A Visit from Santa Elf

This year, our family started a new tradition with the help of this book.


The book comes with this cute little elf, who hides around the house watching the children all day and then returning to Santa each night to report if they have been naughty or nice. Sammy LOVES him and looks for him faithfully every morning. We wanted to think of a creative name for him, but we really wanted Sammy to name him. When we asked Sammy what his name should be, he said, "Elf." (we're working on creativity - maybe next year, he'll be given a better name)


The night we started this tradition, Sammy was heart-broken that he didn't get to play with the elf. So, we gave him a little Santa Claus instead. And from that point on, any Santa that Sammy see's is "Santa Elf." (Driving down the street past a Santa lawn ornament, "Look mom, Santa Elf! See it? See it Mom??" The Santa in the mall = Santa Elf. If he's wearing red, has a beard and carries gifts, he's Santa Elf.)

So here's our sweet Santa Elf wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Great big brother

We've been meaning to post some things for what we've been up to this summer, so stay tuned, hopefully it won't be another 4 months before another post comes up. In the mean time, here is a fun video of Sammy making Katelynn laugh. Sammy loves Katelynn and enjoys holding her and hugging her and touching her face (Sam! Stop touching her face!) I love to see how she absolutely loves her big brother. There are a number of pictures that we've captured that show how much she idolizes and adores Sammy. Already, nobody can make her giggle quite like him. Here you go!

It's moments like these that make you forget all about how they try your patience!
Here's that giggle video I mentioned:

One final thought: Michelle picks me up from work and we're sitting behind a truck waiting to pull out. Sammy from the back seat yells, "Go Go Go!... Come on, My Gosh!" Oops, I guess the road-ragedness is contagious. We'll have to watch how we express our frustration!

Second final thought: Cute: Sammy calls all stuffed animals pooh (because Winnie the Pooh is his biggest bear). Not as cute: Cinnamon bears are therefore called pooh, thus comes: "I want to eat pooh!" (To myself: "be mature, be mature, be mature ... Nope!") Dad: "You want to eat pooh?! Bwahahahaha!!"

The Big T-W-O

Sammy turned 2 a few weeks ago! He had a great time opening presents.

We celebrated by opening presents and blowing out candles at home and then we went to Grandma's for more presents and candles.

Here he is opening presents...

Sammy didn't quite know what to do with the birthday candles. It was fun to watch him learn what you're supposed to do with them.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Isn't he just the cutest little boy ever!?!

Under the Lights

Our sweet Katelynn has had a bit of jaundice. This means that her liver hasn't developed enough to get rid of the biliruben in her blood. The best way to treat this is to put her under the bili-lights.

Sammy was quite concerned with this process!! Every morning he'd wake up and walk over to the light machine and say, "Hi baby." He's pretty intruiged by those lights!

Katelynn's had a rare type of jaundice because it won't go away!! Our dr said he's never seen anything like it, but thinks its related to nutrition, so we are supplementing her with some formula and that seems to have helped. She's still not in the clear yet though, but she doesn't have to be under the lights every night anymore. yeah!

I think Sammy is a little jealous of all the attention Katelynn has been getting - so he tried to make himself yellow as well!

He's such a good big brother!

Sammy is a Big Brother!!

What do you mean "I'm not the only child anymore?!!"

Yep that's right! Introducing Katelynn Michelle! She was born May 06, 2009 at 2:06 pm and was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. Labor went well and surprisingly fast. The doctor broke Michelle's water at 11:30 and just after 2pm she was squirming her way out!
It is truly amazing how similar these two babies are. Both have a ton of beautiful little hair and have pretty similar faces with those same adorable chubby cheeks!


For the last few months, we've tried to get Sammy excited about babies. Whether it has been talking about the baby in Mommy's belly or pointing out babies that we see. And in fact, he is a fan of babies and loves to play with dolls. Yes it's true. Necklaces and dolls, he certainly has a tender heart.

So far he has been super sweet about baby "kit-ty." He loves to give her kisses and hold her, and he is learning to be soft. He of course makes us nervous because he is so strong and sometimes quite quick. We have to keep an eye on him because if he sees her, he is going to go and touch her. Everyone loves to feel soft baby skin, and Sam's no different.

Here is a collage of a few videos we took of Sammy and Katelynn. Michelle's cousin has a boy and girl that are so cute and when I see them together I think of how lovely a relationship these two will have.

Here is our first family photo as a foursome

Being a big brother certainly must be tough work! I'm sure he would love to put little baby Katie on his sleepover list, but I think we'll hold off for a little while!

Visit to the Temple

Sammy loves to see the temple. Everytime we drive past one, he points and says, "Bempo, bempo, bempo."

On Easter Sunday we decided to take Sammy up to the Bountiful Temple. He was so excited when he learned we were going to go, he wanted to go right now! We got some videos of him on the car ride up and walking around the temple. We were especially excited about this visit because of the recent conference talk Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples by Gary E. Stevenson. In this talk he says,

"Even our young children have been encouraged to visit the temple grounds
and touch the temple.5 President Thomas S. Monson once counseled, “As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.”6

Grandpa even taught Sammy how to say "Moroni" and now every time he sees the temple he'll say "Mo -ro - ni" over and over. (Sammy even has a little crying spell in the video when he realizes he can't see Moroni anymore.)

Spring is Here!

My yard says it's so!

(I'm ignoring the snow that fell yesterday and may potentially fall later this week...)

The first sign of spring in my yard: this tiny daffodil! I'm not sure what variety of daffodil I purchased, but they are super tiny and super cute! We also have more than a hundred tulips popping up all over! I'm so thankful for the fall planning that brings bright spring colors to my yard!

Sammy is also grateful for the coming of spring because he can finally go outside! Here's how he's been enjoying the warmer weather:

Playing ball in the yard.

Riding in the Wagon

(Thank you Santa for bringing this special prize!)

I think its interesting that Sammy enjoys his wagon, because he simply cannot stand anything that moves - like swings, or little kid rides, etc. Perhaps he's close enough to the ground that he's not too worried about falling???

If you couldn't tell, at the end of each run, Sammy would sign and say "More." What a nice Daddy to oblige!

Walking and throwing rocks around the pond.

This great little walking spot is on Hill AFB. Dave gets 3 hours of exercise leave each week, and usually saves 1 hour to walk with his favorite people! We are so lucky! Sammy didn't care much for the ducks, but was enthralled with all the "balls" (rocks) just laying in the dirt! It was a sad, sad day when we had to put the "ball" back and go home.

Playing Tennis

(aka don't hit Sammy while he collects all the stray balls)

I'm noticing a theme within this post...Sammy LOVES balls! Of course we already knew that, I just didn't realize the extent of the love affair...

Of course Sammy got tired of the little tennis balls, and wanted the basketball that he couldn't have...

Sliding, Climbing and Cleaning up the Park

I'm sure Sammy thought the Pine cones were balls...

We are so glad it's spring!!!

Little Helper

Sweet little Sam LOVES to play, but he's also such a good little helper.

He sings "clean up, clean up" every time we ask him to put something away. He's usually a happy little guy that enjoys spending time with Mommy and Daddy, even if that means cleaning.

I think Sammy's most favorite chore is laundry. He loves every part of it. Whenever he sees socks lying on the floor he'll start singing "clean up, clean up" and then go put them in the dirty clothes...even if they aren't dirty.

He also loves helping with dishes. But...the thing about dishes is we have to watch him really closely. He's known for dropping dishes on the floor, trying to help with the sharp objects and putting cups to his mouth. We cannot guarantee the cleanliness of the cups around here. :-)

We are so glad that Sammy loves to help us around the house!

Big Boy Bed

About a week ago, we purchased Sammy a new twin bed. We decided to bypass a toddler bed for a couple of reasons:

1 - Our crib will convert to a toddler bed, but we'll be using the crib in a few months for baby sister.

2 - We would still have to buy a new mattress to fit in a toddler bed since the crib mattress will be in use.

3 - Sammy has the potential to be quite tall and thus grow out of the toddler bed quickly.

4 - Why spend money on a toddler bed that he'll grow out of when we can spend the money on a twin bed he can use until he's 16 (or older).

5 - We didn't want Sammy to feel like he'd been pushed out of his bed when Baby arrives.

I was SUPER nervous about him actually sleeping in the new bed because:

1 - There's no longer a way to contain him at nap time

2 - He might/will fall out of it

We set up the new bed while Sammy watched us from his crib. I wanted to leave the crib up so that if the new bed was a disaster, Sammy would still be able to sleep in the crib. The entire time we were putting the new bed together, Sammy would point at the bed and say "Nigh, nigh."

When we finished, we got him out of his crib and he walked right over to the new bed, laid his head on it and said, "Nigh, nigh." We then got him ready for bed and put him down in it. We didn't hear a peep from him all night!!!

Nap time the next day was the same way. I laid him down and walked out of the room. 3 hours later, he woke up! He rarely slept that well in the crib.

He hasn't fallen out of bed (yet)...although he did fall OFF his bed the other day when he was standing on it and backed up. I'm also happy to report that today was the first time I've had to go back in his room during nap time to lay him down again - NOTE TO SELF: clean up the toys before putting Sam down for his nap. They are just too enticing for a 20 month old who wants to play all the time.

Hooray for Big Boy Beds! (and for big boys who stay in and sleep well in them!)

It's Finally Christmas Time

Ahem. Yeah, it's March and I'm just now uploading this video of Christmas.

Here is Sammy Christmas morning, opening the gifts you and your parents gave him. He was pretty taken with the basketball hoop and ball, but we were able to get him to pay attention to other things for a few minutes.

I'm happy to report that Sammy loves playing with the fire truck and pushing it around the house. He also LOVES the books, especially the Curious George ones. I find him in his room "reading" to himself all the time and it's usually Curious George and the Bunny.

Here are the only pictures we got of the morning. We were in a pretty big hurry to get to Grandpa's house - so the picture taking got pushed aside. :-(

Trying out his new hoop and ball.

Reading a new "quiet" book for Church

Playing Grandma's Chimes.

Sammy in his new snow clothes (actually taken a few days after Christmas)

Bampa

Dave goes to work pretty early in the morning (at least for me). He's usually out of the house by 7:10 am at the latest. One of my goals for the year is to wake up with Dave so we have a little more time together during the day. Of course, after he leaves, I hop right back in bed until Sammy wakes up, usually around 8:15.

Recently, we started finishing our basement. Dave's dad is doing the framing and will come up a couple of times a week. Yesterday, when the doorbell rang, Sammy ran to the door saying, "Bampa, Bampa, Bampa." When the door opened to reveal grandpa, Sammy was ecstatic.

So, this morning, as I was chatting with Dave over breakfast at 6:45 am, I related the "Bampa" story. As soon as I was done, we heard a little voice from his dark bedroom call out, "Bampa?" Our little Sammy melts our hearts!

Sing us a Song, You're the Piano Sam!

Okay, so Billy Joel actually plays the piano and sings, but if Sammy did that you wouldn't be able to hear the singing. He did climb up and seat himself at the piano and start singing all by himself. Another stroke of luck is that when I went and got the camera, he was willing to sing the second verse.

Caught on Tape

On a lot of blogs, people have a list of favorite quotes from their cute kids that shows their sweet innocence and darling personalities. Since Sammy doesn't do more than a couple syllables at a time, this is a little compilation of cute things he's done over the last few weeks instead. I wish we had a camera rolling for the zillion other times he does something that makes us laugh out loud!