Sammy's tricks

Here is an old (a couple weeks old) video of Sam that shows off pretty much all of his tricks to date. He is so tickle-ish that it's pretty easy to get him to laugh. The clapping is new again. We wouldn't do it for awhile, but now he'll do it on demand. Then he'll climb on anything he can--uh-oh! Enjoy this happy video!

A demonstration of one of Sam's b-day presents

My mom sent Sammy some of those squeaky shoes for his birthday! I tried them right on. They fit perfectly and I LOVE the squeak! Thank you so much mom. The onesie he's wearing was made by my friend Amy. It has a 1 in the middle of the bat (which is glow in the dark) and on the back it says "you've had a birthday shout hurray." I love it!

Sammy turns 1!

I made the cupcakes, Mom Bigler provided the cute candles, and Kellie made the little snakes out of marzipan.



On Sunday while we were in Ojai for conference we had an early birthday party for Sam. I made cupcakes and I got some pictures of Sammy enjoying his. These turned out just like I wanted! We all sang happy birthday to him and I think he got that we were singing to him. At first Sammy didn't like the cupcake, because the frosting was sticking to his fingers, but then he got a taste and ate up all crumbs that he could pick up with his little fingers. Then after he enjoyed his cupcake, he went begging for cheesecake. I think he had a fun time.

Labor Day

We had such a fun Labor Day weekend! Scott and Ashlyn invited us to hang out with Ashlyn's family in Avila. But first, here is a picture of the brothers and their babies before church. Check out Sam's shoes, Mom. Do those look familiar?
On Labor Day we all played in the pool, walked around Avila, took a bike ride, (Just me and Ashlyn did that. We rode all the way from Jared's work to Avila Beach--a good 12 mile ride!) went out to dinner and just spent time with each other.
This is the pool at Ashlyn's parent's time-share. It had an awesome view of the water and the two piers in Avila.
Ashlyn took this fun picture of our family! Thanks so much, Ashlyn, for including us in your family time. We all had such a great time!
Here Jared is entertaining the two babies. He's so good at getting a laugh out of them. Are you wondering what he's doing here? So are Aubree and Sam, I'm sure.

Jared calls it "skiing"

Before Sammy could walk he taught himself how to ski. As you can see from the video, he'll just push something around on the floor. He uses anything he can get his hands on and that will slide around easily. Then he gets really frustrated when he gets caught up on a bump. Sometimes he'll even push something with both hands--whatever is available. And he entertains us and himself for a long time with it. It is so fun to watch!

Sammy's walking

I can't believe it, but Sammy is walking now! He gets more and more comfortable with it each day. He usually likes to be holding something in his hand, but he CAN do it without. Because Sam is so small and young people don't believe it when we tell them. The other day Jared and I took Sam to an Audubon meeting. This old lady, who first thought Sam was only 3 months, made me prove to her that he could walk. ANYWAY, Sam still prefers crawling because it gets him around faster, but I think he enjoys the smiles he gets when he walks.

5 YEARS!

On August 14th Jared and I had our 5 year wedding anniversary! And Jared had a pretty big surprise in store for me. He took me to Cambria to a place we went to on our honeymoon. To throw me off we drove north on the 101 and then came down to the 1 from the 46. There is a beautiful scenic stop on the way and we stopped to take some pictures. We found this already painted on the rock. It was a fun surprise for both of us to start the weekend off.
We brought Sammy along with us. He was such a good boy and we got lots of attention everywhere we went.
So we drove to Cambria and Jared took me to the same B & B we stayed at on our honeymoon. I was completely surprised! I love surprises and it was so great of Jared to make this so fun for me! The B & B was just how we remembered. We even had the same room. We went out to dinner in town at a very small place and that's where Sammy got all the attention. It was such a small place that it felt like we were having dinner with the whole room, so every time Samuel made a sound everyone seemed to look over and smile back at him. He's always such a crowd pleaser too!
The next day we spent in Cambria. We visited Camp Ocean Pines, where Jared used to work and then drove around some neighborhoods looking at all the cool "Cambria style" houses. Then we went and walked on Moonstone Beach and found some cool rocks to bring home with us. (Sorry Attie, no abalone this time.)
On our drive home Sammy was nice enough to let us take the scenic/long way home. We took a beautiful creek road home. Luckily there was a Linn's bakery that way so we stopped for some Ollaleyberry pie!
It was such a fun weekend. Jared planned such a special trip for me. I feel so luck to have been married to him these 5 years. As well as such a well planned, thoughtful weekend away, he got me another anniversary gift. I don't want to brag, so I'll just say it is so beautiful and sparkley! I can't wait to see what my 10 year anniversary gift will be! (just kidding, honey)