Sorry no time to blog this week, we're moving this weekend and I have tons to do.
Updates next week.

What's Going On...

Let's see, I've been lazy and just been posting pics lately. But hey, at least you're getting something. We've been busy, as always, Easter was crazy and flew by. This week we're working a lot, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Samantha and I went to music class today. It is a different place than her last Music class and we really liked it. It's called Music Together and we got CD's a a songbook so we can learn the songs. As soon as we got there Samantha was walking all over the room and checking it out. She seemed perfectly comfortable there. Sometimes I wonder where Samantha gets this socialness from. Tim and I are not the most outgoing people. While starting to sing Samantha was walking up to all the other kids. While playing the instruments she walked up to another mom and helped herself to the instrument the mom was using. She did share and give the mom her instrument. So at least she's being nice.
I was at a playgroup a few days ago and the facilitator asked everyone what the want there kids to learn and take with them throughout life. I was thinking that being happy is the most impt thing. Some other moms said being honest and polite. Which is also important, but today I was thinking that if she can keep being social like this that would be great. Some kids are so painfully shy and I'd much rather Samantha be outgoing, which I think will help her to be happier too.
She is just so happy, friendly, and full of life right now. It's pretty amazing to watch her interacting with other people.

By the way, here's Sam at the Easter Egg Hunt Saturday at the gun club. Did I mention this already? Is it just me, but is there something wierd about having a childrens Easter Egg Hunt at the gun club??? I guess that's how they do it in the country, we're still new to country life. Don't worry all guns were safely locked away. It was actually just big fields where they hid the eggs.

Happy Easter

Another happy easter pic! Here are the kids doing there Easter egg hunt. It was freezing outside. And this morning there is some snow on the ground. When is spring coming? I'm going to be late for work, so gotta go. Will try to write later.

What Is This?...

Could it be...candy?!?
Believe or not Sam did not have candy for Easter, she was too littel to know what it was. She played with candy, her cousins ate candy, but I figured if this year I can easily keep her from eating it I might as well. We don't need cavities in those little tiny teeth. Did your kids eat candy?? Am I a mean mom? My neice who is 3 months older did have candy so I'm feeling a little mean, but still I'm sure she'll have enough next year, when she DOES get it. And really, she certainly knows what cookies are and has enough of those.

Easter

Easter was really fun. It was a pretty drawn out holiday. Thursday Samantha got a present from Mimi and Grandpa, this chair and ottoman. She loves it. She is so cute, she plops herself down and puts her feet up. It is the perfect chair for her.
Fri some things came in the mail for her, Sat we went to an Easter egg hunt and dyed eggs, of course. And Sun was Easter and we hunted for eggs and had tons of family over. Samantha is very spoiled by all of her cousins. They give her so much attention, I think she was laughing and playing every second of the weekend, which is just how it should be. I'll post more Easter pics throughout the week.

Happy Friday

Here's my big girl, looking all proud of herself. She loves to sit on things, she's a little wierd. : )

Almost Bedtime

I was at a playgroup today and moms we're talking about never having time to themselves and feeling like they were "just moms" because of that. We were all asked whether we get time to ourselves daily, weekly, or monthly. One mom said daily. When asked to elaborate she said the kids go to bed at 8, then she has time to clean up and go to bed. I don't think of this as time to myself. I thought time to myself was time when I'm not expected to do "mom/housewife things" at all. What do you guys think? Do you get time to yourself, if so how and what does that entail?

Also, Sam really needs a haircut, right? What am I going to do with this hair?

I Love NYC

New York was fun. Samantha felt right at home, she loved the subway, and stopped to chat to as many people who would talk to her. We went shopping, saw some friends, and had a fun time. However, Mon night when we got to NY Samantha was pretty awful.. She woke up when we got there and would not go back to sleep. We usually will leave at bedtime so then we put her right into bed when we get somewhere, and she stays asleep. Not this time. Maybe it's the age?? She woke up when we got there and stayed up until 2 AM!!! Does anyone have any tips for traveling with toddlers and dealing witht he bedtime schedules? And, she still got up at 7! She did take a lot of naps yesterday but that didn't help us since we couldn't take naps. I really don't want to hold off on trips for the next few years but Monday night was the worst we've ever had with her. Help!

Just because it was easy

So now here's 2 more pics from our vacation that I'm posting just because I am in shock of how quickly that last picture uploaded. Here's a bad picture of me, Tim, & Sam at Chichen Itza and a picture of the cenote.
I would post 10 times a day if I had high speed.

NYC

I know, again I'm apologizing for not posting. Let's see what's my excuse this time? I don't even know where the last week went. On my day off last Thursday I was so busy, had tons to do, and even a birthday party. Over the weekend was my Dads birthday celebration and just regular business. I have a hard time posting when I don't have pictures to post. Now we're in the city and I'm taking advantage of the high speed internet. I know it's awful but I live in the middle of nowhere and don't have high speed at home, so you guys should all be really impressed that I post at all.
Anyway, enough complaining, Samantha is now a great walker! In a week she has really improved on the skill, we are happy she's on track and now want her to slow down (just kidding!) She has taken to chasing the cats around the house. If anyone wants a new cat we're giving 2 away for free to a good home (don't tell Tim I said that). But seriously, have a cat, it's our Easter gift to you.
Here's a picture from the winter, but isn't this funny of Sam & Courtney. Samantha looks like she thinking, stop touching me. We will have all sorts of fun adventures in NYC tomorrow and I will post about them at some point this week. Have a good week.

These Feet Are Made For Walking

Warning: Bragging Ahead:
Wow, it's pretty amazing how far Sam has come in a few days. She is really doing great with walking, I am so excited. Today we went to the park, and I didn't carry her. She walked over to the playground, she was holding my hand some of the time, but still I was amazed by how big she seemed. Samantha climbed up the slide and went down the slide, and loved it. This week she learned what a duck, sheep, and bird says. She also knows what the dog, cat, and cow says. She is so cute when she does it. My mom taught her a song about a duck quacking and literally after hearing it once or twice she was able to repeat it, pretty amazing. Samantha just seems so big to me lately, it's so nice to have a toddler and not feel like she is a baby so much anymore. I think we have a little smarty pants on out hands. She can read us like a book, she knows exactly what to say and do to have us wrapped around our little finger, oh well, it's supposed to be like that, right? Here's a picture of her this time last year, my how she has grown!
Oh, and have I told you she is one of the smartest 15 month olds ever? I've probably mentioned it before...

Big Girl-Finally

We're finally getting some real progress with this walking thing. While she's still not totally walking on her own, she is now taking real slow steps when walking. Before she was basically running into our arms. She now goes slow, stops to steady herself if she thinks she will fall, and walks. Of course, we've been bribing her with food. But hey, it's working. As my mom said, she'll be 500 pounds but at least she'll be walking.

Laziness

One of Sams favorite toys is a Weebelot Castle. It has a moat where you put the Weebles in and it turns and makes music. Sam loves this. Today I found her pushing the button for the moat with her foot over and over again. She was too lazy to sit closer and use her finger. It was very cute though. She would press the button with her foot and turn around and smile at me and point to it. Like she is the most clever little baby in the world.

Oh yeah, and she is also climbing out of her high chair now. Which could be prevented if I strapped her in more tightly, so I guess maybe she gets her laziness from me.

Here's my seventies/mardi gras girl.

I Love My Kitty

I know I've mentioned before how much Samantha loves her cats. She is lucky they are so nice to her. I think they just want the attention. She lays on them, hugs them, and gets so excited to see them. Here she is playing with one of her kitties, the cats no longer have names here, we just call them kitty. By the way, Samantha has a bus where you can put things in the seat and she ahs the seat open right now and is sitting on the open seat riding it, it looks extremely uncomfortable, but she seems happy. Oh yeah, and she's backwards on it and saying vroom vroom. I'm not sure who taught her to say that, I don't think I did. It is pretty amazing the things she is picking up on these days. She's getting so smart, she can say and point to nose, eyes, hair, feet, shoes, and belly.

Big Girl

I peeked into Samantha's room yesterday when she went in there to play. This is what I found. She was standing next to her horse talking to it. She looked like such a big girl. She was calling him a doggy, but that's okay. She always calls horses dogs. Oh well. But she was standing next to it looking so big to me. I snapped a picture before she saw me and went into, mommy mommy mode. She's been very into mommy lately. I don't even know if she really wants me, she's just been kind of whiny and saying mommy a lot when she sees me. She also woke up this morning with a bit of a cough so maybe she's getting a little cold (I hope little). I can't wait until the warmer weather is here because I can't wait for all this sickness to end. Will it be like this every winter? I feel like Samantha is always getting sick, the kids in her playgroups are always sick, it's exhausting. I think it should be warm by the end of the week.

Blogiversary

With all that's been going on I completely forgot about my one year Blogiversary!!! I started blogging last March 8th. Sometimes I posted almost daily and sometimes I went weeks without posting. My effort now is to update twice weekly, sometimes it happens and sometimes not, obviously. Right now Samantha is sitting in her toy basket on top of her toys watching the Wonderpets. Does anyone know that show? I try not to let her watch a lot of TV but she just loves that show. As soon as she hears the theme song she laughs, when I hear it I cringe because they play it 20 times per show and it will be in my head for days to come. Oh well, at least she's happy. We've been busy, Tim is the chef at a new gourmet food store and we've been getting ready to open it, finalizing the menu, I've been calling printers to send out some PR mailing for it. I've been considering selling Mary Kay, does anyone know anything about this, bad idea, good idea? I'd love any thoughts.

Samantha is still trying her hardest to refuse walking. I'm convinced she can walk, she'll take a few steps if you really coax her, but she just doesn't want to all that much. She was 15 months yesterday so I'm really hoping she starts liking it more any day now. We go to the doctor in another 2 weeks, hopefully she'll get it by then. She's still concentrating on talking, learning new words all the time.

By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

No Postings

Sorry no posts, I was deathly ill towards the end of last week with a stomach virus and the weekend was spent recovering. And now I have to go to work. Yuck. I promise to upload my pics tonight and give you something cute to look at. Oh yeah, we also had that pesky snowstorm to deal with in the middle of my illness. When will April be here? I can't wait.
Happy Birthday Ryan and Jeanette today!

What's That?

This is Sams new favorite thing to say. It is very cute. Right now she's walking around pushing her bus with one hand, and pointing to things and saying "What's that?" with the other. She thinks it's funny, she even does it with things that she knows. She just pointed to the kitty said "What's that?" I said kitty and she said "oh, kitty" and laughed. She was saying Emma this weekend, her friend who we went to visit. Although she did have some not so good behavior when we were at her friend Jack's house and she took his toys away and told him no when he would touch them. My daughter, the bully. I think she's seen other kids do that to her, so she's repeating it with other people. I told her no and told her to share. He wasn't too upset, he got her back by giving her a good hair tug once or twice.

All About Me

I have been obsessed with Tivo'ing What Not To Wear Lately. And although Tim might not admit it, he actually kind of likes it to. It's really good and I realized that I need to go over my wardrobe. I've been dressing down lately, which I think a lot of moms who don't work in an office tend to do. Time to step it up a notch. We went outlet shopping last weekend and I got a ton of stuff at Calvin Klein, a blazer at JCrew, and jeans at BCBG. I had a terrible time finding jeans, I must have tried on 50 pairs in 2 days. I decided now that Samantha is over a year I'm over the diaper bag. So I need a oversized purse that looks cute and fits some diapers and a sippy cup. I also need some new shoes that are casual but cute looking. Between this and my new working out thing I think we're in good shape. Now I just have to stop eating Sams goldfish, those things are so addictive. I think I should stop buying them. Anyone see any cute shoes or bags, send 'em my way.