Merry Christmas....A Little Belated

My intention and promise to multiple family members was to get this post out only a few days after Christmas, but as you can see between cleaning up from an amazing Christmas and hanging out with a mobile toddler it hasn't gotten done. Christmas this year was great, it was all about Samuel, just the way it should be. I had been really worried that Samuel would get jipped on either his birthday or Christmas but it was the exact opposite. My mother, and Ben's parents were able to be with us for Christmas and made the holiday even more special. They love Samuel so much, Ben and I just love watching them play with him all day, we are truly blessed to have such an amazing family (not to mention it lets us go out on dates and not have to pay anyone!!) We weren't sure how Sam would do with a Christmas tree so we made it pretty basic this year and for about 80% of the time it was up he never touched it, but when he figured out he could take the things off and use them as swords, toys, or things to hit his dogs with he loved it!! These are a few pics of the sneaky little man.

That face has "I think I'm pretty sneaky" written all over it

Someone is pretty proud of themselves!

One of the residents in our sub-division offered to dress up as Santa Claus for all of the kids and allow families to come to the club house and take pictures. Ben and I had said we weren't going to take him this year since he didn't really get it and he has a fear of men (most men.) But we decided to try it figuring their would be no line and right outside our front door. WOW, was it a bad decision. The minute we handed Samuel to him, he began screaming and throwing his arms around, but as Ben says its a memory we will never forget. We hope next year goes a little bit better.

This is actually a good moment in the few he let Santa hold him.

Looks a little better with mom, but what you can't see is his other arm wrapped around my arm like he is holding on for dear life!

We tried to do a family picture but everyone he is looking at Santa, like what are you trying to do to me and my family!

Everyone told us that the wrapping, tissue and peanuts would be the big focus this year and it definitely was, but I wish someone would have told us to invest in V-tech and Fisher Price as Samuel now has almost every toy they make for his age. Its crazy how many different toys and stimulation activities they have for a 1 year old. We decided to put a bunch of them away and take them out mid-year, so he can have "new" stuff once he has exhausted himself with these toys. Dancing Mickey was the biggest hit of the holiday, eventually. When we opened the box he was really scared and started crying, but after he sang a few songs and everyone was dancing he joined right in. It is so fun to watch him do knee bends and shake his body just like Mickey.

As you flip through these on the camera you can almost remake his dance, it is so funny.

This is a recent picture, now that he has practice he also tries to talk like Mickey.

Climbing and sitting on the presents was one of his favorite things to do, it was really cute.

Sam with tissue paper, he loves the sound it makes when it crinkles.

The other big gift for Samuel 2 days before Christmas was the birth of what we imagine will be his BFF as he grows up. Wes Williams was born on December 23rd. He is so adorable, and already has similarities to Sam he is a big boy weighing in at 9lbs 15oz. Ben and I also got a pretty amazing Christmas gift, we were asked to be Wes's Godparents, and we are thrilled beyond belief (but are they sure they know what they got Wes into?) Congrats Mallory and Dwight ya did good!!

We hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday with family, and hope that 2011 is even better than 2010.

1 Year Old

Samuel Joseph turned ONE!

Sam turned one last Tuesday and it was a perfect day. I couldn't believe how great everything turned out. Phone calls for Samuel started at 7am, and all of our family (minus Grandpa Denny) were here to celebrate with Samuel as well as some good friends of ours. It was such an amazing feeling seeing all the people that love Samuel so much gathered together to celebrate him. The last year has been the best for Ben and I, we couldn't have imagined such an amazing little guy. This guy is always so happy, smiley and giggly. Samuel woke up on his birthday to a fully birthday decorated house, and it was too cute to see him pull down one of the signs and carry it around with him all morning. Here is the 1st thing I saw on birthday morning and then eating his Cherrio's while I made his birthday breakfast!

Everyone got to town around 2pm which was great since Samuel decided to take a 2.5 hour morning nap (I think he knew he needed to rest up for his big day) Samuel was so excited to have everyone around he was showing off his latest tricks (talking---yes it is happening, dog is our favorite.) But when it came to blowing out his candles and eating his cake he wasn't so sure what to do and why everyone was starring at him. He tried the cake but after much coaxing by Ben and I. He didn't seem interested in the cake, and more funny he didn't seem to want to get messy which is not like his usual eating behavior. Once dad gave him a taste he loved it, but if he had to choose I bet he would still prefer his bubblegum Amoxicillin.

After dinner we opened presents and Sam seemed semi-interested, and started to yawn and get tired, but once some of his toys popped out he got a second wind. Samuel is usually a very predictable kid when it comes to bedtime, but not on his birthday he could have stayed up all night playing with all of his new toys. He was so excited, he would move from one to the next every few seconds and loved them all. This kid was spoiled, definitely the 1st grandchild for everyone. This celebration also put to rest my worries of Samuel getting jipped because his birthday is so close to Christmas.

It was an amazing day that capped off an amazing year, and I asked all of our friends and family to write a little note to Samuel that he could look at when he was older (cheesy yes, but important to me) and they were better than I could have imagined. Samuel is very lucky to have such great people in his life, even thought truth be told I think we are all the lucky ones to be a part of this cute little toddlers world!

Samuel with Jiji and Papster

Samuel's favorite part of the gifts were the tissue!

Samuel is clapping for the Walmart man, thanks Aunt Katie for teaching him well!

Samuel clapping at himself for figuring out what to do with his cake

Samuel with his Grandma

Samuel with his Nana and Papa

Starting Early

Each day Samuel is learning new and fun things in his great big world, but truth be told every day is a new learning day for Mom and Dad too. Ben and I have talked about how we would parent Sam, teach him things and discipline him, but really we are just going at it blind with the help of family, friends and MANY, MANY books. So Ben and I have been really excited to see Sam initiating good hygiene all on his own. Sam now at night seems to walk towards the bathroom in the evening knowing it is time to take his bath. He even seems to have an entire routine down when he gets in the bath it is great to watch. He now takes his toys and lifts them up and over the bar until they fall through and he does it over and over. He laughs every time he accomplishes it and Ben and I smile even bigger. We may also be seeing a little basketball star in the making.

Samuel has also taken to brushing his teeth. About a month ago we decided to buy Sam his own toothbrush (again mom and dad are learning we probably should have done this 5 months ago) since he enjoyed using ours all the time. But now in the morning and at night we give him his toothbrush and he puts it in his mouth and moves it around. Probably not really brushing but its a great start.

The last fun thing Sam can't live without these days is throwing the ball up and down the stairs and then sitting on a stair and bouncing up and down while the ball goes bouncing away from him, it is so fun to see our little man growing into his own, developing a personality and have such an enjoyment for the simple things.

Today marks 7 days until Sam's 1st birthday and we can't believe how blessed our life has become with him in it. I knew becoming a parent would bring with it millions of new experiences, but I never imagined how great it could be. All of my friends that told me to wait to see how it would change me, and that I will not be able to put it in words how I would feel and the love you can have for one person were so right.

Sam picked out his 1st Christmas tree this year, and thankfully he hasn't touched it since.

So Thankful

Where has time gone. I have meant to update this blog so many times, but haven't had enough time to sit down a put all of our great adventures down on paper (or blog.) We had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday and were able to enjoy it with all of our family. This year more than ever we are thankful for our family and feel so blessed to have Samuel as the newest addition to our family. We started our adventure in Iowa with my father and Soon and enjoyed our first ice storm of the year and Samuel's 1st Thanksgiving.

Samuel was Papa's helper for Thanksgiving. He is a great taste tester!

Samuel met Papa and Nana's puppies and he loved how small they were. He even tried to pick them up.

We then made our way to Sioux Falls to have our 2nd Thanksgiving with my Mother and Denny's family. By this point in the day Samuel our mobile man was a little tired of being strapped in all day and force fed pounds of food every 3 hours. It was fun to see him try so many new foods on one day, and in typical Sam style he loved it all!

We were able to have some good family time, another play date, and Samuel and I met a good friends new baby girl Alex, she is adorable. Samuel rode around with his buddy Rylan while I just held Alex she is so precious. Sam then got to meet Brynn another potential wife for Sam and he seemed very smitten. It was a great day of meeting new friends.

Samuel and Rylan riding his truck

Samuel with Brynn and Isaac and then the kids with Sarah, Maggie and I.

Then on Saturday we went to Omaha for our final Thanksgiving with Ben's family. Samuel got his first interaction with a cat and seemed very intrigued until it batted him away, I think we will stick with dogs for now. Samuel got to spend time with his Aunt Jessie and he had tons of fun.

It was a great holiday weekend, and Sam was a trooper on our 15 hour journey.

Sam is doing really great, he is walking around and we think he may grow up to be a track star because his favorite thing to do is laps around the house. Every house we go to or even when we are at home he makes laps around the furniture, over and over its really cute. No words yet, but he loves his babbling, and I am working really hard, but every time I try Sam just laughs at me. Samuel's 1st birthday is in 2 weeks and we can't believe he is going to turn one, where has all of the time gone. While I am so excited to see him grow up, I would love the little man to stay just the way he is right now. We hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving, and feel blessed for having every person in our lives.

Sam was a big help cleaning all of our clothes after our long trip!!

Kids Galore

Weddings and Babies, made for a great visit back to Sioux Falls last weekend. On Friday we were able to help a friend celebrate her wedding to a great guy. She was so happy, and we had a great time singing karaoke from our 26 page music book led by her father.

Then on Saturday Sam and I got to join some of my girlfriends from high school and their little kiddo's over at the Oliver household. Needless to say having 9 kids at 4 and under was a hoot. Between the 9 Babies we had crawlers, scooters, walkers and runners and almost one that rolled over for is. It was great to see how much fun they had together and how the older ones helped the little ones and that the little ones were amazed at the things the big kids could do. Isaac's house has tons of toys, to definitely entertain all 9 kids for hours but just like they predicted there was one or two hot toys that EVERYONE wanted even though it wasn't necessarily the coolest toy. The first was the little orange and yellow car and as you can see from a few pictures even if someone was in there someone else tried to join.

And the second was a V-tech helicopter. It sat in the room for most of the afternoon and then once someone found it they all wanted it.

And the coolest mom award went to Karla that has twin girls, she brought all the good treats that all the kids wanted. All together it was crazy chaos and great fun. Next time we should have two new additions joining us!

Isaac entertaining Sam with a puppet bee. He loved it.

Isaac and Ella with one of our youngest baby Josie Johns. Such a sweet little girl.

And last, but not least Sam got to have a family dinner and hang out with his cousins. Sam loved watching them and after a while he tried to jump in even though he had no idea what he was doing, but what was so sweet was that the boys kept asking Sam to come play with them and tried to help him race cars with them it was really cute. Addie, was lest found of Sam because she is no longer the baby in the family, so we now tell her she is the baby girl and that makes her happy. It was a great family night!

Sam's cousin Adam protecting him from the jumping toys.

Sam's cousin Aidan. He took Sam wherever he went, he definitely wants a little brother.

All the kids with Grandma, she is in Heaven.

Some other fun family pictures.

Sam making car sounds as he pushes them all over the floor.

Sam with his Aunt Amy. Petting grandma's pugs.

We had a great weekend and really made me sad that we don't live closer to friends and family, but luckily we are headed back up North on Tuesday to see all of them again.

Finally, we want to congratulate Aunt Gina on her and Bob's engagement this week, we are so happy for them!