It's In the Genes

In case you haven't seen it, Samantha has this great party trick we call her "squeeze face." She has been able to do it on command for a long time, and it always makes us laugh! If you don't know what we are talking about, observe:

Well, in the past few days we have noticed that young Andrew has a "squeeze face" as well. His technique is a bit different - he clinches his fists instead of squeezing his hands together - but the end result is the same .... hilarious.

Of course, not to be outdone, big sister had to give it a go.

Apparently Steve and I had some genes pair up that passed along the squeeze face to both kids. We are eagerly anticipating the day when Andrew can perform on demand so that we take the holy grail of photos - a double squeeze face!

Reminiscing ....

We just spent a wonderful weekend in West Tennessee. October has become my favorite time to make trips home because there are so many neat things to do. Each year, we go to the Green Acres pumpkin patch in Milan. We have made some amazing pictures of the kids there. As I was going back through pictures, I was in awe of how much my little girl has grown up. With the exception of last year, when we were home with newborn Andrew, Samantha has had her picture made in the green wagon every year of her life. Thought you might like to take a walk down memory lane! 2008, 2009, 2011

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

October 5, 2010, shortly after 5:56 a.m.

October 5, 2011, 5:56 a.m.

Happy First Birthday to our sweet Andrew! We are so happy that God sent you to be a part of our family. You are such a joy!

Andrew the Explorer

Hello, strangers! One day, I hope to post the highlights of our summer. Of course, now that I've put that out there, I'll probably never do it. So, let me just clarify that I will NOT, under any circumstances, ever ever post any pictures of our summertime adventures.

Andrew is a very active boy these days. He is into EVERYTHING. He crawls, climbs, pulls up, cruises, empties, fills up and tears up. He terrorizes his sister, reaches what we thought was unreachable and eats any food he can get his hands on. Thought you might enjoy a few pictures of sweet Andrew being, well, a boy.

He loves taking books off the shelf. He has become particularly fond of ripping pages out of my Emeril cookbook. I look the other way on that one ... I don't know what half the ingredients are anyway!

Cozy Coupe accident! What do we do here? Help him, or let him figure it out?

Took a few minutes, but he figured it out!

Yet another Cozy Coupe incident.

Yes, he has figured out how to climb stairs. Don't worry, Daddy is close behind.

To quote his favorite expression: "Uh-oh!"

Why crawl around a chair when you can crawl underneath it?

Lesson not learned!

We try all sorts of things in the spinning raceway. I guess he decided to see if he could make himself spin!

Crawling through the table. Again, why bother going around?

Favorite game in the kitchen - emptying ALL of the dish towels on the floor.

Caught red handed! One day last week he was playing with cereal boxes in the pantry. He then somehow managed to open the pop-tart box and help himself to one. He ate the entire thing, whole. He must've worked so hard to get it, I just didn't have the heart to take it away. Needless to say, he didn't have much dinner that night!

Evidence at the scene of the crime.

It's usually not a good thing when I hear Samantha laugh and then yell "Hey Mommy! Come look at Andrew!"

This happened just this morning. I knew it was coming, but I was hoping I had a little while longer til he could figure it out.

Victory! (Yes, the piano has now found a new home.)

A Man on a Mission

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

Today is my Daddy's birthday. I've been out of pocket this week so, of course, I didn't get a card in the mail to him. No problem, I thought, I'll just use my kids to make a cute blog birthday card for him. Well, Samantha mostly refuses to smile, and Andrew refuses to sit still in light of his recently acquired crawling skills. My card idea quickly went down the toilet. I thought you might enjoy the outtakes, though. After all, it is the thought that counts, right? Happy, Happy Birthday, Dad / Big Guy! We love you very much!

Did I Sign Up For This?

We've taken some really fun pictures this month. I thought you might like to see what we've been up to so far this summer. We've managed to have a pretty good time since we got back from the beach doing a whole bunch of nothing. We still have several small adventures on the docket before the activities of fall descend upon us, but we've managed to have a pretty good time doing what we do best. We hop on the crazy train just about every morning and see where it will take us.

Samantha and her friend Sadie James at the Max & Ruby stage show at the Tennessee Theatre.

No crawling from young Andrew yet, but he manages to get around. One of his favorite spots to get stuck in is underneath the chair. I'm still not sure how he backs himself up under that thing. (Don't you just love that we still try to put his quilt out? Ha!)

Samantha loved having a reason to get her leftover party supplies out (and to antagonize her brother with a blower) when the Pierces came over to celebrate Brent's birthday.

Another favorite activity - making chex mix! Don't worry, her hands are pretty clean. And I try to pick out the pieces she licks and puts back.

She keeps telling us Andrew wants a little brother, too. (Ummmm, no.) Maybe if we just dress him up every now and then we can pass him off as a baby sister. Or as her cousin It.

The wigs have been lots of fun. They were in the dress up trunk she got from Wawa and Papaw at Christmas. This is her "princess" look.

Yet another failed attempt at a picture where they both look somewhat normal.

Great picture, huh? If only I knew how to photoshop all of that drool.

Samantha and Daddy hanging out after a walk around the neighborhood. She has on her very first VBS shirt. She asks to wear it almost every day!

Samantha and Daddy apparently bored Andrew to sleep on said walk.

"What did I do with that blueberry? I know it's around here somewhere. I can smell it!"

Our first toy casualty. I guess it's technically not a toy. It's one of those little stress thingys that Steve got at work. We thought nothing of Andrew chewing on it. He's only got 2 teeth for crying out loud! Well, guess what? They fall apart. We stand corrected.