Flips

Sammy likes to do sommersaults, but she's not coordinated enoough yet to do them on her own. Instead she "assumes the position" and waits for us to flip her!

That's Crafty

As I've posted before, I've had a strong desire to get in touch with my inner crafter since becoming a mom. My own mom was always very crafty growing up, and we had elaborate Halloween costumes (I seem to recall an impressive pair of Popple costumes) and enviable teacher gifts to show for it.


Unfortunately, my artistic talent is pretty limited. Well, I think I may have found my perfect crafting tool. It's called a Silhouette SD. It looks a lot like a printer, but you hook it up to your computer, create an image using it's software, and it either cuts it out or draws it for you. It's like a die-cutting maching and plotter all in one, and I am in love!

I got it all set up in about 10 minutes yesterday, and then put a little embellishment on Samantha's crib using adhesive vinyl in about 15 minutes today. It looks like I stenciled it on there, but if I ever want to change it I can peel it right off. The only thing stopping me from decorating every wall in the house is the fact that our walls are so textured that I don't think it would look right. I plan to try my hand at making some cards next!

5 Year Anniversary

Five years ago (tomorrow) I started the day off at the hair salon during a torential downpour while Pat was getting soaked on the golf course. It was not the most promising start to what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. By some miracle, the sun was out by the time my veil was in place and we were ready to leave. The rest of the day has the golden hue of sunshine in my mind.

Year 1 of marriage was hard, but not because we were deciding who got the bigger closet or which person had to give up their furniture that wouldn't fit in the newly-merged space. I spent the first year mailing care packages and waiting for the phone to ring while Pat was risking his life every day.

Year 2 brought Pat's return (Yay!) and the purchase of our first home. Now we got to bicker over closet space and furniture. :-) Years 3 and 4 were spent making our home in Waynesville. Life was good, but we began to feel that someone was missing from our family.

Year 5 was eventful! We moved across the country and welcomed our beautiful baby girl into our life. I feel so lucky to be living the life that I'm living, and I can't wait to see what the next 5 years have in store for us! Happy anniversary, Pat. I love you.

Dancing

We keep the TV on in the evenings, but Samantha usually completely ignores it. The only time she watches is during a specific commercial. Any time it comes on, Sammy stops what she is doing to dance. Thanks to the magic of DVR, we were able to rewind the commercial and catch some video.

This was the first one we shot...do you think we might have a little D.J. on our hands?

The second time through got her on her feet.

(Kind of) Walking Videos

I got a couple of videos of Samantha walking yesterday evening. She was getting sleepy, so she fell down a lot, and then the camera died. She's a lot more stable when she's well rested.

10 Months

Miss Samantha turned 10 months old yesterday! She's working really hard on cutting her third tooth (by which I mean nursing constantly and needing lots of cuddles) and started walking two days ago!!! She's managed to put about 6 very controlled steps together a couple of times. She doesn't do it too often because it's still faster for her to crawl where she's going, but we're working on catching it on video.

Operation Meet the Family Part 1

We're home and (mostly) recovered from our trip to Missouri. We had so much fun introducing Samantha to family and friends! It was a trip of firsts for Sammy. During Operation Meet the Family Sammy:

- Took her first plane trip
- Cut her first (and second!) tooth
- Went swimming for the first time
- Had her first visit to Steak 'n Shake
- Attended her first wedding
- Stayed in a hotel for the first time
- And most importantly, met lots of people for the first time

Before we left for St. Louis, we drove up to Bellingham to visit some of Pat's side of the family. Samantha had so much fun playing with Pat's cousins. We got to celebrate Emma's birthday, and Samantha met her Great Aunt Karen and Tina and cousins Ben and Jake. Here's Samantha at GG Jim and Dorothy's house playing with cousin Margaret.

Our first stop in Missouri was Clayton for the wedding of one of Pat's Army buddies (congratulations Mike and Jen!). We got to see several friends that we hadn't seen in a while, and it was so nice to catch up with them. After the wedding, we headed out to Hermann to spend a couple of days with my family. We probably had about 20 people over to the house on Sunday to meet Samantha. She was a trooper and played happily the whole time we were there. Clearly she has no problem being the center of attention. :-)

Samantha had so much fun playing with all the toys that Grandma had rounded up for her. I think her favorites were the balls and the xylophone.

Since having Samantha I've felt this need to tap into my inner crafty side. I got this idea to make some fleece diaper soakers for Samantha out of some strawberry fleece that I found on sale. I had used a sewing machine before, but don't own one, so I asked my Mom if I could use hers while we were visiting. The pattern was just 4 pices....simple, right? Thank goodness she was there to help me! I ended up doing some of the sewing, but left the trickier parts to her. We ended up making this cover and a little t-shirt to match.

After the visit at my parents' house, we headed to a hotel in St. Charles as a home base to see some friends for a couple of days. The hotel had a pool, so we took Samantha swimming for the first time. She had so much fun splashing Mommy and Daddy! We have a cute video of her in the pool, but Samantha got a little enthusiastic pulling on my suit, so it's definitely not going on the internet. ha ha

All clean after my shower!

Wow...this has been a long post. More to come later!