Yea, It Was That Kind of Day

It was a stay-in-your-jammies-on-the-couch kinda day...

... and reading her favorite story "Baby Dear" (yes, she had most of it memorized.)

Scooting/Christmas With the Tonns

Finally! Trying out the scooter outside!

 

We had Christmas with the Tonns tonight. Samantha was so excited to see Baby Stella and Nate was so excited to see Sammie. It was cute.

Sammie got a new baby doll from Nate and Stella.

 

It's really difficult to get 3 kids to look at the camera... much less smile.

Happy Cousins

Rock Star

Samantha loves singing, especially within the last few weeks... maybe because of Christmas songs, but maybe not. She sure misses singing with her teachers at school.
Her favorite songs are:
"Twinkle twinkle little star"
"Jingle bells"
The bumble bee song
"Five little ducks"
"Soft kitty, warm kitty"
The hokey-pokey

Costa Rica!

Randomly while shopping today, Samantha shouted out that she wanted to go to Costa Rica. Oddly, we were in the hat section of jcp and then she found this wonderful tropical hat, two in fact. I told her it was a great hat for Costa Rica and I guess it really set in that she wanted to be in Costa Rica. She demanded it through the store, in the car, to Grandma Ria on the phone (you know I had to call her about it). When she heard me tell Grandma Ria that we were driving home, Samantha got upset, "Nooooo, Costa Rica!!!"

Relaxing family time watching The Muppet Movie.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Day and guess what Santa brought Samantha?! A scooter, a helmet and presents... lots of them, just like she asked for.

Pixie sitting cute on Sammie's scooter.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 A little slow to get started, but she soon got into it, tearing everything to shreds.

 She spotted that scooter and was in disbelief. She ran to Mama with a smile then put her head down.

 Ooo... a big box from Grandma Ria. What is it, Sammie?!

 A little wooden dollhouse!

 Grandma and PaPa got Sam a "Samantha"doll. She put her directly in the shopping cart, where only Pink Baby is allowed. She is such a pretty doll.

 Scooter time!!!

 PaPa taught Sam how to push off with one foot... Weee

 

Love, the Wells

Making beer bread.

For Christmas dinner, we went to Auntie Pam and Uncle Jack's house for a delicious meal and Nicole and John were there with Fleck!

 "Twinkle twinkle little star"... now everybody sing!

Auntie Pam and Uncle Jack crack me up!

It's always good to see Nicole and Jon.

PS~ It's so funny hearing Samantha say Feliz Navidad... "Paliz Abi-ghad". We called Grandma Ria and Aunt Magda to wish them a happy one!

Christmas Eve Magic

Pixie left Sam a present this morning! A new pair of sweet Holiday jammies, reindeer jingle bells, and some Magic Reindeer Food to put out tonight so Santa's reindeer can snack at our house.
Mama had work, so Samantha spent time with Daddy helping him cook at Grandma and PaPa's house. She gobbled up Daddy's gumbo and mostly his delicious homemade apple pie! When we got home we put out the food for Santa's reindeer... and was worried that they needed water too.

OH! Thank you, Pixie!

Sam found a new love for candy canes.

Magic reindeer food time!

An eye in the sky looking for Santa.

Night-Night Baby Jesus... and Daddy.

Merry and Bright

Mama is/wasn't feeling well, so Daddy took Samantha out for a day of shopping and she was so well behaved in lieu of all the Christmas chaos. After dinner, we all went to walk a neighborhood filled with lights and Christmas spirit. There are about 13 houses in the cul-de-sac that all decorated so elaborately. They even have a bonfire and hot cocoa. Sammie loved seeing "Frosty" every time!

 

Bugs!

We received the information from the doctor about Samantha's nasal culture: she has Moraxella catarrhalis and a staph growing (she has 2 buggies!), so we are changing her antibiotic AGAIN (#6). I am finding some faith in Dr. Lam to solve this mystery, I hope she's right and the weight can be lifted from our shoulders... and Samantha can breathe again.

 Samantha brought a baby for Nate to play with today. He missed playing dolls with her since she hasn't been to Grandma's.

From Busted Teeth... To San Antonio

This morning started out a little bumpy... as Samantha was enjoying her freedom of spinning in circles she slipped and hit the tile. She cried a bit as usual and I kissed her hands that slammed the floor, but she continued to cry.... Long story short, she hit her top teeth some how as well. I saw a little blood and called the dentist and went in right away. (Mostly because we had plans to get to San Antonio, not because I'm a total paranoid Mama. Although I was a bit worried.) They were amazing and super nice and said everything was ok. The part that freaked me out was that they kept referring to the 'hit' as "TRAUMA". It sounded so ER. Well, Sammie ate up the attention she was getting and you couldn't even tell that she fell. Also, I wish I would have gotten a pic of her getting checked by the doctor because she was so cool as a cucumber!

After the dentist and some tidying up around the house, we finally ventured down to San Antonio to see Zane and Christine and meet the kids (and see Mr. Vincent too). It's been well over 2 years since we'd all seen each other and we hadn't gotten the kids together yet. Zane is on winter break from school in Santa Cruz, where he'll be permanently residing after graduation in June; Texas will miss him, but you know Cali has all the cool video-gaming corporations there.
*Vincent gave Samantha a very special gift of Julia's, an old wind up Wizard the Oz snow globe. Samantha loved playing it over and over. It is so beautiful and truly special!

Blowing bubbles in the park.

Sweet- Sweet Logan.

Hand in Hand with Jackson & Christine

Chillin' with Zane after 'Christmas dinner'

Kid's Day Out Christmas Program

We were so excited about Samantha's first Christmas Program today! Although she had been feeling funky and whiney all day, she constantly talked about it all morning and was so excited to see her friends at school. Daddy and I dropped her off at her classroom and expected to see her next on stage shouting out Jingle Bells that she had been practicing at the dinner table for weeks. Well, that's not how it happened... and the teachers warned all the parents that "you don't know what your kid's going to do". However, ours is the only one who shouted out "Mama, I gotta go pee pee", cried and ran. It was so sad. She had looked so cute up there with all of her school standing behind her (well the 3- and 4- year olds) belting out the songs. Well... there's always the Spring Program. You'll get 'em next time, Sammie. And you won't be sick then.

 

Sammie's friend Laney is behind her in the white dress. She moved up a class.