ZANDER's here!

Where the heck am I? This place is too bright and noisy.

Mommy meets Zander.....She's thinking "it's about time" and "what a sweetie".

Proud daddy Ian....he was a bit emotional - who could blame him?

Grammy has checked every part of me and I'm perfect!

Cedes has been waiting for this for a long time. She's a big help to her mother. And loves her new brother.

Sister Kelsee holding her new baby brother. She was really excited, but a bit nervous.

He's all legs and arms....just like his dad.

Okay, so I'm not focusing very well yet, what's to look at? These people are kinda scary...

Hey grammy, can't you stop with the light flashing already????? (2 weeks old)

Ethan has this weird "picture face" he makes now, strange but adorable. This is about as close to the baby as he would get those first 3 days. Every time Emily held him, he freaked out. It was pretty funny.

Zander Ian Day was born on 7/22/08, 8 pounds 5 ounces, 21 inches long. He had a tough birth and was a bit beat up and swollen, but the later pictures, you can see he's better now. We sure do love to kiss those fat little cheeks. And is dad is so proud (it's his first biological child); he's been the dad to the two girls for 5 years, so this is great for him. And Mandy was excited to have a boy, finally. These pictures might not be in order, but I'm not sure I remember how to do that. Don't forget to keep reading for the two new blogs beneath this one, one from the art show, and one for Tiffany's wedding. xoxoxoxoxox Leave your comments.

THE ART SHOW IN OGDEN

What a cute and talented family. The adults for art (Kerri paints beautifully I hear) and the boys for ENERGY. I'm glad I don't have to chase after them all day. No wonder Kerri is so skinny.

Alright, so I took this one, but Kay still wasn't in the picture. What the heck??? This was the first time we all met Casey. We were impressed.

Kay insisted on taking the picture, so he's not there. It was a beautiful setting, too bad some of us aren't that beautiful, hahahaha

What am I leaning in for??? It was probably just trying to straighten out my back, ugh.

Ben and a artist friend of his had a show in Ogden and it was amazing. Ben is so talented and it's hard for me to believe that anyone in the family could do something as amazing as his sculptures. The decorated horses were all over downtown Ogden for the celebration, some of them were really amazing. The picture of Ben's family turned out really great. It was a fun night and afterwards, Kay treated everybody to dinner at Ruby River....whoa that set him back some big bucks, but we really had a great time. Luckily he didn't have to pay for us by the pound......

Tiffany's Wedding

What a beautiful couple. Casey and Tiffany Bullock, August 2, 2008

Just coming out of the temple doors to get pictures after the ceremony.

Here are the old folks.....

We were on the shady side of the temple, and the temple grounds were beautiful, as usual.

The back of Tiffany's dress was amazingly beautiful. A pain to lace up though, so Steph said.

The entire Bob Hammond Family with newest additions Maisy and Casey.

On the steps of the temple, always love these kind of pictures.

We stopped by the Conference Center when walking back from the Temple and I took this picture of Ben's scupture in the Hall of Prophets called "Sustaining the Prophet". We are all very impressed.

Tiffany and Casey's wedding was beautiful and we were all so happy for them. I just put a few pictures up because I haven't been able to post for so long and I didn't know if it would work.

I'll be posting some more if this works, but they will probably be chronologically out of order. Love, Helen.

SAMANTHA LYNN BARBRE, 1990-2007

Samantha Lynn Barbre - Sophomore Picture - Favorite necklace and braces.

Lagoon, summer 2006

Cheryl and Sam, same day, at Lagoon

Sam, Sebastian, Savannah and Paul Concentrating on TV. Sam loved that dog.....

"Posing" with Campbell cousins, Alexa and Hailey with Savannah in the back.

Cousins Mikayla and Samantha at Raging Waters, August 2006, Barbre Family Party

Cousins, Sam, Colton, and Taylor at Raging Waters.

Sam and Colton playing "let's tip the other one off the tube".

Mikayla, Sam, and Chelsea posing.....

Trip to Camelot in July 2006 - Barbres and Campbells - Sam playing tetherball.

Valerie and Sam playing tetherball....sisters and competitors!

Val and Sam at Camelot (near Roosevelt, Utah)

Grandpa Gary (with Sam helping) teaching Niki to shoot the bow.

Sam - bull's eye every time - a pro.

Sam giving Grandma Ray a tour of Camelot. Val, Niki, and Krislynn followed.

Sam, Niki, and Krislynn, cousins and buddies.

Samantha shooting Ryan's "Potato Blaster". WOW!

Grandpa K, Natasha (Sam's friend), Krissy, Sam, Val, getting ready to float the river.

Motley crew before the river run....Cheryl, Sam, Krissy, Paul, Val, Ryan, Niki, Nat, Grandpa K, Savannah, and Kerry (Shirlynn and LaRay in golf cart....)

Halloween 2006 at Stefany's house.

Future Doctor, all about the technique.

Sam before she squirted us with water (all innocent until she let us have it!)

Sweet sixteen, ready to open Grandma Ray's gift. (December 22, day before her actual birthday)

Loving those little cousin gifts :)

Smiling is fun with no braces!

Blowing out "16" candles on her cake.

Our Beautiful Sam, we love you and will miss you always!

Samantha was a sweetheart. She was so much fun to be around and always made everyone laugh. She loved her family so much and always wanted to be around them. Her little cousins looked up to her so much and she was a great example. We lost her too soon.

One thing that I remember about Sam is that she loved Johnny Depp (such good taste in a young person). One day she came home from school and said that she was having a contest with this "other" girl at her school to see which one was the biggest JD fan. She knew that she was related to two of his "biggest fans" (and I mean that in every sense of the word), LaRay and I. She came to us with this "test" that listed all kinds of obscure things about Johnny and she wanted us to help her get every question right so she could prove that SHE was his biggest fan. We had a blast helping her and gladly told her all we knew (which is lots). I printed some pictures of him for her room and she got a big kick out of that. LaRay and I LOVED it!

Another story that I heard recently might be more about Val than Sam, but it shows the sense of humor of Val. They were sitting in Young Women's, Val, Sam, and one of their advisers together when Sam got up and walked out. After a few minutes, the advisor whispered to Val, "What's wrong with Sam". Val shrugged and said she didn't know. So the advisor said she would go check on her. When she got outside, she saw Sam pacing back and forth and asked her what was wrong. Sam told her she was having an anxiety attack and may have forgotten to take her medication that morning. She said, I'll be fine in a couple of minutes, then I'll be back in. So the advisor went back into the classroom and sat back down by Val. She told her what Sam had said and asked Val what kind of medication Sam was on. Val said, I don't really know, except I know she's on something for her acne. The advisor said, "Well, that couldn't have anything to do with an anxiety attack." And Val said, "Maybe she was feeling ugly today!"

I have lots of wonderful memories about Sam and Halloween. Paul and Cheryl have been bringing the kids by my house on Halloween for years. I have pictures of her and her sisters almost every year. She was always "into" Halloween and had a lot of fun.

Sam is missed. I do like thinking back about the happy memories and funny stories. I thought it would be good to do this blog, then others can comment and tell their favorite story about Sam and this could be a little journal about her for all of us to read - for some to get to know her better and for others to look back and remember fun times and memories. If you would like to comment, just click on the "make a comment" button. If you don't have a Google account, make yourself one - its not hard and they don't ask for any information except your email. Then you can share your feelings and memories with all of us. Maybe we will get a laugh and have a good cry, but mostly we will remember our dear one with happy memories. I'm looking forward to reading others memories about Sam.

Sammie, we miss you, especially your S-M-I-L-E!!! Love you xoxoxoxoxoxox

WONDERFUL FAMILY HOLIDAY!

Hailey and Vanessa were so happy with their Ipods. This seemed to be a very "high tech" Christmas. Everything seems to be high tech now days, but I'm glad I'm kind of into it myself, it will help me keep up with my grandkids as they get older. Just don't ask me about the hand-held games, I'm not into those.

We were listening to Thriller . . . okay, I know, but it's still a great song even if Michael Jackson is a weirdo now.....

Vanessa and Hailey in their matching American Girl outfits.

Hailey got jammies for herself and her Itty Bitty Baby doll. She also a house for her "little bobble-head pets". She has been collecting them for a while, so now she has somewhere to put them.

Hailey was jamming with her Ipod when I got there to see what Santa brought.

Vanessa was so thrilled with her Ipod shuffle - I caught this darling picture of her - she's about as cute as they come, if I do say so myself.

Darling Kelsee, she was so excited for Christmas - I had trouble communicating what I wanted her to do for her picture . . . this is her "shy" look.

Cedes got a really cute jewelry box - and rings and earrings. She was happy about that. Did not get her two front teeth, however, as you can clearly see. . . . . .

Kelsee and Cedes having a mid morning "tea party".

Ian and an excited Kelsee.

Emily helping Cameron "make bugs" with his strange easy bake oven thingy - Cool for boys though. Camie doesn't look as if he appreciates his mom's help.

Camie got this portable DVD player. Notice the picture in the background. I gave the girls pictures of them and their daughters in "the Kingergarten dress". It turned out cute. If we can save the dress for another 15 years, maybe THEIR daughters can get their picture in it as well when they are in kindergarten. FUN.

Cameron was so proud of his Wrestling Champion belt, he tried it on for me immediately. He's going to kill me over this one when he gets older. Great blackmail picture.....

Ethie was asleep when I went over on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. He is just the sweetest thing. It won't be long until he gets rid of the HEAVY helmut - His head is looking really good.

Grammy can handle the Ipods and figure them out fine, but these hand-held games are a complete mystery to me.

Here are just a few of the wonderful gifts Bailey and Logan got. The "snake" pillow is a speaker for his Ipod.

Bailey was SO EXCITED to get her Ipod. What a great gift. And check out the cool and beautiful T-shirt!

Logan with his PSP game thingy (hahaha - don't have a clue) and his new Eagles Jersey.

Happy Holidays! We had a wonderful Christmas and we were all spoiled. Especially grammy, as usual, the kids always spend too much money on me. They gave me a clock radio/I-Home for my Ipod. It's just SO cool - I can plug my Ipod into it to charge it, to wake me up in the morning, or to play it outloud. The sound is wonderful (better than some of the other devices I've heard for Ipods), and it charges my Ipod, which is almost constantly in use, without having to plug it into the computer. They also gave me some cool Jack Sparrow stuff (Jack Sparrow Doll, Davey Jones doll, POTC Chess Set). They gave me some Nike running shoes that are really light and I don't trip while walking in them, hahahaha. There are many more pictures but I couldn't post them all. Make sure you check out Stef's blog at nielsenstef.blogspot.com.

I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did. We spent lots of time together and laughed a lot (which of course is lots more important than any presents). I love and miss you all. Love, Helen xoxoxoxoxoxoxox