The girls having fun

I’m Blogging Again–I Know You’re Shocked

 

Much has happened in the last several months, but I just wanted to share a few stories from this week.  First, Samuel. 

Today at church, as Sam wandered the back aisle of the overflow (we’ve starting sitting in back so he can meander without distracting everyone behind us), he paused and looked up at the chair he was standing behind.  He saw something black, something that looked like it wasn’t part of the chair, so he reached out and poked it.  It was squishy!  He poked again, and the person sitting in the chair looked around and smiled at him.  It was someone’s back! 

Way cute, right?  Except then, having figured that out, he decided to try it out a few more times.  Walk up behind a chair, poke the squishy part as hard as you can, and wait—sure enough, every time someone turned around to smile.  It was great! 

Adam and I, of course, instead of stopping him, got the giggles and just sat there, laughing helplessly, while he distracted everyone in the back of the chapel.  Yep, we are those parents. 

Here are some pictures from Sam’s birthday last month, a fine and festive day. 

 

Next Anna.  Earlier this week, we were all having a bickering, unpleasant morning.  I, in all my perfect-mother glory, told Anna that I was going to sell her.  Instead of being phased by that, she looked up at me with a delighted grin and said, “Mommy, would you sell me to the Frei’s? (a family in our ward)  They like me.”  “Sure, Anna,” I laughed.  “I’ll ask them.”  Then she thought for a moment and came back with “Actually, Mommy, you might make more money if you just invite all your friends and Daddy’s friends over and have them talk about who wants to buy me the most.  And then the Frei’s can win.”  I answered, “That’s called an auction, Anna.  Should we auction you?”  “Yep,” she said  happily.  “That way you can make lots of money on me.”

She really is Adam’s daughter, isn’t she? 

And last, but never least, Mariah. 

Mariah loves to pretend.  This week she has spent a significant amount of time being a beagle named Lou, a Pegapony (thank you, Barbie) named Sparkles, and a Planet Hero from Earth named Ace.  As we were walking into Fred Meyer on Friday, I said, “Okay, Mariah, we’re going to go potty.”  She said, “No, I’m NOT Mariah.  I’m Ace.”  “Oh, sorry, Ace,” I apologized.  “I am not a girl,” she emphasized.  “Got it.  Sorry.”  “Girls don’t wear clothes like this, Mommy.”  “Um, like what?” I asked, looking at her pink skirt and green shirt.  “Like this orange shirt and blue pants and big boy shoes that I am wearing, Mommy,” she answered, obviously flabbergasted by how dumb I was.  “Oh, right.  My mistake.”

Luckily, little Ace had no problem going into the girls’ restroom. 

Sam learns to walk

Since so many of you weren’t actually at our house when Sam learned to walk I thought I would post a few videos of the fun progression from non walker to walking maniac.

Of course, anyone can walk if they have a chair.

First steps, at least on video

There is a lot of controlled falling before they can actually walk.

This is Sam almost really walking. It was always hard to get him on video though because he always goes after the camera.

And then the distance gets greater:

And here is Sam showing us that not only can he walk, but he can go between two girls yelling "Have a Merry Christmas" while holding a broom.

And just because this has to do with walking:

The End of the Year (Ok so not anymore.)

The end of the year is always exciting. Here are some pictures from ours.

For Halloween Sarah made lovely matching Diego and Alicia costumes for the girls.  And of course, since Sam was big enough, he got to be a the duck.

Anna got fun stuff for her Birthday

Sam, before he could walk. Ok, so it has been a long time since we updated and Sam has grown a lot.

We actually got to see Snow this year because we went to Utah for Thanksgiving. And once again, during the drive home, I remembered why I don't like going to Utah at Thanksgiving.

A boy and his dad.

A boy and his mom.

The wise men from the '70s.

Christmas Morning. I don't really remember much about it, except that once again the kids got way more toys than we planned. It just never seems to work out that they get the right amount of toys.

More Christmas toys.

And more Christmas toys.

Another one of Sam with Sarah, both of them being cute.

This one is just great.

From Christmas to New Year, half my family came up to visit us. We went to all sorts of fun places, like the zoo. We didn’t get a lot of pictures of them, but here are the kids sitting on a bronze, I think, elephant.

The kids are growing

Over the last few weeks I have noticed that are kids are really growing up.  Several of the pictures can attest to that, as can the fact that we almost need to make two batches of waffles.

So, here are a few pictures and videos showing off all their great personalities.

Anna’s face is starting to look like a little girl instead of a big baby.

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Since I last posted, Sam has learned to sit up, and to do an awesome army crawl.

 

And he is looking more and more like his old man everyday

Mariah recently had a birthday.  She turned 3.  Here is an awesome video that shows all the great personalities in our family.

Anna is just the best, isn’t she?

Here are a few more pictures, just for fun:

One more picture

There is one more summer picture that I wanted to post.  Since I had a lot of time off, I went biking with the girls a bunch.  I guess Mariah enjoys biking differently than me.

The end of the Summer

Around July 4th it was finally warm enough to turn the heater off.  Now it is cold enough to heat again, so the summer must be over.  We’ve had quite the summer, so, now I can share it with you.

Samuel is now 5 1/2 months old.  He is growing very fast.  He is bigger than Anna or Mariah were at the same age, so he is going to be a big boy when he gets older.  The most noticeable thing about Samuel is that he likes to put everything in his mouth.  Paper is his favorite thing, but hair is a close second

The upside to him liking everything in his mouth is he is willing to eat, even if all he can eat is Single Grain Rice Cereal.

 

One of the big things we did this year was to go on a “real” vacation to Utah.  As part of our real vacation we took the girls to Lagoon.  Well, I took them along with Jakob, Saralynn, Tiffany and Mike.  Sarah hung out with Samuel.  Next year he will be over one year old, so hopefully we can just leave him with one of his loving grandparents and Sarah can join us.

Anna loved running through the fountain

Because it is so much warmer in Utah, and my dad has a swing set, the girls spend a lot more time outside.

And of course, what is a trip to Utah without seeing people. 

Anna is with Aunt Tiffany and her cousin Emily

Here is the whole gang with Grandma Sherri

And the whole gang with Grandpa Alan

And Anna’s new friend Cocoa

This isn’t everything we did this summer.  But it was a fun part of it.  The other big thing that happened this summer was my work was changed a bit.  Last December I was moved to a new team.  Well, the new team was dissolved in June, so I was put on a different team.  I still work on phones though, so life is good.  As soon as the team was dissolved, I decided to take the paternity leave that I hadn’t taken since Samuel was born.  So I took 5 weeks off.  Part of that was spent in Utah, while the rest was spent trying to dig a big tree stump out of the front yard.  It was quite the project, but I did eventually (last Saturday) finish digging it out.

Here are a few more pictures