Here are some recent pictures of Sam. Of course they are self portraits. He is so cute.
This a picture of the view from Sam's ship. The weather is hot and humid!! There is a sand storm that is expected the next few days and for the past few weeks the skies have been filled with dirt. 
I always knew that one my kids would call me by my first name. Hey all kids do to that to show their independence. But usually it is when they are in their teens. Well for some reason I am no longer mom to Gwen and Gilbert I am now Chelle (without saying the e at the end). I am sure they have picked up calling me this because everyone else in the house calls me Chelle. And it is kind of funny to hear them call me Chelle. But every time they call me Chelle I tell them "I am not Chelle, I am mom!"
Lately they have been picking up a new word everyday. I have lost track at what they can say now. I am so excited that they are finally learning the English language! They have known how to talk for awhile now but unfortunately it was only to each other, I was beginning to worry that they would never want to talk to me, at least in a language that I could under stand.
I love being a mom!!!
I am so upset I have now manage to break my other camera!! I went to use this morning and it wont turn no!!! I am almost positive it is not the battery, I just charged. The screen looked like it had moister in it so I am thinking I got it wet thee other day when we went swimming and I took picture! I am so upset. I have no camera!!! My other camera is still at the shop getting fixed. It has been there for almost a month now!!! The Lens is fixable but it is going to cost almost as much as a new lens so I am thinking about just buying a new lens instead of fixing the broken one. My camera is going to cost almost two hundred dollars to fix. I just wish they will hurry up and fix it!!!!!!!!!!!
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1 can sliced carrots, drained
2-4 large potatoes, sliced
1 can green beans, undrained (I like to use fresh green beans and 1/2 cup water)
1 can vegetable beef soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soap
brown ground beef and onion in skillet. Add seasonings. spread beef mixture on the bottom of cassrole dish. Spread vegetable beef soup mix. alternate layers of carrots and potatoes, twice. Pout soap over top, followed by grean beans. Bake for 1 hour at 350
Gwenith and Gilbert are finally enjoying swimming! I bought them new floating device which they love! At first Gilbert was not sure about it but once he saw Gwen was freaking out and that he was only getting his legs wet he was fine.
When I was going though my coupons last Sunday I saw this recipe it sounded good and since it was this year’s million-dollar Pillsbury recipe winner I decide to try it. I thought it was good. I have had better but since it uses refrigerated cookie dough it was good as it could be. I think next time I will try to make it from scratch (homemade) peanut butter dough in place of the refrigerated kind. Plus I might do a batch with a chocolate filling inside the peanut butter base because chocolate-filled peanut butter cookies just sounds better!
We (Mom, Jason, Talon, Nikki, Gwenith, Gilbert and I) went to the local amusement park (Lagoon) yesterday. Gwen and Gilbert had a blast at the kiddy park. Gwen was so cute she would smile and laugh the whole time the ride was going. Gilbert was not sure at first but if he rode the ride a second time he would love it. Our first ride there was of course the carousal. This was different from the zoo. First it has seat beats and second it was way faster! Gilbert saw the kitty and wanted to get on it. Gwenith chose a horse.
I think Gwenith and Gilbert favorite ride either had to be the helicopter ride (it is a ride that spends a round and if you pull back a bar you would go up in the air and spend a round in a circle) or the boat ride (this was kind of lame. It was a five or six boats tethered together going around in a circle. that is pretty much all it was, oh wait you could ring a bell on the boat and pretend to drive it too.). 
After we were there for two hour Heather, Joey and Taylar joined us. It was so fun having them there with us. It gave Gwen and Gilbert someone to ride the rides with and have fun with!
It is funny different my enjoyment of amusement park are now that I am a mom. When I was younger it was all about how many times I can ride the rides. Now it was all about making sure Gwenith and Gilbert (and Taylar) were having fun. I c
ould have careless about riding the rides. In fact beside being able to ride a handful of kids rides with Gwenith and Gilbert I only rode one ride, a roller coaster, at the very end of the day. Oh wait I rode a ride (a haunted house) with Jason when we first got to the park. 
These last two pictures are my favorite! At one point I told Gwen to hold Taylar's hand so I could keep track of them easier. It was just so cute I had to take a picture. Then at another point in the day I told Gwenith and Gilbert and Taylar to hold hands again so they did of course and off them went. It was so funny they just started to walk off and did not care if we were following. They just left us. I had to run and get them. Everyone around us were commenting on how cute they were. 
While we on the train ride we got some unexpected excitement!! The amusement park has some animals in cages the the train passes by. While when we were going by the tiger. He (or she) decided that we looked tasty, no really it decided that it did not like us and ran (walked) up to the cage and roared really load at us. It scared me so bad that I yelled, grabbed Gilbert (Gwen was with my mom) and jumped back in my seat. I was really scared. I have never seen a tiger so active. I have seen them up before and moving up usually they seem to pay hardly any attention to me/us. This one I swear was ready to pounce us and eat us for dinner. And that is why I will not get one for a pet, lol. After that the rest of the ride I notice how small the animal's' cages are. I really hope they don't spend all their time at the amusement park. I really hope they trade with zoo so often. I really feel bad about how small those cages are.
Sam called home today! Gwen wanted to talk to him so I let her she was so cute talking to him that I had to take a picture of it.
Sam is doing good. Of course he misses us and home.
We went today to the Hogle Zoo with Heather, Taylar, Aurbey, Caitlyn, Aurbey's sister, Talon, and Jason. This was our third visit to a zoo (2nd to this one) and this was the first time Gilbert and Gwenith actually had fun there and got excited about seeing the animals.
When we first got there there is this big ball on water. When Gilbert saw it he ran over there and started to play around with it. Gilbert was in
heaven, it was was his favorite things.
We then went to see the white alligator. The zoo advertise it as the "Ghost of the Bayou". It is a rare white alligator from New Orleans. This alligator is not albino, he’s leucistic, and purely white in color with dazzling blue eyes. Eastern mythology says these creatures are symbols of extremely good luck. Legend has it that anyone gazing into the blue eyes of the rare white alligator will be blessed with good luck for the coming year, and prosperity will surely follow. There are only ten of these white gators in the entire world, It was not as exciting as I thought it was going to be. But Talon and Jason loved it.
We then went to the elephants. 
There is new attraction at the zoo. It is the Conservation Carousel. The attraction features 42 exotic and endangered animals, each beautifully hand carved in the style of an authentic carousel created in the early 1900s. Each hand painted carousel animal took artisans 30- to 40- hours from start to completion. In an attempt to raise awareness the Conservation Carousel is a tool to educate riders about animal species that are threatened or facing 
extinction. The carousel also sets an example of conservation because of its power source — solar panels that generate enough electricity to run the ride, making it emission-free.
We went and saw the other animals. We had a very good time.
Gwenith, Gilbert and Taylar loved the giraffes. 
We ended our visit at the zoo with a train ride! Jason was upset because he wanted to sit in the very back but someone else was already there. 
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