What a Difference a Year Makes!

We have completed our second year of swimming lessons. Last year, she was willing but still a little nervous. She never jumped in from the side without her teacher holding her hands (see below from last year).

This year, she was waving the teacher off...telling her to back up. Maybe next year she'll even move some while kicking and swinging her arms! I tell you, big things are coming!

The Bed Saga Continues

Here's the little guy sleeping Sammy-style. It's amazing how giant he looked in his crib and how tiny he looks in a twin sized bed. Note his Daddy's vintage NFL bed spreads from his boyhood :)

Sam has transitioned to the BIG BOY BED fairly well. He loves his new little nest. Unfortunately, he quickly learned how to open his door....and his sister's door....and our door. He followed that up with learning how to unlock and open said doors. After finding him in my bed sacked out the other night (almost scared me to death to see a dark haired person sleeping in my bed when I thought I was home alone!), I bought one of those baby proofing door knob covers. OH, it made him MAD tonight. He lost it. I went in to calm him down, but he was fired up. I left his door opened a crack, and he quickly went to sleep out of sheer exhaustion. I'm amazed at how different my children are! Miranda would still be in her crib if she could fit, and rarely gets out of bed before 8:00 a.m. You gotta hand it to him....Sam does make life interesting!

Boys of Summer

It's been a busy and exciting time for our Daddy this month. The new USA Baseball Training Complex was opened with Ray's tournament. Read about the new complex here. It is just beautiful. We went out to support Ray, and I got some fun pictures with the setting sun. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Sam the MAN!

Or Sam the Ram, sometimes, Sam the Lamb.....



We all love you! You have changed our lives for the better. You make us laugh and wake us up EVERY. MORNING. AT. 6. 30. A. M. Such a cute little alarm clock! You have grown so much this past year. Once the birthday dust settles, I'll take a minute to reflect on your year :)



Happy Birthday, Sam!

Update from the Trenches

Some people pay good $$$$$ for treatments that involve this much mud!

(****He does have a diaper on. There's just a wee bit of rollover and poor cropping.*****)

We are plugging along fairly well here in Darwinland. Sam continues to climb out of his crib at LEAST 20 times a day. I'm not exagerating. Not even a little. His big boy bed is delivered tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it's all going to get worse before it gets better. I cried after I put him in bed tonight. The LAST time I'll put MY baby in a crib for bedtime. Of course 2 hours later when he was still awake escaping/crying/yelling, I was kind of over the sappiness.



Here's some of the cutie-ness for the record:


Sam's "hello": "heeeee-woooooow"
Sam's "Miranda": "Danda"
Sam's LOUD greeting at 6:45 AM as he slings our door open and bounces over to our bed: "HI MAMA!!!!!!!!!!!! HI DADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


Good thing he's cute.


Miranda is doing great. The chore chart is WONDERFUL. We have our days when Mom slacks off and doesn't apply herself, but it seems like if I stay excited and encourage her, she's all over it. I'm thinking I need a little chore chart myself on the fridge. It appears to be very motivating. Do you think someone will give me a quarter for each day I complete without complaints? Yeah, didn't think so.

She continues to read like a maniac. We'll be visiting the library a lot this summer. She's also been really into verbal math, which is driving me crazy, but I try to play along. We've had some GREAT Monopoly Jr. games at naptime. She's getting pretty good at adding the 2 dice numbers together.

Ray is CRAZY working. It's June. We'll catch up in July. We're very proud of him and we all worry that he's working too many crazy hours. Miranda adds his safe journey home every night in her prayers.

Work for me is QUITE steady. I seem to keep a list of orders, but it's not overwhelming. I'm very grateful to everyone that's "believed" in me. Below are some koozies I made for Wendi's teachers' gifts. They weren't hard at all. What do you think? I think I'll start putting some more of my projects on this blog.