First Snowman

It hasn't snowed much here this year, which is pretty good, except for when you have a little boy like we do that has been dying to make a snowman. Ever since around the holiday he has been asking us to make a snowman (they drew them at school) and he couldn't seem to understand why we were never able to make one.

Then we got our snow last week and as soon as I told him it snowed he jumped up and down and said snowman. We promised we would take him outside after dinner to make one, but before we even started eating his buddy Conner was in the backyard ready to go. So he ate quicker than we had ever seen and we went and built our 1st snowman. He loved it, it was a ton of fun and so great to see his excitement with each ball we made. I am glad we got a few photos right after we made the snowman, because not 4 hours after we finished building it, one of our wild/neighborhood animals came and tour him down!!

I have been horrible about writing about Sydney in these blogs and I am not sure if it is because there is so much going on with Samuel right now or just how few peeps she makes that I can't write about it. Sydney has been such an amazing little girl and so content while we chase around her brother! She is smiling all the time and has begun rolling over. This is her in her favorite chair, she loves pulling on the animals and hearing them play music.

Winter Gala

Samuel's school does a winter gala every year where each class gets to perform. They sent home invitations about 2 weeks before the event and Ben and I thought okay if were not busy we'll go but no big deal, BOY WERE WE WRONG!! We went and got there right on time and it was like Easter Sunday, no room anywhere in the church. We ended up getting a seat on the far right side, but being the crazy mom I am I went straight down in the middle and took pictures and video taped Sam.

Because Sam's birthday falls right around the holiday he actually got to perform with the toddler and two's room (one advantage of a Christmas birthday.) I can't begin to tell you how awesome this event was. Samuel was a "ham" and made everyone laugh. He got right up in front with the toddler room and sang and dance the entire time. In the two's room he was in the center of the back row in the video. I laughed so hard I was crying. We didn't get video of the 1st song which was the best, but here he is during his second song.

Samuel is the boy with the grey sweater and orange stripe in the middle.

Christmas post in February

I can't believe I am going to post pictures from Christmas in February. I really want to do it, since I want to be able to use this blog as a way to look at all the great things we have done over the years with the kids. I have thought about writing this entry over 100 times and something always seems to take priority, usually snuggling with miss Sydney or trying to run Sam to the bathroom (yes we have begun potty training!)

Right before Christmas we went to Bass Pro shop for the kids to take pictures with Santa. This place is AMAZING, and could have been an entire day for Samuel. He rode 4-wheelers, looked at fish, saw stuffed animals and then got to see Santa. Last year was a bit scary for him (we couldn't get him to sit on santa's lap) and so were unsure how this year would be but he was a champ. He loved it and went right up to Santa and sat on his lap (maybe because he had candy canes!) They took great pictures and both kids were really cute. Here is a few pics I took.

This Christmas was a great time. Samuel got really excited. We had Jiji and Papster and Nana and Papa here to join us for the holiday. We had a great holiday spending time with the kids and relaxing. It was crazy that on Christmas day Sam and Ben went out for a bike ride, I never thought I would be saying that. Samuel was really excited and after opening each present he would want to play with it immediately and stop opening presents it was really cute. Then after opening just a few presents he laid down on his new Cars - Mater blanket and looked at us and said night-night. We were shocked but it was really cute. So we opened up more presents on Christmas day and the day after. It really made it a true Christmas week. This year with so much changing the presents were great, but just being with family made us thankful. Each year things change (good and bad) but our friends and family have always been there for us. We feel truly blessed with our family and friends and just tried to soak up that time with all of them.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took during Christmas.