Arrow of Light

Sam worked really hard as a Webelo and earned his Arrow of Light award! It is the highest rank you can receive as a Cub Scout. He has now officially graduated Cub Scouts and become a Boy Scout! We are so proud of him and all that he has accomplished.Sister Smith handing Sam his arrow.


Crossing the Arrow of Light bridge toward Boy Scouts. Sam's friend Aiden is trying to stop him from going so he'll stay in Webelos with him:).

Way to go Sam!!

We also want to thank all his awesome leaders that helped along the way: Sis. Westfall, Sis. Sayer, Brother Titel and Sister Smith. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the boys. We could not have done it without you, you are awesome!

Chicagoland Fun!

Chris has been working for his new company, Textura and they are based out of Chicago. So he is in training for a few weeks before he heads out to Abu Dhabi. Since it's still summer we got to spend over a week with him there. It was so nice to actually see him during the week. The kids and I took some trips into the city and around the area. We were in the northern suburbs in Northbrook. It was both relaxing and exhasuting. Here are some highlights:

Weekend in Nauvoo & Keokuk

When dad was off for the weekend we decided to take the opportunity and head down to Nauvoo and Keokuk, IA! We only had a day to do Nauvoo but it was a gorgeous one and we were able to see and do a lot.The summer rush was over so it was a perfect day. Chris's brother, Jordon lives just across the Mississippi so he spent the day with us. It was a great day. (If you roll over the pictures you can read the captions.) The next day we spent in Keokuk at Jordon's place. He works at the Midwest Academy. It is a school for struggling kids and he is awesome with them. We were glad we got to see where he works and lives and that he is having such a positive influence on these kids. We also thought is was good to put a little fear into our kids and we scared them strait a bit. We even locked Maggie up in the isolation room. She did not like that.:) Though Jordon lives in a small town, it is a kid's paradise. My kids were so happy there! Open land, a trampoline, 4 wheeler, and Sophie had a whole meadow just teeming with butterflies. They never wanted to leave.

We were also able to celebrate Jordon's birthday a day early. Thanks Jordon, we had a great time!

Celebrating Sam

It's not hard to celebrate Sam, he is such an awesome kid! On August 5th, Sam turned 11! It was a pretty mellow Tuesday with most of his friends out of town on vacation he was stuck with us girls. I made him his favorite breakfast, french toast and then for lunch we had his favorite-pizza at Chuck E. Cheese for some added fun. He got 500 tickets that won him a red stuffed snake and he was thrilled.That night we had cupcakes in the number 11 to celebrate and of course a few presents!

I can't believe how fast he is growing. In one year he will be a Deacon! I decided to take a trip down birthday memory lane. Here is a picture from each of Sam's birthdays. It goes so quickly!

Sam is 1!

Sam's 2nd birthday. He loved Blue's Clues. My dad is holding his Handy Dandy Notebook to try to get him to notice his cake. He was obsessed with drawing in that thing.


3rd birthday, the obsession with Thomas trains begins.
We had a James birthday the next year.

4th Birthday, that's McKenzie and Brigham Hunter on the left, so cute!

5th birthday, way into Spiderman!

6th birthday, we celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese. Friends are Gavin and Brigham.

#7 a chillin' family party.

8th birthday, a major Pokemon celebration.

9th birthday in Albuqerque at Grandma & Grandpa Roberts. They had decorated the whole house with pictures of Sam. It was so awesome.

10th birthday, a video game party hence the Wii remote cake:).

Thank you Sam for 11 great years with one great kid!

Rachel's Baby

Our friend, Rachel Westfall had her baby on Sunday the 3rd. The girls and I got to go visit them in the hospital with Rachel's sister, Rebecca and her little girls since we are quasi-family (Rachel's sister is married to Chris's cousin). So we were just nine girls hanging out in the hospital room. It was so fun to meet the newest addition. She is a cutie and looks a bit like big brother, Calvin.

Lily Kate Westfall
August 3, 2008 4:59 p.m.
8 lbs. 5oz. 21 inches

Due Date Change

I had a monthly doctor appointment yesterday and she went over the results of my ultrasound. All looks well, whew and I am further along than we thought! My new due date is Dec. 18th. Only a 6 day difference but I will take it! It's much better than the 24th. We'll be home for Christmas, yay!
The technicians were using a brand new machine that they had just gotten that day so they were learning how to play with it. We were in there for like 45 minutes. Because they were testing it out we got a few of the 3D image shots. It was really cool.

Official Annoucement

Though most of you know, we wanted to make it official that we are moving to Abu Dhabi. Where you might ask? Well, A.D. is in the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates. It is one of 7 Emirates and the capital city. Many of you may have heard of Dubai and all the crazy things they are building there (If not, look it up). It is about an hour and 1/2 south of Dubai. The Emirates are loaded with money ($4.50 gas anyone?) and Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world.

While the thought of living in the Middle East on the Persian Gulf right across from Iran initially scared the you know what out of some of us, we are totally excited. About 80% of the population are expatriates from all over the world. There are a lot of Europeans and Indians and even Filipinos. You can dress how you normally do and they are more tolerant of Western ways than most Muslim countries. Plus they shun drinking and pornography, so as Mormons, we welcome that aspect. It is very forward thinking and they are building a branch of the Guggenheim and Louve there and there will even be a branch of NYU there. There is great shopping and beaches and of course, camel races!

Why are we moving? Well, Chris was offered a job we could not refuse. He is working for Textura. They have construction payment processing software. And there is a TON of construction going on in A.D. and Dubai. They are using 25% of the world's cranes. So there is a lot of work there. The company is paying for everything. We will have a 5 bedroom villa like triple the size of our house now, they pay for a car, all utilities, travel back to the states once a year, travel to Europe, or Asia, or India once a year, and private American schools for the kids. We just thought it would be a wonderful once in a lifetime experience for the kids and for us. It will it be challenging, I'm sure, especially with a new baby. But we are totally up for it and are excited to start our adventure.Chris will be leaving in October for Abu Dhabi and will hopefully be back in time for the baby to be born and Christmas. Then we will be leaving as soon as we can after that. School re-starts Jan. 2 there and we're hoping to make it in time for that. There are so many things to work out plus I have to pack up a whole household and figure out what to keep and store, what we need to bring and what to get rid of while I'm 8 months pregnant. Should be fun!

So if you are looking for a new place to visit and you've been dying to see camel races, we'd love to have you! Here is a link to the travel tourism site:
http://www.exploreabudhabi.ae/en/default.aspx