Spring is Here!

My yard says it's so!

(I'm ignoring the snow that fell yesterday and may potentially fall later this week...)

The first sign of spring in my yard: this tiny daffodil! I'm not sure what variety of daffodil I purchased, but they are super tiny and super cute! We also have more than a hundred tulips popping up all over! I'm so thankful for the fall planning that brings bright spring colors to my yard!

Sammy is also grateful for the coming of spring because he can finally go outside! Here's how he's been enjoying the warmer weather:

Playing ball in the yard.

Riding in the Wagon

(Thank you Santa for bringing this special prize!)

I think its interesting that Sammy enjoys his wagon, because he simply cannot stand anything that moves - like swings, or little kid rides, etc. Perhaps he's close enough to the ground that he's not too worried about falling???

If you couldn't tell, at the end of each run, Sammy would sign and say "More." What a nice Daddy to oblige!

Walking and throwing rocks around the pond.

This great little walking spot is on Hill AFB. Dave gets 3 hours of exercise leave each week, and usually saves 1 hour to walk with his favorite people! We are so lucky! Sammy didn't care much for the ducks, but was enthralled with all the "balls" (rocks) just laying in the dirt! It was a sad, sad day when we had to put the "ball" back and go home.

Playing Tennis

(aka don't hit Sammy while he collects all the stray balls)

I'm noticing a theme within this post...Sammy LOVES balls! Of course we already knew that, I just didn't realize the extent of the love affair...

Of course Sammy got tired of the little tennis balls, and wanted the basketball that he couldn't have...

Sliding, Climbing and Cleaning up the Park

I'm sure Sammy thought the Pine cones were balls...

We are so glad it's spring!!!

Update on Baby

We've had plenty of posts lately about our Super Sam. So I suppose it's time for a baby update.

I went to the Dr. today (for 2 hours! - mostly just waiting, ugh!) and found out the following:

• it is definitely a girl (prior to today, the Dr. and the ultrasound tech were only "pretty sure")


• according to the ultrasound she weighs 5 pounds 5 oz.


• according to the ultrasound she will be ready for delivery on May 7th (yea!)


• she has a strong heartbeat and all other body parts/functions are healthy


• she's a "smart baby" because she's turned head down


• she still has a perfectly round head

We are super excited for her to arrive! I've been cleaning and purchasing plenty of "pink" for the nursery (when it get's closer to being done, I'll post some pics). Sorry everyone, we still haven't decided on a name...good thing we have a few more weeks for that.

How's Michelle?

• I'm doing great.
  
• I'm a lot more tired and don't seem to get much done, but I feel pretty good all around.
  
• I've been experiencing some terrible heartburn lately (no ice cream after 10!).
  
• I didn't gain any weight from my last appointment to today, which means I'm still not back up to my pre-pregnancy weight (seriously, this is the best weight loss plan I've ever been on).
  
• I'm really hoping she's born before her due date - like a week or two before would be lovely.
  
• I love feeling her move and kick, even though it's not super comfortable anymore.

Farewell!

So...if you thought I was kidding about putting my cat, Simba, on KSL, check this out.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5813544&cat=112&lpid=3

We posted him Tuesday night.

He was adopted by the nicest family (from Bountiful!) today. (sniff, sniff)

Perhaps I should feel more sentimental...(here's my attempt)

He was a cute, sweet, cuddly, friendly kitten. The perfect Christmas gift (thanks Love!)

He was my "baby" when we didn't think we'd ever have babies.


He was a great friend to Sammy.
Sammy actually started crying as they were carrying Simba out to the car. I quickly distracted him with a ball. It worked like a charm.

But our time for being cat-owners is up. We haven't played with him as much as he needs. In fact, we've found him more annoying than cute and cuddly. We weren't in a hurry to "get rid" of him, but we sure are glad it didn't take too long.

Good-bye sweet Simba. We'll miss you.

(but not your 5:00 am wake up call)

Big Boy Bed

About a week ago, we purchased Sammy a new twin bed. We decided to bypass a toddler bed for a couple of reasons:

1 - Our crib will convert to a toddler bed, but we'll be using the crib in a few months for baby sister.

2 - We would still have to buy a new mattress to fit in a toddler bed since the crib mattress will be in use.

3 - Sammy has the potential to be quite tall and thus grow out of the toddler bed quickly.

4 - Why spend money on a toddler bed that he'll grow out of when we can spend the money on a twin bed he can use until he's 16 (or older).

5 - We didn't want Sammy to feel like he'd been pushed out of his bed when Baby arrives.

I was SUPER nervous about him actually sleeping in the new bed because:

1 - There's no longer a way to contain him at nap time

2 - He might/will fall out of it

We set up the new bed while Sammy watched us from his crib. I wanted to leave the crib up so that if the new bed was a disaster, Sammy would still be able to sleep in the crib. The entire time we were putting the new bed together, Sammy would point at the bed and say "Nigh, nigh."

When we finished, we got him out of his crib and he walked right over to the new bed, laid his head on it and said, "Nigh, nigh." We then got him ready for bed and put him down in it. We didn't hear a peep from him all night!!!

Nap time the next day was the same way. I laid him down and walked out of the room. 3 hours later, he woke up! He rarely slept that well in the crib.

He hasn't fallen out of bed (yet)...although he did fall OFF his bed the other day when he was standing on it and backed up. I'm also happy to report that today was the first time I've had to go back in his room during nap time to lay him down again - NOTE TO SELF: clean up the toys before putting Sam down for his nap. They are just too enticing for a 20 month old who wants to play all the time.

Hooray for Big Boy Beds! (and for big boys who stay in and sleep well in them!)

Go KSL!

After months of thinking and talking about selling our little green car, tonight we actually decided to advertise it. At 6:15 pm this evening, I posted our '99 Elantra in the KSL Classifieds.

As soon as I pushed the "submit ad" button, I expected the phone to ring. It didn't, of course. However, at 7:05 pm, the phone did ring, and a potential buyer said in broken English, "I'll be there in 20 minutes to look at it."

Right we thought.

He arrived at our house around 8:00 pm and made us a cash offer. We deliberated for a few minutes as the offer was a little under our asking price and...probably because we weren't really ready to sell the car. It's been a dependable little car, that is worth more than $$ because it has given Dave and I our individual freedoms without having to "share" a car.

On the other hand, over the last couple of years, we've been putting quite a bit of money into it to keep it running (it is a 10 year old car), its registration is coming due in May (along with the insurance premium), we really need a bigger car to handle two kids, and the Check Engine light has been on for who knows how long.

So, at 8:15 pm, our little green car left our sweet little home forever. We are now a one-car family. Wish me luck being the Chauffer.

Yes, two hours after posting it on KSL, we had SOLD it. The other crazy thing is, we received another call about it while the buyer was here!! I checked our KSL listing, and was surprised to see 56 page views.

Now, I'm seriously considering listing my cat on KSL.

Bampa

Dave goes to work pretty early in the morning (at least for me). He's usually out of the house by 7:10 am at the latest. One of my goals for the year is to wake up with Dave so we have a little more time together during the day. Of course, after he leaves, I hop right back in bed until Sammy wakes up, usually around 8:15.

Recently, we started finishing our basement. Dave's dad is doing the framing and will come up a couple of times a week. Yesterday, when the doorbell rang, Sammy ran to the door saying, "Bampa, Bampa, Bampa." When the door opened to reveal grandpa, Sammy was ecstatic.

So, this morning, as I was chatting with Dave over breakfast at 6:45 am, I related the "Bampa" story. As soon as I was done, we heard a little voice from his dark bedroom call out, "Bampa?" Our little Sammy melts our hearts!

Sing us a Song you're the Piano Sam!

Okay, so Billy Joel actually plays the piano and sings, but if Sammy did that you wouldn't be able to hear the singing. He did climb up and seat himself at the piano and start singing all by himself. Another stroke of luck is that when I went and got the camera, he was willing to sing the second verse.

Caught on Tape

On a lot of blogs, people have a list of favorite quotes from their cute kids that shows their sweet innocence and darling personalities. Since Sammy doesn't do more than a couple syllables at a time, this is a little compilation of cute things he's done over the last few weeks instead. Don't you wish you had a camera rolling for the zillion other times they do something that makes you laugh out loud?

SuRpRiSe!

We’re in the 5 percent!!!

If your confused…go here.

That’s right. SuRpRiSe!

Sammy’s little sister will be arriving mid May. He’s going to make the best big brother.

For those who need the details…

We have been blessed and literally guided to the right doctors. That’s right. DOCTORS. (after years of “testing” with various doctors without sufficient results either way, and hearing “just try Clomid” about seventeen times…this time I didn’t have to groan or shudder). Thanks to this friend, we finally found one that didn’t beat around the infertility bush. He recommended surgery to remove the cysts on my ovaries and “re-boot” my cycle. Two weeks after surgery, the doctor recommended Clomid (shudder, shudder, shudder). I reluctantly agreed because he promised to monitor its effects to see if it was working. (Brilliant! Why didn’t the other doctors try that?) Well it turns out, it DID work.

SuRpRiSe!

An egg had developed, but hadn’t released yet (common with PCOS – usually they turn into cysts), so the doctor ordered a progesterone shot which would, hopefully, release the egg.

SuRpRiSe!

Four and a half weeks later, I was so afraid to take a pregnancy test after having taken so many with a negative result…I just didn’t want to get my hopes up. Well, on day 40 I finally couldn’t take it anymore and decided to secretly take the test. I was too impatient and wanted to watch the little pink line appear. At first I thought the test had turned out just like all the others, but then, slowly the 2nd pink line appeared. I was in shock…and then I started to shake.

SuRpRiSe!

I honestly didn’t believe it until I went to the doctor a week later and he did an ultrasound where we saw our little bean’s heart beating. That was the sweetest sight in the world!

It’s taken me 18 weeks to finally believe it enough to share it with the world (thanks to the few of you who kept our secret for so long!!!)

We know the Lord has truly blessed and guided our family. I am so grateful to Him for this answer to prayer and for this new little spirit we get to bring into the world. What a beautiful SuRpRiSe!


FYI: So far…pregnancy has been great. I haven’t felt super sick – although I have had to make several dashes to the bathroom to pay homage to the porcelain throne. I haven’t had much of an appetite either, which has meant I’ve been losing weight instead of gaining it (I don’t see what’s so wrong with that, but my doctor isn’t too thrilled about it). For the last 4 weeks I’ve felt “normal,” although I can no longer hide “the bump.”

I was interested to know how Dave would announce our news. You can read his perspective below. DISCLAIMER: I was surprised at how accurate Dave’s account is…not to mention…informative.

Two Parallel Lines

The Engineer's Perspective

For an engineer, two parallel lines aren’t all that significant. But I suppose for an engineer and his wife who’ve been trying to have kids for 5 years, two parallel lines are the ultimate goal. When Samuel came as fast and as sure as he came through the adoption process, we knew the Lord’s path was sure for us. We know Sammy was meant for our family, and through the last 18 months there have been so many personal witnesses of this reality. He has been more than worth the wait, and as we look back, we know the path has been in the Lord’s hands.

But now the question, “We know how the Lord wanted us to get #1, but how is #2 going to come?” We never received an answer from the medical community on why we haven’t conceived. Every test and check has come back as, “things look normal.” It wasn’t as though they told us that we wouldn’t be able to have kids, apparently the Lord had just exercised his birth control until our first born could come to our family. Another tender mercy of the Lord was Michelle’s friend Carrie as we moved into a new ward. She suggested we go visit Dr. Johnson in Layton’s tanner clinic. He had worked as a fertility doctor at U of U hospital previously and now was a very popular gynecologist. So popular in fact, that a new patient check-up wait was nearly a year. Well Michelle took the appointment, and in the mean time Samuel came into our family. So when the appointment came, we got some practical advice as a friend and physician. He recommended exploratory laparoscopic surgery to go in and look at the inner workings of Michelle to see if there was anything that could be seen and fixed to help the process run smoother; reboot the system if you will. At the time we weren’t ready to think about child #2, but decided that when we were ready to start, we would start there.

As Sammy approached a year old, we decided that we would get going again. After all, who knew how long this would take? In July, Michelle set up the surgery date. Dr. Johnson went in with cameras with “frickin lazers on their head” and cleaned things up, including zapping all the extra cysts on the ovaries, and extra buildup on the uterus as well as some guitar-string-looking-thingys that weren’t supposed to be there. TMI right?! Anyway, he came out of the surgery extremely positive and hopeful which was quite contagious. Well Dr. Johnson was awesome and stayed very involved: he gave us some fertility medication, and then had Michelle come in on day 14 of her cycle for an ultra sound. So we did, and during that visit he could tell there was at least one good egg, so he gave a progesterone shot to release the egg, assigned some homework, (Amy, I hope this is vague enough for your virgin ears!) and then wanted to hear if she missed or had a period so they could go on to something else.

So a couple weeks later, we were to the point where the next cycle should start. She didn’t. Realistically, normality hasn’t ever happened, so we didn’t dare get our hopes up. We didn’t really have a clear mind for what a true cycle was. After a couple more weeks we determined that it was time to go in search of parallel lines. It’s interesting, when we were first trying, it seemed that every month we were hoping for a second line. The emotional investment is brutal. After so many negatives, you really don’t have very good feelings towards the stick, and in the last couple years every time Michelle mentioned she was going to take a test, I had to prepare for the letdown and breakdown that followed. Mascara doesn’t come out of a white shirt, so I prepared appropriately.

Despite all the negative vibes the stick surely must have felt, it produced the results we never thought we’d see. Two lines. Distinct. Well of course we didn’t believe it, nor did we dare hope to believe it. I don’t know if it’s a matter of having become hardened? After so many let downs, you just aren’t willing to put emotions on the line. This is partially why we have kept so mum about the whole thing. What if it isn’t for real? What if something happens? If we tell people, the let down would be even greater. Of course we wanted a second opinion. Dr. Johnson confirmed via ultra sound and blood work that we were pregnant. Even so, nobody would find out. What if? A few weeks later, we had another visit, and Dr. Johnson did another ultra sound and we heard a heart beat. I think that’s when we started to break the shell and start to believe. We began discretely telling family. But Mum was still the word for a number of reasons. First of course was “what if?” and second was that we wanted the news to come from us.

The concept slowly started to grow on us. This announcement is more than just us announcing to all our good friends and family that we are pregnant. It is also a step of hope and faith for ourselves to forget about “what if” and acknowledge and appreciate and be excited for the wonderful blessing of our new little girl. We’ve been chosen again, but this time around Michelle is also the birth mother!

Monday Night Football

MVP: Sam

Coach of the Year: Dave

Watch out college coaches! I've got 17 more years to practice!

Football & Family

Can you believe college football season is all but over? As many of you know, Michelle and I have always been big BYU football fans and always have bought season tickets. This year was no different, even though the commute is a lot longer from Syracuse and despite the fact that I'm in my last semester at the U. I guess that football games have been a significant tradition for our family, and the BYU-Utah games have been even more significant since they are always right around the time of our Anniversary. We were married during the U game in 2002, and I don't think that Ralph has forgiven me yet! :-)

There have been some fun memories associated with the "big game" and heading out for anniversary plans that night; including getting lost in a huge blizzard one year.

Well this year, we had no plans for going to the game until Cody & Jen got the hookup from his parents. I would like to take a quick moment and thank Cody's-Dad's-Boss. Thanks for making him work yesterday!

Yesterday as we were driving up to Rice Eccles Stadium, we remembered that 6 years earlier, the night before our anniversary, we went up to the same stadium to watch a football game. Greg was playing for the 4-A state championship, and hoping to give an anniversary present. After Greg and co. took care of business we had a nice meal with our parents, went home for the night and got married in the morning. What fun memories!

Well we couldn't think of anything more fun to do to celebrate our anniversary, than to go and be a little blue sunshine in a dark red storm. (okay honestly I could think of a couple more fun things, but this is a family-friendly blog). :-)

We had a great time! The crowd was very wild and everytime I walked anywhere I wasn't well received, but as the 3rd quarter was coming to a close, the crowd was quite silent and I think more than a few red fans were worried that some last minute herioics were going to ruin their night again. Well I suppose it wasn't meant to be and the night was Utah's. One great thing was that when the game was over, the crowd rushed the field and had a presentation, so we got out without any traffic problems and just drove right home. It was great. Well I guess we'll get them next year, go cougars!

I love you Michelle, thanks for being fabulous and being mine. These 6 years have been amazing!

Personality!

It is so much fun watching Sammy's personality develop. I can't even believe that in one month he will be old enough for Nursery (hallelujah!). Here are some of the new things that Sammy is doing.

Building "Forts" Sammy gets into these creative moods where he will pick a few choice toys and then take them to his special place and sit among them. He is very picky about what toys he takes into his "fort." And we've learned NOT to take the toys away from the fort for fear of retaliation (okay...crying hysterically).

Discovering "new" toys
After building a fort one day - Sammy realized the toy basket was a great thing to play with. He brought it over to me and we sat on the couch with the basket over our heads. The basket is kind of see through, so I would put my hand on the outside and pat it - and Sam would laugh and laugh and laugh and try to poke my hand from the inside.

Later that day - he picked up the basket and put it on his head and started walking around the house. The best part was when he walked into the fireplace and then he couldn't figure out how to turn around - so he kept bumping into the wall. After a couple of minutes of me laughing - started crying. I'm sure it would be frustrating to not get anywhere.

He's always had a love for shoes, especially mom's and dad's shoes. Here he is giving Mom's shoes a try. He didn't walk very far before he fell - but he got a big kick out of wearing these big shoes!

"Demanding" food
His newest trick is walking over to his high chair - pounding on the seat and screaming "Ahhhh!" I guess we taught him this one because we'd try to get him to open his mouth during feeding times by saying, "Ahhh." He also does this to the candy/cookie jar. He knows right where it is in the kitchen and will walk over to the jar and point and scream, "Ahhhh!" What a funny boy!

Feeding Himself
A MeSsY operation! He does great with finger food, but we've been trying to get him to learn how to use a fork and spoon. His cereal in the morning mostly ends up on his bib/pajamas. What fun to develop fine motor skills! (Apparently Sammy has a pushy Dad) :-)


We LOVE this boy so much!!!

Happy National Adoption Month!

A Novel... for my journal

Choosing Adoption is a difficult choice – for ALL parties involved. I don’t even want to imagine the multitude of decisions facing potential birth-mothers. There is just so much “stuff” involved.

For me, as an adoptive parent, it meant the death of a dream. It meant kissing goodbye the realization that I might never have the chance to “enjoy” my own pregnancy (ultrasounds, heartbeats, baby kicks, back pains, to name a few) or labor and delivery (hearing the babies first cry and seeing him all covered in gunk). It meant I wouldn’t get to join with God in the creation of life. It meant saying sayonara to the idea of looking into a face with similar biological features and wondering who he looks like more. It meant that my family would be “different.” We would have issues that “normal” families didn’t have to deal with.

For us, it meant walking away from logic, ie: Doctors (who weren’t helpful anyway) and putting our faith in the Lord that He would guide our family to our home. The birth of a new dream.

We really hadn’t tried very many medical treatments. We knew I had PCOS – but none of the doctors could tell us how to treat it. (They all just said, “Try clomid and relax. If you’re just patient it will happen. It really depends on how long you are willing to wait.” Umm, excuse me Mister Doctor sir. Have you EVER been in this situation before? No! So you probably don’t realize that is NOT what we want to hear right now, thank you very much. We’ve been “waiting” for three years. Something is WRONG!) I can’t even begin to explain the frustration we felt toward the medical community! Think of the last time you were frustrated at something and then times it by ten. It was SO aggravating!!!

We went to a specialist in SLC who told us that we should consider in-vitro. Hmm, $10,000 for a 20% one-time chance of getting pregnant? (FYI, “normal” couples have a 25% chance each month of becoming pregnant – it’s amazing ANYONE gets pregnant). I’m not the gambling type, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the greatest statistic. So…after enough with the doctors - we started contemplating adoption.

We thought about it for many moons. Adoption is expensive. With LDSFS it’s 10% of your combined yearly income, not to exceed $10,000 and there are thousands upon thousands of adoptive couples waiting. With other agencies the cost can be anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 minimum. But…if you wait long enough, you are 100% sure to get a baby. After thinking it over, we thought a 100% chance was better than a 20% chance for the same price. However, we still weren’t completely sure about it.

Our decision was ultimately made in the temple. One early morning in October 2006, Dave and I went to the Bountiful temple for a sealing assignment. While waiting for everyone to arrive, the sealer, Brother Leishman, began asking the couples questions to get to know us.

He looked at us and said, “So…who’s at home with the kids?”

Dave and I looked at each other and then answered, “We don’t have any
kids.”

To which he immediately replied, “Well adoption is good too.
The sealing power is amazing. It allows adopted children to become ‘as if
born in the covenant.’ What an amazing plan the Lord has for ALL of his
children.”

I was in SHOCK. I was in AWE. It was such a direct answer to prayer. I knew immediately that adoption was the choice the Lord wanted us to make. We decided to put further medical procedures on the back burner.

We began the paper work. I should say, we were immediately buried in paperwork. It took us several months just to answer the 44-question questionnaire. Ten pages (12-pt-font-single-spaced-each-spouse) and 3 references (2-sided questionnaire that the agency mailed to our contacts) later we could sign up for the “classes” offered by the agency. We didn’t really know what to expect from the classes, but it was an eye-opening opportunity that I wish EVERYONE had to experience. We learned about birth mothers (“without them, there is no need for YOU”…Ouch. Say goodbye to my pride!). We learned about infertility (“only 5% of adoptive couples end up having children biologically after they adopt”…Ouch. Not the greatest of chances). We learned about openness (“contact with your birthmother anywhere from emails to home visits”…sigh – if we were “normal” we wouldn’t have to deal with that). We learned about race and placement and making yourself stand-out (you mean this is a competition?). With all the sarcasm aside, our eyes were opened. We realized what it would take for our family to have a baby. We realized that our lives really aren’t our own to lead, but that we should follow closely behind the Lord and His will.

After 8-weeks of classes, a thorough home-study, interviews with our case worker, letters and pictures put together for potential birthmothers and waiting for agency approval, we realized what we had gotten ourselves into. It was a whole different way of putting a family together. A way that felt right for us.

We also realized we are not alone (see my sidebar for a handful of other adoptive couples) which brought with it great amounts of JOY. As Alma said in Mosiah 18

“ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and
are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort
those that stand in need of comfort.”

What a difference a friend who understands makes!!!!

The answer to our prayers came quickly. We didn’t have to wait long before our sweet Sammy was loving placed in my arms. We are so happy to have made the difficult choice of Adoption. One that we will happily make again in the future.

(If you missed the earlier installments of our adoption story, read them here and here.)

Super Halloween Night

Happy Halloween! We hope that all your halloween's were just super. We had a fun night. It felt like we were just running here and there, but all in all it was a good time.

We started the day going to get some shots for Sam. What kind of parent chooses to get their boy his shots on Halloween? Yeah we pondered that question for a bit, but I guess we figured that if you start off bitter the sweet would seem sweeter? Maybe that's just what we told ourselves...

So after some shots, and a quick stop at the community center for an early vote, we were ready to start our evening festivities. Okay so seriously?! Sammy has already had way too much candy and we haven't even started the day. Of course the doctor's office gave him a candy bar, as did the Wal-Mart cashier, and the Quizno's cashier. At least the poll place had some good sense and didn't offer the poor guy some more sugar!

Oh well, let the sugar infestation continue, First stop Grandma Pond's:

Visit to Grandma Pond

I don't know why we didn't get a picture of Sammy with Grandma, but we didn't. Her legs do cameo when we went to go visit grandpa, but for some reason we didn't think to get a picture. I guess we at least had the camera with us, so that is a start. This next threesome of pictures is kind of an omen for how the day will progress: Happily eating candy, and then when it is gone, bring on the whinery!

Ah well, it's Halloween.. Even Superman has his weaknesses, and apparently there are few things worse than coming to the end of a delightful bag of M&M's.

Visit to Grandpa Pond

Next on the flight list for the super man is a visit to grandpa. Grandpa was at work and we didn't want to miss him, so we thought we would take him a couple treats and give him some happy Halloween wishes. Earlier in the day we got him a king size snickers and Sammy was excited to fly in and grant some sweet wishes.

A quick sidenote, Sammy recently got a new pair of shoes that are a size too big. Occasionally he trips up on the larger than life shoes...

As we were running to Grandpa's office, the carpet monster jumped up and tripped Sammy. Yep, he did a little spin and landed hard. So instead of a fun smile with a candy bar in hand to greet grandpa, it all fell apart and he screamed in pain. Don't worry we came prepared, and quickly broke him off a piece of that Kit Kat bar (how many has he had today, ugh we are bad parents!)

Also to cheer the little guy up, Ralph offered him a CEO position. He was only on the clock for a few minutes, but come on, the guys handling our wonderful financial institutions make a Mercedes a minute; so we are trying to figure out the payment deserved... Here is Sammy hard at work -- looking at some plans and relaxing in the important seat.


Here is a video of the Tricks and Treats received from Grandpa.

Next on the flight plan was a trip to Grandma & Grandpa Droge:

Visit to Grandma & Grandpa Droge

The Droge home was decorated fun. Dad put a picture of his mutilated hand (taken by the doctor right before the surgery) on the front door as decoration, and it really set the halloween mood. Joseph had a vomiting Jack-o-Lantern which was hilarious as well.

superman with his super grandparents

At this point in the evening, Sammy has figured out exactly what is in these buckets, a whole lot of goodness! The perfect part in Sammy's mind is that wherever he goes, he has the effect of people wanting to feed him. This is actually not just a Halloween spectacle. I swear day in day out, complete strangers ask if they can give this boy food. Does he look hungry? Or is it just so fun to provide nourishment and enjoyment to cute little faces?

Here is a clip of some tricks and Sweets at Grandma & Grandpa's:

Trick - or - Treating!!

By quarter to 6, we were finally home and ready for some trick-or-treating. We didn't go out with Sammy last year, so this was a first for both parent and child. Michelle decided to stay home and pass out candy, so I took the little superhero around the block. We ended up being out for about an hour, and by that point Sam was completely exhausted.

He did pretty good though. After a couple houses he figured out the whole idea of grabbing a piece from their bowl and sticking it in his bucket. The funny thing is that even though we only hit a few houses, he still made out like a champ because they would let him do the grabbing. Of course he wouldn't grab just one, but because of the before-mentioned phenomena of wanting to feed the child, they just thought it was darling! But honestly like anyone would take it back from a tiny superhero.. a 15 year old hardly dressed up maybe, but certainly not a first-timer who doesn't know the rules yet!

Many times as Sam was about to grab some candy, he hesitated for a little while because of the distracting outfits that everyone was wearing! I guess as a little boy you just aren't expecting a werewolf to be holding out a bowl full of candy. The funny thing was that Old Man Hendricks and Old Woman Hendricks didn't slow Sam down a bit. He knew exactly where he was and went right in the house to play games...

Here we are getting ready to go:

Dinner & Relaxation

Well finally the night came to a close (and finally this post is coming to a close). We had dinner and relaxed and watched Sam eat yet more candy. When bed time finally came calling, he was completely pooped. What a fun but exhausting day!

Before bed, we took a picture of Sammy with the pumpkins we carved. All of these came from our garden this year!

Happy Halloween!!

Syracuse Pumpkin Walk 10-24-08

Let's go for a walk!

Every year, Syracuse City puts on a Pumpkin walk. It is a fabulous Halloween tradition: Black Island Farms donates thousands of pumpkins to the city and then anyone and everyone can come and carve and decorate and then give back the jack-o-lanterns. Then they put all the pumpkins in a line around the city park, light them and let everyone come and go for a walk. (They light the pumpkins with lights not candles! Can you imagine trying to light all the pumpkins?? Yes you say, but that is because you don't realize that there are really a lot of pumpkins)

Last year Michelle and I went with little baby Sammy. I think he slept the whole way through. This year he was almost excited. Well at least he actually wanted to try and touch the pumpkins! But we all learned, "DON'T TOUCH THE PUMPKINS!" Not sure why we didn't get a picture of any of the many pumpkins carved with "Don't touch the Pumpkins" (From english, spanish, japanese, Oromo?, Pig Latin, King James).

Anway, we invited family to come along with us to start a tradition of going on a pumpkin walk in the cold and coming back to our place for hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts. We didn't think of this far enough in advance, so some people didn't get the memo in time (Sorry guys!).

Anyway, here are some pictures of the event:
After waiting in line for about 30 minutes, we were ready to begin. Something new this year were all these cutesy little signs. They were painted by the Val Bagley? person who does a lot of church cartoony books and comics. They did a good job and helped bring in the spirit of the festivity!

Waiting in line was not a favorite thing for Sam. He was outside so he really wanted to run around. Instead his mode of travel consisted of (in order from left to right top to bottom): ride on Dad's shoulders, throw a crazy fit, be cute (momentarily), cuddle after being warn out from the tantrum, joust with Nathan (Nathan thought Sam was giving him the sucker when instead Sam's intent was to poke him in the face with it), ride on Mom's shoulders, sit with Mom and Dad in front of a sign, ride with Dad, and finally!! walk and try and touch all the pumpkins. Unfortunately he was held at just the right distance that his final objective was not reached, We Hope.

I think Sammy did have a good time once we got walking. It was great that they had kids posted at just the right intervals giving out candy. By the time most kids got bored walking, there was another station with some candy to keep them going for another leg. Sam ate the sucker eventually and I think ate about half the stick in the process. Mmm Fiber!

Byron, Elizabeth and Nathan came along. Nathan is about 8 months younger than Sammy, and is a favorite friend. Unfortunately Nathan doesn't like balls being thrown at him, but we are working with Sammy on that, at least we tell ourselves that to help us sleep better at night. Anyway, it was great to have them along.

Here are all the attendees to the pumpkin walk on Friday night. Brandon & Kimberly and the boys came Saturday night to the walk, and stopped at our house to chat which was fabulous. As you can see, my parents came as well. Dad's hand is looking very good, in fact he showed us the pin that had been used to stabilize one finger (to which Michelle nearly vomitted). If you were confused about what I was talking about, Dad had a fight with the table saw and nearly chopped all his fingers off; the surgeons did a great job, and he is recovering fantastically.

So here are some of the favorite pumpkins. There were plenty of BYU carved ones varying in degree of professionalism, a whole muppets section, a whole disney section and everything in between. They varied in difficulty from a simple triangle and circle cut to intricate detail creating pictures of christ and the temple. Some of my favorites were pumpkin pi, pinky & the Brain asking for votes on Nov 4th (for world domination), and of course Trogdor burninating the countryside!!

It was an enjoyable time. I mean let's be honest it wasn't Busch Gardens or anything, but it was fun to be with family and see all the creativity. Afterwards we had a great time making homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate and enjoying each other's company.

Halloween Tryouts

So with the pumpkins growing orange and the weather getting colder, it was high time we found a halloween costume for Samuel.

We were at target the other day and they have quite the impressive collection of halloween costumes. Well Sammy loved holding a little puppy costume, which was completely adorable. We also really liked a Superman costume, because we always call him our super sam. We decided we would get them both and then see how they fit and things.

As we tried the two costumes, it was apparant that Sammy had a strong preference:

Not bad..

Not great..

Horrible!!!

Cool..

Distracted ..

Still distracted (which is a good thing!)

Learning to fly

So yes, the poor little puppy costume went back to the store, and Mr. Sammy Kent's cape went into the closet soon to come out and fly to a house near you shouting "trick or treat!" Okay let's be honest he probably will be saying "ball" over and over because you also have a pumpkin on your porch!