Brielle is 4 months old...

Her feet tend to get stuck in the same hole often, she must like it.


Ryker Dale Gardner
December 29th 7lbs 14 oz 20 1/2 in

Can you believe Brielle is 4 months old? It sure flies! It has been a lot of adjusting and a whole lot of loving!!!! My sister in law Alisa had her 1st baby yesterday, wow so many memories. We are really excited for them! Brielle is a sweet little girl, she smiles and laughs all the time. Her little Face is a welcoming sight every morning. She is very patient with Brinley and Trail. We are so blessed to have such a sweet little spirit in our home.

Christmas Miracles....

Yes, this was only a few days before Christmas, so cute!


On the way home from our crazy trip, I think the kids say it all!





Good thing we have little ones to make us laugh!

I love Christmas time, it seems so magical to me. Getting to Christmas was quite a feat this year.

We made a trip to Idaho to celebrate Thanksgiving and my nieces baptism. I love going home, but the first night we were there Trail was awake all night throwing up. Fun, then the next day Clint could hardly walk, he hurt his back sleeping on the couch with Trail. Then the next day I was having some cramping in my stomach and within 10 minutes I was on the couch in excuriating pain. Clint woke up, he and my brother gave me a blessing and Clint got me dressed and took me to the ER. I literally felt like I was in the last stages of labor (remember I just had a baby all natural 4 months ago) I knew I wasn't having a baby so I knew something was wrong. They took me right in and got some amazing medicine in me to help with the pain. Once I was feeling a little better I was able to look in the mirror (YIKES, I don't think I've every looked scarier-good thing I didn't care when I was walking into the hospital.) They quickly discovered I had a kidney stone. And YES it is the closest a guy can come to understanding labor, because it is pretty close! I told Clint it didn't matter how much it cost to go to the ER because it was worth the relief. But I wasn't quite expecting the $5000 bill we got. (Luckily that is before insurance-so I hope that all works out) Can you believe they can charge that much? That is almost as much as it was to have Brielle! There is my woe! Before we got home Brinley and I also had our chance with the Flu. Wow what a trip! But the highlights were being with our family, watching Abie getting baptized, shopping with my family, dinner with our family, did I mention spending time with my family? and the kids sitting on Santa's lap. Brinley ran to him and Trail had to have Clint's Dad hold him to even get close. Trail told me "Santa's scary with his big beard."

The week we got home there was a leak under our sink, but thanks to Clint he got it fixed.

The next week we went back to Clint's parents because he has training and came home to find that our pipes froze and we had a trickle of water in the kitchen and NO hot water. We were at a loss to how to fix it. Luckily we have amazing friends that helped the best they could. We decided to go to church and figure it out later. We got home from church and Clint had the water running before I walked in and there was steam coming out of the faucet! Oh did I mention the new TV we got from our cousin was broken too, the next day Clint played with it a little bit and it is now working. It was our very own CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!

Lessons learned....
1 You can handle anything with the help of family and friends
2 Hot running water is a modern miracle - not a necessity (you can heat water on the stove to bath it just takes FOREVER)
3 The pioneers were amazing survivors!
4 I'm thankful we have a warm house and a roof over our head
5 As long as we have each other and we are healthy and happy the other things don't matter so much!
The Most Powerful Lesson learned...
5 Heavenly Father hears and ANSWERS our prayers! He knows us and our needs!

Christmas was a blessing, the kids were so happy and loved opening their presents! I did too! As I look back through this month I had a lot to cry about, but most importantly I had immeasurable moments to LAUGH and SMILE about. I'm thankful for those moments and that we were able to reflect on what is really important in life and it isn't things! I'm thankful for wonderful family and friends that I have to share this life with!

Sampson Family Photoshoot

I love pictures!!!! I get my kids pictures done every year on their birthday. For Trail's birthday though I was too pregnant to go to the city to get his done. A good friend does a great job so the day I went into labor with Brielle we had made plans to get his pictures done. Life finally settled down enough and we finally went this last week and had her take some pictures. She did a great job and I am so thankful to have these awesome pictures to capture these sweet little ones! It's hard to believe we have 3!

Our Brielle's special day...

Beautiful Brielle!!

Look at those eyes!!!

Our growing family

Grateful parents

My brother Brandon and some nieces and nephew with Brielle


My sister Angie and her daughter Abie and son Jaxsin

All of my nieces and nephews, for the most part they even cooperated

My Mom and Dad (Papa)

A smiley baby Brielle!

We were so blessed to have our family come to Vernal for Brielle's baby blessing. Family is amazing. It was wonderful to spend time with them. Clint gave Brielle a beautiful blessing! We have been so blessed with 3 wonderful kids. It is special moments like these that I sit back and am so thankful for all we have!

A protective brother and other random pictures

Keeping a watchful eye over his sister

Trail's idea of canning pears (don't we wish it were that easy?)


Trail happily canning! We did tons of canning, it has been my stress relief and super rewarding!

Brinley on her 1st day of Preschool

Our precious Brielle with her brother close by

Three kids sleeping on the couch = PRICELESS

Our 1st Day back to church (wow 3 kids, I still can't believe it sometimes)

With three kids there aren't too many dull moments, hence the not blogging for a while. The adjustment hasn't been easy, it is a struggle to find balance and time for myself. I find myself getting frustrated and then something will happen to make me laugh. The other day it seemed like I had been after the kids all day, cleaning up mess after mess that my mischevious 2 year old was making. Trail and I were in the bathroom and all of a sudden the bath toys spilled out of the container onto the floor spilling water everywhere. I said, "O Man" and Trail busted up laughing. If you haven't heard him laugh it can be very contagious. So we sat on the floor and laughed together. Laughter is the best medicine, it physically lightened my load! So my advice to any tired, down trodden Mom - find something to laugh about!

Grandma's love pictures....

Grandma was begging for some updated pictures of Brielle, so this is for you Mom!!! I heard the kids laughing the other day and went to see what they were up to, I went in to find Brinley "making Trail's hair handsome" by putting shampoo in his hair, but it also got all over the floor of the tub and they were sliding all over the place. Listening to my kids laugh is one of my favorite things! We laughed and they got an early bath that day! Brielle has been so fun! She has been such a good baby and doesn't complain too much when she is mauled by Brinley and Trail. Life with 3 kids is an adjustment, but I am enjoying our little ones!

Our Heritage

Not long after Brielle was born, Clint's Grandma Denton passed away. She was an amazing woman. She always told Clint not to mourn when she passed away because she would be with her husband. She left a heritage of hard work and faith. She was one of the most optimistic people I have ever met. She had 11 kids, 43 grandkids and Brielle made 60 great

grandchildren, but whenever you talked to her she was so excited and happy to hear what was going on in your life. She showed so much interest in our lives! We are so thankful for her example! Although it wasn't the best of circumstances it is always good to be surrounded by family. She left quite a posterity behind!

Some explanation-(All of the people trying to get the great grandkids to smile scared Trail - hence I was in all of the pictures too. And for my own peace of mind, no I was not pregnant in the pictures but Brielle was only a week and a half old. Someone asked me once if your belly goes down right when they are born. Don't we all wish that was true????)