Monday Night Football

MVP: Sam

Coach of the Year: Dave

Watch out college coaches! I've got 17 more years to practice!

Personality

It is so much fun watching Sammy's personality develop. I can't even believe that in one month he will be old enough for Nursery (hallelujah!). Here are some of the new things that Sammy is doing.

Building "Forts" Sammy gets into these creative moods where he will pick a few choice toys and then take them to his special place and sit among them. He is very picky about what toys he takes into his "fort." And we've learned NOT to take the toys away from the fort for fear of retaliation (okay...crying hysterically).

Discovering "new" toys
After building a fort one day - Sammy realized the toy basket was a great thing to play with. He brought it over to me and we sat on the couch with the basket over our heads. The basket is kind of see through, so I would put my hand on the outside and pat it - and Sam would laugh and laugh and laugh and try to poke my hand from the inside.

Later that day - he picked up the basket and put it on his head and started walking around the house. The best part was when he walked into the fireplace and then he couldn't figure out how to turn around - so he kept bumping into the wall. After a couple of minutes of me laughing - started crying. I'm sure it would be frustrating to not get anywhere.

He's always had a love for shoes, especially mom's and dad's shoes. Here he is giving Mom's shoes a try. He didn't walk very far before he fell - but he got a big kick out of wearing these big shoes!

"Demanding" food
His newest trick is walking over to his high chair - pounding on the seat and screaming "Ahhhh!" I guess we taught him this one because we'd try to get him to open his mouth during feeding times by saying, "Ahhh." He also does this to the candy/cookie jar. He knows right where it is in the kitchen and will walk over to the jar and point and scream, "Ahhhh!" What a funny boy!

Feeding Himself
A MeSsY operation! He does great with finger food, but we've been trying to get him to learn how to use a fork and spoon. His cereal in the morning mostly ends up on his bib/pajamas. What fun to develop fine motor skills!


We LOVE this boy so much!!!

Super Halloween Night!

Happy Halloween! We hope that your Halloween was just super. We had a fun night. It felt like we were just running here and there, but all in all it was a good time.

We started the day going to get some shots for Sam. What kind of parent chooses to get their boy his shots on Halloween? Yeah we pondered that question for a bit, but I guess we figured that if you start off bitter the sweet would seem sweeter? Maybe that's just what we told ourselves...

So after some shots, and a quick stop at the community center for an early vote, we were ready to start our evening festivities. Okay so seriously?! Sammy has already had way too much candy and we haven't even started the day. Of course the doctor's office gave him a candy bar, as did the Wal-Mart cashier, and the Quizno's cashier. At least the poll place had some good sense and didn't offer the poor guy some more sugar!

Oh well, let the sugar infestation continue, First stop Grandma's:

Visit to Grandma

I don't know why we didn't get a picture of Sammy with Grandma, but we didn't. Her legs do cameo when we went to go visit grandpa, but for some reason we didn't think to get a picture. I guess we at least had the camera with us, so that is a start. This next threesome of pictures is kind of an omen for how the day will progress: Happily eating candy, and then when it is gone, bring on the whinery!

Ah well, it's Halloween.. Even Superman has his weaknesses, and apparently there are few things worse than coming to the end of a delightful bag of M&M's.

Visit to Grandpa

Next on the flight list for the super man is a visit to grandpa. Grandpa was at work and we didn't want to miss him, so we thought we would take him a couple treats and give him some happy Halloween wishes. Earlier in the day we got him a king size snickers and Sammy was excited to fly in and grant some sweet wishes.

A quick sidenote, Sammy recently got a new pair of shoes that are a size too big. Occasionally he trips up on the larger than life shoes...

As we were running to Grandpa's office, the carpet monster jumped up and tripped Sammy. Yep, he did a little spin and landed hard. So instead of a fun smile with a candy bar in hand to greet grandpa, it all fell apart and he screamed in pain. Don't worry we came prepared, and quickly broke him off a piece of that Kit Kat bar (how many has he had today, ugh we are bad parents!)

Also to cheer the little guy up, Ralph offered him a CEO position. He was only on the clock for a few minutes, but come on, the guys handling our wonderful financial institutions make a Mercedes a minute; so we are trying to figure out the payment deserved... Here is Sammy hard at work -- looking at some plans and relaxing in the important seat.


Here is a video of the Tricks and Treats received from Grandpa.

Next on the flight plan was a trip to our other Grandma & Grandpa:

Visit to Grandma & Grandpa

superman with his super grandparents

At this point in the evening, Sammy has figured out exactly what is in these buckets, a whole lot of goodness! The perfect part in Sammy's mind is that wherever he goes, he has the effect of people wanting to feed him. This is actually not just a Halloween spectacle. I swear day in day out, complete strangers ask if they can give this boy food. Does he look hungry? Or is it just so fun to provide nourishment and enjoyment to cute little faces?

Here is a clip of some tricks and Sweets at Grandma & Grandpa's:

Trick - or - Treating!!

By quarter to 6, we were finally home and ready for some trick-or-treating. We didn't go out with Sammy last year, so this was a first for both parent and child. Michelle decided to stay home and pass out candy, so I took the little superhero around the block. We ended up being out for about an hour, and by that point Sam was completely exhausted.

He did pretty good though. After a couple houses he figured out the whole idea of grabbing a piece from their bowl and sticking it in his bucket. The funny thing is that even though we only hit a few houses, he still made out like a champ because they would let him do the grabbing. Of course he wouldn't grab just one, but because of the before-mentioned phenomena of wanting to feed the child, they just thought it was darling! But honestly like anyone would take it back from a tiny superhero.. a 15 year old hardly dressed up maybe, but certainly not a first-timer who doesn't know the rules yet!

Many times as Sam was about to grab some candy, he hesitated for a little while because of the distracting outfits that everyone was wearing! I guess as a little boy you just aren't expecting a werewolf to be holding out a bowl full of candy.

Here we are getting ready to go:

Dinner & Relaxation

Well finally the night came to a close (and finally this post is coming to a close). We had dinner and relaxed and watched Sam eat yet more candy. When bed time finally came calling, he was completely pooped. What a fun but exhausting day!

Before bed, we took a picture of Sammy with the pumpkins we carved. All of these came from our garden this year!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Tryouts

So with the pumpkins growing orange and the weather getting colder, it was high time we found a halloween costume for Samuel.

We were at target the other day and they have quite the impressive collection of halloween costumes. Well Sammy loved holding a little puppy costume, which was completely adorable. We also really liked a Superman costume, because we always call him our super sam. We decided we would get them both and then see how they fit and things.

As we tried the two costumes, it was apparant that Sammy had a strong preference:

Not bad..

Not great..

Horrible!!!

Cool..

Distracted ..

Still distracted (which is a good thing!)

Learning to fly

So yes, the poor little puppy costume went back to the store, and Mr. Sammy Kent's cape went into the closet soon to come out and fly to a house near you shouting "trick or treat!" Okay let's be honest he probably will be saying "ball" over and over because you also have a pumpkin on your porch!

Our Active Little Boy!

We love our little boy! The little Sam-Man is very active. He is loving his ability to run around and play and get into everything. I just wanted to share a couple of his favorite activities. Some of these movies are a bit long, but oh well.

1 -- The Stair Toss or Gravity Game.

What an incredible idea, create a large pit and then surround the top with turrets so that one can bomb the pit! Also, the magic of this game is that when most the toys have been thrown down the stairs, Mom or Dad will go and pick them all back up and we can start the game again!!

I went down a couple stairs to get him in the middle of the action. I love that his good friend Simba is always curious about his games and wants to play along and watch.

Here is the result of the toy toss on a typical day:

#2 -- Bouncing on the Bed!

In the morning Sammy usually wakes up earlier than we do, so we bring him in our room and he loves to play on the bed with us. Bouncing is super fun and a new thing is to dance or stomp around on the bed. He also does this on the couch and anywhere else that is nice and soft.

#3 -- Playing catch.

Sam's favorite things all start with B's. His Ball, his blanket, and his binky. Sometimes these change order of preference depending on how tired or active he is. Tonight on our car ride home we just had to laugh at how content he was in his car seat: He had his passifier in his mouth, his blanket on his one side and his ball under his other hand, and Mom and Dad were close by. His happy little world was complete! Well he loves to play catch and keep away and fetch and all things related to playing with his two little basketballs. Today we had him in his chair and got a kick out of him playing catch with me. It was a cute little progression of me throwing the ball at his belly with little or no response, to him playing catch, to him getting bored!

My favorite part is when I say, "Ready?" and he throws his hands up in the air.

I often pause and marvell at how fast he is growing up. My dad commented, "just wait till they are 6' 7" and have kids of their own!" Hopefully that doesn't happen too soon, but when it does, I hope he remembers fondly the times of playing with Mom and Dad.

Quick Zoo Trip with Daddy

This week Michelle's work did a zoo trip for all the home schooled families in the program. Michelle didn't really go in, but met all the families as they were coming in and made sure they got their tickets and all that jazz. Then all the teachers wanted to go out to lunch. Since I was in between class (I have a 3 1/2 hour break) I came and got Sam. It turned out that they had leftover tickets, so Sammy and I got to take a quick zoo trip while while the girls did their thing. It was such a nice day (Thursday) that all the animals were out pretty good. My favorite was the mountain lion (go cougars!! great game by the way, but I digress..). When we came up to their cage, one cougar was standing on a log right up next to the fence as if he was staring everyone down. By the time I got my camera out, he had left, but the other one was perched on the ledge just surveying the crowd. It was very nice of it to pose for us:

The warthogs were also out having fun and were very close.
One of my favorites were the cute little penguins. The manager was cleaning out their pool so she locked them into a little shed-like place. Anyway, one snuck out and was playing around in the dirt and apparently that didn't go over well with all the rest so finally they all sprung the cage, here they are storming up the rocks! What fun little guys! The manager just shook her head and laughed, I bet they give her grief all the time.
One of Sammy's favorite zoo attractions is the small animals exibit. When we went during the summer with Tanna and Megan's families he loved it too. He really likes being able to walk right up to the cage and see the animals up close. A lot of times they will approach him as well, which just makes him all smiles. The Lemurs in the primate house were great too, they came right up to the windows to check out all the kids.

"Hey Dad, let's play a game. I'll pretend I'm interested and watching an animal and then right before you take the picture, I'll look away.

Ha! Too slow! Man you're getting old! Is that all you got, I was barely in the picture!!

Argghh! You caught me!

Wow, caught me on the first try this time, maybe you aren't such a waste...

And what was Sammy's favorite part about the zoo? Why the grates of course! Nice little metal objects in the middle of the floor. Perfect for touching and if I had a toy I could push it through. How do people come up with these things to entertain. Brilliant!!

Well, we had a great albeit brief time. To be honest, it was my type of zoo trip. We just cruised through and saw most of the animals and then shared a snow cone and a sprite, and the weather was so perfect, I think it was only high 70's that day. Couldn't have worked out nicer!

Sweet drunken parrot

Here is a recent video of sammy.

The drunken refers to his drunken sailor walk. He is doing great with walking and running and standing up without climbing up things. I think because of his height, and the newness of his task, he has a little bit of Jack Sparrow in him. You'll see in the end of this clip as he is running from Mom that he kind of pin balls between the couch and the table. We enjoy watching him, but feel bad when the drunkenness makes him hurt himself. He runs into a number of doorways and chairs and things. In fact if you look at his cheek close enough you can see a little line that might match a bar on our chair.

The parrot part is a new thing of his. Just very recently he is starting to mimick words and phrases of ours (This morning I got a B-Y-U out of him that was darling!) with Uh-Oh being the favorite. He is also mimicking some of the baby signs which is fun, so we'll have to get some of those as well.

Enjoy!

Birth of a Toddler

It has been so much fun watching Sammy's walk develop. He's been walking along things for several months now.

Thanks for the cute outfit!!

But...on Tuesday, July 15th he decided that walking has its perks! Here are his first, tentative steps. He's so careful to make sure he's balanced and when he's not, he knows crawling is much more stable! This is also his favorite blanket, could you tell?

Sammy has been practicing his walking all week and he's getting VERY good at it. He's even better now than when I took this short video. He's a very quick learner!!!

Picnic in the Park

(This post is LONG over due. Sorry.)

We had such a great time meeting with you for lunch the other day! I am so glad that you are willing to meet with us and hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!! Thanks again - we LOVE you!

Dancing Sammy putting on his groove!!!

We love that giggle!!! I love watching him interact with Greg in this video. These two pals get along great!

Who doesn't love opening presents??? OR...playing with the pretty red bag it comes in???

Thank you so much for the toys! Sammy is enthralled with them and loves to toss them around and listen to the noises they make.

Thanks for a great day at the park. We had tons of fun!!!

Travelling with Sammy

We just got back from a road trip to Yellowstone and my sister, Nicole, had a great time with him...for the first five hours of the drive.

But the last hour was more than she could handle and she was ready to go nuts! Dave and I are able to just tune him out - especially if we have a good book on tape to listen to, because we know he's just making noise out of boredom. It's pretty cute!

We've been on several road trips this summer so I thought it only appropriate to give you a taste of how Sammy travels. He actually does really well on short drives - but anything longer than a couple hours seems to "awaken" his talking side.

We stayed near Yellowstone Lake.

Daddy tried on my hat a for a bit. I think he likes it more than me.

Sammy's favorite part of the trip was playing the back of the car. I don't blame him - he never got the chance to "roam free" on his own unless he was in the back of the car!

Sammy's view of all the geysers, hot pots and springs was usually from someone's shoulders. Grandpa was his favorite horsie. We thought the plumbing shirt with the baby "crack" was darling.

Old Faithful. Sammy really enjoyed watching the geysers.

Birthday Bash! 1 year old

So this is a bit overdue, but here are some cute movies and pictures from his 1st birthday party.

He was kind of the center of attention, and tried unwrapping a few presents from some of his aunts and uncles. Then it was time for the birthday cake. We got a full cake for all of us to enjoy, but then got a small triangle slice of cake for Sammy to eat and destroy. So we got him down to his diaper and set the piece in front of him and let him go to town. It was so cute!! Here are a few movies and pictures of this fun event.















I can't believe that 1 year has come and gone. Sammy has grown and changed so much, it's amazing to look back and see some of the early pictures and just be amazed at the miracle we have enjoyed. Our whole family couldn't be more thankful for you and your sacrifice.

The Slide

Here is Sammy's first time down a slide. It was pretty windy at the park, so sorry for all the background noise.

We have reached ZION

...Zion's National Park that is. To celebrate the arrival of summer we took Sammy on his first vacation to Zion's. We spent all day Saturday in the park hiking and walking. We got this great back-pack carrier to lug Sammy along. He really had a good time. It was a great first family vacation!

Shootin' Hoops

Daddy is my biggest fan as I practice shooting hoops!

We got Sammy this little toy hoping that it would distract him from the socks-in-the-hamper version. It didn't. The funniest part about this toy though, is sometimes we'll find other toys sitting in the hoop. We can't wait until Sammy figures out there's a slot in the VCR!

Momma's in the zoo?

Here is Sammy playing with Momma as if she is a wild animal at the zoo.

We love this video because it shows a few things: Sammy standing up, moving along the rail, his giggle of course, and then how he is growing! Those pants are 12 month pants(where's the flood sammy?). He is a growing boy!

I'd rather play peek-a-boo

Sammy's figured out how to take off his bib while eating. Smart boy!! And lately, he'd rather play peek-a-boo than eat! I never thought I'd see the day he'd prefer anything over eating!

Grass

The weather has finally been warm and dry enough to take Sammy out for some yard work! This video shows his first experience with grass. I love how he keeps his hands up, away from the grass. He's so cute!

We're not sure what the grunts mean - but by the end of this clip he's starting to reach out, a little.

This was about a week ago...and Sammy still isn't a huge fan of grass. We usually take him out with a blanket and some toys and let him play. He hasn't tried to leave the blanket yet because of the grass! I would have never thought it would be such a natural fence! Lucky for us while it lasts!

Basketball Practice

As we get ready in the morning, Sammy enjoys crawling around and discovering new things in our closet. For the longest time he was infatuated with our shoes - especially slippers. He even took them off my feet the other day when they were dangling off a chair!

With Sammy's recent achievment of pulling himself to standing, he's discovered another delight...Socks. I've come to the point where I don't even pick them up anymore because I know he's just going to clear the shelf off again. His latest joy though, is the slam dunk. My favorite part is - we didn't teach him this trick. He figured it all out on his own. He's already practicing for the big game!

Happy Birthday!

Dear Sam,

I hope we remembered right...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Of course, Sammy can't sing - or talk much, but any new pics of this wonderful boy are always a treat!

This is his favorite book - it's called B is for Bear and it has something to touch & feel on every page. He adores looking at the pictures in this book over and over.

I love how Sammy is so fearless. He knows he can crawl up on anything, and lately, he's attempting the supported "walk." Even though he loses his balance here, he doesn't let it bother him and keeps on going. What a great lesson for all of us to remember!!!

And finally, the sound that makes my heart flood with joy - laughter. Here, Uncle Brandon is "chasing" Sammy around the kitchen at my parents house. (Uncle Brandon and Aunt Kimberly - Michelle's sister - are expecting TWINS this fall - we are all super excited to have more cousins around!!!)

Thanks for giving us the BEST gift - one we couldn't give ourselves. We hope your birthday is the best one yet!!

Love Always - Dave, Michelle & Sammy

Radios & Ducks

This video was too big to put on as one, so it's been split in half.

My favorite part is when Sammy drops his duck, picks it up and sticks it in his mouth. He seems so occupied with both the duck and radio, but can't seem to negotiate both at the same time. He's such a funny and sweet little darling and he has stolen our hearts!

He's a Natural

Samuel's a natural at crawling. He can get ANYWHERE - which is both thrilling and frightening because he's easily entertained with all the new possibilities! It seemed like it only took a few days for him to go from being a tentative crawler to a pro-active crawler. He gets into everything that's within 2-3 feet off the ground. We can't imagine what he'll be like as a walker. Nothing will be safe -Yikes!

Rockin' Sammy

Grandma gave this rocking chair to Sammy for Christmas and he loves, loves, LOVES it. He'd much rather sit in the chair and rock by himself than with either of us. Check out his rhythm!

A New Game

Sammy's learned how to play peek-a-boo!

Head Banger

Lately Sammy has been more interested in playing and laughing during meal time than in eating. He's been making it a little challenging for us to get the food into his mouth. He's developed this little "head-bang" of sorts. We also love the imitation laugh - the laugh he gives whenever he hears other people laughing. He's just letting us know he's listening and participating in our conversations. What a cutie!

Walkin' & Rollin' Around

Here's our sweet little man figuring out that he can walk around! He loved every minute of it and especially enjoyed chasing things. ie: ping-pong balls, trucks and Simba. We laughed and laughed, (nearly to tears) about how cute he is.

Easter Surprise!

Sammy decided to give us an Easter surprise:



Yes, he finally figured out the crawling thing, and he has now realized he can get anything he wants. This was one of the first successful tries, and after a zillion little demonstrations to family all Easter weekend, he thinks he has it down pretty good! I guess it is time to start doing some toddler proofing, because he thinks he needs to grow up!

I love pudding

Michelle was making chocolate pudding for the inside of Joseph's birthday cake and decided to give Sammy a try. Obviously he loved it. My favorite part is the table slap at the end, as if to say, "Give me more, I wasn't done!"

Pat-a-Cake

Samuel has a new trick!

All we have to say is, "Where's your pat-a-cake?" And he puts his hands together! It is so much fun to see him learning things that we've taught him.

Sweet little Pterodactyl

We call Sammy our sweet little pterodactyl because when he is just playing he kind of does this little chirp/squeel/caw type sound. We love it!

Growling with Grandpa

This one was so cute, but so short. Sammy was mimicking Grandpa growling. They went back and forth for a couple minutes. By the time the camera was found, it was all over except the last couple. Just imagine how darling this was!

Playing the Piano

Here is our little Mozart in the making. We love how funny and aggressive he gets as he is having a great time with all the sounds! Before you know it, mom will be starting Sammy with real piano lessons and he'll be playing something that has a melody. Until then, we love the hard rock.