Loving Books

I guess it is a given when you have teachers for parents...but Samuel loves books. He has always enjoyed looking at books and even having them read to him. He will often times now sit for a good 10-20 minutes while you read the same 3 or 4 books over and over. He is even anticipating what is coming up and will say it long before we are even able to turn the page.

As most kids, he does have his select favorites that are well loved. He carries them throughout the house and even chews on them every so often. He has loved a few so much that they have had to be replaced!

Here is his latest, cute trick. He will take a book over to the table, climb up and read. It is very cute, but then is usually followed by him climbing onto the table, not so cute!

Last week, Samuel found daddy's New Testament book on the floor and started to flip through it. He found it very funny and would turn a page then laugh (the good belly laugh kind). He did this for about five minutes. Too bad, Mike doesn't find that book funny or all that interesting!

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Corn Maze

On Friday afternoon, Samuel and I joined daddy's class for a visit to Bob's Corn Maze. As always, Samuel had a ton of fun running around outside. He loved the pumpkin patch and running through the corn maze.

Here he is off the path. He found it very funny to run into the corn and to be chased by mom and dad.

One of his new words is tractor. He was very excited to see this one that was his size. He ran right over and climbed on. He then thought that he could ride the big one!

More Michigan Pictures

Here are a few more of the pictures from our trip to Michigan.

Samuel has become a pro at riding on the airplane. This is the first trip we bought him his own seat and it made a ton of difference. He was able to nap, read his books and play all without driving mom crazy!
At the end of the trip we made our way down to Chicago to stop in and see Aunt Kate, Uncle Dave and Addison. As always, Addison and Samuel loved playing together. Here we are trying to get a picture with both kids and Gram. This was right before Samuel attacked Addison to get her donut. He is his father's son!

We were also able to visit Grandma Doris, Grandpa Vern and Aunt Karen. Here is Samuel with Grandma and Grandpa, quite the ham!

Jon's Birthday Party

Since I didn't have a chance to post these before we left for Michigan, I figured I would do it now. The Saturday before Samuel and I left for Michigan we celebrated our good friend, Jon's 28th birthday. As tradition has it, he always gets a fall themed birthday party complete with apple bobbing. For the past three years, crazy men have decided that sticking their head in a freezing cold bucket of water to pull out as many apples as they can in one minute is a good idea. These year was no different...

All the names went in a hat and one at a time they each took their turn. I think it is luckier if you get to go first. After 10+ men stick their heads in the same bucket of water going after the same apples the water is a bit gross and the apples are a bit beat up and torn apart.

Mike was able to go somewhere in the middle . He learned a bit from last year and this year came prepared with his goggles. I guess they helped because he held the lead after his turn. He was quickly passed by though and ended up finishing fourth. I guess there is always next year!

Being "all boy" that he is, Samuel wanted to join the fun also. Instead of allowing him to go in head first, which I do believe he would have loved to try, he got his turn with daddy's help. He loved it and wanted more!

Bath Time

Samuel looks forward to his bath time each night. He loves splashing around, dumping water over his head and face, chasing Elmo around the tub and most recently playing with the bubbles.

Here is his first ever "Santa Look Alike" picture!


As you can also tell he has become quite a ham in front of the camera. We are starting to get the big "cheese" and the fake smile that takes up half of his face. Oh well, it's cute!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday Samuel went on his first visit to a pumpkin patch. Mosaic had our October event at Carleton Farms up near Everett, WA. They had a hay ride, a corn maze, a pick your own pumpkin patch and farm animals to visit. Samuel had a great time.

Samuel loved sticking his face into the animals and peeking at mom. Little did he know how cute of a horse he could be!

Samuel loved running through the corn maze. He was so dirty by the time we finished. Pure boy!

Here Samuel is picking his own pumpkin. Samuel was able to pick out a big one for himself and a little one for Hannah.

Samuel wasn't so sure about the animals. They were great at a distance, but when they moved quickly or tried to "get" him he backed away pretty quickly.

Samuel and Roxy posing for the camera!

SNOW!

Samuel didn't know what to think. As for the rest of us we were not pleased!

Dancing Machine

Here is the little man keeping the party going!

Angie and Caleb's Wedding

As most of you know, we spent last weekend celebrating the marriage of Aunt Angie and Uncle Caleb. It was a great trip home complete with snow!

The wedding was beautiful and went perfectly. Here are a few pictures, more will be available at Shutterfly soon.

Here is the bridal party on Angie's side. (starting on left: Maddy, Tara, Michael, Jenn, Denise, Angie).

Daddy and Samuel enjoying the bubbles! Samuel actually made it down the aisle with a little help from daddy.

Mommy and Samuel partying the night away!

Samuel and Jase

Here are a few pictures of Samuel and Jase. Jase is the little boy that I am nannying for on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays! He and Samuel love spending their days together. They play really well and keep each other busy! Today we were able to go and play out on the deck. There is a sand box, a swing set and cars to push and ride in!

Indoor their favorite activities are playing chase, banging on the piano and racing cars in the window track. We also love to climb up and down the stairs over and over. Thankfully they both have great balance.

Back at it!

Well, our new camera is here! I guess I now have to get back on the blog regularly and keep everyone updated.

Samuel is continuing to amaze us. When we pulled up these pictures today we were amazed that he doesn't look like a baby anymore. He is a little boy! I don't know if mom is really ready for that yet! He is increasing his vocabulary daily. His most recent words are truck, buba (what he calls Bailey), cracker, no (a bit too soon for my liking), and Titi (what he calls Matia).


He is also into climbing on everything. He loves fruit and knows where the fruit bowl is so you can guess where I often find him! He has also learned how to come down stairs and surprisingly has a bit of fear in doing so. He is really careful and cautious of steps now. He didn't even have to fall to learn that one.

Mike has a tough week this week. Five days of teaching, four grad classes and three papers. So far three days of teaching are finished, three grad classes are done and one paper to go! I guess he will make it.

As for me, I am spending this week getting to know Jase (the little boy I nanny for). We have gone to a playgroup and a story hour at the library. He is a sweetheart and is very well behaved. It gives me hope into how Samuel may act in a year!


That's it for now!

Just another Wednesday...

Well, since we lost the camera we have not been taking any new pictures. This is a picture of Samuel and his friend Koen at the Fall Retreat. They were making crowns. Samuel was much more into eating the stickers and tasting the markers, but did actually end up with a crown when it was all said and done.

Samuel has been into drawing lately. Whenever he can get his hands on a pen, pencil or marker he starts looking for places to write. So far we have been able to catch him and get some paper. I am just waiting for the day when he finds the wall before I find him.

Well, if you haven't heard...I have a job! Yes, it was willingly sought and accepted. I actually have been trying to figure out if I want to do something more, but do not want to spend time away from Samuel, so I started looking into nanny positions. I was pretty selective on who I responded to since I felt that I wanted to use some of my teacher skills if possible. Last week I came across a part time position for a two year old boy with a bilateral hearing loss. I responded and was offered an interview right away. Long story short, I got the job. I will be watching Jase on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8-3. This works out wonderfully with Mike's teaching schedule. Additionally, I am taking some sign language classes! I had my first one last Monday and loved it. I am really excited to see how this all turns out.

I start with Jase next Tuesday. Ironically, the boys are exactly a year apart. Samuel and Jase have met twice and have gotten along great. I am excited for Samuel to have another little boy to play with consistently. We have also been given the opportunity to go to a play group on Monday mornings. Samuel would be considered a typical language peer within the group. I am really excited about all these changes.

Oh...by the way...I will be getting paid to have fun!

Ahhhhhhh!

This is Samuel's frustration over losing the camera! Yes, that's right, we lost the camera. Actually, I lost the camera. Last we saw it, it was in the bottom basket of the stroller on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning we were meeting Jon and Annie for coffee and took Samuel in the stroller. I remember seeing it in the basket underneath and since we didn't use it... Anyway, our best guess is that when the stroller was folded up and put in the car it fell out. We realized it was missing at our next stop which was the Fremont market and Oktoberfest. We searched the car and all our bags, but it was no where to be found. We then drove back to where we were that morning and looked around where we parked and asked all the retail shops on that side of the street. No camera.

I guess this means it is time to get a new one since we can't go without a camera as our little dude continues to explore. We knew we were going to need one soon since ours had started to malfunction. Occasionally the lens wouldn't open completely and you had to wait forever in between taking pictures. We were hoping it would make it till Christmas though. Oh well. I guess life happens! Best Buy here we come!

The Monkey Continues...

If you ever doubted that he is part monkey, these should prove you wrong.

These are a few pictures from the Mars Hill Graduate School fall retreat. There was a climbing wall on the side of the cafeteria. Samuel watched Mike climb around on it for awhile and decided he wanted to try. He was actually pretty good. He was able to hold on, reach for the next and pull himself up.

I guess he is part boy, part monkey!

Monkey Boy

So you may laugh when you hear that his nickname is monkey, but you can't argue that we're right! We have watch Samuel climb on chairs, up on tables, onto the couch, but this is a first trying to get onto the counter. I am so thankful Mike showed him that all he has to do is move a chair! My life just got easier!

Puyallup Fair

Today we took Samuel to the Puyallup Fair. This is actually the second time he has gone, but since last time he was only 2 months old the memories are vague. We headed down to Puyallup this morning with Jon , Annie, Trapper and Heather. While we were there we were able to see all sorts of animals, walk through exhibit halls, eat yummy fair food and go to the draft horses show. Samuel did well and seemed to have fun. Here are a few pictures from the day!

Samuel next to one of the largest pumpkins. This one weighed 946 lbs. The winner weighed over 1000! In the hottest days of the summer they calculated it to grow about 30 pounds per day!

Samuel liked the animals, especially the goats. A few were making a ton of noise back and forth. Samuel just sat and watched them. As he got brave and started to reach out to pet we had to move away. I prefer him with 10 fingers!


Here we are wasting away our quarters playing Skeeball. No winners today!


To say the least, we were all tired by the end of the day. Samuel slept through most of the draft horse show, even with all the clapping and cheering!

Happy Birthday Beth!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is Beth's 35th birthday!
Congrats!
We will all be celebrating her this evening!
Hope you have a great and restful day!

Birthday Bash 2

Here are a couple more pictures from my birthday. As you can see, we all had a ton of fun.

This is cute now, but won't be in a few years!

Birthday Bash

As most of you know, I celebrated my 28th birthday this past Wednesday. Birthdays are not usually a big deal for us so I hadn't planned anything for the day and Mike had mentioned going to dinner that evening. So I wasn't expecting anything special...

Mike got up and left for work as usual. On the way, he took a quick detour and picked me up some coffee and brought it back knowing that I was already up with Samuel! Samuel and I sat around and watched the Today show and played with all his cars. Around 11- we decided to get dressed and ready for the day! After Samuel took a short nap, we played around in the living room for awhile. Samuel loves being chased and has found that the kitchen/dining room area is great for it. We chased each other around there for a good half hour before we were so tired of laughing we had to stop! In the meantime, Craig had to go out and also brought me coffee back! Everyone knows my obsession!

When Mike got home from work, he took Samuel because I had a meeting with Paul (Field Abbot from MHGS). He treated me to a triple chocolate meltdown at Applebee's! This day was only getting better. We had a great meeting and I left not expecting to see him again until Monday. Anyway, when I got home Mike wanted to head out and told me we were going to places that have been meaningful for us over the past year?!


Well, shortly after 6 we arrived at the Park Pub (bar owned by Paul--member or MHGS staff!) only to be greeted by friends. Mike (with Beth's help) had planned a surprise party at the pub for me! It was great. We had a chance to eat, let the kids run around (they have a room separate from the bar so kids are allowed), and catch up. I was surprised by the number of people that stopped by to wish me well. It was a ton of fun!

The best part...all this fun and I was still in bed by 10:30!
Yeah to birthdays!