It Begins

Me: "Andi, what do you want for lunch?"
Andi: "Mom, I'm still a princess."
Me: "okay, princess, what do you want for lunch?"
Andi: "Princesses don't eat."
Me: "Princesses eat."
Andi: "No, Cinderella does NOT eat!"

Apparently media brainwashing and the ensuing eating disorders start a whole lot earlier than I thought. Don't worry, she did eventually eat lunch, after another 10 minutes of arguing about whether or not princesses actually eat.
Thanksgiving was wonderful, we spent the day at Thads parents with his family. And from the moment we left and Andi realized Thanksgiving was over it's been nothing but Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. "Is it Christmas now?" "When is it Christmas?" "Is that for Christmas?" "Where is our Christmas Tree." She's almost as pushy as the stores these days. If it were not for the crazy week ahead of me I would probably have given in to her prodding and started decorating today, but Thad leaves first thing tomorrow morning and won't be back till friday afternoon and I've got way too much to get done this week to do Christmas decor on top of it. I'm sure by next Sunday though we'll be pulling out our tree ;)

Calling it!

We're calling it. Sammy is walking. It's amazing the progress toddlers make in a matter of days. One day he was falling all over the place, and the next day it all finally clicked and he's walking everywhere. Don't get me wrong, he still stumbles, but let's be honest, Andi is still tripping over her own feet and she's almost 4. So we think he is officially walking.
He also does not like that it is finally getting cold here. He loves being outside, but I hate letting him out just because everything is wet and muddy and he comes in filthy and soaked. But keeping him in seems to make him very cranky. He needs a little time outside in the yard each day. So to facilitate this we bought him these.


I know, there will never be snow here, and it's not even close to cold enough for snow gear, but it keeps him dry and the rest of his clothes clean. So he gets what he wants and I don't have to wash 3 outfits a day for him.
Andi had her first slumber party last weekend. I'm not sure if it really counts because Paige left in the middle of the night, but as far as Andi is concerned they had a sleep over. Tara & Jacob had an evening temple trip planned and needed someone to watch Paige. Andi was so excited when I told her that Paige was sleeping over she could not contain herself. Seriously, it was nuts. Thad walked in the front door before Paige did and Andi broke down and cried because it was supposed to be Paige. Once she got there they immediately put on their matching Cinderella dresses and heels and crowns and kept them on till bedtime.

They had a "tea party" in Andi's room and watched a movie back there, which they thought was the coolest thing ever, and we adults enjoyed as well ;) I was surprised at how well they did. I was expecting a 3 year old slumber party to be a traumatic experience, but it wasn't bad. All the same, I don't think she'll be having anymore slumber party's till she's much older.
Christmas shopping report, I'm done with Thad now and all we have left are the two kids, which is really good as I have a couple of Christmas party's I'm working on and other projects between now and then. Oh, and New Moon in 2 days! There is a group of my friends going to the midnight showing tomorrow night and I might be crazy enough to join them.

Sammy's discovery of the week: The ice & water maker on the freezer door. Luckily our fridge comes with a lock function, so he made one mess and we've been able to keep it locked and prevent many many others.


We have also started trying to include Sammy in story time at night. Andi is not a huge fan of this idea as story time takes place in her room, in her bed. But she has realized that Sammy doesn't last very long and at least half of story time is just me and her.

Andi feels very grown up these days and likes to be my "helper" for everything. More so than usual lately. Like last week at Target they were both in the basket. As we got to the car I took Sammy out first and strapped him in his chair and when I came back around the car to get Andi out, she was already out and pushing the basket back across the parking lot to put it away! I still don't know how she got out of the basket without hurting herself, and we did have a long talk about her walking around the parking lot without me and how it's just like a street and the cars might squish her.
Sammy is getting better and better at walking. I still don't think it's official because 6 or 7 steps is the max, but his balance is getting much better. It actually looks like walking now, not just falling forward and catching himself for a few steps.
We have attempted to start a little exercise group at the church building 3 mornings a week. I'm teaching pilates and we've been doing it for 3 weeks now. The problem is Sammy has decided he hates it and cries the whole time and crawls all over me and won't stop till we go home. Today I got through 1 exercise before he started up and then after 10 minutes without being able to get back to it I just gave up and we went home. I'm going to give it one more try and bring his einstein dvd's and if that doesn't work it might be over. So much for getting fit!
oh, and I spoke in sacrament meeting Sunday. Glad that's over with.

Halloween Tradition

I am hoping that Sammy is not trying to create a Halloween tradition of being sick and skipping all the fun, but it's 2 years running. Okay, the first year was not actually his fault and he wasn't sick, he was just 3 days old and so he and I skipped the festivities. This year however he was sick and miserable and not in the mood to wear his costume even for the 30 seconds it takes to snap a picture. Andi decided to be Cinderella this year, and we thought it would be very fitting to make Sammy Gus Gus. So I made him a little green hat with mouse ears and a tail, it was going to be super cute, but like I said, he ripped the hat off the second I put it on.
But I do have some cute pictures of our Cinderella, who was very excited about wearing mommy make-up and showing everyone her beautiful dress. After we got her all ready she ran to the mirror and did the whole exaggerated gasp thing and said "Oh I'm beautiful!"

She had a great time at the ward party playing games and getting her face painted, but wanted nothing to do with the spook alley Daddy was running downstairs.

After the party we went to my parents to pick up Sammy and she wanted to help hand out play-dough(my mom passes out little things of play-dough instead of candy) so she sat in the doorway and waited for kids to come up the walk. Lucky for us it's Bakersfield and even at 8 pm on Halloween it was nice enough outside for her to do that. About the time she started asking kids to come in and play with her, my mom thought it was a good idea for her to be done helping.
Yesterday I was making dinner while the kids were out back playing. I had Sammy in the swing and would give him a good push then run inside and work on dinner, then run back out. . . you get the picture. Apparently I took too long inside and Andi decided to help out. I got video of this, but blogger is being stupid and won't let me load it, so here is a picture which gives you an idea of what was going on back there while Mommy was inside.


Don't worry, Sammy was laughing hysterically as Andi twisted his swing up and let him go over and over again. Whenever he would do the dizzy head bob Andi would drop on the ground laughing at him. It's nice when they can play together and no one gets hurt.
Thad is actually home this week, yay! His trip got postponed for a few weeks which is nice. It's been a long week with a sick Sammy so it's good to have him here to help.

Happy Birthday Sammy!

What a week! Really it's only been a week since I last posted but so much has been going on. I'll start with Sammy since today is his birthday. We had his check up today, but due to the fever he has had the last two days no shots. Lucky boy, except we do have to go back next week and get them. Don't worry the fever is just his next two bottom teeth trying to come in and making him miserable. Today he is 32.5 inches long (97th percentile) 26 lbs. 11 oz. (87th percentile) and his noggin is still huge (96th percentile). So basically he's a big boy. He also has his check up yesterday with the Ortho about his feet, and even though we have not made him wear those dumb shoes in several months his feet are perfect. Yay!
We had Sammy's birthday dinner Sunday with both sides of the family. I've never been one to think a 1 year old needs a big party. Just a nice family dinner with cake is just fine by me. The problem is even with just family we had 24 people besides our little family of 4 over for the dinner. Sammy had no idea what was going on, but he did enjoy the cake and though he didn't want anything to do with opening the presents he had fun with the toys when we handed them to him.

Sammy enjoying his baseball cake.

Playing with some of his presents.

I remember Andi's first birthday and thinking how big she was and how she wasn't a baby anymore. She just seemed like such a big girl at one. But with Sammy I just can't believe it's already been a year and he seems like such a baby to me still. Maybe it's because I have Andi to compare him to now and next to her he really is a baby, or maybe it's because the year has gone by so so quickly. Either way, he's growing up way too quickly. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!
Sunday was also Andi's first primary program. After a very LONG rehearsal Saturday I was a little nervous about the program, but as usual, come Sunday the kids pulled it off. Normally Andi out sings the rest of the primary in sheer volume, whether she knows the words or not, so I was a little nervous about her being in front of the whole congregation. She did really well though and didn't drown everyone out. She did get shy when it was time for her speaking part, which was very weird for her.
We carved pumpkins Tuesday evening and Andi was very squeemish about cleaning the pumpkins out. I did make her reach her hand in and touch the junk once and she freaked out, so I cleaned it and she told me what face she wanted. An Andi face. . . and Daddy needed to make a Sammy face pumpkin. So this is what we came up with. Don't worry she was totally impressed.
The one on the right is the Sammy pumpkin because it only has four front teeth like Sam. And the one on the left is the Andi pumpkin because it has lot's of teeth.

Andi posing with "her" pumpkin. Can't you see the resemblance?

Sammy has made new discoveries in the computer desk. Drawers have all kinds of fun things in them to be pulled out and thrown around. I snapped the first picture thinking to myself that we have a little trouble maker on our hands now. Then I pulled him into the other room and put the couple of things back in the drawer.

Later that same morning I found that he has discovered the file drawer. Even better.

He also has become very speedy at getting up the slide all by himself and seems to feel very proud of himself once he gets up there. this time he crawled up one handed because he won't let go of the stupid golf ball. He carry's that thing everywhere with him!


And this is Andi watching Annie. . . again. I think we watch it once a week. Is it weird for a 3 year old to be that in to musicals? last week she grabbed out High School Musical and wanted to watch it. I figured she'd get bored and walk away, but she loves the singing and dancing.

Aside from the kiddos I have put a big dent into the list of Christmas projects. We are now done with the gift for Thads family, and done with the gifts for the girls in my family. Now we just have the boys, and my little family to work on. Thad is going to be gone again next week so i'm sure I'll have more projects to talk about then.

For record keeping sake

I hate posting without pictures, but due to multiple camera traumas I have to do so. On the camera issue, the battery in mine has been dead, and it took me a while to find the charger. In the meantime I have been using Thads camera, which we don't have a cord for yet to connect it to the computer, so even though I do have some pictures of the latest happenings there is literally no way to get get them off the cameras. Lame. But don't worry, the new cord and charger will be here in the next few days.
In the meantime one huge thing to note for record keeping sake is that Sammy is so so so close to officially walking. If you stand him up and back away he will take four or five steps to you. Okay, so maybe it's more like falling and catching himself before he dives into your arms. But it's progress. More encouraging is that he will try to do the same thing when he sees something he wants. This usually does not end well as the toy cannot catch his fall. I am very excited about the prospect of him walking because he is so HEAVY and my back could use a break.
Andi has always been a very verbal child and listening to her talk is usually very entertaining. Especially when she tries to use big words like besgusting (disgusting) or bemeber (remember). She uses pretty much all words appropriately and that's half the funny. She loses me though when she starts telling me about her "new friends" which happen to be imaginary. They always live far away by the sun and have a little brother like her, and I can never pronounce their names. She doesn't give them normal names, it's just a jumble of sounds, like she thinks since she is making them up she should make up a completely original name for them too. The other thing she does is clarify for me that she is betending (pretending) things. If she asks for something and I say no, then she says she is pretending that she is doing it anyway. Or if I tell her it's not time to be a puppy it's time to be a girl and do what mommy says she gets exasperated. "mom, I'm just betending to be a puppy!" She's interesting.
Thad is on his first official business trip with the new job and it's going to take some getting used to. I think this time was especially hard because he was on a scout campout friday & saturday, home sunday, then gone at 5am monday morning and won't be back till the end of the week. He seems to be getting things accomplished which makes him happy, but he says he will be loading some video games on his laptop for the next trip.
Next post I promise will include pictures and not so much of my blah blah blah.

Ahhhhh . . . .

I have been back home for a week now and it has been the best week ever! Monday was really just the sweetest day. We went on a walk, went to target, played in the backyard, and made a real dinner, something I haven't done in months.
Andi also started dance this last week. Classes started a few weeks ago, but for obvious reasons we had to hold off on enrolling her. In fact the first thing she said when I told her Daddy got a new job was "I get to go to dance class now?!" So we did, and she was so excited she could hardly stand still long enough to listen to the teacher. Her favorite is tap because of the "noisy" shoes. Here she is on her first day of class.


Sammy's new favorite thing is the computer desk, mostly the printer actually. We have a nice little computer cabinet that shuts and covers everything, but he has figured out how to open the door. I found him here a few morning ago.

Sammy is getting closer to walking, with a little help from big sister. He holds on to the back of her old ride on toy while she rides and she drags him around the house.


Andi has taken quite an interest in our cameras lately. Well not lately, she's always liked to play with them, but Thad let her play with one all day and 400 pictures later she actually got a couple of cute shots of Sam. And of course several self portraits inspired by aunt kelsie.


And now it is time to get working on Christmas projects. I have everything decided on, it's just a matter of doing it. Less than 3 months to go, I really better get working ;)