We are counting down the days and getting so excited! It's almost time for Santa to come!

A Great Excuse for Cupcakes!

Happy Half Birthday Hannah! That right, Hannah is 2 1/2 now. I guess we probably won't always celebrate her half birthday, but it seemed like a good excuse for balloons and cupcakes.

Reagan even got in on the acton. Yum.....cupcakes!

Breakfast with Santa again. This time at Chimney Springs. It was a great time. Reagan still was not up for a picture, maybe next year!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

This is my absolute favorite time of year, and it seems so much more magical when you have little ones in the house to share it with. Hannah is thrilled with the idea of Christmas and seems to understand about the whole Santa and presents thing. In fact, she spent a great deal of her Sunday morning breakfast time flipping through the Toys R US catalog and exclaiming "I like that momma!" to just about everything she saw.

We had a weekend filled with Christmas festivities! It all started with Breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning. We all headed over to Hannah's preschool in the morning and enjoyed some pancakes, donuts, juice and bacon and waited patiently to see Santa. Hannah and I have been talking about this meeting with Santa for most of last week. She was very excited and kept telling me that she wanted to give him a hug and that she wanted him to see her "new pink room." I kindly explained that he would not be coming over to our house tonight, but that we had to wait for Christmas eve and even then I was not sure that he would be able to play in her room with her.

Hannah did great with Santa, got her hug from him and sat on his lap. She looked a little nervous but did great. Reagan, on the other hand, screamed when we tried to place her on his lap, so needless to say, we did not get any pictures with her and Santa this year. We just so happen to have another Breakfast with Santa next weekend too, so maybe we can try again then.

Later that day we ventured out to get our Christmas tree. We took the easy route and just headed over to the Home Depot, although one of these days when the babies get a little bigger, I would love to go to one of those places to cut down your own tree. We got a great tree and brought it home to decorate. Hannah was very excited and had a hard time waiting patiently while daddy got the lights on the tree. Hannah was very helpful with the ornaments and enjoyed looking/playing with them. Reagan was kept restrained in her walker, but enjoyed watching all the fun. We had a great fire going in the fireplace and some Christmas music on and it felt so festive!





We also got the rest of the Christmas lights up on the outside of the house and did a little Christmas shopping. Very productive Christmas-filled weekend! Now just have to get wrapping!

Thankful!

Sam and I made it through our first Thanksgiving alone with the kiddos this year. One thing I am definitely thankful for this year is having had help and guidance with cooking Thanksgiving dinner the past 7 years since we have been married! It is a lot of work, and I am not sure I would have had any idea what to do with the turkey without the help of my mom and mother-in-law in the past.

Unfortunately, we could not go down to Florida and it did not work out for family to come up here this year, but we still had a great time and enjoyed getting to teach Hannah all about Thanksgiving.

We have so much to be thankful for this year:

- We have two beautiful, healthy children who bring so much joy and happiness to our lives every day!

- Sam and I both have jobs that provide for us, are secure and that we love.

- Our wonderful and supportive family and friends.

- We were able to move this year into a great home for our family and into a neighborhood that we really like that is super family friendly.

- We found a church to attend this year and made time so that I can now attend with the family on Sundays.

- We have successfully been able to rent out our previous home to good tenants so that we are able to move into some place better suited for our family.

Our turkey came out just perfect! While it was cooking we kept the little ones entertained outside since it was such a perfect fall day.

Check out this turkey....this picture looks like it should be in a magazine or something. Yum!

Hannah would not eat anything except some cornbread, which was kind of disappointing, but Reagan tried it all and loved it! It was straight to the bathtub for her after dinner!

Way to go Hannah! Celebrating with some ice cream for her first day using the potty all day! No accidents!

I mean really, could she be any cuter?

Played herself right to sleep!

Potty Progress

Hannah is doing so well with the potty! The first few days were rough, but she is doing better at it each day. She is loving wearing her "big girl underpants" and never forgets to ask for her M&M after she goes. She does not seem to get that she has to tell me when she has to go, but when I prompt her to go and try she does great! I think she is just too busy being a busy little toddler to worry about having to go.

Today was by far the best day we have had. Only one accident all day! We were even out in the backyard and she told me she had to go, and we made a mad dash for the potty and we made it in time! She even stayed dry while we went out to go show the house to some prospective renters.

I can finally see a diaper-free future for Hannah!

Let's hope this continues. It is so nice only having half as many diapers to wash!

Potty Training - Day 1

I have decided that we are really going to try and do it this time. I know Hannah is ready since she tells me all the time, likes to wear her big girl underpants and has used the potty many, many times. We might have to resort to bribery with M&M's to make it happen, but as long as it works I am all for it!

Here is how our first day went....

8 am: Woke up. Hannah cried and cried for a "diaper change" but finally agreed to wear the underpants.

8:30 am: She peed on the potty!

9:10 am: Pee on the potty

9:15 am: She pooped in her underpants. FYI this is way more difficult to deal with than a poopy diaper.

9:30 am: Pee in underpants....and all over the carpet. I am seriously considering putting the diaper back on, but I hold out and keep hoping this works!

10:30: We have to go out and run an errand, so I have to put a diaper on. Amazingly 45 minutes later when we get home she is still dry and immediately goes on the potty!

11:18 am: Pee on potty

11:49 am: Pee on potty

12:18 pm: Pooped in pants again. No fun.

12:20 pm: Pee on potty

3:55 pm: Woke up from nap wearing diaper, wet of course. Went pee on potty and agreed to put the underpants back on

4:38 pm: Pee on potty

5:15 pm: I hear Hannah yell "Mom I poopied on the wall." What could this possibly mean? Apparently she was leaning against the wall when she pooped in her pants and now we have a brown mark. Eww.

5:16 pm: Pee on potty

7 pm: Pee on potty before bed.

Not bad for the first day. At least we got most of the #1 in the potty, just have to work on #2. The M&M reward seems to be helping and of course the high fives, hugs and shouts of excitement can't hurt either. We will keep trying tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

Finally sharing some Halloween pictures! We were so lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Sampson, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Jackie and little cousin Presley here to share in the Halloween festivities! We started off our Saturday with Daddy and Andrew's half marathon, rested a little bit and then went to the Chimney Springs Halloween Party. Hannah had a great time seeing all the costumes and some of her friends, decorating a cookie, making crafts and getting treats. We were told that Hannah and Reagan even won the costume contest for their age group, although we had to cut out early from the party when the babies started getting cranky. Hannah was a pirate (a pirate princess), but refused to wear her hat or eye patch when it was actually time to wear the costume. It's funny though because when we got the costume a few weeks ago she wore the eye patch everywhere and we could not get her to take it off! Reagan wore the classic baby monkey costume and was as cute as can be. Little Presley was a sweet little ladybug. They were a pretty cute bunch!

All the excitement at the CS Halloween party was just too much for Reagan, so off to sleep she went shortly after we arrived.

Uncle Sam and Aunt Stephanie with our little ladybug niece!

Hannah having a great time at the party

Little monkey woke up and needed a banana

On Sunday we carved the pumpkin. We had help from Grandma and Grandpa.

Reagan enjoyed playing in the pumpkin "goo" but Hannah wanted nothing to do with it!

I tried so hard to get Reagan in the pumpkin like we did with Hannah. Reagan was just not having it. I guess at 8 months old she is a little too big anyways!

She was much happier just sitting next to it.

Time to go trick-or-treating! Mommy had to work and missed out, but Hannah got some treats from a few houses and then went back to check out her goodies.

Yum!

We are so proud of Sam that he completed another half marathon this past weekend! Andrew and Jackie and little baby Presley came up to visit and so that Andrew could run with Sam. Sam's parents were even here too to see the boys finish. They had a great time running in the Silver Comet Half Marathon and they both completed it in their goal time! Good job guys! Here is Hannah waiting very patiently to see daddy finish.

Here are the guys just after finishing!

Jackie and Presley are so proud!

Mom and dad are so proud of their boys!

Just wanted to share more of the cuteness in our house

Hugs!