Sam's first cake bake

For the first time, Sammy helped me bake a cake. It was so fun and he actually did a great job! Of course his favorite part was licking the beaters.

Swim Lessons 2009

Sam did so well as swim lessons this year. He jumped fearlessly into the water from the side and went under for at least 6-10 sec. He was a little fish. Here are some pics from his swim graduation...

His little class

His favorite song was the little duck song. We still sing it in the bathtub at night.

One of the funny things that he does is he holds his breath under water while smiling the entire time. He goes under smiling and comes out smiling. He has the sweetest expression on his face when you lift him above water. He is just so proud of himself. He looks around make sure everyone saw him do it. Such a little ham :)

Home Sweet Home

Every night, Matt, Sam and I gather together at the bottom of the stairs and say a goodnight prayer before Sam is off to bed. Recently, we have been trying to teach him to say the prayer himself. He bows his little head and we prompt him a little by letting him fill in the blank..."Dear Jesus, Thank you for______, Thank you for_____, " and so on. He always fills in the blanks with the sweet but obvious Mommy, Daddy, NoNo (aka Owen) and whatever else he happens to have in his hands. This past Friday, when he ran out of obvious answers, Matt and I watched as he scanned the room. I saw his little wheels turning and knew that whatever he came up with would be from his own little mind and heart. Finally he turned his little hand facing up as if to say, "Well of course" and simply said "HOME". The way he said it was so sweet and thoughtful as if everything he loved was in one place, home. I cried.

My Sweet Baby Boy

We just had our 2 year pictures made by my friend Melissa Darst. Sam is going through an "uncooperative phase" when it comes to posing for the camera. Luckily, I love action shots so that was ok with me :). As always, Melissa did a great job! The two things I wanted to be sure and include to really capture this stage were trains because they are his favorite (along with race cars) and his boots which I have to hide from him so that we can minimize the "I want to wear my boots every second of every day even to bed" meltdowns. They are his first REAL COWBOY boots and were a gift from his NeNe and Din Din. He calls them Yee Ha Boots and I Love them. Here are a few of the pics....

(Stuffing Rocks in his pockets.)

Don't be jealous

Ok, well I am a sucker for a good garden tomato. However, I have two 100 lb. dogs that are in the backyard on occasion. That poses as a gardening problem. I found my match made in heaven. I am now the proud owner of a Topsy Turvy Tomato plant. I know, you're jealous. I loaded that sucker up with a "Big Boy" tomato variety, hung and voilla...a beautiful, organic, classy, tasteful not at all white trash garden at my fingertips. I'll keep you posted on the process....

Girls Just Wanna Have FUN!

A few weeks ago, some of my friends joined me at my parent's lakehouse for a retreat. The entire weekend was an '80s theme. Everyone arrived wearing their '80s best. I came away with the best hair award. We had a blast! After some pics in our totally rad threads, we soaked up some sun, cooked some great food and topped the night off with a little game of "Name that Tune" (all songs from the '80s of course) and '80s charades. This turned into a good ol' fashioned dance-a-thon and Soul Train line. We have decided that next year will be a 2 night retreat!!! Here are a few more pictures below...