Yule Time Fun

In between solving renovation problems, moving back into our house and packing up to leave again, our family did actually manage to prepare a bit for Christmas this year!

Even if we couldn't decorate the inside of the house, I wanted to do the outside. But then it rained one weekend and Chris was sick the next. I thought I was out of luck all together. But then Sam and I came home one day to find Daddy on the roof. He had left early to put our lights up and surprise us! I felt so much better to have some decorations up, and Sam had a ton of fun helping Daddy get every string - and every "eye bulb" - ready.


My sweet, sweet husband also brought home a 36" Christmas tree that he strung with lights so that I wouldn't be too bummed that we didn't get to put ours up. Isn't he thoughtful?!

Over the month of December Chris and I enjoyed listening to Sam sing one of the songs he'd learned at school. He'd grab a bell and cheer, "Ring those bells and jump up high! Ring those bells and stomp your feet!" Sometimes we even heard it from his bed once he'd gone down for the night. We heard it a lot. So you can imagine how excited I was to see this arrive in my inbox:

Finally, I decided months ago that I wanted to attempt a gingerbread house with Sam this year. Then we started renovating and I quickly realized my visions of crafting it all from scratch were beyond unrealistic. So I bought a kit, thinking surely we'd find an hour to put it together. Well, we ended up taking that still-closed kit with us to Florida and Sam woke me up on Christmas eve asking to do our special craft (seriously, it was the very first thing I did that day, so please don't judge my appearance!). Well, we finally got it done! He enjoyed eating the candy and placing it on my icing dots, and I had fun finishing it up with some prettier details. I think next year is our year for the homemade one!

Next up...Christmas in Florida!

The Growing Belly - Volume II, Part II

Here we are, me and Marshmallow, a few days ago a few hours short of 28 weeks. So now we are officially into the third trimester - the home stretch! And now that the renovations are over, and Christmas celebrations are winding down, and I think I can finally turn my brain and focus towards preparing for this child's arrival. First up: by Sam a new bed so we can convert his back into a crib!I'm starting to feel large. I think I've moved right on past the "cute pregnant" stage, sigh. But in looking at the pictures from last go round, I don't look too much bigger than I did with Sam, but I was a week further along in those pictures. I think I'm a different shape though. Maybe that's because I'm having a girl, or maybe its because Marshmallow is still head up (Sam was already down by this point). Only time will tell!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry its a day late...

Merry Christmas! Love,
Chris, Lindsay and Sam Hunniford

The Accidental Remodel

I've alluded to it in a few other posts, so here you go: the story behind why we weren't exactly living at our house recently.

It all started when I got pregnant - no, really. Our house has two bedrooms. Do we stay or do we go? Well, let's think about it till about week 20, then chat with a few Realtors. Decision? Let's list it! But before we do, lets fix one or two small things, and the foundation. Foundation problems aren't a big deal in pier and beam houses like ours, but it'll still sell better if its done.

So we get a contractor and the foundation guy out here. The news wasn't good. The foundation had problems, but they were fixable. But both workmen found some serious issues with our sub-flooring due to long-term termite and water damage (slow leaking shower). The next thing you know, we are in the middle of a major home improvement project. By the time it was all said and done, here's what we did:
1. Remove carpet in 2 bedrooms and hallway to expose severely damaged sub floor
2. Remove damaged sub floor and corresponding damaged portions of walls
3. Rip out entire master bathroom due to sub flooring and shower leak issues
4. Spend too much time and mental energy resolving conflict between contractor and foundation guy
5. Repair foundation
6. Repair sub floor and walls
7. Remove exterior door in master bedroom, replace with window
8. Expand master closet, add pocket door
9. Move patches of old hardwoods hidden under carpet to hallway and second bedroom
10. Re-texture and paint bedrooms and hallway
11. Remove kitchen window, replace with door
12. Re-build bathroom, including new tile, expanded shower and new cabinet
13. Refinish new hardwoods
14. Install new carpet in master

I think that's it. In truth the kitchen door and the master closet didn't have to be done, but they've been on "the list." The kitchen door we've wanted to do since we moved in 4.5 years ago, while the expanded master closet is going to double as a crib room for new baby. The rest was a necessity to insure structural integrity of the house. I'm not going to lie, its a little less fun to do these projects because you have to, but in the end we are really enjoying the results.

The process, I won't lie, was incredibly painful. Granted it was our first ever re-model, so we had a lot to learn. We now know a bit more about how to work with contractors, what to expect, communication, sourcing materials, etc. But that was only part of the pain. For me, the worst part was living through it. Obviously, we had to move everything - every shirt and tiny item we'd stuffed in closets, all the furniture, etc - into the other half of the house. Our house isn't big, then you double up the furniture and the living space we were left with was tight.

So we kinda moved out. Our wonderful neighbors recently finished their garage apartment and graciously allowed us to stay there during the work (which we initially told them would be about two weeks...oops). It was an incredible blessing to have a free place to stay, close by so that we could keep an eye on everything! Unfortunately, there was no kitchen over there. So we were actually back and forth between the two places several times a day. I was constantly packing and unpacking, thinking of what we needed, etc. Sam learned to ask about the "other house" and learned the term "next door." And he didn't sleep well there, because it was basically a studio apartment.

And back at the house it was DIRTY. I mean DIRTY. Yes, they hung plastic, but there is nothing on Earth as messy as drywall dust. The floor sanding did not even compare. I had to clean my kitchen before I would start cooking every time. Over time it just made me start feeling dirty all over.

So you can imagine that after almost a month of living between two imperfect places, we were thrilled to death to move back into our home last Saturday night. We were beyond motivated to get things put back together. We worked continuously to clean and clean and clean and move and replace and put it all back together. And while I wanted to curse our decision at about 3:30, I am now proud to say we had it restored and ready for our company that arrived at 7:30 on Thursday evening. Sometimes deadlines are really just needed inspiration to get it done!

We are still waiting on our shower glass to arrive, but Sam is graciously sharing his shower in the meantime. I am told the glass will be here tomorrow...

Now if you're paying attention, you'll remember that we started all of this so that we could list the house and move. Then I mentioned expanding the closet to make a crib room. Conflict? Yeah, kind of. Turns out, I think that we're going to stay here a little while longer. Anyhow, here are some pics. We're so glad to be home!

Pulling up the carpet revealed some interesting patch jobs done by previous owner. There were holes in the sub flooring that had just been covered with plywood:
Here is an example of bad patch jobs, but also a poor mid-century decision to glue linoleum onto what would now otherwise be beautiful, 90 year old hardwoods. In case you're wondering, linoleum glue ruins hardwoods beyond repair. We also have old hardwoods with linoleum glued on top under our tile in the kitchen. Sigh:
This was our master bathroom. The previous owner used fence posting to try to patch some foundation problems. Seriously:

Finished work. New hardwoods in the hallway:
New hardwoods and repaired/repainted walls in the second bedroom:
The master without furniture and new paint. You can see our new closet door here:
Inside the new closet. There used to be a door where that window is. The crib will go on the wall to the right:
The master with furniture.
The new master bathroom. Still need to hang the mirror and towel bars, but we're holding off till the shower glass goes in:
I can't wait to shower in there:

Breakfast with Santa

This year we stepped up our Santa visit a bit - all the way to a breakfast! Actually, it was an easier, more enjoyable, and cheaper experience than any mall Santa could be.

The church that houses Sam's preschool offers a Santa breakfast as an annual outreach to the community. I'd like to say you can consider us reached, but I'm not entirely sure that's true. We hit up the Sunday morning affair bright and early at 8:30 and we're at our own church for worship by 11am (and we stopped at Home Depot in between!).

Anywho, we joined the Lutheran folk for pancakes, bacon and oranges - an incredibly nice change to the cold/dry cereal we've been having under our current housing situation. They provided some crafts for the kiddos, so I have a few beautiful additions for my tree this year. And then of course, the main event.

I'd started talking up the man in red a few days before. I explained that he comes the night before Christmas - only after everyone is asleep - and brings a few presents to help us celebrate Baby Jesus's birthday. But he also makes some visits a few weeks before Christmas so that we can all tell him what we'd like him to bring us for Baby Jesus's birthday.

Sam was good with this idea. Decided he would tell Santa he wanted candy and trains. But he wasn't going to sit on his lap. Hmm...more talking to do.

The day arrived, and as we were walking to the car Sam asked me,
"Mommy, talk to me again."
"What do you want me to talk to you about?"
"About him."
"Umm...oh you mean Santa?"
"Yeah!" So we went through it all again.

When we walked in he didn't want to go right up to Santa. We let him eat first, in full sight, to get used to the Big Man. At one point he said he was ready to go see him, so we walked right up (no line - beautiful!). Then he got stage fright. I feared this wasn't going to go well, until the camera suggested that Santa offer a candy cane. Now, Sam had never tasted a candy cane before, but he heard "Sam, Santa has candy..." and that was all it took. He walked right up to him and let him pull him into his lap. With candy cane in hand, he timidly told Santa that he'd like trains for Christmas this year. A few pictures snapped, and the visit was over.


I'm pretty sure this was our best Santa visit so far. I am having a blast this year as Sam really learns and enjoys all of the Christmas traditions that I loved as a child. Still more fun to come!

Thanksgiving

Look at me, getting my Thanksgiving post up in a timely manner this year!

This year it was Ohio for Turkey Day. We flew out Monday afternoon and came home on Saturday night. If those seem like weird travel days, its because they are. But they were strategically selected based on airline ticket prices. The Stegmiller trio wasn't able to join us, but all reports are that they had a lovely time back home in San Diego.

Once again we waited until the day of travel to inform the boy that he'd be flying on an airplane to visit Gammy and Papa. Even half a day was a bit too much anticipation, but he is proving himself to be an expert traveler. In fact, now that he watches videos and plays games on the iPod, he's almost easy to fly with! He even achieved his first 30,000 ft pee!

All in all it was a very uneventful and relaxing trip. Wonderful! I did hit up 6 grocery stores on Wednesday for a variety of reasons, but most of them were suspiciously calm! We decided that the fact that Whole Foods was the busiest is in indication that the economy can't be that bad, right?

Sam was spoiled rotten with attention by his grandparents, Uncle Matt and Aunt Kate. Someone was always willing to play whatever game it was he could come up with. A couple of times he even got to go out and play golf on the real putting green! Kate came up with another fun new game, which seems to be her gift. And the little man sure did turn on the charm for his people. Comments like "Thanks for playing ball with me!" might just earn him an extra Christmas gift!

Friday night we kicked off the Christmas season by visiting the Zoo Lights. I'll tell ya, two and a half is a fun age for such an event. From the second we walked in the little boy's eyes were filled with wonder at all the twinkling lights reflecting off of everything. "Its so pretty!" he announced to Papa. He enjoyed naming all of the different colors he was seeing, and feeling the fire. And then he spotted the train. "Hey let's ride that!" And a few minutes later, Gammy had purchased 7 tickets for the Polar Bear Express. There was a bit of panic when were standing in line and the train left without us, but once he understood that it would come back for us he just patiently waited to hear the whistle, and declared "All aboard the choo choo train!" He also got to decorate a cookie at Mrs. Claus's Kitchen. He sufficiently discouraged his aunt and uncle from having children anytime soon with his meltdown at dinner, but still declared that the extremely creepy singing bear Christmas tree was his favorite part of the excursion.


Saturday morning I met up with my high school girlfriends again. It was a quick visit, but good to catch up nonetheless. Sam did not care to be photographed, but Lex's little Will was cooperative.


I could probably write a book, but there are the highlights for you. It really was a great trip and we, especially Sam, were sad to come home to our disaster of a house. Thanks again for having us, Gammy and Papa!

The Growing Belly - Volume II, Part I

In attempt to document this pregnancy in the same way that I did my first, I have taken my first set of "belly shots." For comparison's sake, I will try to wear the same outfit for all my pictures this time around that I did last time around.


Here we are, me and Marshmallow, about a week ago. We were 23 Weeks 3 Days in this picture, almost exactly as far along as I was in the pictures in this post from my first pregnancy. Hmm, seems I am a bit bigger this time.

Please excuse the partially wet hair. I have a good excuse, more on that later. In related news, we have now passed the 24 week mark, meaning Marshmallow is now viable outside the womb!

All Aboard the Potty Train!

Friday, November 3 was a very big day in our house...we removed a diaper from Sam's body for the very last time.

Although we'd been practicing whenever he wanted, we hadn't pushed it or talked about it much before that day. And he didn't really know it was coming. But I did, and I was scared. So I prepared and I prayed...a lot. I am not generally a parenting book reader (I find much more value in talking to other mothers, and I feel the books are like the line from the sunscreen speech, "Do not read beauty magazines they will only make you feel ugly!"), but I read several on potty training. I ended up combing three methods into something I thought would work for us.


When he woke up on Friday morning the bathroom was ready. Potty chair in the corner, potty ring on the toilet, incentive poster (what two year old doesn't love stickers?!) on the wall, a stack of books and DVDs about going potty, a bag full of cleaning supplies and a stash of candy. He had already seen his underwear - 20 pairs of licensed character 2T briefs to be exact - and was pretty excited about those. I explained that each time he went in the potty he'd get a jelly bean and a sticker. I handed him a cup of "special juice" so we'd have plenty of practice and we sat on the potty. All morning we read books, watched the DVDs, and ran to and from the potty every time the timer went off. If nothing came out he got an "I Tried Candy." I wonder how old he'll be when he figures out they're actually called Skittles?


We actually had more success than I anticipated on day 1. By the end of the day he had 6 stickers. Several accidents, yes, but he learned quickly that he didn't like the feeling of being wet and cried every time it happened. Since I removed his diaper he has yet to have an accident during nap, and had only one the very first night. He is night trained!

Learning to go outside of the house has been exciting, too. His first day back at preschool (day 4 of training) was an epic failure. At that point we had to take the little potty chair away so that he was more comfortable on the big potty. He's doing much better now, and I think feels proud to be part of the crowd using the potty. He now goes at church, and he's gone at McDonald's (they had a little potty in the play area bathroom!). I was concerned when he announced at Pei Wei that he needed to go, as I knew they would have no little potty and we had no potty ring, but Daddy came up with a brilliant "stand on the potty rim" solution. I'm not sure my female mind ever would have come up with that one.

Here we stand two weeks later. He hasn't had a pee accident in 6 days. He has no interest in going if he doesn't need to, but will always ask when he feels the need! That is success enough that I will not be turning back in spite of the fact that in these two weeks he has earned only 3 poop stickers (they are puffy and "better" than pee stickers). Every single Mama I've talked to - including his teachers - say that poop takes longer with boys. I don't love the clean up, but I am so pleased with the other half that I mind it a little less. And he knows it should go in the potty - yesterday he danced around for 6 hours trying to hold it in, then running to the potty where he couldn't let it go, repeat, until finally it was in the underwear. I do give him special privileges to encourage him sitting on the potty to try, but that hasn't work yet. I am open to suggestions on this one.


He did, however, finish his first incentive chart with a poop sticker. We were quite proud. It took him 10 days to fill it. I'm thinking the next chart will be for poop only. With the chart full he received his new toy, the Little People Nativity Set. So now we're potty training and learning about Baby Jesus.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

One of Sam's teachers sent along this short little video. They are performing a song they learned in music class for some of the church members. Sam is in the back row, on the left in brown pants and a striped shirt. Usually there would have been a lot more of them there, but they had 9 (ane one teaching assistant) out sick that day!

Its possible that one of the stars of this video is obsessed with watching this over and over again...

Happy Halloween!

We had quite the Halloween celebration at the Hunniford household this year! Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

I took great care in selecting Sam's costume this year. Some of you will remember how we terrorized him by forcing him to wear his ridiculously cute puppy costume last year. I didn't want a repeat, but wanted that kid in a costume! So when he came home fro preschool talking all about how Mrs. Gauthier wore a fire jacket on fire safety day - and kept talking about it - I started hunting down a fireman costume. The one I found was for 3-6 year olds, so it took some minor adjustments to get my small 2 year old into it, but he actually liked it!

So here he is in full outfit on Halloween morning. It was pretty cute, because he thought he was going to ride in a fire truck. Really glad I had other exciting plans to distract him with! The costume came with an ax (he is now quite good at fighting fires with an ax), a whistle (which he blew, yelled "time to come inside!" and stuck up his sleeve "Just like Mrs. Bathe!") and a walkie talkie - plenty of pretend play to be had.

We met some friends at Zoo Boo! The zoo has all kinds of special things set up for the kiddos, including some games, and chance to decorate a free "pumpkin," trunk-or-treating, etc. Let's talk about how wonderful it is that the did this on Halloween Monday!!!! Usually they only do this Friday through Sunday. Friday is field trip day, and Saturday crowds at the zoo are bad enough without a special event, but in the past it has been a nightmare for zoo boo. Monday it was toddler town everywhere, not crowded, and lovely.

We hit up a few trunk-or-treat locations and he loved on his "wollipop" for about an hour and a half, then kept begging for lunch because I told him no more candy until we ate lunch!

Sam actually got a bonus prize for getting a ring around one of the pegs in the ring toss, too!

Leo was an elephant, and later after they'd all ditched the costumes, Sam was too.


Sam passed out on the way home. After nap we had work to do! Outside to carve our pumpkin. Not gonna lie, he wasn't much help. He kept scooping the seeds and pulp back into the pumpkin! So we got a second bowl and he enjoyed scooping for one bowl to the other. You know what he is good at though? Washing pumpkin seeds! He loved sloshing them around in the colander, and at one point I realized he was taking my directions to "clean the seeds" quite literally. I looked over to find him lining them up on the kitchen sponge. Too cute :-)

Daddy got home a few minutes early from work, so as soon as the clock struck 6:00pm we hit the pavement for Sam's first official Trick-or-Treating. In years past he's gone to two neighbor houses, but this time he had the bag, the phrase, the whole deal. He was understandably nervous to knock on the doors, but quickly got the hang of things when he realized there was candy to be had. "We better knock on another door!" he would advise us. Generally he would say "please," so I had to remind him to say "trick-or-treat!" but everyone thought he was adorable! And only a few times did he ask to go home so he could eat his candy.

We had one negative experience. People, please please please think before you let your teenage son answer the door in a gorilla mask. I know its fun, but maybe no masks until after 7pm? Or maybe restrain your dog so he doesn't run out at my son? Am I too sensitive, or is Sam?

He wanted to eat all the candy right away. We, obviously, had to cut him off - yes there were tears. He asked for his pumpkin bag right when he woke up this morning (literally, he wasn't out of his bed yet) and wasn't too pleased to learn he had to wait until after lunch.

After bath and bed, Chris and I handed out about 225 pieces of candy. Some were from the neighborhood, some were coming in car loads from surrounding areas to our nice, safe, urban oasis. Most of our crowd comes after 7:30, and it was actually getting busier when we ran out at 9pm. I roasted the pumpkin seeds with a yummy recipe I found on allrecipes.com, and fell asleep watching TV. It was such a good day.

Here's your bonus picture: last weekend the real estate office down the street from us held their annual "pumpkin patch." They load their front yard with pumpkins and invite neighborhood kids over to pick one out. Sam and I walked down with our new (to us, its been well loved by another family) Sit 'n' Stand stroller, grabbed a pumpkin, a cookie and a balloon and were back at the house 10 minutes later. It was time well spent, and Sam promised the baby wouldn't mind if the pumpkin borrowed its seat :-)

Marshmallow's Anatomy Ultrasound

First, meet Marshmallow. This is the name we have given our unborn child. Sam's prenatal name was Poppy (because when we found out about him, he was the size of a poppy seed), and we got so used to saying it that for a good 18 months after he was born I found myself referring to Poppy whenever I spoke of my pregnancy. Weird, huh? Well, this name is derived from the proximity of my due date to St. Patrick's Day. Chris didn't like Lucky Charm, so we went with Marshmallow, because that is the best part of Lucky Charms. I'll admit that we don't use this name quite as frequently as we did Poppy, but I think that's largely because a certain someone thinks we're actually offering him one every time we bring it up.

Anywho, today we got our second peek inside at little Marshmallow. Today I am 19 weeks and 6 days pregnant and Marshmallow is weighing in at 11 ounces. That is exactly what Sam weighed at his anatomy ultrasound, which I believe was at 19 weeks 1 day. Not only are our children similar in size, but they appear to be similar in personality, too. It was almost scary how paralleled this appointment was to Sam's! It appears that we produce children who love to swim and kick until they are asked to do so, and then curl up as tightly as possible so that no one can see anything. We went through a whole list of antics just to get the kid to move enough to see the necessary anatomy.

Summary of the ultrasound: we have a healthy baby growing in there!

And that's all we really know. Once again, we will NOT be learning the gender prior to birth. I'll admit that I was super tempted to peek today, but alas it is still a secret shared only by God and our ultrasound tech. My chart now contains a big red flag indicating that this information is to remain a surprise - it is written down nowhere.

So here you go, the latest pictures of our little one. First up, knee in the face - profile shot of head on the right and you can see some arms and legs all bent up on the side:
This one is a bent arm - hand on the right side:
Next we have a foot (top left):
And two feet right together in the center:
And finally, a creep front shot of the face, complete with alien eyes:

The Steel Trap

At Uncle Matt's rehearsal dinner we all realized how much alike he and Sam looked at the tender age of 2. More recently, I've come to realize that Sam not only resembles him physically, but shares some of his personality traits, too. Top of the list: a memory like a steel trap. The kid seems to remember everything.

Take, for example, our car ride to church on Sunday morning. After informing me that we were also going in the direction of the gym (he also recognizes the turns for school, Kroger, home and church), he reminded me "Daddy take you that store buy plants" as we drove past Home Depot. Half a mile down the freeway he recounted "Last time wait our turn, its raining!" See that would make sense to you if you knew that last Sunday we had measurable rainfall for the first time in 3 months, causing an accident and major traffic on our way to church. We had to wait our turn to get through the one open lane in that very same spot. One mile later, we passed a temporary carnival in a mall parking lot. "Gammi, Papa take you that, go high around!" Y'all, my parents joined us on the Ferris wheel when they were in town for the Rodeo LAST MARCH.

He regularly tells stories from weeks ago. (Ok, so it helps to understand his stories if you were there with him, but they are still correct.) In the mornings he asks me what we're doing today, and he can remember not only the days plans, but the order in which they will happen. Its quite helpful that now he remembers where he leaves everything.

Sometimes its overwhelming to think that he is absorbing, processing and remembering SO MUCH of what happens in his every day life. Will he remember my less-than-friendly reactions to other drivers? Will he remember the times I react in frustration or anger when he's just being two? Sometimes I hope not.

But maybe 50 years from now when Uncle Matt is on the mental decline and no longer able to remember such details, we'll be able to ask Sam exactly what he was wearing on his 39th day of 2nd grade.

Dewberry Farms

I have very happy childhood memories of the pumpkin farm. Circle S - who remembers? Bundling up, hot cider, donuts, hay barn, hay rides to the pumpkin patch, picking out the perfect pumpkin lying right where it had been cut from the vine. I want those memories for Sam, too.

So I googled and asked around - there is one option in "Houston." Out we drove (almost an hour) to Dewberry Farms. I dressed us all in jeans because I was overly excited about the overnight lows, but it was still 80+ by the time we were done. They were selling sno-cones, not hot cider. The pumpkins had been trucked in - not a vine in sight. The Christmas Trees they drove us past were not douglas firs, but some Carolina something-or-other-variety that didn't look like they'd hold an ornament. Guess we won't be cutting our own down anytime soon.

So it wasn't the same as in Ohio, but WE HAD FUN!

We hit up the Cow Train first. I couldn't tell if Sam was enjoying the ride, because he has a tendency to concentrate really hard when experiencing something new and different. But we hopped off and he announced, "I had fun on that!"


Next we jumped on the wagon ride. No hay, but in truth my husband's allergies may have appreciated that. Sam definitely enjoyed this ride! In addition to the tree lot and the flowers, we drove past the corn maze. I think it wouldn't have been too difficult for any adult over 5'6" this year - stupid drought!


Then it was time to pick a pumpkin. Sam thought they were all great, and enjoyed examining all of them. He was NOT, however, interested in taking a cute fall picture amongst the pumpkins.

(At this point in the day our camera died. Someone used it for his fieldwork this week.)

Sam got to sit on a big tractor, and reluctantly got down as a line of other little boys began to form behind him. We moved on to "Little Farmerville" to play with the other 6-and-unders. Not at all interested in digging in the box of loose corn, and frustrated that he's still too short for most tricycles, he found joy in the big roller slide and long tunnel.

Then he found real joy in feeding the goats! Oh how the boy giggled as he felt their tongues on his hand. We visited more animals in the barn, visited some singing stuffed chickens, and called it a day.

Chick-fil-a on the way home was a wonderful way to end our family outing.

Visitors

Gammi and Papa came to visit from Ohio over the weekend. Actually, Gammi flew in on Wednesday afternoon and she and I played while Sam was at school on Thursday. It was my first completely non-productive school day, and I enjoyed it. Too bad they can't all be like that! Nothing like Starbucks (decaf), a pedicure, shopping and lunch :-)

We are finally seeing a bit of a break in our weather - highs are only about 90 these days, and lows are in the 60's - so our mornings are lovely. We spent a lot of time outside with Gammi and Papa. Not a whole lot of really exciting adventures to recount, but we had a bunch of laughs and fun. Here are a few cute pics for you:

Gammi sat down to do her bible study. Sam ran to get his Bible, then asked for a sheet of paper and a pencil. He put the paper on top of the open Bible, just like Gammi, and got down to work.


We celebrated Papa's birthday with some really yummy chocolate cake. Sam made us sing to him about 8 times. And he enjoyed helping to blow out the candles.



Thanks for coming to visit us!