Sam Gets Very Intense...

... when he plays video games with Uncle Travis!

 

Basket-Case Baby

In February I finally came up with a solution to our shoes-all-over-the-fireplace problem... a shoe basket!  Unfortunately, Sam thought that it was called a Sam basket!

He is stinkin' adorable though, so he was forgiven ;) 

And a video of my adorable Sammy... he and Jack were playing "big shadow in my room", and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get a movie of Sam's finger action when he says "C'mere, mom!" I love love LOVE it when he does that!!!

 

January Nutshell

January was a fun month!  We didn't plan a lot of events, but we sure had fun in the day-to-day moments!  I excelled at just being present and not running and grabbing my camera every time something happened... as a matter of fact, looking through these pictures I can see that each timeI did grab my camera, it was only at Jack's request!  That is definitely one benefit of the effort I have been making- my boys have actually been asking me to take pictures of them rather than me begging them to smile for the camera!  Such a nice change ;)

My first batch of pictures are a lesson: why I shouldn't give a blue fruit-by-the-foot to a one-year-old! Jack cracked up when he saw Sam and begged me to take pictures of it- Sam laughed when he saw the pictures, too!

 

Another day I was in Sam's room putting away laundry when Jack started laughing and yelling "Mom, come look at what Sammy's doing!  Mom, take a picture!"  Sam had pulled out one of the toy bins and crawled backwards into the cubby!  When I asked him what he was doing he announced, "I a toy, momma!"

And finally, this January my boys developed an obsession with "helmets" and pretending to be spacemen and "asternaunts" while they were wearing their "helmets".  Every time they put these buckets on their heads Dave and I would laugh at them, and they thought that they were so creatively silly that Jack insisted that I take a picture of them!

I just adore how well the boys play together!  Jack is such a good, patient and gentle big brother, and Sam will pretty much do whatever Jack wants, so they get along pretty well!  I know I always stress how great of a big brother Jack is, but Sam is a pretty great little brother, too ;) 

And last but certainly not least, a video!  Just a random video of Sam singing happy birthday and of Jack giving a tour of his "underwear helicopter", but it's pretty cute if you ask me!

 

December, Part Three

Christmas Eve: Per our tradition, the boys opened up new jammies on Christmas Eve, set out cookies that we had made along with a mug of milk for Santa (which Santa quickly, using his Christmas Magic, turned into peppermint Hot Chocolate as soon as the boys went to bed), and posed for a photo in front of the tree.

Then they went to bed and mommy stayed up to capture the Christmas magic and to take pictures of her newest treasured ornaments as well as the boys' favorite-of-the-year ornament.

 

It didn't seem like it took very long for morning to come, but it seemed to take for.e.ver for daddy to get home from work on Christmas morning!!!  Once he was home, Christmas was finally able to begin- and the boys wasted no time passing out the gifts they had "bought" and working their way through the gifts that we had given them.  Among their favorite was boxes of Cars and Toy Story fruit snacks from Santa, and a towel-backpack that mommy made for each of them!

 

 

After our family Christmas, the boys chilled out while Dave and I got ready to go to my parents' for more Christmas!  And what held their attention so well while we got ready?  Why, their new 10-disc DVD set of Trains: A Tour Across America, of course! (pic taken with my cell phone)

The second I walked into the house and grabbed Luke as he ran by me, I noticed that he was wearing a shirt that said "Big Brother"!  I was so excited, I was so excited that once again we got a Christmas pregnancy announcement from my sister and that I was going to be an auntie again!  Since then we've found out that she is expecting another boy, and I am thrilled that we are going to have four boys running around come mid-August!

 

 

 

 

After we were done at my mom's we headed over to my Aunt Sandra's house (of course!) for Christmas with the whole family!  We had such a great time, Jack played in the doorway with his cousins and grandma until Santa got there, and I was thrilled that once again Sam proved that he was growing up by not completely flipping out when I put him in the vicinity of a stranger... I guess Santa isn't that much of a stranger to him anymore?  Perhaps it was the gift that Santa was holding in his hands that made Sam brave.  He even climbed up onto Santa's lap himself when his name was called for a second time!  Luke just couldn't stop staring at Santa and made it clear that he wanted to get off his lap as soon as humanly possible, but he didn't freak out, either.  Unfortunately their baby cousins, Carys and Timmy, didn't get the memo that Santa isn't scary, but don't worry: once the were removed from the jolly man's lap they made quick recoveries.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Sam was thrilled by his gifts from Santa: Buzz and Woody!

And that's it for December and 2011!  I will end this with two pictures of how my boys spent most of New Year's Eve: