spring update number one...

hello again!  it's me, ben, and we're here with an update of the fun we've been having this spring.  we've been busy with baby sam since he's been born - and we all love him so much!! - but we also had lots of pictures to still share from before he was born, so here you go!!

first up, we've been playing outside a lot and a lot, and i got a new bike to ride around on!  i had outgrown the tricycle and have graduated to a "real" bike - with training wheels for now.  i really love riding it and spend a lot of time on my bike now.  :)

at first luke was a little bummed to be watching me have fun on something he couldn't do yet...

but in true luke style, he got over it quickly and moved on to find something else to put a smile on his face...

he got a basketball goal for his birthday and has been practicing his ballin' skills...

he also loves riding around on the tricycle now and especially the plasma car.  we couldn't remember if we'd shared pictures of him on this yet (and were too lazy/busy to look back at previous posts!), so if we have, sorry for the duplicate.  but he rides this a lot and is pretty cute doing so...

also back in april we got to visit the bluebell ice cream factory in nearby brenham.  YUM!  we met some friends there and took a tour and even had some free ice cream at the end - yay!  that was a lot of fun.  we enjoyed the forklifts, conveyor belts, machinery, and cow statue...

we also hit up the local hot rod car show several weeks ago.  we thought about grampee while we were there, because he likes those things a lot, but we only managed one picture of cars before momma's camera broke - so sad!!  this one was silly because it looked like a school bus!!

they also had jumpy things, which i always love, but luke was not so sure about.  this picture sort of looks like we're in a really colorful prison.  momma would like to get one of these for the backyard and velcro the doors shut...  KIDDING!!

next stop on our spring tour - the annual trip to the strawberry patch!!  momma picked (at 38.5 weeks pregnant!) while we played in the dirt...

and checked out the chickens and turkeys...

and ran around...

and looked at the old tractor...

good times!!  and that's it for our first spring update.  we'll try to be back soon with the rest of april, including luke's birthday - whoa!!!!!!!!  and we know you guys are really only wanting to see pictures of sam at this point, so sorry for not having much of him this time. we'll share a couple cute ones now and will definitely have more (lots!) of him the next time.  bye!!

hello there...

hello there...  i'm sam...

i was born on april 24th at 11:52pm.  i weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20.5 inches tall.  nice to meet you.  :)

i had to stay in the hospital for a few days because my billiruben numbers were too high and i had jaundice.  it actually is a true blessing that i was born a few days late because my body was in that much better shape to recover after birth, and there were other reasons too why my birth date worked out just right (even though mom and dad thought they were ready for me earlier, it all worked out just perfectly!).  my brothers, ben and luke, came to visit me in the hospital.  they really liked momma's moving bed!

here's what i looked like in the hospital under those funny blue lights with my silly sunglasses on.  momma didn't like that i had to lay under there for so long, because she wanted to be holding me all the time, but i took the chance to relax and get a nice suntan before heading home.  i was a really good baby the whole time...

finally on the last day at the hospital (it was really only three days, but it seemed like forever! to momma) my brothers got to hold me.  they really liked checking me out and seeing how small i was!

beamee and grampee and mimsie and grandpa were all there too.  they mostly took care of ben and luke so that momma and daddy could take care of me.  we were so thankful to have them!!

here's an "official" picture of me all wrapped up at the hospital on my first day of life.  ahhhh...

and since i'm clearly a little bit late getting some pictures of myself up here, i will finish with an overload of pictures so that you are all satisfied until the next time we update (which may be a while!).  momma loves my little face and so she snapped a bunch of me the other day at home.  also, we should have mentioned earlier that if you wanted to know what i looked like, you could just refer to pictures of luke as a newborn, because that's me too.  on day one, people thought i looked more like ben (which luke did too on his first day), but i already now look a lot like luke and have many similarities to him too, so we'll have to see if that stays as time goes by!  anyway, here you go...

and finally one with my eyes open!  i sleep a lot still and don't really open up too much, so that's why i usually have them closed in all the other pictures.  plus when my eyes are open and i'm awake, momma is smooching on me and doesn't have time to take pictures...  :)

and i forgot that i do have a few more of me and my bros - cute!!  they sure do love to hold me...

excuse me, miss, could i get a beverage...

and this one is of ben seeing that i might be cold, and so he covered me up with a blanket - ahhh!  we're all going to get along just fine...

that's all for now.  thanks for checking in.  bye!!

pre-baby update...

well folks, we survived silly eyes - version 2.0 and are back with an update from the past couple weeks (okay, months!). it looks like the new baby will probably be here within a few days so we're trying to get in one last blog post as promised - yay!!

first up, let's take a look at the current men of the family, all dressed up and enjoying some pre-church milks... my, what a fine looking bunch! :)

and now, dating way back to february, we wanted to share some fun things going on around here. first up, ben finally saw his first rainbow - yes!! momma had tried to point a few out to him in the past, but only recently was he able to really see one in the sky for the first time, and that was very exciting! :)

ben also got a caterpillar-butterfly kit from aunt aimee for his birthday, and we all really enjoyed that! we had fun watching them as caterpillars for a couple weeks, and then we really liked when they turned into cocoons, and then butterflies, and then we released them outside!! here's a couple shots of us watching them ease out of their net. they must have really liked living with us because they were in no rush to leave, and we just watched them for a while. cool! thanks aunt aimee. :)

as we mentioned before, ben started preschool and seems to spend most of his time there eating snacks and various classmates' birthday treats and playing on the playground. momma was hoping for a little more advanced curriculum than that but will take any break that she can get at this point and is glad ben likes it at least! his class also gets to dress up on special theme days at times, and this is ben clearly working it for rodeo week as a cowboy (in one of daddy's old hats)...

this is also a totally random picture of ben during one of his winter sick spells when he was stuck on the couch with me trying to cheer him up...

speaking of me, i have been doing pretty good lately. and by lately, i mean prior to the past week and a half i had been doing awesome as usual. the most trouble i could cause was getting my foot stuck in my table seat and fussing about that for a few seconds...

but something happened to me last week and i have been having a much harder time, which you might notice is not the greatest timing as we anticipate baby brother's arrival. momma has not exactly been known to take things like this in stride, but she's trying her best. and i'm still cheery pretty often, don't get me wrong, but i am trying my hand at throwing a good fit, having sleep problems at naptime and bedtime both, and generally being grumpy for longer than my usual 30 seconds in a row. bummer. hopefully i'll get over that soon.

moving on... it's already pretty hot here, which is fine by ben and me because we play outside most of the day now. but momma found a picture from the first day of march where we're actually wearing "winter" clothes and that seems like so long ago already!!! we sure do love tromping around in our backyard...

during those "cold" days we also spent some good times inside playing with homemade play dough, which was super fun for both of us!!

and we're usually up for some good coloring with crayons or markers, or here on our easel looking like sweet brothers...

but alas, the "winter" really only lasted a few weeks it seemed like, and before we knew it, it was time to get out the car wash again - yes!!! you can see that our weather has even been hot enough to re-institute last summer's "no shirt, no pants, no problem" clothes policy. momma is totally in favor of this, as it means less laundry...

and that mostly brings us up to date around here! not totally, but this will have to do in case we don't get back on here before baby comes. we did have an awesome trip to the county fair last weekend, and a wonderful easter celebration before that, but i can't promise we'll get those pictures on here soon, so we'll just do the best we can. in the meantime, say some prayers for momma and baby as labor approaches (hopefully!) pretty soon and we'll keep you posted! bye!! :)