Winter Wonderland

This is what is out of our window right now. I think it's close to two feet of snow. The snow on the deck comes up to my mid-thigh. I don't remember the last time I've seen weather like this. The really funny thing is that Chris is in Alaska right now. He had to go to Alaska of all places to get to better weather! He's supposed to come home tonight, but we'll see if he makes it. I'm completely unprepared for weather like this either. I'm used to the rainy winters of Seattle. Why did I ever complain about the rain? I need to buy some snow boots and gloves. If I can get out of our driveway, I'll have to do that.

Big Baby Buddha

Today was a big day for Charlie. He had his 4-month check up which also means he had to have some shots. I was a nervous wreck because I thought for sure he'd cry and cry. On the contrary, he cried for just a few seconds and was done. So here are his stats:

Weight: 18lbs 2oz (+95%)

Height: 25in (50%)

Charlie is rolling over like crazy, drools all over, and loves putting anything in his mouth. I gave him a candy cane the other day to play with, and somehow he got the packaging off. He was going at that thing like there was no tomorrow. So, he's had his first taste of sugar, and me thinks he liiiikes it.

I can't decide if Charlie reminds me of a little Buddha or Jabba the Hut in this picture. I also love his little man boobs.

Fun For The Whole Family

Sam always likes having someone play with him. He will literally grab shirt, pants or even a toe and say "play" or "play cars." He wants to include everyone during play time. This is especially true when it comes to playing with stickers. I know there are lots of types of therapy, such as physical therapy, retail therapy, and the ever popular shock therapy. For Sam, it seems to be sticker therapy and everyone gets to be the lucky recipients of his therapy. Hence the proof below.

Turkeys, Travel, and Tender Moments

This year we traveled to my home state of Idaho for Thanksgiving. It has been six years since I've been with my family for Thanksgiving, so it was fun to be able to do that with them this year. Our travel started the Monday before Thanksgiving. Sam, Chuck and I flew on the "big plane" from Spokane to Boise all by ourselves. It was only a one-hour flight, but I was very anxious about it. The last time I flew alone with a child, Sam was 5 months old and had an allergic reaction. So, he screamed at the top of his lungs and scratched himself bloody for the last half hour of the flight, and I kept getting "the look" from people. This time was much better with only one small glitch. Our plane was a little puddle-jumper really so we had to walk out to the plane. When Sam saw it and heard the roar of the engines, he freaked out. He started crying and trying to go back inside. Imagine me trying to pick up a screaming fighting kid while the Chunk is strapped in the Bjorn and I have two bags hanging on my shoulder. It wasn't pretty. When we finally did get on the plane, Sam refused to sit down so I could buckle him in. It was actually quite funny because I had to literally knock his legs out from under him to get him to sit down. Ah the memories!

Luckily, it was smooth sailing from there on out. Sam played with his stickers for the hour long trip and Charlie slept. The 3-hour trip from Boise to Pocatello was even better as we all slept the whole way there.

When we got to Pocatello, we did a lot of hanging out. I loved it...you can't get more relaxed than that. My sister has a son, Carter, who is just 2 months younger than Sam. So, they had a great time playing together whether it was at the park, watching Wall-E, or sharing their food. They practically take care of themselves when they're together. We just have to check on them once in a while to make sure they're still alive. My sister also has an 8-month old daughter Avery. She is so tiny, and at only 4 months old, I'm sure Charlie could take her. He already outweighs her.

I decided to make a cherry pie for Thanksgiving this year. This was my first time ever making a "real" pie. Ok, so I bought the pie filling, but I did make the crust from scratch. I had no idea that it was so challenging to make pie crust. I think I may have used a few cuss words during the "rolling out the dough and putting it into the pie pan" process. Anywho, doesn't my pie look fabulous. Who wouldn't want to eat it? I especially love how the lattice isn't even laced properly. Unfortunately, the "pie" is the only Thankgsgiving picture I got, since I forgot to bring the camera to the main event.

On the last day of our visit, we drove down to Inkom to visit my grandparents. It was what I would call a bittersweet goodbye. My grandpa Dean has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. I can't describe what it feels like to say goodbye to someone and know it's the last time you will see them alive. I feel very fortunate though, that I had the opportunity to see him before he goes. Also, I'm grateful that he got to meet Sam and Charlie, even though they will never know him on a more personal level. Grandpa is 90 years old, but has always been very spry and active. I've never thought of him as "old" because he just never seemed like he was. Although I know in the grand scheme of things, it will only be a short time before I see him again, it's hard to see the eternal perspective with such limited vision.

Grandpa, I love you and will miss you with all my heart.

Big Christmas Tree

Today we decided to take Sam and Charlie to River Park Square to see the "big Christmas tree." When we told Sam we were going to see it, he repeated "Christmas tree" the whole drive over. It was certainly a lot bigger than I expected it to be...four stories tall. Santa was there too, but we didn't even try to see if Sam would sit on his lap.

After oohing and aahing at the tree for a while, we decided to get lunch. Sam of course had french fries. It seems to be his favorite cuisine of choice these days. Whenever I ask him what he'd like for lunch or dinner, his answer is always french fries. Today I asked him what he wanted to wear for the day, and his answer was french fries. I don't know how it's even physically possible to wear french fries, but Sam is that devoted to them that he could probably find a way. Chris and Sam also had fun playing with their food. They stuck the fries in their mouths and pretended to be walruses. (I couldn't get a very good picture of Sam because he won't let me take a picture of him these days. Every time I try to take one, he turns away.) While I made some purchases, Chris let Sam run laps up and down the stroller/wheelchair ramps. He had a blast just running around and I'll be sad when the day comes that he won't be so easily entertained.

He was not happy to leave to say the least. Chris had to hold him back in the elevator as we were leaving. Both boys were completely exhausted by the end of the trip, so I count it as a successful trip!

As far Charlie goes, he is growing growing growing. He is jabbering and smiling all the time. He certainly seems to have a lot to say, and I always wonder what it is exactly that he is saying. He's been rolling from his belly to his back for a while now, but the other day he rolled from back to belly. He's only done it twice now, but I'm a happy momma and beaming with pride at all the amazing things my child can do. It's really funny to watch him try to roll over though because he's so fat he can't move that well. It'll also be a sad day when his baby fat goes away.

Regression

I am sad to report that Sam has been transitioned back to his crib. He just wasn't catching onto sleeping in a big boy bed. It's been taking an hour to two hours to get him to sleep at night and that's with either me or Chris laying in bed with him. So, the solution was to put him back into the crib until he gets a little older. As you can tell from the pictures, he is very upset about it.

On the upside, Charlie is already learning the importance of good oral health.

Just for funsies....

And I thought I had bad hair days.

Trains, Planes and Automobiles...well no trains, yet.

Its my turn to say a little something, do a little bloggin'.

Our move to Spokane brought many changes, one of which was a new job for me. This is a good job with a nice future; however, this job includes no small amount of travel--somewhere between 60 to 80 nights a year away from home. Friday I will board a plane and return to my family in Otis Orchards after having spent 11 of these 60 to 80 nights in chilly rural Pennsylvania. These 11 nights were consecutive, because the boss decided that it would be best not to return home over the weekend. Eleven days is a significant chunk of a two year old's life. When it is possible, Amanda will call me just before Sam's bedtime so that I can say goodnight. On those occasions, he will say "goodnight daddy" or "I love you, daddy" with relative ease. Eleven days ago, two word phrases were quite a task for him and most of the time they were barely discernible.

Apparently children grow up fast. It seems to me that I have heard older people say something similar to this. It saddens me a bit that I have missed the past 11 days of their lives, but such is the life that we chose. All of this "missing" should make for a nice reunion though.

Octoberfest

I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but in my defense, October was one crazy busy month. So, here we go.

Hello Goodbye
We packed our bags and said goodbye to Seattle. Spokane here we come! Trying to pack up a house and move across the state with two little kids is very hectic. But we did it. I was really sad to leave Seattle for a myriad of reasons, but I won't go into that right now. We decided to move in with Chris's parents to save some money until we could buy a house. I was worried about what it would be like living with them, but so far it has been great. It's nice to have someone to talk to when Chris isn't home. Sam loves his Papa and runs to him every time I try to do something horrible like change his diaper or make him take a nap. Sam and Charlie also have a set of cousins who live here and I'm glad they'll have the opportunity to get to know them. Sam adores his 5-year old cousin Eli or Ili as he would say. Eli has also been very good about taking care of Sam, so it's been fun to watch them bond. I think Sam has done amazingly well with the transition too. He's only hit Charlie a few times and pushed him off the couch twice, so he's making progress. When we moved, we put him into a big-boy bed and took away his pacifier. Those are some pretty huge adjustments for the little guy. Right now, we have to lay in his bed with him until he falls asleep, but we're hoping he'll figure it out soon. And now that he's in a big bed, he will wake up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed with us. It's pretty cute. We also put Charlie into the crib in his room so he's no longer in the Pack N Play in our room. He doesn't really care where he sleeps or where he is. As long as he's fed and has a clean diaper, he's happy. Chris spent the first few days here at home with me helping me get acquainted with the area. We went to Manito Park on the South Hill. It was a beautiful park and Sam loved chasing the ducks.

Sam's Birthday

Sam turned 2 years old on October 13. I just can't believe I have a 2 year old. Where did the time go. He has a cousin exactly one year older, so the weekend we moved our stuff, we had a family birthday party. My sis-in-law made some excavator cakes for the boys which were adorable. The next day, we celebrated his birthday back in Seattle with his Uncle Mike and Aunt Jennie. We went to a pizza place called Snoose Junction in Ballard. It was so much fun and I would highly recommend going if you have a chance. Sam loves hanging out with Mike and Jennie and we are going to miss them a lot.

Halloween Festivities
We decided to take Sam and Charlie to one of the local farms to pick out a pumpkin. I was really excited for Sam to go on the hay ride and pet the baby goats, but all he wanted to do was play on the slide. I realized that I can't expect him to be excited about the things I want him to be excited about. We all still had a lot of fun and that's what counts.

For Halloween, Sam was a skeleton and Charlie was a cowboy. First, we went Trick or Treating at Chris's work. Sam caught on a little too quickly with what was going on. He didn't really want to say trick or treat. He was all about business: get in, get the candy and move on. He did say thank you to most everyone, which was really sweet. However, Sam didn't get a nap that day and had a meltdown towards the end of the trick or treating. Later that night we went to our ward Trunk or Treat. Sam was more interested in looking at all the "scary" costumes than he was in getting candy at that point. We didn't complain. We all had a great time but were very exhausted by the end of the day.

Charlie

Charlie is getting so big. He'll be 3 months old on Saturday and I can't believe how quickly time goes by. He weighs about 16 pounds now and is the cutest little chunk. He's so much fun to have around and I don't think I could have asked for a better baby.