I love chocolate!

This is Sam being a "chocolate monster" after cleaning out the brownie batter bowl. She asked if we could make brownies tonight and of course who am I to turn down a request like that? Chocolate anyone?

Buddies

The other night I got home from work to find Brandon & Samantha eating popcorn and watching Ice Age. After giving me a hug and snuggling back under the blanket she told me that "daddy and me buddies, no room for mommy" So of course I had to take a picture of the "buddies".

The next morning I asked her if Sam & I were buddies and she said "no, daddy buddy".

Tonight when Brandon asked her is she was his buddy she said "No, I'm Sam. Daddy is buddy." Too cute!

Pumpkin Patch

We have this great pumpkin patch by our house with a little corn maze, lots of old tractors for the kids to sit on, hay bales set up to take pictures on, and of course, lots of pumpkins! The farmer that does this every year is so nice; he told us he does this every year just to see all the kids have a fun time.

This is the pumpkin Sam picked out right when we got there. Its just her size.

The new yard

Thanks to the generosity of Grandpa Ron and Grandma Chris, at long last Samantha now has grass to play on in her back yard!!!

I have included some pictures of before, during, and after pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Side yard before the top soil came.

View of the back yard prior to top soil.

It is amazing how it looked after getting rid of all the weeds.

The finished product!!! This is the side yard again.

I still have some clean up to do on the patio, but what a difference the grass makes!

It almost looks like a park!!!

Our back yard looks so much bigger now with all the grass. It was a long day getting it all put down, but we had some much welcomed help from neighbors and Grandpa Ron.

It will be nice to have a place for the kids to play!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa. We love our new grass!!!

My new favorite Sam pic

Here is my new favorite picture of Sam taken this morning. She has been sick all week :-( and was finally feeling better today.

Silly Samantha Pics

Here are just a few more pics of Samantha being her fun loving, clean freak, fashion diva self. Enjoy!

We love cookies!

Sam really enjoys being my little helper. Especially in the kitchen. Cookies are a favorite treat at our house :-)

Fairy Godmother Samantha

Out came the dress-up box one day and Sam became "bibbity boo" (translation, the fairy godmother from Cinderella) Surprisingly she stayed dressed up for most of the day.

Grammy visits from Austin

My Mom came to visit us this summer. It was so much fun!

Of course we also miss the rest of our Texas family and am thankful to be able so see some of them soon when Tamara has her baby.

Potty training, again

Well, we are now back to "don't want to" attitude about potty training; I guess we're back to diapers, again. She's just as stubborn as her mother so there's no making her do something she doesn't want to do. Just the same, we have another cute pics to show off.

July 4th

Yes, we are a few months behind.... here are a few pics from our July 4th party at Lisa & Ben's house.

Bed Time? Yea, Right!

I thought I would post a short video for your viewing pleasure. It is almost bed time. Yea, right. You tell me, do you think she is going to bed any time soon?

Growing Up Fast

Out of the blue, Sam started talking about her bike. She saw mine in the garage and I guess figured she had one as well. So, I got out the tricycle she got for her birthday and started putting it together. Of course I had quite a bit of help.





Once we got the bike put together, Sam was over joyed when she realized that it was finally her turn to have fun.

We tried it out inside because of the constant rain we seem to be experiencing.

Both feet do not quite reach the pedals at the same time, but she had fun none the less.

Oh yea, she is keeping us quite aware of the fact that she is now two years old which is evident by the lack of pants. I did not realize that two year old children could be so stubborn. Of course, she got that one from her mother!!!


(you realize that I may have just put my life on the line by posting that comment on a public forum, but you know, anything for a little chuckle!)

Sam is becoming very helpful around the yard as of late. She really enjoys watering the flowers as well as helping us weed the flowerbeds. However tonight she thought it might be a little cold outside, so she prepared herself quite well.

Mostly Sam likes digging in the dirt and flipping it all over as she tries to plow her plastic shovel through our rock hard dirt.

She does like looking for worms. She will search dilligently for them and then comment; "EEEWWW, WORM!!!" and then refuse to touch it. It is quite funny really. She even does the same when we are walking down the sidewalk a day after a good rain storm and will not step past the dried out worms on the sidewalk.