Oh!  I almost forgot.  Friday we went over to the Siegel household and I was bombarded with 3 ADORABLE children!  :)  I love that family.  Karen gave me TONS of clothes, some for now, and LOTS for later.  I also inherited ooodles of new toys!  :)  I don't see them enough, but when I do, I'm blessed with hand-me-downs. Something I am definitely thankful for!

Our Extended Weekend

This weekend was wonderful.  It was so nice to spend 4 days with both Sam and Greg.  I think Samantha truly enjoyed that much Daddy time as well.

Thursday was a busy busy day, as is every holiday now that we are married!  Okay, since we have been dating!  :)  Its so nice to have both families in town so that we don't have to travel for every holiday.  We slept in a little and then went over to my parents house to help cook and prepare for linner.  No, I didn't spell that incorrectly.  We went to my parents house for lunch, but let's be honest, Thanksgiving is a dinner meal, so we had linner.  :)  My parents bought a new kitchen table so Greg and my little sister's bf, Jake, put it together.  Its really pretty.  My parents kitchen is slowly but surely getting a HUGE makeover.  I can't wait for the next step, whatever that may be!
So anyway, Thanksgiving. Can I say that it is my FAVORITE holiday?  There is not a single food that I don't love.  :)  We had mashers, peas mushrooms and rosemary, turkey, canberries, a new sweet potato dish and of course, pumpkin and apple pie!  :)

After spending time with my family we headed over to Greg's parents house for the Flieschmann family dinner.  Lots of people and of course, as always, yummy yummy drinks!  Cosmos are my favorite there!  :)  We had the same dishes plus green bean casserole made by yours truly and minus the pea dish!  Greg's aunt also made a DELICIOUS chocolate chip pie.  Mmmm...
We also had our friends Justin and Katie join us for the second half of the day.  It was good to have friends with us for the holiday.  :)  Both of their families live out of town so we adopted them for the day.

Needless to say, we were all exhausted after the days end!  Sam never went down because, let's face it, with 4 young boys running around, there was NOT a chance that was going to happen!  That's okay though.  she was a trooper as always!

Friday we had eye doctor appts and then Sam and I ran errands and Greg went into Breadsmith.

Saturday we cleaned cleaned CLEANED!  Oh its so nice to have a clean house!  I pick up during the week, but the deep cleaning was SOOOO nice!  Then we watched Greg wash the cars and Amy came over to keep us company.

Sunday was our typical Sunday.  Nothing to report!  :)

Sure it may seem boring to some, but for us it was quality family time.  We did a whole lot of everything and a whole lot of NOTHING all at the same time!  :)  Good weekend.  Can't wait to repeat it in a few weeks!!!

Thankful

Today I am thankful for:

• My wonderful husband.  
• My adorably beautiful daughter.
• My obnoxiously amusing puppy.
• My job.
• My husband's job.
• Having family in town.
• My friends. Near and far.
• Our life.

God has blessed us with some pretty great things!  

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  

January

Yes, January.  That is the month I am looking forward too.  Why?  Because we get to see these people!

And THIS dog:

And we get to do THIS activity:

It will be my first time skiing, ever.  But, I am so excited to learn.  I can't wait to get away, enjoy the snow, our friends, and my hubby!  All the while being baby free!  A long weekend of just the two of us!  :)  The countdown begins:  LESS THAN 2 MONTHS!  :)

Geoffrey

Meet Geoffrey.  The giraffe.  The blanket.  The lifesaver.  Sam's buddy.  Sam's favorite.  Sam's comfort.

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend of family and friends!  :)

Friday night a group of us girls got together to discuss a way to enjoy a night away from babies, responsibilities and boys!  :)  Granted, there are many of "us" (myself not included!) that are pregnant and will have to bring the babies along.  I'm more than happy to go 'gaga' over someone else's baby while hanging out, but will be grateful to hand him/her back when they start to cry!!!  :)  It looks as though we are going to do a themed dinner night.  I'm all for food, so I'm totally game for that!

Saturday was Nancy's (MIL) birthday so Angela and I went horseback riding with her.  It was such a gorgeous day and we were able to ride around Pevely Farms.  So beautiful!!!  Greg was at Breadsmith figuring out what his role there will be on Saturdays and Samantha was at home with Uncle Carl.  Poor Carl.  She cried basically the entire time Greg was gone.  :(  She's a stubborn cookie, that Samantha Berger!


Saturday evening we went over to Grandpa Berger's house and had the Berger Family Thanksgiving.  It was our first taste of turkey, stuffing, mashed taters and PIE!!  Samantha had her first taste of turkey and LOVED it!!  We had a great time and Samantha was the entertainment for all!  :)  The poor baby didn't have a place to fall asleep once it was time for her to go to bed, so she stayed up 2 1/2 hours after her bedtime and did splendidly!  We are such lucky parents!

On Sunday we slept in a little bit and then we watched The Ugly Truth and had french toast for breakfast!  The recipe that we have is my favorite!  :)  Sunday evening we went over to Greg's parents house to celebrate Nancy's birthday with stuffed peppers and pineapple upside down cake.  Very delicious.  Before dinner, we went out to the barn, brought the horses in, had wine and sausage, cheese and crackers.  It was Samantha's first time meeting the horses, and currently, not her favorite.  But she did well!  :)  Pictures to come soon!

We are really excited to have a short work week and spend time with family on Thanksgiving.  :)

Predicament

Have you ever thought you knew someone, maybe not 100%, but pretty well, and you grew to like them and then all of a sudden their true colors came out and you realize you honestly and truly don't?!

Yup.  Me too.

Productive.

It is so easy to be lazy working at home all day.  With the babies sleeping, its much easier to sit down and play on the computer than clean, do laundry, eat (I didn't eat lunch until 1:45 because I just didn't feel like making it.), organize, whatever.

But today, today I was productive.  I cleaned the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom, swept, did the dishes, organized under the upstairs bathroom sink (TOTALLY overdue), brought up my sweaters from 2 years ago (silly pregnancy prevented them being worn last year!), picked up Sam's room and put non fitting clothes downstairs in storage.

I still need to dust, clean the upstairs bathroom, put clothes away, stuff diapers, vacuum (UGH!), and pick up the  living room.  There's always a to-do list!  :)

Maybe tomorrow before my uuber busy weekend!  :)

Easily pleased.

Things that make my morning:

Morning walk with the pup and babe.

Fruit and yogurt.

Coffee, black.

Two totally adorable babies!

Happy Hump Day!  :)

Puff Cereal

I decided to start Sam on puff bites today.  I bought banana flavored because she LOVES bananas.  The first time I gave it to her she was sitting in her Bumbo while I made Greg lunch.  I went ahead and just fed them to her.
Then, while feeding her real bananas, I thought I would try it again but let her do it.  I feel like sometimes she needs a challenge.  She has yet to move off her rump (besides the falling to the stomach when reaching for a toy), so I thought I would give the challenge with fine motor skills.  She did pretty well!  :)

Things that make me feel old...*

• Going to Target in my slippers when I specifically told myself to change out of them into real shoes after Ben left
• Having to pause for a moment to remember my age
• Not being able to remember a conversation that I had with my husband just 10 minutes ago

I know there are more.  I just can't think of them.  Shoot.  Add that to the list!

*Disclaimer:  I have yet to decide if these things are happening because of my current age (pause...26.), or if its because I am a Mom.

Owen Louis

My best friend, Amanda, was induced yesterday morning due to high blood pressure.  At 12:25 in the afternoon, her beautiful baby boy was born.  He was 7 lbs 10 oz.  I am not sure on how long he was, but he was born with a head full of hair.  :)

I am so excited for her.  I can only imagine how excited her husband, Justin, is.  He absolutely LOVES kids and is so good with them.

I can't wait to go to Columbia to meet this little man.

Welcome to the world, Owen Louis!  :)  You are VERY loved already!!!

Melt Down

Took Sam to the grocery store last night.  I thought it was going to be a quick in and out.  She was fed right before we went, and it was the first time I actually put her in the cart (easy entertainment).  She did AMAZING for 3/4 of the trip.  By the time I was in the dairy, she was whining and sorta screaming.  I had no toy that would entertain her and she was unhappy.  So, the ultimate question is, what's a mother to do.  I grabbed my phone, called the hubby and BEGGED him to come to the grocery instead of heading home.  He so graciously obliged.

The trick until he could get there was how to entertain Samantha until then.  Well, I am going to be honest.  Mom's are amazing beings.  Tasks that seem so ridiculous and actually difficult are just the opposite when in desperate situations.  I grabbed Samantha out of the seat, held her on my hip and pushed my fully loaded cart around the freezer section one handed.  I quickly learned last night that carts are designed to be pushed/steered with 2 hands.  Luckily for me, people kindly moved out of my way when I was swerving down the aisle.  Don't worry, I definitely said my 'excuse mes' and 'thank yous' plenty of times!  I even had a kind woman ask me if she could push my cart or hold Sam for me while I finished shopping.  I thanked her and told her my husband was on his way :)  I love when people offer random acts of kindness.  It's a refreshing reminder that the world hasn't gone completely out of whack.

Lo and behold, 20 minutes later my dear sweet husband rushed into the grocery store, saved me from my probably already developing carpal tunnel, and helped me pick out wines.

My knight in shining armor saved me from my grocery store night mare!  :)

What?!

What did I do while the kids took a 2 1/2 hour nap today?!

• Facebooked (duh)
• Blogged (bigger Duh)
• watched my G-mail account hoping for an email. Any email
• Wrote my own emails
• Talked on the phone

Did I clean?  Ha.

Did I do laundry? Bigger Ha.

I did, however, empty and refill the dishwasher.

Happy Monday!  :)

My child must concentrate on pooping so hard that it wakes her up from sleep.  Which is why she woke up at 4:45 this morning, and 5:30 the past 2 mornings.  Does anyone know how to change a child's poop schedule? :)

In reference to the previous post..

Obviously Sam does not understand what she is saying yet, it is just a lot of fun to hear her say new sounds.  Its about as exciting for us as Christmas morning would be for a 5 year old!

Its been said.

She did it.  She said "dada".  Okay it was in her crib and it was more like "dadadadadadadadaaaa", but it was said!  Samantha has been saying "maaaamaaa" for a while now.  She usually says it when she's sad, tired, hungry or all 3.  But with dada, its pure excitement. Go figure!  :)

Pebbles

Our little Pebbles

Sad Pebbles

Family photo

We didn't take Samantha trick or treating this year.  We spent all afternoon outside with our photographer and she only got an hours nap.  She was super crabby during all of these pictures, but I'm glad that we were able to snap some good ones!

After Grandma and Grandpa came over, we went to our friends' house for a little Halloween party.  Samantha stayed up for a little while to play with Ben and say hi to friends and then she passed out.

Overall, it was a great first Halloween for all of us!!!