Nine Months

At nine months Sam is:

- crawling everywhere
- pulling up to his knees consistently and has made it all the way to his feet a few times
- less interested in baby food
- enjoying cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese pizza, and just plain cheese :)
- still nursing 4 times a day
- sporting 6 teeth (two bottom and four top)
- the proud owner of two new blue tubes, one in each ear
- just recovering from another ear infection (post tubes), but we actually caught it because of the tubes
- regressing with his sleep habits and over the past week has been waking between 5:30 - 6:30 (I just feed him and put him back to bed, but it throws the rest of our day off)
- into everything and his brother and sister are not loving it when he gets their toys
- still the happiest baby I know

Dedication

Yesterday our church had child dedication and we got a two for one deal. We've never had Anna dedicated before due to several logistical factors, but this time around we were actually in town when the dedication was scheduled so we were able to dedicate both Anna and Sam. All of the kids did great on stage looking out at our very large church crowd. At one point Jack said to me, "Mama, I just can't stand up any more." and then he proceeded to squat down, but compared to the screamer in the family beside us, he was great! All four grandparents made the trip to town to support us, and some very sweet friends made a special trip across town to our early service to see the kids on their special day. Thanks to all of you - we love you!

Grandy & Granny with the kids.
(Anna would not put down her new bible.)

Pop & Grammy with the kids.

The best we could get of our family of five.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

Beach Party

In case you've missed it, Anna has been sick all week so we really haven't ventured out of the house much. By today, I was going stir crazy so we mixed things up a bit and had an indoor beach party. We put on our swimsuits, cranked up The Beach Boys, and had a blast!

We went swimming in the ocean . . .

played with the beach ball . . .

dried off from all the "swimming" . . .

and did a little sun bathing!

We also had a picnic and a lot of dancing at our beach party. It was so much fun we just might do it again tomorrow!

Typical

This scene is pretty typical in our house these days. Jack being extremely loud, the dog barking, Sam getting into everything. The only thing missing is Anna and she's been sick all week, so I did not include her recent charming attitude in this video. You're welcome.





Sam is a champion crawler these days and just pulled up to his feet for the first time today - on Jack's train table. Guess we will have another Thomas fanatic in the house!

Our Potato Head Family

We were playing with 'Tato Heads (as the kids call them) today and Jack wanted to make our family. Then, of course, we had to take pictures! From left to right: Anna, Mama, Sam, Daddy, & Jack. Notice that Anna has two sets of eyes (she insisted) and I only have one ear. Guess that means my kids are so loud it just doesn't take two ears to hear them; or maybe it means I only listen to half of what they say . . . .

Jack wanted to take a picture with the "boys."

So then Anna had to pose with the "girls."

Snow Day #2 - round two

Once Sam went down for his morning nap, we hit the snow one last time. At this point it was starting to melt pretty quickly and we were getting pelted with chunks falling from the trees but we had fun.

Jack finally got to make his snowman and he was thrilled.

Then he destroyed it.

Anna looks like she's missing her hands, but her mittens were wet so we pulled out the plastic wrap and a pair of socks. Seemed to work just fine!

Jack was all about a snowball fight - until I hit him in the face and he told me I wasn't allowed to play anymore!

Jack had fun throwing snowballs in the air for Hank to catch.

It's funny how long we played outside. If there hadn't been snow on the ground there's no way we would have left our warm house to go outside. We all had a blast, though, and it was a nice change of pace from our usual Saturday morning routine.

Snow Day #2 - the EARLY installment

When I say early, I mean EARLY! Jack was up at 6:30 this morning jabbering about the snow and was so excited about going out to play. Marshall, being the great daddy that he is, had set his alarm for 7:00 (he had to be at work by 9:00) so that he could get up and play with his kids in the snow. However, the alarm wasn't necessary and we were up long before it was set to go off! We bundled the kids up and out they went to play while the rest of our neighborhood slept.

I put on a coat and flip flops thinking I could take pictures from the porch, but my pj pants were way too thin and when my flip flopped feet sunk into the snow just on our porch I retreated back to the house. I did take a few pics from the upstairs window as I bundled up to head out and play.

Jack really wanted to make a snowman, but the snow was just too powdery and wouldn't stick, so they just walked around knocking snow off everything that was standing still.

We moved on to the front yard. I had to keep telling the kids to stop squealing so loudly because all of our neighbors either have no kids or grown children and probably wouldn't appreciate the early morning excitement coming from our yard.

Remember the view from yesterday? This is the same one. That dark spot in the middle is our dog running around like a wild thing!

I finally coaxed them inside. Sam woke up and we enjoyed a pancake breakfast, which we discovered that Sam absolutely LOVED!

We were finished with breakfast by 8:50 AM! I told you this was the EARLY installment!