Fun Stuff

We really got some mileage out of the cow costume this week. Tuesday the kids dressed up for Kindermusic and it was a lot of fun. Samuel even had a surprise visit from Daddy which made his day! He could not stop saying "Daddy" and pointing to him.
I've been practicing the animal sounds with Samuel in hopes he'd have a "Moo" down by Halloween, but to no avail. However, he did get the chicken sound down. We'll ask him what the chicken says and he'll say, "bock, bock, bock" - too cute.

Here is Samuel with his rooster friend, Sawyer, at Kindermusic.

Avery and Samuel always have fun in class beating the drums, shaking the shakers and pulling up on everything in sight.

Miss Dree obviously has a captive audience. These boys stare at her like she's an angel. She is great with kids!

Samuel and his surprise visitor...

Samuel and Avery always take time out to explore the premises. Here's my little cow making sure we are all still watching him.

Here we are tonight before meeting up with our playgroup to circle the neighborhood. There were TONS of kids which made for a fun time.

Samuel quickly got the system down....look cute, get candy. We let him work his magic and later consumed the profits.

It was way too chaotic to get everyone together for a group photo. This was our best effort!

Dad V's 70th celebration and a Fall Festival with friends

This was a fun weekend! Brian's family flew in for my father-in-law's 70th birthday and to celebrate Samuel's birthday 2 weeks early. Dad V's best friend, Bud, also spent the weekend with us. He drove down from MD and the old friends had a lot of fun catching up and sharing stories from their 54 years of friendship. Samuel hit the jackpot with lots of adorable outfits (even a Penn State outfit) and some cute toys. I hope the birthday boys felt very special and loved. It was a great weekend! I'll share the weekend through the following picture captions.

Here is Samuel before we went out to dinner Thursday night wearing the Boston Red Sox hat his Aunt Lynnie gave him. I love the baseball on top of the hat--too cute! Here we all are at the Angus Barn. This is one of our favorites, so we officially celebrated Dad V's big birthday here. We even went around sharing things we loved about the birthday boy--his affirmation love tank was overflowing.

That's some candle!!
Here are the birthday boys with their cake...Samuel is wearing his Penn State gear for the big game later that night (they won).

We loved having our good friends and neighbors over to celebrate with us. Henry and Samuel had a blast taking turns in the wagon. Henry loved pushing Samuel around as fast as he could. Here is Samuel with his first little cake...he was hesitant at first, but it didn't take too long...

I think someone warmed up! He had cake and frosting from head to toe, but it was well worth it!

Once we said goodbye to the V's, we got ready for an outing with our good friends, Tom, Merritt and Winnie. We dressed the kids up and headed to our church Fall Festival. Below is my cute little chocolate milk cow before we headed out. Be on the lookout for many more cow pics as we are dressing up for Kindermusic on Tuesday and Halloween on Friday.

Winnie is the precious little bumble bee. These buddies were true sports with the costumes...no complaining!The pony rides were a hit! The kids loved them...look at that little happy face. He cried to get back on the ponies once his ride was over.

I had to laugh at this picture. It looks like Winnie's saying, "Come on, Samuel, look at the camera!" and Samuel is looking at her hand on his arm like, "Watch it, sister."

A special visit and an early birthday toy!

This was a very special weekend! One of my best friends, Dolly, had a beautiful baby boy named Michael. There have been several posts on his arrival, but I'm sure no one gets tired of seeing new pictures of a precious newborn. I drove up to VA on Sunday to visit the new arrival and it was definitely worth the trip. Michael has the sweetest little features and is just ADORABLE! He seemed so laidback too--just like his mommy & daddy. Dolly and Leland looked great for not having much sleep in the last few days. They are already such sweet, adoring parents...Michael is a very blessed boy!

Look at this proud mommy admiring her baby boy. Already such a priceless bond!

Sorry, Dolly, I think you thought I was getting both of you in this picture, but Michael is the true star of the show. Look at this little face--could he be any cuter, seriously!?!?!
So peaceful...I never heard him cry once!
It was very sentimental seeing Dolly with her new baby....I loved thinking of all the deep talks we had about our future husbands, kids, life and it was so wonderful to see how God has blessed her. I can't wait for Samuel to meet his new buddy!

Samuel will be one year old in a few weeks, but we could not wait to give him his new toy. It was a hit as you can tell in the videos.

Women's Retreat

For the past 4 years I have been in a monthly Women's Bible Study with some neat girls who love the Lord. This year we decided to get away for a weekend retreat in Boone, NC. We stayed in a cozy log cabin nestled deep in the mountains. Our teacher, Debbie, broke out the study into 4 sessions beginning on Friday night and continuing through Sunday. We always learn so much from Debbie who truly uses her spiritual gift of teaching to enrich lives.
On Saturday we headed out to experience some local flare. Our first stop was a music festival complete with bluegrass, all sorts of crafts and naturally lots of BBQ, fried dough, cakes and pies. It was like another world where time goes a little slower and instead of traffic you hear the whistling of a harmonica and the strum of the banjo. After we sampled the country side of things we headed to what any girl would find on a trip--OUTLETS! We all find some bargains then made our last shopping stop in downtown Boone. The cute specialty shops were so fun to browse especially because it was a beautiful Fall day and the leaves were gorgeous. We had a fun time, but were all ready to get back to our munchkins! I have to give kudos to all 9 dads who took wonderful care of the kids. Brian and Samuel had a great time going out to eat, riding on the golf cart and taking walks.

Below are the girls doing what girls do best...gathering in the kitchen around food! Merritt is a diehard Penn State fan, so she had to watch some of the big game (and they won!).
Here are Merritt and I at the festival.

Bluegrass at it's finest! The little kids would even get on stage and dance.
Here we all are on Sunday right before we finished up the study and headed home. Great memories!

Happy 11 Month Birthday and check out my leaky-free eye!

Today Samuel is 11 months old. I think I'm going to pass out when I actually do his 1 year post because it's gone by in a blink. He is still a little peanut, but he is fitting into his 12 month clothes for the most part. His favorite pastimes include stair climbing, waving/saying "bye-bye" and pointing to Brian while saying "Da-Da". Occasionally he'll say "Ma-Ma", but he really likes the b & d consonants. He loves airplanes and playing "get you". He'll squeal and take off, giggling the whole time. Recently he decided baby food is not for him. He'll tolerate it sometimes, but he would much rather eat finger foods. His favorites are asparagus, peas, bananas, peaches and top of the list of course are Cheerios. Meal times are always a messy experience, but fun!

Recently he started going to Kindermusic and he really likes it. He loves the other babies in the class and shows it by patting them on the head and then putting his forehead up to theirs.
Soooo, that is a little 11-month update. We are amazed at how much joy this little guy has brought into our lives!

Below he is really showing off the new and improved eye--he even raised his eyebrow for a clear shot.
Here is another shot taken today. Thank the Lord the surgery worked!

2 Showers and a surgery (not in that order)

I am finally blogging about last weekend and what a weekend it was! It started out at 5:00am Friday morning when we woke up dreading what was ahead -- Samuel's tear duct procedure. We went in his room thinking we could gently put him in the carseat at 5:15am and let him sleep on the way to the hospital. Nope...as soon as the door opened up popped two glazed eyes and a sleepy smile.
When we arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, Samuel had fun flirting with a 14 month old girl who was having the procedure after him. Once they called us back, the nurses ate him up. They told us he'd come back with lots of lipstick on his little head. He warmed up to them eventually. We did tear up when they took him back, but we knew he was in good hands. The following pictures were taken with Brian's phone while we were waiting for the nurse.

Here he is in his little hospital gown and a stamp above the eye that would have the surgery. Again, happy as can be for being up so early and in a new environment!

Here he is checking out his socks. And, Voila! Here he is 45 minutes after the surgery as happy as can be. Friends who have had this done said he would be knocked out by the time he got in the car to ride home. Well, over an hour later he was playing as hard as he could. The surgery only lasted 10 minutes and the results are priceless. His eye is now perfect with no more leaks or crust. I took a picture to show the true "after" today, but my camera battery died so I'll do another post later.
Then started the shower mania. For months a few of us have been planning a double surprise shower for Natalie and Jessica. Well, they thought they were going to the other one's surprise shower and found out it was a double one for both. It was a lot of fun and they both received some really nice things. Oh, and both are having their second little boys.

We had a brunch theme with lots of yummy comfort foods. The cake was as tasty as it was cute.
Here are the girls playing one of the games....
One hour after cleaning up from Jess/Natalie's shower, I headed to VA to attend Dolly's final shower. I missed her Charlotte shower b/c Brian was too sick to keep Samuel, so this was my way of making it up to her. We had a lot of fun staying up late talking and going through her adorable baby things. I loved seeing her precious nursery in person too.

Here she is with a nifty contraption her sister-in-law, Joy, gave her. A bib/paci combo. Dolly wanted to test it out for Michael.

She received so many cute items including lots of personalized gifts which were adorable.
It looks like I'm just putting my hand on her belly with no bump, but I promise it's there. Dolly has heard it throughout her entire pregnancy, but it's true, she wears pregnancy extremely well! Now, the countdown has REALLY begun...only two weeks give or take!