Happy 3rd Birthday Sammy!

Dear Sammy,

How can it be that my BABY is 3?! You have grown up so much this past year and have become an outgoing, fun-loving, silly and smart little boy.

You have come out of Wyatt 's shadow and have gotten over your shyness to become a boy who loves to learn new things and make other people laugh- especially with your crossed eyes. You love to be read to, play with trucks and dig in the dirt. You also like to ride bikes, play hide-and-seek and role play that you are a pirate, police officer and firefighter.

You love to talk and sing and have quickly learned some of the songs Wyatt picked up from preschool, which have taught you the days of the week and the months of the year. You cannot wait to attend preschool and look forward to socializing with Wyatt's classmates and their siblings at school drop-off and pick-up. You are in the thick of things with the older kids at the end of the day and run around Miss Amy's tree and play tag even though you are by far the youngest and smallest kid out there and have frequent head on collisions with the others kids but you get up, brush yourself off and get back in the game usually with your adorable laughter filling the air.

You are making big progress in the potty training department, which received a big boost during the January power outage when you decided it would be cool to poop in the pitch dark bathroom by lantern.

You love to go to the movie theater but will not eat the pop corn.When we can't go outside and play you like to take long baths or build forts using the couch cushions. You would never wear clothes of any kind if you could get away with it in public, although you like wearing pirate hats and carrying around swords and squirt guns. You like to "catch bad guys" and "go hunting"- both games which involve a lot of shooting noises.

You're favorite songs are "Moves Like Jager" by Maroon 5 and "I Wanna Go" by Brittany Spears. You're favorite foods are butter and cream cheese (do these count as foods?!). You're favorite toys are fire trucks and dump trucks. You're favorite book is "Freight Train". You're favorite tv shows are "Curious George" and "Jake and the Neverland Pirates".

Your daddy, brother and I love you more than you and you bring so much joy into our lives.

Love,

Mommy

Big Boy Bed

Sammy has finally graduated into a big boy bed! We purchased this awesome captain's style bed (like Wyatt's) so we didn't need to purchase an additional dresser, which works out great since his room is so small. He was thrilled when Ross assembled it.

He even gave the bed a few hugs...

Wyatt and Sam did their best to help Ross with the assembly and Ross was his patient self and let them feel a part of things. He is truly a wonderful father!

The first thing they wanted to do was bounce on it... 

And Sam gave it a big thumbs up!

Here he is testing out the matteress for the first time...

And laying under the covers...

There's more than enough room for two!

And the first night of sleep went off without a hitch.

Snow Walk

During the recent snow storm we headed out for a long walk to the lake to check out the ducks. The boys loved running around and trying to catch the snowflakes on their tongues.

Both boys got in on the snow angel action and Wyatt made sure I walked around his imprints and not through them.

It was a beautiful day with my beautiful boys.

First 3-D Movie

We took the boys to their first 3-D movie last night to see "The Adventures of Tin Tin". It was actually the first 3-D movie for Ross and I as well. We had a great time and just about had the theater to ourselves. Wyatt barely wore his 3-D glasses, although he did insist to wear them the entire way home and in the car on the way to preschool this morning.

Sam enjoyed the movie and loved the glasses. He also asked to go potty twice during the movie and stayed completely dry for our entire trip to Bellevue and back! We are really making some progress with potty training and Sammy has started to even poop in the toilet this week! I think the real motivation came when we lost power for 2 days and he got to poop via lantern light. He told all of us to please leave and close the door so he could have some privacy too. I'm surprised he knows that word since privacy is certainly something I'm never afforded during bathroom time.

The boys have been cracking me up lately with the funny things they say. The other night I was reading a picture book to Sam and he was pointing out what each photo was. When he got to a photo of broccoli he identified it as "broccoli Obama". I said "Did you say 'broccoli Obama?'" and he said "Yes. I want to eat him." Uh, okay...

He has also been mispronouncing a few words, which is so cute that I just don't want to correct him. My current favorite is when he says his fingers have gotten all "sprinkly" in the bathtub. He really means wrinkly.

Wyatt also had a funny one today on the way to preschool. He commented on how fast my "whimper wipers" were moving.

Firefighter Snowman

We headed outside today to build out first snowman as a family. Sam was into the idea for the first few minutes before turning to just eating the snow and then finally having a world class meltdown but the rest of us rallied to complete this fabulous firefighter snowman.

Wyatt completed the head ALL on his own after some quick rolling instructions from Ross. I made the belly and Ross made the bottom. The middle portion was so heavy that Ross and I (okay most I) could barely lift it into place.

 

We grabbed a few items off the ground (gravel mouth) and from the refrigerator (olives for eyes and carrot for nose) to complete the snowman. Wyatt was SO proud of himself.

Christmas

 

We had the most amazing Christmas morning, especially since both boys are old enough to enjoy the excitement of Santa's visit and presents under the tree. Here is a video of the moment the kids climbed out of bed and headed down the hall to see what Santa left for them.

Sammy saw the fire truck he had asked for and Wyatt found the scooter he wanted and their reactions were priceless. 

The boys were also spoiled with lots of other gifts from family and friends...

The boys bought Ross a gift card for fly-fishing lessons...

The boys loved their new "big kid" cups...

and loved these jumbo dinosaur and crocodile toys.

In the evening, Grandma, Julie and the cousins joined us for Christmas dinner and more presents. We gave Nancy and Julie copies of the family photo we took over Thanksgiving and they really liked them.

We set the television to the "Yukle Log" channel and enjoyed a crackling fire and Christmas music while opening gifts. I made everyone candy dipped pretzels and they seemed to be a hit. Elijah is eating them in this photo.

We bought all three big boys new snow pants...

Nancy gave Sammy a foam bowling set, which both kids really like.

Elijah...

We gave Olive new snow gloves and what she really wanted- a gift card to Target.

We gave Julie the present the kids help us make during our snowshoeing trip earlier this month- a L-O-V-E frame and she loved it.

 The happy family...