Feb 8th, Playing catch-up again

Sam's in the mood to play, so I'll have to make this short...
















Raechelle, Becca, Sam and I hit a craft store and a toy store...Sam came home with a Big Red Ball, that he loves to kick!

Thanks to a wonderful husband and son, and family back home and friends, I had a good birthday. I think that it will be the hardest one...the first one that I didn't celebrate with my Mom, Wayne and Grammie, Dad, Michelle, Mike and Brendan. But many phone calls from loved ones and e-cards and cards made the distance seem alot shorter. Hopefully, I'll be home next year!

Samuel has found a new chew toy!

Feb 7th, Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's my birthday (well, tomorrow technically, but I wanted to post now in case I don't get a chance tomorrow)...so I thought I'd give a few historical photos of your's truely...

And, now that I'm a mom, I just want to say thanks for having me (I'd right more, but I can't without crying...anyway, you know what you mean to me! Thanks Mom!

Thank you also to my Dad who has been always ready and eager to help me (and now my family) unselfishly. I love you so much!

And to my Grammie, who I aspire to be like...I'm so thankful for all of our Sunday afternoons together (opps, and there's the tears!)...

Michelle and Mike, can't imagine life without you...who would I watch movies intended for 16-year-olds with while laughing so hard we're all teary eyed! And Brendan, you brighten my life and that of everyone who's lucky enough to love you :-)

Cathy and Carl, I'm so thankful for the man you raised to be such a wonderful husband and father. I'm also thankful to have you in my life and that of our family's!

Adam, my rock and my love! Samuel, my precious little love!

That's enough said :-) Now for those pictures!

Feb 6th, Maxxam Girls, How I Miss You!

I just got the group email from Mel C., so I thought I'd dedicate this post to my Maxxam-Seatech ladies.

Here's a few pics featuring some of our crew...missing are Mel, Janelle, Marie and Michelle. (The boys are here by association...and they do make games nights that much funner! (fyi: funner is one more than more fun))...

Memory Lane...

I've been remenising alot the past week...so I thought I'd share some classic pictures.

Here's a couple from September 2003 (when Mom and Wayne moved me into my 1st apartment), then from December 2006 (when we were moving out of our Dart. apartment)...

Feb 3rd, Who's Bed Is This?!?

Samuel's crib came yesterday and Adam, although exhausted from two 11 hour days at work, put it together last night...determined for Samuel to use it last night.

He liked it, as long as the lights were kept on...who doesn't like a new play area???

















I won't say that it was an easy night, but he did sleep about a quarter of the night in the crib(we didn't sleep during that time...it was more of Sammo whining/crying than sleeping) and Adam succeeded in getting him to fall asleep in the crib (!!!) for his nap today. He looks so peaceful!

Feb 2nd, Happy Birthday, Sonja!

In honor of Sonja's birthday today (and because I miss our visits so much!) this post is for you!

Feb 1st, A Big Day

We spent the morning (and early afternoon!) at Ikea with Chelle and Becca. What an amazing store! I came home with lots of great stuff...some nice household items (like a dish brush with a suction cup on the end to aid in air drying between uses, flexible chop boards, picture frames aplenty) and...toys for Samuel!

We also got a highchair as you can see:
















But, as I was building a floor mat for his use, Samuel, laying on a receiving blanket on the floor, ROLLED OVER BACK TO FRONT for the first time! I'm sure his new toys will aid in his development in other ways :-)

















From the other day, I promised to post the first picture featuring me and Adam...before we started dating (about 6 months before) and after he'd been in the Decken group about a week...

Jan 30th, Scrapbooking sans Materials???

Without my store house of crafting supplies, I thought I'd try another way to keep our memories together...digital scrapbooking...like this one. I have others, but they have details like the city we live in, which I'm not eager to post online, but if you'd like to see them, leave a comment and I'll email them to you. I just ordered one in 8 x 10 form from walmart.com, so we'll see how it turns out!

Jan 30th, A Hodge Podge of Pictures

Well, Sam ate every hour last evening then...hold on to your seats...take a deep breathe...HE SLEPT FOR 6 HOURS STRAIGHT!!

! Not since he was 2.5 months old did he (or I) sleep that long in a row!

I was looking through all of my pictures on our computer to decide which ones I'd like to have around the house...oh my, how things change! I found one taken the first year of my masters, the week after Adam started at the Decken lab as our summer student, where I actually had a waist (now, Michelle, I know what you're thinking...when have YOU ever had I waist...trust me, I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen it...maybe I'll post it tomorrow-although I might not get computer time tonight...it's Adam turn to work on a review article he's writing with Neil)...back to the photos!

Check out these of your's truely and Adam as babes! If our Mom's can tell us hold old we were, that'd be great! I'd like to post one of Sam at the same age to compare our looks...

For quick comparison: here's the only recent pic of Sam still on my memory key...

Jan 28th, On our way home from church...

I meant to mention that last Wednesday, it was 84 degrees here! HOT! Today was nice, another nice day...but I'd trade it in a heartbeat to be back home suffering in the -35 C cold with my family and friends!

But where was I? Right! We went to Catholic church this morning...a good 35 min power walk from our house! I was not ready for that so early in the morning (well, not before lunch anyway...). The view was okay...heading towards, you guessed it, the mountains, but on the way home, we took a different street and what a difference a hundred palm trees can make to a street!
































We happened upon a couple orange trees and took the oppratunity for an inpromptu photoshoot (since the Sammy and Mommy shots from yesterday didn't turn out so great) (plus, Sam enjoyed the break from the stroller and loved the chance to explore something new!)...

Jan 27th, A Trip to See Daddy

This being Saturday, Sam and I packed a picnic lunch and headed to meet Adam for lunch...and we took a few pics along the way (to give credit were it's due, Adam took the first pic of the smooth-barked tree):