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.)