And we are off!

Our summer has begun! We were blessed with a visit from one of our cousins this last week. Jacob and Madeline had a great visit and we loved getting to enjoy her for a few days. Her other 5 siblings are at home with mom and dad but sometimes one of them comes to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a few days and we get to have them at our home too. Jacob has enjoyed being done with school as does Andrew. Jacob just finished 2 weeks of swim lessons too! They are a must in our family. I grew up around water and in Texas it is just part of life. Plus Grandma lives on a lake and has a boat. Jacob leaves today for a week at Pine Cove in Tyler, TX. He is very excited! This will be his 2nd year to go for a week all by himself. Andrew leaves tomorrow to go to LA for a week to visit his uncle. Please pray about that trip! I know he will have a good time and all but this mama is a bit nervous. On top of that Trae and I just watched Taken (the movie) last night and that didn't help my nerves. He is growing up and I am excited for him as I know this means a lot to him. Letting go.....ahhhh motherhood!

Sweet Sam

Sam loves to be upright, looking around and interacting with people. He has been enjoying his exersaucer for about a month and is now pulling at and touching some of the toys on it. It is so much fun to see.

Sweet slumber.....

Sam has always been a snuggler. We are hoping it sticks however we know as he grows older it could be more rare. We are treasuring the days and sweet moments as they are so precious that we all enjoy them even big brother. Sam had his 4 month well check today and was 13lbs 12 oz and 25 inches long. He was in the 30th % for everything.

Creativity....

One of my favorite items with Sam is this baby sling. It is by a company called Baby K'tan. I have gotten a lot of use out of it. This was the first time dad tried it however it think they both thought it was a hit! I wear it with Sam in the front either being cradled (when he was really young) or upright facing mom or facing out. We didn't want Sam to end up with dinner all over him so we put him on dads back. He loves to see everything so we faced him out. He really enjoyed it and was asleep in about 30 mins and we had a clean kitchen!

Our weekend....

Andrew had his awards ceremony on Friday night at his school. We officially have a Junior now! He has glad to be out for the summer and looking forward to less study time and will be increasing his work schedule for the summer. He is headed off to LA in a week to visit his uncle and is really excited about that. Jacob and I are finished with our school year too! Yippppeeee! As much as I love homeschooling this teacher also really appreciates the summer break. We will keep up reading (reading is life NOT school!) and math 2 times a week (to avoid any regression) and enjoy a carefree summer!

Sam Discovers his voice.

Sam Discovers his voice.

Sam started cereal...

Sam started cereal this week. Typically I would wait til 4 months (which he is a few days short of ) but he started waking up in the night after typically sleeping 12 hours. He really likes it.

Sam loves to stand....

Sam loves to stand! Now before you start to worry rest assured that it is old wives tale that it negatively effects their legs by doing this. His little chubbers (our nickname for his legs) are growing and working just fine. He truly delights in getting to be upright and taking everything in. Oh how we love this sweet boy!

Up close...

Our busy boy!

Here is Sam in the exersaucer! Yep at 3 months old he is loving being upright and watching fun things. He needs help keeping up his trunk (mid-section) however his neck has been very strong for a while so he is able to sit and observe for about 10-15 mins. I also think all his physical activity is helping to wear him out. Sam has been sleeping about 12 hours at night for about a month now. His daytime naps have been pretty frequent but short however now they are stretching to a hour or so about 3 times a day and sometimes catnaps here and there.

Our little traveler....

This past weekend we went to Pine Cove with our ministry team. Sam was a great traveler. He went with the flo and even enjoyed everyone holding him. I had mentioned to daddy that Samuel seemed to have his fussier days when we were home all. day. long. I shared with him that he seemed to love stimulation and interaction. That was soooo evident this weekend. It was so nourishing to us to be able to be apart of our closest relationships and have our growing family embraced. God is so good and faithful to all generations!!! Sam also loved being out in nature. He was memorized by all the trees. We can't wait to take him back when we head to family camp in a couple of months.

Tummy time....