Samantha's 2nd Birthday Party

If you know me personally then you know how difficult it was for me to throw this birthday party (especially after last years). Between school starting up, me taking on a new gig and planning a 10 day vacation at the beginning of the month that her birthday falls in, I just did not have the time to devote to it like I did the year before. So Jump N Jungle it was! If you know Samantha then you know the child LOVES to jump so I knew she would have a great time no matter what. At the end of the day that is what truly matters anyways. :) All in all I think it was a great success and everyone in attendance had a great time. Here are a few shots from that day.

The kids all ready to go

Derrek only had to go with her a few times before she managed it on her own

Dr. Rog is the best wrestling buddy ever

Cutie Patootie Savannah (Mason's secret school crush heehee)

Little Miss Ella

Aubrey headed down the slide. She wanted nothing to do with any of teh bounce houses when she arrived and by the end of the party we had converted her. :)

Issac and his mommy Erin

Getting in some daddy play time (she loves hanging upside down)

Our attempts at getting a group picture. haha

After our hour and fifteen minutes of play time we headed into our party room for pizza and cake

My birthday girl enjoying her pizza

And of course and this point in her life no birthday party would have been complete without a DORA cake

Samantha licking her finger after sticking it in the corner of the cake

I cant believe that my baby girl is already 2 (she is definitely letting us know it too) haha. Time flies when you are having fun and we are definitely having fun with this little princess of ours.

Thanks to everyone who made it out to her party and made this day super special for her.

Happy 2nd Birthday Samantha!!!

I can not believe how quickly two years has passed with our little Samantha. I remember so vividly waking up the morning of my c-section and getting dressed to go to the hospital to have my baby. It was the most bizarre thing in the world. I remember telling the nurses at the check in desk that I didn't feel like I was about to HAVE a baby I felt like I was there to PICK out a baby. HAHA!

Although it has only been two short years it is hard to remember a time without her. Did we really only have one child at some point? Though she is the child that Derrek and I have both decided will be the one to give us grey hair early or drive us into the looney bin she really is AMESOME!! It truly has been amazing to witness the so called "maturity" difference between boys and girls. She is so much more vocal then Mason ever was at this age and it blows my mind the way she can understand us so well.

She really is a funny little thing too. The expressions that she makes when she is talking to us are just hilarious, yet they are so impressive b/c we cant believe she knew just what to do to capture our hearts while saying it. Example: Yesterday she was playing with Mason and she is laughing and laughing, then, she comes up to Derrek cocks her head over to her shoulder smiles this big smile and says "Brother so silly." We laughed histerically then later that night thought, man she is going to be trouble. She also loves to ask you a question and then when you give her the answer she repeats it with this high pitched inflection like she is so surprised by the answer. Again it cracks us up! Her little personality is starting to show and she is becoming her own little person with her own likes and dislikes, and trust me, you will know when she doesn't like something. As sweet as she can be (or at least make you think she can be haha) she can also be quite the stinker and her AT-TI-TUDE!! Whew its a doozey! Girlfriend can create some serious DRAMA!! HAHA!!

No matter how difficult she can be sometimes though we are truly blessed to have her and we wouldn't have it any other way. :) She is an answer to a prayer that this mommy has had since she (I) was a little girl. I am very much looking forward to the years that we have ahead of us with her. Mommy, Daddy and brother love you sweet girl. Happy Birthday!!!

Here is a quick look back at her first two years.

Newly born

2 months

4 months

6 months

8 months

11 months

1 year

14 months

18 months

23 months

2 years-Notice that the shirt she is wearing in this picture is the dress that she wore at her 1 yr party. heehee :)

Air Travel and cockpit fun

At the beginning of the month we went on vacation to Red River, NM (there will be another post about this trip soon) and the kids and I and my mother in law Amy flew while Derrek and his brother drove. This is the first time that Mason has flown where he has been old enough to actually have a memory of it. He was so excited!! He had been talking about flying in an airplane for a full 2 months before the event was going to take place. Samantha was excited too but obviously doesn't have the understanding about the situation like Mason does. Anywho, the morning of our departure finally arrived and he was so excited. It all started with a ride in a big shuttle bus that we had pick us up so we wouldn't have to leave a car at the airport.

Mason and Mamie

Samantha

After dragging in the car seats and the 1 bag we needed to check we made it through security very easily (thank goodness) and were on our way into the main part of the AIRPORT!!! Oh the excitement that this spurred in my children.

Here we are on the escalator walk that they LOVED!

Of course getting to see all the airplanes was HUGE excitement! They basically ran passed all the windows yelling " Airplanes, look at the airplanes." So we set up camp next to a window and what do you know there was a plane parked at the gate. This was so fun because the pilots of this plane were already in the cockpit and they were waving at my kids in the window. Thank you kind pilots for making my kids morning!!

When the time finally arrived for us to get on our plane they were so excited that we had to capture the moment before entering

When we walked in I took Samantha back to choose some seats and Mamie asked the flight attendant if Mason could just peak into the cockpit. They did him one better and let the child IN TO the cockpit and IN TO one of the pilots seats!!!

HOW AWESOME IS THAT??

Here is the pilot explaining all the cool gadgets to him.

A GIANT THANK YOU to the crew of that Southwest Airlines flight!!! They made my son's flying experience so incredible. Mason and Samantha were both champs on the flight and did beautifully. When we landed I made sure to tell Mason that it may be a bit bumpy because we were touching down on the concrete. I then made the mistake of putting my arm in front of him upon landing so he wouldn't lurch forward to much in his seat. He promptly moved my arm away and said "No mom, I am wearing my seatbelt." haha!

Stay tuned soon for a full write up of our vacation in Red River.

Dance Class

Samantha has started dance!! Hooray!!! Actually her first day was a complete disaster bless her heart. I enrolled her in a creative dance class through the parks and rec here in Pearland b/c they accept 2 yr olds (most actual dance studios dont take them until they are 3). So being the gung-ho mommy that I am I put her in it. I had been telling her about it all week and she was all excited to start.

Here she is before we left for class

I told her to put her hands up like she was dancing and this is what she did. haha :)

It started okay with her sitting with all the girls.

She then proceeded to cry for 20 minutes (the class is only 30 minutes long). The mommies were not allowed in there and I know that contributed to her being upset (we have a bit of an attachment issue we are working through) haha. Eventually the teacher came out and said "Samantha's mommy would you like to come and sit in here" HA! She calmed down and did what she was suppose to after I got in there. Oh well!! Hopefully next week will be better. :)

Happy dancing everyone!!

First Day of School 2011

Well the day has finally arrived where BOTH of my kids are now going to school. Mason is in Prek-4 three days a week and Samantha is attending MDO two days a week. I now officially have 11 hours a week TO MYSELF!! Holy moly what am I going to do? Well actually I have a long list of things that I need to do so all that time has now been sucked away by a ginormous to do list. haha! Oh, I also forgot that Derrek had a first day of school today too. He is attending the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston so that in three short years he can graduate with his MBA. He will be gone 2 nights a week so this is also going to be quite the transition for us. Unfortunately I have no pictures of D on his first day (he gets up way to early) but here are my little lovies before heading out for their first day of school.

My new page picture

My little man

My princess (she is so not as innocent as she looks)

Both of them together. They are getting so big.

Hope everyone had a great first day of school!

Apology

Sorry I have been such a slacker poster lately!! Hopefully I will be able to get my act together soon as there are many things coming up that are definitely blog worthy.

Playtime at the LeRouax house

Enough said!