V Day!

Someone once told me that having a child is like your heart walking around on the outside of your body... Very true.  I do love me some Valentine's day!  

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Family Valentine's day gift.  A bike!! Just when I thought I couldn't crave warm weather anymore..  There are going to be lots of hours logged on this thing.  I am so excited!! Sam loves it too!  And yes, Sam does have on a helmet.  I on the other hand do not.. that is just my new short haircut.  It does get helmet-ish every now and then.  :)

  

I am one lucky lady for these fine men to BE MINE!! 

Thank the Lord for wonderful friends who constantly inspire me.  I love reading blogs and definitely more so than blogging but it is such an awesome way to document this wonderfully awesome life!!!  I just read my great friends' blogs and through laughs and happy tears of how proud I am of my friends and their awesome families, I was inspired to get back on purejoy and add some thoughts and pics of our past few months!  Lewis gave me a book of purejoy for Christmas this year and it was definitely my favorite gift.  I loved reading through the first year of Sam's life and I can't believe how much he has grown and how much we have grown as a family!!!  Even since he turned a year, he has grown and changed so much!  I Love you so much bud and I am so proud of you!! 

uncle SAM!! I couldn't resist!  

hanging with mom!

Christmas card photo shoot.  :)

family photo at Jingle on the Beach

silly face!  wonder where he gets that from? 

more strawberries please!  this is sam at Mrs. Linny's asking for more strawberries.   Mrs. Linny gets all the credit for signs.

1 year!!

12 MONTHS!!

Happy 1 year Family!  This is Sam's actual birthday, Sept. 3rd, the day we got back from our Jackson Hole trip

My baby boy is 1 year old?!! ok, by this point he is 1 year and 1 month.. I am a little late on the 12 month post.  :)  This past month, once again, has been busy!! We have been here, there and everywhere.  All fun things (lots of nuptials & bday celebrations!) but I will honestly be glad to be home for a few weekends.  I have lots of house projects swimming around in my head that I need to tackle.  Ok, sam update....Sam is a walking man now!  That bear crawl turned into a walk a couple of weeks before his birthday.  I love being in the kitchen and looking up and seeing him toddling in from the den with a huge smile on his face like he is so proud of himself.  I really love it when that toddle ends up with a dive bomb hug into my legs.  Melt my heart!  I also really LOVE walking in the driveway holding sam's hand while he points at birds, planes, and the early morning moon (calling it a bubble).  Sam really is a sponge right now.  It amazes me when he actually does something that I ask him to  (i.e. take kate's dirty dog toy to her, turn the tv on, and back on, etc.), point to pictures in books, and show me where his head, toes, tummy are (these do get mixed up at times.) He still does not really say mama.. he says dada, ball, dog, BUBBLE (his favorite), and boat, but noooo mama.. I thought he was saying mama until the other day I realized that mum mum is actually food.  Oh well.. i made fun of lewis when he would point at himself saying "da-da, da-da" but i have found myself pulling the mom version of this lately.  Sam LOVES being outside.  We live in our backyard!  It is so nice to have a yard!  I really don't know what we would do if we still live at Park ave. (in regards to no backyard, LOTS of stairs, etc.)  We make a lot of laps around the "baby block" (my neighbor called it the other day) in this push car that his nannie and poppie gave him.  He is laid back kickin and enjoying the ride while mum mum is motoring through the low cut weeds/centipede grass combo.  Sam is getting better at eating real food and he is definitely more accepting of new flavors, but he still loves feeding kate and throwing food!! He also loves laughing at me when I as sternly as I can say, "NO!"  Any advice here?  I don't think we are quite ready for time out but I am pretty sure it is coming in regards to this throwing food business.  Oh, and I must include this VErY important change in our weekly lives.. Sam has just started going to a babysitter 2 days a week while I work.  This is a pretty perfect situation because I really really like Lindsay and they live very close to us.  She has a 4 year old little girl who is so sweet.  It has been a very hard and wonderful transition at the same time.  This step has been looming for a while and I thank the good Lord for guiding us to this decision and situation.  Marsie will be SOOO missed but now marsie can come play with me and sam on a weekly basis.  There are so many things that I am loving at this age that I want to write but I would be here all night.  This is exactly why I have to get better at the impromptu blog post!

This has by far been the best and most challenging year of my life.  I have grown and changed so much in a year and our family has grown and changed so much as well.  We have had lots of wonderful changes and I want to say that the one thing that has remained the same is my deep love for my sweet baby boy and Lewis.  But this isn't true because I love you both more and more every single day!

Family photo booth pic day after the big bash!

I will make a mess but I will NOT eat a bite of this cake!  

What in the world is this all about?  

The prize on an AWESOME fly fishing trip in Jackson Hole

pa, ma, and grand TETONs!!

11 months!!

practicing air guitar

Sam's eleventh month has been busy!!  We had some great topsail time with family and we moved! We are slowly getting settled in our new house and we love it!  I really think Sam likes his new "crib"  I was a little worried about the transition but he has done great!  We will miss Park ave and it was definitely a little emotional leaving just being it was the house that we brought him home in nearly a year ago!! I cannot believe it.  But, it was definitely not condusive to a crawler and little boy trying to learn to walk.  Lots of stairs and different levels here and there.  So glad and feel very blessed to have found this house!  Loving it so far.

This month has been such a blur i am having a hard time thinking of all the different things i want to remember about this month.  We did have our first swim lesson.  It was hilarious!  The babies were so cute and the teacher is great.  Honestly, it was quite a work-out for mua.  Baby in dance position and ringing around the rosy in the pool will do a number on weak mom quads.  But sam loves the water and had fun getting his face in the water and dangling on the side of the pool solo (of course with mom nearby).

Sam is working towards walking but it definitely takes some encouragment.  He is not nearly as motivated to walk as he was to crawl.  He can get where is needs to go way faster on all fours.  But we are working on it.  I also think that we may have left baby food in the dust this month.  He really wants to feed himself and hold the spoon himself.  Therefore, baby food = huge mess and not much food in the tank.  I am hoping that he will start eating more real food. OH I cannot believe that I almost forgot to mention that he has 2 pearly whites!!! He finally got some teeth! After 8 months of teething :) he has one top one and the opposite bottom one.  There are 2 more on the way.  He looks so cute with teeth!  We have had such a great month and are looking forward to getting settled in our new place! 

1st boat ride!

A tooth!!

new house!

10 months!!

10 months!

10 MONThS!!!  just 2 shy of 1 year!! oh my gosh.. i cannot believe it!! We have had a great month!!  It has gone by so fast I am having a hard time collecting my thoughts.  Sam is moving and grooving and constantly learning so much!  He is pushing his walk along and anything else that he can push, including the Tonka and his beloved wagon.  He is "talking" more and more and trying so hard to tell us things.  He really likes to point and say, "Da!"  This could mean, dog, dad, sky, leaf, fan, etc. :)  Sam is also starting to "share", especially with Kate. He gets a big kick out of sharing his cheerios and bread.  And so does Kate.  :)  He can hand me something, if I say, "can I have it?"  Of course he immediately wants it back.  I am also holding out hope that Sam will be more of a reader than his mom as he has really started to like flipping through his books and babbling, babbling (reading of course.) Our trip to costco today reminded me of something new happening this month.  Waving "hey" and "bye bye"  Sam met a few friends today immediately stealing their hearts with a floppy wave and the sweetest smile!  And one last thing, my man has been getting his groove on.  I have not yet captured his moves on video (soon to come) but he has been daAAncin!  When the music comes on, the moves come out.  It is hilarious.  Sometimes he will even wave one hand like he just don't care paired with the cutest bounce ever!  Oh, and one more thing.  How could i forget to mention green baby paci.  Sam found these infant/newborn paci's in his diaper basket and is obsessed with them.  There are not many hours of the day that he does not have one in his mouth.  The green baby even trumps cheerios sometimes.  :)

We spent a wonderful few days in Morehead the latter part of July 4th week and had so much fun!  Sam had his first trip to the Aquarium and loved looking at the fish and otters.  Penguins.. not so much...boring.  I have to say that I am not much of an Aquarium/Museum person but seeing the little ones so excited (sam and logan.. my precious neice) made it much more entertaining.  We also did lots of swimming and sam chilled in his pink pool police float.  K-mart was out of more manly baby floats.  We had so much fun spending some good quality time with the fam! 

4th of July in Morehead!

NC Aquarium with Logan!

sweet cousins

stuck on you

A dear friend reminded me that this is definitely blog material...

let me explain.. :)  I got a little carried away playing with Sam and stuck a suction cup toy to my forehead.. in fact I don't even think it was a toy.  I think it was the bottom of a bottle brush.  You moms out there know what I am talking about.  Anyways, I had a nice forehead hickie for about 5 days.  5 days full of laughs and revlon!  :)

Father's Day!

Lewis has really in truly amazed me these past 9 months that he has been a dad.  He has not only amazed me as a dad but also as a husband to a new mom.  I think SOOO much of being a good parent, is being a good spouse.  Lets be honest, parenting is no joke and Lewis has transitioned into being such an awesome dad while also supporting me and helping be the best mom I can be to Sam.  His patience, committment to his family, and overall demeanor amaze me on a daily basis.  I strive to be more like Lewis and I know that Sam is going to be just like him one day.  Sam is totally smitten with his dad and I love nothing more than to see Sam's face truly light up when Lewis gets home from work.  {Mine lights up too :).  Some days, 5:45 takes a while to roll around :)} The dad's in my life truly deserve a day to be celebrated!  Thank ya'll for everything!! Happy Father's Day!

The loves of my life!!