A Little Outing

Christmas vacation is nice.  Even though I've had to work way more than I would like, it is wonderful to have Brian at home.  These photos are from last Friday when we took a little trip to the library (and found a second Pete the Cat book!  Yay!) and to Famous Footwear...which is right next to Big Lots, where they had these funny little chairs. 

Funny Sam

This kid just totally makes my day. 

Christmas Babe

When I walked in the door, after work, on Sunday evening, I found Sam wrapped in "swaddling cloths." 

Merry Christmas!

Baking Cookies

Last Saturday = Cookie Baking Day.  As always, it was great to spend time with some of my most favorite people in the world.  Amber mixed us up some yummy drinks, Amy taught us a really fun game and a good time was had by all.  Also, we made some cookies.  By some, I mean many.  It was a lovely way to spend my day. 

Stars

I went to a hockey game with Holly, Jodi and Megan last Friday to help celebrate Holly's birthday.  While we were there, we also had the pleasure of seeing our friend Gina.  Yay!  It was a fun and happy evening - even if we did get yelled at to sit down while the puck was in play. 

It’s Sam’s 10 Month Birthday!

 At 10 months, Sam: 

*is army crawling!  It started out as kind of an inchworm type of move, but is slowly becoming more of an official army crawl.

*has a knack for finding tiny little bits of things on the floor and putting them in his mouth.  (I guess that means that its time for us to do a better job of using our vacuum.)

*loves Mabel.  He smiles and squeals when he sees her.  He will occasionally give her pets, but more often just smiles at her.

*still really enjoys going for walks.

*likes his book time.  Current favorites include Pete the Cat - Rocking in My School Shoes, What is a Dog? and Little Blue Truck. Pete the Cat is definitely winning the favorites contest, though.

*loves it when we hold him and dance around the house.  We have been listening to a lot of Christmas music, lately.  We also like to dance to Davy Jones singing "Your Personal Penguin."

*is very interested in the computer.

*will eat anything that we offer and really likes to feed himself Cheerios and veggie straws.

*likes banging on the piano, splashing in the tub and playing peek-a-boo.

*really likes to be out and about.  He seems to totally enjoy himself at the store, church, library, etc. He is quite content to sit back and observe the world around him.  Being out on the town gives him a lot of opportunity to check out new people and places. 

*is loved!

Entryway

When we were looking through floor plans for our house, one of the things that I really wanted was an entryway.  It bothers me that so many houses don't have an entryway and the front door instead opens right into the living room.  

I enjoy this space (and the wonderful storage space of the dresser and coat rack) year round, but I like it best at Christmas time.  I love our nativity set (thanks Colleen!) and the backdrop for it and having a place to keep all of the holiday photos and cards that we receive and now a place for our stockings.  Aren't they pretty?  I bought them from this etsy shop and they are a really pretty teal color that, for the life of me, I can not photograph.  They look much more blue in the photos than what they look like in real life.    

Rockin the Plaid

Around the Neighborhood

Gifts

The Schilowsky's and the Dohmen's (minus Ann) came over for some chili and monkey bread on Monday night.  Each of the girls brought us/Sam a little gift.  Ava brought a book about Pete the Cat who rocks in his school shoes (not to be confused with Peet the Dog who also rocks in his school shoes), Addison brought us a Christmas card that she made and Jenna brought coupons for her babysitting business.  

Sam had a great time listening to Ava read him the book that she brought and then playing with all the girls.  They made a house out of a big cardboard box and the "UPS man" (also known as brooke) brought them a "Cabbage Patch Doll" (also known as Sam) who loved snuggling up with them in their house.  

Sam and Friends

We have had a lot of company over the past ten days.  Ken and Colleen stayed with us November 30 and December 1st.  They were kind enough to help us deal with broken car issues and also stayed with Sam on Saturday while I had to work and Brian coached a basketball tournament.  Dad and Connie stayed with us the night of the 5th before they headed to Seattle the next morning to see a couple of my favorite people.  Mom and Dave arrived on the 6th and spent that night and the night of the 8th with us.  We don't get to see them again until February, so we had some early Christmas celebrations with them.  

Sammer has enjoyed spending so much time with his Grandmas and Grandpas.  He also managed to get some lovey time with Ann, Jason, Ava, Michelle and Jenna while Ken and Colleen were here.  

And tonight the fun continues as we are having dinner with Michelle, Justin, Jenna, Addison, Ann, Jason and Ava.  Yay for family! 

Happy Face

Our Samwise is generally a content and happy little guy, but we rarely capture his smiles with the camera.  Also, he is an awesome night time sleeper, but we rarely get him to sleep more than an hour and a half or two hours throughout the daytime. 

On Tuesday, he took his usual thirty minute morning nap and then followed it with a three hour afternoon nap!  Right after nap time, we decided it was snack time and Sam felt like hamming it up between bites.  

I love these pictures and love that you can see the little boy that he is becoming....great personality, and all. 

Knock It Down!

This video (from a few months ago) totally cracks me up.  Jenna and Ava built a tower with plastic cups and then told Sam to "knock it down."  For some reason, he thought that was hilarious. 

Fingers and Toes

Sam likes to roll around on our bed after I take his weekly photos.  I took these a few weeks ago.  He's such a funny little thing and I love all of his little bits.  ...think I'm in love with him all over again. 

Words With Jenna

This is how Jenna and I play Scrabble:  we play it the real way (without keeping score) and then she asks me if she can cheat and I tell her no and then I try to make a funny word because I know she will get a kick out of it and then we play some more and then she asks if she can cheat and I say yes and then we give up on the game entirely and just try to use up all of the tiles and make more funny words while we are at it.

Once all of that happens, we end up with words like birthdaysuit, peea, barenaked, gordy, poopgazi and foolc.  Poopgazi is my favorite. 

I like that girl.  

Thanksgiving 2012

We traveled to Kansas City, MO for Thanksgiving.  

The highlights:

• Sam enjoyed his first nights in a hotel.
• We all had a great time in the swimming pool.  
• We enjoyed the kind hospitality of Brian's aunt and cousins.  
• I really appreciated the traditional Thanksgiving slush (with lots of yummy vodka), since I didn't get to partake last year. 
• We stopped at a fabulous scrapbook store on our way home and I got lots of goodies to get me started on next year's Project Life book.
• We ate too much.
• It was great (as usual) to spend so much time with the fam. 

Red Robin

Sam and I had lunch at Red Robin with Michelle, Addison, Jenna and Ava, the day before Thanksgiving.  It is so fun to watch him light up when his cousins are around.

Also, thanks to Uncle Jason and Auntie Pril for the cute cloud bib that they bought for Sam while they were in Paris.  It goes so nicely with his eyes.  :) 

Decking the Halls

Our house has been Christmas-a-fied in the past few weeks.  Brian did an awesome job putting up the exterior lights and even managed to do most of it on the day before Thanksgiving, when it was still warm outside.  I love the fact that the holiday season provides a reason to rearrange the furniture and change out the decorations around the house.