Aedan on his Tummy & Festival of Lights

Samantha: 42 Months, Week 1
Aedan: Week 30

After our big snow on Monday, Tuesday was super cold, and we had a lot of snow that blew around overnight, covering driveways and roads.  In fact, it was hard for me to see where our driveway ended, so as I backed up that morning when taking Samantha to preschool, I went over the edge into the snow.  My tire just kept spinning in the snow, and I was so afraid that I would end up getting stuck and be unable to take Samantha to preschool.  Luckily, backing up slightly and trying to accelerate forwards from a different angle/path worked, and we were able to get on the road.  For how pretty the snow is, I'm still not a big fan of driving in it, especially on country roads that aren't as frequented by cars and have snow that is blown back over a previously cleared road.

Anyways, Samantha did a really good job listening and getting ready that morning.  It's amazing how much preschool is a positive motivator for her.  Aedan was pretty tired and fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I ended up just leaving him in his car seat upstairs in his room, and he took a nice long nap that morning while I got some work done.  It's nice having calm and quiet mornings together.

That afternoon at lunch is when I took the picture of Aedan with his two teeth that I included in last week's blog.  However, I wanted to include it again, because it's cute, and also, since I was taking a picture of Aedan's teeth, Samantha wanted me to take a picture of her teeth as well.

Whenever we talk about Aedan's two little teeth, Samantha talks about how she has LOTS of teeth!

Our trip to Disney is a work in progress as there are so many things you can do in advance to make your time there easier.  Ben got exciting news on Tuesday from his friend, Tim, saying that he has main gate access and can get us into the parks.  So, it looks like we will be able to avoid buying tickets to the parks, saving us TONS of money.  We are so grateful that Tim is going out of his way to help us make the most of our trip.  We are getting excited, as it is about two months away now.

Since I had nursed Aedan right before picking Samantha up from preschool, he didn't fall asleep with me after lunch like he usually does.  I wanted to get Samantha down for her nap since she was acting so tired and had ballet that afternoon, so I just laid him down in his crib to see if he'd fall asleep on his own.  I sat in Samantha's room for awhile, tried to be stern with her to get her to calm down and take a nap, but I could hear Aedan crying a little and didn't want to leave him for too long.  I left her room after a few more minutes, even though she wasn't asleep yet.  At that point, I didn't hear Aedan crying anymore, but I peeked in his room to check on him, and the below picture is what I saw.  He usually sleeps on his tummy, so this surprised me.  Often when he rolls over on his tummy, he will get upset and cry and won't fall asleep like that.  I wonder how often he sleeps on his tummy and we don't even know it!

Luckily, Samantha did end up falling asleep, for after I left the room, I didn't hear any more noise.  Aedan has been preferring to nurse closer to dinnertime rather than right when he wakes up from his afternoon nap, so I decided to take Samantha to ballet that evening.  I hadn't been for awhile and was excited to watch her dance.  Here are some videos and pictures from ballet.

I think one of Samantha's favorite parts of ballet is towards the end when they are allowed to pick things to dress up in, some days it's dresses or hats or tutus, or in the case of this day, they wore flower hats and carried around pretend flowers in their hands.  Miss Ashley knows the right music to get the girls dancing, and today it was "Let It Go" from Frozen.  Samantha is so cute running around the dance floor.  She has really been enjoying these dance lessons. :)

Since we don't have Bible study on Wednesday mornings anymore, we decided to just stay home and play that morning.  It was a much more relaxing morning.  Aedan was able to take a good morning nap in his own crib, giving Samantha and I some one-on-one play time.  She had a little bit of a cold starting as well, so it was good to take it easy that morning.

While Aedan was napping we played with all kinds of things: trains, dolls, stickers, puzzles, and hide and seek animal (One of her favorite games where where we take turns hiding stuffed animals around the house for the other one to find.  However, we did have to have a conversation about how the trash can is not a good hiding place.)

Samantha really enjoys reading out of her Bible.  We always read her a Bible story every night before bed, and we have read through her Bible many times throughout her life.  She remembers many of the stories and enjoys going back through the Bible explaining the story by looking at what is illustrated in the picture.

Aedan took a really long nap that morning, so long that I decided we should wake him up so that way he could have lunch and still go down for an afternoon nap at a somewhat normal time.

Samantha is always very excited to go in Aedan's room to wake him up from a nap or to get him when he has woken up.  However, he was so cute that I had to first take pictures and a video of my little sleepy guy.  Man, sleeping babies are so adorable!  The way he's laying on his hand, his little chubby cheeks, the indentation in his chin, and the way his bottom lip is tucked in under his top lip (which by the way was the exact way he slept as a newborn, too).

It's funny how this is now the second day in a row that he's fallen asleep on his tummy, staying that way and sleeping comfortably, rather than freaking out and crying about being stuck on his tummy.

It's always cute when you have to wake up Aedan, and I have wanted to get it on video for awhile now.  Well, today, I took advantage of the opportunity of having to wake him up to get this cute video.  It's great how he goes from being sleepy to being somewhat confused to giving his sister a big smile.

For how good the morning went, the afternoon was somewhat exhausting.  It took some work to get Samantha to fall asleep for a nap, even though she had been acting sleepy all morning.  Since Aedan took a long nap that morning, I pushed nap time back a little later to account for when he'd be ready to sleep again.  Aedan fell asleep around 1:50, but then woke up after about an hour and a half crying because he was on his tummy with his head smushed into the side of his crib.  I went upstairs and rocked him back to sleep, but then when I went to lay him down, he woke up, so I just laid him down to see if he would go back to sleep.

Ben and I were both in the mood to go out to eat the night, but we knew it wouldn't work if Aedan didn't go back to sleep because then he'd be ready for a nap right in the middle of dinner.  When he sleeps until around 4:00 or later then he doesn't really need an evening nap, but if he wakes up early, like 3:20 on this particular day, we know he won't be able to make it through the whole evening without a little nap.  While Ben and I were talking about what to do for dinner, Samantha woke up from her nap, and Aedan started crying again because he had flipped back over on his tummy.  I laid him on his back again and gave him the pacifier to see if he would go back to sleep.  However, after a few minutes, I realized that Aedan was not going to be going back to sleep that afternoon.  It was not a very restful afternoon.  I felt like I spent all my time just trying to get the kids to go to sleep.  Ben, being the loving husband that he is, offered to pick up Jimmy John's and bring it home for dinner so that I wouldn't have to cook.  That way, we wouldn't have to worry about taking tired children out to a restaurant, but we still get the chance to not have to cook or clean up a meal.  I have such a thoughtful husband, that even after a long day at work, he's willing to run errands for me and pick up dinner.  Love you, my dear. :)

After a seemingly long day, it's always nice to play and laugh together as a family.

Thursday was another big day for Samantha because she was Star of the Day at preschool again.  She was so excited that as soon as she finished her breakfast, she said, "I'll be upstairs brushing my teeth!"  It's not every day that she is this excited about getting ready.  Samantha chose to bring raisins and apple juice for her snack.  And after much deliberation and changes of mind, she decided to bring Piggy for the Share Bag.  Now, you have to know something about this stuffed animal.  One of my students, Parker Denney, bought it for Samantha for Valentine's Day back when she was not even a year old yet.  For some reason, probably since it's a pink bear, Samantha thought it looked like a pig rather than a bear, and ever since then, has called it Piggy.  I don't mind that she calls it something different than what it really is.  I think it's cute, a little glimpse of when she was younger that she still holds on to.  Piggy is a pretty well-loved animal, often gets chosen to sleep with Samantha at night, and often gets chosen to be brought places when she can pick toys.  However, Samantha did mention to me that afternoon that a kid in her class told her that it wasn't a pig, it was a bear.  I hope that little pink bear is always called Piggy.

Since this is the month of November, Samantha's preschool has been discussing a lot about what a feast is, what harvesting is, and of course, about Thanksgiving.  This week in particular, they learned more about the first Thanksgiving, so Samantha came home with the obligatory Native American costume of a vest made out of a brown paper bag and a feather headdress.  She did look pretty cute all dressed up.

I love nursing Aedan and having him fall asleep in my arms.  I had my phone in the room with me on Thursday afternoon, so I was able to take this precious picture of him sleeping on my shoulder before I laid him down in his crib.

Aedan is always pretty tired on Thursdays because we go grocery shopping after dropping Samantha off at preschool.  However, for how easy it was to get Aedan down for a nap that afternoon, Samantha was not so easy.  She was being silly and disrespectful and would refuse to lay down in her bed.  I tried to stay in there for a few minutes like I usually do, but eventually just gave up.  Then, the instant I left the room, she got up out of her bed and got a book.  Last week was really good with napping as she napped every day.  This week, however, napping has been a battle again.  I don't like having to fight with her to get her to nap, especially because when she does nap it has only been about an hour and fifteen minutes or so, which is good, better than no nap, but still not worth the fight sometimes.  Samantha didn't nap that afternoon, making for an interesting evening.  She's always a bit more easygoing when she's napped and rested.

Friday morning I woke up with a terrible headache, one that hurt so bad it was almost making me sick to my stomach.  Aedan woke up around 6:30 that morning, and I nursed him and tried to get him to go back to sleep, but he wasn't interested, he had slept through the night and was ready to start his day.  I took him downstairs while Ben was in the shower and Samantha slept, but as soon as Ben was done, I went back upstairs to lay down and get some more sleep.  Thankfully, since it was a Friday, Ben didn't have to be on campus at any certain time and could stay and hang out for awhile.  I woke back up around 9:00 and felt much better.  My headache wasn't totally gone, but I felt good enough to function again.  Ben went off to campus, and the kids and I hung out at home for the morning.  Again, I offered to Samantha to go to the library for story time, but she wasn't interested.  She was pretty tired from not napping the day before, still had a lingering cold, and was enjoying her time playing at home.

That afternoon, despite how tired Samantha was, she did not nap again.  She was being disrespectful and thought it was funny that she wasn't staying in her bed.  Her not napping put us in a predicament because we had a small group get together that evening for pizza and games at 5:30, but we weren't so sure we should let Samantha go when she hadn't napped.  We aren't tying what we do to whether or not she naps, but it's hard being out in the evening when she's tired and needs to be put to bed early.  However, Ben and I were really looking forward to this time with our friends, so we decided to go anyways.  

Samantha did pretty well eating and playing with the other kids while we were there.  They all know each other, and Samantha is the youngest out of the kids that are not babies, so she was kind of a tag along, following them around wherever they went.  Sometimes I feel bad for Samantha when I see her in groups of kids because I feel like she is left out sometimes.  I feel like she wants to play and wants to join in but doesn't know how.  I see a lot of myself in her sometimes because that's how I always felt as a kid, like I wanted to be part of the group but was always on the outside, not knowing how to join in and not feeling like I fit in.  I know how that feels, and I don't want her to feel that way.

Aedan was hanging in there pretty well, even though he was getting pretty sleepy.  Ben and I were able to play part of one game before we determined it was time to head out and get our kids to bed.  Somewhere around 8:00 I gave Samantha a five minute warning, which actually ended up being much longer than that.  Then, I went down to the basement to get her, and she was captivated by the movie they were watching.  I gently told her it was time to go since it was both her and Aedan's bedtime, especially since she didn't nap that day.  Of course, she didn't want to be pulled away from the movie when everyone else was staying there, so I had to pick her up and carry her.  She refused to get her own socks and shoes on, so I had to do it for her while she fought me.  Then, she said she had to go potty before we left, so I took her to the bathroom, and she refused to get on the potty, so I had to put her on it.  She then proceeded to yell, "Get out of here!  Get away from me!"  Her face was so tired, her eyes had huge bags under them, and she was actually crying and yelling with her eyes closed she was so tired.  I knew we just needed to get out of there, so I tried to ignore her yelling as best I could, not letting it get a reaction out of me, but it's hard not to feel sad when your child yells at you like that.  I don't know if it was the best idea for us to have gone out that evening with how she reacted when we left.  She has just been so tired lately, especially when she doesn't nap.

Saturday was supposed to be a fairly warm day, and it was the first day of the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.  Depending on how Samantha was acting on Saturday morning and whether or not she took a nap, would determine if we were going to go to the zoo that evening.

We just hung out at home that morning, playing together with Daddy.  Here is Samantha singing the "Happy Days" theme song that Daddy taught her.

Both Samantha and Aedan took good naps that afternoon, so we decided to make a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.  We have been to Christmas at the Zoo at the Indianapolis Zoo, so we didn't know what to expect out of Cincinnati, particularly since it is much bigger, with many hills and many more trees.  It was the first official night of the Festival of Lights, besides for the member's preview the night before.  With the weather being significantly warmer than normal for this time of year, combined with it being open day, made for a very large crowd at the zoo that evening.

When you first arrive in the parking lot, you have to go up an escalator or elevator to get to the bridge that leads you over the road and into the zoo.  Here is the large rhino that was at the entrance to the escalator/elevator.

This was the view from across the road, before crossing over the bridge.  Samantha was SO excited about all the lights.

The bridge was covered in a tunnel of lights that was so cool to walk through.  Aedan was sitting in the front of the stroller and just stared up at all the blinking lights.

Then, in the main entrance of the zoo, they had a gigantic Christmas tree, covered in beautiful, bright lights.  They even had Frosty the Snowman posing for pictures with kids, but we skipped that part.

As we walked over to a little restaurant to get some dinner, we passed the pond that is in the center of the zoo.  Back when we were here for Halloween, we saw some of the lights that they started putting up, but we had no idea it would look like this.  The whole area around the pond was covered in lights, and they were actually playing in time to the music playing over the speakers.  It was wonderful to just stand there and watch the light show.

The last time we came to the zoo and tried to order food there, Samantha didn't eat well and ended up wasting most of it, so this time we brought peanut butter and jelly, raisins, and goldfish for her to eat, but Ben and I ordered food from the cafe.  After getting everyone fed and taking a bathroom break, we decided to get in line for the train.  It was a fairly long line, probably close to forty-five minutes long, because the zoo was pretty busy and the train was the main attraction of the night.  I put Aedan in the Ergo, partially to keep him easily contained and partially to keep him warmer.  Samantha did a pretty good job waiting patiently in line, especially with the company of her silly Daddy who made waiting fun.  We finally made it on, and then got a beautiful tour of the zoo from the view of the train.

However, the best part of the train ride was when we got to circle the pond and watch the lights dance to the music of another Christmas song.  It was just beautiful.

The lights really were the main attraction at the zoo that evening.  In fact, I don't think we saw any animals except for one monkey on top of monkey island and the reindeer that were in a special exhibit.  We spent most of the rest of the night walking around the zoo and looking at the trees covered in lights.  They had a little nativity scene set up, which Samantha enjoyed looking at for awhile.

And near the carousel and reindeer, there was this rainbow tunnel of lights.

Our last stop before going home was a ride on the carousel for Samantha.  Aedan had fallen asleep in the Ergo for a nice evening nap, all wrapped up with a hat and blanket around him, so I waited while Daddy went on with Samantha.  Carousels still put a smile on her face. :)

It was already 8:00, which is bedtime for both children.  We had seen everything we wanted to see and done everything we wanted to do, so we figured we'd take pictures in front of the big Christmas tree before heading out to the car.  We had a wonderful evening at the zoo, and if the weather is ever warmer again, we may have to make another trip there this year.

After having a busy couple of nights over the weekend, we took Sunday as a day of rest, going to church and having the whole family take a nap that afternoon.  Samantha got to watch a show when she woke up and chose to watch Shrek.  She had to go get her Shrek and donkey figure to hold while she watched the movie, so we took a couple pictures of her to send to Uncle Timmy since he helped work on some of the Shrek movies.

Mondays are always fairly relaxing days around our house, as we don't have anywhere to be, so we generally just hang out, let Aedan take a good nap, and play at home.  Plus, it was going to be a rainy day, and I had to clean the house, perfect reasons to lay low.

That morning when I went in to get Aedan out of his crib, he was turned around completely the other direction.  I normally lay him down with his head to the left, and he was turned with his head to the right.  He is definitely starting to move around more in bed, as well as on the floor when he's playing.  In fact, there have been a couple times that he has rolled over and hit his head on something because of where he rolled.  He's very good at rolling from his back to his tummy, but not quite so good at rolling back, so oftentimes he will get "stuck" on his tummy and eventually get frustrated.  However, I think he is starting to like his view of the world better this way, especially when interacting with Samantha.

I know I've mentioned this before, but Samantha has gotten a lot more creative in how she plays with toys.  Sunday night as we were playing together in her play room, she lined up animals and dolls, giving them all plates with a cookie on it, as well as a hot pad underneath each one because the plates were hot as the cookies had just come out of the oven.  Daddy asked me to take a picture of everyone lined up because it was just so cute.

Aedan's Second Tooth and Our First Snow

Samantha: 41 Months, Week 5

Aedan: Week 29

We have been slowly introducing Aedan to baby food.  Our doctor said to spend three to four days on each new vegetable or fruit we introduce.  We have already introduced all the vegetables, at least all the ones the Beech Nut baby food makes.  So now we are on to fruit.  I'm pretty sure that this video below is Aedan's first time tasting apples.  Samantha is helping us choose which fruit he should try next.  He wasn't so sure about his first taste of apples, or maybe it was just the switch from vegetables to fruit that surprised him.

He also has been doing much better with sitting up on his own.  He can go unsupported for several minutes, as long as someone is there to catch him when he starts to tip sideways or backwards.

Here we are together that Tuesday night, while Daddy and Samantha were at ballet.  Tuesdays are long days with Ben leaving early in the morning, and you can tell by this picture of me that it was a long day.  I look pretty tired.

These pictures below are of Samantha riding the horse at Meijer.  They were actually from Monday night when her and Daddy went out to get an extra can of cherry pie filling for our pie.  Riding the horse is always a plus of shopping at Meijer.

And here is a picture and video of Samantha at ballet.  You can tell that she is doing everything she is supposed to do, copying Miss Ashley, but just off on her own.  It's interesting because it seems like Samantha is doing better at ballet now that we have been going to small group with Miss Ashley and her family.  It's like having that connection outside of ballet class is helpful to Samantha and makes her more interested in following Miss Ashley's directions.

Tuesday evening, I was able to get Aedan down for an evening nap so that we could go out so a puppet show at the Oxford Community Arts Center.  It was from a group called Madcap Puppets, and all we had to bring were canned goods for admission.  We didn't really know what to expect, and there were a few things that caught us off guard.  The kids sat down on the floor in the front while the parents sat behind in chairs.  We sat in the second row with Aedan so that way we could still see Samantha, but when everyone clapped to welcome the performers, Aedan got scared and started crying really hard.  I desperately searched diaper bag for the pacifier, and we eventually had to leave the room and walk around the hallway until he calmed back down.  Also, these puppets were not your average hand puppets, they were rather large, some of them full body size puppets.  Some of them looked a little scary as well, and I think sitting up in the front with the puppets so close scared Samantha a little bit.  At one point she stood up, looked around for us and couldn't find us, so she walked along the wall to the back of the room, and Ben went over to see what she needed.  Once we reassured her that the puppets were not real, Ben took Aedan and I went up in the front to sit with Samantha, but this time we sat off to the side so she wasn't as close to the puppets.  Ben was able to calm Aedan down and then sat farther back with him.  Samantha really enjoyed the show.  She was mesmerized after her initial scare and was a very attentive audience member.  At the end of the show, the kids were able to go up front and look in the chest where the puppets would come out and also got to see how the dragon costume worked.  It was definitely a show worth seeing, and I'm glad we went.

Both kids woke up fairly early on Wednesday morning for some reason.  We tried to get Samantha back to sleep, and she said that she did, but I'm not so sure she did because she looked and acted very sleepy.  Since Aedan woke up early, we were able to get him down for a morning nap, sleeping for about fifty minutes, until we had to wake him up at 9:15 so we could leave for Bible study.  It was our last Bible study day, and I'm kind of glad for it.  I really enjoyed the Beth Moore study.  She does a good job of engaging you and revealing parts of the text that you may not have noticed before.  I feel like I really learned and grew from the homework, questions, and Bible reading we did each week.  However, like I have mentioned before, I think the time of day was just too hard.  It will also be nice to just have more time at home, and not have to rush out of the house another morning of the week.  Then, Samantha fell in the parking lot on the way into the church, making her cry and get upset.  Once she got some hugs, got her hands and legs checked out, and got her tears dried, she was okay and ready to go into the church.  Samantha and Aedan both did well that morning, even though they were super tired.

You know what else happened on Wednesday?  While I was changing Aedan's diaper, I noticed that he had a second tooth on the bottom.  So here's an updated picture of my little guy with two little pearly whites on the bottom, along with those gorgeous eyes of his.

They both took really good naps that afternoon, meaning Samantha could watch her show, and then Samantha helped me feed Aedan his baby food that evening while we were waiting for Daddy to come home.  She actually does a really good job feeding him.  She'll get just the right amount on the spoon and gently put it in his mouth.  You can hear her on the video saying kind, encouraging words to him as well.  What a great big sister! (And don't you like her purple hair clips?) :)

Thursday was another typical day of taking Samantha to preschool followed by grocery shopping with Aedan.  It was an exciting day for Samantha at preschool because they went to Kroger on a field trip, to learn how food is delivered and stored at Kroger before going out on the shelves where we purchase it.  I saw Samantha a few times throughout the store as I was shopping.  The first time was when they were first walking into the store, and each child was paired up with another.  Samantha and Josie were walking together, holding hands, and it was so cute.  Then, I saw them walking in the produce department, at which point I went up to her to say good-bye so that way she knew Aedan and I were going to check out and leave.  I tried putting Aedan in the shopping cart seat with the Floppy Seat covering it, protecting him from germs and giving me loops to hook his toys onto, but he was not a fan.  He was not sitting up straight, kept tipping over to the side, and then would get grumpy when I would try to straighten him back up again.  However, it was SO cold outside that morning, I decided it wasn't worth it to leave the shopping cart to go to the car and get the Ergo.  Maybe he's not quite ready to sit up in the shopping cart yet since he can't totally sit unsupported yet.

Samantha (and Aedan) had a long, busy morning, and again took good afternoon naps.  Lately, with Samantha I have been sitting in her room a little longer than our "five minutes" that we tell her.  I just bring my phone or Kindle in with me and sit by her door, reading while I wait for her to fall asleep.  It works out well because I get something done while I'm waiting for her to fall asleep, and she always falls asleep better when I sit in the room with her.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of her sleeping that afternoon.  Doesn't she look cozy and warm?  I love how she tucks the blanket all the way up to her chin and around her head like that.

Then on Friday, after letting Aedan take his morning nap, we took a trip to our library for Family Story Time.  Samantha enjoyed singing songs and listening to stories told by the librarian.  She was being a very good listener, so she then had time to play in the children's section of the library.  We accumulated another stack of books, some more easy reader type books that Samantha can eventually learn all the words of after having them read to her a few times.  After getting the kids down for their afternoon naps, I took this picture of the living room.  You can tell we went to library that day.  While I was putting Aedan down, Samantha was busy downstairs, perusing all her new books.

Friday afternoon, right about the end of nap time, my parents arrived for their weekend visit.  We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out and eating pizza before giving the kids baths and putting them to bed.

We didn't have any grand plans for the weekend, just to hang out and let Samantha and Aedan spend time with their grandparents.  We got them down for an earlier nap on Saturday afternoon so that we could take Samantha to see a synchronized skating event at the Goggin ice arena.  My mom offered to stay back at the house with Aedan since he was still napping when it was time to leave.  Grandpa, Daddy, Samantha, and I went together, and it was pretty fun to watch.  There were several exhibition teams that performed.  Samantha thought they looked like princesses in their costumes.  She wanted to go sit up in the front row to see them better and especially liked watching them spin around.  After awhile though, she lost interest in watching the skaters, preferring to run up and down the row instead.

The show only lasted about forty-five minutes, and once we returned home, Aedan was already awake, and Samantha was SO excited to see him again, greeting him with hugs and kisses.

It doesn't look like it much in this picture, but Aedan really does love the attention from his sister.  You can tell he thinks she's pretty awesome just by the way he looks at her, how his face lights up whenever he sees her.

There are few interesting things that have happened this week in regards to sleeping.  First of all, Samantha has taken a nap EVERY day.  She has been acting really tired lately, and it hasn't taken much work at all to get her to fall asleep each day.  It's always interesting to hear Samantha waking up from her nap each day because she usually wakes up singing a song.  Over the weekend, Grandpa and Grandma got to hear Samantha singing "Frosty the Snowman" and "Jesus Loves Me."  It's great to hear her little voice singing over the monitor.  You can't help but smile.

Aedan also has had a major accomplishment with sleeping this week, as he has been sleeping through the night a lot more lately.  He did it about every other night this week: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Sometimes he will wake up around 6:00 or 6:30 a.m., which at times is too early for our liking, but I can't complain when I don't have to get up to nurse him in the middle of the night.  It makes such a difference to have a full night of uninterrupted sleep.

Grandpa and Grandma came with us to church on Sunday, and then we all just came back home instead of going to small group so that we could spend more time together before my parents left on Sunday evening.  We always enjoy the time they spend here and the effort they make to come and see us every month or so.

After the grandparents left on Sunday night, we spent some good time together as a family.  Samantha and I had a princess tea party. :)

We had a pretty big snowstorm coming our way overnight, and we weren't sure how much accumulation we were going to get.  Samantha was SO excited for the first snow of the year, so even though it had just started snowing and there wasn't even a dusting on the ground yet, Samantha donned her hat, coat, mittens, and snow boots so that she could walk around outside with Daddy.

After bath time that night, we got this really silly picture of Aedan's hair combed up into a mo-hawk.  Daddy did it this way, and it was too cute not to capture in a picture.  However, Samantha didn't like it this way, quickly fixing it for us after we took the picture.

And here are our two sweet (clean) children.  It's great being able to give them baths together and get them ready for bed together.

The next morning we woke up to winter wonderland.  It had snowed most of the night, and it continued to snow most of the morning.  It was a beautiful sight to see the ground blanketed in snow.

Samantha couldn't wait for Aedan to go down for his morning nap so that her and I could go outside and play in the snow.  We got all our winter gear on so that we could stay dry and warm.

Last year it seemed like Samantha didn't really like playing in the snow.  She didn't really know what to do, and we didn't have mittens that kept her hands warm or dry enough.  However, this year she was very interested in the snow.  We even went a few houses down and played with a few neighbor girls, helping them build a snow fort.

Then we went back over by our house to play some more.  We made snow angels and attempted to build a snowman.  The snow wasn't the best packing snow, so we had to settle for a baby snowman.  We used lids from baby food jars for eyes and a baby carrot for a nose.  Even though it was tiny, Samantha was still very proud of her snowman, getting down on the ground to hug it when I asked to take a picture of her and the snowman.  In fact, throughout the rest of the day, Samantha kept peeking out the window to make sure her snowman hadn't melted yet.

Once Aedan woke up from his nap, I decided it was a perfect time for us to go back inside and warm up with some hot chocolate.  Samantha had never had hot chocolate before and was literally jumping up and down as I warmed up the milk in the microwave.  I knew that if I made it too hot, she wouldn't want to drink it, so ours was more like lukewarm chocolate.  But she thought it was delicious!

Later that afternoon, once the snow stopped and the sun came out, I just had to take a picture from our back patio.  Isn't this just beautiful?  This is a definite perk of living out in the country where we back up to a golf course.  We got a gorgeous snow scene without it being marred with buildings, people, or dirt and grime from traffic.  I just couldn't stop looking out the windows at the sparkling snow upon the ground.  It made me feel like Christmas was just around the corner and even put me in the mood for some Christmas music.