Low Key Birthday

If you remember from my post last year, Dave does not like celebrating his birthday.  Last year I gave in and didn't force him to celebrate at all other than allowing his son to give him a gift.  This year, I decided that we could still respect his wishes by doing something small.  So, I made a small cake, got him some small gifts from myself and the boys, and basically we all just relaxed and laid low all day long.  Dave appreciated it, Jack didn't realize that we did anything less for daddy than we usually do for someone's birthday, and Sam... didn't know anything out of the ordinary was going on.  It was a great day!

Jack enjoyed the cake!  Don't ask me how he got it all over his face, though!

Happy 31st, my love!!!

Sam Aspires...

To be just like his big brother.

Jack has known how to work Youtube since we first introduced him to it when he was just over 2, and he adores watching train movies on mommy's (or daddy's) computer.  And, as it turns out, Sam adores it, too!  I'm actually surprised that Sam's first word wasn't "Choo choo!"

 

The Return Of The...

...Christmas Train!!!

With another little boy to enjoy it this year!

On the day after Thanksgiving, Jack was so excited to hear that we were going to put up the Christmas tree, and of course, the first thing he said was "And we need the Christmas Train, too!!!"

He had been waiting for it ever since we put it away last year and it definitely was one of the highlights of Christmas this year, just as it was in years past.  And as, I'm sure, it will be for many years to come!

 

Wordless Wednesday

(okay, a few words... my favorite part, besides the obvious boys-playing-together and Sam's-adorable-laughter, is at 0:56-1:00 when Sam spies me and Jack turns Sam's face back to himself to get him to pay attention!)

Being Thankful

This year we went to my mom's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with the usual crew (extended family on my mom's side).  This year has been amazing... I know that every year I always say that I have so much to be thankful for, but every year it is true!  And this year, we had a huge reason to be thankful...

This year was Sam's first Thanksgiving, and he definitely had a great one!  We were surrounded by family, and though he was a little (okay, a LOT) overwhelmed by the number of people that were there, he really enjoyed clinging to his mama and eating his first Thanksgiving dinner!  He was making the transition to table foods at that time and he did great eating bits of a few of the dishes in addition to the purees I had made for him.  

Jack had a blast, too!  Grandma had recently redone her scrapbooking room to turn it into a scrapbook/toy room and had also bought a new train track for her house... guess where Jack was the whole time!

Some more photos from that day:

Just before bedtime that night, Jack tripped and fell (no surprise there!) and ended up with his face on the tray of the easel.  He was okay, but he was sad so I gave in when he insisted that he needed a bandaid.  I tried very hard not to crack up at him when I saw where he wanted me to put the bandaid!  Doesn't he look so heartbreakingly hilarious?!

Don't worry, I was properly sympathetic and held off most of my giggles until after he had gone to bed!

 

Learning New Skills!

Sam had been scooting and rocking all over the place since he was 4 months old, but when he was 8 months old he added a new skill to his repertoire... crawling!!!  I was deeply amazed when he first started dragging himself across the room... having a mobile baby (or even one that moved at all!) was a totally new experience for me!  Dragging himself lasted for 2 days, and by the third day he was up crawling like a pro!  And, with his newfound skills I had another new experience... baby-proofing!  I never had to baby proof anything with Jack Jack, but Sam is interested in all the things he shouldn't be!  I am definitely enjoying this new experience.  It isn't easy, but it is so fun watching him explore!

Here is a video taken on day 2 of crawling... the "Grab and Drag" I call it.  I was actually trying to get a video of him rocking back and forth on his knees because he was laughing so hard while he was doing it, but he was more interested in getting to the camera!

And here is a video of the first day of actual crawling.  I was trying to get a video of the crawling, he was more interested in bouncing his butt to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Theme Song.

Both of my kids learned to pull themselves up before they learned to crawl... unfortunately I wasn't able to get a video of Sam pulling himself up when he started doing it.  I did happen to have the video camera handy once when I noticed that he was already up, though!  

Jack Ordered Me To Get The Camera...

... and take pictures of him giving Sam kisses.  Of course, I obliged him!  You don't have to ask me twice! 

He loves giving Sam kisses, and Sam loves to get kisses from him!

80 Years Of Love

This November my Grammy turned 80 years old, and we had a party for her!  We had such a great party, and it was so fun to see the nearly 200 people show up to celebrate 80 years of Grammy.  Here are a few pictures from that day

The birthday girl!

A closeup of the cake I made for the party

My cousin Daniel works in Louisiana on the rigs in the gulf... he had been gone for so long and he surprised everyone by coming home for the party!  As soon as he got off the boat he hopped on a plane- we were all happy to see him, but none more so than his mom (my Aunt Joanne) and Grammy!

Grammy and her 5 daughters and their husbands (we were missing Uncle Tom and his wife)

Grammy and most of her grandchildren

Grammy and most of her grandchildren and their spouses and kids

Grammy and my family

Me and my men

Grammy and my mom's boys

I have soooo many more pictures from this day... if you're interested in seeing them they are on facebook ;) 

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

It's a

Sammy

In

The

Tub!

(Believe it or not, he actually really hates baths!  The cleaning part, that is... he loves the playing-in-the-water part... and the getting-out part!)

(Mommy's note: The little swirl of hair in the front of his head is still there!  Squeeeeee!  I love that swirl!)