A Day on the Farm

The Tuesday after Christmas Luke, Sam and I took a trip to my college friend Becky's family dairy farm. We had some great times there in college and we were looking forward to bringing our kids to the farm for the first time. Beth, Charlie, Owen and Eli met us there to play with Becky, Tim and Jack. The girls had some time to catch up while all of the boys played in the family room. Then of course after lunch we took a trip to the barn to meet the baby cows...which Sam loved!

Beth, Owen, Eli, Trisha, Sam, Becky and Jack

Christmas Recap

Christmas Eve at Grandma and PapPap's

We had our best Christmas ever this year! Sam is at such a fun age and because Luke worked less this year, we had lots of time together to enjoy Christmas instead of rushing through it! Christmas Eve we went to the kids service at our church and Sam was entertaining talking in his "non Church" voice. Then Sam and I had dinner at my parents while Luke worked the later service. Christmas morning we had to wake Sam up (we were that excited!) and spent a long time opening presents with him. The favorite gifts were his tent/tunnel and the new train set we got him. My parents came over to open more presents and Sam was so busy he didn't even get to open his stocking until the next day. Around lunch we went to my sister's house for more presents and Christmas dinner. We laughed, ate and played games...it was a really nice day together as a family. Saturday morning we headed to Greenville to spend time with Luke's family which meant more presents and eating! We are so thankful for our families and the wonderful memories we made this year!

The big hit...a tent/tunnel

Loving his new train...sitting in the middle of it

Christmas Day at Aunt Tammy's...playing with his new pots

Christmas Weekend at Grandma/Grandpa Good's...homemade hedgehog from Aunt Rachel

Two Lemons

So I realized the other day that I am consuming too much McDonald's Sweet Tea when my nearly two year old son said "two lemons" when I pulled into the drive-thru the other day! In my defense, when I order the tea I have to say two lemons at least twice because they always forget them and I have to ask again at the pick-up window. Needless to say I am laying off the tea because not only is it not good for me but Sam is getting to that age where he can start telling Daddy on me :)

We Love Christmas!

Sam has inherited his mother's love for the Christmas season. He insists on listening to Christmas music constantly (and dancing to it), loves to look at our stockings and says who they belong to, and gets excited every time he sees the few Christmas trees we have around the house. My mom bought us this Christmas tree magnet that has the countdown to Christmas on it. Sam and I change the countdown everyday during breakfast...I announce how many more days until Christmas and we both clap our hands...we are so silly! Yesterday we braved the first real winter-like day here and went to get our real Christmas tree in the snow. We went to a local tree farm and took a wagon ride out to the field to cut our tree down. Sam was dressed kinda like the brother in the Christmas story. He had on boots that were a little hard to walk in and too big mittens. He actually fell face-first in the snow at one point but just shrugged it off like the trooper that he is. We finally found our tree (there were so many good ones to pick from) and Sam gave a shout of horror when Luke cut it down! We had to quickly explain that we were taking it home with us. Now our house smells like a fresh cut tree and Sam is beyond thrilled that we have such a big tree in our living room!

Our tree...9.5 feet tall

Sam loves it, can you tell?!

Watching Daddy cut it down

Daddy teaching Sam how to tighten the bolts

Just My Imagination

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted...time is getting away from me these days. These days Sam has been developing quite the imagination! He uses his tools as microphones to sing into and footballs as bananas that he pretends to eat. He also has some favorite stuffed animals that he has given some personality to. He moves them around the house and every so often I hear him talking to them. Just the other day he held Wally the Koala up to the window so he could look outside and said "show Wally outside". I love seeing him use his imagination and be creative!

Dino Cards

So you already know that Sam loves dinosaurs. The other day I was at a kids sale and saw some dino flashcards. I thought Sam would love them even though they were probably intended for a much older kid. Well instead of encouraging Sam to work on his letters and numbers (he knows some of them), I encourage his love of dinos. Who knows, maybe he will be a paleontologist some day! Here is Sam telling us the dinos that he knows.

Trick or Treat

Sam was really excited to wear his Dino costume for another night. He also loved carrying his dino flashlight and his pumpkin bucket. First we had him help pass out the candy to the kids...he was kinda helpful until he realized he could put all of the candy in his bucket. We then took a walk to Grandma and PapPap's and stopped at some houses along the way. He did say "trick-or-treat" at most of the houses and would say thank you when I prompted him. I was really impressed how well he did...he wasn't afraid of any of the scary masks or decorations. It was a really fun night!