A Sunday walk.

I took some pictures of Sam while we were out walking around the neighborhood. Here are some of my favorites.

It's done!

I gave Sam a haircut. I think he's pretty happy with his new do or maybe it was the suckers I kept bribing him with so he would let me continue with his haircut. He had so much hair. I think I still want to cut it some more but I think I might Jared do it. His some before and after pictures.
Before.

After.

That was most of the hair I cut off. He had a lot of hair.

I think it's time for a haircut...

Summer is approaching and I think it's time to chop off his little California hair style. I hope it turns out okay. It's just hair, right? Poor little Sam is always rubbing his eyes and saying, "eye hurt", because his hair gets in his eyes. I've only used clippers once, on my brother, and that didn't turn out so well so hopefully Sam's hair cut will go better. If anyone has any tips though, I'd really appreciate it.

Easter, Arizona and visitors

Back at the beginning of March my grandpa past away. It was a bittersweet passing. We were able to go to Arizona for the funeral, spend time with my grandma, and see so many family members that I haven't seen since I was a little girl. And for the first time in probably 15 years, since siblings started marrying and going on missions, my parents were finally able to have all their children and grandchildren together at the same place, at the same time.

Here are all the grandchildren on my side...well so far that is.

Here's a couple random shots of what Sam does best...

...run. He did manage to escape from us when we were inside the church. I found him on the opposite side of the church trying to get back into the building. This kid is way too fast.

We met up with some friends of ours, the Pooles, the Lees, and the Shamos in DC one weekend. We were there for the cherry blossom festival and took a little paddle boat ride on the river. Sam loves anything he can steer. The Shamos stayed in Richmond for a couple of days so we got to hang out with them at the beach and Maymont Park.

Buddies...together again. I almost feel like this next few pictures should be on a slideshow with music.

They are too cute for words.

We were so excited and glad to have my parents and brother come out this past week. Boppa was about as close as Sam could get to saying grandpa or grandma. We had so much fun going to Busch Gardens, Charlottesville, and Maymont. Thanks again, Geoff, for cutting down those trees.

Here's Boppa and Sam watching the animal show at Busch Gardens.

Jared won a stuffed dog for Sam. Sam fell in love with it as soon as he saw it.

We weren't sure Sam would do that well with the bumper cars but he was a born driver. Not sure who he gets that from...

A couple of pictures from the Easter playgroup. Someone told the kids to make funny faces. Sam just happened to be making a face as he was off in his own little world.

I did get a smile out of him though.

Maymont park had a big Easter egg hunt and games for the kids on Saturday.

They even had the Easter bunny.

Saturday was pretty cold but we did get in a few games before we called it quits. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful Easter Sunday. After dropping my family off at the airport we headed over to the hospital to spend some time with Jared. After the hospital we came back colored Easter eggs and did our last Easter egg hunt.

Molly Monkey dolls

Okay so I have been meaning to post this for a while because I know some of you asked for it. Sorry. You can print out the pattern and instructions for free. Click here for the site. I had a lot of fun making the dolls and if you have follow the directions (I have a hard time with that sometimes) they're pretty easy to make. I don't know what file I put the picture in so if you want to see them again scroll down to the Christmas pictures. Good luck!

Catching up

I went upstairs for a minute and came back down to find Sam on the counter eating a brownie and dumping everything out of the cupboard onto the counter and floor. I had to grab the camera and get a picture.

For playgroup the week of Valentines day the kids made mailboxes and passed out valentines to each other. Sam loved it.

He didn't mind the cupcakes afterwards either. If only he could keep it in his hands.

I have to say we've been having some crazy weather here in Virginia. One day it's 65 the next it's snowing. We took advantage of a warm day and Jared getting home early to go to the Richmond zoo. Sam really likes feeding the giraffes.



I guess Sam needed a little break.

We got about 8 inches of snow on Mar. 1st which I guess is pretty unusual for Richmond, Sam didn't seem to mind. Here's Sam making his first ever snow angel.

Just hanging out with the dog.

More fun in the snow with Dad.

On Wednesday we still had a lot of snow. So we made a snow man. Ithink Sam's first.

Sam really liked making the snow man wave and say hi and bye.

By Friday, it was 65% again and the last of the snowman melted as we were packing and getting ready to leave for Arizona for the weekend. I have lots of pictures of AZ but I need to leave that post until tomorrow.

A few pictures from Christmas and our trip to Utah

We had a great Christmas and New Year. I wish I had taken more pictures but here are some that tell of some of things we did this season. I started by making some cute monkey dolls for some of my nieces. I got the idea from someone else but I think they turned out super cute.

Sam had a hard time staying away from the presents under the tree and carried them around everywhere. Good thing I didn't put them out until Christmas Eve.

Sam's Christmas dance. I thought I'd see how long he would keep his hat on, that's why the pictures with the hat. He left it on for at least an hour.

Christmas day up at a mountain resort in Virginia (Massanutten), with our friends the Pooles. Playing some DDR. I'm glad there was no picture of me doing it. I'm terrible at it. I guess I have no hand-eye-foot coordination.

The girls did rock on guitar hero though.

Sam and Jared playing fuseball with the Cattens.

We got to see a lot of family and friends while we were in Utah unfortunately I only took a couple of pictures with a few of them. This is the only one with friends, the Vera family.

Sam cheesed it up for a picture with Papa Mel, sandwich in hand and mouth.

We had a great Christmas and New Year season and feel blessed we were able to spend time with so many people we love.