Say What?

Today Sam caught one of the many fuzzy catepillars around the house and brought it in to show Jessica.  He was so proud.

"Jessica, Do you want to see my catepillar?"  Without taking a breath, "His name is Sammy catepillar and he is so dramatic."

Sam hijacked my camera and took this picture of him holding the rock.  I'm not exactly sure how he did it.

I wish I could go back in time and film this moment.  It would make me laugh every time!

Doughnut Hair

"Doughnut hair with sprinkles" says Sam.

Sam is a free thinker.  He loves himself and sticks to his ideas.   For the past few months, Sam takes a bath and all he can talk about is Doughnut Hair.  Doughnut Hair is when he lays back in the tub and then sits up with the wet hair stick up in a spikey circle.  Yes folks, doughnut hair is "in."  When we went to get his hair cut, he asked for doughnut hair.  I love that kid! 

Super Fun Park = Visit Us

This is all Sam. 

A rare moment of the lion and the lamb.

I am so proud of Alex giving this a try.  I know it isn't his thing.  It is so fun to see cousins.

We have a different and fun park by our house.  Come over and we will play.  Even cousin Alex, too old to really enjoy it, had fun when I made him go with us.  I used to drive, drive, drive to the discovery park in PG, but this one, while not the same, is still really fun and alot closer for us.  I am serious for anyone who wants, I will make lunch and take you to the park.  All you have to do is drive over.  Although after the swimming post, you might be afraid to expose your kids to my naughty children :)

When the wife is away...

Last week the kids and I went to Jackson Hole.  Of course, Jake texts me the next day and says he bought something.  I am not surprised.  AND I actually know what it is before he tells me. It is some sort of little boat.  Something for the river.  Something that must be bought while I am away so he doesn't get the immediate eye roll.
It is a canoe.
Disclaimer: Some thought has been put into this.  KSL has been checked for weeks.  All sorts of boats have been looked at. 

It has already been used many times.  Jake and the kids love it.  I am sure I will like it too, when I go in it.  What is the best part is that we can walk it out the back gate, and into the water.  It can be paddled to the park just about a quarter mile away.  It reminds me a little of Alabama.  Would I liked to have known before hand about this purchase... maybe, but there have been much, much worse.

In our backyard

In our backyard we have birds, kids, snails, and snakes! 

And we love them ALL!

Itty Bitty Baseball

May was Itty Bitty Baseball for Isaac and Sam.  Isaac says baseball is his favorite sport.  They both loved hitting the ball and running the bases.  On the last day they get to play with the big parachute.  In January at Itty Bitty Basketball, Sam would not go in the parachute; then he made me go in with him.  This time I watched from above (per his instructions) and he acted like it was no big deal.  These boys are getting so so big.

First trip of the season... in the canyon

 Ants? No, Uncle (and cousins) on a log.

 Grace in her element.  The outdoors and the water.  Thanks for a warm April!

 Big Jake and little Jakey throwing rocks.

 Isaac loves smores, hold the chocolate.

 Josh and Heather took the kiddos on a little walk.  Thanks!

 Thomas would like to push this log in the river.  Keep trying buddy!

We had a lovely family barbecue up AF canyon at the end of April. It was such a busy month I almost forgot to post it.  We missed Kelby and the new baby and Tom and Ruth, but everyone else in the area was there!  I am looking forward to some more smores.

Silly Sammy

Sam is great, and what is really great is he thinks he is great!  (He might have my self esteem.)  He doesn't need to follow the crowd.  He is happy being him.  Sometimes this can be tricky because he is unlikely to be convinced otherwise when he thinks one way.  This may sound familiar...  Anyway, he got an idea in his head at bed time one night.  He came down and said, "Underwear is fun to wear.  It is fun to wear your underwear."  (Jake may have said this before.)  Sam thought he was sooooo funny.  He was so proud of himself. 

Say What?

Bedtime happened as it usually does.  Jake puts the boys to bed and I do Grace's reading with her.  Then she goes to bed.  After I put Grace to bed, I folded a load of laundry.  Then the boys came down.  Water, a piece of celery, and then I sent them back up to bed.  Sam asked if I would come and read him a book.  Dismissively, I told him after I cleaned up the dishes.  I worked on wiping the counters, throwing the dishes in the dishwasher, and just as I was about to start the pots and pans, I stopped.  Sam is getting bigger and bigger everyday.  He is not a baby.  He is not a toddler.  There will come a day when he might not want me to read to him.  I better soak up every minute while I can. 
In the middle of book two, the boys decided they wanted to "read"  the book too.  So I said the words and then they took turns repeating the words.  Isaac can do "a" or "I" by himself.  They were doing well taking turns when Isaac had to go to the bathroom so we waited for him.  While we were waiting, Sam decided to read the book ALL by himself.
(Picture a dog and boy sitting in the grass.)
It went like this, "The boy loves his puppy.  The puppy loves the boy.  The boy loves his daddy and momma, and sister, and other boy.  They smell something.  It's a barbecue.  It's..... chicken!"  At this point, I burst out laughing ending the commentary.   I'm glad I left the dishes in the sink to spend a moment with some of my favorite people. Why is that such a hard choice sometimes?

Allie the Athlete

Allison ran the Thanksgiving point half marathon on Saturday.  Go Allie.  Sam and I ran from the car to the finish line to cheer for her.  She is an inspiriation.  Behind my fat smile, I am thinking, I need to get myself to the gym.  I went today.  I hurt.  I am going to run one at the end of the summer.  Feel free to join me.  It feels so good to accomplish something and be in shape!  Thanks Allie for your good example... always.
Side note:  James, Marmee and Papa were  running the Kentucky Derby marathon this same day.  Go Runners!  My dad ran it in 2:08.  Great job papa!!!!

At the park

On Thursday I had the good fortune to of watching little Cason.  We had to run a few errands, but at last we made it to the wooden park.  My kids love this park.  As a special treat, I will drive them there even though it is not on the way to anywhere.  (Don't tell Jake.)  The weather was a little windy, but we played until the rain... and Aunt Heather came.

The Tulip Festival

Amid the beautiful fragrant flowers, secret gardens, tinkling streams and rushing water falls... BOYS WILL BE BOYS.

The Bird Blind

What Grace loves... everyone knows about.  Grace's new obsession is birds.  She borrowed a bird book from the library which contained the idea of a bird blind.  One warmish Saturday, the kids decided to try it out.  Never mind the part where you are supose to wait three days before you go inside so the birds are used it you.  They took some chairs and an old sheet and set it up, by themselves.  Then they ripped up some dead grass and threw it on top of the sheet.  Grace had her notebook and pens to document each type of bird.  The boys were her helpers and were working on staying quiet.  (This was a wonderful Saturday activity.  Sit quietly under a sheet...outside?  sure you can have some snacks...)

Tough Love

Or in other words.... Sam and Ruby
I never wanted a Chihuahua, but after Jake offered her as a replacement for Cookie; I jumped at the swap.  Little dogs make littler messes and being married to Jake, I no longer believe a day will come without a dog.  While Ruby occasionally nips at people and barks at whatever she feels like, the kids are not tired of her yet!  Grace lets Ruby out each morning and Isaac will toss toys for her and Sam....  oh Sam.  Sam will smash her, kiss her, carry her, pretend she is his baby, and then smash her again.  Ruby craves attention so much that unless she can't breath, she lets him do whatever.

Field Trip to PetSmart

Isaac and Jackson attend the same preschool.  Ms Mikki is a great teacher.  This year she took the kids on a field trip to Petsmart.  Since Trisa was out of town, I was lucky to bring Jackson with us.  He was a little shy so he stayed to the back with his hood up.  (I showed him the animals after most of the kids moved on.  Isaac was completely the opposite.  He was in the front of the group asking questions and absorbing all of the information about his furry, scaly, and feathered friends.  He still tells me that a rat, if you set it on your shoulder, won't try and jump off.  (Unlike, hampsters who are not smart enough to hold on... or something like that.)  Sam was just happy to be there and be a pre-preschooler.  I thought back to the days that I worked at a petsmart...  it seems like a lifetime ago. At the end, they each picked out a toy for their respective dogs and then we went for ice cream.  It gave me an excuse to go to Culvers!  I hope they enjoyed the field trip because Ms Mikki said she won't be doing it again ...
 small children + small animals = chaos  

My Basketball Stars

January was busy with moving in and me avoiding unpacking boxes.  The local rec center provides us with Itty Bitty ball. Sam has been looking forward to this since last year when he wasn't quite old enough.  It isn't just the love of the sport though.  They give them two laffy taffy at the end of each practice.  Isaac is getting so big.  He was so good at defense that that his "coach" had to ask him to let the other kids shoot.  It was exciting to see Isaac starting to understand the game.  Sam loved to shoot the ball and was devistated if Isaac tried to "help" him.  I loved being able to jog around the track and know that the boys weren't missing me one bit!

Sam's Birthday

It has been a year... yes, a busy one. I really love recording memories but sometimes it seems daunting. So it has been a year... I am not going to recap the last year since this blog is mostly for myself, but I hope to add some earlier posts.

SAM IS 3! He is such a sweet big boy with his own personality. It hard not to spoil him. He has been planning his birthday for months. Every toy a prespective present, every sweet a future cake, every place a future party. One of his funnier requests was a baby. At first it was a desperate plea to Grandma and then when he decided he wanted a red car from her I thought we were done with the baby. He asked for it again later so I gave the task to Allison. His earliest recieved gift was a remote control Lightening McQueen from Jessica who was down with her boyfriend Matt. Later that Saturday he recieved his little baby boy.

On Sunday we had a birthday party for Sam. It was a coloring party because that is one of Sam favorite activities. He wanted enchiladas for dinner (he is a lover of beans). We taped butcher paper on a few of the walls and the floor in the hall and let the kids go to town with crayons. Party favors were coloring pages, a box of crayons and a magnetic clip ( to display artwork on the fridge). It was one of my more low key parties but I think everyone had a great time.

The birthday cake was a bright six layer rainbow cake that Sam loved. The flavor was good but the texture was a little dry. Nothing that a little ice cream didn't fix. Sam also recieved a bow and arrow from Justin and Wendy (which Isaac wanted to "guard" for Sam). Cason gave him a big coloring book and crayons, Jackson and cousins gave him a aquadoodle, and Grandma gave him a cuddly cars blanket and a baby. All gifts were much appreciated. I was worried nothing would live up to all of the party ideas in Sam's head, but he had a great time. When Jake was putting up the streamers, Sam said, "It's perfect! It's perfect, dad!" The only thing that would have made it more perfect was that we were missing a sick Jackson, Trisa, Kebly and Jessica didn't get to stay

for the party.

The next day, Monday was his actual birthday. He was all partied out and all he wanted to do was watch Dora and Diego. So I made him banana muffins and he watched cartoons. He also played with his baby and new stroller and a new playmobil apple tree set. For dinner he wanted to go to Mcdonalds and then we were going to play basketball at the rec center. The basketball courts were full so we all ran around the indoor track instead. (Also very fun!) Then we went to get frozen yogurt and toppings. Jake let Sam ride home with him so of course they came home with a goldfish! A great birthday for a great boy.

Of course Sam could resist holding the fish so it died the next day. Marme and Papa also sent Sam a fishing pole for his birthday which he really loves. And on a side note, a present for me, Sam is potty trained. No more diapers!

Introducing Samuel

Good bye Sammy, Sam, Sam-bo...

I have someone I'd like to introduce to the world. You may have heard of my baby Sam, but he is gone... with his curls, and in his place is a more serious toddler, Samuel.

He would like to say Hello!

No more party in the back, this boy is ALL business!