so much family, so much chaos, so much fun!

So Hank's sister whose name is also Leah lives in England with her husband and two kids. Well they have arrived for a MONTH LONG VISIT! A few days after their arrival the entire Florence family clan came down to California. Hank has 5 other siblings, so between the spouses and grandkids it has been a crazy full week! My pictures are all unorganized so bare with me.


This is the whole family, spouses, grand kids and all.


Here is a picture of just the parents and siblings.


Sam was uncertain about having so many people around at first...


...but warmed up to the idea after meeting all his cousins.


One of our activities was the Ventura County Fair! This year I submitted some scrap booking pages and got honorable mention! I thought that was pretty cool.


Man these pictures are all over. We also went to Disneyland!!!!!!!! I am with my sister-in-law Heather and my niece Alicey (which is Alice in Portuguese...cute uh?)


This gets the picture of the year award. We were blowing bubbles outside and I think Sam thought we were playing pirates or something...hehe...


This is cool...we had a big birthday party for all the grand kids because it's so usual for them to be all together. It was a huge success.



Sam and I were very serious about the party.


So basically my sister-in-law Heather is the most talented person. She made all the boy cousins this outfit and all the girls a dress. She also made incredible gifts for the birthday party including hair bows and bath towels. She is so cool.


Sam is chillin at the pool with Auntie Leah. He loves Aunt Leah, she can made him laugh hysterically. I need to get a video of that one of these days.


Disneyland again. Leah's daughter Katya got picked to be in the Jedi training show. That made the show a hundred times more enjoyable. Katya was tiny tiny. I am so excited for when Sam is old enough.


This picture was taken right before we left the park. It was really late and we were really tired. Hank put Sam in the stuffed animals and told me he found a toy I would like. I know it is silly, but I can't tell you how funny we thought that was...it was really late.


So on Saturday we had even more family come over. Marty's (Hank's mom) side of the family came over with all their kids, kid's spouses and grand kids. This is a picture of Pa (Marty's dad) with his grandchildren. Sam fell asleep the minute after this picture was taken...poor little tike.


Heather making Sam laugh. Hank's family has really got a nack for that.

So a few of the family members have left but some have stayed, so the fun hasn't ended yet...more to come!

Looking back over the last 5 years

Hank and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on July 31st. That's what our Disneyland extravaganza was all about. I love my husband so much and we've had a wonderful 5 years! I really do feel like the luckiest woman in the whole world.


Here we are on our wedding day July 31, 2004. I was 19 and he was 21. A lot of people were concerned because we were so young, but when it's right it's right.


A year later, after a year at BYU we moved back to California for the summer to work at a day camp. Hank's beard began...I made him shave it eventually. I wasn't yet used to Hank's changing hair styles.



We found outselves back in California in year two after spending 10 months in China teaching English. My hair short because of a crazy haircut I got in China.


I couldn't resist...look how skinny Hank is! He lost 30 pounds in China. He says he doesn't want to know why he was so skinny, he must have been sick or something.


Now we are back into the swing of things. Another year of school under our belt and we are visiting California (notice that's where I take all my pictures...I really love it here).


This is last year, we had our anniversary dinner at the bombay house in Provo. I was pregnant in this picture and didn't know it yet, little did I know what awaited me.


And that brings us up to date! I remember waiting to get married and thinking about what it would be like after we were married for 5 years. I thought that that was too far away and it would never happen. I was hoping to have a baby by then, to have traveled and to be done with school. I got all my wishes! But even if I didn't, I married the perfect man for me and life would be wonderful still. How have I been so blessed?