13 months - so smart, but not walking yet! ahhh!

We're not big pumpkin carvin' people

Basically, we're too lazy and cheap, I suppose.
So today the kids decided to paint their melons instead...

It all started off innocently enough.









Happy Halloween!

Little Sister and Nephew Visits!

It's been nearly a month since my sister Becky and her son Connor came for a visit... I can't believe it has taken me this long to write about it!

Becky flew ALL THE WAY from Oregon with her 2 year old son, thanks to her MIL, and spent nearly a week with us! It might have been a totally crummy trip for her since our A/C died on us in the middle of it all... but she was a total trooper. Needless to say, I don't think she will EVER live in Florida. Ever. E.V.E.R.

(note to family members - wait till at least the end of October to visit us... much nicer weather - I promise!)

While they were here we introduced Connor to

lizards,

fishing,

and well, free expression...

Connor and Hayden butted heads most of time, but they did have some moments...

{Hayden and Connor trying to catch a lizard}


{Connor and Hayden raiding the pantry}

But Amanda and Connor seemed to get alone quite well... especially at the beach! I think Connor really enjoyed our warm Atlantic water.

We celebrated Samantha's birthday a week early at Poppy George's house. This is the ONLY picture you will see of Becky. She managed to worm her way out of most of the pictures... bahhh!!!

My favorite picture...

well, for this month anyhow.

Samantha's 1st Birthday!!!

I'm on internet technology overload. Got some stuff on Flickr, some on Utube, some on Facebook... gotta find a way to make it all merge nicely into one place! And it seems that my blog is the last place to see the good stuff lately... oh well. So here we go!


Samantha's birthday was last Saturday and since we don't have A/C (I'll save that rant for another post) we decided to keep it really simple and fun. We invited anyone who wanted to come see Samantha eat her first ice cream cone to Bruster's Ice Cream for a little ice cream party. Samantha did not disappoint. She loved her first taste of vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and we all loved watching her eat it... and sneak sips of her daddy's milkshake.

Afterwards we came home and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Lee and Aunt Becky and her family. The Grandparents sent the cutest little shoes fit for a princess and Aunt Becky sent an adorable inch worm toy that Hayden immediately decided was his... of course!

Here's a little video of Samantha opening her presents... ignore the squeaky voiced woman singing off-key in the foreground... I have no idea who she is or where she came from! ; 0



Today since there was no school, I took the kids to the mall so Samantha could pick out her present from Mom and Dad at Build-A-Bear Workshop. She got her first Bear, we dressed her in a Hawaiian Moo-Moo and Amanda named her "Honey".

Can I tell you how much we love and adore this little girl? She is the sunshine of our home. Her smile melts the hearts of everyone she meets. She's growing up way too fast... at least for me she is.

I almost forgot!
Samantha had a little pre-birthday party at her Poppy George and Grammy Jess's house about a week ago. The pictures for that event are on my flickr account... now let's see if I can get them to appear here...hmmmm....

Samantha @ 11.2 months

I'm so late taking and posting Samantha's 11 month picture. Between sickness and grumpy teething and grumpy mommy - it just hasn't been a good time. But anywho...

Here she is in all her cuteness! She's really just the sweetest baby a mommy could ask for. She has her moments, mind you, but for the most part she is super pleasant. She is beginning to stand on her own, cruise around the couch... she can even climb onto the couch! She has climbed half a flight of stairs to mommy's great surprise and nearly gave me a heart attack. You know that lump in the throat, cold chill feeling of "oh no, be soooo careful..eeeeeekkkkk...don't startle her but...GO GET HER BEFORE SHE FALLS! AHHHHHH!"

One of her favorite things to do is pull all the books that she can reach off of the bookcase. The kitchen drawers and cabinets are a close second. The girl knows how to make mischief, I tell ya!

She has 3, yes 3 teeth coming in all at the same time...her 2 top front teeth and one to the left. Needless to say, mommy is VERY eager to ween her! Samantha? Not so eager.

So that's all I've got... busy busy are we! Watch out for Samantha's one year video... a tradition in our family. I just know it's gonna be awesome!

Speaking of kitchen appliances...

So you all know how I feel about cooking on the Foreman Grill... actually, cooking isn't the problem - even though I loathe cleaning the thing, I did, so that I could grill up some chicken last night. And Dad, in case you didn't check my comments from the previous post, my grill doesn't come apart and I can't put it in the dishwasher - it's like one of the first versions of the grill that they made - before they most certainly got all kinds of grief for it's poor design. But anywho...

Let's move on to my favorite kitchen appliance - the Waffle Maker! Now it's not your average waffle making machine... my dad sent it to us for Christmas last year. It's a professional wafflemaker -- like the kind they have at hotel breakfast buffets. Yahhh---it's sweeeeeet. It's like, the most used countertop kitchen appliance in our kitchen...right there next to the crockpot...Oh, our poor crockpot. It's been used to the max. Both handles have broken off, it's dented and has lost a foot pad... but it still works. We just can't take it to a potluck 'cause it's hard to transport without handles and not burn yourself.... and it's an ugly embarrassment. In fact, I think it was our gateway decor item that officially made us semi-white trash. That and our new house...

One day we will rise above! I know we will! One day, our house won't smell like dirty diapers and the piles of partially unpacked boxes will be GONE! We will have a really cool laundry system worked out and install an in-sink disposal in our kitchen! One day we will finish our bathroom and have not only a toilet, but a sink! and a shower! Whoo-hoooo! One day, Hayden won't run go running outside in just a pull-up when he hears daddy opening the garage door.... we'll, I don't know about that...

Does anyone...

dislike cleaning the George Foreman grill as much as I do?
It's just so GROSS.



This will probably not get cleaned for several more days... EEWWW.

Ohhhh, to have a camera for moments like these...

Our little Hayden is always keeping us on our toes and laughing hysterically. He has no fear and often wanders off quietly, scaring his mother to death. He frequently "disappears" at church and Saturday night at our ward talent show we discovered, once again, that Hayden was missing. Our church hallway is "in the round" so Michael and I started at the same point and searched in different directions. Michael was the one to find him... this is how it all went down:

Michael was walking past the men's room and heard a little whisper "Dah Dee... Dah Deeeee!!"
A little Hayden face was peering out from behind the bathroom door. As the door opened, there he was buck-naked standing in the doorway. Michael asked his where his clothes were and why on earth he was naked! Hayden pointed to the pile of his clothes next to the urinal and said, "I go potty, daa-deee!" Seriously. Could this get any funnier?

Why, yes it could!
He proceeded to straddle the urinal on tippy-toes, trying sooo hard to do it like the "big boys". That's my boy - the over acheiver...

at least he didn't go streaking through the gym... I doubt anyone would have considered that a worthy talent.

First Day of School

Can you believe she's a 3rd grader already? Sniff, sniff....