So, what’s up with Samuel these days? He is almost five (less than 2 months now), and he is VERY excited about that. He wants to be a BIG boy so badly, and if there is ever anything we tell him he can’t do just yet, he always responds with, “well, when I’m FIVE, I can do it”. He has been planning his birthday party at ChuckECheese, and is looking forward to Mema coming. (She’ll be here the week before, to help very pregnant Mommy with the party planning!) Of course, his gift requests are all super-hero related. He wants anything and everything Power Ranger related, especially since Santa brought him some fun MegaZords for Christmas. He would love to have all the different “color” Power Rangers - right now he has a red one, and he’s asked for blue, green and yellow. (I think?) We’ll see what the Birthday Fairies bring!

Samuel has been doing a lot of learning lately, and is getting really close to mastering alphabet recognition and working towards reading. He recognizes about 20 of the letters in the alphabet in print, and is able to sound out (with help) simple words. He can also spell his name, and is working on writing it. It’s such a joy to see the “light bulb” moments when he realizes “I CAN…” read or write or recognize words.

As for picture updates, here is a recent layout I did with pictures of him. This is at Mema and Papa’s house in CA. My sister Sarah took these great shots of him, and as soon as I saw them, I had to put together a layout.

More coming soon, if I can manage! Feburary-April may be a bit scarce, as Baby Girl Huskins will be arriving mid-March. But I’ll do my best to upload some 5th Birthday pics, if I’m not back before that!

Credits - All papers are from a paper pack I made, “For My Superhero Son” … just for my spidey boy! I have a feeling I’ll be doing LOTS of spiderman layouts in the weeks to come, so I needed to have some papers to work with!

We ordered pizza for dinner, and Grandpa Allan, Grandma Faye, Aunt Michelle and Ricky came over to join us. He had a blast opening presents (more pictures coming soon!) and eating his cake. We didn’t have ice cream, because he did NOT want me to buy it at the store. I told him other people might want some ice cream, but he said NO. He was King for the day, so there was no ice cream!

I am uploading a couple of layouts of pictures from his birthday. Check back soon for even more. We are going to ChuckECheese on Saturday for a party with family and a friend from church. So, lots more to come…

Here are the layouts:

Credits: All papers and elements from Keep Trucking kit by Amy Bleser of scrapmommies.com

Credits: Background paper (recolored) by Jess Bolton of eclectic scraps; mini silver brads by me; all other papers and elements from Keep Truckin kit and Why kit by Amy Bleser of scrapmommies.com

More coming soon…

So, if you haven’t heard already, we have a new addition in our home. Actually, two new additions. The first is “Ba” (pronounced like bat, without the t). He is a “big boy”, just like Samuel, and he and Samuel are BEST BUDS! They play together, sleep together, act silly together, and make HUGE messes in his room together. Where did Ba come from, you ask? We have NO idea, but what we DO know is that he lives in Samuel’s wall, and he is available at his every beck and call. I haven’t actually seen him yet, but I’ve talked to him numerous times. And I’ve kissed him goodnight quite a few times! (Per Samuel’s requests!) He likes all the same things Samuel does, and whenever I hear Samuel in his room laughing and carrying on, I can bet that Ba is around. Oh, and Ba DOES have a mother, and HER name is Tall! (I told you there were two additions!) I haven’t met her either, but she seems like a pretty cool mom, ’cause she lets Ba come over to play whenever Samuel calls for him! I’m sure I’ll have more to share about Ba, because we talk about him (and to him) quite a lot these days.

What else… oh yes, Samuel has found a love of nursery rhymes and stories. He walks around reciting Little Miss Muffett, and Humpty Dumpty, and so many others. Any time the word pig comes into the conversation (and that happens more than you might think!), he reaches for his toes to recite This Little Piggy. (Of course he must take of his socks and/or shoes to do this - VERY important part of the recitation!) He also loves to sing, and he likes to alter songs to his liking. His new favorite is one I think he and Daddy Dale dreamed up together, but he LOVES to sing it EVERY night and EVERY day before naptime. It’s “twinkle, twinkle little star” with a twist. It goes, “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder…. WHAT YOU HAD FOR BREAKFAST!!” The last part is not sung as much as it is shouted directly in my face… but you get the idea. He can’t go to sleep without this little ritual. Of course, being a fun mommy, I’ve joined in with my own riotous versions like, “twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder… WHY YOUR BREATH SMELLS SO BAD!” and “twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder… WHY YOU FART SO MUCH!” Yes, I am a COOL mommy and I talk about stinky breath and farts to my almost four year old. It’s a requirement, I tell you!

So, besides silly songs and nursery rhymes, Samuel has also turned into a LOVING soul. He tells us about 50 times a day that he loves us. (And it’s not ALWAYS in connection to getting in trouble, so we know it’s genuine!) He has also become more physically loving, giving lots of hugs and kisses and staying as CLOSE TO MOMMY as he can get, on a regular basis! It’s a lot of fun when cooking dinner or trying to leave the room to go to the bathroom… (I really DO love it.. it’s so great to have a kid full of so much joy and love).

Samuel has also begun what I call “dialogue-ing”. He has entire conversations, alone, but with other people. Sometimes he is practicing a conversation, like the day before Grandpa’s birthday. “Mama, I’m going to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY Grandpa…. no wait, I’m going to say Grandpa, HAPPY BIRTHDAY… no wait…” etc. etc. Or there was the time he asked if he could go with Allan to pick up his cousin. I told him he’d have to ask Daddy Allan. So he went and sat on the couch and said, “Daddy, can I go with you to pick up Matthew? Yes, ok? Good… Mama, Daddy said yes!” I said, “uh no… Daddy is at work right now…” These kinds of conversations happen on a regular basis. Now that we know about Ba, I have figured out that a lot of his conversations are with Ba, and not JUST with himself, but it can be hard to tell (since Ba is hard to see and all).

I guess that’s all for now. I have more, but the baby is crying and Samuel is calling, so I’ll save it for later. I have more layouts to upload too… next time!

I’ve been doing some digital scrapbookin’ lately, and have a few layouts of Samuel to share. I’m mostly working on catching up on Samuel’s baby pictures, so these are the only two with recent pictures I have right now. I’m hoping to get to Christmas 05 soon! Anyway, here are the layouts:

Baby Allan has grown out of his infant carseat, and it was sitting in the living room waiting to be taken to storage. Samuel decided he needed to try it out!

Credits for the layout: All papers from “Just Keep Truckin” kit by Amy Bleser (found at scrapmommies.com)

Credits: Papers and Alpha from “Keep Truckin” by Amy Bleser (scrapmommies.com). Scraplift idea/sketch from Traci Reed (scrapmommies.com)

And just for fun, here are a couple layouts with older pictures of Samuel:

This is Samuel with a frog that Aunt Sarah gave him. Pictures taken in June 2002.

Credits: Papers from Angi Jones Lil’ Daisy Doo and Traci Reed’s Little Star; Ribbon from Traci Reed’s ModMommy; the title “frog” made using alpha from Traci Reed’s Mod Mommy Kit

This is from Christmas 03 - at Mema and Papa’s house.

Credits:
Striped Papers from La Jolla Paper Pack by Alicia Hansen of CashewStyle; “Sweet” Alphas from “HipHop” by Alison Folendore; Stitching by Jess Bolton of Eclectic Scraps; Dark Green Ribbon by Dawn Webb; Stamped Border from Jubilation Kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist (I recolored it white)

That’s all for now… I’ll try to upload more soon!

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
- Ate my applesauce
- Watch LarryBob
- Brush my teeth
- Make cookies

Four movies you would watch over and over:
- Hippo (this is a Baby Einstein movie)
- Pooh and Heffalump Halloween
- Caillou movie
- Wallace & Gromit

Four places you have lived:
- a Hotel
- Lake Tahoe
- Daddy Dale’s house

Four TV shows you love to watch:
- Blue
- Backyardigans (only he said it “dadargigans)
- Flintstones
- Dora

Four places you have been on vacation:
- Hotel
- Mema and Papa’s house
- Grandma Wasser’s house
- Aunt Sarah and Gracie’s house (he didn’t mention it, but Uncle Ken lives there too!)

Four websites you visit daily:
- Chicken Little
- Picture taking

Four of your favorite foods:
- waffles
- applesauce
- can I watch Blue now, while I eat?

Four places you would rather be right now:
- no thanks

Four bloggers you are tagging:
- Daddy took Santa and Frosty out of the window, Mama….
(at this point, he sort of lost interest, when he realized his favorite Christmas decorations were gone from the windows. Not to mention he has NO idea what a blogger is.)

So, that’s that! I’ll post again later with Christmas pics.

I forgot to upload any Halloween pics, so here’s one:

So, as Samuel gets closer to turning four, he is evolving into a hilarious, sweet, wonderful boy. Wait, he was all those things already. He just keeps getting better with age! He is really enjoying our “homeschool” preschooling that we’re doing. His favorite activities are cutting and gluing. Heaven forbid Mommy wants him to actually COLOR something. No, no, no… one must be cutting or glueing… gluing or cutting. THAT is what TRUE school is all about, according to the preschooler!

We recently went on a trip to CA to see family, and I have to share a few pics from that trip. We attended a “Fireman’s Breakfast” as the fire station where Papa used to be a volunteer. Here are some pictures of Samuel enjoying the Fire Truck:

It was a fun morning!

So, I mentioned earlier about Samuel and his being hilarious. Here are a couple of “funny” pictures:

Wearing them wrong

Wearing them right

And finally, a picture of the “Big Brother”:

So, for the first post, I’ll do a “photo-journal” entry, with more to come soon!

In April, we welcomed Samuel’s baby brother Allan to our family. Samuel has been an AWESOME big brother from the moment he met Allan. He wants to hold him, play with him, talk to him, sing to him, and share his toys with him. (I’m sure the “sharing” won’t last forever, but we’re enjoying it right now!) Here are a few pictures of the boys together, taken over the last few months:

Samuel is pretty “super-hero” obsessed these days. He likes to pretend to be a super-hero called “Super Samol” (The pronunciation of his name is from cousin Gracie. He insists that we call him “Samol”, like Gracie did when we visited her in Nebraska in August). The other day, after naptime, he came out of his room as “Super Spider Samol”! The “Spider” came from his spiderman floaties, which he was wearing on his KNEES, not his arms. When he posed for the camera, he gave his best “I’m a tough, super-hero kind of guy” impression.

That’s my SUPER boy!