At the Moment

.I am sitting on the couch while the husband is bustling around cleaning the house. It's sort of his Sunday routine, I wouldn't dare get in the way of it!

.There is a sleeping tot in his crib that I had to move away from the wall since it turns out he is getting taller (maybe those short leggies are growing?), and likes to swat the pictures off the wall. Turkey.

.I just polished off a bowl of Hot Tamales, which Sam thought he'd try today, and naturally there is now a red stain on our rug where he spit it out.

.We just watched the most recent Desperate Housewives episode and I'm still mad at Susan for trying to convince her daughter to keep her illegitimate child. I am a firm believer in adoption. It is most often best for the birth parents, the adoptive parents and especially the baby! Susan's an idiot.

.Last night was miserable. I felt myself coming down with something all day, but I had a full schedule of hair appointments (8 hours worth), so I pushed through it. By the time I got home I was shaking with chills, so weak I could barely stand, achier than I'd ever felt, and my head was pounding. Tadd was nice enough to let me go lay in bed even though he'd had Sam alllll day. Cold sweats and heat waves all night long. (Am I going through menopause?) Luckily this morning I felt a little better. This winter has sucked.

.Thinking about my darling niece, Claire Katherine, in her beautiful blessing dress today. Her daddy gave her a lovely blessing, and we enjoyed time with family afterward at Haley and Jon's.

.Cars and Cars 2 are quickly becoming a daily occurence. Multiple times. I sort of love it.

.Playing roughly 12 games in Scramble with Friends, and actually winning about half. Not too bad for a rookie.

.We are hoping to go snuggle our new twin nieces this week, Claire (we get two Claire's!) and Livvy. We are so grateful they arrived safe and sound!

.Lamenting over the fact that I fail to provide healthy meals for my little family. I have expectations of myself as a housewife, basically none of which I've met. After I sort out a few things around here I am determined to cook regular meals for my husband and son. It is pathetic how badly I've dropped the ball on this one.

.Packing up 12-18 mo clothing tonight since the kid will not stop growing! Although, there is nothing like seeing Samson learn daily and absorb so much of his surroundings. Tonight he started yelling to me, "Momma! Come here!" so he could show me that he'd pushed his toy box out of his room (of course). I get so much joy hearing him talk and add more and more words to his vocabulary.

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning this year at home for the first time ever, and loved it! It felt a little different since we've never done that since we've been married, but I think it'll be fun from here on out to spend the holiday with my little family. At least a part of it!

Tadd and I prepped for Christmas morning after Sammy fell asleep Christmas Eve, while watching White Christmas of course! It was adorable watching Tadd take such care while putting together Samson's train table, the man is a perfectionist!

Why is it that stockings always seem to hold much less than we remembered?

Sammy's first glimpse of Christmas!

The stocking was a hit, and he began pulling things out himself before too long.

Typical child-by-presents-under-the-Christmas-tree picture

Nothing is better than watching your child experience the magic of Christmas. I loved watching these two open gifts together and then play with Sam's toys. It was all I wanted for that morning.

Opening the train set we ended up taking back because the kid is just too young for it. He's more than satisfied with IKEA train tracks and little trains. Chuggington ones, of course.

Apparently he REALLY loved his train table.

Christmas Eve

We had a gift exchange at Kris and Kecia's in the morning and a delicious breakfast to kick off Christmas Eve! The adults drew each other's names and the kids did the same. 

Chris (or rather, Tysen) got me some texting gloves and this bracelet, which I'm obsessed with!

Lyla gave Sam these great flashcards, one of which he promptly ripped. Punk.

Tysen gave Tadd a shirt and a Visa gift card. I guess it was just a year of the DeMartini's giving to the Coxes!

There were the traditional games and chicken noodle soup at Grandma Camme's (Maga, as Sam calls her), which is always a great time.

Well, most of the time...

Samson obviously found multiple things to play with that are NOT toys, as is his M.O. 

The ever popular fish pond!

Christmas, although not Christmasy at all, jimjams

Ava is such a sweetheart with Samson, always playing with him and making him laugh. 

PS: as you can see, I will be halfassing all of my posts until I'm caught up. You're welcome.

Dining in The Ridge

The Friday before Christmas we trekked (kidding Mom) down to Elk Ridge for a loverly dinner, just my little family and Ma and Pa. 

If only Tadd's damn wife could cook like this, he was pretty much in caloric heaven. 

And this little one was headed at me for kiss. And looking dapper while doin' it. 

Then these two love birds shared some berry cobbler and ice cream. 

Mom seriously spoiled us and we couldn't have left any more full or any happier.

My Favorite

My favorite picture of the season.

Be still my heart.

First snow.

Documenting December

Dove into the holiday festivities with two rounds of graham cracker houses. Once with friends, the other with Mom, Haley and Mallory. Enjoy that blank space above.

Samson was the hit of my month, as always. 

Visited the ENT, played in papa's train, met Santa, discovered he didn't need the wrapper off to eat his chocolate sucker (what dumb Santa thinks it's a good idea to give a child a chocolate sucker?), and oh how he gazed at me with this big brown eyes. Have I mentioned his brown eyes? Dreamy really. 

Oh, I also burned the $#!^ out of my finger with hot glue. 

We made a couple trips up to Haley's to get these two yahoos together, and turned those into craft nights. We thoroughly enjoyed their dress ups. Sammy is very much into giving kisses, usually open mouthed. It's...darling? No, really it is. But also very sloppy. Bless his little heart. Haley and I made tee shirt scarves (fail) and tie necklaces (success).

 Chocolate fountain night at Maga and Papa Coxes with a surprise visit from Santa! Sam was clearly thrilled to sit on his lap. 

Salon Christmas party that Tadd had to stay home from at the last minute. Sam was in "a mood" and Tadd was feeling sick, but I dubbed Lindsey (far right in big group pics) my date and we had a grand time! Lindsey's family has a great cabin up at Sundance where we enjoyed a homemade meal by Clint (salon owner) and his wife, Season. It was seriously heavenly. 

There were gifts exchanged, games played, and pants ripped. Oh, yes those pants were mine. NO idea when it happened throughout the day, but Chelsea pointed it out when we were up on the loft above everyone else for everyone to see. Lovely.

We attempted Sammy's first movie, sans Dadda. It was minorly brutal. He had taken a nap at Chris and Tysen's, and I thought this pic of the boys on the couch was hilarious. All three just woken up from their naps, and this is how they slept. The boys with just a blanket and a pillow, and Samson with his sleepsack, blanket, Minnie, Bee and binki. Oh dear. 

We saw Arthur Christmas, delightful movie (of what I saw), and Sam lasted through the previews. The rest of the time it was down the stairs, across the theatre, and back up. Luckily the theater was fairly empty and there were many other kids doing the same thing. It was worth going to just to see him with his little popcorn on his lap sitting in his booster fixated on the screen (for 25 min). Love that litlte kid.

After the movie we went to Whitney's for caroling! An old tradition we had as kids that I was thrilled to resurrect. I had sort of, kind of, completely withheld the caroling detail from Tadd and told him it was dinner so when I called on our way home from the theater asking him to pack Sam's gloves, hat, coat, scarf, sweater, etc...he asked, "Are we playing outside or something", and then I had to drop the bomb. "No, we are going caroling." ... The shock. It was as if I told him we were gathering together to slit our wrists in unison. Not his cup of tea???

We only caroled to three homes, which was perfect and then headed back to Whitney's for treats. The bundled littles was the highlight of the evening.

At the Moment...

.I'm watching Friends in our room while Tadd watches tennis out front. Can't remember the last time he watched tennis, not sure what the occasion is.

.I'm sitting with my phone by my side, anxiously reading my family's group text. We do this often, but this time it's regarding my dear grandma. She was moved up to a care home in Northern California not too long ago, and her poor body really started failing about a week ago. My daddy headed up there to be with her for her last few days. Tonight I received a text from my mom saying she is very close to passing away. It won't be long, and my heart aches for my dad and his sisters. She deserves to be in heaven with her husband, leaping about (and yes, if you knew my grandma, she'd absolutely be leaping) in a healthy, painless body. Even though it's time, it still sucks.

.Making mental lists for things needed for the baby shower I'm throwing on Wednesday. Really hoping I can pull this off.

.Cataloging receipts for 2011 Taxes. What a joy!

.Sniffing, coughing, throat clearing, moaning...things I've been hearing all weekend long between myself, Tadd and Samson. It's a relief that we got sick over the weekend, happened last weekend with the flu for myself. What a delight.

.24+ hours without Diet Coke. Burns my dang throat, but has now contributed to my headache.

.Thinking about the new phrases Samson has been saying. He's really quite the goofball, and with all the new words he's learning he's putting them together to thoroughly entertain us. My favorite tonight was when Tadd and Sam were getting ready to take a shower and Sam started yelling and laughing, "Nakie Dadda! Nakie Dadda!" We got a good laugh out of that one. Another I've heard all day, "Uh-oh what happened", mostly when he pushes the home button on my phone and exits an app (fully knowing what he's doing) time, after time, after time.

.Dishes have been washed, laundry folded (a joint effort between Tadd and me), toys tidied, floor vacuumed, so we can start aaaallll over again tomorrow.

.Spare change counted, sorted, organized in envelopes (the way the husband rolls), we'll be bustin' into those tomorrow.

.Sam pinched his thumb in his remote control Jeep, and had a teensy tiny would that he would remind us of the minute we woke up from naps or in the morning, 'huwt'. Then he'd stop playing throughout the day to remind us that it stil hurts. We gave lots and lots of kisses

.We had a lovely dinner brought down to us by Papa Steve and Madi, which was so appreciated! We ate like kings after the week we'd had.

.Sammy is snoozing away in his crib wearing Monster jimjams and an evening gown (clarification. It's his sleepsack), one binki clipped to his gown and handfuls nearby for comfort. Not to mention his three blankets, Mickey Mouse, Bee, Zulie the Zebra, and occasionally Monica the lamb. We've raised a packrat.

Eye Candy

As if I don't post enough photos of our monster...

 Reached over the in the truck and grabbed my hand. I DIED.

Seems like a man on a mission. Sidekick by his side.

Play date with Dashy

Don't we look dashing!

Yankees jersey from Papa Jack

Decked the Halls

There is just something so magical about the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree. Sammy's is actually still up in his room as his nightlight. 

Sam immediately adopted the Christmas throw as his blankie. I actually found the same blanket in cream so I could replace it once Christmas was over. 

Some Christmas books

Santa Sighting

Santa arrived at University Mall the day after Thanksgiving in...a...helicopter. Ridiculous, no?