky! (Another historical side note for those that don't know: :o) Legendary actor Gary Cooper lived on Raleigh Street for part of his childhood!)

Ross hard at work at the total station sighting in Ryan at the rod. And Rebecca being good even when she's sitting in the weeds.

Cocking her head and looking cute!

The Sleeping Giant Mountain north of Helena. I LOVE THAT MOUNTAIN!

Sunlight hitting the Helena Cathedral just right

Here's the hill we climbed. Ryan has Luke on his shoulders and Logan next to him. Ross is the little short thing on top of the hill. This is actually looking up from State Street.

My little "Rodmen" Luke and Logan


Here's a silly little video I took from the top of the hill