summer update

hi everyone!  it's me, sam!!  :)  this is a picture of me from early june, before i was really smiling yet.  but keep reading and you'll see some really cute ones of my smile down below...

well, i'm back with an update on our summer so far.  it's been in the 200's and very humid for over a month now, so i don't get outside for very long at a time. but ben and luke still do and when daddy was home for a long weekend recently, we got out the boat pool again - yea! 

you may remember this from last year - a gift from beamee!  ben really loves it, especially spraying water out of it.  luke really wasn't so sure about it though. once he finally talked himself into just walking near it, he ran away! 

here he is staying close to daddy's side, too uneasy to get close again. but daddy called him a nancy...

...so he just ran over to momma instead... and of course she held him...

and here are some other fun things the big boys have been up to outside... it turns out that water and soap and buckets can entertain them for hours - yay!

and last year's planter box is still a hit but had to be moved inside so luke wouldn't throw beans everywhere in the yard...  (sweet luke would do that?  yes, sweet luke would do that...)

and here's ben playing with corn starch and water goo outside, which also was a huge hit with him!  that kid just loves to stir and mix and pretend to make food all the time...

so back inside, here i am making another silly non-smiling face several weeks ago...

you might have noticed that it looked like daddy was snoozing on the couch in the background of that photo above.  that seems strange that daddy would be getting an afternoon nap instead of momma and you might be wondering if it was just a weird camera angle... nope - here's proof! daddy was actually snoozing on the couch for a short afternoon nap!  unheard of!

here i am having some tummy time...

and here's where the great smiles begin!!  :)  this is me at exactly two months old - can you believe it?!?!

and this is me sitting in ben's lap...

i'm not sure what he's doing in this one, but it looks like he's ready to catch some spit up!  thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, i don't spit up very much at all (unlike my two brothers at this age), but they do think it's quite entertaining when i do, and especially when i poop.  sorry mom - this is what boys get a kick out of...

and now i'll close with some pretty cute pictures of luke and ben before i head off for a nap myself.  can you believe these goobers??

and finally luke wanted me to add that it's been a while since we've had some visitors and he expects some indiana (or north carolina!) love up in here very soon... or else...

HOLLY WHITE i'm lookin' at you!!

haha!  :)    okay, that's all.  bye!!

spring update number two...

hi everybody - it's me, luke, and i'm back with our second spring update!  even though momma was pregnant with sam, we had a lot of fun around here this spring and there were several special events we'd been looking forward to.  first up - the county fair!!!  ben had been waiting for this weekend ever since our car ride home from the county fair last year (i mean that literally!).  and i was definitely old enough this year to enjoy myself too.  here we are on a fun ride...

and here's me and daddy checking out ben on a ride i didn't go on...

then here's all three big boys on the airplane ride that ben rode and loved last year and i got to try this year - yay!

of course we had to eat cotton candy.  you might remember that last year i tried it and didn't even like it (must have been a textural thing). but i definitely wanted to try it again this year once i saw how much ben was enjoying it...

so i nicely asked him for a piece...

and he nicely shared some...

and would you check out the size of the piece he shared with me - does this seem fair to anyone?  can you believe this big brother stuff i have to put up with around here?

moving on... we checked out the animal barns with cows, sheep, chickens, and pigs.  and then we went to the petting zoo to really get in on the action!  i loved this part and could look at animals all day!  there were goats and sheep, llamas, a donkey, and even a kangaroo!  (and check out momma's big belly - ha!)

the fair was a hit.  and now we're both looking forward to going again next year!  back at home, we had our upstairs walls painted - by someone other than daddy - yay!  we like to "help" daddy too much when he paints, so we had to hire someone else to finish the upstairs.  ben and i had fun climbing on all the furniture as it was being moved around by the painters...

i also had my birthday - yay!!!!!  i am officially two!  although if you ask me how old i am, i will tell you four, because i always hear ben talking about how he's four.  i can count all the way to fourteen though, so at least i know my numbers one way or another!  momma is sad for me to report that my birthday pictures were not very good or exciting, but my birthday itself was awesome because we got to go to the airport to pick up beamee that day!!  and then baby sam was born the very next day!  we will try to include some birthday pictures next time, but here's a random cute one of me pretending to do a check-up on myself after our visit to the pediatrician for my two-year visit...

and here's one of me reading a book, which i love to do!  this is one of my favorites, and although i prefer momma to read to me, i also will read to myself too - cute!

we also had a great easter and loved hunting for eggs (over and over and over...) and coloring eggs and going to the easter celebration at church.  and we've had lots of fun outside and an awesome visit with beamee and grampee and mimsie and grandpa when sam was born.  shwew!  that's our spring round-up and i'll close with some cute pictures...

okay, thanks for checking in - see you next time!!!

the many faces of sam...

hello again.  it's me, sam.  ben and luke will be back soon for their second spring update, but first i wanted to share a few more pictures of me in my first month of life.  yes, that's right - i'm already one month old - wow!  i'm doing really well so far and am trying to be a very good baby since momma already has her hands full (literally!).  she wears me around a lot in the sling and i just go along for the ride.  here's a cute picture of all three boys outside in the yard the other day...  ben is doing his own thing (spacing out?) in the background while luke messes with his shoe and i just hang out in momma's lap with my cute feet...

i try to spend more time awake during the day now so that i can let momma and daddy have some more sleep at night (in theory), and here are some of the funny faces i like to make while i'm stretching and playing.  this first one is me starting to wake up... 

silly after-yawn face...

this is where i start to get over the picture-taking a bit (momma had taken probably 50 of me sitting there by this point, but i'm only sharing a couple)...

okay, now i'm really over the pictures and want her to just feed me...

if you have an extra minute, you should check out pictures of luke as a newborn.  if you look to the right on this blog, you will see links to posts from previous months.  find the third april and may from the top and check out luke's faces as a newborn baby too - we make so many similar faces it's almost starting to freak momma out a little.  crazy!

anyway, here's one of me doing some yoga moves with ben on the rug.  he has a kids yoga dvd that he really loves, and i joined in the other day for a bit.  it really helped me to relieve some baby stress and i was very calm and relaxed afterwards...  :)

here's kind of a random one of momma holding me - check out that silly look on my face!  it kind of looks like i'm already up to some mischief, but surely i'm not...

back outside last weekend i enjoyed some time with daddy...

and of course some more time with momma...  i love me some momma...

and we'll end with another cute feet shot.  okay, thanks for checking in and hope to see you again soon!  bye!  :)