Samantha: 30 Months, Week 4 {Build a Bear and Children's Museum}

Samantha has been asking for quite a while to have a friend to come over to play.  When I ask her who she would want to invite, she always says Vivian from church.  Her mom and I planned a play date for Monday morning, but because of all the snow we got over the weekend and the bitter cold temperatures, public schools were delayed, causing our play date to get cancelled as well.  Samantha was pretty disappointed about this because she was really looking forward to having Vivian over, but we still had a fun morning playing at home and getting some housework done.  Samantha has definitely become more of a homebody lately, much preferring to stay home and play with her toys than to go out, which is fine by me.

We are continuing to struggle on and off with nap time still, although on Monday Samantha eventually fell asleep after calling me up to her room because she had to go potty and didn't want to go in her pull up.  We don't mind that.  We think it's great that she is trying to keep her pull up dry at nap time. However, on Tuesday she did not take a nap, she was just up in her bed talking and playing for two hours.  When I went up to get her out of her bed, I asked, "Why did you throw your blankie and take your pillowcase and pants off?"  To which she replied, "I don't know," with her hands up in the air.  I said, "Well, it doesn't make me very happy when you don't nap."  So she came up and gave me a big hug, saying, "Are you happy now?"  I couldn't help but smile and hug her back, both of us laughing out loud.  Then, with a huge smile on her face, she said, "I'm just cute.  I'm just funny."  Oh our little girl, what are we gonna do with her?  How can you not think she's adorable?

Tuesday and Wednesday passed quickly with our normal routine of watching Sadie, going to story time at the library, and BSF.  Wednesday night, we had plans to go out with some friends and a friend of ours was going to watch Samantha for us at their house.  However, Samantha did not take a nap again on Wednesday, so we weren't sure what to do.  We didn't want to reward Samantha for not napping or give Heather a hard time by having to deal with a tired girl.  However, we ended up deciding to go, mostly because I felt like I just needed a break that day.  This pregnancy has made me feel really emotional lately, and having Samantha refuse to nap two days in a row was almost too much for me this week.  I needed some adult company.  We had a good time out for dinner at The Runcible Spoon, and Samantha had a wonderful time at Miss Heather's house being doted on by all members of the family.  When we got there to pick her up, it was already past her bedtime, but she didn't care, she was busy playing with little legos on the floor in the living room.  By the time we got her home and in bed, it was almost ten o'clock, and she was so tired from not having napped all day, that she went right to sleep.

Thursday morning we were supposed to have gymnastics and Mom's REST Stop, but all those things got cancelled due to the weather.  There was another two hour delay for snow and cold temperatures, so instead, we decided to head up to Greenwood for a little Christmas shopping.  I was planning on getting Daddy a messenger bag/briefcase for Christmas, but we wanted to actually look at some before we made any decisions and Greenwood was the closest place that had multiple stores we could look at.  Samantha did a really good job being patient with us while we looked around the department stores and sung in the car pretty much all the way there and back.  We wore her out good enough that she took a good nap that afternoon too, which we were thankful for after two days of not napping.

Thursday night after dinner, we decided to take Samantha to our local mall to go to the Build A Bear store.  She really wanted to go in the store earlier in the day, and Daddy decided it would be great to let her make an animal.  At first, she didn't really know what to think or what she was supposed to do.  There were so many animals to choose from that we eventually had to choose a few and let her decide from there.  She chose a bright pink penguin and was so excited for her turn to get it "washed" (which is what she thought was going on when they filled the animals with stuffing).  She enjoyed kissing the little heart, placing it in the penguin, and standing on the pedal to fill up her special animal.

Then, it was time to give penguin a bath and brush her hair.

We told Samantha she could pick one little outfit for her penguin.  She was immediately drawn to the princess shirt, and then we had to find something for the bottom.  Since the penguin's tail was so big, regular pants wouldn't work, but this little sparkly tutu was perfect.  Samantha decided to name her penguin Hannah Penguin, which we thought was adorable because Hannah was the name we were going to use if we were going to have a girl.  Hannah Penguin fits Samantha's personality perfectly.  When her penguin was all dressed, Samantha flapped her arms and squealed with excitement.  In the car on the way home, Samantha was treating her like her little baby, saying, "I'm your mommy.  I love you with all my heart.  I love you with all my pancakes."

After having a day at home, just running a few errands in the morning on Friday, we took a family trip to the Children's Museum on Saturday to experience their Christmas celebration called Jolly Days.  Samantha got to ride down the Yule Slide with Daddy.

She played in the snow castle.

She went ice fishing.

She brushed and fed a reindeer.

And we played with dominoes for quite awhile, turning them into a new favorite toy at our house as well.

Of course, we can't forget one of our favorite things at the museum, the carousel.

We had a great morning, but I think all of us were pretty tired, so we didn't stay at the museum as long as we usually do.  That's the good thing about having a membership.  We can come as often as we'd like and stay for only a couple hours, and still get our money's worth.

Sunday morning, I had to get to church early to work in the infant nursery, so Daddy was in charge of getting Samantha ready that morning.  Here are some beautiful pictures of our little girl all dressed up for church.  She would wear dresses like this every day if we let her. :)

Samantha: 30 Months, Week 3 {The Nutcracker, Sledding, and It's a BOY!}

Well, the busyness of this Christmas season has caught up with me, and I am now trying to write this blog post from a couple weeks ago, with very little recollection of what happened besides what events I have written down on my calendar.

It was a fairly busy week, which was probably good because I had my next ultrasound appointment on Friday morning and was eagerly awaiting this day for the last few weeks.  We were going to see our little baby again, and we were hopefully going to find out if we were having a boy or girl.  But anyways, I will get to that later in this post.

Monday morning we had a doctor and dentist appointment scheduled for Samantha, so we had to be out the door bright and early.  In fact, Samantha actually slept in pretty late that day, probably because we stayed out late going to Christmas at the Zoo on Sunday night.  We were almost about ready to wake her up to get her ready for her doctor's appointment, when she woke up on her own around 8:10.  We quickly got her dressed and ready, tried to give her a little breakfast, and were out the door for our appointment at 8:30.  We did not get to meet with our regular doctor since we had to reschedule our appointment, but we didn't have any major concerns or issues so we didn't think it mattered too much who we saw.  Her height was 36 3/4 inches which put her in the 50-75th percentile.  Her weight was 32 pounds which put her in the 75-90th percentile.  She got a nasal flu spray, and they said she was doing great developmentally.  It was ironic though because we were going to bring up the issue we were having with naps, but then found the solution of staying in her room for a few minutes after laying her down, so we didn't bring it up at all.  However, since I am writing this now two weeks out from the doctor's appointment, I know that our "magic" solution didn't last for too long, but oh, what a glorious couple of weeks that was when we figured out how to get her to nap calmly and quickly.

Right after Samantha's doctor's appointment, we had her dentist appointment, which was also fairly easy.  The dentist just looked in her mouth, counted her teeth, checked to make sure she didn't have any cavities, and told us to schedule an appointment next time for a cleaning in one of the big girl chairs.  Samantha was really good at both appointments and actually really seems to enjoy going.  Getting stickers and prizes are always a good incentive as well. :)

After our appointments we went to get Sadie to watch the rest of the day while her Daddy traveled for a job interview.  The next few days went by quickly with our normal routine of watching Sadie, going to the library, and going to BSF.  We also continued to have good napping with our method of staying in her room for five minutes after laying her down for her nap.

I did get a special treat this week since Sadie's Daddy, Jacob, was going out of town, Sadie's Mommy, Michelle, stayed at our house on Tuesday night and brought pizza to share.  She and I had a great time talking and sharing about what was going on in our lives.  I don't think I realized how long it had been since I sat down with a girl friend like this.  It's just different talking to a girl, rather than your husband, and it's something that my heart definitely needed.  Thank you Michelle!

It's been nice lately, too, because Ben has been able to get solid days of working in on campus, giving us more time to spend together in the evenings after Samantha goes to bed.  He no longer has to get to work as soon as she's in bed in order to stay on top of things, and I have really enjoyed having my husband back a few nights a week to hang out with, to talk to, or to watch a movie together.

Thursday was an exciting day and the beginning of an exciting weekend of Christmas activities.  We had gymnastics class in the morning, which of course Samantha loved.  She even got to play with one of her little friends after class.  They spent fifteen minutes or so running back and forth together and being silly.  It's great to see Samantha playing with others.  We definitely don't do that enough, and it's nice to give her the freedom to take the initiative in playing with others.

We were very glad that Samantha took a nap that Thursday afternoon because we had an exciting night planned.  We had tickets to see The Nutcracker at the IU Musical Arts Center.  Michelle gave us tickets as a Christmas present, and we were so excited to see what Samantha would think of the the ladies dressed in tutus and everyone dancing around.  We were grateful that we picked Thursday night to go because it was not busy at all.  In fact, we were in a section off to the right side where there was no one around us.  It was probably a good thing that we were a bit secluded because Samantha talked to us about what she saw and asked us questions throughout most of the performance.  We encouraged her to talk quietly, but she doesn't necessarily have control over the volume of her voice sometimes.

These aren't the greatest pictures, but we got a few pictures before the show started of Samantha standing in front of the giant nutcracker and the giant Christmas tree.

Once it was getting close to the ballet starting, we took Samantha into the auditorium, showed her our seats, and showed her where the orchestra sits to play the music for the ballet.  As you can see, we had no other people around us. :)  They were wonderful seats, and we didn't have to worry about anyone's big head in front of us blocking Samantha's view.

Samantha did a really good job and at first was just enthralled by the decorations on the stage, the kid dancers that are in the party scene at the beginning of the ballet, and the beautiful costumes.  She sat there in her own seat, staring at the ballerinas, almost like she was afraid to take her eyes off them for fear that she may miss something.  After quite a while of sitting like that, she wanted to come sit on my lap, which was wonderful.  I will always cuddle with my little girl whenever she is willing.  She would ask me questions like, "What are the boys doing?"  "Where are the princesses going?"  "Why do they keep going in and out?"  With a few pointers here and there, Samantha really followed the basic story line of the ballet.  She knew that the boys were jealous of Clara getting the nutcracker doll, she knew they were having a Christmas party, and she knew that Clara was having a dream.  Most of that, without any of our help.  At intermission, Samantha was trying to stand on one leg and spin around like the ballerinas.

During the second act, Samantha got a little antsy, especially since it was past her bedtime, but she continued to do a really good job.  She stood for awhile and sat on Daddy's lap for awhile, continuing to ask questions about what was going on whenever she needed clarification.  Our night ended perfectly with a light fluffy snow falling from the sky and beginning to coat the ground as we walked out of the auditorium after the ballet.  

I think the best indication that Samantha enjoyed herself immensely was when Daddy was putting her to bed that night, and she said, "I am going to bed, and I am going to have a dream like Clara."  Then, probably for the next week, Samantha would ask us many, many times a day, "What is your favorite part of the Nutcracker?"  Daddy and I would always try to come up with a different response each time (although we were asked this question so many times that we had to cycle back through our responses).  Samantha would always answer, "My favorite part of the Nutcracker was when the boys snatched the nutcracker from Clara and broke it."  We are already making plans to see The Nutcracker again next year, if we are still living in Bloomington at Christmastime.  :)

There was a huge snowstorm in the forecast for Thursday night into Friday, but you never know how much snow is actually going to fall.  Well, this is what we woke up to on Friday morning.

The snow was so beautiful, and it continued to fall all day.  At the end of the snowstorm, we had around nine inches of snow total.  As soon as Samantha woke up, we brought her into our bedroom and showed her this view out our window.  She was shocked and amazed.  It hasn't snowed this much in Bloomington since she was born, and she wouldn't have any recollection of it anyways.  I know a lot of people hate snow, but I love it.  I don't think winter/Christmas would be the same without it.  I remember even as a kid being so excited if we woke up Christmas morning with fluffy, white snow covering the ground.  I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas is the theme song of my Christmas season.

We then had an exciting morning because we were off to Mommy's doctor for our ultrasound appointment to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  I was so afraid that the office would be closed due to the bad weather, but luckily, we made it to the office okay, and they were staying open until 11:30 that day.  We had to wait quite a while as they were a bit backed up due to the weather, but had a great checkup and ultrasound.  We knew we wanted to find out the gender of our baby, and it was so wonderful because the first shot we got was like our baby was sitting on top of the ultrasound camera.  We got a very clear shot of what was between the legs, finding out that we are having a BOY!!!  We would have been excited either way, but of course, we are really excited that we now have one of each, a girl and a boy.

There was nothing better than watching our little baby boy move around on that screen.  Especially after experiencing a miscarriage in March, seeing our little boy healthy, strong, moving, with a strong heartbeat, I just about melted.  There's nothing that makes you treasure life more than experiencing the loss of one.  We are so grateful to God for blessing my body with a healthy pregnancy, and even though we don't understand his purposes, we trust his timing and Sovereign plan for our lives and the lives of our children.  We have decided to name him Aedan and are using the traditional Irish spelling of the name, rather than the Americanized spelling.  Ben and I met in Ireland during a study abroad semester our sophomore year of college, and after we got married and decided to have kids, we also decided that we would use an Irish first or middle name for each of our children, to carry on the legacy of where we first met and where our love began.  Samantha's middle name is Colleen, and now our little boy's name is Aedan.  I am already smitten with him and love feeling his movements within my womb.  It was hard to stop smiling and get back to our normal day after this appointment in the morning.  I can't wait to meet our son.

The rest of our Friday was spent hanging out at home, playing, listening to Christmas music, and watching the snow fall outside.  It was amazing how much snow we were getting.  Samantha wanted to go out and play in it so badly, but we told her it would be better to wait until the next day since it still was falling so rapidly.

Saturday morning we decided to make our first batch of Christmas cookies.  We have a special recipe from Ben's Grandpa's Aunt, and it makes the most delicious, soft sugar cookies I've ever tasted.  Samantha helped choose which cookie cutters to use, cut the dough into shapes, and also helped to decorate them with sprinkles.  We put the sprinkles into little dishes, and I showed her how to use her pincer fingers to pick up a few sprinkles, making it easier to get on the cookie.  She did a really good job with decorating.  I was thinking we would go through a lot of sprinkles, with most of them missing the cookie, but she actually erred on side of not putting enough sprinkles on sometimes.  She enjoyed herself, and it was a fun activity to do as a family.  Plus, we got to reap the benefits of cookie making by getting to taste them.  We all had Christmas cookies for a snack that morning.

Oh yeah, we also made buckeyes on Friday night after we put Samantha to sleep, which were also a part of our snack, hence the very chocolaty mouth on Samantha.

What is the best way to burn off energy from a sugary snack of buckeyes and sugar cookies?  Why, playing in the snow and sledding, of course!  We got Samantha all bundled up and ready for her first venture outside after our nine inches of snow.

We decided to go out to the little valley in our apartment complex and try to sled.  Daddy is not the biggest fan of sledding, but he was a trooper for Samantha and me.  He carried her through the snow on his shoulders until we found a good place to try to sled down.

As you can see in the video below, Samantha's first time down the hill was fairly slow, and she tipped over at the end because of how deep and fresh the snow was.  She smiled and laughed the whole way down though.

After we got our little path carved out in the snow with the sled, it was smooth sailing for our little girl.  I would catch her at the bottom and help her halfway up the hill, at which point Daddy would take over, get her to the top of the hill, situated on her sled, and ready to go down again.

Samantha had a blast!  If I weren't pregnant, I would have been going down the hill with her.  I love sledding and playing in the freshly fallen snow.  We probably played outside in the snow for a good forty-five minutes or so, much longer than I anticipated due to the cold and depth of the snow.  I think she would have sledded for quite a bit longer, but the more times she went down the hill, the faster her sled would go on the slick snow path we had created.  One time Daddy slowed her sled down when she reached the bottom of the hill, but Samantha protested and didn't want him to stop her early.  So the next time, he didn't stop her sled early, and she hit a small bump in the snow, causing her sled to jump off the ground a bit and giving her a face full of snow.  She got a little upset about the snow being in her face and then was done sledding for the day.  However, despite getting snow in her face, she was already talking about going sledding again sometime the very next day.

After returning to our home and taking off our wet, snowy clothes, Samantha got right back to playing while we made lunch.  One of her favorite activities lately is to line things up: cars, people, anything she can get her hands on.  This was quite the impressive line up she created on the floor.

After Samantha woke up from her nap on Saturday afternoon, we decided to drive up to Greenwood for dinner and a trip to Babies 'R Us.  Now that we know we are having a boy, we have to start accumulating boy things.  We have bins and bins of girl clothes, but nothing for a boy.  We decided it would be easiest to just register for a few things like a bedding set, burp rags, and some clothes, so that way if people wanted to buy anything for Aedan for Christmas, they would have a little more direction on what we needed/wanted.  Samantha was pretty excited to go to a baby store and even helped choose a few special pajamas and outfits for Aedan to wear.  I don't know if I will have another baby shower since this is not our first child, but it's hard because we are having a boy and don't have some things that we need for him.  I feel like it's kind of a generational gap.  Most older women wouldn't think to have a baby shower for any baby besides the first one, whereas younger women (at least many that I know) have baby showers for second and even third babies, particularly if they are a different gender than what you already have.  The showers are obviously not as big, but it is still nice to receive some gifts to start you off.  It was exciting and nerve-wracking to be walking around a baby store, registering again.  

Now that we know we are having a boy, it feels a little more real.  I am beyond excited, but also a bit nervous about what it will be like to be a mother of two, what it will be like to balance the needs of both Samantha and Aedan, what it will be like to nurse again and to be up throughout the night again in addition to dealing with a three year old during the day, what it will be like to love both my children equally and completely.  (I love Samantha so much, and I already love Aedan so much, that sometimes it seems impossible to be able to have enough love for both of them.)  There are some things that will be easier because we have already been through it once, but at the same time, we know that each pregnancy, labor, delivery, and baby are different.  Going from none to one is a huge change, but I think going from one to two is also a huge change.  However, we are ready for it, and I am so excited to be able to stay home and have the opportunity to love on both my children throughout the day.

Samantha: 30 Months, Week 2 {Thanksgiving, Our Christmas Tree, and Christmas at the Zoo}

Since we stayed with Grandpa and Grandma on Sunday night after the Derek Webb concert, Monday was mostly spent traveling back home, picking up Roscoe from the kennel, unpacking, and resting before the start of the week.

With this week being Thanksgiving, our schedules were a little bit different than normal.  Ben only went to campus on Tuesday.  I watched Sadie on Tuesday and Wednesday, but dropped her off early so we could head back to Upland for Thanksgiving.  I also cancelled my piano lessons this week since schools were off the whole week and many people were traveling.

Lately, Samantha has enjoyed finding Mommy and Daddy's socks and trying them on.  (They are much easier to put on by herself than her own socks.)  We thought Daddy's socks were a particularly good look, so we decided to record this video.  Maybe sometime we'll show it to her first boyfriend or future husband.

Wednesday morning we just spent at home, finishing up laundry, packing, taking care of Sadie, and doing some Thanksgiving preschool activities.

Week 4: Thanksgiving (Only one day due to traveling)

Books: Read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to discuss giving, the most important part of Thanksgiving.  Also, show her videos of the first Thanksgiving from the Plimoth Plantation website: http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/webcast.htm

Song:  Sing the song “We Are Thankful” to the tune “Frere Jacques:” It’s Thanksgiving, It’s Thanksgiving.  Let’s give thanks, let’s give thanks.  For our friends and family, For our home and food.  Let’s give thanks, let’s give thanks.  (Then sing the song again, naming other things you and your children are thankful for.)

Craft: Make a hand and foot turkey craft using brown, red, orange, and yellow construction paper, pencil scissors, glue, and googly eyes.  1.  Trace around the child’s feet using brown construction paper.  These two pieces will be the turkey body.  2.  Glue the two footprints together to make the turkey’s body.  (The heels make the head area.)  3.  Cut out a round wattle and an orange beak.  Glue the wattle, beak, and googly eyes to the turkey’s head.  Make two legs from paper and glue them to the back of the body (or use pipe cleaners and tape them to the back).  4.  Glue the handprint “feathers” to the back of the turkey.  Don’t forget to put her name and age on the back of the turkey.

Letter Activity: This is more of a literacy activity, but after making the turkey craft, encourage her to tell something they each are thankful for and write it on each hand that is attached to the turkey.

Snack:  Cucumbers and dip and an orange.

Gross Motor: Play “Penny on the Shoe Relay.”  Form two lines.  Give a penny to her to balance on her shoe and have her walk down to the opposite line without letting it fall of her shoe.

Number/Shape Activity: Play “Stuff the Turkey.”  Give her a paper bag and some sheets of newspaper.  Have her crumble up the paper sheets and stuff them into the bag, pretending that they are stuffing the turkey.  How many sheets did it take to fill up the sack?

Fine Motor:  Challenge her to use the same amount of blocks the build the tallest standing tower.  She will learn a lesson in the benefit of communication and teamwork.  Also, have her practice sorting her play food into a pile of fruits and vegetables.

Look at the smile in the picture below.  She is so adorable, sometimes I can hardly stand it. :)

As I was feeding Sadie a bottle later that morning, Samantha was sitting on the couch singing her heart out and luckily Daddy caught it on video.  We love to hear her sing.  It's especially endearing to hear her sing the same songs we sing to her when we put her to bed.

It was nice spending the morning at home, playing and relaxing, because the next few days were a fervor of traveling and activity.  We drove to Upland on Wednesday night, encountering some traffic and back-ups along the way, making it a much longer drive than it should have been.  However, we made it in time for dinner and playtime with Grandpa and Grandma, which is really the most important part anyways.

Thanksgiving morning, Samantha was up bright and early.  (Who can sleep when there are grandparents to play with?)  We then began our two and half hour journey out to Ohio to have Thanksgiving with Ben's extended family at his Grandma's house.  We came prepared for another long car ride, with our entire bag of library books and a portable DVD player with some movies from the library just to mix things up a bit.  I sat in the back with Samantha to keep her entertained on the drive, and she really did very well in the car, even after spending just as long in the car the night before.  We read many, many books and watched part of the movie The Incredibles.  She seemed to enjoy the story of the super heroes pretty well, and it was the longest she has ever watched a movie in one sitting.  Although, I think it probably was because she was strapped into her car seat and couldn't get up to go and play with anything else.  Samantha still isn't too into watching much TV and movies, and we are okay with that.

Anyways, after we got to Ohio, Samantha had a good time exploring all the new things around Great Grandma Thomas' house, playing with the toys in the basement, and being goofy with Cousin Alaina.  They were putting on quite the show for the family in the basement with their singing and guitar playing skills.  You could hear them all the way upstairs. :)

After staying and playing well past the girls' normal nap time, we decided that it was time to head out so that they could hopefully take a little catnap on the way back to Upland.  Samantha did sleep for about an hour or so in the car and probably could have slept longer but the sun in the west shone right into her eyes and woke her up.  However, she did really well on the rest of the way back, even though it had been a really long day.

We stayed overnight in Upland again so that the girls could have another day to play together.  They were both up before seven o'clock on Friday morning, so they had tons of time to play together.  Sweet, sweet, cousin time. :)

At one point Samantha disappeared and this is where I found her, sitting in Ben's old room with Grandma's doll from when she was little, reading a book to her.  Samantha loves this doll and will often carry it around with her the entire time she is at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  In fact, when we arrived on Wednesday night, the doll was still sitting on the floor in the bathroom where Samantha left it when we went home on Monday.  She is really pretty gentle with it and will call it, "Grandma's favorite doll."

After awhile of playing inside, we decided to head over to the Taylor gym to let the girls run, throw and kick balls, getting some of their cooped up energy out before lunchtime and an earlier nap.

They had a wonderful time running back and forth in the aerobics room.  They must have done this twenty or so times, but it never lost its thrill.

We also went over the the science building to walk around and look at the department Christmas trees.  However, the girls were getting pretty tired and therefore weren't listening as well, so we didn't stay for too long.

However, I think the funniest part was when we visited Grandpa's office and the girls sat down at his conference table with him.  He pretended to ask them questions like, "What is your favorite part of the science building?"  To which Samantha answered, "Books."  And Alaina went on and on about who knows what.  Samantha just sat there quietly, listening to Alaina talk.  You can tell Samantha was getting tired and losing her energy quickly.

After a quick lunch of mac and cheese and a short time to play, the girls were both off to an early nap.  They were certainly needing it.  Daddy put Samantha to bed that day, and we are still staying in her room for five minutes after we lay her down, and so far, it works pretty well.  Most days she even falls asleep with us in her room.  Well, since Daddy was in with her at Grandpa and Grandma's house, he snapped a picture of our sweet, sleepy girl.  As you can see in this picture, Samantha also has a little pillow that she's sleeping on.  Lately, she has kept asking for us to put her blanket as a pillow, so we decided to let her have Daddy's old pillow once Grandma sewed up the side for us.  Grandma even gave her a special little Care Bears pillowcase.  Samantha was pretty excited to have a real pillow in her bed, although in the pack and play it takes up almost half her bed.  :)

After their nap on Friday, Grandma and Grandpa took Alaina back home, so we decided to head home as well.  However, Samantha was not very happy about this.  She did not want to leave her Grandpa, Grandma, and Alaina.  She did not want to leave all the family fun she'd had over the past couple of days.  Samantha is such a people person.  She just thrives on the energy she gets from others.  It took some convincing to get her in the car that day.

Saturday morning, after a yummy french toast breakfast and some window decorating with Christmas stick-ons from 'Cago Ema and Papa, we decided to go out and buy our Christmas tree.

 The stick-ons look pretty cute and put together in the picture below.  But with a two and a half year old around, they didn't stay like that for long.  The parts were stuck and unstuck multiple times, and I think this is the only time they actually looked like penguins and snowmen.  But that's okay, I don't care.  They are meant to be played with by our little girl.

At the Christmas tree farm, we drove through the fields but there was nothing that struck our fancy, so we went back to the barn and chose a #2 Frasier Fur that looked just about right for the little corner of our living room.  Samantha enjoyed looking at all the trees while munching on her popcorn.  She was a little afraid of the loud noises made by the saws and tree shaker machine, but thought it was pretty interesting to see our tree all wrapped up for us.  I think Samantha was really intrigued by the whole process.  It was a chilly day, but sunny, perfect for shopping for a Christmas tree.

Putting up our tree seemed fairly uneventful at first, and we decided to put the lights, garland, and most ornaments on while Samantha was napping.  We left out all the special ones we've purchased for her, so that she could put them on after she woke up.  However, just as I was about to go outside and hang lights up outside, the whole tree tipped over, tree stand and all!  A few cheaper ornaments broke and the water in the tree stand dumped all over the carpet, so then Ben and I had the task of trying to figure out how to get our tree to stay standing and a mess to clean up.  We decided the best way to ensure it wouldn't tip over again, was to cut off some of the lowest branches so that the trunk set lower down in the stand, rather than resting on the bottom branches.  After removing several branches and readjusting lights and garland, we seemed to have found a solution that worked; however, we were still rather paranoid that we would come home and find it tipped over some day.  There has to be some kind of interesting story with every Christmas tree, especially since I always make us get a live one.

Samantha had a good time helping us decorate the tree after she woke up from her nap and actually did a really nice job spreading the ornaments out on the part of the tree she could reach, really with little direction from me.  I figured she would end up just trying to hang them all in one spot, and I had already determined ahead of time that I would not move her ornaments into a "better" location, no matter where she decided to put them.  I want her to enjoy helping us with Christmas traditions like tree decorating, and I don't want to "fix" the things she does and make her feel like what she did was not good enough.  I put a few ornaments down low that I knew she would like and were okay for her to touch, but overall, she really has just ignored the tree.  She hasn't tried to mess with it or take the ornaments off or anything.  The main thing she wants to do is turn the lights on as the first thing when she comes downstairs in the morning.  (Sorry Ben, she got this from me.  You'll just have to deal with two Christmas tree loving girls in your family. :) )  Here is our finished product.  I think it looks beautiful.

Sunday morning, we had an exciting opportunity at church.  Our pastor asked us a couple weeks back if we would light the Advent Candle during the first service at church.  We dressed in our Sunday best and got up on stage right after the welcome.  I introduced the candle of hope, read the Scripture, and then Ben prayed.  I was a bit nervous to be in front of the whole church, but it went well.  And the cutest part of it all was when Samantha said, "Amen" at the end of Daddy's prayer.  I think most of the people in the congregation audibly said, "Aww!"

And if that weren't an exciting enough Thanksgiving week for you, Ben and I decided, kind of spur of the moment, to go to Christmas at the Zoo on Sunday night after Samantha's nap.  We looked at the ten day forecast and decided it looked like the best day weather-wise, before it got extremely cold and we had snow to deal with.  We invited Grandpa and Grandma Toll to come with us, and they were available, so they met us at the zoo.  Samantha was SO excited to be at the zoo, and to see Grandpa and Grandma.  Here is a good example of how excited she was.

It was really fun being at the zoo after dark, and they really did an amazing job with the lights.  I didn't expect it to be so lit up, but it was beautiful!  We got to see all the Oceans animals (which are really Samantha's favorites anyways), and she even was brave enough to pet a shark this time.  She was so proud of herself for that.  We ate dinner and saw the holiday dolphin show, which also was really well done.  I feel like it was the best one yet.  It had much more action and jumping than most of the shows we have gone to in the past.  When hearing the music and seeing the green and red lights, Samantha kept saying, "It must be Christmastime!"  We saw the tiger (which Samantha loves to watch walk around, but always gets a little afraid when it gets close to the glass) and the bear.  And of course, a trip to the zoo wouldn't be complete without a ride on the carousel and the train.

We had a wonderful night together at the zoo and ended up staying much longer than we anticipated, almost until it closed at nine p.m.  I love doing things like this as a family.  I love watching our little girl interact with people and experience things for the first time.  I love holding her and wiping away her tears when we thought we would make it on the train ride, but had to go back in line and wait for the next train, creating one upset little girl.  I love being silly with her when we were trying to get her to leave her hat on her head.  My heart just bursts with love for her.  She is the most precious gift God has ever given me.  I am honored to be her mother.