Circus on Saturday...

We took Sammie to her first circus today!!

We told her that we were going to see the elephants, tigers, and lions on our way and she was "so esited!"

She was mesmorized the entire 2 1/2 hr show!!

Sitting on the edge of her seat the majority of the show!

The tiger tamer!! Chuck and I couldn't stop laughing!!!

Cheeseballs! :)

What a good way to spend our Saturday afternoon!!

Life......

The Discovery channel has been advertising a new series called "Life". Sam LOVES the commercials and stops whatever she is doing to watch so we recorded it and have been watching each evening.

This is how she watches :)

Sam's sense of humor!

Sam has a new way of teasing her Daddy :)

Texas weather.....

So the beginning of our spring break was spent eating ice cream outside, yard work, washing cars, and playing outside.....

The last day of our spring break we woke up to wind and snow!! Yeah Texas weather! Tuesday it's suppose to be sunny and 70 degrees!

Potty training blues......

OK, I'm posting this in hopes that I'm not the only one who's experienced frustration with this processes :) and..... to maybe let others know that it's not as easy as some of the books make it out to be, and...... so that I will remember when we do this again :)!!!

Ugggg! My daugther is very opinionated :)

Our one project for spring break was to potty train. We had it all planned out. The books I read suggested that the easiest way was to go straight to panties or naked so we went for the pretty panties.

We started on Monday 3/15 at the age of 2 yrs 3 months and 2 weeks old.....

We spent lots of time on the potty. We tried lots of different tactics to keep her on there as long as possible so she would have some successes...... including painting toe nails :)
The first day she had 2 successes and 4 oops
The second day she had 4 success and 5 oops (with no poops!)
There were NO signals before she went tee-tee - just a loud yell and then a wet spot :)
We got worried that she was holding her poops
plus she was starting to say that the potty was "scary"
All the books I've read say not to push it so we bought pull ups and tried those the next day instead of panties.
She actually went into the bathroom to poop in her pull-up so I considered that a big step!
Once the pull-ups were on though she could feel herself tee-tee but it wasn't motivation to NOT do it in her pull-up.
We would say, "Sam, next time you need to tee-tee in the big girl potty"
Sam would reply in a sweet voice as she stroked my cheek, "It's Otay Mommy, I don't yike it"

The next 3 days we had no successes in the potty so I went and bought a little potty that sang when you tee-teed in it! HELLO - how fun is that!!!!
Not so much.....
still not interested or motived to tee-tee in the potty although she did kiss the sweet face on the back of the "Sammie potty" :) so she likes it, just doesn't want to sit!

Conclusion: we are not ready,
I'm not going to push it with a newborn coming in less than a month,
and as a good friend just told me.... start to worry if she's not potty trained by 30!! ha!!
Chuck says a diaper will keep the boys away longer anyway :) :) ha!!

I love you my sweet Samantha Jane! I'm apologizing now for using you as our "practice" kid with all these milestones! I feel your pain as the first child as well and will empathize with you when you get older and complain about it...... but........ luck of the draw kiddo :)
love love love love love!!!!

Visit to Grams and Papa's house.......

March 6th-March 12th Sammie went and stayed with her Grams and Papa!! They left on Saturday afternoon not long after my baby shower and headed back to Perryton!! Chuck and I were so excited that Mom and Dad wanted to keep her and have been begging for awhile - but this was a difficult visit for Sammie's Mommy and Daddy!! I think we ate out 4-5 times and saw 3-4 movies while she was gone :) I did some scrapbooking, school work, and deep cleaning to keep myself busy! Mom was soooooo good about keeping us updated with pictures though! I know that soon we'll be begging for them to keep the kids and give us a break but I'm just not there yet :):)

Thanks though Grams and Grandpa - Sam had a blast..... obviously and I think she came back taller and with SEVERAL new phrases......

including......

"I yuv it!"

"Oh, that's fun!"

"What are you talkin about"

We sent her with her hoard of stuffed animals that she sleeps with and obviously the number tripled :)

She looks like such a big girl in this picture!!

Grams did such a good job of fixing her hair every morning!!

Grams and Papa saved this "house" from Christmas and Sam was very excited to see it again!

Thanks again Grams and Papa!! It's so special that you are such involved Grandparents! I wish ya'll were closer!!

"Sprinkles and Showers for B.B.B. (Baby Boy Brantley)

My wonderful schools and sweet friends threw us "sprinkles and showers" to help us prepare for our little guy (less than a month away and no decision on name yet........ :)!)

Now he won't be using all of Sam's pink things :) :)

Carrollton Elementary shower.....

A yummy cake made by one of my co-workers at Carrollton Elementary

Our "sprinkle" hosted by Nikki, Susan, Mandy, and Karra.....

Wee wee teepees made by Mandy in various sizes :)

The special ed team gave me a sweet shower at Central....

Linda Hilburn, Monica Alvarez, Charlotte Arnold, Gloria Herndon, Marilyn Paa

They're so great to work with!!

All of these showers were right before spring break so it was fun to put his room together. Other than putting the carseat in our cars (and a name!!) we are ready for our little guy!!! So ready to meet him........

Things he's doing right now......

1. summer-saults (sp?) in my belly normally in the evenings. My entire stomach shifts

2. hiccups very often...

3. HAS FLIPPED!! He's ready now - YEAH!!

4. his back has been resting along my left side for several weeks now.

5. When he stretches, his butt sticks out right below my left rib

6. starting yesterday he's creeping under my ribs and starting to stretch them like Sam did so early on.

7. He kicks me regularly when I'm bending over or my stomach rests up against a table. Picky picky :)

8. He still likes chocolate and desserts :)

Just a few things I can think of right now mainly so I don't forget later on :):)

update....

Awwwww, I have my computer back!!! Boy do I have a lot of blogging to do!

I'll start with the rest of our snowy experience in February......

We went out to play again and I put leggings on Sam to go under her pants. "Oh Mom, it's bootiful" she said and she proceeded to dance all over the house like a ballerina! Too funny!

We finally got outside and the playing continued!!