December was a hard month.  Not bad.  But hard.  I was having a rough time, Emmett was really having a rough time, Erik had a ton of work and several big projects, and whiney whine whine, poor me, this that and the other.  The month blasted by.  I just couldn't commit to one of the darling activity a day advents floating around Pinterest that everyone and their mom was doing.  I'm just not that cool, I guess.  But we were still able to do a few Christmas-y things to make the season memorable and special.  So here is that stuff, interspersed with everything else that did (or didn't) happen in December. 

Sometimes this one is cute . . . sometimes . . . so it does us well to remember when.

These two are cute, too.  Especially when one of them isn't screaming in pain, not eating, or not sleeping.  I don't mean Erik.

We had spent way too many days in the house doing nothing.  So one morning when I heard The Sweet Tooth Fairy would give a free cookie to the first 5 people into their shop who sang, "If all the raindrops were cupcakes and cakebites, oh what a rain that would be, I'd go outside with my mouth open wide, singing AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AAAAH" I packed the boys into the car and off we went.  Sam willingly and eagerly did the singing.  We got a cookie and the cute gal who was smitten by my boys gave them each a sucker, too.  Soooo that's why O is eating a sucker in this picture.  I don't usually just let them have candy.  I also don't usually comb their hair.  Obviously.  And that was a lot of explanation for 2 pictures of my boys doting on their baby brother.

That same day, at lunch time, these two were holding hands.  I have no idea why.  Owen rarely let's Sam hold his hand, and it makes Sam kind of sad.  So I thought this was really cute.  Especially since O ate a lot of his lunch that way, reaching over himself with his right hand.

Also at lunch time, Owen was riding the elevator up and down.  "Going up, beep, zoooom, going down, beep, zoooom," while he stood up and sat down.  Weirdo.  Sam had a box elder bug that he wanted to adopt as a pet.  Double weirdo.  He put it in the bin, gave it some grass and a twig, and named it Samuel, to which I interjected that that wasn't very original, so he said, "Ok, I'll name him Monster Truck."  Sam didn't let that thing out of his sight all day.  I had to do some serious convincing so Sam wouldn't take it to school with him.  Later that night, Monster Truck met his demise.  I'm thinking it had to do with the apple juice the boys tried to give him.  I noticed before Sam, and was so close to finding another box elder and switching them out.  We are just not pet people.

One night Erik was either working late or at a church meeting, I can't remember now.  I wanted to sit my fat butt on the sofa, which I did, but the boys weren't super excited about that, so I got out the Christmas tree ornaments and let them have at it.  They both got really into it.  Owen was frustrated at first because he couldn't figure out how to hang any of them.  But he realized he could put the hooks through a bell ornament.  So that's what he did.  I counted and he had hung 18 ornaments from that bell.

For FHE one night, we talked about building a strong foundation on the rock of our Redeemer.  We sang the wise man and the foolish man, read Helaman 5:12, and then built a gingerbread house.  It did not have a strong foundation.  It lasted about 30 minutes before it collapsed.  But the boys loved every second of it.  Especially our sugar fiend, Owen J, who was more interested in putting the candy in his mouth than on the house.

On Samuel's last school day before winter break, he got to bring gifts for a present exchange.  He picked out little yo-yos, and wrapped each one himself.  He was very proud of his work, and so eager to give them to his friends.  When he came home with lots of fun little gifts, I was very impressed with how willing he was to show and share with Owen.

We visited the Festival of Lights again in Spanish Fork.  The boys loved it.  Em slept through it.  No pictures, but I think two years in a row officially makes it a tradition. 

We did do one advent, these chocolate calendars.  I just happened to come across them at the party store back in November and knew I HAD to get them.  I remember doing these so many times as a kid.  The first day it was this intense wave of nostalgia when I got a whiff of those waxy chocolates.  So fun for me.  And the boys had a lot of fun with it, too.

Sam also had a countdown paper chain he made at school, and he loved taking a new one off each day of December.  And we had a really low-key mini advent paper chain with "activities" like find a picture of Jesus in your house, read a story from the Friend, be extra nice to someone in your family, tell someone a story about Jesus, stuff like that.  Samuel told Emmett the story of Jesus being born . . . "It was in a stable in Bethlehem, the shepherds came and there was a new star, and theeeeeen THE KING GOT REALLY MAD AND THE SOLDIERS KILLED ALL THE BABIES AND PEOPLE SCREAMED AH AH AH, AND EVERYONE DIED!!!!!!  And that's the end."  Yeah, I do not recommend the Living Scriptures Nativity video.  Horrible, awful, terrible, and a million other complaints.  If you want to hear a good rant, ask me about it sometime.  Anyway, I digress . . . There is our December, crazy, long, a bit tough, and yet pretty uneventful. 

Coming up next on my poor neglected blog: Our quiet, simple, wonderful Christmas at home. 

Owen got stung by a wasp.  It swelled up so fast, and Owen was just crying, "Owie my foot" over and over, that I thought he had sprained it.  Then we saw the tiny dot, and Erik pulled out a stinger.  Poor little guy limped around the rest of the day.

The Smoosh may have gotten smooshier.

The Olders sure do like the Youngest.

The lawn got its last mow of the season.  Taking all safety precautions necessary: boots and a bike helmet of course.

And the gymnastics bus came by again. 

I can't believe how old Sam looks in recent pictures.  He is really growing up and turning into a big kid. 

My Bedstefar is here visiting from Denmark.  He brought some things to make a kite with Sam because he knew what fond memories I have of making kites on our visits when I was a kid.  Sam thought it was dang cool, and brought it for his show-and-tell that day.  Since then, he asks almost every day when it will be windy enough to fly it.

Sam has been very into the Halloween season.  They've been doing lots of fun things at school with it.  On ghost day, he brought this home.  It's a picture of a ghost, who ate 5 other ghosts (a mommy ghost, a daddy ghost, an Owen ghost, an Emmett ghost, and a Jacob ghost).  And once I looked closer, I saw he had written "Boo" on it.  I was impressed, and asked Sam if he did that all by himself.  "Sure!  B-O-O spells Boo!"

We've also done a few things here at home, too.  The other day we went to happy hour at Sonic with some friends, and one of the car hops brought out balloons for all of the kids.  When we got home, Samuel wanted to draw a scary face on his.  "Here are the big spooky eyes, and a round nose, and scary sharp teeth, grrrrrr." 

And while I'm here, I ought to do some back blogging.  (I thought I had caught up on that, until I realized I never blogged about Sam learning to ride his bike or soccer.)  So way back in May, Samuel popped his bike tires.  We could not find new 10" tubes anywhere, so Erik just bought a new bike for $5 at the D.I. with the intention of taking the tires off of it and putting them on Sam's bike.  Samuel saw that bike and ended up being very taken by "his new silver bike."  So Erik took him to the church parking lot and we were totally impressed with Samuel's balance, but he still struggled a bit.  He could do a straight line, but couldn't turn or start himself without a running push from Erik.  That's where we left it for the time being. 

A couple days later, Sam brought that bike with him to the park even though he wasn't riding it.  His buddy Gabe, who is a maniac and has zero fear, and is also an expert on his balance bike, gave Sam's bike a shot.  In 10 minutes flat, Gabe was a pro.  We decided to switch bikes for the day, so that Gabe could show his dad.  The next day Gabe rode over to our house on his new bike (also $5 from DI).  That was all it took for Sam.  He hopped onto his own bike and took off without help.  I was blown away.  That evening, Sam took Erik out to show him his new skills.  Clearly, he was still working on stopping and accurately stearing, but that didn't stop us from being impressed.  By the next day he was a pro, and pretty much didn't get off his bike for the rest of the summer.

Samuel started his soccer season in August.  His first practice was the Saturday after Emmett was born.  So the first couple weeks were a bit crazy, but I am so glad we had something for him to do in the evenings when the world pretty much stopped for a few weeks there with Baby 3!  There were a few practices, then 4 on 4 games twice a week.  Samuel was on the same team as two of his neighborhood buddies and a boy he goes to school with.  Sam had a lot of fun, although sometimes at the cost of his father's complete and total frustration.  Erik was diligent taking videos with his phone, but I didn't once bring the camera to take pictures.  I realized that, and planned to most definitely have it with me at the last game.  Except that Sam came down with a fever of 104 that afternoon and was in mood for a soccer game, even if it was the last.  He was disappointed, but cheered up when Nathan brought over his medal. 

So, while I'm here documeting the Amazing Mr. Sammers, I do believe it's time for a new edition of Samuel Says.  It's been so long.  I could write a book.  But instead, I'll just highlight some recent favorites.

• He loves to ask about animals if they have teeth and if they lay eggs.  One day he knew he was being silly when he asked me if monster trucks lay eggs.  I told him of course they don't, to which he replied, "Sure monster trucks lay eggs, that's where Hummers come from."   
• Em started fussing while Sam was holding him.  He rubbed his head and said softly, "It's ok, don't worry, Samuel is here."
• Another time I was holding Em on my shoulder.  Sam said, "Aw, he looks so cute like that, like a tiny . . . . TIRE!"
• Owen totally sneezed on Sam, who was not happy about it.  He yelled at him, "Owen, that's disgusting, I'm not a tissue!!"    
• Sam stopped his playing one day to randomly tell me, "Mom, I wish we had a balcony and fancy stairs."  Me, a little confused, "A balcony??"  "Yeah, so me and Owen could play on them."
• For Pet Day at school, Samuel wanted to bring his stuffed moneky, and polar bear and seal.  The other two boys and I came to meet the other animals, and watch Sam share his.  The moms all went up front with their kids who had real pets.  So when it was Sam's turn (he was the first without a real pet to share) I thought it was really sweet that he still wanted me to come up front with him.  Then he proceeded to show his "pets."  I didn't give him any prompting, because he knew just what he wanted to say.  "This is my monkey.  He lives in the jungle and likes to eat bananas and bugs.   This is my polar bear and seal.  They are artic animals.  The polar bear is a land animal and the seal is a water animal, but the polar bear can swim in the water and the seal comes onto land.  The polar bear is the predator with very sharp teeth and he swims after the seal and eats him."  At this point, Samuel started acting out a very dramatic predator vs. prey with his animals, complete with sound effects.  Then he stopped.  "Ok, that's it.  I'm done now.  Any questions?"  It was great.
• He was playing an iPad game with Erik and asked, "This game is going to be more technical?"  We laughed, "Uh, what do you mean by that?"  "I mean, like it's gonna be more difficult?" 
• Preparing the boys for conference, Sam was not having it.  "Conference makes me siiiiiick.  I need to go lie down in my bed with the light off and rest.  Mom, you can bring me breakfast up there."  But he did take it upon himself to make sure Erik was up and ready for conference.  "Mooooom, I told Dad to get dressed and come down for conference but he didn't hear me.  Now I'm going to go back up and tell him in my loudest voice.  My loudest voice EVER!"  So he took off, and I heard him yelling, "DAD!!!  IT'S CONFERENCE!  YOU NEED TO COME LISTEN TO THE PROPHET SPEAK TO US NOOOOOOW!"
• He was burping at the dinner table, and I asked him to stop.  "I'm not burping.  Those are bird calls.  *burp*  See, that was an Amercan parrot from Asia.  *burp*  That was a North American bird from India."  Then he gargled, so I rolled my eyes and asked what that one was.  "That was just a human gargling."
• Seriously, this kid does. not. turn. off.  He wakes up talking and doesn't stop until he is asleep at night.  Perfect example:  I heard his door open one morning.  I'm still in bed and hear him lift up the toilet lid.  I heard the pee begin.  Then I heard Samuel, "Mom, are predators nocturnal?"  What do you think Sam? "Lions are predators, and they're nocturnal."  Flush. "But cheetahs aren't nocturnal, they have black lines on their face to protect from the sun, so they must be diurnal."  Walking downstairs. "And cheetahs are predators, so that means all predators aren't nocturnal, I guess.  Owen turn off the light upstairs, you don't want to waste electricity!" Downstairs now. "Oh, I forgot my new micro machine upstairs.  I lost it but then I found . . . " voice fades as he goes upstairs, but here he comes again  " . . . my army truck and they go in the big helicopter."  He takes a breath.  "MOM!" and this is where he goes into a monologue about lung fish and how they breath and Jeremy Wade on River Monsters. Then, finally, "I'm ready for breakfast, can I have some waccles?"  Right.  He knows the difference between nocturnal and diurnal, but still can't say the word waffles.

Anyway, so that's our not so little Samuel.  Who is almost 5.   

I really wanted to make this summer a good one before Little Lambert entered our lives and shook things up a bit.  We really had such a great summer and did so many fun things.  In fact, the first two weeks with Baby at home, Samuel asked every day, "What's today, a pool day?  A friend day?  A park day?  A field trip day?"  The boys didn't really know what to do with themselves hanging out at home all day every day!

August 6, 2011

So the Saturday before D-Day, I wanted to make sure we had one last family hurrah before we became a Party of Five!  We kept it low key, just playing at the park and splash pad all afternoon then finishing up the evening at Cafe Rio.  But it was still a lot of fun to have the special time together.

August 8, 2011

I figured we better fit in a last hurrah with the friends, too.  So the Monday before D-Day, we headed up to the children's museum in Salt Lake.  We've been there so many times, but it never gets old.  And it's always good for a day-long outing with our friends!

I took 46 pictures.  For the whole month.  (To compare, in May I took 331.  In June I took 397.  August was 348.)  We must have been too busy enjoying our summer.  Living it up before Baby made his debut.  Here's the rundown of July, being fully aware that we are well into September at this point. 

We thoroughly enjoyed Sno-Cone season.  Pretty sure at 8 months pregnant, I was a regular at the Sno-Shak down the street.  Like 4 times a week.  Easy.

We played.  A lot.  Inside.  Outside.  Near.  Far.

And that about sums it up.

July 2011

We took swimming lessons in Provo with our friends the Adcocks and the Christeans a while back.  It was a drama filled couple of weeks.  During the first lesson, once they saw what he could do in the water, Samuel was moved up a level.  Besides leaving the class with his buddies, Sam moved from the Whale class to the Lobster class, which had no bearing on anything other than the little picture on the sign the kids had to stand under to wait for their teacher.  But to Sam it was the worst thing you could possibly do to a 4 year old.  "Because lobsters are slow and small."  I cannot even tell you how frustrating it made those next several days.  It took the first week, but Sam finally got over it, and by the last lesson had passed everything off and got to move up a level again! 

Owen, on the other hand, loved the first week of our Mom and Tot swim class.  He was giddy and talked non-stop about going to "teacher in da water pool."   He jumped in the pool, put his face under, blew bubbles, floated on his back, kicked his legs, and scooted along the edge of the pool without me holding onto him.  Owen especially loved that he got to do this with his girlfriends, Emily and Charley.  Then he got an ear infection.  And that pretty much ruined the last week for him.  Bleh. 

But I am still glad we did swim lessons.  The boys were so comfortable in the water the rest of the summer.  Samuel, especially, blew me away with his awesome swimming skills.  It was super fun to watch them practice and get better each time we went to the pool for the next couple months. 

The one and only picture I have from the whole two weeks.  Oh well!

August 9 – August 11, 2011

38 weeks 5 days.

So Erik wrote a great account of the birth day.  If you haven't read it yet, CLICK HERE.  He did a great job with all the details.  When Erik gave me a blessing the night before, he mentioned that I would be able to get through the trials of the day.  I figured it meant the trial of birth, not the trial of sitting around waiting to give birth!  It was a long day, and so different from each of the other two experiences, but I like that each boy gets his own special story.  It was really strange to be prepared for it and not be going to the hospital in the middle of the night.  My body is pretty speedy at this labor stuff (once I'm getting my pitocin) so again, they took me off it.  With the other two births, things stopped moving along, though, so they put me back on.  This time, I didn't need it once I went off.  So the last little bit was all me.  Also, this time around, they put Emmett on me right away, and Erik got to cut the cord.  Niether of those things has happened before, so that was really neat, too.  We had some really nice quiet time in the delivery room afterwards, just the three of us, before we all took Emmett to the nursery to get cleaned up, and then got myself dropped off in our new room. 

Snuggles, before and after a little clean up.

Getting a bit cleaned up, and weighed.  He was so so tiny to me.  I thought he was like 6 pounds.  I couldn't believe when he weighed in over 8!

I did it!  And look what I got for it!

In the nursery.

Sweet moment.  Love this new baby.  Love this man.

I really enjoyed the hospital stay.  In fact, I was really looking forward to that special time.  With Samuel, we booked it out of there pretty quick.  No reason for us to stick around.  With Owen, we took our time, recovered and relaxed a bit, then headed home after our 48 hours were up.  I wanted to do the same thing this time around.  Erik was so great complying with all my requests and sleeping on that horrible pull out chair for two nights.  My mom was spectacular to care for the two olders.  The boys visited me both days in the hospital.  I can't tell you how amazing the moment was when the door opened and Erik walked in holding a big bunch of balloons (that my mom and the boys had gotten the night before), and each boy came bouncing in with a present for the baby (also something my mom did with the boys) just grinning and staring at Emmett and me with big wide eyes and huge grins.  Each boy got a chance to hold the baby, and we visited for a bit before Emmett had to head to the nursery and Erik took Sam and O home for lunch and a nap.

O wasn't quite sure what to think at first, but once he saw Sam totally comfortable and at ease, he was ready for his turn.

Very interested in the diaper change.

Quiet time with Mom.

Erik went home and brought the boys and Mormor by to visit me in the hospital again the next morning.  Then we spent the afternoon checking out, and getting a nap in ourselves before leaving the hospital.  The evening was pretty low key at home.  And dare I say, normal.  Emmett is really such a good little baby.  And a sleepy baby!!!  He is sweet and snuggly and oh so kissable.  Both of the boys are smitten by him.  And so are we.  Happy little party of five! 

Several times I would need to pass off Emmett, asking Erik to either hold him or put him in the baby bin.  Erik always chose to hold him.

First photo of the FIVE of us.  Pretty sure I love how crazy and not perfect this picture is.  That's just who we are.  And I love it.

Getting dressed!

Just waiting for the nurse to discharge us.

Going home!!  Hope you're ready for this, Emmett M!

Some other stuff to wrap up a long dreary month.  I realize I’m obsessive about blogging.  I’m working on it.

Owen likes ”tips” and “sa-sa.”

Sam likes bathtime, too.

We enjoyed a few sunny days outside.

Sam tried to mix up the monotony with a fancy chair to watch tv.

Ridiculous.  Both boys chewing on their cars.  What is wrong with my kids?

Morning at home while Sam was at school.  Owen was being really silly, hanging out on the time out stool.  He kept bringing different things over there to eat and play.  All while sitting on the time out stool.  And he’s started closing his eyes a lot.  I guess he’s just experimenting?  He walks around with his eyes closed.  The other day he walked into the fridge.  I digress . . .

Here’s to March.  More sunshine.  Warmer days.  And let’s face it, surely another snow storm or two.

My camera has been missing for a while.  It turned up on top of the fridge.  Which surprisingly, is where I keep it.  I guess I should’ve thought to check there.  Anyway, a few old pictures I thought I’d blog for the sake of memory.  My memory.  Which is SHOT!  What is wrong with me?  I have no brain.  I sat for like a full minute yesterday trying to think of what the stupid toy in front of me was called.  DOG.  A big dumb fuzzy stuffed dog.  I was looking for the word DOG.  Sigh.  I digress . . .

December 7, 2010

Evening with Santa.  We were invited to a special event with fun games, donuts, prizes, and a meeting with Santa.  This was Samuel’s first time to meet Santa.  He was through the roof giddy.  With about 3 people in front of us left, he started bouncing.  When it was finally his turn, he literally jumped the whole way to Santa’s lap.  Samuel told him he was a very good boy and when asked, replied he wanted EVERYTHING for Christmas!  Then it was Owen’s turn.  We very specifically planned for Erik to do the hand off.  O definitely didn’t scream or cry.  But he still wasn’t very excited about it.  Afterwards, he had no problem smiling and waving to Santa.  And when we left, Owen had learned a new word.  “Bye bye Danta!!” 

December 15, 2010 

When gymnastics ended, we started going to the library with our friends on those mornings instead.  We would go for a 30 minute music time, then check out some books and read for 30 minutes, and then have 30 minute story time.  On the last day before the Christmas Break, I figured it was time to bring my camera.  (Mediocre point and shoot + Awful awful flourescent lighting = These pictures.)  We had been promised the week before there would be a special visitor from the North Pole, but it wasn’t Santa.  I’m going to be honest, the whole thing was a bit lame.  Sam was bored with it.  But he still wanted to wait in line for his candy cane.  Then he went back and got one for O.

Sometimes I let my child dress himself.  I usually regret it later.  Like when I look at pictures.

Buddies Gavin and Nathan.

December 22, 2010

Owen has started throwing some awesome tantrums.  He had a particularly nasty one that for some reason he felt needed to happen under the table.  I figured I could sit there and pull my hair out.  Or I could get out the camera.

December 26, 2010

Just helping himself to some cheese and crackers.  Funny kid.

The Christmas Post and VIP Christmas Program now available with video.  My cute kids.  In live action.  Love them.