Yesterday, Sam and I killed an hour by playing in our backyard. We had lots of fun- Sam playing with a flower pot, swinging, and walking along the fence and me taking pictures and making a couple of little movies. Below are some of the pictures. To see more (I took A LOT,) just click on any of the pictures and it will take you to our online photo album and you can view some more (or you can click on “November 2009″ over on the right in the top section.) Anyway, without further adieu, the pictures…

From November 2009

Here is proof he has some hair.

From November 2009

He was talking to Peeper in this picture.

From November 2009

He loves sticking his tongue out and we think it is adorable.

From November 2009

Happy baby!

From November 2009

Lot at all those teeth- all 10 of them!!

From November 2009

From November 2009

Another tongue shot.

From November 2009

Hope you enjoyed!!

I finally have made time for updating our blog about when Sam and I went to SC, MS, and AL a few weeks ago. We had lots of fun, visited LOTS of people, and saw lots of cool stuff. Like usual, for the blog, I will narrate via pictures. Let’s get started!!
First, we went to SC to visit both sets of my grandparents. We first hung out with my mom’s parents in Kershaw. Their neighbor across the street has an alpaca as a pet. He was only 3 or 4 months old when we were there and is very friendly so we took Sam over for them to get acquainted. Sam enjoyed sticking his fingers through the fence trying to pet the alpaca.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

But he REALLY enjoyed it when the alpaca came out of his pen and stood beside Sam.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Here are Sam and me with my grandparents.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Then we drove to the upstate of SC to visit my dad’s mom. During this trip, Sam started putting things on his head. Here he is putting his teething blanket on his head and playing peek-a-boo with it.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Sam enjoyed playing with his great-grandma.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

My dad, Sam, and me with my grandma. She is 93 years old (I think- I am at least in the ballpark.)

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Sam is MILDLY obsessed with phones and remotes right now and quickly learned where my aunt stores her cell phone. He played with it the majority of the time we were there.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

On the way to Mississippi, we stopped at Priesters in Alabama for a potty/nursing break. Sam got to ride on his first tire swing and I think he enjoyed it.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

While we were in MS, the gulf coast had a HUGE event called Cruisin’ the Coast. It is an antique car show that spans the entire coast of MS. My parent’s church do a street ministry on the Saturday that Cruisin’ is in Bay St. Louis and my dad designs the shirts for volunteers to wear. This year, he chose to do an old VW “bus” with the Fruit of the Spirit on it. Sam is modeling his shirt below.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Here is just a snippet of some of the cars that were parked in the church parking lot of Cruisin.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

One Saturday while we were down there, we went to Mobile, AL for a University of South Alabama football game. The entire time I was a student the student body pushed to have a football team. I graduated in 2001, it is now 2009 and they FINALLY have a team. I was so excited that we were able to go to a game during the inaugural season. They play NC State in 2011 up here in Raleigh, so I am definitely planning on going to that game and cheering on my Jaguars. I LOVE college football. Anyway, this was Sam’s first football game and it was HOT HOT HOT so Sam had to wear his hat to protect his mainly bald head and ears. Here he is enjoying the game with my dad.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Then the Jaguar (who won a national competition last year for being the best mascot) visited and Sam and I got our picture made with him. The Jag actually held Sam, which I wasn’t expecting, but it made for a cute picture and you can definitely tell that our son is not scared of costumes.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Below are a couple of pictures from the game, South played Georgia Military Institute and beat them 31-3. Way to go, Jags!!

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Another example of Sam putting toys on his head- this is his chicken truck.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

We have a close family friend who works at Lowe’s in Waveland. My dad wanted to get a picture taken of Sam in their cool race car buggy so we took Sam up there and got a picture made with Ben pretending to push Sam. Sam LOVED the buggy. I wish our Lowe’s had these things.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

We also tried to get Sam’s picture taken beside a baby palm tree but Sam kept trying to walk off. Oh well…

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

The last major thing we did was go to Lynn Meadows Discovery Place in Gulfport. It was awesome! It is a children’s museum that has won all sorts of awards. They had an area specifically for toddlers and so we started there. Sam really enjoyed the foam lizards that link together like a puzzle.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

After playing in the toddler area for awhile, we ventured out into the rest of the museum. Sam and I chose to climb the spider web to get to the second floor. Let’s just say I am a bit too tall for the web. Sam had fun and just needed my help with a few of the inclines and when he had to go to a different platform to keep climbing. I was exhausted by the time we got to the second floor. HA!

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Whew! We made it!

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

As mentioned previously, Sam is interested in phones. You can put things up to your ear and say “hello” and Sam will mimic. Here is Sam talking on his banana-phone in the grocery store part of the museum.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

They had this cool kayak “ride” where you sit in the kayak and watch yourself paddle down the river on a big screen TV in front of you. The wall is painted green so it won’t show up on the TV screen and interfere with the scenery- just like when the weatherman is reporting. This picture cracks me up because Sam is like “uh, what do I do now?”

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Here is what the screen looks looks like on the TV.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

My parents love going to a restaurant called the Triple Nickel. It is in a gas station and it is phenomenal- not your typical truck stop restaurant. Their waitress calls herself Lo-Lo and Sam took an immediate liking to her. Here they are one night before we left. It was raining so Sam is wearing his monkey rain hat- too cute!

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Here they are outside the restaurant, Lo-Lo designated herself as Sam’s personal buckle-uper and she would take him outside and buckle him in his carseat when it was time for us to leave. Like, I said, Sam really likes Lo-Lo.

From Sam's Trip to SC & MS

Well, that is a brief synopsis of our trip. We had tons of fun and will be back down there in December for a wedding so I am sure there will be some more adventures to post then. Sometime this week, I hope to get a chance to post about Halloween but I am not making any promises. Travis has to travel part of the week and I try to keep my goals minimal while he is gone. HA!! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little update.

Sam is really working on walking. Last night, we got him to walk between the two of us for quite awhile. We didn’t think of video-ing it until near the end so he was getting tired and falling over a lot more than he had previously been.

Sidenote- Peeper makes a couple of appearances and don’t be alarmed- our dog wears clothes when the weather gets cooler and, yes, that is a halloween outfit he has on.

If you haven’t read about our trip to the pumpkin patch, keep on reading after you watch the video.

Enjoy!
Steph

From Hill Ridge Farms

We had a “family day” today to celebrate being back together after Sam and I were in Mississippi for a few weeks. We went to Hill Ridge Farms in Youngsville, NC for some good Fall fun. It was cold and dripped rain periodically but we still enjoyed ourselves. Sam was VERY into the hay, as you can tell from some of the pictures I’ve posted below from our hayride.

From Hill Ridge Farms

From Hill Ridge Farms

While on our hay ride, we rode past several activities on the farm. I look forward to the day when Sam is old enough to actually play and interact with these. It will be fun!
There was a fort…

From Hill Ridge Farms

a tipi (that was actually how they spelled it- a first for me!)…

From Hill Ridge Farms

an area with goats, a llama, chickens, and ducks…

From Hill Ridge Farms

and a train you could ride around the farm.

From Hill Ridge Farms

Sam enjoyed playing with the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch…

From Hill Ridge Farms

and with his pumpkin we got to take home.

From Hill Ridge Farms

They have this cute sign where you can keep track of how much your child grows from year to year. I look forward to getting “updated” shots of Sam as he grows through the years.

From Hill Ridge Farms

Then we came home and I did laundry and worked on unpacking everything from our trip. I organized Sam’s closet so that I could fit shoes and such in there. I downloaded all the pictures from our trip to my computer so be looking for a post(s) soon regarding that. Sam and Travis had a lot of playtime together today which was great since they haven’t been able to do that lately. I am so thankful that Travis was able to spend the day with us and I definitely enjoyed our family day.

I’ve been in Mississippi for a visit with my folks. I don’t have the cord to connect my camera to the computer so I can download pictures and post a good update. I fly back to NC tomorrow and I will try to post an update ASAP. Sorry for the delay folks!
Steph

Well, today is Sam’s 1st birthday and it has been a great day! I will tell you more a bit later. First, I want to show you what Sam looked like one year ago today…

From Sam's Hospital Pics

Now, to see how much he has grown. Here is Sam trying to avoid having his pants taken off at his birthday party with Travis’ side of the family.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Now, on to the birthday pics. We took quite a few so I will just show similar ones from each party. The first set with with the Wright side of the family and this party occurred Labor Day weekend.

First, is the cake eating. Sam was a bit uncertain about this and sat there and picked the confetti sprinkles off of his cake before picking the icing balloons off BEFORE finally getting into the rest of the icing.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Then he enjoyed opening his presents and seeing all the cool stuff people gave him.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

The next pictures were from yesterday with my side of the family and a couple of friends from the area.
Here is a picture of the cake I decorated all by myself. I am quite proud of this cake- my cake decorating class definitely paid off!

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Now, here is Sam eating his caterpillar cake.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Here he is checking out some of his gifts.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Both of his parties were tons of fun and Sam enjoyed each of them. I can’t wait for more birthday parties as I am sure they will get more exciting with each passing year.

Now on to today, his actual birthday. My parents are visiting and so we all got up, got ready, and went to church. After church, we headed to the NC State Farmer’s Market Restaurant for lunch. It is such a good restaurant and almost everything produce-wise comes from the farmer’s market that is located right across the parking lot. Sam was a PIGGY! He ate some of my mom’s, mine, and Travis’ lunches. My dad had breakfast so he didn’t share. HA! Sam ate beets (1st time- loved them,) hamburger steak, peaches, green beans (he cried with the waiter took away the green beans,) banana pudding, chicken, and sweet potatoes. Then, we stopped by Pullen Park on the way home. At the end of the month, Pullen park will be closing their carousel down for a year in order to do repairs. I have heard of this park from several blogs that I read and have been wanting to go there. I didn’t realize until last night just how close to the farmer’s market it was. Therefore, we stopped there today. Here is Sam enjoying his carousel ride. The first time he rode the carousel, he rode it with Travis and since Travis didn’t have a ticket he couldn’t actually “ride” on an animal. Sam didn’t want to ride on the horse by himself so Travis ended up holding him the whole time. Here is their picture.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Then, my mom and I bought tickets and actually rode on the animals with Sam. I guess he enjoyed it. He didn’t fuss but he just sat there and sucked his thumb the whole time while holding onto the pole. I had to sit up on the hump on the back of the saddle so Sam could ride in the saddle with me. It was quite uncomfortable. HA!

From Sam's Birthday Parties

After the carousel we rode a little train around the park. He rode in Travis’ lap for this ride but I didn’t have a picture of it. I took one and it didn’t make the move from my camera to the computer apparently. Oops!

Anyway, after that, we came home and chilled out for a little while. My parents gave Sam some fridge farm magnets and he enjoyed playing with them and the cooler, so he did that for part of the afternoon.

From Sam's Birthday Parties

Now on to the next holiday that will be celebrated in our house- HALLOWEEN! We got Sam’s costume yesterday. All I know is that I think this is the world’s cutest YODA!

From Sam's Birthday Parties

We go to the doctor tomorrow for his 12 month check-up and I am very interested in seeing how much he has grown. I will post that information a bit later. I hope you have enjoyed my birthday post. There are a lot more pictures in our online album and you can view them by clicking here.

Adios!

I subscribed to Passionate Homemaking in my google reader. They are currently having a giveaway of a pair of Bugaloo kids shoes. They are great!! Two of the things I love about them is that they are super affordable AND part of the proceeds are donated to help international missions- how awesome is that?! I would love to win a pair of their “sneakers” so Sam can have a pair of black shoes since right now all of his are brown. Anyway, to enter yourself in the giveaway go here. To check out Bugaloo kids shoes go here. These are the ones I want for Sam.

In birthday news, Sam will have the second of his 1st Birthday Parties tomorrow. I will post pictures of both parties once it is all done and the dust has settled. I feel like I have been running around like a mad woman this week trying to get everything ready. I pray I haven’t forgotten anything. If I have, our guests will have to forgive me as I am still a rookie at this whole children’s party planning-thing.

We took Sam to The Picture People last night for some 1 year portraits. He did fantastic- laughing and smiling and having a blast! If you click on any of the pictures below, you will go to my online album where I have posted all of the proofs. Once there, you will be able to look at all of the pictures. I am only posting my super-faves. I love all of them, so this will be a tough task. I hope you enjoy- Sam is simply the cutest baby that ever walked the earth. Ignore the watermarks, I can’t get rid of them- boo.
Hmmm… wonder if this propeller works?

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

Come back, wagon!

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

Finally, my own car!

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

Yes, I know I am cute!

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

Look at all my teeth!

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

I am 1!

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

We got this picture for our “only child shrine”. It just seemed kind of an appropriate homage to the Wright brothers. Yes, I know we are cheesy.

From Sam's 12 Month Pics

I hope you enjoyed! Remember click on any of the above pictures to go see more! They are all fantastic!

Last week, Sam went to his first chapel service. Obviously, I took a picture to “document” it. Here he is enjoying sitting with his daddy.

From September 2009

Tonight, we ran to Lowe’s to get an air filter for our house. I had a gift card, so we headed out. When we walked in, we noticed a cute little kid-size park bench sitting among the adult ones. One our way back out, we snapped a picture. I think if Lowe’s used this picture in their advertising, they would sell out of their little park benches- Sam made it adorably cute! Enjoy!

From September 2009

Today at the SEBTS chapel service Keith and Kristyn Getty performed a few of their songs. They ended the service with the song that is my current favorite song, “In Christ Alone.” I am posting the lyrics below. Please read and worship along with me. It is a phenomenal song with an equally phenomenal message.

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

Quickly closing with a Sam update- he did GREAT in his first chapel service. He sat with his daddy and played with a hand puppet until Dr. Moseley started his message and then Sam decided it was time for a nap. He settled down and took a 20 minute power nap without any fuss. I was so proud! If you haven’t watched the video of him eating a pickle, keep reading- it is the next post.