Sam

My Mom just scrapped these two pages on Samantha and I just had to post them here.  I LOVE this talent my mom's got, and feel so lucky to get to benefit from it!

Jan 2012

I'm going to try to do just a quick summary of the last two months to try and catchup (sort of...there are still chunks of months missing from the last few years..)

So here are some highlights from Jan 2012:

Samantha got "big girl underwear" and was potty trained within hours.  She had 3 accidents in the first hour and hasn't had another since.  (She still wears a diaper at night).  It was SO much easier than the boys and she was thrilled to be like "Gicah and Wahwa" (Micah and Noah).  She was super delighted with herself each time she went for days.  It just made her giggle.  Poor girl though, the smallest size they had at Walmart was 2T and obviously, those are still way too big for our skinny little lady!

Potty Power!

The kids have L-O-V-E-D the bikes they got from Santa for Christmas.  We take them to the park at least a few times a week and they just ride and ride and ride.  Samantha is actually pretty fast considering how small her bike is, but it is pretty funny (in a sort of sad kind of way) to watch her pedal her absolute fastest to try to stay with her brothers while they zoom on ahead of her.

Even Hanna likes to get in on the action at home.  The girls will both get on Sam's bike like this:

and I will push them around (and around, and around, and around).  They both LOVE it.  They have the cutest little relationship.  It is fun to watch it develop.  Oh and Sam has no pants on b/c this was still during on potty training week.  Noah is still in his jammies just b/c that happens on occasion around here....

Daddy had a movie night with all 4 kiddos while I was at a THRIVE party one Friday night.  They were so excited all day long they could barely contain themselves.  Even Hanna (who obviously didn't really "get" it) would squeal and clap anytime the kids excitedly talked about it during the day:

This adorable little baby lady had a birthday:

Isn't she the cutest?!?  I'm completely smitten with her!  My Mom and sister were here for her birthday, so that was fun.  Unfortunately, Micah and I also got a nasty stomach bug that day so we didn't end up doing much at all.  We don't ever get our 1 yr olds gifts as we figure it doesn't really matter to them and we'd rather spend the $$ on other important things.  But I still felt like her day just wasn't that special.  In fact, she even had her checkup that day and got 9 shots!  Poor, poor lady!  But I did write in her journal a day or two later.  She had cake and a bunch of fun balloons and Nanna got her this fun toy:

It took a bit for her to warm up to it, but she LOVES it now (as do all the other kids and their friends).  Thanks Nanna!

Just for purpose of having this in our family book someday, here is what I wrote in Hanna's journal for her 1st birthday:

1/24/12

My Sweet Hanna is 1 yr old.  I cannot believe how fast this year has gone.  My heart just aches to have you stay little.  You are still the happiest little baby around.  I don’t know anyone who likes to laugh more than you do.  You are always smiling or giggling or full on belly laughing.

You love to give hugs and kisses.  All the kids gave wet slobbery kisses at this age and so do you…over and over and over.  I LOVE it.  But  what I especially love and something that is unique to you is that you also give big bear hugs.  You can barely get your arms to even touch both of your Dad’s shoulders, but every day when he gets home from work, he picks you up and you wrap your arms around him as far as they will go and squeeze.  It is adorable.  Sometimes you will hug me for minutes at a time and not let go.

You are also quite the cuddler which is fortunate since you are the youngest and I don’t think I could ever get enough of it.  You love to lay your head down on my shoulder (if I’m standing) or my chest (if we are both laying down) and just snuggle up close.  Oh, it melts my heart.

You have started making funny faces latey…especially a few funny surprise faces that are just adorable.  I keep trying to catch them on camera, but you stop as soon as I pull it out.  I sure hope I get one before you stop doing it b/c it is the most adorable thing ever.

You started walking over Thanksgiving break.  SO SO early!  Way TOO early!  I would have been fine if you’d taken another year…I just want to keep you as little as possible as long as possible, but now you are really starting seem a bit more like a little girl. (but you still don’t have any teeth, so you still look like a little baby) For quite a few days, you could just take 4-5 steps and then fall.  But one night a few days after we got back from Utah for Thanksgiving, something just clicked.  You just kept walking around and around in circles in the living room giggling in excitement that you had finally figured it out.

You LOVE to climb stairs.  We have a gate at the bottom of our stairs (you’ve fallen down them once) and anytime it gets left open you drop (literally) whatever you are doing and RUN to the stairs as fast as your cubby little legs will go.  Once you start climbing you can barely make it up b/c you are so “drunk” from giggling so hard thinking you are getting away with something…it is hilarious.

Another thing you are LOVING since you’ve started walking is being allowed to go in the backyard with your siblings.  When you were just crawling, I wouldn’t let you go very often b/c I didn’t want you crawling around in all the dirt.  So, you would just sit at the screen door and watch them play.  SO SAD!  But now that you are walking, I will let you go out there with them.  You just walk all around giggling with delight that you are now part of the “big kid” crowd.  I can hardly watch as you walk in circles and the kids all dodge you on their bikes.  There have been quite a few close calls and even a few bumps and bruises, but back out you go the next time!

You LOVE to throw all your food on the floor.  We always give you a plate, but you promptly dump in on the table and then spread it all over and then pick it up one by one and drop it on the floor while laughing.  Probably doesn’t help that the other kids think it is hilarious…you certainly are a crowd pleaser!

Oh sweet Hanna.  I want to capture every single moment with you in the memories of my being.  I’m not even sure how to describe it, but I want to remember how it feels to hold you when you throw you head back so I can “drop” you ( a game we play) or what your toothless smile looks like when I come get you after a nap and how loved and deeply appreciate it make me feel to see you so wholly excited when I walk in  the room.  I don’t want these days to end.  I love you dearly…so so very dearly.

Christmas Pictures

Still behind...but here are a few pictures from this Christmas season:

We had an advent calendar (courtesy of my mother) for the first time this year (should have been included in the traditions I listed last week...) and each day had a little slip of paper with something simple and fun to do.  The kids LOVED it and looked forward to it each day.  We opened them after dinner each night and got to do lots of fun stuff:

Drinking Hot Chocolate with candy canes:

 

Coloring Christmas Pictures:

We even got to go visit Santa one night:

No, we didn't pay the $20 bucks to get a picture with him, so this is the kids in line:

We had a "polar express party" with the boy's joyschool group and Samantha got to come since it was at our house:

We made treats for those same joyschool friends:

We played lots of Wii with Granna:

ate dinner at In & Out on Christmas Eve:

We acted out Luke 2.  Noah was SUPER sweet!  He kept putting his arm around "Mary" trying to help her and saying things like "It will be okay, I love you."  Micah is a king.  That is the only crown we had!  And Samantha wanted a real baby (Hanna) in her tummy at first, so that was the best we could do and made her quite happy!

There were other things that we didn't get pictures of....always true I guess.  It was a really fun month / / week.   I will try to post Christmas morning next week!  (-:

Merry Christmas Nanna!

This was our gift to my Mom this year. The music and lyrics were written by an incredibly talented friend of mine. Once she'd written the song, she spent 3 hours with my kids recording it and then hours more editing it. Her talent is AMAZING. My kiddos can't really sing, but she has this method of getting things "just right." I added the pictures to the music for a slideshow. It is now my kids favorite song to listen to and I'm loving the memories. So is my Mom! If you are in So Cal & are interested in having one made let me know and I will put you in touch with my friend. Oh, and Samantha's last line is "I love you to the moon!"

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Stir Crazy

We have all been going a bit stir crazy around here. We've had sickies for over 2 weeks, and I tell you, sometimes I think I might go nuts. Cory asked me today, "When did our kids all become brats?" I laughed....that's what you get when you spoil them silly b/c they are sick. I slept in Samantha's bed for three nights and responded every time she whimpered and she got to eat all the ice cream she wanted. Oh, and did I mention I think we've watched every movie we own?

Anyway, Sam's temp finally broke on Thursday of last week so I decided everyone should go out back to play. We've been living in our jammies (I told you...spoiled!), so I just let them go out without changing, but made them put their shoes on. Samantha insisted on her frog boots and a few minutes later, I found her like this:


Glad no one came to visit at that moment!

Halloween Day

Sam had a temp of 103, but was so so sadden by the idea of being left behind that we let her go. We made her stay in the stroller the whole time though so she didn't get close to any other kiddos. She only made it for about 15-20 min. and then asked to go to bed.

On the way out the door:



The beginning of the neighborhood parade:

The very first candy stop:
Right before we split up (I took Sam to about 3 houses and Cory went ahead (much faster) with the boys. Gotta love the boot Tinkerbell insisted on:
The loot:

Halloween Festivities so far.

I LOVE FALL!  I love the cooler weather, the leaves, the soups and hot cocoa.  I especially love all the traditions.  This fall has been the best b/c the boys are finally old enough to remember some of the things we did last year and our little family's traditions are starting!  I'm LOVING it!  They remembered that last year we made ghosts out of milk cartons and asked to do it again this year.  So we did:

They remembered that we decorated our door for Halloween last year as well and want to do it again, so we did that as well:

The girls

I'm sure this is true of most moms, but most of the pictures of my kids do not have me in then b/c I'm behind the camera.  This really makes me a bit sad as I want my kids to have pictures of me interacting with, loving and playing with them.  Today I was "resting" on the couch after church.  As is typical, Sam and Hanna both wanted to join me and we snuggled for a bit.  Only this time, I asked Cory to snap a picture.  Sorry you are naked Hanna, but you just can't eat dinner any other way!

I absolutely love being the mother of these two precious girls.  They are pure joy.  Their relationship is adorable.  They can't get enough of each other.  Their affection really does go both ways.  They are both such happy, fun, smiley, stubborn girls.  I adore them.

We Shaved Her Head

Sam

Family Pictures.

We recently had family pictures taken by Kim and Corey Nasfell.  We are thrilled with the job they did.  If you are looking for someone here locally, we highly recommend them.  You can see all our favorite pictures on facebook.  I've been hoping to scrap them all soon, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Well, my Mom has started scrapping them and she does a MUCH better job then I could ever hope to.  She done Samantha's and I'm hoping (hint hint) that she'll do the rest.  For now, just enjoy these cute pictures of our adorable, spunky little Sam:

Easter Fun

So, I haven't blogged about Christmas, Thanksgiving or the 4th of July (yes, 4th of July 2010), so I thought I'd better get our Easter post down right away or I'd never get to it either. I love Easter. It rivals Christmas for me.  So, we had a fun week:

Today we made resurrection rolls and talk about what Easter actually means. We also had a ham and cheesy potatoes dinner, but I forgot to take pictures of any of it. They boys enjoyed the rolls though. They thought it was fun that the marshmallows disappeared, but I'm not quite sure they made the connection to Christ being resurrected. We read a few scriptures about it, but Micah's only comment was: Well Mom, marshmallows can't be resurrected, only people can b/c Jesus was a people!

Here is what cute Hanna did during all the activities: