37 Weeks Old

How can one little girl get into so much stuff? I'm sure she'll get into a lot more being that she's not even walking yet. She scoots off into the bathroom playing with her tub toys or the washcloths. She seems to love "helping" mom load and unload the dishwasher. She has also discovered that she can crawl on top of hearth. Pillows reside there to help deter her (do they really???) She has also taken the diapers off of her changing table more times than we can count.

Samantha can now be found under the dining room table or walking around the coffee table. Good grief!

We've had a great week and have enjoyed having dad home. In fact, Samantha is so used to him being around she was looking for him the day he did have to work. We'll all have an adjustment when he does go back to work on Tuesday.

36 Weeks Old

We began the week with a wedding. Mom’s friends Brett and Amanda were married on Sunday, December 17. It was Samantha’s first wedding. Congrats you guys! The wedding was beautiful and you make such a cute couple.

Samantha celebrated her first Christmas with the Britain’s on Monday evening. There were a lot of gifts, wrapping paper and surprises. The entire Renfro family got a ton of gifts and enjoyed it.

We spent the next couple of days with the Britain’s relaxing and playing. We left for the Renfro family Tuesday evening at 8:00 p.m. We arrived on Wednesday morning and began our visiting after a couple of naps. We met many new people while in Kansas. We met great-grandparents, dad’s aunt and uncles, dad’s cousins, grandma’s co-workers and others.

Friday night we celebrated Christmas the Renfro grandparents. Samantha again got a ton of gifts including a wooden rocking chair.

We headed for home Saturday night. This part was the longest by far and we all knew it would be. Although we thoroughly enjoyed visiting everyone we were ready to get home. It took us a couple extra hours but we arrived home tired around 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. We just dumped everything from the car in our house and crashed.

Christmas day we all slept in and took the day easy. We put our things away, did some laundry and just generally relaxed. Opening her gifts from her parents was Samantha’s last Christmas.

Samantha has been scooting around the house for months and we knew that she knew how to crawl “properly”. Finally on Christmas Day Samantha decided that crawling on all fours wasn’t such a bad thing after all as she started to make it a habit.

While in Kansas Samantha learned how to clap after Grandma Linda taught her Patty-Cake.

We feel so fortunate to spend so much time with our families. We loved seeing everyone and sharing this holiday with you!

Merry Christmas!

35 Weeks Old

Sunday started off with a nice surprise, Samantha got her first tooth! She hadn’t slept well at all the night before and I guess that’s the reason. She is still getting used to it as she is rubbing her tongue and lip over it quite often.

As we mentioned last week, this past one has been a busy one for us. We used the beginning of the week to get ready for our Christmas vacation. There were the last minute Christmas gifts to purchase, cleaning, packing, etc.

We left for Wisconsin Wednesday night at 9:45 after picking Dad up from work. Samantha had fallen asleep on the way there and woke up a few minutes after picking Dad up. That didn’t go over very well as Samantha screamed and screamed and screamed. We didn’t think that we were going to get her settled down. However, mom got in the back and finally got her settled down. So much for dad getting to sleep after working 15 hours. After that it was smooth sailing. We made the trip to Wisconsin in 16 hours which is usual. We only stopped a couple of times and it wasn’t for Samantha but for gas and food. We couldn’t have asked for a better baby!

We love visiting the grandparents. We spent some good quality time with them on Thursday and Friday. Papa and Grandma own 40 acres down from there farm. This past summer Papa had been clearing a path to a pond. When he did he found a beaver dam. We went down and saw it. Beavers are amazing! They have chewed down many trees, made a great dam and even have their own little path. It’s so cool to see how the Lord made these animals so special.

Friday night Uncle Paul, Aunt Jenney, Ellie and Dane arrived. Samantha loves playing with her cousins, especially Ellie.

Samantha has been a great baby again and has amazed us at what a social butterfly she is. She doesn’t tire of seeing new people!

We are looking forward to this week as we celebrate Christmas and go see the Renfro grandparents.

Christmas Pictures

Here are some of Samantha's Christmas pictures.

34 Weeks Old

It has been a busy week trying to get ready for our big vacation. We have finished Christmas shopping (alright, almost), gone to a Christmas party and tried to figure out what we’re taking for our trip.

If you haven’t heard by now, we leave Wednesday for Wisconsin for Christmas with the Britain’s and we will be “swinging” by the Renfro’s on the way home. It’s only an additional 12 hours before Samantha (haha). We are so excited to see everyone.

In Samantha’s Sabbath School they changed the theme for a bit to focus on the birth of Jesus. One part of the program talks about riding on a camel. During the time we sing, each child gets to ride on the camel. Samantha just loves it and gets the biggest grin every time. Her teacher mentioned that she should get a pony for Christmas. That’s not happening this year!

We took our annual pictures Sabbath. It has been our tradition to stand in front of our Christmas tree with the last two digits of the year. You can see this years version here.

We ended this week with a Christmas party with our Sabbath School class. Samantha was so good during the entire time, in fact, people mentioned how well behaved she had been.

We can’t promise that we will be posting blogs for a couple of weeks as there is no guarantee that we’ll get to it. If we don’t post during our vacation we’ll try to get caught up when we return.

Merry Christmas!

33 Weeks Old

We won't write much this week. It was a fairly quiet week. Samantha continues to get into everything now that she can and is pulling up on EVERYTHING!

The big thing for this week was that she recognizes her name, most of the time. In fact, she also turns to "Sweet Pea" as her Dad affectionately calls her.

Friday night we did go to a walk through live nativity. It is very moving and the church put so much work into making it realistic. Samantha put her snowsuit to use as it was a bit chilly that evening.

It was just two weeks ago that we said that we were thankful that Samantha hadn't figured out how to get to a sitting position from laying down. Well....that has changed. Samantha has not only figured that out but has also figured out how to pull up on anything that she can reach. In fact, that's all she wants to do now days. Sometimes she even gets brave and lets go with one hand. We've had to move a few things that were on the hearth and we are very thankful that we put covers on the edges, they've already come in useful.

Sunday Dad moved down the mattress on Samantha's crib two notches. We've found Samantha standing up now after every nap or every time we put her in there. Boy, will she be suprised when she can't pull up anymore!

We were very happy to spend Thankgiving with our dear friends Scott and Christy. It was an eventful day for them as they knew they were going in that night to be induced. They brought half of the meal and we brought the other half. Dad cooked a delicious turkey for the lunch.

Friday after errands and getting a Christmas tree, Grandma Britain flew down for a visit. Samantha didn't make it to the shuttle to greet her but was awake when Grandma got to the house. Mom is very thankful that Grandma came as she hopes to get a few extra Christmas things done. We thank Grandma for watching Samantha while Mom and Dad went out on a date.

And last, we would like to send a big congratulations to Christy and Scott on the birth of Kathryn who was born Friday. She is a beautiful little girl with a ton more hair than Samantha!

31 Weeks Old

These days Samantha is getting around enough that we just never know where we might find her. Here are a few examples of that:

When she's not exploring, she loves playing with Dad.

6 month pictures

Here are Samantha's 6 month pictures taken in October.

30 Weeks Old

Last week Dad brought home a cold. Well, Mom made it through the weekend but caught it on Tuesday. Poor Samantha has been suffering what appears to be a mild version of it for a few days. She has a runny nose and an occasional cough. We give her medicine at night and sometimes during the day to help her. Hopefully it will be over soon!

Samantha has decided to start really “talking” this week. She can go on and on and on. Mom had to take her out of church because she was just talking away. Someone there commented on how she’s going to be a talker in school. If the way she talks now is any indication, she will be. In all honesty though, we love to hear it.

It has been fun this week to watch Samantha. She is discovering that certain toys have parts that move back and forth and remembers that certain books have fuzzy or soft places to touch. She appears to want to read books right before bedtime. She has also discovered that she can get to a standing position in her crib from sitting. One day Mom had left her sitting in her crib to play. When she went back in, Samantha was standing the sucking on the rail of the crib. She told Dad about it and he got to see her do it first hand Sunday morning. We guess this means moving the mattress down. We are just thankful she can’t get to this position yet from laying down.

Saturday night was Christy’s shower. It turned about to be a very beautiful shower and she got some very useful gifts. Mom was helping with the shower so Dad watched Samantha. She was an angel the entire time in fact, people commented on how well behaved she was. We must say, Samantha is always great when we go out.

29 Weeks Old

You could never tell it by the pictures, but Samantha’s hair is beginning to grow. It is coming in much darker than we had anticipated but it is still a light brown/blonde color. It’s just long enough now in places that it is beginning to stick up. People are beginning to notice the small growth.

We put Samantha in her walker again and had her try it out. As we mentioned earlier, she isn’t quite tall enough to use it but we wanted to see what she would do in the kitchen. We took off her socks so she would have some traction and she did pretty good pushing herself around. If we had a bigger space she’s probably be everywhere.

Mom and Samantha spent Halloween with Christy and Scott (Dad was working). Christy invited us over for a yummmmmmmy supper and then we handed out candy. Samantha didn’t’ wear her outfit the entire time but when she did everyone thought she was adorable.