They love a bath

So much so that their faces often look like this and their toes come out looking like this. I love that they come out smelling squeaky clean!

From my phone

Yep, tons of pictures.  These little square snapshots of our days are just as precious to me as the ones I get with my big camera, so I want to make sure they’re backed up in a couple different places.  Plus, Mark doesn’t have Instagram, so here you go, babe!, and I really like looking at these all together.  Makes me smile.

So thankful for all these moments!

Eleven Months Old

Sweet, sweet Pete, you’re eleven months old!  You are happy, happy, happy, and you make us smile all the time! You’re so excited about your speed crawling skills and don’t sit still too much right now.  You’re very cuddly, though.  When we’re playing on the floor, you’ll play with whatever has your attention but make sure to flash me a smile and a laugh every so often.  You’ll also come crawl in my lap and sit for a minute and then crawl away again.  I love it! And this is how you crawl a lot of the time.  When you have something in your hand that you want to take with you, you crawl on the back of your hands instead.  Needless to say, those baby hands get a lot of kisses! You continue to be a laid back little thing and are happy with whatever you’re given.  You would think that this paper calendar was the most interesting thing in the world!  You definitely preferred it to the camera!  It’s the simple things, right?You have a handful of words so far.  Of course you still say daddy, momma, and Jack, but you also say bye-bye, bah-bah (bottle), nose (and can point to yours or ours), and ball.  You ‘talk’ all the time, and I just love to hear it!  You’re still a huge peek-a-boo fan, you love when we sing to you, and you LOVE to play with Jack!  You are all smiles.  Keep that attitude, sweet one-it’s better to go through life with rose colored glasses. It seems that you’ve been a momma’s boy, but lately you’ve really wanted (and asked for!) your daddy.  You’ll reach out for him and give him the biggest hugs-melts my heart.  You’ll sit on his lap for long lengths of time just holding a toy and snuggling with him.  I guess you’re starting to pick up on the fact that Jack and I think he hung the moon.  He’s going to love you and protect you like no other-we’re so blessed that he’s ours, Sam!You’re still mighty drooly.  You can soak a bib in no time flat.  You do have 8 teeth now, Jack had one at this age, so I guess it comes with the territory.  And this is the only sign of teething, so we’re very thankful that you’ve had it easy so far!You eat everything that we do-even drinking whole milk now-and you LOVE. IT!  You’re even getting really good with fruits and I’m so excited about that!  (We still need to work on your brother.)  I’ll put your helping of food on your tray, and you dig in.  If we hand you anything after that, you look at us with such thankful eyes and then try that, too.  Your daddy calls you a chow hound. Speaking of nicknames, Jack has come up with some good ones!  The first one he used (a while back) was Gee Gee.  He doesn’t say that much any more, but that’s led us to a few crazy ones.  His new favorite, though, is Ruff-a-lee.  Out of left field, I know!  One morning I found Jack in Sam’s crib and they were playing ‘puppy dogs’.  Maybe it came from Ruff Ruff?  Who knows, but we think it’s funny.  But, by far, he calls you his ‘brudder’  or Sam more than anything and even tells us your full name.Sammy Lambs, you are joy, joy, joy!  Daddy and I thank the good Lord for you each and every day and continue to pray for your good health and happiness!  Happy Eleven Months, little one!

Side Note:  Your actual eleven month birthday slipped by without taking your calendar pictures.  I totally forgot about it until you were in bed.  What?!?!  I know, I hate it.  I realized that I hadn’t taken any pictures of you on this day.  So, I took my phone in to check on you and grabbed a couple 11 month birthday boy shots.  I love a sleeping baby!

Hooray!

Remember this?  It was taken in September of last year.

Here’s the updated version-my how he’s grown!!

The Dupree County Fair

We grabbed our tickets and headed over to the Dupree County Fair to celebrate Boland’s first birthday!  How in the world has it been a year?!  I missed pictures of many of Amy’s fun details, but let me tell you, it was great! It was definitely a Blue Ribbon fair, with fun games, plenty of sweets, and yummy food. And of course the boys had so much fun with all of Boland’s sweet friends-and super sweet sister! Baby James was super cute as usual! Watson, Charlotte, Jack, and Sam kept a close eye on the drinks- until Watson spotted an airplane, and all bets were off! The highlight of the party, though, was the birthday boy!  He did a great job with his smash cake, and even got some help from his brother!Thanks for having us over to celebrate!  Happy, happy birthday sweet boy!  

Goin’ on a boat trip!

This afternoon, the laundry basket was a boat.  Jack was the captain and Sam was his first mate. Sam thought it would be fun to drive the boat from the inside, so he climbed on in.Jack agreed and hopped in, too. Sam wasn’t sure about sharing his boat, but he decided to make room for his big brother with a smile on his sweet little face!It was smooth sailing from there!

Raking with Grandpa

One of our trees lost a lot of its leaves in the past couple days.  Yesterday, Jack said, “Momma, I needa get my rake and rake dose leaves!”  It was already getting dark (man it gets dark early now!), so I told him he could do it tomorrow with grandpa.  When the Thomases arrived, he remembered what I said ‘lasterday’ and was ready to go outside! He was a bit bossy about where grandpa could rake, but once they got that straightened out, they got busy!

Of course the imagination kicked in-which I LOVE!, and the rake was a blower,and he was protecting us from a bear (I think). Thanks for putting such a smile on his face, and thanks for coming up to take care of our boys!  We love you, grandma and grandpa!