Samantha 9 months

Here are a few (or a lot) of pictures of our Samantha, Sammy Girl, Samantha Joy, Bubbles. 

She is 9 months old, 18 lbs and 28 inches. 

She is still happy, especially when she is held by mom. She occasionally takes a few sips from a bottle but otherwise only wants mom. She does not crawl but scoots on her bottom and can get around. She is learning to stand while holding onto things. She gives smiles freely to family but is conservative with all other people. She brings such joy to us all! She loves real food and does a great job with her 6 1/2 teeth. 

This was the first time I had given her chicken nuggets and as you can see she has both clutched tightly in her hand because she was not giving them up!

Christmas 2014 Part 4 (phone pictures)

I of course had my phone handy Christmas morning and this is what I captured. 

 Joseph carrying Lily so nobody went last. 

 The excitement!

 Oh how I love this man!

 Lily found a comfy way to sit and play on the laptop.

 A tea party with the new tea set.

 Joseph finally got the real train set he has wanted. It actually puffs smoke. We look forward to helping him build it. 

 I made covers for our "blue" cover Book of Mormons that we use to read out of in the mornings. Each is a bit different: the girls have different color crowns and the boys have a different color background with a J on it and Peter has an animal print and me a tie dye pattern. Anyway, Lily loves hers and she carries her copy around all of the time and Christmas day she packed it everywhere. 

It was a long day and this is how it ended. Peacefully!

Christmas Part 3 2014

 Before we let the kids come down.  

 Negotiating who should go first. We settled on the middle 2 going and Arabella went first followed by Jon. 

 Joseph and Lily decided to come down together and Joseph carried her. 

 Peter tricked me with a huge box containing a heavy log and a new Wii game. He is such a joker. 

The glowing rectangle on the tree is our license plate for our new Suburban! 

 It was a wonderful day filled with games, puzzles, relaxing. movie watching and a few naps. 

The Christmas clothes- this was taken a few weeks post Christmas due to sick kids and such. 

They are so good looking! 

Christmas 2014 Part 2

Christmas Eve Edition

We did our annual food from around the world and this year we did Mexican food and invited a house full of people.  In the end, we had 37 people in all come, a few left before a few came so it was never quite that many all at once. 

 The kid table

 The adult tables that were not quite full yet because there were so many yummy things to choose from- see below.

 We had: tacos, cafe rio burritos, honey lime enchiladas, pazole soup, mexican corn, salsa, guacamole, taquitos, rice, beans, mexican dip, and tamales.

For dessert: tres leches cake, flan, fried ice cream, and cookies.

 See those tables filled up.

 What kind of a mexican fiesta would it have been without a pinata?!

Peter made it and the girls and I decorated it- a Christmas tree!

 It was freezing but the kids loved it and almost all of them got a few swings before it totally broke open. I believe only one child was hit and only a few other tears were shed over who got what prizes.

 After the party ended, we had the kids open their jammies.

 Jon was showing Samantha the amazingness of wrapping paper.

 Arabella daintily opened hers whereas, Joseph went for the claw approach which made it hard to capture a clear picture. 

We were so thankful that we could fill our home with some of our Texas family. This tradition has helped me make the holidays feel more like what I remember my childhood being. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Christmas 2014 Part 1

My parents came down for a few days before Christmas and it was so much fun!

They drove our new Suburban down to us since we purchased it in Utah.

We loved having them here we did not love that we sent them home with a nasty viral cold that kept them both sick and away from the rest of my family for Christmas and the better part of a week. 

 We did a mini traditional turkey dinner since they were traveling over Thanksgiving and so were we.

Arabella was happy to have a turkey at home with our traditional fixings.

 The kids opened their gifts from them before they headed back to Utah. They were all so excited!

 It made the next few days really nice because they had new toys to play with and did not mind that Christmas was still 2 days away.

 Grandpa and Joseph putting a toy together. 

And the girls working on one of the crafts Grandma gave Arabella. They were so happy!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bird for coming and playing with us!

Washington DC Day 5

Wednesday we hit the Museum of American History.  

Where are all of the pictures- who knows? We had a great time; except for the 5 minutes that we could not find Lily anywhere. We were just in the process of telling a Security Guard when a family came around the corner with her. They said they could not believe that she was not more concerned her family was missing. She told them she really just wanted to see the strawberries (part of one of the displays). Oh that girl. We crossed paths with that family several more times and I always said thank you again while secretly cringing inside that I had: 1. lost my child and 2. she did not care that she was lost.

Peter is pictured above with the mail memorabilia from World War II. 

His Grandpa Rabner served in World War II and was the postman.