My baby is SIX months old!!

My chubby Angel turns half a year today! I'm a little sad. I don't have a new baby anymore :(

So you can all feel like you know Sam personally here is some personal information about him:

• Sam is still sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed. John is pressuring me to move him into the bedroom down the hall.....


• He has a dream feed about 10:30 or 11:00 and then sleeps until his middle of the night feed about 3-4 AM or so. He then wakes at 6:18 am (ON THE BUTTON!) and I bring his chubby bum into our bed so I can nurse on my side and attempt to get another hour or so of sleep. I know this makes it sound like he's not the best sleeper, but I am thrilled! It has taken me months to get him to only wake up 2x a night!


• We weighed him at John's clinic on Saturday and he weighed nearly 18 pounds!! Clara didn't even weigh that at a year!


• He LOVES baby food. We started him at 5 months because he was trying to snatch food from us and looking at us like child abusers while we ate. He took right to it. I do have to make sure to nurse him first or he would only fill up on solids and not nurse. He loves rice and oatmeal cereal, bananas, peas, sweet potatoes and spinach. He is a messy eater but he can pound it!


• He has a scratchy voice. It reminds me of my sister in law Julia. It's cute-especially when he cries.


• He loves taking baths


• He simultaneously exhausts me and delights me


• This morning he was staring at me intently in bed. He then took his binky out of his mouth and tried to cram it into mine. Brilliant Scientist? I think so.


• His favorite activity (after nursing and eating) is to bounce in his doorway bouncer. Kid can't get enough

I'm heatbroken he is getting older. But I'm also looking forward to getting to know his sweet personality better and watch him grow. We just love our Sammy so much. It's hard to imagine a time when he wasn't apart of our family!

Christmas is coming....

And Sam is getting fat. Me too actually :) But my growing derriere is not what this blogpost is about....
On Wednesday night our new ward had their annual Christmas party. Santa was there in the beginning. Clara requested a caterpillar. She had mentioned months ago she wanted one- but she hadn't said a word since! I hope she's not too crushed when "santa" doesn't deliver....


Edie didn't care about Santa. Only Candy.




Later that night Samuel made his great acting debut! He was baby Jesus in our ward's nativity! Which made John=Joseph and I was Mary. Originally the sister in our ward wanted me to stuff Sam under my top somehow so I would look pregnant- and to wear this cardboard donkey thing strapped to my waist which jiggled as I walked. I kindly said No. I ambushed another sister in our ward who is actually with child to play Mary at the first part of the play, and then I was postpartum Mary. It actually went really well. Sam didn't scream or cry at all. He did however fuss at one point so I picked him up and he began "jumping" up and down on my lap. But besides that he was very committed to the part.

I haven't been looking forward to Christmas as much this year. In fact I've been rather bitter. John got stuck with working Christmas Eve all day. And then they didn't give him a bonus since he was new. Next year they said. I wish we had of known that ahead of time. I have also been feeling extremely overwhelmed with our house. We have gotten alot done (the basement is 95% finished) and its starting to look better (well downstairs anyway). But it still needs SO much work and we just don't really have the money right now to do it.

Yesterday I left my girls with a very sweet girl from my ward and Sam and I drove into Tri-cities to do some Grocery/Christmas shopping. The crowds were horrendous and I was feeling
like the grinch. I was in the parking lot when I noticed a family going out to their very old mini van. The mother was in a wheelchair and the husband so sweetly helped her into the car. She was probably in her early thirties- not much older than I am. I immediately felt ashamed of how much of an ingrate I had been. I have SO many blessings. For starters I have great health. I have TWO fully functioning legs. I'm pissed my husband has to work Christmas Eve? I'm dang lucky my husband has a job! AND I get to stay home with my children- I'm doing what I've always wanted to do. I'm actually mad about my house not being the way I want it to be? How many people can't even afford rent? I drove home in my reliable car and gave thanks to Heavenly Father as I drove. For everything- being blessed to be born a member of the church, for my kind husband who loves me and supports our family, for my three beautiful healthy children, our home, our cars and everything in between. So although I am still a little sad to be away from family and that John has to work more than I'd like- I'm thankful and happy for the abundance of blessings I have. I have more blessings than I can even count.

I love finding my girls in situations like these, it makes me smile and warms my heart. I do however wish that basket hadn't had freshly ironed clothes to be hung in it...

Family Photo's Fall 2011

My girlies :)

My Wee Man.

I think he's really enjoying this

We were very fortunate to get our pictures taken by my friend Carlye before we left for Washington. She is amazing! Even though our kids were being total stinkers we got so many awesome shots.

This and That....

John put up Sam's doorway jumper. It's a hit.
I can't get enough of his chubby thighs hanging out...

And it actually snowed here in Washington! We were all thrilled. We let them play outside and we listened to Christmas music...

Unfortuntately its all gone now :( And its like almost 50 degree's outside. So depressing.

Our new bathtub is in!! This bath tub has caused me a great deal of stress. As I mentioned before there were two showers in this house. One full length big one upstairs- and a smaller one downstairs. So we chose to have one put in upstairs. The orginal price tag was around $4500 for a stinkin bathtub. We considered re-doing the kitchen first, or atleast the downstairs... However, we both felt like we should just get the bathtub remodel over with. Boy, am I glad we did. Our contractor ripped the walls off- tile everything, and discovered a very nasty surprse. The previous owner had re-done the tub himself, (oh and this guy did not have a clue what he was doing, we've decided he just made it up as he went along....). We'll he didn't seal the shower- or a lay a pan down. So all of the wood underneath was completely soaked and alot of it was beginning to rot. Our Contractor said we were just a few short months away from having a complete disaster on our hands. He said if it had gone on much longer we could have been in the shower one day and it could have fallen through to the downstairs. That's a lovely thought. So of course we had to pay for new wood and framing. We thought the worst was over. Then he began to do the plumbing for the shower/bathtub, and discovered that Mr. Previous homeowner had vented the toilet into the shower. Meaning he didn't even plumb the toilet properly. He just took piping and extended the toilet's plumbing over to the shower so it could use those pipes. Naturally he forgot to mention any of these details when we bought the house. One morning I was just feeding my kids in the kitchen when I heard our contractor gagging. I wasn't really sure what to do so I decided to just ignore it.... Then he ran out onto the porch and started heaving. I felt a little awkward but I went out there and asked if I could offer him a glass of water or something. Let's just say he discovered a nasty surprise when he went to re-do the plumbing. Gross and rather embarrassing.... So we had to get the local overpriced plumber to come in and completely re-run all the plumbing for the toilet and cut a massive hole in the ceiling downstairs so he could have full access to everything. So in all, we are glad this experience is over and we are thankful that poo never flowed up into our shower. The dang tub has costed us a whole lot more than we expected- but I'm happy we caught the rotting wood when we did! We are now onto the basement. New carpet, a few new walls, baseboards and some other minor improvements- and we will be taking a long break from house hold repairs as we have completely exhausted our home makeover budget and then some... (okay alot).

Sam enjoys the new tub. The sink was getting tight ;)

Sam

Sam loves playing dress up's with the girls.

He won't smile for me if my face is behind the camera- so I have to smile and hold the camera without looking through it- its made for some interesting pictures.

Bathtime!

He's very modest

I can't even tell you how in love with this little man I am. I can't look at him without smiling. He just warms my heart! It's cute to me how unique each baby is. Obviously, he looks like he belongs in our family, but its amazing to me how individual their little personalities can be!

• Sam LOVES to nurse. All the time.


• Sam has gas alot. I lay in bed and can hear him ripping toot's in his bassinet next to me.


• He is a thumb sucker- except he doesn't put his thumb in his mouth and then curl his fingers into a fist- instead he lays his fingers out over is face. It's hilarious to look at.


• Sam has got WICKED reflux. If your holding him watch out! Especially if he's eaten in the past two hours or so. And he's a foodie- so he usually has.


• Sam is not so good at sleeping through the night. In fact most nights he ends up in our bed at some point. I am working on this......


• Sam has a disposition more similar to Edie's. They're both very kick back mellow babies. Clara on the other hand....


• Sam is incredibly smiley. If I just look at him -especially in the morning- he breaks out into an ear to ear gummy grin.


• Sam is a BIG boy. We'll big for our standards of course. At four months he was nearly 16 pounds.


• Sam has more hair than any of our babies have had. Your probably looking at his pictures and wondering what hair I could possibly be talking about- but trust me on this. Edie looked like we had bic'd her until she was around 18 months old.


• Sam has a few nicknames : Sammy, Deedle, The Pudge, Wee man, Chub a Lub, and my his full name Sam-U-Well.

We are so in love with our Sam. He is so sweet, I miss him while he naps. I just love his bald head. It breaks my heart he's getting older. With my others I enjoyed the "next phase" and watching them grow. But with Sam it just tugs at my heart. I think I've learned how fast it goes. I wish he could be my tiny baby forever!

Autumn in Washington

I usually try and walk to pick Clara up from pre-school because its usually warm enough.

This is the worlds most hateful little dog. It hangs out around this house- always loose- and waits for anyone to walk by. I am terrified of it. The other day it was in the street and I really considered running over it. I really think if it got the chance it would bite one of us.

Clara was having a grand time gathering up leaves until this nasty little dog came out and chased us down the street. Stupid mutt!

And here are my little Bubs in the stroller

Trunk or Treat at our new ward!

We did Trunk or Treat at our new ward. John and I were both a little apprehensive going when we didn't really know many people, but we did for our kids sake, and I'm sure glad we did because we ended up having fun!

Clara was Harry Potter and Edie is a Ballerina. I can't believe how grown up my little ballerina looks!

And Sam was a Bat. (Thank you to Mimi for the Bat costume!)

Some people decorated the backs of their cars really nice. We'll remember that next year:)

CANDY!!!

Our Bat fell asleep on the way over to the Ward. A little sad he didn't get to see the excitement, but it did make it alot easier for us.

After collecting their loot they sat in the back of the car and looked at all the costumes the kids had on.

The girls ripping into their candy!