Yeah, I've been the worst blogger ever....

I finally have some pictures to post! December has been a great month. Such a great month that I was just having too much fun to post anything on this blog. We had Sam's first Christmas program (of which I was unable to get any decent pictures - all turned out blurry). He rang his "jingle bells" very well, by the way. We had another disastrous run-in with Santa. Actually, we had a couple of those. Turns out Sam likes the fake Santas around the house MUCH better than any real Santas. We had wonderful visits with family over the holiday, and Ben and I have really enjoyed our time at home with Sam.

Sam checking out his soccer goal and ball from Paul and Carrie. He actually let out a scream when he opened it!

Modeling his new slippers from Nini. He loved these.

OBSESSED with this toy. Spiderman on a motorcycle. We actually had to say "bye bye" to this for a while so he would open up his other gifts.

He seemed to think his aquadoodle was a mat to take a nap on. He kept saying "night night" and laying down on it.

Sam was responsible for this. I had no part in it.

Sam had woken up from a nap at my parents and had severe bed head. He also had no pants on. He was giving "murf" a ride on his new motorcycle.

Playing with his motorcycle track with Papa Jay. Notice a theme? Sam's destiny is to own a Harley someday....

Jackson and Sam. I actually merged two pictures together on Photoshop! This was the first time I was successful at doing that. I could NOT get a picture of the two of them both smiling for me, but was able to get separate ones. Notice how Sam is gripping on to his motorcycle so that Jackson can't get it.

Christmas is Coming

I came upstairs tonight to get ready for bed and this is what I found in my bedroom:

Ben reading Sam The Night Before Christmas by the tree in our bedroom. So cute.

Pockets

Sam's teacher taught his class how to use the pockets in their coats last week. Friday after I zipped up his coat, I turned away from Sam and when I looked back, he had his hands in his pockets. I thought it was funny and took a picture:

Sam got very preoccupied with having his hands in his pockets. We walked out on the front porch to go shopping, and he just stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down. He WOULD NOT go down the stairs because that would require taking his hands out of his pockets to balance himself. After a few requests to hold my hand (all met with an affirmative "no!"), we just picked him up and carried him to the van and put him in his carseat:

This created another problem because he needed to take his hands out of his pockets so Ben could put his seatbelt on. He was NOT having it and this is what happened:

He eventually figured out how to get his hands back in his pockets and was VERY pleased with himself.

At the mall, Sam refused to take off his coat (despite having 2 layers on underneath) and walked around the mall like an old man with his hands in his pockets the whole time.

When we got home, I had to tackle him to get him to take off his coat and consoled him by showing him that he has pockets in his pants. This is how he walked around the house until bedtime.

This morning he was ecstatic when he realized that his Browns sweatshirt also has.....POCKETS!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We have had a great Thanksgiving weekend and have spent lots of time with both of our families. Jane and Susan and their families were here, so that was a special treat! Sam wasn't so sure about all the attention at first, but he was used to it by the end of the weekend.

The big task Wednesday was to clean up the leaves in our front yard. Sam even helped out!

Sam adored Uncle Jim!

Ben and Maggy

Jacob, Abby, and Jane

The kids

The adults. I think this will be the last year Sam gets an honorary chair here!

Mom pulled my old Christmas books out of storage and read The Night Before Christmas to Sam. He loved it.

He loved it so much that he asked Papa Jay to read it to him, too!

Neenee and Sam at Cheesecake Factory after shopping at Kenwood on Black Friday.

Nana got Sam this Elmo Christmas sweatshirt. Sam thought it was very cool.

On today's agenda: get up Christmas decorations!!!

Photo Shoot....or Time to Body Slam My Cousin?

This weekend when Rachel and her family were up, we tried to get a picture of Jackson and Sam together in their PJs. It started out like this...

...and quickly turned into this:

Total wrestling session. It was really funny. And Sam started it. They were all over that couch. In this last picture, Nana is trying to take their picture and they both just started screaming at the top of their lungs. They are boys all the way. And Rachel just found out she's having another boy!

Bed Head

I know Sam's due for a haircut when he wakes up in the morning looking like this:

He may have had crazy bed head, but at least he was in a great mood for a Monday morning!

Sam VS. Overalls

So I saw this little boy in Sam's class wearing overalls the other day, and I thought, "Oh, that's so cute. I need to put Sam's overalls on him." I put them on today for our trip to the zoo. THIS is what happened:

Sam seemed to feel a little constricted. Ben said, "he'll get over it." He did, and then he was back to normal Sam, adorable riding around the zoo in his wagon.

Of course, Sam's favorite animals today were the elephants (still an obsession of his despite motorcyles' recent popularity with him). He's waving goodbye before we left here:

"Bye bye, elphan!"