40 Here We Come

Sam has concluded his 30 week birthdays!  It's so hard to believe that he is so close to celebrating the big one year!  

Poncho, Mrs. Angie, the cat who is scared of Sam, and Mrs. Amy (Sam's favorite Bible school teacher) after Small Group. 

Mr. Justin (Mrs. Angie's husband) after Small Group.  I know Sam's face doesn't really capture it, but he actually does like Mr. Justin! 

With med school friends during the Super Bowl. 

Sierra, our sweet neighbor. 

***Note: 35 week picture on Pammy's camera...will add once I get it!***

Mr. Jeremy, med school friend. 

Pammy 

Sam with his new Greyhound friends after Small Group. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, my husband has red hair, so we decided that that was enough to classify us as Irish.  In order to celebrate our newly thought of heritage Sam and I started the day in downtown Huntsville at the St. Patrick's Day parade.  To my surprise there were quite a few people there.  When we first got there the fire trucks were blaring their sirens and the Shriners were tooting the insanely loud horns on their tiny little cars.  Let's just say that Sam was not a fan of these sounds and his face immediately balled up into a little red ball, the mouth flew open, and out spilled the sounds of horror.  My poor baby was terrified.  He has never clung on to me like he did during that parade.  As time passed he became more relaxed and even enjoyed parts of it.  It was an interesting parade to say the least.  The only parades I remember going to were in St. Louis, so they were a tad bigger.  I must say, however, that I appreciated the smaller town charm of this parade.  Let's just say that there was quite an eclectic mix of floats and parade participants!  For instance...

Irish dancers

The mascot for Huntsville's hockey team..."Chaos" maybe?

The Mayor

The St. Patrick's Day Parade Queen!

Irish punk bagpipe rock band.  Like I said, eclectic, but you haven't seen anything yet...

The recycle robot...a favorite of all the kids

John Deere tractors and street sweepers.

Well, of course there were pirates...what St. Patrick's Day parade would be complete without pirates?

And my personal favorite...the St. Patrick's Day Ghost Busters.  

I am pretty sure that this dog is the size of our cottage.  He was huge!  I don't think Sam understood that he was a dog!

When we got home from the parade we were very excited to see that Ty was home for the day.  We had such a special afternoon enjoying time together as a family!  We had a nice lunch together then headed to Big Spring Park which is just a few blocks from our house.  It is a wonderful place full of fish, ducks, trees, a pond, fountains, and many other fun things.  (It is also where Ty proposed.  Who knew that we would one day lie right down the street from that special spot!)  We went on that day in particular because the big fountain was died green for St. Patty's Day.  I would not say it was the most spectacular thing I had ever seen, but it was fun to look at the green fish!  While we were there we ran into our friend Chase who is a news anchor here in Huntsville...we even got on the news!  It was wonderful as always to see him and catch up on his exciting life!  

What, you can't tell that it's green?  Good thing it only cost $2,000! 

Sam and Chase 

I think he was telling us that he was feeling a bit exposed! 

That is one cute baby!

Outside is still his favorite place to be! 

Outside is even better when shared with Daddy! 

So incredibly thankful for the blessing of these two! 

After we were done at the park it was time to eat dinner...spaghetti for the first time! 

It wasn't quite dark yet when we were finished with dinner, so Sam and Ty walked over to the high school to watch a soccer match.  Sam clapped and cheered for the Huntsville boys! 

At the end of a long, fun day.  What precious times to cuddle with my sweet boy.

What do you do when...

What do you do when you finish your lunch?

You eat all the food that fell into your bib.

And then you take a nap.

Mom, I love your turkey

As we have already discussed, Sam is no stranger to the dinner table.  The little guy became an even bigger fan of mealtimes once we introduced him to the world of turkey.

Let me start by saying that I made dinner...it was not exactly one that I would enter into a Paula Deen Cookoff, but it was edible and it provided sustenance.  I cooked a turkey breast, turnip fries, and butter beans.  The turkey was about as dry as a two by four in the middle of a desert and the turnip fries were saltier than a sweaty six hundred pound man running full speed on a treadmill in a desert.  Needless to say my dinner that night consisted entirely of butter beans.  Ty was wonderful and ate everything, with a smirk on his face, but ate it no less.

And Sam you ask?  Well, this was his favorite dinner of all time!  He gobbled up the turnip fries.  Once I realized how bad they were I moved them to a pile across the table to which he quickly expressed his disapproval.  (I did cut him off after a few for fear that he had exceeded his sodium intake for the year.)  He learned that night just how much he loves butter beans.  I made a ton and I think he ate 3/4 of the pot over the next few days.  But Sam's favorite part of the whole meal was the turkey.  He was acting picky that night and decided that he wanted to sit in Ty's lap for dinner, so Ty let him.  As soon as that sad chunk of turkey caught his eye it was all over.  He grabbed it up and put the whole chunk in his mouth before we even knew what happened.  HE LOVED IT!  The boy ate, and ate, and ate that night.  Sam loves his Mama's turkey!

He also learned that night that George likes to eat people food too.  Once Sam had finished engorging himself he picked up a piece of food, leaned over, and dropped it on the floor right in front of George.  He thought it was hilarious and just laughed and laughed.  Of course, we could not help but laugh at Sam.  He has since made a habit out of feeding George a few bites after, and only after, he is done eating.  He thinks it is so funny he even starts laughing before he drops the first bite!

I think we know what Sam's favorite holiday will be...Thanksgiving!!  Just wait until he is big enough to hold a whole turkey leg!

Yay for turkey!!!

Sharing with George.

Best buddies!

Three Sisters

For one of the first times in quite a while my two sisters and I were all in Hope Hull with our children...and without our husbands.  Thankfully we all have amazing Christian husbands who are almost always in attendance to family functions and get togethers.  It just so happened on this weekend that all of our husbands were busy.  It was a lot of fun to have my sisters and all of our boys together with Mother and Daddy.

Granddaddy's birthday was the following week, so we had a little birthday party for him.  Of course, he had lots of helpers with his candles.  (Sam was napping and missed the party.)  After we ate cake we all watched Everlie and the boys play Wii.  The dance competitions were extra fun to watch.  Ethan was always the high scorer.  Jackson's moves had a lot of soul, but as usual, he was dancing to the beat of his own drum!  Then Grandmother and Granddaddy even played bowling on the Wii.  It was neat to watch them learn and play.  They were pretty good!

Jackson and Davis relaxing after working hard on the Wii.

Ethan is a great babysitter!

Unfortunately the Mastitis Monster bit me that weekend.  I had been developing increasing pain throughout the week, but it really hit hard that Saturday morning.  After quality time with an antibiotic, Tylenol, the couch, a heating pad, and a boo boo buddy I was feeling much better.