My little Sam

Sam is 18 months today. With Allie's birth, I don't want Sam to suffer from the middle child neglect that I hear so often about. He's also just really darn cute when he's not having a tantrum. Here he is on Christmas Eve sporting an adorable sweater.

Mr. Blue Eyes. Sam is so sweet and cuddly when he wants to be. Once we get past the toddler stage, I think he is going to be a great kid to get to know. He's beginning to talk with various words and signs. Exciting times! He says alot of words that are decipherable and signs thank you, please, and more. He has definitely reached the stage where you see in his eyes his understanding of language and commands even before he can respond with words. Amazing!

Here he is after his first haircut. He looks like a little boy rather than a baby. I must admit, I shed a few tears thinking about my little Sam growing up already. He does look handsome with his new look and monkey PJs, doesn' t he?

On the playground in warm gear. Like his cool hat? Christmas gift from Grammy Kris.

Sam, we love you. You may be the middle child but our love for you will be just as great as for your brother and sister.

Our little Allie!

Much to blog about right now, but this picture above pretty much sums up the current state of kids in the household. Jake in sort of overwhelmed but protective mode and Sam in all out "can't deal" mode. Allie is cool, calm, and collected. It's been a big change for all of us. Grandma Barb was here right away so we've had enough hands. I switch between all three of those modes depending largely on the time of day and amount of sleep. Scott has been awesome and Allie certainly gets her disposition from Daddy!

Jake (and I think Grandma) came up with the idea to celebrate Allie's birth with a birthday party. Of course! Complete with adorable cupcakes and we sang Happy Birthday to her. Jake really knows how to welcome his baby sister into the world! Unfortunately about half the cupcakes ended up as a Tucker treat when he snuck them off the counter.

Here is our little Allie in the delivery room. My labor was really short with her, about 8 hours in total and only about 4 sets of pushes. This seems to get easier the more you do it. Well, the contractions never get easier. Whoa, I forgot how much they hurt. She was born on 28 December at 1612. She weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz, and was 19 inches long. She did so well that I got to hold her right away AND we went home in just over 24 hours in the hospital.

We're really thankful for our little Allie. I'm continuously thankful for Scott and his partnership in all this. Grandma Barb was so much help and we were able to spend some time with Jake and Sam especially while she was here. We're looking forward to visits from the McGrail side in the next couple of weeks though we might make a trip to Portland this weekend to make some introductions (as well as maybe procure a new car...more on that later).

Merry Christmas a little late!

Merry Christmas a little late! Here are Jake and Sam in front of the tree.

A family shot, though blurry, but still cute. Obviously no baby yet!

This was from before Christmas. Scott refurbished this old John Deere tractor that we inherited on our property with a cool trailer and new wheels in the front. The boys generally fight over it, but this was one time they worked out their differences.

Grandma Barb, Uncle Matt and Tucker were here for the holiday and we had a nice relaxing time. Lots of baking! Barbara made peach and blackberry pies that are now in the freezer awaiting those middle of the night cravings of a new mommy and daddy. I tried a pecan pie that turned out pretty good.

For those who saw Scott's Facebook photos, you know we had some fresh duck to eat, as well. That may be a new Christmas eve tradition. I highly recommend Duck seared in cooking sherry and blackberry jam!

No baby yet!

Jake's birthday and Thanksgiving

Here is Jake, age 4. His preschool teacher took this and I think it is a great picture of him. I can almost see what he'll look like when he gets bigger.

Here are Jake, Finn, and Henry on our trip to the Olympic National Forest to get a Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. It was a really fun and pretty trip. I definitely think that will be a new tradition now that we are in the northwest!

Here are our friends, Robyn and JR. It was their idea to go get Christmas trees.

Here is our most recent good family picture. You'll see it on a Christmas card coming soon. If only I could see Sam a little better, it would be perfect!

Here's dinner on Thanksgiving. We had the Rohls and Grandma Barb and Uncle Ryan for dinner. It was really good food thanks to help from Grandma and Auntie Kate! Scott fried the turkey and it was soooo good. I think that will be a new tradition, as well. No fires or burns, either, thank goodness!

Here is Jake at his birthday party enjoying cupcakes with some buddies. Hard to believe he is 4!

In other news, Sam is now 17 months old and actually starting to really say some understandable words. We really think his first word was backpack, which he says in reference to our Kelty backpack carrier that he loves to ride in. Then mama and daddy were sort of similar timing. Doggy (when Tucker is around), ball, and bottle have been said in various ways, but definitely understandable and purposeful. He's really cute right now and definitely getting around really well. Not sure how he'll be when baby sister is born, but he's doing well right now.

My Turn

Scott has been great about keeping up with the blog since we moved to Washington. I must admit that my life is full of kids, studying, work, and being pregnant so the blog is not highest on my list. I have realized, though, that this is the closest we are going to have to a baby book. Perhaps our blogs of our kids are the modern version of baby books. I have two partially completed ones; one for Jake and one for Sam, but I find the information here on the blog is more accurate and more fun to look back on. I'm grateful that Scott has continued this as much as he has.

We just enjoyed another fun weekend with Kate, James, Henry, and Finn. I was on call this holiday weekend and Scott was invited to go duck hunting so the Rohls came to be our back up in case I had to spend significant time in the hospital this weekend. Thankfully, I didn't have to go in over my time on call and I was able to spend time with them and my boys. Scott had success with getting 3 ducks. He suggested to my dad that they were a sacrifice to help Oregon win yesterday! Here are some cute pictures of the everyone this weekend. Sam is getting around really well and actually hiked much of the time yesterday, though James did help me carry him in the backpack!

A visit to Hippietown

We recently had a nice visit last weekend from the Rohls and Iversons all the way from Iowa.  The weather here this time of year is unpredictable, meaning it will pretty much rain every day but you never know how much, how long or how hard.  One outing we made with all the boys was to take the ferry over to Vashon Island to try and go apple picking.  Mandy has fond memories of going apple picking in New York and outside Chicago and we decided to try and find a similar place.  I think everyone must have their own trees here becuase Vashon Island seemed to be the only place to go and pick your own apples.  We had never been there before and the idea of taking a ferry seemed like a lot of fun to the boys (and was).  The community on this Island is accessible only by ferry and was an interesting mix of hippies and retired folks.  After stopping at one of the various coffee shops for some organic, vegetarian sandwiches and humanely harvested produce we finally arrived at the co-op where we could pick the apples.  The boys had a good time selecting which ones they could pick and eat and we made sure they ran around a lot to work off all the gummi worms that they ate on the ferry.  We couldn't stay too long though becuase my SUV was looking pretty out of place and I was starting to get the evil eye from the other customers.

Gummi worms on the ferry

Organic apples!!

Im pretty sure a barbecue like this is illegal on Vashon island

James is seen here increasing his carbon footprint.

Happy 15 months Sam

Sam is now 15 months old and today Mandy got some good video of him using his fork at dinner.  He has suddenly picked up on many new things.  He is now a stair master and can go both up and down stairs as long as he has something to hold on to.