February thus far...

Here's some pics of Sam over the past few weeks. She's really starting to grow up!! She's trying to copy pretty much anything and everything we say, it just doesn't always come out so clear :) Learning new things like painting, jumping, climbing on the kitchen stools, throwing fits in public places, operating the dvd player :) and I'm sure much more that I'm just not thinking of at the moment! She loves to help out in the kitchen with cooking, baking and playing in the sink while Mom cooks dinner :) Daddy has taught her just enough to where she now knows how to open the piano and play it all on her own...it's really cute, she'll play along to jingles on her veggie tales movies as she sings :) She's soooo much fun and we thank God for her everyday! We've been busy lately getting things ready for our son's arrival just a few weeks from now!!

McCall 2011

Last year we started a new tradition with four other co-workers and their families of going to the McCall Winter Festival. We rent a big house and all share in meal preparations and enjoy time just hanging out and visiting all of the beautiful snow sculptures that people create! Sam's favorite was definitely the one with the mine cart, ski lift and snowmobile we got to sit on...she liked it best because there was lots to see and lots of space to run around plus she was allowed to touch anything there. My favorite was the outhouse...someone had a good sense of humor :) The theme was celebrating 100 years of McCall so there were plenty of trains and logging trucks along with a few Sharlie sculptures which apparently is a local legend around there.

Hop 2 It

We took Sam to Hop 2 It for the first time the other day. Hop 2 It is basically a warehouse with a whole bunch of blow up toys for kids and their parents to go on...they have obstacle courses, a ball pit, slides, jump houses and sporty bounce things! We got there and figured Sam would be scared to death since she's pretty much afraid of everything, but we were wrong...she was still cautious but wasn't scared by any means. After an hour of jumping and going through obstacle courses she had totally worn her dad out but we did stay for a while longer...mommy even jumped a little with her too even though baby brother was comfy on mom's bladder!! ;)

Christmas Day

I had to work Christmas Eve night, so when I got home we opened presents from each other and Santa then webcammed with my in-laws and exchanged our gifts that way. This Christmas was by far the best one!! And I'm sure they're only going to get more and more fun!! Sam definitely understood things a lot better this year! And although it took us 15 minutes to talk her out of her bed and her toy room, when she came out to the living room and saw her kitchen and stocking from Santa her eyes just lit up as a perma-grin appeared across her face! She did much better with opening presents as she instructed mommy to "pull pull" on all the wrapping paper to help her get it opened :) We still had some trouble keeping her on track with opening all of her presents as she got so excited with each present she didn't want to open another. But, we eventually got through them all and she couldn't decide which one to play with, although her favorites appear to be her kitchen, her "Sweet Pea" doll, the Veggie Tales movie, Pistachio, Mr. Potato Head and her Dora book with all the little figurines in the back. After presents we put the ham in the oven and all laid down so Mommy could take a nap while Sam watched Pistachio three or four times over :)