Baby Sammie turned 1!

I can't believe my girl is already 1 year old! I swear time is going by quicker and quicker. She is such an amazing little girl. She has been strong enough to walk for a while now but has been too scared to take the steps. She'll stand there and smile and smile and just not un-plant that foot to take a step. I guess time got away from me and I didn't realize how old she already is. She had been sleeping pretty well at night a couple of months ago but then got sick with the other kids and really stuffy. So I went back to running in there with every sound she made because she didn't feel well and was so stuffy. Therefore, she went back to waking up about 3-4 times a night again. And since breastfeeding her is the easiest and quickest way to get her back to sleep, I automatically wake up and go in and feed her to get her back to sleep - and I do it every time without fail, so I can't blame her. At her Dr apt I told the Dr my plan was to start going down to feeding her once a night for a little while then stopping completely now that she's a year, and just have Kevin go in all the other times to get her back to sleep so she wouldn't get confused and I wouldn't be tempted to feed her :) She must have heard me talking because starting that night she's been waking up once a night around 3 to eat and that's it. She's getting tired of baby food, she just wants to eat what we're eating. It's always hard for me to make that switch because I feel she's just snacking and not getting a full meal like before. She is the happiest baby and so social. She's smiles all the time at everyone and is such such a sweet, easy-going baby doll!

Big Girl Underwear

I had been planning on putting Gracie in underwear starting at the beginning of the year. Then I got lazy and kept putting it off and concentrating on other things. We'd go in the potty sometimes but I wasn't being consistent at all with it. Two days before Sammie's first birthday Gracie woke up in the morning and came in to our room and said she had to go pee-pee. So we went to the bathroom and talked about how we should do that all day. I kept the diaper on her that day but she stayed dry all day and went to the bathroom most of the time by herself without me even asking if she needed to. So the next day we put underwear on. She is amazing! She had only had a handful of accidents and has been dry every single night so she's even wearing underwear at night already. She didn't even have any problem going #2 :) which I remember being a big deal with Bradley. I guess she was ready and decided to take matters into her own hands since I wasn't doing anything :) Good girl :) Here she is modeling her brand new PINK underwear :)

Monster Trucks!!!

Bradley's two favorite things right now are dinosaurs and Monster Trucks. Almost a year ago now I looked up when Monster Trucks were coming to the event center and have been waiting and waiting to take him. I got tickets for me, Kevin, Bradley, Gracie, and Bill, and Mom stayed home to watch Sammie for us. I wanted it to be a surprise for the kids so we put it on the calendar and every day Bradley would count the days we had left to the surprise and would try to guess what it was. He would guess the museum, or a Rockies game, or the moon :) I knew it was going to be loud, we had gone to one before the kids were born with Mindy and Scott. Kevin got a pack of ear plugs plus I had big headphones for the kids to wear. We got there and Bradley was SO excited and we were walking in and you could hear one of the trucks revving their engine... and he freaked out! So I stopped him and told him what it was, he got a big smile on his face for half a second until he heard the engine again. We had to drag him in so that he could see the trucks but he was so scared. He had earplugs in plus the headphones but he was so scared that it was going to get even louder. Kevin and I took turns with him out in the hallway for the first half of the show. I would record it on my camera and bring it to him to watch - which he thought was really cool but was still too scared to get closer. Meanwhile Gracie's in there asking us where Bradley is because she's totally fine with everything :) I KNEW he would love it if he just TRUSTED me. Half way through the show we finally got him in and he was jumping up and down and cheering and all fear was forgotten! I blame myself!!! I shouldn't have built it up SO much and not told him what it was and prepared him for it. I think the anticipation and the unknown just made it too much for him and he just freaked out. I should have told him about what it was and what to expect beforehand and I don't think it would have been AS bad. But he is like this (which I also blame myself for :( ) I know part of it is just his personality and I think part of it is how protective I have been of him his whole life. Since the moment he was born I didn't want him out of my sight, I didn't want anyone holding him but me. I was SO scared that something would happen to him or I would do something wrong, I think my anxiety must have soaked into him :( Sorry sweetie, I got it from my Mom and I'm just passing it along :( I've had MULTIPLE conversations with him lately about how I don't want him to miss out on anything in life because he's scared, and how he needs to TRUST me and that I would NEVER put him into a situation that would hurt him or be bad for him. I know what he would like and what he wouldn't like, so he needs to listen to me and trust me, and try new things without being scared. We're working on it :) Shoot, I'M still working on that myself! :)

 

New Favorite Spot

For Chritmas Mindy gave us thse ADORABLE kids chairs, one blue and one pink. We set them up and they are perfect size for all of them, and Sammie likes them the best. She loves how it's close enough to the floor that she can crawl into it herself and just sit there. It's what she goes to first thing in the morning. Seeing that she's adorable, and the chairs are adorable, I have LOTS of pictures of her in this chair :)

Full bath

Sammie has been wanting to join the other two in the big bath for a while now and we finally switched her over. She used to be in her own little bath right next to Bradley and Gracie in the big bath but she would literally try to crawl out to get over to them every time. She LOVES it now. She loves to splash them and wait for their reaction. :)

Christmas in the mountains

After everyone got over their Christmas colds (that seem to hit every year with perfect timing), we had our Christmas with Dad and Jan. We had a wonderful brunch meal, opened presents, and played games - sounds perfect to me :)

 

 

 

Merry Christmas :)

I sure love Christmas. I LOVE watching the kids get so excited the night before with anticipation, that's ALMOST as good as watching them Christmas morning :)
Here's Sammie eating her first Christmas present :) I can't believe this was her first Christmas!

My little model :)

Speaking of models :) Here's Bradley showing of his shoes and scooter at the same time :)

After we open presents and hang out at home for a little while we make our way over to Mom's. We were so blessed to have everyone together again including Uncle Rick from Saint Louis.

Crazy to think next year we'll add another little one to the bunch! Can't wait to meet baby Ayden!!!

Oh how I wish I could post another picture ;) Mindy was having a hard time with the new kittens in Mom's house, she has become very allergic to cats over the years. She was sneezing like crazy and her face was all itchy. I have a WONDERFUL picture of all of us together and she was in mid-sneeze and Kevin immediately said she looked like the Predator in the picture and (sorry Mindy) we all agree. It's SO funny and I'm laughing just thinking about it, but unfortunately I cannot share. Hopefully my great description of it is enough :) LOVE YOU MINDY :)