Day Two!

Today was Drew's second day here, and it was a long one!!  Katie told me he typically gets up at 6:00am so I sort of half slept through the night since I was afraid I'd miss him if he cried.  I dreaded the clock hitting 6:00 but thankfully, Drew was feeling extra nice and slept all the way until 6:40!!  Thanks Drew!

We got up and played for a while and then at "nap" time, I took my shower.  Unfortunately neither of them felt like taking a nap, but thankfully, they weren't too cranky.  Drew says, "Stop taking pictures and get me out of here!"

Then it was time for playgroup.  Thankfully today's playgroup was at our house so we didn't have to go anywhere.  Here are Samantha, Drew, and Caleb trying to escape.  Isabella sat so nicely in the background.

Samantha was sad to see Megan and Caleb leaving.

Then Chris came home!!!

Everyone snacked on puffs and played a little more.

Then it was bath time.  Tonight's theme was spikes!

Miss Samantha doesn't have enough hair for spikes, so she just smiled.

Drew even got to get his hair combed!  I'm so bummed this one came out blurry.  :-(

Samantha wasn't really in the mood to participate.

And then the day was over.  Phew!!

Day two = success!!!

Hey Drew

This weekend cousin Drew is staying with us!  He got dropped off this afternoon and will be here until sometime Monday.  I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that this weekend goes well!

Here he is just before realizing that mommy and daddy aren't here anymore.

After franticly searching left and right for Katie and Charlie and realizing they left, he got very upset.  :-(

After everyone was calmed down, we headed outside.

After more playing, it was bath time.

Drew was shocked to give a mug shot.

Now that's a mug shot!

Samantha showing off her little bit of hair.

I'd say day one was a success!!!

We're Back!

So sorry I've seemingly abandoned my blog lately.  Samantha and I were actually out of town this past weekend for my sister-in-law's baby shower up in Connecticut.  My in-laws don't have internet so I dropped off the radar.  Now I'm back and hopefully can get back into the swing of posting regularly.

I hope you all are doing well, and I'll post more pictures from my trip asap!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  Daddy had to work today so Samantha and I just hung out around the house this morning and then ran errands before babysitting this afternoon. 

This evening, Samantha got to open her first Valentines day gift.  She was really into reading her card.  

And she LOVED the Sandra Boynton book we got her.  She is a favorite here!

We hope you all had a wonderful valentines day as well.  :-)

Swim Lessons!

A few days ago one of our playgroup mommy friends posted that she's signing up for swim lessons with her daughter.  I have been wanting to do swim lessons since the second Samantha hit 6 months and was old enough for classes.  For one reason or another, however, I'd never gotten around to signing her up.  Now that I had people to take the class with (a few other mommy friends expressed interest as well) I couldn't pass the opportunity up!  So, I called today to sign Samantha up.  We get four weeks of classes that meet twice a week for 30 minutes.  Not bad!  I really hope Samantha enjoys it.  After I got her all signed up, we headed to Target to pick up the two bathing suits I'd been eying.  Of course we had a little fashion show once we got home.  She looks seriously adorable.  I'm sorry the photos are blurry, but I now have a super mobile 10 month old on my hands and sitting still for photos is no longer a top priority for her.  ;-)

a new adventure

Yesterday I decided to stop being a stay at home mom (SAHM) and become a work at home mom (WAHM).  I am quite excited for this new adventure and I really hope that I can be successful.  For as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with smelly things.  Just ask my husband or any of my friends, they'll vouch for me.  I have always loved candles and thankfully Chris does too!  However, once we adopted our fist kitty Zeus about 8 months after we got married, we learned that candles can pose problems.  Poor little Zeus stuck his head in the candle and his whiskers were burned to a crisp.  The singed smell was awful and his whiskers were curled and short.  So sad!!  We continued buying candles just because we didn't know any better.

Then recently, I was introduced to Scentsy.  To say I instantly fell in love is an understatement.  Scentsy is a wickless candle system powered by a 25 watt lightbulb.  Totally safe!  This is great for our household with 4 cats and now a baby in the mix.  It's the perfect solution for our family.  Samantha also has a stuffed Scentsy Buddy which she adores.  It's so cute to see her play with it.  I'm thrilled to be a party of the Scentsy team and grow my business.  It's going to be so much fun!

Right now, my launch party is going on!!  If you'd like to check it out, click HERE to view the party page.  For the month of February ALL items are 10% off so this is a great opportunity to stock up on your favorite Scents or try out Scentsy if you have never used it before.  Come see what Scentsy is all about!  :-)

we have a visitor

We are so excited that Aunt Pam came to visit us this weekend.  She got here last night and is here through Sunday.  Samantha started off the morning by having a picnic and then a nap.  We then went grocery shopping which was our only outing for the day.  Once we got home we played house in the basement and sang songs.  Samantha really fought going to sleep tonight but now she's soundly sleeping and hopefully will have a goodnights rest!!  Aunt Pam needs to see Samantha's "good side" lol.

We don't have any big plans for this weekend so it should be nice to just relax and have fun with AP.

three years later

As most of you know {if you know me personally} we lost our first child to miscarriage.  Today marks 3 years since it happened.  In some sense it seems like it was just yesterday.  I remember everything: waking up in the middle of the night to painful contractions, "having" the baby, seeing him/her.  All the little details...I remember.  In another sense, it feels like it's been way more than 3 years.  So much has happened since then.  We spent another 16 months waiting for a positive pregnancy test, fielding many questions on when we were going to get pregnant, and trying to put this devastating event behind us.

Finally on July 30, 2010 that positive test finally came!!  I remember being excited, nervous, terrified; you name it, I felt it.  Then 8 months later we welcomed Samantha Caroline into the world.  She is absolutely amazing and having her helps to ease the pain of our prior loss.  I know if we hadn't suffered the loss, we wouldn't have Samantha and gosh, I wouldn't trade her for anything.  She really is amazing.

In a few short months, we will begin this journey all over again as we try to conceive baby number two.  All the emotions come rushing back and I can only hope and pray that we never have to go through anything like that ever again.

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

We had an unseasonally GORGEOUS day today and I wanted to take full advantage of it!!  On Tuesdays we babysit for my cousins two kids and I kept them outside from the second they got off the bus.  Samantha had an absolute blast.  She got to sit in the grass for the first time ever and I think she really enjoyed it.  Her goal was to shove all the grass and leaves into her mouth.  Oh so fun to be a baby!!  She also got her very first wagon ride which she LOVED.  We ran circles around the cul de sac for nearly thirty minutes and she just hung over the side of the wagon taking it all in.  I definitely think a wagon is in her future!

We had such a great day and I can't wait for the warm weather to be here for good so we can do it more often!!

allergy update

Today brought us back to the allergist to continue Samantha's allergy testing.  Since Samantha is allergic to eggs, she is at risk for having a reaction to the flu vaccine.  We started off with a prick test on her arm with 5 pricks.  We did three of the flu vaccine I believe small, medium, and large concentrations.  We also did a prick for peanuts since in 20% of egg allergy cases there is also a peanut allergy.  Then, of course, the control dot.  Thankfully all three of the vaccine and the peanut test were negative!

After the prick test we had to move onto a test shot.  The nurse had to give Samantha two shots in her upper arm.  One was a shot of saline as a control and the second shot had a low dose of the flu vaccine.  After 15 minutes she was checked and thankfully, again, all results were negative.

At this time we were able to administer the full flu vaccine.  She got the shot in her leg and then we waited 20 minutes to be sure there wasn't a reaction.  Even after all the trial runs!!  She was fine after the 20 minutes and we were free to go home.  Phew!

It was a long appointment and I feel bad for all Samantha had to go through.  Thankfully for now, it's done!  At least until next year when we go back to find out if she outgrew her allergy.