Sammie's TP Mishap

We decided to post the video from Sammie when she dunked a roll of TP in the toilet. We think it's funny because it's our Sammie but I have a feeling other people will enjoy it as well.

Kindergarten Wrap-Up

As expected, this has been a huge year for our Sammie girl. On June 18th, she finished up her first year of school. Here are the highlights.

Here she is on the way to school on the first day. Yes, it's dark outside. It was around 7:15am. They start so early here- 7:50!



Here she is checking out where the bus drops off, just in case she decided to ride the bus the next day.

(I decided not to have her ride the bus after realizing that driving her would give us an extra half hour of sleep in the morning. She begged me to ride the bus until April when I finally let her, because we had no car and no other option. She rode it for about a month, when she decided she didn't like it anymore and so then I drove her again. Who knows what will happen next year?)



Doing her first homework assignment- a poster all about her. I knew I was saving those magazines for something.



This was her first nine weeks awards assembly. She got the citizenship award for her class. It happened to be the day of their Thanksgiving feast, hence the pilgrim hat.



No, this wasn't her birthday. It was Willy's. Willy is her Webkins whale, who might as well be part of the family. I happened to get a great deal on a carrot cake at the store, so we had a little party. Sammie has always been our imaginative one, so this kind of thing is right up her alley. It was pretty cute.



Pre hair cut. Dancing with Daddy.



Post hair cut. (It was MUCH shorter than we were expecting, but she was able to donate it to Locks of Love which is cool. We also think it makes her seem SO much more grown up, don't you think?)



She decided to try soccer this spring, so we gave it a go. Let's just say, we're gonna try another sport next. This was a pretty typical face on our Sammie girl the whole season. It didn't help that neither James nor I are soccer players and had we made more of an effort to teach her about the game, she probably would have had more fun. Live and learn. (You should see her bump a volleyball, though.)



The playground next to the soccer field was more her style.



Sammie had been begging me all year to be a chaperone on one of her field trips, but because of James' work schedule, I wasn't able to until her field trip this spring to the zoo. Here we are riding the bus together.



It started out great, until one of my kids took off and I had to run around the zoo trying to find him. Then, a peacock jumped out onto the sidewalk in front of Sammie while we were searching and totally freaked her out. I had just finished explaining to her that she had no reason to be nervous because all of the animals were in their cages/homes behind fences and bars. The kids in my group had to be divvied out to other groups and I ended up carrying Sammie around the zoo all day on my back. Not such a fun day at the time, but sure makes for a great memory.



She turned 6! I still can't believe that we have a 6 year old. I don't know why I can't find a picture, but just a couple of days before her birthday, her first tooth fell out. She wanted to keep it, so I told Sammie that if she wrote a note to the tooth fairy, she would probably be okay with that, and let her keep it but still leave a surprise. She did, and it worked. Although, now that's she's 6, she's "too grown up" and doesn't care about keeping it anymore, so we can throw it out.



Braggy posts bug everybody, so I hesitate to put this in here, but I'm just so proud of our little Sammie. Her school had an end of the year assembly where Sammie won the Accelerated Reader award for the whole Kindergarten. She had to read specific library books this year and then when she was done, she would take a quiz on them to earn points that could then be redeemed for treats and other things. Well, she had 4 times more points this year than any other kindergartner. James and I had no idea.

She pretty much taught herself how to read and really enjoys it. I especially love that she and Lexie can snuggle together and read books at night. I know that she has many cousins that are great readers, so does anybody have any ideas for a good book series that she might get into. She's just about finished with the Junie B. Jones books and really likes them, but I'm not sure what to try next 'cause I want to keep her excited about reading.





One last picture with her beloved Kindergarten teacher.



I have to admit, it was hard to be away from her for 6 hours a day, so I'm really glad to have her home. Not only will I get to hopefully sleep in every once in a while, but she also will have a lot more time with James which is awesome.

Well, I don't know who has learned more this year, Sammie, or James and I, but it has been a fun one. I know that life will just be a whirlwind from this point on with more soccer games, birthday parties, field trips, mean substitute teachers, friend drama, annoying fundraisers, etc. and before we know it, they'll all be grown. As hard as it is, I just have to remember to slow down and enjoy the little moments before they're gone.

Our Izzinator

We LOVE this little girl! Izzie has blessed us so much this past year. She is seriously just the sweetest little girl. From the day she was born, she has been such an even tempered baby and is literally just cool and calm about 99% of the time.

She is growing and learning a lot. It's funny how from one child to the next, you forget about the cute little things that they do. She is our best snuggler. She will lay her head on my shoulder when we rock. I think above all else, our favorite thing that she does is crawl or climb over to you and rest her head on you and smile. It's like her way of giving "loves". There is seriously nothing better. She adores her big sisters and gets so excited when they talk and play with her. I can just tell that they are going to be best buds.

Here are some pictures of our little one from the past couple of months. I have SO much more to post about, but for now, I will post about my little angel since it's been SO long since most of you have seen her. I am feeling so blessed lately, and especially today on Mother's Day, for these beautiful spirits that we have been entrusted with here on earth. Most of you know, it's a love that can't be put into words but I'll continue to try and hope that they'll always know.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, here it is- our marathon post to get kind of caught up. I guess this is my blogging style these days.

Christmastime was good to us. It has always been my favorite time of year, and it's even more so now with little ones.

We kicked off the season by going to Bass Pro Shops, the "fishy store", to see Santa. If you can't read it in the photo below, Sammie's letter says, "Dear Santa, I have been a good girl. I would like a new pair of tap shoes. Size 13. Thanks. I "heart" you. Bi. Sammie



This fireplace was so hot. I'm surprised that we got the girls to smile.



One of our traditions is going up to the temple in DC to see the lights. They don't compare to the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake, but are beautiful in their own way. It turned out to be a perfect night. No fighting, good moods, great music in the car, silly smiley baby-- it was just perfect.

Here's our little Izzie all bundled up.






The girls were making her laugh and squeal. Between that and Daddy tossing her around and flying like an airplane, we had one happy little Izzie and some great photo opps.



Giggly girls. (And boy.)



Look at how handsome my hubby is. Sammie is quite the budding photographer. Every time we dump our memory stick onto the computer, we find MANY random pictures taken from about 4 feet high. Hmmmm... I wonder who took those?



Making gingerbread houses.



This was our crazy week-before-Christmas snowstorm. I think we ended up with at least 18 inches. It's been decades since Richmond has seen that much snow. It was so fun because other than James having to work the night it was falling, we didn't have to go anywhere for a few days. We got to just stay home and snuggle up. (Don't mind the half naked child in the picture.)



When we found out the snow was coming, the girls and I threw up some icicle lights on the deck for fun. This picture was taken a couple hours into the storm.



Sammie, in her makeshift snow clothes. She was pretty wet when she finally came in, but didn't seem to care.



Lexie had been a little sick, so we stayed inside and watched Sammie and Daddy out the front window. We had many little girl giggles when they pelted the window in front of us with snowballs.



This was Christmas Eve with the girls in their new PJ's. Sammie is always trying to hold Izzie. She does a pretty good job, but Izzie generally hates it.



Even though this is not the most flattering picture of me, I love it because it's so classic. Izzie yanking on my hair, Lexie giggling at Izzie, and Sammie oblivious to it all and posing for the camera.



Our happy family.



You all recognize this. The classic Christmas morning photo on the stairs.



Sammie with her new buddies, Geoffrey the giraffe, and one of her new Willy the whales.



We had such a great Christmas season. Despite all getting sick (we're almost better), we had a lot of great family time which, I think, is the best part of the season.

Daddy's girls

These girls just love their Daddy.




She actually fell asleep like this. He just has the touch.






















The girls love sitting in front of the computer together and watching home videos. This is one that I saw them watching and had to share. It's from April 2008. So sweet.

Squeezing in one last summer outing

We decided to go to the Richmond Childrens Museum one last time before our membership ran out and to do one more fun thing before school started. The girls LOVE that place. It's small compared to other childrens museums out there but it has enough to keep them entertained for a good couple of hours. Every time we go, we say, "Why don't we come here more often?"



Lexie and Sammie hamming it up in the market.



Our sleepy baby.



Krispy Kreme's for a couple of really good little girls.