This was a big week for us, we got to hear the sweet sound of our Manti's first laughter. It brings tears to my eyes because the firsts are always so memorable for me and I absolutely love being there for them. He is already getting so big and is growing out of his 0-3 month size, it seems too early. There is a book that I received from someone that I would highly recommend to every parent, it is Let "Me Hold on Longer" by Karen Kingsbury. The first 20 times I read this book I could not get through it without crying, because it makes me think about how precious my children are and how fast every day goes by. I really picture my family's future while I reading this book and I think that is what the author's objective was. I love my children with my whole heart and I am so thankful they chose me to me their Mom.
I don't know how anyone could not smile after looking at this picture, it is truly infectious!
Love that smile!
This picture is from this morning. I kind of feel bad because I can always get him to smile and laugh before Geoff. That's what you get when you have Momma's Boys!
Back into the old grind. I honestly do love running, but when you haven't done it for a while, it really bites. I have been at it for a week already and the first two days were so terrible, I could only run for 5 minutes at a time, but by the 3rd day I could run for 15 minutes strait, I will work back up to my 40 minute runs! I think it is amazing how wonderful our bodies are. When Geoff and I got married my wedding dress was a size 6 and 10 months later I gained 80 lbs with Eve and I eventually lost it all, then I got pregnant with Jackson and gained 40 lbs. Even though I only gained half as much, it felt like it took twice as long and twice as hard to take it off after Jackson, but I did! Than I got pregnant with Manti and only gained 13 lbs, and I am happy to report less than 10 weeks later I am back at my pre-pregnancy weight, all I can say is Good Job! to myself. I think about where I've been in my life and how far I've come. I swear, I could write a book on my own personal journey about how to keep yourself motivated about being healthy and that YES!!! anything is possible!. I really believe that loosing the weight went so much deeper than just what was on the outside, I really grew so much spiritually as well and I learned to love myself and I started to strongly feel how much my Father in Heaven loves me. I know he wants us all to be happy and he will help us through all of life's struggles, whether they are small or big, he knows they are important to us.
Happy Valentines Day to me! Isn't he a good husband? The flowers are really elegant and different than he has ever given me, the vase too, it's nice to have something different than roses once in a while. (I still love roses, their classic!)
For the last little while I would joke around and say I could easily be a mermaid because my hair was soooo long! (of course Geoff didn't mind, ha, ha) I could not stand my long hair anymore after Manti came , so after contemplating about it, on my birthday last month I got it chopped. The lady cut the layers shorter than I wanted but it turned out kind of good, I figure my hair grows really fast.
Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!!!
Eve just being Eve! She told me lately she wanted to be a model when she grows up, here we go!
I saw some bows that people had made that were really cute and than Eve got some from her Auntie Jessie for Christmas and I thought I could make that. So I started making bows, clips and barretts which I named "Lovely Locks" and this is just some of what I had left after having 2 bow parties. It is really fun for me to make them with so many different colors and styles to choose from. I think I get more excited than Eve does about them.

At church we had an activity where we were to share our talents or things we like to do and this was my contribution.-

Some of My Favorite Things!!!
I love to....

Decorating- I'm always asking myself what's the next project? and am I sick of this color yet?

Renovating- I guess this coincides with decorating, anyway I apparently inherited this gene from my gifted Father. At one time Geoff and I were in the middle of building our fence with the help of our family, especially my Dad and he told me to cut a board on the saw and it had to fit in a certain spot perfectly, so I looked at it for a split second and cut the board, Geoff looked at the board and said that is not going to fit! I handed the board over to my Dad and chuckled to myself (thinking who is he to judge? If you know my husband you know what I mean!) The board fit exactly and my Dad looked and Geoff and said That's my daughter! So long story shorter and many projects later, I have conquered mostly on my own; crown moulding, chair railing, laminate flooring, vinyl tiling, landscaping, etc.

Scrapbooking- It is a fun way for me to describe my personality as well as my children's with color and beautiful paper,yea, lots of paper. It is also a form of geneology, so that makes me feel better and I wish I would've had one of my very own so I made one for myself and one for Geoff as a present one year.

Quilting- Although I haven't made one in a while, I cannot even count how many I have made over the years that are sitting around the house as well as ones I have made for others. My signature style is skies the limit! if I like the fabric, whether it's corduroy, satin, cotton, flannel, etc., I make it work and somehow it always turns out beautifully.

Happy Vanlentines Day!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day! (we know Geoff's parents did they are in Hawaii, and YES! we're jelous. Geoff was very good to me this year and surprised me with tickets to see Bette Middler and he told me it was in Vegas and we were flying in for the night and I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. So anyway we go in 3 weeks, it will be lots of fun. And speaking of flying I leave in one week to go to Utah to see my new niece Emily Jayne Fairbanks,born Feb. 8th, 6lbs. 11oz. and only 17 in. long. CONGRATULATIONS to Amber and Randy. They sent me pictures on my phone and she is so beautiful even though she looks exactly like her dad, ha,ha. Geoff's family and I were talking about this same subject the other day and I came to the conclusion that it must be a controlling genetics thing because our kids always end up looking exactly like Geoff so it looks like Randy has the same kind of genes. I am sad about the new pictures because I just got a new phone which is the cool part, but I can't transfer my pictures to the new phone, oh well! I'll just have to take new ones. I am so excited to see my sister, Amber, she is my best friend in the whole wide world and I miss her all the time. I get emotional about it because it really sucks living so far away from each other, but some day we hope to live in the same town and share a speed boat.(just something we've talked about) I will have many more pictures for you all soon. Love, Sarah

So Long Holidays, Man I'm Getting Old!!!

We woke up to our first winter wonderland this winter on Monday, so we soaked it up by heading for the bedrooms and layered all we could on and ran out the door. This was quite early for me, but I am so glad we went out when we did because by the time we were done the sun was coming out and everything was starting to melt.
I bundled Jackson all up and he totally reminded me of the little brother from A Christmas Story, I couldn't help but laugh.

Pretty Evie loves the snow.
A bunch of kids gathered at the field down the street from us and were making snow forts for snow ball fights and snow men. Eve and Jackson were having so much fun.
Jackson make sure that snow is not yellow!
Eve and I made this killer snow man.
Manti is not so quite so skinny anymore, FINALLY! He has the cutest tummy, no rolls yet though.
This is what happens when Eve gets the camera, this picture is actually kind of cool because of the reflective table clothe, any bids?.
Just hangin out on the sofa.
BEWARE! You have been subjected to the "Crazy Eyes", as Eve calls them. When he first came and we were getting to know him and Eve would always ask "Mom why does he do those crazy eyes?" Another funny story we heard was from Geoff's sister Shelle, when Manti was born he was only 3 days early, but he still had a really thick layer of the vernix (white stuff) all over him and Eve came into see him and looked at him and asked Shelle " Why's he gots scales?" So apparently I gave birth to a dragon.
Bath pictures are my favorite he has this alligator towel that is adorable. It would have been a cuter picture but as you can tell he just had spit up, he reminds me of Eve a lot when it comes to that area, Jackson never did.
I'm always catching Eve stealing kisses from Manti.
My blue boy. It's funny because he still has this natural Mohawk.
This was flippen hilarious! We rocked out on ROCK BAND on New Years Eve and Geoff's parents even played- Shelle too, mind you this was about 1:00 A.M. 1:30 ish. I think Geoff's Mom got kicked off twice, she did better than I could have done by far. The only thing that I will do is sing and that is even pretty had most of the time. We played earlier with Geoff's sister, Jesse's family for quite a while-picture down below. Her husband Ben did a really good job, Snaps to you Ben!!!

I think he was trying to talk in this one.
I absolutely had to buy this sweatshirt for him, if you look closely it says "Little MAN on Campus". Manti has already built up quite a number of nicknames so far- he does have to keep up with his older brother. Jackson's favorite nickname for himself is "baggy buddy" from the Jungle Book and Manti's is "man cub".
I love this picture, how cute are my kids! They are so happy to have a baby brother.
There's my smiling JACK! I caught him in a good moment, he is quite the crazy kid nowadays.
Manti is getting so big, he doesn't really look like a newborn anymore.

Christmas Time Is Here

On Christmas we had dinner at Mim and Bump's house and had a themed basket Christmas party in which we all drew names and picked the one we want that is still available. This year kind of bit because I got sick and totally lost my voice for 4 days so all I could do was sit there and observe.
For Christmas we spent the night at Geoff's parent's house eating and watching movies, it was fun. We all had to sleep out in the family room so we wouldn't see Santa. How old are we? I feel like I am married to a ten year old when it comes to Christmas time.
I love love love this picture, it is awesome! Jackson has been asking for the fighting robots for Christmas, but I didn't understand what it was that he was asking for until a few days before and when I thought I knew I asked him if he meant the game with the blue guy and the red one and he said Yea!
Eve was all tuckered out after opening here stocking, because Geoff's family does it at 2:00 in the morning.
Poor Jackson! Geoff is such a kid he opened Jackson's stocking while he was asleep and took this picture.
This was Christmas Eve night and it is tradition to go over to Geoff's Grandma Ginny's house for dinner and open gifts. Geoff's sister Jessica and he husband Ben came into town from Virginia with their little one Juni. She is so cute, she looks like Eve a lot when she was a baby- you can tell they are all cousins.
Eve got this beautiful robe, it is so pretty with all it's brightly colored hearts and of course it had to be pink!!! She had been pointing out that she needed a robe when we would go to the stores, she was very happy to get it. I think this is the most excited that I have ever seen her about getting clothes, maybe there's hope yet!
Jackson got this big red dinosaur that he has been asking for ever time the commercial comes on, but it was hilarious because he is scared of it.

Isn't he sweet?
December 23rd- We blessed Manti and we had a packed church. It was funny because another family was blessing their baby and they only took up two small side isles and our family took up 2 long isles and also were separated in different areas. We really needed 3-4 long isles because we were packed like sardines, kids on laps and all. Geoff looked over at me during the meeting and told me how neat it was to see so many of our family there who loves us and supports us, we feel very fortunate to have such a family( on both sides) as we do. I wanted to say how proud I was of Geoff for giving such a beautiful blessing that we all could understand(ha,ha,ha) and it was long too!
Here's the crazy clan. There's no turning back now Manti!!! Our kids are the biggest hams and it is so hard to keep a straight face sometimes when they are disobedient. Eve especially is so funny, coming up with the weirdest stuff and Jackson is the king of goofy faces whether he trying to or not. It kills me when he gets angry and his face gets all scrunched, we tease him that his face will stay like that if he doesn't stop- it is not a pretty picture! Maybe later I will make a Google page on all the many faces of Jackson.

OK! I had to do it. These are the bag ladies, Mim and Shelle. Congratulations Shelle! You are now official! This picture cracks me up because families tend to do this sort of stuff all time intentionally and unintentionally- you know matchy matchy!. My sister Amber and I tend to do this a lot with out even knowing it and we live in different states. For instance; we also have the same patterned purse, same new strollers we got for our new babies and I learned last night new bouncer too! It all just means we have great style and great minds think alike.
Here are the BOYS! It is so weird to say that.
I love these hooded towels, they are so soft and cuddly. This particular yellow one makes him look even more yellow though, but it's a cute picture.
Manti was not too happy with me. Look at those skinny legs! He is our longer skinny baby, he grew an inch and a half his first two weeks and went down to 7 lbs 2 ounces.
He's all boy! Sorry, naked pictures are so adorable. It is so easy to forget how Small and delicate they are when they first come.
This is Manti's first bath at home! How cute is he?

Manti is 1 week old!

Oh, my! It has been quite a week! This was Friday,marking his first week. The first day home was pretty tough and I often felt like "What did I get myself into?" But after that every day got better and better and I am so thankful for him. I realized how easy it is to forget certain stages in our lives which can be good and bad. Eve is quite the Mommy and Jackson is such a good big brother( for being 3 years old anyway). Jackson keeps telling me how much he loves his family, it is the most special thing. I am so grateful for my family, my beautiful children and for my husband who I know loves me. Geoff and I just celebrated our 7th anniversary and it makes me smile when I look back to when we first started dating. Geoff took me to the prom, how many people can say that? I honestly felt love and genuine goodness in him from the moment he put his arms around me that Spring day at the Temple after singles ward. I actually have a picture that my friend Dez shot of us at that very moment, it brings back a lot of memories. I felt something I had never felt before and that is what kept me going no matter what stuggles we went through. I love, love my husband, he is my best friend, my soul mate. He has never judged me even when I judge myself. I feel entirely blessed. My Dad told me something one time that really made a profound impact on me when I was a teenager. He said " I might have never been the wealthiest person or had enough money, but when I think of my family I feel like the richest person in the world".