Happy Birthday, Abby!

December 30 (tomorrow) is Abby's 3rd birthday and we are all very excited for the big day. Abby can't wait to be bigger and her birthday, to her, symbolizes all that it means to get bigger. Our girl has gotten so much more adventurous, loving, talkative, fun-loving, funny, and imaginative. She has become an incredible big sister and friend to Sam. Abby asks the best questions (today's best was, "What was baby Jesus for Halloween?") and wants to know why things are they way they are. We naturally think she is the best, brightest, and most beautiful. Happy birthday to our big 3-year-old! We love you, Abby!

Pictures courtesy of the talented Annmarie who did a family photoshoot for us. Thanks again!

Wintertime Fun

Somehow in the middle of our fun lives of park-hopping, running errands, learning new skills (as Sam demonstrates below), and attending Music Makers and the library, winter hit. I wasn't ready. I know my siblings in Utah have now had several weeks of snow and I have pitied them as we enjoyed the outside in long sleeves. But it hit us. Not snow, thank goodness, but winter.

Here's how we've spent the first couple weeks of cold.

Abby has a renewed love of reading. And Sam, being the dutiful little brother, loves reading and anything else Abby loves. This sense of needing to be involved in everything his sister does has already led to several wrestling matches, too many tug-of-wars to even count, and a few buckets of tears. Ah, the joys of having a sibling! You can't tell, but Sam is jockeying for position during this reading session and was surprisingly successful in taking over Abby's spot.

We set up our Christmas tree for our family night last week and had a great time. Abby did a much better job this year making sure the ornaments were distributed evenly around the tree and Sam has spent the week making sure that he knocks off every one of them he can reach. The poor boy has received multiple big sister lectures about not opening the presents because it's not Christmas yet. Of course the lecture begins within minutes of her asking me, "Is it Christmas today?"

We went to Busch Gardens Christmas Towne while we were in Williamsburg last weekend and had so much fun! It was a fantastic way to kick of the Christmas season. We were surrounded by lights, music, hot chocolate from heaven, penguins, dancing, and family. It really was a wonderful day!

We had our Christmas party at church last night and Santa was there for a visit. Both our kids were excited as we waited in line and we were sure to capitalize on the fact that Abby's friends were so brave and so happy to sit on Santa's lap. And wow, they even got a candy cane for being so brave! Abby was all set to go up and tell Santa that she needed (needed!) a new My Little Pony and Sam should get an art set...and then it was her turn. She walked toward Santa, froze, and burst into hysterical tears. Honestly, I don't know how she could have gone from so happy to so freaked out in a split second. Hoping that Sam being on Santa's lap would somehow convince Abby that her fears were unfounded, we sat Sam on Santa's lap and tried coaxing Abby over. Par for the course when it comes to following his sister's example, Sam immediately burst into body-shaking tears (which, by the way, never happens with this happy child) and we had to rescue both children from this frightening experience. Wouldn't this have made a great picture? Too bad Roy and I were both too shocked and filled with laughter to even snap one picture.

My Life on Stage

This was just too cute and typical of both kids to not share.

PS--Do you see the bump on Sam's right eyebrow? It's a cyst that will no longer be there after his surgery January 6.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Two of the things I am incredibly grateful for today are these two crazy kids!

Growing Up

Today was the Primary Program at church. For those not familiar with our church, there is one Sunday service set aside each year for the children to show off to the congregation the things they have been learning through the year. Usually, each child has a little line to say and all the kids sing the songs they have learned during the year. It's honestly one of my favorite Sundays because I love kids and you also never know when the next funny thing is going to happen. Throw kids in front of an audience and they will perform. You always have the Waver (the younger kid who finds the people they know and frantically waves at them until they respond), the Loud Singer (the kid who is convinced they have the obligation to carry the song for the entire chorus), and every once in a while the Loud Singer Who Doesn't Know the Words. But I digress... All the kids were up on the stand doing their program and Abby was sitting on my lap when one of her favorite songs started being played on the piano ("Follow the Prophet"). She wanted to sing with them so we told her she could sing from where we were sitting. She got hysterical and began bawling because she wanted to be up on the stand with them. We talked about how next year she'll be up there with them, but she couldn't stop crying and kept saying (or shouting, depending on which parent is telling the story), "I wanna be bigger!" It was so sad! I ended up taking her to the hallway to calm down and then she said, "I think we should go to the rocking chair. That will help me calm down." The girl definitely has a thing for drama. :)

In Sam news, he is moving very quickly on his tummy and on his feet. He does an army crawl and is very quick at getting where he wants to go. If he's standing, he is extremely good at getting around the room by cruising along furniture. It's exciting to watch. Sam also learned how to clap his hands today. We did a whole lot of clapping at dinnertime as a result of his new-found skill. I can hardly believe how fast my boy is growing up and am falling in love with his personality. Sam is so fun and so full of life!

For those who are interested, here's Sam clapping. This is only a couple minutes after he first showed us he could do it. In an effort to capture the moment (and not make Sam feel like the second child ten years down the road by not having any of his special things on film--you can thank your Aunt Becky for that, little man), we had to not just video him, but post it on our blog. :)

Fall Photos

One of our family traditions is to take pictures out in the leaves. What that means is that Roy and I take turns being the cameraman and the one being goofy to get our kids to smile. It's a lot of fun. We took probably 25 pictures of each kid, but here's a sampling of our favorites of each.

Sam:

Abby:

Happy Halloween!

Our little Tigger and The Little Mermaid (she wasn't Ariel--she was The Little Mermaid because her name is Abby) had a great Halloween season. We did the traditional activities and had a great time!

Visiting a Pumpkin Patch:

Decorating Pumpkins:

Please admire the face Abby drew. You can see two eyes and a smile on the top of the pumpkin drawn in marker. She is just now starting to draw shapes for faces and it's so fun to see (and brag about)!

Sam, as always, wanted to participate as much as possible so he got to hold a paintbrush and be cute.

Dressing Up and Trick-or-Treating:

While trick-or-treating, Abby was sure to let everyone know that Sam was too little to grab his own candy out of the bowl so she was going to take one for herself and one for her baby brother

Sam. Proud parent moment!

Enjoying the Loot:

Sam got to enjoy several sucks of a lollipop before it dropped it to the floor in hopes of grabbing another great prize--an empty Nerds box!