Beach babies!

This past weekend has been a long time coming!  Sam, mom, dad, matt, steph, viv, kate, & I soaked up some topsail time!  We missed lewis (a lot!..Lewis was on a sailing trip around New England area with his dad and some other guys and dads) I have been looking so forward to having all of my family (well most) together in my favorite place in the world.  We had such a great time watching Sam and Viv interact.  There is a BIG difference between how girls and boys play.  Viv is so sweet and just sits and plays so sweetly with her favorite turtle teether.  Meanwhile, Sam is bulldozing through toys to either gently (sometimes a little more rough than gentle) place the palm of his hand on on viv's forehead and/or take whatever toy she had.  We found out that Sam's favorite toy was the one Viv had at the moment.  They both love the sand and water.  Sam enjoyed the fine cuisine of the coast with his main course being sand served with a side of sand.  Topsail provides a lot of opportunity for exporation and these little ones are only skimming the tip of the iceberg of everything they are going to learn down there.  We had so much and can't wait till next time. 

bath time with cuz!

so sweet!  love this picure!

and we were swinging..

can't have enough of these sunset pics

precious!

DADs!

new floater the guys worked so hard on

Mother's Day & Sam's Baptism

My first mother's day was absolutely wonderful! I really don't think I could have spent this very specail day any better.  Sam was baptized which was so special and all of our dear family was here to share this day with us.  Sam did great during his baptism.  He was hilarious and had the congregation cracking up on several occasions.  Evidently he was flashing his sweet smile when our preacher was walking him down the isle and introducing him to his church family.  The elder that introduced sam was our nextdoor neighbor, Tommy King.  He is a special man and we were honored for him to stand up there with us.  When we got back to the house he said, "Sam has a characteristic that will take him far in life, and that is, that he smiles when he looks at you."  That is true.  Sam is a smiling boy and as I always say, we feel so so blessed and fortunate to have a happy, healthy baby boy.  

Now, that I am a mom, I am a big fan of mother's day. :)  Moms work HARD and deserve to be celebrated!  To my mom, thank you for being there for me through everything, teaching me all you know, and being my example for who I want to be to my children.  My first mother's day was perfect.

double mint, double mint, gum!

4 generations!

 

8 months!

been chilling in my blue pool..

good ol baby gut laugh!

What a fun filled month this has been!  Sam is on the move!  That knee bend leg kick rock quickly emerged to full out crawl!  Sam is speeding from room to room and in our multilevel house, this means lots of exploration combined with lots of hands/eyes on sam time.  Baby proofing is in full effect!  Sam loves to motor through a sea of vibrant colored, noise making, stimulating toys only to arrive at a dirty old, slobbery dog bone or a lonely set of fireplace tools.  Only to provide a few examples of those interesting household items that sam finds absolutely fascinating.  I love watching Sam explore his world and watch him problem solve as he learns that he can put things in and dump them out.  Sam is still working on some teeth but no pearly whites yet.  His precious little blonde hair grows every day.  He is getting a little bubble of blonde hair with the cutest little baby boy peak at the base of his neck.  Sam has also starting doing a lot more talking.  He is making lots of new sounds like baa baa, daa daa (almost Da Da lew), mm, mm (almost ma ma).  With swimming lessons on the horizon, Sam is prepping by spending lots of time in his state of the art blue baby pool.  You can't beat the $7.99 plastic baby pool.  We had to bust out the rash guard that I have been waiting patiently to put on him since my baby shower approximately 1 year ago!!  I absolutely cannot believe that it has been about a year since we were painting a nursery, I was picking out fabric for the crib, and we were starting to accumulate baby goods that I was SO excited to use.  Although I imagined a precious baby boy, I never knew how precious & perfect and I never knew the power and depth of a mother's love.  As Sam grows, he steals my growing heart each day.  His laugh, his smile, his bruised knees, his determination, his curiosity, and basically all the little things about him are each and every one, little blessings from God.  I can't thank you enough.

gilligan! the skipper (kate) too!

growing blonde hair!

white dolphin!

my little BOY!

hammin it up!

7 months!!

In my true bloggin style, I am late on my 7 month update!!  Where do I start!  Ok, i think I know.. sam is sleeping through the night!!!! This really is pure joy and a blessing from the good Lord!! I am serious, lots of prayer has gotten us to this point.  We went to Sam's 6 month appointment and the MD (who really never offers any advice other than "crying it out") insisted that nothing was wrong with Sam (no stomach hurting, teething etc.) other than, simply not knowing how to get himself back to sleep.  He expected to be fed, held or rocked. SO, our sleep had gotten SO bad that we had to do it.  Not that we hadn't tried it in the past but this time it was a little more brutal.  Sure enough, after 3 nights of crying, we all slept about 8 hours that 4th night.  And for the past month we have been sleeping!! Praise the Lord!!  So that is the biggest bit of blog worthy news.  As always, Sam is growin, growing.  He is trying so hard to crawl and he gets better at it everyday.  I went to get him out of his crib the other day and he was sitting up looking at me and smiling like crazy.  He was very proud of himself.  We then immediately lowered the crib.  We also celebrated Sam's first Easter this past month and did the Morehead/Topsail shuffle to visit fam.  Sam has his very own swing both places and he loves it!  He has loved a swing since the day he was born!  I know my mom absolutely cannot wait to get Sam and Viv swinging side by side at Topsail.  Which is only a 1 month away!! woohoo!!  Matt, Steph, and Viv will be in the continental US in just a matter of weeks!  I absolutely cannot wait to see my brother, sister-in-law, and sweet neice!! 

So, this has been an awesome month.  My old friend sleep has come back into my life with very welcomed arms!  Sleeping through the night makes a huge difference!!  For all involved.  Even Kate! Maybe, just maybe I will do some more bloggin in this next month.  Since I can't blame my slackness on lack of sleep anymore, I think I will blame pinterest.

Sunrise on Easter Morning!

Family Easter pic

sam loved his Easter basket!

Whats up Peter Cottontail!

6 months!

Ok, shew! I really am bad at blogging.  I always think, I need to put this on the blog, but I don't do it! Maybe this month.. :)  So my precious little boy is 6 months!  Well, actually he is almost 7 months now but for the sake of the post, lets just say 6 months.  I think my favorite thing that Sam has really perfected this month is sitting up.  It is so much fun to play with him when we can sit across from each other and really interact during play.  As I always say, it is truly amazing to see the new skills that happen daily.  I really think he is getting ready to crawl.  We still have a ways to go but he is getting closer everyday.  Ok, I can't type up this post without mentioning the 13 baby playdate we had at our house.  It was hilarious! The babies were so cute and they loved seeing & interacting with each other.  It is crazy that there are so many little ones the same age (or at least within a few months of each other).  We also took Sam to the nursery at church for the first time this month.  I can't believe it has taken us this long to do that, but it went really well.  I think Sam really enjoyed himself.  The ladies keeping the nursery swooned over Sam.  They know exactly what to tell a new mom. 

Spring has sprung in Wilmington, and I am loving every minute of this warm weather.  I always forget how much I love this time of the year (spring, flowers, and of course March madness - Go Heels!) and it is especially wonderful when you have a beautiful baby boy to share it with.  Sam is the perfect age for this weather.  He loves being outside and I am just counting down the days until it is warm enough to get out the plastic baby pool.  We went to Topsail this past weekend and Sam loved the sand and cold ocean water on his tootsies. Speaking of pools, can't wait for him to splash in the little pools so perfectly formed by mother nature on the beach this summer!!

So.. the 6th month of Sam's life has been awesome and while challenging at times, everyday with him is such a blessing and so full of joy!!

 

babies galore!

 

5 months and counting!!

hello blog! i didn't think i would be very good at blogging but it makes it even harder to sit down and gather thoughts when you have a baby that does not sleep!! :)  Sam is a big 5 1/2 months old! I cannot believe it.  He gets cuter and more fun by the day but yes, we are still battling sleep!  He is a social man and does not like to miss anything.  But I don't want to bog down the blog with all of the sleep stuff becuase, we have so much to be thankful for and sam is really doing great.  Just a few more zzzzz's here and there would be nice.  All in all this has been a great month:  Sam met his sweet cousin Vivian, Vivian's dad (matt my bro) returned home from an 8 month! deployment, sam started eating solid foods, I have started to return to some of my old occupations [sewing, reading (I am a fronting reader but I am in a book club now and about 1/2 through my first book), exercise (ha! yeah right, did a workout video one day and was so sore, i have not had the guts to go back to it), Lewis and I had a night out on the town for our dear friends' (Austin & Cameron) engagement party while Sam spent his first night with Mars & Jeeps, and we are beginning our house search while ours that we rent and the one we own in Raleigh goes on the market.   I got my first taste of spring fever this week and am getting so excited about warm weather!  I found a pair of tiny swim trunks in some clothes my cousin gave me and it got me so excited about putting sam in some trunks and hitting the beach!  I will try to do better at updating the blog.  I think it is one of those things that the more you do it the easier it is.  I want to get good at the spontaneous blog post and branch out from just monthly updates.  Stay tuned..!

5 months!

I like this jumperoo but still trying to figure it out

Love this pic!

then.. (august 2011)

and now! (January 2012)  We are here!!! wooohoooo!!!!

4 months!

4 months!  As always, I cannot believe another month has passed!  This past month was great as we celebrated Christmas and rang in 2012!  I sit here a little bit slow as I gather my thoughts for my 4 month sam update because we had a little bit of a restless night!  Sam has not been sleeping that great at night recently and we just transitioned him to his crib at night instead of his rock-n-play sleeper (which I highly recommend).  He has way outgrown that thing.  So, despite the couple of awakenings, I am beyond thrilled that he is out of the cradle.  He is growing like crazy.  Everyday that I work and don't see him during the day, I swear he has gained another pound or so. As I always say, it is amazing to see the changes that happen daily.  He has really found his feet and likes putting his big juicy toe in his mouth.  In fact, he likes putting everything in his mouth.  The dr. told me he isn't teething until you can feel or see a tooth, but i swear we have some early stage teething going on.  Sam's awake time (which is a lot) is getting more and more fun and funnier!  He is really starting to be a ham!  He is gut chuckling at everything and he is an easy crowd.  Lewis continues to be Sam's main attraction though.  Sam rolled himself over this month from his back to his stomach.  This still isn't that consistent and he may need a little facilitation but he is really starting to move and groove.  Sam has also really started to love kate!  I will be holding him and will hear a big ol laugh and look back at Sam grinning from ear to ear at Kate.  He continues to power nap during the day.  His most predictable nap is in the morning and then he catches 20 - 30 minutes here an there the rest of the day.  I have learned to not stress over this napping stuff because he is so happy when he is awake and I really think he is getting the rest he needs.  So we just kind of go with the flow of the day.  In conclusion, with each month and day for that matter, I love this little man more and more.   He is such a blessing and I am so so thankful for a healthy baby boy, the best husband a person could ever imagine having, and all of the constant love and support from our family and friends!